I found that this is such a pleasant little town of about 5,000 people that I decided to spend an extra day getting caught up on laundry, some business, and just kick back. That plus the dire warnings about torrential rains, strong winds and massive flooding. Apparently those are local weather events, one town might get walloped and the next one five miles away get nothing. Right now the storms are localized, high energy events (not yet tornadoes I hope). I have been dithering with my decision about whether or not to go down the keys. Weather reports of the area make me a bit nervous. I am putting off that decision until such time as I actually have to make it.

Yesterday I decided to see if I could actually find Lake Okeechobee. My GPS says that I am perhaps a quarter of a mile away, but seems to be very difficult to access because of the giant 130 mile long levee around it. There are a few wide sections of the levee where you can drive high enough to see the lake and launch boats. However, in most cases even that doesn’t allow observations of the lake because is almost isn’t a “lake,” it is more like an enclosed swamp. The name Okeechobee means “big water” – which is true, but not a lake like Lake Tahoe for example. The lake is 10 feet or less in depth, often much less. From what I was able to see, it is more like watery paths through trees and brush with very little open water.

I drove about 40 miles along the shoreline finding three boat launching facilities. The giant circular levee has what appears to be a large moat along the outside edge of the levee. This “moat” appears to be the primary source of boating and fishing activity since it is easily accessible almost its entire length. There are very large groups of single wide trailers and small houses almost the moat, giving many water front access with small private docks. There must be several thousand people living in these “adult” communities on the outskirts of Okeechobee – probably accounting for much of the vigor of the community – there is likely lots of retirement money to buy things without flooding the job market.

I tried to imagine what it must be like inside, and almost scared myself out of going in. But in the mood for an adventure, I found the door and just walked on it – wondering what to expect. It turned out to be almost deserted, a couple having a beer and eating corn dogs and the waitress. I ordered a beer and a cheeseburger – which was good, but so sloppy that it was almost impossible to eat. Frog legs were on the menu, perhaps they would have been easier to eat.

I noticed a lot of garbage cans and big pots sitting on the floor in front of the bandstand. When I asked the waitress about them, she replied that “they had a bit of a leak during the storm two days ago.” Then she acknowledged that it was actually more like a waterfall. The pots and garbage cans were more or less permanent features that get moved aside when it isn’t raining and people want to dance. She indicated that the locals know when to come and when to not bother.

I when to an interesting restaurant that evening. It was obviously a well liked local establishment serving a wide variety of meals, mostly centered around fish in one form or another. I had excellent shrimp fettuccine with a side of a wedge of lettuce. The “wedge” of lettuce was an entire head of lettuce sliced in half, then smothered in excellent blue cheese dressing. As usual, I sat at the bar to eat and got into nice conversations with the folks on both sides of me. It was a pleasant and tasty evening.

The only other issue today is that I am finding my legs are starting to object to too much sitting in one position and not enough exercise. I started an exercise routine this morning. I hate to “exercise” but find that I have to do something or it will undoubtedly get worse. Most of the hotels that I stay at have little rooms with few exercise machines. I need to start using them. But first I have to get some “gym clothes” (mainly tee shirts). I’ll get some this morning since there are two big shopping centers almost next door to my hotel. Other than that, things are going along just fine. Long days of driving sometimes, but interesting things now and then. I am off to Kendall this afternoon. It is just a few miles south of Miami, perhaps it will be a fun place to visit. After that it will either be south down the keys, or north up the Atlantic coast. I won’t know which it is until tomorrow morning.