Monday, February 16, 2009

Heads Or Tails #78 - Legend


You can play this at Heads Or Tails!

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A little background information to set the scene..

I was 18-19 years of age when this took place. I was living in central Florida with my husband (now my ex) and my son, who was around two years old. It was a hot summer day and we had stopped at a Dairy Queen to get a bite to eat. Good thing, too. It would be quite a while before our next food.

We decided to take a drive in and around the Ocala National Forest. Whenever we (I) saw an interesting side road, I'd say "Oh.. let's see where THAT one goes." Unfortunately I made the wrong call at one turn.

(I'm getting to the legend part..)

The road we took was very sandy and about a mile in the car got stuck. As in sand up to the axles. Night was falling and neither of us really wanted to walk out to find help.

(Here comes the legend part. Aren't you excited?)

You see there were quite a few legends (told ya so) about the Ocala National Forest back then. There still may be. Anyway.. one was that there were moonshine stills back there. That revenuers went in and never came back out. There was also a rumor that Big Foot had been spotted more than once.

This is why we didn't want to walk out with night coming on fast. We resigned ourselves to spending the night in our car. At least we had a diaper bag for my son.

Summer in Florida is HOT. Even if you live there and are used to it, it's still HOT. Apparently every mosquito within one hundred miles decided to throw a party in our car and we were the buffet. We rolled up the windows.

Needless to say, because of the heat, the mosquitoes and the legends, we didn't get much sleep that night.

As morning broke we ventured down the road a bit on foot. We found a hunting cabin that looked deserted and "borrowed" a shovel. After a lot of digging, laying palm fronds in front of the tires, digging some more, etc. we made it back to a main road and headed home.

We left a lot of fat and happy mosquitoes behind.

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17 comments:

anthonynorth said...

You went down the food chain there a bit, I think :-)
Enjoyed that.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like the kind of adventure Poor Hubby & I have been known to have. lol

Misty DawnS said...

I'm glad Big Foot didn't get you! When I was young, I had reoccurring dreams about Big Foot coming to kidnap me, ya know. I'm really glad all that got you were mosquitoes. :-)

Jan said...

Ugh! That's pretty scary! Idon't think I could have stayed overnight though. I'm too chicken!

Annabel said...

ohh sounds like an adventure! as creepy as that kind of thing is at the time, it's always cool to look back at!

Hootin Anni said...

I'm not sure I'd have been able to handle staying in the car in the damp, hot heat of Florida. This is almost like the movie "Wrong Turn"...but I think that took place in West Virginia....some odd things happening in THOSE woods.

That shovel would have come in handy if Big Foot Showed Up!!! But, me, I'd be using the palm fronds wiping my butt as I ran from him!!! Trust me.

Anonymous said...

Buffet to a swarm of hungry mosquitos, not my idea of a fun time. Of course, you wouldn't really have fared much better outside the car. Guess this goes down as one of those things you don't want to do again.

Robyn Jones said...

LOL! That would have sucked SOOOO much...but made for a good laugh later on...
I can not imagine trying to spend the night in a car with my two year old son..he would have literally driven me to insanity long before the misquittos would have...although they wouldn`t have taken long either....
Great story!

Anonymous said...

Oh my goodness. I am so glad you got out safe.

Tumblewords: said...

Who knows what dangers lurk in the Ocala Woods? I'd have never thought about getting stuck in sand. Great post - that must have been one of the longest nights of your life...

Misty DawnS said...

Just for that 'lunch-break starting at 8:30 am' comment... I've half a mind to talk about pillowcases!!! :-P

P.S. Have you hugged your Banana today? Better do it again, just to be sure... then you can walk your Banana to Gina & Misty's and window shop the RC stuff.

P.S.S. Got Band-Aids?

bwaaaaaaaahahahahahahahaha. Hey - you started it! Wait... no you didn't - I did. Oh well, it's still freaking funny right there, it is!

Tina said...

i dont think i could of handled it- your braver than me ;)

myrtle beached whale said...

There are enough actual creepy crawlies and reptiles in Florida without the threat of legendary Big Foot. Great story.

Anonymous said...

me too! i think i can't handle being out overnight!

The Curmudgeon said...

Surely you would not have been confused with revenooers (spelling intended to reflect the appropriate pronunciation)... I think I might have gone in search of a still, thank you.

Grace said...

Oh... I live in Central FLA... and so understand the hot and mosquitoes... I'm scratching and sweating just thinking about it.

Alice (in BC Canada) said...

Good post. Sounds like a terrible night. Being mosquito dinner really bites, lol... just had to say that.