Wichita Falls Tx to Las Cruces NM

We left after 8:30, and were confronted with the predicted dense fog. The weather warnings mentioned the probability of fog icing up roads and bridges.  My eyes monitored the outside temperatures with concern; it was barely above freezing.

Most of the morning, the fog went from limited visibility to dense fog, the picture below is sort of medium...

We were surrounded by huge cotton fields, mostly flooded. Signs of flooding were everywhere.  At one point, the Interstate ditches were flooded to within a foot of the highway. Carmen took us along state roads and even a farm road between the Interstates, to get us on I 20.  These road also had high speeds [70, 75], and fortunately less fog.  Unfortunately, we were also exposed to serious flooding, and desolate villages. The picture above was made in Sylvester, once a proud and prosperous village, now with most buildings collapsed, most homes, long abandoned. 

By noon, the fog was mainly gone, the cotton fields continued, and some pecan farms started to appear.  By the end of the afternoon, we had reached New Mexico and the awful stench of miles upon miles of cattle 'factories'.  The stench makes you gag, yet the steak at supper and the milk in this morning's cereal still tasted good.  Maybe someday the cattle will be better treated, or the demand for cattle will disappear: either way, what is going on now should not continue, it's simply not right.

At one of the rest stops, I asked a State Trouper, who was changing a tire on his cruiser, why there were so many flat tires along the Interstate.  He thought it was because of all the stuff that gets kicked up on the road, plus bad luck.  We probably saw a dozen cars or trucks with flat tires yesterday, and another dozen today. They seem to use sand and gravel to help traction during snow or ice storms, and they've had many of those in the last weeks, so the roads are laden with gravel and the usual flotsam along the roadside.

I made this picture at that same rest stop: winter clouds, sunset colours, dry soil plants backed by a quiet Interstate highway.

We asked Carmen for the next Ruby Tuesday, a favourite chain where the salad bar is extensive and always fresh, and found one nearby in Las Cruces NM, so we stopped at the Fairfield Inn & Suites [Marriott] to refresh before supper.

The hotel has recently been renovated beautifully, but the entrance was still under construction: the desk clerk sat on a folding chair, his 'desk' was one of those folding tables you find in Church halls. Fortunately, they still had rooms, the desk clerk most welcoming, and Ruby Tuesday's a stone throw away.

Ruby Tuesday's was filled to the brim, but Joan managed to save two seats at the bar.

The meal lived up to our high expectations and we finished off with an attempt at a selfie.

 Not bad for a New Year's eve away from family and friends.

Joan and I wish that all our friends and family have a very healthy and happy 2016!

Sullivan to Wichita Falls Tx

Last night's supper was at Appleby's where we each ordered a steak that was very good for the price. It was our first time at Appleby's recently: it's definitely been added to our list.

Our start involved gassing up at a Flying J centre. First, our affinity card brought up the message "see attendant" then our credit card authentication asked for our ZIP code.  So I went to see a very pleasant attendant.  The affinity card was obsolete, but she would set me up with a new one.  Since this was her first time setting up new affinity cards, things did not go all that smoothly, but after a few tries the computer said OK.  Trying to prepay and use the new affinity card did not work and after talking to manager, attendant, and seeing Joan wandering nervously awaiting my return, I gassed up at $1.75/gal [both US standard], Joan washed the windows and spotted a full length tractor trailer which was private, had huge glass sliding doors, and looked opulent...  Some people travel in style...

The Knobhill area in Missouri has extensive fields growing grapes everywhere with new wineries seeming to sprout along the highway.

We drove through very hilly terrain and the radio seemed to hold NPR stations very well.  When NPR was no longer available we listened to a local station hosting a local 'trading post'.  The rules were explained including the fact that guns and ammo were not suitable for the selling or trading.  Many cars, trucks, chain saws, kitchen appliances including a truck with no engine or transmission but was described as being in good condition.  The neatest item was a chap who was looking for a couple of beagles for running rabbits. Ozark's anyone?

We stopped listening to another radio station in Lebanon Mo. after ten minutes of obituaries, really!  It was interesting to note how many 'survivors' still lived in the same city/town of the deceased.  Lebanon also had hundreds of various sized boats shrink-wrapped for the winter.

