Butterflies and Banter

Celestrana ladon--Spring Azure
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Spent the day at Queen Wilhemina State Park.  Went hiking this morning with Tim down to a "resevoir" (translation:  enclosed spring, now nearly dry, from which water used to be piped up to the first lodge in the 19th century).  LOTS of butterflies--see photos.  Between us, Dad, David, Tim and I saw about 35 species of butterflies.  A partial (?) list:

Tiger Swallowtail (both yellow and black forms), Spicebush Swallowtail, Pipevine Swallowtail, Zebra Swallowtail, Spring Azure, Eastern Tailed Blue, Cloudless Sulphur, Little Yellow Sulphur, Dainty Sulphur, Monarch, Buckeye, Red Admiral, Painted Lady, Red-Spotted Purple, Question Mark, Hackberry Emperor, Snout, Variegated Fritillary, Great Spangled Fritillary, Pearl Crescent, Silvery Checkerspot, Southern Pearly-Eye, Northern Pearly-Eye, Creole Pearly-Eye, Carolina Satyr, Gemmed Satyr, (possibly Common Wood Nymph, but not positively identified), Hoary Edge, Silver Spotted Skipper, Fiery Skipper, some sort of Duskywing, some sort of black skipper, some sort of grey/dun skipper, Zabulon Skipper, and an unidentified hairstreak.

...and THAT degenerated rapidly into a contest of puns about pit toilets, which Tim and Michele won going away

Tim on Scooter
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Big bug of the day:  either Pearly Eye or Carolina Satyr.

Most aggravating bug of the day:  Pearly Eye.  There are three varieties of Pearly Eye in this area, and they are all maddeningly similary.  We thought, while we were out on the trail, that we were seeing only Southern and Creole.  The only one we were dead certain about is the Creole, which has an extra spot, and so can be readily identified.  The other so-called definitive markers used to determine the difference between Northern and Southern do not, in practice, seem to be definitive at all.  Best hope is the color of the antennal clubs, and it wasn't until we got back to the hotel and uploaded my dozens of photos to the computer where we could look at them in detail that we could see the difference between the largely black clubs (with a tiny bit of orange on the very tip) and the largely orange clubs (with a bit of black on the tip).  For once my fetish for taking photos (my philosophy:  if one photo is good, 12 must be better) served us well:  if we hadn't had the dozens, we probably wouldn't have been able to learn the pattern.  As it happens, I have photos of both Northern and Southern.  So we got all three.

The Mena-Area Zoo
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Unless we wish to count all three Pearly Eyes in a clump, that leaves the Satyr as the big bug of the day.

If it had been an official count, it would have been a good one--butterflies were ABUNDANT.  It almost looked like what we saw on Lassen, only these were a wide variety of species, instead of just Tortoiseshells.

In the afternoon, Tim and Dad set off on another hike; Liz and I met up with David and Michele, who spent the morning riding their bikes.  They came up to the lodge to show us an e-mail from the minister who married them; he sent a general announcement to the bike club membership:  "Bachelor Biker Weds Canadian Fly-Girl."  MUCH drama ensued--the e-mails from the membership were flying thick and fast.  This seems to have come as a huge surprise to many, many people; since David and Michele have been wearing wedding rings for nearly two months, I can't imagine why.  But people are funny creatures!  They anticipate having to deal with considerably more drama from people who are outraged at not having been invited to the wedding (they already got one call at 6:30 this morning--just a little wackadoodle, that woman--and one or two forwarded e-mails from people thinking that David and Michele must surely want to share in the vituperation), but for today, at any rate, they were bombarded with good will!

