Monday, September 13, 2010
End of Summer, September, 13, 2010
At our last posting, we had just returned to Lyons, Colorado. We were happy to be back to Lyons, tr relax a few days, and to spend some time with my daughter, Debbie and her family. After a few days, we moved the RV up to Estes park, to a privet RV park, just outside Rockey Mountain Notational Park. I stayed at there for a week, but Madeline then left for her annual summer trip to visit her son and his family in Florida. I got a chance to do some hiking in the park, but I am finding it is getting harder and harder to hike, particularly at altitudes much higher than 11,000 feet! nevertheless, I did enjoy the hikes, and it is always exhilarating. after a week up in the mountains, I moved the RV back to Lyons, where I batched for a couple of weeks, awaiting Madeline's return.
My niece, Chindi, came to Colorado to visit for nearly a week, staying with Debbie. We had a wonderful visit and had a chance to take some good hikes. since she was not acclimatized to the altitude, I was able to keep up with her. Our best hike was about six miles to a little lake fed by a waterfall up above the tree-line above the continental divide.
After Chindi left, I had a week to myself (visiting Debbie, of course) until Madeline arrived back from Florida.
More recently we have called Nan, and discovered My sister's , health continues to deteriorate. Nan seems to have her hand full working,, and caring for my sister. We decided to head for Florida. However on the way we encountered electrical problem with the motor home, Mostly involving the lights and turn signals. So we have detoured to Red Bay to get them fixed. They were repaired today, and tomorrow we will continue on to Florida, planning to arrive there late Wednesday.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Four-Wheeling in Southen Colorado, July 29, 2010
Another day we took an interesting ride over Mosquito Pass. This is an old toll road going between Leadville and Alma (Alma is a town near Fairplay.)
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
The Alpine Loop, Colorado
Since our last post,we have left Lyons, CO. Before we left, we took a last look at the eaglet in the nest high in the cliff above our campground in Lyons. the eagle chick has gotten quite large, and we believe it will have fledged, before we return in a month or so. It moves about the nest a can be seen peering over the edge of the nest, as seen in the accompanying photo.
We are now in South Fork, Co --- South Fork so-named for where the
south fork of the Rio Grande joins the
are travelling at high altitudes and usually eat our lunch at around 11,000 feet --- where I really find myself moving pretty slowly.
We drove over one pass, Cinnamon Pass" See the photo of Madie getting ready to take a picture. We had lunch at a ghost town, Animas Forks. (See photo.) This used to be the site of mines and stamping mills at one time.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Kayak Days at Lyons, CO
Near and in the park here, over the weekend, there was a gathering of kayak enthusiast. Since this is a sport where the participants get soaked, the rainy weather only slowed down the spectators. The creeks and rivers are extremely high here, so the events were moved to areas where the water level was satisfactory.
On Saturday we drove up the canyon to watch the extreme kayak racers. The rapids there are Class 4 and Class 5, I was told, and I certainly can believe that! There were rapids and falls six to eight feet high, with huge boulders causing "holes" that had to be avoided. Sometimes, a kayak racer did not make it, and was overturned. No one was hurt, but I would think it was very dangerous. The accompanying picture shows one of the racers, successfully navigating a water fall.
The other event was held in the creek that passes through our campground. In this event, the participants paddle into a "hole" below a fall, and do all sort of tricks, such as frontward and do backward somersaults and figure eight maneuvers. The picture here shows one contestant at the beginning of a front somersault.
Tuesday, June 08, 2010
Eagles in Lyons, not a pun
We have been entertained over the last week watching a pair of Golden Eagles, tending their chick in a nest built high in he cliffs. The photo shows one of the eagles in the nest with the chick.
The eagles seem to spend an hour or two tending the chick, usually first thing in the morning or late at night.
Sometimes one or both parents will be soaring and then one will suddenly plunge down and with a great fluttering of wings and movement, appear to kill something. Sometimes, whatever, they have killed is returned to the nest, where presumably the chick will eat it.
