Tuesday, February 2, 2016

We are at the Big Cypress National Preserve, which borders on the Everglades National Park.  We’re parked at Trail Lakes Campground, which reminds me of old Florida.  Here’s a shot out our back window, as dusk settled in.

Our side window looks right into the Everglades landscape.  It’s basically a prairie growing in water.

We stopped at one of my favorite restaurants on our way, Joanie’s Blue Crab Café.  Nothing fancy, but if they have blue crabs, it’s the best.

Steve says the crab cakes are great, too!

Birds are plentiful down here and one of the reasons we came back.  This egret (I think) was at the rear of our campsite this morning.

Steve went on a photo safari this morning and came back with some good shots.  The water was quite high, so heading under this bridge was an experience!

There are orchids in the everglades, but this is the only one in bloom that he saw:

A little fog created a great picture:

We remember these birds from our first trip to the Everglades: the anhinga.

And I think this is the female:

And the mighty osprey, once on the endangered species list with the bald eagle:

And the last wildlife sighting – a turtle (we haven’t figured out what he’s doing with his leg).

We left Plano January 5, after celebrating Maria’s third birthday.

We stopped several places on our way to Orlando, including Meaher State Park on Mobile Bay, where we caught this great sunset:

We were at Disney for over a week, helping Olga with Maria while Natasha attended a conference.  It’s always fun to watch Maria interact with the characters.

After Disney, we spent a few days near the Villages, visiting with Steve’s Uncle Eep and our friends Joy and Sam.

We stayed on a horse farm that’s quite an operation.  The centerpiece of the farm was a carriage museum.  They do horse training and boarding and hold many various competitions and shows.  I think they specialized in training carriage horses.  They had a nice restaurant on site where we had lunch one day.  The place changed hand in 2011 and I think the new owner is working on maximizing profits.  They have a wedding venue and have recently installed RV spaces to accommodate event attendees.  Since there were no events that weekend, we were able to get a place there.  It’s sometimes difficult to get a place near the Villages.

From there, we headed for the LazyDays RV Park, near Tampa.  The leader of the Alaska tour, Spike, holds a rally there each year for past and future tour attendees.  About 12 people from our tour where there and it was fun to see them again.

LazyDays is a huge place, incorporating not only an RV park, but a large RV dealership.  Luckily, they didn’t have anything that tempted us.  They have 123 service bays and couldn’t fit us in until the end of February!  We got the work done elsewhere.

I’ll close with two pictures I haven’t had a chance to post.
Like grandfather, like granddaughter.  My two nerds:

And one of sweet Maria,

So long for now. 

Deb

Friday, January 1, 2016

We are still in Plano, TX, and wanted to let everyone know we survived the recent bad weather.  We did spend a few minutes in the closet under the stairs while the sirens went off, but there was no local damage and the trailer, which is parked in a storage lot, survived, too.

Rich and Steve arrived in Plano on December 17.  They had a nice, uneventful trip and discovered some interesting restaurants along the way.  They came in on a Thursday and Rich wasn’t flying out until Saturday, so Steve, Rich and I went sightseeing on Friday.   Although I think this is our fifth trip to the Dallas area, we haven’t done any sightseeing.  

For people of our generation, Dallas will always be the sight of the assassination of President Kennedy.  So off we went to the Sixth Floor Museum.  The shots that killed Kennedy were fired from the sixth floor of the building that was being used as the Texas School Book Depository.  The sixth and seventh floors of the building have been turned into a museum and the rest of the building is used for civic offices.

Here’s Rich smelling the roses on the way to the museum.  (It was December 18th.)

In some ways it was a painful visit, stirring up memories from the past.  I was eleven when Kennedy was shot and still have some vivid memories of that time.  But even at eleven, I realized that the peaceful transition of power we experienced was an amazing thing.  Our president had been killed, his assassin murdered, but there were no armies in the streets, trying to keep peace.  Even though we were in the middle of the cold war, there was no attempting to invade; no power struggle.

I read and watched some of the conspiracy theories over the years.  As someone was quoted in the exhibit at the museum, it’s hard to accept that someone as “insignificant” as Oswald managed to assassinate the president.  But I watched a show that interviewed Oswald’s brother sometime in the past decade and he was certain that his brother had indeed done it.  He said he was certain as soon as he heard Oswald’s name as a suspect that it was something he would do.

The museum is certainly worth a visit.  You can look out the windows and watch all the tourists dodge traffic to stand on the x on the street, which I assume marks the spot of the fatal shot.  Dealey Plaza, which the motorcade was driving through, is a parklike place with several roads running through it.  It has several terraces and architectural features built by the WPA (Works Progress Administration) during the depression.  I caught Rich hugging one of the old trees.

We next trooped over to Reunion Tower, where Steve took this picture of Dealey Plaza.

The Reunion Tower offers stunning views of Dallas.  It was named after the Reunion district it sits in, which itself was the location of a 19th century commune, La Reunion.  We managed not to take any pictures of the tower itself.

Christmas in Dallas is certainly not like Christmas in the Midwest.  Besides the roses Rich found, pansies are popular and it’s not unusual to see pansies along side Christmas decorations.  Maria really likes the yard decorations and wants to “pet” them all.

