RV Vagabonds

Settling In and Settling Down

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Braun) — Sat, 11 May 2013 18:43:00 +0000

Since Denny and I are selling Black Beauty and The Beast, we were in need of transportation. Here in The Villages, hereafter known as TV in Village speak, one's main mode of transportation is a golf cart or LSV (low speed vehicle which is a very much souped up golf cart/cart based vehicle.) Therefore this week our cart was delivered. Introducing The Tortoise and The Hare.

Learning our way around the golf cart trails is an experience in itself, but so far we've managed to find our way to Sumter Landing and The Paddock for shopping and evenings of drinks and music, as well as visiting with our friends who moved into TV about four miles south of us. All of this is reachable without driving along main roadways or interfering with traffic which is cool. Of course, we've already been passed by other residents in their golf carts because Denny and I have a tendency to enjoy the scenery as we're be-bopping along and will stop to look at the great blue herons or to search for alligators in the marshes and that's apparently just simply not done here. It is a bit surprising to find that retired people are very much in a hurry to get to wherever it is they are going, even at 20mph. Which is the average speed of the ramped up carts here. Officially our electric golf cart has been modified to go 19.2 mph, up from the normal speed of 15mph in a regular golf cart. Gas powered golf carts are a bit faster at 21-22 mph. Here in TV, much faster than that (25mph) and you'll be getting a speeding ticket. Seriously.

I've already asked Denny to transplant some bushes that the builders of the house had planted in odd places. Next year we'll think about a tiny vegetable garden. I will have to learn what flowers are happy here in Zone 9 before I start investing in a lot of plants, but they have classes for that down here too and I'll be arranging to attend one soon. Down here there's pretty much a class for everything, actually. The important one will be the care and feeding of citrus fruit trees and palm trees; that's not something we ever had up in Ohio and we're clueless in how to keep these trees alive and producing.

When we did our walk through with the previous owners of the house, I pointed out an empty nest in the lime tree, which the owners hadn't noticed. Four weeks later the fledgling mockingbirds left the next. I was amazed at how quickly the entire process of egg laying to hatching to feeding to pushing the little ones out of the nest occurred. What I haven't been able to do yet is attract any hummingbirds, which is extremely disappointing because both Denny and I enjoy the antics of these fiercely territorial little birds.

As you can see, Patches is settling in. Wherever she can. We have found her on the floorboard of the driver's seat, in the trunk if the convertible top is up and the windows are down or perched on the roof of the car. What she hasn't done is ride in the car, which won't happen again until we find a veterinarian for her check up and shots. I don't think she misses traveling very much although she still seems to be searching for The Beast on our nightly walks.

Our friends who introduced us to The Villages have purchased a weed wacker and we've purchased a hedge trimmer--I foresee some trading in our future as storage space is at a premium here. One of the not-so-good things in the covenants is that you are not supposed to place any storage units or sheds anywhere on your property, so any and all gardening supplies and tools have to be able to fit into the one and a half car garage with the car, the golf cart, tools and "stuff". Perhaps a good project for Denny will be building some creative shelving for the "stuff" and tools we simply cannot live without for the maintenance of the house and yard. Building things is something that Denny has missed during our years of RVing. Certainly we've learned how to put the maximum amount of stuff in the minimum amount of space over the past few years.

And one of these days we'll actually have the time to figure out the golf system here and check out some of the various clubs that are available to broaden our horizons a bit. Maybe next week...

Assimilating

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Braun) — Wed, 01 May 2013 20:22:00 +0000

Life is slowing down a tad. We are assimilating. Kinda.

When Denny turns over in bed, I wait for the oh-so-slight rocking of The Beast. The bed is still.

I still occasionally reach for the foot pedal to flush the toilet.

Twice now the wood laminate flooring of the bedroom has gotten soaked because we can't hear the sound of rain on the roof so we sleep through the rain with the window wide open.
Stick and brick homes have roofs that don't sound like drums being beaten when it rains. There is no sound at all and that is strange to us after all these years. It's not better, it's just different.

I have opened the front door and tried to step down onto the set of four steps that don't exist here. That can be a jarring experience.

Making the bed is a pleasure because I can walk around all three sides and the mattress isn't jammed up against a wall on one side and a built in cupboard on the other so that Denny and I would have to pull the mattress down towards us to be able to change the sheets.

We have found ourselves a sparkling red convertible and have ordered our "mystic teal" colored golf cart. Denny and I both have to learn how to gracefully exit the new car; Black Beauty allowed me to simply slide out and step down on the running board to make an exit. Denny of course could simply step right out with his much longer legs. At this point, with the convertible it's more a matter of clawing our way out of it. But we both agree that after all these years without, we still look good in a convertible. *wink*

Here at The Villages, the primary mode of transportation is the golf cart and we've already had our maiden voyage in our loaner golf cart and gotten ourselves turned around and lost using the rather rudimentary maps provided to us. Fortunately, what Denny and I had been told is true; if you sit there in your cart looking confused and/or frustrated another person in a golf cart will stop and either tell you which way you need to go or as in our case, the nice ladies actually led us to the store we were trying to find. I'm sure it won't be the last time we'll need assistance.

One perk has been filling up the gas tank--sixteen gallons of regular gas opposed to eighty-eight gallons of diesel fuel. That savings will allow us to go out to dinner a couple more times a month!

Next up will be trying to find and schedule the various instructional classes on local plants and flowers, how to maintain our irrigation system, how to work with the system to make tee times at one of the 30+ executive courses and just what recreation center has what class at what time and how long will it take me to get from here to there?

The house still echos a bit; we're still without our living room furniture other than the loaner couch given to us by the furniture store but we did get our dining room set so we're no longer eating on the lanai at our folding table except by choice. The lanai is turning out to be my favorite place because I can enjoy the breeze and people watch. The cat enjoys it more because the floor is carpeted; she's not fond of the fact that the rest of the house is wood flooring. Strangely enough, the garage is carpeted so that's the cat's second go-to place. And no, I have no idea why someone would carpet the garage and I didn't ask the previous owners. I guess I was almost afraid of the answer.

Is it weird to be waking up in a house instead of the RV? Yes, it is. Are we enjoying the house? Yes we are. Will we travel again sometime? You betcha.

But for right now, life is pretty darned good.

Stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Braun) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 01:46:00 +0000

This afternoon Denny and I started cleaning out Black Beauty so we can clean her up for her next owners. Can you explain why I have six milkshake sized straws and 2 inches of fast food napkins in the console? And five pens, a golf pencil, three note pads, Tic Tacs and toothpicks in the overhead storage tray? Don't get me started on the things that were stashed in the pockets of the front seats and behind and under the rear passenger seats but suffice to say we filled two large boxes with "stuff". Yes, "stuff". Remember when we got rid of all of our "stuff" when we sold our house? It crept back into our lives at some point.

Granted, I used those note pads and pens and napkins and plastic rain ponchos and atlases and hiking boots and golf shoes and whisk brooms and....well, you get the idea. There was a lot of "stuff" in there. And now I have to winnow out the extras and the worn outs and the superfluous for our next vehicle which will no doubt have a lot less room for "stuff".

I realized today that I have become my mother, who was like so many others a child of the Depression era and therefore prone to hoarding extras. Of everything. Therefore I am going to work extra hard to change that habit and throw away/recycle/give away all of those "in case" items that have turned into "stuff".

