A couple of days ago we drove over to the Columbia Bottom Conservation Area to do some hiking--mainly to try out my new hiking boots. It's only about 5 miles from us and they have a nice bike path and some hiking trails. It's located at the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers and is where Lewis and Clark camped before their historic endeavor in 1804. Anyway, on the drive through this area we saw a critter in one of the fields. I stopped thinking it was a ground hog but it turns out it was a badger. A badger! I had never seen one in the wild before. Sat and watched him for a while. Of course I didn't have my camera with me. He looked very vulnerable in this huge, denuded corn field. We continued on to the trailhead, I donned my new boots, and off we went. It was great to be out in the forest and you could smell honeysuckle and other wonderful aromas. After a little more than a mile we had to turn back because of the mosquitoes. They were horrible and we didn't have any bug spray with us. A pretty day though. And my new boots are great!


Ashford Castle--where we stayed when in Ireland in 1990. This castle dates back to 1228 and was once owned by the Guiness family. It's a beautiful place located on Lough Corrib which is the second largest lough in Ireland. You can walk to the little village of Cong from here which is where "Quiet Man" was filmed with John Wayne. We hiked to Cong on a trail along the Cong River and had dinner in the pub there. When we finished dinner it was dark and we had to walk back in the dark. That was pretty interesting. And believe me it was dark!