Even though Sammy had walked and walked, he was still in the state of Michigan. But he was determined to make it south.
And so his journey began.
Sammy started by swimming as far south as he could in Lake Michigan. He approached land and finds he's in Indiana. He walks and walks and comes to Lake Monroe at the south of Indiana and rests there for a bit. The lake has small tributaries going in all directions. but he continues to swim south.
The waterway, sometimes murky, snaked its way down to Kentucky. He tried to stay as close to water as possible. Not knowing his way he sometimes had to walk through dry and then swampy areas to find the next waterway, always being pulled south.
He was chased through the J Percy Priest Reservoir in Tennessee, not knowing it was the source of drinking water for the people. Not exactly knowing why, he swam and walked his way East, finding himself in Georgia. He rested for a bit in Blue Ridge Lake.
He then walked for a long long time until he came to water. But this wasn't water he'd seen before. It smelled salty. Sammy had made his way to the Atlantic coast off Georgia. The waves were too much for him to swim through and the salt made him too thirsty.
Still he was pulled south. so he swam as far as he could in the atlantic ocean, staying close to shore. He found a large waterway back onto land and swam in that direction.
He immediately felt so much more comfortable as the water became less salty and the waves disappeared.
He floated and swam south feeling much more peaceful. The signs from the waterway read "Fruit Cove" and then "Green Cove Springs". He was now in Florida. Still being pulled south, he swam through several lakes including Lake George, Lake Monroe and East Lake Tohopekaliga.
But what seemed to him to be the biggest lake of all was Lake Okeechobee. He laughed each time he said it to himself "O-kee-cho-bee". He left Lake Okeechobee and found small tributaries to take him south. not always finding a waterway route, he would walk for what seemed a long time by land. he missed Lake Okeechobee.
Not knowing why, he was slowly pulled in the western direction. The land became swampy. the smell in the air was bringing back memories he couldn't quite recall. Feeling more and more like he had returned to a place he had been, he stopped in the murky, swampy water.
He was home. He had reached the Everglades of Florida.
