Monday, October 8 Cedar Ridge Lodge

The bison

Jack's sign, what a tribute to a very special man.

An area that leads to the path that will be used for park programs

The side entrance to the building.  Sharon is walking towards the front deck.

Walking down the path towards the Nature Center.

This is the view from the deck of the Nature Center

This is the red fox I saw by our house before we left this morning.  I think it is one of the two kits that were born in our woods over the summer and practically lived in my neighbor's yard.

Today was our Madison County Retired Teachers luncheon and we had it at a new venue.  We were at the Cedar Ridge Lodge in Darby Creek Metro Park.  Lunch was catered by Ann & Toni's from West Jeff and it was very good, beef tips and lemon chicken were the entrees.  Our speaker was one of the naturalists from the park.  After the meeting Sharon and I walked back to see the bison.  They were in one of the fields near the overlook and close enough to the fence to be quite visible from the path.  We walked on a little farther just to see if we could get a picture of the sign for Jack McDowell Way and once we got that far we were curious enough to walk a little farther to get a better look at the nature center.  As we neared the center a Ranger truck pulled up to us and we expected to be told to turn back.  Instead I heard the ranger saying, "and here is Mrs. Bichler trying to get a sneak peek at the new nature center".  It was the former middle school wrestling coach, Tom Cochran, who is a ranger in the park.  He told us we were welcome to walk down to the center but we couldn't go inside since it was a hard hat area.  It was absolutely fabulous and it isn't quite finished yet.  It overlooks a prairie pasture and also has a trail leading to the Big Darby for park programs.  I can hardly wait to see the 53' living stream that will be the center piece of the center.  Opening is set for October 27 & 28 so mark your calendars.  It will certainly be worth the drive out to the park!