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This holiday weekend I did a LOT of driving. I drove from
Orlando, FL to Dekle Beach, FL. From there I drove up to Waycross, GA, then
back down to Orlando. I’m including a map so you can see what I’m talking
about:
As I mentioned in my last post, my mom’s boyfriend, F, has
purchased a vacation home in Dekle Beach, FL. Now, despite being named Dekle Beach and being located along Florida’s
Gulf Coast, there is no beach at Dekle Beach. There’s a lot of scenic marsh,
but no beach. There’s also not much of anything there (they don’t even so much
as have a convenience store). It’s a pretty tiny community, and its one claim
to fame is fairly horrific: ten people were killed there (including a family
from my hometown) back in 1993 during a freak storm that pretty much appeared
out of nowhere. (See the wikipedia article on the storm, as well as an article in which survivors recall the events of that evening. It's pretty harrowing stuff.) F’s house is one of the ones that was around before 1993 and
survived the storm, so here’s hoping it survives whatever else Mother Nature
throws at it.
The plan was that I would drive up from Orlando, mom would
drive down from Waycross, and F would drive down from his home in north
Florida. I thought the goal was to get there around noon. I got there at 12:45
and no one was around. I should also mention that while mom and F have keys, I
do not. Also, the AC in my car works well while the car is moving, but not so
much while it’s sitting still. And it was Florida in late August, meaning that
it was HOT. Mochi and I went for a long walk around Dekle Beach (although
eventually Mochi just sat down and refused to go any farther. He does have
awfully short legs, and it was quite hot out). We then sat in the screened in
area underneath F’s house, waiting for someone to come and let us into the air
conditioning.
There were houses here before the 1993 storm.
Once mom and F arrived, we set off for nearby Keaton Beach.
Unlike Dekle Beach, Keaton Beach actually has a small stretch of – gasp! –
beach. Unfortunately, the one restaurant located in Keaton Beach has gone out
of business (if you’re interested in a cool business location, it’s up for sale…)
meaning that our lunch ended up being whatever had been baking in the tray at
the local gas station for god knows how many days. Also, the water was
incredibly shallow and rather overgrown with seaweed. Not the best beach, but good
for a short dip if you don’t mind sitting in the seaweed. There were tons of
hermit crabs. I also saw a garfish with a smaller fish in its mouth, as well as
a stingray and quite a few sea-birds.
After our “swim” we returned to Dekle Beach, where we did
some more walking (much to poor Mochi’s chagrin), and we may have explored an
area clearly labeled with ‘no trespassing’ signs, haha.
The view from F's porch in the morning light
The next morning, I left to drive to Waycross. Somebody has
to feed mom’s animals while she’s enjoying the beach house! My stint in
Waycross was wholly uneventful, and I returned to Orlando on Monday. I did stop
on US 1 to rescue a turtle who was foolishly walking south down the center of
the southbound lanes. It terrified Mochi.
I’m still posting stuff regularly over on my Kyrgyzstan
blog, so go check it out!
