Yesterday, swimming across the mile-wide Peace River during the July 4th Freedom Swim in Punta Gorda. My 30th time in 35 years. The best Independence Day tradition I know of in 'Merica
Authorities have tried to stop it for safety reasons. But there's never been a single problem of any kind from lightning, bull sharks (I saw one during last year's swim), or drownings in 35 years. So the local authorities finally stopped trying to stop it (it's very loosely organized) and just send out the marine fire and police boats to keep an eye on it.
Trail-boats tend to the swimmers, and some years you can drink beer (as well as water) all the way across that strangers provide. Some swim hard—like high school swim teamers—but most dog paddle and socialize. On a great weather day there may be more than 100 swimmers and twice that in boats and kayaks—on a called-for bad weather day like yesterday, only 40 or so of us.
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