Most strong radio stations were the religious stations.  It's a pretty narrow view of religion when we saw billboards stating clearly "marriage = man + woman". That, along with some NPR commentary indicates that there is a long way to go before prejudice and bigotry are history...

On the water front, we saw lots of flooding throughout the day. The portion of Intestate 44 that we expected would be closed was actually opened and there was very little evidence of serious flood damage, except for floating debris caught up in the tree branches.

Along the way, we saw dozens of extremely large churches, lots of large horse farms, and Joan even spotted a camel/dromedary farm. She also spotted a farm of Waterbucks, likely set up to supply hunters with trophies. [my supposition...]

The day started with freezing temperatures and it was mid afternoon before the temperatures went up to about 4ºC.  What was quite amazing was the amount of snow remaining on the north side of house roofs, hills, and highway barriers.  They must have had a severe snow dump in the last day or two, yet the highway was dry most of the way.

We stopped at around 5:45, and stayed at another Baymont motel, and it was just as good as last night's.  Johnny Carino's, a good Italian restaurant nearby, provided a fine supper, and now, early bed sounds pretty good.  Only about 1,300 miles to go.

Windsor to Sullivan Missouri

Morning came early, the free breakfast had good coffee and otherwise was dreadful, and the lineup at the border was about ten minutes.

Eventually, the sun came up, the roads were dry, and our trip was unfolding as it should.  The temperature was a warm 5ºC when we left, 4ºC most of the day, and 7ºC when we went to Appleby's for supper at 6pm by our watch and 5 pm locally.  We gained an hour somewhere along our route.  

We hit a lot of traffic around St. Louis, which followed us through out the State.

We saw extensive flooding all along the route with rest-top buildings underwater for half their height. The interstate ahead of us will be closed due to flooding near Rolla Mo, but the anticipated detour does not seem to be that much out of our way.

We had some snow and rain, but nothing to slow things down appreciably.  We did see a fresh accident in the opposing lanes and the backed-up traffic was well over five miles long.  Those late arrivals will have a very long wait.  

We also saw a number of cars and trucks very far off the road: some had rolled over, some had just plowed down a steep hill and were stopped a hundred feet [or more] away from the highway, and almost as far down from the highway.  One tractor trailer was still upright in a deep ditch and there were 3 or 4 huge tow trucks figuring out how to get it back to the highway.  

Most of these off-roaders really didn't seem to have a valid reason for being where they were.  There were a few squalls here and there but I certainly didn't think they would have been valid excuses for what we saw. We did see some erratic driving though so I guess anything is possible.

All in all, not a bad day for us.  There's little snow in the fields and hills, the weather was windy and warm for this time of year, and there was no construction at all. Joan even pointed out a deer very high up a mountain; neatly silhouetted against the blue sky.

Lets hope the next few days are much the same.  Maybe I'll even slow down a bit and make a picture or two...

Stittsville to Windsor

Today really was a fairly early, crack-of-dawn, departure. Last night we borrowed an egg, Joan made her famous lamb-burgers, add heat from the BBQ, toast the buns, add mashed taters and peas:  voila! a great supper experience.  The car was loaded up, and an early sleep was in order.

This morning, all that was left to do is pack-up the MagicJack, and electronics, and leave!  At 8:15 no less.

Carmen led us to #7 highway to Peterborough, then to the 401.  We left with sunny skies and clear roads, with little traffic.  Going through Toronto was a fast breeze, surrounded by hundred of speeders: hey, it's a lot better than stop-and-go, right?

By then it turned grey, as we drove further West, the ice pellets started, with occasional snowflakes, then the freezing rain started  in earnest.

We were still about 75kms from Windsor, but as anyone who's travelled that road knows, there are no motels...

After some white knuckles [Joan's] and sore hands [mine] we arrived in Windsor, and found a Grandpa & Grandson run [?] large older and inexpensive motel.  We're not far from the restaurants, have already filled up with gas, and we know where the tunnel to the USA is.

Supper is calling...  so is the bed...

Stittsville to Stittsville

As many of you know, we had planned to leave today, but procrastination set in...

This next picture was made on Christmas Day and shows a few daffodil plants peeping up, and looking around for Spring.

The day before Christmas in Stittsville had a high of 17ºC [62.6ºF], which broke the previous record of only 7ºC.  That was certainly enough to fool our daffodils into action.

