More south than the south

Florida is the furthest south of all US mainland states. Yet, the southern droll accent and the southern way of living that is always labelled with states like Georgia or the Carolinas has all but disappeared. I can only guess that this is due to Florida past owners, the Spanish. The landscape seems similar but, due to it's position on the trade route from South America, there's many coastal towns with Spanish influence as this was a handy stop off on the way back and to Europe.
Along the coast we drive long straight roads with a mixture of dusky baron and lush foliage and not much else for hours. We know the Atlantic is on our left but rarely see it past the privately owned land, many houses boast private beach access or at least a private boardwalk to the beach over the road from their houses.
I'd read that the city of Jacksonville was the biggest city sprawl in mainland America. Jacksonville was almost entirely forgettable other than for that fact. Oh, and it oddly had a lighthouse in the centre of it amongst the many homeless.


At dusk we enter the town of St Augustine. This is North America's oldest, continuous, settlement. I'd never heard of it. Possibly because it was set up and run by the Spanish to repel the English pirates trying to steal the gold on the Spanish ships returning from South America.
A fort in St Augustine protected the ships and the town for 300 years and is still there today. Just to the back of the fort is a small pedestrian street of Spanish colonial buildings with tat and ice-cream now being sold within. The town looks superb on the whole and is dotted with excellent buildings that reminds me of southern California more than Europe.
In the morning we take a look at the fort and watch a display of cannon firing. Unfortunately they don't actually fire a cannon, mainly because they say it has a 3 mile range, but the noise and procedure gives you a flavour of what once went on here. The fort was moderately interesting but in the end it lost out to the British and we burnt down the town in classic pirate style.
From here we carry on along the coast as the heat persists but the rain begins. By the time we reach Daytona beach the rain is flooding the streets in a monsoon style downpour. Daytona Beach is the home of American motorsports as it's here where the NASCAR race series was born. Racing on the beach has now been converted into endless racing in circles at 200mph. Fast, brash and insanely dull. The town itself is another Blackpool-esque affair but I do like the large colourful prints on the tarmac that adorn the numerous road intersections.
There's a smattering of art-deco style hotels but the majority are of the high-rise Costa Del Sol style. Surfer's Paradise comes to mind. Leather skinned homeless and shoeless cycling locals are the main populous we see but on a sunny day this may well be a different place.
It's away from the coast into the centre of Florida we drive. We go there for two reasons, one is that we've bagged free accommodation with a friend of Laura's dad, the other is that Orlando is renowned for theme parks and over the top entertainment. Now that's something the Americans excel at!