Autumn Road Trip: Part II

Posted on October 15, 2023 by womanwifemotherchild

In case anyone’s been wondering, we did make it to Albuquerque. If you need to catch up on the first leg of our trip, you can find it in Part I. We left off with our stay at Labaddie Brewing in Labadie, Missouri, after a visit to the Gateway Arch in St. Louis.

The next day was mostly a driving day, although we stopped at Shaw Nature Reserve in Gray Summit, Missouri, for a morning walk/run.

That night we stayed at the Joplin, Missouri, KOA (Kampgrounds of America). In the morning, Mark ran and I walked loops around the campground before we got on the road. We also had to deal with a cooler leak before we left. This one wasn’t as bad as the leak that happened on our previous trip because we learned to store everything in plastic bins this time. Still, we had some mopping up to do.

As you can see from this photo, the campground was mostly gray dusty gravel that was roused into clouds of gray dust in the morning by a small tractor-pulled rake. It took days to get the dust out of our shoes!

Another long day of driving followed. We entered Oklahoma and landed at our Harvest Hosts destination just after 4 pm: The Stafford Air & Space Museum in Weatherford. We had enough time, or so we thought, to tour the museum before the 5 pm closing time. We were wrong. The museum is named in honor of Weatherford’s hometown hero, Lt. General Thomas P. Stafford, who flew on both Gemini and Apollo missiions with NASA. The museum documents the history of flight with loads of fascinating exhibits and artifacts. We didn’t even get through half of it before closing time.

Out in the parking lot, we were one of two camping vehicles staying the night. We pulled out the Weber grill and Mark grilled some chicken for dinner. The temperature was still fairly warm, so we took a walk through the cute little neighborhood behind the parking lot after dinner. Small neat houses lined wide streets with Hallmark-movie street names like Hayride, Harvest, Cloud Nine, Pumpkin, and Falling Leaves.

The next morning we made a pit stop at the local Walmart and headed west to Arizona by way of Amarillo, Texas. We’d found a Nature Reserve in Amarillo online that looked like a nice place to walk and run. Their website warned of a road closure and gave directions on how to reach their entrance. But road work popped up in every direction we tried to turn in Amarillo. So frustrating! We drove in circles and couldn’t get near the Reserve. We gave up. Our destination for the evening was Tucumcari, New Mexico, so we set our sights on that and left Amarillo behind.

The scenery (and stopping to grab lunch) helped to soothe the frustration. Lots of open land, cows, and wind turbines along the way. Central Time zone gave way to Mountain Time, so we arrived at the Tucumcari/ Route 66 KOA campground in early afternoon.

It was early enough that we thought we’d roll out the awning to shade the sliding door side of the van. The sun was intense. But so was the wind. We took the awning down after ten minutes of strong wind gusts. Mark went out for a run, instead, doing 6.6 miles on route 66 in Tucumcari.

The temperature dropped overnight and at 5 am, with the temp inside the van at 57 degrees, we decided to put the heat on. Our first (chilly) New Mexico sunrise:

We left the campground mid-morning and headed toward Santa Fe. Our friends in Albuquerque were out on a day trip to Sevilleta and wouldn’t be home until late afternoon, so they recommended Santa Fe and the Randall Davey Audubon Center & Sanctuary for us. We enjoyed another scenic drive along the way — so different from New England landscapes. Freight trains with what looked like a hundred cars became a common sighting, as well.

The Audubon Center turned out to be a gem! Beautiful views, trails, hummingbirds, artists at work, and more. I walked around, birdwatching and taking photos, while Mark ran on one of the trails.

Our Albuquerque friends texted us when they were on their way back home, but we almost didn’t want to leave the Audubon Center—it was so beautiful. Reluctantly, we did. And we arrived in Albuquerque just in time for green chile stew for dinner!

There’s so much more to say, but it’s taken so long to get this post done due to poor cell phone and wi-fi reception that I’ll stop here and fill you in on our Albuquerque adventures in my next post. Meanwhile, we continue to meet all sorts of people and see some amazing natural and human-made wonders.

Peace. 🙂

Yet Another Wilmington…

Posted on February 24, 2023 by womanwifemotherchild

If you’ve been keeping up, we left Wilmington, MA, last week on our way to North Carolina to visit our friends, Cathy & Don. You can read the previous blog entry here.

We camped for two nights at Andrew Jackson State Park in Lancaster, South Carolina, and spent some time at Anne Springs Close Greenway on the way back to Charlotte. I forgot to mention at the end of the previous post that we stopped by Middle James Brewing in Pineville, NC, after hiking at the Greenway on Sunday.

On Monday morning, a week from the day we left home, we awoke to our final day in Charlotte. Cathy & Don were on grandparent duty, so we all drove over to Little Sugar Creek Greenway and walked for a couple of hours. Mark squeezed in a run while we were there.

The weather was beautiful and so was nature all around us.

Monday afternoon, Cathy & Don took us on a brewery walk not far from their neighborhood. We visited Legion Brewing,

Burial Beer Company,

And the favorite, Resident Culture Brewing.

Monday night, we enjoyed a home-cooked meal with Cathy & Don, their daughter, Kelly, and her husband, Mike. And on Tuesday morning we said our good-byes. Time with good friends goes by too fast.

