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Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category

Too Bad the Queen Missed the Park

Posted in Birds, Nature, Travel, tagged , , , , , , on December 6, 2010| Leave a Comment »

The sign stopped me, the park enchanted me -- Photo by Pat Bean

 “Peace is not the product of a victory or a command. It has no finishing line, no final deadline, no fixed definition of achievement. Peace is a never-ending process. The work of many decisions.” — Oscar Hammerstein

Travels With Maggie

Located on the Arkansas side of the Talimena Scenic Drive before it crosses into Oklahoma, Queen Wilhemina State Park was created in the late 1800s and named after Queen Wilhelmina in hopes the young ruler of the Netherlands would visit.

While the park was only 15 miles from where I had spent the previous night, it looked too inviting to pass by – or stay for just one night. That’s the beauty of having no deadlines to meet. The rain storm that blanked the area for the next few days, and which I wouldn’t have wanted to drive through, confirmed my instincts

Turtles, along with birds, deer and squirrels called Arkansas' Queen Wilhemina park home. -- Photo by Pat Bean

During one break in the storm, I walked up to the Queen Wilhelmina Lodge, where I devoured one of the tastiest cheeseburgers of my life while watching dark storm clouds build up for another burst. There’s something in me that loves a storm, and the sound of rain drumming on my RV roof is as enjoyable as a well-played concert. I was glad, however, that I made it back to the coziness of my RV, with my last bite of cheeseburger wrapped in a napkin for Maggie, before the downpour began anew.

Flowers grew all over the park -- Photo by Pat Bean

Finally the storm ended and I spent the next two days hiking the park’s trails, and watching birds and other wildlife. It was with reluctance that I finally left this special place. It’s too bad Queen Wilhelmina never visited. I’m sure she would have enjoyed her stay.

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Take a Train Ride Through a Gorge With Santa

Posted in Nature, Travel, tagged , , , , , , , on December 4, 2010| Leave a Comment »

“Life is like a train ride. You get on. You get off. You get on and ride some more.” — Author unknown  

Going round the bend -- Photo taken by Pat Bean from one of the train cars.

 

Travels With Maggie

When I was mapping out my route back to Texas from Utah – a trip I make yearly, always trying to see new sights along the way – I came across information on a scenic train ride through Royal Gorge.

I immediately signed up for the 24-mile round-trip. I’ve been intrigued with train trips ever since reading Agatha Cristie’s “Murder on the Orient Express,” and I’m a big fan of Paul Theroux’s books on his train journeys through Asia, China, South America and elsewhere.  

I wasn’t disappointed wtth my click-clacking scenic ride through the gorge – well except that I wasn’t ready for my journey to end.  The train ride, begins in Canon, Colorado, and on the summer day I took the tour, we passed several groups of white-water rafters coming

 down the Arkansas River. But I noted, as I refreshed my memory for this blog by going to the railroad’s web site (http://www.royalgorgeroute.com/), that it’s now offering its own version of “The Polar Express” for this season of the year.

Too bad I’m spending my Christmas holidays this year in Texas and Arkansas. I’d love to hug Santa and feel like a kid again. Wouldn’t you?

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Spiral Jetty: A Person Has to Do What a Person Has to Do

Posted in Nature, Travel, tagged , , , , , on December 3, 2010| Leave a Comment »

 “This seems to be the law of progress in everything we do; it moves along a spiral rather than a perpendicular; we seem to be actually going out of the way, and yet it turns out that we were really moving upwards all the time.” Frances E. Willard.

The Spiral Jetty -- Photo by Michael David Murphy

Travels With Maggie

Sometimes you just have to do something even if it makes no sense. This was true the day my good friend, Kim, and I drove out to Rozzel Point on the northern end of Utah’s Great Salt Lake to see the Spiral Jetty.

The earthworks sculpture was created from black basalt rock by artist Robert Smithson in 1970 at a time when the lake was near its historic low. Within 10 years, however, the rising waters of the lake hid it from view.

