Are You Smarter Than A Flying Gator? (14 page)

“I'm smarter than a flying gator!”

“That was terrific! Right now I'm going to fly over Walt Disney World and sing my favorite Disney songs. Where will I go after that? Well, I'll sing you a little song before I leave this wonderful place at noon. That will help you figure out my next destination. Isn't that
nice
of me?”

Gator Mikey's visit helped Walt Disney World shatter their one day attendance record by eleven o'clock that morning. At noon, the famous flying gator hovered over Spaceship Earth at Epcot Center.

“Where am I going next?” Gator Mikey called. “Listen to my favorite Disney song and you'll probably figure it out ...”

In a huge garage at the Pocono Racetrack in Pennsylvania, Jeffie Gordon, his mechanics, and his pit crew were watching the television with great interest. They'd all just finished singing the popular song “A Whole New World” with Gator Mikey.

Soft-hearted mechanic Will Volk loved that song. He actually had tears streaming down his cheeks.
“Hey!”
he said in his deep voice, wiping the tears from his face with a towel. “Gator Mikey replaced the word
new
with
nice
in the last line of the song.”

Jeffie Gordon ran over to his computer and said, “I'll do a quick Google search and see if there's a
town in Florida with the word
nice
in it!”

“Got it!” Will Volk said excitedly, beating Jeffie to the punch. “It's right here near Fort Walton Beach on the panhandle!”

Back in the office of head football coach Bobby Boodeen, the coach had added another portable blackboard to his office.

“Look, Gator Mikey,” he said out loud to himself. “I know where you're headed next—but then what? You're running out of letters of the
daw-gum
alphabet! What are you going to do with
‘X'?”

On his portable blackboard, Coach Boodeen had written the names of every town in the United States he could find whose name began with the letter ‘X':

Xanadu, Utah

Xavier, Kansas

X Crossing, Montana

Xenia, Kansas

Xenia, Iowa

Xenia, Ohio

Xenia, Colorado

Xenophen, Tennessee

X-prairie, Mississippi

Coach Boodeen started yelling at his TV set. “So, where are you going next, Gator Mikey!? Are you going to leave Florida or what!? And where do they come up with a
daw-gum
word like
Xenophen
anyway?
Xavier's
not such a bad name for a town – but
Xenophen
?”

Air Force One was right behind Gator Mikey as were countless other jets of all sizes. Gator Mikey was flying north northwest toward the panhandle. On board, everyone was having the time of their lives after a most memorable morning at Walt Disney World.

“Mr. President and Governor Trust,” said Jessie. “Thanks for the Walt Disney World experience. I've been there before, but never with the President and governor. It's even more fun with you guys.”

“No problem, Jessie,” the President said. “I had more fun than you did.”

“Yeah, it was our pleasure,” added Governor Trust.

“Hey, look!” Nick said as he glanced at the Weather Channel. “There's a huge band of thunderstorms developing off the West Coast of Florida, extending all the way up into Georgia.”

“Wow!” Kevin exclaimed. “It's HUGE!”

“We'll be through that area before it causes any problems,” Prez assured them.

The whole world watched as Gator Mikey flew over Choctawhatchee Bay and approached the town of Niceville, Florida. By this time, thousands of people had gathered near the center of town. Gator Mikey circled around the town's huge water tower as the people cheered!

“Niceville!”
called Gator Mikey. “Niceville is a great name for such a fine, pleasant, wonderful community as this! Niceville has not always had such a nice name, though. Take a guess what Niceville was called before 1910. Was it A, Boggy; B, Yucksville, or C, Muddtown?

“I will repeat the question and then show you my
twisty wisty
double somersault maneuver while you're thinking of the correct answer.”

Gator Mikey repeated the question. After that, he showed off for the crowd, performing a flying maneuver that no other aircraft in the world could match. The crowd cheered loudly!

When he was done, Gator Mikey said. “That was fun! By the way, the correct answer is A, Boggy. The
name came from a nearby sandy-bottomed bayou called Boggy Bayou. There's even a festival here in October called the Boggy Bayou Mullet Festival!

