Written by: Lisa Petrarca
Traveling cross-country is pretty special. It doesn’t matter if it’s a small in-between town, a large city, or a wide-open road—there’s always something we haven’t seen just waiting to be explored.
We traveled farther than we ever have since purchasing our 2015 Pleasure-Way Lexor back in 2020. That’s not to say we haven’t put mileage on our girl, PetraTheVentureVan—35,000 miles when we bought her and now 116,000 miles later and still going strong!
We’ve never been past Tennessee, but this trip, we’re heading all the way into Florida for the very first time—hitting as many states on the route there and back to California as we can in a month.
We’ve stopped at so many unique places and stayed at some epic campsites that we “just happened upon.” It makes it hard to pick one place to highlight for this blog, but I think we’ll start here—and the funny story behind it.
Some of you may be surprised to hear that we had no idea St. Augustine, FL, was the oldest continuously inhabited city in the United States (guess those old history lessons didn’t stick!) But this was one of those “happened-upon” sites for us.
The reason we found it?
We noticed there was a surf spot in the area and stopped to see how East Coast surf compares to our hometown West Coast swells. While walking the beautiful white sand beach, we got a call from our son (who recently moved to Florida—the reason for our travel to the area) asking how long it’d be before we arrived at their house.
When we told him where we were, he said, “It’s a major historic place and on our bucket list!”
That’s all we needed to hear!
We did a quick bit of research and drove straight to the first U.S. discovery site.
Driving up the mossy, tree-tunneled street to the entrance would’ve been enough to keep me happy. But once inside this historic place, we actually drank directly from the same water source—the “Fountain of Youth”—that the first settlers drank from! I’m always leery about drinking unfiltered water, but since they provided cups and everyone else was trying it, I decided to live on the edge. The water is full of minerals and tasted a little metallic because of it. But hey, if it restores our youth…we’re all for it!
There was also the original stone cross they dug up in the room—so cool to see in person.
As you walk the grounds, there are markers and recreated structures showing where Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founded St. Augustine in 1565, making it the first permanent European settlement in North America—the birthplace of European America.
In 1513, Juan Ponce de León was the explorer who first landed on Florida’s coast, naming it La Florida (“land of flowers”). But he never built a town—he was searching for the Fountain of Youth and sailed on. In 1565, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, fifty-two years later, returned with ships, settlers, and soldiers and officially founded St. Augustine, which became the first permanent European settlement in the U.S.
So next time you’re walking the cobblestone streets or sipping from that “Fountain of Youth,” remember… Ponce discovered Florida, but Menéndez built St. Augustine.
We roamed the historical grounds with dugout boats and huts representing the Timucua Indigenous people who lived there before the European discovery. We inspected ancient cannons scattered throughout, watched a colonial weapons and live cannon demonstration (cover your ears—it’s loud!), climbed to the top of the lookout tower for sweeping views, and stepped inside the old barn-style church replica.
There are tons of peacocks roaming the area alongside you, which is pretty cool! There are so many historical sites in this area to visit, but we were limited to just a couple of hours—and this ended up being the perfect stop.
đź“Ť Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park
Things to See:
- Spring House (Fountain)
- Walk through Timucua Village
- Visit Discovery Globe & Planetarium
- Explore Archaeological Dig / First Settlement Area
- Stroll the Peacock Gardens
- End with the Observation Tower for your panoramic shots
On our way out of town, we drove by the Castillo de San Marcos, the remains of the Spanish-era fort along the waterfront. We weren’t able to stop because there were no open parking spots—but we got a quick drive-by shot!
If you find yourself in Florida, be sure to stop in St. Augustine. We barely touched the surface of the many amazing places to see in this town, but we were definitely thankful for this by-chance road trip detour!