Lake Bemidji State Park

We didn’t move there, we just drove over there for a hike. We took the Bog trail; a trail that leads through a black pine and tamarack forest to a sphagnum peat bog. It took a boardwalk to get out over the peat bog to the edge of Big Bog Lake.

Bemidji

We relocated a little deeper. Bemidji, Minnesota.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=107013362562471418011.00047964b60d16d130156&ll=42.682435,-97.646484&spn=36.238741,113.818359&z=4

Paul Bunyan’s hometown.

Got Judy’s glasses fixed. Reprovisioned. Full hookups.

Itasca State Park

I’m swatting all the mosquitoes so the next people to visit won’t have so much trouble with them.

Everywhere we go pretty much looks like this:


We try to get out to somewhere each day. Today we got out to the headwaters of the Mississippi. As the water comes out of Lake Itasca, you can wade across the headwaters of a 2,500 mile river.


And today, while we were wondering around watching for loons and grouse, we spotted a life-bird; a golden winged warbler. We got a good long look, but he was deep in the trees. Here is my best picture of him:


You probably can’t see him. He’s in the upper left behind a leaf.

Here it is, blown up a little. (He’s still behind the leaf, but now he's at the upper right.)

Itasca State Park

There seem to be a lot of lakes here.

Last night’s camp at Buffalo River State Park:


Tonight’s camp at Itasca State Park:

That was a wild night

 

Last night.  Severe weather.  Huge thunderstorms, one after the other, all night long.  The campground was evacuated for the tornado warnings.  27 people in a small stone shelter for two hours.  We would have been in there with them, but we never got the evacuation call.  We couldn’t hear the pounding on the door above the pounding of the storm.  It all ended well.  The tornadoes never got closer than two miles from us.  The camp hosts agreed to pound on the walls at the back of the coach, where we sleep, if there is another evacuation tonight.

 

 

I declare that I’m caught up at work.  What with the heart thing and the family reunion, I got a little behind on File Reviews.  There are still things to do, but as far as File Reviews go, I’m current again.

 

 

We’ve found the famous Minnesota mosquitoes.  They’re not very big yet, but there sure are a lot of them, and we’re still barely into Minnesota.  We’ll go a little deeper tomorrow.

 

The bird list for the Fargo/Moorhead area.  The highlight:  Bobolink.  #531.  We didn’t see as many Bobolinks as we expected.  We thought we’d see hundreds.  Instead, we saw one.  But that was the most important one.  The first one.

Canada Goose

Pied-billed Grebe

American White Pelican

Great Blue Heron

Osprey

Bald Eagle

Northern Harrier

Red-tailed Hawk

American Kestrel

Killdeer

Ring-billed Gull

Black Tern

Rock Pigeon

Mourning Dove

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Belted Kingfisher

Hairy Woodpecker

Northern Flicker

Eastern Phoebe

Western Kingbird

Eastern Kingbird

Blue Jay

American Crow

Horned Lark

Purple Martin

Tree Swallow

Cliff Swallow

Barn Swallow

Black-capped Chickadee

White-breasted Nuthatch

Marsh Wren

Eastern Bluebird

American Robin

Gray Catbird

Brown Thrasher

European Starling

Cedar Waxwing

Common Yellowthroat

Clay-colored Sparrow

Vesper Sparrow

Lark Sparrow

Lark Bunting

Savannah Sparrow

Song Sparrow

Bobolink

Red-winged Blackbird

Western Meadowlark

Common Grackle

Brown-headed Cowbird

American Goldfinch

House Sparrow

 

 

Reality varies

 

It depends on where you are.

 

We were out, and I was hungry for a good hamburger, so we stopped at a Dairy Queen.  Dairy Queen in Texas is one of the better sit-down restaurants.  Their hamburgers are really big and really good.  I’d rather order by number because the one I like the best is called a Beltbuster.  Who wants to order a Beltbuster?

 

So we pulled over to the Dairy Queen in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota.  We were in luck.  The hamburgers didn’t have names.  They had numbers.  I ordered a number 2; the double cheeseburger.  That’s the one I like.  Judy specified no mayo.  No problem.  It was no problem because what I got was two little meat patties, on two little buns, with nothing but a couple pickles on it.  The cheese was Velveeta.  Not quite what my stomach had in mind.  Reality in Minnesota is not the same as reality in Texas.

