Our Mosquito Nightmare in the Everglades

June 28-29, 2010. Collier State Park, The Everglades. Since we lost a week, we had to forego our trip to the keys, but decided to head down to the top of the Everglades, something the kids had wanted to see. Although we knew it would be buggy, we had no idea what we were in for that first night. What were we thinking? Couldn't we see the writing on the wall when we checked into the state park and the ranger told us we had our pick of spots since THERE WAS ONLY ONE OTHER OCCUPANT IN THE ENTIRE PARK? Apparently not. We pulled in and parked The Beast and set up camp. As evening approached, the mosquitos were relentless. We thought we'd be safe in The Beast but somehow they got in by the dozens. Karen and I survived but the mosquitos, otherwise known as the Florida State Bird, really like young kids' blood and they suffered many many bites. Needless to say, we cancelled our second night in the Everglades! Before we left, however, on the morning of the 29th we made it all worth it, as we had a private guide take us through about 200 acres on an air boat. The ride was a blast, at various speeds and even some doughnuts thrown in. But the highlight was our fortunate luck coming head on with a huge alligator (about 10-11 feet). We stopped the boat and FED THE ALLIGATOR MARSHMELLOWS! Got amazing pictures. And our crazy guide, trying to thrill us for a bigger tip I suppose, actually bends over and touches the alligator numerous times, showing us his ears and stuff. I'm thinking and saying, "Ok, that's good Captain Gary. I don't really want to have to drive this thing back after putting a tourniquet on your arm; and I don't know how to get back anyways...!!!!" Thus far, this was the highlight of our trip. After that, we checked out of our mosquito infested campground and headed east across Alligator Alley as it's called towards the east coast of Florida and bedded down for the night in a cozy little campground in a town called Jupiter.