Naked Came The Florida Man

I just finished reading Naked Came the Florida Man, Tim Dorsey's latest adventure/comic novel. As usual, it features Serge, the serial killer with a heart of gold, and his wacky sidekick Coleman. This time the pair are soaking up obscure Florida history and sights along Lake Okeechobee, a hardscrabble area populated by a lot of rednecks, sugarcane workers, and migrants.  Along the way, they mete out their unique brand of justice to evildoers they encounter. Serge, like author Tim Dorsey himself, is a fanatic about Florida history, and throughout this wacky adventure throws out places and events from the state's past, such as author Zora Neale Hurston's home and grave site in Fort Pierce, Florida, the horrific hurricane of 1928, and the historic Clewiston Inn.

In this adventure, Serge travels through all the towns surrounding Lake Okeechobee, including Okeechobee, Port Mayaca, Pahokee, Indiantown, Belle Glade, and Clewiston. At one time or another, I have traveled through all these towns on my way across the state, usually in mid-August, when central Florida is especially lovely.  As I was reading this book, I was convinced that my sister Susan, mother Mary, and I had visited the Clewiston Inn years ago, and went through my shoe boxes full of old photographs looking for the proof. As you can see from the photo on the right, I was once again - surprise! - wrong. What we actually visited, back in August of 1994, was the Seminole Country Inn, located in Indiantown, not too far from my mother's condo in Stuart, Florida. This place was built back in 1926 and evokes the atmosphere of "Old Florida," according to it's web site (https://www.seminoleinn.com/}.

I guess I was under the impression that there was probably only one historic inn by Lake Okeechobee, which I now know is not true.  I looked up the Clewiston Inn on the web, and it appears to be a much larger hotel, built around the same time as the Seminole Country Inn. Their web site says that it is centrally located, just 60 miles from both West Palm Beach on the east coast and Fort Myers, Florida (jumping off point for Sanibel and Captiva Islands) on the west. I am not too sure that I would particularly want to be equidistant from those two places, but the Clewiston Inn does look very nice. Be sure to check out their website at https://www.clewistoninn.com/en-us. And as for Naked Came the Florida Man, I do recommend it if you want a few laughs to take your mind off the coronavirus pandemic. Order it from your local library today!