Giddyup for STAR

Theyuh Ah Wahs!!

All good adventure stories begin this way.

Theyuh Ah Wahs!!  In de middle of de swamp, rescuing de artifact from de jaws of de crocodile….

Ok, this silliness has gone on long enough.  On our trip to Edisto Beach, the condo development we stayed at was on the borders of a large, manmade lake/pond/lagoon/swamp.  And it was home to at least one medium-sized alligator.

The pool at the complex was near the shore of the lake, and separated by a knee-high fence.  While swimming, I happened to walk out on this deck area overlooking the lake. There on the shore, sunning himself, lies a big ol’ gator.

I call everyone over and we all take a look.  In the confusion of me taking his picture, my sunglasses get knocked off the deck and into the little lake.

Now, normally I’d just write them off.  On this day, of all fateful days, I said “HA!” to the fates.  Plus I’d only gotten them a few weeks earlier for Father’s Day…

Well, Gatorboy eventually swam off and I walked down (in just my sandals and swim trunks) to the edge of the low fence separating the pool area from the pond and the small area of shoreline.  That vegetation you see in the pic above is what was right in front of me.

Brainyboy, my son, was up on the deck spotting for me.  Neither of us could quite see where the sunglasses fell, but I found a stalk of old palmetto bark to use as a stick and started poking around…

No sign of ol’ Leatherneck.  Yet.

Finally, BB spots them - right on the shore, lying in the mud half-in, half-out of the water.  Trouble is, it’s probably 3-4 paces inside the protective fence in the middle of all this vegetation - bamboo, reeds, and such.  Where’s the gator?  Who knows?

Well, I muster up my midichlorians and step over the fence.  I inch to the waterline, and after several futile attempts finally succeed in snaring the sunglasses out of the water with the palmetto branch stick.

I, um, hastily exit the shoreline and hop back over the fence.  In the process, breaking a number of reeds and bamboo stalks, and scratching my legs and arms up a bit.

But ol’ Gatorboy got the last laugh.  The bushes were infested with poison ivy or poison oak or something, and I itched and reacted for the next three weeks.

So that’s it - my brush with death.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 29th, 2007 at 2:58 am and is filed under Miscellaneous. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.