Adventures are Funny Things

ad·ven·ture: an exciting or very unusual experience.

I'd say many parts of my life qualify as "exciting or very unusual" experiences. Take, for instance, what happened to me a few hours ago. I was down in the deep woods with my dad.

By "deep woods", what I mean is, "Take a flashlight and a weapon, because once the sun goes down there is NO LIGHT".

Don't be fooled by the pretty forest: it's out to get you. You know those trees that looked so inviting and surreal while you headed in? Well they're just waiting until the sun goes down so they can turn into that opening scene from Jurassic Park.

I'm joking, there were no Velociraptors. I had a lot of fun just being down there with my dad. (If you read this, Dad, thanks for taking me!) 

Also, the trees aren't really out to get you. 

Unless you're an arsonist, in which case I suggest hiring a lumberjack bodyguard.

I spent several hours in a deerstand, just watching nature. I got to see four does (one still a fawn), eight turkeys (notoriously hard to sneak up on, apparently), and two reeeeeally big spiders. (Could've done without the spiders.) Also, I learned that when you hear a flock of ducks quacking at high speed from a great distance, it sounds like maniacal laughter. Or maybe I'm just weird. That is a distinct possibility.

After the sun went down, we ended up hiking back up to the truck in pitch darkness with only one flashlight. Yay? Tell you what though, you can see more stars out there than you can in the city. I felt like a nincompoop for staring at the sky thinking, "Where's Ursa Major again?" My brain got to redeem itself later.

We were driving away, and we had to stop suddenly because a smallish animal was sitting in the middle of the dirt road. At first I thought it was a cat because of the size, but then it moved and it was very clearly not a cat. It was, in fact, a Barred Owl (Strix Varia: I looked it up) and I was unreasonably proud of myself for being able to correctly identify it.

So, yeah. Adventures. Had any of your own, recently?