Ever-Glad At the Everglades

Nope, that’s not a picture of your humble travel companion, the Roamin’ Rambler. It’s my travel buddy Roamin’ Roger. And we almost got a tails snipped off by Bobby Gator. That’s the one in the picture. And he lives in a very interesting part of the world: the Florida Everglades.

That’s right, the Roamin’ Rambler took to the states for the next few installments of my travel column. Why the Florida Everglades? Because that’s what we hit first! When you prefer to travel by boat, like I do, you pretty much have to start in the watery bits of a place. And there’s nothing more watery than the Everglades!

Now, before I get any futher along, let me tell you – the Florida Everglades are a completely different world full of different rules. The Everglades are over 100 miles long and local Seminole Indians have called it “Grassy Water” for years.

Let me tell you – they got the name spot on. Most of the Everglades are sawgrass prarie and look exactly like a big old field. Except I could paddle my boat right through it. Until Roamin’ Roger, my assistant and I, saw something that made us stop: Bobby Gator.

“Aaaah!” Roamin’ Roger screamed.

“What’s up?”

“Did you see that?”

I hadn’t seen a thing. “No, see what?”

“G-g-g-g…”

“Grandma?”

“No!”

“Gumbo?” I asked, my stomach rumbling because we’d been cooped up in our boat a while.

“G-G-G-G-GATOR!”

And before I knew what my arms were doing, Roamin’ Roger and I were paddling away from that thing in the water that looked exactly like a miniature, moving, swimming, toothy island.

Luckily, within minutes of paddling we hit the fresh-water swamp of the Everglades and then the Hardwood Hammock and then the Hotel Hammock, because we figured we’d be safer indoors. The Florida Everglades are 17,000 years old and, seeing Bobby Gator with his dinosaur smile, I believe it.