Gators Galore!!!

After a short stop for a southern style lunch we departed the diner and crossed the road to scramble up a levee just opposite the diner. The levee was quite high, perhaps 20 feet, it was quite a climb and the Mississippi was quite a distance from the levee. You could see the river through some trees about a half a mile away. The owner of the diner told us that he placed sandbags around his diner each spring to the height of 4 feet.
Boarding our bus we headed out to explore the wild life of Cane River. As we arrived at the docks it was already warming up. One of the boat operators was entertaining us by enticing some alligators to rise out the water to reach offerings of marshmallows and or pieces of chicken. There were a lot of young gators taking him up on that offer. We boarded one of the boats and our guide was extremely knowledgeable about the flora and fauna of this particular river. We later learned that he had built himself a shack along the river that he called home.
It is quite something to see an alligator in its natural habitat. If any of you have ever seen an episode of swamp people and you thought that it was pretty phoney, let me tell you that this is as real as it gets. It never ceased to amaze me every time our guide pointed out another alligator to us. I thought that I was a pretty observant person. I was paying very close attention to the shore line and the riverbank but some how I missed over 50% of the wildlife he was pointing out. I did however manage to espy two young raccoons on the riverbank. He told us that they had just been born this spring.
There was an old one-eyed alligator on the shore, apparently a veteran of many battles. He was a 16 footer and rather big across the shoulders. It took me a bit of time to spot him. His tail was mud covered and pretty shiny. Once I spotted that I followed it down his back which got progressively darker the closer you got to his head. He had to have been 18 to 24 inches across the shoulders. An awesome sight to behold. Our guide said if we were lucky we just might spot the young lady that put his eye out for him. Unfortunately she did not show up that day quite disappointing for a few of us. She was a grand old dame of considerable years and over 18 feet long. I guess that size does matter! :-))
We took a small break and the guide allowed us to hold a young alligator. Not all of us participated in that little exercise. The little fellow was about 3 feet long and very powerful. The guide had wrapped a piece of electrical tape around his snout so he could not tear off any body parts. Believe me he was quite capable of doing so. When I was holding him he started to thrash around, he was surprisingly strong for his size. I certainly have no desire to wrestle a 16 footer any time soon. Their skin is surprisingly soft, at least on his under belly and he was a bit slippery to hold onto. All in all it was a fantastic experience.
We all had a great time and were reluctant to climb back on our bus. We were headed back to our hotel and this was to be our last day in New Orleans. Tired from our long day we checked all of our belongings and prepared to leave the following morning.