Friday 17 January 2014

Highlands Hammock State Park

One of Florida's oldest parks, opening in 1931 in Sebring.  During the Great Depression, just prior to WWII, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) developed additional park facilities and the beginnings of the botanical garden. They have 9 hiking trails one of which is an elevated boardwalk that traverses an old-growth cypress swamp.

The CCC was a public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942. The project was developed during the Great Depression to provide work for young, unmarried men across the USA as part of Roosevelt's NEW DEAL.   This New Deal was designed to provide unskilled manual labour jobs related to conservation and development of natural resources in rural lands owned by the government.  The CCC was developed to provide jobs to young men to relieve families who had difficulty in finding jobs.  In nine years 3 million young men participated in the CCC which provided them with shelter, clothes and food plus a small wage of $30 per month ($25 of which was sent home to their families).

We had headed off to visit this park yesterday afternoon and the volunteer at the museum gave us this very interesting little history lesson.  We decided to take a walk on that one trail he had mentioned with the boardwalk and what a great spot that is.  I am going to have to borrow pictures from John's blog as my camera has decided that it is a pos and is not going to work.  Time for a replacement!!!


The first part of the walk has been upgraded to facilitate the handicapped but soon we came to the spot where the boardwalk narrowed and one hand rail disappeared.  This is where the wheelchairs turned around.  These are cypress trees you see in the picture above.  Lots of snakes and alligators in this swamp but today it was chilly so they were all hiding.

This is a view across the cypress swamp.  A beautiful park and one that we will definitely return to for a day trip in the near future.

As we headed north towards home our stomachs indicated that it was time to kick the diet again tonight and stop for dinner.  T'his has been a bad week for the Biggest Losers.  We had been out to The Hotel Jacaranda in Avon Park the night before with John & Judy's motorcycle club for a great buffet dinner.  A beautiful old hotel built in 1923.  But last night it was the Cang Tong Chinese & Sushi in Sebring.  In this restaurant there is also a Japanese grill which is something Judy had on her bucket list to do.  And a great pick it was.  The young fellow that cooked up our meals in front of us put on an excellent show and the food was great.

As he was cooking up our fried rice he turned it into a heart, with a cupid's arrow through it and a flame - called it "heart burn".

Back to the park and Tom and I headed over to watch the evenings entertainment at the club house.  Last night it was Todd Allen Herendeen.  He performed tributes to Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison and others during the first half of the show.  The second half was a tribute to Elvis.  He was very good.  The times just keep on rockin' at Rainbow.
Photo

Again no pictures but hope to update this when the rainbow website posts some.

Our calendar is just so damn full and I don't know where the time goes.  I could really get used to this.  Until next time - safe travels.

1 comment:

  1. Yes you could get used to this life on wheels. Our only question is where did all the warm weather we had last January go to this year. We froze last night and there is more cold nights coming our way. Be Safe and Enjoy!

    It's about time.

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