"You are going with Captain Ed!" said the ticket booth lady in Everglades City, FL, when we shelled out $34.68, plus tax, for a boat ride through the Everglades. We were a party of six, my two brothers-in-law, their wives and Lorraine and I. The flat-bottomed aluminum boat, with the huge rear fan, looked very scary as the mustachioed Captain Ed settled us into the six seats on board.

Behind each seat was a set of tightfitting earmuffs. When the noise from the engine became too loud, we were instructed to place them over our ears.

The Everglades has always conjured up a foreboding vision of shallow, murky waters with overhanging mangrove trees, alligators, manatees, herons, ibises, egrets and dive-bombing pelicans, to us Northeastern tourists. We expected to see actor Burt Reynolds behind every tree.

We had driven south to Everglades City and Chokoloskee City from luxurious Marco Island. These two cities had an Old West look that had been transformed into dozens of antique stores catering to postcard buying, vacationing, tenderfoot tourists.

Captain Ed said the entire region was devastated by Hurricane Wilma in 2005 and repairs were still ongoing. In this jungle-like part of Florida's west coast, the endangered River of Grass wends slowly to the Gulf of Mexico through mangrove islands and the threatening shallow bays.

The water was only two or three feet deep.

The aluminum boat lay flat on the water and the back draft of the huge propellor pushed you forward. We started slowly and then Ed stepped on the gas. We started speeding through a central waterway with mangrove on both sides. It was time for the earmuffs.

The only landmark was a broken-down attempt at a railroad that was built in the 1930s. The rail ties and the raised ground were the remains of the railroad, which ran from Tampa, south through the Everglades. This, too, was destroyed by a series of powerful hurricanes.

The mangrove trees dipped their wooden roots into the river and formed an impassable wall. Only Ed could navigate through these streets and openings. Very few landmarks were visible. Ed put the boat through a few U-turns that looked and felt dangerous, but the boat held up well. We drove over branches and roots and Ed never slowed down.

On our return trip a pelican settled on the prow of the boat. I broke up some crackers and placed them before him, but Mr. Pelican didn't touch them. He was only interested in fish.

We tipped Ed and said goodbye to our fearless captain. We all agreed that we would never survive in that swamp without his guidance.

When I hear the term Everglades in the future, I will have a much better visualization of what it really means. We all agreed it was an enlightening experience and a tad dangerous.