The Stars at Night are Big and Bright

I am not sure that it counts as "Deep in the Heart of Texas" when we were nearly on the Oklahoma border, but the skies were glorious both nights during our stay this past weekend  at Lake Arrowhead State Park southeast of Wichita Falls.  It is actually one of the few state parks in the area we had never visited.  (It had no geocaches until relatively recently.)

We left early on Friday afternoon in Silver.  We pulled out of the RV storage area at 4:30 and were registered and hooked up in the campsite by 7:15 despite the very slow Friday afternoon traffic between Lewisville and Denton and some exploring of the park in order to pick our campsite.  We had hoped to make it by then, since 7:15 was sunset.  Gotta love daylight savings time!

I had started a batch of beef stew in the thermal cooker earlier in the day, so dinner was ready with no further preparation.  The inner pot went into the outer pot at 2:30:  the inner pot was still too hot to touch without a hotpad when we sat down to dinner at 7:30, with the meat fork tender and falling apart.

After cleaning up from dinner we went outside to enjoy the gloriously beautiful evening and were overcome with all of the stars.  It was one of the darkest parks we had ever been in...no street lights and no light pollution from nearby cities. That coupled with the unusually low humidity and no moon made for a stunningly full star field.  There were so many stars that it was nearly impossible to pick out the constellations. We could not decide which was the pole star, but we could easily see the Milky War.  Go figure! 

We spent the next day and a half exploring the park on bike and on foot.  That included a swing by the still active oil well in the park (dates back to 1952!), a trip to the lake shore, some time watching the prairie dogs (supposedly one of the eastern most prairie dog colonies),

 scaring up about a million grasshoppers while walking the trails, checking out the disc golf course (overflowing with local college kids in the midst of a tournament on Saturday morning), being eyed cautiously by a very large and noisy hawk, and finding seven geocaches in the park. We did not know until logging after we returned home that we had hit 1200 caches with our last cache on Saturday and were part of a world wide 10-10-10 celebration of geocaching by finding a cache on Sunday, October 10. Of course, the best part of the weekend was probably the weather.  It was a bit warm during the day (high in the mid to high 80's), but lows at night in the mid to high 50's. 

By Sunday morning the park was rapidly becoming deserted.  We had an early lunch and then hit the road about noon.  We made it home by 2:30, including stopping to fill up with gas and transferring everything from Silver to the car for the trip home.  Two nights camping: $30, including the $10 discount and our prepaid annual State Park Pass; refilling Silver's gas tank: $100; a weekend away to a slower pace and some outdoor time: priceless.

Fun for Ferroequinologists

This morning we made our first trip through the Sand Hills of Nebraska, which is a very interesting place.  I would love to return when the Sandhill Cranes are there.  Tonight we are in Hays, Kansas, where it was 103 degrees when we got out of the car at 7 p.m.  (Toto, we are not in Montana anymore!)  However, the feature of the day was a stop at the Golden Spike Tower, the official visitor center for Union Pacific's Bailey Yard, in North Platte, Nebraska.  The Frog, who has loved trains forever, really enjoyed many of the train activities we have seen while on this trip, especially some of the coal facilities and coal trains we happened to see along the road.  There are huge coal trains originating from the Gillette, Wyoming area ( >150 trains daily), which provides a large portion of the coal used for electrical generation in the US.  All of that was interesting, but this was special.  Bailey Yard is the world's largest train yard.  The Golden Spike Tower has several displays and provides a bird's eye view of this mammoth operation.  Bailey Yard is 8 miles long and 2 miles wide, handles more than 15,000 cars per day, and has a locomotive service area that employs 750 people and services 350 locomotives a day.   Pictures to be added when we get home.

Lots of Rocks...

...or at least two particular large rocks.  We started the day at Devils Tower National Monument, which is a mountain of solidified lava that cooled into vertical columns with primarily hexagonal cross sections.  We first encountered this type of thing at Devils Postpile National Monument last summer on the east side of the Sierra Mountains. It also appears to be the same thing at Sheepeaters Cliffs in Yellowstone that we saw last week.  However, the cross section of the structures is MUCH larger at Devils Tower.  In the other two cases they were only a few feet across.  At Devils Tower, they looked to be 6-10 feet across.

We again thought of Gwen when we saw climbers make their way up the 1200 foot sheer face.  We only hope if she  decides to attempt such a climb she will have the good sense not to tell us ahead of time!

We then went to Mount Rushmore, another very big rock, but interesting nonetheless.  Almost as interesting was following Iron Mountain Road through the Black Hills to get there...great scenery, tunnels through the mountain, and the pigtail bridges.

