Wachula to Okeechobie-on the road again- finally!

Nothing against Wachula, but even though we have a wrench in the plans with this jeep, and Pam volunteered to hang around until its done, personally I was really ready to get onto the next adventure, which was hooking up with my college roommate, John Travanti and his family in Jupiter Fla. Origionally we were going to park the motor home on his property and visit, but now I will be alone and staying until its time to leave for the ride to the Keys. I decided to split the trip to Jupiter in half since I think I will be riding into the wind all the way to the east coast. Okeechobie is a place I have always heard of, and it was about a 70 mile ride on Fla 66e, until it also becomes US 98 into Okeechobie. As predicted the wind was a headwind but it was tolerable and really didn't beat me up at all. I rolled into town at a decent time, out of water, as it was a hot trip with few places to refresh yourself. We had a few orange groves, but this is really cowboy country. What wasn't swampland was ranch land. The road and shoulders were great and there is not a lot of traffic going to Okeechobie. My wildlife watch also included two alligators, one dead , a little one in a culvert, and one big, dead, wild hog. I stopped at the first little store I came to and had a Gatorade and ice cream. I also spoke to a woman who pulled up in a car and told me I had great legs, but I knew her judgement was suspect when she told me Okeechobie was 50 miles away when it was only 13 miles away according to my Garmin GPS.
When I got to town I easily found a Budget Inn, got a shower, and walked around town. Okeechobie is a pretty big town, and I was right at a crossroads of major US highways 98 and 441. The historic downtown area was offset from the main road, but ran parallel, which allowed for parking and a calmer environment even though right along a busy road. The streets were all very much wider than I'm used to, thanks to the wide open terrain. I ended up walking about a mile south on US 441 and eating at a restaurant called Cowboys BBQ with mostly locals. It was a good choice, a Wild West atmosphere, with cheap beer!

Poor piggy!

Don't ride to slowly over the bridges!!!

Pretty flat around Okeechobie!  But each cow does have his own palm tree!

Swamp buggy!