Category Archives: road trip

Woody Thoughts

Leaving Golden Lake campground early Tuesday, I headed west on Route 2 which was pretty lonely. For miles there would be no traffic and millions of trees, mostly coniferous and often undergoing cutting projects. Logging trucks were already off and running. The pulp in Michigan is normally loaded crosswise, in short lengths (5 feet?) and the load looks neat and tidy. I think we’ve all met scary looking log loads, especially in the Deep South, but these looked safe. I must say, based on limited sample size, the logging truck guys are much more courteous than long haul drivers. They see you coming and rather than pull out and slow you down as they get up to speed, they wait. What a concept!

I crossed in Wisconsin, had some not nice thoughts about their governor and the House Speaker, but then fell in love with the piece of the state I saw. I was particularly taken by Ashland, which sits on a bay of Lake Superior. We stopped for a break at a lovely waterfront park with a walking path, lots of parking – just great.

Leaving town, I saw a mile or more of free municipal beaches with picnic areas, then a monstrous water sports store. The van swerved but I fought it – no room for more gear.

After a birding stop which I’ll describe later, I checked in at a small Corps of Engineers campground called Pokegamon Dam – because that’s the dam they operate here on the Upper Mississippi just outside Grand Rapids, MN.

It’s a small campground right next to a busy highway. The railroad goes right by it as well and while the trains are few, they feel like they are coming through the van. One went by about three Thursday morning.

A bigger issue is firewood. These are mainly local Minnesota folks and they never met a tree they couldn’t burn. Last night, the van was filled with smoke from my neighbors.

Thursday, after returning from an outing, I found that I had a new crew of Bubba’s and their progeny, and a pickup truck load of cord wood. They even brought a tarp to keep it dry. Si I went up to see the ranger and asked if they had any open sites – claiming, with some truth, that I am allergic to smoke. We got a change several slots upwind and things worked out ok.

Don’t get me started on campfires. Jen and I were coming home several weeks ago when I noticed a cloud of blue smoke over the highway up ahead. It was just the campers at Lake Elmore gearing up for the weekend. I guess it’s part of our caveman dna but while I enjoy a wood stove fire on a frigid Vermont night, roaring camp fires all day when the temps are in the 70’s? I have the feeling I made my point, several paragraph before. Here’s a shot of part of the non-smoking area.

Yooper Duper

Sitting here in the Interstate with a #Vizsla snoring on the other bed, the sun setting over an apt-named Golden Lake, I am listening to Sibelius being performed by the Minnesota orchestra live at Carnegie Hall. (Oh, to have a public station that plays real music, not programmed.) Earlier, as I was eating supper in the front seat, I noticed movement outside and a male hummer was inspecting my bright red shirt through the window.

I am using Jennifer’s FitBit and aiming for at least 10,000 steps, even on long travel days like today. So we went for a post-dinner walk to get the 2,500 steps I was lacking. Of course I brought the binoculars and ended the session with two loons out in front of the campsite and a gorgeous Blackburnian warbler chipping away nearby.

My general plan is to get going early, drive for six hours or so, with breaks every hour or two. That gets us to campsites early enough to get some good walking/birding in. Monday, we left Rich, Lydda, and Bronson after a wonderful visit. Driving north through Ohio is nothing to write home about, so I won’t. Except to say that I wish I’d had someone on board who could identify all the spring plants just starting to pop. I guessed soybeans, corn, but then went by a sugar processor so sugar beets?

I drove up into Michigan, noting the change from crops to trees as we headed north. Aside from construction, it was an easy trip although I’m having issues with a “check engine” light. I’m sort of ignoring it.

We tangled with a line of thunderstorms but outran most of them. I had the weather radar on the iPad and it brought back my flying days, as I slid past yellow and red cells, which I could also see as angry black clouds off to my left. Soon the system was behind us.

I’m hitting a few Forest Service campgrounds (since I’m not happy with Michigan’s extra $9/day fee for non-resident visitors. The first was in the Huron National Forest which required navigating some dirt roads.

