Kentucky, Oct. 9, 1995, part 2

On to J.J. Audubon State Park.  This is very wooded and a most elegant building where there is a very good museum.  There was a wedding at 2 that afternoon and after our walk to try to find the pileated woodpecker, we watched the bride have pictures taken.  She had 9 attendants...

I walked to the top of the tower in the building 'cause I didn't want to miss anything, but alas, there was nothing to see but an empty room.  So much for about 100 stairs.  The trails were very well laid out in this park - wide and very tall trees.  After supper, Jo and I went to a tent sale and I bought 3 pairs of shorts for $5.00.

The next morning, we went for another walk, but didn't see the pileated woodpecker - darn!  Then we headed for Pennyrile State Park, named for the penny royal plant (mint) that once grew around there.  On the way we saw fields of what looked like low-growing yellow flowers - learned later it is soy beans - beautiful...  

This cabin was down a very steep hill, had to use your walking brakes carrying our luggage down to the cabin.  Then further down the hill, was the lake and we had our own private dock.  Grampa and I sat there for about 3 hours watching a spider weave its web - the fish jumping out of the water - the turtles' heads coming up to catch flies - the winds riling the lake - then the calmness of the lake and the reflections of the sky and clouds and mountains in the quiet lake.  So many changes and we sat there and watched and enjoyed.  And that's where the pileated woodpecker flew overhead.

Gram and Grampa loved watching birds.  They had several birdhouses and birdfeeders in their backyard.  Grampa even constructed a wooden "Flight Control Tower" at the birdfeeder on their back porch.  They loved to sit at their dining room table and watch the birds' antics.

On this trip, they were hoping to see the pileated woodpecker.  Apparently these woodpeckers are quite large, almost the size of crows.  The last paragraph Gram writes here is wonderful.  I can just picture the two of them sitting in lawn chairs down by the lake, gazing at the beauty that surrounded them.  Here, they took a break and stopped searching, and the thing they'd been searching for found them.

A good reminder for all of us to take a breath once in a while and look around.  Maybe the things we are searching for will turn out to be close at hand, as well.