On the road with Jay and Sandi

California to Yellowstone

2010-06-08T21:03:00.000-07:00

California is behind us.
After many months of traversing back and forth and up and down and experiencing some great wonders of this state and our nation we have finally put California behind us. We’ll be hard pressed to ever forget the eclectic landscapes – deserts, sea shores, mountains, and massive agricultural areas. After leaving Monterey with its Pebble Beach Golf area, and the aquarium, we headed back north of San Francisco to Petaluma where the U.S. Coast Guard maintains a training center. While there we ventured to Point Reys National seashore to see elephant seals, Tule elk, black-tail deer (I think), and the beginning spring wildflower bloom. The rocky cliffs, miles of beach, and awesome scenic overviews made for a great day trip. On another day we ventured into the Sonoma Valley for some wine tasting. We took a tour that allowed us to experience the vineyards, the processing area, and then gave us a chance to taste several of their estate wines. They were good but I am still happy with Charles Shaw, a.k.a. Two-buck Chuck that we get at the Trader Joes stores. Before departing the USCG base we were told not to miss the Friday noon meal at the chow hall. Coast Guard cooks train at this base and every Friday there is a grand seafood buffet. For $4 and some change we dined on smoked and fresh salmon, assorted fried clams, shrimp, steamed mussels, and all the fixings. Believe you me, the Coast Guard eats well!

We casino hopped for a couple nights where we stayed at casinos that welcome RVers. We attempted to show our gratification by eating diner in the casinos and losing a few dollars at the gaming tables and in the slots but they apparently did not want our cash. After two nights we were still in the winner’s circle, and well fed as well.

Between casinos we passed through the Humboldt Redwood State Park and were in awe with the largest remaining stands of old-growth redwood trees. We hiked several trails and were just overcome with the majesty of these enormous trees and the spectacle of the lush ferns and mosses that flourish in this very wet and verdant ecosystem. We crossed the Klamath River several times and stopped for some Native American smoked salmon--great snack! The Klamath has been a river of controversy with the agricultural community taking too much water from the river leaving too little flow to support the salmon migration.

Humboldt Redwood State Park was not enough for us so we spent a few more days looking at the redwood and beaches of Redwood National Park. There we got to see the Roosevelt elk, as well as more majestic redwoods. We stayed in Smith River National Recreation Area and took a scenic drive on a one-lane gravel road along the river and through more old growth redwoods, and Douglas fir. Sure was impressive.

We left the National Forest campground in the recreation area and followed Rt 199 to Oregon where we stopped for a few days Near Grants Pass. A day after we drove the scenic mountain road, it was closed by a rock-slide. We camped at Valley of the Rogue River State Park—right along the Rogue River, noted for its white-water rafting and world class salmon and trout fishing. We’re between salmon and steelhead runs so I did not bother to wet a line, but maybe we can come through here another more appropriate time. With the recent rains and the winter run-off, all the rivers we see are flowing at capacity. We’re camped relatively close to Crater Lake so we took a day to drive into the National Park. As we climbed higher, we left the balmy 50+ degree temperature along the river and watched as the temperature dropped as we climbed up the mountain—finally reaching 23 degrees. Passing through a vast evergreen forest, we started seeing a dusting of snow that soon became a thick white blanket. At the top of the caldera near the visitor center the road-cuts made by the huge snow blowers were over 8 feet high on both sides of the road. This has not been a good year for snow fall. They are about 100 inches behind their normal 460” for the season.

From the ROGUE River area we headed for the coast. Not the best time to be on the Oregon coast with high seas, winds, daily rain, and cool temperatures. The coast is beautiful with great waves crashing onto the beach. Some beaches are great expanses of sand—others are rocky outcroppings. On a walk down to the waterline at near low-tide on Seal Beach we got to play in the tidal pools. No effort is needed to see Dozens of starfish in various shades of blue, orange and grey; sea anemones; sea cucumbers, and other squirting creatures. If all that was not enough, a flock of harlequin ducks perched nearby on some rocks and showed off their colors. Although I did not get to see any of the shorebirds that I was hoping to see, we were certainly not disappointed with what we did get to see.

We left the coast for the Columbia River Gorge where we took a quick tour of the Bonneville Dam and the fish hatchery. We also stopped at several exceptional waterfalls. Oregon has been rainy every day which, with the wind and cool temperatures, makes it a bit uncomfortable. We may just have to add Oregon-in-good-weather to our list of places we still want to visit.

We finally arrived at McChord Air Force Base in Tacoma, WA. Here we parked the RV and flew back East for a much needed visit with family and an essential grandkid fix. Seems all were well and growing just getting older and we realized how much we miss being around family.

After returning to McChord we started a circumvention of the Olympic Peninsula. With Mt Rainier in the rearview mirror we headed north. After passing through some awesome countryside with the Hood Canal on our right and verdant mountains disappearing into the clouds on the left we passed over beckoning salmon streams to arrive in Chimacum (near Port Townsend) Washington on the Strait of Juan de Fuega. Knowing good seafood would be scarce in a matter of weeks when we get to Yellowstone, we began a seafood binge with some great fresh (according to the waitress, “just 200 yards away”) oysters at a Mom-and-Pop family restaurant. Then a stop at a shellfish farm for some clams for steaming, and some smoked and shucked oysters for stew later on. In Port Townsend we took a self guided tour past dozens of beautiful Victorian homes -- all circa. 1860s – and stumbled on a sign –“fresh crabs, clams, oysters, seafood”. With a big Dungeness crab under our arm we headed home for what was one of several special seafood dinners.

Northwest birding was somewhat challenging. I managed to get a few new gulls as well as some alcids. New birds or not, the seascapes have been spectacular. We have stopped just short of the most Northwest point in the continental US to visit Mount Olympus, take a ferry to Victoria, B.C., and do some fascinating tidal pool investigating. We learned to live with the persistent rain and really enjoyed the Pacific Northwest. Completing our trip around the Olympic Peninsula, although without reaching our fill of lush fern –filled rain forests, magnificent coastlines, spectacular views of Mount Olympus, and fresh seafood feasts, we pointed our rig eastward and headed to Yellowstone National Park.

Our first week was one of training—exceptional training. World-known geologists covered the history of the landscape and the details of current seismic activity. Biologists gave details of bear, wolf, bison, and elk activity; ecologists verified weather, plant, and animal interaction and dependence; botanists took us on field trips to identify flowers. We have a few days set aside to re-familiarize ourselves with routine procedures, develop our programs, and prepare for another great year in, what I think, is America’s Wonderland.

San Francisco & Monterey

2010-03-20T21:22:00.000-07:00

From Oxnard we headed back east into the Mojave Desert for a few days of rest and relaxation. We stayed at Edwards AFB where I managed to get in a round of golf that I prefer not to elaborate on. We went to the Air Force test museum and thoroughly enjoyed the displays and especially the movies of the Air Force test history. Seeing Chuck Yeager’s Bell X-1 that broke the sound barrier as well as many other great airplanes was interesting. Edwards is on the Rodger’s Dry lake bed where the Space Shuttle lands when it cannot land at Cape Kennedy (Canaveral). Two 747s built to carry the Shuttle from Edwards back to Kennedy were parked on the ramp at Edwards.
We left Edwards for Travis AFB and were able to make a quick tour of Sequoia National Park. The weather in the mountains broke just enough that’ with rented chains for the tires, we were able to get up to see General Sherman, the largest tree in the world. The giant forest was simply spectacular and the snow that was over 8’ in places added to the experience. At Travis we stayed for about a week. Their fam-camp is ok but they have more rules than Alcatraz has and it was almost like being in prison. Regardless it was a great place to base while touring San Francisco. We rendezvoused in town with a very special couple who used to go with me out to Horn Island in Mississippi. They always said I was to call them if I ever came to California so we did. They met us and gave us a grand tour of San Francisco. From the government buildings, the Presidio, Golden Gate Bridge and more we drove all over the town, saw and rode on cable cars, drove down the most crooked street in the USA (Lombard Street), had some great food, saw some great views, and just had a great time. We attempted a whaling trip with Jennifer and Joey but wind, rain, and high seas made for a rather rough outing. We have rain checks and maybe we will get another chance. Sandi and I had been anxious for sea food and finally had a great meal at Fisherman’s Warf – Dungeness Crab and fresh salmon. We took a tour of Alcatraz, bought San Francisco sourdough bread, and just had an awesome time.
From San Francisco we went back south to Monterey. This has been another great stop. We drove along the Big Sur. Great waves crashing on rocky shores, sea lions, harbor seals, giant redwoods, some great birds and one breath-taking view after another as we cruised south along the coast. A stop at a farm market provided some of the freshest and tastiest strawberries and artichokes. We hiked trails in a most interesting National Estuary Research Reserve and I picked up a couple more life birds and then we spent a day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Not nearly as big as other aquariums we’ve been to like Atlanta, Chattanooga, and Baltimore, but every bit as good. They had a very natural display full of live shore birds. Black oyster-catchers, snowy plovers, marbled-godwits, American Avocets, assorted sandpipers, phalaropes, and more. All in the open and within arm’s reach. We ate lunch in their awesome restaurant sitting against big windows and enjoyed more sea food while watching harbor seals, pelagic and Brant’s cormorants, pigeon guillemots, and especially sea otter--all in the wild in the Monterey Bay. Their kelp forest display, and sea-horses were awesome.
Sandi and I have picked up a hitch-hiker in the form of a Barbie doll called Belle from the Beauty and the Beast. We take Belle with us and she gets to write back to her best friend and “Mommy” our four year old granddaughter, Braelyn, who though that since she could not travel with Nana and Pop Pop, maybe Belle could go. Remember Flat-Stanley?
Golf is great here as it should be. Sandi and I toured Pebble Beach and ate more seafood from the veranda of the clubhouse overlooking the famous 18th hole. I would have liked to play a round there since the course is open to the public but the $500 green fee is just out of my range. If I could only find a sponsor.

Salton Sea to Oxnard California

2010-02-27T06:41:00.000-08:00

The Salton Sea was a great birding area and we were to return there but first it was back to the desert near Yuma to relax and return to Mexico for some affordable dental work. Then back to Slab City and a tour of the wetlands around the Salton Sea with a contract tour on the International Birding Festival. Saw some great birding areas. No life-birds but some great birding. Seeing thousands of Pintails at one time was interesting. The bird expert was a painful, egotistical, know-it-all, but except for some glaring mis-identifications, he really did have a good birding knowledge. From there we headed to desert Hot Springs Resort, a Western Horizon Resort. Not an organization that I would want to belong to. I was a bit amused with the inhospitality of nearly everyone – staff, members, sales staff, etc. Not that we did not meet some friendly folks but they were the exception and not the rule. Went from there to 29 Palms where we stayed at the Marine Corps Base. Just a few miles from the Joshua Tree National Park, we took the time to drive through the park, take a couple hikes through an oasis (saw my first California thrasher) and play a round of golf on the Marine base.
From there it was back to Algedones, Mexico for some dental follow-up. That completed we worked our way westward to Point Magu Navy Base near Ventura, California (Northwest of Los Angeles). We are nearly parked right on the beach. Shore birds and harbor seals are abundant. The weather forecast is scheduled to be varied from day-to –day for the next week so we need to plan our activities accordingly. The good weather of the first day made for a touring opportunity to see Hollywood. We took the drive down the Pacific Coast Highway and into Hollywood where we saw Grauman’s Chineese Theater, the Kodak Theater, the Hollywood Walk-of-Fame with all the stars as well as the footprints and hand prints of stars in front of the theater. We also went down to the La Brea Tar Pits to view the work being done there as well as to go through the museum and see the thousands of fossils they have so far discovered. The displays of Mammoths, saber-tooth cats, dire wolves, and more were a great sight to see. Watching the actual excavation-in-progress and the cleaning and cataloging work was most interesting.
The Oxnard area has been interesting. We visited the Harbor at Ventura, after getting some advice from the folks at the Oxnard Information Center. We attempted to find the roosting monarch butterflies at a local city park but few remained. Seems late February is just too late. We did fond a few mating pairs and others flying around as well as numerous hummingbirds. The only ones I could positively identify were Anna’s. The Costa hummingbird, supposedly common, simply eludes me. We sto[pped at a fruit stand and bough farm fresh celery, avacodos, and strawberries. Eating one of these berried is almost like eating an apple.

Oxnard is just a few miles from the Channel Islands so I had to take a trip out there. Added almost a dozen new birds to my life list including the endemic scrub jay of Santa Cruz Island. Saw several new cormorants, some auklets and common murrelets. No whales but hundreds, maybe thousands of common dolphins as well as a multitude of sea lions. A great trip on the Island Packer.

Phoenix to California's Salton Sea

2010-01-19T16:02:00.000-08:00

We pulled into the Freightliner truck facility in Phoenix for what turned out to be a $1600 oil change. Actually a lot more than just an oil change: Filters, inspections, lube, transmission fluid change and more. There is a lot to be said about preventive maintenance.
We had a great couple of days together with Frank Ramsey, my roommate and squadron-mate from Vietnam days and his wife Janis. A few dinners out, a round of golf that I prefer not to talk about (Franks home course, a mountainous, but beautiful desert course, destroyed me), and plenty of time to recall our experiences as Lopez FACs (forward Air Controllers) made for a most enjoyable way to spend time while the RV was getting its annual checkup.
Frank and Janis have a place in Alaska where they spend the summer and keep their bush plane, a Maul, that Frank uses to get into the back country for hunting and fishing. We’ve been putting a trip to Alaska on the back burner for sometime but the invite from Frank and Janis to see Alaska the right way may be too good to pass up.

From Phoenix we made a short drive to Tonopah, AZ where there is a great hot springs. The private area that Sandi and I rented for two hours had a beautiful rock hot tub with a water temp around 106F. There was also a cooling tub which we did not use. Lounges and chairs faced to the west and the setting sun. The private area was enclosed on three sides and completely open facing the desert. What a great way to watch a beautiful sunset.
We finally arrived in Quartzite, AZ, the boondocking destination for thousands of RVers. We heard from our great friend, Marilyn Darling, from Mexico and Yellowstone and met her and several other friends whom we had travelled with into Mexico. We joined up with another 100 other RVers who belong to a group called the “Boomers” all baby-boomers born between 1940 – 1960. We were all parked in the middle of the desert on BLM land. The “Boomers” are an interesting group—no officers, no rules. A working display of anarchy. If you do not like what you see or what is going on, you are free to leave anytime. Our visit here coincided with a huge flea market and a rather large RV show each with hundreds of vendors selling everything from RV-unique items to things that I can’t imagine anyone needing – miracle eyeglass cleaner, kitchen aids that chop and dice (just like seen on TV), tools, nuts and bolts, jewelery, and much more. We did get new RV slide-out awnings and a few other item that we really needed. It is also a rock-hound’s mecca and all kinds of lapidary equipment, rocks and fossils are on display and are available for sale.
This town is quite different. It has a gum museum (never been to one of them), a book seller that has a store on Main Street who does not wear any clothes, and there is a monument to Hadji Ali, a Syrian camel driver that came here in the early 1860s to help the U.S. Army with a test to see if camels would work in the American deserts. Known locally as Hi Jolly, he is buried beneath a pyramid monument in the local cemetery. We are surrounded by mountains, but the desert is flat and quite suitable for boondocking. It really is like a big party. It has been fun but we were ready to continue on towards California.

From Quartzite we headed to Yuma and then into california where we faound a great place out in the desert to spend a few days. The rains came and we watched an Arroyo "dry stream bed" go from bone dry to a raging flood torrent. The wheather forcasters commented that they had never in a liffetime seen Arizona entirely in the green forcasting rain. Many had more than a half a years rain in one day. We endured the rain and 50 mile-per-hour winds and really apreciated the nice weather when it returned. We took a side trip without the RV into Algedones, Mexico where we had another tooth filled and both got a couple pairs of glasses.

Then on to El Centro Naval Air Facility. Small Navy Air base that is used for training and also is the winter home for the Navy's Blue Angels. It was quite thrilling to see a daily air show right over the RV when the Blue and Gold F-18s would return from their practice sessions.

North of El Centro in the Salton Sea, one of the Important Birding Areas. An awesome inland sea, that is saltier than the Pacific Ocean, is a great place to see birds. I've seen nearly 100 species and have added a couple new birds to my life list. I think the Eurasian Widgeon is the best so far. A close look in the photo will show Ross Geese. Snow Geese, American Avocets, Shovellers, Pintails, Widgeon, and more. What a place.

Departing Tucson

2010-01-10T05:35:00.000-08:00

Thought I better bring this blog up to date, if not for those who may try to keep up with us, then just to keep up my historical record of where we’ve been or what we have done.
After departing Sabino Canyon, we parked the RV at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base(DMAFB) and flew back East to visit our kids, grandkids and my parents. We managed to have this visit coincide with Sam's birthday. Birthdays are special times and just maybe we will be able to attend a few more of them in the future. Another short visit, we decided we needed more time so our next visit may be a bit longer and we will, in all likelihood, head back East after Yellowstone this coming summer.
On returning to Tucson after our trip east we got tickets and went to see a great production of the Nutcracker Suite on Christmas Eve. We had two Christmas dinners: a party put on by the DMAFB RV Park and a great Christmas dinner at the chow hall on base. Military members, their wives and kids, all manned the serving line, giving up some of their Christmas day to bring Christmas dinner to those who could not head home for the holiday.
We departed DM for Kartchner State Park and the Kartchner caverns, a magnificent recently discovered cave, that has been meticulously managed and developed to preserve its natural qualities – no colored lights, no music played on stalactites, and little focus on the naming of the features but a lot of geology facts. From there, a quick trip to Douglas AZ and Agua Parieta Mexico for some golf, shopping, and some dental work. Then we headed a short distance to Naco, AZ so I could play the Turquoise Valley Golf course that is home to the 10th longest golf hole in the world – a 747 yard par 6 – called the rattler. Not a favorite hole of mine where the best I could do was bogey.
We returned to DMAFB and I managed a few more rounds of golf- One at the Tucson National course (which was home of the Tucson Open years ago) and another round on the DMAFB course. We also took a trip to the San Xavier Mission which is just south of Tucson. One of the missions founded by Father Kino, this mission still serves the Tohono O'Odham Indian Nation.
Disney has been advertising a day at the park in return for a day of volunteer service. Sandi and I decided to accept the invitation and gave a day to help the Girl Scouts distribute 351,000 cases of cookies. Our plans are to get to Disneyland sometime in the next month. We will probably forgo the hi-speed roller coaster rides and opt for more sedate attractions but we are looking to take a Segway tour of the park.
We will leave DM today for Phoenix for some routine annual maintenance on the RV.

Sabino Canyon

2009-11-24T18:38:00.001-08:00

Sabino Canyon is a beautiful place. It is a Federal Recreation Area and our RV is parked amongst the assorted Cacti of the Sonoran Desert. Not a single day goes by without wildlife of some kind appearing. White-tail deer, Gambril’s quail, desert cotton-tail rabbits, and assorted lizards seem to be every where. Tucson weather is awesome. There was one day of winter where we had temps during the day in the 50s but most days we see 80s and 90s. In 1 1/2 months we’ve seen rain twice with not enough either time to make anything wet.