Kim and I viewed the jetty in 2003, when the lake level was once again on the low end of its spectrum. By this time, the dark basalt rock was encrusted with salt, and its now white and jagged outer coat outlined in pink. The color of the lake water is a result of bacteria and algae that thrive in the heavy salt content now present in this section of the lake because of decreased water circulation due to a railroad causeway across the lake.

Looking out at the jetty, my friend Kim and I shared the same thought. There was no way we could come this far without taking a walk to the center of the spiral. It was as if there would be a magic reward for doing so. But afterward, all we had to show for our difficult efforts were salt encrusted legs and wet tennis shoes full of grainy crystals that made walking difficult.

Well, there was our great sense of satisfaction.

If you visit the jetty, which is once again now visible, don’t pass by the nearby Golden Spike National Historic Site without stopping. It was here where the Union and Pacific railroads joined their rails in 1869. A visit here, where the first transcontinental rail line became a reality, makes more sense than walking the spiral jetty, or as some might say, creating such a nonsensical structure in the middle of nowhere in the first place.

Sometimes, however, a person has to do what a person has to do.

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Birding Adds the Oomph to my Travels

Posted in Birds, Nature, Travel, tagged , , , , , , , on December 2, 2010| Leave a Comment »

 “I consider myself to have been the bridge between the shotgun and the binoculars in bird watching. Before I came along, the primary way to observe birds was to shoot them and stuff them.” — Roger Tory Peterson

Travels With Maggie

Nothing could be finer than an early morning outing with fellow birders of the Wasatch Chapter of Audubon. Ever since I seriously began birding, which was back in 1999, the chapter has had a Wednesday morning bird walk. When I first hooked up with the group, I had to play hooky from work to join them.

A California quail hides among the weeds. I spotted him on an outing to Willard Bay in Northern Utah while birding this past May with old friends. -- Photo by Pat Bean

 Shortly thereafter I was inspired to write a weekly bird column. So instead of playing hooky while I was roaming all over Utah’s Wasatch Front on these Wednesdays, I could honestly report that I was doing research.

 Since I knew next to nothing about birds, the research included a lot of that, plus the generous help of the chapter’s birding experts, Jack Rensel and Keith Evans. Both these guys had been at this sport since they were young boys – and both had tales to tell of being suspected of unsavory deeds because of wandering around alone with binoculars in hands. They grew up at a time when birding wasn’t a well known hobby, and certainly not one boys took up.

 Thankfully, Roger Tory Peterson, who put together the first field guide that made birding possible for us non-ornithologists, watched birds as a boy even before Jack and Keith’s time.

 My oldest son makes fun of my birdwatching, considering it a little old lady’s sport. Well, it can be that. But it can also involve long hikes in the dark so as to arrive in time to watch male sage grouse play drums with their chest sacs to attract the ladies, or a hike over treacherous lava to watch Flamingos at a small lake in the Galapagos.

 Birding gives my travels that extra bit of oomph. For example, the boat ride to Matagorda Island off the coast of Texas was pleasant enough in itself, but getting to see whooping cranes as well was like the salt around the glass of a good margarita. And the climb up a ridge to see a black-capped vireo at Lost Maples State Park gave me a good dose of needed exercise.

 Looking for birds in the landscape has also enriched my travels in yet other ways. One who is looking for a tiny bird in the bush is not likely to miss the moose in the stream. And when I’m visiting Northern Utah, my passion for birds gives me a legitimate reason to once again hook up with my old Wednesday morning birding buddies.

 And, as I said, nothing could be finer than time spent with them.

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Choose Your RV Wisely

Posted in Nature, Travel, tagged , , , on December 1, 2010| 3 Comments »

“You are the person who has to decide. Whether you’ll do it or toss it aside; you are the person who makes up your mind. Whether you’ll lead or will linger behind. Whether you’ll try for the goal that’s afar. Or just be contented to stay where you are.” — Edgar Guest

Gypsy Lee at the bottom of the gorge at Capital Reef State Park -- Photo by D.C. Bean

 Travels With Maggie

 Whenever I see a road with a sign marker that says no trailers or vehicles longer than 24-feet allowed, I’m thankful I travel in Gypsy Lee. She’s only 22-feet long, 8 feet wide and 11 feet high. She can go practically anywhere – and practically anywhere is always where I want to go.

