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Cults, Backroads and Alligator Barf

Saturday, March 12th – Naples to the Everglades, Florida – Day 33 

 The campsite we were staying in was Koreshan State park. We had seen the sign to the historic district when we came in but didn’t pay too much attention. We decided to go see what it was all about before we left. Our morning featured Coffee for Campers. We arrived early to get some coffee, hot chocolate, tea and treats. It was a nice way to start the morning. We didn’t really talk to anyone but appreciated the drinks and treats. Once everyone had showered, finished laundry and packed up the trailer, we drove to the historic district. 


 The story of the Koreshans is crazy. Dr. Cyrus R. Teed started a religious order based on the idea that the universe existed on the inside of the Earth. The Earth wraps around the universe. They developed a measuring device to prove that the Earth’s was concave. They were celibate but that’s okay because once you are reborn you will come back to the community to sustain numbers. The Koreshans were also very successful people. I suppose when your religion is partially based on geometry, the entry standard is high. Apparently, Cyrus called himself a messiah and stated that he would rise again. When he didn’t rise again and just started rotting, numbers in the community took a nose dive. 






 We drove through Naples again to see it in the daylight. The day was rainy, windy and cold so before we decided to start heading to the Everglades, we decided to have lunch at a free museum. The Collier Museum was excellent. We saw the skull of a sabre tooth tiger, explored the history of Florida from pre-colonial times to present, played around on an old train and saw a traditional Seminole village. I didn’t realize that most of the original inhabitants in Florida succumbed to death due to disease and eventually indigenous populations were reduced until a mixture of freed slaves, indigenous people from Mississippi and Arkansas moved to Florida and these are called the Seminole people. The girls got to colour and cut out an animal mask, and make a paper Seminole figurine under the watchful eye of a very helpful employee. 



 I was looking forward to the drive down to the Everglades since we wanted to visit Alligator Alley. We took highway 41 on our way across the country from Naples to Homestead, and then the Everglades. To really see some alligators we took the scenic drive; a dirt road loop that ran deeper into the wilderness. Unfortunately, alligators like sun so on a wet cloudy day we were likely pretty limited in what we could see. We kept stopping at culverts and bridges to look for alligators. Our first spotting was on a bridge where we could see two in the midst of a really scenic part of the wetland. Multiple failures later and liberal skipping of culverts, we reached a pond with six or seven alligators. Another family there warned us about letting the kids get too close to the side of the road. Johnny looks like a tasty little meatball. One last stop where a man was fishing featured one alligator waiting for the fisherman to throw an injured fish back. 


After that we decided to push forward and get on the road. Once we entered the Everglades National Park, we had to drive 60 or 70 more miles to get to our campsite at Flamingo. Mary was talking about the Everglades being all alligator barf and was pretty scared about us sleeping in a swamp full of crocodiles (all the water was salt so crocodiles is appropriate). We reached our campsite at 11pm. It was open but quite nice and not any alligator barf to be seen.

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