A long time coming...

The joys of unpacking...  Actually, Maya thinks it is pretty boring.

OMG, I can’t believe how the time has flown!  My last blog entry was the first of September and here it is just after Thanksgiving!  Well, since September we have managed (finally) to get moved into our rented townhome.  We made a long trip back to Odessa, rented a U-Haul and hired some help to load it from our storage locker.  Then we had a bit of a visit with family before driving the U-Haul back to Nacogdoches followed by a grueling few days of unloading in the heat.

 

Compared to our RV kitchen, our townhome kitchen is huge!
One thing is the same though, David still makes great pancakes.

 

Since then we have been unpacking, unpacking and unpacking.  I only thought I got rid of a lot of stuff.  Let me tell you, more of our stuff is going to find a new home.  We’ve vowed to downsize by half again before the next move.  Really, we did do a decent job of “de-stuffing” ourselves almost four years ago.  But since then we have lived on the road with much less and we realize that we haven’t missed the stuff that was stored.  (With one exception, our Select Comfort Bed!  It is good to be sleeping on it now.)

 

Nacogdoches has a good Farmers' Market

 

Most ‘things’ have become just that for us now – ‘things’ we can easily live without. But the stuff I have the hardest time letting go of is books, family things that have been given to me and photographs, both the ones I have taken through the years of family, vacations, etc. and the ones I have collected from friends and other artists.  So, most likely there will always be some stuff in my life.  But I will think long and hard about adding anything new to the collection.

 

 

A Trip to the Pineywoods Native Plant Center's Fall Plant Sale

 

Maya loves a good plant sale

 

The sale made me lonesome for all my Plant Sale volunteers
 and friends at the SA Botanical Garden

 

As always, Maya knows who needs to give her a pet

 

 

Life in the small town of Nacogdoches is pretty quiet now that we are mostly unpacked and settling in.  Our house is one mile from school, an easy walk, bike ride or three minute drive.  Downtown is another mile down the road from school or two miles from us. There is a gas station on the corner two blocks away from our house.  The grocery store is three blocks away and the Post Office is just across the street from the grocery.  After years of living in big cities, this is kind of cool.  But there are many things small towns don’t have.  One of them is traffic, that we don’t miss, but there is not really a good grocery store.  That we do miss.  Alas, as we have found in all our travels, there is no perfect place.  But all in all, we like it here for now and are beginning to feel at home.

 

We just returned from spending Thanksgiving with my parents in Odessa.  They were feeling fairly well for all they have both been through this year and we had a nice visit and good food.  All of us were very grateful this Thanksgiving and counted our blessings.

 

On the way back to Nacogdoches the traffic was horrible coming out of DFW.
All that traffic and rain too!  We were glad we were going the other way.

 

On another note, school is winding down for us – two more weeks, then final exams.  We have both enjoyed our classes this semester.  I have been making new photographs and enjoying using the print lab in the art department at SFA.  It has been fun to learn new skills and be printing photos again.  David has been having fun with his classes in the Forestry School too, although he didn’t realize he would be writing so many papers.  All in all, it looks like we both might pass this semester.

 

Fall is here, the first week of December!

 

It has been an adjustment going from ‘road warriors’ to students and settling down.  But I think we have gotten most of the major shocks behind us – one of the biggest being that it now takes longer than 15 minutes to clean the house.  We don’t know how long we will live in “Nac” but it looks like we will be content to stay a few years so long as we get to hit the road and the trails come summertime.  And speaking of the road, we are going to take “Silver” out on the road for our month-long Christmas break and do some winter camping in Texas.  Wanna come along?

 

 

New neighbors, Ginger and Rachel

 

 

Unpacking is messy and very tiring -- we are all glad it is mostly done!

 

 

 

The Heat Is On...

Home Sweet Home, for now anyway...

 

Well, we have been in Nacogdoches for almost three weeks.  We knew what we were ‘signing up for’ – that coming back to Texas in late August would be pretty miserable, and we weren’t wrong.  It has been hot and humid and living 8 miles outside town in a small RV park with no shade in our little ‘Silver,’ has made the heat seem even worse.  It is hard to believe that the RV parks in Nacogdoches in the middle of the pineywoods, have little to no trees but that seems to be the case.

 

Maya hangs out in the RV park with her new friend, the roping steer
She is a good herding dog keeping that steer right in place

 

Okay, so I’m whining a bit.  I admit we are spoiled rotten when it comes to having things ‘our way.’  We’ve been chasing spring or fall all around the country for the past 3 ½ years, going ‘where the weather suits our clothes.’  If we did much more than sleep in our RV, it was unusual.  Mostly we were out and about hiking or sightseeing.  I knew it was a great life while we were at it and now I appreciate it even more.

