I’ve never seen an alligator yawn before. It’s an interesting sight, isn’t it? Well, he isn’t the only one …

But, wait! What’s all this father-son relationship jazz? Wasn’t there an entire family here? Or is that why the gator looks fatter than he did a few days ago? Yesterday I posited three possible reasons for this story. It seems that it really was about father-son bonding; or at least, that is what is turned into. Blech!

So now, Happy and Mark are going home, arm in arm, to write an article together. About their trip. If Kelly Welly was here, she’d probably throw golf balls at them for wasting this opportunity.

“You’re a nature journalist”, says Happy. Aren’t they the ones that write those Sunday newspaper articles about fishing for bigmouth bass with Gadabout Gaddis, hunting squirrels in the Big Woods, and taking Ol’ Blue duck hunting? But they leave actual investigative work to trained professionals.

Art Dept. You might think the giant speech balloon in panel 1 is another kind of narration box. But, no. The balloon’s tail runs up Happy Trail’s shirt, but was accidentally colored in. At first I thought Jules Rivera was satirizing the misplaced speech dialog trope of pre-Rivera Mark Trail.