Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

We have arrived after stopping in Tucson to load up groceries, etc.  It was a very uneventful trip to here, thank goodness!  The highlight was visiting PEFO friends in San Angelo, TX.  We arrived in ORPI early so we have not even seen our new boss, Christina.  We did meet old friends we knew before and we are parked next to someone whom we worked with two years ago.  We are still setting up our new home for 3 months.

This is Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and it is good to be back!

 

San Angelo, TX

We left the Lower Rio Grande Valley, TX at noon on Christmas Eve.  We started packing and kept packing so we were ready to go much earlier than expected.  So we said our goodbyes, left our keys and traveled on.  We traveled to Laredo on the Mexican border of western south Texas and stayed overnight at a Walmart on Christmas Eve.  The store closed at 8PM but security was around the clock through Christmas.  The store was closed when we left Christmas morning.  I gave a lip balm with candy cane to the security guard on Christmas morning.  They were another shift but oh well!!!!!

We stayed in a state park on Christmas night.  It was a nice clean park and very quiet, like we thought it was.  There was a ranger on duty Christmas Day.  He must have drawn the short straw!!  We are now in San Angelo, north of I-10 visiting people we had met in Petrified Forest.  We are staying at an Air Force Campground right next to the base (They are retired Air Force) and will be with them for dinner tonight.  Then it is travel on to New Mexico. 

We were taken to San Angelo Christmas lights.
 

This shadowbox reminds us of why we celebrate.

Merry Christmas, Everyone

Falise Navidad!!!!!!!!!!I am not sure how you spell it and spell check does not recognize Spanish.  You can tell how good I am at Spanish! 

December is here!

All volunteer RV's are sporting their Christmas finery.  Ours has a decorated and lit lampost and colored lights inside.  The door has one candle in the window and a very small wreath and colored lights in the front windshield.  I have borrowed a sewing machine and made covers for the seats (mine needed it desperately) and time has flown.  We have gone to dinner with the other volunteers here, attended a Christmas Concert starring Paul, the bookstore manager, and I am sick with a crude probably produced by the unusual cold weather here.  It has been rainy, damp, windy and in the 35-48 degrees. We bought another electric heater and both are going.  We use our propane only in the AM for one hour to warm us up. (propane is not provided)


This is a common sight along the roadways.  Horses are tied out to eat along the side of the road.  This horse is just feet from a busy roadway.

This is the only finished watercolor I did in 3 months.  It is of Liz, another volunteer releasing a perigrine falcon on South Padre Island.  I gave her this painting for Christmas.

John and I went to Hildalgo, where there was a spectacular display of lights.  We went on the tour of this small town that felt like it was in Mexico.  These children do not speak English but did the most spectacular Christmas concert.  They were just fantistic!  

We went on a dolphin watch on another volunteer's boat seeing lots of wildlife including many, many dolphins.  It was a great morning with fog lifting off the Laguna Madre.  We saw the Brownville Ship Channel and Port Isabel from the water! I went back on the boat a week later with the ladies for the Christmas Bird Count.  That morning it was very windy, slight driving rain and cold.  We went out to lunch afterwards both times.  It was great fun to be on the laguna, even in the fog, wind and rain counting birds.  Now we are thinking of packing to head to Arizona, our next volunteer position.

We were close to shore but saw an amazing number of dophins but no pictures of them

John is looking at something???

Dregging the intercoastal waterway on the laguna

We will be off on December 25th

Our time here is the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas is almost over.  We will be packing it in on the 24th and heading out on Christmas.  We have learned so much in our short 3 months here.  The wildlife refuge tours have been fun and educational.  We have met so many nice people at the visitor center, here at the volunteer village and on the tour.  Now I can actually drive a bus the size of a small school bus and even back and do a three point turn in it!!  I am sorry I could not post pictures or use the blog as I have in the past.  The Internet service here is spotty at best, even with our booster.  It will be better in Organ Pipe Cactus.  We have had issues here with no water, no electricity for one day and then no electricity for another 48 hours.  The Internet is the least of the problems.  I feel sorry for the interns (just out of college girls building their resume, living here with free housing and a stipend).  They have no other alternative means when things happen and communication at this refuge seems to be poor at best.  We at least have other means like the generator and some water on board when things happen.  It is always sad to leave a place you have adjusted to but that is what this is all about, the adventure of what is around the next corner.  And good and bad experiences are learning experiences both.  I am much more easy going than I was although I still sputter about things!  All one had to do is say to oneself "Will I even remember this 5 years from now?"  The answer is usually "no" and it puts it into perspective!

