Tag Archives: Vanlife

How We Got Home: The Condensed (sort of) Version

Posted on by
Reply

We did eventually get home again, in case anyone was wondering after reading California, Here We Come. But after traveling as far west as we could, we veered north/northeast through Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and into Canada first.

In Oregon, we checked out Kirby Flat Trailhead which was anything but flat. We found it after yet another white-knuckle drive along windy roads with sheer drop-off edges. I had to close my eyes and just breathe for most of it. The trail offered beautiful scenery and pinecones larger than my shoe, but not a very easy hike or run.

A couple of hours later, we were passing through Eugene, Oregon, and went in search of Pre’s Trail, so named for the legendary track star Steve Prefontaine. A much better place for a run. Then, after battling too many hours of heavy traffic on I5, we met up with my cousin Kelly just south of Portland for a bite to eat. It was so good to see her!

The next morning, we found a stretch of the Pacific Crest Trail for a walk/run. I managed to capture a faraway image of a Red Crossbill and a decent photo of a California Scrub Jay. Then, lunch at Thunder Island Brewing where we had a great view of the Bridge of the Gods which crosses over the Columbia River from Oregon into Washington.

Later, on the road to Spokane, Washington, we came uncomfortably close to some wildfire hot spots.

In the morning, we walked/ran the Centennial Trail, a smooth, paved path which runs along the Spokane River. Lots of birds well-hidden in the trees and bushes, but I did manage to catch sight of a California Quail, a few Cedar Waxwings, and a gorgeous butterfly. From there we drove north-northeast, through Good Grief, Idaho, and into Canada.

The scenery, once we entered Canada, opened wide to snow-topped mountains and stunning blue-green waters. We drove through Radium Hot Springs in British Columbia, getting a surprise sighting of a group of elks on the sidewalk as we came around a bend. No time to grab the camera!

We drove to Banff in Alberta, choosing to view Lake Louise from the lift at the Lake Louise Mountain Resort. Along the way, we saw bridges over the highway apparently built for wildlife to safely cross over the road. Ingenious!

After the gondola ride, we checked out the town of Banff, stopping at Banff Legacy Trail for a short walk/run. Another great view, but you’ve got to watch out for the holes in the ground. You never know who might pop up!

The town of Banff was disappointing. Very touristy and part of Banff National Park, so they were advertising a pass purchase just to walk down the streets. We didn’t stay long. That night we checked into the Sandman Hotel in Calgary for the only hotel stay of the trip. We were upgraded to a suite which was unfortunately wasted on us van travelers.

For the next ten days, we traveled southeast and then fairly straight east toward home. Here are some of the highlights…

Frog Creek Wetlands in Claresholm, Alberta, Canada, where my Merlin app heard a lot more birds than I actually saw. The wide, flat trails looped around several ponds. I did spot a male and female Yellow-headed Blackbird, several Black Terns, a Clay-colored Sparrow, a Blue-winged Teal, an American Coot, several Killdeer, a female Red-winged Blackbird, and a Ruddy Duck with a blue bill.

In Billings, Montana, the Yellowstone River runs behind the KOA. There, we saw a few White Pelicans and a Yellow Warbler in the morning before driving off to Zimmerman Park overlooking the city of Billings. The trails there offered space for walking, running, and biking. And, of course, birding. I caught up with a Western Meadowlark, a Violet-green Swallow, a Lark Sparrow, and a Spotted Towhee.

We spent the next couple of days driving through South Dakota in one-hundred-plus degree weather. We stopped in Rapid City, South Dakota, for some shopping, and after checking out the presidential statues downtown we had lunch at Firehouse Brewing. Later, we stopped at Wall Drug to see what all the fuss (miles & miles of billboards) was about. Probably a fun stop for families with young kids, but the heat made everything a bit less tolerable. At one of our campsites we were even visited by a baby bird — a robin I think — that looked like it wasn’t enjoying the heat either!

We also stopped in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Mark went for a run in the heat while I strolled down to the falls.

In Minnesota, we stopped along the Douglas State Trail, where Mark found a running buddy and I found a Hairy Woodpecker. Then we stopped at Forager Brewery for lunch.

The sweltering heat continued from Wisconsin into Illinois where we attempted a walk/run along the Great Western Trail in the village of Villa Park. The only consolation was More Brewing, right next-door to the trail. Coincidence? I think not.

In Indiana, we stayed a night with Mark’s friend Chuck before driving through Ohio and into Pennsylvania to visit Mark’s cousin Bob in Erie. We actually met up with him in Presque Isle State Park. What a beautiful spot on a peninsula that stretches out into Lake Erie! Mark and Bob went for a long bike ride, while I spent hours checking out the birds. I found a Spotted Sandpiper with a couple of downy chicks running around, a very busy Yellow Warbler, and a nesting Robin. And I met a local woman who showed me where the Bank Swallows nest. What an unexpected bonus!

