Better than a picnic

Picnics look great in movies and magazine spreads

but I've never been able to pull it off  IRL.

Trying to deal with insects, fickle shade, and getting the contents of several Rubbermaid containers dished out onto plates without the modern convenience of a TABLE has always put me off.

But in this current environment where we are actually desperate to get outside for a change, I saw a trio of people on the river who seemed to have embraced the American gear-heavy way of life and nailed the midday picnic.

I was surprised to see they had humped a small table and chairs to the river bank (no vehicle in sight) as well as their comestibles and they seemed comfortable and content.

Even more surprising was seeing them AT ALL as I had begun to think of the river as my own private domain. Now, however, people are outside kayaking, fishing, hiking, and...picnicking!

My river picnics when I'm digging are still basic affairs:

quick bites of soggy sandwiches and handfuls of grapes between shovelfuls of gravel.

My discoveries are modest but satisfying.

I'm no longer hitting my 9 gator tooth quota but I'm still adding to my collection.

And the salad days of giant armadillos scutes are fading away although I managed to find this edge or leg scute and the cool little 5-sided scute.

But somehow, in the midst of this mediocrity,

I found a giant ground sloth tooth!

Fossil friends helped ID it as megalonyx and it is by far my best sloth tooth to date.

This bish can dig!

And...wait for it...

After all those gator teeth, FINALLY a gator scute and a fatty at that.

A surprisingly big chunk of mammoth tooth considering we only generally find slivers of enamel.

Lots of deer antler material.

And luckily I am still pulling in a good number of gorgeous tiger and hemi teeth on each visit.

And of course loads of turtle. I've been keeping the nicest shell segments again but they are already starting to pile up.

The pace of my day to day life has slowed so I feel lucky and grateful to be able to fill some of the time with a compliant hobby that I love.