[at-l] Gator Get Up And Go (OT)

[Bluetrail at aol.com (Bluetrail@aol.com)]

Guess this is on-topic if you use the FT for training hikes...

All of the info on outrunning a gator is good, but useless if you get too close; when hiking near them, most of us just try to give them a wide berth whenever possible.  

A friend, Edwin, earned part of his way through college by working at Gatorland (near Disney World) as a gator wrestler. Once he missed on one of his "stick your arm in the gator's mouth" tricks and ended up with his arm in the gator's mouth, being dragged into the water in front of some pretty amazed tourists.  (Gators typically drown their victims before ingesting them.)  Edwin signaled to the other guy in the pen to "get the kit."  The kit contains the best way to dispatch the gator in front of a crowd--a large metal wedge and a sledge hammer.  The back-up wrestler was supposed to put the wedge at the back of the gator's skull and hit it with the sledge hammer, hopefully hard enough to sever the gator's spinal cord; that area at the back of the skull is apparently a weak spot in the gator's armor.   At the last minute, feet in the water, Edwin managed to get his arm loose.

He spent the rest of the afternoon and evening in the emergency room, getting stitches and shots.  When he got home, his parents were waiting up and said, "We've been thinking maybe we could help you a little more with your college expenses."

Edwin now works in a forensic science lab in California and hikes and mountain bikes all over the West.

Joan
bluetrail@aol.com