So Many Ducks!!

 We spent a day in North Dakota as a mini-hiatus from driving.  It was windy so a good day to rest.  We spent part of the day at the Audubon National Wildlife Refuge  in Coleharbor    

The landscape is not spectacular but it’s ideal for waterfowl.  The Missouri River flows through here and it’s been dammed to create a few lakes.  The area also has lots of “potholes” —big ponds among small hills in the grassland.  Ducks love it here.  We saw pintails, lesser scaup, blue winged teals, mallards, buffleheads, and northern shovelers.  We also saw American White Pelicans, lots of gulls, pheasants, and an American Bittern (my first!!). 

We saw a couple birds we couldn’t ID as well—possibly a western meadowlark and some kind of shorebird foraging in a plowed field.  

Today we drove into Saskatchewan and as we drove further north the numbers of ducks dwindled.  But we saw a nice stately antelope by the side of the road.  And here in Regina we saw a big ole jackrabbit hop across the road!

To get us in the state of mind for Alaska we listened to The Call of the Wild.  I don’t plan to run with wolves but I did enjoy the book 

Tomorrow onward to Alberta!

Baby, It’s COLD outside!

 Our campground in Iowa was nice and the weather was great.  As we move further north it’s getting pretty darned cold at night!

Last night we were in central South Dakota and the temperature overnight was 35.  Today we are in North Dakota and it’s going to be about 30 degrees in the morning!   Brrr!  But we do have heat in our trailer and lots of blankets!  Keeping our water pipes from freezing is our biggest worry but we think we have that figured out!

We saw lots of pheasants, some wild turkeys, and a variety of migrating ducks today:  wood ducks, scaup, pintails, and more in ponds and fluddles along the way

Tonight we are at Fort Stevenson SP in ND near an Audubon National Wildlife Refuge where I hope we can birdwatch tomorrow!

On Your Mark, Get Set….

 

We are working our little behinds off to get ready to travel to Alaska for the entire summer.  That’s us getting ready to get some fishing gear at Bass Pro Shops. 

We hit a few SNAFUs during our prep this week.  First I lost my keys. Yikes!  It turns out they were hanging on a hook in the kitchen where they do NOT belong.  But at least I have them again.  Today the water pump in the trailer went on the fritz.  Russ took the trailer to Pontiac RV and they fixed her right up!   I finished the shopping and laundry while he did that.  

We are “Moochdocking” here at the house tonight.  Kind of like Boondocking but we have the trailer (yes, she has a name), Maggie, hooked up to the electricity at the house so the refrigerator stays cold.  

We will be ready hit the road tomorrow after we load up our clothes…six months worth of clothes for any type of weather.   Lots of layers!  

It requires a fair amount of work to plan to be gone this long.   Here is just one of our many lists:

See all those crossed off items!!  I love checking things off a list.  It’s Blissful!   Tomorrow it’s Go Time!!

Bird Nerds in the Sunshine State

Florida has been much warmer overall than South Carolina was last week.  It’s been sunny and in the 70s for the week and it looks like it will stay that way a few more.  Fingers crossed!

We are camping in the Florida Panhandle where we are enjoying the diversity of bird life.  We have been to St Marks National Wildlife Refuge twice, Wakulla Springs State Park, Mashes Sands Beach, and now we are at Gulf Islands National Seashore. We’ve seen more than 40 different kinds of birds, many of them familiar but we’ve seen 5 new specimens including Black Skimmers, Palm Warbler, Forster’s Tern, Hudsonian Whimbrel and a Marbled Godwit.  It’s fun to see new birds!!

In addition to birds we’ve seen alligators (it’s Florida after all!), turtles, lizards, manatees, a horseshoe crab and some jellyfish.   (I forgot we also saw a dolphin in SC!!)

We aren’t the only critters  basking in the sun!

Boneyard Beach

 This week we have been camping at Hunting Island State Park in South Carolina.  It has beautiful beach walks, a nice campground, lots of birds and friendly staff.  The only drawback has been several days of unseasonably cold weather.  But today has been beautiful—sunny and 60 degrees.  We walked a short trail called The Scenic Trail and crossed a footbridge to the Boneyard Beach. 

This part of the park was hit hard by Hurricanes Matthew and Irma.   

We met the local security guard, too:

He said to tell you my new birds for the week are the Pine Warbler, Yellow-Throated Warbler, 

Brown-headed Nuthatch and Bonaparte’s Gull

Travels with Magpie

 

With  a significant degree of sadness we traded in Smalls and Gigi for more indoor space and towing ability.  Did I cry when we dropped Gigi off?  No I did not.  Did I cry when we went back to pick up Maggie (aka Magpie) and I saw Gigi on the lot of Pontiac RV.  Yes, yes I did.  I loved travelling in that little teardrop..,and teardrops she brought as we said goodbye.

We decided to revisit the Shawnee National Forest with our new digs this week.  The weather was not perfect for camping but we hiked in misty conditions two days.  Heron Pond has a fascinating cypress swamp

Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge’s Grassy Creek hike was sheltered by trees so we stayed dry

But by far the best day of the week was today.  Sunny.  Upper 50s.  And we made it to Garden of the Goddess…er..of the Gods to walk the Observation Trail and a bit of the Wilderness Trail

It’s likely we won’t camp in Maggie again until 

next spring.  But next summer we have a big adventure planned for Got Bliss!

Will the Circle Be Unbroken

 

Today it is exactly 7 weeks from the day we left on this trip.  We ended today pulling into the same campsite at the same Minnesota State Park where we started (site 1E at Myre-Big Island).  

Other than this we repeated very little on our trip.  Our route only duplicated a small bit of the Al-Can highway between Tok and Watson Lake.  Even on that route we stayed in different campgrounds on our way up and back

But it feels like time to close the circle as we head home  tomorrow.   By and by all good things come to an end.  Until our next trip Got Bliss bids everyone who followed along a sweet farewell and see you down the road!