Florida Trip - Monday, 28 Feb 11

We are on the road again!! We left the condo in Cape Coral about 9:30 am after Chris (rental agent) came over and read the meter for the hydro. My new friend Thelma (85 hrs old) came over to say goodbye…she’s so sweet. I bought her a bouquet of flowers yesterday as thanks for all the brochures she’s delivered in the past month….church breakfast, church games day, festivals, etc…..she was our personal activity director but such a sweet lady.

We decided we would go South and cross Hwy 41, otherwise known as Alligator Alley. We’ve done this road a couple of times but were determined to take our time and see as many ‘wild’ alligators as we could along the road as opposed to the ones in captivity at air boat ride places along the highway. I guess we stopped about 5 or 6 times and saw so many…most as big, if not bigger than any we’ve seen that are hand fed 15 times a day.

At one point I saw a small body of water that had lots of white pelicans, white egrets and herons and screeched at Wayne to stop the car. I was standing in a grassy area 4 or 5 feet that dropped off about 5 feet to the water and thought this big ‘thing’ I saw was a dead tree. NOT. I put on my glasses and realized it was the biggest alligator I’ve ever seen…anywhere…at any time (although a cheezie SciFi movie from the ‘60s comes to mind) (photo 2)! It was pretty battered and beaten and obviously had been in a mega-fight with another bad boy at some point as there were scars and hide hanging off in various places. At first I thought it was dead but a slight movement of one leg and one eye left no doubt it was very much alive. I swear it had to be at least 18-20 ft long and a conversation with a Wildlife Ranger later on confirmed it was definitely within the realm of possibility…the gator was probably an oldie who just sat there and waited for the birds to come within striking distance…which accounted for the clump of feathers…about a foot from where I was standing!

We decided to stay the night at Deerfield Beach as there is a condo here for rent we are going to enquire about tomorrow. We walked down to the beach after supper and although it was dark, it seems to be beautiful. We’ll head down for another look in the morning. Wayne was a bit disturbed as he thought he had a coupon for a cheap rate at this Comfort Inn but found out at check-in that the rate for the CI off Interstate 95….. We’ll be eating a very BIG breakfast!

Boynton Beach, which is just up the highway, is our destination tomorrow. There are a number of condos for rent there as well and we’ll look around the area to see if it’s a possibility for next year. The first of the March Breakers have arrived and it’s strange to see the numbers of people under 25 yrs as opposed to those over 55 yrs in Cape Coral.

There’s a bit of a heat wave happening in this area but rain supposed to be moving in tomorrow night. However, it doesn’t have to be shoveled so will be manageable. I’m not looking forward to going back to the nasty weather. Until next time, love & hugs to all. xx