Mattamuskeet NWR

I think it was writing about how I get sea sick that made me wake up Saturday morning at 06:30 with Vertigo!! OH boy everything was spinning...I dragged myself out of the motel, no way I wanted to pay for another day so up and out I went barely able to stand up straight..I headed East on 264 slowlyyyy from Wilson I didn't get far till I Had to stop.  I found Goose Creek State Park that sits on the northern shore of the Pamlico River ... the sign said sites 1 & 4 are open (small 13 site primitive campground)...so I parked in 4 got in my bed and fell instantly asleep.  Awoke 2 hrs later feeling much better! Got up stirred around had some lunch and then drove up to the Ranger station to pay...

Them..."Site 4 is reserved"

Me..."Sign says its open"

Them..."Oh it must have been reserved last night, and the Ranger didn't mark it as Reserved"

(the online reserve thing won't allow a reservation unless its 24 hrs in advance, so there is no way it could have been reserved the prior night it had to have been done 24 hrs ago) 

Me ..."so I will take #1 then"

Them..."sorry someone just came in and took #1"

Me..."So you got nothing"

Them..."we're sorry"

This reservation system, for me personally is a PIA--can't they keep at least half for walk ins? So its like this: if I screw up and don't reserve, Im screwed, If they screw up and don't mark it as reserved,  Im still screwed..either way Im screwed?

I was feeling too poorly to argue so I left.  Glad I took this photo of the campsite when I woke up... it was a pretty site...

site #4 Goose Creek CG

LOTS of red headed woodpeckers this one surprised me, not a great focus but look at the perfection of red, white, and black.  

red headed wood pecker

So getting sick sort of messed things up, I had to rearrange some plans, I ended up not going to Pungo Unit of Pocosin NWR, or Alligator NWR Must go back as Black bear and Red Wolf are in those refuges!!
Mattamuskeet NWR was not too far up the road, I thought I had a 45 min drive from the motel I was wrong!! I had mis-calculated and it took me an hour and 45 mins to get there from the motel, and counting the 2 hrs I stopped and slept, and all the other messing around I got there at 3 pm. Mattamuskeet is located on Albemarle-Pamlico Peninsula in Hyde County, NC.  Mattamuskeet Lake is NC's largest lake and located in the NWR.  Hwy 94 divides the lake into 2 bodies of water.

On the Wildlife Drive, which is only a couple miles, it was windy! Some Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets, Glossy Ibis, White Ibis, Little Blue Heron, and Canada Goose,  all present  in the canals  and in the mud.

Great Egret

                                        snowy egret, little blue heron, glossy ibis, female grackle

Snowy Egret 

                                                                       Immature Whiter Ibis 

 Fosters Tern, Red Winged Blackbirds, Eastern Kingbird, lots of common and boat tailed Grackles, and Osprey, are a few more of the birds I saw and was able to catch a shot of...

                                                                             Foster's Tern  

                                                                      Red Winged Blackbird

                                                                               
                                                                               

                                                                               Osprey 

DEER 

The wind got worse so I headed north on 94 to find Pettigrew State Park and hope for a camp site! Found a note on the board, site #10 and 12 are open SO I took site 10...

                                                              more on that in next post!

PEACE

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

No Clics here....

My passport arrived last week, I'm happy the State Department didn't find any reason to deny me, I did get a little worried as the application asks for your past spouse's birth date and I realized I put the wrong year down for my X--anyways it doesn't matter,,,it's good for 10 years! I will definitely renew it next time and not let it expire...we won't discuss what my age will be then~

We have had some wonderful weather--on at least one occasion.... mixed in with some not so wonderful weather!  OH so perfect what we call a Blue Bird Day! But not every day has been that way.... the other day when I went out I stopped at the Wateree River to check the cliff swallow nests, and there was not one bird there!! All the nests were empty.  They raised em up fast! A few were flying around picking bugs out of thin air but no body in the nests.  The sky sure was threatening..and the river was full almost flood stage.

Soon after I snapped this the sky opened up with a deluge!! So I'm at Lowe's again typing in my van in the pouring rain!! It has rained at least 4 inches while I've been sitting here....wondering if I will actually get to go inside or not!!  Imagine a pipeline of this rain going to Africa or CA...I just don't get it...

So far it's rained every day since Saturday the last nice day and the day I had intended hiking on the Palmetto Trail ....but didn't happen, maybe more on that topic in another post..  On one of the "going to rain any minute" days I went up to Lake Wateree, it's upstream of this river location not much was happening but a few things caught my eye...like this Eastern Kingbird he followed me around for a while.

I could barely see an Osprey nest on this island....pretty far away with my binoculars...

this is a zoom of the nest, it's a bit grainy...

see osprey on nest and the other on the left side of photo

I wished for a kayak to paddle out of course they would have flown away...A couple of geese had their youngsters up near the volley ball court 

I didnt even notice the young in the water till I saw this photo on my comp screen, 3 of them.

There is this really old and really big prickly pear cactus near the boat parking area and it was blooming I've been wanting to break a piece off and get one of these giants started in my yard...

and next to a mail box for comparison 

This northern mockingbird had a meal waiting...bird version of take out I guess..

Some Mallard on the dock...

A killdeer was showing me her tail feathers, very impressed!

she may have eggs in the grass so I didn't bother her...

back at the homestead after 10 yrs waiting...my old fashioned pear has 5 pears on it...they are up so high will I be able to pick them?  At least it finally got tall enough so the deer can not eat them! 

and since we're on the subject of homesteading..


I finally got around to that window! Okay here is the result...I like it all the light comes in but you don't look right out and see the ceiling fan of the porch!

a closer look at the window film....

Originally I purchased one that is like a stained glass with dogwood flowers etc...but that was way too busy 

I got my 33 LP's back in the old record stand this one was purchased by us way back in 1964! It came in a box and at age 11 I put it together!!  It's still standing strong..

Other areas where I'm working are in the master bedroom...trying to arrange all the furniture to see if I can keep everything I want to keep...remember this big oversized "coffee table", it was way too big for the living room so it will become a window seat!  One of these fabrics will be the cover!

My battery is running low and the rain has slacked so off I go inside to get a can of white spray paint! Hope you are having a good day with rain if you need it and without if you don't!!

PEACE

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

Thus Far...

                                                   

                                                                 Gallup, NM the native pottery capital of the world

                                                                          

                                                                   Church rock, Red Rock Park, Navajo Land NM

                                                         
                                                                I followed much of the old Historic Route 66

                                                      

                                                                                Canyon Lake Tonto NF, AZ

                                          HELLO from the southwest...its hot dry and beautiful!

                                             

                                                                         

                               Roosevelt Bridge-Tonto NF AZ

Standing on a corner... in Winslow AZ waiting for the high winds to settle down so I can visit the Meteor Crater...I arrived here today after spending 5 days with my friend who lives in Mesa, AZ. We did some camping and just hung out and I learned how to play Wii Rabbidz..its so much fun..my freinds 10 yr old Grand daugher beat us on every game but we sure had fun trying...they have a huge projection system..its like being in a theater..

 Tuesday I head to my sisters and then we head back down to Utah on Friday...I will be doing some backtracking but its all good--WI FI has been available in most spots so Ive uploaded as I went..of course not all the photos Just my favs ... we drove the Apache Trails Scenic Byway and it was awesome...we camped at the Burnt Corral Campground and the water was awesome.. Ive seen some wonderful birds and got some new ones to add to my life list...like the                                             

 Bullock's Oriole

 So I will update and visit your blogs to see what you are up to when I arrive at Sis's probably on Tuesday!! Until then enjoy whatever adventures you are into. Ciao.