January 24 - Lake Okeechobee

Three riders and four well wishers gathered at Snellgroves for breakfast this week. After more than an hour of coffee, conversation and vittles, the three Wings, ridden by Lloyd Lowery, Boyd Harrell & I, headed southeast towards Lake Okeechobee. Although a cool start, the day warmed quickly and proved to be a great day for riding.

The map below indicates our route for the day. (Remember - the map and all pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them.)

Soon after arriving in Avon Park, it was time to shed a few layers.By the time we made it down to the City of Okeechobee, it was early afternoon and time for some lunch. Being new to the area we let our noses guide us to a place on 441 called Cowboys.

Interesting door pulls.The interior is filled with many interesting decorations.Including many awards for their barbequing prowess.Lloyd & I settle in for some good food.After lunch, we headed south on SR-78. We made a fuel stop in Clewiston where one of us failed to heed the little red sign & ended up paying more for gas than the others. Just out of frame are two employees having a good grin at the expense of the guy pumping his own gas at the full service pump.The Hubert Hoover Dike runs all around Lake Okeechobee, making the lake itself almost impossible to see from most vantage points. Although a foot trail and bicycle path run along the top of the dike, Clewiston has one of the few places you can get inside the dike by wheeled vehicles. You can just see a small portion of the lake past the weed line.Boyd and Lloyd look over the canal that also runs all the way around the lake. The canal was formed by dredging for the dirt used to build the dike. In places, the canal runs inside the dike and other places it runs outside of the dike.Lloyd examines the sea wall beside the canal. Leaving Clewiston, we headed east across the bottom of the lake then up the east side of the lake and back to Okeechobee. The area around the lake is fairly sparsely populated. The main industries are tourism, fishing and, of course, sugar cane. We could often smell the sweet odor of freshly cut cane as we rode through the area.

Once back in Okeechobee, we headed north on 441 to Yeehaw Junction where we stopped for refreshment before heading into the sunset on SR-60.

It was a great day and a great ride. Including side trips, we covered about 380 miles through Hillsborough, Polk, Highlands, Okeechobee, Glades, Hendry, Palm Beach, Martin and Osceola counties and arrived home about 7:30 p.m. - tired and happy.

Gunny