Today, two days later, these same daffodils are under some snow and ice; and there's more freezing rain and snow in today's forecast: that's why sometimes procrastination isn't all that bad after all. [my story, and I'll stick with it!]

The car is essentially packed and packing the phone and computers should not take long, so we might just have an early start.  

... or not.  To be continued...

Stittsville! Home Again

I arrived at home by 1:30 or so, unloaded the car and enjoyed the air-conditioned comfort of home.  It's 32ºC outside and the radio says it's like 40ºC: I'm quick to believe it.

All in all, it's been my quickest trip between Okotoks and Stittsville; not that speed should be a criterion, but...

I've pretty well always been a destination driver: the transit is only a way of getting there. Well, I know that's wrong wrong wrong, but it is what it is.

This particular trip had lots of rain and fog, which I know could have been wonderful photo opportunities; and the north of Lake Superior is among the most spectacular scenery I've had the pleasure to see.  Maybe I should just set that as a final destination?

So now it's unpack, laundry, and a huge unwritten 'to do' list because of six windows being replaced tomorrow morning, and the kitchen counter being replaced soon thereafter, and fixing that damn 'error #3' that seems to have completely jammed up the car's CD player.  No doubt, there will be more ToDo things on the horizon, so life continues, one wonderful day at a time.  I wish you the same. 

Resting in Sturgeon Falls, Ontario

Today started with a major rainfall. I couldn't see the end of the parking lot, so I rolled over, had a shower, checked the internet and the rain stopped, just in time for me to move out.

Gas and breakfast at Husky's and I hit the road at 9:30.  The fog and rain replaced each other most of the morning, radio stations faded in and out, and the CD player refused to do anything other than show me error #3.

As I passed the end of lake Superior, the traffic increased somewhat and dutiful churchgoers that were going to make it to church on time followed the speed limit, or almost did.  Trucks lined up behind the sanctimonious, and maintaining a decent speed turned out to be a challenge.  All in all, not a memorable trip, but a reasonably quick and safe one.

I should have a very easy day tomorrow, and arrive by mid or late afternoon.  Maybe I'll even slow down enough to make a picture or two.  ... or not.

Portage LaPrairie to Nipigon, Ontario

Another successful grey day.  There was rain off and on, mainly off, during the morning, fairly warm temperatures by mid day [25ºC] and increasing number of hills, and trees.

Started off with breakfast at Tim Horton's and had supper at the local Husky gas station; not one of those culinary extravaganzas expected of a long distance traveller, but then why do people have such high expectations anyway?

The highway on Lac Superior's north shore is now fabulous: little or no construction, either two or four lane new asphalt, but the same old 90 kph speed limit.  From Alberta east, the limit was mainly 110 with quarter days of 100.  Hit the Ontario border and it's 90 max.  I drove 105 most of the way, even passed a speed-trap with no undue notice.  Followed a cruiser late this afternoon, and s/he was favouring 105 also...  ... even through some 70 kph limits during construction areas [Saturday?].

Time compression today was by Ken Follet's audio book, also lent to me by Jan.  I can't remember the title but it was based on a true second world war story set in the Norwegian country that still has a Royal family who's Prince kissed Joan's hand, the one she never really washes...

Sorry for the lack of pictures: gas stations don't often have great views, but so far, they've had reasonably clean washrooms.

Eating supper at the Husky Restaurant / gas station was interesting.  Two of the patrons were colossally huge, gargantuan obese ladies with skinny escorts / husbands... One had a really cute diminutive face in a huge, fat head, overflowed her motorized wheelchair by at least a foot on either side, and ate constantly while I was there [just served as I got in].  Her table mate was in his 60's+ and nibbled on a few things on his plate, but gave her the fries, bread, and a few wings or something.  She also passed on a few tidbits to the other obese lady at the table facing me. She ate everything while waiting for her own meal to arrive.  Her table mate was likely in his 30's [like her] skinny as they come, and not hungry. None of them looked prosperous, with the second couple definitely the poorer of the two.  She mentioned on more than one occasion that she was at Husky's because with a meal, you earned a free shower...  It was a truck stop after all...  

