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The Wasatch Mountains

September 10, 2012 by Pat Bean

“Keep close to Nature’s heart … and break clear away once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.” – John Muir

The view out the window of my RV, which is parked in a friend’s Ogden, Utah driveway. — Photo by Pat Bean

Adventures with Pepper: Day 2            

Mount Ogden from downtown Ogden. — Photo by Pat Bean

Once I crossed Rattlesnake Pass on Highway 84 in Northern Utah, I began watching for a sight I knew would lift my already high spirits even higher.

I recognized the canyon curve that would let me get my first glimpse of the Wasatch Mountains. My heart beat accelerated and my eyes dampened when these awesome peaks finally came into sight. It’s the reaction that always happens when I’ve been gone from the mountains for a while. It’s as if they share a piece of my soul.

I was raised in flat-country Texas, and was 14 before I ever saw my first mountain. Since then I’ve seen many mountains, but none that have left their mark so deeply on me as the Wasatch. The awesome peaks, which include Mount Ogden on which the 2002 Winter Olympic downhill races were run, are the western edge of the Rocky Mountain chain that stretches 3,000 miles, from northern British Columbia in Canada to New Mexico in the United States.

 

The view of Ben Lomond from my friend’s backyard. — Photo by Pat Bean

I first lived in their shadow in the early 1970s before returning to Texas. I missed these mountains so much that I jumped at the chance to leave my job at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram to accept a job at the Standard-Examiner in Ogden, Utah in the early 1980s. I then lived in their shadow r shadow for 25 years before I left them behind once again in 2004.            I’ve returned to visit them every year since, and each reunion has been precious to me. Now, as part of my road trip home, I will get to spend five days within their sight as I renew acquaintances with old friends. It makes for a slow start for my journey back to Texas but also the perfect start.

Book Report: Travels with Maggie is now at 44,372 words. Not much accomplished but it’s still moving forward.

The Wondering Wander’s blog pick of the day.

Bean’s Pat: A Woman’s Story  http://tinyurl.com/97a9zr9 Eat the damn cake. This one’s for my women readers.

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Weekly Photo Challenge: Far and Near

September 8, 2012 by Pat Bean

“It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.” — Winston Churchill

Favorite Places: The Tonto Basin

The first time I passed through Tonto Basin, I crossed the lake on the Roosevelt Dam. This bridge was opened to get traffic off the dam in 1990. I chose it as an example of near and far because of the yellow blossoms in the foreground, the bridge in the middle ground and the mountains in the far distance. — Photo by Pat Bean

During my cross-country journeys, even before I became a full-time RV-er, I often planned my trips so I would pass through Arizona’s Tonto Basin.

Located at the base of the Mongollon Rim, which runs across Arizona for 200 miles, with Tonto Creek flowing through it, the valley has always lifted my spirits. I love the tall arm-spreading saguaro cacti  that dot the landscape, the clear mountain air that fills my nostrils and the sight of curve-billed thrashers flitting the ground.

 

 

Posted in Birds, Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, Wildflowers | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments »

City of Rocks

September 7, 2012 by Pat Bean

“If you see a whole thing – it seems that it’s always beautiful. Planets, lives … But up close a world’s all dirt and rocks. And day-to-day, life’s a hard job.” – Ursula K.Le Guin

This photo doesn’t do City of Rocks justice but it was the best one I took because of being so pressed for time. — Photo by Pat Bean

Adventures with Pepper: Day One

            I took a longer detour than I had expected yesterday when I visited City of Rocks State Park in Southern Idaho on my way to Ogden, Utah, where I’ll be staying for the next few days before the real start of my journey begins.

But I was quite pleased with the shot I got up an osprey hig up in a tree over the Snake River. — Photo by Pat Bean

The reason that it was longer is that a bridge was out, and I had to double back to continue on my journey. It also made me pressed for time because I needed to get into Ogden in time for a party and a play my friend, Kim, had planned for our evening activities.

The City of Rocks is just that. It was a landmark for early pioneers traveling the California Trail. Just as impressive as the jumble of rocks that today are a haven for rock climbers — sadly I didn’t have time to do much exploring or picture-taking – was the City of Rocks Back Country Scenic Byway that encircled the Albion Mountains. And I got to see it twice.

My lack of time was also due to the fact that I had dawdled earlier in the morning, taking Maggie for one last long walk in Lake Walcott, and then spending a bit of time beside the Snake River to watch the parade of pelicans that lazed below the Minidoka Dam. And then there was the awesome osprey that was also hanging out beside the river that stopped me for a while, too.

Book Report: Travels with Maggie has grown to 43,888 words. I got up early and wrote this morning.