These nice volunteer neighbors Henry and Bev took us out to dinner for my birthday.  We hope to meet them again.  They are living full time in their home on wheels and have had lots of great experiences.  They have volunteered here for over a year!



This poor quality picture is 3 Plain Chachalocas eating an orange on the tree next to our MH.  They are native here. This is the only picture I have of them taken out the window the the RV.  Note their size!

Happy Thanksgiving

The pen I won in the drawing at the Thanksgiving Pot Luck here. I never win anything but I did win this pen which is made out of mesquite right from this refuge!  David is in the picture below is making a pen (his hobby) at his campsite.  Note our MH and car in background.

Pam and Lisa, our daughters, have returned home after visiting in cold weather.  I told them to only pack one pair of jeans for it was hot and humid here.  Well, it was abnormally cold and raw so we did not go dolphin watching, go to the beach, or summer things but went to a show & museums and played games.  They did see strange birds and dead nilgae and wild pigs for it was hunting season and they have a meat locker here for harvested animals!  We enjoyed one another even if the weather was not perfect!  We had a pot luck with everyone here and enjoyed our Thanksgiving dinner.

It is hunting season here!

Here at Laguna Atascosa NWR the hunting season is by lottery for rifle hunt (weekends only) and 2 one week seasons for the bow hunters at the beginning and ending of the hunting season.  During the season many of the roads are closed to hikers to keep them out of danger.  The season includes wild pig, nilgai antelope (both invasive species) and of course deer.  There is no limit to pigs or nilgai but the nilgai are so big (male 650 and female 400 lbs.) that usually a hunter only takes one and has to quarter it to get it out. John and I helped biologists count populations before the hunt by going on a truck at night spotlighting to count anything seen.  Three trucks went out with John and I on one as spotlighters, one person driving and one person keeping the talley.  Both were experienced so they could tell us what we were seeing.  The nilgai are as large as cows that look like deer with small heads and run like a rocking horse. They look really strange running and they are very numerous here in the Lower Rio Grande Valley.  We saw deer both doe and buck, nilgai, peracke (a ground roosting bird that settles on roads sometimes), herons on the bay probably sleeping,  coyote, bobcat, and a few unknown eyes peering at us.  It was very interesting although a very bumpy ride!! Lots of fun!!!!!!

Yesterday morning 18 turkeys went walking down our little road in front of our MH.  Emma just looked on intently. 

 

Where has the month gone?

                           The booster is working and I can now have pictures & blog!!!! sometimes!

We have been in the Rio Grande Valley for over a month.  We know where towns are and know our positions here.  We work at the visitor center and are drivers on the tour & will be giving the tour talk soon.  We are still on a high learning curve but have managed to see this small place in the RGV / National Wildlife Refuge of Laguna Atascosa as home for a few months.  Emma now knows her way around.  We bike to work and have had opportunities to participate/watch the ongoing studies of the animals here.  The birds are varied and amazing, the wildlife different from what we are used to and some the same-like the coyote.  I have seen live armadillo, lots of different birds like the plain chachalaca, Mexican eagle/Crested Caracara and the Aplomado falcon which is endangered and has benefited from a captive breeding program here.  In the LRGV there are 25 nesting Alomado pairs now when in 1999 there were none.  I have yet to see the endangered elusive ocelot or the invasive nilgai, that weighs 400 to 600 pounds and looks like a huge deer, small head and runs like a horse. It is from India and purchased legally on a game ranch but it does not know boundaries and loves it here. Tonight we will be going on a biologist project counting animals at night and I might see one.  John has seen one from a distance and one person came into the visitor center thinking he saw a moose.  There are no moose in LRGV but after showing him a picture of the nilgai, he said that is what he saw! 


