Well, after last week’s column I had a few (not many) people ask me what finally happened in the rubber ducky family. Those who read last week’s (don’t be concerned if you didn’t) will recall that Ludwig, Son of Ludlow, was being a double in a cartoon movie. He had been thrown into raging water and was headed to a cave where a super villain had sharp slashing knives at the entrance. Ludwig heard a voice as he was about to fall under the knives. What he heard was the director hollering “cut.” The knives of course stopped short of shredding Ludwig. Unfortunately, no one thought to cut off the raging “water.” Thus, Ludwig was swept out of the studio into the storm drain system. At this point, it appears that no one is certain where Ludwig is. He could be caught in the pipes or on his way up the Withlacoochee River. Bippy, his owner, is upset. Everybody is looking for him. If he is found I will let everyone who has any interest know!
Now that that is out of the way, I will go on to the subject of the day. Just hold on a second while I think of what it is. Oh yeah, I was going to write about rivers so I might as well mention the Withlacoochee River since Ludwig could be visiting there. There are two rivers by that name. One comes down from Georgia and joins the Suwanee River (I wonder if Al Jolson knew that? The Blonde in the House likes Al Jolson’s voice). The big one starts at the Green Swamp and more or less ends up in north Florida and enters the Gulf of Mexico near Yankeetown.
It is 141 miles long and as Ludwig wanted adventure, he might well find it someplace along the Withlacoochee. (I love that name). Since it is located in Florida, there are alligators galore. The good thing is that I never heard of alligators liking to eat yellow rubber duckies – unless I suppose they are very hungry.
If you have a hankering to see the Withlacoochee River, all you have to do is go over to Dunnellon and head for Rainbow Springs Park. You can relax there or even go kayaking. If you should do the latter, you might look around and see if you can spot Ludwig. He is yellow as you know, so he should be easy to spot. The Blonde in the house always says that yellow cars are the safest due to their bright color. That being the case, Ludwig should be easy to spot. It is true that with 140 miles of river with much of it being swampy, he may be hard to spot – and that is assuming that he is not stuck in a storm drain pipe someplace. In addition, if you see a small boy trying to kayak, while hollering his head off by shouting “Ludwig”, it is most likely Bippy (given name Gaylord). In such a case, it would be very nice of you to give him a hand. Besides, Bippy’s dad is very wealthy and if you were to find Ludwig, he might even give you your very own kayak! However, I am certain that you just like to help your fellow man which would be the main reason for helping out Bippy. We don’t kayak, but The Blonde loves Rainbow Springs so we might go over and walk some of the banks. Ludwig might be anywhere!
I promise that next week I will go back to my normal kind of columns whatever that is. In the meantime, just remember that Ludwig wanted adventure and he is out there somewhere. Thus, he will be found before you know it – at least there is a possibility. As I indicated above, you will be the first to know if he is found. OK, perhaps not the first, but you will learn of his discovery.
Villager Barry Evans is a columnist for Villages-News.com