Ironically we may be leaving on one of the nicest days yet. But we find we’re just not the types who want to linger too long in one place. Just call us modern day gypsies. Before wrapping this up I want to mention this little beach town does have fun events (one year there was a marathon on the beach). And yesterday I enjoyed the little beach town’s Chili Cookoff. Two of the entries had veggie chili, we got one free beer per person, and I enjoyed the Houston based amber by 11 Below. They also had artists displaying their work and some other food for sale plus live music. (I was most impressed with the artist who made things out of albums.) The fire dept. was there for donations and even their mascot, a Dalmatian named Rocket! That was a nice treat before we say goodbye. Oh but we’ll likely be back in a month and stay a few days on our way back to good ole Virginny!
We left Virginia in the dust over 1,300 miles ago - headed to the Gulf Coast and a spot of free camping in Texas. We were looking for warmth and sunshine and a place to relax. On the way here we stopped to visit Terry’s sister in AL, spent the night at a beautiful recreation area (Rood Creek) that has free camping in GA, and then stopped in Mississippi and Louisisana for free camp spots at casinos...it’s been two weeks of free camping and we’ve loved it. And by the way I only lost $4.00 at the track (Delta Downs). For all my FB friends, thanks for the many recommendations of podcasts which helped the miles go by quickly - we heard Serial season 1, S-Town & Last Seen). When we got to Surfside Beach, about 60 miles south of Galveston, we made a plan to walk the beach with our back packs around 20 pounds and gradually over the weeks add more weight in training for The Appalachian Trail through hike. The walking (hard to call this hiking on a flat beach) has been nice, but we were looking for something more. We had some cool days and really cool nights, so part of me wanted more warmth. Nice days were promised in the forecast but still, nothing like the 70+ temperatures we’ve had here in the past in January- February. And we had rain - one day the surf came right up to our outdoor rug! We’ve enjoyed watching and counting the pelicans, great blue herons and other birdlife here, but we are missing watching more wildlife and hiking in varied terrain. There’s a stretch of beach just outside the town line where free camping is allowed and at least when we’ve come (our 3rd time here) in Winter, it’s never been too crowded. We met some really nice people also camping on the beach - Vanessa & her son Nathan who’ve been traveling for months from Alaska. (I’m sure the beach was warm enough for them). We also met Patty and Tim from Wisconsin, and they’ve been here for 2 months! The town picks up trash in barrels regularly and campers chip in by moving logs and debris along the hard pack sand where cars are allowed to drive. We have Internet strong enough to watch shows on Amazon Prime and a few dozen TV channels. The water’s not as blue and beautiful as the Atlantic Coast where we swam and boogie board growing up. I understand the tan color here is the influence (or should I say confluence) of the mighty Mississippi. But this trip it’s been too cold to swim in but nice for a short walk in bare feet. After being here about 4 days and thinking about our plan to stay for 5 weeks, we saw a Facebook post that had us thinking...maybe we should head to Arizona. A few years ago while camping we met a couple from Vermont and have followed their travels as they full time RV like us. Last week they were taking a group hike in the Rincon Mountains and were fortunate to see a pair of mountain lions on their hike! Boy, were we envious. We have wanted to see a mountain lion on our hikes for years. Back in 2000 when I produced a documentary for TBS about the Everglades, one third of our story covered the rare Florida panther. Even then I didn’t see a panther in the wild. I’ve had the great fortune to watch leopards, cheetahs, lions, 1 lynx and 1 bobcat (albeit briefly) in the wild - but never a mountain lion. We began thinking about cruising west to AZ. While Tucson is much warmer than Surfside, the mountains and national forests around where we would want to hike and camp are very cold at night now (teens-20’s). So we grappled with a move.. While we can see more wildlife there and have varied hiking terrain, we’d have to be prepared for cold nights and keeping the RV in propane to heat the coach to keep pipes from freezing. Then, President Trump helped us make our decision...he reopened the government which was taken hostage in a political battle that went on far too long. That means the National Parks are now open! So, we are packing up and heading to Big Bend National Park along the Rio Grande in West Texas. It’s about another 700 miles, but it’s beautiful and one of our favorites. This time of year the temperatures are very warm during the day and cool at night, but very manageable. AND there are mountain lions! Yes, there are only about 2 dozen patrolling the 800,000 acres, but we think we can get more hiking on varied terrain in there and add variety to our next 5 weeks. Ironically we may be leaving on one of the nicest days yet. But we find we’re just not the types who want to linger too long in one place. Just call us modern day gypsies. Before wrapping this up I want to mention this little beach town does have fun events (one year there was a marathon on the beach). And yesterday I enjoyed the little beach town’s Chili Cookoff. Two of the entries had veggie chili, we got one free beer per person, and I enjoyed the Houston based amber by 11 Below. They also had artists displaying their work and some other food for sale plus live music. (I was most impressed with the artist who made things out of albums.) The fire dept. was there for donations and even their mascot, a Dalmatian named Rocket! That was a nice treat before we say goodbye. Oh but we’ll likely be back in a month and stay a few days on our way back to good ole Virginny!