Home Sweet Home until just before 2014

The visitor center where we work

Perigrine Banding

They are clipping a tiny portion of the feather for further study

The bird who is very calm for she has a head cover and padded jacket on, is being set on stand for study and banding.

At the end of October we went on a outing to the Padre Island part of this NWR.  We watched a biologist check, band, and release 2 artic perigrines falcons, young females, on their way from the artic where they were born this summer.  They rest and hunt here before flying over ocean waters going south for the winter.

Liz, a volunteer, is releasing a newly banded bird.  This picture, taken by another volunteer, was perfect!

Open windows

Today at 10AM it is cool and windy and pleasant.  We have windows open and no AC.  Horray!  I have not liked it closed in with no air circulating.  We have birdsounds and wind noise.   I have been told we should see lots of different wildlife right here including a species not native to this continent  I will try to take a camera with me at all times.  Emma is enjoying her window air.  She looks out to the woods and brush and likes to watch things.  We will be going out today to civilization and shopping.  Tomorrow is a pot luck supper.  I have tried to post pictures but so far no success!

Trek to Laguna Atascosa NWF, TX

We started out on Tuesday Sept 17th in the pm.  About 70 miles into the trek we were towed to a truck place by Good Sam Emergency Service.  It took some time but we were safe and learned how they tow a big rig.  The MH smoked under the chassis and John thought it was the transmission.  It turned out to be an overfilling of transmission fluid.  We had all fluids changed before traveling.  I will deal with that cost problem when we return to Woodstock.  It was a quick fix and on we traveled.  We met up with traveling friends in VA and spent the day at President Woodrow Wilson's birthplace/museum and evening at Chili's before they headed west and we headed south to TN.  We visited friends in TN for a few days and headed to the Shilo Battlefield traveling part of the Trace National Scenic Highway.  At least it was before the shutdown.  We arrived in Los Fresnos, TX and the refuse to discover we could come into the volunteer campground but like the NPS, the federal NWR was shut up tight for the duration of the government infighting of October 1st.  So here we sit safe and sound but not volunteering for anything.  We are to think of it as a free campground.  Here's hoping the govt gets it's act together soon.  We came to learn the area and we cannot even get in to the refuge except the campground. 

John & Emma in Tennessee at a state park after Shilo

We stayed in an equestrian campground and donkeys were where we expected horses.

We have battled sugar ants in northern Texas and mashed Love Bugs and Butterflies all over the windshield and radiator coming to the Rio Grande Valley.  We are still battling ants here and creatures will try to get the upper hand.  We have our lights out and have sprayed the RV pad.  We plan to get screening for some of the places to protect against invasion.  The air conditioner is on for it is humid and in the 90's.  It is supposed to cool down soon.  I sure hope so!

Windsheild insurance snaffoooooooooooo

Our windshield had 2 very small dings in it.  Since we were going on the road again I thought they could be fixed pretty easily.  Well, nothing is easy.  After 3 calls to insurance company and two different companies coming to the motor home it now has become a replacement windshield problem.  The first company came, tried but he said he did not have the right equipment so his fix did not work and the second company said the first had tried, failed, and now the only thing to do is replace the whole huge windshield.  All over 2 dings that could have been repaired if fixed right the first time.  So now we will wait for something major to happen because we are running out of time.  What a crazy thing to happen!!!  But Texas, we hear you calling and we are almost ready!!!!!!!!!!!!

Winter in New England

John will not miss this!

But I will miss this

Countdown in two weeks

We are picking up the pace packing and getting all our ducks in a row.  It is amazing how much you plan when you close up a home and pack everything into a home on wheels for a very long adventure!  July 4th we arrived and unpacked and opened the house.  We have spent the summer house/deck/porch painting, house and yard/pond maintenance as well as cleaning, waxing, and getting maintenance on the MH and finding our next postitions.  Now it is labor day and we are reversing the process.  Texas, here here come!

Our pond at our granddaughter's wedding last September.  Where has the year gone?

Texas, here we come!

