5 Nov 2010 Austin

I am spending a couple weeks in Austin, Texas. It's time for my annual routine medical check-ups. (If I don't see my doctor once a year, she refuses to keep refilling my prescriptions, for some reason!!) I lived here for 30 years and love this town. I am visiting family here and many friends. I hope to make it to all my favorite restaurants; Austin (and San Antonio) have some of the best Mexican food anywhere, and lots of other really good places to eat.

I am enjoying the warm weather (70s and 80s) and my favorite hiking spots.

31 Oct 2010 Back in Texas

As I write this, I am parked in a Dallas RV park, with my door open, and my fan on, listening to the lovely sound of a katydid chorus. It's dark outside, but it's still in the 80s. The sound of the katydids and the fan make me feel like I'm back home.

The fall colors were gorgeous on my drive from Fargo to Minneapolis. I felt like I was driving through the Master Painter's fall pallette - rusts, yellows, tans, browns, reds, light greens, dark greens, and lots of oranges. It made me think of driving through some of the scenes of swirling colors in Robin Williams' movie, "What Dreams May Come". I saw some color all along the way, but the peak was in the Ozarks as this time of year they are orange. Totally. Imagine the gentle hills of solid green - all turned to orange. Impressive. [photo I took of the Missouri Ozarks, Fall 2008, above].

I was able to gather lots of old family photos and family history information from family in North Dakota and Minnesota, on both sides of my family, during the last month. I also visited with a cousin in Independence, Missouri, on my way down to Texas, and she had lots of old photos and information on my dad's mother's family. I was able to meet with the people I wanted to meet with, and, for the most part, gathered the information I was hoping to gather. So I am pleased about that. I have gathered LOTS of information and photos, to sort through, and publish on ancestry.com, and will have plenty to do this winter in Arizona. :-) I was able to see lots of family during this trip, though I didn't stay long at any one place, feeling like I had to keep moving, as I knew I was on borrowed time, and that winter could arrive any time.

I made it south just ahead of the 5 inches (or more) of snow that some parts of North Dakota and northern Minnesota got last Tuesday, and was very glad to be south of the mess, as I watched the weather news Tuesday night. But I didn't manage to get south fast enough to avoid the hurricane-strength winds and record low barometric pressure on Wednesday. I was driving through snow, off and on,Tuesday and Wednesday, though the ground was too warm for it to "stick" (as we say in Texas) and it melted when it hit the ground. Looks like the winds damaged my TV antennae, though. :-(

23 Oct 2010 North Dakota and Minnesota

As I write this, I am listening to the sounds of geese honking as they fly overhead in their V-formation. I have no idea why they have to honk as they fly, unlike other birds, who fly silently. My dad says that the theory is that they are talking to each other. "Hey, you're getting too close, Buddy! Move over." "Do you see that cornfield cafe down there? Let's stop off for lunch." I see and hear them several times a day when I am outside. No one else notices them up here, they are such a common occurrence. But I enjoy seeing and hearing them each and every time. They are still a treat for me.


When I was traveling through the middle of North Dakota, to visit with family, I saw more hawks in two days than I’ve seen in my entire life before [red-tailed hawk, dark phase, left, and juvenile osprey, right]. I was amazed. It seemed like there were hawks on every ten telephone poles all along my route. My dad says that I saw so many because they are migrating now. Loved it.


One of my first days in Minnesota I drove through the middle of the lake country, from Fergus Falls to Park Rapids. For about 90 miles, I kept track of the lakes I went by - well, those that had signs, anyway: Pelican, Buck, Prairie, Detroit Lakes, Franklin, Sauer, Melissa, Lind, Cottage, Meadow, Muskrat, Munson, St. Clair, Schulz, Howe, Cotton, Little Toad, Big Twin, Sivertson, Toad, Wolf, George, Height of Land, Holbrook, East Lake Lizzie, Fish. I missed a few. And that didn't include the many unsigned unnamed ponds, sloughs, and lakes. But there was another lake every three miles, on average.


