Day 10 - Fort Clinch

With a forecast for rain by 3PM we decided to do the Fort tour in the morning before it rains. Fort Clinch is one of the east coast forts, it was started in 1850s but never finished. Much of the work on the fort was done by Company E of the New York Volunteer Engineers with brick from NY and PA. Who would have thought a bunch of New Yorkers would build a fort in Florida from bricks hauled all the way from up north??  

We entered the fort around 10:30AM, just ahead of a bus load of people. 

The fort has been restored to reflect what it looked like in 1864 when the NY engineers occupied the fort. They took great pains to make it as authentic as possible. 

I thought the locks used throughout the fort were very cool. 

It is pretty clear why the fort was located where it was, it guarded the entrance to the Cumberland Sound and the St Mary’s River, what a view. 

Although we were taking in the history of the fort, we did have a bit of fun along the way. When you got to go you got to go.

This fort never saw any action, however it was occupied by both the North and South during the Civil war and again during WWII as a look out post. It is worth a visit if you get to this area. 

After the fort we walked back to camp for lunch, it was already getting hot but no rain. While we ate lunch a couple of Cardinals, came and sang to us. 

After lunch we went for another bike ride and stopped at a few places for short hikes. The weather was without rain, we were getting lucky. 

We saw a few small gators and turtles on our hikes and it was still rain free, a bonus. We even got in another walk on the beach. 

After hiking, biking and a beach walk, we found our way back to camp and had a nice dinner.  

We cooked a nice roast on the grill, and had a good meal, as we were finishing dinner, it started to rain. We retreated to inside and played dice. I will just say that Deb is a sand bagger...watch out for her!!

After Keith and Deb went back to their site, our visitor showed up again, he just stopped in to say hi.

Tomorrow we expect more rain and we will make our way to Jacksonville Beach to visit cousin Val and Mike.