A Day for Slow

Good morning, my friends. Happy Mother's Day to all who celebrate. Well, it was a lazy morning yesterday. We were moving slow. The kitties put us in the mood right from the get-go.

I spent a little time on my slow-stitching. I did a little more in the afternoon.

Before I go on, I want to say we've seen several butterflies flit through our campsite. As I've mentioned, it's nearly impossible to get a picture of a butterfly. They rarely light anywhere, and it does no good to chase them down. I found the two pictures I was looking for online. One was the Zebra Swallowtail.

(Image credit: "Zebra Swallowtail, Megan McCarty69" 

by Megan McCarty is licensed under CC BY 3.0.)

The other was a Viceroy.

(Image credit: "Viceroy" by hmclin is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.)

When we couldn't stand our lazy selves any more, we decided to take this hike listed in the brochure we were given when we checked in.

It was a loop that started from the entrance gate and ended there as well.

Here are the ways you could die out here today. 

As for the ticks...did I mention I found a tick on my abdomen a couple of days ago? It didn’t register with me that it was a tick until I’d already pulled it off (it was attached), looked carefully at it, and then flushed it. After flushing it, it dawned on me that it might have been a tick. The tick appeared black, but I couldn’t see any legs or antennae, and it was not enlarged at all from feeding. It was about the size of a tomato seed. I don’t see any tick parts left, but there is a pin-prick hole with redness around it. It's not itchy. In any case, we're being super careful now. We paused here to tuck our pantlegs inside our socks.

Okay, so taking one step, I noticed the first blue blaze. Stick with me my friends. I won't lead you off the path.

It was an easy-enough hike. I took my hiking pole with me, but I didn't need it.

We crossed over these rickety bridges in a couple of places. 

About one-third of the way in, we spotted three white-tail deer. They were shy, and leapt away from us every time they caught sight of us. I was able to zoom in close to get this picture.

Eventually, the trail crossed the road.

We continued on. We were waiting for a view of the lake, as promised by the name of the trail. About halfway in, we saw it.

Eventually, we walked alongside it for a bit.

We saw several of these fox squirrels. They were very quick and went leaping across the fallen leaves.

At our campsite, we've noticed these holes in the ground. Our neighbor in Oregon, who has lived in her house for less than a year, sent us pictures like this as well. They're holes where cicadas emerge from the ground.

When I spotted a few holes along our trail, I started looking for them on the trees. After emerging from the ground, they'll sit for a while before flying off to do cicada things. This year's emergence is special. For the first time since 2015 a 13-year brood is emerging in the same year as a 17-year brood. For the first time since 1998 adjacent 13-and 17-year broods will emerge in the same year. For the first time since 1803 Brood XIX and XIII will co-emerge. It didn't take long before I spotted one of them. 

The Google tells me that the northern brood will emerge in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin, and the southern brood will emerge in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. So, this would be one of the southern brood.

We've heard them across the lake from our campsite, and we heard them in certain sections of our hike yesterday. I made a very short video so that you could hear the sound they make. Turn up your volume. If you can't see the video, click right here.

Eventually, we started seeing the limestone walls like we saw in Kentucky and Arkansas. The path took us between that tree with the blue blaze and the wall. It was a narrow space.

Nearing the end of the loop, we saw another white-tailed deer. This one was accustomed to people. He allowed us to get fairly close.

At the end of our hike, we were hot from the humidity, and so we headed back to the campground and enjoyed a Mike's Lemonade while we relaxed for the rest of the day.

I imagine some of you have enjoyed the Northern Lights this past couple of days. We assumed we would be too far south to see it on Friday, and so we didn't even bother looking. So sad. I know people farther south than we are who were able to see it. Our son texted us an image from his home in Portland, and he was able to see it. Then yesterday, we received a text from one of our neighbors with these two shots near our home in Oregon. That's our wind turbine in the lower right of these images.

We're bummed that we missed it. Instead, we went off to see a solar eclipse. Who knew we'd take so long to get home? Well...I guess I did. I just didn't know the Northern Lights would pay us a visit while we were gone.

So, okay...at least someone documented it. Another time, I hope.

Today we probably really will sit around and do almost nothing. It's our last day at this park. We'll be on our way to Hamilton, Missouri, tomorrow to see Missouri Star Quilt Co. Our next stop after that will take us into Kansas...our 49th state. We'll be filling in the last open spot on our map. You might want to start popping some popcorn now because it's going to be the thrill of the century. 

Okay...time for some pancakes. It's Mother's Day. Treat yourself. If you're lucky enough to still have your mother, then treat her too.