Frick and Fracking

I bought a copy of National Geographic because it contained an article on The World's Largest Trees but the cover indicated there was an article about fracking,  a hot button topic around Colorado.

I was reading in bed about methane gas and fracking, which wasn't a good choice for helping me to fall asleep. No one will argue that it's depressing to read about all the crap we're doing to screw up the planet and, therefore, people's lives. We're a long way from integrating the world so that we can all work together for the common good. I'm wondering if we'll figure it all out in time, but some people are trying to work toward a positive outcome as if we will. There's a reason Sci Fi and dystopian writing is popular. Just like every good lie has enough truth in it to make it credible, every disaster movie or book has enough reality in it to be plausible, or almost plausible.

After reading the methane gas article, I felt discouraged about the state of things even though I thought the photos of the methane bubbles trapped in ice looked beautiful. My thought process led me to thinking about people who live and breathe mankind's problems. Do-gooders who are usually self-righteous and sanctimonious people who love the sound of their own voices. (Do I sound biased? Even worse, do I sound self-righteous and sanctimonious? ....Moving on.....) Why don't we listen to them? Because no one likes to talked down to and that's always how it sounds to me.

My advice to the sincere people, who are passionate about improving life on earth, is to approach people in a more positive manner. Don't try to scare the hell out of us because we'll just pull our heads inside of our shells. Sometimes just trying to pay the bills and take care of the family is challenge enough. Worrying about starvation, nuclear bombs, disappearing aquifers, air pollution, and methane gas can't be everyday topics for most of us or we'd go mad.

Which is what may have happened to some folks in Boulder at the last Boulder County commission meeting. Representatives from Encana Oil & Gas were there to discuss fracking. The anti-fracking crowd intimidated the Encana people from the time they entered the building and heckled Wendy Wiedenbeck when it was her turn to speak. (for her six minutes) They were screamed at, videotaped and called terrible names. Their car was blocked by an SUV when they tried to leave, then the car was pounded on. Police had to be brought in for their protection. I'm embarrassed that the "activists" in Boulder stooped to this barbaric behavior. They have hurt their cause. Who is going to want to enter into a conversation about fracking if they're going to be abused and have their physical well being put at risk? No one.  And no one, not even in Boulder, has the right to behave like a thug.

Freezing in Florida: Part Six

Tuesday

I heard about a shop that also sold lattes but it wasn't open when we arrived. It would have been nice to sit and have a hot coffee. Hungry, we walked down the road to Annie's Cafe. It's a funky little place with a nice outdoor dining area except for one thing...it's freezing cold inside and out. Our waitress said they were unused to such bitter cold and didn't have the equipment to warm the place up. All of the diners, and it was packed, were wearing coats. The food was very good. I hope to return at a warmer time of year.

The shop that was closed earlier was now open. They said they operate on island time. They had an espresso machine but were new at using it so the results were so-so. It was an art gallery/gift shop, so I bought a nice print set in the night-time, of a pelican. It now hangs in my granddaughter's room.

Our next stop was Shell Mound Park in the Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge. It's located on the edge of the Gulf and is supposed to be a kayaking paradise. The trails and the boardwalk took us through beautiful areas. It was slightly warmer when we were in the woods. The park was part of an area where the salt marshes dominate before the mangroves begin south of Cedar Key.

You can walk around a shell mound created by the prehistoric inhabitants. The mound is comprised of oyster shells, five-acres worth, and 28 feet tall. The archaeologists believe it took the people 3,500 years to shuck that many oysters. The park was a lovely area where the salt marshes dominate before the mangroves begin south of Cedar Key.

The drive through the Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge was lovely. There are usually a lot of alligators there, but not when it is so cold. The swamps were surprisingly beautiful. I finally saw cypress trees there. They are able to tolerate the flooded conditions by growing "knees" that grow out of the base and into the air. 

Pelicans

Cedar Key, Florida Part Five

Monday

Another cold front was coming in even though the previous nasty weather seemed to be hanging around. Seemed like a good day to get out of town. We decided to drive to Crystal River. We found really nice homes with lovely water access but there wasn't much available for public use. 

Weekie Wachee Springs, famous for its mermaid shows, was down the road so we headed that way. Our friend, T, spoke fondly of visiting Weekie Wachee as a child, so we went in his honor. Sadly, it was closed on Mondays. 

