Photo by Cherie Anderson
Florida has two seasons: the rainy season from June to November and the dry season from November to May. Daily, afternoon thunderstorms are the norm in South Florida during the summer months.
Upon arrival and after thanking God that we were finally there, the immediate need was to get shelter because the storm was coming. I wasn�t half way done setting up the tent when it started to pour and lightning bolts started to strike directly overhead. My dogs and I were soaked. The three of us would jump with each blast of thunder and the girls were trembling. I knew that Florida is the lightning capital of the world. Thousands of lightning strikes per storm are not uncommon. Florida accounts for approximately 1/5 of all the human casualties related to lightning strikes throughout the USA. Like any other normal human being or animal, I too was terrified of lightning.
I cried out to God, �Alright, if this is how you want me to go, so be it. Just make sure that you take my girls too.� Since that moment, I have lost all fear of lightning; nonetheless whenever possible, I still take precautions.
July and August are nesting season for alligators in Florida. Around the middle of June the female lays her eggs and about two months later they hatch. During this time they are particularly aggressive protecting their nests and their hatchlings. Every night, I could hear a gator bellowing from the east end of the island. I, therefore, avoided going for walks in that area but we would take walks to the west end of the island. From the moment we arrived, my dogs had been running loose. The first couple of days they would happily follow me when I went down the west trail to gather wood but, suddenly, they utterly refused to go down that trail again or even set a paw in the water no matter how hard I coaxed them. I will never know what frightened them. I can only assume that they had some kind of encounter with one of the alligators. I later found out from some locals who frequent the island that there are a couple of five- footers in the area.
After I saw the size of the U, I had no intentions whatsoever of continuing the trip without outriggers. I had tried to make two out of river reeds but my efforts were unsuccessful. They looked pitiful.
Some locals came by. I showed them the pressed grass and they agreed that it certainly looked like it had been made by a gator. I asked one of them if I could borrow their cell phone to call my friend Cherie.
I was in the midst of a panic attack when I talked to Cherie. I blurted out to her about the ten-foot gator on the island stalking my dogs. I begged her to bring me the board from the windsurfer so that I could out rig the canoe and continue the trip in relative safety.