We are volunteers at the Sabino Canyon Visitor Center. Sandi mans the visitor services desk and I have developed a Junior Ranger Program which I am supposed to present twice a day on Saturdays and Sundays. We only “work” three days a week but are always with two or three other volunteers or paid personel. Sabino Canyon, next to the Grand Canyon, is the most visited natural area in Arizona (so I’ve heard). Very few of the daily visitors come into the visitor center with only 400-500 coming through the door on a busy day; most come to the co-located bookstore that is operated by a separate organization so the three or four of us essentially take turns helping the few visitors who ask for help. The Forest Service has not been very aggressive in advertising the Junior Ranger Program and I have only given the program to about 40 people in eight weeks. Needless to say, we are far from over worked. The rest of the volunteers who work here are a good group. Like many public land management agencies (National Forest, Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife, and National Park Service), the organizations would not be able to do what they do without the volunteers. It is very apparent here. I think the other volunteers are kept rather busy during their work periods but Sandi and I are very underutilized. Never-the-less we sure enjoy being in the area.

On our four days a week off we generally take a hike through the canyon area. Our 1-6 mile hikes are special events. We always hope to see Coatis, Gila Monsters, Bobcats, or Mountain Lions but we are never in the right place at the right time. We have seen an assortment of comon lizards including collared-lizards. It is probably too cold for the big lizards but in the time we have been here others have reported seeing the cats and coatis. Maybe we will be lucky before we leave here. We’ve been to the Tucson Opera, toured the Biosphere, driven to Mount Lemmon, and have found the selection of resturaunts in Tucson great. A China-Thai resturaunt serves great spring rolls and friends of ours from Yellowstone NP and Big Bend NP stopped by and we went to the El Corral resturaunt for great prime rib where we were surrounded by old photos of the likes of Tom Mix, Roy Rodgers, Hopalong Cassidy, the Cisco Kid, Gene Autry and others--all the others.

Golf has been good. I get out twice a week and am playing well but just can not seem to get the game to where I want it but I guess all golfers never get low enough scores. Maybe today will be the day. Sandi has been spending lots of time exercising her sewing machine and is nearing completion of several projects.

We have gone through a rash of RV maintenance problems. A rogue rock jumped out and scraped the RV and the car-in-tow while I was pulling into a camping spot. Can’t believe what it cost to fix up just a scratch. Our powered patio awning had a multiple component failure. A gas spring failed and the motor stopped working. I had to have a gas spring special made but I was able to dissassemble the motor assemble and fix that myself. We came home one day to find our refrigerator on but not cooling. Took a new cooling unit. Then themicrowave/convection oven had a capacitor short out and I had to take it to a shop. They did fix it in just a couple days. Hope the string of failures stops. We have really been fortunate that we have had very few equipment failures since we started RVing.

We are in our last few days here. It has been interesting. A huge tortise wandered into the canyon. I t was identified as an exotic African Spur-thighed tortoise. We found out that it had escaped from a neighboring yard. It weighed over 80 pounds and was probably ten times larger than the native dessert tortoise that lives here. On Monday I went out of the RV and came face-to-face with a bobcat. I called to Sandi and she nearly swooned. She has a special attraction to wild cats and seeing one so close is special.

Crand Canyon NP to Sabino Canyon, AZ

2009-10-09T18:22:00.000-07:00

The Grand Canyon is inspiring, not just because of the beauty but also because of it’s massiveness. A short hike out to one of the overlooks and some time spent looking for California Condors was time well spend even if the Condors were not cooperative.

From the North Rim we headed west to Las Vegas for a few nights at Nellis AFB and a show to celebrate our 37th anniversary. We watched the Lion King and the puppetry and the music were everything we had heard. What a great show. Another round of golf for me (46/42 again), a lunch with Angelina Yost, our boss a few years ago at Big Bend and we were back on the road to see the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. We camped at another National Forest Campground and spent several days in the area. The views are awesome. We listened to two different Ranger programs – one on geology. We enjoy learning about geology and have developed a real interest in the geological history of the Earth. The second talk was an excellent talk on Condors and right in the middle of the Condor talk one of the huge birds (#33) flew over twice. What an experience. Bird #33 is the last remaining of the original birds released into the wild around 1996. After the talk, and some ice cream, but before leaving for the day, we saw a total of five different condors. With a 9+ foot wingspand they are easy to pick out from the turkey vultures with which they soared. A hike into the canyon is a must. I hiked a short way on the Kaibab trail to Ooh Aah point and then down to the Cedar Overlook. I wish I had considered a rim-to-rim hike. It would have been an awsome accomplishment. Maybe the next time.

We left the south rim and headed toward Tucson. We get an occassional high coolant temperature warning light when climbing up these mountains. A check with both Caterpillar and Freightliner indicates that we need a good radiator cleaning. We’ll get that done in Tucson sometime before heading out again.

We have made to the Sabino Canyon recreational area and are now set up and have good cell phone coverage as well as a good internet connection. The view from our RV of the mountains to the north and the hills covered with saguaro cactus is awesome. We’ll only be here for a few months before we head off somewhere else.

From Yellowstone to Navajo country

2009-10-03T18:44:00.000-07:00

A tear comes to our eye each time we pass a wayward bison on our southward journey from Yellowstone National Park after an awesome summer. Our plans are to return as we have been given indications that we are rehire-eligible. This is the first I have worked for anyone but myself since retireing from the USAF in 1997 and I had no idea that returning to employment could be so enjoyable. We had an unblievably exceptional group of co-workers this summer. Over half the team were seasoned rangers with skills and depth-of-knowledge that I can only hope to acquire after more years of experience.
Before leaving Yellowstone we made a quick stop at Grant to visit with a ranger friend, Marilyn Darling, whom we had met in Mexico several years ago. After a quick lunch and some good-bys we continued on.

We headed south into the Grand Tetons and were fortunate to meet up with Jack and Chris, Chapter-8, Mexican Connection, Escapee friends whom we travelled with through Mexico last year. The boat ride across Jenny Lake and the hike to Hidden Falls was a needed outing. We managed to see numerous bull elk, antelope, bison, and finally an impressive bull moose at the lodge. The trip from the campground at Coulter Bay to the one at Gros Ventre was a short ride, leaving enough time to go to Jackson Hole for some touring, gallery cruising (couldn’t afford anything we liked), some icecream, and a visit to the chamber for some recommendations for evening activities. We decided on the Bar-J Chuckwagon and had a great evening of steak, chuckwagon beans and cowboy music. We’ll go there again.

The next day was for relaxation but we still managed to get out for some more wildlife viewing. More bison, pronghorn, two bull moose, and lastly a chorus of bugling bull elk.

We drove onward to Hill Air Force Base in Ogden Utah and had a most interesting drive. The scenery was beyond description. From the Tetons refleciting the morning sun to the Wasatch mountains and the broad hay fields and grazing lands between, the views were breathtaking. A few days at Hill allowed for some grocery shopping, a hair appointment for Sandi and, for me, a much needed round of golf (46/42), my first in about 6 months.

From Hill we headed to Moab Utah for a visit to the Arches and Canyonland National Parks and also the Dead Horse State Park. We stayed in a BLM campground right on the Colorado River. The morning and evening sun on the canyon walls defy description. This is in the “Dinosaur Diamond” so we had to go out and see some real dinosaur bones/fossils. A ranger led hike through the Firey Furnace, and ranger talks added to the experience and gave us a much greater appreciation of the natural stone sculptures and the magnificent canyons.

From Canyonlands we headed to the North Rim of the grand canyon. Passing through Monument Valley and the Navaho Reservation, we had to stop and see Navaho crafts that are available in open air stands along the highway. We stayed in a National Forest Campground and went to a several-hour-long talk on the Navaho and their crafts – primarily the woven blankets. They use no patterns, just make the pattern as they go. Since the length of the finished product is determined with the set of the first threads, the symetry of the blankets is almost beyond belief.

Last big visit for the year

2009-08-23T17:59:00.000-07:00

Coming to realize that we were less that three weeks from our departure date and the end of a fantastic summer in Yellowstone, we decided to take one final look at one (if not our most) favorite places. The road between Madison and Norris is closed in the park which means that from our RV site in Madison, our only option to see the park requires travelling from here, to Old Faithful, Grant Village, Hayden Valley, and Canyon. Beyond that would take an additional day so we limited our adventure to a trip from here to Canyon and back.

The road from Madison to Old Faithful took us through the three most spectacular geyser basins in the world. The drive along the Firehole River is spectacular even though a few herds of elk impeded our movement. Seeing so much wildlife is such an inportant part of any trip through the park so we just enjoy even though it may be a bit of an inconvenience. At the Fountain Paint Pots we saw (and smelled) the boiling mud of the paint pots and saw all four types of thermal features that can be seen in more exagerated forms elsewhere in the park.

Our next stop was Great Fountain Geyser. Though it only erupts every 12 +/- hours, our timing was good and we saw one of the Park's most impressive predictable geysers put on a great show. This may be one of our favorite geysers, but picking your favorites in Yellowstone is as difficult/impossible as picking your favorite child or grandchild. Each and everyone is special.

From Great Fountain we travelled the short distance to the Midway Geyser Basin, home of Grand Prizmatic Spring, the largest hot spring in this hemisphere and the third largest in the world. No words can describe the majesty or beauty of this special place.

We stopped at the Black Sand Basin, a place that we do not visit often, but a place that we find very special. There is a very active geyser there, some spectacular pools, including the famous handkerchief pool (where travellers long ago would toss in their dirty handkerchiefs, only to have them emerge from the abyss thoroughly cleaned) and a certain undescribable solutidude and beauty. A juvenile bald eagle made a pass, stooping downward toward the treetops only to soar upwards, then fold his wings and ballistically soar over the top in a sine-wave-like curve which he repeated numerous times. The eagles have just fledged and this one was certainly enjoying the fact that he can "slip the surly bonds of earth and dance on laughter-silvered wings".

Old Faithful, our next stop, is still Old Faithful and about every 90 minutes puts on a show for those who watch this event and miss the many other much-more spectacular eruptions around the park. We had our ice cream, saw the Inn (largest log structure in the world) and continued toward the Continental Divide. The Divide, as all geography students know, is the backbone of North America where rain falling either flows eastward to the Atlantic Ocean or westward to the Pacific, At Isa Lake, located on the divide, the water flows both ways during peak snow melt season. The one end of the lake has water flowing to the Firehole River, thence to the Madison, Missouri, Mississippi, Gulf of Mexico, and Atlantic Ocean. Water from the other side of this lake (more like a pond) flows through Shoshone Lake, the Snake River and eventually into the Pacific Ocean. There are only two such places like this in North America- both in Yellowstone National Park. God only knows how much I love this place!

We continued down to Grant Village for a short visit with a very special friend who is a ranger at Grant--probably Yellowstone's ranger with the longest history in Yellowstone National Park. Marilyn was a 5 month old baby when her father served here as an interp ranger many years ago (I will not say how many). He is featured in a life-sized mural at the Ranger Museum in Norris. They lived in a tent that was heated with a wood stove. I wonder how many of today's rangers would be willing to live like that. I only hope I can bounce up mountains like she can after I have logged as many miles as she has.

From Grant we headed northward into the Hayden Valley. Past Sulphur Caldron, a hot spring with a pH that nearly compares to battery acid, we entered the broad valley and were drawn to the large mass of vehicles at the second roadside pull-off. This is Yellowstone's indicator that there is either a wolf or bear in the open. This time it was a huge black Grizzly bear. A carcass of a bison, now just a broken up skeleton, lay at stream side. The Grizzly, still gorged from his last meal, woke up from his napping place in the higher grass, moved a few yards and then laid down at streamside for another nap. Earlier in the day that same bear shared the carcass with three other bears and three wolves. Now even the ravens could not find enough pickings for a decent meal. A coyote approached the carcass cautiously but decided that the risk was not worth the reward and crossed the Yellowstone river and headed to parts unknown to the East.

Only a few miles further up the valley and we encountered the herds of bison who migrate here annually for the rut. When the rut is active, bulls grunt, groan, roll in the dirt, and fight in fatal engagements, for the cows of their dreams. Seems all the bulls and cows are already paired up, but seeing the vast expanse of sage with hundreds of bison was still a rewarding and moving experience.

Our last stop was Canyon where the Upper and Lower Falls look much like they have for thousands of years. On one of Yellowstone's earliest explorations, one of the explorers, approaching from the upstream side, was distracted by his pack horse and looked up to suddenly see the canyon only after his horse stopped. His partners soon came up from behind and all were so overtaken by the majesty of the sight that not a word was spoken for over five minutes. I get the same feeling every time I witness the falls and the canyon.

This has been an awesome summer. Since I was but a grade school student, I always wanted to be a ranger. I even started my college years in a forestry program but was side-tracked by a war in a far off country in the far East. Now I am a ranger, and it is everything I had imagined. Sandi and I have had a special summer here this year and expect to return in 2010. For now we are but a few weeks from packing up and heading Southward before the cold weather comes and freezes us in place.

About half way

2009-07-19T07:46:00.000-07:00

We are about halfway through our summer here at Yellowstone National Park. I think our ages, the altitude, and the 40 hour a week schedule is having an effect on us and sleep comes easy every night. We are thoroughly enjoying ourselves here this year which has been almost perfect. We have a group of co-workers that is exceptional. Except for one problem worker every one else is super to work with. I sure hope our supervisor realizes the significance of this dream team. Sandi and I have already decided that we want to return next year if we have the opportunity. Next year would be better that this year because I would already have programs developed for presentations. In the begining of this summer I spent nearly every waking hour developing my programs

Sandi works three 8-hour days one week and four 8-hour days the next. Two years ago, we split that schedule between us which gave us lots of time off. We got in a lot more fishing and hiking that year. I work five 8-hour days with every Wednesday and Thursday off. I have prepared a total of seven programs. There are four programs for youth at the Madison Junior Ranger Station, one Explore Yellowstone program to give visitors an idea on how to plan their visit here, one afternoon talk that I give at either the Museum of the Yellowstone or Grizzly Discovery Center in West Yellowstone, and an Evening Program. I have put in a lot of time into preparing these programs and most are developed to the point that I am quite happy with them. There are two that I think still need a little work.

This sure is a rewarding position. The pay leaves a bit to be desired. I'm a GS-5. Can't get much lower than that, but if I was looking for better pay, I'd be doing something else. If you have seen the recent CNN coverage on Yellowstone, the 77 year old ranger that they interview at Old Faithful Geyser says it very well. This is a labor of love. The kids and even adults that give us a sincere thanks for helping plan their trip, or after programs, is warming. We often come home after work on cloud-9 knowing that we have made a difference for someone. The appreciation they show is often quite moving and we have even received small, but meaningful tokens of appreciation and even letters of thanks. We love this place.

We now have a Skype acount and are able to communicate with our grandkids with both sound and video. What a treat! We will not get back to visit everyone until December, but until then this Skype should help considerably. It sure helps me.

Fishing has been wonderful. Catching has been a bit tough at times. The Madison, Firehole, and Gibbon Rivers are all fished very hard and the trout in them have seen a lot of flies drifted across them and are well educated. I tell people that the fish can not only tell that the fishing flies are not natural food but they can actully identify who tied the fly. We have only had one meal of fresh fish and my largest fish this season is only 12". I did miss a large fish a few days ago but we all know that it is the big one that always gets away.

Today is a relatively easy day for me although the 2:45PM - 11:45PM hours are a bit strange. I will probably try to put some polish on the two programs that I am not completely satisfied with and may try to tie some additional flies so I can match wits later in the week with these challenging fish.

With the season half over, we also need to start preparing for our next tour of duty in Sabino Canyon near Tucson, AZ. We will be volunteering there for about two months (october and November) and are really looking forward to that. Tucson is a wonderful town and Sabino Canyon is absolutely beautiful. Sandi will man a visitor information station and I will be doing nothing but kids programs - Have we gone to Heaven or what? I really do not know what we have done do deserve this life we are living but we sure have been blessed.

Live sure is good!

Day off in Yellowstone National park

2009-06-12T06:43:00.000-07:00

Sandi and I have the same days off so we make it a point to visit some place in the park each week. Yesterday we headed up to Mammoth to visit the Visitor Information Center there and hopefully to hike one of the trails to the old petrefied forest. Although we ran out of time and did not get to do the hike, we had a rather impressive day. Enroute to Mammoth a cinnamon black bear crossed the road and we were able to watch it for quite some time. We left the park through the Roosevelt Arch near Gardner Montana for lunch and had a great meal in a cafe in Gardner. On our return we saw Mountain Bighorn Sheep on the mountain right next to the road. During the day we would see two more herds of these interesting mammals. It is amazing how they cling to the narrow ledges of some rather steep cliffs.

We drove out to the Lamar Valley and thoroughly enjoyed the scenery. On the way we sighted a pair of sandhill cranes with two fuzzy young as well as a great assortment of ducks and a pair of Wilson's phalaropes, a life bird for me. The bull elk are growing their antlers at the rate of 1/2" - 5/8" daily and we passed several right along the road.

The Lamar valley never disappoints us. Bison were in abundance and scattered amongst them were pronghorn antelope and elk. We stopped to watch two black bear sows, each with a cub. Although they were seveeral hundred yards away, they entertained us for quite a while. We drove out past the Yellowstone Association and foud four wolves near a carcass along the Lamar River. Wolves will gorge themselves, eating over 20 pounds at a time. Apparently they had just finished eating and were just working their way slowly up to the tree line to sleep off their diner. Ravens and magpies were enjoying the left-overs. About half the elk that wolves kill are confiscated by grizzly bears and once a bear claims the carcass, nothig else is allowed near until the bear is done.

On our way home, Sandi noticed something in the distance near the Lamar River and we stopped in time to see it get into the river and cross it. Even with only the head visable above the water, we could easily identify it as a large bear. I came up the bank and ran around and eventually started toward us. This was an adult Grizzly bear and it's shoulder hump, dished face and ears were easily seen. It was several hundred yards away and we watched as it ran around and occasionally stopped to scrounge up something to eat. A crowd soon gathered and the large bear continued to move closer. It stopped about 100 yards away and rooted around for food then suddenly started running straight towards us sending everyone scrambling to their cars. After passing in front of us and crossing the road between cars that were lined up watching, it worked its way away from the crow.. What an experience!

The Yellowstone Rangers

2009-06-08T09:28:00.000-07:00

We flew back to Salt Lake City, picked up our RV which was at the Freightliner truck facility for an oil change, and moved up to the Hill Air Force Base FamCamp near Ogden, a few miles north of Salt Lake City. We took a day trip to Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake to see the bison, antelope, mule deer, and assorted birds. I picked up a couple additional life birds including the lazuli bunting and the California Gull which is the Utah state bird and is well know for breaking the plague of locusts the Mormon’s experienced when they first settled in the Salt Lake City. Our next day’s travel took us back into Salt Lake City where we toured the Church of Jesus Christ of the Later Day Saints, Mormon, complex. The Temple is an interesting piece of architecture and is off limits for non-church members but the rest of the complex is available. Two early 20ish female missionaries took us around, providing some Mormon history, personal testimony, and showed us some of the Mormon outreach and humanitarian projects. From there we went to do some genealogical research. The genealogy facility is impressive but our limited time proved insufficient to enable us to make any major discoveries.

The Tabernacle Choir practices on Thursday evenings and most of the practice is open to the public. We took advantage in the opportunity and got to hear the world famous choir and the 11,000+ pipe organ. The Sunday service where the radio program is broadcast from is also open to the public and we have placed that on our list of to do things for our next time through Salt Lake City.

