Florida is a really long state! Of course, we do not travel in a rush so it took us all day to get from Marathon to Leesburg. I had a nine o’clock appointment with Dr. O’Connor. Then we drove to Costco in Kendall so Andy could buy new glasses. (Their prices are very good. I don’t know why we have not shopped for glasses there before.) We ate a Costco hotdog for lunch and were finally on our way to Leesburg at one o’clock.
We decided to forego the Florida Turnpike took Rt. 27 through the middle of the state. It was mostly a very pleasant drive. Once out of the greater Miami area, we were in sugar country. The terrain around the Everglades is perfectly flat and you can see for miles over the sugar cane fields. They are mostly bare this time of year.
At the small town of South Bay, Rt. 27 turns a bit west and we skirted Lake Okeechobee, that huge blue spot in the center of a map of Florida. Then Rt. 27 heads more northerly through a series of small and medium-size towns between innumerable lakes. Outside the towns is cattle country. Eventually, cattle country faded into orange grove country and the terrain changed from flat to rolling hills. Miles and miles of groves full of citrus lines both sides of the highway. We saw many truckloads of oranges and grapefruit on the highway.
By the time Rt. 27 crossed Interstate 4, and hour or so southwest of Orlando, the traffic became very heavy. There were shopping centers, RV parks, and housing developments lining the highway. There were also myriad traffic lights. I was dismayed with all the development and began having second thoughts about buying a house in the region. Fortunately, all that development ended and we had a long stretch of nothing until we reached Leesburg.
We are spending the next three nights in an Air BnB. Our first time. It is in a sprawling home in one of those developments. What a delight! They have two little girls, aged six and three, and a six-month-old chubby boy. The excited little girls gave us a tour of the house. They both played the grand piano for me in the music room. Then, after they had their bath, I read them “The Giving Tree” and “The Cat in the Hat”, two of my favorite books. Their delightful parents own the Montessori school in The Villages.
I’m going to have a great stay!
Dinata Misovec 