For teachers without children, teachers who begin getting restless after weeks of lagging routines and absent obligations, hopping in the car and driving down the road is a way to kick start the mind. After more than fifteen years in Florida, I’ve grown familiar with most of the state, but Lake Okeechobee has always felt far away, like it never really fell in the path of any other route. So I started an early day, made an intentional drive south from home, and zipped around the gator-filled lake, snapping a few of the better photos of the summer. I even managed to get my car stuck in a sand trap, stuck enough that I had to rely, for my rescue, on a middle-aged, bikini-clad woman (exactly) and two men passing with a truck.
