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Flying High to Tucson

March 25, 2012 by Pat Bean

 “May all your trails be crooked, winding, dangerous, leading to the most amazing views, where something strange and more beautiful and more full of wonder than your deepest dreams waits for you.” — Edward Abbey

 

A Tucson sunset -- Photo by Pat Bean

Getting Better

I’m in Tucson, where winter has long passed. The temperature’s in the 70s and low 80s, which is too hot for me in humid Texas but great here where the air is dry. Besides, the desert cools off at night, something Texas never does.

I left my RV, Gypsy Lee, parked in Texas yesterday and flew from Austin, to Dallas, to Tucson so as to spend some time with my youngest daughter, Trish. We’re both in a recuperating mode, she from double pneumonia and fractured ribs, and me from losing my canine traveling companion Maggie, and then eight days later her replacement, Princess Meghan.

The view I have out my daughter's large back window from my blogging spot. -- Photo by Pat Bean

We’re helping each other through difficult times. I couldn’t be in a better place.

And as a bonus, there’s new scenery visible from where I sit at my computer. But more importantly, I’m back to counting my daily blessings.

Bean’s Pat: Barb’s Blog http://tinyurl.com/6o67fyf A blog that clearly demonstrates no one can push you around without your permission. I love it.

Posted in Favorite Places, Nature | Tagged , , | 17 Comments »

Weekly Photo Challenge: Through

March 24, 2012 by Pat Bean

Driving through the tunnel -- Photo by Pat Bean

Custer State Park, South Dakota
 
“Life is one big road with lots of signs. So when you riding through the ruts, don’t complicate your mind. Flee from hate, mischief and jealousy. Don’t bury your thoughts, put your vision to reality. Wake Up and Live!” — Bob Marley
 
Bean’s Pat:  Kindness Kronicles  http://tinyurl.com/82zz9tm  The world needs more people like this blogger, who believes the world truly can be a kinder place in which to live. .
 
 

Posted in Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, Weekly Photo Challenge | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments »

Favorite Places: National Parks

March 23, 2012 by Pat Bean

“Look at the trees, look at the birds, look at the clouds, look at the stars… and if you have eyes you will be able to see that the whole existence is joyful. Everything is simply happy. Trees are happy for no reason; they are not going to become prime ministers or presidents and they are not going to become rich and they will never have any bank balance. Look at the flowers – for no reason. It is simply unbelievable how happy flowers are.” – Osho

Looking out on Frenchmen's Bay from Acadia National Park. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Acadia

My 2006 visit to Acadia National Park in Maine brought back memories of my daughter’s Navy service. Not strange, since the destroyer tender she served on was named after the park.

I had been curious about this park ever since I had sailed aboard the USS Acadia. The occasion was a 1990 Tiger Cruise from Seattle to San Diego, a public relations opportunity to show parents and other loved ones how safely their sailors lived, in my case my youngest daughter.

How can one not feel at peace in such a setting. -- Photo by Pat Bean

These memories, triggered as I drove into the park, also refreshed my unanswered question of why war ships are named after national parks, as in USS Acadia, USS Yellowstone, USS Grand Canyon, USS Yosemite … It seemed like an oxymoron. Parks are places of peace and war are places of

hell.

My daughter, who was one of 400 women among the Acadia’s 1,200-person crew, was a welder whose job entailed repairing battle ships that females were not allowed to serve on. That gave me some bit of comfort until she wrote to me about being aboard one of the battleships when it went on full alert. She had been taken aboard the battleship via helicopter to do a bit of welding

Maine's sea coast -- Photo by Pat Bean

By the time I reached the park’s Hulls Cove Visitor Center, the lushness of the roadside trees, which were just barely beginning to change into their autumn colors, glimpses of turquoise Frenchmen’s Bay, and the cheerfulness of pastel purple asters I passed, had put me in a more cheerful frame of mind.

Mother Nature has always had a calming effect on me.

Bean’s Pat: Fun and Fabulousness http://tinyurl.com/87jc6bb Spend a day in Paris while sitting in an easy chair.

Posted in Favorite Places, Nature | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments »

Favorite Places: National Parks

March 22, 2012 by Pat Bean

“I soon realized that no journey carries one far unless, as it extends into the world around us, it goes an equal distance into the world within.” –Lillian Smith

Looking down from the Island at the Green River -- or is it the Colorado. The Green joins the Colorado near here. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Canyonlands: Island in the Sky

This park, located near Arches National Park, Dead Horse Point Utah State Park and Moab — all fantastic things on any bucket list — is a great escape from our chaotic lives. I try never to miss it when I’m in the area.