That night we made it to our campsite in Westfield, New York, in time for a short walk to see the sunset over Lake Erie.

Six weeks is a long time to be on the road, so in the morning we decided to make a bee-line for home. We still made a couple of stops along the way, though. We spent a soggy couple of hours at Erie Canal Park in Camillus, New York, and then dinner at Fidens Brewing in Albany. Always a good way to celebrate the end of a road trip.

Now that we’re home again, everyone keeps asking what we’ve got planned next. Considering it’s taken several months to finish reporting on this last trip, we might just have to keep you all guessing… for now. 🙂

California, Here We Come!

Posted on by
1

We left Lake Tahoe and crossed into California on a Friday. If you want to read about our prior adventures, check out From Utah to Tahoe.

Saturday morning we got up super early in search of a hidden and highly recommended gem of a trail in Little Lakes Valley. Rock Creek Road in Bishop, California, led us up a steadily narrowing passage to the trailhead at Mosquito Flat. It was one of many white-knuckle drives we’d take over the course of our time on the road. We had no idea what we’d do if we met a vehicle trying to come back down while we were driving up. Luckily, we didn’t have to find out.

The drive was well-worth it. We claimed a corner parking spot and prepared to hike. Although we didn’t hike the full eight miles to see all of the lakes, what we did see was beautiful! And I even spied a Clark’s Nutcracker for the first time, high atop a tree .

I should probably mention that there’s absolutely no cell service in Little Lakes Valley. We’d planned to join a Zoom call with our adult children that morning after we’d driven the two hours to claim a coveted parking space. But when we arrived to find no cell service, we didn’t want to leave without hiking. So, our kids spent several hours wondering if we’d gone over a cliff somewhere. Whoops. We learned to keep them better informed after that.

We camped at Oh Ridge in June Lake, California, that night. And we had a few interesting encounters there. A Stellar’s Jay visited us while we ate supper. Then our campsite neighbors generously shared eggs from their own chickens because they had many and would find even more when they got back home. (Mark returned the generosity by sharing a Tree House Brewing beer we had in our cooler.) And then a deer crossed our path as we drove out to June Lake Brewing after supper.

We made a very early start again the next morning in order to get into Yosemite National Park before the crowds. It was a good plan, but there was so much to stop and see when we first entered the park that by the time we got to the Visitor’s Center, hours later, the place was mobbed. We were lucky to get a parking space. It was a hot day which made the crowds even less tolerable, but we made the best of it. Mark went for a run and I tried to find a quiet path to search for birds. Mark found Mirror Lake and I found a few waterfalls. I also spotted a male and a female Western Tanager, for the first time, in a roadside stand of trees.

The raven in that last photo flew uncomfortably low over my head before landing on the railing next to me. It then posed for multiple photographers!

On our way out of Yosemite, we almost drove right past El Capitan. A crowd had gathered in the field across the street from it and many people had trained binoculars and large cameras at the huge rock formation. We pulled over to find out what was going on. Turned out there were two sets of climbers scaling the vertical rock face! My stomach flipped just watching them. Insane!

For those who’ve been following the saga of the bench seat that we had uninstalled from the van floor and were trying to get rid of, you’ll be interested to know that we began to text back and forth with an interested party from southern California as we headed west from Yosemite. We weren’t traveling to southern California, but apparently he had family in Santa Cruz. A couple of days later, we actually met up with the man’s father in a Walmart parking lot in San Jose. He left with the seat and we left with cash in our pocket and a lighter load. That was a good day! 🙂

We stopped in El Cerrito, California, just north of San Francisco, overnight to visit a high school classmate of Mark’s. Keith welcomed us and cooked us a great supper that night. In the morning, the two of them biked the hills of El Cerrito together and then we hit the road again, heading north.

First stop, Russian River Brewing Company in Santa Rosa. Apparently, Charles Schultz lived and worked in the area for decades before his death. Fun fact! But no, we didn’t check out his museum. Maybe next time. Later that evening, at our campground, a California Towhee and an Oregon Junco visited our site. Both firsts for me. But I only got a photo of the Towhee.

Next on our list was Mendocino Headlands State Park—highly recommended by my friend Michelle. We passed miles and miles of vineyards as we drove north. Beautiful scenery! And when we neared the coast and began driving up Route One, we drove through passages of redwoods. It felt like we’d entered another world.

As we pulled into the dirt parking lot at Mendocino Headlands, before we’d even parked, we were flagged down by a man approaching our van. Mark rolled down his window. Rocco, as he introduced himself, was from Germany and had been on the road for a while. He was flying home soon and wanted to know if we wanted any of his ‘stuff’. We checked out his stash and gained a camping chair, a handy plastic bin, a large plastic bowl, paper towels, unopened pasta and sauce, among other things. Score!

Then we parked and enjoyed the Headlands. Gorgeous! I texted Michelle on the spot to thank her for sending us there.

