Gator Alley

We left Treasure Island at 10:00 this morning and headed toward Gator Alley.  The temp was 65 when we started.  Pam, of course, had to have her jacket and liner on.  We stopped at a rest area for lunch (leftover turkey and salami roll ups on flatbread - healthy junk!) and it had warmed to 82 so Pam was able to travel in comfort with her 3/4 sleeve shirt and a light hoody over top of it.  😉

The temp got up to 87 degrees today, but there are storm clouds gathering.  It is supposed to rain sometime during the night.

We stopped in Osceola to see an alligator refuge on Highway 41.  There was a wooden view point where people can safely view down into the water and see all the alligators that gather there.  Bill Woods, do you recognize Fred from a few years back?

Even the grasshoppers are quite colorful down here.

He was asking about you & he's even bigger this year!  Not only could you see the alligators, but the water was filled with schools of fish.  There were gar and blue gill swimming around very unconcerned.  We kept our eyes open for more alligators as we rode on down the road, and a few did cooperate by letting us see them.  One was even swimming up the ditch beside us.

We also saw many signs that said "Panther Crossing" with a picture of a panther on it.  Of course, by the time Pam decided she wanted a picture of it, the signs no longer had a picture of the panther on it.   It had only the words on the sign.  Then the signs started saying "Animals Crossing".  It did not say if the animals were large or small, and it said nothing about snakes.  We don't know whether to feel safe or not!  LOL.  One interesting thing we did see was a blue heron.

We are staying in Homestead tonight.  Hopefully there will be more pics tomorrow since we're going to Everglades National Park. Till then, nighty night.