(Story and photos by Ralph Epifanio)
Although most GPSs deny the existence of Bithlo, it somehow persists as the last gasp of civilization before East Orlando fades into the primordial ooze. It is in Bithlo that normally bumper-to-bumper Colonial (Florida 50) seems to metamorphose into the promise of a real life jungle adventure. With its shuttered pre-Disney theme parks--jungle cruises to nowhere, Indian villages turned graveyards, and boat rides into air as thick as clouds--we are reminded of that "Old Florida"; before Disney, before six-lane highways, and before the need for hotel reservations. As evening descends, we hurry past overgrown signs and barren, shattered parking lots. We close our windows to shut out bird-sized mosquitoes and the cacophony of Jurassic animal sounds.
What we are looking for in Bithlo is a place called The Wedgefield Golf and Country Club, host to the 2015 Metro-Orlando XC Championship. When we finally turn into a modern housing tract that looks as out of pl...
