Beginning of the end

March 12, 2011 A.M.

Goooood Morning America! Spray on the bug spray & rub in that SPF 30, because today we're mud'n it out in the alligator infested everglades! That's right, a guided tour through Florida's endless grasses, filled with slider turtles, American alligators, and as mentioned by our tour guide "a growing population of pythons".

You heard right, at the end of the tour the guide recounted stories of seeing a python actually ingest and entire alligator. The snakes are being released by the public into the everglades, where they find an ideal habitat for them, but don't go releasing your slithering sidekicks just yet - its a general consensus that if you see a python you should kill it, because they're upsetting the balance of the everglades themselves. Anyway I'm getting off track, back to the topic.

Our group woke up and rubbed our eyes after a well deserved 'sleep in', that's right, we got to sleep until 9:30 am. Now, I like sleep, no really; I consider sleeping in to be more along the lines of 11:00, but after a week of 6:30 mornings, this was bliss. So we woke up, shook the kinks out of our tired bodies, some of us applied band aids to our blistering hands and 'hammer hit' thumbs, and dressed for a day out on the glades. Our original plan was a croc talk @ 1, and the rest of the day to be spent exploring an everglades national park. This was a good plan, but like most good plans, it didn't exactly work out. We found this out around twelve, when our stomachs were growling and we were thirty minutes into driving around what looked like either an African Serengeti or what was once the everglades, now dried up and waiting for Simba's pride. No worries though! We ate in the car, had a good laugh, and turned to our tech-savvy friends with Internet phones. Thank God for technology & good reception!





The best thing came of this situation though, we found AIR BOAT TOURS. Oh yes. If you've never taken an air boat tour, I highly recommend it. The best way to describe it was something across between a boat & a hovercraft. These boats were seriously skimming along with thirty passengers, on no more than what looked like five inches of water. I mean you could see the mud through the water. Plus, they go fast. And they're loud, and they cut corners. Pretty much the 'drift racing' of the boat world. The alligators were pretty cool too.





Yes, we did see alligators, not from behind a glass either, the 'keep your hands inside the car at all times' rule didn't need to be repeated - it was enforced by the snappers that lie in wait less than a foot away from the boat. Up close and personal, the best way to view the everglades. Amongst the alligator scouting we discovered an abundance of Snowy egrets, slider turtles, and Great blue herons. Beautiful and real with a chance to soak in some sun before heading back to chilly Pittsburgh, it was a great way to end an already rewarding trip in Miami Florida.

--Becky Lessner