Tuesday, April 1 - We left ZH at 8:24 am and arrived at the camground at 12:30. We got stopped by a very slow freight train and the traffic was pretty heavy in Bartow, Avon Park and Sebring. We set up and walked along the canal. This COE facility is by a dam and lock that allows passage from the Atlantic Ocean through Lake Okeechobee to the Gulf of Mexico. We saw a small gator and many wading birds. We had thunderstorms roll through in the afternoon and it rained all evening. We enjoyed a movie that John had recorded earlier and went to bed early.
Wednesday, April 2 - We woke up to a clear morning except for the fog. As soon as the fog cleared it got pretty warm. We took a coffee walk and watched a boat go through the locks, then had pancakes for breakfast. We talked to folks in the campground from Maine and Sun City Center here in Florida and John found out why the Verizon card wasn't working by calling support. We had another storm come through this afternoon, but so far, not to severe. We fished for a couple of hours in the evening until dark, but caught nothing. People we have talked to have not had any better luck. One man said that the fishing used to be excellent here, but since the low water problems at Okeechobee it has been very poor.
Thursday, April 3 - We got up, made coffee and went on an extended coffee walk across the dam and lock to the other side of the river. we walked down to the boat launch and day-use area and talked to the caretaker. He confirmed that the fishing has not been good for a couple of years. We returned to camp and had breakfast. We mostly hung around camp and read most of the day. After spagetti dinner we rode our bikes down the entry road that is about 1 1/2 miles long to the highway. We said hi to the cows along the way. When we got back, John took his flyrod down to try one more time, but the results were the same. We are planning on taking the kayaks out in the morning and check out some creek channels down a ways. We got a little sunburn today even though we tried to stay out of the sun.
Friday, April 4 - After a very comfortable nights sleep, we woke up and took our customary coffee walk and met some very nice, interesting people. Bob and Carol Lee are locals who live in Cape Coral. They are newly retired, but staying very active. Bob had some very interesting information about internet access and home security. We stayed pretty close to camp today because of showers that came through at intermittant intervals with some lightning. We figured this would not be a good day to take the kayaks out. The weather forcasts are for afternoon showers tomorrow, so we might try to get out in the morning. Afternoons also have been too hot to go out. We have been seeing a more typical summer pattern with the weather. April is usually the driest month of the year in Florida.
Saturday, April 5 - We had every intention of getting up early and taking the kayaks out before the weather had a chance to alter our plans. However, we slept in a little too long and by 9AM it had already gotten very windy. We had up to 30MPH gusts off and on all day. It was very warm and the breeze was not entirely unwelcome. We took our normal coffee walk and went over again to the day-use area and talked again to Bob, the host over there. In the afternoon we took a fairly long bike ride on the country roads on the other side of the river. There is a nice sidewalk that goes all the way to Hwy 78. The wind died down as soon as the sun began to set making for a delightful evening. We sat in our campsite and watched the beautiful clouds in the east while enjoying a bowl of fruit.
Sunday, April 6 - What a night. We watched the weather and they said that there would not be any extreme weather so we left the awning up. At midnight and again at 5 am we thought the wind would blow us away. Thankfully, everything held fast and we made it through the night without any damage. By about 7 am it got very nice and we were able to get a little sleep. We got up about 8:30 rolled up the awning and headed for breakfast then church. We had a pretty nice breakfast in La Belle and went to Community Harvest Worship Center also in La Belle. It was a very lively service and the people there were very welcoming and friendly. The message from the Old Testament book of Ezekiel was quite stirring and challenging. Afterwards we stopped and picked up groceries for the week and took them back to camp. Next we headed to Lake Okeechobee to check it out. We were able to see the canals that lead to it but never actually saw the lake. We got some pretty serious storms while we were there, so we had to stop and wait them out. On the way home we stopped at a Super WalMart and picked up some things we needed around camp.
Monday, April 7 - What a night! We got over 2” of rain and again considerable wind. Things settled down about midnight and we were able to sleep soundly until morning. Thankfully, there were no damage or leaks. We woke to a beautiful morning, so we got our coffee and took a walk. We didn’t get very far before we ran into Ron who we met and have talked to here before. We came back to camp and refilled our coffee and headed out again and stopped and talked to Ellie, the campground host for quite a while. She told us of the trials and tribulations of campground hosting and about their experience establishing and running their own campground in Virginia. She also told us that she was a nurse and her husband worked for many years as a speech writer during the Kennedy through the first Bush administrations. We had a great time visiting this morning. We spent some time getting things ready to leave tomorrow so we don’t have to rush in the morning. This is the first day here that we didn’t get any rain. It was pretty warm, but not unbearable. This stay has been one of the most relaxing we have experienced. It has been a good idea to slow down the pace and enjoy each experience, and especially the people we’ve met. John took the fly rod down to the river for awhile this afternoon, but not so much as a bite. It was mostly for practice anyway. We really enjoyed our little pizzas done on the RVQ for supper.
Click below to view pictures - Be sure to comment if you like.
http://picasaweb.google.com/johnjoanW/OrtonaSouthCorpsOfEngineersCampground
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