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Sam the crocodile lived in a large warm lake with lots of friends who thought they knew him very well.  Sam was 57 years old and had inhabited the same lake since he was a wee little hatchling.

In fact, Sam was one of the oldest crocodiles in his lake, but he had secretly wondered for many, many years what it would be like to leave his lake and visit the ocean.  He had heard about the ocean in his younger years from a few of his bird friends who had been on lots of exciting adventures together, including flying over the ocean. 

One day, at 57 years of age and seemingly out of the blue, Sam slowly ambled out from the bank of the lake and kept walking.  Within a quarter mile from his lake, a beaver came out onto his path.

“Sam!  What in tarnation are you doin’?”

 “I’ve decided to walk to the ocean.  That’s what I’m doing.”

Betsy the beaver laughed.

“Sam, the ocean is about 2 miles away from your lake home.  You’ll never reach it.  Turn back before you exhaust yourself.  Seriously, Sam, have you lost your ever-lovin’ crocodile mind?”

Betsy the beaver scurried off before Sam could really reply, but he didn’t care much for beavers anyway.  Busybody Betsy used her mouth constantly – either for chewing up wood or running around to spread gossip or pester old crocodiles like himself.

“Two miles away,” Sam thought to himself.  “I can do that.”  He trudged on, determined to keep on going.

After another hour had passed, a rabbit locked eyes with Sam.

“Hey, Ricardo,” said Sam to keep the rabbit at ease, for he wasn’t in the mood for rabbit meat today, and anyway, he needed to conserve his energy.  He knew Ricardo from the last time he saw him fleeing a fox on the hillside near his lake.  Ricardo was a rabbit who Sam respected.  Ricardo was not only fast, he was smart.  He had almost become someone’s dinner numerous times but had a knack for outsmarting every predator in the area.  (So far, at least.)

From a wise distance, Ricardo peered right into Sam’s eyes.

“Sam, is that you?”

 “Yep.  It’s me.  I’m heading to the ocean,” Sam answered.

“The ocean?  You shouldn’t go there.” The rabbit replied matter-of-factly.

“Why not?  I want to see it for myself.  I’ve always heard it’s the largest body of water on the entire planet.”

“The ocean is a DANGEROUS place, Sam.  It’s nothing like your lake.”

Sam looked unphased.

Ricardo continued: “The ocean has WAVES.  You know what waves are, Sam?”

“Yeah, I’ve heard a bit about waves, Ricardo.  How the water moves and can pull you into deeper parts.  Crocodiles are excellent swimmers, but I wouldn’t expect a rabbit to understand that.”

“Well, I’ve gotta scoot, Sam, but I’ll warn you that the waves have the type of energy that can kill even the best swimmers.  Anyhoo…adios!”  As quick as a blink, Ricardo was nowhere in sight.

Sam decided that rabbits were too chicken to understand the soothing feeling of water all over a creature’s body.  Running to and fro, always on the lookout.  That Ricardo had never nestled his body in water his whole life.

Although Sam’s legs were tired from traveling over a mile, he continued to meander through the thick brush.  As a breeze swept through, he could smell the salt in the air so he knew he must be close.

A mile and a half into his trip, Sam decided to rest in the shade of a nearby tree.  Sam would have fallen asleep if Chase the Chipmunk hadn’t been hurling acorns at him.

“WHO IS THROWING ACORNS?” Sam yelled out in anger.

“About time you woke up, ya dumb crocodile,” teased Chase.

“Is that you, Chase?  Why are you so far from the oak trees near the lake?” asked Sam.

“ME?  Why am I so far from the lake?” Chase replied laughing.  “What is an old cranky crocodile like you doing so far from the lake?  A chipmunk goes where a chipmunk wants to go, but you?  You aren’t near any body of water, Sam.  How’d ya get so far from the lake – actually, let me rephrase that!  Why are you so far from the lake?”

“If you really want to know, Chase, I’m just tired of only being at the lake.  I wanted to see the ocean, to see the power of its waves, and to touch the salty water,” Sam answered resolutely.

“I’ve never seen a crocodile at the ocean before. But golly gee, Sam.  I gotta tell you that you’re much closer to the ocean than your lake now,” Chase pondered in a wistful way.

Sam perked up.  “Am I?”

“Yes.  You see that sand hill yonder there?  Well, all you have to do is climb up that HOT, STEEP, sand hill and you’ll see the ocean right in front of ya,” responded the chipmunk.

Chase continued, “Move your old skin along, Sam, and don’t worry about being the first crocodile to ever reach the ocean.  You should be more worried about how you’re gonna get over that scorching hot hill.”

And with that, Chase ran back into his hole.  Since Sam had rested long enough, he set his eyes upon the sand hill and started crawling towards it with his short, stubby legs.

When Sam reached the bottom of the sand hill, he was beyond exhausted and started to cry big crocodile tears.  At that moment, he realized that he had bravely walked for hours and hours and now, even though he could taste the ocean air, he was not going to be able to make it up the hill. 

