January 22 I woke to the blowing noise of a large dolphin that had found its way into the lagoon and made a circuit around the chickee and headed off to fish. We jumped for our cameras and binoculars and watched its wake circle the lagoon with occasional rises to blow. I got in the boat to give chase and rowing the empty boat was quite able to keep up but could not get closer than 50 feet. A small plane circled us several times and I immediately wondered if they were looking for a lost kayaker. I checked our VHF radio to see if they were trying to call us but received nothing scanning all the channels for several minutes. After sitting and watching this beautiful spot we packed and got back on the water for the trip out. A slight crosswind made it necessary to pull harder on the port oar most of the way.

Passing between two small islands I notice out of the corner of my eye something floating on the water about 100 feet away. It looked at first like a stick of driftwood but upon further examination it turned out to be an alligator swimming very slowly. We estimated its length to be ten feet since the distance between its eyes and the end of its nose was about ten inches. This formula had been learned from a poster in the visitor center. We circled it several times as it slowly swam along the surface looking totally disinterested. We thought of how excited some of our grandsons would have been to have seen this. The rest of the row back was uneventful until we were landing at Flamingo again. A very large crocodile was lying in the water across from the dock. Another jump to get the camera and binoculars and after many clicks the beast climbed out of the water and posed for us sunning itself on the bluff above the canal. It even opened its mouth to cool itself for our benefit. Its concrete grey color could easily have had one wonder if it was real if it had not just moved. So we had accomplished our mission and seen both alligators and crocodiles!

We pulled the boat up on our boat cushions and started to pack. I realized I must have taken my last stroke of our trip and started to wish for more. The long hours of rhythmic swinging and gliding through the water had me in a hypnotic state that Nat Stone had mentioned feeling as he ended his row in his book On the Water. This repetitive, pleasurable exercise has lulled my mind into a relaxed state. I will miss this feeling until I return to the water with a new destination. Rowing my ergometer at home is not a substitute.

I thought of the miles I had covered both between Key West and Key Largo and the round trip into the South Joe River chickee. In spite of the initial pain from my blisters, which had now matured into tough calluses, and the struggles against the winds and tides every moment had been a wonderful and exciting. If I had the time I would go on forever. But the great sun of reality was starting to rise and we had only one more day to find a place to leave the boat and make arrangements to get it shipped to New Hampshire. The original plan to have it stored where this row ended would mean we might not see the boat for a year. I have become too attached to it to leave it for that long. Hopefully there will be some opportunities to row pieces of the waterway at the other end before returning to these waters. My plan to row up the Intra Coastal Waterway might have to change to rowing the other direction! The piece at the southern end might have gone much faster with the help of the wind.

We packed, found a tent site at the Flamingo campground and went to have a civilized meal at the restaurant near the visitor center. The National Park Service is to be commended on their choice of franchisees. Everything about the facilities at this park seemed to be well done with one exception that I, of course, would notice. In spite of all the efforts to protect the environment and educate visitors about their programs to save the Everglades all of the toilets I saw were poorly functioning, water wasting 3.5 or more gallons per flush models and several of the flush valves were stuck running continuously. I was once again back to reality!