 While I try to take really good care of her, she wasn’t bought for show. She’s taken me to some amazing places. Her mobility serves me well, especially since my travel budget couldn’t afford a bigger rig, plus the tow vehicle they require if sight-seeing is on the menu.

 I looked at motorhomes for five years before buying my VW Vista Winnebago just two weeks before I retired from my 40-hour plus a week job. While the big Class A’s wooed me, I eventually, and correctly, decided a smaller Class C suited my needs best. I only looked at a couple of Class B’s, glorified vans, to realize they weren’t for me.

I also decided travel trailers – which actually make a lot of financial and practical sense – were not for me. I didn’t want to go down the road pulling something behind me, and hooking and unhooking them wasn’t something I wanted to do single handed, not to mention backing them up into a small campground site.

Gypsy Lee hooked up at Lake Walcott State Park in Idaho, where she sat for six weeks during my stint as a volunteer campground host. -- Photo by Pat Bean

My advice to potential RV buyers is to look at a lot of RVs and consider your own very personal needs before buying. For example while I know couples who travel in rigs as small as mine, I can’t imagine sharing it full-time with anyone but Maggie. S0 take your time and choose wisely to meet your own expectations and not those of others.

Then,  I hope you will enjoy the road as much as I do.

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A Trace of a Trail

Posted in Nature, Travel, tagged , , , , , , , , on November 29, 2010| Leave a Comment »

This remnant of the Natchez Trace took me back in history -- and made me think of fairy tale warnings about dark forests. -- Photo by Pat Bean

 

“Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Travels With Maggie

 I was in Mississippi, headed west on Highway 84, with no campground reservation for the night. I was hoping the road would provide – and it did. Just outside the city of Natchez, I came across signs pointing the way to Natchez State Park.

 The public campground was yet another of those southern gems that had been enriching my travels for the past couple of weeks. It sits near the western terminus of the Natchez Trace, a 440-mile long ridge-line trail created by prehistoric animals traveling between bottom grasslands along the Mississippi River and salt licks near what is now Nashville, Tennessee.  The animal foot path was discovered and used by the Indians, and then by early European explorers and settlers.

I found the park so delightful that I spent three nights before altering my route to drive a short section of the trace. My eagerness to do so might have been influenced by the fact I had just recently read Nevada Barr’s murder mystery “Deep South,” which is set along the parkway, and the images she had painted of the scenery were still vivid in my mind. 

 It was a pleasant drive with almost no traffic through a landscape where human development has been banned. When I came across a place where the original trace was still visible, I stopped for a closer look. A National Park Service marker here informed me that “… The Natchez Trace was politically, economically, socially, and militarily important for the United States in its early development. Among those that traveled the road were American Indians, traders, soldiers, ‘Kaintucks,’ postriders, settlers, slaves, circuit-riding preachers, outlaws, and adventurers.”

Road marker along the parkway -- Photo by Pat Bean

 I felt like one of the latter when Maggie and I set foot on the remnants of that old footpath. It was if we were walking back in time. This section of the trail was closely hemmed in by trees whose limbs formed a roof above our heads. It was like walking through a tunnel, and the dim light that penetrated the ground brought to mind all those fairy tales that warned about being caught alone in the forest.

Back in my RV,  I followed the path of the Natchez Trace on my map all the way up to Nashville, but left it physically after only 28 miles. Driving the trace in its entirety is now on my bucket list.

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Over the Rainbow in Wamego, Kansas

Posted in Nature, Travel, tagged , , , , , , on November 28, 2010| 1 Comment »

Over the rainbow -- photo by Pat Bean

 

Travels With Maggie

 “Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue, and the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true.” Lyman Frank Baum

Dorothy's red slippers

 

 When I drove through Kansas, it felt like one big corn field. The rich, green stalks actually did look “as high as an elephant’s eye,” as Curly sang in “Oklahoma.” Occasionally, however, the corn would give way to other sights, one being the Wizard of Oz Museum in Wamego, Kansas.

