Rodman Dam State Park, Palatka, FL; January 30 – February 10, 2014

Rodman Campground

Rodman Dam was originally an Army Corps of Engineers project when the Cross-Florida Canal was a possibility. The campground lies along what I presume is part of the canal. There are two campground loops – one is an old one and was mostly underwater when we were there and the other a newer and higher loop with new restrooms and showers and sites mostly above water. On Friday nights, it gets pretty loud late at night from a bar that is down the canal. The sound travels along the canal and it seems to act as a megaphone.

Masks 

While at Rodman, we went into Palatka a couple of times to grocery shop, Rich found another Navy vet to chat with, and the highight was a trip to St. Augustine where we met Rick, Sam, and Emilia for a day trip to Castillo De San Marco National Monument.

Walking from the visitor's center toward the fort, we were greeted by a set of masks decorating a fountain. These masks were a gift to the city in by its city sister in Spain, the city of Avilés where in 1565 the founder of St. Augustine Pedro Menéndez was born. Just beyond the masks was a beautiful old cemetery. It would

Old Cemetary

have been a good place to wander through, but we were scheduled for rainstorms in the afternoon and hoped to be on our way back to camp before that.

Since the fort is a national monument, our senior pass once again came in handy. Sometimes it does pay to get old :) We caught a ranger talk, went through the self-guided tour, and Rich and I stayed with Emilia while Sam and Rick went up to the sentry positions atop the walls where they got birds-eye views of the area.

Outside the fort

While there was a lot if information available, two things struck me (personal comfort items, which I suspect caught the attention of many visitors: The bunks soldiers of the late 1700's slept in were a surprise: each set of bunks would have slept four (yes, that's 4) men – two on top and two on the bottom – and all their gear would have been stored on or beneath the bed as well. At the foot (left) of the bed was space for four guns and four coats. The other major yuck factor was the bathroom, or necessary room as it was called then. While it was located in a (very small) room within the fort walls, it was still for all intents and purposes, an outhouse, although, in one respect, it was a bit better. The

necessary room had a tide-operated flushing system. At high tide, the waste pipe would be flushed out into the bay. Between high tides, there was a barrel of water and a bucket with which to flush. Add the less than sanitary flushing system and multiply it by the number of soldiers at the fort and the heat – well suffice it to say, I don't want to go there.

The fort walls were quarried in the 1860's, 500 Chiricahua Apache's were brought here as prisoners for more than a year, some of whom were part of Geronimo's family. The carving of an Apache Fire Spirit is still visible on one of the

walls.

Star of the day - Emilia

By the time we finished looking through the exhibits at the fort, we headed down to de Noél, a favorite Belgian pastry shop for lunch including the best croissants you've ever eaten and a cup of espresso. Once finished, we headed beck to the parking area. About half-way there, the sky opened up and we all got soaking wet. We waited out the worst of the storm in the courtyard of a restaurant, and when the storm was over, walked on back to the trucks. We had a ball with Rick and Sam and Emilia was still a happy baby. The drive back to the campground was, thankfully, uneventful, as was the rest of our stay. We returned to Paynes Prairie for another week before it looked as though the weather was going to settle down enough to begin our travels west. Our next stop would be Torreya State Park near Tallahassee..

This bunk bed slept 4!