Love Those Wide Open Spaces: Mudfest in Okeechobee

Mudfest in Okeechobee - Photo Courtesy of the Palm Beach Post

A Weekend Off the Ranch

We left our chores behind us this past weekend, and we travelled to the Southeastern portion of the State to visit friends.

About 100 miles out from our destination, we cut ‘cross country through Okeechobee, a small county in South Central, Florida on Saturday.

Boy, what a crowd of people were visiting that county!

Traffic was bumper-to-bumper on one of the few east/west highways traversing Florida. We were out in the Florida backcountry, yet traffic here was wild!

Maybe it wold be best to stop for breakfast and see if we discover what all the fuss was about, we decided. Choosing a small, friendly-looking diner on the main drag, we walked in, found a table, and began chatting with the locals.

It was a Mudfest weekend in Okeechobee.

From what we gathered from the restaurant locals, Mudfests are public events put on by private individuals. One of the Okeechobee ranchers at the eastern edge of the county gathers up the necessary permits and then sponsors the weekend event. His location so far east in the county, makes his ranch especially accessible to people coming from the cities on Florida’s East Coast, so he gets a large turnout.

Organizers charge $40 for every person entering their land. The fee allows participants to come in and spend the weekend camping, and driving vehicles through huge man-made mud pits and all over the trails on their land. The event attracts more than 40,000 people (in a county of only 35,000 residents). Man, what a haul these guys make!

Let me jump ahead and describe what we see when we drive further down Florida State Road 70 a little later.

Folks are out driving ATV’s and pick-up trucks really fast in pastureland congested with traffic. They’re jumping berms and diving in water holes.

We notice plenty of tow-trucks standing by ready to haul out stuck-in-the-mud vehicles and those with “tore up” (translate: burned-up) transmissions.

It’s loud! Men, women and children are all out “yahoo-ing” and playing the mud.

No one seemed to be wearing much clothing, either. The scene was straight out of a country music video—key the song "Redneck Woman by Gretchen Wilson!

You gotta give to them, these folks at Mudfest were definitely having a lot of fun. (You can see what they said about their weekend on FACEBOOK.)

Back at the restaurant, a local sheriff told us that things can get out of hand out in the mud pits. People get hurt with sprains, broken bones and the like, and the county insists organizers keep several sets of EMTs on hand to both patch up the wounded and transport the worst cases to the local hospital. We noticed their vehicles parked near the entrance as we drove by.

Well, with our meal complete, we paid the bill and said goodbye to the talkative small town crowd at the diner. We really enjoyed our break in Okeechobee.

As a final thought, the local sheriff offered that we might consider by-passing Highway 70 on our return trip home. We should expect the frolicking Mudfesters to be packing up and hitting the road in mass later that afternoon. Perhaps we might choose another route.

We took the sheriff up on that suggestion!

- Sanne Collins

From the Ranch in Florida

What’s Been Keeping Me Busy Lately

Love Those Wide Open Spaces is a blog designed to follow my daily life as a freelance writer and rancher. It’s a life full of constant change and a wide scope of interests.

Freelance writing, by its definition, requires the ability to write on a variety of subjects, to juggle many assignments during the times of plenty, and to fill the void when checks are slow. That said, I’m always writing.

Much of my work is done for others such as corporations, websites, or articles penned under another’s name. I’ve sold the rights to these works, so they can’t be shared.

However, many of my projects are available under my own name and can be read right here on the web.

You can click on either the site or the story below to see them.

Check out what’s been keeping me busy lately!