Kingsley Plantation

Saturday, December 22
Pelican Roost RV Park — NS Mayport, Florida
Temps: Lo 38F / HI 58F (3C / 14C)

The cold front that’s been making its way east found us Thursday night.  The temperatures started to dip and the winds started to howl soon after nightfall.  By 11:15p, the wind was blowing so strong that the Phaeton was rocking noticeably.  Luckily, those strong winds died down — a little bit — after 30 minutes or so.  With the slide toppers flapping, it was a noisy and restless night to be sure.

The wind continued all day on Friday, gusting to 40 mph (64 kph) and whipping up a frenzy of white caps on the St Johns River.  We had plenty of sunshine, but the wind negated any warming effect and made it downright uncomfortable to be out and about.  We canceled our plans to go out exploring and stayed home instead.  With the wind finally dying down around 6:00p, we had a more restful night with less flapping of the slide toppers.

(Photo above taken with the fisheye effect filter on the Canon SX50HS camera that Santa might be bringing me — actually, he delivered it Friday, but I’m still in the “deciding if it’s a keeper” mode.)

This morning we woke up to a light breeze and cold temps.  As the day brightened with sunshine and the sky turned blue, we started to get antsy about going exploring.  But the temperature wasn’t budging from the 38F (3C) that we had woken up to.  The mercury was being stubborn, but finally around noon we were at 50F (10C).  Time to get going.  With no clear cut destination in mind, we ended up at the Kingsley Plantation, located on the grounds of the Timucuan Ecological and Historical Park (free admission).

Taking the St Johns River ferry shaves about 20 miles (32 km) off our estimated 25-mile (40 km) drive.

Our GPS did us a great service and routed us across the St Johns River by ferry.  The short crossing — no more than 5 minutes, if that — shortened the drive to Fort George Island considerably.  Definitely worth the $6 fare.

We have a front row spot to enjoy the crossing.

The pelicans at the ferry landing provide entertainment while we wait for departure;
this one cooperates for a photo op.

Once we debarked the ferry, we easily found the entrance to the preserve.  The road, which ran through a heavily wooded area, had a lot of potholes, so the going was slow, but we eventually found ourselves at the gate.  Driving past what we later learned were the ruins of slave quarters, we followed the signs to the visitor center and found ourselves in the main parking area.

Most plantation homes were located on waterways because this was the easiest way to
transport crops to market and bring in supplies.  The Kingsley Plantation was no
exception; the house overlooks Fort George River.

Had we put more thought into where we were going today, we might have opted to come here during the week when there is a ranger program offered.  Or, we might have called ahead to make reservations for one of the limited number of tours offered of the plantation house, which is apparently closed for structural work.  Since we didn’t, we made do with wandering the grounds on our own.

The plantation house, dating back to 1798, is the oldest plantation house still
standing in Florida.  The building behind and to the right is the kitchen house.

Because of the heat, noise, smells, and the danger of a fire, cooking for the plantation
owner was done in a separate building.  Slave cooks prepared foods traditionally,
altering recipes passed down from African ancestors and mixing in local ingredients
and new recipes from the owner’s family.

Top Left: the kitchen house and the walkway connecting it to the plantation house.
Top Right: the Plantation house from a window in the kitchen.
Bottom: scenes from the kitchen house.

The barn, which serves as a lecture room today, has benches on one side and exhibits
on slavery in the Sea Islands on the other side.  Much of the information was focused
on the perseverance of the slaves, and their ability to maintain strong family bonds
and blend African cultures with those of the new world.

The unusual semi-circular layout of the slave quarters is similar to village designs
in some areas of West Africa.  60-80 enslaved men, women, and children were housed in
these structures, which consisted of a fireplace for the kitchen and a room for sleeping.

The Slave cabins were built from “tabby,” a cement-like mixture made by cooking oyster
Shells in a lime kiln, and adding water and sand.  the mixture was then poured into
forms, layer by layer, to make the walls.  Tabby had the advantage of being fire-
resistant and durable, and also held temperature well.

This was an interesting place to visit; we would have benefited immensely from a ranger program to hear details and stories about the plantation and life here back in the day.  For those interested, there’s more information about the plantation here.

We took the long way back to Pelican Roost, stopping briefly en route to run some errands.  That stop altered our timing just enough that we were able to happen upon an osprey taking a rest break in a softball field not far from the campground.  I had to handhold the camera so that I could sneak up to the chain-link fence without scaring off the osprey — not ideal when zooming out to the camera’s 50x max capacity — still, not bad, I say, for what is essentially a high-powered point and shoot.  Need to work on the exposure a bit, though.

And to wrap up this post …

A sunset scene with trees and masts of navy ships silhouetted against the red sky.

Mui wants to wash the coach tomorrow; not sure what I might end up doing.  I guess we’ll all have to wait and find out.