We just happended to find out about a 140th anniversary of the Golden Spike Ceremony at Pronimatory Point near Salt Lake City where the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads met completing the building of the trans continental railroad. We were quite impressed and moved by the significance of the event.

An easy three hour drive took us to the Lava Hot Springs in Idaho. Run by the state of Idaho, these commercial hot springs are very nice. There were about 5 different pools with temperatures ranging from about 102 degrees to 110 degrees. We started at the cooler pools and ended up in the hottest. These pools are open year round and the photos in the brochure show bathers in the pools with snow covering everything around the pools. That would be a treat. We will probably stop back here sometime and maybe we will be fortunate to catch some snow.

One day at the hot springs was enough to cleanse our systems and we continued another three hours to Craters of the Moon National Monument. This is a weird place to say the least. Lava flows from over 15000 years ago to as recent as 2000 years ago have created a landscape that defies description. The lunar landing astronauts trained here for a reason although the moon’s surface is pocked from meteor impacts, not from lava. Cinder cones and spatter cones dot the 50mile by 30 mile park. Displays and movies in the visitor center describe the various types of flows and lavas. Nether Sandi or I have had much experience with volcanoes or lave so we were like to kids in a new and exciting learning environment. Though the lava in this park is predominantly basaltic, we are still able to relate some with our Yellowstone experiences where much of the lava is rhyolite. Interestingly enough the calderas that form a smile like arc through Idaho along the Snake River all occurred when the continental land mass moved over the hotspot located now where Yellowstone is.

Sandi and I drove the seven mile loop road and climbed to the top of Inferno Mountain which is a relatively recent cinder cone, a volcano that was active only 2000 years ago. After hiking through one of the lava tubes, we figured we had experienced Craters of the Moon and decided to continue towards Yellowstone.

A short two hour drive brought us to Rigby, Idaho, just north of Idaho Falls. Our purpose here was two-fold: 1) Meet with the technician who set up our internet satellite system several years ago and 2) Tour the Titanic Artifacts exhibit. The exhibit was interesting. The tickets we purchased were boarding passes and each of us had a pass with information about an original Titanic traveler. At the end we were able to check our names with a list of all passengers and found out that neither of us completed the voyage although Sandi’s traveler had a wife and two small children who were rescued.

The technician solved my internet problem by replacing a slightly warped dish and then allowed us to remain in his driveway for the evening. His wife’s parents, the Fenstermachers, trace their ancestors to Berks and Lehigh Counties in PA and were interested in meeting us so they came to the RV for a visit. Mrs. Fenstermacher is a genealogist for the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints (Mormons) and offered help when I needed it. We had a great visit.

We made it to Yellowstone National Park, arriving just a couple days before our training. Our season got off to an exciting start when we fortuned to get to see a small pack of three wolves harass and then kill a wounded elk. The head wolf researcher in Yellowstone has only witnessed ten kills so we felt extremely fortunate to have been able to watch this somewhat gruesome but very natural cycling of energy in the food chain. Our pre-season training on the resources was exceptional with great presentations on wolves, history, and geology.

Finally in the park ranger uniform, I am fulfilling a life long desire. I am a park ranger and am loving it. Sandi is back on the job as a volunteer at the Madison Visitor Center. Two of Sandi’s days off coincide with mine but she gets an additional day or two off every week. It has been a while since either of us has put in 8 hour days and sleeping comes easy nearly every night.

Time off for me has been devoted almost entirely to preparing the minimum of seven programs that I am scheduled to present. As I get closer to completion on these preps, I can finally get out to cast a fly in nearby trout streams. Sandi has been catching up on some of her sewing and together we have been visiting and touring other visitor centers around the park. Yesterday we hiked the Lake Overlook trail near Grant Village. The two-mile moderately strenuous hike took us through prime bear country but all we saw was some bear scat and a few elk including one spotted new-born.

Yellowstone is still the wonderland we experienced two years ago and our experiences this year have been every-bit as enjoyable and exciting as those we had in the past. My duties include far more than just doing the programs for the Junior Rangers as well as adults but the gratification I get from helping youngster make a connection with this park is ample compensation and outweighs the drudgery of selling entrance permits and occasionally manning a road barrier. So far this season at Yellowstone appears to be heading in the right direction.

Vegas and points north

2009-06-06T05:27:00.000-07:00

Vegas to Salt Lake City

Las Vegas was great and we look forward to when we will get to return again. That may be years from now. We drove the short way from Vegas to Zion National Park in Utah. The weather was still a little cool for us but we needed to work our way toward Yellowstone National Park. We had hoped to stay several days at Zion but all campground sites were full and we could only find a campground with a couple nites open. We made the best of it by visiting the visitor center and then on the full day, we put our bikes on the tram and rode the tram to the end of the road. A small hike toward the Narrows took us through some awsome scenery. Cliffs reaches skyward and the entire place has a spiritual feel about it. It was a spiritual place for the Paiute Indians but the Mormons and Methodist gave the towering cliffs and monuments their names. Called Little Zion by the Mormons because of the cathedral-like formations which the Methodists later named Angels Landing, The three Patriarchs, and the Great White Throne. After our hike we mounted our bikes for the 6.5 mile, nearly all down-hill coast back to the visitor center. The sun reflecting off the canyon walls created some warmth despite the occassional snow flurry.

From Zion we headed further north to Bryce Canyon. The RV Park we stayed at was a few feet below 8000’ feet and there was still snow in places. Hookups were limited to only electricity because of the still frozen ground. We parked amongst the ponderosa pines a few miles from the park entrance and made several daily trips into the park. On one day we drove the scenic drive through the park, stopping to look at each scenic look-out. The natural landscapes and stone sculptures defy description. A before-sunrise trip to the overlook at the main ampetheater proved well worth the time. Hot coffee in our thermos provided some comfort in the below freezing temperatures but seeing the hoodoos illuminate with the early morning sun’s warm reflecting light also took some of the edge off the cold. Seeing a hiking trail meandering through the natural sculpture garden a mile below the canyon rim was too much of an attraction and I donned my hiking gear and followed the trail down into the canyon, around the goblin-like hoodoos, and back to the top. With the daytime temperatures getting into the 60s, hiking was pleasant despite the elevation change from top to bottom and back up again.

After Bryce we headed further north and stopped at the Mystic Hot Springs for a soaking in the natural springs near Monroe Utah. Travertine terraces, the results of calcium precipitating from the 100+ degree water nearly consume the large tubs nestled into the hill above the campground.

Although we had planned to fly East to visit our kids, grandkids and my parents, a family funeral mandated altering our plans to fly east several days early. Despite the somberness of the occasion, we were ably to continue our trip as originally planned. In Maryland we were able to take Marisa and Sam to the National Zoo to see the Pandas and on the next day, with Bill, our son and their Dad along we rode the DC subway into town and enjoyed our favorite Smithsonian Museum, The Museum of Natural History. The Hope Diamond and other gems, and the collection of mammal skeletons interested the youngsters some but the insect exhibits seemed to provide the most entertainment. The butterfly house with a kaleidoscope-like display of multi-colored butterflies was the highlight. Armed with a display card showing different butterflies, Marisa led the way to finding and identifying the brilliant colored specimens that were everywhere. We passed through an airlock to enter the room and then again through another when we left where were closely inspected to make sure that no “hitchhiking” butterflies were catching a ride on our backs. The visit was way too short but we made the most of the short time we had and are already looking forward to our next trip back to Maryland.

We headed up to Pennsylvania for a few days with my parents. We had a great visit and one day my Brother Ken and his wife Kathy were able to joins us for diner. Not often the entire family gets together. It was special.

We left Pa and flew down to Alabama for a short visit with our Daughter and her family. The big event was to go see a theater production of “Alice in Wonderland- the biggest tea party.” Alice is our granddaughter’s idol, so to watch and participate in the somewhat interactive production was a real treat. Braelyn, to celebrate her up-coming third birthday, even got to go on stage with Alice. Despite the presence of all the exciting characters including the Rabbit who was always late, the March Hare, the Doormouse, and the Queen of Hearts, Braelyn just hugged her idol.

In all our visits and activities the grandkids seemed to find things they enjoyed but Sandi and I really had the best time just watching them.

Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada

2009-04-09T13:58:00.000-07:00

We made it to Tucson but we’ve experienced a lot since the last posting. The Chapter-8 Ralley ended in Guaymas and the group of 50 or so Rvers split up into smaller groups and either headed back to the states or continued on to other destinations in Mexico. Our last day at the campground in Guaymas was devoted to getting some dental work done. I needed a crown and a filling. The total cost with two visits came to about $170. Not bad. We departed the Hotel/RV campground in Guaymas and rendezvoused with friends at a boondock site on the Pacific Ocean beach between Guaymas and the resort town of San Carlos. Boondocking is just parking somewhere and living off of the systems in the RV – no outside power, water, or sewer hook-ups. Sandi and I can easily go a week between times when we have to fill up our water tanks and dump our holding tanks. At this site we were just a few yards from the beach. Lots of birds, dolphins, sun, sand and not much more. We were with four other RVs that had made the trip with us to Quaymas from the states. Every evening a local huckster would stop by with fresh seafood and vegetables. A kilo (2.2 pounds) of huge shrimp cost about $7US but came with handfulls of fresh beans, squash, and grapefruit. The next night it was kilos of picked crabmeat.

We left the boondock site and headed south about 150 miles to Alamos and stayed in a small but nice RV park within walking distance of town. The RV park was quite nice. We were parked under comquat trees laden with fruit. Blooming bugamvillas boardered the park and every morning an extravigant bird show kept us entertained. Streaked-backed orioles, black-throated grey and Lucy’s warblers were common. Hummingbirds were abundant but moved too much for me to get positive identification. We arrived on Saturday afternoon and it just happened that Saturday nights are family nites around the plaza in the center of town. Virtually every Mexican town has a beautiful plaza with the church on one side and the govermnent buildings on the other. This was required in the 1500s when Spain was in charge. Alamos is quite an historic town. It was the capitol of the province when Spain governed all the territory north to Las Angeles, CA and Albuquerque, NM. The first 28 people to settle Los Angles made the trip from Alamos. Some of the buildings in the town date back to the 1500s. We strolled the town, ate some great food from vendors on the street and marvelled at the ancient buildings and walls. Sandi bought a beaded bracelet made by one of the local indian tribes. One day a few of us travelled out to a reservoir for more birding and saw hundreds of crested caracaras as well as numerous kingbirds, flycatchers and more unidentifiable hummingbirds.

We departed Alamos and headed further south to El Fuerte. The most direct route required traveling 15 miles of dirt road so we opted to take a longer route on the hard surfaced roads. The RV park was little more than a parking lot beside a hotel. El Fuerte is named for an old Spanish Fort that was built in the mid 1500 to protect the Spaniards from the local indian population. We toured the town and walked through some beautiful hotels that charge about $55 US per nite. We stopped at a hotel that overlooked the El Fuerte River for a cervasa (beer) and found the platio swarming with hummingbirds. broad-billed, violet capped, and plain-capped start throats were everywhere. The proprietor was bird literate and was quick to recognize our birding interest. He helped identify the hummingbirds and was quick to set up his spotting scope to point out great kiskadees, social flycatchers, and assorted orioles from his tropical deck. He invited us to come back in the morning for a better experience and introduced us to his brother, the real birder, who offered to take us on a birding safari. We joined him the next morning for a great birding trip. He took us to several habitats and we added northern jancanas and bare throated tiger herons to our life lists. By boat we travelled to the largest blue heron rookery I’ve ever seen with hundreds of pairs of blue herons and almost as many great egret pairs covering the trees. We hiked into the brush to see rufus-bellied chachalacas and some old Mayan petroglyphs.

El Fuerte is also the jumping off point to go to the Copper Canyon of Mexico. Several times larger than the Grand Canyon of the US this is a major Mexican tourist area. The most popular way to get there is by train so we bought tickets on the first class train with a dining car and a bar car and rode it to the town of Creel which is tourist central for the Copper Canyon. Mexico’s Copper canyon is about 4-5 times a large as our Grand Canyon and is deeper. The train ride was awesome as we headed from near sea level to over 8000’ above. We went from desert through oak forests to pine forests. We crossed some scarry narrow bridges and passed through about 50 tunnels, some nearly ½ mile long. We stayed two nights in Creel. The manager of our hotel (also the rail station attendant) was our guide who took us to Tarahumara Indian, or now known as Raramuri (those who walk through life), villages, and showed us some interesting rock formations (Mushroom valley, and Valley of the erect penises), waterfalls and great scenery.

We caught the train south from Creel to Bahuichivo where we chanced to meet Albierto Ciacceo and his wife who offered nights lodging at his little inn for about $17/nite. The fee included transportation from the train station to Cerochui (about 36 kilometers on dirt roads) and also a guided hike into a local canyon to see the waterfalls and a chance meeting with more Raramuri Indians out gathering wood. The Raramuri are noted for their long distance running skills. They can run 20 hours straight while kicking and hitting a wooden ball the entire way. The Spanish forced them into the mountains and to this day some family groups continue to migrate from the canyon rim in the summertime where they grow corn to the warmer canyon valleys in the winter. Some still live in caves but many are settling in small villages. The women all still wear colorful traditional garb but the men all look like cowboys.

Albierto took us all down to the town of Urique in the bottom of the canyon. The road literally hung on cliffs and followed switchback after switch back as we descended from about 8000’ to 1800 feet in about 18 miles. In the tropical-like canyon bottom, Sandi picked a fresh papaya, and I got to watch dozens of broad bill, violet-crowned and white eared hummingbirds before Albierto took us back up the mountain to the train station for our trip back to El Fuerte.

From El Fuerte we continued south, our caravan of RVs now down to two, as members each begin to head out their own way. Our travelmate is Randy Dolan from Colorado. We travelled to the resort town of Mazatlan and after a harrowing drive down crowded city streets, we finally pulled into a resturaunt (La Palapa) parking lot and received permission from the owner to stay there for $7 US per nite. We had a great dinner in the resturaunt and each had a tequila shooter, compliments of the owner. We strolled down to Senior Frog, a tourist souvineer outlet, and later the next day visited the Centro Mercado or marketplace where anything from avacados, to clothing, to seafood and meats, to spices can be bought. The place is an amazing kleidoscope of colors and an eclectic assortment of stimuli to the senses.

We left Mazatlan early Sunday morning to aviod the traffic congestion and travelled another 100 miles south to Teacapan. I thought we were in paradise. We passed through miles of palm tree plantations, saw many birds in the mangrove-surrounded wetlands and finally parked next to the Pacific Ocean at an RV park with a beautiful swimming pool, small cabins and a beach that runs north and south as far as the eye can see with no one else in sight. This is essential the ecotome between the tropical rain forest and the Sonoran Desert. Although staying longer was tempting, we packed up and after about a week on the beach, headed back north following the free roads most of the way. Back to Guaymas. I had a dental apointment to get my cap put on and while there we went to the market to get 50 kilos of rice and beans to drop off at the Catholic Church kitchen in Benjamin Hill. The priest was ecstatic and sent out for an interpreter who conveyed his appreciation. We drove straight through from Benjamin Hill to Nogales and then on to Sierra Vista where our car was parked. We remained there a few days then made the short drive to Tucson.

Tucson was supposed to be just rest and relaxation but we did some touring. We headed to the Sabino Canyon Recreation Area, part of the Coronado National Forest, and while I was out hiking and birding, Sandi met the Volunteer Coordinator and got both of us “hired” as volunteers for early fall. Sandi will work at the Visitor Information Center and I will run a Junior Ranger program. They will give us a place to park our RV for a few hours each, and we get to enjoy Tucson on our days off. We also headed to the Saguaro National Park (west) and the Saguaro Desert Museum. This is an awesome zoo and deserves much more time that we gave it. We’ll return again on our next pass through Tucson. After nearly a week in Tucson we began our trip toward Yellowstone. Sandi has been selected for a volunteer position at the Madison Junior Ranger station and I will be working s a seasonal ranger in the same district.

From Tucson we passed through Phoenix and stopped for one night at the North Ranch Escapee Park in Congress, AZ. This neat, not so little, community of Rvers has daily activities. We went to the ice cream social and learned that last week they had a woodcarving convention with about 100 carvers and this week is dedicated to beading and over 100 have signed up for those activities.

From Congress our route took us over the Hoover Dam. What a trip that was and it filled a lifetime wish of Sandi’s. We are staying at the FamCamp at Nellis AFB (Home of the USAF Thunderbirds) and it is wonderful. We took a day and drove to California and through the Death Valley. What a beautiful place. We have made a mental not to return and spend a week sightseeing and hiking. The salt flats at over 250 feet below sea level are intriguing and the colors on the rocks, especially along the Artist Drive and at Artist’s Pallet are almost un-natural. We followed Twenty Mule Team Canyon Drive and saw unbelievable rock and dirt formations and also visited the Parks’ visitor center at Furnace Creek and learned of the geologic and human history of the valley. The 300 mile drive made for a long day but the scenery we saw crossing gaps in snow-capped mountains and the broad desert valleys was breathtaking and made the trip very worthwhile.

Last night was our night out in Vegas. What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas but we’ll admit that we went to Ceaser’s Palace and had a diner and a show. Seeing Elton John life was great. He is an awesome entertainer and the show with all the lights and videos was a real experience to say the least..

This rather long epistle brings us up to date. From here we will head north through a few National Parks in Utah, we’ll Spend a little time in Salt Lake City, and will fly back East for a much-needed Grandkids fix. After returning from our visits with family we will continue on to Yellowstone National Park, where we will spend the summer.

Texas to Mexico

2009-02-27T07:28:00.000-08:00

From Arkansas we passed through eastern Oklahoma, then to San Antonio to visit with friends, my boss from Vietnam days and his wife, before we headed further west to Arizona. They took us to a nearby campgroud that they belong to and we had an enjoyable time feeding the deer. We continued south through Big Bend National Park for a few days of relaxation, hiking and birding and then headed west.

We made it to Tucson where we spent about a week enjoying the Arizona sun. Tucson is a great town. We stayed at the Fam Camp at Davis Monthan AFB and know why it is the number 1 rated military campground. During our short stay there we had three of our RVing friends whom we haven’t seen in well over a year, stay in the campground. The visit was short but fun. Sandi and I went up into Sabino Canyon in the Sonora Desert and also drove the Mount Lemon road to where either chains or four wheel drive was required somewhere near the 6000’ foot elevation point. They were forecasting 22’ of snow above 7000’ and we did not want to see snow that bad. Back in the valley I managed to get in a few more rounds of golf including one with Gen Don Sheppard, my former boss and one of the best supervisors I ever worked for.

We left Tucson for Douglass, Arizona where we rendezvoused with members of an RV group we belong to – Escapees, Chapter 8,”The Mexican Connection”, for an annual rally into Mexico. We spent several days preparing in Douglass with some great food and special events in Douglass and Agua Prieta, Mexico, Douglass’ sister City across the boarder. They are actually one city that has an international boarder passing down the middle.

Sandi and I were team leaders so we got to lead a six RV caravan from Douglas to Guaymas, Sonora. It was a non eventful trip with most of it being on either four lane highways or very good and straight two lane roads. This is a trip we’d take again if we could convince any of our RVing friends to venture into Mexico.

In addition to acquainting folks to Mexico and the wonderful Mexican people, one of the missions of Chapter-8 is charity. This year we will give between $10,000 and $12,000 to various needs that our charity committee finds. In Agua Prieta a home for the elderly and a rehabilitation center each received gifts from us. Each of these are projects supported by the efforts of volunteers and both had needs that few of us can imagine. At the rehab center, men in one room slept across beds that were just patio chairs with a few blankets and pillows. At the old folk’s home, the patients lay naked between their sheets on wash day when their only set of clothes is washed.

