I caught 5 today.  None were very big but all were really slimy, had pointy fins, and a habit of clamping their mouths shut with the hook in it.  One of these days Kent is going to make me take my own fish off the hook.  It didn’t help his attitude toward my rather unlovable fish that he caught NOTHING all day.

The high was about 77F and it was a mostly overcast all day yet we still managed to get a bit too much sun.  Overall, it was a nice day on Brookville Lake.  We’ll have to find some shade and use plenty of sunscreen tomorrow.

We are tooling up US 52 through rolling wheat fields dotted with little towns. Our destination, Brookville Lake. Then, traffic just stopped. No flashing lights. No sirens. We sat right there for 45 minutes with no word. We are smack in the middle of a straight stretch with no cross road in sight to try to get around whatever is happening. Cars made u-turns and headed back the way we came. Trucks (and this truck sized RV) just had to sit. Now it’s been an hour. A Sherriff cruises by us in the oncoming lane lights twinkling. Another 15 and we see him working his way back the line chatting with every driver. To Kent he says, you’ll have to wait with the trucks. We have a line down across the road. You can’t get around. We shut it down and wait. Finally we hear diesel engines growl to a start and spy oncoming traffic. Before long we are rolling again. I am not certain but I am pretty sure that is our record for a stopped-dead-in-traffic delay. I hope we don’t beat it any time soon.

It does make one wonder.  Earthen mounds enclosed in vast walled fields.  Circle and square patterns repeat in far reaching areas of middle Ohio.  Shapes are aligned with long studied astrological movements.  All this complexity and no evidence of written language to guide this massive and precise work, hmmm.  For 700 years (200BC to 500AD according to archeologists) ancient Indians moved massive amounts of dirt by the basketful to create these structures.   Intricate carvings and shapes in copper, mica and obsidian along with many flint and shell tools are found throughout the mounds.  We guess at why they came here and why they built these structures.  It a reminder of our limitations to know that we will never actually know what motivated and satisfied these past societies.  Again I am left wondering what marks will remain 2000 years from now and what will they tell of our culture.

A doe and her young fawn and the meadowlarks enjoyed the open meadowlands of this Park.  Red wing black birds must have been nesting in the high grass.  They circled and dove at us when we got close.  It certainly got my attention.

Small time but still fun.  We checked out a game in the Prospect League between the Chillicothe Paints and the Lorain County Ironmen.  The Paints won.  The mascot was pretty cool, Chief Crazy Horse.  I guess I ought to research why they are the Paints and why the Paints have a Crazy Horse mascot….

It’s a little stadium on the VA (Veterans Administration) hospital grounds, a neat idea.  I don’t know if the ambulatory patients get in free but there were more than a few in attendance.

We found a great parking spot that was amazingly close to the gate given our last minute arrival.  It didn’t occur to us until the first foul ball went out over our heads why that row might have still been vacant!   No problem though…no broken windows or hole in the ragtop.

I can’t believe how involved the team was in audience participation.

Best thing:  “people bowling” by the bullpen.

Guy 1 is the bowler: he goes through the ball release steps.

Guy 2 is the ball: he summersaults some 50 feet from the point of release to the set of pins

Guys 3 thru 10 or so are the pins: they stand in the classic triangle formation and fall down and clatter into each other when guy 2 runs into them

Silliest thing: bullpen chicken dance

Great audience participation

The dizzy bat spin…kids put their foreheads on a bat and spin 10 times then run and tag the hand of the Paint player.

Pizza box Frisbee toss: adults toss a Frisbee to a Paints player who tries to catch it in a Dominos pizza box.

They had funnel cakes.  Wonderful.  They ought to have the breaking glass sound when foul tips go out into the lots.  They had that at the Silverhawks stadium in South Bend and that was a fun diversion.

There is a new course at Paint Creek SP where we are staying.  We had a couple hours this afternoon so we tried it out.  We were glad no one was watching.  It ran through the woods and we hit more than a few trees.