Leg 9, Savannah GA to St Petersburg FL
The trip in South Carolina and Georgia even on side roads, ends quickly, and there at last, is State #1, Florida. The rain blurred the picture, which corresponded to a certain sadness that the Adventure was nearing its necessary end.
Fernanda Beach, Florida
East of the Jacksonville area is a relatively isolated, peaceful section of Florida’s east coast, known as Fernanda Beach.
Space Coast, Florida (Titusville, Cocoa Beach, Merritt Island, Cocoa)
Next, and last stopping area on the Adventure is at what is known as the “Space Coast,” which encompasses four primary communities all associated with the NASA’s and the Air Force’s space programs at Cape Canaveral / Kennedy Space Center.
My first job out of college was sending men to the moon and returning them safely to earth–The Saturn Apollo Lunar Program. I started on the R&D ‘rocket science’ propulsion systems design and analysis group in Huntington Beach CA but in 1966 I moved to the Cape as part of the Saturn Launch team. I worked there from the very first unmanned first flights of the Saturn rocket through the first lunar landing (Apollo 11) in July 1969.
I took the below picture in Titusville capturing Nicodemus (my motorbike) and the moon shinning brightly even during a late afternoon. I looked at that moon many times while working at the Cape imagining the significance of living at the time and having a part in the first men to break the bonds of earth and actually land on it. Amazing.
Below is the Titusville municipal marina where I spent many daydreaming hours during my Cape days. The lovely sailboat is a Flicka 20, an extraordinary go-anywhere-in-the-world boat in just 20 feet of size. The name of the boat–Amazing Grace–could be the summary of this motorbike Adventure (and even the epitaph of my life).
Cocoa Beach is a maelstrom of tourism and traffic. Most famous is the Ron Jon surf shop shown in the below two images.
Cocoa Beach at sunset with an impending storm:
My final Adventure picture of lovely old Cocoa Florida. The small town (not to be confused with the beach of the same name) has been revitalized with shops, food, and entertainment.
Home
There is no easy, direct way west from Cocoa to St Petersburg that avoids I-4 and the crazy traffic of Disneyworld and other entertainment venues. But at last, the journey ends after 99 days; hard to believe it’s over (and a little sad that it is).
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