 

Judy was in the grocery, at the deli counter.  She noticed something unusual; Popcorn Salad.  She inquired about it.  Yes, it is made with real popcorn.  We never heard of any Popcorn Salad before, but know what?  The girl behind the counter didn’t know there was anyone who had never heard of Popcorn Salad before.  We didn’t know it was real.  She didn’t know it was regional.

 

Got our annual Minnesota Parks Pass and moved from the KOA, fifteen miles down the road, to Buffalo River State Park.

 

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=107013362562471418011.00047964b60d16d130156&ll=48.019324,-94.064941&spn=8.274935,28.45459&z=6

 

 

Prairie dog

The prairie dog had a lot on his mind. Here is what he had to say:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgCqIYJL38U

Moorhead, MN

Drove east on Interstate 94. If you’re tired of driving on bumpy roads, drive across North Dakota on Interstate 94. Easy driving. Smooth roads. The day flew by We stopped at the KOA in Moorhead, Minnesota. Back to civilization and full hook-ups for a couple days.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=107013362562471418011.00047964b60d16d130156&ll=38.959409,-97.470703&spn=38.185765,113.818359&z=4

We saw the World’s Largest Holstein Cow and the World’s Largest Buffalo from the freeway. We passed signs for the World’s Largest Sandhill Crane, and the Albino Buffalo. We passed the turn-off to the Enchanted Highway: 32 miles of the World’s Largest Metal Sculptures.

The Badlands in Western North Dakota are a lot like the Badlands in Western South Dakota, except in North Dakota they’re all covered with grass and forests. Spectacular.

Today’s crock-pot-torture: Pot Roast.

Teddy Roosevelt National Park was a great place to be. Big trees in the campground. Very birdy; constant calls. Loaded with Lazuli Buntings. The list:

Mourning Dove

Common Nighthawk

Northern Flicker

Western Wood-Pewee

Western Kingbird

Eastern Kingbird

Warbling Vireo

American Crow

Cliff Swallow

Barn Swallow

Black-capped Chickadee

White-breasted Nuthatch

House Wren

American Robin

Cedar Waxwing

Yellow Warbler

Black-and-white Warbler

American Redstart

Spotted Towhee

Chipping Sparrow

Lark Sparrow

Black-headed Grosbeak

Lazuli Bunting

Red-winged Blackbird

Western Meadowlark

Common Grackle

Orchard Oriole

Bullock's Oriole

Pine Siskin

American Goldfinch

House Sparrow

Prairie Dog

We have a problem

There are blank states on our map. One of them, Minnesota is only one state away from where we are now in North Dakota.


Know what else? Minnesota has Bobolinks. Lots of them. For all the birds we’ve seen, we’ve never seen Bobolinks.

Once we get to Minnesota, we understand if we go north, we can hear Loons. If we go east we can see Pam and Dan. Anybody know anything else about Minnesota? Any recommendations about really cool places to stay? RV Parks, State Parks, Top Birding Sites?

Wild horses walk through the campground here at Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Yesterday I referred to it as a State Park, but that’s not right. It’s a National Park. I wasn’t accurate about living off the batteries and tanks, either. We only used a little of the water we carried in, but we recharged the batteries a couple times with the generator.

There are bison here too.

17 miles per gallon

1,800 miles remaining in the tank. For twenty miles. Then, reality returned. We turned north, away from the tailwind.

Nice birds at Devil’s Tower. Ferruginous hawk, eastern and western kingbirds, violet green swallows, chickadees, both nuthatches, rock wrens, mountain bluebirds. Birds we haven’t been seeing a lot of before this. Here is the list:

Turkey Vulture

Ferruginous Hawk

Rock Pigeon

Eurasian Collared-Dove

Mourning Dove

Red-headed Woodpecker

Northern Flicker

Western Wood-Pewee

Western Kingbird

Eastern Kingbird

American Crow

Violet-green Swallow

Barn Swallow

Black-capped Chickadee

Red-breasted Nuthatch

White-breasted Nuthatch

Rock Wren

House Wren

Mountain Bluebird

American Robin

Yellow Warbler

Chipping Sparrow

Lark Sparrow

Common Grackle

Bullock's Oriole

House Finch

Pine Siskin

House Sparrow

We drove north through South Dakota. South Dakota bird list from the windshield.

