Florida

Timmy and Mike dancing in the moonlight. We camped out in St. Augustine, Florida - the oldest continually settled city by Europeans in the United States. We in no way meant to go here, but kind of just stumbled upon a nice beach.

Mike, Nick and Gabe go looking for some turtle eggs following the signs of a recent hatch.

Somehow we went right by Wrigley Field, Lambeau, Fenway Park, etc. But we have been able to make it to quite a few NASCAR tracks.

Tim with his hands and feet in Dale Ernherdt Jr.'s concrete print.

Key West

This was kind of like a shower.

Trivia question: What is the oldest settled town in the United States of America?
Answer: St. Augustine, Florida

We found a beach on the eastern shore of Florida to watch the sunset and sleep for the night. Further down the road we came across Daytona Beach, home of the famous Daytona 500 NASCAR race. The track was massive and smelled like exhaust fumes. There was a car driving around that would blow your hat off if you stood too close to the track. WOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

We picked up a new monkey in Miami, Chris 'Sully' Sullivan, who joined us on our way down to the Florida keys. The first night we spent watching an intense lightning storm that blew a few miles off the coast of the western side of the first island in the keys. The thunder bolts stirred up some action from the ocean as spiraling glow in the dark worms rose to the surface. Our next night was in southern most island of the keys. We donated blood in exchange for a pool side seat at the southern most point of the continental United States. The next day we snorkeled in a state park and checked out some of the wild life. On our way out of the keys we stopped off at a bridge to do some fishing. The locals pulled a few parrot and blow fish in using nothing but pre-cooked shrimp and weights as bait. We also spotted a large manta ray, a sea turtle, and a barracuda which would not respond to any of our respective lures.

Then we made our way into the Everglades and on to THE OFFICIAL SKUNK-APE RESEARCH CENTER!!


Bubby and Sully's getaway vehicle if the Skunk-Ape gets loose.
Chomper-Twisty

On our way out of Florida we found a camp site in the Florida Everglades. For 25 bucks we were given a place to stay for the night and a free tour of the reptile and "skunk man" museum. "Skunk man," according to our hosts, is a 7 ft ape man who wanders the Florida everglades. The camp ground had a few more mobile homes parked on its lot around a pond located in the center. When we got a closer look at the pond we found a small alligator. The reasonable pricing made much more sense when around 8 o'clock the bus was swarmed by mosquitoes. When we went to the entrance of the camp ground to ask if we could build a bonfire to keep the bugs at bay we didn't receive an answer. Rather we were informed a "rattle snake venom incident" was taking place and we probably wouldn't be able to talk with anyone from the camp ground until the morning. An ambulance showed up a few moments later, but everything worked out by morning. It turns out the local reptile expert had been chopping the head off a rattle snake and received a squirt of the venom in his eye. No permanent damage was done to his eye sight or himself. On our reptile tour we got to hold a Burmese python (the big long yellow guy around Jo-Jo's neck) and an alligator. We also saw a couple of ten ft. alligators and an Anaconda.