“If I go 1 ... 2 ...
3!
, do you know what to yell?”

“I'm smarter than a flying gator!”

“Phenomenal! Where am I going next?
X-tra! X-tra!
You'll know pretty soon!”

As Gator Mikey flew south southeast, Jeffie Gordon said, “Oh, no! Gator Mikey's flying toward that huge band of thunderstorms!”

“Daw-gum it! What are you doing?” Coach Boodeen yelled at his television.

“Prez, can Gator Mikey survive if he flies through that?” KT asked.

“I can't watch!” Jessie said, hiding her eyes.

“It makes no sense! Why doesn't he fly around that huge storm?” Will Volk said anxiously.

“Our pilot says we have to fly around it,” said the President. “We'll all pray for Gator Mikey.”

Gator Mikey flew right into the massive band of thunderstorms. Within a matter of seconds, he disappeared completely amidst a massive onslaught of wind, lightning, thunder, and rain like Florida hadn't seen in years!

Gator Mikey totally disappeared. There were no radar sightings. The weather was much too bad for there to be any visual sightings from any aircraft. The GPS signal being transmitted by the flying gator was no longer being received by Prez. The whole world watched anxiously, worried that Gator Mikey had gone down into the ocean off the West Coast of Florida.

“Please help Gator Mikey,” Tyler Hooooshka prayed back in Mandan, North Dakota.

“I refuse to believe it's over for Gator Mikey,” the Queen of England told one of her aides in Buckingham Palace.

Two year-old Katrice Kern held her Teddy bear tightly while watching the television at her home in Bismarck with her parents. “He's got to be OK!” she cried.

“When the going gets tough, Gator Mikey gets tougher—or something like that,” said Coach Boodeen in his office in Tallahassee.

“Yikes!” Sir Ian yelled at his TV in Brisbane, Australia.

On board Air Force One, which was approaching McDill Air Force Base in Tampa for refueling, no one was even close to giving up.

“We'll get back in the air before the storms hit us,” said the President. “Don't worry. I know Gator Mikey's OK.”

“Alligators love weather like this, don't they?” Nick said, trying to make himself feel better.

“Sure they do,” KT answered quickly.

“Prez, can Gator Mikey survive a lightning strike?” Kari asked.

“I'm almost sure,” Prez replied.

Air Force One got back in the air and flew south along the edge of the storm. Suddenly, the pilot of a Coast Guard helicopter flying off the coast near Anna Maria Island yelled, “We have Gator Mikey in our sights! He's coming out of a huge thunder cloud. He seems to be OK! He's currently flying south about 20 yards above the stormy waves of the Gulf of Mexico. Mr. President, we are equipped to send you a live video feed.”

“Please do!” the President answered anxiously. “We'll send your video and audio on to the media.”

The whole world cheered when they saw the live pictures of Gator Mikey on their television screens a few minutes later.

“Gator Mikey's heading straight for Siesta Key!” KT exclaimed.

“He is!” Chad cried. “He's only 12 miles north of there right now!”

Everyone watched excitedly as Gator Mikey continued flying south, just off the West Coast of Florida, barely above the ocean's waves.

“Oh, WOW!” the Coast Guard pilot yelled 15 minutes later. “I hope everyone's enjoying this as much as we are! Gator Mikey is flying through the most beautiful rainbow you've ever seen. He now appears to be slowing down and approaching a big gold building down below us! Oh, my gosh! There's a huge Super Bowl XL logo painted on top of the building! Gator Mikey appears to be going in for a landing! He is! He's landing right on the letter
‘X'!”

The next few weeks before school started were a whirlwind of activity for Sarabiskota and Gator Mikey. After the world's most famous gator got a major tune up, there were many special appearances around the country. The world couldn't get enough of the Gator Mikey story.

School started in late August, but Sarabiskota still managed to get together at least two weekends each month for Gator Mikey events. Mostly, they appeared at college and professional football games.