Numerous black and white birds covered the flat tops of a couple of large rock outcroppings at one end of the headlands. They were far away, so I had to zoom in to identify them. The large all-black ones I knew were some kind of Cormorant. Turns out that some of them sported bright blue bills, which meant they were Brandt’s Cormorants. Their bills turn blue during mating season. The smaller black and white birds reminded me of penguins. I learned they were Common Murres. Both of these were new to me.

So many birds!! And at the campground that night, I found two more birds species I’d never seen before. An Ash-throated Flycatcher and an Allen’s Hummingbird. There was a bush full of cheeping hummingbirds, but of course, I couldn’t get a clear shot of one until it landed in a nearby tree.

On our last day in California, we aimed northward, driving up the windy, cliff-hugging Pacific Coast Highway. We wanted to see more redwoods. First, we set the GPS for Humboldt Redwoods State Park. Later we aimed for Redwood National and State Parks. I have to say, we enjoyed Humboldt Redwoods State Park over the other, although we did find a beach at the latter parks’ visitor center.

I also found a few photo-worthy birds that day. The first was a puzzler, but I finally identified it as a Varied Thrush. The Pacific Wrens were so tiny and well-hidden in the dark woods that it was hard to get a decent picture. I also saw an Oregon Junco, a White-crowned Sparrow, and a Barn Swallow.

We left Redwood State and National Parks (and California) behind that afternoon and crossed into Oregon. More about the end of our northwestern adventure and the trip back home still to come. Stay tuned… 🙂

From Utah to Tahoe

Posted on by
1

We arrived in Salt Lake City on a Monday. Both rain and sunshine accompanied us on the drive from Moab to Salt Lake. If you want to read about our adventures in Moab, check out Moving On to Moab.

The first stop in Salt Lake City was City Creek Canyon and Nature Preserve for a morning walk/run and a little birding. We found the trail and parked right next to the capitol building. Actually, we parked first and then found the trail. A new bird sighting for me there: a Blue Lazuli chirping away, high in a tree.

Did you notice the statue of Massasoit at the capitol? Apparently the one that stands in Plymouth, Massachusetts, is the original, but a copy was made to stand in Salt Lake in recognition of the Utah artist who sculpted it.

We stayed at a campground in Salt Lake City that night and headed for Great Salt Lake State Park the next day. We visited the southern shore of the lake, so I can’t speak to any other part of it. But it smelled a lot like a beach at low tide! It was there I learned that some blackbirds come with yellow heads! Who knew?! There were a lot of swallows flying around, too, but totally eluding my camera.

In one of the photos above, you can see a large island out in the lake. This is Antelope Island which is apparently inhabited by a variety of wildlife—including bison! I found that fascinating. Anyway, back on the salt-dusted shore there was a good-sized salt pile in one spot. I would’ve taken a picture of it, but didn’t feel like waiting for the woman who was using it as her own personal photo-shoot venue to finish up.

As we left the lake on the way to our next camping destination, we passed vast white fields. It looked like snow, but was actually more salt. The Bonneville Salt Flats. The whole area was once covered by a much larger lake—Lake Bonneville. But the Great Salt Lake is all that’s left of it, The salt flats also happen to be the site of world land-speed record runs. Interesting, but no, we decided against trying to set any records with our van. 🙂

The following day, we broke up the long drive by stopping at Rosewood Nature Study Area in Reno, Nevada. The heat was mostly bearable and we enjoyed the area very much. Mark went for a run and I set out on the nature trail. I saw a pair of marmots and several different birds.

Although the pictures are a bit fuzzy, the bird with the long pink neck is an American Avocet and the black and white one with the long pink legs is a Black-necked Stilt. There are also two different large white birds pictured. The one with black legs is probably a Great Egret and the one with the bill that seems heavier than its entire head is, of course, an American White Pelican. We’ve also seen a half dozen different types of swallows on our trip. They’re impossible for me to photograph in flight, but every once in a while one will land. The one pictured above appears to be a Barn Swallow. There may have been a few Cliff Swallows flying around, too.

We stayed at a KOA campground near Reno that night. As we sat in our Yeti chairs under the awning, enjoying the breeze and the occasional raindrop, we didn’t realize what was about to happen. Thunder rumbled. Lightning split the sky. And the rain came down! Mark got soaked trying to get the awning safely stowed. Meanwhile rain swept into the van through the dropped screen at the sliding door. Frantically grabbing a stack of towels and rags, we started mopping the river of water spreading across the van floor. Thunder and lightning crashed and the campground’s power went out. What a mess! But, as they say, there’s always a rainbow after the storm. Even a double one sometimes.

Our goal the following day was to catch a glimpse of Lake Tahoe while we were in Nevada. After searching for the closest access point while also looking for someplace to walk/run, we found the Lam Watah Historic Trail in Rabe Meadows. This lovely path led us right to the shore of beautiful blue Lake Tahoe. And again, I found more birds! Can you match the bird names to the photos? I saw a Barn Swallow, a Wilson’s Snipe, a Stellar’s Jay, a Red-breasted Sapsucker, a Western Wood-pewee, a Violet-green Swallow, a Red-shafted Northern Flicker, a Goldfinch, plus a few others.

