And back

 2/17- Homestead to Vero Beach 

   We decided today that in order to avoid the madness of the express ways we would take some back roads to return to Vero. It was a much more pleasant journey. Just outside of Homestead we came across an area filled with potted plants. These were nurseries that would cater to landscapers. Landscaping is big business in this state as many of these mansion owners couldn’t take care of the acres of lawn and gardens that they own. The same with a lot of the condo associations they need someone to care for their properties. Anyway there were miles of these nurseries and most of the signs were in Spanish as many of the landscapers we see are Hispanic. There was not much English spoken around here. 

    The vistas gradually became more farm oriented with sugar cane being the primary crop. Sugar is Florida’s largest agricultural product and also it is one of the largest worldwide. There were fields of high grass alternating with burned out fields. Once the cane is harvested they burn the fields. We saw several towering plumes of smoke all around us. It is then processed into all different forms of sugar and of course the best byproduct - rum. 

    In between these farms were huge farms of sod. There was acres and acres of just grass and we saw many trucks loaded down with cut sod heading to construction sites. The soil on the coast here is very sandy and not conducive to growing grass so sod is laid on top until the grass can get roots established. 

   We also saw a lot of different kinds of birds being 50 - 70 miles from the coast. There were lots of interesting land birds. I don’t know the names of any of them but it varied from the usual shore birds we have been seeing. 

   In the middle of Florida there is a large lake called Okeechobie. We pulled over this bridge and quite unexpectedly we got a great view of the lake. It stretched out to the horizon in front of us. It looked like an ocean as we could not see to the other side which is close to 30 miles away. We pulled over and watched a couple of boats go through the lock. This was the bridge we would have trouble with if we were to try this route. It is maybe just a tad over 50’ high and our mast is 48 plus the antennas. It would be awfully close. 

   We are now back in Vero and will stay here for several weeks until it’s time to start heading north. Several of our friends have pulled in here for extended stays also. The anchorages further south are all becoming very crowded as there has not been very many opportunities for people to jump to the Bahamas. There are not many nicer places than this to sit and wait. 

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