Yesterday, we decided to go for a walk down to the “Hot Dog Stand” restaurant. It’s at the very end of Keaton Beach. Miss Lynn (owner of this campground) gave us some history of this restaurant. It seems for years it was owned by people and it just sold hot dogs….hence the name.
Over the past few years there have been a few different people to lease the restaurant, but the building and land have been up for sale for two million dollars.
This is it, and it’s not any nicer or larger than it looks! Anyway the lady who is now leasing it is doing a good job and is working on building her business. She’s a little disturbed that the owner has it up for sale, and she can’t afford to purchase it, but Miss Lynn feels no one will buy it for 2 million. Would you?
We had breakfast there yesterday and it was very good. Eggs, bacon, grits and toast and all cooked exactly to my liking. We’ve heard they have excellent seafood, so we may have to give them another try, especially since Al hasn’t caught any fish yet.
Property values have dropped here significantly since the housing bubble burst. We saw condos on the beach listing (not selling though) for $200,000 and we were told they originally sold for $400,000.
Lynn has been here since the 80’s and was telling us her personal stories of the “No Named Storm” of 1993. Her house and two cars were flooded, but enough of her house remained (the floor) that she was allowed to rebuild. It’s a double wide mobile home and it ended up in two pieces! If the city had condemned it, she would have to rebuilt on stilts, which is very expensive! There are very few homes here that are not high on stilts. We are sitting just a few feet above sea level, so if a storm or tidal wave come, we are flooding. Fortunately since the 1993 storm, they have weather buoys off shore that warm of abnormal increasing tides. She is very concerned about what the oil spill is going to do to her business and the environment.
There is nothing much here at Keaton Beach, besides fishing, boating and tourism. If the oil gets here and coats the oyster beds and grass flats, then fishing will be done, for many, many years to come. It may never come back. It doesn’t seem BP, or our government is concerned about the consequences to the environment. Obama claims he is interested in the environment (Cap and Trade (tax), but he’s been conspicuously silent regarding the oil spill.
After our walk to get breakfast, we stayed inside most of yesterday, due to the excessive heat. We were getting a little bored (and grouchy) by the end of the day. Al went for an evening kayak paddle, and I sat on the dock and tried to finish my book.
This is our view when the tide is very low. Remember, this is not your typical Florida white sand beach. This beach is oyster beds and grass. No white sand here and it is NOT typical of Florida beaches. We still like the view though.
You can see the water was flat calm, which is not good for cool ocean breezes that lull you to sleep. Last night was the first night we had to run the a/c all night.
