Headed home

We left West Palm Beach Monday planing stops in St Augustin, Savannah, and Myrtle Beach. A cold front with high winds and 50 degree temps persuaded us to bypass those spots and head home. We have exchanged our shorts and tee shirts for warmer duds. It was a most enjoyable 11 weeks in Florida. This will be the last blog post until our next trip, tentatively planning a trip out west this summer. Hope you have found some of the blog posts interestIng. Now to catch up on all the things we have been neglecting at home.


Will remember this nice sunset on the Caloosahatchee river near Fort Myers


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Wakodahatchee Wetlands

Wakodahatchee translated from the Seminole Indian language means "created waters". These 50 acres of wetlands with boardwalks were developed as part of a water reclamation program. Little islands or hammocks were created that have grown up with trees and serve as secure nesting sites for the birds. The water is also full of fish and alligators. My boy scout training failed me on this visit as both camera batteries totally discharged resulting in fewer pictures than I wanted, for you dear reader it may be a plus as you don't have to see as many bird pictures. Serious birders come here from all over lugging their heavy 10 to 20 thousand dollar cameras and lens, I feel like a piker with my little pocket camera, in my next life I'm going to get one of those big ones.


Proud Great Blue Heron with baby in nest


Green Heron with small fish it's bill


Black-Necked Stilt, very long legs, first time we've see one.


Handsome group of Black- Bellied Whistling-Ducks


Red winged Blackbird

And then the cameras went dead, missed out the rest of the 200 species there.

Location:Delray Beach

Breakfast and lunch

It's Monday and after breakfast Nita wanted to go back to LaBelle to get more honey since we will be leaving Ortona Wednesday heading east away from LaBelle. The Harold P Curtis Co there produces about 4 flavors of honey, orange blossom, wild flower. mangrove and seagrape. His bees are moved around when these plants bloom. The mangrove and seagrape were very good but the owner said if you don't consume it fairly quickly it will crystallize. The orange blossom is great.


Honeybell oranges for breakfast


Especialidad Tacos al Pastor, best tacos I've eaten. This is chef Pablo with a rotisserie of pork, he shaves it off into a flour tortilla with cilantro, onions, avocados, tomatoes, salsa and lime wedges.


If you ever visit LaBelle try Pablo's Taqueria, quite a modest place but food oh so good.


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La Belle Saturday Hispanic market

Saturday is the day the cane and citrus farm workers come to town to shop. Most do not have cars and arrive by company bus and mini van taxi. They shop primarily at the outdoor market and the Save-A-Lot, as we do, because that's about all the grocery shopping there is in LaBelle other than a Winn Dixie. We enjoy coming into this little town, has some good modest restaurants, library, and a guy that has bees and presses his own delicious honey.


Loading up the company bus with a weeks supply of groceries.


Fresh vegetables


Guy demonstrating and speaking in rapid fire Spanish the virtues of his hand cranked, equivalent cuisinart. See the bowl of salsa he made, interesting to watch him and the folks watching, he had lots of buyers. The machine was $20.


These guys chop up fresh fruit and put in large cups, they squeeze fresh limes on top and a chili sauce if you like. You choose the fruit you like with choices of watermelon, mango, honeydew, cantaloupe, coconut, jicama and more. They have a non stop line waiting to order. Then you wander around the market eating your fruit.


Young man proud of his flat of strawberries, he wasn't interested in sharing with me.

Oldest and fastest

Clarence and I are probably the oldest guys in the park. Most of the other folks kind of mosey around on their bikes but we move at a pretty good clip and usually cover at least 25 miles a day. We have a morning ride and Clarence's wife throws him out at 1pm so she can watch her soaps, like clockwork he shows up at 1:03 and off we go again. We have a lot in common and he is good company to ride with.






A pair of bald eagles looking for some fresh fish


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Location:Ortona Locks

Oranges, facts and some fiction.

If you drink orange juice you have probably had some produced by the Southern Gardens Citrus here in Clewiston, Fl. They are the worlds largest supplier of pure Florida, not from concentrate OJ, to private label and major brands. They are also a major supplier of OJ from concentrate. When a buyer orders juice from concentrate they will specify orange variety, mixes, with or without pulp. The concentrate procedure removes the pulp, if the buyer wants pulp in the concentrate then the pulp has to be mixed back in, however it could be from a different variety than the juice. SG has several million trees in the area and computer controls the watering and fertilizing.
The 2 prime juice oranges are Hamlin and Valencia. The Hamlin is ready for harvesting from December through February and Valencia staring in March.
Juice oranges must be hard in texture to withstand the pressure of being piled high in the trailers.

One chick said to the other, "did you see that orange mama laid"




The Clewiston plant, trailers of oranges awaiting processing, the steam is from the evaporators removing water to make concentrate.
Click on the pictures to enlarge.




Just above the middle truck you can see a trailer load being dumped on the conveyer belt that takes the fruit into the processing plant




My squeeze and I trying to make a few extra bucks hauling oranges.

Now orange you glad you read this blog?

Location:Cleweston, Fl

Pine Island and fish bait

Monday the weather was a little cool so we decided to take a tour of Pine Island, this island is just north of Sanabel Island. The island is about 20 miles long. Unlike Sanabel which has beautiful beaches, shell collecting and is a favorite tourist destination, Pine Island is mostly palm tree nurseries, fishing, modest housing, no beaches, and a few restaurants. Enjoyed the visit there, had lunch at a seafood restaurant and traveled the full 20 miles of main road.


This is a sea food wholesaler at the south end of the island, the land seen on the far side of the water, where a man is standing, is Sanabel Island. We bought some smoked mullet here, it is really good.


This is an Osprey keeping watch over the fish shack. See how his claws have hollowed out the perch he is sitting on.


Now here's a secret to catching Talapia, which is a vegetarian. Slice a white plastic worm into thin cross sections, spray it with WD 40, dust it with garlic powder, put it on the hook and cast into the water. Then you have a bucket of old fashioned oatmeal soaked in water, squeeze a ball of oatmeal and throw it over the hooked bait. This acts as chum and I guess the Talapia mistake the plastic piece for oatmeal. The Talapia he is holding weight about 2 pounds, says he gets them up to 4 pounds.



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