I like to travel to Europe, and I have crossed the Atlantic over a hundred times, but I most like to cross on a ship. And I particularly like the Queen Mary 2. Each night, before getting in bed, I like to step out on our balcony, under the stars, and contemplate the power and majesty of that great ocean.
Now my wife and I have bought a condo overlooking the St. Joseph River in Elkhart, where we have a third-floor deck overlooking the broad St. Joe, just above the dam. And I love to stand out there after dark, before hitting the sheets, and drink in the beauty of nature.
Recently, we had a “Blue Moon,” which is two full moons in the same month. My wife and I went to a small party at a neighboring condo and stood on the deck to watch a glorious orange moon appear behind some trees and slowly rise to full silver splendor in the night sky.
Later, back home, before going to bed, I did what I so often do and stood on my own deck to watch the magical moon shimmering over the softly rippling waters of the river.
But then.… what was that? As I watched, I saw a very large black rounded shape slowly appear in the river, like a whale or something. But there are no whales in inland U.S. rivers. Only this one seemed to have a tail. It stayed there for just a little while, then with a flick of that enormous tail slowly disappeared back into the inky black waters.
We have all heard of the Loch Ness Monster, and read about the recent concerted effort to find it at last, up north in Scotland. Though I don’t believe it exists, I have driven the length of Loch Ness many times, and I could never resist looking, and looking, because hey, you never know. So could this be something similar?
And then I remembered that I had seen this one before – twice – both times during the August full moon. Strange. But what could it be? An oversized sturgeon which had been living there for years? Was it a giant catfish that spent many years lying at the base of the dam, eating whatever came by? Could it be something else? And why would it appear at the August full moon?
But I certainly saw something, and it looked like an aquatic beast of some sort, and of gigantic size. And if the Loch Ness Monster got the name Nessie, I felt this one should be Josie, the St. Joe Monster.
Laugh if you want, but there are strange things in this world of which we know so little.