Spring Break 2022 Day Three...

I have to say, our third day in Florida, was the highlight of our trip! When we planned our day out on the swampy banks, gator hunting, none of us had any idea what to expect!

The next morning, we shipped our clubs back home, loaded up suitcases, and drove from Bowling Green down to the Lake Placid area. We met up with our guide later that afternoon and set off on the swamp buggy on a pretty warm and overcast afternoon. Pedro has been guiding these hunts for over 25 years, and I know we were all depending on him to make sure we didn't up in the tummy of one of these massive gators!

The first pond we stopped at, was full of gators- really big and grumpy gators! The way this worked was very different than what I anticipated. We began our hunt by 'fishing' for these gators. Once we had them hooked, we started the long and tiring process of reeling them in close enough to get a good clean shot. It took several tries to find a gator that was within the required length of Micah's license.  When he finally got the gator reeled up to the bank, we were all in shock in realizing that the gator had another smaller gator's head in his mouth! It was the craziest thing any of us had ever seen!

From there, Pedro took us around to hunt on foot a bit, where he showed us just how sneaky these big boys are! At one point, he stopped us right in from of a big muddy watering hole- not more than a few feet deep. He said, "I want you to all look in it this mud puddle and see if you can find the gator'. Well, I looked and looked and finally decided he was going to grab one of us just for a fun little scare. To all of our astonishment, he walked over with a long wooden stick and tapped what I thought was a rock. Well, that rock was actually a gator head, not 10 feet from us and that head revved up and snapped his toothy snout and whipped his beastly tail all about. I realized right then and there, those things could hide in plain sight! This both terrified and amazed me!

At this point, the rain started threatening, so we loaded back up to let the boys do their hunting. The rain fell good and hard for a bit and while the boys scoped out the banks, I stood under the swamp buggy for a bit of dry shelter. The rain eventually cleared off and both Roen, and then Remi got their gators! What a fun adventure this was for us all!

The boys are having wallets made from the belly, pencil holders from the feet and of course, all the meat is being packaged and sent back home to the Lone Star! The boys knowing how to hunt and do it responsibly is something very important to Micah and I. I am a firm believer that boys need to know how to feed their fire with things like hunting, fishing, and as much sunshine as they can get! Of all the things we have done with the boys, this has to rank top 5!