A friendly stranger told me that the structure near my easel was the remains of the wild biker bar.  He also encouraged me to be very careful, because there were lots of alligators in the area. “How many and how big?” I asked.  He said “lots of  ’em – he saw a 12 footer a few days ago.”

I had decided to paint close to our camp because the sun would set in about 1 1/2 hours. I pulled over,  just after the bridge to Wolf river in a small community called Pineville. It was one of those clear, crisp, blue sky afternoons and the colors of the water and grasses were brilliant.

My helpful stranger showed me the pathways that the gators make through the grass and told me that they can run 30 -40 miles per hour for short bursts. He thought I would be OK because most of the gators were sunning themselves on the other side of the river. My pal explained that they like the side I was on in the morning and swim to other side in the afternoon. We found a skin of a deer as we headed back to my easel – that made me feel very so much better…

About 30 minutes later I heard a boat coming down the river.  Shortly before I saw it, I heard a big splash about 20 ft. away in the weeds. As the two men got out of the boat, I asked them if they saw any gators. (The thought had occured to me that I might have been a naive target for tall tales.)

One of the gentlemen pointed in the direction of  the splash and said, “there was one right there!”  Moral of the story – paint in open clearings when you’re in the bayou…and keep the car close.