Happy Independence Day!

When I went to the solid waste facility the day before we left, I spotted this Killdeer with chicks.  These are the cutest babes ever!! Little fluff balls with huge feet!

Flickr ate my photo

The Journey was EPIC...simply because we made it so! We had ice cream too many times, and stayed in some nice motor inns, and some not so nice ones...ate fast and junk food till we felt comatose, and stopped at soooo many gas stations.  We felt we could have made it in 2 overnights on the road but we ran into this pictured below time and time again, some delays as long as 2 hrs and 45 minutes!  When you have daily delays of that length it all adds up to an extra day of travel!  Our last day was a final push of 318 miles. Now the getting here is behind us and we are trying to attain quasi normal. 

Well it is July 4th weekend and gas price is low now so everyone hit the road.  

We stopped in Paducah, KY to tour this historic mansion that is now a Rest Area on I-24!  A stunning place!  Whitehaven, c-1860. 

Mom n Sis far right...

Whitehaven

It was stunning...and there was an elevator for Mom so she got to enjoy the entire tour.  It is chock full of period antiques, and some family photos, and historical memorabilia. 

Finally we got out of St Louis it took FOREVER!! I have sworn off St Louis, if I never see it again it will be too soon!! Then onto Kansas, the Sunflower State, and then into the Rockies, west of Denver, and over the mountain passes...

It was stop and go through the passes, but finally everyone got moving!

Mom and I are spending some time in a wonderful area in my sis's retirement home when she retires this will be her view....and the view is awesome, 

and lots of room to explore and the birds that hang close by...the Say's Phoebe.

 and the Blue Gray Gnatcatcher for starters.   

The trees and rocks are amazing! I dig this orange lichen. 

It is a very dry arid area, centrally located...  you can drive an hour in various directions and be in the Alpine High Country of Grand Mesa, or Aspen, or up the Frying Pan River.   I hope to share lots of awesome locations during my time here.  We have plans for some day trips, some scenic drives, and later on next month I hope some camping.  Nothing is written in stone! First we need to shake off the road dust and get our rhythm section going! 

Enjoy the 4th of July!
 The girls had their 9th Birthday!

PEACE

Eleanor Roosevelt: You must do the thing you think you can not.

Shark Valley Tour

I had to pass thru the Miccosukee Indian Reservation to get from the Big Cypress Preserve to the Everglades NP. So I stopped at the gas station there to fill up.  They pump your gas...and they had a garage attached to the gas station...The Busted Knuckle...

Repair and Despair under one roof...haha.

Then on to the first stop for me in the everglades...

Shark Valley, I thought it was a strange name for a swamp for surely sharks do not live here...I was right! LOL.  This  sea of grass empties into the Shark River and the 10,000 islands of Monroe Co, FL. 

Shark Valley is located at the northern boundary, and it has a great paved walk/bike way that follows along side a canal on one side and scrubby trees and the marsh grass on the other.  

There is a tram you can ride around if you so desire that takes about 2 hrs to do the 15 mile loop and I think you have to make reservations I was there 9 am on a  Saturday morning, and only 2 people were on it!.  You can also rent a bike if you want to do it that way...since Casey had to wait in the van I had a time limit.  It was however mostly cloudy so I didn't worry about him getting hot in the shade, with the windows open, and his fan on. I got my passport stamped, then headed off down the tram trail.

The first bird I saw was the BlueGray GnatCatcher

And this was amusing, there was a guided bird walk happening just as I began my walk a youngish park worker, and only one person showed up for the walk...I asked if it was free or what ever, and she said YES, So I strolled along, with them...After she could not identify the Gnatcatcher, the Phoebe or the Red Bellied Woodpecker, I just went ahead and took off on my own...

And another Eastern Phoebe, I saw quite a few of them in FL...

A red bellied woodpecker stopped "bugging" long enough for me to get his photo..

I saw much of what you would expect anhinga, cormorant, egret, heron,...this anhinga has some really cool head feathers

butterflies were around and flowers were in bloom...here is a Zebra butterfly

I liked it when the scrubby trees opened up  and provided a really nice look at the saw grass marsh.

Palm warblers were everywhere...

as were alligators 

I found this empty snail shell..it was still wet and sticky so must have just been eaten!!

And this American Bittern came out of hiding and then did what most bitterns will do, stand very still with the head and neck pointing straight up...I assume trying to disappear or blend in with the grass by exposing all  his awesome stripes. 

I power walked back to the parking lot when the sun started to peep out from the clouds....Only one tram went around while I was there and I found the bicycles to be a PIA as they zoomed by with loud music playing and with hardly a concern that they nearly wiped me out a couple times as some must have been in training for speed racing...

If you walk all the way to the observation tower it is a vast look out of the saw grass marsh.  But I was not up to walking 15 miles!

More Everglades upcoming....

PEACE

Eleanor Roosevelt: You must do the thing you think you can not.