So what do we know about Nebraska? Corn? Check out Fort Kearney State Park!
Wind in the trees. Cicadas. It’s nice here.
Elevation 2,150 feet.
Temperature still in the upper sixties so far tonight.
5,910 miles.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Wednesday
It was cold last night 36 degrees. Drove an Interstate 80 day. Trucker’s highway. Stopped for the night at Fort Kearney State Park. The farthest east we’ve been in Nebraska this year.
So what do we know about Nebraska? Corn? Check out Fort Kearney State Park!
So what do we know about Nebraska? Corn? Check out Fort Kearney State Park!
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
On the road again
There is nothing wrong about oatmeal. It’s just me and the goofy way I metabolize carbohydrates. I don’t do it very well.
The Leaf Bug; that was Teigan’s. I got to take pictures as she was letting it go in the raspberry bushes. Leaf Bugs really like to eat raspberry leaves.
Monday
We’ve been in
North up Interstate 25. Across the state line to
Stopped for the night at Wheatland; elevation 4,750 feet. Cold at night; in the thirties. The air won’t hold much moisture here. Dry skin. We mean to find some humidity.
Dinner and a visit with Bill and Marge. Friends for over forty years.
5,530 miles since Port Aransas.
Tuesday
Rolled down Highway 26, diagonally southeast through
Elevation 3,200 feet. A little warmer. The air should be able to hold a little more moisture here.
5,750 miles.
Life on the road.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Leaf Bug
Here is another picture of it. Hint: It looks like a leaf.
If you want to see it bigger, go to the blog and click on the picture: http://steveandjudystravelblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/can-you-spot.html
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Saturday, September 26, 2009
You just never know
Given my heart history, I have to remain constantly aware of my energy level. That’s my early indicator of redeveloping heart issues. If my capacity starts a steady decline, that means it’s time for another visit to the Cath Lab to open up the blood flow to my heart again. We expect it to happen; we just don’t know when.
We’re watching for patterns. A change in energy for one day is not a big deal. A decline over time is. For the last couple weeks, walks were getting tougher and slower. Clearly, something was going on. I was almost ready to trigger the cardiology visit and change our schedule to accommodate hospitalization and recuperation, when a coincidence struck me. For the last few weeks I’ve been eating oatmeal again after a several-year hiatus. I love oatmeal. I don’t remember why I stopped eating it in the first place.
But the onset of my energy decline coincided with my resumption of daily oatmeal. I eliminated the oatmeal from my diet. I feel great again.
You just never know.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Thursday, September 24, 2009
The last thing
Doctors, dentists, mechanics. Two weeks. A full schedule. Blood drawn from both of us this morning, an annual physical for me. Only one more thing to take care of: get a permanent filling put in Judy’s tooth; the tooth that required an emergency root canal. The root canal resulted in a temporary filling. A quick visit to our regular dentist to look things over, do one filling, and we’re done.
Turns out that visit this noon was the *next to the last* thing to do. Several old fillings, really old fillings, were wearing out and coming apart. They needed fixing right away, before we’re gone from
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Trauma
Oil change trauma. An oil change isn’t that big a deal for the Jeep. It’s a much bigger deal for the motorhome. Not only do we have to buy 29 quarts of oil and an air filter that costs $100, we have to give up our house for an entire day. We give up our house and our office all at the same time. We’re left to wander aimlessly in the Jeep.
We did manage to occupy ourselves for the day (well, Becky helped). Actually, we got a lot of errands done. We picked up the coach tonight and got it parked back in our spot next to the pond at St Vrain. The oil change only happens once a year.
It’s all better now.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Snakes
While we were in
It was perfectly still. We were speculating about whether it was alive or not when Judy surprised me and pulled it by the tail; which surprised the snake, and it moved off into the grass alongside the trail.
Last weekend at Pawnee Grasslands we encountered another snake; this one on the road.
I think it’s a Bullsnake. Judy the Snake Wrangler surprised me again; this time by grabbing the snake by the tail and flinging it off to the side of the road. (I wish I had known she was going to do that. I’d have switched to video mode.)
Judy was protecting the snake from getting run over. The snake didn’t appreciate the effort, gave a great hiss, and crawled right back onto the road.
Judy declined to repeat the effort for the video cam. (It would have been a great shrieking hissing clip.)
Pawnee Buttes
http://steveandjudystravelblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/prairie.html
Note that the tiny toad in Judy’s hand has spines and a tail. You can click on the picture to enlarge it. It’s a horny toad. Specifically, a
Monday, September 21, 2009
I get a new cellphone
Not because it was time for a new cellphone. The old cellphone was only a couple months old and was perfectly fine until it drowned. It was riding along in my pocket then it just suddenly drowned.
Coincidentally, it drowned at precisely the moment I decided to step into the kayak. The kayak was floating in the shallow water just a little offshore in the pond. I didn’t want to get my foot wet, so instead of stepping closer to the boat, I just took one big step from the dry land to the kayak. As one grandkid put it, I tried not to get my foot wet and ended up getting my hat wet. A full-body dunk.
