Wednesday September 7th 2016

Today started with an early unwanted wake up call. The Florida Air National Guard was flying today. Shortly after seven this morning several F-15s took off from the Jacksonville Airport. My RV home is about a mile from the end of the longest runway. Aircraft taking off and landing is not an unusual occurrence. The commercial traffic is loud, but not terrible. This morning the F-15s took off with full afterburners. It was very loud and I think the RV shook. There were probably six fighter jets taking off over a 15 or 20 minute period.

I tried to go back to sleep after the F-15s were airborne, but it wasn’t going to happen. The landscapers decided to mow the lawn in my area of the campground. It was still before eight when they were doing my site less than 10 feet from my bed. Sleeping in this morning wasn’t going to happen.

Historic Fernandina Beach looking up Centre street from the Amelia River

For today’s adventure I went back to Amelia Island. I toured the historic part of the town of Fernandina Beach. The town is the eastern terminus of Florida’s first Atlantic to the Gulf of Mexico railroad. The track to the gulf was completed in March of 1861. The main street has shops along both sides of the tree lined thoroughfare. Today the buildings are filled with restaurants, boutiques and tourist shops, but you can visualize the businesses that occupied them one hundred and fifty years ago. It must have been a thriving port.

Whirligig Kayak in front of one of the shops.

Marina on the Amelia River

The main street ends at the Amelia river. The railroad parallels the river and is still a significant part of the towns economy. Across the tracks is the local marina. River cruises, charter fishing boats and jet ski rentals populate the marina. Once again, I could imagine the river bank lined with sailing ships with warehouses across the tracks to store the goods when the town was a bustling port.