Let's Just Go Home - Florida Road Trip - Day 3

We started the morning in the way we love the most (giggity), and when I could uncurl my toes, I got out of bed to get ready for the day. While in the bathroom, naked as the day I was born, the freaking fire alarm started blaring! Oh shit... what are we supposed to do? Just leave? Pack our most important stuff? Is it a false alarm? Fuckfuckfuck! We're both rushing around at this point, pulling on pants and packing our tech and personal stuff as quickly as possible, and thankfully, the alarm stopped. Didn't get any sort of phone call about the issue, and they never said anything when we checked out, so absolutely no idea what the issue was. 

The plan for today, was to drive home via the interior of the state, avoiding the I-95 corridor and all of the insane South Florida residents, as well as seeing some more of the rural, non-touristy areas of my own state. We headed to a corner gas station for snacks and caffeine and made our way to our first weird stop of the day - Port Mayaca Lock on Lake Okeechobee. Lake Okeechobee is a lake that every single Floridian learns about in elementary school, and quickly forgets about by middle school. 

We weren't able to see the lock in action, since it was fenced off for security reasons, but we were able to see two different boats come in from one side and enter Lake Okeechobee at the other. Wasn't nearly as cool as I was hoping, but it was a peaceful area. 

As close as we could get to the Lock

Hard to see, but there's a boat entering the Lock from St. Lucie Canal

The entrance into the Lock

Two boats exiting the Lock into Lake Okeechobee

When we got back to the car, we had no idea how we were supposed to leave - the way in seemed to be a narrow, one-way road, so Hubby thought there was another one-way road out. We saw a narrow road along a hilly area and began to follow it. We got about halfway down it, and we saw a gate at the end. 

Weird. 

As we got closer, we realized it was a gate blocking the road. 

Oh, and it wasn't a road. It was the Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail. Officially, it's part of The Florida Trail.

We parked in the small triangle-shaped parking lot in the middle of this screenshot

So, at this point, we're stuck on a road that's not technically a road, so we had to turn around. I attempted to execute a three-point turn, but heard a thunk when my rear end left the asphalt! The two options at this point was to straighten up and back up the entire way, or to drive down the embankment and turn around. Despite my excellent "Backing Into Parking Spaces" skills, I didn't think it was the safest option to reverse the entire way, so we decided to take our chances with the embankment (Hubby had no issues, but he wasn't the one in the driver's seat!).

Photo Courtesy HR Johnson (Google Photos)

I've never been so scared of a simple U-turn in my life; I felt like we were going to tip over (I swear, that embankment must be at least 30º steep or more...). We made it back up to the trail, facing the exit this time, and finally got the heck out of there! (ETA: Oh, we did stop and check under the car to make sure all the parts were there... everything is fine! Don't know what made the thunk noise, but it's been a few months since this trip, and the car has had no issues.)

We headed north, around the lake, and the trip was extremely boring. Pretty. Wide open roads. Lots of farms and private property and scrublands. Massive amounts of bugs dying on my windshield. Very little traffic (really, I think we only passed 5-10 cars in two hours). In the town of Okeechobee, we stopped at a Handy convenience store so I could potty, but we chose to hold off on lunch until we got up to Winter Springs, because I wanted to try a joint called Huey Magoo's. I'd heard good things about it on Teh Intarwebz, so I was intrigued. 

Between Okeechobee and Winter Springs, it was another hour of so of just... nothing much. I don't know what I was expecting. Maybe I just expected to much, in general, but it was just... boring. I'm attributing this to the fact that most of 'natural' Florida all look the same, and most 'developed' Florida - in non-touristy areas - also all look the same. 

Around 3pm, Hubby was ready to eat his own foot, so we stopped at a Wawa for a snack, assuming that Huey was still about an hour away. He snarfed down an entire bag of chips in about 2 minutes, and about 3 minutes after that, we got into Winter Springs and found Hueys! As you can imagine, he was full, so I ended up just getting a kid's meal so I could try the food. The tenders were average. Better than something I've gotten from Sonic or Arby's, but it wasn't better than Zaxby's or Chick-fil-A. The fries were basic crinkle fries, but the seasoning on them is amazing! Salty and spicy, yum! The meal also included buttered toast, but it looked like a simple piece of Arnold's Italian Bread from the grocery store. The Spicy Magoo Sauce was okay; there's a distinct flavor there that I couldn't put my finger on. The Garlic Parm sauce was okay, too, and would be great on pasta, or with garlic breadsticks... not the best for chicken fingers. Lastly, the lemonade was on point, so much better than the Hubert's Lemonade I get at Subway (which is one of my favorite fast food lemonades). 

We headed north to Sanford, and I stopped to take a few photos at Lake Monroe, and then we continued on State Road 17 all the way up to Palatka. I had a few more stops planned between Sanford and home, but we were just exhausted, so we just went home. 

Lake Monroe shoreline in Sanford

Once we unpacked, I was in bed by 8:30. I updated my blog notes for this post, tweeted a bit, and then passed out. 

This was a fun weekend, but not as adventurous as I was hoping. But with that being said, Hubby is open to spending more time in The Keys, so maybe in a year or so, we'll plan a weekend that is dedicated to the islands (and parasailing, dammit).