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Posts Tagged ‘postaday’

A Missed Turn Finally Put Me on the Right Road

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Journeys, Nature, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , on October 16, 2012| 1 Comment »

            “If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the opposite direction.” —  Dietrich Bonhoeffer      

Adventures with Pepper: Day 25  

A picnic site along the Ohio River Scenic Byway. — Photo by Pat Bean

          Once again I decided to take the scenic route instead of the shortest route. I would continue following the Ohio River Scenic Byway, Highway 52, south. It would eventually turn north and become Highway 7, which would take me to my Carthage Gap destination near Coolville, Ohio.

But once again, I found myself on a scenic byway that wasn’t untraveled. That wasn’t too bad, I thought in the beginning. I needed a post office, and since I was driving down the main street of all these small towns, surely I would see one.

I knew to look for an American flag out in front. Well, I saw lots of American flags, indicating this was a pretty patriotic part of the country, but none of them were in front of post offices. I finally thought I had found one when I spotted a postal truck in downtown Gallipolis.

It wasn’t, but I did catch up with the postman hand delivering mail in the vicinity, and he took my envelope to mail.

I frequently saw pumpkins and mums for sale along the Ohio River Scenic Byway. — Photo by Pat Bean

The post was important to me because it contained my signed contract to blog three times a week for American Profile magazine. This was a writing job that I was thrilled to have gotten, especially since I would be blogging about this beautiful country I live in.

The blog is called Discovering America, and you can check it and the magazine’s other blogs out at: http://blogs.americanprofile.com

I guess I was still thinking about this great opportunity when I missed my turnoff to Carthage Gap.

I knew I had done something wrong when I found myself crossing the Ohio River into Ravenswood, West Virginia.

I immediately I got stopped by a Fall Harvest Parade being held in the town, but at least  that gave me some time to study my map to discover where I had gone wrong, and what to do about it.

The answer was to go back across the bridge to Ohio and take Highway 124 to Carthage Gap, which is exactly what I did when I could finally pull a U-turn.

Highway 124 was narrow, winding, sometimes steep and it followed closer to the Ohio River than I had been all day. And I had it practically to myself.

I’m sure glad I took that wrong turn.

            Book Report: No progress yet today. Too much other stuff to catch up on. I’ll get to Travels with Maggie later today – I hope.

The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.

Bean’s Pat: Photovia http://tinyurl.com/cnung67 I May Die: I’ve been here a few times  in my travels, and know exactly how relived one is to find they’re right where they should be, and that the scary isn’t scary at all – just different. This post made me smile. Perhaps it will you, too.

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Glorious End to a Day’s Drive Beside a River

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Books, Journeys, Nature, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , , , on October 15, 2012| 5 Comments »

            “I venerate old age; and I love not the man who can look without emotion upon the sunset of life, when the dusk of evening begins to gather over the watery eye, and the shadows of twilight grow broader and deeper upon the understanding” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

This is how the sky looked when Pepper and I first went outside to watch the sun go down. — Photo by Pat Bean

Adventures with Pepper: Day 23-24

I left readers wondering about whether I would drive on the Kentucky or the Ohio side of the Ohio River today.  But the big question I had to answer first was whether I was going into Cincinnati to do a little sight-seeing, or was I going to skirt it.

And this is how it looked a few minutes later, when I thought it could get no more colorful. — Photo by Pat Bean

While I truly can enjoy big cities, I prefer to do so without an RV as my mode of transportation, and without a dog. Since I was stuck, happily I might add, with both, I decided to skirt the Queen City by taking Interstate 275 across the Ohio River and through Kentucky – Yes I know, I hate freeways but it was the easiest and quickest way to get away from city traffic.

Thankfully I was only on 275 for about 35 miles before I crossed back over the Ohio River on the other side of its big curve. Ohio came out the winner as the state of choice for the majority of today’s travel.

Once in Ohio, I veered south onto Highway 52, also known as the Ohio River Scenic Byway. I was seldom out of sight of the river the entire day.

But then it did. — Photo by Pat Bean

My route took me past Ulysses S. Grant’s birth place, where of course I stopped to investigate, but didn’t linger long.

I think I had wondered my brain out yesterday, for when I reread the notes I had jotted down on the drive to put into my journal later, there were none.  But I didn’t need notes to remember that the best part of the day was the evening, which I spent backed up to the Ohio River at Wolford’s Landing outside Portsmouth.

The day’s biggest thrill came when my canine traveling companion, Pepper, and I watched the sun go down over the Ohio River. I stayed an extra day at Wolford’s in hopes of a replay.

