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Published: September 6th 2006
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We spent the next three days of the trip driving to Fort Myers, Florida. The drive was long and tedious however we did have a few unusual experiences along the way.
On Monday the 21st of August we stayed the night in Mobile, Alabama. When we arrived, we headed to the local library and bought a few groceries at the supermarket.
Once back at the campsite the drama began to unfold. Shane found a friendly cat who he invited into the motorhome. Chris decided to pat and play with the cat before... IT BIT HER... Now normally in Australia this would be fine but due to Chris recently reading a novel where a character died from Rabies, Chris almost immediately started hyperventaliting believing that she may have caught the virus. After trying to calm Chris down Shane visited the park manager who said the cat hadn't been vaccinated but assured Shane that Chris would be fine as the cat was born there in the park.
As the colour drained from Chris's face Shane considered the options of who to call and what to do in order to make Chris feel better. Firstly Shane tried to find out if
Chris had the Rabies vaccination back home. This included a call to his brother Ryan (who was back at Shane's parents house, hopefully trying to get a job but who really knows) who searched for Shane's group certificate which had Chris's grandmother's business name on it. Ryan then got the phone number from the phone book and Shane called Lorna (Chris's grandmother). After a few gratuities and Chris having a chat, Lorna said she would call Chris's doctor.
As we were about to call Lorna back we were approched by yet another homeless American man wanting to speak to us. He raved on for about 20 minutes, during which Shane repeatedly tried to escape only to be shut down and told to listen up. He explained how fabulous he thought Australians were, until we assume his view changed when Shane didn't give him any money.
We finally managed to speak with Lorna again who said no vaccine had been given to Chris so we headed for the 'Emergency Room'. We were greeted in the carpark by security who asked if we were visiting someone and Chris asked if she should go inside due to the cat bite, realising
it wasn't really an emergency, she didn't want to take up the emergency staffs time. The security replied with a confused look "well your at the hospital, I cannot think of a better place to be". So we headed inside and depsite the 30 odd people waiting we were greeted shortly after by the RN who said due to to the bite not breaking the skin, Chris would be fine.
Chris declared never to touch a stray cat again...
Tuesday the 22nd of August consisted of driving the 400 miles to Lake City were we stayed in Walmart for the night. The sleep was made a little easier by the fact that we had just bought a small fan that hooks into the cigarette lighter and had strategically placed it to blow on us during the night
On Wednesday the 23rd of August we made the final few hundred mile drive to Fort Myers. Along the way we were both extremely surprised to find a sign on the side of the road stating "prisoners working ahead". We then drove past approximately 10 people cleaning and mowing the side of the highway, dressed in prison black and white stripes.
Chris at Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge
We went for the alligators but we mainly saw birds We stayed that night at a very green motorhome park and prepared for our tour the following day of the Sanibel and Captiva islands.
We woke late on Thursday the 24th of August and headed for the islands. We stopped momentarily to pay the $6 bridge toll and headed to the visitors centre. We collected a few brochures and found a motorhome park on the island which we decided would be a great place to stay. Chris declared that we should buy a holiday house here however Shane was more worried about the island being totally covered in water if a hurricane hit.
Shane finally convinced Chris to go for a bike ride with him. After packing the backpack we headed down to the lighthouse and fishing pier.
At the end of the track Chris dismounted the bike looking very very pale and almost ready to faint. The heat has not improved in Florida. After taking a few moments rest we headed to the fishing pier to see a dolphin swiming less than 20 metres from the beach and many people fishing. We rode back to the motorhome park and Shane continued his explorations while Chris
cruised back to the motorhome to rehydrate and take a well deserved rest (or she thought it was deserved).
Shane later did some laundry, not beacuse he wanted to but beacuse Chris was too scared to head outside. There are signs and a swamp 10 metres from our motorhome saying do not feed the alligators and no lights at all. Shane returned later and sheepishly admitted how creepy it was out there.
We woke on Friday the 25th of August to find the motorhome with no power... After Shane had a chat with the park owner, he discovered overnight there was a huge storm and the 3 islands had all lost power.
We had a pretty quite day due to the heat. We spent most of the day in the motorhome just sitting back relaxing and reading a book (yes thats right folks, Shane can read).
We did manage to see the island a little though. We firstly headed to Tarpoon Bay and then drove to Captiva Island where we stopped and took a few photos of the beach. Along the way we saw some of the nicest homes we have seen on the trip surrounded
by lush tropical settings and backing onto the beach.
On the way back to the motorhome park we stopped for some fresh prawns for dinner. Chris also distracted Shane and somehow we ended up in a diamond shop... This time though we didn't leave empty handed...
Chris was given a bottle of water by the sales assistant!!! hahaha (due to her loud and persistent hiccups).
We woke on Saturday the 26th of August and headed to Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge. We stopped at the visitors centre and collected our maps from the lovely elderly woman at the information desk.
We opted to drive the 4 mile road and both agreed at the end that it was the best option. We stopped along the way a few times trying to spot a few alligators but we only managed to see a few birds, a turtle and a racoon.
We left Sanibel Island and started to make our way to the Everglades National Park. On the way we finally found some international food stores, where we bought some indian and asian items, before heading to Walmart for the night.
On Sunday the 27th of August we
woke early and finished the drive to the Everglades National Park. Our first stop was at Everglades Private Airboat Tours. We were both excited to find that within only 5 minutes of being there we had seen our first alligators and booked a seat on the next boat trip leaving shortly.
We stepped aboard the boat (well Chris actually pushed her way through, past the little kids to claim shotgun for us both) and within a few moments we were on our way at upwards of 40 mph. The noise was eased due to the sexy ear mufflers they kindly provided us with.
Our tour guide stopped a number of times along the way were we met several alligators.
The guide liked to get up close and personal with the alligators and by this we mean he was basically holding their heads and almost putting his hands into their mouths. We also saw an alligator nest where newly born babies were swimming around however the protective mother quickly intervened.
The Everglades is the only National Park to be protected due to its ecological basis. Our guide raced through the mangroves which was fun as we dodged
a various number of obstacles along the way.
After our airboat ride we stopped briefly at the Shark Valley Visitors Centre where we discovered they were closing early due to a hurricane warning and needing to prepare. After speaking with the ranger we discovered that a storm Shane found a few days earlier had now been named Florida's first hurricane for the season. With Shane again screaming profanities we left needing to consider our new options...
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Matt A
non-member comment
Nice alligator pics! Seems quite appropiate considering the recent passing of Aussie legend Steve Irwin, which I'm sure you guys have now heard about over there...