Northern Harrier

Mourning Dove

Tree Swallow

Lark Bunting

Red-winged Blackbird

Western Meadowlark

Common Grackle

We continued to Theodore Roosevelt State Park in North Dakota. Nice spot.

A dry-camp. Unusual for us. We’ll stay here a couple days and live off the batteries and tanks.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=107013362562471418011.00047964b60d16d130156&ll=40.313043,-102.392578&spn=37.497365,113.818359&z=4

Devil's Tower

There is a campground in the park but it’s primitive. The KOA campground is right at the entrance to the National Monument, has full hookups, and it plays the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind every night on its outdoor screen. Trees, grass, views, birds… This might be the nicest KOA we’ve ever been to.

Devil’s Tower isn’t a volcanic cone. Molten magma was forced up into a fissure in the earth above it, cooled, and cracked underground. Over the next 50 million years, the dirt and rock around the column weathered away, and voila! A Tower!

There is nice paved mile-long trail around the base. It’s covered with people in the summertime. There is another loop trail around the tower that is slightly rugged and is three times as long. That one is empty of people, but provided great views of the tower,




lots of birds, mule deer, and a five foot bull snake.

Travel day

Thanks again to Bill and Marge for their hospitality. We got to see Marge’s brother and mother while we were there too. That was fun.

We took a walk around the farm and Annie found the farm pond. She was light brown all over when she went in. She came out two-toned; almost black underneath. That was one happy farm dog bouncing back to the house.

Wheatland bird list:
Osprey
Swainson's Hawk
Killdeer
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Mourning Dove
Northern Flicker
Western Kingbird
American Crow
Barn Swallow
American Robin
European Starling
Lark Bunting
Red-winged Blackbird
Western Meadowlark
Common Grackle
House Sparrow

We’d rather be in the eighties than the nineties, so we headed north. We can watch the national weather map and let it push us north or south for the rest of the summer.

http://www.weather.com/maps/maptype/tendayforecastusnational/usweatherday2_large.html?clip=undefined&region=undefined&collection=localwxforecast&presname=undefined

We’ll go where the weather wants us.

Wheatland to Glendo on Interstate 25. Through Shawnee and Lost Springs on Highway 20 to Lusk. North on Highway 85 to Newcastle for lunch in the Pamida parking lot. North on Highway 16 though Upton and across Interstate 90 at Moorcroft. The roads get smaller past Pine Haven and Keyhole State Park. A couple more turns and we’re at Devil’s Tower.


At the Devil’s Tower KOA.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=107013362562471418011.00047964b60d16d130156&z=5

Work day

Nothing to report. Got some work done. It will take a while to get caught up, but we made some progress today. Judy got some visiting done with Marge. It’s still hot, but only 90 or so.

We took down the bird feeders when it was time to leave the Family Reunion and stacked them on the picnic table before putting them away. The Pine Siskins didn’t give up on the thistle sock until the final moment.

Wheatland

 

Record high temperatures in Denver yesterday.  102 degrees.  We drove north to Wyoming to visit Bill and Marge.

 

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=107013362562471418011.00047964b60d16d130156&z=5

 

Today’s temperature in Wheatland, 92 degrees.

 

Here is our St Vrain State Park bird list for last week

Canada Goose

Mallard

American White Pelican

Double-crested Cormorant

Great Blue Heron

Great Egret

Osprey

Killdeer

Spotted Sandpiper

Ring-billed Gull

Rock Pigeon

Mourning Dove

Great Horned Owl

Western Kingbird

Eastern Kingbird

Horned Lark

Cliff Swallow

Barn Swallow

House Wren

American Robin

Yellow Warbler

Common Yellowthroat

Red-winged Blackbird

Western Meadowlark

Yellow-headed Blackbird

Common Grackle

Brown-headed Cowbird

Bullock's Oriole

American Goldfinch

 

 

Becky and Christie

At Becky’s house.

