The Park is quite nice with large grassy sites along the St. Lucie River, palm trees on every site, lots of open space--good for groups or family reunions. Chappy Young, one of Corky's buddies, parked his motor coach next to ours, providing additional accommodation for the visiting surveyors Barry Krebs from Colorado, Lane Bouman from Oregon and Gary Wallace from Virginia.
We made some jambalaya for Wednesday lunch--it was yummy. Everybody cleaned his plate!
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| Barry, Corky, Lane, Chappy & Gary |
On Wednesday night, the gang joined us at the campsite for burgers and brats.
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| Gary, Corky, Lane Barry, Chip, & Chappy |
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| Quail Creek Plantation |
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| Corky gets his turn at the clay pigeons! |
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| From L-R; Herb, Chip, Gary, Barry, Chappy, Corky, Lane |
It's Saturday morning and the boys left about 7 a.m. for their trek into the Everglades. They are all quite excited about the possibility of uncovering this bottle of Jack Daniels that Corky buried in the Glades back in 1984. If they are successful, they plan to celebrate with dixie cups of the elixir, being sure to leave some in the bottle, then refill the bottle so that a portion of the original JD will always remain in the bottle, then they'll rebury it along with other personal momentos. Perhaps 30 years from now, some other dedicated retracement surveyors will "follow in the footsteps" of their mentors, trek into the Glades, unearth the revered bottle and raise a cup to those who came before them.
Gus, Woody and I are taking it easy today enjoying the very warm temperatures (upper 80s) and the Park's scenery.
Saturday evening--the Gang returned to the campsite just before 6 p.m. Mother Nature had not cooperated; the Everglades were so dry, the lead air boat got stuck in the mire within the first quarter mile. All the equipment had to be unloaded and and the airboat had to be dug free.
To avoid further mishaps, Chappy wanted to reconnoiter the area alone on the airboat, but Corky insisted on going along. Chappy deftly piloted his propeller-driven chariot to just under five miles of the destination corner. Though Chappy was eager to continue on, Corky (believe it or not) exercised some restraint to the situation. He reasoned that (1) since they had no comunication with the other members of the expedition, they would certainly be worried by now; and (2) even if Corky and Chappy made it to the corner, they would have had no way to document their efforts or their perpetuations which were some seven miles away with the other men and the second air boat. In addition, the lack of water had made the trip to this point increasingly difficult. The dew on the grass had worked to their favor early in the day, but it was almost gone at this point.
Corky later confided to me that one compelling factor to their turning back was his vision of having to walk out of the Everglades hopping from the back of one alligator to another! Because of the dry conditions, the gators had imbedded themselves in the mud along the airboat trails (the last vestige of moisture for miles); they had actually driven the airboat over the tops of several gators to get to reach the point where they turned around! Anyway, their decision to return to their mates was wise.
Not to be defeated, the hardy six turned to "Plan B"--they chose another corner along Corky's original survey line, accessible via a canal along "alligator alley." But alas, even that was thwarted by a blockage across the canal. Disappointed, but proud of their valiant effort, they amended their plan and decided to establish a cache on the south edge of this canal.
Opening a bottle of JD provided by well wishers, they toasted the integrity of the profession, their associates who could not be with them and the those who will come after. Each, in their own way, commemorated the moment with personal momentos that were buried in a cache along with the less-than-full bottle of JD.
After quick showers, the adventurers continued their reverie at a local eatery where 3 of their spouses joined the group.
Gus, Woody and I are taking it easy today enjoying the very warm temperatures (upper 80s) and the Park's scenery.
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Corky later confided to me that one compelling factor to their turning back was his vision of having to walk out of the Everglades hopping from the back of one alligator to another! Because of the dry conditions, the gators had imbedded themselves in the mud along the airboat trails (the last vestige of moisture for miles); they had actually driven the airboat over the tops of several gators to get to reach the point where they turned around! Anyway, their decision to return to their mates was wise.
Not to be defeated, the hardy six turned to "Plan B"--they chose another corner along Corky's original survey line, accessible via a canal along "alligator alley." But alas, even that was thwarted by a blockage across the canal. Disappointed, but proud of their valiant effort, they amended their plan and decided to establish a cache on the south edge of this canal.
Opening a bottle of JD provided by well wishers, they toasted the integrity of the profession, their associates who could not be with them and the those who will come after. Each, in their own way, commemorated the moment with personal momentos that were buried in a cache along with the less-than-full bottle of JD.
After quick showers, the adventurers continued their reverie at a local eatery where 3 of their spouses joined the group.
Good friends, good food, good memories!
NOTE: to view all the photos go to https://picasaweb.google.com/MuskratLake
NOTE: to view all the photos go to https://picasaweb.google.com/MuskratLake
