Outdoor Column | Les Winkeler: Why would you want to live anywhere else? - The Southern
It was slightly after noon this past Sunday.
My wife and I found a secluded, shaded picnic table on the banks of the Ohio River at Fort Massac State Park. We sat down to enjoy lunch, surrounded by the wonders of nature.
A red-headed woodpecker flitted around the upper branches of a towering oak tree nearby. The squawk of distant pileated woodpeckers rang through the air. A pair of great-crested flycatchers were holding a long distance conversation on either side of our table — flycatcher stereo if you will.
Although somewhat unnerving, a cadre of turkey vultures circled overhead. Three more roosted in a nearby tree.
And, the river.
The river was there just 30 yards in front of us. The calming sensation of flowing water added to the ambience of this wonderfully comfortable August afternoon. In a bow to our modern world, we even marveled at the huge barges that crossed through our view from time to time.
We spent a short time walking the George Drouillard Trail. Drouillard was living near Fort Massac when William Clark and Meriwether Lewis stopped for a brief respite on their Voyage of Discovery. Drouillard was hired as a guide.
While walking the trail named in his honor, we simultaneously spotted a four-point buck in velvet. The buck meandered ahead slowly, ducking into a dried stream bed surrounded by trees. He thought he was concealed, but we could see him perfectly.
He stood still, staring at us intently. We reciprocated. A few minutes later, he wandered off, stopping to check on us a couple times along the way.
“Why would you want to live anywhere else?” my wife asked.
Why, indeed.
Just a week earlier we enjoyed a similar lunch, although the previous week we had dined in a shelter overlooking Devils Backbone in Grand Tower. Prior to eating lunch, we had photographed hummingbirds and butterflies in a field of zinnias, had a bald eagle soar within a few feet of our car and enjoyed the wading birds along the Grand Tower Levee — a place I’ve taken to calling Little Florida.
I know it’s not chic to love the place you live. You’re supposed to aspire to living somewhere exciting, full of entertainment possibilities. (Read: big city.) I’ve heard the complaints for years. Southern Illinois is boring. There are few entertainment venues, including museums and concert venues.
That assessment doesn’t hold water on several levels. First, home is what you make of it. I’ve lived in the Carbondale area since the late 1980s and there are still places I haven’t explored. If you have any interest in the natural world, the beauty that nature provides, Southern Illinois is anything but boring.
I agree with my wife. Why live anywhere else?
Where else could you get into your car, drive an hour in either direction and be seated on the banks of one of the two largest rivers in the continental United States? And, the Ohio and Mississippi rivers are hardly the only natural attractions of note.
We could do months’ worth of these Sunday lunches and never run out of beautiful places to visit. There are the gorgeous vistas atop Inspiration Point, stunningly beautiful natural settings at Garden of the Gods, Bell Smith Springs, Iron Furnace, Glen O. Jones Lake and Giant City. And, there are plenty more. Southern Illinois is dotted with state parks and lakes where you can find the beauty of nature in relative privacy.
What’s more, if I long for the advantages of more “sophisticated” entertainment, St. Louis, Paducah, Evansville and Cape Girardeau are two hours away.
It’s the best of both worlds.
Why would you want to live anywhere else?
LES WINKELER is the outdoors writer for The Southern Illinoisan. Contact him at les@winkelerswingsandwildlife.com, on Twitter @LesWinkeler.
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2020-08-29 17:00:00Z
https://thesouthern.com/outdoors/outdoor-column-les-winkeler-why-would-you-want-to-live-anywhere-else/article_558bc458-32f8-51c3-95ae-3632a9143d1c.html
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