Lesson in Life #5: Don’t Wait for Perfect Conditions to Find Some Fun
Alligator Alley and the Tamiami Trail, The Florida Everglades
Primeval. Forsaken. Unforgiving. Hot. Dangerous. These were the words I’d used to describe the Florida Everglades to the kids BEFORE we drove down there to see it for ourselves.
Runaway slaves living in maroon societies. Native Americans resisting assimilation. Folks who managed somehow, some way over many generations, to live in one of the most inhospitable environments in the world. These were the people whose descendants I thought we’d meet and learn from BEFORE we arrived in South Florida.
Alligators, pythons, and panthers. These were the animals I told them we’d find in one of the world’s largest and oldest subtropical preserves of wilderness BEFORE we actually began our trek through the wetlands.
Instead, as we entered the Florida Everglades via Interstate 75, otherwise known as Alligator Alley, and headed east via the Tamiami Trail, we found mostly freezing cold rain, a friendly displaced Louisiana Cajun, and one “wild” alligator named Hailey.
The Florida Everglades is massive and to say we only scratched the surface when we visited it is to overstate our time there. We entered Everglades National Park via one of the north gates late in the afternoon and found only two other cars in the parking lot amid the monsoon rain that was coming down. Freezing monsoon rain in the middle of the summer.
The only one of us brave enough to get out of the car was our oldest son, Jack. He was determined to make our one day visit to the Everglades more than a drive by. He was willing to get soaked to walk along the nearby trails to say he actually was IN the Everglades. My fears of gators and snakes prevented me from getting out of the car to join him. I gave him a blessing and said good luck. His solo excursion was very brief. Jack was back in the car in about two minutes and the torrential rain continued to fall from the sky.
Unsatisfied with this glimpse of the Everglades, we determined to keep driving and see if there was another entrance we could find. We hoped the rain would stop long enough to allow us to get out of the car and explore this watery land we longed to see for so many years. Unfortunately, we found no other entrance into the National Park and the incessant rain continued.
However, just as we were running out of options and road, with Miami nearly in sight of the car, we found hope for making a lasting memory of our day in the Everglades.
Off to the side of the Tamiami Trail, we started to see signs for Everglades airboat rides. Yes! We could take an aluminum boat driven by a massive fan into the Everglades and see it all from the safety and elevation of a truly unique mode of transportation.
We pulled into the first roadside venture and asked the lady at the counter for tickets. “Sorry honey, we have no more tours today. The rain is too much, our people have gone home. You could try the one up the road…they might still be open. I think they close at 5.” The look on our youngest son Henry’s face went from sadness and despair to joy and possibility. After so many hours in the car, he might just have some fun after all.
We got back in the car and looked at the time: 4:42 p.m. I pulled out of the parking lot and floored it. To tell you that Michelle and Emma were not happy with my driving and sudden obsession with making this happen is an understatement. In fact, Michelle kept saying “No” and “You’re not going to make it” pretty much for the next 5 minutes but alas, we made it. This time.
Henry, Jack, and I jumped out of the car in the still pouring rain, just in time to see several uniformed airboat captains getting into their monstrously big and loud trucks and blasting out of the parking lot calling it a day. Hope was quickly fading again.
I went up to the covered platform where you pay and asked the female operator “is there any chance for a last ride of the day?” As she shook her head no, she said “let me see if someone is willing to take you.”
After a torturously long few minutes waiting for her return, here she comes and who is that with her? The Cajun Captain! Who dat man gonna take us to the glades? Who dat man?
Unafraid of the absolutely pouring down rain at this point, the Cajun Captain tells us to go check out the caged gators on the side of the property while he gets the Cadillac engine on the airboat started and ready to roll.
We quickly met the caged gators, old and young, mamas and babies, then we jumped on board the airboat ready to ride through the Everglades in glory.
With the Cajun Captain sitting high in his chair above and behind us, and the Cadillac engine purring, we slowly floated out into the miles and miles of watery trails. When we hit a more open area, our Captain let it rip and we took off on the ride of a lifetime.
Henry, Jack, and I started laughing uncontrollably and getting whipped in the face by rain. Michelle and Emma covered just about every part of their heads and faces trying not to get pelted by the rain but their efforts were in vain. As soon as the airboat started to fly, all of their preparations became undone and they were exposed. We became one with the Everglades. Resistance was futile.
After a 15 minute jaunt, our Cajun Captain slowed the boat down and finished giving us a brief history of the glades. He turned off the motor, and in that instant, we felt so alone in the Everglades. Only the sounds of the rain could be heard.
After another minute or two, the silence was broken when our Captain started to whistle. He sent out a few louder whistling calls; then, we heard him say “Hailey! Hailey, girl! Come here Hailey girl!”
And just like that she appeared. Our one and only alligator in the wilds of the Upper Everglades came slowly up out of the water toward the boat summoned by our Cajun Captain and perhaps some food he was throwing to her which we couldn’t see. We saw old Hailey girl, watched her navigate the waters as her ancestors had for millions of years, and our Everglades experience was complete.
Looking back on this day, it’s easy to see where we could’ve quit numerous times that afternoon and determined that it just wasn’t meant for us to see the Everglades. The thought of telling folks back home that we went to the Everglades and didn’t see one alligator was just too much. Our perseverance paid off in the end and the lesson of not insisting that things always line up perfectly in order to find some fun was one we took from that day.
This sounds amazing yet painstaking!! I am such a wimp here in Florida with the gators🤢😂However I used to love water sports and activities in Virginia… and my husband is from Michigan where we’ve taken many a canoe travel down Mohawk River!!Im so happy you were all able to make that tour!! It always feels so great when a plan turns out in these types of situations when you think it won’t!! ❤️
great lesson!