Our mid-point overnight stop was in a town called Benjamin Hill. Children came out in droves to see us. The younger ones very eager to walk people’s dogs and the high school aged kids wanting to practice English, some carrying Spanish-English dictionaries. The town threw us a festival with cultural dances and singing in the town square, a part of every Mexican town I’ve ever been in. We visited the church and heard from the priest through an interpreter. He has a daily kitchen for the poor and feeds 40 – 65 people a day, many children. For most, this is their only meal. When our charity chairperson asked him what we might do to help, he said his greatest need was for beans for the kitchen. Each day he never knows if he will have any food to serve on the next.

We made it to Guaymas (way’ mas) and played and partied and ate to excess. Located on the Sea of Cortez, this place is beautiful. Mountains meet the sea and birding has been exceptional. Some of our group went fishing and except for one tuna and a handful of smaller fish that were served up on the boat in fish tacos, they caught several Humboldt Squid. These Giant Squid (up to 30’ I’m told) have been known to attack divers. Needless to say, calamari is a common menu item around here.

We will head further south and expect to stay in Mexico until about the end of March when we will head north toward Yellowstone National Park. I have been offered and have accepted a position at Madison as a seasonal ranger and Sandi is hoping for a volunteer position at the Junior Ranger Station at Madison.

We’re having fun but miss seeing you all. Keep in touch.

Jay & Sandi

Alabama to Texas

2009-02-06T06:10:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year.

We are on the road again; this time heading westward with no place to get to in the immediate future and no particular time to get there.

Since the last posting, I continued to mow greens and play a lot of golf and lowered my golf handicap to 12. Sure would like to drop it down to a single digit number. Shooting a rare round every now and again in the 70s has been fun but I would like to see that happen more frequently than two or three times a season. That probably won’t happen since my 3-4 rounds a week schedule will probably change to less than 3-4 rounds a month since we pulled out of Alabama. Sandi has finally finished one of her quilts in time to give it as a Christmas gift to our son. The quilt was made of a collection of squares made from his old corduroy pants and strips of velveteed from an old bathrobe of Sandi’s that she wore when Bill was growing up. I wonder what project she will start next.

We recently travelled by car to Maryland for a visit with Bill and his wife Ann, and Marisa and Sam, two of our grandkids. It was a short but wonderful visit. Our daughter Jayme brought the other two grandkids, Braelyn and CJ from Alabama and all four of them got to interact together. It was a great, warming show for Sandi and me. Unfortunately Jayme’s husband Chris was unable to get away during the busy Christmas retail season.

For the Sunday after Christmas, we all went north from Maryland to Pennsylvania for a surprise birthday party for my Father. Nearly 100 people showed up to wish him a happy 90th birthday. It was great getting together with so many friends and family members. This was the first time my folks had seen their youngest great-grandchild and was probably the first time in a real long time that they had my brother and I with our entire families together. We got great photos of my parents, their two kids, their grandchildren (4), and great-grandchildren (4).

Sandi, Jayme, and I made the 880 mile trip back to Alabama in an evening and a day. We were all tired after the trip. For the past several months, Sandi and I have been battling a series of flu-like illnesses that ranged from a mild cough to pneumonia. Looks like we have finally put those behind us. Sure hope that getting to a warmer and drier climate gets us back to being healthy enough to get out and enjoy. The time finally came to depart Alabama. We had been in one spot for the longest single time in our RVing history. We have made several car trips up to Maryland and Pennsylvania and took a three week break to go on the cruise, but the rest of the time we have been here babysitting and playing golf. Having this much time with the grand kids has been special. What a treat to be able to see then maturing. We are so blessed. As good as it has been, it is time to move on. .

We left Birmingham on Saturday and stopped briefly in Red Bay, AL for some minor RV maintenance and a parts pick-up. We then crossed Mississippi into Arkansas. Our plan was to head northwest to Branson Missouri but icy roads put a quick end to those ideas and we headed southwest to Hot Springs.

We pulled into the campground in the National Park for the night and headed into town the next day. We liked the hot springs. This is the first natural area protected by the federal government and was later made a national park. We toured the Fordyce Bathhouse Visitor Center that is operated by the National Park Service. No bathing is available at the Fordyce so we went to the Buckstaff which is the oldest continuously operating bathhouse in the park. It is one of two bath houses that are operated by concessionaires in the park. This was a new experience for Sandi and me. The Traditional Bath and Massage that we enjoyed included a whirlpool mineral bath in water from the hot springs, a sitz bath, hot packs, a pin shower, steam sauna, and a Swedish massage. We went separately into either the men’s or women’s area and were introduced to our attendant. Swimming suits are not required and to wear one would take from the experience. The attendant catered to our every need, providing towels for drying off between treatments and sheets to wear roman-toga style to move from treatment room to treatment room. We both found the experience exhilarating and will probably return again.

From Hot Springs we went to Murfreesboro, AR to stay at the Creater of the Diamonds State Park. This is the only diamond mine in the US and the only mine in the world where the public is able to collect diamonds and keep what they find. The 37.5 acre field is an old volcanic cone that erupted several billion years ago bringing the crystals to the surface. After a few hours of searching, our only treasures were a few tiny and worthless quartz crystals. The dozen or so folks that were “working” the mine included tourists like us with no knowledge of what we were doing to enthusiastic rock hounds to some professionals who actually try to make a living out of the hobby. Bill Williamson a professional has witten a book and published a DVD on Diamond mining in Arkansas (diamondsinar.com). One professional showed me two he had found in recent days. He sells most of his finds to tourists. Over 70,000 diamonds have been found some over 40 carats. Although most are not of the highest quality, one 3 carat diamond scored a perfect 0/0/0 and was cut to a 1.03 carat stone.

A season in Alabama

2008-11-14T05:21:00.001-08:00

I guess time flys when you are having fun. It has almost been four months since our last blog entry but we doubt too many folks have been anxiously awaiting a new posting. We are about to depart Alabama for our next adventure and it seems appropriate to at least bring this blog up to date before we go any further. When we arrived here we had planned to spend time with the grandkids (as well as with our daughter Jayme and her husband Chris), catch-up on some RV maintenance, and play some golf. We will leave here knowing we have done all the above and more.
GRANDKIDS ARE GREAT
It has been awesome watching the grandkids grow. CJ, too small to come home with his Mom after birth 4 months ago, has eaten himself into a healthy little chunk. At the rate he is going, he’ll be the little brother only because of the two year difference in age and not because of size. He is a treat to be with. He has a sparkling grin that warms your heart every time you give him the least bit of attention – look at him, touch him, hold him and he smiles just shy of a giggle.
His big sister, Braelyn, loves JC dearly. When she can hold him she beams. When she returns from day care, her first action is to check on JC. She is the little Mommy and we believe she would even be capable of changing his diaper. Her vocabulary is increasing daily. All grandparents think they precious little ones are the smartest, but this little girl can count (not just say her numbers) in both English and Spanish (Let’s hear it for Dora the Explorer), she knows all the letters of the alphabet and when she tries, she even colors inside the lines. Her little brother’s smile is only surpassed by the perpetual pleasantness of his bigger sister. She always seems happy although she is starting to think that a little whining might be a means to and end. While running down the gravel lane in the RV park she took a nasty spill. She got up, brushed away the bits of gravel imbedded in her hands, said “ouch” and smiled before running off again. No child should be this good but it sure makes for fun grandparenting.
ROUTINE MAINTENANCE
After the 6-month routine maintenance is completed next week, the RV will be ready for travel. We installed a braking system in our TOAD, (the car we tow behind the RV) as well as a screen that stretches between the RV and toad to reduce stone damage. When we sold our old jeep, the windshield was severly pitted, as a result of following the RV.
Jay never did get a position at the Robert Trent Jones golf course but he ended up as a greenskeeper at a local countryclub. Pay was poor but all his golf was free and by playing 3-5 times per week, he has been able to get his handicap down to a 13 and it is still going down. He’s been shooting in the low 80s consistently and has even turned in a round or two in the 70s. That’s great golf for him.
EVERYONE SHOULD GO ON A CRUISE

Although this life style has us on a perpetual vacation, we took a vacation from the RV and flew to Los Angeles where we boarded the Monarch of the Seas for a 16 day cruise with stops in Puerto Vallerta and Alcapulco, Mexico; Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala; Puntarenas, Costa Rica; Cristobal Pier in the Panama Canal; and Cartagena, Columbia in South America before landing in Miami. There were too many highlights to talk about but Costa Rica was our best portcall. Toucans, king vultures, and a few sea birds added another dozen birds to Jay’s life list. The food on board – both the quality and quantity will long be remembered. Although Sandi has managed to get back to her pre-cruise weight, Jay has only dropped 3 of the 12 pounds he put on. We did like the food!
In a few weeks we will park the RV here in Alabama while we drive the toad to MD and PA for some family time, celebrate some holidays, and then return only to hook-up and head west. Right now we do not have a destination in mind and have no idea when we expect to get there. We want to pass through San Antonio but the weather will determine if we leave here and head northwest through Branson Missouri before heading southwest or take a more southerly route.
As much as we would like to find a volunteer position at one of the parks in the southwest, most of the positions are already filled and the likelyhood of getting a seasonal ranger position (one of the prioroty items on Jay’s to-do list) is slim because of the timing. We may just bounce around the southwest during the late winter/early spring season. Jay will be trying for a seasonal ranger position in Yellowstone National Park this coming summer.

New grandchild in McCalla Alabama

2008-07-20T03:39:00.000-07:00

Now that we are somewhat settled for the moment, we are checking things off of our to do list: doctor appointments, maintenence item,golf arrangements, and the like.

Sure is going to take a while to get used to the heat. It has been 90 to 100 degrees nearly every day since we arrived. I thought it was hot when it reached the 80s in Tuckahoe State park in Maryland.

We stopped in Red Bay Alabama enroute to McCalla to get a few maintenance items taken care of on the RV. Red Bay is where our Tiffin Phaeton was made. They took great care of us and readjusted our slidout and repaired a support under our refrigerator. Driving around in these RVs is like subjecting your home regularly to a 3.5 Richter Scale earthquake. Constant upkeep is essential.

Since Red Bay has all the necessary parts available, I stocked up on 12v light bulbs, and repaired a bad tailpipe and air step solenoid while waiting for the maintenance folks to work on the things that were above my pay grade. I also got to play a couple rounds of golf but they were nothing to write home about. Sandi enjoyed staying out of the Alabama heat.

Once we reached McCalla and got set up our first priority was to see "CJ", our newest grandson. Less than 2 weeks old and less than six pounds he is beautiful and has a lot more hair than I do. He was born on June 26th. Only 5 lb 8 oz he was small and needed some observation time in the neo-natal ICU. Everything came out fine and Chris Gene Cramer Junior, "CJ" and Mom are both at home and doing fine.

Big sister, Braelyn ( 2years old) is as adorable as they come. She gets excited every time Pop Pop and Nana show up and the, "Yes Mam" and "No Sir"s embedded in her 2 year old vocabulary have just won us over. Grand kids are great. ( Think I have said that before.)

I've just about completed my maintenance short list and have fixed a broken wire, repaired the trailering lights in the toad (our car), had technicians come and get the TV and Internet satellites working finally, which only leaves some work on the TV antenna.

I threw my name into the hat for a position at the Ross Bridge Trent Jones Golf Course as a marshal. Pay is not great but golf privileges are superior. I'll find out about that soon.

The heat here is rough, but other than that:

Life is good!

Departing Maryland

2008-06-30T08:04:00.000-07:00

Our stay here in the northeast is coming to an end and we are now preparing to head south for a while. Somehow summertime in Alabama violates our desire to follow nice weather by going north in the summer and south in the winter. Call it extenuating circumstances. Our daughter and son-in-law in Birmingham blessed us a few days ago with our fourth grandchild, a 5lb 10 oz, boy, Christopher Jean Junior or CJ. After a few days of dedicated care CJ has crossed the necessary hurdles and will be going home from the hospital. We are so excited. I know we do not need to tell other grandparents who are in the know that grandkids are great.

We have had a great time here in Maryland. We have had Marisa and Sam, our Maryland grandkids, “camp-out” with us in the RV. We’ve taken them to the beach and boardwalk at Rehoboth Beach for a day and also on a weeklong road trip to visit their cousin in Alabama. Our Daughter-in-law, Ann, is finishing up another degree and we had to baby-sit on occasion when our son, Bill, had obligations. It was great to be in the right place at the right time.

We have been staying at Tuckahoe State Park which has proved to be a wonderful state park. They are players in Maryland Department of Natural Resources Tales and Scales educational outreach program. Tuckahoe houses 10 raptors and an assortment of reptiles that the rangers take to schools and events in the area. On every Friday and Saturday Sandi and I would each take one of these animals and walk the campgrounds and provide interpretation to the campground visitors. In addition to being roving naturalists, Sandi did nature craft programs for kids and I got to lead weekly birding and nature hikes as well as do a special bat program for several groups of "Nature Camp" kids.

A majority of the campers that come to this campground are local, travelling generally less than 50 miles to stay at this park. The draw of hiking, fishing, canoeing, and having a place where even young kids can ride bike and run around and feel safe fills this park’s campgrounds every weekend from April to October. The staff is exceptional. This well-managed park is well groomed, park rangers and staff seem very responsive to the needs of the visitors and rank as the friendliest we have encountered anywhere.

When we were not enjoying the grandkids or doing programs in the park, Sandi enjoyed the relaxation and I managed a few hikes and rounds of golf.

We’ll take about a week to travel the 850 miles from here to Birmingham. A drive through the Shenandoah National Park and the Skyline Drive, and several stops along the way for some minor maintenance on the RV will add several days to a normal three day trip. Once in the Birmingham, we will stay for at least a month.

On the road with the grandkids

2008-05-23T06:31:00.000-07:00

RVing is a great lifestyle and we expound on the virtues but must admit to some noticeable shortcomings – one being not often in close proximity to family. Seeing grand kids only on occasion is not desirable but a given with our lifestyle. To make up for this shortcoming we fortuned upon an opportunity to take Marisa and Sam, daughter and son of our Maryland kids to Alabama for the 2nd birthday of Braelyn, the daughter of our Alabama kids. All our grand kids together at one time! What a treat this seven day trip was.

Marisa and Sam said good-by to their Mom and Dad with little fanfare and camped in their sleeping bags on the living room floor of the RV at Tuckahoe State Park in Denton MD. We woke before light on Tuesday, dressed, and departed for an 850 mile journey to McCalla Alabama. Anticipated travel problems were soon forgotten as song filled CDs, and DVDs appropriate for these youngsters kept them entertained. Frequent rest stops, play stops, and restroom stops (some with little notice) broke the monotony of 65mph cruising down the interstates. Three and 4 year olds find little excitement in the majesty of the Blue Ridge Mountains but found comparable joy in seeing great tractor trailer trucks, and motorcycles pass by. Bridges and overpasses and even signs were recognized and became objects of attention that contributed to the experience.

The mid-way overnight stop at a motel was interesting and after sleeping in on Thursday morning we continued on for the second half of the journey. Our planned stop at the aquarium in Chattanooga was one of the many highlights of the trip. The 3D I-MAX movie on Sea Creatures was awesome. The schools of fish and close up encounters with pre-historic marine reptiles will not soon be forgotten. Sandi and I were amused as the two kids reached to touch the smaller creatures and ducked from the attacks of the larger. Seeing the impending approach of any of the larger predators and sharks would bring on a, “This is not good!” comment from Sam. How could Sandi and I not be entertained?

After the movie, tours of the two buildings let us watch the two youngsters have encounters with butterflies, stingrays, sharks, live Search for Nemo characters, penguins, and turtles. The aquatic life entertained the kids and the enthusiasm and amazement of the kids entertained us grandparents.

We continued on to Alabama for a fun reunion with Aunt Jayme, Uncle Chris, and cousin Braelyn. The abundance of new toys, albeit most for a 2 year old, excited and captivated the attention of the young travelers. The night was spent with the three youngsters sleeping in one bedroom.

Friday became a bit of a challenge as an asthma attack and medication complexities made for a trying day but that passed over night and all were in rare form for the birthday celebration on Saturday. A huge air filled castle that became a trampoline like activity kept our grand kinds, other cousins, and the entire neighborhood going. If that was not enough, sidewalk painting, squirt-gun battles, bubble blowing, and bike riding on the nearly empty street consumed interests and time. Food was great and night time finally overtook the youngsters—sleep came quickly.

Sunday was just time for relaxing and visiting and preparing for the return trip. Our Monday morning departure brought and end to the visit but not an end to the adventure. Two days of traveling with the frequent necessary stops, countless CDs and DVDs and several games of “Cows in the Graveyard”, another hotel stop and finally a most joyous reunion with Mom and Dad. Although there was seldom any evidence of homesickness during the trip, the reunion with parents was loud and exciting.

The trip was over, the memories will last and Sandi and I are ready to take advantage of the next opportunity to go off on and adventure with the grandkids.

Aren’t they great?!

Tuckahoe State Park, MD

2008-05-23T06:22:00.000-07:00

We are in Denton Maryland, only a few miles from our son Bill, his wife Ann, and two of our grandchildren and we are thoroughly enjoying ourselves. We get to see Marisa and Sam regularly and they have even camped out with us in the RV at Tuckahoe State Park In Maryland state where we are staying.

We have been volunteering at the park near Denton on the Eastern Shore. Although we have stayed in this park several times in the past, this is the first time we have volunteered here in exchange for hook-ups for our RV.

Maryland Department of Natural Resources has an educational Program called “Scales to Tails”. In several parks they have aviaries with birds of prey and reptiles that are used for educational programs for groups and schools. Here at Tuckahoe the “Scales to Tails” program is in such high demand that the rangers that administer that program had no time to provide nature interpretation or activities for the weekend campers. Since Sandi and I have experience handling birds of prey and doing nature interpretation and activities our offer to help was quickly accepted.

This campground has 50-60 campsites. From Monday through Friday the entire park is nearly empty but fills up every weekend. Every Friday and Saturday evening we each talk about one of the parks educational animals as we carry them around and roam the campgrounds. The screach owls, barred owl, kestral, and broad-winged hawk are relatively easy to handle but the red-tailed hawk and the horned owl are a bit more unrully. The snakes and turtles are docile. On Saturday and Sunday mornings Sandi has nature craft sessions with the younger kids in the park. She has been making pine-cone owls and tissue paper butterflies. During the same period, I have been leading nature hikes and bird walks.

Rain seems to impact nearly every weekend including Mother’s Day weekend. On Sunday we finished our morning activities and headed east to Rehobeth Beach Delaware where we had both spend time when we were much younger. For Mother’s day I treated her to the fine beach-side cusine: boardwalk french fries, carmel corn, soft pretzels, and then topped it off with chicken BBQ at a volunteer firehall. It actually was a very fun day.

Biloxi to Birmingham

2008-03-28T12:38:00.000-07:00

I guess time flies when you are having fun. I can’t believe that over 6 weeks have passed since I last updated this blog. We made it to Mississippi and passed our physician’s inspections with flying colors. We only spent a couple weeks on the coast, just enough time to see a few friends, play a little golf (albeit rather poorly), and do some research at the library. Then we went up to Jackson for some more research at the Museum of Natural Science, a meeting with my publisher and then on to Birmingham, AL.

