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Sunny Day, But Plans Still Go Awry

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Favorite Places, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 9, 2012| 2 Comments »

            “Every day is a good day to be alive, whether the sun’s shining or not,” – Marty Robbins

This barge was going down the Mississippi River at about the same time I was going over the river on the Mark Twain Bridge. --Photo by Pat Bean

This barge was going down the Mississippi River at about the same time I was going over the river on the Mark Twain Bridge. –Photo by Pat Bean

Adventures with Pepper: Day 18

            Finally, after three days of Mrs. Sky’s weeping, Mr. Sun made his bright warm appearance again.

It’s a rare occasion that I don’t make it to where I’m headed. But Springfield traffic and a traffic accident right in front of me convinced me that I would rather visit Lincoln’s Tomb as an armchair traveler. — Wikipedia photo

I got up early, leisurely drank my cream-laced coffee while posting my blog, took Pepper for a long walk, and then took to the road as happy as the robins dining on worms brought to the surface by the rain.

Soon I was crossing the Mississippi River over the Mark Twain Memorial Bridge. A huge barge was passing below, on the Missouri side of the river, I noted, passing a sign in the middle of the bridge that welcomed me to Illinois. The state border here goes through the middle of the Mighty Mississippi.

On the other side of the bridge, I came across a series of roadside signs like the old Burma Shave ones. Anybody else out there remember those?

This one was more indicative of today, and made me laugh. “I’m on hold/I wish I had/the gun I sold,” They said. Perhaps it made me laugh because I recently was on hold for an hour trying to find out why my Amazon account wouldn’t let me sign on to order a book.

But I’m sorry I didn’t get to rub Honest Abe’s nose for luck. Note how shiny it is. It’s been rubbed a lot. — Wikipedia photo

My plan for the day, meanwhile, was to stop in Springfield, Illinois, pat Lincoln’s nose for good luck, than check into the Double J Campground down the road in Chatham.  I didn’t realize just how big a city Springfield was. I got caught in an early afternoon traffic jam, and then a nasty accident took place right in front of me, blocking my way.

Police eventually came and cleared the road enough so I could travel on, but by that time I wanted to get out of Springfield and park my RV under a shady tree and take Pepper for a brisk walk. And so I did a U-turn and made that happen — at the Double J RV Campground  seven miles south of too-chaotic-for-me-big-city.

Book Report: I got up early to drive the Skyline Trail in Shenandoah National Park — Yes I know my blog is trailing behind me. I’ll do better tomorrow. I’m staying put for the day.

Bean’s Pat: Sunday Morning http://tinyurl.com/8qmm77p A rabbit, cat and beetle are what make this morning special. What I love best is the ordinariness of it.

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Stalled By Rain, I Turn to Computer Games

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Favorite Places, Travel, Uncategorized, Writing, tagged , , , , , , on October 8, 2012| 2 Comments »

 “And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow.” Gilbert K. Chesterton

Adventures with Pepper: Days 15-17  

On my earlier trip to Hannibal — when it was sunny — I climbed the 253 steps to the top of Cardiff Hill. At the foot of the hill is a statue of Tom and Huck. — Photo by Pat Bean

 I stayed over this day at the Mark Twain Landing campground, taking advantage of the scenic park to catch up on my writing. My plan was to get back on the road the next day. But a thundering rain storm, which began during the night and continued into the day, pushed that plan out the window.  While my RV, Gypsy Lee, takes steep hills and winding curves with ease, she doesn’t do slick well. Frustrated that my well-thought-out day of travel had gone awry, I spent most of the day playing computer games. I hate it when I do that.  It was still overcast the next morning but I took off anyway, stopping at the large Wal-Mart in Hannibal, about 20 miles east of the Landing campground, to stock up my depleted pantry. When I came out from my shopping, it was raining again, steadily and hard with no indication it would be stopping anytime soon.

At the top of the hill was the Mark Twain Lighthouse, which was built in 1935 to commemorate what would have been the witty author’s 100th birthday. It was never a working lighthouse. — Photo by Pat Bean

Time, I decided, to put Plan B into action.

I had passed through Hannibal, coming from another direction and headed another direction, in 2006. I had stayed that time at the Injun Joe Campground just outside of Hannibal on Highway 61. I back-tracked there now and settled in for the rest of the day.

