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Archive for August, 2012

Dale Chihuly and Mother Nature

Posted in Art, Favorite Places, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , on August 18, 2012| 6 Comments »

“You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul.” – George Bernard Shaw

Green trumpets growing among the green foliage. — Photo by Pat Bean

Weekly Photo Challenge: Merge

 

These brillantly hued flowers will last forever — or until broken. — Photo by Pat Bean

In the summer of 2006, Dale Chihuly and the St. Louis Botanical Gardens got together. The world-recognized glass artist created an exhibit to merge his art with nature’s art in the garden’s geodesic dome greenhouse. I had merged with St. Louis at the same time.

As I walked through the dome’s earthy rain forest, I couldn’t stop taking pictures. Usually I find too much time with a camera in front of my eyes dulls my senses. So I snap a picture or two, then put my camera away and bring out my notebook.

Glass meteorite for the garden. — Photo by Pat Bean

While it’s said “one picture is worth a thousand words,” as a writer I appreciate that it takes words to express that idea.

But this day, staring at Chihuly’s colorful glass creations that represented everything from reeds and Mexican hats, to herons and meteorite balls plopped down among a bounty of foliage, to brilliantly hued flowers and snaky vines,, left me wordless.

When I later looked at the photos, I found I had mingled Chihuly’s art with the creations of nature so well that I sometimes had to stop and ask myself which was which.

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Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Dogs, Journeys, Travel, Travels With Maggie, Writing, tagged , , , , , , on August 17, 2012| 13 Comments »

Hello World – Again

“Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you’d drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.” – Ray Bradbury.

Discovering My Voice as a Wondering/Wandering Old Broad 

This is an illustration that Laura Hulka helped me come up with for my Bean’s Pat, my way of paying back all the reader awards my blog has received. What do you think? Is it a go?

This is my 645th blog since I started my WordPress blogging journey with a blog called “Hello World” in November of 2009. I was taking that Gotham travel writing class I mentioned in my last two blogs, and the instructor said I needed to have a blog.

That first year, I blogged about 10 times a month, mostly about the places I had visited as a full-time RV-er.  Then in 2011, WordPress began its post-a-day challenge and I accepted. I’m so glad I did. .

Writing daily has given me the voice that the first draft of my travel book needed, improved both my writing and thinking skills, and garnered me worldwide friends.

At first I tried to disguise that I was an old broad when writing my blog, which was the same thing I did in the first draft of my book, “Travels with Maggie.” Maggie, as many of my readers know, was my canine traveling companion for eight years. She died earlier this year, and now I travel with an energetic, fun-loving Scottie mix named Pepper.

Don’t forget to smell all the flowers and be amazed at all the butterflies you come across. — Photo by Pat Bean

Recently, as I continued blogging and struggling with the rewrite of my travel book, I realized that being an old broad was one of the best things I had going for me. It set me apart from all those young travel writers out there in search of love. It’s not that I have anything against such a search. I certainly did my share of that. But that’s not me today. The person I am today, and which is my voice, is that of a wondering/wandering old broad.  It’s exactly what I do and who I am.

I wonder a lot about things but seldom have answers to the questions. The only advice you’ll ever get from me is to live in the moment and take time to smell as many of life’s flowers as you can.

I wonder if I would have ever recognized my true self without my daily blogging?

Book Report: Good rewriting morning. Travels with Maggie is now up to 35,726 words

Bean’s Pat:  Baroness Trumpington http://tinyurl.com/br6r7p2 Not a blog but a newspaper story about a great old broad I admire. I think society underrates us old pussies, as Agatha Christie called Miss Marple and others of such an age.

 

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Okefenokee Swamp: Part Two

Posted in Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, Travels With Maggie, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on August 16, 2012| 6 Comments »

Buttercup: “That’s the Fire Swamp. We’ll never survive.”

Wesley: “nonsense! You’re only saying that because no one ever has.”