I also changed purses today; what a horror that was as I kept pulling items out of my very small purse to place into a hobo style bag. I apparently am a wizard at putting the maximum number of items in a minimal amount of space. Sadly, one of the first things I did was remove all the grocery store courtesy cards from my keyring; I had twenty-four of them from across the U.S. Twenty-four grocery courtesy cards. But I can tell you where all those oddball small town and large town stores are when you flip through that stack of cards. Which stores carry our favorite brands or some of our hometown foods to enjoy while we were hundreds of miles from what was once home or where we discovered a new local favorite to enjoy. Memories locked in grocery store cards--who knew?

Right now Denny and I are in a state of stasis; we are waiting on a lot of furniture to arrive but it's a good thing that it's not here because in ten days the painters will arrive to do in one day what would take the two of us several weeks to do. So boxes of items will remain stored in the closets a while longer to be out of the way when the painters arrive, although I really should go through them again and get rid of the old, the tired, the never-used and the what-was-I-thinking? And the two of us need to get serious about purchasing a golf cart--I'm going green with electric despite all the naysayers who say gas is the way to go in this ever growing city of seniors.

While we're still working on making that transition between being full time travelers to full time homeowners, Denny and I discovered today that our travels allowed us to recognize locations in the paintings and works of art that were being displayed today at one of the town squares. It was fun to talk to the artists and compare notes on favorite areas that they had recreated in oils, watercolors, pencil and even as oversized photographs. And it was nice to get away from all that "stuff", even if just for an afternoon.

Tomorrow? Once more into the fray. Linda versus "stuff."

Transitioning

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Braun) — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 13:00:00 +0000

As of this morning, Denny and I have been homeowners for ten days. To say it's been hectic would certainly be a bit of an understatement.

There have been moments where you grin ruefully, (and this will be TMI for some folks) like when you finish using the toilet and reach out with your foot to hit the flush pedal. Every darn time for three solid days. Or when I transferred the food from our four door RV refrigerator to our side by side refrigerator in the house only to find I was out of room for the food I had. The RV refrigerator is larger. Same with our RV kitchen cabinets and pantry; what was comfortably stored in our rig now is split between the kitchen and the storage cupboard in the garage of the house. Wow. Now I have to admit I don't have everything stacked on top of each other in the cupboards of the house as I did in the RV, so there will have to be some reshuffling and rearranging now that we're getting settled in and that should help but it does tickle me to realize that more space isn't necessarily more storage. As our RVing friends Don and Vicki, who have also moved into The Villages, are finding out as well.

We've pretty much emptied out The Beast. A final cleaning and he'll be ready for when his new owners come down to look at him next month. It is bittersweet to see The Beast empty of those things that made it ours, but I foresee a lot of new adventures for him down the road.

As you can see from the photo above, we're still awaiting furniture. The leather couch is on loan from the furniture company until our living room furniture is built and delivered. The house is a bit "echo-y" at the moment due to all the empty space around us, but within a few more weeks the place will look more like a home. On a minimalist RVer style, of course, with few knick-knacks and gewgaws.

Certainly the transition is expensive. All an RVer brings to a house is linens, kitchenware, tools and clothing. The list of things one needs is huge, from furniture for several rooms to bedding for an extra bedroom to multiple trash cans--stuff RVers normally don't worry about because one of everything is more than sufficient. The more big box stores Denny and I walk into, the more things we see that "we could use." I'm already working on reining that in for a few months.

Soon the two of us will have to start looking for a car and a golf cart and already my tree hugging self is fighting with my logical self. The tree hugger wants an ecologically correct electric cart while 80% of the people here have a gasoline powered cart due to the size of The Villages. I'm told that many electric golf carts can be found stranded daily on the cart paths which line the city while stranded gas powered carts are rare. So I waffle, because at this stage of simply trying to pull the house together I have no clue how much running around I'll do in The Villages attending classes, playing golf (someday), shopping and just joy-riding. Here in The Villages your golf cart is your primary vehicle and your car is your secondary vehicle. It is indeed an unusual lifestyle.

That's a glimpse of why posting is still sparse. This makes post 1993--seven more and I think the RV Vagabonds blog will end as such. Perhaps the next blog can be Not RV Vagabonds?

Looking Back While Moving Forward

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Braun) — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 11:02:00 +0000

Do you remember your first apartment or house? When I moved out as soon as I turned twenty-one (because that was the age one became legally an adult back in the dark ages) I started out with very little. I bought myself a new queen sized bed, I took my little antique student desk as a dresser, I borrowed a daybed and added those big armed pillows to create a sofa and had an inflatable chair to act as my living room furniture. Borrowed fiberboard end tables completed the look there and my parents loaned me a set of their ice cream tables and chairs from their soda fountain business as my dinette set. I was good to go!

Now, forty years later I am doing that all over again--starting life in a house with no furniture, just some kitchenware, linens and office stuff. I have to say, it's a bit intimidating to walk into furniture stores these days--when asked what style I like I have no clue. I've lived in less than 400 square feet with furniture in various tones of browns, beiges, grays and blacks for the last fifteen years--the idea of color is exhilarating!

Denny is being driven nuts in the meantime, being asked "do you like this? What do you think of that? Is this table too big for the space?" Given his druthers, he'd go for the whole house package deal. Just give him his electric recliner (on order) and his new, much larger TV and he'll be happy. For a while, I'll once again be living with a loaner couch (yes, the furniture store that has ordered our living room furniture is providing us with a loaner couch until our stuff can be delivered in another four or five weeks) and a lot of bare space. We won't be ready for guests for a while yet, but once The Beast and Black Beauty are sold we will be able to finish all the shopping and getting.

Speaking of our RV and truck, we have a wonderful couple interested in the pair of them. Denny and I met the two of them when we were touring the eastern seaboard a couple of years ago and they were curious to see what a Heartland Landmark Grand Canyon looked like so we had them come by for a look. Serendipity has thrown us together again and The Beast may soon have new owners. In the past, I've always wondered where our previous RVs ended up and what kind of adventures the owners were having and if this all works out, I'll be able to follow The Beast's future travels. How fun is that?

In the meantime, Denny and I close on our new-to-us sticks and bricks on Monday. Photo story to follow.

Hanging Up the Keys

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Braun) — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 11:00:00 +0000

Well, we've done it. Denny and I have signed a contract to purchase a dollhouse in The Villages.

To many people the house that we are buying would be very small but after living in a RV for fifteen years we think it will be very comfortable and cozy with room to stretch our legs, which is kind of a big thing.

I have to admit, The Villages is not a place we would have thought to check out if it hadn't been for our friends Don and Vicki. I remember years ago my parents requested information on the development but never came down to Florida to check it out. I had always envisioned living by the beach or near the mountains when we finally settled down but after seeing all the healthy, active and youthful seniors here Denny and I decided that this would be a good place for us. You see, we both have a family history of dementia and we wanted a place where both our minds and bodies would have the opportunity for stimulation and with 32 free nine hole executive golf courses on the grounds along with 2,000 clubs of various interests, swimming pools and rec centers in every village (plat) and plenty of walking/biking/golf cart trails we should be able to stay active.

Originally we had given ourselves this final year to travel but housing prices are going back up as are mortgage interest rates so making a decision to purchase now seemed wise. In addition, The Villages will stop building new homes within the next two years so home prices will only continue to rise. Thus our decision (for once) was not a gut reaction but a logical one and boy is that weird for us! That actually made it harder because Denny and I do go with our instincts and we had to sit down and discus all the pros and cons of this area versus what our dream location had been. Because you see, at this point we won't be able to keep Black Beauty and The Beast so we won't be traveling for a while. And that is a bit difficult to wrap our minds around.

