Sour Orange Festival

Some of you have ask about our three photos on the top of the page. The first of us in a bi-plane was in 2011 when Peggy bought me the ride for my birthday while in the Florida Keys. We had a great flight and even went south far enough to see Cuba, had we done it two days later the pilot assured me later we would have been shot down as we returned to US airspace. The date was 9/9/2011.

The second photo is our current fifth wheel. She is a Sunnybrook Titan KSURV 391. She is just over 40 feet long and has three slide outs. The garage area is 8″ wide by 10″ long. We are doing a lot of remodel projects which we planned on when we bought her as she is our fulltime home.

The third picture is a selfie taken at the Grand Canyon in 2002.

This is the finished product of hanging the Port-A-Bote on the side of the fifthwheel, again this took a little time as we use battery and hand powered tools.

This is backward from the way the factory shows it to go, but we had a 10′ 4″ boat to go into a 10″ space. The overhang made us go backward.

Side view showing the bracket assembly. Yes the boat looks old as it is pushing 25 years.

Went to the Sour Orange Festival at 11 AM. We were sure surprised by the large crowd.

Local Singers

Red Cross Blood Drive.

Antique Cars

Fire Department

Peggy used to twirl a baton.

Seven different clogging groups. I think Peggy sold her shoes.

Surprising there were hundreds of people and about 14 food booths. We were asked to help judge the local quilt contest. For lunch (why else go to a festival?), I got a burger and fries. The local beef burger topped 2/3 pounds. Peggy got chicken on a stick for 6 bucks and it was two breasts grilled! We had pumpkin fry bread from the Seminole Native American Tribe,and of course Sour Orange Pie. Kinda of the flavor of Dreamcicle ice cream from Schwan’s . Needless to say we wanted to get a second piece, but were already waddling.

We got our History lesson for the day. In the early 1920’s there was a government project where many dozens of familes came into the area to build canals which were used for not only navigation, but also drained the Everglades in the region for farming land.

It was a signficant boom town in the days when riverboat traffic came past with its cargo of cattle, fruit and vegetables from central Florida.

The Great Miami Hurricane of 1926 devastated the area. The storm surge from the lake caused widespread death and destruction.

The town didn’t have a chance to recover because it was hit soon after by the 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane.

Most of the families died or left, but a few stayed on. A few of the original family names were at the festival. Now the area is mainly RV parks and boat ramps. About 12 miles away is the Seminole Reservation with a casino, restaurants, and lodging. The Seminole Nation is the only Native Americans to have signed a treaty with the US.

We went on to Moore Haven another town devastated by the two hurricanes. It has many old abandoned large buildings as at one time it was called Little Chicago.