An account in Collier County, Florida

On the early morning of labor day a few of my friends and I decided that we would drive across the state of Florida, from Miami to Naples in hopes of surfing some of the swell that Hurricane Gustav was sending to Florida's Gulf Coast. At approximately 6:00A.M we left from Florida International University traveling west on the Tamiami Trail. The weather that day was relatively clear but as I mentioned we had a hurricane passing close to south Florida a few days earlier so everything was still quite humid and the winds were beginning to calm down at about 15 knots to the west. It was near the area of big cypress about 15 minutes from the worlds smallest post office, where the landscape had plenty of saw grass in shallow water and large trees at a distance of about a mile off the road where I saw a figure that seemed to be watching the road as we drove past. This creature was definitely not a person. I know that it was not a person because we had only seen about 5 cars in the entire length of the trip thus far. Whatever it was, it appeared to be large, at least the size of a person, but it was dark, with a wide body structure, and even from the distance at which I saw it (maybe 300-500 yards) it looked as if it was covered in hair. The creature was standing next to a palmetto, and we passed it quite quickly. about 10 seconds after we passed it It came to my attention that I should probably tell my friend to turn the car around to see if I could get a better look. We stopped, drove back to the site, and It was gone. But as I got down from the car there was a very strange smell in the air that was nothing like I had ever smelled before, almost like a wet dog that had been covered in eggs. My guess was that maybe the creature had crossed the road, heard our car and checked us out, and that it realized that it did not like us so much and simply crouched down and hid. Nobody else in the car saw the creature, I was sitting in the back seat on the passenger side, the front seat passenger was asleep and the driver was simply concentrating on the road. I only saw this thing for a few seconds but it left quite an impression on me. Before this I thought that stories about Bigfoot were interesting but I would dismiss them saying that I would believe it when I would see it. But after seeing how remote this area was and how large the Everglades really are, I am now certain that there is a possibility that there is something out there.Thank you for responding to my report and feel free to give me a call at your convenience, if I do not pick up the phone it is probably because I am in class so leave me a message and I will contact you as soon as I can. Thanks David and let me know if there is anything else I can do. All the best,XXXXXXXXXXFlorida skunk ape witnessMiami