Roses 1.0 Van Life

The only hard driving day so far. It was a beautiful drive especially through the Big Horn mountains. There was quite a bit of difficulty navigating w/o internet. Arrived at Yellowstone around 3 PM, set up, Will left to get Colleen at the Jackson Hole airport. We took the kids to see Old Faithful, had PBJ sandwiches for our supper, next morning 6/25 we ate at a breakfast buffet in Grant Village. It felt like cheating but worth it after cooking over a campfire, but felt no guilt. Will and Colleen arrived in the early afternoon, gave Will his b’day present, a Fong’s Restaurant T-shirt. Went to Old Faithful again so W and C could see it. Anne Kash eventually would go there 4 times (writing this over a week later).

About a 4 hr drive from Mt. Rushmore, we picked this site in the Big Horn mountains simply because it was on the way to Yellowstone. There’s a beautiful stream behind the van and Rosie in this picture….

You can see the Volvo in the next campsite and our dog run on the left. The problem here was the weather, cold and rain. We spent two nights here. Will and the girls scrambled up rocks above to get a view of snow capped mountains late in the afternoon we arrived. We spent the next day hiking up Cloud Peak wilderness. But not before we helped a family of tourist from Japan navigate their way out of the national forest dirt road. They were in a rented RV and had ventured up this road and eventually found themselves unable to turn around. Finally they got stuck in a low, muddy spot. After some campers with a pickup pulled them out they sat there unsure what to do next. We offered to help direct them out using a small pull out. The husband was driving and obviously had never driven an RV before, maybe not a car before from his performance. He also spoke only broken English. His wife in the seat beside him had a look of utter terror on her face.

The hike, once we eventually got going, was our first encounter with snow, and tons of mosquitoes….

Will spotted a moose about 60 or 70 yards from the trail. Our stopping to look made her nervous, as she stood to walk away we saw she had a calf laying with her. Walked out in a hail/sleet/rain storm.

Saw two Barrow’s Goldeneyes on a high mountain lake, and earlier in the day I heard two other life birds which I didn’t record because I didn’t see them, Dusky and Hammond’s Flycatchers. Packed up on 6/23 and headed for Yellowstone.

After 3 nights at Horsethief lake we drove a mere 2 hours to Belle Fourche campground at the base of Devil’s Tower on June 21. A first come first serve campground we were worried about getting a spot but there were two or three open. Devil’s Tower is hard to believe. A massive column of igneous rock that juts up vertically from the surrounding countryside, it looks other worldly. Indeed it has been featured in movies such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I’m told the KOA down the road shows it every night. It was another cold, wet day but the rain held off until we were done hiking around it. The prairie dog town next to the campground was almost as fun. Here are some pictures…

This campground had a yellow warbler singing from almost every tree. Western Kingbirds and meadowlarks were frequent here as well. I saw a Bullock’s Oriole, a bird I had seen before but never recorded in eBird, so a life bird. On to Middle fork in the Bighorn mountains in the AM.

We were very pleased with the campsite at Horse Thief Lake, just a few miles from Mt. Rushmore. Here are some pics…

The long walkway to the Mt Rushmore viewing site is lined with flags from each state in order of their admittance to the union. Territory flags are there too.

We walked the loop that goes beneath the presidents, and stopped to listen to a park ranger give a 15 minute talk on it’s history. Borglun the sculptor was a bit of an eccentric. He had grandiose plans which included a “hall of records” behind the busts which would hold the original founding documents, the constitution, the declaration of independence, etc. His plan was rejected but he had a 50 foot tunnel entrance to the hall blasted anyway before he was forced to give up on the idea. Mt. Rushmore is not finished, but will never be taken any farther. Borglun died in 1941, 14 years after starting the project. WWII came along and that was that.

A sculptor who assisted Borglun during the last 2 or 3 years was hired by a confederation of Indian tribes led by Black Elk to create a giant work that would exceed the scope of Mt. Rushmore. The idea for the Crazy Horse monument came out of that.

Started in the late 1940’s it was thought it might take a 100 years to finish. After 75 years it’s not even close. You can see Crazy Horse face, the top of his pointing arm and his finger. When I was there 14 years ago it looked the same except the finger wasn’t there. Here is a model of what it will look like when finished…

The model is just above Anne Kash, the real thing is in the distance. It’s to be the center piece of a complex that will honor the American Indian. There is a museum, a gift shop, cafe, etc. More to come with the sculpture to be the centerpiece.