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I was lying on the couch the other day and began reflecting on last year, 2018. Like those TV retrospectives, I thought I should capture them in a blog, like Holly does. 2018 was full of new places, new dogs and cats, new smells from all over the country, and thinking back I know why people tell me, “you’re a lucky dog.” The last few months of the year I’ve spent mostly at my grandmother’s house in Clarksville – it’s the one with the yellow door. Boy has this been nice. Why just the other day, I actually got steak for dinner! My grandmother (Nannie) had gone out to dinner with my parents (Holly & Terry) along with visiting big brother, Sundance, and his cousins Heather & Serena. This was one of the few times that a doggie bag came home with food actually meant for a canine – not just some old pizza crusts. You see my parents don’t eat meat, but Nannie does! It’s just one of the many reasons I like coming to Grandma’s – she gives me left over meat morsels, pieces of cheese, and even lets me lick the ice cream bowl. (Don’t tell anyone but she sometimes gives me pie crumbs too.) Another great thing about visiting here is that I get to lie RIGHT by the road (4th Street) and herd the cars (in my mind) as they pass. I focus on them and will them to go right or left, all with my nose just inches away from the street. It’s a great job! And since Nannie lives only about a block from the marina, on my walks I often get to swim and play fetch in the lake. What a great life I have! While I’ve spent most of the last few months here in Clarksville, VA I did take a couple of vacations to MD to stay with my cousin Bailey and the Warrens. I think my parents went off with big bro Sundance across the ocean to a place called Ireland. But I got to bond with Bailey. The Warrens are very nice to me, and I love that they always have a basket of fresh AND old toys waiting for me. Patti even lets me pull out every toy in the basket. There are chew bones, stuffed toys with squeakers, balls and Kongs. It’s like PetSmart - without the cash registers. I enjoyed my two visits there because Aunt Patti takes me and Bailey on long walks, and they have a fenced in backyard with lots of squirrels, rabbits and deer. I even sometimes enjoy playing with Bailey; it reminds me of when Shady and I used to play. At first I was taken aback because Bailey is just a puppy, and she wants to be in my face ALL the time. But after I got used to it and realized she was sharing her toys with me, I relaxed. In the remote woods of the Yukon where we free-camped, mom & dad let me roam off leash on my evening walk. There was no one around for miles. I spotted a ground squirrel, chased him and actually caught him by the tail! Mom immediately started yelling at me and ran over making me let go of the squirrel’s tail; he ran up a tree. Mom was so upset, and I didn’t know why because all my life I’ve chased squirrels away from Nannie’s bird feeders and up trees. Mom watched as the squirrel sat on a high branch with no leaf cover. The squirrel sat perfectly still with his tail on his back. A few hours later, mom went to check and the squirrel was still sitting in the exact position. In the morning, mom went to look and didn’t see the squirrel on the perch so she examined the ground around the tree base – no squirrel. Guess that’s my fishing story of the one that got away. The Yukon was great because we often drove the nearly deserted roads at night looking for bears. (It’s light most of the time in summer.) Two years ago when we were here we did that nightly and got to watch a mom and her two cubs grazing along the roadside for hours – on several nights! (The bears for some reason like to eat dandelions.) Let me tell you, those bears have a very distinctive odor – especially the big mama. I know to sit quietly and scent the air out the backseat of the car. This year on our return trip we did the same thing and saw quite a few bears. We saw another mom with her cubs –not too far from the road. We watched them for about an hour before they wandered off into the woods. I could tell by her scent, it was a different mother with cubs even though she had the blonde coat like the last mom. This family of bears wasn’t too far from our campground that is a beautiful place on Kluane Lake. Congdon Creek Campground has an area for tent campers with an electric fence because it’s a popular place for grizzlies when the berries ripen. We hiked a lot in the Yukon, and I love it there because the national parks in Canada allow dogs on the trails! We’re supposed to be leashed and I was, but I still got the scent of a bear one day and alerted mom & dad. This was a large dark brown Grizzly who scurried up a hillside away from us. I’m sure he ran because of me, the uber predator on the trail!
