Travel Day by Connor Mertz

Day 1 -12.26.11

We all woke up at 3:20 this morning. Nobody slept very well…Our thoughts were filled with the upcoming trip, as well as the thought of Schaumboch waking us up in the middle of the night. After a quick breakfast of Cheerios we packed our gear and headed to the Philly airport. It was a pretty quiet ride because most of us were asleep. At the airport our excitement grew. For some of us it was the first time flying, for others it wasn’t. The flight from Philadelphia to Fort Myers took about 3 hours. We hopped in the rental cars and began the long drive to Flamingo. During the drive down Route 41 we spotted several alligators (not very big) along the side of the road near a canal. We were all a little cramped in the “mom van” but a quick lunch at Subway revived our spirits. The ride lasted about 4 hours.

Camped on Florida Bay at Flamingo

 Driving through the park towards our campsite amped our spirits. The trip had really begun. We set up our up our tents and gulped down dinner. We were all exhausted and fell asleep with dreams of alligators, crocodiles, pythons, and “swamp apes.”

-Connor