We left Ormond Beach on Wednesday morning around 9 am and by a little after noon, we had arrived at Aruba RV Park where our site was right next to Jerry & Pam's.
Aruba is a nice little RV park with wide enough sites so that people with boats have plenty of room to park their boats next to their motorhomes. After visiting with Jerry and Pam for a little while, we all four rode into the town of Okeechobee to get some groceries at Wal-Mart. Later that evening, we invited them over to play some cards with the men winning SkipBo and the women winning 5 Crowns.
Take a look at the picture below and see if you can guess what it is:
Spanish moss maybe? A bird nest? Or worse, a mouse nest???? Nope.
As you have probably noticed, Chuck grew a nice beard this winter. First one he's grown in about 30 years and it is very, very thick.
Well, now that he's about to go fishing and be out in the hot sun, it was time to shave it off and his beard is what was in the picture above.
On Thursday morning, Chuck and Jerry headed out early to go fishing on Lake Okeechobee. Years ago (like about 30 years ago), Chuck and Jerry would take a week's vacation and go to Lake Okeechobee fishing every February. They were both looking forward to fishing together again and hoping the fishing would be as good as it used to be. They had not been on the water very long when Chuck caught his first fish of the day.
Unfortunately, that would prove to be the only fish of the day. That 13 inches of rain that fell on Florida during the month of January has played havoc on Lake Okeechobee making the fishing some of the worst its ever been. But that didn't keep those Gregory boys from trying their best!
They finally called it a day and came in around 1 pm. After some lunch and a little rest, Jerry and Pam brought their cornhole boards over to our site to play a little cornhole.
Jerry made these boards. The boards are top-notch and Jerry even designed a way for the boards to be stored inside one another so they don't take up as much height space in the RV basement storage. He waxed them too so they were slick as butter!
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| Now that's a proper cornhole board! |
On Friday morning, the Gregory boys went out early and tried a new spot to try to lure the fish in. They were a little more successful this morning with them catching six fish today.
After they got in from fishing and we had a little lunch, we all rode the 27 miles back into Okeechobee to get some more groceries from Wal-mart. I know. We were just at Wal-mart two days ago but it never fails. I make a grocery list and by the time we get back to the camper, I think of 5 more things that I forgot to get! After getting all our groceries, we headed back to Aruba with a quick stop at McDonalds for $1 ice cream cone. We got together that evening for cards again with the men winning both SkipBo and 7-Up this time.
On Saturday morning, the faithful fishermen headed out once again hoping to catch some of those big bass that Lake Okeechobee is known for. They caught one fish and Chuck took a couple of beautiful pictures with his phone.
We have been grilling almost every night for supper and tonight we tried something new. Grilled sweet potatoes! Oh my goodness, they were SO GOOD! And with the pork steaks and grilled peppers & onions, it was nearly a perfect meal! :)
After dinner, we played 5 Crowns again and then we played something we had not played in years: Rook. Pam & Jerry remembered how to play it very quickly because they used to play all the time with Pam's daddy. Jerry and Chuck won the first game, Pam and I won the 2nd game, and then Chuck "shot the moon" on the last game and made it so Jerry and Chuck won the last game. I don't know which was more fun: learning how to play Rook all over again or listening to Jerry and Pam laughing and remembering all the times they used to play Rook years ago.
On Sunday morning, Chuck took our good camera out with him this time. Although they didn't catch a fish, Chuck got some beautiful pictures and videos:
Watch the below video to give you an idea of how peaceful Lake Okeechobee can be:
Click HERE if you are unable to open the above video.
There are birds and ducks everywhere on Lake Okeechobee.
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| It's amazing how these birds just walk across the lily pads! |
The alligators have not been out as much this year but Chuck got some pictures and a video of this big guy.
Watch the below video and notice the nearby bird at the end of the clip. He's doesn't seem to be the least bit scared of that big ol' gator.
Click HERE if you are unable to open the video.
I think Jerry maybe caught one fish on Sunday and they were back to the campground a little after noon. Since it had been two whole days since we had been to Wal-mart, we hopped in the car and headed to downtown Okeechobee again. We stopped on the way to get a picture of this eagle in his nest in a tree.
We made a stop at McDonald's for ice cream again and then headed back to Aruba. That evening as the sun was setting, Chuck took this nice picture of the full moon rising over the palm trees. He's getting to be quite the photographer!
Monday morning was a little different because this time I went with Jerry and Chuck fishing on Lake Okeechobee. Pam had originally planned to go to but she wasn't feeling well this morning. We stopped at a bait shop and bought 2 dozen shiners which are very large minnows -- about 6 inches long. Jerry and Chuck normally always fish with artificial lures but the fishing has been so bad they decided to give the shiners a try this morning.
We headed out in the boat with me squeezed in between the two guys.
It was another beautiful morning and the winds were light.
I was amazed at the grass and lilypads and birds everywhere.
Jerry and Chuck kept asking me if I wanted to fish yet but I was fully enjoying the peacefulness and beauty of Lake Okeechobee...
...while they were hard at work. :)
They weren't having any luck where we were so we rode over to another spot that they thought would be good to fish with the shiners. Jerry got a rod and reel all set up for me, put a shiner on, and I started fishing.
The part I like about shiner fishing is you use a float. It's pretty simple. When you see the float go under, you set the hook and bring in the fish. Shiner fishing is a little different in that the shiners are so big the float moves and bobs around a lot more. All three of us were fishing and not having a lot of luck even with the shiners but then...I got a hit! Jerry and Chuck coached me on what to do and it felt like I had a very big something on the end of my line.
What is this creature??? An alligator?? Or a fish??
Actually, it was an alligator gar with lots and lots of teeth!
Jerry took him off my line and we decided to try fishing elsewhere since we were apparently on top of a gar hole here. Hey, but at least I caught a fish!
We tried a couple of other places but when our shiners all played out, we called it quits to fishing. Jerry drove out toward the lake so I could see how wide open Lake Okeechobee is. The smoke in the distance is from where sugar cane fields are being burned off.
All around the edges of Lake Okeechobee, grasses, bulrushes, and lilypads grow very thick, but when you head towards the middle, it becomes a big wide open (but not very deep) lake.
After we got back home, we rested awhile and then drove down to Moore Haven to eat dinner at a little Mexican restaurant. It was a very small restaurant that was in a building that looked like it used to be a Dairy Dip but the food was ok.
We got together to play cards again Monday evening and taught Jerry and Pam how to play Pinochle. Chuck and I both felt like Rook is in some ways similar to Pinochle. Jerry and Pam did very well and Pam and I ended up winning the game. We finished up the evening with a game of Rook with Jerry and Chuck winning that game.
On Tuesday morning, Chuck and Jerry tried fishing again and they did catch three fish this morning,
but the winds began to pick up and so they headed back in and were back at the campground around 11:30.
Since there are some severe storms and heavy winds predicted for the Venice area tomorrow, we decided to stay here at Aruba one more day and wait and go to Ramblers Rest in Venice on Thursday where we are looking forward to meeting up with Ken and Bonnie again!
