Why did the turkey cross the road?

The turkey crossed the road because a park ranger was looking at it.  The turkeys are always good at moving to the side of the road that is opposite from my open, driver side window.  I have shown you lots of photos of the turkeys from a distance, but I was hoping for some better ones today.  No luck, but I'll show you my turkey friends anyhow.


Unfortunately, I had to spend another day away from the park.  I went to the little town of Micanopy, just south of Gainesville to pick up more hay bales to slow the erosion in front of the cabin.  After I picked up the hay, I drove past another state park, Paynes Prairie.  There is a little boardwalk onto the prairie right off the side of the road, so I stopped to see what I could see while I was there.  I saw some beautiful yellow flowers, but nothing else blooming or moving.  The flower is Primrose Willow.  I think it is interesting that its flowers can have four OR five petals.  Usually a flowers have the same number of petals on each flower.  The flower in the center of the photo has five petals and all of the rest in the photo have four.


One of my favorite things about this walkway is how much sky you can see.  Because there are very few trees on the prairie, your view goes on and on.  Sunsets and incoming storms are magnificent from this spot.


On my drive back to the park, the sky kept growing darker and the wind was getting stronger.  When I pulled onto the last county road before the park, I could see the pouring rain falling miles ahead.  I knew that it would not be long before the rain reached the park.  When I pulled in, my coworkers jumped into action to unload the hay and get it in place.  We reminisced about the wonderful smell of hay and our experiences from the past of unloading hay for horses.  The job was done in no time at all and we were ready for the rain to fall.


I went back to the office to do the little bit of paperwork that I had left and the rain started, all at once.  It was a good thundering rain.  It was beautiful.  My coworkers and I sat under the cover of the shop roof and watched the rain fall.  I tried taking a few photos of wet leaves and things.  I did get one that I liked of our beautiful Dogwood tree.  The leaves are such a vibrant red now.  Compare them to just a couple weeks ago, they have changed a lot.


The rain wasn't letting up and there were too many of us standing around, so I left a little early to get a start on my weekend.  Hooray for weekends!