He cried and cried and then cried even louder in utter despair. 

A group of sand crabs emerged from their holes on the hill to see what all the boo-hooing was about.

They gathered around Sam with their dominant white claws at the ready.

“QUIET, Sam!  Shut your big crocodile mouth.  What a ruckus you are making!” said Cora the leader of the pack.

Just then Sally the Seagull swooped down and squawked at Sam.  “Serves you right, Sam, for traveling so far from your lake!  What were you thinking in that ancient crocodile brain of yours?” Sally asked heatedly.

“Quiet, Sally!  Just go away!   The crabs and I will handle this,” Cora said with authority.  Although Cora was not so sure about how to handle a large sulky crocodile, she felt sorry for Sam.

“How did you travel so far from your lake, Sam?” asked Sally calmly.

“How does any creature travel who doesn’t have wings?” snapped Sam glaring up at Sally the Seagull.

Sam took a deep breath of the deliciously salty air and continued: “On foot.  Step by step on these 57-year-old legs of mine.  All because I wanted to see the biggest entity on this planet – the ocean.  Now I realize my life-long dream won’t happen because of this sand hill.  It is just too steep for my compact, chunky legs.”

Cora looked at her troop of crab friends who had been listening. 

“Guys and girls, let’s have a quick brainstorming meeting in our private chamber, down 4 feet over there.”  She pointed.

She looked back at Sam.  “No more crying.  My friends and I must get out of this harsh sun, or we will fry under the heat.  Stay where you are and we will be back shortly with a solution, Sam.  Hang tight!”

In seconds, Cora and the other crabs dashed down into a sand hole where very private crab meetings are typically held.

Sam closed his weary, tear-drained eyes and waited.

In a few minutes, the sand crabs scurried up the hole to present their ideas to Sam.

Cora cleared the sand from her throat and began: “Sam, we could only come up with two solutions.  First one is for each one of us (she points to her group of 6 crab friends) to use our dominant claw and give you quick painful pinches to make you move up the hill.”

“What?!  That sounds painful, Cora.  Please, there must be another way!”  Sam interrupted.

Cora continued: “Yes that would be painful, so we thought of another way.  A few days ago, a human boy left a beach towel behind on the sand.  What if you got on top of the beach towel and we surrounded the beach towel and pulled you up the hill?”

“Cora, do you know how much I weigh?”  Sam asked.

“No, not really, Sam.”

“I weigh so much more than you and your friends could pull – even on level ground, Cora.  It’s no use.  I’m going to rest a bit longer and then take the long walk back to my lake.  I should have never left,” Sam said with very sad eyes.

Cora snapped her white claw in the air like an army drill sergeant and spoke firmly: “Sam, how did an old crazy crocodile like you walk over 2 miles to get to this spot?” 

Before Sam could answer, Cora raised her voice even more: “I’ll tell you how, Sam!  You just BELIEVED that you could.  It’s that simple, Sam.  You DECIDED to leave the lake because you wanted to go to the ocean, and you BELIEVED you could get there.”

“True, but obviously it wasn’t a smart idea even if I decided I wanted to do it,” Sam quietly countered.

Cora lost her patience and gave Sam a sudden hard snap with her claw.

“IF YOU DO THAT AGAIN, I’LL …” Sam straightened up, ready to show these absurd crabs who they were messing with. 

“THAT’S IT, SAM!  GET ANGRY!  BELIEVE THAT YOU CAN GET UP THAT HILL!  You didn’t come all this way to be pestered by a group of fierce crabs, did you?”

With that, Sam started to move up the hill, step by step.  Cora and her friends darted to the top of the hill and began yelling out:

“YOU CAN DO IT, SAM!  THE OCEAN IS WAITING FOR YOU!  COME ON, SAM!! YOU ARE DOING IT!”

The sand crabs called out to Sam with words of encouragement for over 30 minutes as he made his way up the gritty, shifting sand hill.

“YOU DID IT, SAM!  LOOK!”

At the top of the hill, the ocean was waiting for Sam in full glory.  Sam’s mouth dropped open in awe as he exclaimed, “IT’S ENORMOUS!”

Before he could even think about how exhausted his feet were, he walked down to the water’s shoreline and let the salty ocean hit his body over and over again.

Sam was too happy to talk to any more crabs, or seagulls, or other ocean creatures.  The waves made him feel euphoric.  He had made it to the most majestic body of water on earth and it had been worth the journey. 

Sam stayed for hours at the ocean’s shoreline, letting the small waves lap onto him.  Then, when he felt ready, he thanked the crabs for their persistence and encouragement.  With a huge smile on his face and a delighted heart, he began his 2 mile walk back to his home. 

As he trudged on carefully, he thought about all that he would share with all his lake friends – the magnificent ocean, the friendly crabs, and arduous walking he had to do to accomplish his dream.  He thought about how important it is to listen to the voice inside of your head that believes you can do anything you set your mind to even if others try to dissuade you, just because they have never seen a crocodile walk 2 miles to the ocean. 

Well, now they have.