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Archive for January, 2011

Numbers Can’t Compare to a Meadowlark’s Golden Throat

Posted in Birds, Nature, Travel, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on January 31, 2011| 4 Comments »

A chukar on Antelope Island, where this game bird was transplanted, is usually easy for a birdwatcher to find. I've seen many of them, and each time was as delightful as the first time.

 “Life is a great and wondrous mystery, and the only thing we know that we have for sure is what is right here right now. Don’t miss it.” — Leo Buscaglia

Travels With Maggie

I keep a list of every bird species I see for the first time and a list of the all the places I’ve been. I’m always delighted when I add to these two lists. But thankfully, I’m not like the birder who passed me on a trail on Antelope Island in Great Salt Lake a couple of years ago. .

Maggie and I were dawdling along, she sniffing the flowers and everything else we passed as cocker spaniels do, and me watching red-winged blackbirds flash their scarlet marked wings while listening to a couple of breeding male meadowlarks trying to out sing each other.

Barely slowing his pace, the middle-aged hiker asked if I had seen a chukar. I replied that I often saw this partridge-like bird in the rocks near the bend up ahead. About 10 minutes later, the man ran past me going the other way.

Prong-horned antelope are also easy to find on Antelope Island if one takes the time to drive around and look. -- Photo by Pat Bean

“Got it … that’s 713 birds for me now.” His voice was like the rumble of a passing freight train.

How sad, I thought, that he didn’t take a minute to admire the flashy scarlet markings on the blackbirds or to enjoy the melodic voices of the two meadowlarks.

Numbers on a list are only that. It’s being present in the moment – seeing the golden hue on a meadowlark’s throat as it tilts its head toward the sky in song, or the magic of a sunrise slowly coloring the sides of a canyon – that makes my heart beat faster. I enjoy such wonders whether I’m seeing it for the first or the hundredth time.

But I’ll still keep my lists. I like making them. They’re also a great way to recall the wonders I’ve taken the time to enjoy.

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Not Ashamed to be a Tree Hugger

Posted in Nature, Travel, tagged , , , , , , , on January 30, 2011| 5 Comments »

 

The Big Tree at Goose Island State Park on Texas' Gulf Coast. -- Photo by Pat Bean

“I frequently tramped eight or ten miles through the deepest snow to keep an appointment with a beech tree, or a yellow birch, or an old acquaintance among the pines. — Henry David Thoreau

Travels With Maggie

One of my favorite places to escape for a few days when I’m visiting my son on the Texas Gulf Coast is Goose Island State Park, where I always take time to visit “The Big Tree.”

She a fat old broad, more than a 1,000 years old. Her special status is a result of her massive girth – 35-foot trunk circumference with a 90-foot crown – than her 45 foot height. Many live oaks are taller. It’s the combination, note the tree experts, that won her the title, State Champion Coastal Live Oak, in 1969.

Trees fascinate me. This is evident when I take a trip down memory lane with my photos, I find I’ve captured many of their images with my camera

You now have proof. Pat Bean is a tree hugger. This tree grows in Custer State Park in South Dakota. -- Photo taken by a fellow traveler, right after I took her picture hugging the same tree.

I see trees as living art. In summer, their green coolness is a Monet painting; in autumn their bright purple, red, orange and yellow leaves belong on a Gauguin canvas, and in winter, their stark dark and light pattern of limbs remind me of an Escher.

I even have several photos of me with my arms around a tree that I asked the occasional travel companion to snap. While I might be a bit ashamed to be a “Survivor” fan (yesterday’s blog), I take great pride in saying I’m a tree hugger.

Just one problem, Goose Island’s Big Tree is too big for me to hug properly.

