A short visit and trip around the Okeechobee

Saturday, November 20, 2010

mmmmm… after coffee and showers we headed across state to visit Wendell & Diana. I was all set to see more water and wildlife as I’d planned our route to circumnavigate Lake Okeechobee. About a quarter of a way around the lake, I discovered that I wasn’t going to see Lake Okeechobee. A 20-foot tall levee surrounds it so that you’re looking at a large pile of grassy dirt all along it. It was a big disappointment when we finally did manage to drive up to the crest. It looked like grown in swamp, trees, and assorted vegetation that went out for a couple of miles before you could actually see brown, open water. Quite a few small fishing boats were all lined up at the ramp for access to the channel leading to the lake. I can only assume the fishing is good.

It was an eye opener to drive along the fields and see where they had burned all the sugar cane after the harvest. We’ve been seeing the smoke and ash from and on the boat, but to drive through the area gave me a view of Florida that I hadn’t expected. After traveling down the Atlantic Inter-coastal Waterway and seeing all the mansions & wealth flamboyantly displayed, it was heart wrenching to see other side of the coin - slum property, abject poverty and tenements. Pawnshops and bail bond shops were the more prevalent businesses in the busier sections of the small towns we drove though. The vacant land that had been stripped of its crop had left a part of my heart feeling as barren as the land after the burning of the cane. The Okeechobee holds back the water that supplied a lot of the Everglades. It’s now regulated and a lot of the swampland has disappeared over the decades in the name of flood control and improvement.

It was so good to pull up to my brother’s house and see him unloading his car. I could feel the warmth seep back into my heart again just looking at him and getting a hug from him and Diana! Diana was looking good, considering she’d had surgery on Tuesday and was getting around better than I thought she would. I’m sure Joe is helping to keep her from lifting and stretching and hope she just relaxes. She made an awesome salsa and bean dip and we had that with tacos and mixed berry smoothies for dinner. I learned a new game on face-book called Mafia Wars & found it to be kind of addicting. After a couple of movies it was time for some shut-eye. I’m getting used to going down and getting up with the sun now LOL.