Fern fairy ring

 Niko just found this fern fairy ring growing in his backyard!

Unexpected road trip!

 March featured an unexpected trip down to Louisiana.  Mom hasn't been feeling well.  On the drive down, I visited Puxatawny, PA and saw Phil and Phyllis the groundhogs!  I also inadvertently drove right through downtown Pittsburg!  That was an adventure.  One I don't care to repeat anytime soon!  I also finally drove through Ohio!  I drove south along the Ohio river and down into Kentucky before heading south following the Natchez Trace Parkway briefly.  

Mom and Papa were very happy I was there to help.  I had a nice visit for 10 days, but anxiety and increasing issues with my misophonia had me leaving.  Mom was feeling better at this time.  I went up to Shreveport to see my brother for a day.  We took his boat out on Wallace Lake.  I got to see numerous examples of Bald Cypress trees.  We fished without success.  The water was high, so all the fish were probably in the trees where the boats couldn't reach. Not literally in the trees, haha!  

I also on the way home, detoured briefly into Oklahoma to see the Red Slough wildlife management area.  It wasn't very impressive!  I did see one seriously huge dead frog however.  I headed home up through Arkansas and drove through Illinois and Indiana for the first time as well.  So 4 new states visited and geocaches found in all.

I was glad when I finally made it home.  The trip was long and exhausting and expensive!  I think next time, I'm going to fly.  So all together, I drove in 15 different states.  The car drove like a champ for most of the trip except for an issue with the windshield wipers during a nasty storm in Arkansas.  A really nice young man in WV helped me repair them before hitting more rain.  

A lot of new geocaches have been published locally, so I am going to try very hard to get out and grab them.  I ran into a local geocacher, Zamboni59.  He was very pleasant.  

I'm lucky because I get to experience two springs this year!  It was in full swing in the southern states and as I drove north, it progressed back into early spring.  Wildflowers are just starting to poke their heads up out in the local woods.  I think I'm going to try and construct a black backdrop to set up for photography reasons.  Sometimes my camera wants to focus on anything besides the actual flowers! I think I can make one very inexpensively with a piece of black construction paper and some sticks.  

I want to kayak this year, so I am going to get up the willpower to get my kayak up on my car.  I'm sure my neighbor would be happy to help me if I need it.  I'm thinking about trading the car in for a small pickup or an SUV.  I think a pickup would be more practical.  It can haul toys and double as a camper if I get a camper top for it.  

Enough rambling for now.  2/15/22 update.  I only went kayaking once and I bought another inflatable kayak which I haven't used yet.