We have been accepted at Laguna Atascosa Wildlife Refuge, southern Texas above Brownsville. Then we will return to Organ Pipe National Monument in Arizona where we volunteered 2 years ago.  Now for the planning stage of packing!


From Texas beaches and wildlife to Arizona Cacti and sunsets
we will have an interesting winter.

On the Road Again???????

We have a phone interview for a coastal Texas National Wild Life Refuge Area October through December 2013 so we are excited.  We would be giving van tours and working at a visitor center.  August 9th we will be told "come" or "we do not need you".  I have to wait.  We have been cleaning the RV and dreaming of traveling while applying on line for the few offerings that would suit us.  This is not the time of year to apply for positions for this winter.  And it seems this type of lifestyle has been discovered.  More people are applying so the pool of applicants increases.  If fate is with us we will be spending some of the winter in Texas.

Back in Connecticut - Bah humbug!!!!

The Nebraska evenings were the last fun things we did on our way back east.  John ended up at a clinic  with infected bites and an arm swollen up to the elbow.  I talked to my doctor at home and my meds were changed so I felt better but the rash/infection was not getting better.  John called Bryce telling them we were headed east and we headed to Connecticut post haste.  Traveling east is a blurr. We arrived July 4th in Woodstock.  The good thing about being east at this time is a former exchange student daughter was visiting with her family our Woodstock families and we got to meet Susse,her husband and sons.  It was almost 30 years since she was with us.  My how time flies!!!!!  They were off to Iceland a few days later so it was a quick visit.  We took the motor home to fireworks for Saturday July 7th so we had excellent seats and a cool place to wait out the crowd leaving. Susse's children seemed to have a good time and we were over 12 gathered to see the fireworks. 

Woodstock is in a heat wave and I hate the humidity.  It is now mid summer and I have no energy.  The doctor here put both John and I back on prednisone and the rash/bites are slowly healing but here I sit dreaming of Bryce.  My, what turns life brings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Red rock canyon on Route 12 heading to Bryce but we are east - phooey!



Susse and her boys can bring a smile to my face

Nebraska Chautaugua and no A/C

We are at Grand Island, NE at a Truck Stop.  But now the weather is humid and hot, not good for sweaty bites for they now itch but it has stopped spreading and started healing.  Two days ago we could not cool down our MH by the dash A/C.  The truck stop we happened to pull into has a huge place next to green grass where we can stay away from the trucks.  John thought our problem was just low freon but it was a motor pump.  After a gulp, gulp, $$$$$ they ordered the part.  It came today and we have air conditioning again. Horray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  The truck stop has visitor info so we found out about lovely Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer just down the road.  We spent yesterday in air conditioned comfort viewing exibits and last night at the outdoor exhibit where they have old villages from log housing to a western 1870's railroad town complete with train.  The museum is having an old fashioned Nebraska Chautaugua free to the public.  A chautaugua is a old time gattering that has speakers, entertainers, etc.  We listened to pioneer music and two interpretures - Mark Twain and Willa Cather, both authors.  It was all about the pioneers trek west, just what we love to learn about!!!  So today we have A/C and will go back tonight for another Chautaugua.  We stayed for 4 nights in Grand Island, NE and enjoyed the nightly Chautaugua programs. We learned a lot of history - just what we love.  And again we just fell into the right spot!!

The museum streets were wooden

A rainbow was over the Motor Homes but it is hard to see

On East????

I went to a clinic and was given prednizone and an antiboitic.  It might be chiggers so we washed all the bedding in the MH and Emma's bedding, etc.  I sure hope this works.  We have been without air conditioning and at night I have had quite a time with the spreading of some kind of rash!!!???!!!  On day six I went to a clinic and now we are headed east.  My doc changed meds and I feel better so hopefully we have solved the problem.

Trek to Wyoming and oh no!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have time until we report to Bryce so the decision was made to explore Wyoming.  It is a lovely state with lots of history, especially the Mormon, California and Oregon Trail history.  It is absolutely beautiful in southwestern Utah entering Wyoming on I-80.  We visited Fort Bridger just over the border and spent a pleasant afternoon learning about the trails and the old fort.  The 3 trails intersected at Ft. Bridger and famed mountain man Jim Bridger had a trading post previously.  This is west of the Rocky's.  We climbed over the Rocky's and into high plains staying at Curt Goudy State Park (8,600 feet) for a few days of peaceful high mountain meadows watching a clear cold lake.  People were water skiing, fishing and having summer fun.

