On Saturday the second, I went to the Okeechobee Hamfest.  I have been attending this ham radio swap meet for over 25 years.  Last year, I missed it, but did attend the year before.  It is always a great place to meet old friends and buy or sell some really important piece of electronic gear.  One of the highlights of this meeting was seeing my old friend Harry Ziegler, K4ZNB, who used to be a honcho in the communications department at Eastern Airlines.  Harry was one of my regular contacts when I was a teacher and had to deliver newspapers in the wee hours of the morning to get grocery money.  He and a couple of other early risers used to keep me company on the radio as I made my appointed rounds at 0 dark 30.  I have known Harry since 1974.

We leased a lot at the Ancient Oaks RV resort here in Okeechobee for the entire month of December.  The rent was $475 plus tax, so it cost us $522 for the month.  This is a little over our budget for campgrounds, but since we were not burning diesel fuel, it all averaged out anyway.  In the early 90s, Libby and I owned a lot here at Ancient Oaks.  At that time, we were probably the youngest folks here, since we were in our early 40s.  The retirees called us the kids, so we like to come back here because they still call us that!

Early in the month, our old friend Hawk Milner, came down from River Ranch and took us to lunch.  Hawk is such a neat guy.  We spoke of him in our September and November logs.

Since there is really no travelogue for this month, I thought I would spend some time reviewing the Lake and the surrounding area.

       Lake Okeechobee is the second largest fresh water lake in the United States.  It is roughly 40 miles across the lake north to south and a little less east to west.  When one is out on the lake, it is not unusual to be completely out of site of land.  If the wind comes up while you are out on the lake, look out.  It is much like being out on the ocean.  The lake only averages 8 feet deep, so a little wind kicks up large whitecaps.  It can get pretty scary out there during a frontal passage.  We have been out there in the past when we shouldn't have been.  Unfortunately for us, the lake has been drawn down quite a bit this year.  Several years of high water levels have impacted plant growth along the edge and that in turn has impacted fish populations.  The South Florida Water Management District and maybe the Corps of Engineers finally let about 5 feet of water out of the lake earlier this year.  This has made the north end so shallow that we couldn't talk our friends into taking their boats out there.  Understandably so, however, rocks and props don't mix well.  The lake was always here, sort of.  The current lake was created after a Hurricane came through in the late 20s or early 30s and overflowed the old lake, drowning many folks near Belle Glade.  A dike was erected completely around Lake Okeechobee to contain future floods and it still exists today.  In some places, the rim canal is outside the dike, in some it is inside the dike.  All along the north shore, near Okeechobee, the rim canal is outside the dike, so even when the lake is too rough to fish, one can always stay in the rim canal.  Also, several drainage canals and the Kissimmee River feed into the northern half of the lake, providing more sheltered anchorage for fishing on windy days.  The Kissimmee River project is a make over for the Kissimmee River. Back in the 60s, I believe, the Corps of Engineers straightened the Kissimmee river, turning it into basically a straight canal for many miles.  This meddling in nature caused the river to carry untold tons of pollutants from adjacent dairy farms into the lake that would normally have been cleansed to some extent by the meandering of the river and its movement through natural Florida swamps.   This in turn, caused massive algae blooms due to overloading of nutrients in the water.  When the blooms died, the algae fell to the lake bottom, decomposing and depleting the water of oxygen.  What a mess.  The current project is intended to put some of the meanders back into the river and allow the water to flow through cleansing marshes to help remove pollutants.  This is being helped by a massive relocation of the diary farms that occurred several years ago.

Lake Okeechobee is a wonderful resource.  I certainly hope that these efforts to bring it back to full life work.  Bass and Speckled Perch are the main fish taken from the lake.  Some of you northern folks will know the Speckled Perch as a Crappie.  Here, we just call them Specks.  The limit used to be 50 per person per day, but now it is 25.  Having limited out once or twice, we are certainly aware of how many fish that is to clean!

While we don't often keep bass that we catch, unless they are obviously not going to live, we do keep Specks.  They are just great eating!  Maybe next year, we will buy another boat and get some good Lake Okeechobee fishing in.  This year, we haven't been out on the lake once.

