Fernandina Beach to St. Augustine FL 70 Miles - Cum 1,866 miles

Remember when you went to the beach and you got a bicycle and started riding on a sunny cloudless day and felt like you could go on forever? Well today was on of those days for us except we could go on for miles and miles. We left Fernandia Beach around 8:30AM. For the first time since the trip started, I was able to ride without putting on my jacket. Yea!!! It was Sunday morning so the traffic was light for the first 5 miles or so it took to ride out of town. We then went across the bridge over Nassau Sound and into the Big Talbot Island state park. There were dozens of fisherman fishing from the old bridge which was left in place for just that purpose. It was a very pleasant ride through the park. There are numerous bird watching trails in the woods although the birdwatchers must wear something besides cycling clothes. I stopped for a second and stepped into the woods and was instantly covered with mosquitoes. I jumped on my bike to escape them. We crossed over to Little Talbot Island and continued through the park. A peleton of about 20 cyclists passed us doing about 20mph. It was obviously a club ride but the only thing they could see was the back of the rider in front of them. Not my way to ride!
After 20 miles we came to the ferry which took us over to Mayport FL. This town was first settled in 1562. I was surprised that it was that old. The Ferry ride was pleasant but only took about 10 minutes to get to Mayport. As we were leaving Mayport we passed the US Coast Guard Station, there were two coast guard women shooting a basketball and I thought what a great place to be assigned for duty.
We continued riding towards Jacksonville. As we got closer, we started riding along the beach roads starting in Neptune Beach and then Jacksonville beach. We met John Boyle's daughter Jane and his granddaughter Elizabeth for lunch. It was a lot of fun as both Jane and Elizabeth are very charming. After lunch we headed back to our bikes. I couldn't find my GPS and we looked around until Elizabeth found it in the car where it had fallen out of my pocket. Jane and Elizabeth left and Bob and I started out for Saint Augustine except Bob couldn't peddle his bike. We took a look at it and found that the bolt had come out of his rear rack and it jammed his rear cassette. We had to take the rack off to clear the cassette. I had spare bolts in my bag so I had to take my bag off the trailer to get at it. We got it fixed after an 30 minutes or so. I was a little worried that these kind of things happen in threes. First my GPS, then Bob's rack, what was going to be next? Fortunately, we went about 10 feet when Bob's speed computer fell of it's mount. We picked it up and we were good to go!!
We rode for about 15 miles along the beach looking at multi-million dollar properties and then Bob said how do the folks on the other side of the road get to the beach. We realized that the beach side properties screen the ocean view but they also fence their property so that their is no access. I think there is something wrong when a small group of people can block everyone from the beach. The other thing is, when the hurricane comes, they will expect the government to re-build their houses!!!
A fairly strong headwind came up and made the last 20 miles or so into Saint Augustine a little difficult. We rode right through the old part of town. It looks kind of touristy but there were a lot of old buildings and restaurants to make the town look pretty interesting. We finally made it to Bob's sister's house at 6:15. It was a longer day than we have had in a while.
Tomorrow, more time on the beach!!!