The Myakka Gator

    This was most probably the largest gator in the wild that I have ever seen in my life... it was huge!

    The morning started out very early, before dawn to possibly capture yet another beautiful sunrise in this State Park near my home in Southwest Florida. The Park ... Myakka River State Park, located approximately 10 miles east of I-75 and Sarasota Florida on highway 72.

    A little history about this Park. In a scene reminiscent of what early Native Americans and Spanish explorers witnessed, arching palm trees and live oaks reflect on a winding tea-colored stream. The cries of limpkins, Souther Bald Eagle, Owls, and Osprey pierce the air while alligators and turtles sun lazily on logs and riverbanks. The Florida Whitetail Deer, Osceola Turkey, Florida Panther, and the Black Bear are some of the more prominent animals that can be found in the park. The Majestic Myakka River flows through 58 square miles of one of Florida's oldest and largest State Parks.

 

    The Myakka River, Florida’s first state-designated wild and scenic river, flows through a vast expanse of unspoiled wetlands, prairies, hammocks, and pinelands that make up the Myakka River State Park. Boating, fishing, canoeing, and kayaking are popular activities on the water while hikers and bicyclists explore miles of trails and backroads. Prior to 1850, the Myakka River was known as the Asternal River on English maps. A Seminole Indian reportedly told a surveyor in the 1850s that the name of the river was Myakka. The translation of the word Myakka is unknown.

    Between the 1850s and the 1930s, cattle grazed on the dry prairie, a vast land of grasses, forbs, palmetto, and other low shrubs with thousands of scattered wetlands. In 1910, Bertha Palmer, a progressive businesswoman from Chicago, came to Sarasota and bought a vast amount of land. A few years later, she purchased acreage farther inland than her initial real estate purchases and tried her hand at cattle and swine ranching. Meadow Sweet Pastures, as it was known, was located very near the Myakka River, where she introduced fencing and dip vats to Florida ranching. You can still visit the old foundations of the original house on Ranch House Road, located inside the park. Mrs. Palmer passed away in 1918.

    

    Shortly after, the Great Depression struck America, President Roosevelt signed into law the New Deal, a government program intended to boost the economy and spirit of the American population during those dark years. One program funded was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Over 17,000 acres of the Palmer estate were purchased by Florida to develop the Myakka River, State Park. Myakka is one of eight Florida State Parks developed by the CCC during the 1930s, and was formally dedicated in 1941, and was officially opened to the public. Many of the CCC structures built in Myakka are still used today, such as the visitor center, two picnic pavilions, five rental log cabins, roads, and trails.

    

    So it was the middle of March 06 while driving back to my camping trailer about mid-morning when I spotted something on the shore of the lake. March is low water time here, so the water line is quite a distance from the perimeter road that meanders around the southeastern part of the lake. I pulled over and got my binoculars to see what it was and to my amazement... it was a huge gator with a softshell turtle in its mouth. Not wanting to pass up this photo opportunity I quickly grabbed my wildlife camera setup and tripod and headed out the 300 yards to get closer to my subject. When I was about 100 yards away I set the tripod down just to observe the 10-12 foot gator with its prey. She was a big one for sure...the largest I have ever seen in the wild, and she was very busy tossing that turtle in the air and catching it to reposition it in her huge gaping mouth.

    I began moving forward very slowly, only a couple of feet at a time, as to not alarm this big girl, although she was very busy with her turtle. She would flip it up in the air and catch it and crunch her jaws trying to disassemble the turtle so she could eat it. It was much too big to take down in one gulp, even though her mouth was cavernous.

I eased up a couple of feet several times to where I was as close as needed to be with a 400 mm lens to capture very close-up images. I was about 20 yards, which was probably much too close. Gators can outrun a human in the first 30 feet or so and I didn't want to test that theory this day. I knew that her morning meal was more important to her at this moment than also testing that same theory. I was happily capturing image after image shooting burst mode when she would toss that turtle in the air when out of the corner of my eye I saw a red blur.

I looked over to see this woman dressed in a full-length red dress and dress shoes out in this mucky shoreline walking past me with her tiny digital camera stuck out as far as her arms would go. She was so intent at looking at the back of that little camera that I knew for sure she had no idea how close she was getting to this gator. I stepped forward a couple of steps in time to grab her arm and pull her back. I said to her to move very slowly and get behind me. When I asked her what in the hell were you thinking? she said in a very heavy British accent, I was only trying to get a close up of that gator. I have never seen one before. Well, I gave her a very quick one minute lesson about gators in general and about this one in particular. I told her that if that gator had wanted to run you down and eat you, that there would be no way in hell that you would be able to escape those jaws.

The look I received from her was about priceless but I knew she obviously did not know that she was in that much danger that morning and her husband should have thanked me for saving her British life. The woman turned around and quickly left and I'm sure that she told her husband about the very rude American gentleman down there with his camera just didn't want me to get my photo of that gator. I hope she did get a least a couple of photos just to tell the tale of this horrible photographer in the USA to all of her British friends back home.

    I continued to capture more images for a bit and decided to leave that big girl to her turtle and left. I have had many memorable moments in the 15 years or so in photographing and camping in this State Park. Camping offered me the ability of early morning shooting before the front gates opened up at 8 AM. I have conducted many photo tours here and hopefully gave sufficient enough instructions in photography to enable many other photographers the possibility of obtaining wonderful images of landscapes and wildlife that I have been blessed with over my time there.

Photographs...Aquariums...and Planes

    It was around 9 am on a beautiful spring cool morning. I was flying relatively low, only at about 1000 feet AGL towards my destination of Destin Airport in the Panhandle of Northwest Florida for a meeting at 12 pm. I wasn’t over any populated area and just wanted to see the open land below at a lower altitude so I dropped down to about 500 feet AGL. I was about 10 minutes from my destination when I spotted a grass airfield way off to my left that looked abandoned at first glance but as I got closer I could see that it had been mowed and looked to be in good condition. I circled around for a very low pass at about 50 feet and then this time I noticed a very large recently built sprawling home at the end of the field. I pulled up and circled back around again for another look only this time I noticed a person standing out by the pool waving his arm at me. So on the next pass, I did the plane wing wag to say hi back. As I passed over him he was indicating by his arm movements that he wanted me to land. OK, what the hell why not as I am early for my noon meeting. So I circled back around and slowed down, for the third time and I landed in my Super STOL airplane backcountry style of dragging the tailwheel for a little bit then set my plane down on its big 35 inch Alaskan Bush Tires. I taxied up to where the man had walked down to the airfield. I shut the engine down, raised the window up and the gentleman came over and said “Hi !… my name is Hymie..what’s yours?... Wow! what a welcome.

    Today started out at around 8 am as I took off from my private airfield at my home for a trip to Destin, Florida. I had a meeting with the owner…Ruben Gallagher of the Blue Marlin restaurant, on the following day. My first stop was at my friend's cattle ranch just outside Cross City, Florida for an overnighter. John and I haven’t seen each other in about nine months since the dedication ceremony of the Grizzly bear display at the Idaho US Fish and Wildlife Service's office. I landed my Super STOL airplane on his driveway around 10 am. Later that evening we had a cookout with John’s brother Robert. We had one of the best porterhouse steaks I have ever eaten, and no wonder since they have a cattle ranch. I also never had a baked potato that was cooked 3 times, once in the microwave then olive oil was brushed over it with rock salt, back in the oven, and finally on the grill alongside the steaks. I told John just let me know when you’re doing this again and I’ll fly up anytime. Later that evening we sat around talking about that Grizzly bear incident at our fly-in camp at Horseshoe Valley in Northwestern Idaho. I’m sure Robert had heard the story many times from John but never from my perspective. In fact, John had an 8x10 photo of the two of us standing next to the display. We should have had the same guns pointing at the bear but there were too many people to reenact that moment. The next morning I took off around 8 am for my flight over to Destin.

