North Carolina Time

It turns out that there's an alligator nearby. As in, down the street. As in, ten-minute walk if I were brave enough to cross the six-lane South College Road. He's not in a wildlife preserve, or even in an urban park, such as Greenfield Lake Park mentioned a few posts back, but behind the Sam's Club, in a retention basin. I found this out in the local paper Wednesday night, just before I went to bed, and perhaps I woke up content the next morning, knowing there was something prehistoric to look forward to. I drove--not walked--to Sam's Club. I parked off to the corner of the lot, walked past the auto repair bays. And there they were, two retention basins, one fenced, scummed with pea-green vegetable matter, the other out in the open, in a brighter location, surrounded by slopes of mown grass. If I were the alligator, I'd have chosen the latter, and though both ponds must sound dismal--cars and trucks always thumping by--I'm sure the shallow water was warmer than any creek off the cooler Cape Fear River, and I'm sure there was plenty to eat nearby: some waterfowl, the greasy dark turtles stretching their necks in the sun, perhaps even a stray chicken nugget tossed out a car window. It's probably already clear that I didn't see the alligator, but that doesn't mean I'm going to stop looking. I have ten more full days here, which is big time in North Carolina time.

To read the report in the Wilmington Star News, and see a photo of aforementioned beast...

And, below, the Johnnie Mercer Pier in Wrightsville Beach a few nights back.