So next month we'll be homeowners once again. However I can assure you that at some point, the RV Vagabonds will hit the road for at least some part time travel on a much scaled down level. Because we're still curious as to what is around that next bend in the road.

Will I Make 2,000?

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Braun) — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 13:48:00 +0000

My original post title was going to be "Hanging Up The Keys" but when I saw that after this post I am only ten posts away from hitting 2,000 total posts since I started this blog I changed my mind.

Two thousand posts--that's a lot of blather over the years. It's probably also a good place to end after eight years of blogging about our full time travels in our various RVs. Certainly I've enjoyed sharing our stories of life on the road and posting photographs of some of the great people we've met and places we've seen.

But as you all know, Denny and I have been searching for a place to settle and we've found it.

But that's another post. ;)

Unintentionally Rude

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Braun) — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 14:48:00 +0000

To the gentleman who stopped by yesterday as Denny and I were breaking camp--I'm sorry. I know you came down to tell us you had been reading my blog for years and wanted to chat. Unfortunately Denny and I were on a tight schedule yesterday as we had an appointment in a town two hours away and needed to get to our next campground and get at least partially set up before we had to get to our appointment so we didn't stop to talk with you as we normally would have done.

So again, I apologize; we're normally not rude folks but we just didn't have the extra time to chat this time around. Perhaps we'll run into you again--if you see my wi-fi network online again please give us another chance to make your acquaintance. We love to meet new people and exchange views on the RVing lifestyle. This time it was just bad timing.

Happy Trails!

A Walk in the Park

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Braun) — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 01:55:00 +0000

Denny and I are staying at a campground that's far from shopping, museums, golf courses, attractions, activities--well, pretty much everything. We're here to visit with friends who are workamping for the season at this very quiet, very new campground that has little going for it other than a great view of the night sky and nice sized camp sites. After two weeks here of a promised month long stay, the two of us just had to get out to do something so I picked a morning drive to Manatee Springs State Park, about 55 miles away. The storms that had been predicted for the day were passing well north of us and I thought it was a good time to take advantage of a rare warm day.

A six dollar entry fee allows you access to several miles of biking/hiking trails as well as the opportunity to scuba dive. The park is home to one of the largest fresh water springs in Florida; between 35 and 150 million gallons of water flow from the spring each day. The water is crystal clear and there is a system of aquatic caves in the limestone below the water.

A handicap accessible boardwalk leads out to the Suwannee River where the manatees gather to feed. Cypress trees and tall pines line the walkway from the beginning to the spring to the outlet at the Suwannee. There's even an area roped off for swimmers for those brave enough for the cool, clear water--and the alligators that may lurk in the area. Although today the only carnivorous types we found were the black vultures

Better eyes than ours spotted two young deer resting far back in the trees. The older was well camouflaged with a coloring that was the same dull brown of the trees while this younger fawn was a richer brown and a bit easier to see, especially once he stood up to watch us all watching him.

But my primary reason for coming was to see the manatees. And we did see a couple, but they were about 100 yards out from us in the wind-whipped waters which made them difficult to see. When the sun came out and the wind slowed for a moment you could pick out their shape as they rose to the surface to breathe but once the water got rough again the manatees blended in as just a pale shape.

So I've cheated and included a couple of shots from our visit to the Homasassa Springs Wildlife State Park from a few years ago. There the waters of the Homasassa River are shallower so I was able to get a better shot of these gentle creatures. Click to enbiggen 'em, folks.

Below is a manatee rolling onto his side. They seem to like to interact with humans, although this has a downside; many hundreds are gouged and maimed by boat propellers annually.

Of course, part of our fun today was running into a young couple who are taking a year off from their everyday life and traveling by RV with their two young children. The mother is homeschooling the kids, using their travels for the geology, history and geography lessons. So Denny and I offered our suggestions of places they might like to see or the kids would enjoy (noticing a few eavesdroppers at the same time ;)) They were thrilled with the information and we were glad to be able to encourage their interest in the RV lifestyle.

This park does have a few water and electric campsites tucked away in the trees. It's a beautifully quiet park this time of year and a nice place to spend a few hours to reflect, watch for manatees, swim, fish, hike or just sit and watch the aquatic plants wave in the clear spring water.

Just pick a day when the wind isn't blowing. Sigh.

Living on Beach Time

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Braun) — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 20:20:00 +0000

Once we left Myrtle Beach, Denny and I made a brief stopover in the Savannah, Georgia area to visit River Street near old Savannah. The roadways in the photo below show the rock that paves the roads here; the rock itself was the rock used for ballast in sailing ships that brought cargo and goods to Savannah.

Cargo ships still travel the river in Savannah, bringing stack after stack of containers full of goods to the port.

After a couple of days of adjusting to the lack of the sound of surf outside our bedroom windows we moved on to the Flagler Beach area. Here we're three miles from the beach instead of 50 feet. *Insert sad face emoticon.*

But it's a lovely beach of cinnamon colored sand created from crushed coquina shell. Not only does it line the beaches, but it can be found in large formations guarding the tee boxes and along some of the fairways at the Halifax Plantation Golf Course. Plus coquina was used to build the Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine, Florida which is about 45 minutes up the road.

Denny and I have been wandering around the general area here checking out houses, townhouses and condos. Upon reflection, we feel we would be comfortable here because it's a bit less touristy than most beach towns. But once again as we started making plans to look seriously at homes we backed off once we got to talking about the places we still wanted to see out west. Thus we're going to tuck this area in the back of our minds and prepare ourselves to head out in a few days. We have some friends to visit here in Florida and a couple more beaches to visit not only here in Florida but in Alabama and Mississippi as well before we head north to visit kids and take care of medical/dental check ups before turning Black Beauty's nose to the northwest. A vague checklist of things to see/places to go includes Banff National Park in Canada, the Tetons, the Oregon coastline and, well, who knows? For now, all we know is that we're going to give this lifestyle until the end of the year before we start looking at houses again. That is, once we've done a "are we really ready to settle down?" check again.

Wrapping Up 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Braun) — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 20:19:00 +0000

The photo above is the very first photo I took in 2012. Sunset in Arizona. Me taking a photograph of a sunset--go figure. I guess I should start a blog post about our year's travels with a photo of a sunrise but oh well.

First, the boring facts; we traveled 7,019.9 miles this year with The Beast. We started the year in Arizona and ended it in South Carolina. We visited the Pacific Ocean coastline and have stayed three months on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. During our cross country travels Denny and I stayed at forty-three different campgrounds in eighteen states. Of those forty-three campgrounds, twenty-two were membership campgrounds or affiliated with our member parks so we either stayed for free or at a greatly reduced ($10 a night for example) price. Of the remaining twenty-one parks, I'm sure probably one third of those were Passport America parks where the cost of the stay is discounted at 50%. We don't boondock, dry camp or spend the night in Walmart parking lots. When counting up our restaurant stops I was surprised to see that Denny and I tried one hundred and nine different restaurants, cafes, diners or bars over the course of a year. Hmmm, I can see right now where we could cut our expenses a bit! I think Denny and I managed to play about ten new golf courses before I injured my back. And as is usual with The Beast, we had numerous repairs to be made to the furnace, to leaking slide outs, lights, propane regulators and hoses and right at the end of the year the microwave/convection oven blew for the second time in one year (thank goodness for extended warranties.)