I don't think I've ever seen two more obese people, yet one had a cute face, the other and infectious laugh: neither a real loser, but neither a winner.  Oh did I mention that both sent their table mates to buy lottery tickets while they were eating?

Like I said: interesting.

I'm finally at home's [EDST] timezone [I think] so no more short days time-wise...  

At the Canad Inn Portage LaPrairie Manitoba

I just got the Inn bill, took a shower to cool down [more later] and thought I'd delay the expected 9:00 crack-of-dawn departure a bit to proffer a little advice to those who might be tempted to overnight in Portage: don't!

The room cost is $105.  The total cost is $124.16.  The difference? $8.40 Provincial Sales Tax; $5.25 Federal General sales Tax; $5.25 City Tax; and a further $0.25 Federal tax on the city tax[?].  That's almost 20% sales tax for a so-so but OK room, a shower that changed its temperature as others flushed or came on stream, a slow internet connection limited to one free hour per day, and no included breakfast.

Did I mention no included breakfast?  Really...  and almost dial-up speed internet? [ask your parents what dial-up means].... with a one hour free limit?  ... but I digress.

I forgot to mention that yesterday, I was helped through the flat terrain and all day rain by listening to a John Sandford audio book that Jan lent me.  I had heard the first four disks on the way to Okotoks, and finished the last four disks yesterday.  Good book, interesting murder mystery cast in the Twin Cities and nearby Minnesota.  I've read articles from John Camp, the photographer with a very good grasp of the english language, and thought processes: same man!  Jan had been surprised that I read John Camp the photographer, and strongly suggested I read Sandford the mystery writer: Jan was right as usual.

Now I'll pay for breakfast, replace the gas fumes with liquid, and miss my self imposed crack-of-dawn departure yet again.  I'll blame it on the time change for now...

Oh, I forgot to mention that the computer table here is nowhere near a wall plug...  Thank goodness my macBook still has six and a half hours left on battery power.

Okotoks Alta to Portage LaPrairie Man

Crack of dawn happened at 9:15, after driving the boys to school, packing, etc. etc.  It was very difficult to hug everyone goodbye:  I had a great visit and dearly wish we all lived a lot closer together.

It was a paltry 5ºC when I left, and an equally awful 16ºC at the height of the 'heat wave'.  The rain started before I reached the Trans Canada, and was still spitting when I quit for the day at 10:30 pm  local time which is 9:30pm in Okotoks.

I stopped at a Canad Inns, which is expensive, a casino joint and has a restaurant, so I could eat supper here.

All in all, a pretty flat day, nothing of note to report, other than kilometres were covered, and gas consumptions wasn't that bad since the brisk wind was from the NW.  So far, little traffic and no construction to speak of.

Hopefully, tomorrow will be a bit drier and warmer...  To be continued.

Elbow Falls Park

Saturday was a good day to go to Elbow Falls Park.  The Park was badly flooded in 2013 and many of the picnic tables, protected walks, and vistas are too far damaged to be repaired or replaced. It is a very pretty sight, and must have been beautiful before the major flood.

Part of the flood damage included these half buried trees, affording interesting spring boards to climb, walk or sit on.  Here's Colleen offering a steadying arm for Jacob.

Eric was making photos along the waterside and here he is practicing on Colleen.

The water was very cold and had the beautiful colours of glacial or mountain waters.

Next are Nick and Dexter walking the rocks and staying dry.

Of course, Jacob is on the rocks also; I'm not so sure he'll stay dry...

Colleen and Eric bouncing on one of the many half buried trees.

Underneath this hoodie is one flaked-out grandson: the end of a perfect day trip.

Scooter trip

Yesterday Jacob & Eric and I drove up to Olds Ab to visit a new state park.  Jacob then helped me make a little movie of the best portions of the few clips that I made.

I'm pretty rusty at doing videos, and even got reminded that you can't make videos in vertical format...

So here it is, a first effort at making a small movie...  Noise, music, titles and all that stuff will be learned in due course.

Eric is wearing the black helmet, Jacob, the blue one.

I hope this is enjoyable:

Photography 101

What can I say?

Langdon AB

I was welcomed in Okotoks by numerous hugs late Sunday afternoon. Today, Tuesday, Eric, Jacob and I drove up to Langley to test out a new scooter park [well actually it's a skate park {skateboards}].