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Ashamed, But Still a ‘Survivor’ Fan

Posted in Nature, Travel, tagged , , , , , , , , on January 29, 2011| 4 Comments »

A real "Survivor" moment in Kenya. This young male lion actually scratched its back on the tire of the Land Rover just beneath my feet. -- Photo by Pat Bean

  “I don’t want to be thought of as a survivor because you have to continue getting involved in difficult situations to show off that particular gift, and I’m not interested in doing that anymore.” — Carrie Fisher

Travels With Maggie

I’m hooked on the TV series, “Survivor.” I’m not proud of the addiction. It means I can no longer boast that I’ve never watched a soap opera. “Survivor,” with all its melodrama, plotting and backstabbing, is certainly that.

It’s a rare contestant who doesn’t lie, cheat, gossip maliciously and betray. That’s the way to play the game. Being a good guy or gal usually means you get voted out early because the competition knows you’ll most likely be the one to win the million-dollar prize.

I’m a peace-loving person who wants everybody on the planet to get along and respect each other. More than once I’ve gotten up on a soapbox to spread this message. Yet Survivor nights find me watching a group of rowdy, inconsiderate, half-naked – sometimes even naked although CBS censors the privates — buffoons make war against each other.

Why am I hooked? It’s a question I’ve asked myself. When I do, this old-broad traveler actually comes up with answers. .

No adrenalin moment here, but an elephant coming out of a river at Tarangire National Park in Tanzania looked for awhile like it was going to charge our vehicle. While I didn't pee my pants, I was too afraid to move to take a picture during that "Survivor" moment. -- Photo by Pat Bean.

First there’s the exotic settings, like Australia and Africa, that appeal to my wanderlusted soul. Then there’s the idea of surviving the new and the strange, which on a more sedate scale, my dog, Maggie, and I do every time we head down the road to places we’ve never been or seen before.

“Survivor” is arm-chair travel at its adrenalin best. I find myself living vicariously through the actions of the players, standing in their shoes – or standing shoeless beside them – asking myself what I would do if I were them.

Sitting in front of my motor home’s small TV, or watching the show on my computer when I have no digital or cable connections, I fantasize winning each immunity challenge while still being the good gal who doesn’t lie, cheat or betray. Of course I always win. Such fantasy keeps my brain stimulated – and that’s a good thing. Or so I tell myself.

According to the ratings I have a lot of company. So why do you watch “Survivor?”

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Mom and Son Share a Passion for Bird Watching

Posted in Birds, Nature, Travel, tagged , , , , , , on January 28, 2011| 5 Comments »

One of Lewis' and my favorite bird-watching places is the Quintana Jetty that juts out into the Gulf of Mexico. On this day we both added a purple sandpiper to our life lists. -- Photo by Pat Bean

“Be grateful for luck. Pay the thunder no mind – listen to the birds. And don’t hate nobody.” — Eubie Blake

Travels With Maggie

When I visit my son, Lewis, he and I usually sneak off for a day of birding. While I’ve gotten other family members a bit interested, Lewis, like me, is passionately hooked on identifying every bird that crosses his path.

He and I have spent many an hour enduring heat, rain, cold, wind and mosquitoes, indulging our birding addiction. Our most successful outing was a dawn to dark adventure in which we reached our goal of identifying 100 different bird species. We had 82 different species by noon, but it took right up until dusk to get the final one, a common ground dove that crossed the road in front of our vehicle when we were almost ready to give up and head back home.

Lewis blames me for his bird-watching addiction. All I did, however, was to throw my field guide at him when he asked me the name of that bird over by the pond. It was our first bird outing together, and it was taking place at the Brazoria National Wildlife just 15 minutes from my son’s home in Lake Jackson, Texas.

White ibis and two snowy egrets at Brazos Bend State Park, which is located less than an hour's drive from my son's home in Lake Jackson, Texas. -- Photo by Pat Bean

“See if you can find out.” I told him. I was busy watching my own bird at the time, a yellow-crowned night heron that, back then, was a new life species for me.

A few minutes later, Lewis called out that it was a neotropic cormorant, which immediately grabbed my attention away from the heron. Lewis was correct in his identification, and I had another life bird. All my other birding at this point had been done in Utah, where normally only double-crested cormorants can be found

Every bird, which was about 42, that we saw at the refuge that day were firsts for Lewis newly started life list. I added eight new ones to my personal tally before flying out later this day back to Utah. Before long, Lewis’ list of birds exceeded mine. It was an easy accomplishment for him because the Texas Gulf Coast is one of the best bird-watching areas in the country.

