Some eagles have not yet landed

Since about this time last year, I've been seriously shopping for a boat. Enough things, including the condition of my aging body, have changed since I last owned a boat that I know almost, but not quite, what I want. It would simplify matters if I didn't plan to fish both the upper St. Croix and some local lakes with the same boat. For the river I'm looking at smaller, lighter, easier to manage. For the lakes, I want more comfort, which adds weight and reduces manageability. The Son-in-Law person and I thought we had found a suitable compromise about 90 minutes away in Wisconsin. Unfortunately, the dealer's description of a "scratch" on the side not shown in the  photo turned out to be what looked to us like a broken aluminum gunnell that had been mended. Combined with an outboard motor slightly larger than desirable we had had a long drive with little to show for it but experience and the memory of an eagle that almost hit the car as we were headed east in Wisconsin.

Then, leaving Wisconsin, the trip home presented an opportunity to see the bald eagle that almost captured us, two more eagles, and a handful of crows feeding on the carcass of a whitetail deer. The crows and two of the eagles flew away as we slowed and approached. One eagle stayed and gave us a chance for the photos below, for which I also need to thank my brother-in-law. It was the camera he gave me for Christmas last year or the year before, that lives in the car, that took these shots after my smart phone camera failed to zoom in sufficiently.

bald eagle scavenging deer

Photo by J. Harrington

bald eagle scavenging deer

Photo by J. Harrington

As we decided "that's a wrap" for pictures, and continued west, we decided to take a look at what a local marine dealer near home has on their new boat sales floor. Despite my skepticism, it turns out there were several options with mixed appeal. If I can close most of the gap between what I want and what I need and what I want to spend, and think more about a river boat versus a lake boat, I may return, buy a boat, and declare that "the eagle has landed."

Eagle Plain

By Robert Francis 

The American eagle is not aware he is

the American eagle. He is never tempted

to look modest.

When orators advertise the American eagle’s

virtues, the American eagle is not listening.

This is his virtue.

He is somewhere else, he is mountains away

but even if he were near he would never

make an audience.

The American eagle never says he will serve

if drafted, will dutifully serve etc. He is

not at our service.

If we have honored him we have honored one

who unequivocally honors himself by

overlooking us.

He does not know the meaning of magnificent.

Perhaps we do not altogether either

who cannot touch him.

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