May 26th - St. Petersburg, FL, to Big Cypress National Reserve

Carri gave us a grand send-off and we were on our way to Key West. Angie's trip plan broke the trip into two parts with one-night stop at a campground on the Tamiami Trail. About an hour before we reached the campground, we started seeing "Panther Crossing" signs. When we arrived at the campground, there were lots of signs warning us to keep dogs away from the central pond in order to avoid attracting alligators. Sure enough, when we took the dogs for a leashed walk, we saw a gator in the middle of the pond. The gator immediately started swimming toward us. He stopped when Angie approached the bank to take a snapshot.

The campground also featured bear-proof food storage lockers. Panthers and gators and bears?! Oh My! Angie got a great picture of an ibis in mid-flight. We also large flying grasshoppers and strangely colored dragonflies. It was like visiting a biology exhibit!