Midway between Naples and Fort Lauderdale lies the magic of the Florida Everglades. Within the Florida Everglades lies the Big Cypress Swamp and the Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation. Located within the Big Cypress Indian Reservation is the Billie Swamp Safari, a tourist destination with airboats, swamp buggies, a zoo, and more (airboats and swamp buggies .... drawing a blank - go to the Billie Swamp Safari website and next time you're near a swamp check them out).




Every year Billie Swamp Safari organizes and presents the Big Cypress Shootout, a reenactment of the second Seminole War and every year they invite Boy Scouts from southwest and southeast Florida to attend the event and camp for the weekend.




Very, very cool.






The war reenactment was terrific (the Seminole clearly won the battle - in fact, they were never defeated and never surrendered).






The costumes on both sides were so colorful. The horses were amazing to watch. And the cannon, well, the boys were cheering and clapping then.




Not to be missed was the alligator trainer? tamer? fool? Yikes. All I know is that I hope my children NEVER choose to follow this career path. As we watched Justin, the trainer, I couldn't help but wonder how "accidents" are handled, the two man medical crew seemed quite insufficient. Fortunately, Justin completed the show with all appendages, including his head, attached.




Side note of sorts  ... we were camping with hundreds of cub and boy scouts and parents. And non-gender-specific port-o-potties. The brilliant Miss Mia grabbed paper, pen, and tape and labeled one of the potties near us "Women". Perfect.

Seriously, real live big alligator