'Getting air' is important and here are a few shots of Jacob [blue helmet] and Eric [black helmet] 'getting air' at the new to the boys park.  

Enjoy; they did. 

ps: no boys were damaged during these exposures, but they are a little tired...

Rachael Lake to Havre, Montana

It's been a long day, but the miles flew by. The west side of Minnesota is fairly flat agricultural land; South Dakota is flatter, and equally agricultural; Montana starts with rolling hills that get bigger as you head west, and it's agricultural also.

What these states all share is excellent roads with high speed limits: 75, 75, and 70 respectively. The roads and cities had minimal traffic, and there was essentially no construction delays to speak of. Setting the cruise control at 5 over the limit was not excessive, and I just passed the slower cars, and caught up with the next ones near the horizon... The roads were spectacularly straight and the miles just kept going by.

I played a Dianne Mott murder mystery audio book and all was well with the world. Oh yes, I crossed another time zone, now being two hours behind Stittsville, Mountain Time.

There are apparently fires burning in western Montana at the Glacier National Park, so there are smoke advisories for this evening and tomorrow.  There was a general haziness all day, partly due to the very hot and humid weather, and partly due to smoke as I headed further west.  How hot is very hot you ask? Try 36ºC or 98ºF!  Tonight will be in the mid-fifties [F], that's quite a range in one day.

The other notable item is that I faced a very strong headwind most of the way; the kind of steady wind you have to lean into when pumping gas. A basic fill-up has been under $45 [US$] as opposed to the usual $65+ CDN...  On the other hand, motels are pretty much the same prices when converted to CDN; a major change from just a few years ago.  Mind you, there seems to be something going on everywhere I stop to sleep: I manage to get one of the last rooms available: most places seem quite full.  I've read many 'no vacancy' signs...

No pictures today, but a stop in Coaldale Alta should offer some photo-ops with the rescued raptors there: wish me luck.

I should reach Nick & Colleen's by tomorrow afternoon, so the blog may be delayed...

Alexandria MN & Holmes City MN

As promised, here are a few pictures made since arriving at Jan's on Rachel Lake. Here's the welcoming front door.

Here's a closer look at the lovely coleus by the door

To the left of the pictures above is the great workshop building that Rod built years ago. I even helped a little and learned the precision  measuring methods when building with wood: I can only remember that the smallest adjustment was a skwosh...  which was a tad bigger than a sliver...

Next is the view from the back porch:  Rachel Lake.  If you listen very carefully, you might just hear the resident loon.

Jan and I went into Alexandria today and visited the Minnesota Maritime Museum where they had a art print display of the photographer Jim Brandenburg [of National Geographic fame].  The artist set himself of making a single picture each day for 90 consecutive days. I was stunned by what he could do around his Minnesota home at a single picture per day. That's definitely a challenge I could not do since I much prefer the ability to choose from many  attempts...

Of course, maritime museums will showcase neat boats: many here were from the plastic 50's, like this little round lightweight with a forty horse motor.  I think it claimed a top speed of over 40 mph!
I also think this is the boat you steered by leaning into the turn, since the motor itself was mounted to run straight forward.  It probably was as loud as today's sea-lice...  [Seadoos]

Boat trailers looked a lot different before the war: wooden spokes no less.

The Packard motor company had a deal to supply motors to GarWood, a famous pre-war fast boat maker.  Four of these V12 Packard motors were used in one of GarWood's speed record holders [110+ mph I think]. The background boat is a non racing GarWood 24' 'runabout'...

On the way to the lake, we stopped Holmes City to make this pictures of the Holmes City Seed Mill, boasting a steel roof with interesting tar based repairs...

I'm not sure just when the 'crack of dawn' will occur tomorrow, which happens to be Jan's birthday, but I'll be heading west to Okotoks, ASAP; so there may be few pictures for the next few days.

Actually, since I forgot the chargers for my camera batteries, there may be far fewer pictures than expected unless Joan can send the chargers to Nick's...  Hopefully, more to follow.

Marquette Michigan to Rachel Lake Minnesota

After an 8am start, I arrived at Jan's at 4pm, my predicted time.  It turns out that my prediction was off by and hour: I had forgotten to account for the time change to Central Time.  It all turned out for the best anyway since the trip took exactly an hour longer due to traffic slowdowns, the usual turnip truck, bridge replacements, and other such delights that await the unsuspecting traveller...  But I digress.