2015 was an amazing year for us.  We saw so much of the country (and Canada) that I hadn’t seen.  From the desert of west Texas to the beautiful coast of California, to the mountains, valleys, glaciers and waterfalls of Canada and Alaska, it was a trip of a lifetime.  And we’d love to do it again.

We had our sad times, as my mother passed away in April, and our dog in August.  But we celebrated Steve’s niece’s wedding in September and I welcomed a great-nephew in November.  Two more babies joined our Indiana family.  And Natasha became an American citizen in April.

Just a few statistics for the nerds following the blog:  Since Thanksgiving 2014, we put 24,000 miles on the truck.  The trailer went on most but not all of those miles.  We visited 19 states and 7 Canadian provinces.  In all we took 13,652 pictures (and I need to delete most of them).

We visited family and friends in Florida, Texas, Arizona, California, Washington, Michigan and North Carolina (that was by plane).

It was an amazing year.  I can’t wait to see what we’ll discover in 2016.  We leave Plano on Tuesday, January 5. (Or at least that’s the current plan.)

Deb

Monday, December 14, 2015

As Natasha reminded me, it’s been months since I’ve blogged.  So here’s an update of the last several months and what we think we’re doing in the near future.

The last time I blogged we were in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.  The next night we parked at Caliper Lake for one night, which normally wouldn’t get a mention, but it was the closest park job we did.  Here’s two pictures to show how close to the trees we got:

 

Steve did a great job and we were able to open all the slides.  And we didn’t even hit a tree on the way out!

We spent a few days in Duluth (back in the USA at last) and then moved on to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, which is on the northern side of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, on Lake Superior.  To really see the Pictured Rocks, you need to take a boat trip.  This is representative of the rock formations and layers you’ll see.  Note the kayakers at the bottom of the picture for scale.

We then moved on to Mackinaw City, Michigan, and, of course, visited Mackinac Island.  No motor vehicles are allowed on the island (except emergency vehicles) so everything moves by horse or bicycle.  This was the first time I’ve ever seen luggage on a bike.

This wagon was making deliveries to the stores.

It was a charming place, and the fort on the island has an interesting history.  The fort (and island) were captured by the British in the War of 1812.  I always forget that war was fought on both the east coast and the Canadian border.  But on the whole, the island felt too perfect.  I felt more like I was in Disney World than in a real town.

After that we headed for Detroit, Michigan, and the wedding of Steve’s niece, Kelly.  It was a fun weekend with all of Steve’s family, including his 92 year old dad.  This is a picture of the bride and her dad, Steve’s brother, Terry.

Our trip home included a stop in Elkhart, Indiana, to get an estimate and materials ordered for some work to be done on the trailer.  Elkhart is the RV capital of the US so it’s easy to find experienced people to work on RVs.  We wanted to have the carpet replaced with solid flooring in the living area and one of the grey tanks had developed a leak last spring, so that needed replaced.  Luckily, the leak was near the top, so we didn’t have much trouble with it unless the tank got full.  Then we emptied it.

So, one night in Elkhart and then it was back home to West Lafayette!  I think we arrived home on Thursday, September 10, in time for the first home game on the 12th.  We had been on the road for 9 months and it was good to get home.

Steve had scheduled some home maintenance work for when we got home and getting ready for that meant organizing areas of the house that had been neglected.  We plowed through that, with Steve making multiple trips to Goodwill and a trip to the dog rescue with the rest of our dog paraphernalia. (Sniff.) We also had to take the trailer back to Elkhart to get the work done that we wanted.

And then it was off to Disney World (yes, again) with the Stewart family.  After years of doing all the planning, I find I really enjoy just going with the flow with someone else doing the planning, down to costumes for the Halloween Party.

Then, on October 29, we got the news that Natasha’s mother, Olga, staying with Natasha in Plano, TX, had fallen and broken both wrists.  Natasha was able to take two weeks leave, so I flew down on November 12 to start helping as she went back to work.  That meant I had to pack my stuff in the trailer before I left, as Steve would drive the trailer down after Thanksgiving.  It might have been smarter to drive the trailer down at that time, but Steve wanted to have the wheel bearings repacked and new tires put on the trailer.  Having to replace a wheel bearing is about the only damage the trip to Alaska and back did to the trailer. 

On November 13, my great nephew, Benjamin, arrived to my niece, Jessica, and her husband Bryan.  Then, sometime that week, we got news that Steve’s dad had fallen and broken his elbow.  He lives in assisted living and Steve’s sister Nancy is nearby, so it wasn’t urgent that he get there immediately, but since his sister had bought plane tickets for a trip in December, we expected he might have to be there when the cast was removed.

Then, November 22, we got word that little Ben had been airlifted to Greenville, NC.  After many anxious hours it was determined that he had a kink in his aorta, something that affects one in a hundred births.  They operated on him on the 24th and he went home on December 3rd.  He seems to be recovering well and is receiving lots of love!

