C and I made an unexpected trip up* to South Dakota to see my dad this week (he's fine, btw). And while some people might listen to music or books on tape to while away the six-hour trip, one of the true fascinations of the I-29 corridor from KC to Sioux Falls is the variety of roadkill. The heavy rains from earlier this month seem to have displaced an even larger and more varied assortment of critter than usual.Here's the total from the trip north last Sunday:
Deer: 15
Racoon: 14
Turtle: 9
Opossum: 1
Rabbit: 1
Skunk: 1
UFO: 16
Much of the carnage was spotted in Missouri. Apparently, Iowa does a better job of clearing away the remains. For whatever reason, we didn't spot our first (identifiable) skunk until we were well across the South Dakota border.
No count from yesterday's return trip. We left Sioux Falls two hours before sundown and found ourselves happily distracted by rainbows and, later, lightning.
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*A Word Dork footnote: For me north is always "up" in terms of travel and south is always "down". East and west are usually "over" for short-to-medium trips ("We went over to St. Louis for fried ravioli.") For longer trips, a person goes "back" east and "out" west.