Located on Highway 99 (also known as the Road to Oz) 40 miles west of Topeka, the small and quaint museum is dedicated to all things Oz. There was no way I was going to pass it by without stopping.

I wonder if it's a Kansas corn field -- Photo by Pat Bean

I wonder if Scarecrow is standing in a Kansas corn field. -- Photo by Pat Bean

 

In addition to the Oz memorabilia and exhibits, admittedly some quite cheesy, the museum features a theater where one can see the original Oz starting Judy Garland, along with Diana Ross and Michael Jackson’s “Wiz” version.

Since I love corn, I found the museum a pleasant way to wile away a couple of hours. The experience would go better, I think, with a kid or two in tow – but then I’m enough of a kid at heart that it didn’t matter.

 On my way out, I bought a yellow brick for my daughter’s personal “Magic Garden.” I thought she would get a kick out of the gift – the cost of which benefited the museum – and she did.

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Thank You Charles Kuralt

Posted in Nature, Travel, tagged , , , , , , , , , on November 27, 2010| 6 Comments »

My dream vehicle when I was a working journalist. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Travels With Maggie

 “The everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the acts of greed in the headlines.” Charles Kuralt

The first time I saw an “On the Road” television segment with Charles Kuralt, I knew that was the kind of journalist I wanted to be. I partially achieved that goal in my 37 years as a journalist with the stories I wrote about interesting upbeat people and aspects of a nature, along of course with my coverage of ditty-gritty city council and crime news.

I even got, albeit rarely, to go on the road to cover stories for my newspaper. But I never had the freedom to take it to his level – to travel cross-country in an RV and write only what pleased me.

 Today, however, that’s exactly what I do. And it pleases me greatly to tell you about the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, outside of Detroit. It offers so much more than just the progression of the automobile down through the years.

Life used to move at a slower pace, and you can experience it at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. -- Photo by Pat Bean

 One can wander through Thomas Edison’s Menlo Park Laboratory and imagine the excitement exuded when that first light bulb cast its glow. Or marvel at the dreams of fanciful flight Orville and Wilbur shared while working at their Wright Brothers Bicycle Shop. You can visit the home where Noah Webster wrote America’s first dictionary and walk through the first Ford Motor Home factory.

I almost wept when I viewed the sleek black Lincoln in which President John F. Kennedy lost his life in on that fateful November day in 1963. The vehicle represented a loss of innocence for my generation.

Thankfully, my tears, if I had shed them, would only have been of joy when I saw the next vehicle that moved me. It was the “On the Road” RV. If there is a heaven, and former free-spirited TV journalist happens to be looking down, I hope he realizes how much he inspired one lone female traveler.

Thank you Charles Kuralt for crystallizing my dreams.

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Idaho’s Scenic Byways

Posted in Nature, Travel, tagged , , , , , , , , on November 26, 2010| 1 Comment »

Mesa Falls, complete with rainbow, was my reward for divorcing my planned driving route. -- Photo Pat Bean

Travels With Maggie

 “Establishing goals is all right if you don’t let them deprive you of interesting detours.” — Doug Larson

It was the best of times without any worse. Maggie and I were peacefully driving the Teton Scenic Byway (Highway 20) west out of Yellowstone and past Henry’s Lake when we came upon a fork in the road.

 Taking Robert Frost’s advice, we zigged to take the one less traveled, which was the Mesa Falls Scenic Byway (Highway 47).  We would hook up again down the road with Highway 20 but only after stops and short hikes for spectacular views of Mesa Falls.

I usually travel with a plan, but thankfully am willing to divorce it at my slightest whim.  To be willing to follow my example is the best advice I can offer my fellow travelers this day.

