We spent about a week in Big Cypress National Preserve.  As a preserve instead of a park, it is open to more things like oil exploration and hunting.  Big Cypress is really a part of the Everglades, just a different name. The “big” in Big Cypress National Preserve refers to the size of the park, not the cypress trees.

On our first day there, we did a trail called the Gator Hook trail.  We were also thinking about another trail, but someone had told us that Gator Hook was the dry one, so we took it.  The trail started out a little muddy, but when we got to the dry part,  we thought that the rest of the trail would be nice and dry. Man, how we were wrong.  The first water we had to cross was only ankle deep and a few feet long,  but then we got to a patch of water that was almost up to our knees.  There were several more patches of water like that before we got to a long stretch of dry ground.  We walked on dry ground for a while before we got to the longest patch of water we had seen.  We couldn’t see the end, so we just kept slogging along.  Oh yeah, did I mention that the water was almost up to ours knees and pretty cold? While we were walking, Ma’s shoe started breaking and coming off.  My shoes weren’t coming off, but they were stuffed with mud and dead grass.  We must have been wading a quarter mile before we finally got to ground.  Soon after that, we met the man who had made the trail working on some benches.  He was so amazed to see kids that far out on the trail.  We hiked  a little past there, but it soon got very muddy and we decided to turn around.  After the long hike/wade back, we went home.   That afternoon, I learned that swamp mud does not come off easily, and requires some scrubbing to get off.

The next day, we started with a short boardwalk hike.  After that, we headed to the Skunk Ape Research Center.  The skunk ape is pretty much the Bigfoot of south Florida.  My favorite part of our visit was an animal encounter thing. First, I got to hold a small constrictor snake, and I had it hang from my wrist.  Then I got to hold a small  python which was pretty cool.  The best part was when I got to hold a forty pound python.  It was so heavy, I could hardly hold it!  I liked when it slid off into and I could feel it sliding on me.  After the python, I got to hold a white cockatiel.  Ma, with her nutty fear of birds, refused to even touch it.  When we were done with the birds,  Jay got a ride on a very large tortoise.  Little Kid didn’t want to get on at first, but by the time we were ready to leave, Little Kid didn’t want to get off.  After that, we ate a picnic lunch before driving to  Everglades City.  We spent a long time walking around, looking at this, looking at that.  We treated ourselves to ice cream sandwiches before we got back in the car and drove back to the RV.

The next day, we decided to go to a place called Shark Valley.   There was a fifteen mile loop road for a tram, that we decided to explore part of on foot.  One of the first things we saw was a beautiful bird called a purple gallinule.  Its feathers shone different colors in the sun.  It was really cool.  Near where we saw it, we also saw a two tiny baby turtles.  The small one was the size of a half dollar!  I was really surprised that it hadn’t been eaten by one of the two feet long baby alligators that we saw.  We also saw lots of full grown alligators bathing in the sun.  One of them however, must have done some hunting that morning, because it was crawling around with part of a dead anhinga in its mouth.  It was just crawling onto the bank when we got there, and soon it started chomping.  It was extremely awesome in a freaky way.  We were so close to the gator!  At one point, I think the alligator decided that we were too close because he hissed at Ma.  Ma backed off, and the gator kept eating.  After awhile, he stopped eating and was as still as every other gator we saw.  We had a picnic before we went home.

We spent our last two days at Big Cypress chilling and making reservations for the east coast.  Now we  are going to Everglades National Park.

because I apparently got too close during lunchtime …..

We spent about five days at Highlands Hammock State Park, but all we really did was chill.  Almost the whole time, Ma was sick, which was mostly the reason for us doing nothing.  One of the funny things about the park was that the dumpsters were surrounded with electric fences to keep bears out.  However, that did not keep raccoons out.  I was walking Barney one morning when I heard a snarling noises inside the dumpster.  When I told the campground host, he said it was probably a raccoon.  The host put a stick in the dumpster, and a moment later a raccoon popped out and ran away.  That was when I realized how it got in.  It had climbed up the outside of the wooden fence, which had no wires, climbed onto the lid which was leaning on the fence, walked across, and jumped in.  I was about to leave, when another raccoon came out and scampered away. By this time, Barney was very excited, pulling on his leash and barking.  When a third raccoon came out, Barney started baying.  I decided that it was a good time to leave, so we went home.

The rest of the week we spent hanging around the campsite and going to the playground.  On our last day, Ma, Little Kid, and I decided to play shuffleboard at the campground shuffleboard court.  It was very fun.  Little Kid also had fun pushing around pucks with his mini stick.  After playing for a while, we packed up the RV and set off for Big Cypress National Preserve.