Road Trip

Nation’s Oldest City: St. Augustine, Florida — Spanish Roots, Pirate Treasure & the Dade Pyramids

March 2, 2022 by Michael Huntley

Last Updated: August 2, 2026

St. Augustine is called the Nation’s Oldest City, and the claim holds up with one careful qualification. Founded in 1565 by the Spanish admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, it is the oldest continuously inhabited European-established settlement in the mainland United States. San Juan, Puerto Rico is older still, founded in 1521. Either way, St. Augustine was already two generations old when the English landed at Jamestown. Spain ceded Florida to the United States under the Adams-Onís Treaty, signed in 1819 and taking effect in 1821; St. Augustine served as capital of the Florida Territory until 1824, when the seat of government moved to Tallahassee — chosen, sensibly enough, as the midpoint between here and Pensacola.

Sandy Huntley walking Jake the dog along the sand at St. Augustine Beach, Florida

Williston & Gainesville, Florida: Winter RVing, a Quarry Garden & the Butterfly Rainforest

February 21, 2022 by Michael Huntley

Last Updated: August 1, 2026

Williston was only an hour from Grand Oaks Resort, and this was our first time staying in this part of Florida’s heartland. We came specifically because it is close to Gainesville — and because after a month of coastline we wanted to see what the interior looked like.

Rowboat pulled up on the shore of a small lake at Williston Crossing RV Resort, Williston, Florida

Grand Oaks Resort near Lady Lake, Florida: Combined Driving, Carriage History & RV Camping Among the Horses

February 13, 2022 by Michael Huntley

Last Updated: August 1, 2026

The Grand Oaks Resort is an RV park inside a working equestrian center — 400 acres at Weirsdale, Florida, just southeast of Ocala and a few minutes from Lady Lake and The Villages. We had stayed at this part of central Florida before and enjoyed it, so we came back for a week. From Ormond Beach it was only about a ninety-minute drive. We arrived to find a combined driving competition underway, which turned a pleasant week into a memorable one.

Single-horse marathon carriage driving through a water hazard with driver and groom aboard at a combined driving event, Grand Oaks Resort, Weirsdale, Florida

Ormond Beach, Florida in January: Oceanfront Camping, Shorebirds & the Scenic Loop

February 7, 2022 by Michael Huntley

Last Updated: August 1, 2026

Ormond Beach sits on Florida’s Atlantic coast just north of Daytona Beach. We have stayed a little further north at Flagler Beach before and liked the stretch, so we came back to it. This time the weather had other ideas. A bitter, windy, wet storm sat on us for most of the week and we got perhaps two days of sunshine out of seven. We lost the daily beach walks we had been looking forward to — but we were given something else instead: a dramatic, grey, heaving Atlantic in full winter temper, twenty feet from where we were sitting. We never did get a photograph that did it justice. The day below was the nicest one we had.

Atlantic Ocean and open sky on the one clear day of a stormy January week at Ormond Beach, Florida

Indian Mound Fish Camp, Oak Hill Florida: Dolphins, a SpaceX Launch & Merritt Island Spoonbills

January 27, 2022 by Michael Huntley

Last Updated: August 1, 2026

Indian Mound Fish Camp is a small RV park, marina and boat launch at Oak Hill, Florida, on the western shore of Mosquito Lagoon — the northern reach of the Indian River Lagoon system and part of the Intracoastal Waterway, about 35 miles north of Cape Canaveral. It is not a resort. It is a fish camp, which is exactly why we liked it: our site backed onto the water, dolphins hunted along the bank most mornings, and on a clear night we watched a rocket leave the planet from the folding chairs outside the Airstream.

Long stretch of completely empty Atlantic beach with dunes and open sky at Canaveral National Seashore beside Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Florida

Tallahassee, Florida: Coe Landing Campground on Lake Talquin & the Tallahassee Museum

January 19, 2022 by Michael Huntley

Last Updated: August 1, 2026

Tallahassee sits in Leon County and has been the capital of Florida since 1824 — chosen, in the practical way of the era, because it was roughly halfway between the two population centers of the time, St. Augustine and Pensacola. It does not feel like the rest of Florida. The oak-canopied roads and southern homes belong to the Deep South rather than the beach coast, and after a month of dunes and condos the change was welcome. It is also a real city, which meant a Costco — and after weeks of small Panhandle grocery stores we were embarrassingly excited about restocking. From Panama City Beach it was about a two-and-a-half-hour tow.

Sandy Huntley and Jake the dog standing at the end of the fishing pier over Lake Talquin at Coe Landing Campground, Tallahassee, Florida