Thursday June 15 - The Everglades Alligator Farm

The Everglades Alligator Farm gives Boy Scouts a very generous discount on the admission price! Once in the farm we were able to see various sites including the snake barn and alligator pens that progressed from new hatchlings to six-foot long gators. There are also displays of products made from alligator hide and environmental information.

We were on the farm during one of the alligator feeding times and that was fun to watch. The alligator farmer hand fed dead rats to the gators that were willing to jump for a meal. The 300-pound alligators looked huge. Unfortunately, we did not get to see 1,000-pound “Grandpa” because he was not hungry.



After the alligator feeding was finished, we moved on to the airboat ride. What a thrill! We started with a warning from Captain Paul that we should not have anything on the floor of the boat that we did not want to get wet. The ride starts our slowly with Captain Paul pointing out turtles and alligators along the channel we were riding down and reminding everyone – KEEP YOUR HANDS IN THE BOAT. The airboat turns a bend and we go from a narrow tree lined channel to the openness of the Everglades. The boat speed quickly goes from a slow idle to over 30 miles per hour.



A few minutes into the full throttle ride, Captain Paul throws the airboat into a 360-degree spin – AWESOME. The ride continues with high-speed curves more 360’s that soak the boat – GO FASTER CAPTAIN.



The crew decided not to wait for the snake feeding and continued our drive to the Brinton Environmental Center.



The Everglades Alligator Farm gets two thumbs up from all crewmates!