Sebring International Raceway                      Homestead-Miami Speedway

March 17th to 22nd

We drove up to Florida City (about a 75 miles drive).  Florida City is about 35 miles south of Miami and right next too a small town named Homestead.  Homestead has two claims to fame.  It was pretty well destroyed by hurricane Andrew in 1992  and it is home to the Homestead-Miami Speedway.  We drove by the track which was massive, but the parking lot went forever.  They are holding the Toyota 300 there next weekend.  

From Florida City we drove down into the Everglades National Park.  At the first place to stop we saw lots of birds, alligators, and turtles.  The birds are everywhere and many are nesting.  We saw many CORMORANT and ANHINGA, which are both interesting birds.  They dive under water and stay down quiet a long time looking for fish.  They will also sit on the railings as you walk by and allow you to get VERY close.  At the next stop we saw Wood Storks nesting, but they were on the other side of a lake and we could not get close to them.

At the end of the road is Flamingo, but this area was wiped out by recent hurricanes.  We visited here 3 years ago and the plant and animal life was just wild.  Due to flooding with salt water, the wildlife is almost non-existent and the area was closed to the public.  How very sad!  

Saturday we drove north and stopped at LAKE OKEECHOBEE.  In 1926 this area was hit with a hurricane that killed 300 people and in 1928 with a hurricane that killed about 2,000 people.  After this, they built a 20 foot high dike around it.  Depending on what you read, this is the 2nd or 4th largest, freshwater lake totally within the US.  (In other words, the Great Lakes don't count with Canada on the other side).

We then continued north to Sebring, which is the home of the "12 Hours of Sebring".  Coincidentally, this was being run the day we got there.  We did not attend, but we did drive by the track the next day.  Sebring is a lovely area with many lakes.  Just south of there is Lake Placid (I guess they moved it since we visited it in New York in 1977).  The "logo" at the top is from the two racetracks we "almost visited".  (Sorry, Noel, we missed them both!)

Near Sebring, we camped at Highlands Hammock State Park.  If you have ever been to the south, you know there are no mountains in this area.  However, we were on enough of a rise to give us a view and pretty well block our cell phone.  This is only the second time on the trip we have had a poor connection.  This was a nice and large park with lots of hiking trails.

Monday we moved up to the Kissimmee area where Disney World is and Tuesday Jackie and I drove over to the Atlantic Ocean (about 75 miles from Kissimmee) and visited Meritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.  This is just north of Cape Canaveral.  We have now seen at least 350 'gators (alligators) and zillions of waterfowl.  Gators are amazing.  They will just lay there not moving for a very long time, but have a top speed of about 30 miles per hour.  They also make a real, deep roar.  Amazing!  (OK, they don't roar.  I have never heard a sound from them.  Which is scary, since you can walk up and be standing very near one before you see it!)

Wednesday we went to Animal Kingdom at Disney World and I under-estimated how long Disney can keep us busy.  We were there 6 years ago and have spent the last 3 1/2 weeks in Florida doing nothing but look at wildlife.  We didn't even have any "kids" with us.  Sure!  We got there when it opened and left when it closed.  Fun as always!  They have a new roller coaster ride called "EXPEDITION EVEREST".  It is similar to the Matterhorn at Disneyland, but... much more aggressive.  It has something I have never seen in a coaster; you change tracks during the ride.

Well, tomorrow we head north to Ocala, Florida and then continue into Georgia where we will spend the weekend in the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.  My daughter Emily asked what our future route might look like.  I tried to explain, but somehow she got confused.  Primarily, we are eager to spend time in the deep south and then be home sometime near May 5th.  So here is a wonderful  MAP showing our possible future route.  Phil and Rose probably would say we are making too straight of a line out of this. 

PS    Happy Birthday to my sister Sue!