Cedar Key...A Hidden Jewel To The Panhandle

On our route to the Panhandle, we took a 2 day stop at Cedar Key. After all the hustle bustle of all the cities we visited, this was a great retreat. We found this strip of restaurants and stores that looked like they were going to fall into the water if the wind blew too hard. Had dinner at Steamer's (one of the restaurant pictures below) and breakfast the next morning at Duncan's (same pic below) Both were really good restaurants. Brad had a clam omelet for breakfast. Never heard of that before and Kathy’s crab cake Benny was chock full of crab.

After breakfast we strolled the quaint little town. We went to a local artist store that had some really-really cool stuff and then we chatted it up at the Visitor Center. We drove around the neighborhood checking out the waterfront and nearby housing. We visited a really old cemetery that was on the list of the 10 best things to do in Cedar Key. Weird! There was boardwalk near, into the adjoining refuge, supposedly attached to a disc golf course next to it. We started walking it but as we got deeper into it the gnats started swarming us and we had Everglades flashbacks. We turned around and went back the way we came in.

Next stop, a Suwannee River hike. Shell Mound was part of the same hike and had a lot of history. Here's a link if you want the full story. Pretty amazing stuff. Two thousand year old ancient lands. https://www.fws.gov/uploadedFiles/Region_4/NWRS/Zone_2/Lower_Suwannee_Complex/Lower_Suwannee/SM%20Brochure.pdf

The attached Dennis Creek trail was a beautiful Florida walking trail with good directional instructions and educational postings. It turned out to be a lovely wildlife refuge day.

At the edge of town we found this tiny waterfront Tiki Bar that was very cool. Eclectic! The bartender was a talkative, adorable little southern bell Spitfire. She was actually cuban, but that accent was just southern adorable and cussing like a truck driver. Very entertaining. Amongst all the other clutter, there was a bat on top of the fridge. Kathy asked her what was that for, even though we had an good idea already. Her response was “Honey you don't have to worry about a thing here, you are safe, and, I got more than that bat and not afraid to use it". We met some fellow RVers that were very interesting to chat with. Tim was a Floridian and his wife was from Michigan (forgot her name since he did most of the talking). Tim said they had been around the USA twice. And boy the stories he had, we should have taped the conversation. We both walked out of there and said, how the heck do they remember every part of their trips. Kathy said because he is a storyteller and the more you tell your story the more you remember. If we didn't do this blog, we might not remember either. So not only is this blog for your entertainment pleasure, it's our story to remember as well.

We had one more night stay at Newington Campground, a dump in Crawfordville, where we did nothing but chill. Cause there was nothing, anywhere. Next stop Panama City…

Panama City was like Ocean City Maryland on steroids. Of course, it’s their winter so it was not a busy time of year. The first day it was extremely foggy. We took a walk on the pier to check out the beach. It’s probably the biggest beach we‘ve seen yet. Twenty-seven miles long and a good football field in width. The sand was pure white. No shells, no seaweed and zero rocks. Went to Alibi’s for a cocktail and some nachos before dinner. They had a pretty entertaining two-piece band but some obnoxious drunk kids were swearing and screaming throughout. We lasted longer than they did.

The next day we got that beach day in. The entrance was right across from our campsite. The sand was like powder and the water was clean and not too cold. The building across the street from our campground was the largest MTV Girls Gone Wild attraction. At one point rated as one of the top 100 nightclubs in the world. Although, dilapidated but still standing, Club LaVela was destroyed in 2018 by hurricane Michael and never rebuilt. One of the locals said they were trying to close down that place for years due to too much crime. The occupancy was 6000. Imagine 6000 springbreakers in one place at one time.

Our last day in Panama City we found this cool shopping place called Pier Park. We are not big shoppers, beside the fact that we don’t have a lot of space for stuff in the RV. Good way to keep our expenses down. We do like to eat though, so we had lunch at Paula Dean’s. They have fixed price meals with all you can eat. Oh man, that fried chicken was the best and the butter cake rocked.

We’re learning about the personality of the Panhandle. It’s pretty diverse. Thanks for reading down this far. We’re all caught up. Peace, love, and prosper! Kathy and Brad