Where the Wild Things Are

Location: Radford, Virginia

We tire of being cold, so the day before Valentine's, we decide to take a month or two and travel south to warmer climes in our camper.

Things down here are a far cry from the frozen tundra up north in Virginia. Here we are able to wear shorts and tee shirts while we hike, visit with several old cruising friends, and generally spend our time exploring, relaxing, and being "not cold". And we are, once again, amazed at the sheer abundance of wildlife down here.

One evening early in the trip, at dusk at our camp in the Georgia woods, we are surprised by a plethora of strange bird calls. Mostly what sounds like hoots, we guess it's owls and do a quick owl call search on the Internet. Turns out the trees above and around us are filled with barred owls – it must be spring and mating season has begun. Unfortunately, we have forgotten to bring our binoculars – a.k.a "bins" (doh!), so we don't see any, but are happy to hear them. 

Our first day in Florida we go hiking on the beach at Ft. Clinch State Park in Fernandina and see a sand covered turtle who has come ashore, we suppose, to lay eggs. Another harbinger of spring? Luckily, we are fast enough (and, thankfully, the turtle is slow enough) that we are able to capture a photo.

As we travel we become used to seeing bald eagles, osprey, and sandhill cranes. Egrets, wood storks and many other shore birds are also frequently observed. Unfortunately, we are unable to see them as close as we'd like since we don't have our bins...

At Silver Glen Springs we find crystal clear water and puthering sand springs – very cool and, like our camp fire, easy to watch and get lost in.

After breaking ourselves free from the puthering, we chat up a young man with a couple of kids, all in wet suits. They've been snorkeling with the manatees for the last hour or so and have really enjoyed themselves. Apparently, one manatee is very friendly and keeps sneaking up behind and nudging them – they tell us it's quite a startling proposition the first time it happens. Hopefully, this is not also a sign of spring mating season...

At St. Augustine on the walls of the old Spanish fort we see pigeons cooing and wooing, grabbing each other's beaks and doing their strange pigeon mating dance. Yep, spring is definitely arriving.

We also get to see some gators! One about 10' long across a river from where we are walking with friends, then on another day with other friends, a little four footer from about 8 feet away, followed by a huge 12 footer from only about 25' away! Needless to say, we continue on without trying to get closer, make friends, or visit. Don't want to risk wearing out our welcome! It would be cool to have our bins, though.

At Mayaca State Park we get to participate in one of our favorite wildlife viewing activities – watching and listening to bird watchers watching birds. There are so many varieties of shore bird here, all looking for fish and shellfish, that our new friends are very animated, talking excitedly among themselves and snap-snap-snapping pictures. As always, this makes them even more enjoyable to watch, and we spend a while observing them. Unfortunately, we can't see much of what they're discussing without our bins...

On one of our last days, we are taken fishing by old cruising buddies. Julie catches a sheepshead – excellent eating, according to one of our hosts. He then goes on to catch a second one, then cleans them both and gives us all the fillets. We pan fry them the following night and, as promised, they are delicious. Yum!

Then, like everyone else we know, our plans are suddenly short-circuited by Covid-19. We'd hoped to stay south until early April , but with state governments closing facilities and what looks like a looming country-wide shutdown, we scurry back home.

Here we are greeted by a lawn that needs mowing, happily blooming daffodils that Mark gave Julie for her birthday last November, and – wait for it - stores with no toilet paper!?!? We don't get it - hoarding toilet paper? Go figure.

At any rate, we have just stocked up the camper (4 rolls), so we're good for "bog roll" for the time being. A quick trip to the grocery for some fresh veggies, dried beans, seeds to sprout and a quick perusal to see what else we can find to supplement our stores and tide us over for the next few weeks, and we're good to go for our next phase - voluntary self-isolation.

Our isolation reminds us to be grateful for the all-too-short vacation we just had. Now the only wildlife we get to see is local birds, the odd squirrel, and our neighbors. At least we have our bins!

Best wishes to you all, stay safe and be healthy. 

Happy New Year and Where Are We Now?

Location: Radford, Virginia, US

Wow! A lot has happened in the months since last April when we last wrote. Here's the end-of-the-year synopsis, "Readers Digest" style:

A giant cowboy we saw on the way home. 





We made it safely back to Blacksburg in late March.

 Kentucky Easter decorations

Our new 18' travel trailer 

We decide to sell "No Sails", take our house off rental market in August, and move back in again, at least for a while. But we need to have somewhere to live until August if we sell the View. So we buy a pickup truck and an 18' travel trailer. Now we can put "No Sails" on the market. Except that we've missed that spring time "sellers market". So we wait. And wait. And wait longer. And keep waiting. Move into our house on 2 August – now we have three homes and two vehicles. So, sad to say, we decide to sell Wanda the Honda, too. She sells quickly and we miss her. Finally "No Sails" sells in mid August. Phew!! Back down to 1 vehicle and 1 camper again.

 Rotator cuff surgery recovery


Then we change our minds and decide to put the Blacksburg house back on the rental market for the income, and start searching for a smaller, less expensive house we can use as a "home base" while continuing to travel. After looking for several months, we eventually hit paydirt and find a little one-bedroom house in nearby Radford that we love.

 Our little new house

 A bucket of giant shrimp in Beaufort, North Carolina

 Pilot Mountain, North Carolina

 Hiking Pilot Mountain

 Our Christmas tree

So, where are we now? Radford for the holidays, doing house jobs, building a Murphy bed for when we have guests, and deciding where we'll go when we can't stand the cold later this winter – Puerto Rico, Spain and Mexico have been mentioned. Then we're thinking about taking the camper out to Montana and New Mexico for a large chunk of next summer. Time'll tell ...