What a beautiful day we had walking along the trail in Stateline, Nevada. The next day, we crossed the border into California. Yay!

More adventures to come!

P.S. For those of you who’ve been following our trip, you know we’d been lugging around the bench seat that Titan Vans removed for us in Colorado. Well, I decided to post it on Craig’s List while we were in Salt Lake City. And we got a hit. Someone in Southern California was interested. More on that later…

Moving On to Moab

Posted on by
4

We left Colorado on a Friday. You can read about our adventures there in Hello, Colorado!

After driving to a peak elevation of eleven thousand feet on our way from Denver to Silt, Colorado, we camped there for our last night in the Centennial State. The Colorado River ran behind the campground and I found some wildlife along the riverside path. I think the Belted Kingfisher was a first for me.

We entered Utah the following day, arriving at our campsite in Moab just after lunch.

It was early enough in the day that we decided to spend the afternoon at Arches National Park. Unfortunately, we weren’t paying close attention to the fact that, on top of the high elevation, it was also almost one hundred degrees outside. So, while we enjoyed most of the visit to Arches, the hike up to Delicate Arch did me in. Evidently, I wasn’t as hydrated as I thought I was. Yikes!

Mark finished the trek to Delicate Arch without me, but found that his phone battery was dead when he got there. So, no photos. Oh, well. Here are some of the other sights we did manage to see and photograph. It was hard to choose among all the photos of huge red rock formations, but hopefully these give you a sense of the immensity of the landscape.

The heat continued the next day. We were still feeling the effects of our afternoon at Arches, so after a run/birdwatching stroll at Lions Park and Bike Path Trail we spent a leisurely day walking through downtown Moab. The Black-headed Grosbeak I saw on the trail was a first for me. And lunch at Trailhead Public House and Eatery was delicious.

On our third day in Moab, we stopped at Lions Park again for a walk/run. I saw the Black-headed Grosbeak again and, for the first time, a Western Kingbird.

After that, we ventured past Arches National Park to Canyonlands National Park. The sights there were breathtaking! Maybe even better than Arches?

On the way back from Canyonlands, we stopped at Dead Horse Point State Park which had been recommended to us by more than one person. Apparently it’s a well-known movie location site. (Thelma & Lousie, Mission Impossible,…) We were told we should stay for a memorable sunset, but the clouds had moved in and we were ready move on. Our last stop for the day was Moab Brewery where Mark (mostly) enjoyed a beer and a couple of appetizers.

We visited Lions Park Trailhead one last time the next morning for a walk/run and pulled out of Moab by lunchtime. On to Salt Lake City!

Hello, Colorado!

Posted on by
3

Welcome back to our cross-country adventure! If you missed the first leg of the journey, you can read about it in Thought I’d Skip Gardening This Spring.

With our sights set on Colorado, we left Iowa and trekked across Nebraska. We stayed at a couple of Nebraska campgrounds along the way, gaining another hour as we entered Mountain Time. The plan was to stay with my father’s brother Donald for a few days, just outside of Denver, while our van was being serviced in Boulder. My Dad was finishing up a visit with them and was flying out the day we arrived. Before taking him to the airport mid-afternoon, they went golfing and out to lunch. We didn’t want to arrive to an empty house, so we stopped at Barr Lake State Park in Brighton, Colorado, for an early afternoon walk/run.

We spent close to four hours at Barr Lake. So many birds, so little time! Identifying them can be a challenge, but I did see a Western Kingbird and a Bullock’s Oriole for the first time. Actually, several of them.

We arrived at Donald and Valois’s in Centennial, Colorado, just before supper and spent a good deal of time and effort unloading all the essentials from our van in preparation for its service appointment. My cousin Diane and her husband, Pat, came by toting a bounty of leftovers from the weekend family feast for my father’s visit. We were well fed!

In the morning, we drove to Boulder to drop off the van at Titan Vans. Besides some maintenance services, we also asked them to remove a bench seat they’d installed in the original build. We hardly ever used it and wanted the precious storage space. (Anyone want a barely used seat?) We picked up a traffic-cone-orange Kia Kona at Enterprise Rental and stuffed it with more essentials from the van. Moving out of our van when we’re traveling is like packing for the trip all over again. It was hard to know what to leave behind.

Anyway, in our down-sized vehicle, we headed for the Bobolink Trailhead in Boulder for a run/walk.

The most notable part of our visit to the Bobolink Trailhead was when Mark found an obstacle in his path while on his run. A cow! Sorry, no photos.

