IL Day 10. Close Encounters of the Coyote Kind
Still not as warm as we would like but it is slowly warming up here. The landscape, perhaps not unsurprisingly, remains resolutely flat.
Today the two dogs Ginger and Gemma had to be taken to have their toe nails clipped. A process that went very smoothly and especially Gemma seemed much more lively afterwards and moved with new energy on the way back.
After that we went to the Vespasian Warner public library and met their archivist who is slowly cataloging and preserving C H Moore's collection of some 7000 volumes. It was fairly obvious that she was "one of us" as her lair at the top of the library had a large collection of Doctor Who posters and such like. We spent nearly two hours with her as Pellegrina and her swapped rare book collection anecdotes and at the end brought out a very handsome copy of Evangeline by Longfellow.
Later we went with the Menace to collect his other boat from his mother's / step father's place Leroy in the next county. We chatted with them for a little while before we hooked up the boat and drove back to collect MIL. On the way back, as we passed the lake we had a close encounter of the Coyote kind when one of them wandered right out in front of us and an emergency stop was required. After a certain amount of horn blowing, it moved off the high way and into the under growth.
Then we came back to the lake, which is the cooling lake for the local nuclear power plant and covers about 8000 acres; so quite large. Menance put the boat into the water and I had to figure out how to use a stick automatic to then drive the truck and trailer out of the water and then up to the car park.
Then the four of us went out onto the lake and spent about an hour looking at the bird life. Sadly there was no sign of the bald eagles but there were plenty of herons and swallows. We also saw more nighthawks, which were also feeding over the lake surface. I must admit the nighthawk is a handsome bird and very agile.
At one point we went under a road bridge that was covered with cliff swallows starting to build nests, one of the pair hanging onto the spot on the underside of the bridge to stop anyone else taking that spot. We stopped for a while at Boondocks and had burgers before making our way back in the dark. An American Robin, kept attacking the window we were at as he could see his reflection. While there we also saw two Eastern Kingbirds resting on the reeds.
Oh did I mention that I did a fair amount of the steering of the boat? Which I must admit to being rather a lot of fun. I don't think I'll ever own a boat but the fun aspect was rather high. I also gather that there are some photos of me, suffering rather bad speed hair as we got up to about 30 mph on the lake.
Today the two dogs Ginger and Gemma had to be taken to have their toe nails clipped. A process that went very smoothly and especially Gemma seemed much more lively afterwards and moved with new energy on the way back.
After that we went to the Vespasian Warner public library and met their archivist who is slowly cataloging and preserving C H Moore's collection of some 7000 volumes. It was fairly obvious that she was "one of us" as her lair at the top of the library had a large collection of Doctor Who posters and such like. We spent nearly two hours with her as Pellegrina and her swapped rare book collection anecdotes and at the end brought out a very handsome copy of Evangeline by Longfellow.
Later we went with the Menace to collect his other boat from his mother's / step father's place Leroy in the next county. We chatted with them for a little while before we hooked up the boat and drove back to collect MIL. On the way back, as we passed the lake we had a close encounter of the Coyote kind when one of them wandered right out in front of us and an emergency stop was required. After a certain amount of horn blowing, it moved off the high way and into the under growth.
Then we came back to the lake, which is the cooling lake for the local nuclear power plant and covers about 8000 acres; so quite large. Menance put the boat into the water and I had to figure out how to use a stick automatic to then drive the truck and trailer out of the water and then up to the car park.
Then the four of us went out onto the lake and spent about an hour looking at the bird life. Sadly there was no sign of the bald eagles but there were plenty of herons and swallows. We also saw more nighthawks, which were also feeding over the lake surface. I must admit the nighthawk is a handsome bird and very agile.
At one point we went under a road bridge that was covered with cliff swallows starting to build nests, one of the pair hanging onto the spot on the underside of the bridge to stop anyone else taking that spot. We stopped for a while at Boondocks and had burgers before making our way back in the dark. An American Robin, kept attacking the window we were at as he could see his reflection. While there we also saw two Eastern Kingbirds resting on the reeds.
Oh did I mention that I did a fair amount of the steering of the boat? Which I must admit to being rather a lot of fun. I don't think I'll ever own a boat but the fun aspect was rather high. I also gather that there are some photos of me, suffering rather bad speed hair as we got up to about 30 mph on the lake.