1203 February 7, 2025 Seafood Festival

We took our time this morning.  We did our morning exercise, I read, and then I did some laps around the lake on my bike. 

Killdeer.

After lunch, we drove the 41 miles to Naples; back to civilization.  Land of the manicured golf courses and estates with grand entrances.  More importantly, there was a laundromat and shopping.  We haven’t had hookups for almost a week.  We move tomorrow but at Midway, we will only have water and electric.  We need a septic hookup to be able to utilize our own washer and dryer…hence…the laundromat.  We had three loads done in less than 1 ½ hours.  That is the good thing about a laundromat.  This place was clean and the machines were new. 

We fueled the Jeep, got fresh water and went to Walmart for lots of supplies.

We had our timing worked out so that we would arrive in Everglades City at about 5pm.  The city was hosting a Seafood Festival this weekend.  The price of admission was canned goods.  We wandered through and found a nice food stand with almond encrusted grouper sandwiches topped with slaw and sides of yellow rice and a great vegetable medley.  Dinner was delicious.  We sat with some other folks from Saint Louis who are happy to be spending a month away from the chill at home.

We sat and listened to some music and then wandered through the festival again.  This is a highlight of the year for this small town.  We can see that these people try very hard.  They have had the misfortune of getting slapped time and again by hurricanes.  They cleanup and rebuild and carry on.  The festival was well organized with a wide array of really nice craft vendors and food choices.  Resilience in the face of so much adversity!