We got off to a great start in Alabama. Our almost-two grand daughter was changing day care centers and there was a two week break where sitting services were desired. (OH! Don’t throw me in that briar patch!!) What a treat. I'm not sure the cat enjoyed it all that much though. Timing is everything. Walks along the lake at the RV park with geese following for handouts of bread were a daily routine. To see Braelyn respond to the natural world around her and react to the sensory stimulations was a blast. Her vocabulary seems to grow every few days and Sandi and I now have the “A B C Song” down pat as well as “Intsey Wintsey Spider” (not sure of the spelling on that one!).

Sandi met with an orthopedic surgeon to evaluate her shoulder that she injured during volunteer training at Big Bend and her knee that she injured on our “Hike from Hell” (see earlier posting) also at Big Bend and the prognosis is good. Her shoulder is responding exceptionally well to therapy and will probably return to normal; the knee is getting better but still has room for improvement.

We decided to move the few things we had in storage in Biloxi to a similar facility here in Birmingham. The rates are much lower and will be much more convenient since we will get through here periodically to visit.

It is nice being close to see Jayme, Chris, and Braelyn and this time out visit coincided with Easter. After the essential Easter Egg Hunt we got together for Easter dinner here at the RV. Sandi made ham, yams, veggies--excellent! Chris and I fished in the pond and we each caught a few that probably would have been a meal had we kept them.

We'll leave her on the 31st of March and will head to Maryland with plans to arrive around 4 April. We have a one-day delay planned for routine maintenance on the RV.

Big Bend to Gulf Islands

2008-02-13T05:31:00.000-08:00

We sure had an enjoyable travel from Big Bend National Park to the Gulf Islands National Seashore in Mississippi where we are now. The varied landscapes and beauty of this country of ours never ceases to amaze me. Big Bend was an interesting park and is really the first place in three years where we have volunteered time and were not ready to depart when the time came. No wonder they have so many volunteers returning year after year. We left Big Bend at the very end of January headed east. The high mountains of Big Bend shrank in the rear view mirror and the lecchugia, sotol, and ocotillo of the Chihuahua dessert changed into mesquite, then pasture like rangeland, and finally the coastal marsh and beach sands of the Gulf of Mexico. Red tail hawks were seen all along the way but the real birds of interest changed from area to area. Common Ravens were replaced by crows, caracaras perched on telephone poles and finally egrets, herons, and roseate spoonbills got our attention.

Laughlin AFB was out first stop for its several offerings—a golf course and a military commissary. Haven’t played golf for nearly a year and my scores were as should have been anticipated. We made a commissary run and finding a well stocked grocery with reasonable prices was a treat after spending three and a half months in Big Bend where the are no groceries closer than 70 miles and no large well stocked groceries closer than 100 miles. We shopped, we golfed and we relaxed. In our accumulation of life’s experiences we find that our most enjoyable times are when we have no schedule. I no longer wear a watch so I do not know the time or date--I can usually guess the month. Since we had lots of free time we extended out stay at Laughlin an extra day just to relax (and get in an additional round of golf). From Del Rio Texas we took two days to get to Padre Island National Seashore near Corpus Christi Texas. Padre Island was much as we expected: coastal inter-tidal marshes, sand dunes, and sandy beaches. Padre Island is the longest barrier island in the world. A few attempts at fishing were unproductive but a birding outing with park volunteers was enjoyable and seeing thousands of redhead ducks made the day. After a few days camping within a hundred yards of the beach we packed up and headed further east along the Texas coast. Roads are interrupted by waterways and taking our RV on ferries was a new and interesting experience.

We took two days to get to Anuhuac National Wildlife Refuge where we had volunteered several years ago. After a tour of their new facility, Stephanie took us for a trip around Shoveller pond. Ducks were in abundance and the canvasbacks and cinnamon teal were the highlights.

From Anahuac we worked our way into Louisiana heading south to Grand Isle State Park--about as far south as you can get. Their campground, on the beach, nearly 100 miles south of New Orleans is the tip of the vast sea of Louisiana marsh that is slowly eroding away as a result of the channeling done by oil companies in years past. The oil industry is alive and well in southern Louisiana. Exceeded only by the number of boats in the armada of commercial fishing boats, the boats serving the oil industry are everywhere as are oil related businesses. Towns along the two lane road through the marsh from Houma to Grand Isle are few and far between and all are fueled by either the seafood or oil industry.

We stopped in at Golden Meadow to visit Rob Fritchey and Kathleen. Rob is a high school friend and author (Wetland Raiders). Kathleen is an accomplished artist and I would love to spend time with her to learn more about water color painting. Her artistic skills are exceptional. I could learn a lot from her. Boiled crawfish Cajun style whetted our appetite for fresh seafood and before leaving the area we picked up a half sack of fresh oysters that was our lunch once we arrived at Gulf Islands National Seashore in Ocean Springs Mississippi.

We spent several days at Grand Isle State Park enjoying the great weather and lousy fishing. My day of casting resulted in a few hardhead catfish and a few more stingrays. Nevertheless it was fun and relaxing. I did catch mullet that could have been dinner instead of bait. I may have to try for some mullet in Mississippi.

We left Grand Isle following the road on the west side of the canal stopping a roadside fruit stands for fresh strawberries and satsumas. We had a most enjoyable trip to Gulf Islands in Ocean Springs MS where we will spend about two weeks. We both have appointments with physicians and friends to visit in the area.

Right now our lives seem to have no purpose or direction and we are happy. We must be doing something right (Borrowed from Snoopy the Peanuts beagle)

Goodbye to Big Bend

2008-01-15T03:52:00.000-08:00

In less than two weeks we will leave Big Bend National Park and head east. Big Bend has been an interesting place to spend the winter. We will not compare it to other parks we have been to because we find each park so different and each beyond comparison. Each is a national treasure. We give Big Bend the descriptor of “intriguing.” It has been an intriguing place. The brochure describes it as being three parks in one with mountains, dessert, and river habitats-- each worthy of its own designation as a park. The park is magnificent. With 800,000 acres encompassing complete mountain ranges, vast expanses of desert, and the slow flowing but politically significant Rio Grande River, the landscapes seen from every view point in the park are breathtaking. Each landscape changes with the rising and setting of the sun as the shadows crossing arroyos, canyon walls, and escarpments accentuate the color and depth of each feature. In our time in the park we have hiked trails and bushwhacked backcountry areas where the last person to traverse the area may well have been a cavalryman from a century ago or perhaps even a century earlier as the Comanche made their annual migration through here to gather slaves, wives, and horses from the land south of the Rio Grande. There is also plenty of evidence of the existence of paleo-indian activity.
We walked across the desert with friend and professional ranger Bob Hamilton who led us to museum-quality matates and manos (mortars and pestles) used by early Homo sapiens perhaps as much as 8000 years ago—a time when the whether was cooler, rivers flowed through cottonwood groves and game was abundant. Areas abound with numerous stone hearths used to cook sotol, other plants, and game as these early hunter-gatherers moved back and forth across the area when the ice from the last ice age was still receding.

Game was probably considerably more abundant than it is today but one needs not invest more than time to see the abundant wildlife in this park.
Our list of wildlife observed includes antlered mule deer bucks with small herds of does, pig-like javelina, exotic Barbary sheep or Aoudad, and even Desert Big Horn sheep.
The cooler weather has put the desert reptiles into hibernation so we leave here without seeing the expected assortment of rattlesnakes and lizards but the migration of the tarantulas made up for the absence of the reptiles.

This is a geologic wonderland that defies my attempts to decipher how ancient physical forces of heat, pressure, time, and weather, lifted up, twisted, contorted, and eroded solid and plastic mud and mineral into amazing natural monuments and sculptures.

The park is simply too big to allow anyone to see all of it. There is so much that we will not experience this trip: mountain lions and bears have eluded us; miles of trails remain unhiked; century old adobe ruins, abandoned homesteads, and even entire settlements of former inhabitants are unexplored.

We did get to canoe though the Santa Elena Canyon as part of the parks exceptional volunteer training program but Mariscal and Boquillas and Lower Canyons are still virgin territory. Our two week training program exposed us the natural, geologic, and human history of the park via day-long guided tours with professional naturalists, archeologists, paleontologists, and historians.

There is so much we did and yet so much remains undone. We enjoyed working the visitor center and leave knowing we mad a difference to many park visitors. Impromptu interpretive programs with visitors in and around the visitor center as well as on trails and at sites around the park have given us considerable satisfaction and the positive show of appreciation of the visitors is an unparalleled reward. I realize that my primary reason for volunteering at Big Bend, to give interpretive programs, was unfulfilled, but maybe there will be another time. I know without a shadow of doubt that doing interpretive and educational programs is the direction I need to focus on for future volunteer assignments.

We’ve said our goodbye’s to most of our friends and are beginning to look forward to heading back east to spend some time with family and friends.

Hike from Hell

2007-12-31T13:39:00.000-08:00

We have all probably done things that we wish we hadn’t. On a recent hike Sandi and I reached a point where we were not able to continue toward our intended destination and the steep terrain prevented backtracking. We had gotten ourselves into quite a dilemma.

In the previous weeks we had sighted Desert Bighorn Sheep and Barbary Sheep along the Santiago Mountains between Persimmon Peak and Dog Canyon where the Dead Horse Mountains begin. To hike up for a close look was tempting. From the road at 2600’ elevation, this approximate four mile ridge at 3600’ looks rugged but hikeable.
The topographic map clearly identifies some potentially impassable stretches but also seems to show most sections traversable. I had considered hiking this and even attempted it once with a friend, John Killing, but we aborted the trek when we cliffed-out on the far side of the mountain near Dog Canyon. Since that failed attempt, I only felt more compelled to make another try. My enthusiasm rubbed off on Sandi and she began expressing an interest in accompanying me which only fueled my excitement. In recent months we are doing more and more hiking together and are really enjoying our outings.

We decided on a day and even scouted the ridgeline with binoculars from the road. A runoff down the mountain a mile and a half from Dog Canyon appeared to offer a climbable route to the ridgeline. We hiked the 1½ miles across the Chihuahuan Desert and began our ascent to the top. The slope of our route gradually increased from level in the valley to impassable vertical cliffs cut by the runoff. Our climb became steeper.
The loose marble-like rocks, an accumulation of million’s of years of erosion, made finding solid footing difficult. We inched our way upward looking for a slanted vein of rock that, from the road, appeared to offer the path of least resistance. At one difficult section Sandi’s footing gave way and she slid (actually rolled) three to four yards down the rocky, cactus-covered slope. She came to a stop and I climbed down to find her with only a few minor scratches and still in great spirits. The mountain at that point was as steep as we would experience and she could have very well sustained some serious injuries. She refused any thoughts of aborting the hike having invested this much effort and being only 100 yards from the ridge. Using a climbing rope tied to a large rock above, we continued.

Upward we inched, finally reaching a rock outcropping that graced the ridgeline. The near level terrain and large rocks provided a welcome place to rest and let our batteries recharge.
I took a quick climb over the top to survey the route only to find that the entire ridgeline in either direction was passable only for the most experienced, fit, and appropriately equipped adventurers. We were as far as we were going to go. Sandi joined me at the top and we decided that going any further was not an option. A look at the northeast slope convinced us that our hike back to the car would be safer if we took the slightly easier (although still steep) route down the other side, then hike through Dog Canyon and return across the flat desert to the car. Retracing our steps down the steep southwest slope would not be a wise decision.

It was about 1PM, five hours before sunset, when we started down the far side of the mountain. I had anticipated we would reach the base of the mountain on the far side about a mile from Dog Canyon, but we found ourselves with, not one, but nearly two miles, of rugged rocky terrain to cross before reaching the canyon floor. An extra mile does not normally seem like much, but ups and downs through arroyos overgrown with assorted spined desert vegetation is a very long mile. The prickly pear cactus, yucca, lecchughia, and more make travel very slow. Occasional cliffs blocked our descent and forced circuitous detours often along steep side hills where the loose stone again provided marginal footing. Sandi took another fall. I had been holding her hand but her left foot slipped on a loose rock and her attempt to catch herself resulted in a twisted right knee. With several miles to go, hiking the rough terrain with a knee injury made getting out before dark a questionable. After a short rest the injury seemed minor and we were able to continue, albeit a bit slower.

We crossed the final hill and could see the setting sun’s illumination on the river bottom near the east entrance to Dog Canyon.
We hiked past an old American Indian tipi site and into the canyon for a relatively level and easy two mile hike back to the parked car at the trail head. As darkness fell we departed Dog Canyon.
The brilliance of the star studded night desert sky generated a sense of awe despite our fatigue, aches and pains. We finally arrived at the trail head ending our adventure well after dark.

Hopefully Sandi’s injuries will prove to be minor and we will continue to hike more in Big Bend and certainly more as we travel. We will however, use a bit more discretion in selecting future hikes. After all, two 60+ year olds should be able to find enough excitement without challenging fate. Although we met the challenge, I know the hike was more than what either of us should have attempted. I am going to have to be real nice to Sandi to make up for the near spousal abuse I dragged her through on this hike. It really was the hike from Hell.

Mountain Lion Attack

2007-12-21T04:28:00.000-08:00

We have seen Desert Big Horn Sheep, Mule Deer, White-tail deer, gray fox,
javelina, and Barbary Sheep (or Aoudad Sheep) on our outings. We have yet to see any bear or mountain lions.

We have had mountain lions close. A few days before Christmas, I noticed offal along side the road at the visitor center (about 300 yards from the RV). My first suspicions were that a javelina was hit by a car but after discussions with others and a closer investigation, we have all come to the conclusion that this was a mountain lion kill right in the parking lot of the visitor center. I followed the sign from beginning to end. A relatively large scattering of loose javelina hair marked the site of the initial attack in the roadway leading from the highway into the visitor center parking lot. There is a culvert under the highway that allows an arroyo (dry stream bed) to pass underneath. This arroyo is a main thoroughfare for javelina and apparently the hunting ground for the local mountain lion. The lion first attacked the javelina in the driveway and then killed it and eviscerated it under a clump of creosote bush in a strip between the parking lot and the highway. The biologist in the park stated that mountain lions normally do not eat the entrails, hence the reason they were left in a pool of blood in the driveway. The javelina was then dragged across the highway, leaving a blood trail that ended on the other side of the road. The carcass was dragged into the arroyo and dropped several times as evidenced by the piles of hair. One piece of flesh attached to bone indicated that the lion probably stopped for a snack before continuing on. Perhaps 50 yards up the arroyo all signs of the javelina and the cat disappeared. The rocky soil makes track identification virtually impossible and the abundance of animal tracks in the arroyo’s gravel bed hides any additional tracks.
I believe the last sign of the attack and ensuing events was where the cat probably picked up the carcass and carried it off.

Merry Christmas

2007-11-25T14:40:00.000-08:00

We wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas

Jay and Sandi Mengel

More hikes in Big Bend

2007-11-24T11:59:00.000-08:00

Just two days ago we spent Thanksgiving at the Visitor Center. We were expecting nearly 400 visitors to come through but we did not even have 200. The weather was forcast to change from the balmy 80 degree temps we have been enjoying to below freezing temps with rain and snow. Although the Park did fill up for Thanksgiving, there are quite a few visitors departing early because of the cold, rainy conditions we have now.

We had Thanksgiving dinner at the Lodge in the Chisos Basin in the center of Big Bend National Park with Bob and Deb Hamilton. Bob is a seasonal ranger that we met here last spring on our way to Yellowstone only to find out that he would be working with us at Yellowstone. He's back here in Big Bend so we went out with him and his wife Deb for a nice dinner and evening.

The weather has gotten cooler. A very cold rain is falling and I expect that snow is a probability. We have the next few days off and will probably just stay inside until the weather starts to warm up again into the 70s by mid-week.

We have taken a few hikes. I put on my pack and took off across the desert for a couple of days. I wanted to try some desert wilderness camping. Except for about a mile or so, I was never on any trails--just bushwhacked up to the base of Persimmon Mountain then followed the Santiago Mountains to Dog Canyon where I cut through and returned.
It was my first experience with desert hiking and camping and I am ready to try it again. I really did not see much other than the great scenery and the desert plants. Lechugilla, Prickly Pear cactus, Christmas Cactus, and Cholla--all made hiking difficult. I found a nice campsite not far from a dry streambed and the evening under the desert sky was awesome. On my hike out I did see one tarantula spider,
a few mule deer and stumbled upon an indian tipi circle. It was on a remote hill and the site was only large enough for the one tipi. The circle of rocks outlined an extremly smooth flat area. All rocks had been removed and the remaining sandy soil was a deep sulphur yellow. My guess at this time is that this may have been a vision quest location for a Comanchee or Apache shaman and the soil was colored by the smoking or burning of herbs and the like. I'll be going back to get some photos and information to take to the park archeologist.
Sandi and I took our Special Project day to visit many of the roadside display sites in the park, look at some of the drive-to back country campsites, and took the hike back Grapevine Trail to the Balancing Rocks.
Except for the short clinb up the mountain at the trail's end, the hike was an easy stroll for about a mile through an arroyo or dry stream bed. this is one of the favored hikes in the park. We drove down 7 miles of dirt road to get to the trailhead but the hike in was worth the drive and the effort. Like most of the park, this is Chihuhuan Desert with overwhelming geologic features and an abundance of cactus and other desert plants armed with wicked spines. This Prickly pear cactus did not do Sandi any favors.

Recent sightings

2007-11-14T18:16:00.000-08:00

Don't have any photos readily available but Sandi and I have been fortunate in our outings to have seen some of Big Bend's interesting wildlife. The Big Horn Sheep we saw near Dog Canyon were special. The photos are on the last post. This past week we hiked Persimmon Draw and were fortunate to see a herd of Barbary Sheep (Aoudad). There were five of them -- relatively far off in the distance but they sure watched us. They were about 700 yards away which is too far for my camera to get a good photo. Maybe the next time. Park Service rangers acknowledge that seeing either of these animals is a rare sighting so I guess we were really lucky. Hope our luck holds out and I get a look at a Mountain Lion.

this evening we ate at the Lodge in the Chisos Basin with our new friends Russ and Gretchen, We are all fulltimers and volunteers at Big Bend. Russ is also USAF (ret) and tonight was a celebration of Gretchen's birthday. Most enjoyable evening.

Big Bend update

2007-11-11T02:41:00.000-08:00

The last week or so has been most interesting. We took a needed break from our training at Big Bend and drove to San Antonio to spend a few days with the Hubbards, friends from more than just a few years back.
Ed was my boss back in my Vietnam days. Had a great visit which included a Louisiana style shrimp boil.
We did get into downtown San Antonio and spent some time in the morning on a boat tour on the river walk. Very enjoyable.

The drive back to Big Bend was also nice and we stopped to load up on groceries. Our closest store from where we live in Big Bend is about 70 miles so we must take any chance to get groceries especially perishable goods like milk, bread, fruits, and vegetables. Milk at the local “stop and shop” store is $5.50/gallon.