Ah, but the good part of traveling by RV comes next; we saw full moons over the ocean, over rivers, over lakes and over the desert.

Over the past year Denny and I have seen birds and critters and flowers galore, except when we specifically went to see something special like the Antelope Valley Poppy Preserve where there were no poppies. Sigh. At the Mesa flea market in Arizona Denny splurged on a pair of 20 x 70 binoculars and boy have we had fun with those. They allow you to see rock climbers and soaring birds and things you just wouldn't be able to see normally or with a regular pair of binoculars.

During this year's travels in California we were finally able to see the Lone Cypress and to drive Seventeen Mile Drive in Monterey.

After fourteen years on the road we finally made it to Yosemite National Park.

And the Reno/Lake Tahoe area.

I rode a duck for the first time in Wisconsin Dells. It was there that I slipped and fell, ending up with compression fractures in two vertebra which ended our travels for six weeks while we saw a back surgeon and had our normal check ups with our family physician and dentist in Ohio. Because it was so uncomfortable for me to ride in the truck for the long distance to our hometown from our campground Denny and I didn't get to visit with as many of our friends and family members that we would have liked.

After the back surgeon cleared me for travel Denny and I headed north to visit both sets of sons and their families before turning the nose of the truck towards Myrtle Beach. Our intent was to check out homes in the area as a possible location to settle down, but when we found a place that we liked Denny and I found ourselves getting cold feet about the whole idea of staying in one place. Together we realized that there are still coastlines to explore, lakes to picnic beside, bends in the roadway to follow. Yes, if we bought a house we could always fly or drive to other areas and stay in motels but traveling in a RV allows us to take the cat with us without worrying about her care (or if she's clawing her caretaker to shreds), sleep in our own bed, cook local produce in our own kitchen and enjoy having a different view out of our windows every week.

So while we will continue to look at houses as we travel I have a sneaking suspicion that at the end of next year we'll be nestled among the saguaro cacti with a view of the Superstition Mountains out of the rear window of The Beast. While missing the sound of the surf at Myrtle Beach. And so it goes....

Blogging Blahs

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Braun) — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 20:43:00 +0000

I was tempted to entitle this post "Nothing Amiss, Simply Remiss" but I may have used that one already. Certainly I was a bit surprised and also a bit appalled to see that I hadn't posted anything since we left Wilmington, Ohio around the 27th of September. I guess it's simply a case of the blogging blahs. I am nearing 2,000 posts and it's been seven and a half years that I've been posting here and I think I just got a little burned out.

It certainly doesn't help that we have been maintaining a lower profile because my back hasn't gotten any better since my slip and fall and quite honestly that is beginning to concern me. If nothing else, it's keeping me from playing golf and that, to quote my mother, "p*sses me off". Kind of a private joke and it needs to be said with extreme emphasis on the "P".

Since Denny and I pulled out of the Thousand Trails park in Wilmington we have visited with our youngest son Darby and his wife in central Ohio where we celebrated Net's birthday along with her parents.

Next we headed up into New York where we visited with our oldest son, his wife and our granddaughters. I make sure the girls help out with whatever meal I cook there, simply to teach them how to read and follow recipes. Despite the faces I think they enjoy it.

Of course there has to be a little goofiness and showing off for the camera by the youngest granddaughter.

Upon leaving Denny and I took the red road route down to Myrtle Beach, staying one night in a beautiful campground in Bedford, Pennsylvania. We agreed that we'll have to come back here when we can stay longer to do some exploring and just kick back and enjoy the scenery.

Once we arrived in Myrtle Beach we had just the one day to get set up and the chairs pulled out before Darb and Net arrived to stay a week in Myrtle Beach with us. Of course we yanked out the hide-a-bed sofa soon after we purchased The Beast, so Denny and I rented a park model trailer for the kids. Since I'm a "get up at the crack of dawn or earlier" kind of person and the kids....well, not so much, this works out better.

Fortunately we had good weather for the most part while they were here so campfires were enjoyed, along with the occasional adult beverage.

For physical therapy purposes I talked Denny into allowing me to buy a folding bicycle. There are one thousand campsites in this campground so a bike makes it easier to get to the office, the camp store and the indoor swimming pool. I love this little thing, and we also picked up a carrying case for it so we can put the bicycle in the back of the truck or inside the trailer when we move and not worry about scratching anything up.

There haven't been a lot of spectacular sunrises this year, although I've taken several shots of the state park pier/south Myrtle Beach skyline under a variety of weather conditions and at different hours that could be an entire series of photographs on their own. When we first arrived there were a lot of military planes including cargo planes and fighter jets that were practicing "touch and go" landings and take offs from the airport just up the road from us so we've been seeing a lot of planes up close and personal here.

This year I managed to take over a thousand photographs of the American Heart Association Heart Ride on the Beach that occurs at the end of October/first of November. This year there were 1,200 horses from 22 states and even a few from Canada. There were supposed to be horses from 34 states but apparently a lot of folks cancelled due to Hurricane Sandy. Not surprising although it didn't hit us here.

I have taken a lot of photographs of the brown pelicans here, trying to get the perfect shot of a group of them skimming the waves like flying surfers. I'm still working on it.

And of course, I spend a lot of time walking Patches, or rather I spend a lot of time standing around while she investigates every bush, hole and waving stand of grass. And yes, I'm as bored as I look. Denny caught me. I'm also trying to be good about going to water aerobics for the stretching it provides my back. If nothing else, it feels good to be in the warm water on cool mornings (it's an indoor pool because nights get much too cool here to keep the outdoor pool open).

So we've pretty much been living on beach time; not doing much of anything and enjoying that just fine. My back still isn't up to playing golf so we just do a little walking around the campground. I did ride along with Denny when he played golf this week and it made me a bit anxious to get back out on the golf course but I'm just not ready yet. The back still grabs me if I move to quickly or twist suddenly so winding up to swing a golf club just doesn't get it yet.

Tomorrow our RVing friends Don and Vicki arrive. They will be staying a couple-three months so we'll overlap a month if all goes as planned. Plenty of time for some fun. And maybe a blog post or two.

Head 'em up, Move 'em out!

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Braun) — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 21:59:00 +0000

Six weeks and two days--that's how long we've been here. We've seen doctors and dentists, Denny has had his back adjusted and I've had my boobs smashed (October is coming up; have you gals scheduled your mammograms?), we've been issued medications for Denny's new diagnosis of diabetes and told by our family physician to check out the Zone Diet to follow along with beefing up our pretty much non-existent exercise routines. We haven't made a lot of extra trips into our home town so we missed seeing a few folks this time around. My back wasn't up to it for a long time and then time got away from us.

We've sampled local sweet corn, green peppers and tomatoes, picked up goetta and favorite meats at the butcher shop in Cincinnati where Denny's family has purchased meats for the last sixty-five plus years. Our favorite local restaurants and eateries were visited and enjoyed and we picked up cans and jars of foods that we can only get here. And we found a supplier for bitter lemon--at least for the times we visit Cincinnati. We'll still be out of luck once we leave here so we stocked up. We've shared meals, laughter and hugs with friends and family, avoided getting poison ivy while walking the cat (a biggie for me) and watched the leaves slowly start to change colors. It's time to go.

