Are You Smarter Than A Flying Gator? by Kevin Kremer

Governor Trust, Chad’s mom, and Sarabiskota. As you can tell, there’s a beehive of activity going on.
    â€œOver here we have the President, Jessie, and Mike working together. Jessie, what’s going on?”
    Jessie said, “Well, a few minutes ago, the President found the photo of the Gatormobile from 1903 that Gator Mikey was talking about in his clue. It’s right here.”
    â€œWhat exactly is that?” asked Jan.
    â€œIt’s a photograph of the 18th governor of Florida, William S. Jennings,” Jessie explained.

    Jan described the photo to the TV audience. “As you can see,” she said, “he’s riding in a chariot with a live alligator pulling it. It’s called the Gatormobile.”
    â€œThe picture was taken at the Old City Gate in St. Augustine,” the President added. “It looks like Gator Mikey’s headed to St. Augustine for sunset.”
    â€œExcellent,” said Jan. “Now we’re walking over here to where KT, Doc, Prez, and Governor Trust are working. What are you four finding out?”
    Governor Trust said, “We’re researching St. Augustine. We just found out they have an alligator farm there. That may have something to do with Gator Mikey picking St. Augustine.”
    KT said, “They’ve got a huge crocodile there named Maximo. He’s about 15 feet 3 inches in length. It says he was born in 1971, hatched on a crocodile farm in Australia.”
    â€œThey’ve got albino alligators, crocodiles, birds, emus, and even kookaburras there,” Doc added.
    â€œWhat’s a kookaburra look like?” Jan wanted to know.
    â€œIt’s a big Australian bird,” Prez said, showing her a picture of one on his computer screen. “They make a distinct sound like a human being laughing.”
    â€œThat’s fascinating,” said Jan. “I hope I can seea kookaburra sometime and hear that sound. Now, let’s go over to where Chad’s mom is working with Kari, Chad, Nick, and Kevin. Mrs. Renner, are you enjoying yourself?”
    â€œMore than you can ever imagine.”
    â€œKari, what are you researching?”
    â€œWell, Jeffie Gordon talked to Nick on the phone and gave him a clue to where he thought Gator Mikey was going to fly after he left Daytona Beach. We were just checking that clue out. It turns out Jeffie and his team were right.”
    â€œWhat was the clue again, Nick?” Jan asked.
    Nick spelled it out, “C-o-a-c-o-o-c-h-e-e. Coacoochee.”
    â€œCoacoochee,” Jan repeated. “Interesting word. What is it?”
    â€œActually, it’s more like
who
is it?” said Kevin. “Coacoochee was a great Seminole Indian chief who was jailed in a Spanish fort called Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine. You’ll never believe how he escaped.”
    â€œHow?” Jan asked.
    â€œIt wasn’t easy,” said Chad. “The only way out was a little window more than 15 feet off the ground. It was too small for a man of Coacoochee’s size tosqueeze through.”
    â€œBut that wasn’t the only problem,” Kevin added. “There was a guy posted outside the prison cell all the time.”
    â€œWere there other prisoners in the cell with Coacoochee?” Jan asked, getting more curious by the moment.
    â€œYes,” said Chad. “But there’s another problem. There were bars on that little window.”
    â€œWe’ve only got a few seconds,” said Jan, anxious to find out how Coacoochee escaped. “Aren’t you going to tell our viewers and me how he finally escaped?”
    â€œThere’s not enough time,” said Nick. “I guess they’ll have to look it up themselves.”
    â€œAll right,” said Jan. “This is Jan Alcorn about to look up that answer— and reporting from on board Air Force One.”

18

    â€œGood morning! I’m Steve Goocy. It’s Tuesday morning, Day 4 of