Up the St Johns River to Walaka - Day 8

May 31, 2013

Can you say ‘bug bites’, ‘heat rash’ and ‘humidity’?  Yes, we are both covered in bug bites from mosquitoes, “no-see-ems” and possibly a horse fly or two!  The positive flip side of these conditions is that we’re discovering a variety of anti-itch remedies (OTC and ‘home-remedies’ as well – a fellow drug store customer said she heard recently on Dr. Oz’s show to ‘put a regular aspirin’ on the itchy spot and it will help to make the itch go away).  Trying the aspirin remedy tonight…kind of making a paste of sorts, albeit I’m not sure that was the Dr’s recommendation (we’ll let you know what we think); and the humidity does nothing to help ‘hair’ so a new easy-to-keep, shorter style soon may be in the offing (for me that is; my handsome bald-guy need not worry as much).  

shallow and we think we were touching a little of the mud floor – but all went well and we were off!  Traversed further down the St. John’s River and are anchored in a small channel off Turkey Island, near Welaka.  Idaho boys get envious:  Grandpa plans to head out early, early in the morning to test out these waters as they are considered the “WORLD’S BEST bass fishing grounds”.  We’ll report on the hoped for successful outcome. 

We left our Deep Creek anchorage this morning around 9 am – had a small delay as water was

The St Johns River as it narrows is just a beautiful stretch of river with homes scattered all along the way, but mostly mile after mile of trees, wildlife and jumping fish.  The river narrows considerably so we are getting a lot more opportunity to read the charts and drive the boat the 

Took the dingy into Welaka tonight (in search of the anti-itch remedies, among searching for a few other needed supplies…like bait), and docked at the city’s boat ramp area.    After picking-up our few purchases, we took a walk

round the block and discovered “Shrimp-R-Us and More” restaurant.  After watching numerous cars pull up and retrieve takeout orders, and noting even more cars in the parking lot, we decided to venture over, find out more and take a look-see at the menu.  We decided to get a table in this ‘down-home-nothing-fancy’ restaurant:  Ron ordered a shrimp special:  17-piece shrimp dinner with two sides (he ordered collard greens and sweet potato fries) – came with two hush puppies as well – for $10.95!  I ordered the crabcake special…two 4” jumbo-lump crabcakes, that came with my two side selections of coleslaw and baked potato, and two hush-puppies of course (served with a cinnamon spread)…for $13.95!  The staff was southern-hospitality-friendly…and the food really hit the spot – we would recommend this local gathering place!   A near-the-dock sign we spotted post dinner proclaimed that the restaurant was one of the best in the county. 

Ron took us back in the dingy tonight via a ‘scenic route’ and then went out for a little ride by himself – pre-checking out