I caught up with again when my dog, Maggie, and I became full-time RV-ers. We now claim the entire country as our birding territory.

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When It Comes to Art, The Eyes Take the Day

Posted in Nature, Travel, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on January 27, 2011| 4 Comments »

   

Poppy by Georgia O'Keeffe

 “When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else. Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see it whether they want or not.” Georgia O’Keeffe

Travels With Maggie

 I love art museums. I can wander through them for hours, admiring the miracles created by the likes of O’Keeffe, Monet, Van Gogh and Homer, as well as those in an exhibit of work by second-graders, whose works usually contain a colorful freshness.

Winter never fully comes to the Texas Gulf Coast town of Lake Jackson, where the leaves on a tree in my son's front yard still linger. Its colors reminded me of Georgia O'Keeffe's painting above. -- Photo taken yesterday by Pat Bean

The two most important factors in art are the eyes of the artist and the eyes of the viewer. Anyone who has ever been in an art class, where all the students paint the same subject, know that each of the finished canvases will be different, perhaps even drastically different.

Whether we are creating or viewing, what each of us sees is unique to ourselves.

But one doesn’t have to go to a museum to see art. It’s all around us. Simply pulling my RV into my son’s Lake Jackson, Texas, driveway this week, was almost as good as walking through the doors of the Louvre, which someday I hope to do. But until that day comes, if ever, I’ll happily console myself with beauty closer to home.

I captured some of Mother Nature’s artistic miracles when I went walking with Maggie yesterday. And since this really is one of those times when a picture is worth more than words, I’ll now shut up.

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Through the Looking Glass Windshield

Posted in Nature, Travel, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on January 26, 2011| 4 Comments »

“He who can take no great interest in what is small will take false interest in what is great.” — John Ruskin

I snapped this picture of a mural painted by a local artist while waiting at a stop light.

Travels With Maggie

 I sat behind the wheel of my car for 430 miles yesterday, yet time seemed to fly by and I was never bored. Like Alice, there was a whole new world out there for me to see, and contemplate.

Stephens, the small town just down the road from Camden, Arkansas, where the day’s journey began, still had their downtown Christmas tree lights up. I suspect it was because the lights took away the town’s drabness and not because some city worker was lazy.

I was welcomed to Emerson, a bit farther down the road, with a huge sign noting that the town is home of the Purple Hull Pea Festival and the World Championship Tiller Race. In case you’re interested this year’s event will be held June 24-25.

With Arkansas in the rear-view mirror, a Haynesville billboard let me know this town was the Butterfly Capital of Louisiana. While stopped at a red light, I snapped a picture out my RV window of a mural painted on the side of a gift shop. It was one of several murals I saw while passing through the town.

My wheels rumbled gruffly on quaint red brick roads through downtown areas of both Minden, Louisiana, and Nacogdoges, Texas. Even on a long drive, I prefer traveling the smaller highways that take you through the middle of towns along the route. Freeways put me to sleep while backroads keep my brain occupied and alert.

It's not every day that one gets to see a bison mom nursing her calf through their windshield, so I'm glad that I also enjoy the less dramatic glimpses of the world around us. The photo was taken in Custer State Park, South Dakota. -- Photo by Pat Bean

I wanted to stop and explore more, but I also wanted to get to my destination before dark. My rush to get there reminded me of Disney’s version of Lewis Carroll White Rabbit muttering: “I’m late! I’m late! For a very important date! No time to say goodbye, hello! I’m late! I’m late! I’m late!”

My only stop, except for gas, was at a Texas roadside park where my dog, Maggie, and I took a too short walk to stretch our legs.

Given Houston’s traffic, which I was going to drive through on Highway 59 during the commuter hour, I figured I’d just make it to my son’s home in Lake Jackson by dark. But amazingly – I say this as one who’s spent three hours getting through Houston more than once – it didn’t take long at all.