After a stop at Whole Foods to pick up some lunch, we drove back toward Denver, stopping at Denver Botanic Gardens to meet up with cousins Donna and Barbara. The Gardens were Donna’s idea and what a perfect, sunny afternoon we had! When a brief shower did pass by, we ducked into the Tropical Conservatory full of exotic plants and a treehouse.

Here’s a small sampling of the multitude of gorgeous flowers we saw…

Well, maybe a few more…

After the Botanic Gardens, the four of us had dinner at a local Mexican restaurant. At dinner, Donna told us about a couple of young Great Horned Owls that lived in a tree along a walking path near her house. So, of course, we had to follow her home. First, we got a tour of her own home gardens, which were beautiful! Then, we took a walk in search of owls… And we found them! (Along with our first sighting of a Spotted Towhee.)

The following day was a quiet one. We planned to take a bike ride along a nearby trail, but my bike brakes weren’t cooperating. So, Mark biked while I took a nice walk around the neighborhood. The afternoon was spent preparing to get back on the road the next morning. Later, we met up with Mary and Ruth, friends who’d moved to Colorado from Massachusetts several years ago, for dinner in Denver. It was good to see them.

In the morning, cousin Michael and his wife, Lori, stopped by for coffee and a brief visit. And before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye. Donald and Valois had been the best hosts. We really enjoyed all their stories and the family history discussions. I’m sure they were ready for some alone time after all their company.

In Boulder, we picked up our van with it’s newly configured space, unpacked our rental car, and then drove back to Centennial to pick up our bikes and anything else that didn’t fit in the Kona. We said our final goodbyes and headed west to Utah.

Until next time, Colorado!

Thought I’d Skip Gardening This Spring…

Posted on by
5

We’d been thinking and planning for a long time to make the trek west in our van—all the way to California and then north to Canada. And before we knew it, the time for thinking was over. We left home on a Monday, which seems to be our favorite day to launch ourselves into new adventures.

It felt strange to leave home during gardening season. The decision to skip vegetable gardening this spring/summer was not made easily. But I’m only one person with one “wild and precious life.” So before we left, I walked around the yard to view all the perennials in their various stages of splendor. The strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries were flowering. The apple trees were producing tiny bumps of would-be apples. The salvia, peonies, roses, azalea, chives, and butterfly bushes were flowering. The hydrangea, hibiscus, irises, daisies, balloon flowers, thistle, and black-eyed Susans were in their early stages. They’ll all look much different by the time we get back.

That first night, we camped at Letchworth State Park, nicknamed ‘Grand Canyon of the East’, in western New York. We checked out the Mt. Morris Dam before settling in at our campsite. The water at the dam was low. But according to a very knowledgeable and excited park employee, that’s normal.

We spent the following morning chasing waterfalls, rainbows, and birds along the Genesee River.

On the recommendation of a friend (thanks, Becky!), we stopped in the Glen Iris Inn to peek at the uniquely handsome staircase inside, before leaving the park. The Inn was an old farmhouse that William P. Letchworth had renovated as a country retreat. The bells hanging from the staircase were apparently brought back from Switzerland where Letchworth found that each had a unique tone to identify the cow wearing it.

Also that day, as on our last long road trip (October 2023), we learned of the death of another friend who’d been ill for a while. We’re sad to have to miss her funeral, but grateful for the visits we had with her recently.

That night we parked at the Gsellman Family Farm, a Harvest Hosts site in Ohio. Several full-sized goats, along with young (goat) kids, shared the space with us. When it started raining, they decided our van made a great shelter and we could hear them knocking around under us. Before we left in the morning, to make sure no goats were harmed in the process of exiting, Mark had to shoo them out with a broom.

After a pit stop at the local Walmart, we set our sights on more waterfalls, heading toward nearby Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Mark went for a run and I took a more leisurely (birding) pace along the Brandywine Falls trail.

After lunch, set our GPS for Beverly Shores, Indiana. The drive was a rainy one as we gained an hour, passing from Eastern to Central time. We arrived at the Dunewood Campground in Indiana Dunes National Park in time for supper.

In the morning, we left the campground and drove north about a mile to the shore of Lake Michigan. The water was choppy and the view expansive. You could have convinced me I was standing on an east coast beach looking out at the Atlantic Ocean.

Just down the street we pulled into the Great Marsh Trail parking lot. Mark went for a run along the Calumet Trail while I wandered down the Great Marsh Trail. Despite some noisy restoration work being done, the birds were active. I even spotted a few migrating Sandhill Cranes. [Disclaimer: I exchanged lenses on my two camera bodies before this trip. I’m still learning how to adjust the settings and the focus area on my D7500, so the bird photos are less than sharp.]

After lunch we left the shores of Lake Michigan and headed northwest toward Galena, Illinois. We’d reserved another Harvest Hosts site at yet another goat farm. At Hoof It Goat Treks we had a grassy spread by a dirt road all to ourselves (no goats) and fell asleep listening to a Barred Owl hooting in the woods behind us. The earliest goat hike was scheduled for 10am the next morning, so we opted out and headed to the local Walmart before 6:30am to use their facilities and have breakfast in their parking lot.