Other times the eagles will be perched on a nearby pinnacle, or even in another old nearby old eagle's nest, I suppose keeping an eagle eye on things. However, most of the days the parents are gone, living the chick to fend for itself. I have read that the eagles usually lay two eggs. However, the largest chick, usually the one the hatches first, usually kicked its sibling out of the nest.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Longmont, CO; May 28, 2010
El Moro is a tall sandstone cuesta, a long rock formation - with an uphill slope, ending in a sharp drop-off at one end of cliffs that are perhaps 150-200 feet high. At the base of El Moro there's a nice pool of water, about100 feet in diameter, that never dries up. For this reason travelers, over the years have stopped here to get watter, and rest. this is really an oasis in very dry high desert.
Since this has been a popular stop for travellers, their are numerous petroglyphs and inscriptions on the cliffs. Some of these are ancient Indian petroglyphs, as well as more recent inscriptions by Spanish Conquistadors, American soldiers before and after the Civil War, and many others. The photograph shows a typical piece of graffiti written in Spanish in 1692.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Camp Verde, AZ, May16, 2010
Since our last posting, we left Red Bay, and started working our way west. We stopped at Round Rock, Texas to visit Chris' family. Chris is now a grandfather and of course, I am a great great grandfather, since Meredith had a baby boy. Attached see a photo of a very maternal acting Madeline and Meredith's baby, Jet, regarding each other.
We have taken some exciting trips into the back country. This picture show an Agave the tall stalk or "mast", about four feet high, is used to make tequila. If left alone, this will eventually form flowers and then dry out, ant the plant subsequently dies. We saw these agave, on a jeep trip up in the mountains in high desert to the south of the Verde River Valley.
On this same jeep trip, we stopped to have lunch. A truck hauling a horse trailer drove up. Out of the truck came two cowboys, who got their horses our and started chasing a cow. We knew we were in the West!
We continued that Jeep trip, driving out of the desert into a very rocky canyon. Madeline did all the driving on this trip. The accompanying picture is of Madeline driving the our Jeep up on old river bed in the canyon. Unfortunately on this trip,as went along to drive out of the canyon, the stones and boulders in the river bed got larger and larger. When we had less than a quarter of a mile to go to complete the trip --- the river bed became so rough that we were forced to turn back for a twenty mile return ride on a pretty rough trail. Still the trip was lots of fun.
One day we took a trip up into the mountains near Prescott with our niece, Carmen, and Madeline's brother Carl. After a nice ride and a short hike, we ended up a what is said to be the world's largest Alligator Juniper. This is indeed a huge tree, and it it is almost impossible to get a picture that gives justice to its true size. The picture here shows our neice, Carmen, perched on one of the huge branches.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Red Bay, Alabama April 10, 2010
Sunday, April 04, 2010
Easter, 2010
It is Spring here and it has been obvious since we first arrived a couple of weeks ago. The red buds and dogwoods are in full bloom, as well as the azaleas. Last night we heard spring peepers.
The water situation is interesting. When we first came to this area some ten or so years ago, there was a swamp at the edge of the campground, full of water, with Cyprus trees with their legs in the water. Every year we came back the swamp was receding, to such an extent that last year the poor Cyprus trees were on dry land. Well, just before we left here last year there were a series of rainy days, and I guess they had a wet summer and fall. Now the water level is back to where it was ten years ago! It is amazing how climate cycles, and the actual length of the cycles!
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Back to Northern Florida, March 26
We are back in Bushnell, FL at our Escapees RV park. We are doing a little more medical work, and of course, visiting my sister, who lives in an Assisted Living facility about 25 miles from here. Within a week or two we will move on to Alabama to get some work done on the rig, then work our way to Texas, where we will visit my grandson, great grandchildren, and the latest addition, our great great grandson. We hope then to go on to Big Bend Park, to do a little four wheeling and hiking, but much depends on the weather, and how hot it is getting.
