Day 18

World Cup! USA vs. Slovenia. You know that ref is losing his job for waving off the goal. Good game though. I think we are both getting an itch from being indoors too long. With little delegation from either party a new course trajectory is set. We’re off to the Everglades! We’ve been on a Gator quest since Louisiana. We wake up Bill, say our good-byes and head out. We repeat the “you think you’re there the whole time” drive all the way back across the Flordia Keys. We could swim it faster.

Finally, we hit the mainland, stock up on a few supplies, and head toward the world famous wetlands. The visitor center has already closed on us so we head into Gator country with a little map and brochure from the entrance gate guard. Half a mile in and it already looks like the only humans that have been here in the past built the little road we’re driving on and promptly left. We take a quick glance at the first campground a few miles from the gate and decide against it. We want to go into the everglades, way into the everglades. Our map shows an area about 40 miles deep where the rivers snake and overlap numerous times before hitting the ocean. That’s got our name written all over it. The ecosystem appeared to change about four times on our way out there. Wooded forest, mangrove patches, stagnant water swamp, and desolate grasslands that give Rory flashbacks to his time in Africa. This place is enormous.

We pull into the campgrounds to find one single couple occupying the entire land expanse. Brian and Jennifer are sitting out here next to their own Jeep actively fending off our number one enemy, mosquitoes. We select our spread and begin to realize the severity of our problem. We have less than a half of a can of bug spray left and intend on staying at least two nights. These are the breaks, we’ll manage. We set up, walk past our neighbors on the other side of the tree sprinkled field to say hi, and set out to explore the immediate area. Not long into our walk through the tall grasses we decipher a few too many snake holes below the thick. They seem endless actually. We begin looking for the quickest way out when we notice Brian and Jennifer pulling out of camp in their Jeep. They spot us, make an abrupt right, and pull up to us as close as they can. “...Guys wanna go on a little adventure?” No doubt, we run the car and jump in.

They take us to a dirt road that leads to some obscure lake. It’s a slow crawl on the rough dirt at first until Brian spots a large mud puddle. He mashes the gas peddle and doesn’t think twice. We blow through repeated troughs of white mud and lose visibility 100%. We make it out to the sketchiest trailhead and canoe launch imaginable. We walk for about a half of a mile before the bugs get too bad. Just the natural motion of swinging your arms while walking earns you a serious handful of mosquitoes and company. It becomes unbearable so we literally take off running, get to the car ASAP. Nightfall offers no improvement. The four of us build a camp fire and share the few meager supplies we have. The only refuge from the bug bites lies inside the fire’s smoke plume. It is worth not being able breath for a limited time. We still find plenty to laugh about for a few hours before heading off to bed.