A Great Lunch, A Good Dunking

Russell Pass
25 50.36 N 081 26.24 W

Today was our day to visit Everglades City. The visit was the purpose of our stop here. The approach is too shallow for Tarwathie so we took the dinghy. It was a rough ride. The temperature was cold this morning. Libby shivered even though she had long pants, a warm shirt and a windbreaker on. Also, the current was against us. It took 90 minutes to motor 2.5 miles to our destination.

The trip was worth it though. Everglades City is a jewel. It is one of the few remaining places in Florida where you can see the Florida Cracker culture still existing. Sure there are some tourists here, and there are some retirement homes here, but they have not yet overwhelmed the quiet rural Cracker culture. Libby and I loved it. It reminded us of the times in the 1960s when we visited the interior of Florida -- the times before Disney and before the retirement boom.

The high point of our trip was to treat ourselves to an expensive lunch at the Rod and Gun Club (RGC). This RGC was founded in 1864. Since 1922, it has operated as a lodge and a restaurant on the waterfront. The RGC hosted Presidents, Hoover, Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Kennedy and Nixon, plus stars Ernest Hemingway, John Wayne, Ava Gardner, Sean Connery and many more. Its architecture and style are recognizable from the 1920s and 30s style. One pictures rivers of bathtub gin during prohibition flowing
to its affluent clientele. I have not heard family stories about it but I have no doubt that the RGC must have been a favorite of my long deceased mother,Helen, and her siblings Grace, John and Fred. It was (still is) exactly the kind of place they would have loved during the time they were in their 20s. Libby and I felt transferred back in time 60 or more years. I half expected to see The Great Gatsby at the next table.

Anyhow, I ordered frogs legs for lunch (never ate frogs legs before). Libby ordered the Everglades Seafood Platter. We were sitting out on the sunny screened porch. The day had warmed up and everything was very pleasant. We noticed that we were nearly the youngest customers in the restaurant.

The only bad thing about Everglades City is that there was no suitable place to leave the dinghy. We tied it up at the RGC. I forgot to bring the dinghy's anchor. There is nearly 6 feet of tide here and the pilings on the RGC wall are covered with razor sharp oyster shells. The anchor is needed to hold the dinghy away from the wall. Instead, I tied us up to an inflatable dinghy who had brought his anchor line. I hoped that he would not leave before we did.

While waiting for our lunch to come, I noticed that the owner of the inflatable dinghy was leaving. I excused myself from the table and went out to re-secure the dinghy some how. When the inflatable did leave, the dinghy drifted directly under a platform three feet above the water. The underside of that platform was also covered with oyster shells, and the tide was rising -- a disastrous place for our dingy to be. I tried to get in to the dinghy from the platform. I meant to push it away.

To make a long story short, I lowered myself not to the center line of the dinghy but rather to one side. It tipped and dumped me right into the river. I came up sputtering. My prescription sunglasses and hat were missing and my cell phone and camera were in my pocket.

I managed to scramble back up into the dinghy, then up to shore. Then I re-tied the dinghy between two piles where it would be safe for an hour or so.

So, what to do next? My food was probably on the table where Libby was waiting, but I was dripping wet. There was only one choice. Still dripping, I just walked back in to the RGC restaurant, head high, and sat down. Nobody seemed to notice that I was all wet, not even Libby, and not the waitress. I just enjoyed my lunch. The frogs legs and the sea food were delicious. We paid and got up to leave. Just then, I noticed that there was a big puddle of water under my seat and a rivulet of water leading from that puddle across the floor. I wonder what the restaurant staff and the other guests thought about that? Hee hee.

The dinghy ride back to Tarwathie was just as slow, but at least by mid afternoon it was warm. It was hard for me to face in to the bright sun with no sunglasses, so I put on my windbreaker and pulled the hood over my head Unibomber style. A day tour boat of tourists passed by. The sun was bright and the day warm. I wonder what they thought about the man in the Unibomber costume?

It made for a really memorable visit. (p.s. my cell phone is really dead now, but my waterproof camera is fine, and Libby's cell phone will work when we get to a signal)