We spent the morning in downtown Galena. What a charming place! We passed by the home that was gifted to Ulysses S. Grant upon his triumphant return to Galena after the Civil War. The wide open Depot Park and River Trail, along with old brick homes lining Main Street gave it it’s charm. The list of birds we saw along the trail made me happy: Cliff Swallow, Red-winged Blackbird, Yellow Warbler, American Redstart, Rough-winged Swallow, (Baltimore?) Oriole, Starling, Killdeer. After a run/walk along the trail, we stopped at Otto’s for lunch. It came highly recommended and did not disappoint. Mark even ordered a couple of their homemade blueberry pop-tarts togo.

From Galena, we headed for Decorah, Iowa, home to Toppling Goliath, one of Mark’s favorite breweries. On the way, we found the Basilica of St. Francis Xavier in Dyersville. The interior was beautiful! And, totally unrelated, we learned that Dyersville is where Field of Dreams, the movie starring Kevin Costner, was filmed. We declined the opportunity to actually see the baseball field from the film, though.

That evening, we had dinner at Toppling Goliath where Mark enjoyed a flight of some of his favorites. We stayed overnight at Pulpit Rock Campground, as we did three years ago when we first drove home from Boulder, Colorado, with our brand new van. The campground was way more crowded this time, with families and large groups and kids on bikes everywhere! I guess that’s what happens when you book a site at a family-friendly place on Memorial Day weekend.

We had an appointment at Titan Vans in Boulder, Colorado, the following week, so we booked a couple of campground stays in Nebraska. Along the way we found Ada Hayden Heritage Park in Ames, Iowa. It had hiking, biking, and running trails around a large central double-llake. Mark went for a run while I walked around half of the double-lake, over a bridge in the middle. My most exciting bird find was a crowded Purple Martin nesting box.

We spent that night at the first of two campgrounds in Nebraska. Between the rain, the failed attempts to find a place near the highway for running/walking, another time zone change, and a slight malfunction of our gray-water outlet, Nebraska didn’t hold much for us.

Colorado was a different story. But a story for another time.

Reversing Course

Posted on by
Reply

We spent a few days in eighty-degree weather in Naples, Florida, a couple of months ago, but had to head home eventually. You can read about the beginning of this trip in Escaping the Snow and Warmer Weather. The trip home saw the temperature slide lower and lower the farther north we went.

But our first stop, less than an hour northwest of where we stayed in Naples, was one of my favorite places ever. Corkscrew Swamp Wildlife Sanctuary. While Mark went for a run, I spent more than two hours wandering the boardwalk, listening and looking for birds. It was a little crowded. With people, not birds. But I did manage to see at least one bird I’d never seen before: a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. So, it was a good day. The photos might not be museum quality, but they prove that I did see some wildlife. 🙂

From there we headed northeast to a KOA in Crystal River, Florida. Somehow, in all our trips to Florida, we’d never been in that area and had never stopped to see any manatee. But that’s what we did the following day. At Three Sisters Springs we caught glimpses of them as they swam, surfaced, and rested in the warm waters. One even sported a clumsy-looking tag on its back resembling a miniature buoy. At times, it was hard to tell if we were seeing large boulders in the water or living creatures.

That afternoon, despite a menacingly dark sky, we stopped at Seven Mile Loop Trailhead for a walk/run.

The Harvest Hosts site we’d booked for that night looked a little sketchy, so we moved on to a KOA in Kingsland, Georgia. The following day was basically a travel day, though we did stop for a walk/run at White Oaks Trailhead in Woodbine, Georgia. The trailhead was actually at a small post office.

As we headed toward Charlotte, North Carolina, the next day, we made a stop at Santee Wildlife Refuge in South Carolina. Mark went for a run while I checked out the wildlife. I found quite a few birds, although some were well-camouflaged in the brush. I’ve included a few of them here.

We spent the weekend with our friends, Cathy and Don, in Charlotte. We visited the Carolina Raptor Center and Latta Nature Preserve and saw several large beautiful raptors. They were all in cages, so I didn’t take any photos. Our walk through the nature preserve was nice but chilly!

The next morning, we went to mass at the Basilica at Belmont Abbey College and had lunch at Jekyll & Hyde Taphouse Grill downtown. The food and the beer both got a stamp of approval.

We left Charlotte on Monday morning, stopping at New River Trail State Park for a walk/run.

That night, we stayed at a KOA in Natural Bridge, Virginia. And, of course, had to go see the Natural Bridge the next day. Formed by water that has long since receded, the height and breadth of the bridge was mesmerizing. It was cold and early in the day, so we had the place to ourselves for the most part.