 

 

Another friend at the RV park

 

We are spending way too much time in our RV now.  It is just too hot to be out hiking. To make matters worse, when the air conditioner is running the breaker tends to trip frequently causing power outages, so there is no way we would risk leaving Maya in the RV while we took in a movie or went out to dinner.  Maya even goes to ‘doggie daycare’ for half a day two days a week while we are in class.

 

My favorite SFASU bumper sticker
SFA has the lumberjack as its mascot

 

David’s two classes, Intro to Forestry and Intro to Wildlife Management, are at almost the same time as my digital photography class so we are making do with our one car.  David is having fun with his classes and studying things he has always wanted.  I am taking the digital class mainly to have access to the lab and printers and also to brush up on some new digital editing programs.   Since we have been ‘on the road’ for several years, I haven’t been doing any printing and only some basic editing for the blog so I am a bit rusty.  

 

East Texas is very beautiful even in the heat

Oh, and my yoga class -- I am so grateful for that class.   With my dad’s recent health issues, the oppressive heat and all of the adjustments we have had to make from a carefree life of being on the road to starting school and preparing to move and settle down, well, let’s just say I’ve been a bit stressed.   Thankfully my dad is much better and both my parents are doing pretty well right now.   

 

Hibiscus at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center

Agave

Although David and I are struggling with the heat and with our living situation, we know it will just be a few more weeks until the townhome we are renting will be available.  We should be all moved in by the middle of October.  It’s funny, the RV never felt like a limiting factor when we were traveling but now it is a small box with a noisy air conditioner running all the time and it feels confining.  Our lives have contracted, at least temporarily.  But in a few weeks we will have more space and Maya will have a little yard.  All good things, but I have to admit it seems a little weird to be settling down after all the freedom we've experienced.  "Cha cha cha changes…"

 

 

 Pineywoods Native Plant Center
David, Maya and I have been taking early morning walks at the PNPC

 

Soon the weather should start to cool down at least a little and so I fully expect to be exploring the area and having much more interesting things to report in the blogs.  After all, Nacogdoches is the oldest town in Texas with lots of history in the area.  Once we are all moved, the exploring will start in earnest.  Silver will still hit the road with us from time to time checking out new parts of East Texas and Louisiana and who knows where she will take us to this next summer.  Somewhere cool and hopefully with no fires...

 

Maya isn't taking things too seriously

 

 

 

Really on the Road with Maya and Back to Odessa

Our last night 'On the Road with Maya' in Enid, Oklahoma
(at least until next spring)

Just driving is not much fun.  But that is pretty much what we have been doing.  Normally a big drive day is 300 miles and we really like them to be less than 200.  For the past month we had been staying in one place for two to five days and then maybe moving down the road 50 or 100 miles tops.  It is a lot more than that now.  We have been feeling like truckers lately.  Maya is a great traveler but she does get worn out with the road and thinks more than 6 hours a day isn’t fun.  We concur.  However we have had a couple of fun stops along the way. 

 

Back to the flat lands and searing heat
We are missing Minnesota...

 

We spent two nights in St. Louis, Missouri and got to visit with one of my long-time friends.  Brenda and I met when we were both brand new teachers, I won’t say how many years ago.  We both taught photography at the same high school and fast became best friends.  Our lives have kept us living in the same towns several times.  We both started out in Odessa then several years later we were both living in the DFW area.  Then both of our husbands were transferred to St. Louis.  She has remained there and I have moved without her several times since then.  But we’ve stayed good friends.  It was really great to see her!

 

And back to the land of oil
Our campground in Enid, Oklahoma

 

Then we spent a night in Enid, Oklahoma and visited David’s cousin, Donna and her husband Larry in Drummond.  They took us out to a local Mexican Food Café and we had a great meal.  We visited for hours while their dachshund, Charlie Brown and Maya had a great time playing.  (Maya definitely had the advantage.)  Donna made us ‘coffee cup cake,’ which was exactly that, a cake cooked in a coffee cup.  It was delicious and topped with good vanilla ice cream, how could it be anything else?

 

Larry, David and Cousin Donna

 

While we were in Wisconsin we received a call from my mom that my dad had gone to the hospital and was getting a pacemaker.  My brother was with my parents and no complications were anticipated so the plan was for us to stay on our driving schedule and be home in about 5 days.  All went well and my dad was moved from Intensive Care to a regular room so he could go home the next day.  But as all too often happens in hospitals, my dad had a fall that night and broke three ribs and hurt his hand and injured his elbow and shoulder making him unable to do much more than raise his head without help.  Another call from mom came just as we were leaving St. Louis.

 

People no longer mow lawns in Odessa, they vacuum them
Fake green lawn 'carpet' is installed if you want a green lawn

 

So we really started driving at this point and made it back to Odessa as fast as we could.  Dad is still in the hospital but he is in the therapy wing now.  He is doing pretty well although I can see first-hand that broken ribs are very, very painful.  Dad is in a world of hurt and there isn’t too much that can be done for that.  The hospital food isn’t making him very happy either.  We are trying to keep him cheerful while he goes through all this and sneaking him in something good to eat every so often.

