Friday, September 27, 2013

          Well after 6 days and 2400 miles we arrived in the Outer Banks with our sanity still in check. After being in the least populated state for 4 months  and moving through 8 states we reentered the world of East Coast crazy people. We had thought that the drivers in most of the major cities were all the same until we got past the Richmond VA area and found that all the insane drivers must have relocated back to the East Coast. OH well, the price you pay for coming back here. We had come to like the un congested roads and only seeing tourists on weekends with the rest of the time being mostly quite. But we would miss all the crazy good that comes with being back here where all the family is and will look forward to going back to PA to see our newest family member and seeing our old friends once again. The grass is always green doesn't always apply when family is involved and there is something nice about the familiar for every day does not have to be another adventure. But it does make the time go by really fast.                                          G                                
The view from our new home for the next 5 weeks.

Another shot from the RV site in Alligator River Wildlife Refuge.

He dropped by during set up.

The Beach at Kitty Hawk today.

The mountains of Wyoming were beautiful but I still Love and missed the Ocean.

The Sunset tonight .

going ,going, gone.

Sunday, September 22, 2013

          We finished day three of travel today and we are doing really well with the travel. Spent the first night in Laramie WY and it was still a bit cold that night. Day two found us in Nebraska and we witnessed some of the flooding that kept us from dropping down in Colorado for the trip East. We traveled along the Platte River for some 100 miles and the flooding of the farm land and the homes along the River was awful . The crops and farm machinery lost to the flood waters and the homes and barns flooded almost to the roof lines was sad to see . Yet only the towns in Colorado get any kind of news coverage. How one sided the Media can be. That night we stayed in the town of North Platte Nebraska and we have once again changed time zones. Also the weather in the Mid West is rather warm and extremely windy, mid 80's with 25 to 30 mile per hour winds. Now we are back in Central Time for a day or two and then back to Eastern Time for awhile before Daylight Savings goes away. Yes that was a little whine on my part. I really hate time changes. Tonight we are in Saint Joseph Missouri and managed to drive around a little to see the Pony Express Museum and some of the seeder side of town. It seems most of the Midwest town are doing a slow death march, too bad as they were once very active areas. We have covered 1000 miles so far and still have 1400 to go before we reach the Outer Banks and settle in for awhile before we head back to PA.                                                G

Thursday, September 19, 2013

      It has been a good day today as we are now pretty much all packed and ready to go in the morning. One by one every one of the other Volunteers have stopped by to give us best wishes and safe travels back to the East Coast. With in 10 days all the others will also be gone and they to will be scattered all over the US as most will be headed off to warmer areas of the Country. Some to Texas and some to Arizona. New Mexico and some back to their homes in Georgia and Tennessee. There are three couples that will once again stay most of the winter to feed the Elk and Bison. I wish them well as it will sometime during the winter here hit 40 below with out the wind chill added in, they have a good heart and lots of warm clothes. The group here was a good cross section of people from many different back rounds and vocations which prompted quite a few good conversations around the fire at night. One more campfire tonight and off on another adventure.                     G            


               Happiness is a Journey not a Destination
So we wanted to see some new snow before we left and yesterday afternoon it did just that and it was really beautiful on the Tetons.

The wind just started to blow really hard and the temperature dropped about 20 degrees in a few minutes and what had looked like another thunder storm coming over the mountains turned everything white in a few minutes.

We were about a mile away when I took this shot. The air was cold and little flakes of snow were blowing around me as I clicked away.

As the storm was moving away from us we were wondering if it had snowed at the lower end of Grand Teton Park which has a road leading over to Teton Village so off we went.

As we left the pull out I snapped this shot of the end of the snow squall.

Took this picture as we entered the Park Road going over to Teton Village and the snow was still coming down as we proceeded.  The snow between the mountains  was sticking to the trees and grass.

About ten miles down the road the snow had stopped falling and we were treated to one of the many black bears in the area just climbing up the tree to eat some berries that were growing there. 



