Florida coast to coast: beautiful lakes and bargain antiques in the heart of the Sunshine State
In the fourth video charting his sunrise to sunset drive, Simon Calder discovers the central location that’s home to a delicious diner and bizarre bazaar
The shore of Lake Okeechobee is halfway between Miami, 100 miles south, and Orlando 100 miles north. But it’s so peaceful that they could be a million miles away. Country singer Hank Williams even sang, “Wish I was camped out on the Okeechobee”. And running all the way around it? The Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail — Lost for short.
At the top of the lake, the town of Okeechobee was the location for a remarkable battle. On Christmas Day 1837, just six months after Queen Victoria took to the British throne, Native Americans and Africans defeated a superior US fighting force.
From Okeechobee, head west along State Route 70, which slices straight as an arrow across the heart of Florida — and set the sat nav for Arcadia.
The original Arcadia was a lady called Arcadia Albritton. She baked a cake for the local vicar and bigwig, the Rev James Hendry, who thought her creation was so tasty that he decided to name the town after her.
Good cooking lives on in the Arcadia Diner, a genuine Fifties eatery where lunchtime is a hive of hyperactivity. You may have to stand for a table but the wait will be worthwhile.
The heart of Arcadia’s historical district is Oak Street, where you’ll find the place that put the aria in Arcadia: an actual Opera House. Built in 1906, as part of a resurrection after the original town burned down, it continued as a performance venue until the Fifties. Today it’s an extraordinary antique shop, The Bizarre Bazaar, which retains a sense of drama.
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