Alligators

I read about another alligator-on-human attack in Florida today.

For all of my reading life and note-taking in my many outdoor adventures (you can better believe I always have done my freaking research when I go out into the wild) I would read that alligators are essentially harmless to humans. Over and over and over. Time after time I would read this and hear this. To the point that several times in my trips on Florida and south Georgia creeks and ponds I would go swimming with alligators nearby.

I was misinformed, for sure. And I was lucky that I was never attacked (I did have a close encounter with a big alligator that taught me that all of the "facts" I'd read about how they were harmless to people were so much bullshit). But why would anyone say this about an apex predator that can kill and dismember and eat large prey up to the size of horses?

It was because from the 19th Century until relatively recent years the alligator was actually a threatened species. Their numbers had dwindled so much due to over-hunting that they were approaching dangerous levels for the species. Then, in the 1960s they were protected. Harvesting was limited and ecosystems were put into parks and wilderness.

Alligator populations rebounded. With a vengeance. And, more importantly, they were allowed to live to be old. In the days when they were under threat there were almost no older, larger alligators. That is, there were very few gators who could seriously look at a human being as a prey animal--and those few were safely tucked away inside wildernesses where they were unlikely to ever see a human.

Not now. Now I see enormous alligators almost everywhere I go in Florida. 8-foot alligators are now routine. And we've all seen the film of the monster alligator on that golf course. You can better believe predators of that size would look at a 200-pound human being as nothing more than something good to eat.

These days I do not go swimming in rivers or creeks or springs in Florida unless I am DAMNED sure that there are no large alligators around.

It ain't worth the risk.

And, yes, I'm sure everyone has seen this video. I've heard it said that this alligator is between 16-17 feet in length. Keep in mind this is nowhere near the largest recorded gator which was almost 20 feet long. It's time to be careful when you go swimming in the deep South.

Be careful out there.

One of the largest alligators I have seen in Florida. He was at Wakulla Springs State Park. Very fat. Very healthy. Very damned intimidating. I would not swim around this animal.

I've heard it said the alligator in this video is 16-17 feet long. That is not as long as the largest on record (over 19 feet). It would look at you as something to eat.

The Inn at Wakulla Springs

On our visit to the Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park, we made sure to go inside the Inn there. It was built at great expense by one Edward Ball, part of the du Pont family and quite an impressive investor. He was also a jackass sack of shit, but that's one for the history books. If you judge a man merely by his ability to make money (as most do judge here in the good old US of A), then he was a fantastic individual, leaving assets numbered in the billions by the time he died.

One of the things he did was buy the deepest fresh water spring on Earth: Wakulla Springs. He also bought the 4,000 acres around it. Then he set about building a 27-room fine inn where folk with lots of money could come to vacation. Once he'd completed the place (which included dynamiting part of the river so that guests could access the inn from downstream), he built a cast iron fence across that river to keep out those who couldn't afford to stay there. The spring and its environs were to be enjoyed only by the rich.

Eventually, as with most of the great springs of Florida, the property ended up in the hands of the state where it can now be enjoyed by everyone with four bucks to pay for admission. The facilities can now be enjoyed by just about everyone. In addition, since the land had remained as a resort for so many years, there are lots of old growth trees on the property and the forests are impressive, as is the wildlife.

Now that Carole and I have seen the inn and enjoyed the outdoor activities there, we want to go back to stay at the inn. The rates are reasonable for rooms filled with marble, hand carved features, and antique period furnishings.

The Inn at Wakulla Springs. Built by Edward Ball. Now owned by the state of Florida, and opened to the public.

The front entrance.

The soda counter. That's a single piece of marble. Complete with teenage bimbos at the far end. There's no bend in it, that being a photostitch anomaly.

The main lobby.

The cypress ceilings with hand-painted designs by German artisans.

Sitting area inside the Inn.

Fireplace in the lobby.

The dining room. Very, very nice!

This big guy was kind of like the local mascot at the Inn. But in 1966 some asswipe found his way onto the grounds and killed him. The gator had never bothered anyone, according to the plaque. But he was killed just the same. Well over 11 feet in length--he was a large alligator.

A taste of the forests outside in the 4,000 acres around the Inn.