Book Report:  Travels With Maggie up 55,902 words.

The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.

Bean’s Pat: Travel Books http://tinyurl.com/cng8jzl This blog intrigued me because I’m a big fan of travel books, and of the five favorites this blogger mentioned, I hadn’t read four of them. Of course I’m going to check those four out. How about you?

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A Wondering Day for this Wanderer

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Books, Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , , on October 12, 2012| 8 Comments »

            “It’s no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense.” – Mark Twain

Adventures with Pepper: Day 22

I didn’t wonder at all about this willow tree. I just enjoyed how it gracefully hung over the pond at the Indian Springs Campground near North Bend, Ohio. — Photo by Pat Bean

Today’s drive, mostly on Highway 50, was a wondering one for this wanderer.

The first city I passed through, a tiny town called Gnaw Bone that had lots of flea markets, got me wondering how a town got to be named Gnaw Bone.

Perhaps it wasn’t.

I learned that the area was originally a French settlement called Narbonne, which English settlers might have mistranslated as Gnaw Bone.

I didn’t stop at any of the flea markets, just in case you wondered.  No room in Gypsy Lee for stuff.

It was an overcast drizzly day, and although 50 was certainly a backroad, it wasn’t untraveled. My brain wasn’t untraveled either. My thoughts were all over the place.

Just as a storm of leaves blew across the highway east of North Vernon, a lavender semi drove through them. Now I’ve seen purple semis but never a lavender one. It left me wondering about the driver. Man or woman? I couldn’t tell as the large vehicle passed me on a curve.

But then I found myself wondering why one of these geese on the pond wasn’t like the others. — Photo by Pat Bean

And then I found myself quoting out loud to my canine traveling companion, Pepper. “I never saw a purple cow. I never hope to see one. But I would rather see, than be one.”

Well, OK. It was just that kind of day.

And then there was the old green truck with a rear sticker that asked: “Who is John Galt?” That question got me thinking about how life is lived at either end of the pendulum. I read Ayn Rand’s book, “Atlas Shrugged” at a pivotal time in my life, and got a lot from it. It wouldn’t mean the same thing to me these days.

And so the day went until I finally pulled into the Indian Springs Campground near North Bend, Ohio.

Then I spent the evening wondering which side of the Ohio River I was going to travel down tomorrow. Tune in Monday to find out..

Book Report: I was up before 6 a.m. to work on it, but most of the time was spent unraveling the back roads I took from Brimfield, Massachusetts, to Monroe, New York. But I got it done. Travels with Maggie is now up to 55,617 words.

The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.

Bean’s Pat: Live to Write http://tinyurl.com/9efoarz Tarzan or Jane? A fun question to make you think. My answer is Jane, because she got to experience two worlds.

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You Can’t Get There From Here

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Favorite Hikes, Nature, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , , , on October 11, 2012| 8 Comments »

And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh. – Friedrich Nietzsche

It was true. You can’t get there from here. — Photo by Pat Bean

Adventures with Pepper: Day: Day 20-21

I literally couldn’t get there from here after I left Illinois and drove into Indiana.  I misread a warning sign, thinking it was the other direction in which the bridge was out.

It wasn’t.

Time to back-track and follow the detour signs.

They led me to Clay City, Indiana, which calls itself the Mayberry of the Midwest, and then onto Highway 246, a narrow, winding backroad on which the colors of fall had already arrived. While I regretted my error, I was sure glad I got to drive the detour.

I wasn’t that happy, however, about getting lost in Bloomington, where I wandered around for an hour. I stopped for directions and twice people gave me wrong ones. I finally found a place to park, somewhere on the University of Indiana campus, where the last direction giver had sent me, and got onto my computer to seek out my own way out of town.

The trail Pepper and I walked daily — Photo by Pat Bean

Thankfully, I was just two blocks from Highway 45, which I had been following until I got side-tracked by Bloomington construction. Once back on the right road, I stayed on it to Nashville – Indiana not Tennessee.

My campground for the next two days would be the Last Resort Campground, where it rained most of the time. There was a nice trail behind the park, which Pepper and I walked several times a day, usually starting out during a lull in the dripping sky, which usually didn’t last until we got back to the RV.

