Thursday, April 29, 2010

Silver Linings Help

I told you the boys won their soccer game Sunday.  But did I mention it was two hours away? 

We left an hour earlier than I thought we needed to, just to be sure.

And it was a good thing.

Because a certain twelve year old boy, who had been looking at my GPS the day before, somehow caused Jane to prefer scenic routes

He also swapped out Jane’s voice for a deep-throated manly version of Crocodile Dundee (very disconcerting). 

Unfortunately, I didn’t realize he changed more than the voice until I was so far off the beaten path that I had no choice but to keep going.

What should have taken us two, ended up taking us three very long hours with not a single bathroom to be found.  I wasn’t a very happy mamma.

The return trip was even worse.  I set out for a pretty direct highway, only to find it blocked off at every place I tried to gain access.  Once again, we found ourselves traveling on narrow country roads that didn’t exist on any map.  

We were all getting pretty frustrated until we came around a sharp bend and saw this walking up the side of the road!  I was so glad I had my camera!A Pheasant 2Isn’t he beautiful?!  I haven’t seen a pheasant since I was growing up in Pennsylvania.  Their calls and visits were commonplace, then. 

But this is the first one my boys have ever seen and they were in awe of his beauty. A PheasantHis mate disappeared before I could get my camera out.  But he seemed to be in no hurry.

When he got to my side, I rolled down my rainy widow and fought my slow zoom.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t back it out fast enough and ended up catching only half of him.  His better half, though.  Lol!

Pheasant

And then he turned his back on us and walked down the bank after the female his mate. 

Goodbye PheasantAs we started moving again, my son said, “You know, Mom, if I hadn’t messed with your GPS, we never would have seen that cool bird.   Therefore, you guys should really be thanking me.” 

Um.  A stretch.  But Ok.  :)  Silver linings do help.  We were all pretty excited to have seen him.

But not quite as excited as we were to find an open highway. 

PhotoStory Friday

6 comments:

Mari said...

Thanks for the laugh - Your son was certainly glad for a silver lining.
We have quite a few pheasants around here, but they don't stand still for a picture. You did great!

Chris said...

Very cool -- I love pheasants. They're unlike any other bird.

I accidently flushed one out of some bushes in the field behind my house last fall -- and nearly had heart failure at the same time :)

Christina said...

How beautiful! This reminds me of one time when my husband (then my fiance) and I were driving along, and I suddenly shouted "Look! There's a pheasant!" It was beautiful, but I almost gave him a heart attack since he wasn't used to shouting about wildlife like my family was. : )

Carrie and Troy Keiser said...

Great silver lining.... funny story about the GPS as well!

Run DMT said...

So the pheasant made your trip pleasant? hee hee ;-)

That is a BEAUTIFUL bird! I've never seen a pheasant. I would have pulled over and taken a picture or two or three too. :-)

Cecily R said...

The silver lining...I've heard similar things from my kids. And they're probably right, but it takes me a bit to admit it. :)

Great pictures!