HA and I arrived Christmas Eve after an exciting stormy sail at Black Point Marina near Homestead FL to spend Christmas with David and Karen (K's south FL sister). David picked us up and got us "home" in time to change clothes and enjoy a warm family style Christmas eve dinner with his family. That was followed by a fun Christmas morning opening gifts and constantly eating. I told David about a transmission problem I had been lately monitoring aboard Senara, so he spent Christmas afternoon down in the engine hole helping me diagnose it. Friday I called a mechanic who actually drove up from Key Largo that afternoon. He determined the transmission was "effed up" so he removed it and took it back to the shop with him. While I was working on this issue, HA left with David to go airboat riding in the everglades! Check out the pictures below. Saturday morning, HA boarded a plane in Miami and flew home. Since I was jealous of her airboat outing, David was nice enough to take me out Saturday afternoon. David's son (my nephew-in-law) John and his girlfriend, Sara joined us on John's superfast racing airboat too. I learned that Senara's transmission would not be fixed in time for us to depart on Sunday as scheduled, so I called K and suggested that she could extend (again) her stay in VA to continue helping with her dad's health issues. She rescheduled the flight down for Wednesday (new year's eve). Sunday, David invited me to join him out to his hunting camp with his brother and friends for a couple of days. So I rode with him on the "buggy" out to camp, 13.5 miles off the road in the middle of the Big Cypress Preserve. The information at the game check station says the Big Cypress is 729,000 acres of nothing but nature. Amen. I actually tapped a 6 foot alligator on the nose with my hand and fed him a hunk of venison. I have been on one of my nature highs all day. Then this evening we learned that K's dad has taken a turn for the worse. So here I sit with a wide mixture of tired excitement and exhilaration, combined with frustration and concern. It has been an incredible, adventurous Christmas thanks to Karen and David. K and I were married down here, and I very much feel like a true part of their South Florida family. But it is also the first Christmas that K and I have not been together in 25 years, and I am afraid that this Christmas marks the beginning of a difficult stretch for her dad - and the whole family. The yin and the yang. A lot has happened in the last five days. It really has been a safari, literally and figuratively. I will remember everything about the everglades. I will remember being with family during the fun of Christmas, and during the difficulty of bad news. I will remember David being incredibly generous with his time. And I will remember missing K.
HA and David airboating in the glades! Yes she drove it too.
Ever since I saw the show "Gentle Ben" as a child in the 1960s, I have wanted to drive an airboat in the everglades. Now I can mark it off my list. Wow!
Now that's what I call a four-wheeler! David built this swamp buggy himself using a frame and motor from a Toyota 4WD pickup.
This is gator country. And yes, this is me hand feeding a big gator. You have to tap him on the nose with your hand, then he opens his jaws and you toss the venison in. My heart is still pounding.
I guess he is full. He is headed out across the front of the camp.
1 comment:
Sorry to hear about K's Dad. I'm sure it's very difficult. Our thoughts and prayers are with you all.
By the way, let me know if you run into any more problems with your boat. I just got off the phone with a customer/friend of mine who is in Ft. Lauderdale. He has contacts down there and in the Bahamas. He had no problem giving me names to drop if need be. Take care.
Mark Marchetti
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