Pond Life

@Michael Skorulski: Thank you.

@Marcah: I think not to be a bird and standing in this pond might be worse. There was a boar carcass near this pond, and while I can't prove it, an alligator is suspected.

@MadScientist: Are you kidding? This is America dude. In the first place, making people get too far away from their cars might provoke separation anxieties. In the second place, Americans will do practically anything to avoid walking. I regularly see people wait for five minutes or so in a parking lot in order to get a parking place two spaces closer to the entrance. I have literally gone into a store, bought something, and come out, to find the same person still waiting for a parking place that was two spaces away from the space I parked in.

I've heard (Bill Bryson, A Walk in the Woods) that more roads have been built, and are being built, in US parks, than in the rest of the entire nation --and that the US Forest Service is the biggest road builder in the world. A typical "wildlife refuge" in the US is laid out so you never have to get more than about 100 feet from your car. People in this country will get in their cars to drive to a house at the end of their block. We were recently walking our dogs and passed a guy who said he was walking home to get the car so he could go pick up his wife because it was too cold outside to walk (about 50 degrees F). We saw the woman stand in the same place until her husband came back with the car. She actually stayed outside in the "cold" for longer than she would have if she'd walked home with her husband so she wouldn't actually have to walk home.

I took this shot from an observation platform that was about 50 feet from a parking lot. The pond was about 200 yards away from the platform.

@Daryl: Just think of what they could do if they were teaming instead of teeming.

@Eleftheria!: Thank you.

@Calusarus: Not always.

@lisa v: I thought you Aussies kept crocs as pets. Whatever happened to the Crocodile Dundee spirit?

@JJ: Not fenced, but shot from an observation platform that was elevated about four feet above gator level.

@lisa v: And that's a bad thing?

I was just listening to it in the car....don't remember that particular line. I like Byrson's humor and have read several of his books --his travels in Europe, the UK, Australia, and America.

@gbe: I think I could have walked to my car and gotten away if one had come for me --they were that far away.

@Linerberry: Not much risk. As far away as these gators were I could have walked to my car and gotten away before they got to me.

@MadScientist: It's also sort of a borrowed line from a scene in one of my favorite films: Ghost World. Here's the scene (the Sidewinder is a convenience store run by a Greek immigrant, and Doug is a self-absorbed cluess doofus who fancies himself to be a martial arts fighter):

[Doug comes into the Sidewinder without a shirt on]
Doug: What's up, Josh? Give me two packs of cigarettes today. Working overtime: Sixteen hours.
[Puts malt liquir bottle on the counter]
Doug: And nature's nectar, wake-up juice. And give me six of these beef jerkys. I'm hungry enough to chew the crotch out of a rag doll.
[Sidewinder Boss spots him]
Sidewinder Boss: Hey. Hey. How many times do I have to tell you? No shirt, no service. Get the hell out of my store. What do you think this is, Club Med?
Doug: It's called America, dude. Learn the rules.
Sidewinder Boss: "Learn the rules?" No, YOU learn the rules. We Greeks invented democracy.
Doug: You also invented homos.
Sidewinder Boss: Fuck you.
Doug: You wish. You gotta buy me dinner first.