Audio books are a great way to make time pass quickly; it's not a huge distraction, but it does make things like monitoring the gas gauge more important...  Today was an Ivanovich day, light hearted, detective mystery just beyond a possible chick-flick. Joan and I have heard other books in this series and enjoyed each one, this one being much the same, and equally enjoyable. When radio is chancy at best, these books take about 5 or 6 hours to enjoy, just a pleasant way to spend the day.

So I arrived at Jan's door a few minutes after I was expected [4pm] and owned up to my one hour error in the prediction that was compensated by the one hour delays in travel.  We quickly sat down with a beer and brought each other up to date about what's up. Friends who can take up from where we left off a year ago are special: time becomes meaningless and precious at the same time...

For readers that know Jan: she sends her warm greetings.  Jan and hers are all well and getting older, but then I guess we all are.

My watch is now set to local time, my body, not so much, so I'll cut this short and get some sleep.  I'm hoping for pictures tomorrow...

Stittsville to Marquette Michigan

Well, I'm back on the road again, on the way to Okotoks to visit Nick and his wonderful family.

The crack of dawn was around nine this morning, under grey skies and cool weather.  Karmen said I should be at Long Sault shortly after 7pm.  The traffic and construction was such that I arrived there just before six: way too early to call it a day; so I moved on.

The line-up at the USA border was almost an hour long!  Boo! Traffic after that was sparse to say the least and people kept passing me at 60 in 55 highway limits, so I crept up to about 63 / 65 but didn't have the nerve to match their 70+...

I ended up stopping in Marquette Michigan, on lake Superior after passing smaller villages with lots of 'no vacancy' signs.  I was starting to worry about the possibility that food places might be closed after 9pm, but I lucked in at Hudson's grill & bar that served an excellent mushroom hamburg with sinful fries.

I was hoping for lots of motel choices and ended up at a Settle Inn motel that still had a few rooms at $90. [reduced from $130 I'm told....] There seems to be a Harley Davidson rally and the whole area has a shortage of rooms, thus, no decent prices...

Gas is running about $2.99/gal which is still cheaper than the $1.175/L that I paid in Wahnapitae On, or better yet, the $1.299 I saw at the Soo.

Sorry, no pictures so far; everything was just a blur... <grin grin>

Ithaca NY > Stittsville ON

We enjoyed two sleepovers in Ithaca: visiting Keith [Joan's cousin] and Marty.  Both are fine and truly enjoying retirement in Ithaca.

Ithaca in at the southern end of lake Cayuga, one of the five finger lakes. It's also the home of Cornell University where Keith taught.

We were shown many highlights of Ithaca and managed to liberate the camera from the trunk to make a few shots of waterfalls.  It was April 1, the opening day for fishing.  There are three fishermen in the picture below and at least two of them are fly-fishing. It was way too cold for anything but ice fishing as far as I'm concerned, but then, that would be uncomfortable also...

The next shot was made after walking closer to the waterfall.

The fishermen like to fish in the many pools that formed below the falls over the centuries.

Here's another shot of the gorge right next to Cornell's very large campus.

Nearby, I found this tree rather interesting: like many others in the area, it was covered with dead English Ivy leaves [or something similar].  It sure gave the truck and bigger branches a strange complexion. You can click on any picture to see them all larger.

This is Taughannock Falls. It's taller than Niagara Falls, just much narrower.  It's really hard to judge perspective from this vantage point but you can get a reasonable idea by looking at the tourist bridge at the bottom of the picture.

Closer to the falls, you can see the huge chunks of ice and snow at the foot of the falls; literally a glacier in the making that will melt long before it reaches glacier status.

Next is Buttermilk Falls; I didn't have a tripod to make a time exposure that would have turned this shot into buttermilk...

The local municipality has created a very large and safe swimming pool at the foot of these falls.  What a great place to spend time with family and friends: some sitting among the flat rocks of the waterfall. others diving into the deep end of the natural pool, or just having fun in the shallower parts.

Of course, it's not a bad place to skip stones when the water is ice cold.