Working on the Murphy bed

The Murphy bed

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas, and are, like us, looking forward to the New Year!

The Green Dots

Location: Lake Mohave, Nevada

We've had a wonderful 3 week visit with one of our sons (and some great friends) near Redding, California. Apparently, we've been having so much fun (and are soo slack) that we've forgotten to take any pictures!! And now it's too late as it's time for us to say goodbye and start wending our way back to Virginia.

We've had several discussions about which route to take but, after several false starts, it all comes down to what the weather is doing when it was time to leave. Shades of sailing on Rachel, eh?

One of the few things we do know is that we want to stay, as much as possible, on "the green dots". They mark "scenic routes" as defined by our maps. Once we pick the general direction we want to head, we then look for the green dots in various resources and try to spend most of our time following them, as long as we're not getting too far off our track ("too far" being about as undefined and flexible as possible).

April is not the best time to be traveling across the US as there is still snow in the north and high winds, rain, and tornadoes in the middle and south. The upside, however, is that the prevailing winds are from west to east, so we're hoping to get a bit of a tailwind for at least part of the way.

We are a bit late leaving as we we've been waiting for some parts for a last minute repair. Three days before our departure we start poring over the big picture weather charts. The northern route is definitely out! Too much snow and too cold – we're sick of being cold after this last winter in the southwest.

What about Interstate through Colorado, that would be beautiful? Nope, elevation is too high for too far and still too much snow!

Sheesh. Well, how about dropping down through Arizona/New Mexico/and the Texas panhandle? That looks pretty clear, and we don't want to go the southern route as we came out that way – we want to see new stuff!

Now which way should we start out? The best forecast is down the west side of the Sierra Nevada mountains, but we've already made that trip so many times and it's NOT all that scenic. Julie really wanted to take California Rte 395 when we came up to Dan's but it was too snowy back in March. Let's check it out now. Ooh! The roads are clear and no snow is forecast! Great – things are coming together. Ok, looks like we finally have a plan!

Oh, wait. We'll still have to go over Donner Pass east of Sacramento which is 7,000 ft above sea level and there's still 10ft of snow up there!! But the interstate is clear and if it's a clear day we should be fine – we definitely won't be spending the night up there <brrr>.

There is rain forecast for the next 2 days with potential snow up at Donner. So we leave just before the rain and find a campground at only 2,000 ft elevation to stage for getting over the pass and down Rte 395 in 1 day – between this rain and before the next cold front.

Bear River Campground is perfect. Unfortunately, (of course!!) the weather forecast changes for the day we're going to traverse the pass and they're now predicting a slight chance of snow and slush up there. Even so, it's still the best travel day. So we wake up early, check the dept of transportation website...no snow...great - off we go!

 The drive is spectacular, up and over Donner Pass, where in 1846 a group of 81 settlers trying to reach California got stranded on the east side of the pass due to early snow. They were forced to spend the winter there and only 45 survived (cannibalism was involved). We don't want that to happen to us, and, luckily, it doesn't. Whew.

 We turn off the interstate at Lake Tahoe and follow Rte 395 south for 250 miles following the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada mountains. It is absolutely spectacular – it's slightly overcast, but with the snow-capped mountains, beautiful vistas, and a long gradual downhill run with a tailwind we can't ask for a better trip! We stop for the night at a BLM campground at 3,000 feet elevation and have a nice quiet, cool night – great sleeping weather and we don't get the plague!!

 The next day we head down to Death Valley. Another long downhill run (with a few pretty steep uphill bits), also outstanding. We're below sea level, wearing shorts and tee shirts, and are loving it!

 Day 3's highlight is a visit to the Hoover Dam, built in the 1930s on the Colorado River. Very impressive, and very art deco-ey.

Now we're in Lower Cottonwood Campground, a small National Park Service campground on Lake Mohave. We've been sitting here for two days and will be here for one more while high winds blow themselves out. We're as snug as a bug in a rug, tucked in behind a few trees and in between small, steep hills on three sides with the RV facing northwest into the wind – just like the old days on Rachel! We're getting some puffs and gusts, but nothing like we find on our walks outside the protection of our camp site where we have to lean into the wind to make progress. We definitely don't want to be out there driving the RV in 25-35 mph sustained gusting to 50 mph winds!

We know we won't have such stupendous scenery for much longer, and probably won't have such great luck with the weather for the remaining 2,100 miles back to Virginia. But as we sit here cuddled up together sharing a glass of wine, looking over the maps, and planning the next stage of our trip, we are thankful for such a great "greet dots" start.

Anza-Borrego Redux

Location: Borrego Springs, California

As we weren't too far away, and had had SO much fun on our last visit, we decided to stop at Borrego Springs again. Three years ago we paid our first visit to Anza-Borrego State Park during the Swainson's Hawk migration and the flowering cactii and some wild flowers (see here).

 This time it's all flowers, flowers, and more flowers. We just happened to arrive as the wildflowers were in prime bloomage, but before it had hit the news and social media. What perfect timing – we beat the "flowergeddon" crowds (see here), and were able to spend a lot of time out wandering almost alone in the desert viewing this year's "superbloom". The flowers were amazing.

We also hiked through two slot canyons - "South Palm Wash Slot" and "The Slot" - that were both spectacular but also very different! There was lots of scrambling and squeezing through these very narrow high sided canyons.

To top it all off, we saw our second lenticular cloud ever, and – guess what? Our first was right here almost 3 years ago!

Our next-to-last stop was also one of our favorites, a small primitive campground on the shore of Lake Mohave on the Colorado River.  We spent a few days here hiking up into the beautiful canyon.


We are currently in Redding, California visiting our son, Dan, before starting the trek back east to Virginia in April.