Editing The honeymooners (section)

==Locations==
==='''The AMS ''Honeydew'' '''===

The AMS (which stands for ''Alberto Marin's Ship'') the ''Honeydew'' is a 40' shallow draft houseboat; her beam is about 15'. She is of pre-war build, then again, these days, most everything is as US production shifts from Wartime to Peacetime production. With her small gas engine, she has a normal cruising speed is 2-3 knots. Cabins are plainly furnished on the portside of the boat, but the cabins are comfortable. The engine is also the generator for electric lights; she has a battery that will give an hour or two of light when the main motor isn't running. There isn't power for major appliances, so food is cooked on an oil stove on the aft quarter. The cabin roof is a sun deck with reclining chairs, tables, and sun beds. A canvas awning can be rigged in wet weather. The other deck areas are small and cluttered with hatches and fittings. There is a drop privy amidships, and there are two two-hundred gallon tanks, one fore and one aft. The forward is potable water for cooking, the aft is for gasoline.

There are two 20-gauge double-barreled shotguns and fifty cartridges in a gun case in the wheelhouse. A fire axe is clipped to the bulkhead in the galley. There are also several sharp knives aft, in a pair of broad cabinets with utensils, cooking and eating gear, and this qualifies as a basic galley. Other equipment inc1udes four oil lanterns and two large flashlights, several coils of rope, six fishing rods and reels (bring your own bait), a 78-rprn record player with a stack of jazz and Andrews Sisters records, and a boat hook. A four-seat rowing dinghy emblazoned with the name, 'Al's Little Princess' is towed aft. It can hold 5-6 people if the extra passengers sit between the rowing benches, but is easily swamped if heavily loaded.

[[File:AMS Honeydew2.jpg]]

==='''The Everglades'''===

Picture a fifty-mile-wide slow moving river of depths ranging from a few feet to a mere few inches, subdivided into a complex maze of islands, swamps. and streams. This is the Everglades. There are literally thousands of small islands, and they are home to many plant and animal species found nowhere else on Earth. 

Cypress trees grow in the water, with tubular air roots sticking up as snorkels, Festoons of Spanish moss cover their branches like strange wigs, twisting lianas strangle trees and bushes. Log-like shapes float in the water, sometimes opening cavernous mouths, then slipping underwater as the boat approaches. Snakes and amphibians swim and cling to trees while flamingoes and pelicans flap overhead. 

Pitcher plants lure insects into their lethal maws, and orchids attract lovers of beauty. Insects are everywhere, from gigantic dragonflies to mosquitoes and hordes of stinging midges. Small lizards and amphibians find their way into cabins and beds. At night bats swoop through the trees, eyes glimmer from every tree and islet the boat passes, and every light is besieged by moths until the lights are put out.

In the 1940s the Everglades have been explored, and areas are being drained. Wildlife is plentiful, and alligators are common, though becoming rare around the main channels. Other large animals include a few crocodiles and manatees. There are no hunting restrictions. There are houses and farms on some of the largest islands, and villages in the drained areas, but most of the region is still uninhabited.

[[File:Everglades 001.jpg]]