Sea Horse Spawn

We arrived in Arcola Thursday afternoon. Our host was Rockome Garden, in the heart of Illinois Amish country. The site we chose for our camp overlooked what we thought was the Kaskaskia River. (Turns out it was a Kaskaskia River flood plain, swollen from recent rain.) We set up camp and went to have dinner. Before dark, the neighbors began to call. There are no strangers at a rendezvous, only friends you haven’t met.

As we chatted, we could hear a horse trotting, but the sound was coming from the river. Logically, we concluded that beyond the river and the tree line was a road down which someone was heading home. Of course, that’s not the explanation we gave to visitors to the park through the week. What we told them was that it was sea horse spawn season. No one believed us, of course, but it makes a good story!