Morel Day in Muscoda

 

This morning Travalon and I went over to my garden plot and planted three ground cherry plants. I thought the flower on this one was so cute.

Then we each did forty-five minutes of work laying down mulch in the common areas. That means we are halfway to our obligation of three hours of community work for the year. 

No perennials in the garden plot, but my neighbor took this photo of lily of the valley blooming in our neighborhood. They smell so good!

After that, Travalon and I drove to Sauk, because the last time he was at the antiques shop there, they asked where I was and said they had some new rosaries in. So guess what I bought today? Then we drove on Highway 60, one of the most beautiful roads in the state, to Muscoda (still pronounced Muss-kah-DAY and not, as you would expect, Muss-KOE-dah) for their Morel Day. This was a very dry spring, so morels were in short supply, and they were out by the time we got there. We just barely got burgers for lunch. There was a mural on the building behind the stand selling burgers.

That was only a fraction of it. We wandered around the downtown and found a resale shop called the Pink Place that was indeed very pink inside, and she was selling mini pies, so Travalon had a butterscotch one and I had a coconut cream one. So not on my diet plan. After that we found a good spot to watch the parade. I was wearing my hat that makes me look like a mushroom, and I had my little mushroom purse, which I only discovered today isn't big enough to hold really anything.

They kept throwing candy toward us, because there was a kid next to us who was begging for it. He filled up a whole bag! I did score some bubblegum, and the kid's parents gave Travalon this lollipop, but it had broken when it hit the ground, so I took the bottom part that had broken off. He said the rest of it looked like a mushroom, and how appropriate was that for Morel Day? So I took a picture.

I am terribly disappointed to tell you there were no mushrooms in the parade. (Mushroom costumes aren't that big a challenge; I was one for Halloween in first grade.) There were floats like this.

And firetrucks and other emergency vehicles.

And we did see a lot of creatures. (The frog never looked our direction.)

And then whatever this enormous vehicle is.

Travalon and I also got some video, so I'll try to make a movie of the parade at some point. After that, we drove to the beautiful spot in Boscobel that we had gone to last autumn.

Suddenly, a flock of pelicans flew overhead! There were almost as many of them as there were bikers (by which I mean people on VERY LOUD motorcycles) going down the main street of Muscoda before the parade, and traveling in the opposite direction.

This peak is so interesting!

Apparently this area is named after Floyd Von Haden. Who? You tell me and then we'll both know.

We walked out onto the peninsula to get a better view downriver.

On the path along the peninsula, we saw this stump that looks like a four-eyed face.

We went into Boscobel, and Travalon was ecstatic to see this house with all sorts of gas station memorabilia.

As we drove back down Highway 60, we saw a pair of swans alongside the road. The other swan had its head down, so Travalon didn't take a picture of it. This means today, when we weren't even intentionally birding, we saw two of the four Big White Birds. But alas, we did not see any egrets or whooping cranes today.

Then when we got home, Travalon's package from the Mid-Continental Railroad Museum had arrived! Check out this wall clock.

The Dairyman's Daughter was at Morel Day in Muscoda today too, but we never ran into each other. She and her sister did manage to score some morels. Ah well, it was a fun day even if we missed the entire point of the festival.

Famous Hat