Carl

Like many here, Arctics was the last to fall for me. When I first moved to Florida, I soon learned that hiking here almost always includes some wading. Bought a pair of rubber hunting boots from Bass Pro Shops, soon found out that they were not the answer. Too hot and often water is deeper than the boot. Shifted to low-cut non-waterproof, breathable trail shoes. Your feet are going to get wet here. But it's not like you are wading in an icy stream. Relax and air out your feet at night or on the drive home.

First try at a Saturday puzzle for me in a very long time. I usually require some outdoor time. A steady drizzle outside kept me indoors all day long. I was ready to spend a long time, longer than almost of you, pecking away at a crossword puzzle. Surprised that the long answers came to me much faster than the shorter ones. First three and last three across answers filled in fairly early with no cheating. It was the middle area that stumped me, doing more than one lookup.

Great puzzle. Thanks. Needed to run through the list of vowels to fill the crossing of REA and MECHA. Two and done. Do the emus know they have two vowels in their title?

After about ten minutes of work, my puzzle struck me as an imperfect representation of the population density of the lower 48 United States held up to a mirror. The West, fully populated, the East with mostly wide-open spaces. Cheated once by looking up mixtape, changed EMO to RAP, and RELAYRACES became an option. Worked out the right side of the dragon, chicken, cat and turtle clues, and the rest fell into place. Fun puzzle