Don't Show Your Weakness

Everglade City, Fl

We have transitioned to living in a motor home fairly well. Besides watching how much toilet paper you consume, the living arrangements are as comfortable as being at home.

As for the inappropriate behavior among the kids? 'Rude and Crude', is on the rise.

After traveling two weeks together, the group has developed some tough unwritten rules... if one of our kids is feeling down and out for any particular reason, (hot, hungry, tired, cranky) the others will relentlessly antagonize that child until tears flow and feelings are hurt.

So instead of spending hours refereeing the bickering...we set out to look for gators.

Everglades National Park is huge. Along Highway 41, you can get out and observe alligators, turtles and other wildlife from a safe distance.

First stop, Big Cypress Bend. This stop is a long walk on a raised boardwalk, that takes you deep (about 45min walk) into a section of the Everglades or as the kids like to refer to it...'the swamp'.

This year, Florida had a good rainy season, so the Everglades' water level was high.

We set out...

Covered (more like lathered) in bug repellent, feeling confident but wary of our surroundings, we all took down the path.

As usual, the kids failed to notice anything interesting along the way.

Then out of the blue, we heard a deep, loud, splashing growl!

We all screamed and in the confusion...the group got split up.

Between us, in the water, right where we were standing, was a huge alligator waiting with his mouth WIDE open.

Panic struck!

We were frozen. No one moved. Not us, not the kids nor Mr. Alligator.

Despite the drama, the teasing and antagonizing began among the kids...before long, someone was crying and convinced they were going to die.

For a few seconds I was scared. This seemed like a scene from the show, 'Man vs The Wild'...but we had to regroup and calm the kids down.

We had to convince them that this situation was under control so we could all get off this boardwalk!

Slowly and quietly we talked the kids into tiptoeing, one-by-one, passed the alligator.

Once back in the safety of our car, we rehashed the event 10,000 times. Each time, adding our own embellishment!

The ribbing among the kids grew too...until tears flowed again.

The day left us with a lesson learned.

"When touring with a pack of kids, 'never show your weakness'. Keep your issues to yourself, be calm and go with the program... otherwise you will become alligator bait."