I reached Lake Jackson in plenty of time to share dinner with my son and his family.

I don’t recommend long-distance driving, preferring instead much shorter drives with plenty of time to get out of my RV and explore. But, as Garth Brooks says, “Happiness isn’t getting what you want, it is wanting what you’ve got.”

And what I had yesterday was one fantastic day on the road.

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YIPEE: It’s a Traveling Day

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on January 25, 2011| 2 Comments »

I can drool over maps for hours in anticipation of an upcoming journey. This is the route I chose for today's drive. I always right up a cheat sheet for my dashboard that includes right and left-turn directions.

 “… On the road again/ Going places that I’ve never been/ Seein’ thing that I may never see again/ And I can’t wait to get on the road again.” — Willie Nelson

 Travels With Maggie

 Willie Nelson and I share this love of being “on the road again.” And today I get to indulge myself. I’ve been up since before dawn, drinking coffee and reviewing the route I will take from my daughter’s home in Camden, Arkansas, to a son’s home in Lake Jackson, Texas.

 My dog, Maggie, is as eager as I am. She started getting excited as soon as I began packing things snugly away in the RV.

The journey is 427 miles long and I’ll be making it in one run, which means most of my sight-seeing will take place from behind the wheel. If it were spring, and I was truly on the road again and not just hiding out the winter catching up with family, it would probably take me two weeks to go this far.

To speed the time along, I’ll probably be listening to my audible copy of Ken Follett’s “Fall of Giants” along the way. But certainly not during the sections of road that will be new to me.

Mike Nomilini captured this picture of the bridge in Coushatta that crosses the Red River at sunset. While I'll be crossing the river today, it's going to be well before noon so my view will be much different.

 I added 15 miles to the shortest route  so I would pass through a few places I’ve never been before. Coushatta, Louisiana, for one. The Red River passes through this rural town. And I’ll be crossing over it on a 900-ton bridge that was  built in 1989 — not crossing it on horseback as John Wayne did in the 1948 film, “Red River.” 

 It was many years ago when I saw the film, but I still remember it.

There’s something in me that also loves river crossings. While the Red River might not compare to the thrill I had crossing the Yukon on a ferry in 1999, I’m still looking forward to it.

 Did I tell you, “I just can’t wait to get on the road again.”

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The Answer to the Saguaro Cactus Question, Plus

Posted in Travel, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on January 24, 2011| 6 Comments »

 

The Women's Museum and the statue that prompted a question.

“There’s something that’s been bugging us Texans. And it’s time that we set the record straight … There ain’t no saguaro in Texas. It’s not the kind of cactus we’ve got.” Rev. Horton Heat

TRAVELS WITH MAGGIE

It’s always been my belief that every question deserves an answer. So today I’m going to answer the one from a reader who commented on the photograph of a statue that went with my Jan. 10th blog about the Women’s Museum in Dallas.

The statue features a woman atop a huge saguaro cactus, and the question was: “Do saguaro cacti grow in Texas?” Honky-Tonk comic singer Rev. Horton Heat says; ”No.” The plant experts agree, but with an addendum: No wild saguaro grow in Texas.

You might be able to forgive Rauol Jossett, the statue’s creator. He was a native Frenchman, who carved the plaster and cement statue in 1935, just two years after immigrating to the United States. Perhaps he got his idea from western movies of the period that featured huge saguaro in their supposedly Texas backdrops. Or maybe he copied the idea from other artists whose work depicts the huge armed cacti in their Texas landscapes.

No wonder Horton Heat wanted to set the record straight.

The Centennial Building and another of Raoul Jossett's giant ladies found at Dallas Fair Park

But now that I’ve answered the reader’s question, let me tell you what else I learned in my research. The Women’s Museum statue is called “Spirit of the Centennial.” It was created as part of the renovations to turn a 1910, double-duty stock coliseum-by-day/music-hall-by-night building into an administration building for Texas’ 1936 Centennial Celebration.

