Elsa
Noah and Suzie invited us to go scalloping with them again this year. They rented a house, and we grabbed a nice full hookup spot offered on VRBO. Things seemed to be set for the 10th thru the 14th, but then TS/Hurricane Elsa formed. It ended up going just west of Steinhatchee and then across north FL and on up the eastern seaboard a few days before our scheduled arrival. Even before the storm though, we got a message from the RV site owner telling us that heavy rains had flooded our site and that she was cancelling our reservation for a full refund. Now the question was, how will the storms passage affect visibility and scalloping in general. Also, where will we stay?
On Thursday, 2 days before the trip, we ended up contacting Camping and Glamping at the Hatch and they told us site 2 (50 amp, full hookup) was available. We grabbed it and off we went on Saturday. Getting up early, we managed to join up with Noah and Cecelia at the Buc-ees in Daytona Beach. After a long but easy pull to Steinhatchee, we got settled in our site and Noah and his crew checked into the house. Noah's sister made a surprise arrival that evening! Noah brought some freshly caught Red Snapper, and Candace fixed up a great dinner for all of us.
Scallops were hard to see
The 7 of us went out on Noah's boat the next 2 days, but the scalloping was tough. The visibility was not very good and got progressively worse each day as of the storm water runoff (now black water from all of the tannin) made it's way to the Gulf. The grass beds also seemed to be well picked over, as the number of boats and people out scalloping was surprisingly high. We managed to get 1.8 pounds of scallops the first day, enough to feed everyone Scallops Scampi. Delicious!
Ready to be grandparents?
The last day in Steinhatchee, we took Cecelia and Cary and had a fun day. We entertained the kids while Noah, Suzie and Stephanie went back out scalloping one more time. Our day was much more successful as we had a grand time, but they caught almost nothing with steadily worsening visibility. After returning the kids to their rightful owners, we got on our bikes one last time and toured the town and the river. We enjoy lazy bike rides and lazy little towns, although Steinhatchee is booming right now due to scallop season being in full swing.
The next morning we packed up and folded Kraken back to travel position and headed home. These short trips are nice, but longer is better for me. I am back working again, so my few days off were up. We'll come back again next year!
