Ft. Myers, FL~
***Edit: After a number of concerned phone calls and a couple of e-mails I find it necessary to include the following disclaimer: The photos in the gallery below were taken with a powerful zoom lens from an observation deck at least a story above the subjects being photographed. The photographer (read: me) was never in any danger. We now return you to your regularly scheduled entry.***
I lived in Florida very briefly back in 1998, in the Sarasota area, and had such a negative experience that I actually met with a fairly high level of anxiety the first time I traveled back through on our first tour together a few years ago. My experiences these last few years have thankfully been completely the opposite, given the acquaintances of fabulous people and excursions into very different parts of the state. One thing that hasn’t changed at all in my working memory, and of which I am growing more and more fond, is the distinctly different wildlife here.
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I can look up and see ibis on the telephone lines and parakeets grazing in the grass. There are Great Herons, blue and white, standing at roadside as if waiting for the bus and flying overhead close enough for me to distinguish their different flight feathers. Anoles are absolutely everywhere, alternately green or brown, swift to dart into a safe crevice if a shadow looms. I even watched an ornate box turtle wander directly through our campground one afternoon, just like she owned the place. I took her out to the woods in back and set her down, well away from the pickup trucks that typically raced through the campground. But it simply wouldn’t be Florida without the one quintessential reptilian citizen I wished to see more than anything else, out in its natural habitat.
I of course speak of the alligator.
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"Conjurers, Carnies & Collectors" produced by the National Podcasting CompanyMagic words from magicians, jackpots and stories from carnies, and the best advice from collectors of variety and novelty act memorabilia. Interviews made face to face with professionals in the performing arts.
