Gators and Ants

Well, you can't win 'em all. After Sunday night's resounding success with our Harvest Host overnight stay at the goat farm, it was with high hopes that we arrived at Gulf Coast Gator Ranch and Tours. The Ranch was closed because of all the flooding they had recently suffered, I was told when I called to request a stay, but we were welcome to boondock in the parking lot and it might be open tomorrow. Great!

As we slowly circled the parking lot, from our high vantage point we could see over the stockade fencing that enclosed the gator area. A huge alligator leapt off the bank into the water, just like on a nature show. This was going to be fun!

We got ourselves set up and I walked over to see what I could see, taking this photo through a hole in the fence. I could see several large gators sunning themselves.

We parked next to the river where the boat tours departed, and spoke with the fellow who runs the tours and stays on the property all the time. It was nice to know there was someone else on the premises.

Because we were on a highway, road noise was loud and the fumes from passing cars drifted down into our parking area. But the temperatures were comfortable, and with my White Noise app on the iPad we couldn't hear the traffic or the trains that passed by near us. Bob and I had a significant amount of data left on our Verizon month, due to expire at midnight, so we spent a couple of hours streaming videos of the Sunday night shows we had missed since we were on the road. We were unable to use it all up but made a good dent in it before it was lost.  We had increased our data the previous month because of overages caused by staying in Red Bay with no public WiFi. Next month we will have our usual amount.

I got up at about 6:00 am (I'm still on Daylight Standard Time for the East Coast, so my internal clock is two hours off,) and was horrified to find little ants all over the floor, everywhere. Bob and I battled them with a mop and Windex, my bug killer of choice, and they kept on coming in. We must have parked on a big anthill. Yuck.

So we hurried up with our breakfast, showers, and prep for travel, and were on the road before 8:30 am. Bob spoke to the boatman who was readying the boats for today's tours, and explained why we were "bugging out," so to speak, without purchasing a tour. We both felt rather badly about that, but those ants were still coming in.

Hopefully we can have a better night tonight without uninvited guests.