I will add pictures of the above when I get a chance.  We are currently in Chadron, Nebraska, center of the Pine Ridge region of Nebraksa.  I didn't even know there was a Pine Ridge region...still looks mostly like prairie to me.  We should go through the Sand Hills this morning as we head south.

On the Road Again...

When I last posted, we were leaving Dubois, WY, enroute to Grand Teton National Park.  Well, we made it and had a glorious time.  The scenery was even better than expected.

We then spent three nights in Yellowstone and saw all kinds of wonderful things there, including many animals (bison, bears, bighorn sheep, elk, marmots, etc. etc.), all kinds of geothermal features (geysers, fumaroles, hot springs, mudpots) , and great scenery.  

I will post about those things with more detail later.

This morning we came across the Beartooth Highway, a scenic highway out of the northeast corner of the park through Wyoming and Montana.  Here I am at the west summit of the pass, just over 11,000 feet.  Yes, that is snow at the same elevation.  It was 48 degrees and windy when we were there mid-morning.  The surface is rock covered by moss-like plants and lots of flowers.,

Gwen, we thought of you.  There were many bicyclists on this road this morning.  It was organized with support vehicles, but did not seem to be a race.  No amount of support would be sufficient to enable me to ride a bike up that mountain!

We then spent part of the afternoon exploring the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, the location of Custer's Last Stand.  Being there helped make the entire battle make more sense.  We would have stayed longer if it had not been 99 degrees!

Tonight we are in Sheridan, Wyoming.

Westward Ho

Tonight we are in Dubois, Wyoming, about an hour east of Grand Teton National Park.  Most of today was spent exploring the vast emptiness of Wyoming.  I had no idea it was so empty...clearly rivaling west or south Texas.  However, the scenery was breathtaking.

Part of our travels paralleled the original path of the massive westward migration along the Oregon Trail (which here was also the California Trail, Mormon Trail, and the Pony Express).  The sign to the left shows that we are approaching the crossing for all four trails.  We also visited Independence Rock, an important marker on the Oregon Trail, and Martin's Cove.  Martin's Cove is the site where a large contingent of pioneers pulling handcarts were trapped by cold weather and died.  The handcarts were used by those that could not afford a covered wagon or other means of moving household belongings.  I can't possibly imagine trying to walk several thousand miles across the country  pulling my belongings on a handcart.  Let me restate that without qualifiers, I can't imagine walking several thousand miles period.  Yet, over a roughly 40 year period, nearly 400,000 people marched across Wyoming.  Most of them made it.

Tomorrow we move on to Grand Teton National Park.

trains, rains, and nuclear bombs

We pulled out of the driveway at 1 pm straight up. We pulled into the motel in Amarillo a few minutes after 6. It was an uneventful but enjoyable drive up US 287. I suppose many people would find it boring, but I have always liked that road. It is a nice divided highway with relatively little traffic. It parallels the rail line most of the way. It is an extraordinarily busy line with mostly coal cars pouring in from the north...maybe from Wyoming?? Wherever it is from, I presume it is on its way to be converted to electrical energy to power the state's air-conditioning needs.

We also saw our fair share of oil wells, cattle, and cotton fields...quintessential Texas. Speaking of Texicana, we are a mile from the Big Texan, the restaurant where you can have a free 72 ounce steak...as long as you eat it within the prescribed time limit (1 hour, I think). There is even a white limousine from our hotel (with longhorns on the front!) that will take us to and from the restaurant. We passed on the limousine. We decided to pass also on the restaurant when we saw the long line out the door. I ate there 10 years ago when my Leadership Texas class was in Amarillo. It is ok, but once is enough.

We had stopped for gas in Wichita Falls on the drive up and it felt wonderfulwhen I got out of the car! It was 100 deg, but dry...what a relief from the unbearable humidity at home. However, the humidity caught up with us and we had rain as we approached Amarillo. It is now pleasant and in the 70's. I will take it!

I am now sitting in the room looking out the window. I can see plumes of steam rising in the distance. I was wondering if that might be the Pantex plant, the United States' only nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly facility. We stay in all the posh places!! Actually it is far in the distance across the flat expanse of the "staked plains", so I really don't know what it is.

Lots of flatness today. We will move to a 3D world tomorrow!

The Adventure Begins...

The adventure begins, or should I say continues? It has been a series of misadventures already in preparation for leaving.

This week has been a series of two steps forward and one step back in preparation for leaving. The gps is loaded with multiple geocaches and terracaches along our route, a new map book is in hand (thank you UNT Bookstore!), and the rental lenses for the Frog's camera have arrived, although he is missing the right size circular polarizer. Maybe a stop at a camera store along the way will be in order. (I will talk more about the rental lenses as they are put to use. One is a wide angle lens and one is a zoom lens.)

