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!!