Saturday, January 30, 2021
Clewiston to Gainesville
We spent last night at the Historic Clewiston Inn, which, rumor has it, is haunted. It was once a grand old hotel, built by the U.S. Sugar Corporation in 1938 for its executives and visiting dignitaries, with a ballroom that seated up to 200 people, amazing woodwork, and an elaborate 360-degree wildlife mural in the hotel bar featuring the flora and fauna of the Florida Everglades.
Historic Clewiston Inn
Registration desk
Lobby
Wonderful woodwork
The poor old hotel is now in decline. The ballroom is no longer used, there's no longer a restaurant on site, the bar is closed, and it is now – shudder – an America's Best Value Inn. We paid $58 to stay there, and it is worth the $58. The place still has a lot of character. I asked to see the mural, so the manager let us into the bar area so we could check it out.
Everglades Bar and Lounge
Closed indefinitely
The hotel doesn't advertise the fact, but according to reviews on Tripadvisor, at least four people who checked in over the years have never checked out, and frequent ghost sightings have been reported. The old, non-updated hallways were kind of creepy, and it seemed like at any time, a couple of twin girls might appear...
Haunted hallway?
The town of Clewiston sits on the southwest bank of The Big O, also known as Lake Okeechobee, the second-largest freshwater lake (by surface area) entirely within US boundaries. At 730 square miles, it certainly is large, but it's also quite shallow, with an average depth of only 9 feet. Flooding from two hurricanes in the 1920s during which over 2,500 people drowned prompted the Army Corps of Engineers to construct a berm around the perimeter of the lake. After checkout, we drove to the top of the berm to take a look.
Lake Okeechobee
You may think there are no mountains in Florida – and you'd be right – but there is a sand ridge that runs 150 miles north to south in the center of the state called the Lake Wales Ridge. The highest point on the ridge is Sugarloaf Mountain, only 312 feet high, but since the ridge rises from just a few feet above sea level, the prominence is distinctive.
We spent a pleasant day wandering north through the rolling hills on Highways 27 and 17, passing by various lakes and through small towns and citrus groves, stopping whenever the mood struck, such as at a Home Depot to check out the garden center and at Spook Hill, a gravity hill optical illusion in Lake Wales.
Home Depot garden center
Tomato plants in January
The legend
The legendary Spook Hill
The drive was fun until we got within 50 miles of Orlando and entered a high-traffic pain-in-the-ass. Ugh! At dark we got on I-75 and blazed up to Gainesville, staying again at the Gator Town Inn and revisiting La Tienda Latina for a delicious dinner.
Tom
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