My friend Mike Zagielski and I went to Florida to collect fossils. A little background: I'm from Connecticut, and the only experience I have with alligators is watching --- on TV --- their Nile crocodile relatives pull down healthy wildbeest in Africa. I have to admit a bit of apprehension related to wading through Florida rivers and streams in search of shark teeth. Before our trip, I read a website on fossiling in Florida that mentioned the abundance of alligators in the area and how "...none of them were impressed with human swimming abilities." For this reason, we tried to book a guided trip, but there were none running the days we were there. So we drove to the Peace river in Arcadia, Florida on our own.