Returned from the Orlando Florida area late last night! I have to admit, Florida is one cool place with a ton of stuff to do. I went there on business and wound up having way more fun than doing any type of business. Nice! You have to squeeze in some business once in a while, especially if there is a $70 Porterhouse steak to be had.
A buddy of mine who lives just outside of Orlando, picked me up and took me on a Gator Hunt on a river fed by crystal clear spring water. The small river led to the St. Johns river where huge fish and Manatee were everywhere to be seen. However, we were there to see some Gators!…and Gators were a-plenty! The area was a complete Rain Forest type jungle with four to eight foot alligators on the banks, as well as swimming freely in the glowing water. I grabbed a few by the tail, from the small canoe we were in and the gators would pull the boat along the river before wiggling free. There were very few people in the area but we did witness two locals that were in the water, actually wrestling the alligators but in no way hurting them!
One of the guys must have been over 300 lbs., 6′5″ and I didn’t see a tooth in his head. These guys were the real thing but I never got the cajones to jump in with them. Heck….I was more afraid of that giant Floridian with no teeth than the gators with a mouth full of them! One great part of this adventure was that there were no guides telling you where you could and couldn’t go. There were no signs telling you to be careful and to “Not Feed The Alligators”. We were on our own, without direction, doing what we wanted and risking what we wanted. There is something to be said for that in today’s world of fears and rules. To be able to get out and see these animals in their real habitat and not some zoo was spectacular. We even got a quick glimpse of the most poisonous snake in North America, The Coral Snake. Yeah…we were a bit cautious and responsible but when you are in someone elses home, that’s just the way it is if you want to live, especially in one as dangerous as thisGood times in Florida and I highly recommend it to anyone. Now, back at home, I’m hard at work testing out some new Proline Badlands Crawler tires and making some adjustments to my personal rc rock crawler. Event number 3 of the Colorado Winter Points Series was cancelled so I have plenty of time to get things ready for a win in March! Talk at ya soon!