It's a busy time

When we’re here in Colorado. Kids. Grandkids. Doctors. Dentist. Work. Trampoline. Becky and Brian got an above ground swimming pool. Christie, Kyle, and Cameron stayed a few extra days after the reunion.

We saw the Cardiologist for our follow-up checkup. We’re released from all restrictions. A perfectly positive outcome. Then, our annual checkup with the Optometrist. Annie went in with us and entertained them.

John the Hydrohot guy came by and gave our hot water and furnace system its annual service. Richard the mobile repair guy knocked a few items off our repair list for us.

Osprey.

St Vrain State Park

White Pelicans

And the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dARlhoGtdNM

It's all over now

 

Everyone went their way this morning.

 

While we were at the reunion, I was taking the medicine, Effient, I was supposed to take for my heart.  It was awful.  Three days of side-effects and I knew I was not going to be able to survive that medicine for an entire year.  We called the cardiologist and got switched to Plavix.  I’m not a fan of Plavix, but two days into it and life is considerably better.

 

On the way back over Berthoud Pass, we stopped for lunch, got out, and walked around.  There is a Continental Divide trail that starts in New Mexico and goes north through Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana.  It crosses the road at Berthoud Pass.  We walked on it a little and it felt good.  Maybe I should hike the Continental Divide Trail.  For now, I’ll continue to take it easy on exercise until the femoral artery finishes healing up.

 

The bird list from Snow Mountain Ranch.

Mallard

Great Blue Heron

Turkey Vulture

Red-tailed Hawk

Killdeer

Broad-tailed Hummingbird

Rufous Hummingbird

Northern Flicker

Black-billed Magpie

American Crow

Tree Swallow

Violet-green Swallow

Cliff Swallow

Mountain Bluebird

American Robin

Song Sparrow

Lincoln's Sparrow

White-crowned Sparrow

Dark-eyed Junco

Brown-headed Cowbird

Pine Siskin

 

 

I'm not sick tonight

I don’t deserve to not be sick tonight after what I ate for lunch and Mexican food for dinner and leftover brownies and cheesecake at 10 pm. I am really really full though.

Shots of the reunion cabin.

Family Reunion

The motorhomes stay at the campground on the top of the hill.

That’s Bill’s on the right front, David’s at the right rear, Tom’s at the left rear, and the left front is ours.

The view doesn’t suck.


And everyone else is staying at the Reunion Cabin.

Snow Mountain Ranch

 

Sunday.  We left St Vrain.  South to Interstate 70.  West past Idaho Springs to Highway 40.  Over Berthoud Pass, elevation 11,300 feet, to Snow Mountain Ranch, YMCA of the Rockies, elevation 8,500 feet.  The family reunion.  A gathering of 30.

 

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=107013362562471418011.00047964b60d16d130156&ll=34.198173,-102.260742&spn=20.400054,56.90918&z=5

 

So far, so good.  We feel the elevation but aren’t having any issues with it.  Warm day in the 70s.  Afternoon rain cooling it right down.  I took a fairly short walk today.  I get a longer one tomorrow.

 

St Vrain State Park bird list from last week:

Canada Goose

Mallard

Pied-billed Grebe

Western Grebe

American White Pelican

Double-crested Cormorant

Great Blue Heron

Great Egret

Black-crowned Night-Heron

Osprey

Swainson's Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk

Killdeer

Spotted Sandpiper

Ring-billed Gull

Rock Pigeon

Eurasian Collared-Dove

Mourning Dove

Belted Kingfisher

Northern Flicker

Western Kingbird

Eastern Kingbird

Warbling Vireo

Blue Jay

Horned Lark

Tree Swallow

Cliff Swallow

Barn Swallow

House Wren

American Robin

Yellow Warbler

Common Yellowthroat

Lark Sparrow

Song Sparrow

Red-winged Blackbird

Western Meadowlark

Yellow-headed Blackbird

Common Grackle

Brown-headed Cowbird

Orchard Oriole

Bullock's Oriole

House Finch

American Goldfinch

House Sparrow