These campgrounds have no services except for some fancy outhouses. This one had only three campers on 30 sites so it was quiet – and after a cold front passed, pretty chilly.

After coffee and a chilly morning walk, we were on the way north on I-75 with very light traffic. The Mackinaw Straights bridge is pretty impressive and there was just enough crosswind to keep my mind on my track and not the height.

I took Route 2 which is an old-style highway skirting the top of Lake Michigan. It is interesting – you know you are in the Upper Peninsula when the signs say “ATM, Smoked Fish, Pasties, Diesel” and you pass dozens of old rundown cottages and closed restaurants.

Parts of the route were spectacular. The lake with whitecaps, light blue water, and sandy beaches looked like the Caribbean until you noted that the outside air was 52. After about 150 miles of interesting driving – more trees than I need to see in a day – we came the Golden Lake campground which was empty except for a host couple. I picked a site near the water and off we went on a long walk.

Wednesday I hope to start doing a little more serious birding. We will stay for two days at a Corps of Engineers campground in Minnesota. Then a couple of days in eastern North Dakota. So long from Yooper Country.

Stopping In Buckeye Land

After a quiet night at Allegheny State Park, I spent much of Friday driving to Ohio. Route 17 in New York was lovely and the route down along Lake Erie toward Cleveland was easy. We stopped at several rest areas in Ohio where the breeze off the lake made things comfortable.

Aside from a traffic mess around Columbus, the balance of the trip to Rich and Lydda’s outside Dayton went well.

They live in a large development with hundreds of homes. The builders incorporated quite a lot of green space, berms, and ponds along with a nice network of paved walking/biking trails. I was able to get in rig into their driveway and since I was sleeping in their basement, did not have to worry about the slope.

It has been a nice visit. Lydda is a great cook and we have just had a nice laid-back family visit punctuated by many dog walks. Penny gets along fine with their dog, Squirrel, and there are many rabbits to get her attention on walks.

I went birding with my grandson, Bronson, for a while Sunday. It was his first time and the highlight was probably the Great Blue Heron who arose from one of the little ponds, showing us his full wingspan. Here are some shots of us heading out.

I’m heading up to Grayling, Michigan next to a small Forest Service campground were you just show up. We will see how that goes with thunderstorms in the forecast.

Southern Tier Nostalgia

As usually happens on a long trip, I was up at two, then at four for real, and on the road at 6 AM. I recalled trudging down an icy driveway in the dark with Mary on our last trip – we had parked the rig at the bottom due to snow and ice. Today’s launch was rather easy relative to that. As we’d say in Navy flying, “kick the tire, light the fire.”

Penny and I took our first break at the Fair Haven rest area where this selfie documented my last time in Vermont for a while.

I had been watching the forecasts which called for severe thunderstorms on our route. I considered taking a higher route – the Thruway – but decided to wait a while to decide and then stayed with our original plans.

Getting out of Vermont was easy and the weather and scenery was perfect. The lightly-traveled I-88 was likewise pretty uneventful aside from a lot of one-lane stretches for construction.

Then I got into the westbound flow of Route 17 and memories flowed. The Blue Dolphin diner in Endicott, owe go where Mary was ordained deacon and then priest. The failed race track that is now a casino. The Exit 61 sign for Waverly/Sayre which we took many a time. I thought I could see our old house – probably the nicest we ever had – up on the hill overlooking town.

Then west of Waverly, the highway slides in Pennsylvania for a tiny distance and I recalled paddling both the Chemung and Susquehanna rivers in my canoe racing days.

About Elmira, the rain hit pretty heavy. I had stopped earlier to check the radar and knew that it was likely a short stretch, and so it was. Of course, I’m still learning the van systems and had quite a time finding out how to defog the windshield.