The new dry cellphone arrives tomorrow.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Prairie
A day trip out onto the eastern plains. As Saturday hike to Pawnee Buttes, from the overlook at the point of the first picture, across the escarpment on the right, and on to the buttes in the distance.
It was a good day for spotting birds of prey: Northern Harrier, Swainson’s Hawk, Red Tailed Hawk, Ferruginous Hawk, American Kestrel, Peregrine Falcon, Prairie Falcon. Lots of other prairie birds: doves, shrikes, larks, buntings, sparrows, and longspurs. Swarms of them.
It was a good day for spotting birds of prey: Northern Harrier, Swainson’s Hawk, Red Tailed Hawk, Ferruginous Hawk, American Kestrel, Peregrine Falcon, Prairie Falcon. Lots of other prairie birds: doves, shrikes, larks, buntings, sparrows, and longspurs. Swarms of them.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Friday, September 18, 2009
Even more techno
Judy bought an itouch:
It has all sorts of applications: photos, music; one application in particular I find interesting: 
It has all sorts of applications: photos, music; one application in particular I find interesting:
920 North American birds listed with identification keys, photos, range, songs, identifier feature. It’s nicely done.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Thursday
Our day to go get beat up by our friend John, the dermatologist, and his canister of liquid nitrogen. In a matter of moments he can make it look like you had a bicycle crash and landed on your face. (Funny thing though, a week later all those little dry and sore spots, the reason we went there in the first place, will be gone.) Back at Saint Vrain State Park, a bald eagle soared overhead.
Do you know how hard it is to take a decent video of a soaring bird with a hand-held camera? Let me demonstrate:
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Wednesday
The Hydrohot guy, John, came back and finished the service and repair this morning. He found a circulation pump and a mixer valve that needed to be replaced. Hydrohot is our heating system. It runs on diesel, electric, or both, depending on which switches we activate from inside. It provides the heated fluid for our furnace vents, front and back. It provides all the hot water for our dishes and showers. It provides the engine preheat so we don’t have to start a cold engine in the morning or have an extended idle while the engine comes up to temperature. It even works in reverse. When the engine is running, the engine provides the heat for the circulating fluid, so all the hot water systems work without any of the burners being turned on.
Most of this stuff is usually done with propane. With all of it done with diesel and electric, we don’t do much with propane. We have a twenty-five gallon propane tank that runs the stovetop burners and the refrigerator when we’re not plugged in to shore power. We only have to fill the propane tank once a year.
Anyway, we’re all fixed, the hot water stays a nice constant 127 degrees now. (It was yo-yo ing before.) Judy got the Jeep serviced and new tires put on.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Tuesday
Root canal day. Judy had a tooth attack last week. It turned out to be an issue the emergency dental clinic couldn’t deal with so she got drugs and the opportunity to tough it out over the weekend. She got her root canal done by the oral surgeon today. She gets a crown on it next week.
It’s always a busy time when we’re in this part of
Birding
That last list was for July. 138 birds. A good month for us.
And the list for August. Not so many. 114 birds. Four of them were lifers for us though.
http://steveandjudystravelblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/august-bird-list.html
August bird list
And the list for August. Not so many. 114 birds. Four of them were lifers for us though.
| Cackling Goose (lifer) |
| Canada Goose |
| Wood Duck |
| American Wigeon |
| Mallard |
| Ring-necked Duck |
| Common Goldeneye |
| Hooded Merganser |
| Common Merganser |
| Ring-necked Pheasant |
| Sharp-tailed Grouse |
| Common Loon |
| Pied-billed Grebe |
| American White Pelican |
| Double-crested Cormorant |
| Great Blue Heron |
| Turkey Vulture |
| Osprey |
| Bald Eagle |
| Northern Harrier |
| Cooper's Hawk |
| Swainson's Hawk |
| Red-tailed Hawk |
| Golden Eagle |
| American Kestrel |
| Peregrine Falcon |
| Prairie Falcon |
| American Coot |
| Killdeer |
| Spotted Sandpiper |
| Greater Yellowlegs |
| Lesser Yellowlegs |
| Baird's Sandpiper |
| Ring-billed Gull |
| |
| Rock Pigeon |
| Eurasian Collared-Dove |
| Mourning Dove |
| Vaux's Swift |
| White-throated Swift |
| Belted Kingfisher |
| Yellow-bellied Sapsucker |
| Downy Woodpecker |
| American Three-toed Woodpecker (lifer) |
| Northern Flicker |
| Pileated Woodpecker |
| Olive-sided Flycatcher |
| Western Wood-Pewee |
| Alder Flycatcher (lifer) |
| |
| Least Flycatcher |
| |
| Eastern Phoebe |
| Western Kingbird |
| Eastern Kingbird |
| Warbling Vireo |
| Red-eyed Vireo |
| Gray Jay |
| Steller's Jay |
| Blue Jay |
| |
| Black-billed Magpie |
| American Crow |
| Common Raven |
| Horned Lark |
| Violet-green Swallow |
| Northern Rough-winged Swallow |
| Cliff Swallow |
| Barn Swallow |
| Black-capped Chickadee |
| Mountain Chickadee |
| Boreal Chickadee (lifer) |
| Red-breasted Nuthatch |
| White-breasted Nuthatch |
| Golden-crowned Kinglet |
| Ruby-crowned Kinglet |
| Mountain Bluebird |
| Townsend's Solitaire |
| Swainson's Thrush |
| American Robin |
| Gray Catbird |
| European Starling |
| Cedar Waxwing |
| Tennessee Warbler |
| Orange-crowned Warbler |
| Yellow Warbler |
| Yellow-rumped Warbler |
| Townsend's Warbler |
| American Redstart |
| Common Yellowthroat |
| Wilson's Warbler |
| Western Tanager |
| Chipping Sparrow |
| Brewer's Sparrow |
| Vesper Sparrow |
| |
| Song Sparrow |
| |
| Dark-eyed Junco |
| Northern Cardinal |
| Rose-breasted Grosbeak |
| Lazuli Bunting |
| Red-winged Blackbird |
| Western Meadowlark |
| Yellow-headed Blackbird |
| Brewer's Blackbird |
| Common Grackle |
| Bullock's Oriole |
| Cassin's Finch |
| House Finch |
| Pine Siskin |
| American Goldfinch |
| Evening Grosbeak |
| House Sparrow |
Monday, September 14, 2009
July bird list
A pretty good list for July: 138 birds.