    Well, I said my name is J. Michael. Hymie asked what’s the J stand for. I said John but I don’t use my first name and I don't use my last name of Williams either. It was about to get confusing... it always does...I just go by J. Michael. Hymie said that will work for me, J. Michael. Come on get out of that thing and let's sit down by the pool and talk. After a few minutes of conversation, I asked what kind of plane do you have? Hymie said I don’t own a plane and I don't like flying. That old hanger was kept in place when the demo of the old house was done. He said you never know who might drop in someday. He asked me about my plane and those huge tires. I gave him a complete run down and said I would take him up for a ride…he said I’ll pass for now. I got the idea that Hymie really didn’t like to fly. We talked for about 2 hours and I then said that I need to go fly into the Destin airport to meet with the owner of the Blue Marlin restaurant for lunch. Hymie said, Ruben !! …he is one of my best friends … I’ll join you and we can take my car and you just put your plane in the hanger if you want. That old hanger was in perfect condition and newly repainted and I could see repair work also had been done but it looked almost new.

    So we left for the Blue Marlin restaurant to meet up with Ole Ruben. Lunch went well and Ruben wanted more information about very large aquariums. I sometimes represent the home and commercial aquarium builder in the Kendall area of South Miami called “The Living Reef”, owned by Ken Rollins. Ken and I met at a trade show a few years back and I told him my background in not only aquariums and filtrations systems but also photography. I mentioned that maybe we could work together on acquiring clients … I offered to go to his business and photograph his showroom with various sizes and styles of aquariums and then go to a few homes and commercial locations where The Living Reef had installed one of their very large custom design aquariums. I would then put together a digital album on my laptop computer to be able to showcase a range of aquarium designs. Then I would go to a potential client and find out what they wanted and about where an aquarium could possibly be placed. I knew about filtration systems and the space requirements and could easily direct the client to something that we both felt would make a significant statement to their home or business. I would photograph the proposed location and then when back at home at my computer, I would superimpose various aquarium designs that I had previously photographed and do a pictorial mockup of what the final design could look like. I then would send a digital copy to the client for further discussions. When nearly finalized, I would then give Ken a call and send him the digital proof so that his team could come up with an approximated costs. Once we had an approximate plan and proposed associated costs we would then get together at the client's home or business to finalize the design. At this point, the client would have decided on a freshwater or saltwater aquarium, which would affect the final costs. Maintenance and service contracts would be discussed. These systems are so complex that most clients would not attempt such an endeavor on their own. 

    The system that Ruben and I discussed would be huge, about 2000 gallons, and would be elevated above the center of a four-sided bar so that the people could view all 4 sides when sitting at the bar. The size would be about 5 foot wide by 5 foot tall by 10 feet long and made of 2-inch thick acrylic. All of the support systems would be under the aquarium and bottle racks where all of the liquor is placed on both sides of the main bar. I just had photographed a similar aquarium system so that assembling that photograph would be an easy task. We all talked for over 2 hours at the Blue Marlin, mostly about my plane as strange as that sounds. It seems that Ruben enjoys flying in small planes, and of course Hymie invited him over the next day to have me take him up. So that means another night on the road which I don’t mind at all, as I always take along extra clothes for just such times. And of course, I love to take people flying. Ruben showed up right at 9 am for his ride. I asked him if he ever rode in a Ferrari airplane before? Both Hymie and Ruben asked what do you mean? I said that my plane does things that not many airplanes can do. I said once off the ground it climbs really fast and at a very steep rate of climb…it fly's very slow and low, takes off in about 35 feet, and lands in about the same distance. You could compare it to an "E-Ticket Ride" at Disney World. Ole Ruben said I think that I’m going to like this plane ride. 

    My plane sits quite high off the ground because of the very large tires and the landing gear design, so getting into it is not all that easy. But I got Ruben in and strapped down. He made a comment about 5 safety harness straps... I just said standard-issue…this is not a commercial airliner, besides it keeps you at the scene of the crash. I got two very strange looks. I started the engine and warmed it up and taxied down to the end of the 1000 foot long runway, even though I only needed about 35 feet of it. I think that I took it a bit easy on Ole Rubin as I used about 200 feet on this take-off. However, once off the ground and a little bit of air-speed built up I pulled back on the stick and we went nearly straight up to 3000 feet before I leveled off. I think Ruben held his breath all the way up. I did a few easy maneuvers and some wing stalls to show him just what this plane can do and brought us down to the field at about 35 mph and held it about 10 feet off the deck for about half the length of the field and then pulled the throttle back and the nose up and plopped it in and then stood on the brakes for about a 50-foot landing. Ole Ruben was a little green around the gills but he said that he enjoyed the hell out of that and would do it again anytime. I said anytime? we could go back up if you want. Ole Ruben said I think I have had enough for one day.

    Now a little event that I did not know anything about was that on late Saturday afternoons that Hymie, Ruben, and a few of their close friends get together at each other houses on a rotation. These parties are mainly very social events with drinks and finger food catered in. This Saturday, it was Hymie’s turn… and that meant that I had to spend another night just to meet all of those potential clients. Hymie introduced me as a representative for not only very large aquariums but for some of my photography, especially my very large panoramic Florida Landscapes. I didn’t have anything much to show other than what was on my laptop, but apparently, that was just enough to stir up a whole bunch of interest. Ole Rubin was very helpful in mentioning our meeting and what he was contemplating for his restaurant. Most of these people have interior decorators that they work with to make their very expensive homes a one of a kind. It seems that once one of those wealthy people has something new and different in their homes, then at the next monthly meeting that homeowner has to try and out-do the other. So I’m thinking that I may have stumbled on to something here. I think Ken, at “The Living Reef” and I am going to be busy here in Destin.

    So on my next flight to Destin, I now fly into Hymie’s airstrip, I brought along a couple of the smaller landscape photographs that would fit into my plane. I had three of my 28 inches by 74 inches stretched canvas prints, two in color and one in B&W, and some smaller wildlife canvas prints to show. Hymie absolutely loved what I brought and said let's hang these now and then we have to come up with how I am going to decorate his place for the next meeting. We had about 6 months to come up with something that would be the envy of the crowd. By that time the Blue Marlin would have the new 2000 gallon aquarium installed and I'm sure that Rubin showcased it to all of his friends. Hymie really wanted to showcase my photography and also wanted his bare walls covered, but they would require different wall colors. So Hymie and I and a couple of friends went to work on painting the walls to better show the photographs. In a couple of hours, we had the walls done and we hung the prints that I brought on this trip. Hymie chose a few more landscapes that he had seen on my computer and I would order them. I mentioned that if I had some work tables and saws and a commercial power staple gun, that I could just bring the wood for the frames and assemble any size print that you wanted. I said that most of my panoramic landscape image files are such that they could be printed up to ten feet in length, which is exactly the length that the wood framing material comes in and which I could get it into my plane as raw materials and not the finished product. Hymie said whatever you need, make me a list and I will go to Home Depot and get it and have it delivered and put into the hanger for you.

    So while I was at Hymie’s place and looking around, one of the first things I noticed was a perfect location for an aquarium. When you walk in through the front doors you look thru the house to the wall of glass out to the massive concrete patio overlooking the pool and patio some 8 feet below. To the left of the wall of glass is a study with a wrap-around stairway that follows the side and back walls of the study up to the second floor. That study room is about 15 feet or so in length with tall ceilings. What a perfect setting for a 10-foot long aquarium. So I made some measurements and took a few photographs without Hymie there. Some photos from the entrance doors when you first walk into the house and also in front of where the proposed aquarium that I had in mind would be placed. I didn’t say anything to Hymie about an aquarium other than did he like the one at the Blue Marlin. I had asked Hymie if he liked aquariums and he said yes but thought they were too much trouble. So when I got back home I loaded Hymie’s house photos into my computer with the location of the aquarium that I had in mind along with all of the walls that he wanted to hang some more landscape photographs. I used some of the photos from the display room at “The Living Reef” for some ideas for a 10-foot long aquarium. I also found what I thought would be a perfect location for a ten-foot-long panoramic Florida landscape print on canvas. By making photos of the walls and then superimposing a proposed wall photograph, you get a very good idea of what things will work and what will not because you are looking at the entire room with the furniture, lighting, and flooring all working together.