After much searching for food and/or coffee, we found Bob's Kitchen, a hole-in-the-wall place. From there, our luck changed a bit and we found Hernando Beach. It was not exciting but more interesting than anything else we'd seen that day. Pete's Landing was on the road to Hernando Beach so we hung out there for awhile. There was another eagle with an eglet in her nest. Lots of wood storks were all over the fishing access area. They were homely, slow-witted looking birds but fun to take pictures of.  A man was nearby, fishing with a casting net, and caught a bunch of fish. The wood stork I was photography burst into life and, quick as a flash, flew to the net and snapped up the largest fish then was gone. A blue heron immediately tried to take the fish away from the wood stork but the savvy woodstork flew into the middle a bunch of his buddies and ate the fish in peace. This was the most excitement we'd experienced in days.

We stopped at some kind of nature park on the way home. Thousands of children running around the place. After standing in line for quite a while, I wanted to bail so we left. It was still cold, cold, cold.

I stopped at Robinson's Fish Market on the way back to Cedar Key. Bought smoked mullet and a large number of fresh clams. I had to cook the clams a few at a time in a little saucepan but they were excellent.

We watched the silly movie, Zombieland, and went to bed. During the night, I went downstairs, didn't see the last step on the stairs and fell. I thought I'd broken my ankle because it looked like it was sideways in an unnatural position. After a while, the pain stopped and all was well. I'm counting no broken ankle as a big plus.

A lovely but stern mermaid

A Wood Stork

Pete's Landing

Part Four: Honoring Big Ed

These are my two photos of Big Ed's grave in the Cedar Key Cemetery. Big Ed was obviously well-loved by his family and still missed. The photo they chose for his headstone fascinated me with its honesty. Big Ed is posing with a wild boar (hog?) and is flipping off the camera.

Cedar Key is an awesome place for the person who loves water and wildlife.

Florida: Part Four

So why did we visit Florida in the middle of winter? First of all, I didn't expect it to be colder than Colorado. I also didn't expect it to last. People who live in Florida kept telling me it gets very cold in Florida in the winter, but it rarely lasts for long. Even they were disgruntled by the length of this record-breaking cold snap. It snowed in some areas but we got rain and more rain. I would have preferred the snow just for some variety.

Cedar Key is very affordable compared to most of the tourist areas.  It's full of things to do, particularly if you're not the Orlando type. (No offense intended to amusement park aficionados. It's just not my style.) There are excellent restaurants, some shops, multiple places to drink, boat rentals, hiking, and bird watching. There's an airstrip and, the next time I visit, I'm going to ride in an airboat. I would have loved to have gone kayaking or on the birding tour up the Suwannee River.

My novel is set in Florida on the Gulf Coast so it seemed reasonable and prudent to visit the area, and the town didn't disappoint. I love being near water and Cedar Key is all about water. However, they have mosquitoes and humidity in cruel abundance when the weather is hot, say... in August. One woman told me they rival Alaska for the number of mosquitoes, and she said it proudly.

Sunday was Valentine's Day. We took side roads to Gainesville to get an idea of what the greater area looks like. Gainesville was okay but the parts we saw weren't very interesting. While in Gainesville, we went to Starbuck's to read the Sunday New York Times, visited Walmart, Target, a grocery store, and McDonald's. The Walmart and Target stores had absolutely no warm clothing left to sell. No jackets, sweaters, coats, or thermal underwear. We would have to continue to shiver.

We were returning to Cedar Key by way of Bronson when we saw a large, strange headstone. There was a bright red, rectangular guitar on the front.We stopped and walked into the cemetery to see it up close. He was a native son of Bronson, and died on June 2nd, 2008. I would love to know who designed his headstone.

Saw a lot of birds on Valentine's Day: A summer tanager, bald eagle, tern, grackles, seagulls, egrets, and a lovely yellow-crested night heron.

Went walking around the town again that afternoon. Someone was giving inexpensive plane rides above the town, but we got back too late to take a spin. It would have been awesome if we'd had any idea something special was about to happen. The town was full of people who hadn't been there when we left that morning. Now we know Valentine's Day is a popular occasion there.

