Backroad Odyssey : Travel, Van Life & Lost Locations
Traveling America's backroads, history and road trip enthusiasts - Noah and Noodles - unearth fascinating locations overlooked while traveling.
Living out of a van, they research and visit each story location to share the (often shocking) secrets held within.
If you love travel, history and thoughtful storytelling - join us on the road!
Backroad Odyssey : Travel, Van Life & Lost Locations
Van Life Diaries - Skunk Ape Headquarters
Who is The Skunk Ape?
Noodles and I take the van to visit Skunk Ape Headquarters deep in the Florida Everglades in search of answers.
We’ll also be answering listener question at the end, which include:
- What do you listen to while driving?
- Do you ever take showers in your van?
- How long does it take you to visit a location?
- How do you avoid conversation bias on the show?
Brief Works Cited:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/trail-floridas-bigfoot-skunk-ape-180949981/
https://keysweekly.com/42/keys-history-stories-of-southernmost-skunk-ape/
Noah and Noodles here!
We want to extend a heartfelt thanks to every listener of Backroad Odyssey.
Your support fuels our passion and inspires us to keep sharing stories and discover overlooked locations.
Follow each adventure visually at:
https://www.instagram.com/backroadsodyssey/
Cruisin' down the street. I wonder where this road would lead. So many possibilities. Care to share what you think. Oh, noon Dolls, what do you see? Backroad Odyssey, in the dark of the Everglades, anything can happen. Within the shadows of the cypress trees, when the sawgrass rustles, the murky water stirs and a foul smell lingers, each putrid breath could be your last, for the skunk ape knows its land and punishes those that intrude upon it.
Speaker 1:Welcome to Van Life Diaries. I'm your host, noah, joined as always by my dog and co-host, noodles the Woodle. If you've been with the show, welcome back. If you're new here, welcome. Thanks for traveling with us today In classic Van Life Diary fashion.
Speaker 1:The show will be relatively unscripted, but equally as interesting, I assure you, because today we visit Skunk Ape Headquarters deep in the Florida Everglades in search of answers to the following perplexing questions who is the Skunk Ape and why does its story matter? We'll be answering listener questions at the end of the episode, but for now let's dive right in. Well, we're back, standing directly outside Skunk Ape headquarters between Everglades City and Miami, florida. I've been here a few years back for my beer podcast when I paired a beer with the act of searching for the skunk ape. Long-time listeners will have heard also the wild story of my first visit here, which I won't repeat today because this time is different. We're going back today to fully understand the story or reality, depending on who you're asking of the Bigfoot of the South. We start with a simple question who or what is the skunk ape? There's no maladies in my golf game. My golf game stinks, jack Nicklaus. I can assure you, mr Nicklaus, it does not stink as much as what we're about to talk about, the Florida skunk ape.
Speaker 1:The first stinky winds of our smelly friend go back centuries. Seminal legend tells of a foul-smelling, physically powerful and secretive creature called Este Kipkaki, a name which roughly translates to furry, tall man or hairy giant. Whispers of such a creature don't stop there. Throughout European occupation of the region, reports of a mysterious ape-like creature are found in Alabama, georgia and Florida folklore, so much so that Skunk Ape even makes it to print. In 1818, local newspapers cover curious happenings in what is now Avalanchicola Florida what is now Avalanchicola Florida. These reports center around a quote man-sized monkey who raids food stores and stalks fishermen along the shores. The food this man-monkey wanted is anyone's guess, but a consensus has been reached roughly on its physical appearance. Consensus has been reached roughly on its physical appearance. Looking at it now it stands at around seven feet, must be 450 pounds at least or more. Its coat is kind of a matted reddish brown.
Speaker 1:We're at the back of the Skunk Ape headquarters. The front is a gift shop and where we're at serves as a small museum. Around me there's facts about the skunk ape, various animals in cages, a 24-foot python, and it's all in a relatively small area. It's kind of one of the most unique places you can go to. But the creme de la creme, the pièce de résistance, lies right in front of me now. The piece de resistance lies right in front of me now.
