Lake Okeechobee bound!

Traxx and the Gopher Turtle! 
Last lock for a bit.
Goodbye St. Lucie Campground!
Crossing Okeechobee when it was smooth.
Locking through.
St. Lucie Lock.
Boat parade at Fort Myers - lol!
Hurricane devastation at Fort Myers.
Okeechobee after it got rough!
Dinner with looper friends at Roland Martin Marina.
                              Just a pelican on the water.
                                      Another sunset.
   We left friends in Punta Gorda and cruised on the Calooosahatchee River to Sweetwater Marina.  We were traveling with our boat buddies, Joel and Jill on Smile with the Risin Sun.  We met them in Punta Gorda and have enjoyed their company.  We arrived at Sweetwater Marina and headed to the bar for happy hour.  The marina was the happening place!  Lots of people around, music and plenty of beer flowing.  

  The next day, we continued our journey toward Lake Okeechobee.  It takes longer to get somewhere by boat.  For example 60 miles is a long day - about 8 hours.   Ideally, we like to go about 40 miles each day.  The good thing is that we can go faster if we need to, for those longer mile days, to get where we’re going a little quicker. 

   We had one more stop until we reached the entrance of the lake, which was at Roland Martin Marina.  Last year, while in the camper, Jeff and I came here to check it out.  It’s a nice marina, with a tiki bar, beer, food and music - another happening place.  Here, we enjoyed dinner with friends. 

  The waterway to Okeechobee has several locks to go through. There’s also small communities we passed - some with very nice homes and boats.  We had our eyes peeled for gators but never saw any. 

  Finally, the time had come to cross Lake Okeechobee. It’s a big, but shallow, lake.  It started out fairly smooth but as the day progressed, it began to rain and of course, the winds picked up a bit.  It really wasn’t too bad and it was nice to finally get through it.  

  After going through the lake, we stayed at St. Lucie South Campground and Marina. Joel and Jill stayed here too.  It was a nice place, with bathrooms and a shower - more of a campground but they had a few slips and it was only $1.00 a foot.  There was a couple of nice trails, a visitor center and gopher tortoises too! We decided to stay for 4 nights to rest up, take some walks and take it easy.  Next, we will go to a friends house in Port St. Lucie and complete some maintenance on the boat.

                    Locking through in the St. Lucie River.
                               Another Gopher Tortoise.
                                            Duck blind.
            A nice trail at Port St. Lucie South Campground.
                                       St. Lucie Lock.
                           On the Caloosahatchee River.
                                    Another tortoise.
     Hurricane damage - doubt if they parked the boat there!
                                       Locking through. 
                                        Sandhill Cranes.


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