A Walk on the Wild Side!

Shamu, my Toyota Sienna van is all packed up and ready to head to Virginia. It’s been a while since I had a driving trip, but I’ll be making up for that in the next couple of weeks ---still, I’m looking forward to just hitting the road, listening to my book on my mp3 player that is hooked up through the car stereo aux system and GOING!

First stop? Well, the Chiropractor of course --- who knows, maybe they will have the total number of jelly beans figured out by now? I’ll let you know if so!

From there ---I really NEED to stop and get a haircut before I show up at VCQ Celebration. I’ve been putting it off the past few weeks and I’ve really noticed the ends are dry and brittle ----I know I’ll feel better if I get that done! And then I’m on my way ---

I got a message on Facebook from a quilter telling me of an antique place I need to stop at on my way up to VCQ ----so I jotted the address down and hopefully there will be time to visit there too!

We really did fill up every minute of my time in Delaware. Speaking of Delaware:

Deb: "What DID Della Wear?"

Me: "I dunno --- WHAT?!"

Deb: "A NEW JERSEY!"

Okay, it's corny, but I fell for it! LOL!!

After our last workshop on Tuesday, Deb picked me up to take me on a bit of a drive of some of the more remote nature places around Dover. It was perfect weather. We’d had rain pretty much since the time I arrived ((Remember my Amish walk and getting drenched in the down pour on the way back?))but by Tuesday morning the sky was blue and the sun was shining ---she knew of a great nature preserve area that we could view from an observation platform ---and I’m game for ANYTHING, so off we went!

The first pic at the top of this post is the beginning of the board walk leading to the observation tower/deck…..

The boardwalk lead us past some pretty marshy-swampy-primeval areas….

We reached the end of the boardwalk where the tower was ---- and up we went! Can you smell the woody-ness of a new SPRING?! It was definitely in the air.

This was the most cool peaceful place! I could imagine coming out here with a picnic lunch…..a book to read…..climbing the stairs and taking time to just be “unplugged” for a while.

What a panoramic view!

What you can’t see…or what I couldn’t capture any better with a simple phone camera ---is the edge of the Chesapeake Bay. The dark blue of the water was just there where the marsh ended…..

Can you see it? It’s the finest dark blue line right where the marsh meets the sky at the horizon. Deb pointed out a whole flock of egrets ---and handed me the binoculars to check them out. There they were! Strutting out there, doing their posturing ---of course they were too far away to catch by camera…but with the binoculars I could sit and watch them for a long long time.

Just a very big sky meeting a wide empty place before it drops off into the water…..I can barely see the edge of the bay in this photo….maybe if you look close?

From here we headed over to Pickering Beach ---it’s Horseshoe Crab Spawning season!

I never really knew much about horseshoe crabs…and I’d certainly never seen live ones. I’d seen their shells before, but no critter was alive in them! There were even “please help the crabs” signs around…..it seems the tide comes in, the crabs ride in on the tide to come lay their eggs on shore, and then the tide goes out leaving them stranded on the shore, many times UPSIDE DOWN and unable to right themselves!

So basically the signs are asking people to give a “Helping Hand” in turning them back over so they can make their way back to the sea!

When we got there, we saw this gentleman and his wife digging. My first thought was that they were digging for clams, but they had this whole area roped off with pink flags. I’m a curious sort, and not afraid to ask questions to strangers ---turns out that they are with the horseshoe crab preservation society or some such thing, and were actually taking sand samples to track the quantity of horseshoe crab eggs present. I was told that they are like little green pearls.

The BIRDS were going nuts…they love to eat the horseshoe crab eggs – it’s like little birdy caviar to them, and they were just wanting us to go away so they could have their snack!

The crabs were everywhere……many of them upside down…I thought they were dead! They certainly weren’t moving or flailing about while they were upside down ---maybe they are conserving their energy? But as soon as you flip them over…they get to moving and trying to get themselves to the surf!

Deb picked this one up and his legs just started kicking to beat the band! That’s when I got the idea to turn the video camera on…..They aren’t the greatest, but it was fun to see them do their thing:

The folks collecting the egg samples also took time to explain to us the difference between the he-crab and the she-crab ---it was just an interesting unexpected adventure!

I got two videos, one with the camera right side up, one side ways ---you can sure hear the hungry birds in the background! My narration is kind of stupid, but hey – we had fun!

Here I think you can see them all just there on the beach waiting for the tide to come back in. So just remember, if you see these stranded on their backs, be kind and give them a “Helping Hand” and just flip them back over so they can make their way. They don’t have pincher claws…..just lots of legs!

PIckering Beach, Delaware

Lesson Learned: Sometimes we all need a bit of help to get back on our feet, pointing in the right direction in an effort to achieve our goal!

And with that – I’m off to Virginia. I wonder what adventures are in store NEXT?!