Lake Okeechobee and Manatee Park

Today was another beautiful day. We did have some cloud but the temperature reached 86F (30C) with a nice breeze.

This morning we headed east to visit Lake Okeechobee so we drove through La Belle to Clewiston and stopped at the Chamber of Commerce. The lady there wasn't as friendly or helpful as we find at most Visitor Information or Chamber of Commerce Visitor Centres however we did drive to the area that she suggested. There is a walking trail of 110 miles that goes all around the lake. We had no plans to walk it however. The lake is surrounded by a dike that was built by the Corps of Engineers to keep the lake from flooding during hurricanes. Apparently in the 1920's this happened a couple of times killing a lot of people. So, you climb the dike but instead of the lake (at least in the Clewiston area) you see a canal with the lake in the distance. We climbed the dike in a couple of different places but didn't get a good look at the lake itself.

We drove southeast for a ways and stopped for a picnic lunch at John Stretch Park.

Looks like Capt. Justin ran his boat ashore. Don't know how long it's been there but it makes for a good photo.

This is Royal Palm Drive in Clewiston. Not an exceptionally high end street housing-wise but very pretty trees.

There were lots of these bottle-brush trees in Clewiston. I haven't seen them since we were in San Diego last winter.

On our way back we stopped at Manatee Park. Unfortunately this is the only manatee we saw.

This is a pretty area in the park. Doesn't it look cool and refreshing?

We spent most of our time at the Butterfly Gardens. These two Gulf Fritillary butterflies stopped long enough for me to get a photo of them on the same flower.

Although the Manatee Park is not that far from where we are in the RV Park, it took us an hour to get back because of the traffic. Gordon decided to drive through the city instead of taking the freeway so that probably had something to do with it but we saw some areas of Fort Myers that we wouldn't have seen otherwise.

Gordon's friend, Bill sent us this today:

Warning - Lock Your Doors!

Be sure you lock your doors and windows!
A Fort Myers man was found in his home over the weekend.
Detectives at the scene found the man face down in his bathtub.
The tub had been filled with milk, sugar, and cornflakes.
Police suspect a cereal killer.