Day Seven!!!!

Dad and Foster woke me at like 3 in the morning when they came in from hunting blubbering something about getting a aligator and that we would need to wake up at 7 to go meet the guys and take care of the aligator. All I know is that I was like Uh, ok, huh? And 'clunk' went the head to the pillow.

I got up at seven to take a shower. And much to my dissapointment it was another cold shower. I don't know what it is with me and cold showers this trip! Well I later found out that...well maybe I shouldn't tell you all this, I'ts kind of, uh, blonde...well I guess I will, you all love me right? Well the problem was that I had the "cold" nob on instead of the "warm" how I managed to do that, well I don't know, but that was a wasted shower if you aske me!!

Once we got over to Mr. Dewitt's house (one of the aligator guys) we took the humongous aligator out of the truck and hung it on a tree to take pictures. and more pictures. and more. And then we all got in their truck and drove to the proccessers place. It was hot and they were cutting up alligators (what you're sapposed to do at a proccessors) so you can imagine the smell. Ugh. not the pretties, but I didn't say anything. No I left it up to Foster to do that. :o) I video taped and took pictures while they skined him. I don't recomend any of you with weak stomaches to look at those pictures, just to forwarn you. :-)

Foster and I went to the beach later that after noon with Mr. Ray's (the other aligator guy) wife Jimmy, daughter Ray Noel, and son Hunter. It was allot of fun. These people were so nice and we just really hit it off. I some how didn't end up with any pictures of them, so that's kind of dissapointing. But anywho. the water was awesome, really clear and there was only sand on the bottom, no rocks like the other beaches that I've been to. But the only dowfall was that the water was so clear that you could see the little fishes swimming around your feet. And you all know how I feel about little fishies swimming with me. Well maybe you don't, so here is my theory: if there's little fish, there's probably big fish. And big fish mean that they could swallow me whole. How much lot you take in that theory is your choice, but that's just how I feel about it!

That evening Dad dropped me off in the little town next to ours. It has the coolest name ever: Apalochacola. A definite mouth full! They call it Apaloch for short. But I have to admit that it was kind of fun rattling off the whole word. :) there were a bunch of little touristy shops there and antique stores which were fun to go into. But I didn't have too much time there since they all closed at like 5:30. After that Dad picked me up and we went to dinner with Mr. Dewitt and his wife Connie. You all should be proud of me, I actually tried oysters. And they weren't too bad. Not too good either. :-)

Oh, and I don't know how I forgot to put this in there, but somehow it was decided, I think by Dewitt, that I should go aligator hunting with them again that night. And I actually consented to doing it. Uh...is this Lanae` we're talking about? the lanae`...the girl who doesn't like hunting? Well I guess there's a first for everything!

We met with Ray and Dewitt around 9:30 that night and headed out. They had went hunting in a river type place the night before with all the tangly branches and all that hanging down, so that's what I was expecting. But we actually went out into a bay in the ocean, that was really clear and open. Much more my style. They had been scouting this area for a while and thought that it would be a good spot. And obviously, as most of you know, it was.

So here goes the story that you have all been waiting for: (drum roll please)

