To get from Port Charlotte where we’re staying to the Florida keys, we had to drive across the southern end of Florida, through the Everglades.  I was picturing this as a jungle, with large mossy trees overhanging the road and that it would be dark and perhaps scary.

Nope!  in most places it was a fairly dry level area of marsh grasses from what we could see from the truck.  Some stands of trees, many with no leaves as it’s wintertime.  Some palms, some cypress, some we don’t know the name of.  But, mostly open marsh areas.

We drove to the keys on State Route 41.  It’s a two-lane road with several airboat tour places and some small “Indian villages”.  No gas stations, no fast-food restaurants etc.

At one point I saw a fast blur darting into the road and in that split-second realized it was a good sized alligator – probably between 5-6 feet – and before I could do more than a quick “OH” we hit it.  With both front and rear tires, THUMP and THUMP!   Solid thumps like if you run over a tire on a rim on the freeway!  There wasn’t any place to pull over or turn around for more than a mile, so we couldn’t stop to see whether we killed it but Jeff did see it just lying there in the rear-view mirror so we’re pretty sure we killed it.  It saddened us but we just kept on going.

Here’s a picture I found online of an alligator walking across a road.  The one we hit was probably about this size but was moving FAST – like he’d crossed that highway many times before and knew he had to run but this time his timing was just off.  🙁