Henry finally relented!
Ever since Jesse arrived, Henry’s life has been in ruins. He’s been living on furniture and the dashboard, where the tiny terrorist can’t get him, and growling down at her. He wasn’t having any fun at all. We’ve been gentle and reassuring to him and today he couldn’t stand it any longer. He came down off the couch in full puppy-play mode.
Yeaa Henry! Now everybody in our house is happy again!
Leaving New York part of the trip map
Jesse
This puppy is so sweet! She plays so hard, all growling and biting, then lays in her bed, falls asleep at your feet, or asks to get picked up and goes right to sleep in your arms.
She’s so little and light, picking her up is like lifting and cuddling air.
We’re at Arrow Rock State Historical Site
Leaving New York part of the trip map
From Effingham to St Louis
Leaving New York part of the trip map
Time enough for an afternoon of football and a trip across the Mississippi to look for a cute little sparrow, the Eurasian Tree Sparrow. It looks a lot like a house sparrow but has white cheeks with a black spot in the middle. Twelve individuals were brought from Germany and released in St Louis in 1870. They established a population that never strayed more than 75 miles or so from the original release site; not like house sparrows that were introduced to Brooklyn in 1851 and spread across the entire continent by 1910!
We chose to find the Eurasian Tree Sparrow by driving around a section of St Louis known as Dogtown and watching for bird feeders or House Sparrows. We found a promising yard, staked it out for a little while and found:
Our little bird!
Back at the ranch, we have a view of the Arch.
Indiana and Illinois
There is a benefit to traveling east to west. We don’t get stuck under weather systems for days at a time driving along under a cloud. If there is weather coming from the west, we just cross paths with it and drive through.
No rough weather today. A little cold at night though; we woke up to 33 degrees.
Leaving New York part of the trip map
We stopped in Effingham, at Camp Lakewood.
Fits just right!
Keeping up.
Look how rough and tumble Jesse is getting!