The entire valley walls that hold all these and many more waterfalls is made up of shale and large slabs of limestone. You can see the frozen 'waterfall' of the weeping shale below.  Much of it has melted already and it will likely be gone if predicted warm days develop.

On the way back to the centre of town, we stopped in at this wholesale orchid business. This showroom, plus about five times more blooming orchids will likely be sold by the end of the month. This business buys its stock from Thailand, repots the plants, and grows them to bloom for sale. They have a very large turnover, and when plants fall out of bloom, or remain unsold, they are disposed of. The chap told me that there were a lot of dumpster divers nearby...

Keith then walked us around where they live, downtown.

I loved the humour of this sculpture, a mere donkey or something, in front of the Merrill Lynch sign.  Their Logo is a charging bull...  Ok, Ok, I found it funny.

About 100 meters in front of Keith & Marty's front door is a pleasant walkway beside this river that runs through town.  Ithaca is very progressive and showcases a lot of sculpture throughout the area.

Next are two pieces just in from of the building.

After leaving our friendly hosts, we headed home and arrived here just after 3:00pm. The car has been emptied, the clothes sorted and stashed, and all the boxes, bags, luggage, and stuff has mainly been dealt with.  Mind you, there will be laundry...  And then there's the mail...

The house is in fine order, the orchids blooming profusely, and once more, the world is unfolding as it should.  Now if spring could just show up at the party...

Winchester VA to Ithaca NY

Our departure was our usual crack of dawn [9:00am] after filling up the tank for $31.06.  These prices will soon be history for us, so I'll brag about them while I can.

Traffic started out reasonably light but more and more transports joined us as we moved northward.

The 'fun' started when we drove into Pennsylvania: the temperature went down to freezing, then the snow started.  

At mile 45, there was an 'incident' and we were expected to have major delays.  The snow stopped and the major delay started: we were essentially parked or creeping forward for about five miles, or, to put it another way, it took us about 40 minutes to drive 5 miles.

The 'incident' was a tractor trailer that had flipped over and essentially dumped its load in the ditch.  They were stacking hundreds of large boxes on the side of the highway, then loading them into a waiting tractor trailer while another crew were still moving the bigger chunks of what remained of the incident causing tractor and trailer onto flatbed trucks. The gawking over, traffic resumed at its usual 5 to 10 MPH over the speed limit, and then the snow started up again, this time with a vengeance. Every bridge had the usual sign, "Bridge freezes before road", so many cars and trucks slowed down to nearly half the speed limit of 60 MPH.

At times visibility dropped to less than 100 feet, so slowdowns were frequent.  Then a group of fast boys came along so I tucked in behind the one with the brightest tail lights and eventually, we  were making up time again.

We arrived in Ithaca NY for a couple of sleepovers to visit Joan's cousin Keith and Marty. We had hoped to be here by 3:00pm but we were about an hour late.  All in all, a successful drive to the sounds of an audio book, and the windshield wipers.

It's now below freezing, the night sky is clear, and Joan's already sleeping.  Time for me to do the same.

Fort Myers > Jacksonville Fl > Winchester Va

We're on the road again, heading home.  We had a great send-off from our southern friends after leaving a tasty Italian night supper at the pool. 

Our intentions were not to leave right after the party, but stories of slow moving traffic on Interstate 95, combined with our packing already being done, helped us decide to leave on Sunday night, right after the party.

Mind you, pool parties and similar events at the Pelican Preserve usually end before 9:00pm, so our decision wasn't much of a surprise to anyone.

After hugs, promises to keep in touch, and tearful eyes, we were off.  ...only to return moments later as I had forgotten my meds...  The old squirrel / shiny object thing: I guess that's a guy thing, but I digress.

After a fill-up at Walmart, we hit I-95 at 8:00pm sharp.

Whatever traffic there was, travelled quickly and I just fit in with the boys in the fast lane.  There were no delays of any sort, just the usual construction sites where the fast boys slowed down if workers were present.  Otherwise, it was near 80mph all the way, in 70mph areas as well as 55mph constructions zones with no workers...  Needless to say, we made very good time.

We stopped for some sleep around 1:30am in Jacksonville Florida: quite an amazing accomplishment considering the expected snow-bird migration traffic that we had expected.