Next up is a visit to see our youngest son near Columbus, Ohio and then the two of us are off to the Niagara Falls area where we'll be based to visit our oldest son and his family. There are chores planned for Denny there and maybe a day of golf with his son. From there we turn the nose of the truck southward again, taking a few days to work our way down to Myrtle Beach, where we'll plant ourselves for three months. That's an incredibly long time for us to stay in one place but fortunately our youngest son and his wife will be coming down for a week-long visit and then our friends Don and Vicki are going to show up in December so we'll have a month together before Denny and I decide whether to stay longer or move on. Because at this point I haven't decided where we're going once we leave Myrtle Beach, only that we won't be heading anywhere north until all chances of snow have passed. Then, who knows?

In the meantime, it's time to be like a tree and leaf. Ba-dum-dum.

Adjusting

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Braun) — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 11:50:00 +0000

I don’t exercise. If God had wanted me to bend over, he would have put diamonds on the floor. - Joan Rivers

Over the past few weeks both Denny and I have had to do a lot of adjusting. After Denny's episode with the kidney stones we discovered that he is pre-diabetic so we are learning by trial and error what foods will affect his blood sugar. Of course normally we pretty much eat whatever we want and so this is a big adjustment for Denny and to keep him on track I am trying to eat the same way. When you get right down to it, a pre-diabetic way of eating is very similar to the Atkin's diet so that's familiar to me. The instructions for someone who is pre-diabetic are pretty simple; lose weight, watch what you eat and make sure you exercise. Ah, exercise. That's the tough one.

And so we are trying to get out to walk. A few trips to the chiropractor have made that much easier for Denny as he was having issues with his hips. Now he can walk much more easily. I was told by the ER physician in Wisconsin that the best exercise for my back after the compression fractures started to heal was to walk. So it's win-win for the RV Vagabonds.

Denny has indeed lost weight; he is doing not only his chores around the rig but mine also. It's amazing how the simple everyday movements and chores involve bending and/or twisting and those are two things I cannot do at this point. Thus, Denny has taken over my chores also and he has lost weight to show for it. The good news is, he has discovered that now his knees don't hurt as much going up and down the stairs. So there is a benefit to all this, but I'm sure he'll be glad when my back brace comes off and I can resume some of the housework once again. Heck, I can't wait either!

So that's why we've been flying under the radar lately. We drive into town to see doctors and family but basically are hanging around the campground which doesn't make for exciting blog reading. It will be a few more weeks before we hit the road again so I'll only be popping in here occasionally.

Happy trails!

Time to Sit a Spell

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Braun) — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 12:50:00 +0000

The Beast had its repairs completed; some to our satisfaction, some not. Lesson learned, we will no longer use our dealer's service department for service and repairs. 'Nuff said there.

It feels good to be back at our "home" campground in Ohio, knowing we don't have to pick up and move again for a few weeks. The burden for all of that has been on Denny because so much of the packing and up getting the rig hitched up involves bending and kneeling which is something I am not capable of nor allowed to do at this point. Thus to be able to stay in one place for a bit is nice.

This morning I've shooed Denny off to drive back to my hometown of Kettering to meet with what I call the Liar's Club--a group of our retired co-workers from the PD who meet every morning at a local big box store that has a small coffee shop. The b-s flows so quick and deep when those guys get together that one needs hip waders to stick around. That's a good change of pace for my guy, since he's been my rock for the last two weeks. Both of us could use a tiny breather from each other after all we've been through together during that time. I promised him faithfully I would behave myself and not try to do things I shouldn't be attempting. So it's me, the computer, my Kindle and the cat until he returns.

Next Wednesday I'll see an orthopedic surgeon to find out where I stand with my spine (yeah, yeah, I know; upright) and when I can start physical therapy and begin a more normal routine of small chores and bending activities. We're also going to our family physician to have Denny take a glucose tolerance test since his blood sugar continues to be high. This visit to our home area is basically to allow us to heal and get ourselves back to "normal" although we may have to accept the fact that we'll both have a new "normal" from this point on. So be it.

Basically I guess I'm saying things may be quiet on the blog unless I decide to pull out some photos from our travels pre-blog (which I started in May of 2005). No promises, but we'll see.

Safe travels to our RVing friends and Happy Trails to all the rest of you.

Ducks at the Dells

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Braun) — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 02:48:00 +0000

Denny had visited the Wisconsin Dells area years ago (many, many years ago) and had taken a ride on the Ducks and wanted to share that experience with me. I chose the Original Wisconsin Ducks ride and the boat ride to the Upper Dells for our day tripping experience.

The "Ducks" are actually World War II vehicles that were code named "DUKWs"; the D stood for the year 1942, the U was for amphibious utility vehicle, the K for front wheel drive and the W for the twin rear-driving axles. Naturally the servicemen quickly nicknamed the vehicles "Ducks". The DUKWS were invented as landing craft for bringing troops to shore from ships and were first used to land troops in Sicily and continued to be used throughout the war both in Europe and in the Pacific.

After the war, area businessmen in the Dells purchased a "Duck" for use in hauling tourists around through local forests and the Wisconsin River as an innovative, fun way for people to see the area. The idea caught on and the Original Wisconsin Ducks company has over 90 amphibious vehicles and there are several competitors in town who also provide the service. I asked if there was a difference in the companies and our tour guide/driver informed me that the Original Wisconsin Ducks was the only company that owned woodland access in town; the other companies pretty much have to travel on local roadways.

The Duck ride consists of some travel through woods and canyon areas, some river travel and a fun splash down into Lake Delton.

The Ducks ride lasts about an hour and after we were brought back to the downtown Wisconsin Dells area by Duck shuttle Denny and I walked down the two story flight of stairs to wait for our boat trip up the Wisconsin River. Again narrated by a tour guide, this peaceful two hour trip up river is interrupted by two brief stops to walk around a bit and stretch your legs (and buy souvenirs and food).

Black Hawk Rock, named for its supposed resemblance to a Native American tribal member. Can you see his profile below?

Stand Rock, made famous by Henry Hamilton Bennett, a photographer credited with inventing the stop action photo. His photo of his son Ashley leaping across the gap between the ledge and the rock column below is known world wide. Today, for the entertainment of the tourists who are brought here by boat, a German Shepherd makes the jump.

This is simply a shot of the Trojan Horse ride at a local amusement park that is near the entrance to the Original Wisconsin Ducks ride.

While we were out grocery shopping I noticed movement in a nearby field and zooming in with the camera I realized I was seeing my first sandhill crane in summer plumage. He really was well camouflaged in the dry grasses.

I'm glad we had this one great day in Wisconsin--the rest of the week, not so much.

Wishing We Had Skipped Wisconsin

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Braun) — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 02:38:00 +0000

If ever a nice campground/city had bad vibes/bad mojo, for us it's Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. Starting with an emergency room visit for Denny immediately after we arrived in town and got set up at our campground things went downhill after that. Kidney stones, refrigerator malfunctions, the coffee maker died, the stove attacked Denny and then it was my turn for the ER. Not a good week.

After a week of suffering bouts of extreme pain off and on all week, Denny agreed to go to the casino but we only got as far as Walmart when he started feeling pain again. So we turned around and I told him I would drive back home. Denny pulled over part way into a driveway on the two lane roadway and I stepped down from the truck, only to slide on the newly laid loose gravel and land on my tail bone. I immediately knew something was badly wrong due to the pain and the weird feeling in my arms. Denny wanted to raise me up right away but I knew I'd have to figure out a way to position myself for causing the least amount of damage and pain and eventually pulled myself back up into the truck. We drove to St. Clare hospital in Baraboo where Xrays showed I had a compression fracture of the T12 and possibly also of the T7 vertebrae. After pain meds and laying there several hours the nurse tried to get me to stand up to walk to go home and boy, that just wasn't happening. So they admitted me to the hospital overnight for observation only, just to attempt to control the pain and make sure there wasn't any obvious spinal cord damage. I was able to walk with assistance the next morning so I was so out of there. Not that the hospital and staff of St. Clare's Hospital weren't terrific, because they were. The two of us wanted no more of the hospital. Did I mention that while I was upstairs trying to walk Denny was once again downstairs in extreme pain asking if he could be referred to a urologist in Madison so he could have his kidney stone lasered or broken up by ultra-sound? Yep. And naturally the staff down there did blood work and found his blood sugar was sky high and they freaked out about him getting follow up care.