We stayed at this campground

The tent beside our van is ours. Just a room to lounge in, new for this trip. Tuesday, the 20th, we hiked into the Black Elk wilderness, went fishing in Horse Thief Lake, the kids rode bikes and played cards with Nana. On to Devil’s Tower tomorrow.

Three life birds while in the Rushmore area, Plumbeous Vireo at Horse Thief, Rock Wren in the rubble beneath Mt Rushmore and a Black Headed Grosbeak on the hike in Black Elk.

Stalled in Mitchel, S.D., the girls wanted to swim in the hotel pool and dad just couldn’t say no. We didn’t leave until a little after 11 AM. Noel and I counted the Wall Drug billboards, 93! Having the dogs complicates the trip. It was hot out and Wall, S.D. has no trees, well almost none. We had lunch, perused the western memorabilia, saw the amazing collection of photos of the old west, looked over the $299 jackalopes for sale mounted on the walls, and finally hit the road for Horse Thief lake CG around 3:00 PM. The few pictures we took are jackalope themed…..

We made it to Horse Thief CG late in the day. This was Sunday the 18th I think.

We put Indiana, Illinois and Iowa in the rear view mirror. Driving was easy, the girls are good travelers. First day, Wednesday June 15 was from Bloomington to Hidden Hills Vineyard and Winery. A little south of the quad cities it was a convenient place to stop. We set up, bought a bottle of wine and then went to eat at Big Catz BBQ in Galesburg. Here’s a picture of the place, yoga going on on the patio behind us.

Will’s an expert at setting up and taking down Rosie. After some soccer practice in the AM we headed out. After lunch at one of Will’s known spots in Des Moine, the oldest chinese restaurant in Iowa, now a pizzaria/chinese fusion place, the second night was spent at Soldier Creek vineyard in Iowa.

We are set up just off the corner of the building, Rosie can be seen if you squint. There was live music on the lawn and a pretty good crowd. We had a bottle of their cider, two beers and two lemonades. Sautéed peppers, summer squash and summer sausage were our supper. The owner has 1,000’s of acres of corn and soy beans, his daughter learned wine making at Purdue, came home, got her masters at Iowa State and then set up this vineyard. The rows of grapes were labeled and numbered, I didn’t walk to them all but estimate 250 rows, about a dozen different varieties of grapes. Their house is just behind the crowd, that yellow building in the upper left is their garage.

Third day, Saturday June 17 we had a driving snafu, got separated. Will and Anne Kash, and Jackie, went north from Soldier Hill (Fort Dodge, IA), we went west. Too complicated to explain why. We met up in Sioux Falls S.D., just past the northwest corner of Iowa. Everything around here is Sioux, city, falls, center, rapids. We were pleasantly surprised by the falls and surrounding park.

It was so much fun we spent almost 4 hours there. Left for Mitchell, S.D., home of the world’s only Corn Palace, quite impressive. In the process of building 2023’s mural, here are some pictures of 2022’s circus themed murals that haven’t been taken down yet…..

Ate at Back 40 tap room across the street, some bikers couldn’t finish their steaks, and couldn’t take a box with them so Sammy and Jackie got a rare treat. It’s Sunday morning as I write this. On to Horse Thief campground with a stop at Wall drugs for lunch and groceries.

3/3/2023. Leaving tomorrow AM. We stayed at the Tiki, north end of SPI. Here’s Peggy and Sammy saying goodbye from the balcony pool side…

The pool is heated. Peggy exercised in it nearly every day. And we walked at least 4 miles each day. Birding was the main activity for me, that and beach walking with Sam. The SPI birding center and the Sea Turtle Conservation center are walking distance, we went to those Monday and Tuesday this week. Wednesday we went to Brownsville, Tx for the Red-Crowned Parrots. There were 100’s of parrots and about a dozen birders congregated around the roosting trees. Just as much fun was seeing the families, all mexican Americans, watching or coaching their children as they played baseball, soccer or kickball. A very pleasant evening and an all-American scene if there ever was one.

We went to the main public beach one evening this week. It is very nice. Just as nice as any beach we go to in Florida. It ends at the jetty, a long straight row of rocks that mark the beginning of the Brownsville ship channel. We were told sea turtles can often be seen feeding along the jetty. It was almost dark by the time we got there so didn’t see any. The ship channel was dug in 1936. About 17 miles long it extends to Brownsville. Very large ships can go through it, including for example tankers and some aircraft carriers. Here’s Jesus Christ of the Fishermen that overlooks the gulf end of the channel.

