Blog Posts

We left Avon Park on Wednesday to drive to Cousin Jo’s in Cape Coral. On the way we made a stop at Highland Hammock State Park where we took a short walk on the Swamp Trail.


In Cape Coral, Jo and Tom were wonderful hosts. Their condominium is next to an abandoned golf course, where we took a bike ride on the trails the first morning we were there.

There were other bike riding opportunities on bike trails within the city. In addition, we spent one afternoon exploring Caloosahatchee Regional Park in nearby Alva.


On the way back we stopped at a farm that offered “pick your own” strawberries. The strawberries were just beginning to ripen so it took a lot of walking up and down the rows to find the ripe ones. We filled our bellies, though (part of the advantage of picking your own) and got enough for some good eating at home.

Sunday we left Cape Coral and drove to Fort Myers Beach. Our hosts here are Lee’s brother and sister-in-law, Scott and Diane Regan. They have rented a beautiful condo overlooking the beach and are graciously letting us stay here with them. So far, Barbara’s favorite activity, as usual, is sitting in the sun, while Lee has been more interested in investigating the wildlife.

Once you leave Florida’s interstates and resort areas, it’s surprising how much rural land there is in the state. Ocala, where we were Sunday and Monday, is “horse country”, as evidenced by the stretches of land devoted to breeding and raising horses. Yesterday we continued our southward journey on our old favorite, Highway 27, and we are now in central Florida, home to acres and acres of orange groves and cattle ranches.

On our way down yesterday we stopped at Lake Louisa State Park and walked on a nature trail.

View along shoreline of Lake Louisa:



This was before we started seeing all the orange groves. And I knew that it is strictly forbidden to pick anything from a tree in the groves, even when they are enticingly close to the road. So I got all excited when the first thing we saw along the nature trail was a couple of stray orange trees.

Unfortunately, the oranges weren’t quite ripe. We had to wait until this morning at Aunt Joyce’s house in Avon Park to enjoy fresh Florida citrus. She has a grapefruit tree in her yard and we split a big, juicy grapefruit to start our breakfast.

Today’s outing was a drive to Lake Placid and a visit to the Archbold Biological Station. We watched an interesting 20 minute video on the history of the park. Our usual activity once again was to walk on the nature trail. This time we learned a lot about the area’s biology by reading the brochure that accompanied the signs on the trail.

On the way home we took a detour to see Lake Okeechobee. We didn’t drive far enough to see any beaches but just stopped at an area that viewed the ring of marshes around the north end.


What our pictures haven’t been able to capture are the long expanses of flat horizons covered by sunny, blue skies; the innumerable small lakes; the extensive cattle ranches; the orange groves and the many trailer trucks on the highways transporting the now-ripe oranges.