    It has now has been about two weeks and I have sent Ruben the photographs of what his bar area would look like with the large aquarium. It only took him less than a day to say yes to the project. I then contacted Ken at “The Living Reef” and said it's a go and then we scheduled a time for his people to meet me at the Tamiami Airport and the four of us would fly to Destin to meet up with Ruben. I borrowed a Cessna 310 twin-engine airplane from a friend in Punta Gorda to pick them up for the flight to Destin. I flew into the airport in Destin and had arranged for a courtesy car for us to go to the Blue Marlin restaurant to meet up with Ruben. I wasn’t surprised at all to see Ole Hymie there as well. I let the guys from the aquarium shop do their thing with how they were going to design this project to hold 8 tons of water 6 feet above the floor and still have all of the liquor shelves surround the bar. They still needed an access point to get in under the aquarium to install and service all of the filtering equipment, but that is what these guys do…the near impossible. So the final plans were made, deposits accepted and tentative construction dates were set…now on to Hymie’s house. Hemie had no idea what was about to be discussed. Hymie just thought we were going to his place for afternoon drinks, which I can’t have as I am the pilot.

    After we arrived at Hymie’s place and sat down for a bit. We got Hymie busy in the kitchen so I broke out my booklet of the photographs that I took the last time I was there in which I arranged a layout for an approximate 1800 gallon freshwater aquarium with a very unusual background…a tree trunk inside the aquarium with rocks and stumps that appeared like the side of a riverbank. The tree rose out of the aquarium with branches that went up the back wall to the staircase and spread horizontally on either side. I had already discussed this with Ken and they had a similar insert that could be added on to make up the tree. All of the aquarium inserts, whether it be saltwater or freshwater are hand made from molds taken from a real host. It could be various types of corals/rocks, sponges, etc for saltwater and river rocks, roots, trees trunks, and branches right down to the leaves. All are made of a high-density expandable foam that is mixed up as a liquid and poured into hand made molds. Once cured the item is removed and edges cleaned up and are spray painted to match what it looks like in the wild. When a little algae builds-up on them over time they are extremely very lifelike.

    Hymie came in from the kitchen after making some finger food snacks and I showed Hymie the new photographs on my computer that I thought would look good on his walls. They appeared as if they were already hanging on the walls. Hymie was stunned as to my methods of presentation and accepted every one of my suggestions. Now it came time to reveal my aquarium concept for his house that he had no idea that I made up. When I turned the page you could hear Hymie gasp for breath. I thought I saw tears well up in his eyes….he was once again stunned at what he was looking at. There was a trembling sound that came from his mouth that muttered…J. Michael, I love it. When can I have it made? With Ken and his people there, it was perfect timing as to what all would be needed…measurements would be taken and quick concept designs for the filtering system would be drawn up. I had a previous idea that the back wall of the study/house was open to a concrete patio that was curved and about 30 feet wide. I mentioned that maybe a shed type structure could be built to the back of the house with a slanted roof and access door to all of the aquarium filtering equipment. The last time I was there I photographed that back wall and then added my magic. l envisioned that this add aquarium room could be incorporated into a patio bar with a simulated thatched roof and barstools complete with a chiller for wines and a keg of beer on tap. Hymie mentioned that he had always wanted just that very thing. Hymie said, J. Michael…you need to come up here more often with your ideas. I laughed and said my pleasure Hymie.

    We drove back to the airport and boarded the plane and took off for the Tamiami airport and arrived around 7:30 late that afternoon. Ken said he would get back in touch with me about the associated costs and how to split up the construction work. I said don’t worry so much about the costs, as that was not a factor with Hymie. I said that I would hire a local contractor to build the outside filter room and have your electrical requirement installed and ready to go. Once the room was dried in and watertight the construction crew would then cut the concrete block wall for the aquarium to sit in. Just let me know the final overall size opening of the aquarium itself and all locations of the aquarium piping and electrical. I will also need the electrical requirements for a sub-panel. I will need to find a way to bring in a water line and a drain line back out from the new filter room. I mentioned to Ken that maybe we should consider an on-site well to be able to initially fill the aquarium along with 25% water changes instead of using the city water system. Ken said a good idea. Now I will need to find a well driller. The footprint of this aquarium just got larger. Hymie told me once that his place is on a well since it was so far away from a city water line so that problem was eliminated.

    I departed back to the Punta Gorda airport and exchange planes and then on to my home base and a stout drink…I think that I had earned it today.

    Now we can fast forward about 4 months. I found a general contractor, another friend of Hymie's, to do the total construction work at Hymie’s place, including modifications to the on-site water well system for the aquarium. He said he would work with Ken on whatever he needed at the Blue Marlin as well. This contractor even did all of the final finished woodwork for the bar…total completed job and it turned out fantastic. I knew that Hymie's bar would also look as good as the Blue Marlin's... a very authentic Tiki Bar with a thatched roof, all of the LED lighting, stereo sound system, and a wet and dry bar. Ken not only had the Blue Marlin's aquarium built and installed in record time but also had Hymie's aquarium built and delivered on-site as well. Ken said that I saved money on the truck rental by getting both delivered at the same time. There was still a lot more to do on Hymie's system to get it finished in time for his next Saturday's party, which was about 6 weeks away. Both systems are still being worked on at this time but are scheduled for water and fish in another 3 weeks. Ken also had a maintenance man that worked in that geographical area that was well versed in aquarium systems and that he would handle the total maintenance for both aquarium systems. I had flown up to see the aquariums installed and also had Hymie’s photograph materials with me ready for assembly. I set up shop in the hanger and had all of the photographs assembled in about a day or two, except for the ten-foot panoramic landscape…I needed more table length. We hung all of the photographs that I assembled the next day. Hymie was about 6 weeks away from another friendly neighbor dinner at his place and was anxious to get everything up and running. I had Ken under the gun as he also knew that once all of those people saw Hymie’s aquarium, that I would probably have an easy sell for more of the same…both in aquariums for Ken and the photographs for J.Michael.

    So I needed another sheet of plywood, some 2x4’s, and sawhorse brackets to make up another eight-foot table to assemble that ten-foot photograph. Hymie called his friend that rents vehicles and had a cargo van delivered in no time. I went to Lowes in town and picked up the materials I needed and stopped in at a local gas station to refill the van before returning. I'm sure that I really didn't have to do that since Hymie personally knew the rental company. Come to think of it...who doesn't this guy know in the town? As I was filling the rented van a pickup truck pulled up at a diagonal right across in front of me, which at the time I thought was a bit odd. The passenger door opened and I saw the long barrel of a gun come out first and then the guy. I knew right away I was in deep trouble but had no clue as to why. I ducked down behind my opened door as the shot went through the window. I pulled out my 40 cal auto handgun from my waist stood up and quickly fired off 3 shots at the guy’s body before he could regroup and fire off a second shot at me. The guy went down immediately and his gun fell to the ground. I was still wondering “What the Hell”. Then the driver opened his door and I saw a pistol come up in his hand. I ducked down again as a single shot rang out. This time I had to move and quickly made it to the back of the van as he fired a couple of more rounds where he thought I was at. I came around the opposite side of the back of the van and saw the guy come out from behind his door to see if he hit me. I had a clear shot of him and fired 3 quick rounds at his body and he went down hard. His gun was about four feet away. I carefully went over and kicked his gun under my van and then did the same with the gun that the first shooter had. 

