Awake: 7:00am Temp 59 sleep 7+25 sunny overnight @ Pahokee, FL.
Before breakfast, K & I attend 8:00am Mass @ Saint Mary's Church; (16) min. Afterward, Father John tours us & a few other locals that attended Mass today, thru St.Mary's Catholic Church Family Museun which is loaded with statues of a religious nature; manikins clothed in costumes from various countries, mostly representing the origins of the people in this community; souvenirs from the various countries of his congregants (the Philippines, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Nicaragua, etc) as well as from places he's either served or visited over the yrs (Chili, Mexico, Colombia, etc.); & many pictures of people he's met along the way, including members of this little church; + so many other items of interest, too numerous to mention. He has verbal stories to accompany each thing in the museum. I took a few pictures of these things & then decided to take a picture of our small group; they liked the picture so much, they talked me into sending them a print when possible.
My brother calls mid morning; he tells me that Blaze M. has passed away. He was only (60) yrs of age. Later, when I check my e-mail, I find my sister Corinne had sent a similar message.
K & I talked about seeing the town of Okeechobee; besides our curiosity, we need to do some light grocery shopping & have a few prints made of that picture the church group liked so much.
On our way north, we stopped along the way to catch a picture of the farmers burning their sugar cane field; huge bellows of black smoke & flames of maybe (20) ft high or more. Sugarcane is harvested mostly by hand and sometimes mechanically. When harvested by hand, the field is first set on fire. The fire spreads rapidly, burning away dry dead leaves, and killing any venomous snakes hiding in the crop, but leaving the water-rich stalks and roots unharmed. With cane knives or machetes, harvesters then cut the standing cane just above the ground. A skilled harvester can cut 500 kg (1100 #) of sugarcane in an hour.
It was a (76) mile round trip to Okeechobee from our campground. Some groceries & (5) prints of a picture @ Wal-Mart & then, a halogen light bulb from Home Depot concluded our business.
We were amazed @ the number of small RV parks along the way, especially when getting close to the suburbs of Okeechobee. And seeing more of the (110) mile dike of Lake Okeechobee was interesting as well.
Dinner: leftover pork with Porta-Bella mushrooms, fresh spaghetti & a mixed salad.
We watch our usual TV programs....with the exception of "The O'Reilly Factor." We have a movie recording which takes precedence over O'Reilly, so we'll watch ½ of the movie: "Darling Lili."
Just before midnight, I send our condolences to Bill M. one of Blaze's brothers.
Lights out: 12:08am
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