Vultures and Hawks and turtles...oh my! Friday and Saturday (Jan 21 & 22)



I hope they're after Left Brain



We started the day with a forced march...oops, I mean hike...and dodged the many puddles along the path.  This has been our third day of rainy nights, but they need the rain here and we really have no complaints about it.  Especially after hearing the temperature back home was 17 below and that International Falls hit a record low of minus 47.  I knew it was miserable when I lived up there but I had no idea to what extreme. I must have looked really tired from the walk because the turkey vultures were gathering up in the trees.

During the night I listened to the sound of raindrops pelting across the shell of our camper and enjoyed the roaring thunder.  Wait a minute.  No, that wasn’t thunder—that was Left Brain!  I must remember never to feed that man beans and radishes in the same meal.

At least the turtles like this rain

I took advantage of the miserable weather to run into Zephyrhills again to check email and post the blog.  While in town I went to Publix for groceries and when I came out it was pouring buckets.  Oh no, now what to do?  Not to worry!  The fine young men that carry out the groceries escort you to your car holding a huge umbrella over your head and make sure you are seated before leaving. I like this store!

On the way home I looked for the hawk we had seen previously and sure enough, there he was, sitting right near the road.  I cautiously reached for my camera and was relieved to see that I still had on my 300mm lens.  I opened the window a crack, took aim and snapped away.  Then I tried turning off the car to eliminate the vibration  and took more photos.  Still no movement.  I slowly got out of the car and snapped more.  Ok, still no movement.  Is this thing real?  I walked up to it taking photos with each step.  I think it would have let me offer it a ride somewhere.  When I left I got in the car, slammed the door and started the motor it didn't even blink.  This has to either be a hawk very used to people or who was so wet and miserable he’d lost the will to live.  Either way I was happy for his portrait.  

After I got home I unpacked the car (in the rain, no nice carry out boys to shelter me from the elements now) and dragged everything in.  We had a lovely spaghetti dinner with Caesar salad and cheesy garlic bread.  Not your expected camper meal, but it sure was tasty.

I don’t know why I couldn’t sleep after the lovely day, but I just couldn’t settle down.  Normally I’d get up out of bed and go read in the other room, but here the other room is only….well, there isn’t any other room.  The dining area is about six feet from the bunks.  I’d also snitch some ice cream from the freezer since I was up, but here there’s no ice cream because the freezer only holds two trays of ice cubes.  So I laid there and planned all the things I was going to do in the morning and couldn’t wait for dawn to break.

Well, I missed dawn completely and got up at noon.  I guess that confirms it...I’ve become my cat. 

Saturday was spent just hanging out in the canned ham and playing cribbage and reading.  It was a pretty lazy day and very enjoyable.  We did for a power walk(aka fast forced march) around the campground for about 45 minutes.  The state patrol car was there watching for speeders and I apologized for going against the “Wrong Way” sign, but he said he’d overlook it this time. When we replied to his question of “where are you’all from?” with Wisconsin, he shivered and said he didn’t know how anyone could live up there in temperatures like that.  I guess that explained why we had our jackets off and he was sitting in a squad car with the heater going.

Supper Saturday night was Chicken stir fry with rice and watermelon chunks for dessert.  If nothing else we eat and sleep good on this trip.

I skipped going into town today to post the blog as Left Brain seemed a bit perturbed that I was going every day to do this, plus it was the Sabbath, so it felt good to chill out.  But on Sunday he’s going to want to go find the football game somewhere, so I’ll get this out then.  Thank G-d for football.  I never thought I'd say THAT.

Long life the Ice Queen....brrrrr.