    Just when I thought that this mess was over, a second vehicle pulled in at a diagonal behind me. Now I am at the front of my vehicle and looking around the driver’s side to see a big guy get out with what looked like a shotgun. I’m thinking “Damn” where are these guys coming from? I had no place to go so I got down to ground level and when I could see the guys legs, I fired 2 rounds at them apparently hitting him both times just above the ankles. I could see him and the shotgun fall to the ground... the shotgun was out in front of him.  I quickly got up and ran around the back of my van. When I got to the back corner of the van I could see that this guy now has a handgun in his right hand. I didn’t wait a fraction of a second and fired at least two or three times. Thankfully he was the only gunman in that vehicle. To say that my heart was racing hard would have been an understatement. I kicked that handgun back under my van as well as the shotgun. I’m now spinning around in circles looking for more threats and seeing none for the moment. 

    I was about to get my cell phone out to call 911 when I saw out of the corner of my eye a black BMW with very dark windows slowly pull in along the opposite side fuel pumps and stop. Then I saw the back window roll down. I said this is not good and I got behind the concrete column next to the fuel pump that I was using. I heard two rifle shots ring out, one hitting the pump and the other hitting the side of my van right behind the door. I didn’t know at this point just how many rounds that I had previously fired, so I dropped the magazine and got the other mag out of my pocket, and slammed it into the handgrip. I heard another rifle round go off and hit the van right between the pump and the concrete column I was standing behind. At this point, I had nowhere to go but I needed to stay behind this concrete column or get shot. I decided that if he shot again that I would come around the opposite side of the column and the next gas pump to get a shooting line of sight. When I heard the next shot, I got into firing position and put two rounds through the back window and then fired at least two or three more times through the hole in the window. The BMW then slowly moved away and rolled across the gas station’s parking area and across the side road and rolled into the building across the street. I heard the car’s horn blowing steadily and I quickly figured out that I must have hit that guy and hopefully he was out of this ridiculous gunfight. I didn’t go over to check on him as I would be too exposed and have no cover. As long as that horn kept blaring I figured he was done for but I kept watching to see if anyone got out of that car. The other three shooters I assumed were dead as they have not moved at all. 

    There was another gentleman on the far side of the gas station filling his car when all of this began. I walked over and said are you alright…he said yes. I asked him if he would stay until the police showed up and tell them what he saw. I could tell that he was a nervous wreck and asked where are your car keys? He said in his pocket and got them out and I grabbed them quickly just to make sure that he wouldn’t drive off. The owner of the gas station had locked his doors and was on his cell phone, calling the police no doubt. I motioned for the owner to open the doors and then told my witness to get inside and lock the doors again. I then went over and got my cell phone and dialed 911 and said there was a shooting at the Speedway gas station south of town and send the police and hung up. I needed to document that I made a 911 call on my phone. I then called my Firearms Legal Protection company and said that I had just been involved in a quad shooting and gave them the name of the town in Florida. They already had my name and card number as a redirect. I said that I was the one returning fire and I was going to need help. I also said that when the police arrived, I would not be able to talk to my council, as my phone would surely be taken away. The woman said she had all she needed and someone would show up in person in a few hours and to say nothing to the police until my lawyer arrived. I said Ok, just as I heard the sirens of several police cars arriving. 

I took out my driver's license, my concealed weapons permit, and my FLP card and put them in my shirt pocket. I then unloaded my weapon and put the magazine in my pocket and my weapon back into my holster just the first police car pulled up. I immediately put up my hands high into the air and said I was the one that returned fire after I was shot at by multiple attackers. I said that there was another shooter in that black BMW across the street but was not sure if he was still alive or not. I then gave the officer my identification cards and said my weapon was unloaded and back into the holster on my left hip. He took the weapon, magazine, IDs, and my cell phone and said go sit down in the back seat of his patrol car and try to relax. I said that there was a witness inside along with the owner standing over by the door and that I had his car keys to make sure he would stay around to be my witness. The office began to ask me questions as to what had happened and I said that I would fully comply and answer all questions just as soon as my lawyer and I had talked in private. That officer knew the procedure and was very kind. It is the same procedure that a police officer would do if he was the shooter. They are told to say nothing until their representative gets on site. I said to talk to my witness and I’m sure that the station had surveillance cameras, as well as the attendant inside, had a front-row seat. I felt that there would be sufficient information available for the police to get a good accurate accounting of what had happened. Once my lawyer arrived and we talked in private, we would then sit down with the investigating detective and give my account of what had happened. 

    To this day I am still unsure why this happened, as I did not even live in that town. I told the detective that I was staying with Hymie Rosenthal and needed to get in touch with him as I’m sure he was getting a bit worried that I have been gone for so long. The detective said that he knew Hymie very well and said that he would call him immediately. It's nice to know that Hymie knew so many prominent people in this town. It was about an hour later and after my legal representative and I had the private conversation that we were escorted into the police Captain Brown's office where the prosecuting attorney, Hymie, the investigating detective Wilson, my attorney, and myself were all seated. I thought that maybe I was in deep trouble until Captain Brown set the tone of this meeting by saying, Mr. Williams, I would like to say what a commendable act of self-discipline you expressed today in your actions of taking out a gang we couldn't. We have reviewed the surveillance tapes and talked to the 2 witnesses as to what had happened earlier today and have concluded that your actions were completely justified as self-defense and that you may have possibly saved the life of one of those witnesses.

    I was then released but had agreed to stay in town until the official hearing. I’m very sure that Hymie had a little something to do with all of this. The attorneys said they would try to see if this formal hearing could be fast-tracked as this was a justifiable shooting. Once Hymie knew the name of the judge, which he also knew personally, that would preside over this case he called him to ask for a special favor to fast track the process. That only took about a week and I used that time to finish building the assembly table in the hanger and assembling the ten-foot canvas landscape photograph and hung it on the wall. 

    Sitting down with Hymie that evening with a very stiff drink in my hand, I began to recall those terrible events that happened that afternoon. Hymie tried to humor me by saying that he would have been dead on the very first shot and asked me how in the hell were you able to not get shot in the process? I replied that I guess my training at shooting my firearm led to the accurate shooting. Hymie leaned over and said, did you have a gun on you all this time…I said yes…he said my word, I would have never guessed that in a million years. I said that I don’t flaunt the fact that I carry a lethal weapon for self-defense… it's just there if I need it, and I guess this day I really needed it. Little did I know at this time the true story behind Hymie.

    The investigation during this week determined that this was a drug-dealing that was being handled in their own way and that I was an innocent person driving a similar vehicle in what the drug dealers were looking for. The police office said that they had been tracking this group of drug dealers for over 6 months but had not been able to catch them doing anything illegal and arrest them. So I had done this department a great favor in taking them out. The only highlight of this entire event was that the responding police officers and the detective were very impressed with my shooting skills and how I was able to maneuver around and not get hit. In fact, they said that all of my rounds were accounted for and on target and there were no off-site stray bullets from my weapon. I just answered I practice at the range and that I studied situational awareness videos and have learned a lot as to what to look for in certain situations. When that situation presented itself that day, my memory of many of those videos kicked in. Those videos saved my life that day for sure. I really felt horrible that I had taken four lives that day but was relieved that no one else was injured with all of those bullets flying.

    Hymie and I again sat down to discuss those events of last week and came to the conclusion that even though I may have taken out 4 of the players in that group, there might have been others watching, and that they might still be looking to get revenge and that I need to be more vigilant than ever. So I decided to cover up the identification numbers on my plane so that I could not be tracked down back home. We were not sure if they may have followed Hymie and me back to his house. These people have all of the time they need to seek revenge if they choose to do so. Hymie said to not worry to much about that as he would take care of it. I thought that sounded a bit strange coming from him. I asked what do you mean, and Hymie said I have friends.