This part of the trip reminded me of the long drive Mary would make each week to finish seminary in Rochester. And as I passed the sign for Elmira Heights, I remembered how the church there stiffed her for the required contributions to the church pension fund and essentially just said “tough luck” afterward. And they’ll know that we are Christians by our love…..

We stopped mid-afternoon, after nine and a half hours enroute, at a big state park near Salamanca called Allegheny State Park. It was 80 degrees and muggy so I opted for an electric site and we have been running the air. The place has a number of families with young children and most are in tents. We are getting a shower as I write and kids are still riding the camp road on their bikes. Well, it’s really coming down now. I feel a bit smug, and snug, in my rig.

Penny and I took a nice walk before supper, hearing and seeing lots of warblers. Lots of redstarts and yellow warblers. I watched a song sparrow use the little brook as his personal bird bath.

Here’s Penny admiring the pretty lake.

Tomorrow is about six hours to Rich and Lydda’s – I’m really looking forward to seeing them.

Travels With Penny

A Steinbeck I’m not, as you know if you read this blog. But, by the time you do read this, Penny and I will be well on our way toward the southern tier of New York. It’s a route I know well from my days working in rural New York: the Rutland, Route 4, Northway down to Albany, then I-88 to Binghamton, then Route 17 toward Jamestown. No tolls but lots of river towns and thumpy concrete highway. I think they call it I-85 out west but that’s like putting lipstick on a pig.

Yesterday I went up to Worcester to get some diesel fuel and my last maple bun at the Post Office Cafe for some time. Penny settled into her stretched out spot between the two front seats, where she will sleep for hours.

I don’t have tons of storage space but I am hauling Pete’s Green mesclun, local chicken and hamburger, Cabot Cheese, Morse Farm maple syrup, Booth Brothers milk, and some homemade granola to go with the Stonyfields yogurt. I should have a good first week culinary-wise.

So the general plan is to see our son Rich and his wife Lydda, along with Bronson in Ohio for the weekend. We are getting psyched for that. Afterward, it’s a little open. I am going to head north through Michigan, hook a left before Canada, and wander along the northern route through Minnesota, North Dakota, and Montana. The objective is to arrive in San Diego County in late June to see the West Coast gang.

Vermont is a tough place to leave in summer. Everything is just popping and one side of me wants to stay and paddle, hike, and bird. But I really wanted a change of venue for a bit, to see grandkids that I see way too infrequently, to explore a part of the country that I have never seen, and to do a little birding in places new to me. It’s going to be fun and I’ll share a bit of what I see and do, including comments my Vermont plates draw. Peace my friends.

Vulture Love

As a pilot, I’ve often thought of vultures as graceful in the air but ugly on the ground. Their soaring abilities always catch my attention and adoration. Yeah, I kind of love them.

Aside from South Texas trips, most of my experience has been with Turkey Vultures but the recent Florida journey put me up close and personal with hundreds of Black Vultures. Myakka River State Park was crawling with them and while they drove my dog Penny nuts, they gave me a chance for a number of interesting photos.

Vulture1W

The campsites have warnings that Rangers may use explosive devices to move vultures away from the campground and parking areas.

"Are you as bored with these birders as I am?"

“Are you as bored with these birders as I am?”

"You know, I could go for some carry-out carrion about now."

“You know, I could go for some carry-out carrion about now.”

"Who passed gas?"

“Who passed gas?”

Vultures may not grace the covers of bird magazines or birders’ license plates but they have some redeeming values – well, perhaps not that many. They are, like many of us, best appreciated from a distance. So in any case, give my vulture pals some love.

“f/8 and be there”

Sometimes you just have to be present with a camera and neat things can happen. That was my experience with getting a Painted Bunting for life bird #440. (I realize that the total is not that impressive but I’ve only been at this for about seven years.)

The last two winters we were in Texas, there was a very reliable Painted Bunting at the Falfurrias Rest Stop on Highway 281 north of Edinburg, Texas. Day after day I’d see it reported on eBird but the one day that Mary and I went up to look for it, we scoured the place with no luck. Of course, someone saw it that day afterward.

