Traipse. I love that word
Traipse: verb \ˈtrāps\ – to walk or go aimlessly or idly or without finding or reaching one’s goal.
If I do have a goal, I’m not sure what it is. But I’m a pro at wandering aimlessly.
Anyway, since Savannah, it’s been a bit of a blur, but I’ll try to piece it together and make some sense of it, so here goes:
After leaving that beautiful city, we stayed the night at a KOA campground (which will be an occasional indulgence on this road trip) and swam in the pool which was so refreshing on a hot, sweaty summer day spent in a van with no air conditioning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A storm had been brewing and in the middle of the night an incredibly loud thunderclap jarred us both out of sleep and we threw our arms around each other! It was surely hard to get back to sleep after that. In fact, it’s often hard to get a good night’s sleep anywhere. Despite what you’ve heard, sleeping in a van in random, noisy parking lots (in order to save money) in random, noisy cities in the hot, humid South is not the glory it’s cracked up to be……. nevertheless, it’s how we roll.

From there we drove down to St. Augustine, Florida. Éva had heard the water was crystal clear (it wasn’t, but it was still a lot of fun). We spent a good amount of time swimming at the beach then drove into the town.  St. Augustine was pretty interesting. It’s the oldest continuously occupied European-established settlement in the continental U.S.

 

 

 

 

It has some beautiful architecture….

 

 

 

 

 

 

…and an old fort named the Castillo de San Marcos. It is the oldest masonry fort in the U.S., the construction of which began in 1672.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I loved the mottled look of the walls.

 

 

 

 

Some graffiti artist of a couple of centuries ago.
I didn’t see Kilroy.

 

 

Éva silhouetted in an interesting archway.

 

 

 

This church, inspired by St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice, was built in 1889.

Very beautiful.

We did lots of walking that day.
From there, we stopped in Tallahassee (where we stayed the night in yet another random, noisy parking lot) on our way to Pensacola Beach which is on the Gulf of Mexico….

 

….and Éva helped with the driving.  (:

 

 

 

For some reason I’ve always thought the Gulf waters were brown and not very pretty. Boy, was I wrong.

Calm, beautiful and blue crystal clear water…..

 

 

….where you could see the little fishies ….

 

 

….and the great big jellyfish.

 

Noooooo!!!!  We were so excited to get to swim again and in this clear water, to boot, but nope.  Not a good time of year to be swimming in the Gulf.

But, we laid around on the beach a bit and went in to the water cautiously to get cooled down now and then.

From there, we continued our travels west…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

…traipsing along.