
Alligator Alley, aka the Everglades Parkway, is an 84 mile long straight shot across the lower State of Florida from Naples on the west coast to Ft. Lauderdale on the east coast. These days it is part of Interstate 75 and four lanes. But back when I crossed it there were only two lanes and it was one lonely road, surrounded on both sides by the Florida Everglades. It was then called SR 84.
I crossed it twice, both times from west to east, and both times not without adventure.
Back in the early Seventies, my wife and I were living in Ft. Myers and took Alligator Alley over to the east coast. We left after work and so it turned dark before we got all the way across. There had been a lot of rain in south Florida and the water level of the 'Glades was up to the extent that it had forced a lot of wild rabbits out of their holes. Suddenly they were all over the highway, literally thousands of them. There was no way to miss them.
THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP!!!
My wife was getting hysterical.
THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP!!!
Now she was beyond hysteria. It lasted for about five to ten minutes, finally lessening toward the end. I couldn't even guess how many rabbits I must have killed.
Then in the early Eighties, when I was living in Orlando, I drove to Ft. Lauderdale on business. I decided to go via Alligator Alley so that I could visit an old friend in Ft. Myers. My vehicle was a Lincoln Town Car that had been confiscated from a drug dealer. That turned out not to have been a good idea. The transmission went when I was halfway across Alligator Alley, i.e., in the middle of nowhere. Finally I was able to coax it into gear and limp toward my goal at a much reduced speed. I should have driven a rental car.