In case we come back our favorite restaurants were Tortugas and Joe’s Oyster Bar in Port Isabel, Palm cafe at Palm resort hotel (a dive hotel for sure), Padre Island Brewing Co. and Porkies Pit food truck. Sea food was a little better than in Florida. Porkies Pit BBQ was out of this world.

Without tennis, pickle ball or golf, birding became my number one activity. Well, that and beach walking Sam. Tonight Peggy said, after the umpteenth time someone went through the script, “answering questions about this dog is a full time job”. Of the 37 life birds I wrote down as possibilities before coming here I saw 22. But there were three I saw which I didn’t expect, Fulvous Whistling duck, Pauruque, Sooty Tern. So 25 new life birds. Since the last blog mention of life birds I’ve seen Red Crowned Parrots, Ladder Backed Woodpecker and Curve Billed Thrasher. Biggest misses were Clay Colored Thrush, White Tailed Kite, Hooded Oriole and Couch’s Kingbird. The latter I probably saw but it can only be distinguished from the Tropical Kingbird by it’s song and all kingbirds I saw were silent.

Last pic from SPI…..

Tomorrow we plan to drive to a Galveston area hotel. Sunday I want to see high Island, famous for birds during migration, it won’t be anything special this weekend, just want to see it. Sunday we will either go to Lake Charles or Lafayette Louisiana to see cajun country and hopefully find an authentic local place for crawfish. Then we will head north, home 3/7 or 3/8.

Well after all he is a bird dog. Here he is with us while we bird the SPI birding center…

That was Wednesday, 2/21. We tried to go to Sabal Palms yesterday, it was closed but we did see “The Wall”, and Space X …

I’ve wondered how the wall was positioned relative to the Rio Grande. Sable Palms, our intended destination, is an old plantation a few hundred yards from the river. The wall is a little more than a quarter mile from river and as you can see there’s a gap for the road to Sabal Palms. The gap is guarded 24/7 by army personnel. They were friendly and very bored. That’s the levy on the other side of the wall.

Why Space X chose the coastal plain 2 miles from the border and the mouth of the Rio Grande is a mystery to me. Maybe someone can explain it. We could drive right past it, within about a 100 yards….

These are two separate sites about a mile or so apart. The one on the left is a launch pad, called Starship landing pad on google maps, the right is called Starbase.

Today, Friday 2/23 I went to McAllen to bird. Two excellent places, Estero Llano State Park and Edinburg Scenic Wetlands. Both, but especially the first, were filled up with birders. Some intermediate level, like me, some novice, and some that can tell you the feeding habits of the long-billed vs. the short-billed dowitcher. There was probably a quarter million in optics in that park. Cameras with lenses the size of small canons. Both trips were successful for me. Life birds Tuesday to today. Least Grebe, Neotropic Cormorant, Tropical Kingbird, Green Kingfisher, Buff-bellied Hummingbird, Black-chinned Hummingbird, Plain Chacalaca, Inca Dove, Verdin, Long Billed Curlew, Aplomado Falcon, Pauruque.
Going to try Sable Palms again tomorrow, then eat at Vera’a Backyard, a road food place in Brownsville.

Sammy really is the life of the party at the beach. As soon as he feels sand under his feet he starts prancing, and doing his army crawl. But its when he hits the water that the fun begins. This blog site doesn’t support videos so here are some pics to get the flavor of his antics:

I see people watching, pointing and laughing. People regularly come up to us and tell us what a beautiful dog he is, then ask what kind of dog, then ask if I hunt with him. He’s a lot of fun

Chose this refuge for our first bird outing. Its 110,000 acres and more bird species have been recorded here than any other NWR. Ocelot are present here (we didn’t see one) and occasional bird species considered endemic to Mexico are sometimes sited.

We did about 4 miles of hiking. These two are life birds for me and were easy to cell phone photograph thanks to the blind and feeder station provided by the refuge.

7 life birds today, Olive Sparrow, Harris hawk, Altimira Oriole, Green Jay, Black Crested Titmouse, Long Billed Thrasher and Yellow-rumped Warbler Audubon variant. Ok that last one is a sub species.

We ate lunch at Laguna Bob’s because two musicians I met yesterday who are living in their camper van were playing there and I told them we would come. They were good, oldies type stuff, from the 60’s, they played to this crowd for sure. Why not, they are living off the tips. Across the street was a sand artist, for $600 he will teach you how to do this:

That’s just one of many creations he had on display.

No plans for tomorrow. Doesn’t look like tennis is in the cards, no one seems to be playing, can’t even find a pickle ball court. This ain’t Florida for sure.