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100 Things I’m Thankful For

Posted in Birds, Nature, Travel, tagged , , , on November 25, 2010| 3 Comments »

I'm thankful for hiking trails. Pictured above is the Franconia Notch Flume Trail in New Hampshire. -- Photo by Pat Bean

 

100 Things for which I’m Thankful – In No Particular Order

  1. Belly laughs
  2. The sound of rain pinging on my RV roof
  3. Family, which these days include five awesome children, 15 delightful grandchildren and three perfect great grandchildren.
  4. My black cocker spaniel, Maggie, who curls up with me on cold nights.
  5. Rich African coffee heavily laced with cream
  6. Scenic byways
  7. Cool nights that let me snuggle beneath a soft quilt
  8. Good health – and hope I can say this for many more years
  9. Hearty hugs from people who mean it
  10. A good massage from a woman with magic fingers
  11. Being a writer
  12. My association with the women of Story Circle Network
  13. A good haircut
  14. Scenic hiking trails
  15. Achievements of my kids, grandkids and friends
  16. My zest for life
  17. Walking barefoot on a sandy beach
  18. Learning something new
  19. The flash of sun illuminating the tail feathers of an overhead red-tailed hawk
  20. Hot baths
  21. My new Kindle
  22. Ibuprofen for strained muscles
  23. Discovering a new author I like
  24. Taking a grandchild on their first roller coaster ride
  25. Watching fall redress the trees
  26. Van Gogh paintings
  27. Butterflies
  28. My computer and the Internet
  29. Maggie’s quirky personality
  30. Rainbows
  31. Living in America where a woman can safely travel alone
  32. Sunrises and sunsets
  33. Funky, dangling earrings that belie my age
  34. Bra-less days
  35. Summers not spent in Texas
  36. Good memories of my mother
  37. Old friends and new friends
  38. A field of wildflowers
  39. Reese”s peanut butter cups
  40. The wind blowing through my hair
  41. My daily walks with Maggie
  42. Hot soup on a cold day
  43. A wee-morning hours chatter with a long-time girlfriend over Jack Daniels and coke.
  44. A daughter-in-law guardian angel who keeps track of my travels, forwards my mail and supplies me with my favorite coffee
  45. The honking of geese as they fly overhead
  46. Lake reflections
  47. Family meals eaten around a table
  48. My curiosity
  49. Comfortable shoes
  50. America, the beautiful
  51. Clean showers in RV parks
  52. Electricity
  53. My bicycle
  54. People who care deeply about something
  55. The wolf’s return to Yellowstone
  56. The journey between destinations
  57. A comfortable bed and a perfect pillow
  58. WordPress for hosting this blog
  59. New white sox
  60. Water in all its forms
  61. Scented candles
  62. A sky full of stars
  63. Glasses that allow me to read
  64. Pleasant surprises
  65. An honest politician
  66. Birdwatching with my birdwatching son
  67. Evenings spent around a campfire
  68. Good Sam emergency services
  69. A Jack in the Box chocolate shake, which I only discovered this year
  70. Nice and Easy, No. 99 – so I can forever be a blonde
  71. Coyote howls
  72. Wrinkle-free clothing
  73. Gentle dentists
  74. My independence
  75. The fragrant scent of a blooming gardenia bush, which always reminds me of my grandmother
  76. The diversity I find in people watching
  77. Large, gnarly live oak trees
  78. Audible books
  79. Maps
  80. A good editor
  81. Books with satisfying endings
  82. The strong women of the past who fought so I could vote
  83. A cup of Earl Grey tea
  84. The color turquoise
  85. Boat rides
  86. Antibiotics and vaccinations
  87. Smiles
  88. A frisky squirrel in a tree outside my RV
  89. Guided trolley tours
  90. My point and shoot digital camera
  91. Washers and dryers
  92. Blank journals
  93. A shady RV camp site beside a small lake
  94. A hearty 11 a.m. breakfast for lunch
  95. The music of a humpback whale
  96. Stained glass windows
  97. That there are still plenty of birds to add to my life list
  98. Helen Reddy’s “I Am Woman Hear Me Roar”
  99. The family computer nerds who get the bugs out of my laptop
  100. Readers of my blog

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