MY THIRD HOME

Being in Florida, which I will now call my second home, I have really grown accustomed to what is surrounding me.  Lots and lots of buildings, surrounded and filled with people of every color and culture imaginable.  I heard there are about 60+ languages spoken around Miami, with each obviously having a different culture.  In these cultures, there are also subcultures, dividing the people even more diversely.  To get away from all the chaos of the matter, why not get away to a place where you are guaranteed to be back in my own culture, or, a subculture of the English language, and one not far from that of Harper County.

I have taken a liking to the Everglades and have started finding myself out there quite bit.  A little "home away from home" if you will.  Going on fan-boat rides has became an occurrence that I didn't really think about doing before coming out here.  I have now been aboard three different boats touring parts of the Everglades.  And, every boat ride tends to be a bit different.

Having a great experience with my parents at one just a few weeks ago, the female room mates and myself went back there, and took a ride.  While we went on a cold day in the past, today was nice, with a temperature of about 85 degrees.  It was a perfect day to be on a boat, and even better day to sun if you are an alligator.  

While waiting in line to get on the boat (or maybe we were on it, I don't remember) a loud truck drove by with a HUGE confederate flag waving behind it as the driver hung out the window and yells, "GET DRUNK AND HAVE FUN!"  This was the first clue that we no longer were in the city.  There is no way this guy would still be breathing had he done that anywhere near Miami City Limits.  After sharing a little laugh and a little flashback from high school, we got on with the trip.  As we took out, the tour guide started sliding the boat around giving us a real fun and memorable ride.  He also proved to have some really good (lame puns) jokes.  However, he was a lot of fun, but it was hard to know when he was serious.  He stopped and told the ones with shorts (My room mates and I) to get in.  Well, who really gets in alligator infested water when someone says to.  I hesitated a bit, then jumped in.  Why not?  Only really have the chance once, or in my case, every other weekend.  The water was nice and chilly, feeling pretty good on this warm day.  The ground below the water was quite different, as it felt like walking on a sponge.  While it was knee deep, it allowed us to wade around close to the boat, within jumping distance if we saw the spikes on the back of an alligator coming at us.  After a few pictures and laughs, we tried to get in the boat, but my first step, I landed in a sink hole and went in up to mid thigh, soaking my shorts!  I was sure I was going all the way in, but managed to grab hold of an arm, and got pulled it.

After safely getting in the boat, we took out across the Everglades, going through grass and trees.  Finally the captain stopped telling us he sensed a gator close by.  Suddenly, a huge head popped out from under our boat and an 8-foot gator swan out from under us and climbed into the grass by our sides.  It was AWESOME!  He was so big, yet, seemed so tame.  It was all I could do not to reach out and grab his tail.  We continued on, seeing about 10 more gators, 15 more turtles, hundreds of birds and all different forms of wildlife like fish and bugs.  While the first two trips could have been more eventful in terms of seeing things, this one really made up for it, as it seemed like I was on a crew filming Planet Earth.

Afterwards on the way home we stopped at a BBQ joint that looks real junky (which is the universal sign for the best tasting food!)  It proved to be quite good, as I got a gator burger and fries.  What a great way to end a day on the water surrounded by the giant lizards.