Speaking of next year, we were going to winter in the Del Rio area of Texas in 2002, but we think we might just come back to Okeechobee and stay here.  If you have been in or following the weather during December, this is one of the few warm places in the country.  We are looking at staying in a park called the North Lake Estates in LakePort on the west side of Okeechobee.  Its a very nice resort park with a cafe, exercise room and equipment, a game room, woodworking shop, pool etc.  They have an attached marina that is currently under construction.  The rates there are $1960 for an annual lease and under $400 per month on shorter leases.  For our 3-5 month stay next year, the rate is $310 per month plus electricity.  This falls more into our budget!
The downside of this park is that it is 23 miles south west of Okeechobee and 11 miles north west of Moore Haven.  It is not exactly downtown anywhere.  That is ok with us, but trips for a gallon of milk will require a little more planning.

On Saturday the 16th we drove over to West Palm Beach to count pregnant chads, no just kidding, we went to visit our oldest son Sean and his wife Linda.   They took us to lunch.  It is so cool when your kids start paying for your meals.  Sean has bought the last three times we have eaten out with him.  It is a parent's dream come true!

  On December 22, we traveled south to Ft. Lauderdale to attend the wedding of one of my ex employees, Sharon Higerd.  Sharon worked for me from 1994 to 1996 while I was a sales manager in Ft. Lauderdale.  Also attending were three other folks from that group, Ruth and Amy were in our group, but did not work directly for me.  Ninette and her daughter Michelle were there too.  Ninette was one of my group back in 1993.  Her daughter Michelle, used to call me and ask if mommy could have a day off.  Michelle is now 17.  It sure is hard to believe how quickly these kids grow up.   It was great to see some of the old gang and it certainly was nice to be invited to Sharon's wedding.  She was married at the Coral Ridge Presbyterian church.  This church can be seen nationwide on Sunday on TV.  I believe the minister's name is Kennedy.  It is a fantastic structure.  We also got to visit with our friends Gwen and Doug Harmon and their daughter Tara.  Gwen worked with both Libby and I at BellSouth. Sharon used to babysit for them when Tara was a child.  It was an unexpected pleasure to run into them at the ceremony.

We stayed overnight in Ft. Lauderdale and drove back to Okeechobee on Saturday.  On the way, I got to talk to my good friend Chuck Ritchie on the ham radio.  Chuck's callsign is W4BUG and he is one of the folks who got me started in Amateur Radio back when I was in college at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida.  (this was when the earth was still cooling) Chuck and his wife Shirley, who is also a ham, have been friends of ours for years.  We also got to meet the new trustee of the K4FAU Amateur Radio Club, N3HS.  It sure is nice to hear that the old radio club is alive and well at my Alma Mater.

We spent Christmas Eve at Harold and Becky Hilliards house along with their four kids and many grandkids.  They are just like family to us and we were very pleased to be invited to be with them on Christmas Eve.  Harold and Becky had us back on Christmas evening for supper.  They deep fried a couple of turkeys and had lots of ham and other good stuff for dinner.

Now we are about to leave Okeechobee for Zolpho Springs.  There is an Escapees park in Zolpho Springs that we have not been to.  We are going to stay there about 10 days and drive up to Tampa on the 2nd of January to be with our sister in law.  Libby's brother is having surgery that day, so we thought we would keep her company while her hubby is getting a little rearranging done.  After Zolpho, we are traveling to the Encore park in Orlando to meet up with Rich and Diane Emond.  While there, we are all going to travel by car to Leesburg to see JW and Vassie Roberts who were at the Y2K party in Harlingen last February.

After Orlando, the Emonds and the Veachs are going to attend the Florida Super Rally in Tampa.  We will meet Don, Liane and Tommy Holder there along with Dirk Harrington Sr. who is a friend of the Holders from Bell Atlantic/Verizon.  We have e-mailed Dirk for quite some time but have not met him.  We also expect to run into Dutch Souder and maybe Brian Walker there too.

After the Rally, Libby and I are going to boondock in our daughter's driveway for a few days, spend a week at the Encore park in Sefner and then go to the Discovery Owners Association Rally at Lazy Days the first four days of February.  After that, we are attending the FMCA rally in Brooksville, Florida and then on to Summerdale, Alabama to meet up with Rich and Diane again to travel to Livingston and points west on the way to the Y2K2 party in Apache Junction, Arizona.

Expenses for December

Camping Fees   $522
Diesel Fuel        $0
 

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