Don't expect anything grand, or thought provoking, or even anything serious. This is just the story of a fun little solo adventure I had in Red Dead Online the other day. For those of you that haven't played it, you can acquire treasure maps in RDO through a couple different means. Mostly through leveling up every 5 levels, but every now and again you may find one on the body of a dead NPC enemy. They're usually just hidden away in little rock formations, tree stumps, etc, but occasionally they'll be a bit harder to find. Such as on a cliff side, behind a waterfall, or in my case the other day, in the middle of an alligator infested swamp. Did I mention I absolutely -blam!-ing hate the swamp? Venomous water snakes, low visibility, and oh yeah, giant alligators -blam!-ing EVERYWHERE! Seriously, I've had times where I could see a dozen at once. And yes, they will happily kill you. Anyway, on to my adventure. The other day while roaming around and fishing with a friend I suddenly remembered i had a pair of treasure maps i hadn't even looked at. So while my friend decided to go on a bit if a hunting expedition i figured it would be a good time to try and find some treasure. The first one not only was relatively close, but was easy to find. Just inside a busted up wagon right off the trail a bit into the forest. Easy day! So let's take a look at the other one. And it's in the damn swamp.... So off I go! It's quite a ways. I start just outside Strawberry. A small, beautiful mountain town with an eccentric mayor doing his best to turn it into a vacation destination. My destination is the swampland just north of Saint Denis, Rockstar's stand-in for New Orleans and the closest thing to a city in the game. It's about a days ride (in game time), so I decide to avoid hunting or fishing along the way. And of course because of this I see TONS of animals on my trip but stubbornly continue to ride, rather than stop and hunt. I make it down into the northern areas of the swamp, trying desperately to find some nice, knee deep water to wade through. But alas, the map area is deep into the swamp, surrounded by deeper water and an army of gators. I end up shooting about half a dozen gators in an attempt to make my way out before the deeper water and constant snarling of other submerged gators forces me to retreate and rethink. I need a boat! For some reason, the row boats and canoes are extremely rare in Online, despite being ever present in story mode. I do a little bit of googling to find some spawn points nearby and despite being in a damn swamp with lots of non-fuctioning prop boats and canoes about, the best spawn point nearby isnt terribly nearby. It's the eastern and north eastern edges of Flat Iron lake, miles from where I'm at. So I hop back in my horse and ride over to the lake. While I wait for a boat or canoe to spawn I get in some fishing, landing a handful of trout. Eventually I spot a man in a canoe just north of me. Today is not his day. After a quick canoe-jacking I start rowing my way south, stopping shortly on a small island to double check my treasure map, eat some food, and clean my guns. After my short break I continue rowing. Rowing past some tug boats, a couple fishing boats, and a barge. As i hit the south end of the lake where it connects with a large, wide river (think the Mississippi), I'm starting to have to row against the current. My progress slows until I make it past the worst of the currents. As I make my way south I notice the landscape changing. The trees are creeping into the water. Vines start climbing up the trees. It's turning into the damn swamp. However, as I start going farther up river and getting deeper into bayou territory, I notice more detail and character than I had before. I see swamp huts on the edges of the water. I see a shack with fish drying in the sun on a line between trees. I notice how the rising sun reflects off the merky water creating an explosion of color. Much to my surprise, I'm actually starting to appreciate the swamp. That is until I make my way into the outskirts of the city. The colors in the water start to become rather ugly and polluted. I'm seeing more gators. I'm seeing trash and even industrial waste along the waters edge. Not only am I firmly back in the swamp, I'm in a heavily polluted section. Lovely... From the toxic swampy waters on the edges of the city, I make my way farther north, deeper into the swampland. And then, stop. THERE'S A -blam!-ING FOOT BRIDGE IN MY WAY! All this damn way and there's a damn foot bridge about a foot off the water. And I know what you're thinking. "it's a canoe! just pull it out of the water and drag it around the bridge!" Yeah, I tried that. You can't get out of the water, much less drag it across to the other side. I check around and there's no other way around. Every other direction leads to the wrong area of the swamp. So that's it. Canoe ride over. That whole trip! A 40 minute canoe trip! All for not! What do I do now?! Back on horseback I go. Out of sheer frustration I head back into the swamp. I stop in a small fishing village on the edges of my treasure map area. I tie up my horse near the house of the nice bait and tackle lady and buy some bait while I'm there. I grab my shotgun from off my horse and start walking off into the trees. With my shotgun out I'm slowly moving through the increasingly muddy grounds. Checking behind every bush and three for alligators. I spot one to my right and quickly blast it in the face. No need to waste good gator meat, so I decide to skin and trim the gator, but as I whip out my knife I notice another gator no more than 10 feet away! He notices me about the same time and starts snarling and ready to snap. So, he gets a blast to the face too. A third gator gets it shortly after. So, I'm looking at my map, using my dead eye ability to try and spot any kind of clues. It seems to be close, but I'm fully at the waters edge. There's a tiny island roughly 50 feet out into the water with an overturned rowboat sitting next to a tree. That's it. I can feel it. The treasure is in that boat. Which of course means having to swim out into the swamp. The same swamp in which I once saw 6 alligators in a 40 square foot patch of water. So out comes the shotgun and I start scanning the surface of the water. I only see one gator between me and the tiny island. I can only just see the top of his head peaking out of the water, but that's enough of a target to hit. After taking him out, I quickly scan for more gators. Nothing. So I wade through merky, muddy, shoulder deep water as fast as I can to the tiny island. I make it out of the water and quickly check behind me. Nothing. So let's look under this boat! And bam. A small lock box filled with a bit of gold, $90 dollars (remember this is 1899), and a bottle of bourbon. But now I have to make it back across. And guess what! Another gator, seemingly moving in to investigate and/or eat his dead friend. So he dies too. I scan again, and I'm clear, so quickly wade again back onto land. I work my way through the trees, back to the fishing village where my horse has been patiently waiting for me. Like I said. It wasn't a grand adventure. Possibly not even an entertaining one. But it was an interesting, completely unscripted experience. Its moments like this that make open world games memorable to me. It's just you out in the world trying to figure things out. But boy, I sure as hell hope Rockstar adds more content to RDO soon. There's only so many random ass experiences I can have with what little the Beta has to offer currently.