Rugged Anglican Rosary

 

There was a lot going on this evening. The Daughter of Denni's band was playing in Belleville, and some people we know were going to a fish fry at a restaurant I've always wanted to go to, but both things were quite early in the evening. Travalon didn't get home from work until well after six, so it was too late to do either thing, but Tiffy came to town at seven and the three of us went to an Indian restaurant on State Street, got bubble tea, and hung out on the roof of her sister's apartment building. From there we could just barely see the fireworks after the Mallards game. It was so beautiful up there.

Last week I was praying with the Anglican rosary I got at an antiques shop some years ago, and I dropped it on the tile floor. Miraculously, none of the beautiful glass beads broke, but the two starting ones popped off. So did the cross, and that took longer to find. It seemed a bit ironic because at the time I bought it thinking it was a bracelet that I would never wear, but I'd use the cross for something else... but then it became one of my favorite chaplets to use, and now the cross is off of it, so I could use it for something else, but I don't want to. I looked online and found a place called Rugged Rosaries where I could get a really tough one, and meanwhile I prayed with the poor little chaplet without the starting beads or cross. I should be able to fix it, but maybe it's too delicate to use while walking around and should only be used while I'm safely seated. The new one does look very rugged, so no issues walking with it!

It arrived today, and I prayed with it. The cross is a bit large for my taste, but it certainly works for walking around with! I could even use this one outside! It reminds me of that cool one-decade rosary made of parachute cord that someone abandoned at my old church - I use that one outside all the time. I have lots of beautiful, delicate rosaries I wouldn't dare use while walking around outside, but that's how I'm usually praying the Rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet, so that little one-decade rosary gets a ton of use. Also, the pink part on it glows under blacklight.

How cool is that?

I still haven't had time to make screenshots from Travalon's video he made yesterday, but here are a few from the train in our neighborhood that were posted on social media.

It seems like this style is unique to Wisconsin and Southern. You will see, when I get a chance to post Travalon's screenshots, that it's a style like what we see in Rochelle. The graffiti here is simple and easy to read, and I like that. I don't always know what it means, but I know what it says.

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Happy 250th, USA!

 

Check out this photo Tiffy sent from Washington, DC:

Almost makes me wish I were there, but it's like a thousand degrees there. 

Here in the Midwest, it was hot and stormy. We met my aunt for brunch, then we went back to the spot in West Chicago with the diamond, but nothing was happening so we walked to a coffee place to get chocolate chip monkeys, or mochas with banana flavor. When we came back, a Canadian Pacific train was heading north, and then we saw a Metra train. I'll compile Travalon's videos at some point. My graffiti pics from yesterday evening in West Chicago finally downloaded.

I will try to make screen shots from some of Travalon's videos. We thought at first that he had missed the prettiest graffiti today, but when I watched his video just now, he did get it. 

Then we drove through another storm (not as bad as yesterday) to the Rochelle Railroad Park, where I took so many photos of the graffiti that I don't have time to post them, since of course it got late again. Then we drove to Blue Mound State Park to see the Daughter of Denni's band play. Because the weather was so bad, they played inside this time, but they were just as good. I loved when they said, "It's Saturday, we're in the park, and it's the Fourth of July. If only there were a song about that..." and then they played the song by Chicago. They also did a lot of Beatles stuff, and some really good original tunes, and a bluesy song about a deep blue well, and a Yes song. They are so versatile!

After that, Travalon and I drove to the top of the mound to take a walk, but we saw the sun was setting so we rushed to the west tower to try to see it. We were too late, but the other Daughter of Denni and her husband and two daughters joined us up there. The husband is the classical guitarist we have often seen perform, and after I offered to take a family photo of them, he took some of Travalon and me. These are the two best.

Here are some sort-of photos of the sunset that I took.

Travalon had his good camera with him. The rolling hills and the mist made it look like Scotland.

On the ride back we saw lots of amateur fireworks going off, sometimes right over us. We pulled over to watch Waunakee's display, and Travalon took some photos.

When we got home, I desperately needed some exercise, so I took a walk in the neighborhood, and Travalon joined me after a little bit. We saw some more fireworks in the distance.

Soon to come: more photos of graffiti and videos of trains and fireworks. Stay tuned!

