Page 32 - Demo

Fools%u2019 Journey26each torn only a single ticket from our booklets %u2014 for the boat trip through Jungle Land. We weren%u2019t impressed, and there was no magic to the Kingdom.All the conventional hot spots, like Marineland, were overplanned, spotless, frenzied, crowded, and bogus. But we thoroughly enjoyed two state parks, which were natural, serene, real %u2014 and empty of people. We found ourselves gravitating to the less-commercial areas, and the older, local highways, where we found restaurants offering %u2018dillo stew (which we decided not to try), and Johnny Weissmuller%u2019s Jungle Land. It must have been a showplace back when Johnny was a popular movie Tarzan, but the place we visited was badly in need of paint, repair, mowing, and general maintenance %u2014 none of which could be justified with the pitiful number of tourists it was able to draw. The animals must have been underfed because a roving goat snatched Lynn%u2019s paper program and ate it. We were let down only once by a mom-and-pop motel %u2014 on our way home, near Savanna, Georgia. The main road had been under construction for miles, and the traffic barely crawled along a detour. As it got later, darker, and hungrier, we realized we had no idea where we were, and it was starting to rain. We%u2019d been watching for a motel since 5:00, and finally spotted a flickering, red vacancy sign at 8:00. It wasn%u2019t exactly squalid, but it was close. While I didn%u2019t ask, the rooms were probably available by the hour. In the morning, we were covered with small red bites %u2014 fleas. From the Atlantic coast, we angled our way through North Carolina, then toward Indiana. %u2022%u2022%u2022%u2022%u2022A week after returning to Kendallville, I picked up the flu. When I went to the doctor, he just suggested I stay home from school for a couple of days. He had the strangest medical office I%u2019d ever seen. It was decorated with so many stuffed animal trophies it looked like a taxidermist%u2019s shop. Hunting animals for sport seemed an odd hobby for someone dedicated to healing, and it made me wonder what went on within his subconscious mind.