Bean’s Pat:  Since my internet connection is acting like a pouting brat who won’t come out of her room today, I haven’t been able to do much blog browsing. So the only Pat the Wondering Wanderer is giving out today is one to me for getting up early and writing, even though I partied until late last night.

Well, maybe also to the crew and actors of Avenue Q, the play I saw at the Rose Wagner Theater in Salt Lake City. I had never seen a raunchy puppet show before, and my friend was afraid I would be offended. I wasn’t. I laughed so hard I almost fell out of my seat. Despite its X rating, the play had a positive upbeat message. I mean how can you get offended at naked puppets, whose bodied ended at their midriffs, having sex.

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Birds, Dogs, Nature, Travel, Uncategorized, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Good-bye Lake Walcott State Park

September 6, 2012 by Pat Bean

     “On the road again – Just can’t wait to get on the road again …Goin’ places that I’ve never been. Seein’ things that I may never see again …” – Willie Nelson

Hello the Road 

Good-bye Mr. Lake Walcott Bear. Have a nice winter. — Phto by Pat Bean

Today I start a 5,000 mile journey. I invite you to come along.            I begin by traveling from Lake Walcott State Park in Idaho to Ogden, Utah, where I will stay a few days with friends and have my RV, Gypsy Lee, serviced and checked out.

I retired from a 37-year journalism career in Ogden on September 1, 2004. Two weeks before my retirement, I bought a new RV, which I named Gypsy Lee. Gypsy is for my itchy feet and Lee is for my grandfather, Charles Forest Lee, from whom my mother said I inherited my wanderlust.

Good-bye willow tree with the split personality. I’ll miss nodding to you each morning when Pepper and I take our walks. — Photo by Pat Bean

Before the end of 2004, I had sold my rooted Ogden home, and took to the road. After this coming journey, which will be the subject of my upcoming blogs, Gypsy Lee will have over 137,000 miles on her, and I will have visited 49 of the 50 states. I visited Hawaii in the 1980s and Alaska in 2001 before I retired.

Traveling between Lake Walcott and Ogden is a familiar 160-mile trip for me, but my plans today are to take a backroad that will take me through City of Rocks State Park. I’ll try and tell you all about it tomorrow.

Taking the untraveled path is how I hope to travel as my journey takes me across Middle America east to Front Royal, Virginia, before it heads south toward Texas, where my children expect me for Thanksgiving dinner.

Good-bye Lake of Many Moods. I’ll miss you, too. — Photo by Pat Bean

Book Report: Zilch. I celebrated my leaving Lake Walcott with a bunch of mostly old broads like myself, a group of women who call themselves the “Bay of Pigs.” Many of them have been friends since childhood. I feel honored that I got to know them at their First Wednesday lunches this year. I’ll carry their warm wishes with me on my journey and hope to see them next year when my tentative plans are to return to Lake Walcott. While I’m sorry my writing got left in the dust today, I’m not going to beat myself up. It wouldn’t be me if at least occasionally I didn’t let life interfere. That’s been a very hard lesson for me to learn.

The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.

Bean’s Pat: It’s a Bird Thing http://tinyurl.com/bnvf333 Exploring the Rio Chama Wild and Scenic River. My kind of travel. I was fortunate to have met Judy on a bird outing to check out mountain blue bird nest boxes above Ogden.

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Favorite Places, Journeys, Travel, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge

September 5, 2012 by Pat Bean

“If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we have to at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family anatidae on our hands.” Douglas Adams

 

Heads or tails? Northern pintails both. — Photo by Pat Bean

 Favorite Bird-Watching Places

A roseate spoonbill turns the water pink with its reflection. — Photo by Pat Bean

            Squished between the Kennedy Space Center and the Canaveral National Seashore  is Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

On and around this Florida coastal area live over 1,000 plant species, 117 fish species, 68 amphibian and reptile species, 330 bird species and 31 different mammals.

I spent a couple of days roaming the refuge in search of the birds. These photos represent  just a few of the ones I saw.

Wood storks, snowy egrets, great egrets and white ibis feeding peacefully together, well until the snowy egrets got pushy. — Photo by Pat Bean

The world needs more such places.                

  Book Report:  Travels with Maggie is up to 43,203 words.. Not much else to say except I’m slowly plodding ahead. 

The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.

Bean’s Pat: Make Mine Mystery http://tinyurl.com/9mnc8b4 Visiting Archer City has been on my To-Do List for some time now. I think I need to give it a higher priority.

