The Rolling Home
January/February 2003
January in Okeechobee--some nice days, some very cold days. We had a freeze warning one day and sure enough, when we got up in the morning, we had frost. On the upside, we never had snow as we experienced in the desert over the last three winters. February weather tended to be much better. Our friends the Paynes, the Emonds, the Bobers and the Doughty's all showed up in late January and early February and the weather was good. It was just great when Pappy and Cecile were here and Cecile managed a few days in the pool here at the Big O. We thought we would take some time to tell folks about our current home, Okeechobee. We lived here for a couple of years in the early 90s and continue to return winter after winter, for the warm weather, good friends, RV park camaraderie and cheap, good food!
Okeechobee City was originally called Tantie. It was a wild west settlement in south central Florida. Cowboys from the Cattle Ranches, Lumbermen from the sawmills and Catfish boys from the Fish Camps on the shore of the lake all combined to make Saturday in Tantie, a really interesting place!
Tantie was founded back in 1896 by Peter Raulerson who came her from Polk County, looking for cattle range land. Raulerson, (a very common name here now) settled at a bend on Taylor Creek and built a log house for himself. In 1902, Henry Hancock showed up and built a place across the creek, planting an orange grove.
As the folks living in this area continued to expand, the need arose for a school and a school teacher. Mr. Hancock sent off to North Carolina for said teacher and Tantie Huckabee arrived to be the teacher for kids living around "the Bend". Miss Tantie got a new school building erected and also a Post Office. The folks around "The Bend" loved her so much that the new post office was called Tantie in her honor.
In 1912, the name was changed to Okeechobee. Okeechobee comes from the Native American language of the area. Oki meaning water and Chobee meaning big. Thus Okeechobee is Big Water.
In 1837 a major battle was fought near on what is now Taylor Creek. This battle occurred during the second Seminole War and happened on Christmas Day, `1837. Libby and I attended a reenactment of this battle a week or so ago. It was quite an event, alligator wrestling, the battle reenactment, lots of arts and crafts and a Seminole and Army camp all set up on the original battle site, just east of Taylor Creek. Taylor Creek is named after the Army officer who led the soldiers against the Seminoles, Zachary Taylor.
Okeechobee County was formed in 1917 and is home to large cattle ranches, dairy herds, citrus groves and some of the best fishing in the world.
Lake Okeechobee is the second largest freshwater lake wholly within the boundaries of the United States, Lake Michigan being the largest. The lake is 45 miles in average diameter, and the approximately 750 square miles in area. The deepest part of the lake is about 24 feet and the average depth is 14 feet. The lake is surrounded by a man made dike, called the Herbert Hoover dike which was begun in 1929 and finished in 1971. This dike protects nearby communities from flooding during the hurricane season.
Okeechobee City is 126 miles northwest of Miami, 61 miles northwest of West Palm Beach, 132 miles southeast of Tampa and 105 miles southeast of Orlando.
We did some sightseeing during our stay here in Okeechobee this winter. We went to the Brighton Seminole Indian Reservation for their Field Day. While we didn't stay for the rodeo, we certainly enjoyed the Native American costumes, dances and crafts.
We took a weekend to go to the Orlando Hamcation, a very large ham radio show that occurs each year. The last time we were at the Hamcation, was 1993, so it had been a while. Pappy and Cecile accompanied us to Orlando and we parted company with them there. They traveled on to St. Augustine on their way back to Blairsville and we journeyed over to ZephyrHills to install a satellite internet system.
We started back for Okeechobee on Monday afternoon, stopping in Lakeland for lunch. As I always do, I did a walk around of the rig and toad. The drivers side outside tire on the rear axle seemed a little low, so I got out the tire gauge and checked it. No problem. However, the inside dual only had 10lbs of air in it, so that is why the outside one looked low. It was carrying all the weight. I pumped it up with our onboard air compressor and we drove on through Lakeland. We stopped twice more to check the pressure and it was ok. However, the next day back at the Big O, it was back to 10 lbs. We called road service and the guy came out to fix our tire. I suspected the valve was leaking as did he. He took the valve out and reseated it. He pumped the tire up, pronounced it fixed and mounted the tire back on the axle. Unfortunately, as we watched him mount it back on the axle, he notice bubbles around the rim. Apparently, when the tire went flat due to the valve leak, it caused dirt to collect on the bead and it wouldn't seat properly. The tire guy took some goop and slopped it all around the bead and at least 'til today, the tire has held air! Of course, we still have not replaced the spare from the blowout we had last October in Georgia.
PLANS CHANGE AGAIN_____
While the business is growing slowly, we just cannot sit here all summer. We have a partner who will lives here permanently, so he will take care of system in Okeechobee this summer. We have accepted a job as workampers at the Bryce Canyon KOA in Cannonville, UT (pop. 158). This promises to be fun and I won't be dumping septic tanks like last summer. We will continue to sell our satellite products via the internet and may also find some customers in the remote areas around Bryce Canyon National Park. We are also picking up XM Radio to continue our line of satellite services.
We may get to stop in Austin to visit my foster brother and will certainly stop near Telluride, CO to visit our youngest son Taylor. We would like to visit Mesa Verde as the last time we were out there the place was on fire and we could not get to the park. We will be within a day trip of many of our national parks and monuments.
My parents were foster parents to several young men just before and during my high school years. Mark came to live with us when I was a freshman and stayed with us until he got out of college. My parents became his guardian and he was as close to a brother as I ever had. We lost contact when I was a senior in college in 1970. We both were looking for each other over the years, but just never connected. Last month, he found me on the Classmates website. An email followed and I quickly called him. He now lives with his wife and family in Austin, TX. It turns out, he lived about a mile from my old office in Ft. Lauderdale in the late 90s, but Libby and I had already been moved to Atlanta by that time. Oddly, his wife knows one of the ladies who used to work for me in Ft. Lauderdale. What a small world!
We plan to leave Okeechobee the last week of March. Our niece is being married that last weekend of the month and our daughter has a birthday, (number 30 in fact) that week also. We plan to head over to Tampa for the week and then we will just continue on to the north and west as we head for Bryce Valley, Utah and our summer jobs.
Film at 11! Ok pictures later this week. I just wanted to get an update out because the hounds are at the door.
Camping for January and February. $0
LP for January and February 0
Diesel Fuel for January and February $138