Starting the New Year near Moore Haven, FL

A quick summary of 2022: We visited 25 states and 5 Canadian provinces, driving Acey 16,303 miles (averaging $5.19/gallon for diesel) and drove another 15,016 miles in Thor. In addition, we rode our bicycles 738 miles. We are working on a New Year letter coming soon to your email!

We left Pompano Beach on Saturday December 31, 2022 at 10:45 with Acey’s mileage at 96,556.7 and Thor’s at 111,566. We arrived at North Lake Estates RV Park around 1:30 where we stayed for 2 weeks. For some reason, the park has a Moore Haven address, but we were really in Lakeport – basically in the middle of nowhere and not far from Lake Okeechobee! There was a large farm behind the RV Park with a herd of cattle. These 2 cows greeted us as we watched the sun set!

 We drove into Tampa to go to a Home Show hoping for ideas for our new home that we will be building this year. It was about a 2 ½ hour drive to Tampa… We bought a new TV streaming box that seems a bit better than the AnyTime TV service we had been using – and this one has no monthly charge!

On Sunday mornings we Zoomed with our Sunday School class and worshipped with Stephens Valley Church, watching the services on YouTube from the prior week. And Family Zoom on Sunday evenings is a great way to keep up with the family!

The 2 solar panels on the roof have not been working very well, giving us only 2-3 amps and the wiring was rotting. Jim had ordered new wiring and some new mounting brackets. He relocated the panels further back and rewired them during our stay. The panels are now giving up to 10-11 amps! That will help when we boondock! Here’s what the panels looked like before…

…and after – Jim put the wiring in white plastic tubing to protect the wire from the sun!

We rode our bikes a few times. Our first 2 rides, we rode right from our RV Park and hoped we could get to the levy on Lake Okeechobee. The first ride we went south, alternating riding on the shoulder of the road and on a bike path. We found a park and rode on the bike path there but found no way to get to the lake. The next time, we rode north and found a park by a boat launch and were finally able to see the lake.

We were on a bay on the west side of the lake – the yellow lines show where we rode.

Jim needed some special caulk at Camping World for the solar panel project, so we drove in to Fort Myers to get that. While we were there, we rode our bikes on the John Yarbrough Linear Park.

Turtles were sunning themselves on rocks along the canal and we saw some birds too.

There were more turtles, but they dropped into the water when we stopped.

It was a nice day to be out riding and there was a bit of shade on the trail.

We drove to nearby Okeechobee (on the north shore of the lake) to ride on the Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail; not terribly scenic, but we did see the lake as we rode on the levy! A canal ran along one side of the trail, the lake on the other side.

We packed lunch and found a picnic table with a view of the lake.

We rode down to a pier and got another view of the lake.

We rode 48 miles during our stay. We moved on to Clermont on Saturday January 14 where we will be for 2 weeks.

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5 thoughts on “Starting the New Year near Moore Haven, FL”

  1. Nice! Great tips and insights on repair resourcefulness. You’ve given us all a ‘snow bird’s’ view! The landscapes must be such a “home place” feel for you both. A great way to start the new year 🙂

    1. A lot of the local area is “unspoiled Florida” for sure! The closest grocery store is 30 minutes away – well except for old reliable Dollar General!

  2. Lakeport FL? You confirmed my first thought; you really are in the middle of nowhere. But then I ‘googled’ the location, and found you were also near Uncle Joe’s fish camp. And at Uncle Joe’s, I saw a photo of a pretty large sailboat moored there. So news of the place is getting around. Good find. Have fun. Lake Okeechobee!

    1. Oh my – we must have missed Uncle Joe’s! We will likely not be going back anytime soon… Our RV site was right on Hwy 78 and we got to hear trucks roll by all night long on the only road around the lake… not as peaceful as one would think, but the cows didn’t seem to mind.

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