Thursday, November 3, 2011

Parks in the Jacksonville area…

2011-11-02 Jacksonville, FL 011

2011-11-02 Jacksonville, FL 008Since our plan was to visit the Jacksonville Mayo clinic to get our annual medical exams out of the way we left Charleston to find a place to stay relatively close to the Mayo Clinic. We needed somewhere in close proximity as we were unsure how often we would be going to and from the clinic. Finding parks in our price range around the city was not an easy task. When we left Charleston, SC we decided to only drive part-way to Jacksonville, Florida and then figure out where we wanted to stay.

Our first stop was at the Walkabout Camp and RV Park and with its $16.50 Passport America rate it may be the most inexpensive full hookup site we 2011-11-02 Jacksonville, FL 013have stayed in. The park is owned by a young family who moved to America from Melbourne, Australia so that they could own their own business and raise their four young children in the country. They are a really nice couple and have put a lot of energy into this park. This is not a destination location and the sites are open but very close together. However, it is very convenient to I95 and was less than an hour north of Jacksonville so it was perfect for our one night stay.

W2011-11-02 Jacksonville, FL 023e had a list of parks in Jacksonville to check out but the one park that was a destination location was called Hanna Park. This large beautiful park is run by the city if Jacksonville, Florida and is a drop dead gorgeous park that has over 280 sites located on a road across the from the beach. There are several large inland lagoons and numerous hiking and biking opportunities. The only caveat here is the sites are not all level and you have to find one that works for your rig. Also the sites are wooded and they are cut into the palmetto understory vegetation providing some challenges for those of us with multiple slides.

2011-11-02 Jacksonville, FL 028However, we are now camped in Hanna Park and have booked a week stay here and were fortunate enough to have arrived here on the day they discounted their rates to the off season rates of $25.00 per night. Now we are 15-20 minutes from the Mayo Clinic and yet we are still in a beautiful park on the coast…

It has been windy here so much so that the waves are crashing in hard towards the shore and due to the turbulent sea there is a lot of blowing sea foam along the shore. Reminds me of our time in Sydney, Australia where they refer to breaking waves as “foamies” – seemed to be the right word for the waves today.

Angel Oak SC 1   Angel Oak SC 4

I will close the blog today with a picture from South Carolina where we stopped by the Angel Oak since Kevin and Ruth mentioned it was worth a look… boy were they right as a stunning old oak tree lives in the middle of the woods… so much history it has seen as it is estimated to be 1400 years old.

11 comments:

  1. Now settled for a week hope all your tests go well.
    Love those old Oak trees!

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  2. ...as a stunning half century old oak tree

    Actually, they say the tree is over 1,400 years old!

    www.travelwithkevinandruth.com

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  3. That tree is just magnificent. Thanks for sharing. Hope all goes well at Mayo.

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  4. We're just down the road from you in Flagler Beach (Bulow Rv Resort). We're heading to Jacksonville Saturday for the NAS air show.

    Enjoy your stay.

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  5. Looks like a nice park. That is just outside the gate to the Naval Station. We have stayed at the station campground a number of times and always meant to check out this park, but never did.

    Next time in the area, we will check it out.

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  6. Looks like you all found a nice site! Hope all goes well for you both at Mayo.

    Now THAT is a tree!! Isn't it awesome!!!!!

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  7. Looks like a great spot. Congrats for finding it. Being in such a nice place around a big city is usually a hard thing to do.

    Would Love to see that tree. Guess I'll have to find out exactly where it is and swing my route to Florida by it.

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  8. I was very skeptical that the oak tree was only 50 years old, but Kevin and Ruth cleared that up for me. :)

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  9. There is a HUGE outlet mall just before the bridge to Amelia Island. If you are interested in doing some shopping. I also LOVE the old Oak trees! Enjoy your stay.

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  10. Thanks George and Suzie and Happytrails- Yes we got an A on the tests!!!

    Thanks Kevin and Ruth I thought I had fixed that but I have corrected it.

    Yes Donna K it was a magnificant tree...

    Karen and Al we are thinking about going to the NAS air show as well - maybe we will bump into each other...

    You must check it our Chuck and Anneke

    Sherry let me know if you can't find it on the internet and I will help you locate it...

    Judy and Emma - yes they cleared it up for me too...

    We went to a huge mall today it may have been the same one...

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  11. Jacksonville has its own giant live oak right downtown. It's called Treaty Oak. Worth a look on your way to lunch at the Landing. (Jacksonville was the last place I lived before I went on the road.)

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