Forgot to mention

While I was in FL I experienced something new. Something most people never have/will experience. It's really a shame we don't have pictures or video of the event. I will do my best to do the event justice!

It was a cool black night, a cool black night. And my dad asked if Mike, Kayla, and I wanted to go to Flounder gigging. Yes - Flounder gigging. Let me explain - because the process is really the best part.

You are in about knee deep water with a light (under the water - it's a bulb duck taped to a stick with some foil to shield your eyes) in one hand and a mini-tritent in the other (that's for sticking the Flounder). Since there were 4 of us, Kayla and I were in charge of the light, while Mike and Dad handled the gigging. At this point - you're probably wondering "how does the light work Veronica?" Well - it is connected via ghetto rigging to an extension cord, which is connected to a car battery. The car battery is sitting on a piece of plywood that is laid over a tube (the kind you ride on behind a boat). This tube is also where you put the Flounder after you gig them - under the ply wood.

So - back to the evening - we are cruising along in the dark water (with the exception of the 5 foot circle that is lit by our lights) looking for Flounder in stingray & alligator infested water. That's right - stingrays and alligators. We didn't actually see any alligators - thankfully. They are in the water, but probably are in the swampier areas. We DID see stringrays. In fact - that's ALL we saw. No Flounder!

The big event of the night was when we were approaching our first stingray. All I could think of was Steve Irwin (crocodile hunter that was stabbed in the heart and killed by a stingray). I'm basically hiding behind Mike, when my dad gives it a little poke so it will swim away and it swims right toward me and through my legs. I've been told you get 5 or 6 "panic screams" in your life, and let me tell you - I used one right then. Blood curdling. I was terrified. I didn't really calm down until we were out of the water and safely on our way home.

This is a Flounder (it doesn't look anything like Flounder in the Little Mermaid)

This is the type of stingray we saw.