March 8, 2013 THINGS TO TELL ABOUT CARRABELLE

 It was only about a 3 hour drive traveling down Hwy 98 to get to the little fishing community of Carrabelle.  We are staying at the Carrabelle RV Resort right on Hwy 98 across from the ocean/bay.  Mind you, we wanted to head further south into Florida but everything was booked.  We were fortunate enough to get an over-flow site at the Carrabelle RV Resort.  Again, we are newbies.  We should have questioned the word over-flow when booking for an entire month.  But what choice did we have?  We have 6 weeks to travel and everything close to the ocean is already booked.   

This place is booked solid, lots of "snow birds" from the North this time of year.  Most folks are staying a month or longer.  We check in and proceed to back our 40 ft. 5th wheel into our spot #6.  It is a short little paved pad with a secondary pad attached next to it for parking.  This space is also wedged between 2 long narrow rental cabins.  Too make matters worse, there is a car parked on our parking pad.  I am proud of Dave for even attempting to back into that small tight space.  It is even more surprising that he didn't crunch the back end of the Big Horn 5th Wheel parked directly across from us.  A nice man helped us try to back into our tight space.  He finally suggested to Justin, who works at the park to please move us, as we could never fit into that space.  

They were able to switch  us to overflow site #10.  It was easier to park here since backing up was a straight shot from the road.  Both of these sites are really for rigs up to 32'.  The girl that took our reservations only works part-time and truly didn't know better.  If anyone else had taken our reservation, we would not be fortunate enough to be here.  This is a gem of an RV resort.  So, we are thankful.  

If a better site comes open, they will move us.  Since we are booked from 3/15 to 4/15, it will be doubtful.  Most people will book for the entire month.  Lesson learned.  From now on, we need to make our reservations early and RUN...when someone mentions over-flow site.  For now, we are making the best of this situation and going to enjoy our month here exploring and learning more about the Carrabelle area.  The following are pictures of our site - view the rear, side and looking towards the front.

View to back

View to right

  

View to front... ah....better

Once we settled in, we were eager to get to the beach and watch Dave catch some big fish.  Brrr.....it's still unseasonably cold for March in Florida.  We are having fun but really would like to have some warmer temps.  The breeze off the ocean is very crisp and not very good for fishing either.  Dave wasn't the only one not catching fish.  We are hearing that this just isn't a good time for fishing in Carrabelle.   Oh well.....we'll just go out to dinner.  We heard The Fisherman's Wife has great seafood, so we headed there.  

The Fisherman's Wife is located in downtown Carrabelle.  It was a little hard to spot at first but right on the main road.  It's a blue & white house with a few parking spots in front.  Inside, it is nice and cozy. The server was polite but not very personable.  Our meal came quickly and was very good.  We shared our meals.   I had the fried shrimp and Dave fried grouper.  The menu is small and everything is fried with coleslaw, hush puppies and fries.  I loved that I could actually taste the flavor of my shrimp.  Shrimp I have at home has no flavor.  The only thing you taste is the cocktail sauce!  This was very good.  Although, we enjoyed our meal, I doubt we will come back again this year.  We really prefer to have our fish grilled or pan seared.  If you like fried fish, I really  recommend that you visit this popular diner in Carrabelle.