An Armadillo and an Adventure

Wednesday, November 3 continued. . .

Well, the rain did stop by 3 p.m. and we were able to go for a nice long walk. We chose to walk on the park roads, as we thought the woods would be quite wet.

As we came over a hill, we disturbed a flock of about eight very large birds grouped by the side of the road. They made no sound except for the beating of their wings as they took to the trees. Here in the ditch was the attraction: a dead armadillo.

This is the second armadillo we've ever seen. The first one we saw in the woods in Oklahoma a few years ago. We wouldn't have seen it except for the fact that it became frightened, and scurried away through the

undergrowth. I was surprised at how little and how pink it was.

Here's one of those birds. I think it's a buzzard or vulture, as a general term. You can just see that it has a bald head. They were very large birds, and tended to circle around waiting for us to be out of the way.

When we came back after a two mile walk they had moved the carcass farther from the edge of the road.

Here's a little sample of some of the beauty available along the roadside.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 4

On the road again this morning, heading north on 114. This morning is crisp and sunny, with a perfectly cloudless sky. We drive along a deserted, two lane road through sun-drenched woods, and later through scattered cotton and corn fields, the crops already harvested.

Going east on Hwy 70 we came to Camden, Tennessee where I stopped to mail the finished scarf to Dear Son #1.

We followed 147E to a ferry across the Tennessee River, a lake really, because it's dammed further downstream. That's the ferry way across there, the little white thing. When we arrived, the ferry was headed to the other shore, so we sat and waited. We waited for 45 minutes, but the ferry never started back across the river. Perhaps the water was too choppy. There were white caps on the waves. So we gave up, turned around and took another route.

Well, call it a little "adventure" along the way. The fall colours are still quite lovely here.

We headed for the "Land between the Lakes," a state park in Tennessee and Kentucky. The visitor center had a very good display about the history of the area, which used to be called "Land between the Rivers," the rivers being the Cumberland River and the Tennessee River, both of which were dammed, forcing the people living in the area to relocate.

There was no lodging in that park, so we are now at a lodge in the Kentucky Dam Village State Resort Park, taking it easy in a very nice room, planning to go for dinner in the restaurant soon.