We’ve now reached and passed the midway point of summer glory. Elias has done soccer/softball/track-and-field day camps, while Isaac has experienced the joy of Myth Busters camp and SCUBA diving. We’ve logged a lot of miles on our fannies so far– went to North Carolina and back at the beginning of June, and now have just completed our grand tour of the heartland.
This was our route. 2,018 miles, 35 hours road time, at least 20 hours of Eragon. And no DVD player! (This takes serious cojones.) One wonderful aunt and her Schipperke for part of it. and lots of gear, a cooler of organic food, two fighting boys… And of course, as Captain of the ship, one slightly dizzy mom… oh, yeah. If this doesn’t secure my place in the Rock Star Momming Hall of Fame, I really don’t know what will.
Along the way we served as an impromptu animal rescue vehicle. Up in Deer River, MN (way Up North), I spotted a painted turtle sitting on the center line of the highway. Obviously I pulled over, trotted back, and picked it up, much to the utter delight of my reptilophile sons.
Animal rescue number 1
The Deer River event was a sort of picnic-family reunion-memorial gathering for my late Grandma Jane, and it brought all these lovely obscure family members out of the woodwork. I got to meet relations I never met before, including one who is currently a truckdriver, formerly a topless dancer, an ordained minister, a Boston cabbie, wife of an Italian in Italy, etc., who entertained Isaac with her amazing and some could say unlikely stories. (Poured a pitcher of ice water over the head of Senator Ted Kennedy after he slapped her bottom? And he gave her a $500 tip?) Meanwhile, the boys and several random cousins entertained themselves bathing the turtle in the birdbath, building it a house, and offering it lettuce. The turtle may have been longing for the center line of the freeway again after all that, but later when we let it go in the lake, it seemed pretty happy.
My mom and her sisters and brother were all together in one place for the first time in ten years or so. We shared a very rustic cottage (no towels!) on a lake. The cutest part was when they got to relive their lost childhoods, sharing a bedroom with all four sisters in two double beds. It was much like a slumber party, as they stayed up until the wee hours giggling (they range in age from mid-50s to their mid-60s). I know this in part because Elias wouldn’t sleep either, and kept parading from room to room displaying ever more elaborate Vegas-showgirl like ensembles of glow sticks.
My great aunt Mary let me dig up some irises that had originally belonged to my great-grandmother Olga (from the old country). Thus I was able to connect my new life in Ohio to my heritage.
Our second animal rescue came later the day of the picnic. I think it’s just the proximity of my mother. I can go months without finding anything to rescue, but when she’s around, animals in need seem to fling themselves before our path saying, “help! help!”
It was a huge mossy female snapping turtle. She was poised by the side of the freeway, with her front legs on the pavement and her back legs on the gravel. I pulled over with a screech of brakes and mom hopped out to grasp the giant lashing monster by the tail. We had the painted turtle in a box, from which it was summarily ousted. I handed the painted turtle to Isaac saying, “You hold the spare turtle!” It turned out the snapping turtle was preparing to lay her eggs there on the freeway! We figured this out shortly when she began laying them, right in front of us, soon after we set her down in a more suitable location. The kids got to watch the whole thing!
Mom, boys, box, and monster mama turtle
Little round bouncy eggs!!
The next morning we awoke to an epic flood. Isaac conducted the world’s first Naked Cooler Rescue as we all watched from inside the cottage (Our cooler was floating away across the yard; it was pouring rain.) The front yard was submerged knee deep and so we had to pass our luggage out the side window, which, as you can imagine, the boys thought was probably the funnest thing ever.
We spent a couple days in Minneapolis, catching our breath a bit. I did a lot of laundry, and we had some nice outings with Grandpa Warren and Grandma Patty, saw the adorable baby Malcolm. (We didn’t rescue anything there, but it’s harder in an urban environment– and my mom wasn’t there: coincidence?) Then we regathered Aunt Marilyn and the wonderful dog Ping, and went down to my mom’s farm in Iowa. There we rescued another snapping turtle, who had been tragically struck by a car right before our very eyes. It had a broken lower jaw, but was otherwise quite hale. We brought it a wildlife biologist who is an official animal rescue person. She put it in a large tank of water to chill out literally.
Animal rescue number 3
This wonderful woman had bottle fed baby baby skunks! And more than twenty baby raccoons! And pouncy-pouncy ferrets! The kids were in heaven.
We also got to be in a full-on Americana small town 4th of July parade. Our float, so to speak, was a flat bed truck driven by grandpa Max, full of Democrats. Our main selling points were a large red white and blue donkey (sculpture), a giant black and white great Dane (real), and kids with bugles. We threw free candy and dog biscuits to the adoring masses.
We loaded the donkey onto the truck the night before.
A tractor pulled a trailer full of hogs near us: "We're hog wild for our customers!"
Lastly we rescued a fledgling red-winged blackbird. It was, you guessed it, on the road. Its parents were there, making a fuss. Mom would’ve returned it to the grass (it looked like it had just been mowed, hence the problem), but the baby bird had a deformed beak! Horrible farm chemicals, no doubt. Ultimately we took it to a bird rescue lady. It’s possible the beak might be fixable, and then it could be put back where we got it.
the beak was crossed.
Also… many other wonderful things. We got to see mom and max’s new sculpture projects around Iowa City, and the kids got to play with power tools at the foundry. Isaac made us some bronze address numbers for the house. He also got to wave around swords and guns that were on hand for Civil War era sculpture projects.
And they got to learn how you make a huge butterfly out of wax before you can make it in bronze.
It's going to be a Monarch with a three-foot wingspan.
Yes, I was very very exhausted when I got home last week. And indeed I couldn’t move for at least two days. But all in all I did very well healthwise, and the kids had an excellent adventure. Now we’re home for a couple weeks. The kids are in a day camp while I’m regrouping for our next big outing– ahoy Lake Michigan!
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Catherine Park