Wee Little Alligators.... Day 3

Day Three... Well day 4 if you include Wednesday night. We get up fairly early so we can get a move on. Overnight bags packed, we head on to the Airboat ride. It seemed to be in a fairly rural location just outside of Orlando. With Jason's as our expert mapquest guide, we bounded along in the trusty camry towards the adventure that awaited us.

To call this place dead, would be an understatement. I suppose we were a little past the prime tourist season. Additionally it seems that the airboat ride was a fairly new business venture for this particular bait shop/ fishing supply store. I didn't have a lot of film to go through so my pictures are unfortunately limited. The store was a low ranch style building, perched on the edge of a lake. It was complete with an aluminum roof, and a very seasoned look to it. Adjacent to this was a covered pier where some house boats, motor boats, and a small airboat was moored. A crane stood on the outboard motor of a boat and observed us with a keen eye as we waited for our boat captain to guide us towards the vessel on which we would embark.

It seemed to be a place that was likely around for ages. Anyone from a small American town should know the type of place. Most people from outside a community might not shake a stick at it. The locals however, they have stories of drunken fishing tales, enormous gators, and other tidbits of native folk lore and romance. The elders and children alike know the owners. They know the large bellied man behind the counter selling live bait. They understand his gruff exterior, but smile in comfort of the soft underside, the part of him only revealed to the few townies blessed enough to have weathered a few rainy days in his company. To the quick observer it may seem like a ill kept crooked hole in the wall place, half way lost in a swamp. To these Floridians nearby, it is family, it is a landmark that brings warmth to their souls, and builds upon memories that generations will likely carry with them.

The men running the shop were all courtesy, but definitely grizzled. We were definitely Yanks in a Confederate territory. The boat captain, or course had a grey
t-shirt emblazoned with a faded confederate flag.

Our airboat probably would seat 6 comfortably, but there would only be three of us. We got an hour tour which would go by surprisingly quick. It took our gruff looking wirery captain about three times to start the boat which coughed and sputtered a bit. It was loud, enough so that when our guide talked to us, I ended up just nodding even though I didn't quite hear a damn thing he said. The wind that was created by the suction of the large fan blades was quite intense. My left eye, already watering slightly from an allergic itch of some sort, simply began streaming liquid once the boat got going. Not too mention my nose ran a bit too. Luckily there was no one in the seat behind me to enjoy the saline shower coming from my face. The boat was amazingly smooth, even when plowing through wakes of some bigger craft.

Not long after heading out we saw our first gator about fifty yards out. It came up and tried to snap at a bird, which I believe flew off unscathed. We saw a ton of various water fowl. The weather was gorgeous and it was quite a bit of fun zooming about in all of this greenery, in a world so far removed from anything in Massachusetts.

Our guide pointed out a couple of nests. I have a couple of photos. One close up shot actually has a gator in it, however, I can't see it. It is much more difficult to find than Waldo. I wish you luck if you search.
I've included a couple more scenic shots that I quickly snapped on our journey. We did get to see some smaller gators quite close, which I guess is pretty lucky since they are nocturnal creatures.


This definitely was very cool to do. I highly recommend it if you go to Florida. It is a bit off the beaten track, but I think it shows the "real" Florida, rather than the fake plastic one that most partake in.


After our adventures in the swamps we got some lunch at a Mom & Pop chain called "Sonny's". This joint was very busy. It very much was set up like an old fashion family restaurant. The food was really inexpensive, you got huge portions, and it was good. I had a three pork combo, I want to say, Pulled pork, Ribs, and sliced pork? They had four barbecue sauces on the table which were more than sufficient for my culinary needs. I went with the spicy sauce. I also had a side of cole slaw....mmmmmmmm SLAW.....

We had a decent road trip up to Tampa where we met up with Jason's boss Greg. Greg was very courteous and generous to Kate and I. We got to use their spare bedroom after the baseball game, and they helped us get reduced entry into Busch Gardens the following day. The house was beautiful, high ceilings, stucco walls outside, however with normal finished walls on the interior. They had a beautiful screened in pool. The idea of a framed screen over the entire pool to keep out bugs seems quite simple, however I don't ever recall seeing that in New England. They lived in a gated community in a beautiful area. I will say I don't think I'd like living in the Orlando area. In spite of the green palms and all of the theme parks, Orlando came off as sort of commercialized and bleak to me. Tampa on the other hand was very lush with beautifully designed neighborhoods, and "new" town villages that were designed to mimic old town villages with store fronts on the road, side walk cafes, and a general walkable layout. While Orlando had Bike paths and parks, Tampa's just went the extra mile to landscape them better and make them seem much more like a place you could spend strolling around.

Next... Drum roll. THE SOX! Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg was not nearly as ugly and offensive as I thought it would be. Actually, even though I have nothing to compare to, I would imagine it probably is about as nice as a dome stadium is going to get. The concessions were great (albeit pricey). The crowd was about as good as it can get without actually being at Fenway. About 80 percent of the people there were Red Sox fans. The game was exciting as we had a nice come back midway through, however, that being said the insanity of Fenway fans is still equivalent only to the Bosox fans in Tampa, to the tenth power or so. When we won (I thought for sure with Dinardo pitching, that we'd lose) nearly everyone was celebrating and chanting. There were even several hearty rounds of "Yankees Suck".

Before the game began, Jason, Kate, and I walked around St. Petersburg which seems to be a very nice city. It has a beautiful waterfront looking out over the Gulf of Mexico, and there are a decent amount of shops and eateries to keep ones interest. We had some ice cream before the game at an old fashioned ice cream parlor in the ground floor of a classic old fashion hotel. One thing to note of St. Petersburg, is that the Steinbrenner influence seems strong. There are Baseball factoids engraved on bronze "home plates" with reliefs of legendary baseball greats. I noticed an overwhelming amount of these factoids dealt specifically with the New York vs. Boston battle. They even dragged the Boston Braves into these historical informative pieces. Also they were good enough to point out several key Boston losses where the Yankees or Mets were not involved. Hmmmm.... If the weather wasn't so nice there, I might have gotten unruly.

Check me out looking dapper in the captain's chair of the airboat!!


Anyway... Of course, stay tuned to the grand finale... at least when it comes to pictures, when I detail Busch Gardens!