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Posted in Birds, Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, Travels With Maggie, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments »

Favorite Things: A Bit of Whimsy

September 4, 2012 by Pat Bean

I Often Fine It in Zoos

This artist captured a scene I can remember from when I had a young son and we had a cat. Albuquerque, New Mexico, Zoo — Photo by Pat Bean

“In art, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can imagine.” – Ralph Waldo Anderson

Frolicking young elephants at the Dallas, Texas, Zoo. — Photo by Pat Bean

 

Grinning hippo, Henson Robinson Zoo, Springfield, Illinois. — Photo by Pat Bean

When I travel, I often stop to visit zoos along the way. Besides my job at watching animals, especially if the zoos have given them adequate habitats to meet their needs and keep them happy, the grounds are usually full of botanical wonders. These green spaces also attract wild birds, which is why I always carry by binoculars with me when I visit. An extra bonus are the artistic efforts that have take place to enhance the zoo experience. Most zoos I have visited offer animal artists to show off their talents, often in a whimsical way that makes me smile.  Book Report: Travels with Maggie now at 42,248 words. Not a lot accomplished over the Labor Day weekend. I worked in the entrance kiosk here at Lake Walcott on Saturday and Sunday, and then hosted friends for a Labor Day picnic and day of playing Skip-Bo. I’m hoping to get in a good stretch of writing this afternoon.

The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.

Bean’s Pat: Serenity Spell http://tinyurl.com/cjyxyg8 I love this little squirrel and the blog’s message to look for the magical things in the universe.

Posted in Art, Birds, Favorite Places, Travel, Uncategorized, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments »

Weekly Photo Challenge: Free Spirit

September 1, 2012 by Pat Bean

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable” – Helen Keller

Always up for adventure, Pepper is telling me to hurry my lazy butt along — Photo by Pat Bean

I Live With One 

Pepper! Did you do this?

         “Properly trained, man can be a dog’s best friend.” — Corey Ford

In March I lost my beloved canine traveling companion, Maggie, a black cocker spaniel that I had rescued from a life of abuse when she was a year old.  She went from being scared of her shadow to a spoiled diva queen after I promised her no one would ever hurt her again.

Maggie’s replacement was a four-month-old Scotty-mix puppy that turned out to be as different from Maggie as a spoiled regal queen is from an exuberant pig-tailed tomboy. Of course I’ve come to love her every bit as much as I loved Maggie.

Pepper, who is now about nine months old, is a rowdy thing who enjoys nothing more than rough-housing with dogs twice her size. While there’s not a hair of aggression in her, she’s usually a bit too rambunctious for smaller dogs.

“Me?” Yes, you. “The cat did it.” We don’t have a cat.

She is truly a free spirit, although she prefers accomplishing her hijinks within my sight. She bonded to me the first second she saw me. It took me at least two seconds before I knew I had a new traveling companion.

 

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Dogs, Weekly Photo Challenge | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments »

Favorite Places: Lake Walcott

August 31, 2012 by Pat Bean

            “To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring.” George Santayana

            The above quote fit my blog, but the one below made me laugh.  I couldn’t decide which one to post with my column, so I’m sharing both.

            “A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing and the lawn mower is broken.”—James Dent.

The sage brush in an area adjacent to the Lake Walcott campground is beginning to think it’s already autumn. — Photo by .Pat Bean

Summer Comes, Summer Goes

The brown-headed cowbirds that earlier thronged my bird feeders have already migrated elsewhere — Sketch by Pat Bean

            I can’t believe my summer at Lake Walcott State Park in Southern Idaho is coming to an end. But then they do say time flies when you’re having fun.This green, manicured park that sits beside the lake and the Snake River is an oasis in a dry high desert region that this year has been plagued by wildfires. While it was a hotter summer here than last, it was still heaven compared to central and south Texas weather, where I usually spend the winters. There, they not only have the heat but high humidity as well.

I have three children in those regions who frequently remind me how lucky I am not to be there.

But the house sparrows, as noted from the ones feeding beneath my bird feeder just this morning, are still sticking around. — Photo by Pat Bean

Last year when I arrived at the park, it was still winter and the trees were bare. This year, on the exact same day, May 15th, it was 90 degrees when I arrived and the trees were already full of leaves. It cooled off, however, and it was almost July before I had to start using my RV’s air conditioner daily.

Now, I’m seeing signs of fall creep into the park. Many of the park’s birds, like the colorful Bullock’s orioles and the American goldfinch are already migrating south. Most robins, as well. Instead of seeing dozens of these birds on my walks through the park, I’m now lucky to see one.

