From Monmouth Park to Wampum Brook.

A friend called today and reminded me it was bbq and beer day at the racetrack, so back I went. Of course I took the back roads but decided to follow my gps. Whoever programmed the gps forgot to program in where the entrances were to Monmouth Park, so though it was correct in saying destination on the right, the entrance was nowhere to be found. I cut around thinking I would find the entrance I normally took, but my brain saw a different entrance first and decided I better take it. $2 general admission parking, UGGGGHHHH. I should have heeded this bad omen. I couldn't get to valet parking unless I paid and drove all the way through to the other side of the parking lot. I figured, what the heck, how bad could it be. Picture Disney World with no jitneys. So after parking in row 80, and walking my ass off, I was sweaty, but at the track. Whoever said third time is a charm should be shot. My third time there this year and I've never done so poorly in my life. I won once in ten races and it was for forty cents. I couldn't believe the horses that were coming in. The other two friends I went with didn't fair much better. In fact I think they did worse. If not for the flask of Jack Daniels we snuck in, the day would have been a total wash.

As I mentioned, it was bbq and beer day so the beer companies set up stands and if you wanted to wait in line for a half hour, you could get a 2oz. pilsner glass with 10 free refills of beer for $10. Of course after you purchased this pilsner shaped shot glass, you had to wait in line for a half hour for each beer you got a shot of. All of the local bbq places came too and set up stands to serve up ribs, platters and sandwiches. Boy last weeks losers sure did taste good. The funny part about buying the food was that you couldn't just go and pay cash. You had to first go and buy fake money so you could redeem it for food or drink. I found it odd that cash would not be accepted, but the one to one ratio monopoly money was. The purpose of it? I do not know, maybe it helps the track figure out how much each vendor made.

After the painful defeat at the track, it was time to go home. On the way was Wampum Brook, so I decided to stop for some pictures. There was a touch of sorrow in getting out of the car. I had only been to the brook alone once before and usually had my little adventurers with me. The brook is very different depending on the time of day you go and there were few land insects there. The flowers that weren't reaching the end of their life cycle were closing for the night. The plants that I like to call star babies were just hollow brown shells of their former selves.

The overflow that had been home to the duck family at the end of spring now had scarcely any water in it. The scene was almost melancholy. As I walked to the overflow bridge I noticed all of the dead fish being preyed upon by insects and other fish in the shallow bit of water left behind. . There was a simple sullen beauty to the scenario. In this brook teeming with life, the underbelly was swarming with death. The equilibrium of the moment was zen-like and I felt a strange inner peace and stood reflecting for several moments. All things die and yet there is always an abundance of life.

I continued past the bridge following the trail around the tall red wheat patch. I saw no dragonflies stopping for a rest. I walked to the area where the butterflies meet in the morning, but only one was to be seen. I didn't go forward on the path, but was drawn back to the overflow. Back to where the dead and live fish had forged their symbiotic relationship.

When I got there a catfish, one of the living, was sticking his head out of the water. He looked like an aquatic Confucius. The way his mouth was opening and closing it almost appeared as if he were trying to impart some strange wisdom to me, but either he was mute or I was deaf to it. I crossed the bridge and continued through the grass to the car leaving the fifty, or so, fish floating in awkward poses behind me. They would be sustenance for the living and I would need to get my own supper when I got home.