The road to the Florida Keys will be opening on June 1st. There has been a roadblock in place for Southbound traffic since late March. Since then, if you were not a resident or homeowner or you worked in the Keys, you were not allowed in. Now, I have some serious reservations about the constitutionality of the County instituting the roadblock. I personally don’t believe that they have the authority. Not at the County level. Maybe if the Governor had put it in place, but US 1 is partially funded by Federal and State money. How can you deny the people that paid for it the use of it? There is a lawsuit pending and I guess that will give us some answers.
While I question the constitutionality
of the roadblock, I do realize, that we are in a unique position of having the ability to geographically isolating ourselves. With US1 being the road to the Florida Keys, a roadblock was able to stop many people who would have come down. It most probably has kept the number of COVID infections down. So I do acknowledge it’s beneficial effect. But does the end justify the means? it’s an age-old question. It is almost done now, but I do hope the legal challenges continue so we get an answer. Time will tell
Meanwhile, it is time
to start trying to salvage our lives and businesses. I have run 4 charters since the roadblock was put in place. That’s not a lot of income for an 8-9 week stretch. Especially when you consider that Apri and May are usually two of the busiest months of the year and this year was going to be no exception.
Now, there are over 100,000 people
who have died from COVID-19 so I do realize that they and their families have lost far more than I have. So I am trying to keep my gripe about lost income in context. I am lucky I had enough “cushion” to pay my bills, (so far). I am lucky that nobody I know was infected by the virus and more importantly, nobody I know died from it. I’m sure some of my friends back in NJ where I grew up, are not so lucky. I’m 63 and both my parents are gone, but If they were still alive and in NJ, I would have a great deal more to be worried about.
My wife
lost her battle with Breast Cancer in September. If she was still alive, with her weakened immune system, I would probably have a different opinion on reopening the Keys. So, again, I understand those that are concerned, scared, or whatever. Everyone has to deal with this in whatever way is best for them. Generally speaking, I’ve been in a kind of “self Quarantine” since Ema passed. It’s just me and the cat at home, so besides the lack of going out on the boat, and the lack of customers, COVID hasn’t personally changed my life that much. But I do think it’s time for those that are “High Risk” or those that have concerns to stay in quarantine so those that need to, can start trying to put their lives back together.
Because of health concerns,
I haven’t seen some of the “kids” that used to come over for “Saturday Night Sleepovers” in over 2 months. I think for me, that is one of the hardest parts. Most Saturday nights when Ema was here, we would have between 1 and 5 kids running around the house. It started with Jack and Molly when they were 6 months to 1 yr old. Jack turns 11 this year so we had many great years of the little banshees running around the house! Unfortunately, I worked most Sundays, so I missed “Sunday Funday” a lot of times. Either way, it was a great experience and all the credit goes to my wife. She loved the kids and they loved her. Hopefully, we will all get together for a “Family Dinner” soon.
Next week will be interesting.
I have 5 charters on the books. Some have been on the books for months and thankfully didn’t cancel. Some just booked in the last week or so when the June 1st date was announced. It will be great to get out on the water again. I’m not used to being on land this much.
There will be a bit of a learning curve.
Not that I forgot how to fish, but when you are out every day or close to it, you get insight as to what and where things are happening. Wind, current, water temperature, water clarity all dictate what will bite and where. It can change from day to day, but it helps if you are out fishing on a regular basis and can have your “hand on the pulse” of what is going on. So it might take me a day or two to figure things out, we’ll see.
The road to the Florida Keys
opens on Monday and my first trip is on Tuesday, I will be posting daily starting Tuesday evening. Come back to see what we are catching!