Naples, Sunday 1 March
After an hour trying to sleep with the thumping music downstairs and across the street, I creep along the corridor in my shorts and t shirt to a quieter room, where I am in the land of nod almost as soon as my head has hit the pillow.
Almost as soon as I have said 'white rabbits', I am on my way for the 100 mile drive to the Billie Swamp Safari at the Big Cypress Seminole Reservation.
For the first time in over two weeks, I actually enjoy the drive. The I75 across 'Alligator Alley' to Fort Lauderdale has a very nice surface, there's not one of the hideous billboards that have plagued me for a fortnight. The road runs through some absolutely delightful and unspoiled natural countryside. There's a toll of $2.50, but it's a small price to pay for such an excellent road.
There's a BBC World Service documentary on my Sirius satellite radio about child preachers, featuring an 11 year old in Miami, who has been ordained since he was 6. My former BBC colleague, Christopher Morris, seems quite bemused by it all. It could only happen here.
The 30 minute drive north to the reservation itself is a sheer delight. It's a single lane road which twists and turns through totally unspoiled countryside. As it's still before 9am, there's not another soul in sight, apart from an occasional fisherman.
I am booked onto an airboat tour, which is incredible. Effectively, a huge aeroplane propeller thrusts these lightweight boats at breakneck speed through the Everglades. Our pilot is the very experienced Glenn Wilsey, who has featured on TV actually swimming with alligators. As we stop to see the creatures close up, he tells us not to do the same and teaches us, in his words, 'more of the real story in 5 minutes than we can learn in a lifetime'.
Another boat stops to feed some pigs, one of which is immediately, in a flash, attacked by a 'gator and has to be beaten off. Amazing.
Apparently they are very good eating and low in cholesterol. The 'gators, not the pigs!
Cathy is my driver for a fascinating drive in a 'swamp buggy', through the mangroves. it's dry season, so the water level is down by 3 or 4 feet, but we seen more wildlife in an hour than I have seen in several years. From ostrich, bison, buffalo and raccoons to vultures, Scottish red deer and much more. Last night Cathy even saw a panther. There's a Seminole village of Chickees, their word for homes. By building their homes on stilts, the local adapted to their surroundings much better than the white man, which is one reason the Seminole tribe was able to survive. Chickees are designed to let the smoke of a campfire out of the sides, rather than the top, which has the effect of disseminating the smoke and smell and thus not giving away the location.
Cathy is great fun, and responds with gusto to a load of cub scouts from Pack 183, among some 1500 who have been camping on the reservation this weekend.
There are a lot of fallen trees, victims of Hurricane Wilma which passed right through here in the Autumn of 2005.
One guest asks what 'the large pestle and mortar is used for'. Cathy asks what he means. 'The stick in the hole', says the man. It's for grinding corn.
Soon after, I watch a local man 'wrestling' with an alligator. It's really a way of bringing them under control, but quite scary even to watch. He's apparently been doing this since he was 7!
For this special weekend, there are battle re-enactments between the Americans and the Seminoles. I am particularly impressed with the colourful costumes of the Indians and watch as the rituals of preparing for war are completed.
Thereafter, amid much bangs of guns and whooping, the battle itself takes place. Most impressive, leading to a victory for the Seminoles who, historically, were never defeated. Now I wonder how many American children know that?
Back at my hotel, the Naples Patriotic Society have a late afternoon session with some nice jazz music underneath my window. They end with the Star Spangled Banner. It's the first time in over two weeks I have seen the ever-present baseball caps being removed.
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