A Dining-out Experience of a Lifetime!

Alligator Alley; via Satellite from Florida --

Last night (Thursday 2 July), the Grand Mother and Grumpy were treated to the dining experience of our lives! Son Ward took us on a 25-mile ride up US-17, across the St. John's River on I-95 and finally down a narrow country lane to a non-descript shack with the name, "Clark's Fish Camp". It looked exactly like you would expect a group of batchelors would jury-rig together to provide the minimal necessities for enjoying each other's company, drinking beer, and maybe doing a little fishing, too. The roof was corrugated steel, once galvanized but now generally rusty; the outer walls looked to be constructed using second-hand lumber from old barns and such; the floors inside were undulating and spongy in some places, suggesting that one might find himself falling through and becoming alligator dinner.

As we arrived, we walked down a short wooden pier where we spotted a 5-6 foot alligator feasting on tid-bits thrown in the water by some of the earlier diners. Two 18-inch snapping turtles were also sharing in the feast, totally undeterred by the small alligator.

Soon we were seated at a window table and our waiter took our orders for "appetizers", including fried dill pickles, fried green tomatoes, fried vegetable mix (squash, broccoli, mushrooms, onion rings, Brussell sprouts, zucchini, cauliflower), and the piece d' resistance; fried alligator tail! Everybody (and that includes the Grand Mother!) tried everything; the consensus was that the alligator tail tasted like pork chop -- but Grumpy would add that it "chewed like boiled gizzard". [Grumpy slept fitfully last night -- he thinks it was due to overindulgence in fried alligator tail -- or maybe it was just overindulgence!]

Our friendly waiter took our picture after we had happily feasted on the appetizers. As you can see, everyone enjoyed this unique site, the food and the company.

The ceiling area in the room we were seated was adorned with taxidermy samples of a Bison head, a leaping lion (just out of view in this photo), a perching monkey and numerous other wild animals. The hallway through which we walked to get to our table was adorned by a huge collection of collector plates picturing various colorful fish.

As darkness descended on this colorful place, little blips of rain soon turned into another Florida late afternoon downpour. We drove back to the Retirement Castle on the Hill and Grumpy was quick to crawl into bed, taking two TUMS to ease the digestive rumblings he knew would visit his otherwise uninterrupted slumber.