In Saturday’s blog, I mentioned that I had never seen an alligator in the wild. Always ready to offer suggestions and ideas, a lot of readers either posted comments or sent e-mails giving me tips on places where I could expect to find an alligator.

Several of you recommended the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, just a couple of miles from downtown Titusville. It turned out to be the perfect place to cross seeing an alligator off of my bucket list. Located next to the John F. Kennedy Space Center, the wildlife refuge covers 140,000 acres, providing habitat for more than 1,500 species of plants and animals.

Yesterday, Tim and Ann Moran took us on a driving tour of the Refuge. Our first stop was the Visitor Center, where I got my National Park Passport stamped, and we checked out the exhibits on the Refuge and the area’s flora and fauna. I told a nice lady on duty in the Visitor Center that I was on a mission to see an alligator, and she gave us a map and some tips of places where we could expect to see plenty of alligators.

Her first suggestion was the Black Point Wildlife Drive, a seven mile loop that winds past wetlands, and includes a viewing area and restrooms. We had only driven a half mile or so before I spotted my first alligator in the wild, a small fellow maybe four feet long, lounging in the water of a shallow canal. I was thrilled, and we all piled out of Tim’s Jeep Cherokee and started snapping pictures. Very cool!

However, that was apparently the only alligator anywhere on the loop drive. We saw lots of birds, from egrets to herons, and plenty of fish jumping out of the water, but no more gators.

From there, we drove down Kennedy Parkway, a paved two lane road that ended at the Space Center. My friend from the Visitor Center said it was another good place to spot alligators, but we didn’t see any in spite of carefully scanning the banks of the channels and ponds as we drove by. I was disappointed, but what the heck, my goal was to see an alligator in the wild, and I had accomplished that, so it was a good day.

The final place the lady had marked on my map was the Bio Lab Road, a narrow six mile long dirt road sandwiched between the wide Intercoastal Waterway and a series of canals and brackish ponds. The south end of the road, where we turned onto it, was close to Playalinda Beach, one of a handful of beaches in Florida that allows nude sunbathing. Miss Terry shot me a look that let me know that was one thing I would not be scratching off my bucket list anytime soon!

We hit the jackpot on Bio Lab Road. Ann quickly spotted a large gator sunning itself on the bank of a canal, and again we all piled out of the Jeep to take pictures. Only a couple of hundred feet down the road, Terry saw the next alligator, another impressive specimen.

For the entire length of the road, we saw one alligator after another, either sunning themselves on the bank, swimming in the water, or submerged, with just their heads out of the water.

The alligators seemed to pretty much ignore us, and we were glad we had the canals between the alligators and us, though most of the canals were only a few feet wide, and I know gators can move pretty fast when they want to.

We were very careful to watch on both sides of the road, so that nothing slipped up behind us while we were looking the other way. Matted down areas in the grass showed us where the giant reptiles traveled. At one point Tim and Terry had climbed back into his Jeep, but Ann and I were still snapping away with our cameras when we heard a very loud splash in the water right behind us. We both jerked our heads around, then locked eyes, and made it back to the Jeep in record time!

So now I have seen an alligator in the wild. In fact, I have seen a lot of alligators in the wild. We lost count somewhere around ten of the creatures, but I’d say we saw at least fifteen, maybe twenty. And of course, as anyone who has spent much time in the outdoors will tell you, for every wild animal you see, there are plenty more that saw you and just kept still until you passed by.

Okay, scratch that one off the bucket list. Now where was that nude beach again? Anybody got some suntan lotion?

While I was off chasing alligators, Bad Nick was home writing a new Bad Nick Blog titled Stepping Up To The Plate. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – Experience is the result of a non-fatal mistake.

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Can you believe Christmas is coming up in just over a month? Where does the time go? One minute you’re toasting the New Year and singing Auld Lang Syne, a week or two later you’re watching fireworks on Independence Day, and the next thing you know, they’re ringing bells in front of WalMart and you’re listening to Christmas carols on the radio.

I want time to slow down! I’m getting older and starting to realize that someday I’ll probably have to grow up too, but I’m in no hurry to get there!

Even the individual days seem to fly by. Yesterday we met Walter Cannon, executive director of the Recreational Vehicle Safety Education Foundation (RVSEF), and his lovely wife Amy for lunch at a nice little restaurant called Caffe Chocolat in Titusville. We had a nice lunch and chatted for a while, and before I knew it, three hours had passed!

We have known Walter for a long time, but it was nice to have the opportunity to just sit and visit away from all of the activity of an RV rally or show. We had never met Amy before, and she is a delightful woman whom Miss Terry really hit it off with.

Last year RVSEF tried to hold an RV education conference similar to the old Life on Wheels program, but downturns in the RV industry kept it from happening. I was sorry it was cancelled, because it is something that the RV world really needs. Long before we became instructors for Life on Wheels, Terry and I went there as students in our first year on the road, and it really helped us transition to the RV lifestyle.

Walter is a persistent guy, and he truly believes in the need for an educational program for RVers, so he regrouped and now plans to hold an RV Lifestyle, Education and Safety Conference in Bowling Green, Kentucky June 3-6, 2010. If you are a new or wannabe RVer, or even a seasoned road warrior, I really urge you to attend. It is a great investment in your RVing lifestyle.

When we left the restaurant, we drove a few miles west of town on State Route 50 to Christmas, Florida to check out Fort Christmas Historical Park, which includes a replica of a Seminole War fort and several old Cracker style houses.

Unfortunately, time had gotten away from us (do you see a common thread here?) and the buildings were already closed for the day. But we strolled around under the live oak trees, with their cloaks of Spanish moss draping their leaves, and just enjoyed the solitude. We hope to get back for a better look at the place while we’re in this area.

Among the things left to do on my bucket list is to see an alligator in the wild, and there are a lot of the critters here in Florida, so that shouldn’t be all that hard to accomplish. But in several trips through the Sunshine state, I have yet to see one.

A park ranger at Fort Christmas suggested we stop at a boat launch about halfway between the park and The Great Outdoors, where we are staying. He said it was not uncommon to see ’gators in the water or sunning on the banks there. We stopped to check it out, but there was an airboat firing up, and several trailers for other boats, and not an alligator to be seen. Terry said with all the noise and activity there, any alligator who might have been around had moved to quieter territory. Hopefully I’ll get to see one before we leave the South this year.

Thought For The Day – There will never be a time when life is simple.

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