Driving the Betty Lou Cruise Yacht

 

My morning was not one, not two, but three meetings, and then I got the afternoon off. I took a long rosary walk that included an interruption by a neighbor and her little dog, then I watered my plants, and when Travalon came home, we drove out to Spring Green. Right now is when the prickly pear cacti at the Nature Conservancy land are in bloom, along with a lot of other prairie flowers. This is goat's rue.

This is tall cinquefoil.

This is lead plant.

This is blue vervain.

Everything was very green and lush.

For some reason most of the cacti didn't have blooms or even buds on them.

But we saw a few blossoms.

We also saw these interesting insects.

On the way home, we stopped at Festge County Park and saw this red-headed woodpecker.

We went to the overlook and could see what we thought must be Blue Mounds in the distance.

We also saw some butterfly weed.

We heard an indigo bunting, and then he landed on the sidewalk ahead of us.

In the evening we went on a Betty Lou Cruise, the Seafood Buffet one. The weather was perfect, and the captain let me drive the yacht.

Then he let Travalon drive it.

I had to keep remembering that it was just like a car, so if you turn the steering wheel to the right, the yacht moves to the right. I'm used to our neighbor's sailboat, where if you push the tiller to the right, the boat turns to the left. Of course I drive a car much more often than I help steer a sailboat, but in my mind watercraft go the opposite way from the thing you use to turn them. Still, neither of us crashed or capsized the yacht. Lest you think we are special, loads of other people also took advantage of the captain's offer to be captain for a few minutes. (As you can see, I was First Mate while Travalon was Captain.)

We passed the Governor's Mansion. (Travalon took this photo while I was driving the yacht.)

We passed the Capitol and campus. There was a jazz band playing on the Union Terrace, and they sounded fabulous.

There was a gorgeous sunset.

The light was reflecting beautifully off the windows of the buildings downtown, but that photo doesn't really do it justice.

The captain had been playing lame pop music during most of the ride, but right at the end he played sea shanties, so some of us sang along with great gusto. After the cruise, Travalon and I drove to Bierock and sat out in the parking lot, watching the fireworks after the Mallards game. They won, 10-6. What a wonderful Friday this was!

Famous Hat