I’ve read all of his Travis McGee novels, most of them three or more times. I seem to recall he did visit Cedar Key to visit a female character in one if his investigations... But it may have been a different location. I’ve admittedly slept multipl times and had a few adult beverages since I red the series. McDonald was one of my favorite authors, and I learned an awful lot about human nature from reading his novels, novelettes, and short stories... Not just his Travis McGee series.
According to this blog, it was JB exercising poetic license.
http://www.sparkpeople.com/mypage_public_journal_individual.asp?blog_id=2058456