All part of travel – and since no whining is allowed in Gypsy Lee, I didn’t

Book Report: Travels with Maggie now at 55,432 words

            Bean Pat: Wildflowers http://tinyurl.com/9r3lg27 A reminder that beauty can be found anywhere. Almost makes me want to hurry back to Texas. I love this blog because it’s helping me learn the names of wildflowers. As a writer, I need to know these things, because a flower is not a flower, it’s a poppy or a penstemon or a bluebonnet – or as it was today, a blazing star or a gayfeather, or for the scientific-minded, which I am not, a liatris mucronate.

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Back Roads and Lincoln Trail Park, Illinois

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Birds, Favorite Places, Lakes, Nature, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , , on October 10, 2012| 8 Comments »

            “The everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the acts of greed in the headlines … It does no harm just once in a while to acknowledge that the whole country isn’t in flames, that there are people in the country besides politicians, entertainers, and criminals.” – Charles Kuralt

A lone great egret on Lincoln Trail Lake —  Photo by Pat Bean

Adventures with Pepper: Day 18-19

            I got it all figured out on the map, just exactly the best way to get to Lincoln’s Tomb in Springfield. But in the end, I decided I’d rather spend my day traveling down Illinois’ backroads.

A young deer in the sunlight while the mom stays more hidden in the shadows. The park was full of deer. A staff worker said they had fawned late this year. — Photo by Pat Bean

So, with a cheat sheet of right and left turns to compensate for my lack of directional sense, I set out to drive from Chatham to Lincoln Trail State Park.

You guessed it. I got turned around numerous times. It seems my map and reality were  two different things. Too often sign markers were missing, and once even turned around the wrong way.

But it was a beautiful drive and I eventually found my way over numerous state and county roads to Lincoln Trail State Park, which was awesome.

I camped on a high lookout point with stairs leading down to the small lake that was painted by the colors of fall.

I had breakfast at the park’s marina restaurant before I left. The food was ho-hum, but the view was magnificent. — Photo by Pat Bean — Photo by Pat Bean

The large park is just west of the 1,000-mile Lincoln Heritage Trail, which marks Lincoln’s passage from Kentucky, through Indiana to Illinois.Heavily forested, the park is home to beech, oak, maple, hickory, sweet gum and sassafras trees. among many others. The air was clean and fresh, the days warm and sunny, and the nights cold and crisp, just perfect for snuggling beneath the covers with my canine traveling companion Pepper, and having pleasant dreams.

            Book Report: Travels with Maggie is now at 55,212 words. Not much time to write with traveling and other commitments, but I’m trying to at least keep it moving forward every day.    

The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.

        Bean’s Pat: Focus on the Eyes http://tinyurl.com/8rd5zjr Good advice for picture taking. I never thought of this very helpful hint. Perhaps other amateur photographers haven’t either.

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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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Home on the Range with the Pony Express

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Dogs, Travel, Uncategorized, Writing, tagged , , , , , , on October 4, 2012| 2 Comments »

“The first trip of the Pony Express was made in ten days – an average of two hundred miles a day. But we soon began stretching our riders and making better time.” – Buffalo Bill

Pony Express statue in St. Joseph, Missouri. — Wikipedia photo

Adventures with Pepper: Day 13 Continued

            Wow! Two hundred miles a day on horseback!. That’s almost exactly how many miles Pepper and I would be traveling today as we made our way from Prairie Dog State Park to Seneca, Kansas, on Highway 36.

The small pond at the Stallbaumer RV Park in Seneca, Kansas, where Pepper and I spent a quiet night. — Photo by Pat Bean

Our route took us in an almost straight line through Northern Kansas’ agriculture fields, most of which had already been harvested. A sign also told us we were passing through the birthplace of “Home on the Range.”We were also traveling the route of the Pony Express, which began in St. Joseph, Missouri, and went all the way to Sacramento, California. Historical markers, and an occasional hill-top silhouette of a pony rider reminded of this every few miles.

Red-tailed hawks, turkey vultures and one prairie falcon, well at least one I could identify, soared above as we passed. It was easy to identify the red-tails by the vibrant color of their tails, and the vultures were easily identified by the way they flew and the white pattern on the underside of their tails.

It took me much longer to identify the falcon, however, and I guessed it simply by the shape of its wings. As always, I wondered what it would be like to have the freedom of flight.

And so went this day’s drive, a bit of history, a bit of folk art, and a lot of wondering.

Book Report: I’m staying put today and haven’t got to working on Travels with Maggie yet – but I will. I gave my early morning, the time when I write best, to a paying writing gig, which I’ll announce at a later date.

The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.

Bean’s Pat:  Daily Diversion http://tinyurl.com/8j6qhyo Just a reminder that there are things we can do when not connected the internet. Besides, I like the dog.

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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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