As most of you know, we have a Jeep, now, and we are planning to do a fair amount of 4-wheeling in the deserts and mountains of Colorado. We will be going to one rally with our Escapee friends, and thinking about another one over in Buena Vista, with another group of RVers. So we should have a pretty busy summer.
We have not taken many pictures, lately. I am thinking about buying a camera. I need one with at least 10 times zoom, and an viewer that uses an eyepiece, If anyone has any suggestions, please pass them on.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Thanksgiving Eve
There is really very little to report, as we have not been traveling to any extent since we arrived. We did go to Boynton Beach for a weekend to see the grandchildren celebrate Halloween. That turned out to be a lot of fun. In South Florida the weather is still quite warm at the end of October, so most folks sit in lawn chairs in front of their house to hand out candy. Some of the homes a well decorated for Halloween, and an occasional place will have a ghost or a witch inside the house, making the kids, ring the doorbell, and then be scared to death, before receiving their treat. I guess in this case the trick is reversed --- the home-owner does the trick!
We have been spending a lot of time just getting our maintenance up to date. We are almost through washing, and waxing. Carpet cleaning is coming up.
We have also spent time getting ourselves maintained. I went to Mayo Clinic for another chest X-ray. Everything is OK, and that will be the end of the monitoring. I also had a few other minor things taken care of. We also went to Tampa to get a tune-up on the cochlear implants, and I must say, I think I am hearing a little better. In a week or two, Madeline will start the process of getting her cataracts removed.
We have purchased a Jeep, planning to do some fairly serious 4-wheeling in the spring. It is second hand, so we are also doing a little fixing up on the vehicle.
That is about the news. We are having Thanksgiving dinner at my niece's home, and my sister Dona will be there. it will be fun to have a little family affair.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Aeroplanes at Rhinebeck Aerodrome and on to SC. Oct 23, 2009
The airplane shown below is also an early airplane, when designers were still working on making machines that would fly. This plane also just taxied. Note the skids that worked with the wheels to keep the plane off the ground. The very earliest planes had only skids -- no wheels.
I believe, although I am a little unsure the airplane below, is a Spade -- a bulwark of the French and British in World War I. This plane did fly during the airshow.
There was also a Sopworth Camel at the aerodrome, but it did not fly. We were told by one of the pilots, it was tricky to fly, because the setting for the spark advance, choke and accelerator,was never the same from flight to flight, and it toke an experienced pilot to adjust all three at once, while trying to gain speed to take off. The Camel also had a rotary engine -- the whole engine rotated with the propeller on a fixed crankshaft. This lead to the development of a huge amount of torque, and could lead to the plane spinning rather than the propeller --- not a good prescription for a long life of the pilot.
After visiting the Aerodrome, we spend a day at Hyde park, visiting Roosevelt's home. I discussed our visit in our previous blog, but suffice to say, if you plan a visit -- consider taking a day and a half to see everything ( introductory film, Presidential Library, Eleanor's Cottage, FDR's getaway cottage, Vanderbilt Mansion). FDR's and Eleanor Roosevelt's grave is shown in the picture below.
We are now in South Carolina, having just completed servicing our RV. We also visited the nearby Kings Mountain National Battlefield, which is in South Carolina, just over the state line from North Carolina. This was the site of an important Revolutionary War battle, in which the Tories (aka Loyalist), loyal to Great Britain, led by British officers were soundly defeated by Americans, mostly who were quickly recruited from backwoodsmen from North Carolina and Virginia.( The American fighter are now called Patriots, in the brochure describing the battle.) This battle was decisive, because it was the end of any loyalist military support from people living in the colonies, for the British. The Loyalist either decided to support the new Revolutionary government or fled to New Brunswick.
There is always something to be learned from the study of past wars. The battle of King Mountain shows how difficult it is , if not impossible, for an invading troops to win a guerrilla war, even with some support and training of the indigenous population. The invaders are essentially getting involved in a Civil War, which they are powerless to control, unless they are willing to engage in genocide. (Nuf' said --End of lesson for today.)
