The Journey Complete

After having driven 3,000 miles, enjoying a home-cooked dinner of American Chop Suey, salad and fresh bread, I took a shower and went for a walk with my wife. Turns out, Phil and Mil’s interim house is not only in a nice quiet neighborhood in St. Augustine, within a few blocks we found ourselves right in the middle of the historic center of St. Augustine. The original buildings, school houses etc. are still there but I’m pretty sure those first settlers weren’t selling T-shirts and chocolates. Ah, 450 years of progress, what a country.

We enjoyed a peaceful time away by ourselves and started back. I suggested we stop outside of a local establishment from which live folk music was emanating, and we sat at an old wooden picnic table enjoying the summer-like evening. To my extreme listening pleasure, the singer announced, “Here’s an old one from the Grateful Dead, Ripple…’If my words did glow…’ ” Being somewhat of a Deadhead (yes I have a “Steal Your Face” sticker on my vehicle) this certainly made my night and gave me a chance to reflect quietly on the song, words and the trip I had just taken.

When the song finished, we headed back to the house. (OK, I did stall long enough in case there was more Dead coming, there wasn’t.) It was fantastic to be sleeping in a non-Motel 6 bed, next to my wife. All was right with the world again.

The next morning was an adjustment period. The dogs were settling into their new home, Phil and Mil were working out their walking routine, my wife was enjoying being in warm weather. I was focused on how long it was going to take to get to the beach. Phil and Mil stayed back with the dogs while we borrowed the car and headed out to St. Augustine Beach.

Given the 70 degree temperatures and bright sunny skies, you would expect there to be a lot of beach traffic. OK it was a Monday, but more importantly, it was Florida. Having lived the entire decade of the ‘80’s on the west coast of Florida, I can tell you that it is very easy to lapse into a “take it for granted” mood about the beach. Also, it was mid-April and once you become acclimated to Florida, 70 degree temperatures in mid-April does not a beach day make. I went to the beach in December my first year of Florida residence, after that, no way, too cold.

I must say, I was impressed with St. Augustine Beach. It was about a 15 minute ride, when we arrived there was plenty of free parking, and a very spacious beach area, especially as it was low tide. I thought it would be a great place for Ray and Artie to “run”, though the leash law runs 24/7 year round. Other than the gale force winds and sandblasting we had to endure, it was a nice relaxing couple of hours for my wife and me. We headed back to the house so we could shower before dinner.

At dinnertime, we agreed to walk to downtown to one of the local pubs. Our walk took us through the city campus of Flagler College which was interesting to me as I came fairly close to attending Flagler back in 1980. It is a lot smaller than I thought it would be, though  the historic setting of the campus appealed to me. (Not sure I would have had the same appreciation as an 18-year-old.)

We enjoyed dinner at the pub, especially the fresh shrimp, prepared a number of ways, and cheesy jalapeno grits. Good stuff. I’m going to enjoy visiting Phil and Mil down here, the seafood is amazing! We took a different route home and called it a night.

The next morning would be our last of this visit. We still had a full day, our flight wasn’t until 6pm. It was another beautiful day, warm but not too hot. We took some time in the morning to drive out to the site of Phil and Mil’s new home. It is in a very nice development with lots of new homes, a recreation area with a pool, tennis courts, biking, and probably a few resident alligators but a very nice setting. We toured the model home. They chose well, plenty of room for Art and Ray and guests. When their new home is built it will be a nice place to escape to during the fickle New England weather. 

After lunch (Chili’s, nothing exotic or pure Floridian) we returned to the house. We visited for a little while longer, said our good-bye’s to Mil and Ray and Art, and Phil drove us to the Jacksonville airport. A small clean airport that will be nice to fly into when we visit. We boarded our 6pm JetBlue flight on time. I was looking forward to watching television during the flight, but alas, the screens in our row were not working. Well at least my hunger would be satisfied when the snacks were served. Wrong, “Sorry sir we don’t have any more chocolate chip cookies.” Oh well, one the best parts of Phil and Mil’s relocation: it’s a 2 hour direct flight from Boston.

We landed in Boston around 8pm and arrived home at a reasonable hour, the journey complete, back in our own bed. The entire country, east to west, west to southeast, southeast to northeast behind me, the marathon was over. Phil and Mil, Art and Ray successfully relocated to the opposite end of the country, much closer to us, in a much nicer climate. I hope they enjoy this next chapter in their lives.

The next morning I was up and out first thing for a dentist appointment, sure didn’t plan that well…