 

Visiting Dad in the hospital
My mom with my cousins Byron and Dale, wife Cathy
and the kids Reed, Brailyn, Taite and dad's foot

 

Our plans are still to be in Nacogdoches by August 31 and dad is coming along so that should happen.  I’ll keep you posted…

 

David’s Stats:

Hours of Boring Driving:  40+ hours

Days Hiking Hospital Floors:  8 and counting

Days near or over 100 degrees: every day south of Madison, WI

Times we’ve said it’s too ****ing hot:  Beyond count    

 

 

"The Shack" -- Paying Tribute

The Leopold Family 'Shack' built from a collapsing chicken coop in the 1930s

One of our first stops in our travels last spring was the Gila Wilderness.  2014 was the 50^th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act and the Gila was the country’s first wilderness.  During our 3-plus years of travel we have greatly enjoyed visiting wildernesses all over our beautiful country.  Since we started our journey, we have hiked in over 35 wilderness areas, 25 of them during last year alone!

 

 

Conservationist, ecologist and wildlife management pioneer, Aldo Leopold was instrumental in the protection of wilderness.  It was Leopold’s influence on the forest service that caused the first 500,000 acres of the Gila to be set aside for wilderness protection.  Leopold lived and taught for most of his life in Wisconsin and as we were traveling right through Madison on our way back to Texas, we wanted to stop and visit his farm and the Leopold Education Center.

 

The Leopold Education Center near Baraboo, WI 
Built with native materials and a LEED certified building

 

Marker where Aldo Leopold died on his farm fighting a grass fire

 



In 1933 Aldo Leopold accepted a new professorship in game management at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.  Shortly after the depression he initially bought 80 acres of worn-out farmland bordering the Wisconsin River as a retreat from the city for his family. He paid roughly $8 an acre for this land that had been ‘farmed-out’ – reduced to sand and the only structure left standing was the chicken coop. 

 

Some of the mature pines on the Leopold Family farm

Prairie Flowers

Leopold, his wife and five children spent weekends and holidays first building a small shack from the collapsing remains of the chicken coop and then the family painstakingly went about the task of restoring the land.  “The Shack,” as it came to be known, became a metaphor for living lightly on the land.  From 1935 to 1946 the family planted over 3,000 pine trees a year by hand.  Pine trees were chosen because they stabilized the rapidly eroding soil and were inexpensive.  Leopold also planted one of the very first prairie restoration projects in North America.  During the years that the family stayed in the Shack and restored and enjoyed their land, Leopold observed nature at work. These observations were kept in journals that became the basis for many of his papers and books, A Sand County Almanac, being the most well-known.

 

The sandy soils on the Leopold farm 
The Wisconsin River is just a few hundred feet away

We spent parts of two days visiting the farm and shack and exploring the trails around the Leopold Education Center.  The Leopold Family has a foundation that preserves the family farm and does some outstanding outdoor educational training for teachers.  David and I both took one of these workshops several years ago in Texas as part of our Master Naturalist Training.

 

Estella Leopold
photo credit Leopold Foundation

There was a workshop being held at the Center one day and David and I were so very fortunate to get to see and speak with Leopold’s youngest daughter and only surviving child, Estella.  All of Leopold’s five children were scientists or environmentalists and Estella is a University of Washington professor emeritus of botany and forest resources, having conducted research for more than 60 years. Estella pioneered the use of fossilized pollen and spores to understand how plants and ecosystems respond over eons to climate change.  Getting to meet Estella was such an unexpected pleasure and made our time at the Leopold Education Center extra special.

 

 



 

 

David’s Stats:

Days Hiked:  1  
Total Miles Hiked:  3.20     
Total Elevation Gain:  281  
 

 

Three Last Stops in Minnesota

Aerial Lift Bridge in fog
Duluth, Minnesota

From Two Harbors we had a short drive of 60 miles to Duluth, the place where we started our North Shore adventure almost a month ago.  On that first visit to Duluth we had a filthy RV full of dirty laundry (not to mention the two people and a dog) and it was pretty much the same picture this time around.  But besides cleaning everything and everybody up a bit, we took a little time to explore Duluth on this trip.

 

Walking in a puddle by the bridge

 

There is so much to see and do in Duluth and on our one day to see and do it we had very foggy conditions.  It drizzled off and on and the fog went from bad to worse and back again all day long; such a surprise after a month of almost perfect weather.  Oh, well, we soldiered on and saw what we could through the banks of fog.  One of Duluth’s most famous sites, the Aerial Lift Bridge, had practically disappeared.  If we hadn’t been standing next to it we wouldn’t have known there was even a bridge there.  Eventually the sides reappeared and then, voila, we saw the whole bridge.  The city skyline was much the same, winking in and out of existence through the fog.