I identified several possible stops between home and Yellowstone that might be interesting but would require the payment of an entrance fee unless we already have the National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Pass , but I had not planned to purchase that until we arrived at Grand Teton National Park. Unfortunately it was too late to buy the annual pass online and still get it before we leave. No problem... an online search indicates that the LBJ Grasslands office in Decatur sells them and we will go right by it on our trip. A phone call indicates that they have them, but they will not be open on Saturday when we plan to pass through Decatur. Ok, Plan B...long lunch break. A quick run over there at lunch and I have one in my hot little hand. I triumphantly show the Frog that night that we now have an annual pass. Oh, wait, they did not stamp it correctly and it is LAST year's card. Back I go again to Decatur the next day. I am now a recognizable, frequent customer in the LBJ Grasslands office! (In apologizing for the mistake, the receptionist told me they only sell about two of the annual passes at that location a year. Having now bought two, does that double their count?)

The Frog came home early yesterday to mow the grass before we leave, but the weather gods had other plans. We have not one, but two rain showers before he can get it mowed. What was it, a 10% chance of rain and we get TWO rain showers? What luck! We should have bought a lottery ticket when we can beat those kind of odds! We are hoping it will be dry enough later this morning to accomplish that chore before leaving.

While trying to be quiet this morning I did a quick check of news items related to the national parks. A woman was attacked by a bison in Yellowstone this week when she got too close trying to get a better picture (mental note to self: do not throw items at bison in hopes they will look at the camera). It has been a tough week at Grand Teton National Park, with the death of a college student and a multiple injury from lightning strike event. Hopefully we can avoid those types of problems. Fortuantely there is not much more about the forest fire in Yellowstone, so hopefully that will soon be resolved. We did luck out in one area. I had an initial panic when I saw Vice President Biden was to visit Yellowstone. Fortunately he will be long gone before we arrive.

In case enquiring minds want to know (or watch) here is the page of webcams for Yellowstone: http://www.nps.gov/yell/photosmultimedia/webcams.htm I did watch Old Faithful go off on one of those webcams last weekend. Someone indicated you could see smoke from the forest fires on the Mt. Washburn webcam, but I forgot to look when it was light.

So, what is left to do? Pack. Load the car. Provision the cat. Head out. No problem. The adventure begins...

Weather

Happy Independence Day!!  Foremost on my mind right now is weather....the unusual weather we are experiencing now and the type of weather we might encounter on our trip to Yellowstone later this month.  We are still suffering through Houston-like weather here.  We had heavy rains yesterday and the chance of thundershowers are in the forecast every day for the extended forecast.  Even when it is not raining, it is unbearably humid.  I am not sure whether this is the remnants of Hurricane Alex or some other phenomenon, but it is certainly not our typical Fourth of July weather.

Despite the local yucky weather, I have been thinking about what type of weather to expect on our vacation. It is COLD in Yellowstone!!  That did not really hit home to me until this morning when I saw that it is below freezing at the official Yellowstone National Park weather station!! Obviously our typical Texas summer wear will not be sufficient. 

Here is a link to weather at Yellowstone. I think it is actually to conditions to the West Yellowstone Airport, so it may be colder there than many points in the park. After going to the link, scan down through the page for lots of info, including a list of weather conditions at multiple Yellowstone sites:



Here is info about weather at Gardiner, MT, the north entrance to the park where we will be staying for much of our time in Yellowstone:



Finally, here is a link to an interactive weather map with weather stations in Yellowstone and vicinity: http://www.wunderground.com/wundermap/?lat=44.83483887&lon=-110.44590759&zoom=10

As I am writing this, the temperature at the weather station in Yellowstone is 28 degrees. It may be summer in Yellowstone, but that counts as winter in Texas, so it looks like I am off to dig out winter clothes from the back of the closet.

Lewisville Wildlife Sanctuary

We are running the Lewisville Wildlife Sanctuary. Well, not exactly, but some of the local wildlife would like to make it such if they had their choice.  In what seemed like a never ending battle with the neighborhood furry rodents (i.e. squirrels), we removed at least two dozen squirrels from our attic over a several year period and transported them to a park in Corinth.  That doesn't count the squirrel that clawed its way through the wallboard behind the bookcase in the loft.  One of our cats, although very surprised but very determined, held him at bay until reinforcements could arrive.(Way to go, Wendy!)  The squirrel made a mad dash for the great outdoors after the Frog opened several doors and removed the cat.  None of the suggested methods (coyote urine, flashing lights, etc.) were successful in scaring the squirrels out of the attic.  The great squirrel wars were finally won several years ago with the help of ABC Pest Control.