After a bite to eat in the van, we travelled a short distance down the road to Blue Ridge Trail so Mark could get a run in. And I took in the view of the mountains and the local wildlife. 🙂

As we headed north from Virginia, it was hard not to start thinking about getting home. We stayed overnight in Pennsylvania, then made a stop at Fidens Brewing in Albany, New York, for an early dinner the next day. Three hours from home doesn’t feel like much when we’ve been on the road for any length of time, so we made the trek after dinner, arriving home two weeks and two days after we’d left. And home is always good to come back to.

Warmer Weather

Posted on by
2

We did find warmer weather, eventually, as we drove south from Massachusetts to Virginia and on to Florida. You can read about the chilly start to our trip in Escaping the Snow. After leaving Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, we set our sights on North Carolina.

Last March, we took a similar route south and discovered The Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park in Wilson, North Carolina. You can see some of the photos I took of the huge outdoor whirligigs in last year’s post, Homeward Bound. Last year, we visited the park on a Monday—the day the store/museum is closed. So, we thought we’d stop by this time on a Wednesday to get the complete experience.

The museum was small, but it held many small whirligig creations by Vollis Simpson. They made me want to go home and start tinkering with something! One sculpture was covered with pieces of old signs made of reflector material. When flash photography is used, it appears to light up in the photograph. You’ll see what I mean in the photos below.

Of course we had to visit Casitas Brewing again, which is adjacent to the park. They’re under new ownership and management. We met the new owners and Mark enjoyed one of their regular beers. The buildings nearby sport some very colorful murals, which is always fun to see.

That night, we landed at Old North State Food Hall in Selma, North Carolina, through our Harvest Hosts membership. The Food Hall was like a large food court you’d find in a mall, but without the mall. The place was clean and bright with nice bathrooms and good wifi. We parked overnight in the back lot where only a couple of other trucks and one RV were parked. They were opened late enough at night and early enough the next morning to make it a very convenient stopover.

The night was a little rainy and the next morning we stopped at the Dunn-Erwin Rail Trail in Dunn, North Carolina, for a muddy walk/run before driving farther south to Richmond Hill, Georgia. There, we stayed at the Savannah South KOA. We happened to park right next to some fellow van travelers, Lucy & Larry, who had also taken a trip to PEI last August. Small world. We exchanged Instagram IDs and they were gone early the next morning.

Before we left, we discovered a bit of wildlife at the KOA.

Since we were so close to Savannah, and this was our second time passing through the area without spending more than a few hours there, we thought a trolley tour of historic Savannah would be a nice idea. It was interesting. But because it was a bit chilly, our driver left the plastic barrier up over the open trolley sides, so we couldn’t take any photos. And his heavy southern accent, layered with slurring over an obviously practiced script, made it hard to understand much of what he said. Oh, well.

We were back on the road by lunchtime and heading into Florida. We stayed that night at a KOA in Fort McCoy, Florida. Beautifully peaceful scene behind our camp site.

The next morning we found the Florida Trail Land Bridge Trailhead—a popular place for biking and horseback riding, apparently.

After a great hike and a run on the trail, we hit the road again and arrived in Naples, Florida, in time for dinner with my Dad. Naples would be our southern-most destination on this trip and a welcome stretch of beautiful, warm, sunny days.

Escaping the Snow?

Posted on by
2

The day before we left on our latest adventure, it snowed about a half-foot. At least two more storms were in the forecast. We left home on a Monday and drove south, as far as Jonestown, Pennsylvania. It was still frigid in Jonestown and the campground was covered in a layer of icy, crusty snow. The next day, our first planned stop in Gettysburg was half indoors, out of the elements, and the second half was out in the biting wind around town.

We’d never visited Gettysburg before, and I’m not a fan of war history, but it was very interesting and informative. We browsed some of the museum artifacts while we waited for a short film about the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863) to begin.

The narration at the beginning of the film included some eerily relatable words about national divisiveness and political unrest. I found myself empathizing with those who lived in 1861. Please, let’s not let ourselves turn against each other like that again.

After the film, we viewed a cyclorama of the battle, painted by French artist Paul Philippoteaux in 1883. The 360-degree depiction of Pickett’s Charge on the third day of the battle is fascinating. We got to see it in brighter light than usual because it was undergoing its annual cleaning and restoration. In the following photos, look at the foreground which is not part of the painting but rather actual 3-D materials. This helped to make the whole painting look three dimensional. And note that, hidden among the battle scenes, the artist inserted himself, some of his assistants, President Lincoln, and even an older, gray-haired pair of men whom he’d actually interviewed during his research about the events of that day.

Back outside, we grabbed a quick lunch in our van before heading off to a few chosen spots on the self-guided Gettysburg tour. And I caught my first sighting ever of a Red-headed Woodpecker before we left the parking lot. We visited Gettysburg National Cemetery where Lincoln gave his famous address, the Eternal Light Peace Memorial dedicated in 1938, and Little Round Top from which we could see some of the battlefields spread out before us.