    I was able to fly back home at the end of the week after I had covered up my plane's identification numbers but still needed to be available to answer further questions if and when they came up.

    Several weeks went by and now the time was at hand…the dinner party at Hymie’s was in 2 days and I had planned on flying up the day before to be on hand. I asked Ken if he wanted to attend and he said sure. So I flew to Tamiami and picked him up early the next morning. I told him to bring extra clothes, as we were not flying back until the day after if that. I knew that some of those people at that dinner party would definitely have questions about large aquariums that he could answer…it was his business as unusual. I was correct... we didn’t leave for another 2 days and possibly three more aquarium jobs in hand. Ken said that was a good trip for him. I also knew that I would be selling many of my photographs as well.

    There were a couple of people that Hymie knew that also had businesses and after seeing the aquarium display at the Blue Marlin, and that there might be some interest in that avenue as well. I’m still negotiating a large Florida panoramic landscape for the Blue Marlin restaurant. 

I had asked Hymie if he ever had any more problems with those drug dealers. His comment to me was that they are no longer in business. Another odd statement by him that had me wondering. Maybe one day Hymie may come clean with me about his friends.

    Over the course of several years of Hymie’s friendship and meeting some very prominent people in the town of Destin, and attending dozens of monthly dinners, there were about 10 additional custom aquariums that Ken and “The Living Reef” had built for those people. I accounted for over 30 canvas framed photographs and 6 additional panoramic Florida landscape photos in both Color and in B&W sepia-toned. Destin, Florida turned out to be a very good town for me, as I had literally dropped in out of the blue so to speak that day when I saw a small grass airfield. I continue to visit Hymie with occasional fly-in’s. He is indeed a very good friend.

    I have been able to get two of my planes to land on his private airfield. I have never tried to land the twin-engine plane there. The airfield is long enough but just haven't tried it as yet...maybe one day I'll fly it up there and land it. It is a scaled-down replica of a WW2 P-38 Lightning attack fighter. This plane at one time held the world air speed record of 548 mph. The second plane that I built, also a WW2 fighter, is a scaled-down version of the P-51 Mustang attack fighter, which now holds the world air speed record of over 600 mph. Both of these planes use the same French all-aluminum supercharged V8 engines that puts out incredible horsepower. Both of these WW2 fighter aircraft utilize military-grade aluminum lightweight framing members with lightweight/stronger than steel carbon fiber panels covering the entire fuselage, wings, and tail feathers. Without Hymie’s incessant help on these two aircraft projects, they would have never been constructed and flying today. Life is all about developing and maintaining good friendships.

Note: This is a fictional story.

BIG BULL REDS

    I saw the huge fish's tail break the surface of the water about 100 feet away. On the second false cast, I let the fly line shoot thru the rod guides and the fly landed on the sandy bottom next to a small patch of grass. I let it sit there until the huge Redfish came within 3 feet of it and bumped the fly a couple of times. The huge Redfish crashed my crab fly pattern and inhaled it as I made a strip strike to embed the hook in its mouth. The fish raced past me just off the edge of the sand flat and towards my boat that I had beached on the flat earlier.

    The evening before I had made up a few flies...some in a crab pattern and some in a 4-inch sinking green and white minnow pattern. I knew that I was going to target some Redfish the next morning on a very low incoming swing tide. The sand bar flat was next to the old Ice House in the Pirate Harbor channel leading out to the open waters of Charlotte Harbor in Southwest Florida. The old Ice House, as it has been referred to over the years has been reduced to only the original 15 or so pilings in about 8-10 feet of water.

    This sand/grass flat that runs along the south side of those pilings extends to the south for several miles, however, the immediate area of the sand/grass flat that is my favorite haunt is about 400 yards long by about 200 yards wide. When the tides are going to be very low this flat is nearly dry with numerous sand holes scattered throughout and numerous little channels leading in from the deeper water. The fish use these channels to migrate up onto the flat when the water depth increases so that they can begin looking for their favorite foods. These are excellent locations to set up on and wait for the fish and the action to come to you.

    About a month previous  I was motoring an old 60s vintage 13 foot Boston Whaler using the electric trolling motor. As I was nearing those pilings in about 6-8 feet of water I noticed two very large Bull Redfish swimming side by side just below my boat. I have seen large Redfish in that area before but never the very large Bull Reds. When I am going to fly fish those flats I will often run my boat right up on the outside edge of the sandy areas and anchor during the last hour of the falling tide, so that when the tide comes back in I don't have to worry about going swimming for my boat. I could be quite a distance from my boat wade fishing. The area on the deepwater side of this flat faces the open waters of the harbor with the water depth dropping off quickly to about 8-10 feet deep.  I have seen schools of large Tarpon swimming back and forth along the edge of this flat. I have also seen the Florida Manatee frequent this same area with large Cobia and Redfish swimming all around them foraging for whatever the Manatees scare up on the bottom. So this is one of my favorite places to wade fish with my flyrod. Deep turtle grass covers much of the top of the flat and is the nursery grounds for crabs and shrimps as well as many varieties of small baitfish. I have also seen large Bull Sharks in the same deeper portion just off the flat looking for wounded Tarpon. 

    So the next morning about 9 am, the air is cool and the skies are a deep blue as I beach my boat on the sandy edge of the flat, and set out the anchor to hold it in place. I have a box of different types of flies in both top pockets and spare leader material and just about everything else I need for my short walk on the near dry white sand and to the outside edge of the flat and set up my watching post. Watching and stalking is what wade fly fishing is all about. It is very much like still hunting. You move slow, quiet, only a few steps at a time, and then watch the water's surface for signs of feeding fish. It is not uncommon to stalk right upon an unsuspecting Redfish. They have a unique way of showing their location by raising their tails and sometimes their entire backs out of the water when rooting around and feeding on crabs and shrimps on the grassy bottom. They will also lie in wait in sand depressions and completely crash the surface when chasing small minnows. This is a favorite time for small topwater popper flies. These fish are in no real hurry to leave the receding water falling off the flats, as this is their feeding time. They just move along slowly rooting out their favorite morning meal. So I try to look for them on the last hour of the outgoing and first hour of the incoming tides as this is the perfect water depth for them to show their locations. In between tide swings, I just kill time back at my boat or just wander around doing some rooting of my own when there is no water movement. The fish are not going to feed at this time no matter what you try. When there is no water movement from tides the fish just honker down and sit. I have witnessed this on many occasions with multiple species of fish just lying together waiting for the water to begin to move again. When the water begins to flow back onto the flats, the second half of the game begins.

    Earlier that morning before the tide stopped, I thought that I had seen some very large tails waving in the air about 125 yards down the sandy edge of the flat. They were in about 18 inches of water. I made it a mental point to mark that location and return back to it.  I was hoping what I had seen was real, and maybe those same fish that went out in a little deeper water will return back to feeding in that same location when the tide begins to come back in. As luck would have it that day these Bull Reds didn't show up. But I did catch a few Redfish back on top of the flat in the deep turtle grass as they were feeding on the incoming tide. I just followed what appeared like a small school of maybe 10-12 fish catching 2 of them.

    Tides can be tricky sometimes. Just when you think you have a good plan mapped out for the next morning, things just don't go as planned. Tide charts are a good starting point, but knowing how wind affects tides in both outgoing and incoming can be an asset well beforehand. The strength of the wind blowing and the direction at which it is blowing are factors that will change the depth of the water that you intend on fishing. For example, the tide chart indicates that at 9 am will be a low tide. So you plan on being on the water at your location at least an hour beforehand. However, there is an offshore breeze (blowing inland) of about 10 mph at the same time period. That wind will push against the tidal flow and keep it from getting as low as predicted. The same for an onshore breeze, only in this example the wind will blow the water out causing it to drop even more. So now you would need to go even earlier before the wind blows all of the water off the flat and causing it to go nearly completely dry. This happens in winter and spring tides here. The wind, even though it seems not all that strong that flyfishing is not possible, can ruin a day of the flats stalking Redfish. That opposite effect happens on the outgoing tide and incoming wind...the flat never gets a chance to lose its water. The fish are still there you just can't see them because of too much water.

