My neighbor (Fritz) and I saw this HUGE turtle during our 5-mile run this morning!
When we were doing our warm-up walk we saw him hear the wooded “swamp” area, but when we were nearing the end, he had moved across the street to a tree in front of a house.
I’ve never seen a turtle that big in our neighborhood, so I was pretty excited. Does that make me a huge dork?
Scary half-asleep photo!
I got up at 5:45 today so I could met Fritz at 6:00 for our run. Steven’s parents are in town, and I wanted to get it done before everyone woke up so I wouldn’t have to disappear in the middle of the day to go running. I don’t want to miss out on the fun!
I LOVE running first thing in the morning. But wow, the night before a morning run, I cannot sleep AT ALL. I am too excited to get up and run, and I’ll actually have dreams about my morning run. And of course, last night, I was awake all night worrying about the rain (it stopped raining for one hour during our run – yay!).
I haven’t been getting quality sleep lately, at all. I keep waking up around 3:00 each night. And since I get up at 4:30, that is really messing with my sleep cycle during the week. Maybe I can fit a nap in this weekend!
Seeing that turtle would have made my day too… It’s so big!
Wow, that’s an impressive turtle, is there a swamp or something nearby?
I need to shift to morning runs. Ack.
WOW, that is a big turtle! I saw a little turtle on my last two morning runs, even they made me happy.
It’s great that you get so excited about running that you can’t sleep. For me, though, that would make it less likely that I would go run when the alarm went off!
OMG, I want him! And I shall call him Herbert!
I have a VERY similar photo of myself and a big tortoise…in Florida!
Man, I wish I got that excited about, well, anything! Ha ha. I usually only can’t sleep when I’m fretting. 🙁
That’s awesome! I love big turtles!
I don’t know much of anything about our amphibious friends from the Mezozoic era, but that seems like an *enormous* turtle to be found in Illinois! How does he, as a cold-blooded animal, tolerate our winters??
I wonder if he’s somebody’s pet, either escaped (?!) or intentionally let-loose…
OMG, that turtle is HUGE! Neat!
Marla – We saw him again today! My cat was staring out the window all funny, so we looked out, and there he was… 😉 Thanks for stopping by!
Nat – There is a marsh nearby. We wonder if it is a female turtle trying to lay eggs? Making the morning switch is hard, don’t you think?
Hotch Potchery – I love the little baby ones! This one was a bit creepy!
Jen – I was so tired I DID want to stay in bed, but after losing all that sleep, I thought “what the hell.” I took a nap from 9:15-10:00!
LiLu – Herbert! I LOVE IT!!! 😀
diane – Ooo! I want to see your pic! I’ve seen you get excited about things, maybe you just don’t lose sleep over them 😉 Maybe you’ll be so excited when that new gym finally opens that you will start to! Ha ha. I hope not 😉
Mica – I wish he would have ran with me. 😛 LOL
E – How could anyone have a pet turtle THAT big though? He is huge!!! Do they swim south in the winter? Ha ha.
Shaina – He’s the biggest I’ve ever seen in the wild!
i hate to admit that i am scared of turtles so i would have probably just run faster!!!! silly as that sounds, like a turtle would chase me!!! i feel for you not sleeping!!! i know how that is!!! hopefully you will start sleeping well again soon!!!!
=^..^=
CourtneyInControl – This turtle was so frickin’ huge – being scared of him might be a good idea!
Uh, I don’t mean to freak you out, but I’m pretty sure that’s a snapping turtle. They’re dangerous! One that size can and will take your finger off with one bite. The bigger ones can snap your arm. Don’t try to handle it. They’re really common where I live.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Snapping_Turtle
A few years ago a turtle laid eggs in my neighbors yard. I have tons of pictures of my kids holding the baby turtles after they hatched. Later I found out that they were snapping turtles but the babies were harmless. It was something I will never forget and neither will my kids. It was just the coolest thing. We have turtles in our backyard all the time, but I don’t think we have had one quite that big.
such a cool turtle!!!! i have been stoked about all the baby ducks lately 🙂
Jen512 – AHH!!! Thanks for the warning! I don’t want to lose any fingers.
tori – Aww! I would have loved to see baby turtles! How cool!
aron – I love baby ducks. And baby geese. Okay, ALL baby animals!
That is one big and kind of prehistoric looking turtle. I actually saw one that looked very similar to that one in size and looks two years ago. It was going to try and cross the street but fortunately, another motorist and myself both stopped so we could keep it out of harm’s way (and keep it from causing an accident as well). I remember it was very large and that it hissed at us when we tried to help it. LOL. No good deed goes unpunished again. 😉
Yeah those snapping turtles hiss! They’re scary, I like to swim in the rivers and springs around here but those are always in the back of my mind. There’s another variety called alligator snapping turtles, and they look ultra-prehistoric (because they are) and have spines on their shell, scary!
I used to have those cute little water turtles as pets, the ones with the red ears.
Holy crap, he’s huge!! How cool to see him on your run though. I’d love to have a pet turtle 🙂
teeni – That sounds JUST LIKE the turtle we saw! When he came back, we had to move him, and he was all hissy. LOL.
Jen512 – Ugh, can you imagine one snapping on a toe when you are swimming? Ouch! The little turtles with the red ears sounds much better 😉
Bethany – Me too! Turtle are so neat! I guess their water smells though? This is what other turtle owners tell me.