As volunteers at Big Bend, we get to spend one day doing nearly anything and counting the time we spend as volunteer time.
Hiking the 200 miles of trails in the park counts and that fits well with us. Each hike we take increases our familiarity with the park and enables us to help park visitors. We also wear our uniforms when hiking which shows official presence. Big Bend has way too few full time rangers to adequately patrol the park. We hiked a 7 mile out and back to Dog Canyon and Devils Den.
Flat terrain made this a relatively easy hike until we started to bushwack (leave the trail and go cross country) in search of devils Den. The rocky, cactus covered mountains are not an easy walk but we find considerable satisfaction in seeing the many different types of cactus, an occasional lizard, or unique fossils or geologic formations. On occasion we get to see larger wildlife. We have high hopes of seeing the occasionally sighted mountain lion or black bear while we are here. No cats or bears this time but we did walk up on two small herds of Big Horn Mountain Sheep.
The first was a herd of males near the mouth of Dog Canyon. What a magnificent animal they are. The second herd was three ewes each with a yearling. Seeing the sheep made for a great outing.

We spend three days a week manning the Visitor Center at Persimmon Gap. I think in time we will get to enjoy helping park visitors from this remote location but the extremely inadequate training makes this tour of duty far from an enjoyable one. I think that once we figure out how to do what we need to do and finally figure out what the expectations are we will probably enjoy ourselves more. The training we got to familiarize ourselves with Big Bend was exceptional and better than any we have been exposed to anywhere but the training for our on-the-job duties is not even marginally acceptable. We finished up our first week at the Visitor Center and were glad it was over. We are essentially teaching ourselves and I expect next week will probably be a little more fun. I sure hope so.

Visiting San Antonio

2007-11-03T17:51:00.000-07:00

Having a great time visiting Karen and Hub Hubbard in San Antonio. They obviously get a big kick out of Holloween!!!

Check out my Slide Show!

2007-10-21T13:22:00.001-07:00

Big Bend National Park - arrived at last

2007-10-21T11:58:00.000-07:00

We left Yellowstone and headed north into Montana to visit Little Bighorn Battlefield, then followed the Yellowstone River to Makoshika State Park to see the fossils. We continued east into North Dakota to go through the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. We spent a night in the Park and a morning hike into the badlands took us through some interesting scenery and we fortuned upon two Golded Eagles doing aerial acrobatics close enough that field glasses were not necessary to identify then. We continued south into South Dakota and stayed several days at Ellsworth AFB from where we took side trips into the South Dakota Badlands before continuing further south into Nebraska where we got to see the old Oregon Trail. We toured a museum at the Scotts Bluff National Monument and I can honestly say I learned more about the Oregon Trail and westward expension than I ever knew before. (History was not one of my greatest interests in my youth) From Scotts Bluff it was south into Colorado Springs where we set up camp in Spook and Brenda McFillin's backyard RV lot. They have electrical hook-ups for their many Rving friends. At one point there were two RVs parked in their back yard.

Colorado Springs was our jumping off point to catch military hops back East. Getting hops this time was not real easy but we did get out on a C-130 to Gulfport Mississippi where we rented a car to drive to Birmingham. We visited Jayme, Chris and Braelyn - grand kids are great!!!! Ample babysitting opportunities were appreciated. We managed a flight from nearby Maxwell AFB to Andrews AFB where again we rented a car and drove to Denton, MD to spend time with Bill, Ann, Marisa and Sammy. Took the kids to a corn maze and Octoberfest play area on a nearby farm. We painted pumpkins, ran through the maze, climbed on hay bale mountains, took hay rides, and tired ourselves well. We drove from there to PA to spend a little time with Mom and Dad where they repeadedly beat us at brutal games of dominoes. We also visited Bill and Margurite Mengel where I got a volume of geneology data. We made an early morniging stop at the Leesport Farmers Market then headed down to Andrews AFB where after a two day delay we caught a direct flight to Colorado Springs.

We said our goodbys to the McFillins and headed south to Big Bend National Park. We spent several nites in Palo Duro Canyon State Park,
enjoyed the scenery then made our way south through Lubbock where I went to pilot training in 1970. Then to Midland and finally into Big Bend.

We will be at the Visitor Information Center at Persimmon Gap. The park is putting us through two weeks of training before we actually start working. Work consists of three days a week keeping the Visitor Center manned. Only one of us have to be there at a time. Then we have to spend an additional 8 hours doing something else. Hiking the 200 miles of trails, canoeing the 250 miles of Rio Grande, helping botanists and biologists, checking out campsites, or doing research assistance work are all acceptable additional activities--and they call this work?

The training is awesome. There are some administrative functions but we have been briefed on each of the districts in the park, have taken two short hikes to historical sites, were briefed by a cactus expert on the cacti of the Chihuahuan desert, took one 12 mile hike up into the Chisos Mountains where classmate blew bubbles thousands of feet above the valley floor to see the scenery from the South Rim and then took a two day canoeing trip down the Rio Grand River through the Santa Elena Canyon.

This week we will do a field trip to aquaint us with the air quality issues and activities in the park, we will do a geology, archeology, and paleonotology field trip, as well a couple more trips to historical sites. We will spend a bit more time learning how to issue fishing permits, and back country permits and then we will be ready to start working on Sunday the 28th of October.

Our summer at Yellowstone comes to an end

2007-09-03T22:09:00.000-07:00

It is time to depart Yellowstone National Park and words simply cannot convey our thoughts or feelings. Though we hate to leave this magnificent place, we are anxious to get back East to visit our families. We are also excited about being able to spend some quality time in Big Bend National Park in Texas. All that said we are both quick to state that this has perhaps been one of the best if not the best summer of our lives. We have truly been touched by the Spirit of Yellowstone. Since the last posting we have experienced some great events. We’ve had friends from the past visit: Avery’s from Alabama, Hubbards from Texas, and Cramers form Florida. We managed to spend a little but not enough with each of these visitors. We joined Avery’s, Tom and Karen, at the Lake Hotel where we listened to the string quartet (more on them later) and discussed RVing.
Tom is a retired Navy Captain who thinks that Navy plays better golf than Air Force. I’ll set him straight on that some day. Ed Hubbard was my boss 30+ years ago in Vietnam. We keep in contact with them and consider them our mentors. Seems we have developed a pattern of following in their footsteps. They talked us into buying a big boat and taking off and now they have gotten us into RVing. We spent time driving around the park, looking at wildlife, trying to find erupting geysers, all and all just visited. Dave and Kathy Cramer served with me at Andrews AFB back in the 80s. We just stumbled on each other at an RV Rally in Charlotte NC about a year ago. We spent time running around the park, saw wolves, moose, geysers, climbed Mt Washburn, and saw more that the park had to offer. There is something special about running into friends when out traveling like this.

Highlights of the last few weeks here, in addition to getting together with friends, include a great hike from Beckler Ranger Station to Great Fountain Trail head near Old Faithful, Climbing Mount Washburn, seeing wolves and moose, and catching some great fish.

Two of the musicians in the string quartet at Lake Village are also skilled backcountry campers. I met Leanne through her mother who we were with on a trip into Mexico last winter. Leanne is the viola player and Renee, the cellist, were planning their final trip of the season and I was most fortunate to be able to team up with them for the trek along the Beckler River. They departed a day earlier and hiked a two-day 20 mile out and back to see some falls and met me at a campsite near Beckler Medows. They had seen two bear during their two days out and I was hoping that we might see more before we finished our hike. We were going an additional 30 miles in four more days through what some consider some of the most beautiful hiking in Yellowstone National Park. We had an awesome experience. Despite the almost daily rain we kept smiling as we passed one magnificent waterfall after another. Our bushwhacking adventure up to Ouzel Falls was special and in addition to experiencing one of the tallest falls in the park, we got a good close up of Water Ouzels, or Western Dippers that the falls are named for.
A few minutes of fishing near the second night’s campsite got me my native cutthroat trout but rain through the night made for less than ideal camping. The next day we pressed on to a campsite along a massive meadow. In route we took a side hike to “Mister Bubbles” a magnificent hot pool that provides an awesome opportunity to relax and recharge. One of the thermal features we passed is perhaps the most beautiful I have seen in the park.
We soaked in the pool for about an hour before continuing on toward out last campsite. After diner we watched over the meadow in hopes of sighting wildlife of any kind. Our sightings were limited to birds and chipmunks. We completed out backpacking adventure by crossing the Continental Divide three times and arrived at Lone Star Geyser just after an eruption.
Sandi met us there and I left the girls who remained behind for one more night of sleeping on the ground at a campsite that has a history of bear activity. This was certainly my best and most enjoyable backpacking trip in the park. I am certain the great company had a lot to do with it.

I recovered for a few days and then Sandi and I joined the Cramers for another hike to the top of Washburn Mountain. Three miles of uphill from the trail head at Dunraven Pass at about 8600’ to the Observation Platform at the top of the mountain is 10,240’. It is no wonder we saw Mountain Sheep on the way up and down. We also saw blue grouse and I saw my first rosy finch.
Sandi continued to put one foot in front of the other and made the six-mile hike up and down seem much more moderate than the strenuous rating the park service gives to this hike.

The total six mile hike was most arduous but seeing the wildlife on the mountain as well as the wolves, elk, and moose we saw during the rest of the day made for an unbelievable outing.

With the end of our “tour of duty” approaching we felt we had seen or done everything on our list except for hearing elk bugle and I really wanted to join the 20-20 club by catching a 20” or longer fish on a #20 fly.

With only a few days off before we leave I went fishing nearly every day. Each day seemed more unbelievable than the previous. I was regularly catching fish between 14’ and 21” but small files were not producing. Virtually all fish were caught on #16 nymphs which is impressive but I did want to get one on a really small hook. On my next-to-last day off I hit the Madison River again and I fished hard but the fish were anything but cooperative. In desperation I switched from pattern to pattern and finally decided to try a small #20 Zug Bug, a nymph tied with peacock heril and silver floss. A 16 inch Madison brown trout took my third cast but I lost him by trying to horse him in – not the thing to do with a fish on a #20 hook. Many casts later I hooked and after about a 15 – 20 minute fight, finally landed him. A passing photographer saw the ensuing battle and stopped to take some photos. The fish measured 22” was probably 5 – 7 pounds and is certainly a fish of a lifetime for me.
Welcome to the 20-20 club.

I left the fishing hole and heard a bugling elk not far from where our RV was parked. I convinced Sandi to go for a ride and we ended up watching a massive 7X6 bull elk standing in the Madison River raise his head and snort and bugle to nearby cows. During the next two days at the visitor center we saw this same bull with his developing harem. On my last day at “work” he became belligerent and very protective of his cows.
He charged several times toward park visitors and more than just a few folks gained a healthy respect for the need to keep a safe distance from these magnificent animals—especially when it is the breeding season or the rut.

We’re packed and nearly ready to leave. Tomorrow we’ll head north then east to see more of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and then into Colorado where we will fly back to family. Life is good.

One Grand Eruption

2007-08-11T10:53:00.000-07:00

Our tour of Yellowstone is very quickly coming to an end. We will work though the end of the Labor Day weekend. We have but 12 days to work until then. Our summer here has been more than we could have ever anticipated. The scenery, geologic features, wildlife, hiking, backpacking and fishing have been awesome. During the course of our stay here we have been sensually saturated and I feel as if I am in a constant euphoric state.

About midway through the summer we made a list of things we wanted to be sure to see or do before departing in September. Seeing as many of the significant geysers erupt as possible was high on the list. There are 14,000 thermal features in Yellowstone. I’m not sure how many of them are geysers but just in the Upper Geyser Basin near Old Faithful there are approximately 145 geysers. The eruptions of five of them can be predicted with relative accuracy to +/- 2 hours. Some erupt as frequently as every 90 minutes—others only every few days. Steamboat Geyser, the worlds largest last erupted in 2005 and some have not erupted since the early 1900s.

One predictable geyser that erupts approximately every 8-9 hours is Grand Geyser located about ½ mile from Old Faithful. Grand erupts in a spectacular display of steamy and watery fireworks. Yesterday afternoon the forecast eruption window was between 4:20 pm and 8:20 pm. We arrived there and found a seat with the wind and sun to our backs. A crowd had already formed and visitors from a sampling of states and countries waited patiently and watched the almost choreographed sequence of events unfold. We were fortunate to find ourselves in the midst of informative “Geyser Gazers” and rangers who were most willing to provide commentary. Geyser Gazers are a group of hobbyists who have turned analysis of the eruption sequence of each geyser into an intricate data collection process. The geyser gazers around us were from as far away as Virginia and as close as Wyoming and Idaho. Each with personal hand held radios set to channel 4/5 they keep listeners, including the park service, informed of geyser activities.

Like many geysers, Grand Geyser is connected to other geysers. The observed activity at one is often an indicator of impending activity at another. Grand is connected to Turban Geyser and Vent Geysers. As the window to eruption of Grand approaches, Turban begins a regular series of eruptions every 20 minutes. The Grand Geyser pool fills and drains with each eruption of Turban. Turban’s eruption appears like little more than some serious boiling. During its most violent eruptions, only it shoots scalding hot water about three feet into the air. With each eruption of Turban the Geyser Gazers wait with baited breath, hoping that the water level in the Grand Geyser Pool remains full. The drop in the pool’s level at the end of Turban’s eruption signals the beginning of another 20 minute wait for the next eruption. Grand’s eruption always coincides with a Turban eruption.

Over and over again at 20 minute intervals we watched as the pool level dropped exposing island like ridges of geyserite that are exposed anytime the pool is not completely full. After approximately 6 or 7 of these 20 minute cycles we saw the change. The pool dropped slightly and then continued to rise—ever so slowly submerging the geyserite ridges. Someone claimed to have seen waves in the pool – an indication that an eruption was eminent. The most experienced Geyser Gazer in the crowd picked up her radio and signaled to geyser gazers across the entire Upper Basin that there were waves in Grand. Then the pool began to boil followed by an explosive rocketing of hot water and steam perhaps 150 feet into the air.

The applause of the crowd showed the approval with natures geologic show which continued for 9 minutes during which Turban continued its boiling and Vent coincidentally shot its stream of water skyward adding to the spectacle. The early evening sun shining through the condensing steam added a beautiful rainbow to the spectacle.

The geyser gazers hopped for an early halt to the breathtaking display. The early halt in the action seems to allow the underground chamber to rearm for a second and more explosive eruption. We were in luck and the break came followed shortly there after by the second and larger eruption. In years past this cycle would continue for as many as 14 times. Now days one eruption is the norm with two or three being special events.

The show ended with Grand and Turban becoming silent. Vent would continue for quite some time. We applauded again as if to say thanks to Mother Earth for the entertainment and all wondered off in different directions. On our way out of the basin we were rewarded with a timely eruption of Old Faithful. For many, Old Faithful is the only geyser activity they will witness during their stay at Yellowstone. Old Faithful is a wonder but it truly pales in comparison to Grand, Lone Star, Great Fountain, or many others.

I would like to continue with more on our visit to Boiling River, the Roosevelt Arch at Mammoth or the recent significant wildlife sightings but I’ll save that for later.

Life sure is good!

Half-way through the summer and still not bored

2007-07-19T07:16:00.000-07:00

We’ve passed our half way point in our stay here at Yellowstone National Park. There is more to see and do here than can be done even in a entire summer. We have a list of things we want to be sure to do before we leave and in the last few weeks we have been able to cross off some of the listed activities.

Just outside the Park in West Yellowstone, MT there is the Grizzly and Wolf Recovery Center. They have excellent displays on wolves and bears and the outdoor exhibits with live wolves and grizzly bears are wonderful. We have yet to see any wild wolves (one of the items on our list) but we have seen quite a few grizzly bears and a few black bears.

We took a drive around the park a few days ago hoping to see some wolves. Again they eluded us but the trip was far from uneventful. We stopped in the Mammoth area and hiked around the travertine terraces. They are really interesting. We were there near mid-day so the bright sun on the bleach-white terraces made for some difficult picture taking.

From Mammoth we headed east through the Lamar Valley to the Beartooth Highway. What a ride. The Beartooth is considered by many sources as the most scenic highway in the Continental US. It is easy to see why. The pass is nearly 11,000 feet high and the wildflower blankets in the alpine meadows were beautiful. Glacier lakes filled by melting snow (this was in July) and the scattered rock outcroppings make for some real “eye candy” as does the view from the high elevation overlooks.

Returning from the pass we again came through the Lamar Valley. At 6 PM the wildlife was more active and we saw perhaps 300 bison, 4 black bears, 2 coyotes, a dozen pronghorn, and 4 sandhill cranes. The one black bear was feeding on a carcass by the river and the two coyotes were just waiting their turn at the remains. The other bear, a sow with two cubs, was seen way in the distance.

On another outing to the Hayden Valley we experienced the bison rut. Bulls were butting heads, exhibiting strength by pacing with tails raised, and vying for the attention of available females. We stopped at the Otter Creek picnic area where the Hayden Valley wolf pack’s alpha female has frequently been seen with her cubs, but again we were not there at the right time.

We rode out bike back to the Lone Star Geyser and waited and watched the 20 minute eruption. Impressive. The 2 mile bike ride along the Firestone Ricer (creek) is beautiful. Fresh bear scat in the roadway forced us to keep up our vigilance.

My backcountry experience this week was an overnight hike to Shoshone Lake to try to catch my first ever Lake Trout. I did manage to land one but I was very disappointed in the fight.
I have hooked on to sticks that fought better. The fishing may not have been great but seeing otters, eagles, osprey, and geese was more than enough to sustain my euphoric state. The scenery was beautiful and at dusk a nearby ruffed grouse kept strumming. Interesting music to go to sleep with.

