Welcome to the Farewell to Finder’s Fest geo-art, brought to you by the Forest Minions! This series celebrates weird and unusual things throughout the Sunshine State. Please do not go to the posted locations. Rather, solve the challenging quiz found at the bottom of each page, for the final location. For the letterbox caches, please leave the stamp in the cache. They are not trade items. For the discerning traveler, we’ve included the GPS coordinates for these bizarre locations, when we were able to establish them.
Bite or Smite – Location 27.9863, -82.4515
A uniquely weird, perfectly Florida creature serves as the emblem for Tampa’s Seminole Heights neighborhood. When the suburb was first developed in 1911, its founder used a two-headed alligator, both mouths open, as the neighborhood’s emblem in advertising materials. The bizarre image came from old Florida folklore. The story goes, a rabbit teases an alligator in the Hillsborough River. An old turtle warns, “Stay away from that gator, rabbit. By bite or smite, it’ll get you.” The rabbit ignores the turtle, taunts the alligator by dangling his feet in front of its mouth, and is surprised to find that the gator has not one head, but two, complete with its own set of sharp teeth. The second head gobbles up the rabbit, to which the turtle remarks, “I told that rabbit, by bite or smite, it’ll get him and, by the looks of it, smite got to do the eating today.”
A six foot tall, two headed alligator sculpture named Bite or Smite can be found standing in front of a local folksy café, both arms akimbo, and both its mouths tiled in crooked smiles.
Here is the super duper, way challenging, really hard trivia question, which, if solved properly, will lead you to the final coordinates:
Question: What is the official unit of measurement for labeling the speed of a computer mouse?
A: MPH = N29° 29.554' W81° 51.664'
B: WPM = N29° 29.554' W81° 51.654'
C: Mickeys = N29° 29.554' W81° 51.644'