Depart: Vero Beach, FL 10:10
Arrive: St. Augustine Beach 1:10
Distance: 181 Statute Miles by Car
No boat travel.
Even though we prepared to travel the night before, we had a number of chores to take care of before leaving this morning for the Seven Seas Cruising Association GAM. GAM is a term dating back to whaler days and refers to a friendly conversation at sea or onshore. Registration and the full program starts tomorrow; however, we decided to arrive early enough to attend a presentation at the St. Augustine Corazon Cinema on traveling in the Bahamas scheduled for this evening.
For someone who had not been to the Bahamas before, the presentation would be a good introduction. For us, however, it was almost a carbon copy of the route that Clark and I followed in 2016. Only one extra stop appeared on the presenter's agenda from where we traveled. Also, we traveled further south in the Exumas, so we actually covered more area than the owners of "Lucky Me" who gave the talk. Even so, it was nice to be reminded of our fun time in the Bahamas. I even recognized one of the locals, a man who runs a museum, that we met when we were in Bimini.
After the gathering at Corazon Cinema, we walked a few blocks to Meehan's Irish Pub for dinner. Seems like every time we are in St. Augustine we gravitate there for a meal. Clark likes their Shepherd's Pie. The first time we visited St. Augustine, we came to this restaurant three times in search of a coat accidentally left here by a fellow looper. The third time there, we finally decided to try the food!
Tonight, we both decided to pass on dessert. Clark even said he had no interest in stopping elsewhere and eating any ice cream. However, as we walked past Kilwin's ice cream parlor on the way back to the car, we decided to peak in just to check out their flavors. He walked out eating a cone with a scoop of "Super Apple Pie" ice cream!
Because of the GAM event, we stayed at The Beacher's Lodge - a place where the GAM planners booked a block of rooms. Although we registered too late to get in on the block of rooms, we did manage to snag a room for ourselves at the same place. It confused me that the price quoted to me for our room was significantly less per night than the rooms reserved in the block. I almost asked the person taking the reservation, "What is wrong with this room?" Maybe I should have asked, but I decided not to look "a gift horse in the mouth".
Upon entering the room, I saw the bathroom, the kitchenette, and a fold-out sofa. My heart dropped. I said to Clark, "There's no bed! No wonder the room cost less." (I was searching for a reason for the lower rate!)
He pointed behind me and replied, "There's the bedroom!" The suite had a all the amenities one would need for a pleasant stay - queen-sized bed, 2 televisions, refrigerator, microwave, stove, dishes, ... Walking through to the living room area, it even had a great view of the ocean.
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| View from the hotel room window ... Rough seas on the Atlantic today - glad we traveled by car! |
Everything should have been perfect except we did have some difficulties with the room. The first problem we encountered was a user error. We could not get anything except Sponge Bob Square Pants to appear on the television. The most bizarre aspect of that was I had no idea how he even appeared on the screen. No matter what channel we selected, there he was albeit sometimes in black and white with lots of snow over him but still there!
After pushing every button imaginable on the remote, we finally ended up with a "no cable connection" error and even Square Pants abandoned us. With a second television in the bedroom, Clark went off to see if he could get that one working; alas, he had no success there either. I grabbed the phone and called the front desk - they sent maintenance. As it turned out, there were three remotes per television, and in both cases, we were "playing with" the wrong one. One would think they could label them or leave instructions somewhere!
Since we need to drive about 9 miles from the hotel to the Shriner's Club, where the GAM seminars will be presented, and the meeting starts at 8 a.m., I turned in relatively early. Unfortunately, I woke up at 4 a.m. with severe allergy problems and did not get things under control until it was already time to get ready to depart.
I worried that this might be the case as the suite had a strong musty smell. I also worried about how I would survive two more nights in this room! Perhaps the smell is the reason for the lower rate!? Clark suggested we call housekeeping. I said, "NO! They'll spray it with perfume to cover the smell, and I'll have worse problems!!"
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