It is no secret what so ever that my favorite thing other than my family are the Philadelphia Eagles. Now, this isn't a post about how football, but there was and undertoner in there. (since I saw the movie Pitch Perfect I like using toner in a derogatory way.) BUT I was wearing my black (now green from years of sweat and mud) Eagles hat with the giant bird of prey across my brow.
So, with a holiday weekend planned and Kim spending the morning beautifying herself, Ronco and I went on a fishing excursion in the Chester Creek. Normally this is reserved for a Sunday, but there would be no way he would've made it past the Easter basket. First thing I needed, though, we're waders. I always thought the basketball player Dwayne Wade could have branded his own set of Dwayne Waders, but that's another idea for another time. Although the ones I purchased would've fit him better than me. Let's just say I left a lot of room in the crotch.
So, we get a call from Kim on her way to wherever ladies go that people are standing in the stream of the Ridley Creek. I always wanted to try there. We pulled up and ran to the bridge to see the water. Old Man River was there, only ankle high in water, saying it wasn't so good today. He may have seen an over eager 7 year old and wanted us out of there, so I decided we should go to the spot I know at the Chester Creek. The last time I went there, I saw a dude wading in the water catching a fish every cast. We pulled into the empty gravel lot and and walked down a trail. There weren't many people at all, and some anglers hd come out saying they were just biting but not getting hooked. I wanted to call that guy a fucker for feeding all the fish and making them not hungry for my delicious worm.
So we get wadered up and approach a steep slop. We got the lines ready and then I decide to trek into the water. It was odd. There weren't rocks. There was concrete and jagged edges. Luckily, my Dwayne Waders were big enough to let me walk away from these edges. Rocco can be left alone on the banks at this time, he understands, for the most part, what he needs to do and generally is patient with resolving his fishing line issues.
That being said, Rocco unfortunately cast over the only branch in the area. Honestly, he wouldn't hate gotten on the branch if it WASN'T a good cast. I wasn't mad, but of course his first course of action is to just pull full force. That would make the line snap back at my or his face. That's usually the only problem he has, so I may have to yell at him to just wait and watch how I free it up. At this point, I tell him to hand me his rod. Instead, he starts walking towards me. Along the steep embankment. I continue to get louder about him staying put and handing me the rod, but then he starts to slip. He is heading right for the jagged junk at the bottom of where I was standing. I throw my warm out to keep him from the rebar and broken rocks, and he landed in the water. This of course meant I landed somewhere else, somewhere deeper. Fortunately, Rocco was alright. Unfortunately (but ultimately less important) my Dwayne Waders were filled with water, which meant I was wetter than a sweaty NBA player with 40 minutes left in a game. The contents of all my cargo pockets were soaked. Including my cell phone.
I toss Rocco back on to the bank and climb out myself. He insists we go home, but this was literally 30 minutes into our fishing excursion. I reason with him and we conclude we are both warm, but we walk up to the car just relax, and I can open up my phone to dry it out. Suddenly, I look over and realize that a bald freakin' eagle is sitting maybe 50 feet from us. Almost as soon as I point and ask Rocco if that is what I think it is, it starts to fly. It must have flapped like 4 times to get overhead. It was beauteous.
I fumbled for my phone, but had to undo the Otter Box case. Otter box. This case has protected my phone more than I ever thought it could. Although you would think that otters are water based mammals, and a case in their name sake would be water proof. It was more like a Box Turtle. The phone withstood most of the water, but just enough water got in it that I thought my beautiful phone was ruined. I tried to take a picture, and the odd blue sky picture is what I was able to capture.
I really wanted that picture. Rocco was not that impressed. After all, he has "seen them in the zoo it's just a bald eagle." Oh. Okay. I thought about telling him the truth about Santa. I thought about telling him WHY he is having a brother. I wanted to ask him if I could see how far I could throw his most prized possession across the Grand Canyon. I let the father in me pull through though and told him how rare it is to see one in the wild. At least for me. I'm 34 and never saw one. My friends and I thought we did, but I know I did on this day. I know if I was his age I wouldn't think it was a big deal. I've been in castles thousands of years old and don't remember one single thing.
But at some point in this quick flash as the eagle ascended, I realized, "Oh no. Oh Hell no. What if he sees the Eagle on my Eagles hat?" Would this thing possibly come to mate with my head? I would have to explain to Rocco about the birds and the bees, and not the birds and the Duba. Or worse, what if this gigantic bird of prey picked up my boy and carried him away to baby bird his eaglets. Or hers. Can't tell. No good shot of the bird or the birdgina.
The eagle went up, and circled the sky, still ascending while increasing the circle radius. We were up on the bank by this point watching it soar. I looked around me, and people had pulled over into the parking lot. They were looking up snapping pictures. Some dude must have been in the middle of a Big Year (pretty entertaining movie about bird watching) and had like an NFL Films type camera.
All in all, I love seeing animals in the wild. There are other stories I have like a mountain lion stalking me and my friend outside a latrine in New Mexico, a bear walking through our campsite when we chose to not sleep in tents but rather on tarps on the ground, or when a puma escaped from the Cape May Zoo and I found it in the woods. These events are rare. I just hope one day Rocco appreciates this thing if he is lucky to see this with his children one day, too.