The biting winds were a precursor to a snowstorm predicted to start later that afternoon. So, we left Gettysburg before 2 PM, hoping to visit The National Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton in Emmitsburg, Maryland, before the end of the day. Flurries started before we arrived. And when we arrived we were greeted by someone coming out of the building to tell us that the museum was closed due to the weather. But we could look in on the Basilica where mass had started about twenty minutes prior. Disappointing, but we did get to view the beautiful mosaics and marble work, and the Altar of Relics where her remains are kept.

It was snowing when we left—they closed the Basilica as we departed. We arrived at Harper’s Ferry KOA in West Virginia about an hour and a half later and hunkered down for a snowy night, dreaming of warmer weather somewhere south.

PEI and Nova Scotia

Posted on by
Reply

It’s been several months since we traveled to Canada for our fortieth wedding anniversary, but it’s better late than never to finish up the story of our trip…

In my last post, A Taste of Canada, we had just crossed the Confederation Bridge onto Prince Edward Island. What we hadn’t realized was that it was Old Home Week, a local ‘family fun’ celebration that originated over a hundred years ago.

On our first morning there, we had planned to visit nearby Charlottetown. It looked to be a charming city with a boardwalk and plenty to keep us busy. But as we drove toward the city, we could tell something was up. People were parking along the streets and walking toward the downtown area. Up ahead we could see road closures. Apparently a parade was about to start. We pulled over to re-group and quickly turned around and headed to the north shore of the island instead, away from the crowds.

We found a bike trail in Morrell and spent the morning biking from there to St. Peter’s — about a seven mile trip. We stopped for lunch and then biked back. Such beautiful, peaceful scenery! And a surprise bird encounter along the way. (I should also mention a few other surprise encounters: several other Massachusetts residents spending time on the bike trail that day.)

After our bike ride, we traveled west, following the northern coast, to check out Brackley Beach in Prince Edward Island National Park. Apparently, a rain shower had just passed through, even though we encountered nothing but sunny skies on our way. The rain made the dark sand even darker, almost muddy. Very different from the Cape Cod beaches we’re used to.

We rounded out the day with a stop at P.E.I. Brewing.

The next morning was my birthday. And as a special treat we’d booked a ride on the ferry from P.E.I. to Nova Scotia. This would cut off several hours of driving. We’d never taken the van on a ferry before. I’m not a huge fan of boats, so I had mixed feelings about the whole idea. At least we got to drive through Charlottetown on our way. While we waited to get in the ferry line (we were so early that the ferry before ours hadn’t left yet), we checked out a nearby lighthouse.

The ferry trip lasted about seventy five minutes, but felt much shorter. Before we knew it, we were disembarking in Nova Scotia. We scoped out our reserved campsite before heading to quaint downtown Pictou for an early dinner.

Our campsite backed up to an inlet and offered a beautiful view. The photos aren’t great, but they’re evidence of the Short-billed Dowitcher, the Lesser Yellowleg, and the Great Blue Heron right in our backyard.

The view behind our van was nice, but the campground itself felt more like someone’s hilly backyard and the bathroom facility was extremely ‘rustic’. We decided not to stay a second night.

After realizing we didn’t have enough time to enjoy a coastal drive around Cape Breton, we thought a night in a hotel in Halifax might be a nice change of pace, along with another ferry trip back to New Brunswick. To make a long story a lot shorter, that didn’t work out. We made a ‘non-refundable’ reservation at the Marriott Harbourfront, only to discover that our van couldn’t fit in their parking garage and the parking lot they sent us to, blocks away, was closed. It took a little pleading at the front desk to cancel the reservation. And there was no room for us on the ferry, either. Oh, well.

But before we arrived in Halifax, we stopped in Antigonish for a walk and a bike ride. And a quick peek at St. Francis Xavier University.

We also stopped at Good Robot Brewing in Halifax, right across the street from Halifax Common, a large green space with recreational fields, facilities, and walking paths in between and around them.

We ate lunch and took a long walk around the Common. After leaving Halifax with no place to say for the night, we found a KOA close by. With room for us. Whew!

The next morning we aimed the van toward New Brunswick. After a stop in Amherst, Nova Scotia, for a hike around Amherst Point Bird Sanctuary, we took a detour to check out a monarch sculpture in Dieppe, New Brunswick (thanks, Tricia S.), before landing back at Rockwood Park in St. John, which we’d left a mere four days earlier.

It was drizzling and foggy the next morning as we headed west for one last stop before crossing the border into the U.S. St. Andrews did not disappoint. We first visited Kingsbrae Gardens.

After the gardens, we drove downtown to have lunch in the seaside town.

We left Canada mid-afternoon that day with a bucket-load of memories and a camera card full of beautiful images to help us remember. We spent the night once again parked in our son’s Maine driveway before heading home the next day. And of course, we made a couple of stops on the way: Mast Landing Audubon Sanctuary in Freeport for a walk/run, Mast Landing Brewery, and lunch at Bissell Brothers in Portland.