Last Day in Brownstown

Well, we went exploring yesterday.  The closest ‘bigger’ town near Brownstown is Vandalia.  (Brownstown has, I think, about 800 residents.)  So Vandalia is a bit bigger, where all the stores and restaurants abide.  The town also has a little something for visitors!

Yes, they have a dinosaur!  Well, wait. It isn’t a dinosaur, it is the Kaskaskia Dragon.  

This town is also the place where Abraham Lincoln began his political career.

We took Tully for a walk around the pond.  Lots of smells, including skunk!

Do you see what we see?  Honestly, I used to hate these birds because they feed on fish.  Anybody’s fish!

Yep, a heron.  He wasn’t even afraid of us.

I love the reflections in this photo.  Even though it has been cool, like 64 degrees, it has been sunny and you can see some leaves start to change color.  Now I know I’m always talking about how I can’t wait until the weather cools off but fall is not my favorite time of year.  The commercials are always talking about how it’s almost fall, go get a pumpkin latte.  Well, I did that about 7 years ago. And OMG!! I mean come on! I love pumpkin pie!  But it was like they put a slice of pumpkin pie in the blender, whipped it up and gave it to me.  I almost gagged.  Ewww.  Maybe it was the thought of drinking my pie that I had problems with…a texture thing that I couldn’t deal with.  Never again. And by the way, spring is my most favorite time of the year.  I do love fall but only with warm clothes on, in front of the fireplace, with my soft cozy blanket and my Tulls.  I’ll get that in Texas!

We found this tree on the other side of the pond.  I’ve never seen this kind before.  Can you take a guess?  I’ll give you a hint…it is a fruit tree.

Do you recognize the fruit?  It is a persimmon.  Folklore says that when you cut open a ripe persimmon, it can tell you what type of winter you will have in the area where you picked the fruit.  This year the residents found out that they are supposed to get a whole lot of snow.  Something about how the seeds look when they cut the fruit open.  I’m glad that I won’t be around for all the snow they are supposed to get!

We walked down a gravel road behind the pond and there were a couple of trailers parked.  It kind of looked like long term campers.  Road Hog noticed what they had on their roof.  Yep, that’s starlink.  We have seen so many starlink dishes on our travels.  It’s getting pretty popular.  We haven’t had any problems whatsoever.