2007-07-09T09:35:00.000-07:00

Each day has too much to write about and bringing this BLOG up to date after a couple of weeks is going to be a challenge. In addition to the normal volunteer activities, we continue to see more and more of Yellowstone. We have begun to take weekly hikes together and try to do something together other than eat meals. We’ve hiked or ridden bikes on several trails to see geysers and water falls and took an overnighter to Dubois, WY to see a real rodeo. I’ve gone fishing regularly and generally get to take one or two day backpacking trip into the backcountry.
We hiked back to Fairy Falls which is a relatively easy 5 miles round trip stroll. The hike was through an area recovering from the 1988 fire and was almost boring. There is not much shade since the new-growth lodgepole pines are but 4 – 14 feet high so the sun at this 6000’ altitude is hot. The Fairy Falls howeverwere beautiful. Yellowstone is a land of water falls (in addition to many other features). One of the thermal features we passed on the way to Fairy Falls is Grand Prismatic Hot Springs – the largest known hot spring in the world. It is appropriately named because of the prism effect of the rising steam. The colored algae and bacterial mats make the Grand Prismatic a spectacular feature.
The hot springs are beautiful and so are the abundant wildflowers. On every trip we take we find wildflowers that we did not see before. Columbines were blooming near Fairy Falls.
There is too much to see in the Park but we still needed to see a real rodeo so we headed east to Dubose, WY.
Our overnight trip to Dubose took us through the Grand Teton National Park.
These mountains are awesome. We stopped at the lodge for diner and were fortunate to see two cow moose and a calf feeding in the willows. There are more moose in the Tetons than in Yellowstone.
Dubose has a rodeo every week and professional and amateur cowboys and cowgirls travel many miles to participate in everything from barrel racing, calf roping, team roping, bronc and bull riding, and for the youngsters – sheep and cow riding. (Some of these little kids were good.) This was our first rodeo and we enjoyed it better than seeing it on the TV.
This overnighter was a nice break but we are always happy when we are in the park.
My next backpacking trip was to Grebe Lake. Grebe Lake is known for its grayling density. I’ve caught lots of trout in my lifetime but never grayling so I hiked back to the lake intent on hooking and landing my first of these silvery fighters with the large sail-like dorsal fin.
The lake is less than a mile in diameter and has four backcountry campsites – each with a fire ring and a pole from which packs and food can be elevated to keep them out of reach of the black and grizzly bear that call this area home. I’ve camped here earlier without catching any grayling but the rainbow trout fishing was good. This trip started out much the same. In the middle of the day the mosquitoes and fish were both biting. I caught several rainbows (several at 14”) and was beginning to expect that the grayling were again going to skunk me when I actually began catching more grayling than rainbows. At the end of fishing I had landed 27 grayling and 17 rainbows.
The fishing was great but just seeing all the wildlife makes a backcountry trip worthwhile. On this trip I saw Trumpeter Swans, Elk, Barrows Goldeneye (with young), Common Loons, Williamson Sapsuckers, and Short-tailed Weasel.
This place is awesome. The evening sunset was spectacular.
Although I thoroughly enjoy Grebe Lake, my next outing will have to be elsewhere since there are so many more places to go and things to see and do.
On Saturday we headed north toward Bozeman (about 100 miles) to the nearest Wal-Mart to renew some prescriptions. We stopped to look at Quake lake where in 1979 a 5.+ earthquake on the Richter scale caused a land slide that dammed the Madison River. Twenty-six people were killed when the landslide buried a campground along the river. The USACOE immediately dug a spillway to keep the pressure in the lake from breaking the dam. They expect that in years to come the water flow over the spill way will eventually erode the dam away leaving the Madison River in a similar course as it was before the quake.
In route to Bozeman we passed through some old gold mining towns, Virginia City and Nevada City. Virginia City looks like the 1860s residents just closed and locked the doors and left everything behind. The old buildings look just as they must have looked nearly 150 years ago. The shelves and racks and display cases in the stores have the assortment of goods that would have been available at the time.
Although the interior of these stores can only be viewed either through the windows or, in some cases, from open doorways, the feeling one gets is just as if you have taken a step back into time.
Obviously we are still having a good time. We have passed the halfway point of our stay here in Yellowstone. We will depart here around the 3rd of September and will make a short jog up through Montana to see Glacier National Park then head south through North and South Dakota, and Nebraska. We intend to try to fly back East in late September or early October for a quick visit with relatives and then will continue southward to Big Bend National Park in Texas where we have been offered a volunteer position at their visitor center – more on that later. We expect to depart Big Bend in January for the East where we will spend most of the year bouncing back and forth between friends and family.
Life sure has been good.

More Yellowstone - This place is awesome

2007-06-17T10:29:00.000-07:00

Life continues to be good. I am still in a state of sensory overload and Yellowstone National Park daily keeps me in that state. Our “work” schedule of 3 days off one week and 4 days off the next gives us ample time to play tourist. Since our duties when at work are predominantly related to helping visitors plan their visits to Yellowstone (in addition to helping with the Junior Ranger Program for 5 – 13 year olds) we find naturally that we can give much better advice if we have actually experienced the hike, or thermal feature, or drive ourselves. What a tough task to have to spend our time off watching geysers and wildlife, fishing world-class trout streams, backpacking into the wilderness-like back country, or just taking a day hike to breathtaking waterfalls and vistas.

This last week has certainly lived up to every imaginable expectation. The Grand canyon of Yellowstone with the huge waterfalls cascading over 300 feet is breathtaking. There are over 14,000 thermal features in Yellowstone. The geysers are the most famous and draw everyone’s attention but the paint pots and the hot pools are no less interesting. The fumaroles are merely steaming holes and do not get much attention but they are the hottest of the thermal features. If waterfalls and spouting or erupting geysers are not sufficient to generate a sense of awe, the abundance of wildlife certainly will. This week provided us with an experience few ever see. A very rare buffalo drive took 300 bison past our visitor station. Although the bison migration occurs annually, this year hundreds of bison were interfering with cattle operations west of the park and “cowboys” on horseback were used to usher these 2000# behemoths eastward toward their summer grounds and breeding area. Seems the lighter than normal snow made living in the West Yellowstone area too comfortable for these beast to leave on their own.
A little urging from the horsemen and the migration began—up the Madison Valley and through the Firehole Canyon to the Nez Pierce River. Seeing 300+ bison amble slowly up the two lane road toward the Mary Mountain area was interesting but made me realize that this migration has been taking place for hundreds of years and these bison were not following our man-made road but in fact, the man-made road was actually engineered along the prehistoric bison trail.

The Firehole Canyon is one of my favorite fishing areas but it is seriously dwarfed by the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

The Yellowstone River has carved a magnificent canyon that Charles Cook, of the 1869 Folsom Yellowstone expedition, after stopping at the brink of the canyon near what is now Artist Point wrote, “I sat there in amazement, while my companions came up and after that it seemed to me that it was five minutes before anyone spoke.” Nearly 140 years later the first glimpse of this canyon and the waterfalls generates the same sense of awe and leaves viewers speechless.

Everyone knows of Old Faithful Geyser because of its very predictable eruption schedule. Other geysers are far less predictable but put on much more spectacular displays. Compared to Old Faithful’s 5-6 minute demonstration, my favorite (for now anyway) is Lone Star Geyser which erupts with considerable more fanfare shooting tall spouts of hot water and steam and emitting guttural groans for better that 20 minutes every 2.5 – 3 hours.

I took a few days to backpack along the Continental Divide Trail (CDT) and spent the night not far from the pristine upper reaches of the Firehole River. Wildlife sign was abundant but except for a Pine Martin that ran through camp and a Grey Jay that stopped to beg or scavenge for tid-bits, I saw little.
I left the campsite around 2PM and another group of campers arrived five hours later for a night out in the wilderness. When they arrived at the campsite “steaming fresh” bear scat, tracks, and other signs convinced them to cancel their plans and depart the wilderness.

Next week I will try to spend several days on the trail. I’m sure every rip will be exciting.

Geyser Photo

2007-06-11T11:03:00.001-07:00

We took a side trip to look at a few geysers. This one erupts regularly and is kinda neat looking.

Getting Accustomed to Yellowstone

2007-06-01T07:29:00.001-07:00

I sure like this place. We will actually start "working" in a couple days. That will be nice. Until now we have been in training, I'v e done some fishing (caught about 40 or so trout so far). we have been seeing the sights and doing some hiking. We are getting to know quite a few of the folks we will be working with and Sandi hs mad some friends of her own.
The wild life is awesome. We have seen perhaps thousands of bison, hundreds of elk, coyotes, grizzly bears, black bears, and more. Hiking and fishing takes on a new dimension. whenever we go out we carry bear spray, and industrial sized canister of pepper spray. It is not likely that we will ever have to use it but there has been one bear attack since we arrived - a photographer who insisted on getting too close to a sow grizzly with cubs had much of his face ripped off - but bear attacks are very rare. elk and bison injure more folks than bears do.

From Mexico to Yellowstone National Park

2007-05-28T10:35:00.000-07:00

It is hard to keep up a blog when there is no or limited internet access but here in West Yellowstone, just 12 miles from where we are camped in Yellowstone National Park (YNP) there is WiFi in the visitor center so during our weekly trips to town (population 900) we can get e-mail and do other assorted computer chores.
We left Mexico, followed the Rio Grande River birding the Texas/Mexican boarder into Big Bend National Park. Scenery was awesome, birding was good, and hiking was excellent. We followed the Rio Grande northward into New Mexico stopping at state parks and National Forests along the way. We saw petroglyphs and pictographs left by civilizations nearly 10,000 years ago. We climbed to pueblo ruins, visited Indian cultural centers, and saw volcanic cones. A day of shopping in Old Town Albuquerque was really interesting and we left there with new artist –made wedding bands and perhaps a renewal of a relationship.
Colorado Springs was our intermediate destination and once there we wasted no time making arrangements to catch a flight from Peterson Field to Andrews AFB in Maryland. This trip back East was to visit friends and family.

First a quick trip to Denton Maryland where Bill, Ann, and especially Marisa and Sammy entertained us for the weekend. Marisa never slows down and is sharp as a tack. Sammy is as loveable as can be. Then up to Pennsylvania for a nice visit with Mom and Dad. Playing dominoes during the evenings added to a most enjoyable stay.
Back to Bill and Ann’s for the weekend then over to Andrews where we caught another C-21 (Lear Jet) that took us to Maxwell AFB in Alabama and gave us a chance to visit with Jayme, Chris and Braelyn. Braelyn was approaching her first birthday so we had a practice birthday party.
We departed for Maxwell where we waited for several days for another C-21 that took us back to Peterson in Colorado Springs. Our RV was parked at the home of Escapee Chapter 8 friends Spook and Brenda McFillin.
They took good care of it which sure took the worry out of being away. April in Colorado Springs is still winter and on the eve of our departure we got to experience 4-6 inches of fresh snow. The white landscape was beautiful and Pike’s Peak to the west was awesome. The entire frontal range of mountains-their purple mountains majesty-displayed a breathtaking beauty.
Northbound toward Yellowstone National Park we stopped in Loveland for several days to see some of the sights. Estes Park and the Rocky Mountain National Park gave us our first sighting of mountain sheep and elk. We hiked the perimeter trail around Bear Lake and were entertained by a chipmunk-like golden mantled ground squirrel who played hide-and-seek with us coming close hoping for handouts then running away only to reappear even though handouts never were offered.

A drive through the mountains took us to a secluded retreat, home of the Great Stupa, the largest Buddhist temple in North America. Back in Loveland we toured a local brass foundry taking a very personal tour getting an up close look at wax molding, porcelain mold making, molten brass pouring and finally assembling and finishing. We really have a much greater appreciation of the art of the sculpture and thoroughly enjoyed viewing the statuary in the city park.

Our next stop was Yellowstone. Throughout Colorado and Wyoming on our way to Yellowstone Pronghorn were everywhere, sometimes in sizeable herds. We passed through the Grand Teton Mountains and will certainly return during the summer. Our arrival into Yellowstone on the first day of the southern road opening was not disappointing. There is a spirit about this place and the scenery escapes any attempts at description.
Beautiful trout streams, meadows with grazing elk and bison, snow capped mountains, and the unbelievable thermal features-the geysers, fumaroles, hot pools, and mud pots. They need to be seen to be believed.
Over 14000 thermal features are in the park – more than in all of the rest of the world. The forested landscape, recovering from the fire of 1988, shows the resiliency of nature. Lodgepole pine the predominant tree species are equipped with seratinous cones that are triggered by heat, releasing millions of seeds. The seedlings now 4 -10 feet high are naturally reclaiming the park. Fire is part of the natural scheme of things in this ecosystem but the extremely dry conditions of the summer of 1988 resulted in 22 different fires that effected about one third of the entire park or about 800,000 acres. Yellowstone is actually the caldera of an active volcano that last erupted 640,000 years ago and experiences 1000 – 3000 earthquakes a year. Magma is only 3-5 miles below the surface and the shifting tectonic plates let heated water rise to the surface-sometimes in explosive displays of force. Three million visitors come here annually to experience the magic and spirit of Yellowstone. I will write more later.

Back on the road

2007-05-08T06:49:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of photos but I'll try to edit this and add some in the next few days. We caught a C-21 out of Maxwell and arrived back in Colorado Springs late Thursday night. Being with the grandkids was great but there are some drawbacks. Sandi caught whatever colds or viruses they were suffereing with almost immediately. I was able to resist any ailments until I got back to Colorado. I woke up Friday morning and suffered for several days with the achy-fevery-headache-runny nose-ect syndrome. Recovery finally came and Sandi and I were able to enjoy a few last moments with Spook and Brenda McFillin who were our hosts at their property in Black Forest Colorado. The McFillin's are Chapter-8 Escapees we were with on our trip into Mexico a few months ago. Their beautiful home is built into the ground on a high area east of Colorado Springs and the view from their living room is a spectacular panorama of the Front Range, including the magnificient Pike's Peak. Their bird feeder stays active and House finches, blue birds (mountain, eastern, and western), horn larks, and magpies can all be seen in the yard. We have a training date in Yellowstone and since we want to make a few stops along the way we needed to depart. We woke up to about 4 inches on beautiful snow on Monday our day of departure. The pines were all laden with a picturesque coating and the white valley between the House and up to the Mountains was just spectacular. By the time we prepared the RV for travel, the plows had cleared the road and the outside temperature began to climb from 32 degrees toward the forcast high of 60. We drove through snow in Spooks driveway but the roads were only wet in places and dry by the time we hit the interstate and headed north. We only got a far as Loveland and expect to spend several days here looking at the brass foundaries and perhaps the Rocky Mountain National Park. Watch the nest post for more on them.

Still in Alabama

2007-05-02T08:19:00.000-07:00

We are still in Alabama. Jayme drove us to Maxwell on Sunday and we have been relaxing here since then. A 1900 local flight is on the board from here to Colorado Springs. They expect 5 seats to be available so we should have no problem. We're ready to leave MAxwell AFB in Montgomery and get back to our RV and continue on to Yellowstone National Park where we will spend the summer.

2007-04-25T07:20:00.000-07:00

In Guanajuato, Mexico.
Way too much to catch up on. We left Alabama for Mississippi and then continued west to Texas to rendezvous with some "Escapees" to head into Mexico. Mexico was awesome. We went to Saltillo, Zacatecas (our favorite) and Guanajuato. We loved them all. The Mexican people were great the food was good and we really had a good time and will probably return.

On return from Mexico we followed the Rio Grande along the MEX/US border, the north into New Mexico. The birding along the Rio Grande was awesome, I'm 2 short of 400 life birds at this time. We saw Big Bend National Park, Davis Mountain State Park, Hueco Cliffs State Park, Guadaloupe Mountains National Park and Gilla Cliffs National Monument. All were great. The scenery, birding, hiking and just relaxing has been wonderful.

We worked our way into Colorado having seen countless Pictographs and Petroglyphs, terrific rock formations, and lots of new flora and fauna. At Colorado we parked the RV in Spook and Brenda MacFillin's, friends we met on the Mexico trip, and headed east via military hop from Peterson AFB to MD to visit Bill, Ann, Marisa and Sammy, then to PA to visit my folks and then down to Birmingham to visit with Jayme, Chris and Braelyn. These grandkids are great. With no bias at all I can say without any reservation that they are the best in the world.

Our first few months of RVing

2007-01-18T05:30:00.000-08:00

This is the first of a series of entries to try to cover the earlier days of our Rving life style. We sold our house in Gautier Mississippi before Hurricane Katrina, bought the Tiffin Phaeton RV in Birmingham, AL. (The actual purchase is a story in itself -- ask and I'll tell you about it.) After a few weeks at Shepard State Park in Gautier, we sold the house and got rid of anything we felt we could part with, put the rest into storage or into the RV if we felt we would need it and headed east. Following the Gulf Coast, we made a stop in Destin and Panama City FL and then continued on the Cedar Key.

The bend in the tree seemed just made for our RV and "toad" (referes to our "towed" vehicle the Jeep Grand Cherokee). Cedar Key is a neat little fishing villiage and the location of a significant aquaculture clam raising business. I got to tour the breeding area where they grow the seedclams for sale to the farmers. The farmers lease plots of bay borrom, seed the bottom with the small calms and in a few years go back and harvest their catch. I had stopped at the facility to buy some clams for steaming.

Biloxi and the Mississippi Coast

2007-01-11T04:14:00.000-08:00

We spent Christmas and New Years here in Biloxi. Today is our last scheduled appointment. We’ve cleaned most unnecessary stuff out of our storage and cut the storage requirement in half. All our doctor visits have been very good. We’re doing pretty well for being young senior citizens. We have managed to visit with some friends. I’ve been able to play golf once or twice a week but my scores have not been too great. I’ve had a few scores in the mid 80s but failed to break 90 twice. (YEECH!!!) Bicycling has been one of our pastimes. We have taken a few short rides locally to Hiller Park, a nearby city park, and to the VA. Yesterday we were in Lucedale for dental appointments. On the way home we stopped at the Pascagoula Wildlife Management Area near Wilkerson Ferry and went for about a five mile bike ride on the dirt roads through the management area. The river is at 18’ which is just a few feet below flood. The higher water prevented us from getting all the way to Josephine Sandbar but we were able to enjoy a pleasant picnic on one of the walkways out into Rimes Lake.
Sandi had done a little work on her quilts—one she is doing a repair job on for Marisa and Sammy our grandkids in Maryland. I have been able to complete a few maintenance chores on the RV and Jeep. I may try to complete them today. All I need to do yet is change and flush the coolant in the Jeep and do an oil change on the generator. We are starting to get antsy to move on. We’ve been doing some buying and selling on E-bay and Amazon and have some stuff in the mail. As soon as we receive all that stuff, we will probably move on.

Merry Christmas

2006-12-26T06:28:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas to everyone!
We spent the day at the Keesler Fam-Camp in Biloxi MS. Christmas away from family is a bit lonely but that is one of the sacrifices we made when selecting this lifestyle. We are gratefull for the time we do spend with family during the year when we get back east. We did exchange gifts with family members and made phone calls throughout the day to wish everyone holliday greetings.

We did go the the Beauvoir Methodist Church for Christmas Eve Services and then Sandi took me to see a lighted neighborhood that she and her friend May visited the day before.

Christmas dinner was ham (excellent), and our Christmas Cheer was either margaritas or Creme de Menthe Grasshoppers. The gifts we received were most appreciated. I still think we could cut back more which should be easy for family buying for us since room is a limiting factor when you live in an RV.

We have complete seperating our storage stuff into the stuff we still are not ready to part with and the stuff that we feel we no longer need. We will get ride of the un-needed stuf in the next few weeks - either by selling it of taking it to a charity. We'll be glad not to have the big storage bill.

We have either scheduled or finished most of the need-to-do things except for visiting a few of our friends from when we lived here, and will be ready to depart Mississipi for the far west in a few weeks.

We did take a drive down highway 90 from Gulfport to Biloxi and it is quite apparent that the coast is on the way to recovery but it still has a long way to go. Our hearts really go out to everyone down here.

Nashville to Mississippi Gulf Coast

2006-12-15T04:39:00.000-08:00

We departed Nashville and continues further south. We got on the Natchez Trace at its terminus just south west of Nashville and followed it to a point just north of Tupelo MS. From there we went to Red Bay, AL for some maintenance at the Tiffin facility. The good news was that I was able to get some questions answered and decided that I did not need to have them do any maintenance. So I got in a quick round of golf 45/45 at the Redmont Club and we departed for McCalla, AL to spend some time with Jayme, our daughter, her husband Chris, and especially our grand daughter Braelyn. Braelyn is still as pleasant as ever but Sandi and I both found out quickly that she likes to stand and just be supported. Attempts to hold and hug her resulted in crying granddaughter. Since she almost never crys, we will have to curb our desire to hug. We are camped at McCalla Campground about three miles from Jayme and Chris’. I had hoped to play some golf but the Tannehill Course near here where I used to play a lot of golf is being turned into a subdivision. I’ll need to look for some cheap golf around here somewhere.

11/19/2006
The weather was beautiful two days ago. Sandi and I went out for a bicycle ride and after returning, I could not sit around with the weather so nice so I went out to Frank House Municipal Golf Course in Bessemer for a 42/41 round.

Jayme and Sandi took off shopping leaving me alone with Braelyn. Boy did I like that. What a great child she is. Doesn’t cry unless there is something wrong – tired, hungry, or wet. Even I can figure that out.