The model for Jossett’s sculpture was Georgia Carroll, the lead singer for the Kay Kyser Band. She later became the band leader’s wife and an actress. She just died earlier this month.

The administration building was converted into the Women’s Museum in 2000, and is located in Dallas’ Fair Park, where a stroll through its Texas sized, 277-acre grounds can turn up six other giant-sized ladies created by Jossett. Let me know if you find them all.

Meanwhile, I love questions. Anybody else with one?

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Ten Ingredients For a Perfect Day

Posted in Birds, Nature, Travel, tagged , , , , , on January 23, 2011| 6 Comments »

Camden, Arkansas, sunrise -- Photo by Pat Bean

My perfect day begins with a beautiful sunrise. What makes up your perfect day?

“If the world was perfect, it wouldn’t be.” Yogi Berra

Travels With Maggie

Most of my days begin with cream-laced coffee, which I drink while tapping away at the keys of my computer. If one is a klutz like me, that can be a dangerous combination. Coffee and a computer keyboard don’t go well together.

My early morning northern cardinal visitor -- Photo by Pat Bean

I should know. I’ve mixed them a couple of times, one of which cost me $100.

I’d have to say that a morning that begins with spilled coffee usually doesn’t bode well for the rest of the day. While I’m not particularly suspicious, it does seem that catastrophes are quite likely to follow my grandmother’s conviction of coming in threes.

This morning, thankfully, didn’t begin with my favorite Sumatran coffee spilling out onto my computer. It begin with a beautiful sunrise and a bright red northern cardinal outside my window. I took that as a good sign, and then begin thinking about what went into the making of a perfect day.

I had the first three: luscious coffee; blazing pink, orange and purple sunrise; and a cheery bird. What else did I want? Name seven more, I ordered myself. Here’s what I came up with.

            *Learn something new.

            *Finish rewriting a chapter in my travel book

           *A long walk in the sunshine with Maggie – Old Sol’s  supposed to come out today.

           *A flyby of the red-shouldered hawk that has been hanging out nearby.

           *An e-mail from my son who is in Afghanistan.

          *Something to give me a good belly laugh.

          * Hugs from three young grandsons, whom I’m currently visiting.

Of course winning the lottery would be nice, too. But then I forgot to buy a ticket.

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Things Aren’t Always What They Appear to Be

Posted in Birds, Nature, Travel, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on January 22, 2011| 3 Comments »

 

Great Egret

Snowy egret

 If you just see the photos of the two egrets on the right, you might think they were the same size, or even that the one on the left was the largest of the two. It’s all a matter of perspective — as you can see from the picture  below of the two of them together. 

                 — Photos by Pat Bean

                                                _____________

“You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.” — Friedrich Nietsche

Travels With Maggie

One of my proudest accomplishments when I was a journalist was to get comments about a story I had written from people representing two sides of a polarized issue, each claiming my article had taken their opponent’s side. It was only then did I pat myself on the back for getting the story “mostly” right.

How each of us view life is colored by a unique perspective – our own. Truth is usually somewhere in the middle.

Eyewitnesses accounts of events can vary so greatly they sound like two different happenings. I see this frequently when I read accounts by two different reporters covering the same speech.

As you can see when you get the full picture, the snowy egret on the left is quite a bit smaller than the great egret on the right. These two were sharing a log at Estero Llano State Park in Texas' Rio Grande Valley.

For example, an environmental reporter might lead with a lumber industry spokesman’s quote: “A tree can produce enough oxygen to keep five or more people alive for a year.” But a business reporter’s lead would more likely be: “Logging is the life blood of hundreds of small communities; stop cutting trees and people will starve or turn to welfare.”

Both reporters, in the space they were allowed, quoted the speaker accurately. And the speaker was correctly quoted both times. The stories just came from different perspectives.

Travel has broadened my perspectives. I’m constantly reminded it’s a very complex world out there and that answers to problems do not come easily, nor without compromise.

Even through my camera lens – when indulging in my birdwatching passion – things aren’t always what they seem.

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