    This morning, however, was a perfect morning to catch a few Redfish. The air was cool with no wind blowing, which is always a good thing when fly fishing... the wind is your enemy. I did catch a nice legal 27 inch fish on the outgoing tide. I was walking along on the white sandy bottom next to the channel out to my lookout location, my initial setup point. I noticed off to my left a tail pop up about 25 yards away. I slowly made a diagonal trek to get out in front of this feeding fish trying to head him off. I needed to get in front of that fish to be able to properly present the crab fly well out in front of him and let him swim up to it. It's funny how these fish don't appreciate a kamikaze (attack) crab swimming directly at them....it just doesn't work that way. So I was able to get the fly out in front of that fish by about 4 feet and just let it sit there on the bottom in the grass until the fish was nearly directly on top of it. Crabs and shrimp stay hidden in the deep turtle grass until a fish gets too close and then will scurry out from under a Redfish trying to escape being eaten. My tactic worked pretty well that morning as I just barely bumped that crab fly a couple of inches and the fish jumped all over that fly giving me a nice fight on my 10 weight fly rod, which BTW was a bit too heavy for that small of a fish. I intended on hopefully catching a much larger fish that morning. This rod was actually my Tarpon rod capable of handling a 100-pound Tarpon.

    After releasing that smaller Redfish I continued my way to my lookout station on the outside of this flat where the channel begins in my quest for a much larger Redfish...a Bull Red. I scanned the water looking for a sign that the tide had begun to come in. I saw a couple of small stingrays swim by which is a good indicator that the tide had changed. I planned on being there for about an hour or until the water depth rose to over 12 inches deep where I was standing and how cooperative the Redfish were. I watched along the edge of the white sandy flat to where the water drops off deeper, as this is most likely where these big fish will come in from.  The white sand also provides better contrast for any fish that swims over it. Being that these fish are much larger, they need more water depth to fill in over the flat so that they can get their fat bodies in there. However, they may or may not even go up onto the top of the flat as they require larger size food prey. They are hunting larger crabs and schools of finger mullet that travel along the edge of the flat. Any little patch of grass that can hide a crab or a couple of small fish from these big boys is also a good location to concentrate your efforts on watching. I had seen several smaller Redfish waving their tails behind me on the flat but I didn't want to waste time chasing the little guys for fear of not seeing the one I came for.

    The tide had come in and was now about 6 inches deep where I was standing. I began walking slowly backward, stopping often to scan the water, keeping an eye out for any signs of Large Redfish...the ones that are called "Bull Reds". These generally are much larger fish over 36-40 inches in length, but it is not uncommon to see one larger than that in this location as I had done previously. Usually, these Bull Reds are the breeders, generally staging out in the open waters of the Gulf where they spawn and most often stay offshore. I'm hoping for the one that somehow got lost.

    The white sandy bottom provided a perfect contrast for any fish moving over it. It was at that very moment that I saw a huge tail of a Redfish break the surface of the calm water about 120 feet away. I quickly got the fly line in the air and on the second false cast, letting the fly line shoot thru the rod guides. The fly landed on the sandy bottom right next to a small patch of turtle grass about 60 feet away. I could easily see where the fly landed even though it was about 12 inches deep. I let it just sit there in hopes that the huge Redfish would continue to swim towards it. I could see what looked like a large dark body swimming along about 3 feet from the edge of the flat. When he got to within 3 feet away from it, I bumped the fly a couple of times hoping he would see the movement of the large crab fly...he did indeed.

    The huge Redfish crashed my crab fly and inhaled it. I made a strip strike to embed the hook in its mouth. The big fish raced past me just off the edge of sand and I could tell that this one was the "ONE". The fish went around my boat which quickly became a major water hazard but I managed to get the fly line around the motor and it was off to the races from this point. We went around the edge of the flat where the hard white sandy bottom ends and turns into a soft grassy bottom. This area opens up into a small bay and deeper water, which was a good thing no hazards out there. The fly reel's drag was not much up for a bulldog type run as this fish was quickly spooling my 300 yards of 30-pound Dacron backing off the reel. I may be in deep trouble if this fish doesn't stop soon unless I want to go swimming after it. 

    Just then I saw a boat up on plane heading out the channel a couple of hundred yards away. I waved the man and woman down and motioned for them to come over to me. When they got close enough to see the bend in my flyrod their eyes were as large as dinner plates. I asked if I could come on board their boat and chase this fish down and they said yeas..by all means. I got to the front of the boat and motioned where the fish was and we began to follow it slowly. I then told them that this was a very large "Bull Red", well over 40 inches. I managed to get some backing line back onto the fly reel. I asked the man if he knew how to back down a boat around a large fish like this one and he said that he did. Great I was thinking...one less thing to worry about. The most dangerous time of landing a big fish is when it gets close to the boat. You have to keep the back of the boat away from the fish by keeping it in front at all times. If the fish dives under the boat you need to raise the motor immediately as the motor becomes the largest hazard in cutting your fish off. You basically keep the boat motor in reverse and at idle speed until you need to make a quick maneuver away from the fish. This is not always easy but experienced captains know how to do this and thankfully I had one this day.

    This was quickly becoming a "cat and mouse game" as I could not exert very much pressure on this fish with so much line out of the reel. The water exerts a lot of side pressure on the line and can often exceed the test strength of the line and knots, of which there are a lot of knots in fly lines. I would gain back about 75 yards and the fish would take off on another run and peel off 100 yards. I was losing ground at this pace. I said let go a little faster so I can get back more line. It was a back and forth battle but a battle I was intending to win. After about 45 minutes or so we finally got to the point where the knot between the 30-pound backing and the fly line was back onto the reel. I now only had about 50 feet between me and this fish to overcome and where things can get dangerous very quickly. The fish is stressed and the boat is scaring it. At this point is where I can now apply side pressure with the fly rod in hopes of ending this battle quickly. I got the fish on its side and up closer to the boat. I asked the captain, "do you have a Boga Grip on board" at about the same time as he produced one in his hand. I didn't want this battle to last much longer as this fish is building up lactic acid in its body from the stress. Too much lactic acid and he will not recover, and this one has to go back as it is illegal to keep a Redfish over 27 inches. I eased the fish over to the side of the boat and the captain got a good hold on the fish's mouth with the Boga Grip. We are now home... we won the battle and now can relax for a short bit.

    I always carry a small digital camera in a waterproof box and a 6ft. soft measuring tape with me for days just like this one. I measured the fish while it was still in the water. We had the boat moving forward slowly to keep fresh oxygenated water flowing through its gills. This huge fish measured 48.5 inches in length and 26 inches around its girth (diameter). The formula for getting a pretty good estimate on how much a fish weighs when you don't have access to a scale is to take the length x the girth squared divided by 800. This fish weighed approximately 41 pounds. (48.5 x [26 x 26] 676 / 800...equals 40.98 pounds. That is a "BIG FISH" and one that I will remember for a very long time. I have had much larger fish on a fly rod only to lose them right at the boat before I could get a measurement or photo. That was a Tarpon that I estimated at over 100 pounds. I had the knot of the leader inside the flyrod which is considered a legal catch. However, I believe that this fish was a much more memorable catch for me personally.

    I handed my camera to the woman while I carefully lifted the fish out of the water to make a couple of photos and had the captain get in as well as now he can tell this story with authority. After the quick 20-second photo session, I returned the big fish back into the water while holding onto the Boga Grip. We slowly motored along for about 10-15 minutes or so to get the fish's strength back to the point where it wanted to swim off. I released the Boga Grip and let him swim away. We got back to my boat and I got into it and thanked the captain and his wife immensely and said that I could have never landed that big fish by myself.

