Have you ever seen Top Golf?  It’s like a golf driving range with electronic targets and games you can play hitting specific golf shots – there was even a TV game show built around it.  I’ve always thought it would be fun, but I’ve never been.  Drive Shaft isn’t exactly Top Golf but it was still good fun & I’d do it again in a heartbeat. 

After another great visit with our friends here in West Palm Beach it was time to get back on the bike for the short trip south.  I followed the Okeechobee Waterway westbound to the lake.  You can enter the waterway on the gulf side of Florida and continue eastbound across Lake Okeechobee and eventually all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. This is the lock on the east side of the lake that gets you down to the level of the waterway.  And this is Lake Okeechobee.

Lake Okeechobee is 730 square miles of water with an average depth of only NINE feet.  It’s a natural lake but the Army Corps of Engineers built a dike around it to prevent unpredictable flooding.  Eye Opener: How much is a trillion?  At capacity, Lake Okeechobee holds a trillion gallons of water.  730 square miles of water, nine feet deep = one trillion gallons.  US Debt – $23.3 trillion!!

Farm Report:  Sugar cane field being harvested.  They were cutting everything down, chopping it up and loading it into trucks for processing.  No attempt to separate the leaves from the stalk.  Guess they do all that at the plant.

These are citrus trees.  I’d say orange trees but they are kinda short for that.  Tangerines maybe or those little mandarin oranges or clementines??

You know you’re getting close to the edge of the United States when the food isn’t “American” and starts coming from other countries.  When I stopped for gas I was there.

These are plantain chips, made in Costa Rica.  Plantains look like a banana but are much more like a potato.  These chips were quite good, heavy on the garlic and tasted nothing like the smashed banana they look like.

While I was standing next to my bike eating my plantain chips, this lady pulled up with her kids.  I almost couldn’t believe it when she asked me what I was eating.  THEN she asked if she could try one.  What the heck, sure.  She got out of her car and talked with me while one of her kids took care of their gasoline.

I had great difficulty pronouncing her name much less trying to spell it for you.  She says that she always dresses this way in the custom of her people.

She was VERY nice, even “forward”, and interested in my story, so much so that I actually felt like she might have been a gypsy kind of person and that I should keep my valuables close.  She asked me if I wanted to take her picture and pulled me away from the bike where her kids were.  Maybe I’m just skeptical and she was genuine,  She was just so interested and complimentary……

At the very least, an interesting encounter.

I’ve seen a lot of different “Caution ___ Crossing” signs but this was a new one.  I wonder if they are unique to the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge.  Anybody seen a caution panther crossing sign somewhere else?

Most Florida county roads look like this.  Straight and flat.  I haven’t seen any alligators yet but people have told me that they have just barely missed alligators on the road.  Maybe a caution alligator crossing sign would be appropriate.

Rolled in to Everglades City and that bag of plantain chips had completely worn off.  A good ruben sandwich at one of the two restaurants in town was just the ticket.

So – what about that fish story…..  Well – I have always wanted to catch a tarpon.  I had a charter all set up over in Punta Gorda – one of the best places to catch tarpon and this is the best time of year.  Fishing is always subject to weather and a strong south wind kept us off the water.  However, all is not lost – I’ve got another charter fishing trip set up here in Everglades City.  We aren’t targeting any specific species just going to see what we can get to bite.  But there are some tarpon around – you never know……