Don and I decided to take an Everglades air boat ride, one of those once-in-a-lifetime things to do. So off we went early one chilly morning up to the air boat ride on the Tamiami Trail Road west of Miami.
The brochure said that Cooperstown Air Boat Rides are the best, so we will go with that. (Of course it was their own brochure…)
Driving in that direction taught us that anyone who owned an air boat and who could put up a booth along side the road could sell air boat rides…and did!
However, Cooperstown had been here for a lot of years, and unfortunately looked it, but hey, who cares? It’s an adventure, right? Actually, we had already given them the credit card number over the phone when making the reservation, so we were going to be going with them one way or another.
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| Our air boat looked like this one on the right. |
Actually, the driver of our air boat ride and guide had been doing this for some 30+ years, so he was quite knowledgeable, which was good, so in spite of the tacky building and attached small café (equally old and tacky), it was a good choice.
American White Egrets are everywhere in the Everglades and Florida in general. They are beautiful, graceful birds and I never tired of seeing them.
Like the Blue Herons we have on our river in Oregon, Egrets are patient fishers. There are Blue Herons here, also, but they are out numbered by the Egrets.
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| One of about a gazillion White Egrets we saw in the Everglades. |
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| Wood Stork, a.k.a. Steel Head |
As we took off in the boat, birds raised in lazy formations out in front of us.
Yes, the Everglades are full of grasses, not as tall as in my imagination, and very few trees, but heavily covered with watery grasses.
This was interspersed with “waterways” that our guide told us was “humanly influenced.” In other words, the air boats tend to encourage waterways, but no one goes out and cuts the grass or in any way makes waterways, they just tend to happen due to the traveling of air boats.
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| The Everglades, not exactly as I had imagined. |
Lots of birds continued to rise ahead of as we sailed along the waterways.
Then we turned into a bit deeper waterway and were looking for alligators that weren’t showing up as it was a bit too chilly for them to be laying out in plain view.
Suddenly we came up on a small island with an old duck hunting cabin on it. It is still in use periodically for picnics and such. At one time it had been used as a movie set. It was somewhat surprising to find this out in the middle of the Everglades.
The waterways are full of a native water lily. It has a small yellow blossom that stays in a tight little ball and does not spread wide open as the water lilies that we are used to seeing.
Of course we were looking to see alligators in the Everglades. Our guide pulled up to a couple places where he said certain alligators like to hang out. But not on this day. It was chilly and alligators don’t like to be cold.
Our guide decided to call them…”MARY ANN!! MARY ANN!!!! WHOOP!! WHOOP!! Thankfully we were not over run by an excited alligator responding to the call…Who was he kidding, anyway??
Eventually we did see one hanging out before the ride was over. I don’t know what his name was…the guide didn’t call him either...and he just laid there.
After our air boat ride ended, we stopped in the little café to warm up and try the alligator tail meat that you just have to have if you are in the Everglades, at least once…
The lady in the café explained to me that it was, “Very lean, low fat and healthy…of course we deep fry it…” Hmmm! OK, we’ll try it anyway.
Alligator is served like popcorn shrimp, in small breaded deep fried pieces and does NOT taste like chicken. Actually it is more of a cross between chicken and pork and is a bit chewy. It tasted pretty good…for alligator, anyway…one small serving to go, no sides or anything else, was $15.00. OK, so once was quite enough.
While waiting for our overpriced “snack,” a sheriff was in the café talking with one of the guides about killing snakes in the Everglades, the ones I expected to see hanging from trees.
It seems there is a problem with pythons that people have released when they got too big to keep as pets and now they are reproducing and causing a big problem. He also said he had recently killed an Anaconda. YEOW!! That got a rise from the guide and was enough to make my hair stand up as well.
I knew we needed a machete!
After leaving Cooperstown, “Population, 8” according to the sign, we continued on the Tamiami Trail out through the Everglades.
Out here we happily saw lots of birds, egrets, blue herons, little blue cranes, anhinga (snake birds), wood storks, and others. There were also alligators…BIG alligators along the road. By this time it had warmed up some so they were laying out and around the edges of the water.
I would like to tell you this guy winked at me, but he never even blinked!
We stopped for lunch at an Seminole Indian Reservation restaurant that served typical Everglade food, fried alligator, fried Indian fry bread, fried frog legs, fried everything…
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| Miccosukee (Seminole) Indian Restaurant |
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| Little Blue Heron |
After that stop, we turned north for a while as we were heading towards “Alligator Alley,” a recommended drive to see lot of alligators.
We were surprised to suddenly see signs warning us of “Panther Crossings.” Panthers in Florida are protected and are the same critters that we called “Mountain Lions” when we lived in California and are called “Cougars” in Oregon. The term, “Panthers” was still a bit of a shock.
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| Not just any cat... |
Alligator Alley did not produce any alligator sightings, only that of alligator fencing.
The entire route (of about 50 miles) was lined with 8-foot tall chain link fence with another couple feet on top of that that angled back toward the Everglades. It seems that alligators are adept at climbing chain link fences, and so the angled portion is all that keeps them from coming over the top.
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| Lots of alligator fencing. |
Next blog, Key Largo.
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