Armadillo Extravaganza

I was driving down the road yesterday in one of our more rural states when I finally spotted what has to be biggest freak of nature:  the armadillo.  I was still kind of ticked off that I'd missed the live one crossing our path the day before, but this road kill was really cool, in a very sick way.  It had claws and body armor carapace (is that English?).  Man, talk about prehistoric.

My travel companion was French and upon seeing the live beast suddenly lost all of his English, completely, and morphed back into his mother tongue, trying to explain what he'd just seen.  It took me a few beats to put two and two together...armadillo.  He asked me the word in French...as if!  (But for those of you who must know, it's "un tatou."  Thank you, Google).

Once I spotted the first little road pizza, all bets were off--they were EVERYWHERE!  

Living on the West Coast or East Coast my entire life, it's hard to imagine that these little critters could be so prolific, but, yep, it's true.  For me, it was akin to spotting wild geese in New England, or coyotes in Southern California.  Yes, that common.

My French pal was as excited about his siting as I was about mine--dead or alive.  It just goes to show that no matter where you are on Mother Earth, there's always something to be discovered.

Oh, food, you say, I thought this blog was all about food.  Yeah, well, for some, I suppose this is.