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The Everglades - Part 1

Sunday, March 13th – Everglades National Park, Florida – Day 34 

 We woke up to our very open campsite. A very nice washroom a short walk away. We were also lucky because we looked out upon the trees at the edge of the park. Everyone else could see us, since everyone has their doors on the right side of their camper, but we couldn’t see anyone. 

We had a bit of a lazy morning, the time change hit us, leaving us an hour later in the day. Informational talks led by Rangers run throughout the day. We had missed a few but decided to rush out to the Crocs Alive talk at the Marina. It was great. Alligators are freshwater animals while crocodiles are salt water, so alligators generally aren’t found this far south. It is in the northern part of the range of the saltwater crocodile. She had skulls of an alligator and crocodile to show the kids. There was an osprey nest; the mother was chewing up a fish and feeding it to her two offspring. It was a great talk. But the crocodiles were no shows. 


 We stopped at the ranger station and got the booklets to complete for their junior ranger certification. The bookets have activities for three parks: Biscayne, Big Cypress and the Everglades. If they complete three activities per park then we can get an individual badge of each park and a special patch if we do all three. We also received a list of all the activities. They offer a free ranger led kayak in the afternoon but the wind was too intense to run it today. 

 We went back to camp to hang out and relax for a bit. I had to charge my cell phone in the washroom because we didn’t have any power or water at this site. We went back to the marina to see if the crocodiles and manatees were around. Both hang out by the marina pretty regularly. A 12-foot-long crocodile swam up the back countryside of the marina’s dam. Another smaller crocodile came out from the mangroves and there was some activity, loving or fighting I don’t know. The big one stayed around and came close to us standing on the dam. 


 In the morning, Gen had run into Gary and casual conversation resulted in some fantastic advice on what trails to walk. He had recommended the Coastal Prairie hike so we decided to check it out. The walk was a 3 km loop that led through forest, inland praries and coastal flood plains. It was hot and sunny on the prairie and it heated everyone up. The second half was along the coast, the tide was out and there were mangroves everywhere. We gathered some firewood to have a fire. 


 The other thing Gen found out about Gary was that his family was tight with Danny Green, NBA Championship Toronto Raptor Danny Green. He stayed at his brother’s house when he was in high school. Gen mentioned that Danny had been gracious enough to take a photo with me when I saw a game courtside. Gary - an energetic, gregarious, New Yorker living in Miami – was fantastic. He took a video showing the picture of Danny and me, my raptors hat, and us in the Everglades and sent it to his nephew. The nephew forwarded it to Danny Green and it got some love. Regardless, he extended an invitation to come by later. 

 While preparing a dinner of chickpea wraps, the kids met some new friends and they were playing around having a great time. After they went to bed, Gen and I were lucky enough to head over to Gary’s to hang out. Most Florida campsites are retirees who go to bed early so it was nice to see a little bit of life in the campground. We probably kept them up too late since they had a big fishing trip in the morning but after a while said our goodnights and went to bed.

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