Sunday, October 18, 2009
More Travels, Oct 18, 2009
Madeline and I took a pleasant hike through the woods to the old Savage Mill. This is the site of a mill built in the late 1700's or early 1800's, on a stream near, but not on, what is now an abandoned road. The road has been cleared to some extent, for snowmobiles. When I was a kid, living in the area, we used to follow these old roads out in the woods, fairly easily, since most of the original roads were bordered by stone walls. I recalled that we had to leave the old road and traipse off thru the woods, about 400-500 yards, to find the mill. Madeline and I made a number of futile side trips to find the mill. Just when we were ready to give up, I made a last trip into the woods, and there I found the remains of the old mill dam, a line of stone walls about eight feet high. We the found the old walls, where the water wheel must have been. These walls are quite imposing --- two wall, fifteen to twenty feet high and about twelve feet or so apart.
There was a little bridge built across the walls, and a path leading to it -- so obviously there was an easier way, then we took, to get to the old mill. The picture below is of me standing on the little wooden bridge across where the water wheel once stood.
This picture is taken a little further down the stream, but at the same area.
Below is shown what was a typical Indian dwelling, known to us as a wig warm. it is made of bark attached to lengths of bent saplings, and is quite good, i was told in keeping out snow and rain.
The Plymouth colony has been reconstructed. The village is surrounded with a palisade of logs. The hut have thatched roofs, and the walls are made of a mixture of mud and straw on the inside, and wood on the outside. There were people acting the part some of the colonist, and acting as if they were actually there on a day in 1630. Two interesting characters to me were William Hopkins, and William Bradford. Bradford and I are related, whereas Hopkins and I are not.
We also went to the actual town of Plymouth. There we saw a reconstruction of the Mayflower. The Mayflower was more substantial than I expected, although exceedingly small for the number of passengers. This reconstructed ship at one time actually sailed across the Atlantic Ocean.
From Plymouth we moved on to Upstate New York where we visited Madeline's brothers and their families, and Madeline did genealogical research --- visiting historical societies, libraries and county court houses. While there we rendezvoused with Madeline's brother. who delivered our Jeep that we purchased from a fellow RVer in California.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
In New Hampshire Again, Sept 3, 2009
We are in Hancock, New Hampshire again.
The leaves are just beginning to change. Around swamps and brooks there are lower story trees. such as grey birches and willows, with lots of red leaves Although there is a lot of color about the bogs and swamps, the setting is usually not conducive to a good photograph. The picture beside this writing, however, gives you an idea of what we see.
Along the roads and at the edges of fields the maples are starting to turn with trees exhibiting scarlet, yellow, and a really beautiful burnt orange (yellowish-red) color. We have delayed leaving for another week, so we should see a better exhibition of color in a few days.
New England is really very picturesque. Nearly every town has a church with a steeple reaching into the sky. One of the more beautiful churches is the old Meeting House/Congregational Church in Hancock, the town in which we are staying.
The building is a combination meeting house and church, and according to a sign next to the church it was built in 1829 and moved in 1854. It is said, that the bell in the tower was cast by Paul Revere.
This combination of church and state, in one form or another, is not too uncommon in New Hampshire towns. In my home town, the town hall was downstairs and the church was upstairs. Te building was owned by the town, and the church rented to the members. Unfortunately, in recent times there has developed animosity between townspeople and the church, and a schism within the church. The members have left the building, so an empty church remains upstairs with a town hall, downstairs used for community functions such as town meetings.
Every town has cemeteries, of course. In New England towns, an old cemetery in the middle of town is a common sight. These are usually kept up fairly well and the old lichen covered marble headstone are quite picturesque. Below I have included a photograph of a cemetery in the center of Hancock.
We have extended our stay another week. The Yankee Siege is going to start their Trebuchet up on Saturday, practicing in anticipation of the Punkin Chunkin contest. See www.yankeeseige.com.