It’s 3:30 in the morning, dark, with no signs of dawn. We trudge through sodden swamps. April isn’t always nice. She is cold, wet. What the hell are we doing out here near Plover, Wisconsin in the middle of a freezing night? We finally reached a low building, a blind. If you stand up to your full height, even mine!… you hit your head on the ceiling boards. We sit on low benches, peer through cracks in the structure. Like a bunker on a battlefield! And then daylight appears like a helium mylar balloon being blown up by a greasy-fingered kid. I had missed it, dawn; maybe I fell asleep… I look out the narrow window; there they are! Dozens of them. Prairie chickens! Wildly dancing, horny, moaning madly, revealing all the majesty of their magnificent feathery sexual apparatus!
What a comical and great performance! They inflate bright orange bags under their throats, drum their little feet, dance furiously to attract a mate. Territorial males jump into the air to warn other males, intruders. Then attraction happens!… A successful man bows down to a woman. She shakes the ruffled feathers from her. She is done. They are married or paired in non-anthropological parlance! A country breakfast follows, including thick hash browns served in a huge, deep-sided baking dish. And meaty things!
This was one of several remarkable trips conjured up and taken with precious friends, Rob and Susie. All of them unusually different, and all of them memorable and full of strange delights in their own unique way. Near Lansing, Iowa, we floated down the Mississippi and witnessed great migrations of birds. There were swans and masses of coots, prairie goats, bald eagles, even a mink foraging along a side dam. Before this trip, I had never seen swans in flight before. I’ve never seen so many coots gathered in a single stretch of river… (“Coots” means birds. Not old geezers playing checkers in coffee shops and saloons!)
That trip down the Mississippi River may have given us the idea for another. The four of us rented a houseboat in Alma, Wisconsin. I spent a night in a cove. Built a fire, blood “Old Man River.” Wonderful time. On the second night, after a day of prowling the Great River past magnificent-looking barge tugs, we beached ourselves between a couple of side dams. In the middle of the night we were woken up twice, once by a bump, once by a passing barge propelled slowly by a brightly lit tug, so beautiful in the dark on the calm river. The blow was, we thought, a tree branch that had lodged under our houseboat. I couldn’t budget the “branch” no matter how hard the four of us tried! It turned out to be a whole tree! I had to call Captain Jack from the rental service and the powerful motor boat from him. He also couldn’t believe the size of the tree that anchored us to the shore. We saw an eagle’s nest so big the four of us could have moved in with kitchen appliances and easy chairs…maybe a Murphy bed too!
In Mexico, we discovered a spider monkey reserve near Akumal. The four of us spent over an hour interacting with the monkeys in a large cage-like enclosure. We gave them snacks and they, in turn, collected “artifacts” from our hair and skin (or whatever they found and ate!). What wonderful hairdressers! Inquisitive but almost always gentle (except for a few little nibbles, from time to time)! The seafood restaurant was a cut above. Palapa-protected “Playa Tortuga” was beautiful to behold! The ferry ride to and from Cozumel was rough, with big waves in an angry Caribbean. We all thought we’d capsize and drown in the cloudy blue soup! But (perhaps you read it in Playa del Carmen’s Why-Fish!), we survived to sail one more day… (Thanksgiving requests to San Telmo… ).
Most recently, we traveled to Starved Rock State Park in north central Illinois. A place of magnificent rock formations, waterfalls, streams, and wildlife, including funny-looking tourists. Great hiking trails. Before our arrival, not far from the park, we stopped at Lasalle, near lock 16, to ride an authentic canal boat powered by a single mule named “Mo”. By the way, we highly recommend Lock 16 Cafe in that lovely community. Wonderful food, great people! Starved Rock (named for a Native American battle site in which the vanquished were driven from their fortress by starvation) sits on the banks of the Illinois River. The lodge and cabins are beautiful, cozy and comfortable. What’s that? Oh sure, we would go back there!
We have often thought of a possible Geezers guide to great travel adventures and fine dining catering to a more “savvy” and therefore discerning traveler (Work title!). As a sample, and to whet your appetite (forgive the obvious attempt… ), you should try Green fire in Rockford, Ill. is in our “Big/Many Stars” commercial haute cuisine listing. Here’s another… mcgregor coffee in McGregor, Iowa, across the Big River from Prairie du Chien, WI. i think we liked it the blue heron in Winona, MN, where we stopped for dinner on our Great River Road driving tour. And they have an Eagle Museum and (sort of) sanctuary in Winona. Lots of information on the Mississippi River Eagle population, their return from near extinction. The place has a pet or pet eagle that was injured and now lives in quiet harmony with the staff and visitors, and you can take a picture with the eagle. She likes people!