This winter, a Painted Bunting was frequenting a feeder in mid-state Vermont and most of my birder friends got to see it. My time was tied up completely with Mary’s treatment and care and I never even thought about leaving to look for it.

When I got to the Skidway Island State Park in Georgia last week, I asked the ranger as I was checking in about whether they had any birders on their staff. He introduced a young woman who gave me a quick briefing and said, “You can probably see the Painted Bunting at the feeder in the morning. They are a little skittish but the love the millet seeds.”

I had picked the park since it was highly recommended by by brother and sister-in-law and was the right distance for the daily drive I was planning. I birded that evening and picked up a few new year birds for me, including a noisy but handsome Great Crested Flycatcher.

Up before dawn, I exercised the dog, grabbed a coffee, and went over to the nature center and picked one of the empty chairs. No one was around but Tufted Titmice, Carolina Chickadees, and a couple of cowbirds came and went. Only about fifteen minutes had gone by when suddenly from the underbrush, a Painted Bunting fly to the feeder. My camera was in my lap and I was so close that I didn’t want to spook him – but just then a noisy compressor from the building’s air conditioning system kicked in and off he flew. Well, I certainly saw him.

I adjusted the camera so that I could shoot when he came back but time went by, and I knew I had to pack up and do a rather long drive. Then, he was at the cage feeder and I took some photos, more for documentation than anything.

The cage screwed up the autofocus but there are plenty of good shots on the web.

The cage screwed up the autofocus but there are plenty of good shots on the web.

But not these two.

But not these two.

When he left, I did as well, very happy to get this pretty bird – and that success made the trip go well, to the point that I cancelled a reservation and drove nearly 12 hours to Pennsylvania, going from tropical temperatures and brightly colored birds to drizzle and a few damp Robins. It was a long but good day.

Florida Birds

I often tell folks that I don’t chase birds and generally that is correct. However, when I planned the 1500 mile trip to Florida to trade my truck in on an Airstream Interstate RV, I started to put a short target list together. I have never birded Florida so I wanted to grab a few of the common birds in the short time I would be there — I put a list of Limpkin, Wood Stork, and Florida Scrub Jay on a scrap of paper.

Well, the first early evening there, before the purchase was settled, I heard some sharp calling just outside the motel and got a new life bird of Nanday Parakeet. These are a lot like the Green Parakeets we see in Texas – the first time you see and hear them it is exciting, then it gets old pretty fast.

I had decided that if the transaction went ok, I’d stay in the area for a day or so. After a long Monday morning, I took possession of the new rig and drove about an hour over to Myakka River State Park and within an hour, was walking with the dog and finding two new life birds, Wood Storks and Limpkins.

 

Dozens of Limpkins and their young live in the park and are easy to spot as they forage.

Dozens of Limpkins and their young live in the park and are easy to spot as they forage.

There are many trails where in addition to birds, you might see opossum, alligators, raccoons, and plenty of squirrels. 

There are many trails where in addition to birds, you might see opossum, alligators, raccoons, and plenty of squirrels.

The next morning, we got up early and walked down to a fishing access area which was teeming with birds. Hundreds of Black Vultures (wait for a later post) were interesting to Penny but I found a new life bird foraging. I have seen many Common Gallinules but have never seen a Purple Gallinule. It was neat to see them on the same morning and note the very apparent difference.

Purple Gallinules are pretty striking looking birds.

Purple Gallinules are pretty striking looking birds.

 

This White Ibis was pretty showy in the early morning light.

This White Ibis was pretty showy in the early morning light.

So we packed up and headed out about 8 AM with four new life birds, in less than a day. Then, as the day’s fortune continued, I saw another life bird, a Swallow-tail Kite, right overhead as I drove up I-75. About a half hour later, I saw another one low over the road. They are tough to miss — lovely birds — and a nice bookend to a short Florida birding stop.