On the way to the fourth Wilmington of our trip, we saw an amazing sight. A huge, I mean HUGE, flock of white birds, probably Snow Geese, flew over the highway, looking like a murmuration of starlings. It was impossible to get a clear photo, as we were driving about sixty mph, but here’s what we saw:

It was mesmerizing! And a little distracting for the driver. 🙂

We continued on to Wilmington, North Carolina, where we stayed overnight at the KOA there.

Our journey south was over now and the rest of the trip would be directed north, toward home.

Destination: Carolinas

Posted on February 23, 2023 by womanwifemotherchild

In this third installment of our recent van trip, we finally reached North Carolina. If you need to catch up on our adventures, check out From Wilmington…To Wilmington… and What Happens In Virginia…

We left the Holiday Inn in South Hill, VA, on Thursday morning, looking to take a walk/run before getting back on the road. We found a pleasant trail called Tobacco Heritage Trail in La Crosse, VA. The first sound to hit my ears there seemed like an unfamiliar birdsong, but after checking with a group of locals on the trail, I learned that frogs were making all that noise. More throaty than the ‘peepers’ we have up north, but not as low-pitched as bullfrogs. They were loud, but seemingly invisible, so no pics of them. We saw a few birds and a very small snake along the rest of the trail.

After walking/running the trail, we got back on the road and continued south, arriving at our friends’ place in Charlotte, NC, around four in the afternoon. Cathy & Don live in a separate in-law apartment on the property of their daughter and her husband. Their RV was parked alongside their garage, so we spent the night parked on the street next to it.

It rained overnight and was still spitting on Friday morning. We spent a quiet day doing laundry, blogging, and visiting with Cathy & Don & their new grandbaby, Evelyn. Around 3 p.m., we followed Cathy & Don in their Tiffin RV down to Andrew Jackson State Park near Lancaster, South Carolina, to camp for a couple of nights.

Cathy & Don were gracious hosts, even while camping. We ate supper in their RV and played cards until late. We taught them how to play Pitch. Team Mark & Cathy beat Team Chris & Don in spectacular fashion. On Saturday, we hiked around the park, found the site of Jackson’s boyhood home and a museum that was open for exactly one hour everyday. We hit it about eight minutes before closing.

Saturday afternoon, the four of us piled into our van and ventured over to Benford Brewing in Lancaster, SC.

From there, we checked out The Dream Chaser’s Brewery in Waxhaw, NC. What a cute little town! Perfect for browsing all the Main St. shops. The only drawback was that the whole town closed its doors at 5 p.m. Oh, well.

We left Andrew Jackson State Park on Sunday morning. On the way back to Charlotte, we stopped at Anne Springs Close Greenway in Fort Mills, South Carolina for some easy hiking.

After all that fresh air and exercise, we headed back to Charlotte, ending the day with 5 p.m. Sunday mass at St. Peter in downtown Charlotte.

We spent one more day in Charlotte, but that will have to wait for my next post. 🙂

A Taste Or Two Of Spring

Posted on March 14, 2021 by womanwifemotherchild

You know that little thrill of licking brownie batter off the spatula just after you put the pan in the oven? (Oh, is that just me??) Anyway, we all like to sample a bit of whatever we’re whipping up in the kitchen, don’t we, — especially if we’re cooking when we’re hungry? It’s so hard to wait. And that’s how this past week felt to me with the tease of a couple of warm March days. I could taste spring!

My first taste involved one of my daughters and the mitre saw she inherited from my Dad. (Stay with me here.) We’re going to be building new garden beds for my backyard this spring. Several weeks ago, we took a road trip to the only two Home Depots in the area that carried the cedar two-by-sixes we needed. Long story, short, we spent an hour or so cutting some into four-foot lengths and trimming the rest to eight feet. We’ve got some work ahead of us still, but seeing them all cut excited me. I can’t wait for gardening season!

The second taste involved another of my daughters. She lives almost two hours away and works as a baker. For both of those reasons, we had’t seen her in person for months. I’d been waiting for decent weather on one of her days off, so we could spend some time outdoors together. Last Friday, the promise of temperatures in the high fifties, or even maybe sixty degrees, was just what we needed. And it did indeed turn out to be a beautiful day!

We hiked a trail at a local state reservation. We watched for birds and talked a bit about photography as she tried out the new camera she got for Christmas. It was midday, so bird activity was minimal. After walking for a while, we actually thought we might not see any. But then a few nuthatches and chickadees flew right across in front of us and sat chirping in the trees for several minutes. We walked on and saw a large black-ish bird fly by at a distance. When we got to the spot, we discovered a pileated woodpecker. A second one flew by a few minutes later. Even though they moved too fast and stayed partially out of view, I took one poorly focused picture — enough for proof, if not for hanging on a wall. All in all it was fun and left me pining for more warm spring days.

Gratitude Spiral: Day 292

Posted on September 14, 2020 by womanwifemotherchild

Today, I’m grateful for the eagerness of the birds while I’m filling the feeder.

They start to chatter as I open the stepladder. I can hear their excitement (or impatience) as I pour the seeds in. And they’re at the feeder before I’ve finished dragging the ladder away — chickadees, cardinals, woodpeckers, blackbirds, tufted titmice. Sometimes, I just stand and watch before folding up the ladder and putting it away. 🙂