We were perched on a hill above the lake and our view from our chairs was wonderful.  Wild flowers everywhere, grass, mountains, and water -- what a combination!!!!  Then I woke up with dizziness, a very sore neck, and beginning disorientation.  So leaving Curt Goudy we headed down from the high desert and into flatter country on the eastern side of the Rocky's.  So our plans are now to head east instead of north entering Nebraska.  See if I feel better!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bryce Canyon National Park

After Zion and the testing issue in St. George, we headed to Bryce.  It is just as beautiful as last year.  We are testing the waters if altitude sickness is the underlying cause of how I am feeling.  I am fine now- maybe pills interaction?????.  We stayed in Bryce Canyon in North Campground, 8,300 feet altitude, just up the road from of last year's site, a few minutes from the rim by walking.  Emma on one of her morning walks walked right into our former camp host spot of last year.  She must remember because she jumped on Dave's leg when he entered our MH.  Dave was the person who worked opposite as camp host last year and is again this year.  After a dinner with Dave in our MH, visits to others we knew from last year, taking in some ranger talks and a walk we used up 4 days and I am fine.  I walked both campgrounds and some of the trails at the rim.  I did not attempt down in the hoodoos till I get acclimated!


Bryce Canyon NP from rim



Beautiful Bryce

Zion NP

It was our 3rd time in Zion and the beauty still gets to me.  Soaring high into the sky are monoliths.  But June on a weekend it is crowded and not as pleasant as last year in cold, snowy April.  We visited a casual friend and camp host at South Campground who is leaving in a few days.  He is off for the summer to the cooler, wetter Oregon coast.  He has been in Zion since fall and will return in the cooler weather in a few months.  Lightcurve on the Road is his blog and Mike and Blue, his dog, love people to visit them on his blog. 


This in on the road to the east entrance



Pictures on the ride to the east entrance tunnel

 

Life gets interesting

Zion is beautiful as always.

We are at Willowind Campground in Hurricane, UT, about 20+ miles away from Zion NP. We are under trees here at Willowind.  On Sunday I visited the ER in St. George.  My blood pressure was going crazy again and I had breathing problems. They sent me home with new meds after taking blood tests. We visited a cardiologist today and I had an Echo/Stress test.  My heart seems fine. They are fine tuning meds and cannot find the reason for my problems so.............we stay at this campground and try to be patient.  I feel like I have a medicine chest in the MH.  We keep picking up more medication! And I still do not know why I feel like I do!!!  I felt fine Saturday!!! My goodness, life on the road!!!!!!!!!!!!

HOT!!HOT!!HOT!!!

A lot has happened in a short time.  We had our rodant chewing problem fixed in Tuscon and went up to Dead Horse Ranch State Park just below Sedona, AZ on Monday.  It was very hot but we plugged into electricity so we cooled the rig down enough to sleep.  In Tuscon it was 112 degrees (to hot to potty Emma at noon - her paws would burn on the rocks or pavement)  It was over 100 when we arrived at the state park near Sedona.  We did not even take the car off towing mode, just spent the night to cool down.  The next morning we arrived in Williams at Kiabab State Forest campground (no hookups) and at 7,700 feet it was much cooler.  After cooling down the rig I could open windows and there was a breeze in the pines.  The next day we visited Williams, west of Flagstaff on the I-40 and just hung and read books and enjoyed the birds.  We saw 3 different birds not seen since Bryce Canyon National Park, a mountain bluebird, a stellar jay and a woodpecker that I cannot remember the name of. 

In this campsite it is cool and breezy and buggy.  Between pollen and the high altitude I could not breath.