— From the Princess Bride by William Goldman

Note: Yesterday I used part one of a  travel writing class assignment as my blog. The second part,  which is below, was to write about the same subject with a different voice. Do you think I succeeded?

It’s All About How You Write It

A Pogo welcome to Swamp Park — Photo by Pat Bean

A million years ago, a sand bar along Georgia’s Atlantic coastline cut a basin off from the sea, eventually creating a freshwater wetlands that extended the state’s coast by 75 miles. We know that wetlands today as The Okefenokee Swamp, a place made famous by the antics of Walt Kelly’s political comic strip “Pogo.”

I got my first look at  this home to alligators, lakes (60 of them), screaming panthers, and a dozen islands at Swamp Park, a small section of the 600-square mile whole located near where the 266-mile long Suwannee River begins life. The Okefenokee also gives live to the 90-mile long St. Mary River and both streams flow through the park to the ocean..

Park gardeners had a fondness for green animals. — Photo by Pat Bean

Okefenokee means trembling, or trampoline, earth, a reference to the land’s spongy moss base.

It was autumn when I visited but wild flowers were still growing and green leaves peeked out from the thick strands of moss that drooped from tree limbs.  In an attempt to mimic Disneyland, a  black, red and gold painted engine dubbed the Lady Suwanee took passengers on a tour around the park, past huge stands of saw palmetto, a chickee (a raised wooden platform with a thatch roof used as a shelter by Indians), and past a moonshine still. Bootleggers once found the swamp a handy place to hide from the law.

Book Report: Travels with Maggie now stands at 35,367 words.  I spent all morning rewriting, which is why you got something already written for my blog. I hope you didn’t mind.

Bean’s Pat: The Serenity Game http://tinyurl.com/bw3m6bk I like this take on “Atlas Shrugged,” a book I read at a time when I was rearranging my entire world.

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Okefenokee Swamp

Posted in Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, Travels With Maggie, Writing, tagged , , , , on August 15, 2012| 6 Comments »

“We have met the enemy, and he is us.” — Pogo, alias Walt Kelly

Amazing What You Learn When You Travel

Bridge stand-off in the Okefenokee Swamp. — Photo by Pat Bean

Really? There’s an actual  Okefenokee Swamp? I thought Walt Kelly made the place up, the same as he did Pogo and all those other swamp cartoon characters. I must have missed a Georgia geography lesson, or else my Texas teachers were too enamored with tales of the Alamo to include any other state in their history lessons.

At 600 square miles, the Okefenokee Swamp should not have been so easily dismissed.

I got my first look at this geographical wonder at Swamp Park, a Walt Disney like educational and tourist attraction located on  Cowhouse Island  near where the Suwannee River begins life.

In wetter years, visitors to Swamp Park were treated to a boat ride down this waterway. But it was too dry when I visited the park in 2006. — Photo by Pat Bean

The park features plants trimmed to look like animals, scenic walkways above which alligators laze by a pond and an open air train pulled by a black, red and gold painted engine dubbed the Lady Swanee. The train’s tracks meander through stands of saw palmetto, and past a chickee (an open-air native American shelter) and a replica of a moonshine still. I assumed the sights were intended to give tourists an insight into past residents of the area.

The swamp’s name, Okefenokee, means trembling earth and refers to the land’s spongy moss base. I learned a lot more about the Okefenokee during a lecture given by a weathered local, who said he lived in the swamp alone in the winter.

“Bill collectors can’t find me, and I feel honored when I hear a panther scream,” he said. On a more educational note, he said the swamp’s dark water was the result of tannic acid leached from plants and that it was good to drink despite its color.

“We call it gator-ade.”  At this aside, he brought out several small alligators to give his audience a chance to see details of this ancient reptile survivor up close. I touched the smallest of them, thrilled to be part of the experience and more than a mere spectator.

Book Report: 32,985 words. I deserve my own Bean’s Pat for getting that much done today. It was laundry day, and it required a 50-mile round-trip into Burley to get it done.  I cheated on my blog, however. It’s a homework assignment for a Gotham travel writing class I took a couple of years ago. But the swamp was one of my stops on the six-month journey that is the subject of “Travels with Maggie.”

