Home Is Where We Park It: Stagecoach RV Park
Date: April 22, 2019
Saint Augustine Part Six
Believe It or Not!
What a beautiful day to wake up to! Cool, but not cold. A beautiful blue sky with not a cloud to be seen. No dire weather reports for the next several days. What more could one ask for. It’s the kind of day that just makes you want to shout out loud THANK YOU LORD FOR THE DAY AND LIFE ITSELF!
Believe it or not much on the radar today. We were going to travel up to Green Cove Springs to get our mail. Barbara was going to do some wash at the Wishy Washy. Other than that I would be puttering around getting things in order since tomorrow was our travel day. We will finally be beginning our push west.
Let’s go back now to St. Augustine and to another fantastic attraction we got to see.
Robert Ripley was the consummate world traveler who collected many different weird and bizarre objects that are displayed in this museum.
But before there was a museum this building there was a hotel known as Castle Warden. It was built in 1887 for William Grey Warden and his family of 14 children. The same firm that constructed Henry Flagler’s Ponce de Leon and Alcazar hotels also designed and constructed this hotel.
Yup, that’s Barbara making her way to the front door.
After Robert Ripley’s death his heirs purchased the hotel and in 1950 opened the first Ripley’s Believe It or Not ! Museum in the world.
There’s lot to see inside but before we get there, take a look at this.
Yes, it’s got four rooms. A kitchen, a bedroom, a study, a bathroom. It’s even high enough to walk through without bending over.
Time now to go inside and discover some of the wonderful things that Ripley discovered and that are now on display. Again, I’m only going to be able to show but a small portion of all that is here. Hope you enjoy and that you decide for yourself some day to visit this marvelous museum.
Let’s start with Wasp and Hornet’s Nest Art. This six-foot totem pole was made from paper wasp’s nests and hornet honey combs and water and paste.
Remember Captain Jack Sparrow? Here he stands 8 feet tall, weighs several hundred pounds and is made of recycled car parts.
A clothespin clock made of over 3,000 ordinary clothespins.
A painting that is not a painting. It’s not paint, nor charcoal, nor pencil, or ink. Look closely it is drawn entirely from smoke. The artist held the canvas over a smoke fire than manipulated it to create the image below.
The chainsaw alphabet pencil. Each letter on the pencil was inscribed on it with a chainsaw.
A gentleman who had hands that were 12 inches long in which he could hold a dozen eggs.
This is my hand over the top of a cast of his. Wow, what a hand this guy had.
Anyone need a bite to eat? Not your usual fare to say the least.
A lunar space capsule made from an erector set.
A model of the international space station made from 276,000 match sticks which took over a year to construct.
Another model of the international space station. This model is also made of match sticks and took the artist over 15 months to construct.
Bad to the Bone Motorcycle. A lifestyle motorcycle made with animal skulls and bones.
Moving on.
The world’s tallest man, Robert Perishing Wadlow. He stood 8 feet 11 inches tall.
Then we have the Skeleton Dude who grew to 5 feet 7 inches but only weighed 48 pounds.
We have the half man who grew up to be an artist, musician, composer, bandleader, actor, swimmer, juggler and tight rope walker!
How about a junk art fish made from common kitchen utensils, plumbing supplies, auto parts, toys and rubbish.
The Fantasy Castle made up of 2.000 semi precious stones.
We have a bottle cap portrait.
A replica of the statue of David which when the people of St. Augustine first saw it, they rushed out to buy tarps to cover it!
Today it is hidden behind a hedge.
And we’ll end with this.
There you have it, just a really small sample of what is in this fascinating museum. Take the time, plan a visit, you’ll not regret it.
Our time in this part of the country has now come to a close. There will be more blogs, though, about what we discovered here. Tomorrow we are on the move. Again,
Once again our day on The Road of Retirement was a great one. We traveled along, hand in hand, side by side, singing our song. Time now to begin putting things in order since we’ll be on the road tomorrow.
Thanks again for coming along with us today. Have a good night and we’ll see you again tomorrow.
These are the voyages of Graybeard and it’s occupants, four paws and two humans. Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have not been before
See you on down the road
"On The Road of Retirement" 
This is a tour we’ve never taken. Very interesting and different. Loved the dog portrait from bottle caps and the castle made from gems. I’m certainly glad that ‘Odd is in’ therefore we can fit right in. Hope you have a good trip. OK, now I’m caught up.
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