Saturday, July 19, 2008

Thrills up high, thrills down low

Which was the bigger thrill today? Fast loud and airborne, or slow quiet and earthbound?

Was it going to the Duluth air show, with jets screaming by at the, amazing acrobatics, trails of smoke, huge crowds, lines for the funnel cakes, then getting rained out just after the Blue Angels?


Or was it heading to the Park Point beach, just my wife and my nephew, after the rain stopped and the skies had begun to clear, and seeing...what is that?...a snapping turtle on the beach??!! Big one, at least two feet from tip to tail, wallowing in and out of the surf, completely out of its habitat.

I didn't go to the air show (my son took the picture), but I did see the turtle.

Maybe the biggest thrill of all was had by this guy:

When up high and down low all come together and he caught that perfect wave.

The turtle couldn't fly, and it was a lousy surfer. It was heartwrenching for me to see it flounder in the waves, so out of place in the big lake. But I wasn't about to carry it myself, fearing for my fingers. Did it flush down a South Shore river, maybe the Amnicon? When the waves settle down, will it wander across Park Point and reach the safety of the harbor?

3 comments:

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Anonymous said...

Larry Weber says a stick is your best bet when dealing with snapping turtles. I would have thought you could pick them up using a towel or something, but apparently they're more agile than they look! One thing they DON'T recommend is picking them up by their tails -- apparently those tiny tails aren't meant to support the weight of a snapper!

My former in-laws used to carry big pails around in case they found snapping turtles and needed to transport them -- but they were taking them home to EAT.

Glurk.