Bean’s Pat: Heart’s Garden http://tinyurl.com/97f7g6d Day After Day. The wondering wanderer’s blog pick of the day.

 

 

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Lake Walcott Birds

Posted in Birds, Lakes, Nature, tagged , , , , , , , on August 14, 2012| 4 Comments »

            “Be as a bird perched on a frail branch that she feels bending beneath her, still she sings away all the same, knowing she has wings.” –Victor Hugo

Minus One Sharp-Tailed Grouse

 

Only occasionally do I see western tanagers at Lake Walcott State Park. — Photo by Pat Bean

           I keep bird lists. These include a life list for all the bird species I’ve seen, a yearly bird list and a list of Lake Walcott birds. My life list stands at 702 bird species, the one for the year currently at 203 and the one for Lake Walcott, minus 1.

That one bird is the sharp-tailed grouse. Of all the birds that have been seen in the Lake Walcott area, it’s the only species not on my world list. Admittedly, it’s a rare bird for here, normally preferring more northern habitat, but I keep hoping.

Lake Walcott has, however, given me two lifers. A rare migrating Sabine’s gull that winters at sea, primarily off the West Coast, and a gray partridge, that calls Lake Walcott home year-round and which I’ve seen, among other places here, out the rear window of my RV.

Yesterday evening, the lake hosted a flock of Franklin gulls, a bird I’ve frequently seen but this was my first sighting of it here at the park. I think the flock was  just passing through because there were none of these gulls still around when Maggie and I took our walk this morning.

But white pelicans are on the daily bird-watching menu here. — Photo by Pat Bean

The visiting gulls, which both look and sound a lot like laughing gulls, were far enough out on the lake when I saw them that I had to use my binoculars to make an identification.

Birds I see here at the lake almost daily include white pelicans that make their nests on the opposite shore from me and which gather in great numbers below the dam where the Snake River froths up white as it flows down and over some rock ledges.

House sparrows, American goldfinches, black-headed grosbeaks, house finches, house sparrows, white-crowned sparrows, brown-headed cowbirds, Brewer’s blackbirds, red-winged blackbirds, mourning doves, robins, killeer, and broad-tailed and black-chinned hummingbirds visit my camp site almost daily.

And black-headed grosbeaks make daily visits to the bird feeders I put out. — Photo by Pat Bean

Common nighthawks and a variety of swallows fly overhead each evening. A red-tailed hawk frequents a huge nearby cottonwood tree; I wake to the hooting of a great-horned owl and the cooing of doves.  I watch western grebes, Canada geese, quacking mallards and an occasional pied-billed grebe and northern pintail swim about in the water.

Life is good for this wondering/wandering birder here at Lake Walcott. If I were to send a postcard, I’d say: “Wish you were here.”

Book Report: “Travels with Maggie” now stands at 31,331 words. While that’s just about 600 more words than yesterday’s final count, I did a lot of slashing and rewriting to make things read smoother. Rewriting can be both easier and more difficult than the first time around, which I already knew. The good news is that I’m having fun with it.

Bean’s Pat:  10,000 Birds http://tinyurl.com/8t62xry Check out these bee-eaters.

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Posted in Favorite Places, Lakes, Nature, Writing, tagged , , , , , , on August 13, 2012| 7 Comments »

Lake Walcott State Park

“To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter; to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird’s nest or a wildflower in spring – these are some of the rewards of the simple life.” John Burroughs.

Yet Another Amazing Morning Walk

Early morning on Lake Walcott — Photo by Pat Bean

            It’s been a busy past week: Computer problems and two 100-mile round-trips to try to get it fixed before buying a new one to end my frustrations, out-of-town visitors to my camp site here at Lake Walcott, unsuccessful struggles to meet a writing goal although I did add 5,000 new words to my travel book, falling way behind on correspondence, etc. etc.