The main springs and the swimming facilities.

A side hallway off the main lobby. Yeah, I know what you're thinking...I thought the same thing as soon as I stood there and looked down that way:

Birds Etc.

I'm sorry I don't have a better camera. We're planning on buying a nice SLR camera, but it's not in the budget until next month. So I had to make due with the little Canon we've had for several months. It's fine on most things, but telephoto shots come out really grainy. Thus, the quality of some of my photos are pretty lousy. But I did my best.

Click to embiggen

The headsprings of Wakulla Spring. In the background on the far left you can see the diving platform where I did my jumps. The water in the center background is over 300 feet deep, making this the deepest known first magnitude freshwater spring on Earth.

The first thing we saw as we approached the spring was this Suwannee Cooter laying eggs in a patch of sand. There's nothing there to gauge size, but this turtle was enormous. Over two feet long, easily.

These birds were the most common on the spring run. This one didn't seem to like our proximity and was letting us know it. Basically, they quack like a duck.

A tri-colored heron who was fishing in a patch of vegetation.

Plenty of turtles.

Another one of those common birds. They seemed to be everywhere we looked.

An anhinga who was perched on a snag high above in a dead cypress. By the time we leave for Yellowstone, I hope to have a good SLR camera with a good telephoto lens.

This bird turned its head just as I snapped the shot. Not very cooperative!

Some kind of duck or drake?

This was the biggest alligator we saw all day. It was HUGE! And look at those teeth!

I took this for one reason: Two Johnny Weismuller Tarzan movies were filmed here. They say this was his favorite tree to climb on and jump from. I don't think it's alive anymore, but it was in his day. Yeah, yeah. Make yer penis jokes.

A brown snake in a wax myrtle as we floated past.

Take my word for it...this was an enormous gar. Probably six feet long, at least.

Mrs. Cooter lays her eggie-weggs.

The Mighty Wakulla Springs

Wakulla Springs was everything I'd expected it to be. Like most first magnitude springs that have not been developed to Hell, it was packed to the limit with wildlife. We saw everything from minnows to ten-foot gators. Once again, I am in awe of the bird life that claims Florida as their home. If you like bird watching, I can think of no better location than Florida.

We went swimming, of course. I was a little anxious about the water temperature. It was not a hot day--about 80 degrees, so jumping into water that stays year-round 68 degrees could have been a shock to my system. I decided to do it right, all at once, and I accomplished this by climbing to the top of the 15-foot diving tower on the edge of the spring. The water at the bottom of the tower is anywhere from 15 to 30 feet deep, depending on how far out you jump. Jump far enough, I suppose, and you'd be leaping into a spring more than 300 feet deep!

The water was nowhere near as shockingly cold as I had expected, and I made the leap from the tower about....oh, thirty times or so. I planned long ago on never growing up. After 52 years, so far, so good.

(Carole was in one of her I-don't-want-to-take-your-picture moods, so I shot all of the following with the tripod and the self-timer.)

Wait for it...

Man overboard!

Don't fergit to hold yer nose!

Ker-SPLASH!!!!

Are We Not Men?

Today's blog: Rambling. Followed by more rambling.

Dudes! Are most of you retarded??!! The Shroud of Turin is a fake! IT'S A FAKE! The Middle Ages of Europe were a con man's dream when it came to so-called "religious artifacts"! Finger bones, dried up blood, tendons, skulls, splinters from "the" cross, spear points, etc. Some clever faker created this piece of junk! Get over it! (Is it any wonder Flavius Claudius Julianus referred to churches as charnel houses?)

But never fear! The same Europeans are bringing us new beer! Can't wait to try it!

I spent the writing part of my day consolidating the new novel. I've already plotted out some bridging chapters. I'm now a tad ahead of schedule so I feel pretty good. I'm really trying to keep the momentum going.

Last year's vacation in, of all places, Missouri. We had to go paddle the Current River and explore some of North America's largest fresh water springs.

This is where we'll be next week: Wakulla Springs (among other places in Florida). We've never been at this particular spring so we'll hit this one and a couple of others. Wakulla is one of the deepest and highest volume fresh water springs on Earth.

Wakulla apparently has some awesome swimming and diving facilities! Yeeeeeeee-HAH!