FLORIDIAN EXCURSIONS

The next account as I describe it, is now done from my adult perspective. As I a child I had no specific description to give explanation, only the vivid memory that I have held; and over time was able to explain it to myself from a greater understanding and a more definitive vocabulary as I aged in years and experience.

While I was living in Florida a strange occurrence happened that I remember to this day and can not explain its reality in my mind. And I still have no complete understanding of it as if it were some sort of dream, or if it were an actual happening. It will be up to you to determine what this is from your own perspective. However to me it was real and I have no doubt in my mind that it is a true and complex account of my life and memory of our Floridian excursion.  

We spent a lot of our time touring distinctive scenic places for tourists to visit in Florida.

Like Miami, Fort Lauderdale and other numerous parts of the Everglades. Often; being so young I had no clue where we were exactly at specific points in time. I would often ask my father and he would give me a direct answer and that’s what I would rely on in making my orientation clear to my understanding and immediate surroundings.

One day we went to a zoo located by or in the glades. We did all the normal viewing; one would do and see at a Zoo. I only remember a couple of things of that day.

One was as we walked, we came upon a gathering of people around a giant concrete enclosure. I ran up to the rim and peered down into this pit and saw this humongous alligator. The pit was filled with lush ferns and other planted floral ornaments. It was circular in nature with the middle being a gigantic concrete column that rose up the center with a terrarium effect at the top. At the bottom of the pit was dirt and must have stretched about 10 feet across to the center column. Directly at the bottom was the huge thick hide of the beast about 20 feet down. Its body filled the entire area, where it was barely squeezed in that enclosure. Its head was indescribably enormous tapering off to the end of the snout. It sat at the bottom of the pit solid and perfectly still as if it were a taxidermy creature on display. Adults looked down at it in awe and fear. Some of the other children in the vicinity began to question if it were alive. Then, a Park Ranger lady walked up and began telling the story of its great size and how it was captured. People had died in the effort to contain and confine this creature. She talked about its food and how live goats were placed down there for it to eat. She also mentioned that it had been down in the pit for years and it continued to grow even after its capture. She said at one point its tail had come clear around the fifty foot circular enclosure where the creature aggressively gnashed out at its own tail seriously wounding itself and causing the caretakers to take action in amputating. We walked around and I could see through the brush and branches that sure enough the creature was lumped off about four feet from its haunches making it look rather stumpy.

One child asked the ranger lady if it was really alive and she said not to let its apparent docile nature fool us. That it would most likely eat anyone who fell in to the pit before help could arrive. Most people suddenly backed away from the concrete rimmed edge.

I clung to the wall peering down into the pit with my feet dangling just above the dusty ground, absorbing every inch of the monstrosity. It never moved.

I asked the Ranger why it bit off its own tail. She announced to us all, that it must have thought that it was another gator invading its territory and struck at itself in protecting its own territorial spot. She said it took some time before the tail to become gangrenous and at that point the decision was made to amputate. She said the actual bite was only down at the tip of its tail but it had to be amputated clear up by its body to keep the infection from spreading and killing the alligator. She said the gator was 60 feet in length before its tail was chopped off to save its life.

That spectacle ended and we wandered to other exhibits and eventually back to the car and this is where things got really weird. My father was in the driver seat and I peered over his shoulder as he read this brochure with a monkey face drawn on the cover. He just stared at it before telling us to buckle up and off we went to the next destination in our family adventure. We drove for about 30 minutes following some signs and things. And at this point I don’t know if I fell asleep and the journey continued in my dream seamlessly in a real time effect or not.

But we turned down an exit that turned into a gravel road. The gravel road turned into a dirt road and my mother began to question the direction we had taken, but my father assured her that he took the correct exits. Right about that moment we came upon a slight commotion of people and a couple of cars at a "T" in the road. More rangers and as my Father drew closer one ranger in a slicker, sunglasses and brimmed hat, waved us down the road side with his flashlight. It was twilight and the road turned into a hard bumpy trail with gutters for the tires and very rugged as if it had rained and then dried to a hard crusty track. Some cars were pulled off the road and just sat there empty. We drove through a small swampy forest where two trucks sprayed bug spray into the air in a very fine mist. Just as we went past the trucks the swamp gave way to a meadow clearing and all along the way rangers in broad rimmed hats and sunglasses kept waving us on along with a small caravan of cars behind us, always urging us to keep moving forward. We finally came to the end of the meadow and were guided into a well groomed encampment towards some giant concrete enclosures.

As we slowly made our way around them we circled in front of them. I can only describe the structure as what would be a racket ball court in a park. We drove at the edge of a low chain link fence about forty feet from the structure. At this point several rangers marched slowly up and down on both sides of the road. A mega phone speaker started an announcement just as we came in full view of the front of the first opening of the concrete slabs.

“Stay in your car-Keep driving-Do not get out of your vehicle-Follow the road-Stay in your car-keep driving-do not get out of your vehicle-follow the road.”

Then the most amazing sight came into view. Giant apes and I mean King Kong size were chained separately in each court three or four in all. (This was way before I ever knew anything about King Kong the story.)

One was female because I could see its sagging breasts. All looked very sad and unhealthy. They had chains on their ankles, wrists and neck. It was a total jaw dropper. The car was silent and we just stared in complete amazement as the rangers just walked back and forth waving and pointing in the direction to drive as the announcement over the PA system made its repetitive statement as well.

The creatures just stared down at us never moving, sitting and leaning against the walls in a very bored and droopy looking state of being. Just as we came to the last court the creature lifted its arm along with the chain dangling to scratch it’s nose and for the first time all the rangers took their eyes of us and briefly on to the beast and then back on us again.

We drove right into another swampy forest enclosure where a fine mist of water was spraying into the air from several tall pipe spigots. The same trail thing all the way back to the main road, where at this point twilight had given way to darkness and only a fleck of color was left in the distant horizon as we drove onto the main highway. What was once a trail of cars, maybe 10; was now only 3 as we struck asphalt and drove off into the night.

When we got back to the motel, I began to question my family on what we saw that day. I talked about the Giant Alligator and the monster sized Gorilla Monkey. And they all stared at me. Just like your probably thinking right now. There was my Mother- Father and both Sisters just scratching their heads in amusement of this wild imaginative child. I went on and on, and no one said a word, finally they just started laughing and treated me like I was in the midst of a fantasy. I was perplexed and began to question myself and began to wonder what was going on. I then mentioned Coral Castle and then everyone suddenly began talking about our visit to Coral Castle. So at least I knew that the morning had existed and that crazy coral castle man was something to ponder in truth.   

I did a search and found Giganto and other giant monkey links…But these creatures were not anything like what I saw. All that I found looked like Big foot. These were 5 times bigger and looked like a mix of Gorilla and Chimpanzees. These creatures were not as muscular looking  as a gorrilla

Had Gorilla type faces but more of a chimp and gorilla looking type of bodies and just plain huge.

As Far as Giant Gators...

LINKS

Floridian Excursion

ZeeArcTune©2006

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