Tuesday, September 17, 2013

        We are finally winding down here and we only have one more Volunteer Shift left . It has been a very different experience here being in the high Mountains and we are looking forward to being back at Sea Level again. Even though we have been here since early June we still have trouble catching a full breath from time to time especially when we are above ten thousand feet up in the Tetons. Our hikes get very short at those elevations. The last few days here have been very wet as we have had many thunder showers and down right rain storms. All the locals say this is very unusual for these parts. It almost seems like being in Florida at times as it is so humid.
          Tonight we are in doors due to the deluge going on outside. We had been lucky the past few evenings , the rain would stop and we could still have a camp fire and the sky would clear enough to see the stars. Last night around 9:30 we saw what must have been a large meteor as it lit the sky for over a minute and the colors were a very bright blue green with some yellow mixed in. The weather man says after the rains move away it will finally get cold here, in the twenty's at night from now on, glad we are leaving on Friday. We will miss some of our new friends but will more than likely run into some of them in Texas next year.                                  G
To a ride on Monday and the trees are starting to turn here already.

These trees are on the edge of Jackson Lake.


These bushes were just full of Berries and the tops were exploding like little puff balls.


Sunset over the Teton Glacier.

The clouds and the sun caught on top of the mountain.

All the glory of sun and clouds.

What little of the lake that's left in Colter Bay. The water was at the tree line in June.

Thursday, September 12, 2013

          Didn't do much last weekend. Just took a short ride on Monday to see here some of the rich folk live, was not impressed. Things are starting to slow down here and we are really looking forward to moving on and going to Kitty Hawk. It's hard to believe we have been here since the first week of June. Where did the summer go . We have had a brief warm spell and a couple of days of real rain which is very unusual for this time of year in Jackson. The weather man says things will change and we will be back into the 30's at night again very soon. Spent Tuesday putting stuff in order in the RV and checking tire pressures and the truck . Everything is Ok and ready to roll. Looks like we are now Landlords as the house didn't sell so we will be collecting a pretty good rent for the next year. Things are looking up as the market rebounds and who knows it may be a good thing to sell at a higher price in a few years. Got to go.                                                                               G
Lauren hard at work at the Miller House where she is very happy telling the Elk Refuge story.

A Swan busy preening.

One of the young Osprey learning to fly.

One of the Osprey parents having dinner.

This little guy has taken up residence across from our RV.

this Badger is really not very concerned about us watching him.

Lounging on the edge of his dig.

So not worried about us.

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

One of the little ones rubbing on a fence post. the big ones will rub on the trees until there is no bark left.

He walked right by.

The next sequence is two young males sparring or were they just learning to dance.










This whole dance lasted almost 15 minutes.

Some butterflies at work on the last of the flowers.

And now some bees have arrived.

The Bees here are a dark color.

And then we left them to the flower.

     We spent another great Sunday traveling through Idaho and Montana to get to the West Entrance of Yellowstone and as always you see so many different areas of farms and ranches and the different approaches that are used in handling what nature gives them. In Idaho the potato farms and wheat fields go on for endless miles and with all the harvesting going on you see large bales of straw 50 feet high every where and the machines they use look like the ones you would see in the large mining operations. With the fields of gold and green every where it becomes apparent that there is still hope for the American Farm to exist. As you go from Idaho into Montana the land scape changes a bit and it once again becomes a lot like the area of Wyoming we are in with lots of sage brush and scrub grass that is OK to feed a few cattle and not much else. We can see how a few 13000 foot Mountains can change the way the soil was distributed from one side to the other and the way the glaciers moved the top soil around was just not distributed evenly.                                                                               As you approach the West entrance , the landscape changes again and you enter another pine forest that is part of the National Forest and the little towns along the road ,like most of middle America are slowly dying , one business at a time. Very sad . The Park as always was very busy as it was Labor Day and the last really busy weekend for this Tourist Season. For here the next big thing is Leaf Peeping which goes really quick, maybe three weekends and then the snow will start again. We had two nights last week when it was below freezing for a few hours in the morning. We, on the other hand , are down to 17 days before we hit the road once again and will be on the move . Saying good by to Jackson and all the Bison we have been spending evenings with. We just drive into the middle of the herd and park on the road and sit and listen to all the sounds they make.     G                                       
We went up to the East Entrance of Yellowstone on Sunday and you go through Idaho and Montana to do that. We saw this marker on the way up.

The Lower Mesa Falls in Idaho.

Forest Service Park started out as a generating station and ended up a park.

This is the Upper Mesa Falls and it drops 114 feet at this point.

The falls are feed from the largest under ground spring in North America and is always 52 degrees all year. the falls never freeze.

The ferns and other plants grow all year long even though it may drop to 40 below above.

This whole area is volcanic and there are many Basalt formations in the area.