24 Miles To the Sea

Suicidal deer keep you off the road dusk through dawn. Even in daylight, flocks of brazen, carrion-feeding buzzards slow you with flashbacks of 70MPH windshield impolsions. Why venture out from Otter Creek down that 24 miles of dark two lane road to Cedar Key? What besides a great breakfast at Annies would warrant the risk? Could it be the the sunrise over the Gulf?

This is the sunrise view through the marine forest, the very lot where we wish to move the turquoise cracker. Mr. Niffenegger, the new building official, challenged our agreeement with his predecessor, forcing us into a hearing before the City commission. We hate crowds. But, love this fishing village. This Old Florida. This historic place.

Watermen still make their living from the sea. The net ban simply moved these resourceful people to clam farming. Cedar Key is now the biggest damn clam farm in the United States, maybe the world.

Even new construction carries the old theme. An historical review board approves change, FEMA enforces the elevation.

But it's the downtown and the historic district that grabs you.

Everywhere you turn, history reminds you of a simpler time of stronger men and women.