FRIDAY HUNT

For the first time I am linking with Teresa's Friday's Hunt.  It can be found at her blog Eden Hills and starts each Friday at 7.00 p.m. central time and stays open until Sunday at 7.00 p.m. central time.  You can read all about the meme here.

Her prompts this week are

Starts with J

Week's  Favorite 

Surprise

Starts with J: Junco

Week's favorite: A Common Buckeye Butterfly


My third 'Surprise' has no photo as it is just retelling an experience I had a couple of weeks' ago.  We were going on a ride along Skyline Drive and had not seen too many animals.  None at all in fact.  We were looking for anything really but our expectations were low, and the lovely surroundings and those gorgeous views keep us happy. We occasionally see deer but for animal sightings, we felt we were at the wrong time of the day and didn't expect to see anything. We decided to turn the car around not too far after the noon hour.  

If you have traveled along Skyline Drive you will know that the roads are very narrow and winding, so you can't go very fast, a little more than a crawl in parts.  We always take care in case anything jumps out onto the road.  It has happened and on one occasion a few years ago, we had parked the car and I was walking ahead to Big Meadow.  Suddenly a young doe came running down from the picnic area in my direction, and she was heading towards the road at a high rate of speed.  As quickly as I saw the deer I was able to stop a car by waving it down, pointing in the direction of the approaching deer.  The cars behind it also stopped of course, windows wound down and cameras appeared.   Seconds later the doe ran in front of them, but by this time she was at a full gallop and making her way down the hillside, rapidly becoming a speck in the distance.  Everyone was smiling as I waved them on, the coast was clear.  And yes this was a surprise as I didn't expect to be the new temporary crossing guard for the park service.  

To get to our more recent surprise, we were making our way towards one of the park's exits. Hubby was driving and I was in the passenger seat. I must have noticed something as I looked to my right, and there on the edge of the road was the most beautiful black bear, not ten feet away from the car.  He seemed to be a young one, maybe two years old.  Our eyes literally locked for a few seconds.  We were a hundred yards further along before I was able to vocalize what I had seen.  I was so surprised.  At first I asked hubby to turn around but there really was no way we could do that.  Just as well with all the bear stories in the news lately.  One can never be too careful.  They need their space.  As hubby looked in the rear view mirror and I craned my neck backwards, we saw the young bear make its way safely across the road and away into the trees.  It was quite a surprise, one we don't get to see hardly ever and we have been driving up to Skyline Drive for the last 25 years, ever since we moved back to Virginia.  We consider these sightings a gift.