Don Killingbeck, Jeremy Killingbeck

Today has been an eventful day.  I woke up at 3:30 AM to the blasting radio, took a shower, and was out of the house by 4:00 AM.  Me and Jeremy drove to US Air in the Indy airport.  We went to Charlotte from there.  We had a little trouble finding the right Airline (I thought we were taking US Continental).  We landed in Charlette about 10:05 AM.  The plane went 500 miles and hour and rose to 33,000 ft.  We experienced turbulence. 

It was cloudy and raining when we landed in Charlette.  We had a ½ hour to waste until our next flight so me and Jeremy ate at Pizza Hut.  We left Charlette on a dark blue plane at 11:05 AM.  We sat in the very back.  I got the window seat.  The jet engine sprayed the water away with enough force to fall an elephant.  Our flight took us over the Atlantic which we could see clearly as we landed.  It took forever to get off the plane but when we did the first thing I saw was Don’s head.  We got our luggage, went into the parking garage to get our disgustingly white van, and then traveled all the way to Key Largo. 

Florida has a lot of water.  There are canals everywhere.  The houses are made out of cement blocks because it’s to humid for wood and there are many Spanish style homes.  The vegetation is totally different than Indiana.  Palm trees, fern-like trees, tall pines and very dense, flush, vegetation cover the land.  We arrived at the Holiday Inn in Key Largo but weren’t there for more than half and hour before leaving for the Everglades.  During our short hotel stay, I must have seen three chameleons. 

My dad spent a lot of time trying to contact our guide for the tour.  The phone in the hotel wouldn’t’ take quarters; it took nickels and dimes only.  Our guide, Lay Kreimer, drove a large white, dirty van that we followed all the way to the everglades.  We passed palm trees, tomato plants, grape vines, and many other different farms.  Finally, we arrived at the small zoo and restaurant that provided Fan boat tours.  We first crossed a busy street and walked across a canal bridge to a small 8 foot pond where we discovered an alligator.  There were some ditzy Spanish people who threw a rock at it but it wasn’t hurt. 

This place worried me a little bit.  It wasn’t real bad but the Security police were there.  The zoo seemed a little run down, but was interesting.  We had to wait an hour for our guide to get his fan boat running.   Finally, after we had looked everything in the entire establishment, it was time to go.  Two immature, idiots tried to get a ride with us but the guide wouldn’t let them.  Our guide, Ray Kreimer was 51, with gray hair, glasses, and a wrinkled face.  He wore a Khaki outfit and had lived in the everglades all his life.  We loaded the fan boat.  Jeremy and I sat in the front, Don sat in the second row with three other people, and behind him 4 more people sat below the pilots seat high above.  Behind the pilot was a huge fan. 

The everglades reminded me most of a huge field at first.  The boat sped through little paths where the grass was short or nonexistent… at first.  It seemed like an eternity before we got to our first destination.  Traveling there seemed almost like flying.  The boat flew through grasses short and tall occasionally shooting remnant specs upon us.  At first, I found it hard not to flinch because the tall grass came at me so fast that I was sure it’d hit me.  We finally stopped and Ray talked to us for awhile.  Our guide was extremely quick at finding alligators.  He would spot tiny ones from a great distance.  He pointed out many smaller ones including a 3 footer, a baby, and many more.  There were also many 1 – 2.5 foot long garfish. 

The everglades are 90 x 140 miles across.  The neat thing is that ½ that area consist of tree covered islands covered built by the Indians.  The rest of the everglades are shallow grassy areas.  The everglades contained Florida panthers, possums, raccoons, water moccasins, alligators, white tailed deer, American Egrets (small, white crane-like birds) wild pigs, minks, turtles, eagles, hawks, and many more animals.  About midway through the tour, our guide spotted a small alligator and stopped the boat.  He quickly lashed out with his hand and caught it behind its neck.  He then showed us and let us hold it.  The next major event was our first 10 footer.  Our guide spotted it and we quickly swerved around and upon it.  It was huge!  You could see it perfect buy the powerful light mounted on Ray’s head.  We then stopped at a hungers base camp where the Indians used to live.   

One of the most exhilarating parts of the tour was being right next to a 10 ft long alligator with 1.5 inch long claws.  It had partially buried itself in the muck that went 8 ft down to solid rock.  It was sort of scary because if I jumped out he would have ripped me up.  As the tour progressed, the guide told us how he’d lived in Montana and hunted.  Then he moved to Florida and used to hunt frogs until the government wouldn’t let him anymore.  We sat out there in the dark and looked at the sky and he showed us Mars.  We also saw Venus and could see light pollution to the north.  He said he liked hurricane Andrew because all those lights went out.  The sky was beautiful.  You could see the milky way stretching across it.  Many times during the trip we would be going in between trees or beside islands.  Quite often we would glimpse American egrets or herons flying away.  On the way back in we were cruising at 25 mph when off to the right an alligator jumped at us mouth wide open.  Jeremy and Don never saw it but I did.  Our guide honed into the tall streetlight and we went back to our hotel.  Our guide had an extremely powerful light off an airplane that he wore on his head.  It illuminated everything on the way back.  This was a great experience.