(To see the commentary and photo details, you need to click on the first photo and on each photo as you follow the arrows.)

As promised yesterday, we brought Little Duck along with us in our northward journey to Des Moines to visit my nephew and then to St. Paul to visit my sister, niece, her husband and grand nieces. So far it has been quite a trip, as these photos will bear witness to:

Although Little Duck at first remained in his ceiling seat restraint, as befitted his status as a sometime creature of the air, he soon grew restless.

 

but when Big Duck objected, he had to find other ways to spend his time. He practiced his surfing on the sun visor until we assured him there was no surf in Minnesota.

A few tummy tickles kept him occupied for a short time.

Puzzled by our choice of music, he checked it out on Shazam.

And promptly changed the song.

Then he turned up the volume and changed the song again.

Then changed it again. And again and again.

Exhausted, he took a break from his disc jockeying and had a little nap.

Rejuvenated, he sprang once more into action.

When his attempt at backseat driving fell on deaf ears,

he decided Big Duck needed a bit closer supervision.

Soon he had shifted to the copilots seat.

and after a few driving lessons,

pitched in a little help with the driving.

Until, at the request of the captain, he was put once more into restraints.

He was all too happy when we made a stop in Eldon, Iowa, at the house Grant Wood depicted in his painting “American Gothic”

And of course, being Little Duck, he had to get into the action.

And although at this angle it looks as though he is impaled on the pitchfork,

luckily this cooler version of the original grim pitchfork wielder had no objections to Little Duck making it a trio act.

Then he perched on Big Duck’s knee for the remainder of the trip, relating the stories of his afternoon’s adventure and offering occasional driving advice as well.

Unfortunately, in our rush to get registered in the hotel and to get to my nephew’s house on time, Little Duck was forgotten in the car and so is regrettably spending a night in solitaire.  No doubt he’ll have plenty to relate to us in the morning.  In the meantime, we are having a peaceful rest all on our own!!

The prompt word today is “Pretend.”