The water table around here continues to rise. A couple years ago when my dad was driving me around the countryside where he grew up, he pointed out lake after lake -"That lake didn't used to be there; I used to walk through that field." "Those two lakes are joined into one now; they used to be separate lakes." Etc. Etc. And I can tell that they've grown even larger since then. Lakes have grown a lot in his lifetime. Devil's Lake in North Dakota is in the news from time to time as it swallows more and more land, but what's happening there is quietly happening all over this part of the country. I don't understand it. I assume it has something to do with global warming, but I don't really know.



It's late enough that most of the trees are bare, most of the red is gone from the maples. But there is still a flash of brilliant color occasionally - aspen gold, red maple, golden tamarac.


The unusually warm weather continues. It gets down below freezing at night occasionally, but mostly has been in the upper 30s. I've warned everyone that, if the temps get lower into the 20s at night, I'm heading south. :-) But, so far, the weather has been great. I'm loving it!

101005 Montana and North Dakota

The drive from Salmon, Idaho, to Billings, Montana, yesterday, then from Billings to Dickinson, North Dakota, today, was a beautiful one. I enjoyed again the drive through the Salmon River Valley, with all the golden aspens. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed the drive through Montana. And the western part of North Dakota has the impressive badlands. They were especially pretty, with the fall colors.

100930 Salmon, Idaho

ATVs – Thursday we got in Marcia’s ATV, including Marcia's dog Suzie [Suzie waiting for us to go, left], and drove over to her neighbor Val’s. From there Val led us on her ATV up a trail into the mountains east of their neighborhood. We drove by an active gold mine, which I'd never seen before. We went up into the mountains (not far) and stopped at a pretty place by a creek and had a picnic lunch. Stopped by an abandoned cabin and took some pictures. Marcia suggested this cabin could be my new Idaho base camp! Val kept looking out for, and talking about, bears seen in the area. We didn't see any. But she had brought her gun, for protection, in case we needed it.
Hot Springs – After we got back, Marcia, Val, and I went up to the hot springs only about 30 miles from Marcia's. It was great being there at night, with the Milky Way and gazillions of stars overhead. They mix the hot water from the springs with cold water, so you can stand to be in it. But it's still hot, and I was popping in and out, getting warm, getting cool.

Yurt - Friday We picked up Val and went into town for a couple errands. Stopped at the fudge store and I got a few necessary things. :-) We stopped by Marge's on the way. It was great seeing Marge. Then Val, Marcia, and I drove over to their friend Sharon’s place about 30 miles north of Salmon. Before we saw anything else, we saw where the hole in her son's yurt had been repaired, from when the bear's claws ripped it! Impressive. I’m so glad I got to meet Sharon. I love her yurt, her life “off the grid”. It’s so great to know it can be done so elegantly. She has more room in her charming yurt than I do in my RV, actually. And it stays warm in the wintertime, heated by her wood stove. She says she actually has more trouble with it getting too warm than too cold in the wintertime. Her son lives nearby, and chops wood for her. She has a garden, a composting toilet, and only goes into town a couple times a month in the wintertime. Her vehicle is a RV (Class B, van chassis) that she traveled around with, and lived in, for years. So we had a lot to talk about. :-)

