Mardi Gras Parade

       Yesterday was a wonderful day off. One day off never seems like enough, it can't come soon enough and is over before I know it. I went into town with a staff member who has the same day off and Sarah, the other intern who shares my day off. When we got back in the early afternoon, Sarah and I went exploring again on the refuge's 450 acres. We hiked to the bottom of the mountain and found a really neat creek. It was almost like 2 inches of water rushing over concrete. It was not concrete of course but it was a 10 ft wide creek with a smooth stone bottom. There was nothing for it, the surrounding brush was too thick so we took our shoes off and set off down the creek.  After lots of rock turning and salamander discovery we discovered a part of the creek where the water pooled and made a considerably deep and crystal clear pond. It is still rather chilly here and the water was even colder, so we resided in waiting for the heat of the summer before going in. When we made it back to where we had begun we sat on the bank, talking and waiting for our feet to dry. She was in the middle of a long story when I heard crashing and crunching from the woods behind us and immediately my thoughts jumped to wild boar. The staff has been warning us about the aggressive wild boars on the property and insists we hike with knives and machetes. I held up a hand to Sarah, but she didn't understand the hint and kept on with her story. It didn't matter though because regardless of her onward chatting the little animal popped out of the underbrush. It was an armadillo!! It was SO COOL! I've never seen such a strange animal. They are a lot bigger than I thought they would be, but I had no idea they were even common in the area. It came all the way down to the waters edge and then all of sudden, as if a light turned on in the little animals mind, it froze and scuttled off into the brush. I just barely got a picture of it running away.
       Tomorrow is going to be a fun day. Tomorrow is the Eureka Springs Mardi Gras parade and Turpentine Creek is to be a part of it. Every year, two interns dress up in tiger costumes and dance along the parade with the float. They were looking for volunteers and I thought... why not?! Sounds fun! So Katie D and I are going to dress up as tigers and play in the parade tomorrow!