2/27/17 Monday

We got up and did our final laundry, cleaned up a bit and basically got ready for leaving tomorrow.  We ate an early lunch and decided to go back to Boca Ciega to check on the alligator.  Apparently, he had been near the bridge when we first arrived, but by the time we parked the car and walked up to the bridge, he was nowhere to be seen.  I took a series of shots of a great blue catching and eating a fish.  As we walked around the end of the pond, I decided to walk a little closer to the heron, but as I walked, I heard a great bellow and knew instantly that I had found the gator (or he had found me).  I couldn't see him, but there was a clump of bushes next to the pond and I'm sure he was in there.  I called to Dave and as he came closer, we heard another couple of bellows.  We, wisely, decided to back away.  We got to work at 1 and we were extremely busy!  Poor Dave and Paul were the only two guys on the floor when a big truck came in full of doors, windows, thousands of feet of kick molding and other stuff - all of it heavy!  They were drenched in sweat by the time they finished unloading and they still weren't done as they had to load granite for one customer and tables and chairs for another.  By 5, we were done - in more ways than one.  We stopped for dinner on the way home.  We will have to say good-bye to John and Carole tonight as we will be leaving for work in the AM and will get on the road from work as it is part way to the highway that we take out of here.  We are hoping to get to North Carolina by tomorrow night - we'll see.