            All of the above obstructions to my peaceful existence disappeared this morning when I took Pepper for an early morning walk. I let Mother Nature take the weight off my shoulders and simply let my mind an senses revel in the reflection of the sun on the lake, the sight of apples growing in a tree next to the trail to the boat docks, two perfect yellow flowers growing in the cranny of a rock wall smiling at the sun.

I returned to my RV refreshed and ready for the coming week, confident that whatever this week throws at me, I will embrace it and survive.

Thank you Mother Nature.

Book Report: My goal this week is 10,000 words on my travel book. Encourage me keep my fingers and brain moving.

Bean’s Pat: http://tinyurl.com/d9lsjxf Some days it’s just Monday. Blog pick of the day from the Wondering Wanderer

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Wrong

Posted in Travel, Weekly Photo Challenge, tagged , , , on August 11, 2012| 3 Comments »

“Confidence comes not from always being right but from not fearing to be wrong.” –Peter T. Mcintyre

 

I never saw a purple cow — or a blue bear. Did you. Garden sculpture at a Chama, New Mexico, art gallery. — Photo by Pat Bean

Mixed Up Animals 

There’s just something wrong about a hula-dancing ape. Sculpture at an RV park in Virginia Beach. — Photo by Pat Bean

“Whenever people agree with me, I always feel I must be wrong.” – Oscar Wilde

 

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Maggie and Me in Missouri

Posted in Favorite Places, Lakes, Nature, Travels With Maggie, tagged , , , , , , on August 10, 2012| 1 Comment »

           “Not all those who wander are lost.” J.R.R. Tolkien

Table Rock State Park

A view of Table Rock Lake and the marina from out the back of my RV. — Photo by Pat Bean

On the outskirts of Branson, which reminded me of Las Vegas, especially after it took me an hour to travel five miles down the town’s Main Street, is Table Rock State Park. This quiet oasis from the tourist trap, where the Titanic and Elvis still live and where legendary singers past their prime perform to appreciative audiences past their prime, was my home for four days.

I didn’t miss the city life at all. I only got caught up in the hour-long traffic jam because I wanted to see what the Branson hullabaloo was all about.

If you’re ever in the area, my suggestion is that you visit the park and not the city.

A section of the walking path that ran from the marina to the Belle Showboat that Maggie and I walked daily. — Photo by Pat Bean

My camp site backed up to Table Rock Lake and a three-mile long paved walking trail that went across a couple of wooden bridges to a marina in one direction and the Branson Belle Showboat in the other.

I walked the path early every morning with my canine traveling companion, Maggie, but pretty much kept to myself reading or  writing in the RV the rest of the time. I was content to simply watch the lake and campground goings on out my window.

I thought about taking in the show on the Belle but decided I didn’t want to spoil my lazy solitude. That’s one of the joys of traveling alone, not having to meet someone else’s travel expectations.

Book Report:  30,731. Only about 1,500 rewritten words today, but then I cut a couple of chunks of boring from the original. Leaving the boring parts out is some writing advice I’ve long tried to follow.

Bean’s Pat: http://tinyurl.com/dxyz5s8 A look back to the 1908 Olympics. Wow! Have things changed.

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Favorite Places: The Ozarks

Posted in Birds, Dogs, Favorite Hikes, Favorite Places, Nature, Travels With Maggie, tagged , , , , , on August 9, 2012| 2 Comments »

“The joy of living is his who has the heart to demand it.”  — Teddy Roosevelt

Roaring River State Park           

Missouri’s Roaring River wasn’t roaring when Maggie and I visited. — Photo by Pat Bean

Finding Oklahoma state parks to be my kind of place, I wondered if Missouri parks would be, too. I decided to find out on my way to St. Louis, even if it meant doubling the distance I had to travel to get there.

I considered the extra miles well worth it when I pulled into Roaring River State Park, where I had a fantastic site that backed up to a tiny creek.  Maggie and I also had our choice of several trails to hike. I chose the Pibern Trail, a narrow path that meandered in a loop through trees and thick vegetation for about a mile and a half. About halfway along our hike, I spotted my first Louisiana waterthrush, a small bird with a streaky breast and a prominent white eyebrow.