    About a month later, I contacted the taxidermists down in Naples, Florida that had done a replica Snook mount for me a number of years ago. I gave him the dimensions and how I wanted the fish mounted. I sent him the photos of the fish in good sunlight as this is critical in getting the fish's colors correct and get the spots on the tail correct. That mount now resides on my wall next to the large 43-inch Snook mount that my wife had caught nearly 25 years ago.

A majority of this story is true, in that this location was indeed one of my favorite flats for fly fishing. I have caught a number of large fish on or very near this exact same flat. In fact, my personal best Redfish on the fly was a 39.5-inch fish that I caught while I was tossing a very large Tarpon fly into a school of mullet, hoping to entice a following Tarpon to grab the fly. Instead, this Redfish grabbed it and when I got that fish to the boat there were about 5 or 6 other Reds of near equal size swimming with my fish. I have indeed seen 2 very large Bull Redfish swimming under my boat near those old Ice House pilings. So perhaps that was what prompted me to write this semi-fictional story. The large Snook my wife caught 25 years ago was only about 1/4 mile south of this same flat. I hooked and fought a 100-pound Tarpon on my fly rod for about 20 minutes a number of years ago on the outside of this same flat. Now sadly to say there is so much fishing pressure in Charlotte Harbor with tournaments nearly every week and more people moving to Southwest Florida. "The Times...they are a-changing".

Hymie's Secrets are Exposed

    I’m flying at 8000 feet AGL in Northern Florida in my Experimental Super STOL airplane a beautiful fall morning. The outside air temperature is around 20 degrees and down at ground level, it was about 45-50 degrees. I had a slight headwind due to the recent cold front that came through the state a couple of days ago. The sky was brilliant baby blue with no clouds anywhere to be seen…typical when a cold front moves through. Our winter cold fronts drag all of the clouds to the south along with the humidity. I reduced the engine’s throttle to begin my 500 foot per minute descent to the private airfield about 20 miles ahead that belongs to a very good friend of mine, Hymie Rosenthal.

    So when Hymie called me to see if I would come up to his place in Destin, Florida to spend a couple of days with him, I knew that something was different, as he rarely does this. So of course I said yes. I packed up some clothes and placed them in my Super STOL airplane, pulled it out of the hanger and warmed up the engine, and took off. I have my own private grass airfield and 2 hangers at my house. A little background on how I met Hymie a few years ago. I was flying in his general area heading to the Destin airport for a business meeting when I noticed a grass airfield off to my left. I was only around 800 feet or so AGL (above ground level for you non-pilots) and banked over and dropped down to 500 feet and flew down the airstrip. It looked well maintained and I noticed a small hanger with a new windsock on top of it. A windsock is a bright orange, 4-5 foot long sock looking apparatus that is open on each end…one end smaller in diameter than on the end… the larger opening is located at the mounting pole. The wind, when blowing, opens the sock up and it can spin around 360 degrees to show the direction the wind is coming in from….once again for you non-pilots. How full the sock determines the wind’s velocity. On my first pass, I didn’t notice the huge new house at the end of the airstrip next to the hanger. How I missed such a large house was beyond me, but I did. So now I circled around for a third pass, only this time I dropped down to about 25 feet AGL. There was this man standing at the end of the airfield waving his arms at me and so I wagged my wings back and forth which is the universal ‘Hello’ maneuver. As I went by he motioned his arms downward like he wanted me to land…so I circled back around and landed. I taxied right up to him, spun the plane around sideways to him, shut down my engine, and opened the door window. The gentleman came right up to me and said ”Hi, my name is Hymie, what’s yours”? …..So this was how a great friendship began.

    I saw Hymie’s airfield about a mile up ahead and flew down the airfield at about 50 feet and checked it for stray wildlife and to also look at the windsock to see how much wind was blowing and in what direction. The windsock was barely moving and what little wind there was, was coming right down the center of the field. I circled around while I called Hymie on my cell phone to say I’m here. I only need way less than 100 feet of the field to land this plane in, so I flew quite a ways before dropping it on the ground….which made for a shorter taxi to the hanger. As I shut down the engine Hymie walked around the corner and waved. So we got my plane backed into the hanger for safekeeping and we went up the stairs to the pool deck just below the Big House, as I call it. Hymie already had a pitcher of ice tea in the pool cabana and said let's sit outside in the sun… It's such a nice day.

    After a long chit chat, Hymie said that he obtained the surveillance tapes from his friend, the police captain Saul Browne about the little incident that happened about 6 months ago. I will not go into detail about it here, but you can read about what had happened in my story of Photographs, Aquariums, and Planes Hymie said he kept looking at those tapes and admiring at how much I moved around and how I was about to take out four real bad drug dealers that were trying to kill me and not get shot in the process. He said, J. Michael, you performed like an elite Israeli Commando. Believe me, I know this well. Where do you think I am from J. Michael? I thought for a moment and said New York, as you might be able to tell from his name Hymie Rosenthal. Hymie laughed and said probably a very good guess as my people are well entrenched there, but no… I am actually from Israel. You see, J.Michael…you can tell by now that this was how Hymie always called me, I was an Israeli Masad Commander that had a team of 12 men. We conducted raids deep into our enemy’s territory. We eliminated threats to our country by those that only wanted to do our people harm. It made no difference to them if they killed innocent women and children in their attacks. We made many enemies in our twenty years of service to the State. We had lost two of our commandos and their families from these same enemies that have threatened to kill all of us. They somehow found our names and where we had lived in Israel. So we had to leave our country to preserve our family’s lives. We initially did go to New York, as you eluded to. We thought we would better blend in with our brethren, however, it only took a year or 2 before we found that there were people asking lots of questions about us. We all agreed that we needed to stay together as one group so that we could better protect one another. So one night we sat down and put a USA map on the wall with each one of us throwing one dart at the map. The area with more darts was where we would begin to look for a new place to call home. It was amazing that seven of those darts landed in and around the panhandle of Florida. So we took a closer look at the towns in this area and we all agreed on Destin.

    I had a substantial amount of money put away from my 30 years of service to my country said Hymie. I never married or had a family and so my money earned very good dividends and nearly tripled in value. I decided to find a realtor in Destin to find a large piece of land from which to design a home with some substantial built-in safeguards. The realtor found this property that had the airfield, even though I really don’t like to fly, that was  property was well isolated and adjoined State lands that would never be developed. It has the 100 foot high bluffs at one end overlooking the Gulf, which was where I decided to put my house. The realtor who was Jewish knew people, and so the project began. I found a rental house to move to during all phases of demolition and construction. We tore down the old single-story wood-frame house that was here but I decided to keep the airplane hanger intact. The realtor found an old Jewish architect that had retired and we designed what you see here today. He knew many fellow Jewish contractors and land developers that also were hired to build the project. There was a great amount of secrecy in this project that you will soon come to know about, J.Michael. I feel that you are a very trustworthy person and all of us agreed after getting to know you about letting you know about what I am going to disclose to you.

    So… J. Michael, tell me what do you see here over my shoulder at the house? I really didn’t see much at first, but then noticed something different about the roofline of the Big House. I said I see four small corner structures on the roof. Is that part of the architecture flavor of this house. They fit in well but you don’t always see these here in Florida. Hymie said well done my friend…I knew you had special talents. I said that I had studied architecture in college, thinking that this was the field I wanted to pursue in life, which I didn’t. Hymie said do you see or have you seen anything else that strikes you as odd for this property? I said I don’t really see anything that captures my eye here but I did notice the front entrance and gate architecture. It appeared to me to be a little heavily overdone and I noticed black razor-wire on top of the unusual high black chainlink fencing. Hymie said well done again, you are quite observant. I am glad that you are not my enemy.

