Slippery Snakes and Everglades Adventure!

Hey you know some days click, and some days just don't click right? Today clicked, yesterday did not click! I had a great day yesterday but last night I still did not sleep just right because the day just was not in sync. But TODAY was in SYNC. I had a WONDERFUL Everglades Adventure with a group of folks that made me realize that I have the best job in the WORLD!

To be honest with you I did not sleep all that well last night and found myself up at 3:30 this morning looking at infomercials about losing weight. Well I don't really consider myself "overweight" by any means, but frankly after that slim lady with the tight abs and nice little butt told me that she once weighed 7000 pounds and all she did to lose the weight was eat anything she wanted to and spend 4.2 minutes a day on the "glutamous minimus" machine where she lost all but the last 98 pounds, I DECIDED TO CHANGE MY LIFE! So today I decided to run 412 miles a day, do 897 setups, and 293 pull ups, as well as eat the juice from the "miracle juicer" which costs you $29 for a glass of crappy tasting stuff that in most places they feed to pigs! Now here's the deal. If I don't like it they will refund my money! So what do I have to lose? I am like 10 pounds overweight unless you look at the insurance charts which say that I should weigh, for one who is vertically challenged like me, a mere 112 pounds. And now I am at 177 lbs. So what the hell! I may as well pretend that I am flying a lunar module in space to collect dust! So instead of biting off on the crappy sales pitch, I go to the fridge at 4:00am and grab a cold diet coke and 4 slices of cheese and then eat a potato roll before going back to bed for the final two hours of sleep!

Let me say to you that I had WONDERFUL dreams but due to the graphic nature I am not at liberty to share with you except to let you know that "Little Bo Peep" was present.

OK so now I transition to my day in the Everglades! We got a good break in the weather and did not see any rain until I was returning to Cristina's at the end of the day. In fact, I had a great day, void of any discomforts until the last part of being at Corey Billies where me and Denny ventured out for a snake hunt and walked the parameter of the lake behind the Chickee!

Now Denny is a sophomore in high school and is training to take over for his daddy Gary as the chief airboat pilot for us at Corey's! Frankly, I think hes gonna do good! However, he has size 32 shoes, so as we tramped around in the grass around the lake he sounded like a herd of elephants running through Kruger National Park in Africa. So, the four snakes that I COULD have photographed, were scared to death that they would be trampled by that large pachyderm and they quickly departed the view of my camera lens. Just kidding, Denny! You are not that loud! At least no one puts on hearing protection when you give the alligator show! Your daddy can't say that when he takes them out on the airboat ride!

We had a great day, saw lots of wildlife including birds of all kinds and lots of gators. I truly appreciate when customers express an interest in the health and welfare of our Everglades. This crew was wonderful and I was happy to share with them the tale of this "river of grass".

I picked one family up from the Mango Street Inn, a marvelous little B&B owned by good friends Tree and Dan Andre. What a wonderful place they have and what wonderful people! The Island of Ft. Myers Beach has been "improved" by these folks and also by my employers Mike and Cristina of Good Time Charters and Everglades Adventure. It is wonderful to see people in business that truly love what they do and share that love with others.

The ride down the loop road was full of surprises as we witnessed all of the normal species of Everglades birds hanging out in the cypress trees, and the alligators did not let me down either, which gave my guests an early view of my favorite animal of all times.

After a brief stop at the Ochopee Post Office, the smallest Post Office in America, we headed to see Rick at Shealy's, the Skunk Ape Museum. We visited with the alligators, snakes, birds and turtles and then moved on to the Turner River Canal which, frankly, is my best stop of the day since I am an alligator freak--hence the nickname, GATOR D! This is the best time of year to view the gators because they love to lay out in the sun to energize their cold bodies. Winter is tough on tropical plants and animals of all kinds. However, seeing the gators sun on the shore of the river is a blessing. As my customers enjoyed the surroundings of the river and its alligator population, I silently counted about 112 gators within a 3 mile stretch of the access road. That is a lot of gators!

As we moved on to lunch at the Seafood Depot in Everglades City, I gave a brief history and tour of the island and identified the diverse nature of the business of the people who lived on the island. Crabbing pots, lobster pots, fishing boats and airboats made up the livelihood of this island people.

On to Chokoloskee and Ted Smallwoods Trading post where we discovered the treasures and resources of early 1900 inhabitants of the 10,000 Island area. Thanks to Ted, these early settlers had an avenue to purchase or order things that they needed to survive in this wilderness.

After we spent a little bit of time exploring the museum we moved on to Corey Billies for our airboat ride. The weather cooperated and the ride was wonderful according to our customers and we even had an "AWESOME!" from our great friend from England, Mrs. Newton! Awesome works for me!

Well, all good things must come to an end so after a safe and enjoyable ride with Captain Gary, we loaded up the "swamp buggy" (what I call the 15 passenger van) and headed back home. Some days when I am out in the 'Glades I HATE to end the day. Today was one of those days. Thanks to my new found friends who shared this day with me in another South Florida Adventure!