On Sunday, Feb. 7 we left the Palm Beach area and drove west to South Bay RV Park on the western edge of Palm Beach County and bordering Lake Okeechobee. We drove from an area of opulent homes, yachts,
and automobiles to an agrarian area dominated by sugar cane and oranges. To explore this area, on Monday we took the Sugarland Tour offered by the Chamber of Commerce in Clewiston, 15 miles west of South Bay.
Our tour showed us the sugar cane fields which are burned before huge machines harvest the cane. 
Egrets flock to the fields to eat the insects which are fleeing the fire. The cane is then taken to the U. S. Sugar Company mill where it’s processed and refined into sugar. Our tour guide cut stalks of cane for the group to sample. Hendry County, where Clewiston is located, is Florida’s largest producer of oranges. Most are taken to Southern Gardens Citrus where they are juiced, processed, and distributed to companies such as Tropicana and Minute Maid.
Clewiston is on the southwest edge of Lake Okeechobee, and the tour guide told about the hurricanes in the 1920’s 
which killed thousands and led to the building of the Herbert Hoover Dike around Lake Okeechobee, the second largest freshwater lake in the contiguous United States. The Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail (L.O.S.T.) encircles the lake atop the dike.
We bicycled a 12 mile section of the L.O.S.T. on Tuesday morning and had great views of the surrounding areas. We enjoyed bird watching and saw egrets, gulls, and an osprey on its nest as well as a number of boats heading out to the lake in the 
channel. Despite a stiff head wind on our return to the RV park (adjacent to the trail), we had a good ride.
Clewiston is where Irene’s parents met and where they lived when they were first married so she especially enjoyed seeing the area. Many buildings, such as the Okeechobee Inn where we had lunch, existed when her parents lived in Clewiston and her Dad was an electrician at the sugar mill.
No comments:
Post a Comment