We had to shoo an opossum out of the garage when she thought the space behind the workbench would make a nice home for the winter.  That was in addition to the opossum that Lewisville Animal Control removed from our backyard.

One of the greatest animal adventures was the removal of a mother raccoon and her seven two-week old babies in April 2001 (see picture) who had taken up residence in our chimney.  The chimney sweep was able to get the kits out of the chimney and into a box.  We left the box on the ground in the backyard where we could see it from the house.  Mother raccoon recovered the babies (one-by-one by the scruff of the neck) once it got dark. Hopefully they found a happy, but more appropriate, home somewhere in the neighborhood.

I believe it was last fall that I found an abandoned nest of small eggs in a large flower pot in the corner of the garage.  Based on the size of the eggs (see the quarter in the center of the picture) and what I could infer from what was left in one of the unhatched eggs, I am guessing this was home to one of the neighborhood geckos.  (When I looked up gecko removal on the web, it suggested you get a cat.  I am not sure whether our cat, Alex, considers himself old enough to be retired from such duties or he is just not interested, but obviously he wasn't holding up his end in terms of gecko deterrence.)

Now we have something totally different.  Two weeks ago we had begun discovering a few honey bees in the house.  In most cases they were dead (on a windowsill or on the kitchen floor), although I was stung by one that I stepped on in my bare feet in the bedroom.  I was hoping it was some random event, but I continued to find one or two each evening.  Then I cleaned up five dead bees from the window in the kitchen on Thursday night alone. Clearly the situation was not getting any better, and if anything was getting worse.   If this was going to require a major effort, I wanted it resolved before we left on vacation later next month. After a couple of calls on Friday, I found a professional bee removal company that would send someone out on Saturday morning.  Sure enough, there is a beehive in the attic above our bedroom closet.  It is the large light colored blob covered with black dots hanging from the underside of the roof in the middle of the picture to the left.  Apparently it is quite large for this type of thing.  The bee removal dude (BRD) estimates it weighs at least 30 pounds and would have taken the bees many months to build.  The BRD will be back on Monday morning to remove the hive.

To be continued...

See the USA in the Geocache Way

After I wrote the title to this post, all I could hear was the old Chevrolet jingle "See the USA in a Chevrolet" going through my head.  Uck!!

Not much new to report on the "Yellowstone or Bust" vacation plans. I did begin to look at potential caches we might try to find on this trip. We have done very very little caching in recent years.  What we have done has mostly been on the terracaching.com site instead of the geocaching.com site. Despite our tight schedule at the beginning of the trip, hopefully we will be able to add a few new finds to our totals on both sites.  Click here for a list of our current cache finds on geocaching.com  That list will update (as well as the stickers below) as we register new finds on the respective sites.



More importantly, I hope we can add a few new states to our found list. Below is a map showing those states where we have found at least one geocache from geocaching.com.  I did not do a separate map for terracaches.  Of the 98 terracaches found so far, I believe all but one was in Texas.  The other one was in Illinois (a brief diversion while on a business trip in Chicago).



What can I say other than....aiming to make EVERY state a RED state!! New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas....hopefully you are all next!

As required to use this map program, here is the way to create your own visited states map

First Post

As we were preparing for our vacation later this summer, we decided it might be fun to create a blog about our adventures primarily for us to revisit later, a scrapbook if you will.  However, it would also serve as a way to share our adventures with the rest of the family.

Our "adventures" are fewer and more far between than sometimes in the past, but nonetheless still fun and exciting for us.  If you intend to follow this blog, don't expect it to be very regular. The entries will be sporadic at best and primarily clustered around our vacation or rv trips. 

So here it is....the first post for our new blog.  That is the big event for today, the creation of this new blog.

We also made reservations for our trip to Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park next month.  We have been spending a lot of time over the last several weeks looking at maps and deciding what might be possible in the time we can steal from work.  We don't leave until the end of July, but we wanted to get reservations in place since those two national parks are notoriously crowded.  The remainder of the trip is firmly set in jello, but we hope to see the Beartooth Highway, Devil's Tower National Monument, Mount Rushmore, and more.  We have much more research to do on potential places to visit and things to see.  We also have hopes of grabbing caches in each of the various states we will be visiting since we do not have finds in most of those states. We will need to identify potential caches and get the coordinates loaded ino the gps.  Finally, I won't let the Frog get too close to any of the wildlife we hope to see (think moose, bison, and bear), but he will definitely want to take pictures.  Therefore he is contemplating some new zoom lenses for the camera. 

As you can tell, there is much to do in the next few weeks to get ready for the trip.  I will try to update the blog occasionally as decisions are made.