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Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category

Dreams Change

Posted in Favorite Places, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , , , on August 22, 2012| 8 Comments »

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” – Eleanor Roosevelt.

Many were the years I dreamed of living on the road in this VW van that’s now on exhibit at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. — Photo by Pat Bean

Visions to Reality           

And then along came Charles Kuralt’s “On the Road” vehicle, and my dreams got bigger. — Photo by Pat Bean

When I was in Ypsilanti, I visited the Henry Ford Museum in nearby Dearborn, Michigan. It’s a fantastic place, but one that left my wondering brain scattered all over the place.

One of these places focused on my dreams of living my life on the road, as I have been doing for the past eight years.

But it was Gypsy Lee, shown here shortly after I purchased her in 2004, that turned my dreams into reality. — Photo by Pat Bean

The modes of travel that I envisioned — from the green van of William Least Heat Moon’s “Blue Highways,” to the glorified Volkswagen van that has been revived (two of these camped at Lake Walcott in the past week),  to Charles Kuralt’s “On the Road” RV — were all there.

Gypsy Lee finally became my reality. And I love her.

Book Report: Leave out all the boring parts is good writing advice. I’ve heard it often.  But it sure takes a hit on word count. I did a complete read through of Travels with Maggie as rewritten so far last night and my 37,833 words to date dropped to 36,616.

The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day

Bean’s Pat: The Open Suitcase http://tinyurl.com/8jc42k8 This one’s for wanderers. It’s simply a long list of travel blogs. And hey, even mine is listed.

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Travel Oddities

Posted in Favorite Places, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , on August 21, 2012| 2 Comments »

There are two sorts of curiosity – the momentary and the permanent. The momentary is concerned with the odd appearance of the surface of things. The permanent is attracted by the amazing and consecutive life that flows on beneath the surface of things” – Robert Wilson Lynn.

Ypsilanti: Home of The Brick Dick

The Ypsilanti water tower, more commonly known as the Brick Dick. This photo is courtesy of Wikipedia. For some reason I didn’t think to take one when I was in Ypsilanti.

When I travel, I try to find out something — the odder the better — about each town I visit. Often it’s as simple as observing a town’s welcome sign,

Such billboards say everything from “The Town Where Everybody is Somebody” (Hico, Texas), to “The Biggest Little City in the World” (Reno, Nevada.)

Ypsilanti, Michigan, which just happens to be named after an 1800s Greek Hero of the country’s war for independence against the Ottoman Empire, is known as home of the Brick Dick.

Its 147-foot limestone water tower won Cabinet magazine’s 2003 contest search for the “World’s Most Phallic Structure.”

One look at the tower, built in 1890 by someone either with a macho bent or a sense of humor, and I could see why it easily won the contest.

Locals call it the “Dick Brick.” It’s said that if an Eastern Michigan University student graduates while still a virgin the tower will fall down.

Travel is so enlightening, although I’m still wondering why Ypsilanti, which is located on the outskirts of Detroit, was named after a Greek hero. Do you know?

Book Report: Travels with Maggie: 37, 833 words. The above little ditty about Ypsilanti was in the section of my travel book that underwent rewriting today. It made me laugh, again, and so I thought I would share.

The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.

Bean’s Pat: Another Header:  http://tinyurl.com/9824e9r Visit a couple of Istanbul bazaars. This one’s great for armchair travelers and lovers of bright colors.

Thank you Kay at http://funandmorebykay.wordpress.com for nominating me for the Super Sweet blog award. I’m not sure my blog qualifies as “sweet” but I’m grateful for any recognition a reader chooses to give me.

Super-Sweet Blogging Award

To answer your questions I prefer cookies over cake, chocolate over vanilla, and ice cream over any other kind of dessert. I want sweets mostly when I’m tired or stressed and I’ve actually been called Jelly Bean. My Bean’s Pat is my daily way of paying back very kind readers like yourself.

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Idaho Wildfires

Posted in Lakes, Nature, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , , , on August 20, 2012| 8 Comments »

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream Discover.” – Mark Twain.

A Safe Refuge is an Impossible Dream 

Yesterday’s sunrise here at Lake Walcott taken from my camp site. Smoke from Idaho’s wildfires has turned the sun quite red. — Photo by Pat Bean

I’ve been asked three times this morning if I’m safe from the wildfires that are currently ravaging Idaho. I am. Lake Walcott is an oasis surrounded by a very dry high desert.

But the fires are on everyone’s mind. The park’s flags flew at half-mast Saturday for the 20-year-old female firefighter who was killed by a falling tree while fighting a wildfire near Orofino.  And the news this morning was that the small town of Featherville, Idaho, which sits between the Boise and Sawtooth national forests, is being evacuated because a wildfire there is out of control.

I’ve watched a fire-fighting helicopter fill up its water bucket out of the lake here to fight some nearby fires started by lightning strikes, while firefighters turned the park’s boat dock area into a staging front for those earlier fires.

But so far, no wildfires have threatened the park. Lake Walcott has even attracted campers whose favorite camping spots elsewhere have burned or been evacuated.

The same sunrise a few minutes later. — Photo by Pat Bean

Meanwhile the morning sunrises and sunsets here at the lake have been red because of all the smoke in the air. I captured the two photos included here of yesterday’s sunrise.

As much as I love Mother Nature, I must say she is not playing nice right now. High temperatures and little moisture have left the landscapes a sitting target for lightning strikes. Idaho has been hit extremely hard, with over one million acres burned so far this year.

I long ago realized that safety is a fantasy. Hurricanes strike those who live next to the oceans, tornadoes strike those who live on the plains, avalanches strike those who live in the mountains, fires, earthquakes and evil humans can cause havoc everywhere. While it’s wise to take precautions to protect oneself from both nature and evil, it’s also foolish not to continue living life to the fullness of one’s dreams.

Book Report: Travels with Maggie, 36,372 words. Lot of editing and cutting here, so this is more impressive than it looks, since at last report I was up to 35,726 words. Besides which, I worked in the visitor kiosk here at Lake Walcott on Saturday and Sunday, and had very enjoyable company Saturday evening. The good news is that the rewrite of my travel book is still progressing.

Bean’s Pat: Turtles at Dawn http://tinyurl.com/cn34ftj Despite the fires, life goes on, and these tiny turtles headed out to sea cheer me.

This new illustration for Bean’s Pat is courtesy of Laura Hulka, who like me is a member of Story Circle Network, an organization of female writers which has enriched my life. Check it out at: www.storycircle.org Thank you Laura.

I encourage recipients of the Bean’s Pat to copy and paste it on their blogs. The Pat is this wondering wanderer’s choice for best blog of the day. I created it to play it back for the awards readers have given me.

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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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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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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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Weekly Photo Challenge: Growth

Posted in Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, Weekly Photo Challenge, tagged , , , on August 4, 2012| 4 Comments »

 “You’ve got to do your own growing, no matter how tall your grandfather was.” – Irish saying.

Great Sand Dunes National Park

 

Think of it. Grain by grain is how these great sand dunes grew. — Photo by Pat Bean

 

“The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass f our life, the clearer we should see through it.” — Niccolo Machiavelli

Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado. — Photo by Pat Bean

“There are no great limits to growth because there are no limits of human intelligence, imagination and wonder.” Ronald Reagan.

 

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