Cyllopsis gemma--Gemmed Satyr
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After lunch, we went off with water and other potables to meet Tim and Dad on the road.  We made a detour to the RV (a Class-5 RV, not to be confused with a trailer, camper, or fifth-wheel--we've had a lesson in recreational vehicle classificaiton and terminology), where we got the grand tour (most impressive the leather recliners that you sit in to drive/ride and the garage--which is practically the same size as our garage at home).  I have lived in apartments smaller than this thing--no joke.  I lived in a studio in Chicago what would have fit inside. We also got a fashion show of Aristotle's wardrobe:  the highlight is a t-shirt that says:  "My Mom is a Pilot."  David has promised to forward a photo of the doggie in the shirt. We didn't get to see the Colorado jacket though--Michele tells us it is fur-lined and has a hood.

Enodia portlandia--Southern Pearly Eye
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Once we caught up with Tim and Dad, Dave and Michele walked back to the inn with them while Liz and I went off exploring some of the overlooks, and the "town" at the bottom of the hill.  The "town" consists of a zoo and a general store.  See photos.

Upon re-grouping at the lodge, we had "Post-Wedding-Rehearsal Dinner"--all six of us. We needed a new name for the dinner, since clearly Rehearsal Dinner was not apropos; so David dubbed it the "Thank God It's Over Dinner."  The level of hilarity at our table escalated rapidly through a series of conversational subjects of decreasing suitability for public dining and culminating in a scene involving the testing of a wide variety of desserts from the dessert bar, complete with commentary (the Lemon thingy rated 10; the custardy thing with crushed Oreos on top was rated a significant disappointment--though I think someone ate it--the Creme Puff was a hit, and the peanut butter thingy was approved by all who tasted it.  I had a dark-chocolatey, whipped-creamy kind of thing that I surrendered to Michele for tasting after it was pointed out that a) she could grab it and run, outrunning me so easily it would be laughable, and b) she wouldn't have to run, because she could just wrestle me for it and I would lose in about 3 seconds.  Fortuntely for me, Michele--and everyone else at the table--deemed it too rich, so I got most of it.  I did actually like it, but must admit that it was too rich, and I only ate about half.)  I don't know how the wait staff figured the tab; think they just charged us by coming along and counting the empty dessert bowls--or maybe just weighing them.

The General Store
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Dinner was accompanied by a dissertation on the various members of the Ft. Worth Bike Club, comprising, let me just tell you, a set of people who are WAY more interesting and eccentric than David has ever let on.  If I just say that the least scandalous of the tales involved a woman nicknamed "Booberella" who was the tandem riding partner of a piano-tuning minister, you'll get the general idea.  The dessert-o-thon at the end of the meal degenerated before very long into a discussion of pit toilets (ONLY a Powell function could manage this transistion seamlessly), which, it turns out, Michele has never seen, and THAT degenerated rapidly into a contest of puns about pit toilets, which Tim and Michele won going away, with the rest of us howling hopelessly and failing utterly to come up with even a feeble effort.  My best shot was something about someone being the butt of these jokes, but it was buried in an avalanche of comedy from the two champs.

Enodia anthedon--Northern Pearly Eye (Can YOU tell them apart???)
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There wasn't exactly applause when we finally left the dining room, but there was a huge sigh of relief.  You can see from the group photo that we were all in high good spirits.

After dinner, we had scooter-riding, with David taking each of us in turn for a spin around the lodge in the 250hp motor scooter (that rode up in the garage in the RV).  It was more fun than you might think.  The photos don't really do it justice.

That was about it for the wedding trip festivities; Tim and I head out early tomorrow to start driving back.  We have no junkets planned on the way--just driving, driving, driving.  650 miles to Knoxville tomorrow, then the final 400 on Thursday.  Friday morning, I catch the train to NY for a theatre weekend with Kenny (planned and paid for LONG before the wedding was announced, or I'd have done it another weekend!)  Dad and Liz will leave in the morning to go back to Dallas and fly home; David and Michele will head to Witchita, KS, for the "Hotter Than Hell 100" bike race on Saturday.

Wildflowers on the Resevoir Trail--1
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It's been a great trip; I would do it again--traffic and all.  But I would like it better without the traffic!

Be sure to click on the "see all photos" button; the blackmail photos of various people riding the scooter are hidden on the next page!