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Road Trip North 2025, Day 4: Panther and Manatees

 

After standing and walking for hours yesterday, I was really sore, especially my left foot. After breakfast I took some ibuprofen and put my feet up, and Travalon - that prince among men - ran to the pharmacy and got me an ace bandage. Between all that, I was able to walk enough to hobble around one of our favorite places in Florida, Homosassa Springs. (I have been to Florida enough to have a strong opinion about the best gas station bathrooms - Wawa, no question.) Every time we have gone there, they had some reason we couldn't take the boat, and today the water level in the creek was too low, so we had to take the tram. Then they let everyone on up to us (shades of yesterday), but the guy did take pity on us and let us sit in two empty seats that weren't together. This park never disappoints. The only sad note is that Lu, the very old hippo, died this past summer, so they had a memorial to him. Here are some photos. First, some sort of fish.

We have wood ducks like this back home too.

And foxes like this.

And even white pelicans.

But no flamingos, except for the time a tiny flock of five got very confused and ended up in Port Washington.

We have sandhill cranes right in our backyard!

But we definitely do not have white herons.

We have whooping cranes now and then at Horicon Marsh.

And we have black-crowned night herons. But maybe not as grumpy as this guy.

We definitely do not have brown pelicans.

This is a juvenile black-crowned night heron.

And here is one that is fully mature.

More brown pelicans.

We did not see spoonbills in the wild this trip, but there were plenty at the park.

Speaking of juveniles, this young wood stork was sitting on top of an enclosure where the birds that can't be released into the wild live, as if it would like to join them.

Here is an adult wood stork inside of the enclosure.

Another spoonbill.

Sadly, most of the creatures at Homosassa Springs are there because of mankind: injured in vehicle accidents, raised by well-meaning humans as pets and unable to survive in the wild, you get the idea. However, the Florida panther was abandoned by its mother, and although he was raised by experts, he still never learned enough hunting skills to live on his own. Travalon was ecstatic to see him. At first he was snoozing.

Another white pelican.

There are two panthers, but this must be Yuma, because when I said his name, he looked at me and meowed, while he didn't respond to the other name. Isn't he a gorgeous creature?

Here are the wood ducks again.

And there were so many manatees around, even babies! I had never seen baby manatees before.

We also saw a wild little blue heron.

And wild ibises.

More manatee pictures.

We went to the underwater observatory and saw so many fish.

Then we drove to Three Sisters Spring, which confusingly is in the parking lot for a strip mall, or at least the center is. Then you take a shuttle (or walk, but I was not up for walking today) to the boardwalk around the stunningly beautiful lagoon full of manatees.

We hadn't eaten lunch other than splitting a soft pretzel with nacho cheese at Homosassa Springs, but by the time we got to Cedar Key, it was dinnertime anyway. The place we love on the water was closed for the holiday, but we found another seafood place that was really good. Travalon got to pick three, so he had fried oysters, steamed clams, and blackened grouper, along with two sides of hush puppies and cheesy grits. I had a Southern Seafood Boil, which was full of crab legs, clams, mussels, shrimp, corn on the cob, potatoes, and sausage that I could have lived without. I forgot how much work seafood boils are to eat! But oh so good! (And messy.) Then we had Key lime cake for dessert, because we have had plenty of Key lime pie in our time, but never cake. And was that ever delicious! 

The restaurant had an extravagant light show set to music. Here are some photos.

And here are lights on the streets of Cedar Key.

Here are a couple of videos Travalon made of the light show at the restaurant.

Then we drove to Tallahassee, passing lots of Christmas lights. There are some photos on my phone of those, as well as the beautiful remnants of the sunset we saw on Cedar Key, but right now they are not loading to Boethius my computer, so I'll post them tomorrow.

We are staying at a swanky hotel in Tallahassee that was having a fancy New Year's Eve party on the roof. We thought, we were at a party on the top of a swanky hotel in a capital city last year, why not do it again? The room is gorgeous and overlooks the old Capitol building and lots of Christmas lights (photo to come), but our key cards didn't work, so the maintenance guy let us into the room, and now we can't leave. This happened to us some years ago in a fleabag hotel outside of Memphis, but you'd expect more from a fancy hotel. They're too busy with the party to help us, and honestly the people coming for it were a lot younger and more glamorous than we are - I did not bring fancy clothes for this cold weather. Not thinking ahead, I guess. So we just watched the ball drop in Times Square on TV, and for once we are in the same time zone so it really was 2026 for us at that moment. Then a lot of fireworks went off all around us that we could see from our hotel room window, since we are reasonably high up, so that was lovely. And my New Year's toast was with a bottle of water they left for us in the room that hopefully they don't charge me for drinking. It didn't say there was a charge, but it didn't say it was free, either. Ah well, it was still a lot more exciting New Year's Eve than our usual ones that we also spend in a capital city.

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