A  rather lazy start after the 6:30 wakeup call, we were on the road at 8:00am.  The gas fill-up in Georgia was under $35.00, and later in the day, we put in 15.9 gallons in a 15 gallon tank for a paltry $31.16!  $1.959/gal. in the Carolinas.

The scenery was stunning today: the early morning clouds threatened poor driving, and yet they were actually quite beautiful.  The threat never materialized and we had clear driving all day except for about half an hour when we had showers, but nothing of any consequence.  Much better than what had been forecast, and we're OK with that.

Some of the scenery was stunning: the spring colours of budding trees, and shrubs, gave us a rainbow of the most intense colours possible.  Even the terrible Kudzu invasive vine is beautiful in full bloom.  The Wisteria was also in its prime.  What a wonderful sight: Spring!

We stopped for the day in Winchester Virginia, our sixth state today, at 7:00pm. [Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, West Virginia, and Virginia].  

Tomorrow should see Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York as we go to visit Joan's cousin in Ithaca NY. The weatherman threatened bad weather in Pennsylvania, but the storm clouds we spotted on the way to the Outback Steakhouse had dissipated when we walked back across the street to our Country-inn suites room a while later.

Much as I don't want to jinx the rest of the trip, I must admit that so far, out trip North has been very quick and uneventful. Well maybe not completely uneventful: we did see dramatic and threatening clouds, and we did see a forest fire on a mountain near the highway.  Too bad, stops 'to make photographs' is not considered an 'emergency stop'.

I hope the returning snow-birds have a smooth trip home as we've enjoyed so far.

Swallow-tailed Kite

Sometimes I'm lucky, sometimes I'm very lucky and today was one of those times.

Yesterday we had supper with Phyllis and Dave, both avid birders who have been great mentors. As the four of us drove over to their place in Sanibel, we spotted a swallow tailed bird which we dutifully described on arrival.  Their well reasoned reply was: a Swallow-tailed Kite and we were congratulated for spotting it since it is apparently quite rare.

As mentioned, today I was luckier; just outside our door in Palazzo, not one but two Swallow-tailed Kites soaring around like good raptors do. 

The car is pretty well packed, peace has replaced panic, and the world is unfolding as it should.

Life is good!

Harn's Marsh

Harn's Marsh facilities consist of a dirt parking lot and a walking path through a fence that goes along one side of the large marsh. 

Most times when I've visited, I've seen two or three photographers shlepping top-end DSLR's on honking big tripods.  And I should mention their gargantuan telephoto lenses, the type that start at over $8,000 and can easily and quickly top $20,000.  I just proudly hand-held my old used 90 mm for which I paid $5.

I've mentioned before that most birds will poop just before taking flight. This Glossy Ibis obviously didn't get the memo. 

A couple of weeks ago, on an adventure with Jan, Joan spotted a pair of Sandhill Cranes with two young ones.  I was driving and there was really no safe place to stop, so I drove on.  I've been regretting that choice ever since because the young ones were just a little shorter than the parents, and they still didn't have their flight feathers: they were just big fluffy balls of down.

At the marsh, we saw such a pair with young ones, but this time, the young were much smaller, and the foursome wasn't going to stick around to model for us. They crossed the gully behind the walkway, upped the steep slope and vanished into the woods.

Note how well they hide themselves in plain view.

Next is an overview of a small part of the marsh with two snowy egrets flying away from me. All these pictures were made with the same 90 mm lens, so this is the only un-cropped picture in this blog entry.

The remaining shots are of a Tri Colour Heron, in full breeding plumage. He's sporting a very blue beak, white feathers at the back of his head, and rusty brown feathers on his back. The birders I was with had never see one with such a rich blue beak. These colours are straight from the camera, not enhanced.

The first shot has our heron with an inch long fish in his beak. The Tri-Colour heron has interesting fishing techniques: He jumps up, flies a few feet and lands quickly, dunking his head to resurface with the catch.  You have to catch a lot of fish this size to feed this large bird.  Mind you, they also catch bigger fish around the 5 - 6 inch size.

Cameras capture a very thin slice of time: sometimes this results in showing you something the eye is much too slow to see, like this face. 

The next shot is about a tenth of a second later, no face.

In the last two shots, our bird is stopping abruptly while making a fast turn to the right to show a different view.

I hope you enjoyed the marsh as much as I did.