NEBRASKAland Magazine is dedicated to outstanding photography and informative writing with an engaging mix of articles and photos highlighting Nebraska’s outdoor activities, parklands, wildlife, history and people.
Issue link: http://mag.outdoornebraska.gov/i/644631
Story and photos by Jeff Kurrus An overnight viewing blind turns into a place of magic for a father and daughter. EUROPEANS, CRANES AND A DAUGHTER S ometimes a writer doesn't tell the full story. For fear of embarrassment, backlash, or the like, they stay away from a good tale. Well, this time I won't. Because I was scheduled for a speaking engagement at the Crane Trust Nature & Visitor Center near Alda last March, I was offered a night in one of the Center's overnight blinds as a trade for my talk that afternoon. Having never spent an evening in one of the blinds, I jumped at the chance, bringing along camera gear, winter clothes for the 35 degree overnight, enough food to hold me off until Kentucky Fried Chicken in York the next morning and my newly-turned 6-year-old daughter, Madeline. Madeline has made a few appearances in the magazine thus far in her young life, most notably being on-hand when I was bitten by a snake for the first time. But this trip would be different. She'd be with me in her first overnight blind, without a ride to take us out until well into the next morning. We waited beside our vehicle with our gear as a young 20-something employee of the Trust came to take us, along with another pair of gentlemen, to adjacent blinds along the south side of the Platte just a few miles away. The men in our company had enough equipment to photograph for a month – bag after bag was loaded into the back of the truck as the two men spoke another language to each other – my guess was western European. They also communicated in English with me and our guide, who loaded us in and drove us toward our blinds. "And she's going?" one of the other photographers asked me. "Yeah, she'll be fine," I said, knowing that, when it comes down to it, my frog-catching, deer-skinning, Toadstool-hiking daughter is fit for just about any challenge. All this would be is a night camping in a photo blind for her. No worries. "Okay, so we have three blinds down here," said our young guide, "and I'm not exactly sure who is assigned to each. I forgot my sheet. MARCH 2016 • NEBRASKAland 25