This time I actually did get a little writing done, and a lot of reading, too.

Book Report: “Travels with Maggie” now at 54,915 words. Long drives and other projects keep the book moving at a snail’s pace. But I’m happy as long as there’s at least a little progress.

Bean’s Pat: Fly like an eagle http://tinyurl.com/8fauggm or soar like a red-tailed hawk.  The soaring red-tail, with sun highlighting its naming feature, is a common sight in my travels. It’s one that always makes my heart soar right up there with it. But I’ve never been able to photograph the flight. I’m so glad this blogger captured the awesomeness.

 

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Long Drive, Good Book

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Books, Favorite Places, Lakes, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , , , on October 5, 2012| 1 Comment »

“A book should serve as the ax for the frozen sea within us.”  — Franz Kafka

Adventures with Pepper: Day 14

Canada geese on one of the two small lakes at Mark Twain Landing near Morgan City, Missouri. — Photo by Pat Bean

It was a long drive today, 275 miles from Seneca, Kansas, to Morgan City, Missouri — through the kind of country that I had been passing for the past couple of days.

I used it as a sort of sabbatical for my brain and eyes, which had been going full blast ever since I had left Lake Walcott State Park in Southern Idaho some 1,500 miles ago.

For the first time since starting the trip, I occupied my mind with something other than the passing sights. I listened to an audible book, Brandon Sanderson’s first book of his trilogy, “The Way of Kings.”

Sunset on the second of the resort’s two lakes. — Photo by Pat Bean

I loved his “Mistborn,” trilogy and was finally getting into this one.  Sanderson, who finished up the epic “Wheel of Time” is not a fast read, but he gives one plenty of things to ponder.

And when I got to my chosen campground for the night, the Mark Twain Landing, I continued my slow day by taking a walk with Pepper. Later, I sat outside with her and a Jack and Coke to watch the sun go down over a small lake. It was if my body signed with relief.

Book Report: Travels with Maggie is now up to 54,615 words. It really is true, at least for me,  that the more I have to do the more I get done. Perhaps I became too accustomed to having to find time to fit my personal writing in between work for too many years.         

The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.

Bean’s Pat: Do Vampire Writers Write at Night? http://tinyurl.com/8qldry5 This one’s for my writer readers, who find themselves wondering instead of writing.

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The Paul Boyer Museum of Animated Carvings

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Art, Favorite Places, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , on October 3, 2012| 8 Comments »

             “Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.” – Oscar Wilde

Boyer Museum in Belleville, Kansas. — Photo by Pat Bean

Adventures with Pepper: Day 13  

Geographic center plaque … Wikipedia photo

           Today’s drive through Kansas took me through Lebanon, Kansas, whose population is less than 300. So what was significant about Lebanon, you’re probably wondering?            It’s the closest city to the site designated as the geographic center of this country’s mainland 48 states. I just found that interesting.

But more interesting was the Paul Boyer Museum of Animated Carvings. What a delightful little taste of American folk art.

The museum is run by Ann and Candy, daughters of Paul, who is a carver with a great sense of humor. I got to chat with both of the cheerful women for a while. The pride for their artistic father beamed from their faces.

This creation of Paul Boyer is called Gasser Gertie. She comes complete with sound effects. — Photo by Pat Bean

Paul lost a leg in a car accident in 1965, giving him plenty of time to use his fantastic imagination to create characters with large noses doing everyday things with an inventive twist.

I had read about the museum, located just off Highway 36 in Belleville, Kansas, and had timed the day’s drive to be there when it was open, which is 1-5 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays. I’m so glad I did.

The museum was one of those unexpected surprises that keep me traveling.

Book Report: Travels with Maggie is now up to 53, 617 words.

The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.

Bean’s Pat: The Bogs of Ohio:  http://tinyurl.com/9kqjeol Hidden Feelings: This blogger takes the most amazing photos, and these are fantastic.

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Prairie Dog State Park: A Tale of Two Animals

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Birds, Favorite Places, Lakes, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 2, 2012| 4 Comments »

Entrance to Prairie Dog State Park, Kansas — Photo by Mike Blair

“The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.” – Aristotle

Adventures with Pepper: Day 12   

Prairie Dog at Lake Arrowhead State Park in Texas. The Kansas prairie dogs were too quick for my camera. — Photo by Pat Bean

         Kansas’ Prairie Dog State Park was indeed a great place to spend the night, so I spent two.

