Apalachicola

Our last day squirrel hunting in Apalachicola, FL.  We had to be up a 6am because I guess squirrel hunting is easier at sunrise and sunset.  One of the rednecks down here had some great advice for squirrel hunting, "Them squirrels travel in trees, so you need to be lookin' up."  Dahhhhhhhh!  After hanging around people like that for a few days, I think we're all starting to loose a few IQ points.

We went to hunt the same spot today, but the tide must have been up because everything was submerged in water.  I didn't have waders or boots, so I just trudged through the muddy water in my tennis shoes hoping not to step on a snake or run into an alligator.  No one was really prepared for this.  Scott didn't have any luck finding a squirrel, so we headed back to the boat and floated down the river.  Along the way he shot a couple, and then we decided to hike through the woods again.  I was rigged up with all the audio gear, while Bill was filming.

I stepped off the boat onto a root that was pretty sturdy, while my other foot fallowed. I slipped and before I knew it, I was submerged in water up to my chest.  It turns out there was no land under the roots.  It was a deep water hole where my feet couldn't even touch.  I grabbed the root and tried to keep the audio gear above the water.  I finally got pulled out, but was soaking wet and had just dunked about $20,000 worth of audio gear.  We took everything apart and dried it out immediately, so it might work, but I still don't know.  My phone and wallet were also in my pants, so those got trashed.  The phone is drying and will hopefully work, but it was submerged for a while.  The main thing is that I didn't get hurt and didn't get eaten by an alligator ; )  We pretty much had to end the shoot there because you can't do anything without good audio.

I had some dry audio gear in my bag, so Bill and Scott wrapped up the shoot on the sandy beach by the Gulf of Mexico.  What a crazy trip!  Over the course of the last few days here's all the bad things that happened:  I almost missed my flight because I slept through my alarm, Bill forgot his camera on day one, Our guide bailed on us, Scott didn't wake up day three (we eventually woke him up), I fell in the river and soaked the audio gear, Scott forgot to put the car in park as it started to role away.
I think we all need to get out of here!