GOTR = M&S + SA,FL

We celebrated Ashlee's birthday this year with a little road trip down south to St. Augustine, Florida, to catch another stop on the Mumford and Sons Gentlemen of the Road  Stopover concert series.  We attended this two-day festival last year up in Bristol, TN, (see previous blog entry) and really enjoyed it.             

Thursday, Sept. 12 - Happy Birthday, Ashlee!!  We started our road trip with our own little one-night stopover in Chattanooga for a birthday dinner at the much-loved-by-us  Brewhaus  over on the North Shore with several folks including Ashlee's mom, Evelyn, and her twin sister, Paige, who believe it or not was celebrating a birthday as well...small world, isn't it?  Thanks to all who came out and joined us for a lovely evening of good food and libations.

.Friday, Sept. 13 - We picked up our friend, Mike, early this morning and began the 7-or-so-hour drive down to St. Augustine.  Not a bad trip since it's all interstate and we got through Atlanta without much difficulty.  We  met up with our old friend, Wayne, who had driven over from Tampa where he had been working all week. We checked into the Hilton Garden Inn across the street from the beach and made a bee-line for the sand and the waves!  

The beach was lovely and the first thing we visited when we arrived in St. Augustine, Florida.

While only briefly visiting here on a drive back home several years ago form Disney World, we had forgotten what a beautiful and serene little town St. Augustine really is. It's got it all:  a beautiful Atlantic Ocean beach (it beats the crap out of The Gulf side);  tons of history (it is the country's oldest city BTW at 450 years); beautiful buildings and public areas (including a sweet harbor and the stunning Bridge of Lions);  and a feel of a real small town and not just some tourist area surrounding a beach.   And some of the food we had here was outstanding including dinner on Friday night at A1A Ale Works which had pretty good beer to go along with their outstanding food.  We also had an amazing breakfast the morning of our departure on Sunday at Mary's Harbor View Café (best biscuits we've had...ever!).

We opted to skip the first night of music at the Gentlemen of the Road Stopover since there weren't any bands we just had to see and instead took a unique ghost tour at the historic St. Augustine Lighthouse.

Atop the lighthouse we saw no ghosts, but the view and ambiance were pretty cool.  This was the first time we had been up in a lighthouse at night.   We also got up close and personal to the mustache the lighthouse was sporting in honor of the Gentlemen of the Road tour that was in town since mustaches are a theme for the GOTR concert series.

 Saturday, September 14 - The music started at the GOTR around 1 PM, so after a leisurely breakfast and a quick swim (for me and Mike) at the beach, we loaded up on the pre-paid shuttle bus over to the venue at Francis Field near downtown.  The shuttle bus turned out to be an excellent  choice with quick, comfortable and organized service both coming and going.

Gentlemen of the Road is an on-going two-day concert series developed by Mumford and Sons that moves around the world and sets up in rather small, unique areas and towns instead of just big cities and giant arenas.  They get the whole community involved and celebrate not just the music, but the town/area as well.  Amazing idea from an amazing band.

We caught a little bit of a few bands throughout the fairly brutal heat of the day (Bear's Den, Those Darlins and The Vaccines) with the big headliners of fun. and, of course, Mumford and Sons to close out the night.  As the crowd swelled with the anticipation of the new and popular band fun. scheduled to take the stage just after sunset, an announcement was made that we (the crowd) were definitely gonna have "fun" next...just not the band by the same name.  Instead, out walks living legend, John Fogerty, of Creedance Clearwater Revival fame plus a ton of his own great solo work. Wow!  Nice replacement!!  We sure knew a lot more of his and CCR songs than the one hit fun. has currently!  To sweeten the deal even more, the entire Mumford and Sons band joined John after his second song and played the rest of the set with him!!  Below is a little snippet of this amazing show and a quite befitting song (performed by Mumford Clearwater Revival, as I like to call them) since it threatened to storm throughout most of the show, but it held off and moved out to sea instead.

Mumford and Sons closed out the day and the event with a two-hour set that doled out great song after great song of theirs.  They even got the crowd of 30,000 or so to draw very quiet as they did an accapella cover of Bruce Springsteen's "I'm on Fire."  Stunning.  They closed the show by inviting two other Brit bands out on stage with them, Bears Den and The Vaccines, and did an excellent version of The Beatles' "Come Together."  Well done, lads, well done.  EDITOR'S NOTE: The following week after this show, Mumford and Sons announced they were taking a hiatus from touring, recording and even being a band.  We feel even more lucky now to have seen this performance which could be one of their last for an extended period of time...but hopefully not their last ever since they are simply one of our favorites of all time.  Rest up, lads, and come back when you're really ready to put out more amazing music for the world to enjoy.

Sunday, September 15 - It was already time to head home and after another early morning ocean swim (by just me and Mike again....Ashlee and Wayne are such wimps!) and a fantastic breakfast at the aforementioned Mary's Harbor View Café (definitely worth mentioning again), we hit the road with Wayne heading to the Jacksonville Airport for an afternoon flight back to Nashville and us three back in the car on  I-75 North. 

We entertained ourselves on the long drive home with silly stuff like a stop at the "World's Largest Peanut" located next to (Ashlee?) Carroll's Sausage Company.  We also had a good audiobook written and read by Billy Crystal that helped a lot.  Thanks again to Mike and Wayne for joining us on this little adventure.  Can't wait to do it again!