one single mushroom

k, so i was supposed to go to cedar rapids to visit my mom in the hospital, but my plans went to he** when little Annie got the pinkeye. I cant send her to the babysitter's cause she's contagious. So....guess i'm stuck in Waterloo. Which is where i'm usually stuck, but today its worse, cause we cant hang out with anybody, cause anybody we hang out with has kids, and Annie has the pinkeye. And I cant go workout, cause i cant put Annie in the playroom, cause you guessed it: pinkeye! And I cant take my kid and her eyeball germs to the mall, cause she would want to play on the play area there. And the children's area at the library is out, too. So, we are barred from doing all the things that we normally do to pass the time. Well, I am NOT going to be stuck in my tiny apartment watching Maisy videos all day!

So i have a brilliant idea; i decide to take Annie mushroom hunting! Here in this part of the midwest it is morel mushroom season, which is very exciting for those of us who hunt these things. But i never seem to get a chance to get out and look for them. And im not sure how tramping thruogh the underbrush is going to go with a 2 year old in tow, but i'm desperate enough to give it a try.

So we head off to Hickory Hills park; about 20 miles outside of town, and it starts to rain, but thats ok. I still figure i made the right move; anything is better then what we were doing before. It stops raining by the time we get to the park and I pull off the side of the road near an old tree where i found some shrooms last year- a good bet. I have to carry Annie thruogh the underbrush, since we are not using a trail, and i set her down in a claer spot and procceed to scour the ground, but no luck.

Then we go the the next place where i have found them before, and here i find one "little gray", a kind of smaller, gray morel. This gets me very excited and i am sure we will find more, bunches, but again i am dissappionted.

Annie is tired of being IN in the woods, so we find a trail and walk for a little bit. We ggo over some bridges and see some baby geese and willd flowers and i am just thinking how happy i am that Annie is having this experieence in nature ang hoping she is enjoying it when she starts to whine "i want to go home! I want to watch cartoons! I want to watch Maisy". Sheesh.

Before we leave, we visit the wildlife exhibit and feed an apple core to an elk and see an albino deer. Annie falls asleep on the ride home. When we get back, I wake her up and feed her lunch and wrestle some eyedrops into her eyes. And put her to bed.

So, i only found one mushroom. Am i dissappionted? Yes. Sorry we went? No way. I can think of worse ways to spend a morning in quarantine.