It was another beautiful day and we made plans to take the drive down to Cedar Key, about 35 miles south. It is an artsy town with commercial fishing of oysters, clams, and shrimp mixed in. It is also a great area for scallops. The first thing we noticed as we pulled into town was the hurricane damage–furniture, drywall, insulation, lumber–piled along the roadway.
We could see the damage in some of the buildings and there was a lot of re-construction going on. There were workers everywhere. This hotel took a major hit with lots of storm damage.
We stopped at the post office to put something in the mail and discovered that the post office was closed. In the parking lot, was the “post office on wheels”. It was a mobile post office that was doing regular business for the townspeople.
In other places, we could see where the storm surge had taken out parts of buildings, ramps, and plumbing underneath the buildings.
There were port-o-potties lined up in the streets. One of the clerks in the store we entered said that they had just gotten their plumbing working 3 days ago even though Hurricane Hermine had come through about a week and a half ago. The town was working feverishly to get things up and running for their Pirate Festival this coming weekend. Lots of businesses were closed for repairs, but we were able to find a great place to have some lunch.
Shuckers sits on the water’s edge about 2 stories tall. We had a great view from there of the Gulf of Mexico and all the little islands beyond.
They had little damage and would have been a great vantage point to watch the storm from. (Not that I would have hung around to watch!) We had a couple of beers and some lunch. Bob chose 1 pound of clams in a garlic butter sauce. I had a crab cake and some delicious clam chowder.
After lunch we drove back to the campground. We sat down at the springs and used the Internet at the concession stand to get some entries into my blog. After an hour we headed back to our campsite and sat outside with Auggie. He needed some “outside time”. He explored the bushes and tall grass for geckos and squirrels, but didn’t find many. He wore himself out looking for them.
The weather forecast says that we should be expecting a tropical disturbance to move through the area Wednesday and Thursday bringing rain and some wind. I hope we can get in a trip to Fanning Springs, another natural spring about 13 miles from here. We ate a later dinner and Bob took care of the dishes while I gave Auggie his walk. We didn’t run across any deer tonight, but Auggie did meet a Yorkie puppy who he had fun with. We’ll try and get to the springs tomorrow if the weather holds out.
