A few days before my birthday last week we drove to Gainesville to eat peanuts and slather on sunscreen and watch the 4th ranked Gators beat Georgia in baseball.
The weather Friday night was perfect - mild and breezy - even a little chilly at times...
...but Saturday afternoon in Florida's bright sunlight and 90-degree heat was brutal.
Before the game on Saturday, we stopped by the campus bookstore to purchase more must-have Gator paraphernalia. Did you know that you can buy packages of "official" eyeblack already printed with "Phil 4:13"? And yes - I bought a pack.
We also stopped by Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, also known as Florida Field and thanks to former coach Steve Spurrier - The Swamp.
Our seats for the baseball game were near the top behind home plate on the 1st base side of the field.
Perfect for capturing that walk-off Gator home run in the bottom of the 9th inning Saturday afternoon.
A couple of days before we left for Gainesville, we discovered this gator swimming in our pond.
We hoped he would move on while we were gone, but two weeks later, it's apparent that he likes Pollywog Creek as much as we do.
He's not a big gator. He's young, maybe 4 or 5 years old and about 5 feet in length, it's hard to tell. But a gator is a gator, and like all other gators, this guy has big teeth, a healthy appetite and a less-than-pleasant disposition.
I shot this short video yesterday as he moved from the bank of the pond back into the water...
We have had gators in the pond before, but never one as brazen as this one. He fails to retreat when approached and will actually follow me in the water as I walk around the pond. This gator definitely qualifies as a nuisance gator so we've called for a trapper to remove him.
Stay tuned in. I'm hoping that tomorrow I'll be able to post: Heeeeeeere goes the gator...