I had not been feeling right since we left Petrified Forest and was having a hard time breathing.  My blood pressure was high so I called my CT Dr. and he said head to a clinic.  At Williams the doc took an EKG, etc said he thought I had altitude sickness.  He called the CT doc and gave me a new prescription for my blood pressure.  At Petrified Forest we were at 6000 feet for 3 months and then we went to Tuscon in a day and the heat was over 100 degrees.  Then we came back up to 7700 feet at Williams, just south of the Grand Canyon.  It was OKed to go on to Sequoia and Yosemite, just watch my symptoms.  A high with very warm temps is right over this area for a week.  Going west we went lower in altitude so I felt fine again but the heat was getting me.  We stopped in Needles, CA last night and it was 107 degrees.  Today it was going to get to 112 at Needles but we were headed right into the Majove Desert, which gets hotter.  To make a long story short, we are skipping the middle CA national parks and are at Hurricane, UT, near Zion National Park.  It is still HOT/HOT/HOT but not like the Mojave.  We are in a RV resort under a tree and it is over 100 here but....it will cool down.  Heat and I do not get along so I can either die of the heat OR altitude sickness.  I have choices!!!!!!!!!!!  In Bryce which will be cooler at over 8,000 feet, I will see how I feel and might have to go down in altitude again!!!!!  Life on the road is sure an adventure!

Rats, pack rats

Yesterday we packed everything and took up the jacks.  It was time to leave.....but the jack lights on the dash would not work.  John pressed something and the jacks went up but something was wrong with them.  Oh, what now!  We called Lazydays and left a message with the tech that answered questions on the road.  In the parking lot of a Walmart after John checked everything he could think of and I shopped, we decided to call Tucson Lazydays and ask for an appointment the next day.  Yes, they could see us first thing in the morning so we headed south instead of the planned west.  The "On the Road Service Tech" called back and John did his suggestions but nothing worked.  We were on the way south anyway.  We slept in the Tucson overnight lot at Lazydays.  At least there was electrical hookups!   It was hot and we needed air conditioning for the first time this trip.

The tech today told us the bad news and the good news.  It was the wiring harness to the motor home that pack rats had made a nest in and chewed wires.  The good news was that it was fixable and it seemed the critters did not raise young there and do more damage.  So we are here on Saturday night in the campground and today it was 106 degrees.  Emma had to be carried to the grass at noontime to pee.  The pavement could burn her feet.  The air conditioning did not keep up with the heat so it is 8 pm and 88 degrees inside but I think the outside air will now cool and make the air conditioner work.  We are off to COOLER pastures tomorrow with bars of Irish Spring next to our wiring harness (a suggestion).

After the next door neighbor at Petrified Forest had trouble with his truck wires we put lights around the MH, put out traps, put moth balls and Fresh Cab in the compartments but the wiring harness is behind the propane tank and in an open space directly in the middle of the MH unprotected.  We will never know when we were invaded.  It will always be a mystery like the fire last year in the engine of the car.  I now have full respect for the rats of the desert southwest!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Off to California tomorrow

We packed up today and tomorrow morning we are off toYosemite, Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks.  It is time to leave our little community and start another adventure.  The birds (finches) who were
hatchlings have gone, our spring neighbors and their rigs are also gone. In this park, not known for animals, I have seen 3 kinds of lizards, snakes, ravens, quail, pronghorn, birds including a pair of nesting Killdeer, finch, orioles, hawks, and some others. I have heard Coyotes but I have never seen them.  Maybe I will see a bear in the Sierra Nevada's.
  



Goodbye to PEFO and our little piece of the northeastern Arizona

  

We turned in all our borrowed keys, clothes, etc.  Sarah, our VIP boss took us to lunch today at the Harvey House officially ending our stay. The weather is warmer but it is still windy and the bugs are out.  Spring in the high country of Arizona was cool and windy.  We only ate outside twice and cooked outside about 6 times.  We learned about the park and are proficient at our jobs so now it is time to travel on.  Goodbye PEFO.  See you in our dreams.

Last Hike to Agate House :(

Our last park hike was heading to agate house, a partially reconstructed pueblo.  In the morning the colors are great and it is cool with a little breeze.  And a great end to the 3 months.

John and Emma headed towards the pueblo



The reconstructed ruins





The petrified wood just litter the ground of the area.