Always listen to your sister…

We went to Merrill last weekend to visit with MIL and FIL and soak up some home cooking and riverside ambience…hoping that it would be warmer than Chicago (not sure why cos we were heading north…my internal compass is still set to NZ…where north is warm and cold is south). It was as cold and miserable as Chicago…but at least we have the river rushing by and no real reason to do much but stay warm.
On Saturday we went to put the pontoon boat in, basically a floating deck with comfy squishy sofa that doubles as MIL/FIL’s outdoor room. It’s a monster and goes into storage over winter due to the river freezing. FIL had it out and on the trailer. They usually put it in up river but that’s steep and tricky so this year they decided to go to the council grounds (like a bush reserve) and so off we went…veeeeerrrry wiiiide turns and all.
The council grounds are a big piece of forest as a spit into the river, boat ramps on one side and walking paths all over. MIL and her gaggle of gals go walking there most days, and once the boat went in with the hearty sailors to take it all of 15 mins cross river to their dock, we would do the walk and haul the trailer home.
As we slowly drove through the woods I said to MIL did they have Deer, no she said, I’ve never seen them and we all burst into laughter as 3 deer bounded across the road a little way in front.
So have you ever seen a bear I asked, no she said and whilst she was saying it and I was looking into the forest I saw a bear…I pointed it out, and I’m sure they thought I was joking…but sure enough , on all four paws (and then it stood up), looking for all the world like it had stepped out of the wonderful world of Disney was a bear….M’s never seen one, MIL’s has only every seen a couple. The bear stared at us, we stared at the bear and slowly kept driving……and we sure as hell weren’t walking in the woods that day.
We talked to the ranger when we left the grounds, and he said that there was a mother and two cubs about, so we must have seen the mother. It’s 6 days later and I’m still excited about my first live wild in the woods bear.
And the moral of the story is…don’t pooh pooh your kiwi sister when she says look out for bears when you go into the woods…she might just know what she’s talking about.