Speaker 1:Cryptozoology the study of and search for animals, and especially legendary animals such as Sasquatch, usually in order to evaluate the possibility of their existence. Merriam-webster's definition of cryptozoology. A plaque which lies above Preserved Depictions of Apparent Skunk Ape Tracks reads the following Local skunk ape expert, dave Shealy was born and raised in the Everglades and can trace his family's presence in the area back to 1891. He grew up hearing stories of the legendary creature and first saw the elusive beast himself in 1974. Well hunting in the swamps behind their home with his older brother Jack. He was 10 years old. Since that time, he has dedicated his life to research and public education of the Florida skunk ape. Over the course of his fieldwork, he has captured the creature both in photos and video, as well as collecting plaster casts of the skunk ape footprints.
Speaker 1:I'm staring down at the plaster footprint now. It's big, obviously, but what's most notable looking down at it right now is in opposition to its more famous five-footed northwestern cousin, the Bigfoot, what I'm looking at now only has four toes, not five. The skunk ape only has four toes. According to this and according to this local expert, there are fewer than 10 skunk apes inhabiting the area spanning from the Everglades to Key Largo. And this brings me to my next question. I'll try to quiet down a little bit because I'm Okay. What does it take to make somebody a believer? What's the conversion point? Preserved tracks like I'm looking at now, a photo, a video do you have to see something to truly believe in it? Personally, for me it would take a lot to genuinely believe in something like this. Just something to think about. Okay, I'm gonna get out before I'm attacked.
Speaker 1:I hope you find some value in the idea that cryptids have significance beyond whether or not they physically exist, that they are symbols of hope, that our planet is capable of unlimited surprises, that they can rally a spiraling town by bestowing both an identity and an economy. That they help preserve stories from history that would otherwise be lost. Seen this way, cryptids are more important culturally than scientifically, but the best thing about cryptids for me is that they're just a lot of fun. Jw Ocker, author of the United States of Cryptids a tour of American myths and monsters. There may or may not be yet undiscovered creatures lurking in the wilds of America and beyond. I'm sure there are. The Everglades may or may not have a skunk ape wading through its still waters. Who am I to say? I'm just a podcaster traveling with my dog. I do know this, though. As Mr Auker just stated so brilliantly.
Speaker 1:In my view, cryptids have significance beyond whether or not they physically exist. They preserve culture, revitalize economies, leave room in this often mundane world for some mystery mundane world for some mystery. And in a world that's largely explored, cryptids offer the notion that the world can still be wild. Mystery can exist in a world where the answers are always provided. It's a Google search away, and I read something on the Skunk Ape Headquarters website that really struck me. I want to share with you Quote the majority of mainstream scientists have historically discounted the existence of the skunk ape, considering it to be the result of folk rather than a living animal. End quote. This, right here, hits at the core of what I'm trying to say. You can both acknowledge the reality of available information and leave room for significance when it comes to cryptids Off the Skunk Ape. You know the museum, the gift shop tours says on its webpage that it's probably not real, but acknowledges too that it is fun to think about. It acknowledges that you can leave room for even the tiniest possibility that we don't have all the answers, and that's what makes Skunk Ape Headquarters worth going to.
Speaker 1:With the Skunk Ape Headquarters once again behind us Noodles and I want to leave Skunk Ape hopefuls with a bit of optimism. The world at times can feel like a dark place. It can be overwhelming, it's easy to get caught up in the mundane, but places like this, like Skunk Ape Headquarters, and the very notion that something like these creatures could exist possibly reminds me, and I hope reminds you, that life shouldn't be taken so seriously. We have to leave space, however much you can, for a bit of mystery in the world. We'll leave today saying this Believe a way. Search for your skunk apes, dive for your Nessies. Search the skies for your Mothman, why not? I am a great admirer of mystery and magic. Look at this life, all mystery and magic, harry Houdini. In the dark of the Everglades, anything can happen. Within the shadow of the cypress trees, as the sawgrass rustles in the wind and a foul smell still lingers, cloaked in darkness lies a massive something and it disturbs the water as it walks. Its bright eyes are visible and they track a moving van across the horizon. The dog and the man inside that traveling van remain oblivious as they drive away from whatever this is and the land that it knows so well. With all that said, let's get to listener questions. I saw your van on the highway. Enjoy the show, thank you.
