Friday August 5th 2016

After a couple of days of travel, today was a much slower day. It was nice sunny day until late afternoon when the predicted thunderstorms moved into the area. My primary focus for the day was getting the lay of the land.

After a leisurely breakfast with the morning TV, I headed west across the St Johns river to Green Cove Springs. This is the county seat of Clay county. My mail service is located in this town. One of my primary reasons for stopping in this location is to setup my Florida domicile. Now I know how to find the county court house with the appropriate offices I’ll need to visit. On the way back I found a grocery store to stock-up on food for the weekend.

Sailboat on a lift in the St. Johns river in Green Cove Springs Fl.

After storing the groceries away in the RV, I headed east toward St. Augustine. I stayed away from the historic district today. My goal was to locate other major stores. The area Walmart, Target and big box home improvement stores were all on US route 1, south of the historic district. I didn’t stop at any of these places today, but will likely need them during the next couple of weeks.

Late this afternoon after having a late lunch at the RV, I went shoe shopping at the outlet mall at the same Interstate 95 exit as this campground is located at. Today was a busy day for shopping. It is a no sales tax weekend for back to school shopping. Florida has a few quirks on the tax moratorium. Only items of clothing less than $60 are exempt from taxes and stores in resorts can not participate. They really want to make sure the majority of the savings go to people returning to Florida schools.

The $60 number is significant. I saw more pairs of shoes that were curiously on sale for $59.99. There were about 8 different stores that sold the kinds of casual shoes I was looking for. I went into most of the stores and walked up one isle and down the next then out the door. I finally returned to the Skechers outlet store that I started in to buy a pair of shoes. With any luck this pair of shoes will replace 3 pairs of shoes. I’ve worn through 2 old pairs in the last couple of weeks and I have one pair that I just don’t like. Unfortunately, for my motorhome’s weight carrying capacity I still have other shoes.

Tonight I’m watching the Olympics opening ceremony. Tomorrow I may try and find some natural settings to visit or possibly some of the tourist stuff in old St. Augustine.