Bill's Tour - As always I am having a delightful visit with Marcia. Saturday we went on Bill's Tour. Her friend Bill played tour guide for Marcia, their friend Molly, and me on a day-long drive, through a couple of valleys and over a couple of mountain ranges. Well, Marcia actually did the driving. We’ve had five days in a row of 80-degree weather – very unusual for this time of year, but we're all loving it! I loved the drive. We stopped at a local fish hatchery, which was interesting. I learned a lot about Chinook salmon spawning. We saw the runway in the middle of nowhere for some rancher's 727. Loved driving over the passes. We got as high as 8300 feet at Double Springs Pass. We saw Mount Borah, the highest mountain in Idaho (12,600 feet); it still had some snow on it from the snow they had in the mountains on Sep. 9th. We stopped and had a picnic lunch at the top of the first pass we went over. We stopped at the earthquake scarp from a 1983 earthquake here that killed two children in Challis. Loved driving through the Salmon River Valley. With all the cottonwoods turned golden, it was an especially beautiful drive. We stopped and had another picnic lunch at a park on the Salmon River, near the river, with yellow cottonwoods all around us. Both picnics were special. I love the mountains around here - so many different colors, shapes, and patterns. Bill is an amateur geologist, so he explained to us about the calderas in the area, and we stopped and saw ripples in a rock cliff where the rock used to be under water (all of the Salmon River Valley used to be under a huge lake). I especially appreciated that he showed us a spot where you could plainly see the 6-10-inch layer of ash in the dirt, from the explosion of Mount Mazama (Crater Lake’s volcano) 10,000 years ago. When Mount Mazama exploded and Crater Lake was created, ash covered everything for hundreds of miles around. The layer of pumice and ash was ten feet thick around Mount Mazama, and as much as 3 inches thick way up in British Columbia. Here it was 6-10 inches thick, and you could plainly see it where the road cut through the hillside.

Smoke - Marcia and I drove up the Salmon River Valley on Sunday, but ran into smoke from a prescribed burn that the Forest Service had set, reportedly to clean out dead trees. By dinner time, the smoke was at Marcia's place, and I was glad I was leaving the next morning. My last evening in Salmon, there were scattered showers on all sides of us, and a smoke-enhanced sunset. I sat outside and just listened to the birds and watched the sky and the play of sun and shadows against the mountains for a long time.

I would like to stay longer, but feel I need to be moving on, as it’s already getting down below freezing some nights in North Dakota. And Monday the weather isn’t going to be as good, some rain in the forecast, so it’s a good day to move on.

I'm going to be doing some sight-seeing, but mostly I'm going to be visiting with family in North Dakota and Minnesota for the next month, so I don't expect to be posting regularly here for awhile.

100928 Montana and Idaho

Clark Fork – I continued to drive along the beautiful Clark Fork of the Yellowstone River most of the way to Missoula. Pretty drive. Gorgeous day. It’s in the mid-80s!!!! I love this part of the country. As my friend Marge says, where you are born isn't necessarily where you are meant to be. I was meant to be in the mountains. This part of the country feels like "home" to me.

Missoula - I made an appointment to get my oil changed when I was in Missoula, and did that. (It cost me more here than it has cost me anywhere else in the country! Next time I will pick a different town.) I drove away from my RV site without unhooking my electric cord this morning. I don't know what I was thinking!! Well, I wasn't thinking, obviously. To make a long story short, I was able to find an RV repair place that was willing to fix it right away, was lucky that the damage was only minor, and was able to get on the road again by late afternoon. Whew! That's the second time I've done that (in six years). Obviously, I need some kind of system that reminds me to unhook before I drive away. Maybe I'll tie a towel on my steering wheel or something.

Salmon - The drive from Missoula to Salmon, over Lolo Pass, and another pass, alongside the Bitterroot Mountains, through the Salmon River Valley, is another scenic drive. In late afternoon, the sun turned everything golden. A gorgeous day, a glorious drive. It's great to see Marcia, and it feels good to be back in Salmon.

100927 Idaho and Montana

Drove along Pack River (though it was too late in the season to see many birds) and the beautiful Pend Oreille Lake this morning [on left]. Saw ten wild turkeys crossing the road - the most I've ever seen.


Drove along the beautiful Clark Fork of the Yellowstone River, another scenic byway. Saw a school of beautiful Trumpeter swans flying through the valley. Beautiful birds. I'd never seen any in the wild before.

Kat and I spent the afternoon chatting and wandering around town. We watched the geese on the lake for awhile. It was great to see Kat again, and to share with her, for just a little while, this beautiful country. Kat and Jim live very near the Clark Fork [photo below], and in a national forest.
We saw a number of deer wandering around town, resting in people's yards. Reminded me of Waterton, Alberta. The deer think they own the town there too. :-)