Saturday, January 18th – North to Orlando

We got up early this morning, packed an overnight bag and headed north to Orlando. I was reminded of the song from the movie North to Alaska and while we were not headed to that frigid part of our nation, it was the coldest weather we have experienced since our arrival in Fort Myers.

Driving up the road, the terrain changed from flat, flat, flat to gentle elevations. We saw many cattle farms and remembered the fact that Florida ranks 12^th in the nation in the production of beef cattle. Nearly one-half of Florida’s agriculture land is involved in cattle production. One ranch owns the largest brood cow herd in the nation and is home to 4 of the nation’s10 largest cow-calf operations. Cattle were first introduced to North America in 1521 by Ponce de Leon. It was no surprise that we saw many fields of cattle along our drive.

We passed through a town named LaBelle and saw more semi-truck trailers loaded with citrus than we could count. I couldn’t imagine the weight of that fruit and surmised that surely what we were seeing must be intended for making juice.

We drove so closely to Winter Haven, the home to Lego Land that we just had to stop and take a peek.

There is a geocache placed in the parking lot that is named Leggo My Lego and we stopped to find it. When we got to the site, we discovered that the cache was on the other side of a chain link fence. We figured that if we tried to access the parking lot on the other side, we might be required to pay a fee. I was able to reach my smaller hands through the fence, open the cache container, retrieve and sign the log and replace it. We must have looked very odd to passersby, but any geocacher would have known exactly what we were doing!

We saw people in Lego Land Park who were riding a roller coaster and they all were wearing coats in the very chilly weather.

Our destination for this day was The Holy Land Experience in Orlando, a Christian theme park that recreates the architecture and themes of the ancient city of Jerusalem in 1st century Israel.  The Holy Land Experience is owned by the Trinity Broadcasting Network and conducts weekly church services and Bible studies for the general public.

I became interested in this park when I received information that my favorite Southern Gospel vocalist, Guy Penrod, was going to be appearing there tonight. I wasn’t sure exactly what was happening, but we were told that admission to the program was free. So, we spent the afternoon seeing dramas and exhibits about the Holy Land.

When we took our seats in the Church of All Nations for the program, I noticed some video cameras set up all around the venue. Then I was astonished when the introduction was made and I realized that this was a live TV broadcast on the TBN network.

During the program, Guy Penrod included many old hymns that I learned as a young girl.  They are traditional songs that many people hold near and dear to this day. The congregation joined in singing them. It was a very spirit filled occasion.

We ate a late dinner and spent the night at a hotel.