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Published: February 10th 2014
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I have a lot to catch up on.
The blue grass festival was a wonderful event attended by people from all over south FL and of course the snow birds too. It was a very warm day so the priority was hydrate and shade. Oscar and I had a nice walk in the morning and went to check out the walking dredge. It is on display in the park (pictures) and was quite an engineering marvel for it’s time. In building the Tamiami Trail , rt 41, there were many obstacles to be dealt with. I need to digress here. In order to get from Naples to Miami one had to go north to Ft Myers then east to Palm Beach, then south to Miami. The powers that be decided a road across the Everglades was necessary but how do you build a road on swamp.. It seems that beneath the water and muck there is old coral and limestone, so all they had to do was get to that base and work from there. This dredge was built to “float” on the muck and blast and dig up the limestone and deposit it in a straight line becoming the road
explaination as to how it works
click on the picture and it enlarges base.
It took years and millions of dollars and working in the heat and mosquitoes 12 hrs a day.
Sure glad I didn’t have that job! They didn’t understand at the time that the water was constantly in motion from Lake Okeechobee south and they didn’t build enough drains or culverts under the road, a situation that is still being remedied.
On to the festival. I took my chair, water, hat and cool clothes and walked to the event. There were venders selling all kinds of things and 2 selling food like bar b q , ribs, steak sandwiches etc. Different bands played every hour and my band from next door was playing at 2pm. They were terrific but a little subdued I thought, probably hungover. It was a fun day listening to all the different styles and meeting the groupies.
The festival broke up about 5 and the band was already playing back at the campsite. We had another wonderful night around the fire listening to these talented people. I took some videos and will try to put one on this blog or face book. There was a character from Key West that just “had to get off
the rock” so he brought his banjo and and joined in to jam. You really meet all kinds of people traveling around. His name is Jeep and he plays at Mallory Square at sunset and a bar named Bull. I don’t know if I want to look him up there or not. Picture.
The next morning it was time for me to say good-bye and it was like leaving family. We hugged and exchanged e mails and they promised they’d get that cd done so I could buy one.
Oscar settled into his co-pilot’s seat, we got gas and headed east on the Tamimi Trail. Mapquest said that going on 75 then 95 was a 3 hr drive but I just didn’t want to be in that much congestion so I took the back roads, having a little diversion, Yes Jeremy, lost, but got back on track and enjoyed my adventure. I even saw a bob cat, first wild one I ever saw.
The land south of Lake Okeechobee is absolutely black rich bottom land and all kinds of things grow there. The major crop seems to be sugar cane. They were even transporting it on Sunday, must be a
time sensitive issue.
I arrived at my new state park 5 hrs later and was told my campground was 4 miles down this narrow road. It was a nice drive through low palm bushes, palmettos, and pine trees scattered about. They have miles of hiking trails and bike paths, a river and just across the causeway is the Atlantic Ocean. So I have been from sea to shinning sea in one day..
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