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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.

 

"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 st blog e and all the files uploaded. little wild iris. It'agebrush that we were riding over and through. Lupine looks 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