Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.

Henry David Thoreau

Hidden Hurricane Damage, a Rant and a Reward

Tuesday & Wednesday                                                                                  Most Recent Posts:
November 29 & 30, 2016                                                               What to Do When It’s Windy?  Go Hiking?
Gamble Rogers State Recreation Area                                            Flagler Beach-Recovering From Matthew
Flagler Beach Florida

 

TUESDAY

Today is another windy day so we have non kayak, non beach plans. Of course I do go out for sunrise and a walk on the beach. There is quite a halo around the sun this morning.

 

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Once the sun breaks through, the waves pick up.

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After a lovely start to the day, I have a morning fight with Blogger over whether it will publish my Live Writer post or not. Yesterday, I did everything just as always in creating the post but this morning when I hit publish, Blogger thinks about it and then sends the same 404 error I had last month that caused me to pull my hair out.

After trying all the same “fixes” including, checking each picture, posting parts of the blog separately and changing the title, I attempt to recreate the post from scratch in Blogger’s interface.

What a joke. Why do I do this? I know better. Their program is SO limited. It took forever and when I published it, it came up with nearly a page of blank space between several of the paragraphs. We look at the HTML code and it is a mess. I have NO MORE PATIENCE so I just delete the Blogger attempt and as we are leaving to go do something David wants to do, I hit the publish button on Live Writer in  a “SO THERE YOU JERK” move and of course it publishes the same post it would not publish hours ago. 404 Error has disappeared.

Moral of the story:
If Live Writer and Blogger come to a another show down where Blogger will not publish my Live Writer post, I will do nothing, wait 5 hours and try again. If that doesn’t work, I will throw in the towel and consider the previous post the end of the blog. Finished! Enough is enough! Whew, thanks for letting me get that rant off my chest.

Now on to what did David want to do. Can’t you guess??

Remember our trip to Bing’s Landing and the neat Plantation Archeological Exhibit? Remember that restaurant? Captains BBQ? Well today’s the day.

We can smell the BBQ when we get out of the car. They are using a great old smoker directly outside the restaurant.

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We are amazed that we have the place to ourselves. We can dine inside or out.

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Well sort of out. The deck overlooks the water but is screened against bugs of which luckily there are few in winter.

 

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Yes it’s him eating again, this time BBQ, a beer and a smile on his face.

 

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After our late lunch/dinner, I want to go on up A1A for a mile to Washington Oaks State park. I don’t want to go into the park itself. We don’t have time to do it justice and we were there on our last trip to the area.

But I do want to walk out on their beach with the Giant Coquina stones. There is nothing quite like the beach at Washington Oaks but you’ll have to look at the post from our previous visit to see it since apparently there has been enough damage to close the beach.

Boy am I disappointed. What could the hurricane have done to the rocks? Or is it just damage to the boardwalk which could be closed with access still allowed to the beach? Or perhaps the parking lot has been destroyed. I’m willing to walk in if you will just let me. DARN!

 

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Our last stop of the day is balm for the blogger/Live Writer blues and the disappointment over the Washington Oaks Beach. I have a coupon for a free QUART of Bruster’s ice cream and the store in Palm Coast has made Jamaica Me Crazy at my request. Now how is that for customer service? They even put m y name on it.

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On the drive back through downtown Flagler Beach, I have a chance to take pictures of the kites that are always flying near the pier. These are HUGE kites and there are many differnet ones so you never know what you will see.

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WEDNESDAY

Today is our last day here at Gamble Rogers and the wind has died down enough that we can spend the entire day on the beach and we do.

It starts with sunrise.

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Winnona peaks over the dune at dawn.

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Here’s what she’s looking at.

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Later we walk down this beach for the last time. This is my favorite picture of the day.

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It turns out to be a wonderful last day on the beach.  Look at those BLUE skies.

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Not sure what it is about waves that I can watch them for hours.

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Every one, every group, is so different. So beautiful. The power and the majesty.

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And yet somehow the broad deserted beach, the blue skies and wonderful clouds make it a place of tranquility and calm for me. Almost meditative. So healing.  I can relax and let all  the problems of “real life” drift away.

 

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After dinner, we finish our day with a walk over to the boat launch for our last sunset from this viewpoint.

I wonder if I would spend the entire winter here if they would let me. Or would it ultimately be too cold?  I know it’s beautiful now and it has been a wonderful two weeks. Usually after a two week stay, I am ready to move on, but not in this case. 

Of course, realistically, it’s extremely difficult to book 2 weeks here.  To do that more than once is pretty impossible.  I tried this year but no dice.   So we’ll have to move on.  I’m really going to miss it.   Next stop is to see the Manatee.

 

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19 comments:

  1. Beautiful pictures, love the waves.

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  2. There is something about the energy in waves...