Book Report: Travels with Maggie, 41,820 re-edited words. Not much progress but I’m hoping to spend all afternoon working on the book. I decided to blog earlier today and clear my decks. A young blogger asked today what was the best writing advice his readers had ever received. I told him, it’s “Write! Write! Write!”  

The wondering wanderer’s blog pick of the day.

          Bean’s Pat: Lifescapes: The Texas Hill Country http://dld.bz/bJNbr The sounds of summer. This is a blog for nature lovers written by Susan Wittig Albert, author of the China Bayles mystery series written for herb and plant lovers. .

Posted in Art, Birds, Favorite Places, Lakes, Nature, Travel, Travels With Maggie, Uncategorized, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments »

Favorite Things: Babbling Creeks

August 30, 2012 by Pat Bean

“Don’t taunt the alligator until after you’ve crossed the creek. – Dan Rather

Wheeler Creek, up Wheeler Creek Canyon near Huntsville, Utah. — Photo by Pat Bean

And a Shady Spot to Sit 

Burch Creek as it flows down from the mountains above Ogden,Utah. — Photo by Pat Bean

I like nothing better than to find a shady spot next to a frisky stream. It brightens even the best of days.

And I’ve found dozens of just such places in Utah, where this native Texan was fortunate to live for almost a third of her life. I thought I would share a couple with you.

I hope you enjoy the photos. But it would be better yet, if you would find your own babbling stream where you sit and let it talk to you for a while.

Book Report: Blogging late and quick because I spent the morning writing on Travels with Maggie, which is now up to 41,639 words.

The wondering wanderer’s blog pick of the day.

Bean’s Pat: Eric Murtaugh http://tinyurl.com/9lhy3as Who do you think you are anyway? I love this blog, and this blogger. But he names himself properly in this column when he calls himself an intelligent donkey’s behind. One of my models for my travels was Frank Tatchel, author of the 1923 book, “The Happy Traveler,” who said: “The real fun of traveling can only be got by one who is content to go as a comparatively poor man. In fact, it is not money which travel demands so much as leisure and anyone with a small, fixed income can travel all the time.”  Eric sounds to me like a modern-day Tatchel.

Posted in Books, Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, Travels With Maggie, Writing | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Favorite Places: New York State Parks

August 29, 2012 by Pat Bean

“Memory … is the diary we all carry around with us.” – Oscar Wilde

Everyone was off watching the Revolutionary War reenactment so I had the beach to myself when I visited Hamblin Beach State Park on Lake Ontario in upper New York. — Photo by Pat Bean

One Brought Memories, One Created Them

Once upon a time, I pictured the state of New York as being one Big Apple. That picture changed the day I drove the parkway that runs along the south shore of Lake Ontario. Upper New York, I discovered this region is quite rural – with fantastic parks.

The board game, Krull, which my young grandson and I played often during his six-month stay with me.

I passed at least a half-dozen of them during the 75 mile drive from Niagara Falls to Hamblin Beach State Park,” a day that is remembered in the travel book I’m writing.

One of these awesome public recreation areas, the Joseph Davis State Park that sits on the Niagara River near its mouth with Lake Ontario, was the setting for the end of the 2005 Amazing Race. I didn’t know it at the time, however, and so didn’t stop. The Amazing Race is my all-time favorite Television Show.

I also didn’t stop at Krull Park, which came in second in Coca Cola’s search for America’s Favorite State Park. But just passing by this park and seeing its name brought back pleasant memories that had nothing to do with parks.

 

A poster from the 1983 movie, Krull. — Wikipedia photo

During the 1980s, my young grandson, David, lived with me for six months. We played endless games of Krull, a popular board game created from the movie “Krull,” which we went to see together. There’s now a video version of Krull out, while the original board game is selling for up to $75 on eBay.

While the name of Krull Park sparked pleasant memories from the past, Hamblin Beach State Park, where I camped for the night, created new memories for my brain bank. These included a walk along the beach and taking in a Revolutionary War reenactment that was taking place at the time.

Pat Conroy explains this side benefit of travel best: “Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends.”

            Book Report: I took a day off from all writing yesterday and did nothing but read. I think this is something I simply have to do every once in a while. A stormy day is best, but a hot day, as it was here at Lake Walcott, worked well, too, as I read in air-conditioned comfort. But I was back at work this morning and “Travels with Maggie” is now up to 40,322 words, some of which describe my visit to upper New York.

The wondering wanderer’s blog pick of the day.

Bean’s Pat: Writing in the Water http://tinyurl.com/9334rbwThe case of the “you shoulds.” Perhaps you shouldn’t. A blog for writers.

Posted in Books, Favorite Places, Lakes, Travels With Maggie, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments »

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