More From The Okefenokee Swamp And Other Tales (Tails)

I had forgotten that I had promised to post a video I had taken “up close and personal” of an alligator which shows how fast they can be.  So, here it is.

To spice up this short, little blog, I thought I would tell another “Leu You Idiot” story.  This one is about the time I was an undergraduate at the University of Michigan back in 1969 and drove down to Florida during spring break with some friends.  There were four of us: a fellow with his girl friend, another fellow and I.  We stopped at a visitor center at the Okefenokee Swamp because we had driven overnight and needed a break to stretch our legs and get a bite to eat.

After our meal we walked along the boardwalk and saw a place where they had canoes for rent and I came up with a “great idea”.  Since we were all poor college students, instead of renting a couple of canoes, why didn’t we just blow up our plastic beach rafts and simply drift down the same waterways the canoers took to enjoy the scenery.  Brillant!

Well, we did just that and in the process, got lost in the swamp.  We saw no one to help us find our way back so we just drifted and paddled our way around through the growth of cedar trees, water lillies and brush.  We never thought of the swamp being filled with alligators until we saw what we thought was a head slowly bobbing up and down ahead of us,  Gulp!

Fortunately, it was just a branch slowly moving up and down in the water due to the current.  Whew!  We eventually found our way back to the boardwalk by getting off our our plastic rafts (which were by now leaking air) and slogging our way through the swamp on  bare foot.  We arrived back at the visitor center safe and sound.  Another “Leu You Idiot” adventure completed!