DAY THREE

Another sunny morning though it did all turn to clouds later on. I woke up to biscuits and gravy. Then Sandy, Rich, and I left to go to Rend Lake. I stopped at the post office first to mail back my souvenir Illinois tee shirts ["Rend Lake Clean-Up '06," and "Continential Tires"] and some postcards.

Rend Lake is kind of like Sacandaga Lake in Fulton County New York. Both are man-made and both flooded over a small town to create. Our first stop was the Illinois Artisans Shop and Visitors' Center. A bunch of artists from Illinois display there and the stuff is for sale. There are textiles and all kinds of stuff...quilts, blown glass, stained glass, walking sticks, furniture and all of that. At the front entrance is a young woman leaning over a computer. They should give her a job away from the public really. For one so young, she is very serious and barely lifts her head to scowl and gesture to the back. In the back is the older woman whose son-in-law wrote four books on rollar coasters. The older woman takes charge of the money and of answering any questions which the younger woman fails to answer. [That is to say, all of them]. I yielded to my desires and got me a walking stick with a green man carved on the top of it. Sandy got me a coppery shell bracelet strung on black nylon. Rich started talking about tarantula tattoos and we decided it was best that we go.

We drove over a couple of little bridges which split Rend Lake [or rendered it] into two unequal halves and saw a stork or stork-like white bird. I don't rightly know what it is except to say it was larger than a snowy egret and skinnier than the yellow-crowned night heron of my memory of Montezuma was. We got along the north shore of the lake and watched some coots in the water. We went along the south shore where I was amazed at the tow-redness of the beach sand. It looked like rain and Rich was talking about possessions and we figured it was time to go. After dropping Rich off, Sandy and I went to dinner at Triple E Bar-Be-Que where I had breaded fried pickles for the first time ever. We also had some ribs and I made a reacquaintance with okra.

Tuesday night's A.A. meeting finished off the night for me once again.

sapphoq n friends