On Wednesday,
we traveled from Franklin, TN, just south of Nashville, to Crab Orchard
National Wildlife Refuge in southern Illinois. I knew that we were in southern
Illinois because I picked out Southern Illinois University on the map. (I can
be pretty clever at times.) SIU’s mascot is the Saluki. Until I bought a six-pack
of Saluki Dunkeldog dark amber beer, I had no idea what a Saluki even was. 
I bought the
beer because the dog on the container looked kinda-sorta like our long-haired Dachshund,
Rudy. But then when I Googled images of
Salukis, I found two that I really liked. The one at right is the SIU mascot... 
... and the perky one at left is the SIU cheerleader, and she is definitely NOT a dog. I am now
an SIU Saluki Spirit fan!
For those
musically inclined, perhaps you’d like to whistle the SIU fight song, “Go You
Salukis”... here is the actual score... and if there are any Salukis (grads,
not dogs) in today’s blog audience, please stand while you sing your alma
mater!
There aren’t
a lot of benefits from turning 65, but one of them is the National Parks and Federal
Recreational Lands Interagency Pass, formerly known as Prince... oh, sorry,
wrong allusion... formerly known as the Golden Age Pass. I think the PC crowd
changed the name because the old one made the holder sound, like, well, you
know, “Old”. Anyway, we now receive a 50% discount on campground fees, reducing
yesterday’s fee from $25 to $12.50. As I say, “That’s better than a poke in the
eye with a sharp stick!” We had a campsite right on the lake, and the only down
side was that we had to be extra careful of the skunks which frequent the
campground looking for snacks.
In my spare moments of leisure, I mused what
would happen if I were to have a Close Encounter of the Stinky Kind with a
member of the skunk family (Mephitis mephitis). Would My Lovely Bride help
scrub me down to get rid of the offensive odors and welcome me back to her
boudoir, or would I be banished to a tent in the dreary woods for a week to
allow the olfactory stench to evaporate and disperse? An interesting
philosophical question... shows you how far an abnormal mind can drift when
unengaged.
Corvette Chick decided that she needed some "prettifying" before we left rural Illinois for the big city (St. Louis). While she was getting a manicure and pedicure in Carterville, IL, the puppies
and I recon'ed "The Ville". While walking around the “downtown”, and I use that term somewhat loosely, I happened
upon a sign that caught my attention. This was hanging outside a
Pentecostal Church. I have no editorial comment to make about this; I just
thought to myself, “Isn’t that interesting?”
We passed this old house , which
had obviously been built more than a decade or two (or maybe even a century or two?) earlier than the bit of modern technology attached to its roof. It made for an
interesting juxtaposition (what a great word!)... Could those actually be real Lincoln logs?
Back to beer... while traveling in
The Bus from the Crab Orchard Campground to Scott Air Force Base in Belleville,
IL, we crossed the Big Muddy River (aerial shot at right, taken from my helicopter). It is indeed muddy, but it’s only a
hundred yards or so across, not that big for those of us born on the banks of
the Mississippi down in N’Orlins.... The brewer of Saluki Dunkledog Beer happens to
be the Big Muddy Brewing Co. of Murphysboro, Illinois. Their motto on every
six-pack is “There is beer in Illinois Country and it is good.” That quote is
attributed to Fort de Chartres, a British soldier, circa 1785. (It is not known
whether this redcoat survived the American Revolutionary War to settle in Illinois
country as a new immigrant, or was returned to Merry Olde England to rejoin his
family and become a serf again... but again, I digress...) 
Saluki Dunkledog beer is a
combination of American dark amber beer and German Dunkel beer, which as the
brewery’s web site states, “Aromatic and Munich malts yield a slight sweetness
balanced with a hint of chocolate roast. The result is a very approachable beer
with a smooth distinctive taste.” Being a “choclaholic”, this attracted me, so
I had a wee taste of Dunkledog with pizza... it is a very nice beer, but
probably not available in many locales outside southern Illinois. Another of Big Muddy’s beers is Big
Muddy Monster, a mixture of brown ale and India pale ale, named after the Bigfoot-like creature reported by a young couple on a lovers’ lane
near a boat ramp on the Big Muddy River near Murphysboro, Illinois, in 1973.
(It is alleged by some Sasquatch-naysayers that the young man, Randy... yes, his real name, perhaps
quite apropos in this case... made up the
story to keep from getting in trouble with his girlfriend’s dad... but I would
never suggest that anything inappropriate was going on between Randy and Fair
Judy... or that Randy may have “had a few too many” when he saw the 8 foot
tall, hairy monster on the riverbank...) 
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