After being released from the hospital we drove to Madison so I could be fitted for a back brace until we can get to Dayton and see our own doctors for our individual problems. Denny has passed one of the two kidney stones, we purchased a glucose monitor and Denny's blood sugar has come down quite a bit. After we rest a couple of days we're taking the rig to Elkhart, Indiana for whatever repairs are needed to remove the gremlins and then we'll head for Ohio, cancelling several weeks worth of travel plans and visits with the kids. We need to get ourselves patched up and back on an even keel before we hit the road again for a while. We're kind of reeling here right now.

Posting may be even more sporadic at this point, but we'll be back.

No Fun in the Dells

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Braun) — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 16:31:00 +0000

Years ago Denny vacationed in the Wisconsin Dells area with his first wife and he thought I'd enjoy taking a ride on "the Ducks" so I arranged a stay at one of our affiliate membership campgrounds a few miles south of town. Of course they snagged me into signing up for a sales pitch with the offer of discounted golf here at the resort as well as a gift card before I had hardly finished registering for our campsite so we had a commitment for that before we'd be able to do our sightseeing. But first we had to find our campsite and set up, which we did. Too many trees for our DISH TV satellite, but the resort has decent cable so we were okay with that. Cell phone reception is very spotty but the aircard works for Internet access with the use of the Wilson antenna and the amplifier so that was good. What wasn't good was as soon as we had eaten Denny became nauseous and his back started hurting. I gave him aspirin and he rested a while but when he said he was hurting worse I took him into town to the urgent care center which was getting ready to close up for the day. The nurse practitioner said from Denny's symptoms and the location of the pain she thought he might be getting shingles rather than suffering from a kidney stone as he has in the past. However, she didn't take a urine sample and told us simply to watch for a rash and to continue taking aspirin. So I took Denny home. Which only lasted a couple of hours before I had to drive him to the hospital ER in Baraboo, Wisconsin where it was discovered he had two 5 mm kidney stones. After absorbing a full IV bag of medication for pain and nausea Denny was finally comfortable and after getting his prescriptions filled at an automated medication dispenser in the lobby of the hospital (because it was after midnight and there were no pharmacies open for 50 miles) we were able to leave, arriving back at the rig shortly before 1 AM. That made for a pretty long travel day!

We were able to make the sales appointment on Monday but by Monday afternoon Denny was uncomfortable for the rest of the day. Tuesday dawned pain free so we left early in the morning to ride the Ducks and take the boat tour of the upper Dells (another post) but by the time we were finished the pain was creeping back. Yesterday was a very bad day with Denny staying in the recliner most of the day trying to find a comfortable position and having to make use of the pain meds. Today so far there's no pain but he's still queasy/not hungry so I figure the stones are lurking around waiting to make their moves once again so we're just kind of hanging around waiting to see what will happen. It's raining today so it's a good day to just hang around and the rest of the week may just be too hot and humid to play golf even if he felt good so we'll just play the wait-and-see game, hoping the kidney stones will pass soon. I have to say, it certainly is hard to watch someone you love be in so much pain and not be able to do a thing about it. Stupid stones.

The Wisconsin Dells area is really popular with families as there are water parks and miniature golf as well as an amusement park along with the various resorts and campgrounds, somewhat along the lines of a Pigeon Forge or Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Baraboo is a few miles down the road with its circus museum and show and there are shops and touristy things to do all around the general area. Denny and I located a farm stand and were able to enjoy some real field grown tomatoes and corn on the cob before he lost his appetite. I think I'd like to come back to the area again, perhaps later in the season and minus the hospital visit and the kidney stones, of course.

Laying Low Again

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Braun) — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 16:03:00 +0000

Well, there's certainly no escaping the heat, is there? No matter where you travel (unless you're on the Pacific coastline) it's hot and humid. Blah. Last week we had one breezy, not-up-in-the-100-degree day, so Denny and I went out to play golf but for the most part we were closeted in the Beast's air conditioned interior. We did have a good day of thunderstorms as evidenced by the photo above but it didn't cool things down a bit. During a break we wandered down to Big Pine Lake since our campground had a little bit of lakefront but most of it was taken up by the marina and so it wasn't a really pretty view. Nice if you had a boat, though, and great for the fishermen.

Our campground was about 30 miles south of Detroit Lakes, a popular tourist area but there wasn't a ton of things to do in our general area and it was just too danged hot anyway. The good news is that I didn't pick up any poison ivy from Patches who I simply could not keep out of the beds of it that lined the woods since that's where all the mice and ground squirrels played. The great (gray and) white hunter actually reduced the rodent population a bit while we were there--of course once Patches catches a critter she has no idea of what to do with it. She just knows she has to hunt. Or as much as I'll allow her on a leash which isn't much but sometimes she manages to find something despite me. And that was our exciting week. Which if we had known what was coming the next week we would have appreciated the relaxation a bit more.

Medora Redux

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Braun) — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 02:06:00 +0000

I was all set to write a blog post about our return visit to Medora, North Dakota and its Pitchfork Fondue and Musical when I decided to check my journal from the year 2001. Sure enough, I found our previous visit logged there on August 30, 2001. So what follows is the narrative from 2001, but the photographs are from this year's visit since I didn't get a photograph of the steaks from the Pitchfork Fondue the last time around. I've already blogged and posted photographs of our visit to the south unit of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park but this post has a little bit of additional information.

Thursday. August 30- Denny started the morning off by changing the oil in the truck, then we dropped off the old oil. I had packed a picnic lunch and grabbed the cameras, so after that we headed for Medora and the south unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. It was about 33 miles away, and we stopped first at the Painted Canyon visitors’ center where we purchased a great bird book, then lunched while overlooking the Badlands. We then pushed on to Medora, the town on the edge of the park and decided we’d have to check out the town after doing the park, as it was all rustic buildings. We stopped at the Harold Schaefer center for our tickets to the Medora Musical that I had ordered, and Denny got to talking with an elderly volunteer who explained who Harold Schaefer was; he grew up in Bismarck, and was enamored of Teddy Roosevelt, and started marketing a product called Glass Wax, which became a huge hit, and then later he marketed Mr. Bubble, which was an even bigger hit. He wasn’t into the manufacturing end of the business, he’d just find a good product he believed in and then marketed the hell out of it, making the product successful. It worked, and he began pouring money into Medora to rebuild it. They have a nice little museum about his life and his company and it was really interesting. Anyway the old guy talked us into trying the “pitchfork fondue” dinner before the show, so we bought tickets to that also.