I flew back to Indiana for Thanksgiving and then returned to Plano.  Olga was progressing nicely, but still couldn’t lift Maria.  Steve flew to Maryland to be with his dad Dec. 8 -11.  He and our friend, Rich, will be driving the trailer to Texas this week.

All in all, it’s been a much more hectic fall than we imagined, but we’re hoping for calmer days ahead.  When Steve arrives here, we’ll mostly be back on the schedule we had anticipated, staying with Natasha until after Maria’s birthday celebration (Jan. 4th) and then heading for Florida.  We’ll be at Disney with Natasha for a conference and then there’s a reunion for our Alaska tour in Florida at the end of January.  We’ll visit with family and friends until it gets warm enough to head north, swinging by to visit my family and friends along the way.  We expect to be home for Easter.

Always assuming nothing else comes up!

Deb

Sunday, August 23, 2015

We are in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

It was a dark and stormy day.  Actually, 2 dark and stormy days.  The storm on the drive to Winnipeg yesterday was so bad we pulled over and took a nap until the worst was gone.  It took out a lot of electricity, including at the park we are staying at.  It’s been up and down several times since, but mostly up.  The wind is wicked and the clouds are scurrying across the sky.  It’s a good time to be curled up in front of the fireplace with a book.

Unfortunately, we have no fireplace and I’ve read all the real books I brought.  Curling up with my iPad and Kindle app just isn’t the same.

We have no photos for the last couple of days.  As we neared Winnipeg, the scenery began to look alot like Indiana, mostly flat and you could see trees on the horizon.  As we left Calgary, the only trees we saw were planted as wind breaks.  They are definitely needed up here.  The wind is fierce.  We have seen some windmills, but nothing like the numbers we have in Benton County back home.

The windbreaks are serious.  A typical one has at least three staggered rows of trees with a row of bushes on each side of the trees.  It frequently surrounds not only the house, but the barn buildings as well.  We get a little peek into some through the driveway opening as we pass by.

We’ve been traveling on the Trans Canada highway and it’s been a bit of a surprise.  Most of the time, it is not a limited access highway.  It is also not exactly smooth.  All during our tour and after on the Alaska highway, we encountered this sign indicating bumpy roads:

But the Trans Canada highway has had at least as many bumps and the majority are not marked.

It has all been paved, which is a change.  I’m still working on getting all the dust out from our tour.  It may be a never-ending task.  While the Alaska Highway is technically all paved, there are sections that are being rebuilt that are gravel or dirt.

I’ve looked back over my blog and realized I never blogged about Dawson City, where the Klondike gold rush was.  We went there after Whitehorse on our longest travel day with the tour, about 7 hours.  I remember being really tired.  We ran into town to find some dinner and came back and crashed.  It was 10 pm and 80 degrees and the sun was still up.  Spike, our tour leader, claimed we were 150 miles from the artic circle.  Sunset was supposed to be around 2 am.  It was June 15, so we were only a few days from the summer solstice, June 21.

For a small town (population under 2,000), there’s a lot to do in Dawson.  There are many buildings from the gold rush era and Parks Canada (Canada’s national parks system) has taken control of many of them.  They offer a walking tour of Dawson and we had a wonderful guide, Jonathan.

The post office and bank are two of the buildings that have been restored.

They’ve also restored one of the saloons.

Here’s Jonathan talking about the saloons in town.

We also saw Jack London’s cabin, which has been moved to Dawson City from its remote site and two replicas were made with the original logs.  The other replica is in Oakland, California, Jack London’s hometown.  Jack is probably best known as the author of the book “Call of the Wild”.

We then drove up to Midnight Dome, a hill overlooking Dawson.  The view was very hazy.  It was only later that we realized it was smoke from the Alaska wildfires.

We did get someone to take a picture of the two of us.

The next day was mostly a free day, so Susan and I went shopping.  This store had great stuffed animals.  I wanted to buy them all.

Susan’s favorite was the standing bear.

That night we panned for gold on the creek where the first Klondike gold was found.  Most of us who panned found at least a flake!

And, yes, I tried my hand and got a flake or two.

And some of the women had very stylish boots!

We had two free days in Dawson and Steve and I drove back up to Midnight Dome to see if the view was any clearer.  It was!

I don’t know if you’ll be able to see the two colors in the river.  The darker water is the fresh water from the Klondike River while the gray water is the glacial water of the Yukon River.  The glacial water has microscopic dust in it from the glaciers grinding rocks.  Fish can live in it, they’ve adapted.

Later that day we visited the Dawson City Museum, which was quite well done for a city that size and included 4 steam engines.  The railroad used to come this far north, but highways put it out of business.

Steve captured a picture of this house boat as we walked along the river.

Reminds me of Tom Sawyer.

Travel in Western Canada and Alaska has gone from foot and river to train to roads.  Dawson City was a transportation hub because of the Klondike and Yukon Rivers.  The Yukon River is 1980 miles long and connects British Columbia to the Bering Sea.  It was a major waterway plied by riverboats until the 1950’s when a highway to Dawson City was completed.  I think a riverboat cruise of the Yukon would be awesome.

This post is getting very long, so I’ll close for now.

Have a good day!

Deb