I’ve never been there when it felt crowded. It has a  tiny campground, in which I’ve both tent and RV-camped, spectacular aerial views of the Green and Colorado rivers and a fairy land of rock formations.

If you go, don’t miss taking the Mesa Arch Trail. It’s only a short half-mile hike but the view at the end is awesome. Have Fun.

Bean’s Pat: A Year on the Road http://tinyurl.com/79ba6la Al’s a full-time RV-er like me. This column is simply full of trivia, but check out some of his back columns.  While I write more about Mother Nature’s landscapes, he focuses more on the people who inhabit the landscape.

Posted in Favorite Places, Nature, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Favorite Places: National Parks

March 21, 2012 by Pat Bean

 

Yellowstone's trails called to me, and I always answered. -- Photo by Pat Bean

“National parks are the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst.” — Wallace Stegner

Yellowstone

My long-time Ogden, Utah, home was only a half day’s drive from Yellowstone – and so I visited it every year at least once. Fall, after the crowds had left, was always my favorite time. .

Most years it was a solo adventure. Usually I would wake up on a Saturday morning with an itch in my feet and simply take off.

I never failed to appreciate the beauty of this first national park. Yellowstone offered me my first glimpse of a wolf in its natural habitat. That’s a thrill that has stayed with me.

 

One of the park's many thermal pools. This one lies along the Morning Glory Trail that begins at Old Faithful. -- Photo by Pat Bean

But more often my joy came simply from hiking a trail and discovering bits and pieces of nature: a meadow full of yellow wildflowers, an elk on the banks of the Madison River, Fantastic views of the Firehole River from a high overlook, the bright turquoise of Morning Glory Pool, and of course the gurgling, hissing, spouting, smoking of the park’s geysers.

It became a tradition for me to sit on the balcony of the Old Faithful Inn, with margarita in hand, to watch Old Faithful blow water and steam high into the air.

How, I ask you, could Yellowstone National Park, not be on my list of favorite places.

Bean’s Pat: http://tinyurl.com/89aolmc The geology of Yellowstone.

Posted in Favorite Places, Nature, Travel | Tagged , , , , , | 22 Comments »

Favorite Places: Jamaica

March 20, 2012 by Pat Bean

“Getting older is no problem. You just have to live long enough..” — Groucho Marks

Cruising down the Black River 

I took a long bus ride to take a boat cruise down Jamaica's Black River. What a fantastic day it was. While I loved the colorful structures at the beginning of the trip, I also loved the more isolated stretches where egrets and herons stood watch of the river from the safety of the mangrove trees. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Versatile Blogger Award

Thank you Bella Remy http://bellaremyphotography.wordpress.com/ for giving me A Versatile Blogger’s Award, which means I am supposed to tell you seven things about myself. Huh… Let’s see…

I often start my mornings by listening to Helen Reddy’s recording of “I Am Woman Hear Me Roar.”

My mother called me Patsy Lee, unless she was mad at me. Then it was: Patricia Lee Joseph. Pat, however, is what I feel fits me.

I love bright colors and it doesn’t bother me at all if they clash.

The first time I walked into a newsroom, I knew it was where I belonged. And so it was for the next 37 years.

My early school-days nickname was Cootie Brain. I was so ashamed of it that I didn’t tell a soul until I was in my 50s. Today I feel that kids who don’t fit in are the lucky ones.

I must have both alone time and people in my life, which means my life is a constant juggling game.

And finally, I adore every single one of my followers. You’re an amazing bunch, and I’m having fun getting to know some of you better. And my thanks to all of you who have softened my recent blow from the loss of two pets with your heartfelt comments. The kind words did help.

Bean’s Pat: Chicks With Ticks http://tinyurl.com/6qpusvo Finding Walden.