| Black-bellied Whistling-Duck |
| Canada Goose |
| Mallard |
| Blue-winged Teal |
| Ruddy Duck |
| Northern Bobwhite |
| Pied-billed Grebe |
| Western Grebe |
| |
| American White Pelican |
| Brown Pelican |
| Neotropic Cormorant |
| Double-crested Cormorant |
| Great Blue Heron |
| Great Egret |
| Snowy Egret |
| Little Blue Heron |
| Tricolored Heron |
| Cattle Egret |
| Green Heron |
| Black-crowned Night-Heron |
| White Ibis |
| White-faced Ibis |
| Roseate Spoonbill |
| Black Vulture |
| Turkey Vulture |
| Osprey |
| |
| Northern Harrier |
| Swainson's Hawk |
| Red-tailed Hawk |
| Golden Eagle |
| American Kestrel |
| Sora |
| Common Moorhen |
| American Coot |
| |
| Killdeer |
| Black-necked Stilt |
| Spotted Sandpiper |
| Greater Yellowlegs |
| Long-billed Curlew |
| Laughing Gull |
| Ring-billed Gull |
| |
| Least Tern |
| Gull-billed Tern |
| Caspian Tern |
| Black Tern |
| Forster's Tern |
| Royal Tern |
| Black Skimmer |
| Rock Pigeon |
| Eurasian Collared-Dove |
| White-winged Dove |
| Mourning Dove |
| Inca Dove |
| Yellow-billed Cuckoo |
| Great Horned Owl |
| Common Nighthawk |
| White-throated Swift |
| Black-chinned Hummingbird |
| Broad-tailed Hummingbird |
| Rufous Hummingbird |
| Belted Kingfisher |
| Golden-fronted Woodpecker |
| Ladder-backed Woodpecker |
| Northern Flicker |
| Western Wood-Pewee |
| Dusky Flycatcher |
| Eastern Phoebe |
| Say's Phoebe |
| Western Kingbird |
| Eastern Kingbird |
| Scissor-tailed Flycatcher |
| Steller's Jay |
| Western Scrub-Jay |
| Pinyon Jay |
| |
| Black-billed Magpie |
| American Crow |
| Chihuahuan Raven |
| Common Raven |
| Horned Lark |
| Tree Swallow |
| Violet-green Swallow |
| Northern Rough-winged Swallow |
| Bank Swallow |
| Cliff Swallow |
| Barn Swallow |
| Black-capped Chickadee |
| Mountain Chickadee |
| Bushtit |
| Cactus Wren |
| Rock Wren |
| House Wren |
| Blue-gray Gnatcatcher |
| Western Bluebird |
| Mountain Bluebird |
| American Robin |
| Northern Mockingbird |
| Sage Thrasher |
| Curve-billed Thrasher |
| European Starling |
| Cedar Waxwing |
| Yellow Warbler |
| Yellow-rumped Warbler |
| Black-throated Gray Warbler |
| Common Yellowthroat |
| Western Tanager |
| Green-tailed Towhee |
| Spotted Towhee |
| Canyon Towhee |
| Chipping Sparrow |
| Brewer's Sparrow |
| Vesper Sparrow |
| Lark Sparrow |
| Black-throated Sparrow |
| Grasshopper Sparrow |
| Northern Cardinal |
| Lazuli Bunting |
| Red-winged Blackbird |
| Eastern Meadowlark |
| Western Meadowlark |
| Yellow-headed Blackbird |
| Brewer's Blackbird |
| Common Grackle |
| Great-tailed Grackle |
| Brown-headed Cowbird |
| Orchard Oriole |
| Bullock's Oriole |
| Pine Grosbeak |
| Cassin's Finch |
| House Finch |
| Pine Siskin |
| Lesser Goldfinch |
| American Goldfinch |
| House Sparrow |
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