 

The blue drawbridge into Minnesota Slip
with Duluth skyline trying to peak through the fog

 

We strolled around Canal Park, the area encompassing the ship canal, bridge and other waterfront attractions.  A section of the Superior Hiking Trail (SHT) goes through Canal Park and we ‘hiked’ our last section of this North Shore trail that runs from Jay Cooke State Park just south of Duluth all the way to the Canadian Border. Along Canal Park and this section of the SHT we visited the US Army Corps of Engineers Lake Superior Maritime Museum and crossed Minnesota Slip via the blue drawbridge to see the iron ore ship, William A. Irvin.  Park Point, Duluth’s seven-mile sand peninsula starts right there at Canal Park and if it had been a nicer day we would have walked more and enjoyed the sandy beach.

 

The William A. Irvin in Minnesota Slip

 

After our short time in Duluth we headed for the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.  Our new friends, Tom, Sandi and Nikki (their dog) that we met in Ontonagon, Michigan over the Fourth of July weekend, had invited us to visit them if we came their way.  We needed to get our 50,000 mile service for our RV, and the nearest place that could do it was Rochester, Minnesota.  (Wow, three and a half years and 50,000 miles later David, Maya and I are all still traveling together in Silver, none of us too worse for the wear…)  Anyway, Tom and Sandi live in Maple Plains, a suburb of Minneapolis, so stopping for a night fit right in with our plans to go to Rochester.

 

Walking in the fog on the Superior Hiking Trail in Canal Park

 

What a great time we had!  Nikki heard us walking to the door and she and Maya were greeting each other with excited barks before the front door was opened.  The dogs romped a bit and then settled down to watch dinner being cooked.  Tom and Sandi have a beautiful home on several acres and they know how to put on a spread.  We had grilled steaks with sautéed mushrooms and onions, fresh asparagus, baked potatoes, some of the best sweet corn on the cob I have ever tasted and then grilled pineapple for desert.  It was the best meal we had in Minnesota.  Full and happy, the dogs slept and we all talked for hours.

 

Maya and Nikki 'chillin' after breakfast

 

We ‘plugged’ in to their electric power and stayed in our RV in the driveway.  The weather was warming up so once we headed for bed, the air-conditioner felt good for a few hours until we turned it off and opened windows a little later in the night.  The next morning, Sandi served quiche and fresh berries and melon for breakfast with fresh squeezed orange juice and some most excellent coffee.  It was such a wonderful time with such delicious food; it was hard to make ourselves leave.  If we hadn’t had to be in Rochester the next morning, we might still be there.  We were also tempted to steal Nikki and take her with us, but didn’t have the heart to do that after Tom and Sandi had been so good to us.  (Besides we really only have room for one speed bump in our small RV and Maya has claimed that honor.)

 

The Aerial Lift Bridge has huge counterweights that slowly descend
raising the 900-ton span of the bridge as much as 140 feet in the air
when the big ore boats pass into the harbor

 

Our time in Rochester was short, really only one full day and most of that was spent dealing with the RV service.  But all went well and Silver checked out fine although she will need a little brake work once we get back to Texas.  We did tour the town a little and saw the Mayo Clinic buildings.  The Mayo Clinic is the reason most people visit Rochester and I did talk to several people in our RV park that were patients at the Mayo.  They all had wonderful things to say about the doctors and other health care workers.  One lady and her husband had driven all the way from Florida so she could be treated at the Mayo Clinic.  They drove their RV so that they could have their dog with them while she was receiving her month long care.  David and I were both so very grateful that it was only our RV needing care and not us.  

David’s Stats:

 

Days Hiked:  1  
Total Miles Hiked:   2.0  
Total Elevation Gain:   20 
 

 

 

 

A few last photos from the North Shore

Upper Gooseberry Falls

The North Shore Scenic Drive, an All-American Road from Duluth to the international border at Grand Portage, has taken us on quite an adventure this past month.  From the ten hikes we made on the Superior Hiking Trail to the seven state parks we visited to the amazing Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness to the fascinating history we discovered all along the way, it has been a fantastic ‘ride’ on Minnesota’s North Shore.

I made so many photographs so I thought I’d share a few more…

 

 

Grand Portage Island seen from the Rose Mountain Trail
The waters of Lake Superior were so still in the early morning light

 

 

A multi-branched paper birch

 

 

Daisies after a storm, Grand Portage
The daisies were pretty and plentiful this summer

 

Cascade River at Cascade River State Park
There were so many falls or cascades along this river gorge

More cascades on the Cascade River

The quiet beauty of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness was stunning

Camouflaged Toad

Baneberry





Two gorgeous skies over Lake Superior