Luckily this moose was picking up on my telepathic signals to “move along mamma & calves – ‘these are not the droids you’re looking for’.” She walked towards us, wanting to cross the path and venture into the brush on the right side of the path. We all backed up and into those same woods (trying to get back to our car and off the trail). We did so as another family joined us on the path, giving their young son a safe but tense moose encounter story. Holly says we should stay more than 25 yards from a moose – and especially a mother with calves. I may not be too clear on how far 25 yards is, but I can tell you we were very, very close. But thanks to my herding skills, it all turned out just right. I guess mamma moose discovered I’m not a wolf but a serious working dog. We saw lots of moose this summer, more than three dozen, but none were as close as these three! Another fun part of our trip was our journey into the Northwest Territories of Canada on a newly completed 500 mile DIRT road to Tuktoyaktuk for a dip in the Arctic Ocean. We all jumped in. Holly and Terry didn’t really swim, but just ducked their heads under because they thought it was cold (somewhere in the forties I overheard them exclaim). But I didn’t see what the big deal was; I could have played 'fetch the stick' for hours in the water. The strange part of that trip was that we left the RV and took this journey in the car, camping in our tent along the way. So that was fun for me to sleep in the tent, even if it was a bit cramped. When we got to Alaska, we went to a few different places than our last trip here. One was Haines, AK that we all found to be a favorite. We stayed at a campground at the end of a road on Chilkoot Lake. The stream leaving the lake is what carries the salmon back to spawn during the summer, so this is a popular fishing spot for both bears and humans. One day Terry took me to the boat launch area and began playing fetch the Frisbee in the water. Holly spotted a Grizzly bear across the lake about 40 yards away, but Terry kept throwing the Frisbee for me. (I had been cooped up in the RV while they went biking.) Holly couldn’t believe he kept playing while the bear watched this game. But then she kept taking pictures so I don’t see what the big deal was. Eventually, we finished the game and the bear got into the fast moving stream near the lake mouth and began to swim over to our side. We were on the hillside now above the lake and stream and watched the water move the bear away from where she wanted to come ashore. We watched her move downstream and then clumsily get out of the water while we kept our distance. This same grizzly we watched a lot that week. She was too early for the big arrival of spawning salmon who are counted on a nearby fishing weir (the numbers are posted daily). The majority of the salmon were weeks away. One morning we saw her wandering through the uninhabited campsite next to ours stopping to lick the grill. She moved close to our other neighbor who was cooking pancakes on his camp stove. The tenter (who was a local Alaskan) just shouted “hello beautiful bear” and she moved off. Funny how wild animals behave near humans – sometimes.... I know this bear just smelled the food and wanted some breakfast. Or maybe she smelled me and wanted to ask if she could see my Frisbee. Anyway, Holly got lots of pictures of her that week. I almost forgot to mention my most favorite spot this summer was in Keno City, Yukon. Holly & Terry thought the weather was crappy cause it rained all week-end, but we went to a free music festival at the end of a 50 mile dirt road - literally the middle of nowhere. Amazingly all these other people came to hear acts on this makeshift stage with bleachers covered with tarps to keep folks dry. The dance floor was a mud pit and a bonfire was lit nearby. The music ranged from really fun to hurt my ears bad. BUT the festival allowed dogs, and there must have been 30 or more! I was in heaven herding them all (although they pretty much stayed away from me as I stared them down - I must be a bad$#s!) I could and probably should write a book about my adventures, and the wildlife I’ve seen. Last year we saw pronghorns, elk, eagles, beaver, moose, buffalo, porcupine, bears, coyotes, ravens, even a lynx and sooooo many squirrels and rabbits. There’s so much to tell, just about this one year…like the time I met some pretty girls camping next to us in the Flaming Gorge Recreational area, and I strolled over to their site while my parents weren’t looking. They threw a stick of firewood into the lake continuously for me and their dog, boy was that fun! Or the time I visited my big brother Sundance in Colorado and got to stalk outside his house while his cats prowled inside. I also watched his dog Zappa perform amazing feats of herding when the free range cattle got too close to the house. Zappa has no formal training, but Sundance says “Zappa, move the cows!” And off he runs rounding up the cows and moving them through the prairie. Me, I like to get into my stance on the ground and move them with my mind. Anyway…I see some squirrels at Nannie’s birdfeeders so I’m gonna end here. It’s now 2019 and we’re about to hit the road again in the RV – I know because I see the maps, clothes and food being packed. And since my dog food bag’s moving, I know I get to go too! See ‘ya on the road, again.
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AuthorFormer documentary film producer, wife and mother of one...I'm taking time off to see the US with my husband Terry. Here's where I'll write about our adventures RVing until the money runs out! Archives
August 2021
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