It was about a 15 min. boat ride to where we wanted to be, but once we got out there we spotted the one that they had been scouting right away. How they knew that it was the same one I'm not sure, something about it living in the same corner of water most of it's life. But anywho. How you spot them is you have this mega flash light and you scan the top of the water with it. You're going along just seeing water, and boom, there it is. A big glowing eye staring at you. Talk about a little chill going up your back. So we start slowly making our way over to him, but before we get there he dives under the water. And once they do that it's game over until they come up again. They had brought bait just in case this happend though. And let me explain what this bait is. Ok so you know how if we run over an animal here in Alaska, such as a moose or rabbit, we can't take it home right? Well in florida you can. So if they see a raccon that's been road killed, you pull over and stick it in the back of the truck. Once you get home you put it in a bucket and let it sit in the sun for like 4 days. You can imagine the smell that it puts off! So once you're out there and need bait you tie a rope to the racoon and tie a buey to the rope and then put the rope on this pole that you stab into the bottom of the water, and the raccoon is so baloated that it floats on the water like a balloon. Very discriptive, I know. The water I might add is only 3 feet deep with miles and miles of mud beneath it. So after we got this hooked up we went to the other side of the bay to look around for other aligators. We almost got close to some but nothing really came of that. It kind of spooked me though. I had to stand up on the front of the boat where there isn't a ledge and you if I stabbed the aligator a little too hard and lost my balance I would go tumbling in the water on top of it! When I say stabbed I mean harpooned. It's this long metal pole, probably 12 ft long with a spear end on it. The actual spear/hook thing, is only like 4 inches long so it's kind of aquard wobbling around with this huge pole. If we were trying to get one of the aligators to come to us Mr. Ray would lean down into the water and splash around with his hand and make the noise that a young aligator would make, and all of a sudden you would see like 3 aligotors coming right at you. this is actually really dangerous because you don't know if there is an aligator right next to you under the water that is going to pop up and eat your arm off. And yes, he has had close experiances so he usually uses a stick instead of his hand. The water ended up getting too shallow and we had to go back before we got stuck. On our way back we noticed that the aligator that we wanted hadn't eaten the bait yet so we came up from the side of it and this made him go out and catch a whiff of that oh so yummy raccon. We gave him a few minutes to swallow it, but after that, it was game over for little aligator.

He once he realized what he had done he tried to swim away but it was no use since he had a buey traveling behind him. After chasing him around for a while he got tired and let us get close enough to him for Ray to grab the buey and pull him close to the boat. Here it was, the moment that I had been waiting for, I was going to harpoon the aligator. I was ready to give it my all, and I thought that i did, but I guess that I didn't hit it hard enough because after I stabbed down on him he took off with out the hook in him. I was pretty dissapointed at myself that I hadn't gotten it on the first try, but they all reassured me that it was no big deal. We chased him around again and finally pulled him close to the boat. They told me to hit it like I was going to drive it through to the other side of his body, although that is virtually impossible. I struck harder this time and tried to think that, but it didn't quite do the trick for me. I later found out that I was only like a centimeter off the spot that I was sapposed to hit. (right behind the head in the neck next to the arm) Once again. Dissapointment. How could I mess up twice?!! And what if I just couldn't do it? Then what? I had dragged my rear all the way out there and wasn't going to go home with an aligator, and not only that, but I had put these guys out by them taking out this lamo girl that couldn't even spear an aligator! So I was kind of worried. and it didn't help that they were concerned that he would associate us with the raccon that he had just eaten and spit it out. Because then it would be all over for us. But even through this all the guys were really encouraging and kept saying that I would get it next time. (How many next times would there be, is what I was thinking) So all of this rambling was going on in my mind while I prepared for the third time around. They once again pulled him close to the boat and I struck with all my might, which actually didn't feel very hard since I was hitting such a hard surface. I didn't actually think that I had hit him hard enough but they were all excited saying that I had got him and that it had stuck really good. I was so relieved, talk about emotional havok! This is why girls don't hunt people! The Aligator took off and dragged us with him because the harpoon is attached to a rope which is attached to a buey that we hung on to. Once he tired out again Ray pulled him high up to the boat and Dewitt hit him right past the head with a bang stick that was loaded with a 243 bullet. (that might mean something to some of you, but nothing to me) After that they took 1.5 inch tape and taped his jaws closed then took a chisel and a hammer and broke his spinal cord. This is to make sure that after we get him in the boat his reflexes don't kill us all! The guys then heaved him into the boat, which was about approximately 500 lbs. And then it was like this great relief. Yes, I had finally done it and it was over with. I was so tired I had almost falen asleep when we were looking around for other ones. I was so ready to go back and go to sleep.

The aligator kind of creeped me and Dad out though. On our way back to the dock it was kicking around his foot which is probably from reflexes, but then he opens his eye and looks right at Dad and then up and down the boat. Talk about spookey! Let's just say that Dad joined me at the front of the boat, which was away from the aligator's mouth!

So there you all have it. The story of how Lanae` Killed the aligator. Probably not my best writting work but it's all out and you people can stop bugging me about it. :-) I am sorry that it's long, really long actually, but you get what you ask for! Ok well I'm going to go post some pictures of this beast. I"ll talk to you all later.