We headed into the park, and right away found the prairie dog cities. These were right next to the road, so the little guys just ignored the cars since they were so used to their presence, unlike the ones at the north unit where you had to hike back a mile to see them, so they were unused to people and no cars were around. We saw several elderly male lone bison, which the volunteer had explained were males no longer to fulfill their duties as stud and herd leader, so they were chased out by the herd to live out their remaining days alone. We also saw a herd of wild mustangs in the distance, but were unable to get close enough to take pictures. It is an awesome area and well worth the trip. After exploring the park, we wandered around town a little, then sat on a park bench and read the newspaper until it was time to head up to the dinner and show. The dinner consisted of crudities and dip, coleslaw, cubed melon, baked potatoes with butter and sour cream, rolls, baked beans and brownies and a big rib eye steak which they threaded on a real pitchfork and dropped into huge vats of boiling oil, deep frying them. It seared the outsides and kept the juices inside. Boy were they good, and it was easy to cut them with the plastic utensils we were given. All this while sitting on top of the canyon overlooking the Badlands while the sunset and the almost full moon rose. Not bad. We chatted with one of the ticket takers for a while since we had an hour to kill, then went down to our seats for a really good show. When they introduced the members of the band we were very surprised to hear that the guitar player was from Beavercreek, Ohio! We certainly didn’t expect that! There was lots of singing and dancing, a stand up comedian, a family of trampoline artists and horses and Teddy Roosevelt and good fiddle playing by a young lady from St. Louis, and fireworks and it was fun! It was a longish ride home on a very dark highway as we were tired, but it was a great day!

2012 version; this year immediately after dinner at the Pitchfork Fondue there was a "trick golfer" who supplied entertainment while we waited to be able to be seated for the Musical. He did everything from standing on a ball on a table while hitting a golf ball to jumping rope on that same ball to hitting the ball left handed with the right handed driver being held backwards/upside down. Denny and I spoke with him privately while waiting for our meal and Joey said that he practice 14 hours a day for years to develop his act.

Before we could be seated for the show, a thunderstorm rolled in and the show was cancelled. We exchanged our tickets for the next evening. This is the view of the stage from our seats.

The show starts off with "The Star Spangled Banner" after the cowboys ride onto the stage.

It was children's night so there was a "bit" where all kids were invited on stage to receive a gift and be told a brief story.

There are songs and dancing and a live band provides the music.

Since Teddy Roosevelt built a cattle ranching business and a home here, there's always a section about Teddy.

And some audience participation during a segment involving long distance spitting and a spitoon (all pretend of course.)

It's all good clean fun. And just to see who is paying attention--because the show was rained out when we exchanged our tickets we were given a second set of tickets to be used any time this year or any time next season until September of 2013. If someone would like to see the show while traveling in North Dakota this year or next, let me know in the comments.

Thanks, Teddy

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Braun) — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 17:19:00 +0000

"I never would have been President if it had not been for my experiences in North Dakota." That's a quote from Theodore Roosevelt, who came to North Dakota one summer to hunt and who ended up creating the Maltese Cross ranch with a couple of partners and then later building anther residence, Elkhorn Ranch, on his own. After watching the decline of the bison due to non-stop hunting and disease and seeing the grasslands disappear because of overgrazing by cattle, Teddy Roosevelt became concerned about what was happening in the Dakotas and areas of the west. Once he was elected president he created several national parks, created the US Forest Service and signed the US Antiquities Act, leading the way in preserving a great part of our heritage; our own beautiful country.

Eleven years ago Denny and I explored some of North Dakota, stopping at both the north and south units of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. This time around we stayed in a campground in the town of Medora which is the gateway to the south unit of the park. Our stay here has seen temperatures reaching 100+ degrees on several days so when the day started out overcast Denny and I jumped in the truck hoping the slightly cooler temperatures would allow the animals of the park to show themselves. According to the brochures handed out at the ranger station we had the potential to see bison, wild mustangs, deer, elk, prairie dogs, pronghorn antelopes, big horned sheep, badgers and coyotes that live here, but we only managed to see the deer, bison, wild mustangs and prairie dogs.

The south unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park has a visitor center near the entrance with a small museum, gift shop and the original Maltese Cross Ranch house which has been moved to its current location.

Once you've checked out the museum, toured the cabin and watched the brief video in the visitor center and checked out the ruins of the meat packing plant on the grounds it's time to jump in your vehicle and start driving the 36 mile loop in the park. There are a lot of short hiking trails near the overlooks as well as longer hikes throughout the park. There are also riding trails and a stable that has guided horseback tours available if that's your inclination. Just bring along a lot of water. There are also primitive campgrounds available within the park; there are no hook ups there but there are restrooms.

But the main attraction here is miles and miles of scenery and rugged, rocky terrain softened by areas of cottonwoods along the Little Missouri River that winds throughout the park.

What you won't find here are crowds--this is sort of off the beaten path although its entrance is just a couple of miles from an interstate exit. So you can wander at your leisure, being enveloped in the scent of sagebrush and immersed in the sounds of silence. Which we did until the thunderstorms rolled in and we rolled out.

Of course, I have to close with an "awwww" moment; this wild mustang foal who was all tuckered out from being so darned cute.

Getting Partially Around Custer State Park

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Braun) — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 17:12:00 +0000

One of our favorite state parks is Custer State Park in South Dakota. The last time we were here was the week of September 11 in the year of 2001 so that was a very weird and somewhat somber time to be visiting Mt. Rushmore and Custer SP so we thought we'd visit the park at a different time period. I was surprised that the park wasn't more crowded with tourists, but then again, we were still suffering through 100+ degree heat here in South Dakota.

The visitor fee of $15 per vehicle might seem a bit steep until you realize that it allows you access to the park for a period of seven days; not bad. This time around we entered from the eastern side of the park and headed south on the Wildlife Loop. It wasn't long before we discovered one of several large herds of bison blocking traffic, so we settled in to take some photographs and a couple video clips.

This one makes you think of the buffalo nickel, doesn't it? These guys are huge, weighing about a ton. If you see a lone male buffalo, they are normally the older males who have fought for their herd of females and lost. The older, losing male will then spend the rest of his days alone.

The bison have no fear of vehicles and simply amble across the roadway at will, assuming traffic will stop for them. The truck pulled off near the center left of the photo below is a park ranger with a whip (I asked if it was to force the tourists to move along and got a grin from him). I assume the whip was to assist in getting the bison to move if they blocked traffic for too long or created too much of a back up.

The wild donkeys are descended from animals that were once available for trail rides in the park. When that business was closed, the donkeys were simply let go to live free in the park. They are the park's beggars and will pretty much eat anything that's offered to them.

This little guy was not only adorable, but his coat was unbelievably soft. He accepted pats and ear rubs but still preferred mom's milk to any treats being offered. That's mom poking her head into the picture on the lower right.

Circling west and then north you arrive at Needles Highway. There are three tunnels on this route, the smallest being 8'4" wide and 12' tall and the next smallest being 10' wide and only 10' tall. It was at the 10' tall tunnel that we saw a Class C RV trying to figure out what they were going to do because they were too tall to enter and the roadway behind them (2 lane) was a long series of hairpin switchbacks. I will say that when you enter the park you are given a booklet that has a map that lists all the interior roadway, all the tunnels and all the height and width limitations on said tunnels. So no excuses for folks who get stuck.

Needles Highway was named for the tall spires of rock jutting out of the ground in this section of the park. It's quite a change from the rolling hills of the Wildlife Loop.

Can you see the resemblance to a bear in the yellowish rock below?

This time around we only saw bison and pronghorn antelope. Our last time through we also saw big horn sheep, although there are also mountain goats, elk, and a couple of varieties of deer that live in the park.