Pepper and I had a peaceful camp site that offered a tree-framed view of Keith Sebelius Reservoir out Gypsy Lee’s rear window. While I saw several of the critters for which the park was named on the drive in, birds were the only wildlife I saw in the camping area.

These included an osprey that hung out in a tree overlooking the lake, killdeer near its shore, a lone great blue heron that sat on a rock in the water about a hundred feet from shore and turkey vultures frequently hovering overhead.

Black-tailed ferret, a cute little thing but deadly to prairie dogs, which make up about 90 percent of the ferret’s diet. — Wikipedia photo

But it was the sighting of the black-tailed prairie dogs roaming free in this high plains grass prairie that delighted me most.

That’s because I once participated in an endangered wildlife project that didn’t bode well for a pack of these prairie dogs that roamed the Utah-Colorado border.

The project involved transplanting endangered black-footed ferrets, thought to be extinct until a pack of about a dozen of them were discovered in 1981, into their midst. Prairie dogs are the black-footed ferrets favorite food, even though the two species are near the same size.

The discovered ferrets were captured and entered into a breeding program and some of the offspring began being transplanted back into the wild. Today there are slightly over 1,000 ferrets once again inhabiting North America.

If the number of prairie dogs I’ve seen in my travels are any indication, they are surviving quite nicely – thankfully.

Book Report: 54,312 words. The number is better than it sounds because I cut almost as much as I edited.

The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.

Bean’s Pat:  I Can’t Afford It http://tinyurl.com/8vnkbw8 I’m pretty thrifty but it’s good to be reminded every now and then that it’s OK to say no to things we want but may not need.  

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Three States and an Unanswerable Question

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Favorite Places, Lakes, Nature, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , , on October 1, 2012| Leave a Comment »

            Wonder rather than doubt is the root of all knowledge: Abraham Joshua Heshel

Adventures with Pepper: Day 1

Ring-billed gulls and a couple of coots at Swanson Reservoir State Recreation Area. — Photo by Pat Bean

         I started my day in Wray, Colorado heading south on Highway 34, and soon crossed into Nebraska where I was greeted with a sign that welcomed me to “The Good Life.”

It was a ho-hum kind of drive. Except for a few passing empty cattle trucks and an occasional vehicle, I had the highway to myself. The kind of drive where my mind is free to ask itself important questions: like what’s the difference between a creek and a river?

That thought popped into my mind when I crossed over the Republican River, named for a branch of the Pawnees and not the political party, just in case you’re interested. The river was dry, unlike a full creek I had recently crossed over.

Monument to the Massacre Canyon Battle, where 69 Pawnee were killed by Sioux warriors. The site is just off Highway 34 between Swanson Lake and Trenton, Nebraska. I passed the historical marker denoting the turnoff and, belatedly, wish I had made a u-turn to go back and check it out. — Wikipedia photo

It was a question that stayed with me, so I later tried to find the answer.            Yahoo’s best answer was:  “A river is bigger, but the measurement is subjective. There is no standard, so it is really a matter of local opinion. The people who name it decide whether to call it a creek or river. As has been noted, a creek is usually a branch of a river, and doesn’t have branches of its own. But that is not a strict standard either.”

Too bad my question hadn’t been how much are two and two.

Plan A, meanwhile, was for me to stop at Swanson Reservoir State Recreation Area in Nebraska for the night. It was a nice place, but the campground was far from the lake and isolated. So I decided to go with Plan B, which was to plop down to Highway 36 to Kansas and check out Prairie Dog State Park.

Thankfully, it was a great place to spend the night.

Book Report: Travels with Maggie is now up to 54,116 words. It should be more, but I had two days of no internet to double-check facts.

The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.

Bean’s Pat: The Great White http://tinyurl.com/9f7rc4r Beautiful photos of an emblem of this country’s heritage. While America is far from perfect, I wake up every day feeling blessed to live in a country where this wondering, wandering old broad feels safe to explore its beauty with only my canine traveling companion, Pepper, as my security blanket.

I feel honored.

