The End of This Leg of the Journey

It is now January 12, 2017 and I got  fantastic offer to print out the rest of my journal! Figured I'd better wrap this up and put a bow on it. I came home on an emergency basis at the end of August because things were crazy here at home with medical and other family concerns. I've now bought a perfect little condo in Joliet that I can call my home base. All my friends made it so easy to create this little "nest". Heather and Darren and Judy made offers to let me park the RV and live with them until move-in day happened. Where would I be without them?? Probably Missouri where it might have been warm enough to "winter over"! Ha!

Joyce, my 24-hour realtor and friend helped me find this place; Missy and Tiffany guided me through all the legal and financial doings; Mary Kay & Judi and many other friends helped me feel right at home again. Zuni and Tighe have more room than they know what to do with and I am wrapped in the warm arms of many friends, my mom and sister. So, until I make other adventures here are a few photo reminders of the last couple of months.

Tighe in RV Window at River House

Celebrating Laura's memorable wearing of the bikini - part of the Y gang.

Me, Ruth and Mary Kay's first visit to the Naperville River Walk

Judi enjoying hot fudge sundae at La Chocolat in Naperville. Second trip! to visit the Kindl Market

Christmas at the Timbers where mom lives.

Christmas Day at Starved Rock Lodge - Mom's first visit there!

Zuni enjoying every chair in the condo!

Dining Room

Living Room

My Room

Lake 1 at Cabin Camp 1

When the camp was built in the 1930s the CCC (Citizens Conservation Corps) & WPA (Works Projects Administration) built some small dams along Quantico Creek to provide small lakes for swimming & boating. I hiked about 5 miles round-trip to see the lakes and get familiar with the trails in case anyone was ever lost.

Lake 1 is now almost completely filled in but has a lot of wildlife including snakes. Hikers have to brave chiggers, ticks and snakeys to get to the lake from the cabin camps. I was going to do a little bushwhacking but am weary of fighting the chiggers. Two weeks ago I was using the natural bug spray provided by the park. It contains eucalyptus and lemon oil and reportedly works for some people. However, I was covered with chigger bites and went back to good ole Deep Woods Off with DEET. Even with that, the heat indices have pushed 110 degrees daily and the protection melts away so I abandoned the bushwhacking and hauled my hot, tired self back to camp.

This fungi looks like coral, huh?

The same plant as above with flower or seed pod spike I think.

 

Lake 1 almost filled in and not very deep.

Water snake - larger than most of the copperheads. It kept returning to the same section of rocks after I disturbed it by walking through its area.

This fellow spying on me - always so curious!

Last night our big group of cabin campers finished cleaning both camps during a raging thunderstorm. Cindy & John and I checked them out, locked the gates and settled in for a good night’s sleep. Today the heat wave continues. No relief predicted for the rest of this week.I am taking 2 days off to explore.

Safe Snake Handling & More HEAT!

Yesterday we had an all-employee meeting at the maintenance yard. Lest you think we are thrown to the snakes without training, we actually had some training yesterday! The snakes in the photos are all copperheads and training was conducted by the Virginia Herpetological Society.

We learned that the younger snakes have a fluorescent green tail and that they are not as experienced and tend to let loose with a full load of venom when they strike. The older, more experienced snakes will only unload full venom if they are extremely aggravated.

The lady in the yellow tee shirt and the man with the sunglasses on his head are the instructors from the herpetological society.

In case you are wondering what we see at the bottom of the barrel.

Ha! This looks dangerously close to our park biologist's crotchal area, but it is an optical illusion. We don't have hooks, but use a special snake grabber tool not pictured here.

Another snake safely placed into the special bucket. We learned how to be extremely cautious since the snakes can climb up and nestle into the ridge at the top of the bucket. Beware when you unlock and uncover the bucket!

Practically daily new and amazing mushrooms appear in the forest. These red and mustard yellow mushrooms are especially for Joan as she seems to love the huge variety of colors:

Today they declared a heat emergency as by noon the "feels like" temperatures have reached 107. I'm at Panera but heading home to my cozy air conditioned RV. :-)

Down from 97% Humidity!

This morning it was only 61% humidity as opposed to yesterday's 97%. What a wonderful change! The weather people say it will only last 1 day though. :-(

I went for a 5 mile hike up Burma Road after taking a little walk around the cabin camp area. Burma is a favorite of locals because there is no vehicular traffic, it's shaded, and is a lovely up and down hills hike. My sister, Ruth, would love it because it reminds me of Rockdale only no traffic and would be a perfect place to train for hiking up the Sears Tower!

After I got back to camp I rested and read, then heard radio calls regarding a copperhead snake reappearing over at John & Cindy's Cabin Camp 4. You will all enjoy the photos! The snake was captured and relocated - all made possible by the wonder 4' pry bar I bought to work on Mom's house last year! Hooray! The men could never have gotten the porch boards up without it.

First, the hike . . .

My trail buddy.

This lovely fungus was lurking a foot behind some Burger King Trash some despicable hiker had discarded trailside.

So if you look closely, you can see the copperhead beneath the boards of the porch to the dining hall. He has been seen numerous times over the last month, but John and Cindy had not been able to capture him. We do NOT have to mess with the snakes as the law enforcement rangers would handle it for us. The only problem is that sometimes the snakes appear in cabins after-hours when the rangers are off duty. This one was especially dangerous because the group camping in this area is made up of many,many children and adults of all ages and physical ability. Snakey had been sunning on the porch as well as just poking his head up to see if the coast was clear for him to emerge to sunbathe or hunt. John and Cindy were very frustrated because it posed a huge risk to the campers.

Yep, he's still there! The men wisely determined the exact location of the snake and kept track of his movements. From what I've read online, copperhead bites are NOT normally fatal, nor do they require antivenom. One expert published last year that the antivenom is not very expensive to produce. But due to the price negotiations between hospitals and insurance companies the price can zoom from a manufacturers price of, for instance, a couple of hundred dollars to as much as $39,000 per vial!!!! That price gouging is outrageous!

Meanwhile back at the ranch, Tighe and Zuni lounge about blissfully unaware of all the excitement in the next camp.

Cabin Camp Friday Morning

This morning I had to be up and at 'em by 6:30 to unlock the gate for the trash & recycle people. I was greeted by the site of this box turtle crossing the road, many more fungi and even a few flowers! Tomorrow our first BIG group moves into the Cabin Camp area. I will have 150 people in my area and my coworkers in Cabin Camp 4, John and Cindy, will have 200. Yikes!

Leaf covered forest floor and field of orange. . .

The lovely orange mushrooms start out like this and mature in the following photos.

Purple mushrooms

Right in back of my RV

Bug on the carpet outside the RV this morning. I also was visited by raccoons last night. The trash bucket in the back of my Mule (a gasoline powered golf cart on steroids) was tipped over and bottles I was soaking had been tipped over with telltale paw prints all over! Ha!