Weekly Jeanne & I try to visit a local attraction or find some form of entertainment.  We travelled to Yeehaw Junction which is about 42 miles from our residence in Barefoot Bay.   Why Yeehaw Junction?  Well, while shopping in Vero Beach Jeanne saw a road sign for the place and wanted to go there because it “just sounds interesting”.

I asked Jeanne to find an address in Yeehaw Junction so that we could enter a destination in the GPS.  She came up with the Desert Inn and Restaurant at 5570 S Kenansville Road.  The Odyssey’s GPS didn’t like the address, so it said it would put us in the center of town.  Turned out to be the Desert Inn which is exactly where we wanted to go.

According to Wikipedia Yeehaw Junction is a census-designated place (CDP) in Osceola County, Florida, United States.  As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 240.  Yeehaw Junction is located at the intersection of US 441, and FL route 60 adjacent to the Florida Turnpike, approximately 30 miles west of Vero Beach and 30 miles north of Lake Okeechobee. The location was named after the Yeehaw station on the Florida East Coast Railway, several miles to the east on SR 60 in Indian River County.  Some say the community’s name comes from the fact locals would yell “Yeehaw!”, while others believe the name is derived from the Seminole language word meaning “wolf”. According to town historians and several original newspaper articles that are displayed at the Desert Inn and Restaurant, the town was originally named “Jackass Junction” or “Jackass Crossing”. This name was given to the four-corner site back in the early 1930s, when local ranchers rode on burros to visit the Desert Inn (then the local brothel). As the 1950s approached, the Florida legislature felt that a name change was due in light of the construction of Florida’s Turnpike through the center of the community in 1957, resulting in renaming the town to its present-day name.

In late 1968 the Deseret Test Center conducted a biological warfare experiment at Yeehaw Junction. The experiment was to determine its effectiveness against a wheat crop in time of war. Live agent was sprayed by a U.S. Air Force McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom fighter jet on seven different occasions and dead agent, consisting of spores that were killed by a gaseous mixture of ethylene oxide was sprayed four occasions. The tests were unknown to local residents and officials until October 2002 when Senator Bill Nelson demanded details of the tests from the U.S. Department of Defense after knowledge of the test was eventually revealed during a larger congressional inquiry of potential effects on participating veterans of chemical and biological testing.

More information on Yeehaw Junctions is available at:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeehaw_Junction,_Florida

Turns out that there isn’t much to see in Yeehaw Junction.  The Desert Inn & Restaurant is located directly at the junction of routes 60 & 441 which has traffic lights that change about every 2 ½ minutes.  Traffic is heavy & consists of a lot of commercial tractor trailers.  It is literally in the middle of nowhere.

Although we had a late breakfast we decided to have a light lunch at the Desert Inn Bar and Restaurant.  Jeanne & I split a BLT served on a ciabatta bread and an order of French fries.  Although it was not toasted, the sandwich was exceptional with fresh beefsteak tomatoes & thick bacon.  The French fries were also good being made from fresh potatoes.  As advertised the service was not speedy but the food was worth waiting for.  The waiter was exceptionally courteous, pleasant & entertaining. 

The bar/restaurant has a comfortable atmosphere and is frequented by locals, who were friendly, and tourists alike.  Lots of signed dollar bills hanging from the rafters.  Mannequins and other decorations provide a homey atmosphere.  There is a male mannequin in the ladies bathroom which seems to surprise and amuse the women.

We had a great visit and look forward to returning for another in the future.