Ormond is more of a locals' beach, but still, I've never seen it so deserted on a nice day. There are usually hundreds of people at this beach. I kept looking at these two chairs and wondering if I was in the Twilight Zone.
We then drove back home the long way, via a scenic highway route we like to take through the marshes and woods.
My guy spotted something we'd never noticed before -- an old pair of brick smoke stacks in the woods, so he decided to stop there to check it out. That was how we found this:
We love old buildings, so we walked back to have a look.
Colonel Dummitt is better known for his citrus groves, which he cultivated south of here in Brevard County, but evidently this is where he set up his slave-run sugar mill to make rum (he did that in Barbados before the English abolished slavery there, and forced him to go.)
Seeing the remains of a 195-year-old mill was a bit surreal. The whole site is surrounded by a tall fence (through which I shot most of my pics.)
Another lady was there with her husband taking pictures; their car had Alabama plates so I imagine they were on vacation. We waved to each other and smiled, but stayed too far away to talk. In front of the ruins was a field of weeds and wild flowers filled with butterflies.
I'm glad we went, even if the experience was a bit sobering. We've decided that (unless gas has to be rationed or shelter-in-place orders are issued) that we'll go on a long drive once a week, just to get out of the house for a bit.
Comments
I'd take a drive every day if the weather was better and my Mustang was out of storage. But it's not, and I hate the everyday vehicle I have now (my choice got poo-poo'ed) and don't like driving it so I'm only going where I have to. The plus side of this though, if you can call it a plus, is that our road, which better than tripled in traffic after it was paved, has quieted down to almost no traffic at all. It's nice for a change.