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  3. That damn Blogger. Please don't leave us. You certainly earned the well named ice cream. I can understand being sad to leave this beach, but there will be more beaches to come. The motion of the water and waves give off negative ions, which we need to be healthy.

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  4. JMC can fix just about everything:o)) Of course, if that doesn't work you can try No Way Jose!!! If that doesn't work...It can't be fixed!!!!

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  5. I'd have a happy smile on my face with that plate and a beer in front of me! I agree with your favorite beach photo of the day - it is gorgeous. I like to watch waves, but not as much as I did when I was younger. I think since spending so many wonderful times in the Smokies, watching a mountain stream rush over the boulders would be my favorite site and I could become hypnotized by just looking and listening. Water is spectacular wherever you find it though.

    I'm glad I just write my blog and hit PUBLISH and it comes out however it comes out. I don't think I'd go through hoops with LiveWriter, but I guess it's what you've gotten used to and like.

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  6. Lot's of great stuff in here including a Dr. Seuss character walking down to the beach in your Wednesday sunrise pictures. Dr. Seuss must have lived in Florida to have so many palm trees in his stories. And BTW, for those interested, Bing's Landing Captains BBQ has a fantastic collection of craft beer in bottles & at reasonable prices too only $3.81! I chose a Weyerbacher "TINY" Imperial Stout which is far from tiny in alcohol content (11.2% ABV) and tasty too. I too find any time spent immersed in the sights and sounds of the natural world are always both healing and relaxing

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  7. WOW. . .that beach pic that you said was your fave is just outstanding! Made my day. . .

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  8. I can understand why that one photo is you favorite of the day:) The sculpting and color of the sand against the water is beautiful. You certainly had a spectacular site for enjoying the beach. Glad the bugs weren't too bad for you. The bugs here have not been my friend. The no-see-ums bother me all day not just in late afternoon. I am covered in their bites, as well as, mosquito bites. I have taken to covering myself in bug spray (which I don't like at all) and putting my Thermocell bug device right under my legs when I sit in my chair. At one point I had 15 welts on the back of just one calf not to mention the others on the rest of my legs and arms. I am so bothered by insects. I could never live here.

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    1. Wow! That's terrible. I wonder if it is just the island? Mosquitoes are all over me if they are around but we have had no trouble in Florida in the winter. We leave as soon as it gets warm because they come out especially at dusk. We are early birds too si we don't sit out at night. Do they eat you up during the day? We had noseeums in the Keys but not on the west or east coast. Did have both in the Everglades once but not other times we were there in January outside of dusk. I sure would hate having to battle them all day long. So sorry for you both.

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  9. As you know Kevin just uses Blogger and it works for us but every once in a while it will give us a problem. When he hits "publish" it always publishes for us but it doesn't always come up on the "Reader List" and that really bugs him because so many readers click on your new post from that list so if it doesn't show up there then they don't always know a new post is up. It seems that it eventually posts there but it could be hours later. Try not to let it get the better of you. Just put it aside and walk down to the beach and relax and watch the birds and the waves.

    www.travelwithkevinandruth.com

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    1. I wish the Reader list problem only happened every once in a while to me. It happens every single time I publish now. The only question is how long will it take to come up 1 hour, 2 hours, 4 hours 10 hours. It's at least possible that's why my comments have dropped off so much in the past few months. People don't see it.

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  10. I've pulled my hair out, too a couple of times with Blogger. I think it's loaded with gremlins. Thank goodness you had some JMC to ease your aggravation! ;c)

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  11. I won't tell you I have no problem posting a blog 😑 Glad you soothed your woes with JMC!

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  12. I think a qt of JMC is exactly the treatment called for when recovering from publishing issues! Love the halo-ed sunrise and tranquil sunset and all the wonderful surf in between. Your favorite is mine as well - such wonderful color :-) I miss the beach and having a warm day to enjoy it, thanks for taking me along to yours.

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  13. I love the colors in your first sunrise! Sorry about the Blog problems. I get so mad when the computer or my phone refuse to do what I want. Grrrrrr. Enjoy your ice cream! XXXOOO

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  14. Those waves are mesmerizing.

    I wonder if it's that you're using Live Journal to write the blog and there's some sort of glitch where interfacing with Blogger occasionally does this.

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  15. Beautiful waves...makes me miss the beach! So glad they had JMC after the blogger annoyance and the closed park. Your favorite beach picture is mine too. Lovely!

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  16. Here is a link about the hurricane damage at washington oaks park. You can google and find it too.
    https://flaglerlive.com/100823/painters-hill-washington-oaks-destruction/

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  17. I know you've talked about this before but I must say I've never had any problems composing a post with Blogger. I wonder if you're unintentionally complicating things because it is such a simple program. I start typing, then hit enter to make a space between text and photo, then insert the photo/choose a size, then hit enter again to make another space and then start typing again. I type in a title, add a few labels, click publish and it always looks great. Hope this helps!

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