We attended church at Pleasant Hill UMC, Jayme’s church. The Paster gives the best sermons.After lunch at Subway and lounging around at Jayme’s, Sandi and I went to hear Handel’s Messiah at a Methodist Church in Hoover. The Birmingham Civic Choral Goup and the Birmingham Symphony did a great job. After the Messiah, Sandi took us out to the Firebird steak house for a very good dinner. Most enjoyable evening

12/07/06
Weather here is turning cold. After a rather mild period, temperatures dropped to into the 20s at night and on warmer days up to 60. Looks like it may get down into the teens the next few nights and only into the 40 during the day. For the last week and a half Sandi and I have been afflicted with a miserable cold. Although we are both starting to recover, we still have some persistent symptoms. We had baby sat for Braelyn and believe she probably brought it to us from her day care. Chris and Jayme both had it as well but in their youth they recovered a lot quicker than we did.

I did not get to do any golf marshalling so I have not played as much as I would have liked. Between the cold temperatures and having a cold I only got out once. That was yesterday when I shot 41/48 at Frank House Municipal course in Bessemer. I figured that would be my last until I get to MS but it appears as if the weather may get up into the 60s again before we leave so I may get to play one more time here.

We did get to ride our bicycles. One day we headed west on the road by the campground. The hills were too much for Sandi so even though we only went a few miles, she was beat and on most of the hills, she had to get off the bike and push. A day or so after that trip we went again heading east and went the three miles to Jayme and Chris’. I helped Jayme hang Christmas decorations/lights outside. Their place looks nice and Jayme is obviously proud of her accomplishments.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

We leave here in two days. Just a week and a half from Christmas, Christmas is going to be lonely. Jayme and Chris have plans to go to his parents this year so we would not see them much even if we were here, We have had some time together and we have had a lot of time with Brealyn. I got to spend time with her while Sandi and Jayme went shopping, Sandi had some 0ne-on-one while Jayme and I went out and Sandi and I had her at the RV on several occasions during our month here. She is one fine little baby. It has been fun watching her grow up. We have seen changes in just the four weeks we were here.. She can grab things and reaches for things, is very attentive to the cats or anything that attracts her attention, She is so close to crawling. I know that one of these moments she will be off a going. She slides along but is not quite crawling.

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Last night was our last get-together with Jayme, Chris, and Braelyn for a while. We hope to get back to visit them sometime between March and May but the parting was painful. Don’t know if it is because we are getting older and more sentimental, the grandkids or what but everytime we leave family it gets harder.

We had an early Christmas at their house last night. We exchanged gifts and had some champagne and wine with a pizza supper, some small talk but lots of watching Brealyn. Her first priority seemed to be to eat the wrapping paper but she did get to examining and playing with a few gifts from Nana and Pop Pop. It was a great night.

We drove from McCalla to Biloxi and we are now set up at the Fam-Camp at Keesler AFB in Biloxi.

2006-11-12T15:15:00.000-08:00

We departed Fort Knox and headed south to Nashville. Our original plans had us stopping at Mammoth Cave but excessive rains forced them to close most of the tours. We’ll stop there another year. We drove past Mammoth and into Tennessee stopping at Montgomery Bell State Park. I believe that I would probably have to say that my favorite campgrounds have been state parks. They do not always have all the hook-ups but there is an ambience that is not present at commercial campgrounds. Montgomery Bell is beautiful. Covering 3,850 acres, the park has 121 campsites, cabins, a conference center and 120-room inn with, with swimming pool, and a first class golf course. The park’s history goes back to 1795 when a Pennsylvanian built a forge here because of the Harpeth River. Using slave labor he cut a 290’ tunnel through the mountain to alter the stream flow and get the water to operate his forge. It is believed to be the oldest man-made tunnel existing in the nation.
The park is also the birthplace of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. In the 1930s Works Progress Administrration (WPA) and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) constructed the actual park. In 1943 the park was deeded from the National Park Service toTennessee. The park has over 20 miles of hiking trails – some long enough for overnight experiences - and 20 miles of mountain bike trails.

Our first day here was a day of relaxation. I did hit some golf balls at the driving range. On Friday we ventured into downtown Nashville. Our first stop was to see the Life-size replica of the Parthenon and statue of Athena in Centennial Park.
Quite impressive. It was built as a temporary structure for a Centennial celebration along with many other structures. The other buildings were taken down and the plaster Parthenon was repaired until the decision was made to replace it with a more permanent building. It is the only life size replica of the Parthenon in the world.

Bi-Centenial Park on the north side of the Capital Grounds was impressive. A walkway along the west side of the park has a time-line covering Tennessee from 1,000,000 BC to near the present with key facts, quotes and the like etched into the marble wall. A fountain at one end of the park has facts about the Tennessee Rivers in marble and a huge map of Tennessee is engraved in Marble on the patio at the south end. A WWII memorial has a marble globe floating in a fountain. The globe depicts where Tennesseans served around the world in WWII. Adjacent to the park is a farmers market. We had lunch there but were a bit disappointed. The market did not compare the markets we visited in Pennsylvania.

I’m really starting to love Tennessee. Yesterday we went to the Narrows of the Harpeth River State Park. The Narrows are a place where the river bends around after about five miles of course and nearly meets itself. This place where the river nearly meet is separated by 200 yards of limestone mountain. Not a big mountain by most standards, it was in the late 1700s that a Pennsylvanian entrepreneur by the name of Montgomery Bell, using slave labor bored a tunnel through the rock and the water drop on the down stream side was then used to power a drop forge. While Sandi and I were investigating the area we were alarmed by a big splash. We soon saw the head of what we first thought was a beaver but then realized it was an otter—not one but three. We were entertained by their playful antics for nearly 30 minutes and although they were wary of our presence, they did provide some good photo opportunities.

In the evening we headed back into Nashville. One cannot come to Nashville without visiting the Grand Ole Opry. Our nearly front row seats at the old Ryman Theater put us up close and personal with Little Jimmy Dickens, Mel McDaniel, John Anderson, the Riders in the Sky, Whispering Bill Anderson and many more. We were probably on TV on the GAC channel since they were filming a sixty minute part of the almost three hour program for live TV. We thoroughly enjoyed the evening.

South into Kentucky

2006-11-09T03:18:00.000-08:00

We pulled out of Gettysburg and drove a couple hours to Cincinnati, Ohio where we stayed at the Family Motorhome Coach Association (FMCA) headquarters. They have a large parking lot with electric for members. We stayed there the maximum allowed – 2 days – which was just enough time to visit something in Ohio to enable us to check off one more state. RVers everywhere have maps of the US on their RV and fill in each state whenever they drive in that state. We decided that we would have to spend the night or visit some memorable sit for a state to be able to be checked off. In Cincinnati we visited the Underground Railroad Freedom Museum. The museum is well done. There was little that I had not been exposed to before but I still enjoyed the visit.

We left Ohio and moved south into Kentucky. We stayed at Fort Knox Army Post for several days. Within minutes of setting up I met another golfer and the first activity for Kentucky was to go play a round of gold at the Fort Knox course. My 43/45 88 was satisfactory for never having played the course before. No birdies and no triple bogeys so I was consistent at least. Sandi took the day to relax. On Tuesday we took advantage of the rainy day to visit some in-door attractions. We drove by the gold depository. No tours are allowed and no one offered any samples. We continued on to Abraham Lincoln's birthplace.
Although nothing remains of the original home except for a few tools, an example of the 16 X 18 log cabin is enshrined in a monument near the spring that flows on the property. It was interesting to note that Abe’s dad, Tom, saw his own father shot to death by an Indian. Abe’s lineage traced back to Massachusetts, I assumed the Massachusetts Bay Colony of the 1600s.

After visiting the Lincoln Birthplace we drove a short distance to the Jim Beam distillery. Since it was election day, the distillery cannot sell any liquor or give out any samples. How is that for bad timing? Never-the-less the movie and self guided tour was interesting. One the way back to the RV we stopped at the PX and Commissary for a few supplies. The commissary is noticeably cheaper than off base so we try to take advantage of any opportunities we get to shop at them. Milk, for advantage was only $1.55 a gallon at the Commissary compared to nearly $3.00 off base. Not everything is that much cheaper though.

Our last day, today was spent at Churchill Downs, sipping Mint Julips, and watching the horses. We’re not much on gambling so neither of us bet even $2.00 on anything but we still enjoyed a very good diner in the Silky Club and had fun picking horses. Sandi would probably have won a dollar or two if she had been betting.

From the Banks of the Ohio

2006-11-05T07:28:00.000-08:00

We left Delaware, Bill, Ann, and the grandkjids for Pennsylvania where we visited Mom and Dad for several days. Nice to visit. We did spend a morning at the Shillington farmer’s market. Sure wish there were more markets like these along our travels. In addition to pig stomach, and sho-fly pie, we bought some apple dumplings, ring bologna, and some great sharp cheese. We parked our RV in the back yard (at the corral) of Bob and Shirly Reeser along the banks of the Schyukill River. Canada geese were in abundance and the river invited me every day for a canoe float or fishing excursion. A heavy rain one night raised the river considerably.

We left Reading and went to York for a great visit with my college roommate Harry Zart and his wife Julie. Had a wonderful visit. Julie served (of all things) hog maul – pig stomach stuffed with fresh sausage, cabbage, potatoes, and onions. Very good. After lots of wine and a tour of the Rojhan cabinetry plant (www.rojahnkitchens.com) we continued on to Gettyspurg, PA where we parked at the Gettysburg RV Resort courtesy of a coupon from my niece, Brooke. Thanks Brooke!!!!

Our first morning in Gettysburg was beautiful so we packed the bikes and drove a few miles south to the MD/ WVA boarder to bike the C&O bike trail just west of Harper’s Ferry. Beautiful day for a bike ride.
There were lots of paw paw trees, painted turtles, pileated woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers, kinglets, wrens, and others. The C&O bike trail follows the old C&O canal and follows the Potomac River. The scenic trail coincides with the Appalachian trail and we followed that across the Potomac into Harper’s Ferry in West Virginia where we walked around and had an ice cream cone during a break. I found the camping cook wear I want in an outfitter’s store but the $35 for a pot made me think about waiting a while to buy a much needed pot.

11/1/2006
Yesterday was for hiking. Absolutely gorgeous day. The temperature got up to 70+. We drove down into Maryland west of Frederick and got on the Appalachian Trail near where I -70 and rt 40 meet. We hiked about 2.5 miles northbound to Annapolis Rocks. Annapolis Rocks is every bit as awesome as McAfee’s Knob in Virginia. We had lunch of Lebanon Balogna sandwiches, radishes, and cheese. Out on the rocks we feel as if we are suspended over the valley. Red Tailed Hawks and Turkey Vultures soared overhead. The hike was relatively easy for me but a bit arduous for sandi. We saw lots of chipmunks and grey squirrels and there was a lot of bird activity. Saw some of the grey thrushes but without my field glasses I could not tell what they were.
Today I met my brother for a round of golf at the Bridges in Abottstown just east of Gettysburg. Another beautiful day. I shot 45/42 for an 87. My little brother tried but could not keep up. I don’t get to beat him often so I’m relishing this. Actually I’ve had a good series of golf here in the east. Despite Bill my son, and Ken my brother both claiming to play great golf, neither were up to the task of beating me. I loved it.

Thursday I spend all day slow cooking ribs for a very special get together with our dear friends the Zarts. Harry and Julie came from York to spend the evening with us at Gettysburg. We drank and talked until well into the evening. We had an absolutely great visit.

Westward from Delaware

2006-10-29T17:36:00.000-08:00

We left Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge and Milton Delaware for parts west. We had a great visit with the highlight of our time spent here being the time we spent with Marisa and Sammy our 3 and 2 year old grandchildren. On several occasions, Bill and Ann (Son & Daughter-in-law) took a weekend off and sent the kids home to the RV with us. Boy did we have fun. One day to the beach, a trip to the board walk at Rehobeth, an evening driving around looking for deer and other wildlife, coloring, playing with toys and all kinds of things that grandparents like to do with grandchildren.

At the refuge we spend several weeks presenting an educational program on insects to local second-graders. Four days a week, twice a day, Sandi and I and 4 or 5 other volunteers would make inquisitive youngsters entomologists by collecting and studying grasshoppers, beetles, and butterflies. Lots of fun.

On additional duty we had was to man the hunter check station. Several times during our stay here we would man a hunter check station where we oversaw the lottery for blinds for deer and duck hunting. Deer and waterfowl abound here at Prime Hook Wildlife Refuge. Snow Geese are here in the tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands. Teal, mallards, black ducks, Canada geese and others are seemingly everywhere.

In addition to our grandparenting duties, and volunteer activities on the refuge, I also took the time to do some hiking on the Appalachian Trail in New York. I caught a military hop out of Dover AFB and flew to Stewart ANGB. Worked out great. I can now say I have hiked some of the AT in every state north of the Mason Dixon line. I also managed to go fishing numerous times and although the fishing was not as good as last year I caught something almost every time. Usually I caught us a meal of bluefish ans several times caught strippers that were just shy of the 24” minimum. Skates and sharks made up the difference.

Another highlight of the visit here was golfing with Bill, my son, and Ken, my brother. We’d all been bragging about our golf prowess and each of us fell considerably short of our proclaimed skill level. Never-the-less we had a great time.

I turned 60 a few days ago. Had a nice birthday party with Sandi, Bill, Ann, Marisa, and Sammy. Bill and I had played a round of golf and I used the carved fossilized mammoth tusk greens keeper that Bill got me for my birthday. The fossil is about 10,000 years old and I think Bill got it for me so I would not feel so old.

Happy Anniversary

2006-09-25T02:46:00.000-07:00

Sure seems hard to believe that 34 years ago we walked down the isle in an outdoor wedding and we still remain a couple. Strange as it may seem we passed that 34 year point on Saturday and celebrated by getting up early for a day trip across the Delaware Bay to New Jersey. After a breakfast at the Crackerbarrel in Lewes Delaware, we drove to the Cape May/Lewis Ferry Landing on Cape Henlopen. Arriving an hour early we went into the gift shop and killed some time looking at the photos of the landing and the ferries as they were just a few years prior to our nuptuals. We often saw the signs for the Ferry when we visited this area in our younger years but we had never made the crossing and felt to do so would be a great way to celebrate our marriage. The ferry arrived and we drove on board within view of the two light houses and the World War II sub towers on the Cape. Departing the harbor we passed Cape Henlopen which was lined with surf fishermen trying to land one of the fall run stripped bass that are cruising the Delaware coast. The New Jersey Coast is just out of sight but a half hour into the 90 minute trip the land could be sighted. Except for the laughing gulls and herring gulls no other wildlife was sighed by us as we walked the decks watching the caost grow closer as we rocked back and forth on the waves always present at the mouth of the Delaware Bay.

The cape May Ferry Landing is on the Cape MAy Canal that goes from the Atlantic Ocean to the Delaware Bay and as we entered the canal we both recalled memories of the "SANJAY" our 44' trawler that we travelled/lived on for 18 months. We cruised through this canal about this time in 1998.

We headed northward to Wildwood to play tourist at the Irish Festival. About an hour of bagpipe and drum music which terminated with a memorial for a fallen commrad where about 200 bagpipes played "Amazing Grace" -- awesome and very moving.

After sampling food and drink at the festival we went to Menz's Resturaunt near Cape May. great ambience, great food, great time.

Caught the ferry back arriving about dark. We will probably remember this anniversary.

Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge

2006-09-20T09:08:00.000-07:00

We made it to Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge and we will be here until near the end of October. We will be assisting with a nature program on insects fors econd graders. The schedule has us doing two programs a day, four days a week. That should keep us busy. There is something to be said about being parked in the middle of the refuge. We see deer daily, Canada Geese are abundant and the first of the migratory ducks are arriving.

We did have a great weekend with the grandkids. Mom and Dad took the day off and left Marisa and Sammy with Pop Pop and Nanna. Did we have fun. In addition to coloring and baking cookies, we went to the Broadkill Beach on the Delaware Bay (about three miles away) Those youngsters sure enjoyed the water.

Fishing has been satisfactory. Last night we caught enough bluefish for a couple meals. I've landed a few flounder in the last week but non of them made the Delaware state minimum of 17 1/2". Last night the small stripers were feeding and I managed to catch four between 18 -22" but again I had to release them because they did not meet the state 24" minimum. Give me enough time and a dumb big one will swim into my hook.

Grandkids and Hurricanes

2006-09-02T04:11:00.000-07:00

Grandkids are great. We spent last Sunday going to church and playing with Marisa (3) and Sammy (1 1/2), the daughter and son of our Son, Bill, and his wife Ann. On Thursday they all came to Tuckahoe for a hot dog roast. we had a great picnic, Marisa and I performed on dulcimer and harmonica. We played greats like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Are You Sleeping, and Mary Had A Little Lamb. Sammy provided vocal accompaniement on a few pieces. A barred owl (see previous post) also provided some accompaniement.

Friday ther reminants of Ernesto passed by with 50 mph winds and rain in the neighboerhood of 6 inches in 24 hours. It appears as if the rain is now stopping and we will probably see sunshine by this afternoon.

We will not be going very far for the next fer days. I took our jeep to a shop to determine the source of a loud hum and found out that my transfer case is going bad. Fortunately it is fully warrented but I expect that we will have to live without it for a week to ten days.

Night of the owls

2006-08-29T03:03:00.000-07:00

We're still in Tuckahoe. Except for the host campers and us, the campground is empty. sandi and I were wathing the TV for Ernesto updates and playing cards when around 9:30 PM I heard the distinctive "Who cooks for you? Who cooks for me?" call of the Barred Owl. We went out side to get a better listen and were treated to a concert of every barred owl sound as three or four of these owls competed for attention. I've often heard them but I do not believe I have ever heard such a phenominal chorous.

Charlotte NC to Tuckahoe State Park, MD

2006-08-26T05:44:00.000-07:00

We left NC and followed the Blue Ridge Parkway northward. A highlight of the trip north was a stop at the Natural Bridge in Virginia. Sandi and I have since childhood both seen signs but never had the opportunity to stop. Well worth the while. We spent the night at Loft Mountain Loop Campground in the Shenandoah National Forest in VA. The next day we continued north through part of the Skyline Drive and then into Baltimore where we picked up Jayme (our daughter) and Braelyn (grandaughter - 3 mos.) and headed to PA to visit family. Parked the night in the yard at Bob and Shirley Reeser's along the Schuylkill River. Had a great visit with parents, and my brother, sister-in-law, and niece. Next day we headed to Harrisburg to visit Sandi's brother and family and then headed south to Ft Meade, MD where we spent most of the week. Had a great visit from Scott and Lou Wales who stopped by enroute from MA to NC. We left Ft Meade yesterday and pulled into Tuckahoe State Park where we will spend the next ten days visiting our son Bill, his wife Ann and playing with Marisa and Sammy our Grandchildren. Should be a great week. We do have a wedding to attend. Our daughter's best friend is getting married.

First Blog entry

2006-08-20T03:48:00.000-07:00

Bear with me this is my first entry. I have been keeping a log for over a year now and after attending a seminar in Charlotte, NC about RVing and blogs put on by Jim and Chris I decided that I needed a blog and could do it myself.

We are in Reading Pennsylvania, will go to Harrisburg today to visit more relatives and then will settle in at Ft Meade in Marland for a week. Then I'll really work on this blog. Look for updates.

The photo is of Sandi doing a nature program with a few kids at Lake Moomaw in the Washington national Forest in VA.