Speaker 1:What do you listen to while driving? Great question. I drive a lot, so I listen to a lot also, starting with podcasts. I mean I did an episode a bit ago, but I listened to history podcasts a lot. Comedy podcasts, comedy, bang bang. The rest is history Dance. Knows history hit anything on the history hit channel? Yeah, last podcast on the left for some true crime if I'm feeling it. But I also listened to audio books and there's an episode that you can go back and I talk all about my favorite audio book recommendations. So yeah, those two things. But sometimes, sometimes I'll listen to music and sing out, and hopefully you didn't catch me when I was belting out some show tunes. Thanks for the question.
Speaker 1:Do you ever take showers in your van? Thanks for the question. Not necessarily, so I have the capability to. If it was really cold or wet, maybe I'd do that. But I prefer to go to a planet fitness or if I'm out camping in the desert or wilderness somewhere, I'll just shower outside. Yeah, so I have a curtain and that's what I'll usually do, rather than do it inside because things get wet, then I have to to clean it all up and yeah, so that's just what I prefer. But you know, maybe one day I'll get more into that. How long does it take you to visit a location? So it depends on what location I go to. Sometimes it is half a day, sometimes it's a whole day, sometimes I'll stay for a couple of days because I have to record, do research, do photography, look into it, really get to know the story. So yeah, it ranges depending on the location. Sometimes it literally is an hour and a half and, like I just said, sometimes it's more. It just depends.
Speaker 1:How do you avoid confirmation bias on the show? Awesome, I answered something similar to this a couple weeks ago a month ago, I'm not sure, but great, great question. I love the question. So one thing I really set out to do is to not go into an episode with the idea of what story I'm trying to tell. These days you can Google anything and tell a story. Right, if I want to tell it a certain way, I'll just Google it. So I want to make sure I do not do that. So I'll Google both points of view and go to the actual location of the episode, see it firsthand and form my opinion based on reading both points of view and my own experience. That way I'm not just trying to craft a story out of nothing, right, and you know, obviously I'll still have a point of view, but I try my very best to have it based in as much information and to be as objectively true about what I'm saying as I can. So, yeah, that's kind of the pyramid which I build how I research things with. I love, love that question.
Speaker 1:Thank you, it's Noah here. Thank you for joining us on our travels. Hope you find value in the show. At least I hope you enjoyed yourself today when we're talking about the skunk ape. One last thing I'd like to go over about the skunk ape, actually, because van life diaries are a little more unscripted so things can fly by.
Speaker 1:The skunk ape, more modernly, is kind of Florida's unofficial mascot for wilderness and in the Everglades and it appears in roadside businesses and attractions, television commercials, on signs. Also, during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic I'm not sure if you remember that one One Florida business used the skunk ape as a way to kind of tell people how they should social distance, stay away from the skunk ape. So it really is prevalent in modern culture, as well as going back to that newspaper in 1818 and the seminal culture before that. So yeah, I just wanted to bring that up. It's very interesting, if you like.
Speaker 1:This episode specifically, we did a Van Life Diaries on four national park cryptids. That's an interesting one, and we dove in Flathead Lake in Montana to find Flessy, the lake monster, there as well. Those are two cryptid episodes and finally, thank you. Thank you for listening Again, if you find value in the show, share it with two of your friends. It really helps. Noodles and I continue to put the work we'd like to into continuing the show and making it better. Be good to each other. We're two next.