Florida:2010-Part Three

Friday: We went to Tony's for a late lunch that first day. As promised, Tony's had the best clam chowder I've ever tasted. We walked down Dock Street and explored the town a little bit. There is a nice fishing pier built to withstand any future hurricanes, and there were children playing in the park by our condo. We stayed in that evening and cooked chicken thighs and brocolli while watching O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Saturday: Lovely sunrise when it appeared between two sets of clouds. A golden path ran between the sun and us. It seemed to cross the water from Crystal River to arrive at our balcony. The tide was out so the mud flats looked lovely.

I've never been able to get a mental handle on tides. I know about tide tables but there seem to be so many variables. The tides ebb and flow, the birds that eat according to water levels, and the winding channels through the waterways for boats were all fascinating and easily observable from our lodging.

 Started the day with breakfast at the Rusty Rim. Nice view and we were inside and warm. An older man set out in a kayak from the land near the restaurant. He seemed to be trying to get to the large key opposite the town, but the wind was driving him away from it. I don't know if he didn't know how to compensate, or if he just wasn't strong enough but he kept trying.

We walked for hours, finding the cemetery and a boardwalk next to it that led to another side of the key that holds a lot of the town. The bitter cold wind didn't start until around noon.

The Old Curmudgeon Bookstore had a good selection of books and computers you could rent by the half hour. The owner was indeed a curmudgeon and, since I'd already looked at his website, I knew not to talk politics with him. Tony's was just across the street so we had clam chowder and key lime pie for lunch. This small town had a lot of good food in it.

Cedar Key is a leader in shellfish aquaculture, meaning clam farms. After federal regulations  destroyed the traditional fishing industry with a fishing ban, they turned to raising clams. They grow over 175 million freshwater clams a year.

I saw kayakers and wind surfers out in the wind-whipped waters. I wanted to kayak but knew I didn't have the strength or the warm clothing to go out on the water. I kept hoping the weather would calm down. Surely it wouldn't be bad for the entire ten days.

After doing laundry and taking a nap, we went to Robinson's, a restaurant out on Highway 24. Very good place. We had mullet for the first time. Not an easy fish to eat with millions of tiny bones, but very tasty. It turns out that the silver fish we frequently see leaping out of the water, are mullets. And, we were informed by our waitress, nobody knows why they jump.

Forida 2010: Part Two

I wanted to see the sunrise over the Atlantic before we left, so we went to the beachfront Starbuck's an got hot coffee before going to stand near the water's edge. The sky was a solid mass of dark grey with a little break on the horizon. I can't remember if it was raining but an icy wind was blowing. I never drank a coffee so fast.

The sun appeared for maybe 10 or 20 seconds before disappearing in the clouds. Anticlimactic. We climbed back into the car and headed west in the early morning funk of gloominess.

We worked our way northwest.  There were many strange sights as we entered the family entertainment culture of Orlando.

 Some serious rain began as we headed toward Ocala. Once we were in Ocala, it was only 30 minutes to the Marjorie Rawlins Historical Site in Cross Creek. She was a writer in the 1930's who wrote The Yearling, Cross Creek, The Sojourner, and more.

We found the park but a note on the door said the volunteer guide would be back in two hours. A flock of chickens raced through the rain to greet me. I guessed that they hadn't been fed yet that day. We peeked through the window and I was a little jealous of Marjorie's life.

Continuing on, the drive to Gainesville was dangerous with all the standing water on the roads. The drive from Gainesville to Cedar Key takes about an hour as you drive through pine barrens to get to the Gulf of Mexico. The scenery along the road is pretty monotonous, but the Cedar Key more than makes up for the drive.

While in the Gainesville area, we stopped at an IGA market to buy food, having been told there was only one small market in Cedar Key. The IGA sold quails in a 12-pack, rabbit meat, and goat meat, but they didn't carry Kleenex.

The town has about 800 inhabitants. It would be the perfect place to have a writing retreat or to write that novel if it had a good coffee place, and if it wasn't so hard to get to. There are excellent restaurants, a little library, kayaks, boat tours, birds and fish, and I could go on. The walking was great.

We had a reservation at a condo place located on the water. The photos on the website must have been old because the buildings were a little run down, but the location was perfect. Our first condo had no heat and, with the record-breaking cold, we moved to another unit. I was a bit disconcerted when I realized our balcony had a view of the nuclear power plant in Crystal River but I got used to it. Sort of.

Still raining.