The story begins at a river under a bridge.
As teenagers, we were brave. Careless even. We had no sense of direction in life and all were as wild as a sheltered child could get. I stood under the old moss-covered trees. The river slowly ran intertwining with the small landings covered in sand and trees.
The river was an otherworldly place here in South Georgia. It was a dark place, full of secrets, poisonous snakes, and gators. And here I was, climbing into a boat just big enough for a few people. Did I mention I can't swim and have an irrational phobia of going underwater? Yeah, so there I am in this boat literally just bigger than a canoe going down the river.
We floated down the river, I watched the sides of the water for any movement. We got deeper and deeper. We thought of stopping at one landing but it was covered in Spanish moss, which most people from the North don't understand the danger of this beautiful moss.
Chiggers. Chiggers or red bugs live in the beautiful gray moss. They're no bigger than a tiny freckle but once they get on you, they make a sore that's so itchy and it takes forever to go away. You have to paint clear nail polish on the bug to suffocate him.
The beauty of a Southern river in the swamplands is just simply indescribable. Something about it is so spooky. It's so quiet except for the slow sound of the boat floating through the water, and the sounds of animals around the swamp, it's so eerie.
At some point, I think we were close to a mile into the river. We saw movement up ahead and a quick glance confirmed what we thought it was, a massive gator was sliding into the water. We did a u-turn of the boat, we clutched onto the sides and began paddling harder to get away from the area and against the water. We finally got back to the main landing and we all began hopping onto the land, we threw a rope to the last person on the boat to bring the boat in and then we strapped it to the ranger and headed on home.
The river is such a mysterious place, there's one place here near the Alapaha river where there is something in the woods close to the river. A part of a steam engine or something? I've never been there but have always been curious. I have seen photos of it before. But it makes me so curious, what else do the river and woods down here hide?
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