We didn’t get a terribly early start today but that was okay. When I got back from my 0-skunk-30 walk this morning, the GG was not up yet and I took the opportunity to make a cute little breakfast, a strategy for chiseling away at some of the half packages of breakfast sausage and stuff in the freezer. And some loverly leftover new potatoes from the farmer’s market, which sauteed up nicely in a wee vite of vutter.

Then it was off to the Gerald E. Eddy Discovery Geology Center. This state park has changed its name since we used to take the beach urchins there but it’ll always be the geology center to me. At the geology center, you can hike as little or as much as you want or are able to. Our all-time fave hike there is down to the floating bog. According to the sign, that’s 1.5 miles. I can only assume that’s round trip. It isn’t a very long hike, which makes it good for little kids and I can remember a five-year-old Mouse cantering along the trail in her Horse Outfit, a black velveteen dress with black tights and black leather boots.

We did go to the bog today. Pitcher plants like these abound there as well as tamarack, which is turning yellow at this season. We also hiked all of the other little trails in the vicinity of the floating bog. Those trails are shown on the bottom right corner of the map*. The bog trail is black. We walked the red, blue, and purple trails, plus a little side trip along the shore of Cedar Lake. I am not a naturalist. On a good day I can tell the difference between red and white pines. I’ve learned (the hard way) how to identify poison ivy. I know what British Soldier moss lichen (learned something today) looks like because we have it in spades on the bank up at the moominbeach. And various other random things. I could not walk through the bog area of the geology center and identify trees and plants and things. But I love hiking down in there. It feels like the forest primeval to me.

We did not see one single other person down there in the bog area. We encountered our first fellow hikers as we were exiting that area. Then we walked the yellow trail and then… dun dun dun… The GG dragged me over to Belleville to Camping World, where he picked up some jack stands (or something) for the Lyme Lounge. They had a lot of fun stuff for trailers and RVs there but they did not have a mirror. We need a mirror. I hate putting on my make-up in the Ninja. I suppose most of those big fancy trailers with the push-outs and things have mirrors built in. I am not dissing those things. I think they are wonderful. I just always feel something like, “Wow! This thing is nicer than my house!” We’ll find a mirror for the LL. With luck, we’ll figure a way to mount it on the wall with velcro…

A couple responses to comments: 1) Yes, Cam and Ginny were sisters-in-law. It’s funny how well I knew the Siberian Boult family as a child but never knew Cam until much much later. I knew that the Boult kids had cousins somewhere else (Chicago, I think). I was always curious about them because I had so many cousins and I knew them all. Like, don’t you know your cousins??? I don’t think the Boult cousins met up as frequently as I did with my cousins and I didn’t meet Cam and Jim’s kids until I was an adult. 2) Pooh, I think you are right that The Comm topped her cakes with flowers instead of bride / groom figures. I have a (bad, fuzzy) photo of her with one of them.

*Note to self: It is a really cool idea to photograph a trail map but it would be even cooler if you would not cut off the top of the map. You know, the part that says Gerald E. Eddy Discovery Geology Center.

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