Lake Kissimmee – Wonderfully Wild and Superbly Serene

Lake Kissimmee State Park is the next stop on our march to the Florida Keys. Helen and I booked a week’s stay in this delightful campground in the center of “Old Florida.” We made the reservation eleven months earlier after my sister let us know that she and her husband were successful in obtaining a campsite large enough for their motorhome. I hung up the phone and immediately and made reservations for the campsite next to them. In addition to being RVers, LeAnn and Marty are a lot of fun, and we looked forward to this trip since the day we booked it.

The drive from our previous campground, Camp Blanding National Guard Training Center, was without incident, and it offered scenery we don’t see often. Once we left the main highway, we passed miles and miles of orange groves and little else except for the occasional abandoned shack or general store. The roads narrowed to two lanes with many sandy, unpaved paths leading from the pavement into hundreds of acres of oranges. We resisted the urge to drive into them. The fruits were ripe and ready for picking. We arrived late in the afternoon, signed in, parked Lucy in a spacious campsite, and settled in for a week under Spanish Moss draped from very sizeable Live Oak trees.

Helen and I had not spent a lot of time prepping Lucy for this trip and used our first full day at Lake Kissimmee, getting organized and giving Lucy an excellent general cleaning. We had no cell phone service and no wi-fi in the campground, which enhanced our serene surroundings greatly, but it also meant that we had to scramble to find a means to watch our Tennessee Volunteers square off with Indiana in the Gator Bowl. I hung a Tennessee banner from Lucy’s awning then drove to the campground office to ask about the nearest wi-fi connection. Fortunately, wi-fi was available at the marina about two miles away. The four of us cheered the Volunteers on to a victory while streaming the game on our MacBook. Although Marty and LeAnn moved to the Florida coast many years ago, they remain avid Volunteer fans, and our cheers echoed across the Lake with every score for our side.

Lake Kissimmee State Park is home to large numbers of deer and other wildlife. We spotted Bald Eagles almost every day. On one of our hikes, we came upon a bare tree filled with huge turkey buzzards. I referred to the gathering as a “Memorial Service” because I was confident that these creatures were waiting on something to die in the fields below so they could enjoy a nice dinner.

Early one morning (for us), Marty knocked on the door of Lucy, and when Helen opened it, she was greeted by three enormous wild turkeys that followed Marty from their campsite. The turkeys were scratching the ground outside our trailer and seemed unconcerned about having humans among them. Feeding wildlife is against Park’s regulations, so we let them fend for themselves, but these boys seemed too comfortable, and I am sure they have had a meal or two from previous campers.

On one of the few times we left the campground, we drove about twenty miles to Lake Wales, Florida, to spend an afternoon in Bok Tower Gardens, a top-rated tourist destination…one that I never heard of. The creator and benefactor of the gardens, Mr. Edward Bok, an immigrant from the Netherlands, was the editor of Ladies Home Journal and later Curtis Publishing Company as well as a Pulitzer Prize-winning author. He purchased approximately 500 acres  of property in Lake Wales for a winter home and had Fredrick Law Olmstead  design a garden and bird sanctuary on the property. Mr. Olmstead originally did the design work for Central Park in New York City and later, Biltmore House in Asheville, NC, among other notable accomplishments. We joined a tour of the gardens and Mr. Bok’s home—still decorated for the Christmas season. The entire property was stunning. Bok Tower, the centerpiece of the gardens, was surrounded by beautiful ponds and pools of water as well as flowering shrubs that offered blooms at every turn along the paths. The Camellias were in full bloom.Sadly, Mr. Bok died eleven months after the completion of the gardens, but the family continues to keep it open. Thank you, Bok family.

We wrapped up a week at Lake Kissimmee with a hike through Cow Camp, a replica of a camp established to corral wild cattle left by early Florida settlers. A picture of the old Camp and cattle pen is shown here. The weather was perfect for the hike and for our entire stay at Lake Kissimmee as well and was a good test for my healing knee after joint replacement.

I’m closing now. This post was hastily written because we have been so busy on this trip that finding time for well-crafted blog posts was challenging. Please forgive me for that and do come back. We’re on our way to Key West to do some sailing with some old and dear friends, and I look forward to sharing that with you. But, for now, we’re just Easin’ Along.