June 30, 2013
We had a pleasant Sunday morning with Franklin and
Joanne. She and I went to the early service at her United Methodist church. It
was a very traditional service, almost exactly like the services at my home
church when I was a girl, so I felt right at home there. The music was
wonderful; the organist and an excellent cellist played a beautiful arrangement
melding “America” and “Battle Hymn of the Republic” that was very stirring. We
had blueberry pancakes afterwards, finished packing and said our farewells. We
were so grateful for Joanne and Franklin’s hospitality over the past few days;
it made for a wonderful transition before arriving home and getting back into
the “groove.”
The drive was smooth and uneventful—not much traffic
anywhere. We arrived home around 7 pm. The kitties were a little hesitant
around us at first, but they quickly figured out who we were and were all over
us. Jeanie and Bernie have taken excellent care of the place—the house looked
much cleaner and neater than we usually keep it, and Bernie had done weedeating
too! Thanks, y’all!! A thunderstorm materialized almost as soon as we arrived
but we were able to bring a few things inside before the rain started.
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"Hey, it's good to be back home again." |
Wow. I feel so blessed to be safe at home after so many
miles on the road (9,857), and so blessed to live in a country filled with such
natural beauty and wide open spaces. Thank you, Lord! (It’s amazing how much of
the USA is virtually empty of people and “civilization.”) This has been an incredible
journey, truly an epic one in our lives. I’m glad we have this blog to look
back on and read, and reflect on what we’ve seen and experienced. One sad
experience during the trip: my uncle Fred, my mother’s “baby brother,” passed
away suddenly over Memorial Day weekend from a stroke. We were in San Diego and
were not able to fly back for the funeral—it felt very strange and sad not to
be there with the rest of the family. He will certainly be missed.
We did not meet our birding goals for the journey, but we
sure did see a lot of new and beautiful birds. We identified 91 bird
species—not quite 100, but close! One thing that came out of the trip is a
desire for more birding trips. I still really want to see a male painted
bunting… We plan to get our birding lifelists organized on the computer.
I was surprised we didn’t see more wildlife, other than
birds. We saw a lot of small mammals, but no large mammals other than mule
deer. (I was hoping for an elk or a moose.) We have a lot more wildlife viewing
here at home.
Many, many thanks to all of you that we visited on our journey and who opened your homes so generously to us! We love you all. And thanks to all of you blog readers for following us on our
journey. It really felt as though we had our friends and loved ones along with us. We have much to be thankful for. Enjoy your
Fourth of July celebrations!
Jack here. I too really enjoyed our journey. In fact, I
could have stayed on the road, if it were not for our three cats. Fortunately
we had Jeanie to look after them so I don’t think they missed us as much as we
missed them.
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Every state we visited has natural wonders to offer and I
loved them all. But I’m still amazed at how open the western states appear.
They remind me of my seagoing shipboard days. Out there I could see the horizon
in all directions as far as my eyes could see. Here on the east coast my view
is confined by the trees in the summer time. It’s a bit like living in a green-colored cave and
driving is like being in a green-colored tunnel. The carpenters that built the house we now live in spent most of their life in Colorado. I once asked
them how they liked it here. They surprised me by saying they didn’t much like
it because, “they couldn’t see the mountains for all the trees.” After spending
a great deal of our time in the western states, I now understand what they
meant.
Being a flyfisherman, I had some of my best times in
northern California and Colorado. Even though I had fished most of the
California trout streams before, it is always a great pleasure to fish the
Golden Trout Wilderness. We did have well below freezing temperatures at night,
but Bud Hennessy and I had warm sunny days and trout took our artificial flies
on the surface. Fishing in Colorado was superb. Thanks to my “Big Gaudy” fly, I
caught plenty of large, hard-fighting trout.
Our days with all our
friends were fun and it was great to see them again. I can’t thank all of you
enough for allowing us to stay in your homes.
My most amazing experience was seeing the natural stone arches
in Arches National Park in Utah. While I loved Big Bend in Texas, my most
disappointing experience was seeing the Rio Grande River in the Big Bend
National Park. There were spots in the river where I could have walked over to
Mexico on rocks without getting my feet wet. How can we dam such a beautiful
river like that and use ALL its water so nothing is left to flow in its riverbed?
We ended our trip on a very happy stay with my nephew
Franklin Miller and his wife Joanne. They not only showed us wonderful sights
in Frankfort and Lexington, Kentucky, we ate gourmet meals and had great
conversations well into the night. I love you both.
While this epic journey has now ended, we planned more
during our drive so this will not be the end of our trip blog.
Bird species count: Vermilion flycatcher, turkey vulture,
Bell’s vireo, *golden-fronted woodpecker, Say’s phoebe, northern cardinal,
greater roadrunner, house finch, common raven, *northern rough-winged swallow, *summer
tanager, *prothonotary warbler, *yellow-breasted
chat, *yellow-rumped warbler, northern mockingbird, mourning dove, cliff
swallow, Mexican jay, black-headed grosbeak, black-chinned hummingbird, Wilson’s warbler, *Scott’s
oriole, chipping sparrow, house sparrow, lesser goldfinch, black-crested
titmouse, acorn woodpecker, scrub jay, *western kingbird, white-winged dove,
*canyon towhee, *Grace’s warbler, *zone-tailed hawk, *curve-billed thrasher,
Bullock’s oriole, Gambel’s quail, great horned owl, black-throated sparrow,
*cactus wren, ladder-backed woodpecker, white-crowned sparrow, brownheaded
cowbird, Brewer’s blackbird, *pyrrhuloxia, hooded oriole, verdin, American crow,
Anna’s hummingbird, dark-eyed junco, white-throated swift, Steller’s jay,
mallard, common egret, brown pelican, western bluebird, loggerhead shrike,
Audubon’s warbler, robin, Canada goose, black-billed magpie, red-winged
blackbird, redtailed hawk, American dipper, *yellow warbler, tree swallow,
osprey, mountain bluebird, peregrine falcon, green-tailed towhee, rufous-sided
towhee, common grackle, eastern kingbird, dickcissel, rock pigeon, killdeer, barn
swallow, red-bellied woodpecker, green heron, great blue heron, song sparrow,
yellow-crowned night heron, mute swan, starling, tufted titmouse, indigo
bunting, fox sparrow, downy woodpecker, cedar waxwing, hairy woodpecker.
State count - FINAL: 20 [Virginia, North Carolina, South
Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona,
California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana,
Kentucky, West Virginia]
Odometer count - FINAL:
Surber, VA: 107,435
Lexington, KY: 117, 292
(9857 miles!)
Accommodations avg cost - FINAL: 85 nts, avg $14.76/night
Cheapest
gasoline: Salem, VA, Lakeside Kroger: $3.12/gal (we have discount card)
Most
expensive gasoline: San Diego, CA: $4.49/gal
