Author Topic: Florida Gators (Read 441 times)

Voss · « **on:** July 19, 2002, 01:07:38 PM »

I once travelled through Paines Prarie south of Gainesville, FL. and saw an Alligator sunning himself on the road. He covered both lanes of traffic! Well, after writing about this online I was informed that Gators simply do not grow that large. Heh.

Florida Power and Light was adding lines for an addition to the Orlando International Airport when they came across this fine example of a Florida Alligator (18' 2").

In addition, they came across eighty-seven Rattlesnakes.

Voss · « **Reply #1 on:** July 19, 2002, 01:10:38 PM »

Still can't post more then one picture at a time (dweeb).

myelo · « **Reply #2 on:** July 19, 2002, 01:16:11 PM »

Gumbo!

Eagler · « **Reply #3 on:** July 19, 2002, 01:19:22 PM »

that's a monster

In my younger days, I'd see gators larger than my 12' jonboat up the Hillsborough river all the time. You don't mess with them, they won't mess with you.

gofaster · « **Reply #4 on:** July 19, 2002, 02:03:35 PM »

True story of how a gator killed my buddy's hobby.

In high school a buddy of mine restored a home-made kayak that he had picked up at a garage sale. It was a 1-man ocean-going kayak with no skirt, and was fabricated using strips of wood for the ribs and stretched waterproof vinyl fabric (like you see on lawn furniture) for the skin. Because of the heavy materials, wasn't the lightest boat in the world.

So one weekend he calls up two other buddies of mine to go canoeing up the Hillsborough (I wasn't home). They head up to Hillsborough River State Park on the edge of town (at the time) and the two get in a canoe and he gets in his kayak to lead the way up the river and warn of shallow spots.

They're getting on up aways under the tree canopy when all of a sudden my kayak buddy lets out a yell, spins the boat around, and starts making tracks back towards the canoe. The canoe buddies said the kayak was going so fast it looked like it was coming out of the water. The kayak speeds past and keeps going, so they turn to follow to see what's going on. As they're turning perpendicular to the river, they both see a gator "longer than the canoe and just as wide" coming right for them.

Now, the Hillsborough ain't the clearest water in Florida, so it must have been cruising on or close to the surface because they could see it nose to tail, claw to claw. They both started stroking like it was the Olympics, because they'd seen the gator shows and knew that gators could jump out of the river a pretty good ways. They kept looking over their shoulders all the way back to the docks. Even though they still had a couple of hours left on the canoe rental, they decided to call it a day.

My kayak buddy never again took it up the Hillsborough and ended up giving the kayak to me for free, where we all took turns using it to paddle along the shoreline of my parents' beach place. I guess he figured there was less risk with sharks. We stored it outside and eventually a hurricane came along and punctured the kayak skin and broke a rib. Since I hadn't paid any money for it, didn't have any money to fix it, and we'd all split town to go to different colleges, I just set it out by the curb for the garbage men (or whomever) to collect.

One of the people involved in this tale recently got married and we all got caught up on things during the wedding rehearsal and reception and breakfast the next day. To this day, he won't take a kayak or canoe up the Hillsborough. He said once was enough.

midnight Target · « **Reply #5 on:** July 19, 2002, 02:30:14 PM »

Did they kill him? I hope not, he must be very old.

Eagler · « **Reply #6 on:** July 19, 2002, 02:37:35 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by midnight Target
Did they kill him? I hope not, he must be very old.

Doubt it.
Here is email text forwarded to me with the same gator pix:

--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Coulson, Christine A"

Christine Coulson
USA IT Security Engineering, FL Operations
321-861-5057

> Check out this 18 1/2 foot long gator captured on the construction site
of
> the Orange County Convention Center expansion. <>

Wotan · « **Reply #7 on:** July 19, 2002, 03:23:02 PM »

Rattle snake and Gator thats good eating.

I used to operate a big earth mover here in florida. In one day or so it would be nothing to end up with a 5 gallon bucket with 5-10 good sized rattlers.

Gators are a different story. You cant mess with them because the law will hit ya hard. But there were a few times where a gator or too got run over byt *** accident ***.

I remember when I was in the Navy. The submarine I was stationed on was in the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Virginia.

I had to finish a few qualifications so I was assigned to ride another boat. We ended up docked at cape canaveral for 2 days. That whole area is a Nature preserve. Out to the Dock where the boat was moored was a single lane paved road. No vehicles were allowed so it was basically a walking path.

I had a buddy that was stationed at the wheather station there and I spent the 1st night out at his house and the following day. I had to be back on the boat @ 4:45 am so at about 3 am I grabbed a cab who dropped me at the main gate. I then started walking back to the boat. As I got to this stretch of paved road I saw these shadows all the way down it laying on the road about 6 from what I could tell. The road was straight and surrounded by wetlands with no lighting at all. What would happen is the gators would come up on the road at night to lay on the hot black top.

As I waited there wondering wtf to do other guys started other guys from the boat started showing up. Most drunk from being out partying. About 25-30 guys showed looking at this death walk. The road wasnt even a mile long and some had thought about sprinting to the dock. I imagined it would entail hurdling a few gators and there was no way I was gonna do that. I know I would have tripped at it would have ended up like a scene from one of those nature shows where the bison gets to close to the edge of the water hole and gets jumped on by 10 starving gators.

Someone called the boat from a pay phone and told umm what was up and a guard showed up in a gas powered golf cart and took turns drings us down the road to the boat weaving around the gators. We counted around 14 gators some small but the largest being around 10ft or so.

I am originally from N. Va (Fairfax) and that was the first time I saw a gator.

Fatty · « **Reply #8 on:** July 19, 2002, 04:01:24 PM »

My little cousins learn to hunt their gators early on.

midnight Target · « **Reply #9 on:** July 19, 2002, 04:04:15 PM »

LOL, You might be a redneck if......... ^

Voss · « **Reply #10 on:** July 19, 2002, 05:52:14 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by midnight Target
Did they kill him? I hope not, he must be very old.

By the position of the Gator's right arm, I would say that Gator is... DOA.

gofaster · « **Reply #11 on:** July 22, 2002, 04:09:36 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Fatty
My little cousins learn to hunt their gators early on.

I like the way there's a high-end Mercedes sedan parked next to a vintage Ford truck. Which one does the wife drive?

gofaster · « **Reply #12 on:** July 22, 2002, 04:14:52 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Voss

By the position of the Gator's right arm, I would say that Gator is... DOA.

That gator is very much alive. Notice that the eyes are taped over, like a blindfold. That's to calm him and keep him from swinging that big tail around.

udet · « **Reply #13 on:** July 22, 2002, 04:18:10 PM »

shlt man I hope I never come across critters like those.Since we're talking Florida here, New Smyrna Beach is the shark capital of the world

Fatty · « **Reply #14 on:** July 22, 2002, 04:30:45 PM »

You'd be right guessing that their mom drives the car gofaster.