Originally there were 50,000 forested acres in the park. Wildfires have burned 23,000 of those acres, some of that thanks to the pine beetles that are killing the trees, turning them to tinder. Trees that have been damaged by the pine beetles turn red/brown like those below and whole mountain sides are covered with these dying trees.

If you enlarge the photo above, you'll notice the kayakers. This is Sylvan Lake, where there are boat rentals and a beach for swimming as well as hiking trails and picnic tables. Another nice area for a picnic is by Legion Lake. There are several campgrounds within the park, most of which have at least a few electric sites and fishing is permitted after you purchase a license. Rock climbing is also permitted within the park and there are ranger talks and children's programs as well.

This bridge is actually located on Hwy 16 north of Custer State Park but is attractive because it's made of wood. Somehow the huge beams were bent (I assume by soaking in water) and formed into these huge arches. It's a lovely piece of work.

There is so much to see and do in the Rapid City area but I have to admit, I think I prefer the area after Labor Day when the crowds are a bit smaller. I'm sure we'll be back to this area again.

A Week With A Geek

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Braun) — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 12:45:00 +0000

While there have been numerous problems and complaints about Facebook, I have to admit that Facebook enabled me to locate my best friend from high school, Shelley. Shelley and I spent the summer of 1971 working at a factory whose assembly line was staffed with women only and the two of us middle class white bread innocents got an education there that we could never have gotten in school. Working the 4 PM to midnight shift meant meant we had a lot of energy to work off at the end of shift so we would go to the dance clubs after work (while Shelley continued her college education) and we partied hard for a while. When we each got married we stood up for each other at our respective weddings but then drifted apart after Shelley's divorce.

Notices began to appear on FB about our 40th high school reunion and that's when Shelley and I saw each other's name and got in touch. In 2010 Denny and I were due to pass through the area in Colorado where Shelley now lived, but when we arrived in town Shelley had to fly back to Ohio as her mother had suddenly passed away. We managed a brief meeting the night she flew back into town and a breakfast the next morning as we were leaving but had no time to catch up.

This year our visit was complicated by the fact that the High Park wildfire was burning out of control in Fort Collins, Colorado and my buddy had taken on the responsibility of providing a temporary home for half of the wolves and wolf mixtures of the Wolf Sanctuary that was located in the area of the wildfire. Temporary dog kennels were installed on her property and her large outbuilding was converted into an air conditioned pen for some of the wilder wolves. So when Shelley wasn't working she had a lot going on at home helping in the care and feeding of these stressed out, beautiful animals.

Denny and I also got to meet Shelley's newest furkids that she adopted last year; this is Beauty. You have to love that face (the dog's, not Denny--hee!)

The geeky part comes from what Shelley does; she has a whole bunch of letters after her name and is co-owner and CTO of a company that is involved in technology and research. Part of her job involves checking the company's product under an electron microscope. Shelley allowed me to accompany her to see what an electron microscope can do. Running on 100 kilovolts (that's 100,000 volts mind you) I watched as Shelley magnified some of the particles she was studying to the 105,000 power. As she explained it "think of it as looking at a house that sits a mile away. Now visualize being able to see that same house from 105,000 miles away--that's the magnification of the microscope." Totally geeky. What was fascinating to see was the shapes that nature created when gold was added to seed particles in solution; rods, spheres and in a new experiment that didn't work out the way she wanted the shapes ended up as triangles, diamonds and pentagons (second photo below). Remember, these photographs are of invisible to the naked eye; the particles are magnified 6600 times in the second photo. Mind boggling.

Shelley, who is a vegan, also introduced me to the vegan lifestyle in the form of several meals out where I tried a variety of dishes that were incredibly tasty. I can see that with an effort you could eat quite well without having to resort to smoothies for eating your vegetables and fruit. I don't think at this stage of the game I could ever convert Denny to the lifestyle but I can see perhaps adding a few more meatless meals to my repertoire.

Our week flew by, Shelley and I still didn't get caught up with each other but we made a dent in the last 35+ years that have passed since we hung out together. It was a great week despite the constant threat of wildfires around us and the occasional pall of smoke hanging over us.

And the wolves are finally back home in their sanctuary.

This One's for Linda

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Braun) — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 04:56:00 +0000

I promised my blogging buddy Linda from New Mexico that I would post photos of the burros at Custer State Park in South Dakota. I haven't gotten a post together yet so I thought I'd upload a short video that Denny took while I was busy getting in a little donkey lovin'. Enjoy.

Rocky Times

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Braun) — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 03:25:00 +0000

Almost exactly two years and one month ago Denny and I drove into the Rocky Mountain National Park expecting to spend a long day there. We arrived on Memorial Day weekend, expecting big crowds and traffic tie ups. That didn't happen, basically because Trail Ridge Road, the main loop of the park, was closed due to snow. Our exploration was limited to Bear Lake Road which was the only road open to us at the time. I chronicled that trip in photos here. Two years ago we walked along a lake that was still frozen, this time around there was barely any snow at all on any of the mountain peaks in the park.

This year there still weren't a lot of people at the park when we arrived mid-morning but I attribute that to the wildfires that were still out of control at Fort Collins and Colorado Springs; the area in Rocky Mountain N.P. was extremely hazy in many areas. Denny and I were able to take our time driving up to the Alpine Visitor Center where we chose to turn around to head back to our campground so we could meet up with my friend Shelley in the evening. It was hard to imagine that we were literally two miles up in the air at Alpine; I guess we had finally acclimated to the higher elevations from our recent weeks of travel in northern New Mexico and Colorado. While at the overlook at the visitor center I offered to take some photographs of a group of Harley riders from Iowa; three couples and one gal on a trike who had spent the past two weeks traveling around Colorado before having to head back to their farms in Iowa. Denny and I told them of our stint as rides operators at Adventureland Amusement park in Altoona, Iowa and how much we enjoyed the state and one of the men started talking about his farm equipment and how now farmers simply program the length and breadth of their fields and how much seed/fertilizer/weed control needs to be laid and the computers and GPS system take care of all the rest; the farmers don't even need to drive the equipment anymore--the machines do that for them. Denny told him about having to stand in the hot sun tossing hay bales by brute strength into the back of a truck to take it to the barn for storage getting covered with itchy chaff in the meantime and how miserable that was when you're covered with sweat. Times have changed, for sure. Of course I just had to remind Denny that he was talking about an experience that occurred almost sixty years ago--the young man we were talking with wasn't even a glint in his father's eye at that point.

Sometimes what we learn in our travels isn't quite what we expect, but it's always fun.

The Many Parks Overlook, looking towards the Alluvial Fan.

The waterfall in the Alluvial Fan area of the park. This section was created in 1982 when an earthen dam broke releasing the waters of Lawn Lake. 29 million gallons of water were released which swept trees and giant boulders down hills and into the valley. Fortunately a worker heard the water coming and notified park rangers who were able to clear out the campground that stood in the path of the raging waters. Today you can climb up those boulders left behind and wander along the path of the falls.

The damage caused by pine beetles is evident in this photo; the thousand of dead and dying trees are what fuel the wildfires that are rampaging though the western states currently. Notice the lack of snow on the higher peaks of the mountains within the park.

So many of my photos were hazy with smoke that I didn't bother to show them here. Although Denny and I kept our eyes open for the bears, elk, antelope and big horn sheep the only critters we saw were ground squirrels. We enjoyed our day none the less and marveled at the difference in the park conditions between our two separate visits. Perhaps the next time we swing by we'll try the autumn season--pre-snow, of course.