  Thank you http://transplantedtatar.wordpress.com for giving me the One Lovely Blog Award, As for seven random things about myself:  I’m an innovative cook; I love to ride rollercoasters; I have 15 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren; I have a son-in-law who tells everyone I’m homeless instead of a full-time RV-er; School classmates called me cootie-brain, which hurt so much I couldn’t say the words for 40 years; I’m a cockeyed optimist but with enough cynicism in my brain that everything balances out; and I’m extremely grateful that I still have a huge zest for life.

I’ll use my Bean’s Pat to play things back.

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Weekly Travel Theme: Foilage

Posted in Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, Weekly Travel Theme, tagged , , , , on September 30, 2012| 4 Comments »

Modoc National Wildlife Refuge, California. I snapped this picture in the fall of 2011. — Photo by Pat Bean

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Color

Posted in Art, Favorite Places, Travel, Weekly Photo Challenge, tagged , , , , , on September 30, 2012| 10 Comments »

“Your attitude is like a box of crayons that color your world.  Constantly color your picture gray, and your picture will always be bleak. Try  adding some bright colors to the picture by including humor, and your picture  begins to lighten up.” — Allen Klein

Downtown Dallas

Ceiling of the chapel in Thanksgiving Square in downtown Dallas. — Photo by Pat Bean

 

 

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It Could Have Been Texas

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Favorite Places, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , , on September 27, 2012| 6 Comments »

            “Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.” — Confucius

While there wasn’t much photographic about the RV park where I spent the night after leaving Rocky Mountain National Park, the night sky took my breath away. — Photo by Pat Bean

Adventures with Pepper: Day 10

After my fantastic day spent in Rocky Mountain National Park, the rest of the day and the next seemed way too ordinary.

And even in the dullest of places, there’s beauty if you look hard enough. — Photo by Pat Bean

I spent the night in a large commercial RV Park in Loveland, Colorado. It was a big let down after my two nights at the very scenic Elk Creek Campground, where I had a fantastic view of the Rocky Mountains.

The next day, as I drove east with no mountains in sight, the landscape reminded me of Texas, right down to the pumping oil rig in the middle of an agriculture field.

At one point, a tumble weed even blew across the road.

Book Report: Got up early and got an hour’s writing done. No way was I going to report no progress two days in a row. Travels with Maggie is now at 53,196 words.

The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.

Bean’s Pat: Sunrise at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge http://tinyurl.com/dxureb6 One of my very favorite places, and I love this blogger’s photos of the place.

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Rocky Mountain National Park: Trail Ridge Road

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , on September 26, 2012| 4 Comments »

            “I have found a dream of beauty at which one might look all one’s life and sigh.” – Isabelle L Bird.

Isabelle was a 19th century traveler who explored the Rocky Mountains on horseback in 1873 and wrote about her adventures in “A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains.”  Her travels make mine and Pepper’s seem whimpy in comparison.

Way up high in sight of glaciers. — Photo by Pat Bean

Adventures with Pepper: Day Nine

I never tire of looking at aspen trees in the fall. — Photo by Pat Bean

I couldn’t have chosen a more perfect day to drive through Rocky Mountain National Park. Pepper and I took Highway 34 through the majestic mountains. More commonly known as Trail Ridge Road, Gypsy Lee took its steep, winding route up to over 12,000 feet with ease and grace. She was the hero of the day.

While I didn’t linger long at any stop, I stopped often. It was not my first visit to the park, and this day was just another part of my journey elsewhere.

The day was one of those that make my favorite travel quote so meaningful.

“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters.” — Ursula k. leGuin

Book Report: I was halted in place by stormy weather yesterday.

Of course the elk was a traffic-stopping sight. I took this photo through the front windshield of my RV, Gypsy Lee. — Photo by Pat Bean

It was the perfect day to do a lot of writing. But I didn’t. Of course I have regrets. Travels with Maggie still stuck at 52,186 words.

But in my own defense, it’s the first time since I started reporting my progress that I hadn’t made any forward movement. And I’ll certainly be too proud to admit that it didn’t go anywhere tomorrow. At least I think I will be.

The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.

Bean’s Pat:  Snow in the Wetlands http://tinyurl.com/99wvgaq All about snowy egrets. This bloggers words and photo brought to mind a poem by Emily Dickinson:

 Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune–without the words,
And never stops at all…

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