 

Posted in Favorite Places, Travel | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments »

Weekly Photo Challenge: Unusual

March 19, 2012 by Pat Bean

“Today is a most unusual day because we have never lived it before; we will never live it again; it is the only day we have.” — William Arthur Ward

Unusual guardians of the lake are these black vultures. -- Photo by Pat Bean

 Bean’s Pat: Jack Elliot’s Santa Barbara Adventure http://tinyurl.com/7n7eope  Bald eagles 

Posted in Weekly Photo Challenge | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments »

Lightning Finds Me Twice

March 18, 2012 by Pat Bean

 “To live in this world you must be able to do three things: to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go.” Mary Oliver

Princess Meghan Joined Maggie in the Clouds

This well may be the hardest blog I’ve ever written. But it’s part of my travel journey and I know I must share it for continuity in my blogging. One of these days I’ll write the whole story, but the wound is still too fresh for complete details.

 

Wisteria and tiny pink ground flowers as seen through my RV window. -- Photo by Pat Bean

After losing my long-time canine travel companion, Maggie, and adopting Princess Meghan, a tiny, energetic beagle as her replacement, I lost her also.

In a space of eight days, I stood beside two beloved pets as they were humanely euthanized. A freak accident left Meghan paralyzed and I felt I had no choice.

My body shut down for four days and only today is it beginning to revive itself. I mostly stayed alone in my RV with the shades drawn. The shades are up today, and I’m once again open to the outside world.

A plethora of bird song is humming through the air, and a nearby white wisteria is scenting the landscape. I’m extremely grateful to notice because my senses were so dimmed by my sorrow that I truly could not enjoy the roadside bluebonnets that accompanied me Friday on a journey from Lake Jackson to Harker Heights north of Austin.

I saw them, but felt no joy.

I was going to continue on Saturday toward Tucson, where a sick daughter wants her mother, but my body refused to go on. So I’m sitting here at my oldest son’s home for a few days. I suspect I’ll continue my journey Tuesday or Wednesday.

It will be a lonely trip, but I do believe this tough old broad will at least be able to enjoy the sights along the way. Hopefully there will be more roadside bluebonnets.

And hopefully, this blog will once again take on its upbeat travel theme. Dookie happens to everyone and getting on with life is always the best thing we can do.

 Camping With a Canine in Cornwall http://tinyurl.com/726he22 This reminded me of many of my own adventuress when I was a tent camper. And it cheered me up.

Posted in Journeys, Travel, Wildflowers | Tagged , , , , , , | 24 Comments »

Favorite Places: Hannibal, Missouri

March 14, 2012 by Pat Bean

“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

Tom and Huck’s Cardiff Hill

Mark Twain put Hannibal on the map, and the city is now using the places where Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn played and roamed to entice people to the tourist town. You can take a ride on a paddle boat, tour the dark corners of the cave Tom and Becky got lost in, visit his home and walk up 253 steps to get to the top of Cardiff Hill. I did them all, simply because. -- Photo by Pat Bean

I climbed the steps and then discovered the road that most others took to the top. I think I would have taken those steps even if I knew the road existed, however. That’s just who I am.

Bean’s Pat: Camping With a Canine in Cornwall http://tinyurl.com/726he22 This reminded me of many of my own adventuress when I was a tent camper. .

 

Posted in Favorite Places, Travel, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments »

A Week in Chicago

March 13, 2012 by Pat Bean

 “Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind.” ~Seneca

The Art Institute of Chicago – and Snow

While I tend to hit the backroads and boonies most frequently in my travels so as to satisfy my need for Mother Nature’s sanctuaries, I also enjoy big cities.

That good because I recently spent a week in Chicago. The purpose was to visit my youngest son, Michael, but I also got in a bit of sight-seeing in the Windy City.

My son, knowing that no visit to any big city is complete without a visit to an art museum, set aside a day for us to take in the Chicago institute of Art, which has a great Impressionist collection.

What a great day it was, from being amused by the pair of fierce lions guarding the museum entrance to getting re-acquainted with the works of Van Gogh, even though my favorites, his Starry Night series was not among them.

A snowy early morning view from my son's third-floor Chicago apartment. -- Photo by Pat Bean

It was a great visit, which included a fancy dinner at the top of the John Hancock Building, which came with a foggy night view of the city.  But  I especially enjoyed getting up one morning and looking out my son’s apartment window and seeing snow. This winter has been spent mostly on Texas’ Gulf Coast and snow has not been part of the landscape.

Change, I think, is good for the human soul. At least it feels that way for mine.

 Bean’s Pat: Cats in Paris http://tinyurl.com/7ql84jt Quite an eclectic collection, and I loved them all.

Posted in Favorite Places, Travel | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment »

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