    Let’s go into the house and let me show you my safe-room. We walked inside and upstairs to the master bedroom’s walk-in closet. Hymie, I think pushed a button somewhere, as I did not see him do it, but the back wall of the closet slid sideways revealing a very heavy metal door. This time I saw him touch his watch and the metal door opened up to reveal a 6 foot by 8-foot room with solid poured concrete walls, floor, and ceiling. Very typical of what you would expect from a safe room. There was what looked like a wall safe with a tumble coded lock. Hymie spun the dial and the floor began to move. This was an elevator!! but only the floor moved. I said that this is very cool and I am well impressed at the secrecy of the components. It's just another layer of protection above what is initially seen Hymie said. We went down about 25 feet or so to the floor of a well-lit tunnel. Hymie said follow me. As we walked along I noticed what looked like metal doors in the walls. Hymie said those the elevators that lead up to each of the first-floor bedrooms. Every bedroom has a safe room, he said. We continued down the tunnel until we came to another solid steel door, which again had to be activated by Hymie, and I had no idea where or when he did so as he did not touch his watch this time.

    The heavy door opened up to reveal a very large bunker with the same type of poured concrete construction. This room and to be 25 feet wide by at least 50 feet long. There were smaller rooms off to one side of a center concrete wall that ran down the length of the bunker. There was a massive console with more TV monitors and horns and whistles that I could count. Hymie asked, where do you think we are? I said I have not a clue. He said we are under the pool. Everything you have just seen had to be built at night so that it would be kept private from the outside world. Having the pool overhead negates any ground-penetrating radar signals from showing up in this bunker. The unusual natural grading of the land is what made most of this possible. The concrete open decks and floors of the house disguise what is underground. We can sustain 21 people for over thirty days down here. Our food storage consists of military-type MRE’s and many freeze-dried camping meals… over 1400 meals stored in airtight containers. There is coffee, tea, water, and sodas. We have Infrared heating for stovetop cooking and winter heat, heat exchangers with glycol coolant to cool the air in the summer, microwave ovens, and 2 refrigerators that run on 120V/12V power. The air into and leaving the bunker and tunnel is triple filtered. The air intakes are concealed into the pedestals of each table around the pool. The exhaust air vents out from the underside of the concrete support of the diving board. All of the sewer liquid wastes run into the sewage pump station behind the hanger. This would be common to have for such a remote house location. The solar panels on top of the hanger supply the 12-volt power for the bank of lithium car batteries housed in a separate fireproof vault in the bunker. The battery’s power converter system could run for about 7 days without being recharged The solar panels would be normal for a pool this large. The entire emergency LPG generator for the house also has separate conduits that supply power to the bunker’s batteries and electrical system. The generator often performs a 30 minute run exercise time as part of the normal house procedure and is the second source of battery recharging in the bunker. Since the house is on a groundwater well system being this far out of town, it would be common for this system to periodically run as part of the recharge for the water softener at night. Extra water is stored down here in 10 plastic 30-gallon blue barrels. Drain water from the sinks and showers is pumped directly to 3 underground dry wells. This was done so as to not make the sewer pump station come on when in reality it should not.

    Hymie said as you may have guessed by now from the names of my friends and what you now know, that these six people that hold monthly dinner parties are part of my old commando group, as well as Rubin Gallagher, the owner of the Blue Marlin Restaurant and police captain Saul Browne. So now you know the players and you have seen firsthand the bunker system, let's go back up by way of the pool cabana. This I thought was going to be cool. It basically had a short tunnel with the same blast door as I call it, but this was a caged vertical ladder system that went up approximately 17 feet into the cabana. It also had a unique twist, in that the floor in the cabana had this bamboo rug /mat that at first glance looked as though it was just placed there. However, this rug/mat is actually on a movable rail embedded in the concrete floor and is motorized to move back out of the way to allow access to the motorized steel lid and extension ladder that comes up about 4 feet. This guy thinks of everything.

    As total protection from any unwanted intruder from entering the bunker from the tunnel, should he get that far, is a hidden wall vault about 30 feet from the bunker steel door that contains 2- 40 MM frag grenades. These are the last defensive munitions aimed at stopping the assailants from gaining access to the bunker. Inside the bunker itself, are many rifles and handguns mounted on the walls for quick access. The level of thought that went into this entire place is totally mind-boggling. However, the icing on this cake is about to be revealed. How do you protect the outside of this place against intruders that are intent on killing you?

    Once back top-side Hymie and I continued to enjoy the beautiful cool day, temps are now in the mid-’60s and the sun shining brightly. The ice tea was still chilled and was welcomed. So Hymie said, J. Michael…how would you go about setting up a defensive plan for this entire property. I said Hymie, there would be no way I could outdo you or even come close to what you have already shown me, and are obviously about to reveal to me next….I wouldn’t even try. Hymie laughed and said you have already identified several things that got your interest. You see those four short towers at each end of the roof on the house? Yep, sure do… each one of those little towers is actually a surveillance/munitions station. Each station is equipped with a zooming scoped/surveillance camera with infrared night vision and FLIR. Each tower has a pair of side by side 30 caliber machine guns, with overlapping fire coverage, and each gun has a 1000 round magazine supply. That’s 8000 rounds of firepower downrange. In between each corner turret/tower is a pop-up turret with a 40 MM grenade launcher with frag grenades and a zooming scoped/surveillance camera. Each of these four launchers has a 100 round belt fed magazine. So that’s a total of 400 frag grenades. All of this firepower is operated from inside the bunker, which pretty much covers the house area out to about 300 yards.

    You had previously mentioned the entrance gate and columns. We also have surveillance cameras scattered throughout the property as well as at the gate area. They are positioned every 100 yards apart and are about 20 feet high. Each of these surveillance stations is also equipped with high-intensity lighting designed to disorientate and light up any intruders for verification. Each station also has motion sensors that will alarm inside the house as well as in the bunker. In the house on the living room wall around the TV are little red LED lights spaced into a rectangle that represents each of these station locations as well as the main gate. This immediately indicates the perimeter breach location. If the intruders make it inside the wired perimeter, there are many selected smaller pop-up stations with rotating 40 MM frag grenade launchers scattered throughout the interior of the property. No munitions on this property can go off automatically. They have to be initiated at the console in the bunker. The 7 foot high black commercial heavy-duty grade chain link fence has a 3-foot wide outward-facing defense climbing barrier with small black ribbon wire on the inside. There is a false bunker buried in the middle of the property. The entrance is not well disguised and is above the ground level. This is a dead-end tunnel with surveillance cameras inside to alert when intruders have entered. This false bunker is designed to entice intruders to go inside. Once inside and they are verified as assailants, they are closed up, locked down, and are gassed. The bodies would be buried on-site.

    Now all of this is only good if you can maintain good communications with one another, and one that is kept private and safe from outside listening and tracking. We all have satellite phones with text messaging that is non-traceable. Cell phones are traceable by using cell phone towers as listening posts. Hymie said that If we have any kind of a breach of security that is verified, or I have detected any kind of potential threat, we will text message each other by sat phone with the message, ”Meet me at Buffies”. Everyone then will drive to my house as if for a friendly get together, immediately go to the bedroom safe rooms, and then down to the bunker. I said to Hymie, “you people are really serious with all of this surveillance and firepower,” and Hymie said, “Life is serious”.

    Well, Hymie, all I can say is how much I appreciate our friendship and the fact that you and your friends have thought so much about my character that you would divulge and show me what I never could have imagined in my entire life. All of you and especially you, Hymie, have my deepest sympathy and respect for not only your past life but now your new life. I am truly honored to be your friend. I look forward to many more trips up here to see you and your friends at your monthly dinner parties… and to sell more aquariums and my landscape and wildlife photographs of course.

This is a fictional story