A patch of yellow flowers brightened the view near my RV site at Missouri’s Roaring River State Park. — Photo by Pat Bean

But early the next morning, when Maggie and I went looking for the “roaring river,” what we found instead was a purring stream whose banks were dotted with fly fishermen hoping to snag a trout.

We strolled beside it for a while, then made a visit to the park’s nature center, where two young boys were oohing and aahing over the bugs and snakes on exhibit there. I didn’t stay long. I was still recovering from my too-close encounter with an Ozark critter that found me during the Pibern Trail hike.

Both Maggie and I had each returned to the RV with a tick. Hers was dead already, I assumed from her monthly flea and tick killer application. Mine, however, was alive and sucking blood from my lower leg. It was the last time I went hiking in the Ozarks without a liberal dose of insect repellant on my body.

Book Report: Two days lost because the new keyboard for my #@%$** computer, which was only a little over a year old but which had given me problems almost from the day I bought it, didn’t fix the problem. The tech said it was probably the mother board. I’d had it!!!! I wasn’t going to put a single penny into that piece of  manure, an HP DV7 just in case anyone is interested, that I had come to hate. I bit the bullet and bought a new laptop, my first non HP one. It’s a Toshiba Satellite.  I spent the past two days playing with it. But it was back to business this morning, and I added another 2,000 rewritten words to my travel book. That seems to be my daily output when I don’t goof off.

Bean’s Pat: Every Day Wisdom http://tinyurl.com/96rkgw3 Advice I truly try to follow.

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Two More Oklahoma State Parks

Posted in Books, Favorite Places, Lakes, Nature, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , on August 6, 2012| 9 Comments »

 “I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore … I hear it in the deep heart’s core.” – William Butler Yeats.

“I’m an old-fashioned guy … I want to be an old man with a beer belly sitting on a porch, looking at a lake …” – Johnny Depp (Ditto, except instead of a beer belly it will be tits down to my waist.”

Sleeping by Water

The view out my RV window at Grand Lake o’ the Cherokees at Bernice State Park in Northeastern Oklahoma. — Photo by Pat Bean

While my route only took me through a northeastern sliver of Oklahoma, I found three state parks in which to camp. In addition to Natural Falls, where the movie, “Where the Red Fern Grows,” was filmed, there were Lake Wister and Bernice, both of which are attached to lakes: Lake Wister, a 7,300-acre reservoir created by a dam on the Poteau River, and 46,500-acre Grand Lake o’ the Cherokees formed by the Grand River at Bernice.

The peacefulness and beauty of my nights by these lakes led me to continue seeking out similar campgrounds as I continued my travels – and parking my RV as close to water as I could get .

If you like Winslow Homer’s painting of the “Fox Hunt,” you should most certainly check out today’s Bean’s Pat.

Often I would find myself falling to sleep listening to the soft murmur of water sloshing up against one bank or another. It seemed fitting that one of the many books I read on my journey was “River Horse” by William Least Heat Moon, whose “Blue Highways” was one of my traveling role models.

In this later book, Moon, made his journey across America from the Atlantic Ocean at the New York Harbor to the Pacific Ocean near Astoria, Oregon, in a boat called Nikawa, or river horse in the Osage language.

Travels With Maggie: 27,682 words. The original draft was about 60,000 words, so I’m nearing the halfway point, although I’m thinking it might be closer to 70,000 words when I finish, despite the many cuts I’m making. The task of adding my voice to this travelogue is, I think, requiring more than eliminating the redundancies and any boring parks. I might have been farther along at this point except computer woes, which still have not been totally resolved, ate up the better part of two days.

Bean’s Pat: Golden eagle attacking a fox http://tinyurl.com/c29uogk Winslow Homer painted ravens harassing a fox, and I’ve seen ravens doing just that, but this photo is way more fantastic.

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