Trip Update Nov 2010 FL, Ecuador and Galapagos, Part 1

Bok Tower
Solomon's Castle
Captain Brenda
With Aunt Bernie


We spent the first week in Sebring, FL at a timeshare. We visited Bok Tower and Solomon’s Castle and then toured the murals of Lake Placid. After that, we drove to Ft Lauderdale and saw our friends Don and Patty. Then we visited with my Aunt Bernie and her family - Brenda, Mary and Crystal. Brenda took us out on her boat to Port Everglades to see the big cruise ships, and then took us out to dinner. Before we left town, we had dinner with Pat’s nephew, Randy. Then we headed back to Orlando for our flight to Ecuador.
At the airport we found out our plane blew 2 tires on landing, so now they wanted to change out 4 tires. Six hours later they were done. Needless to say, we missed our connection in Panama; and after a hassle with the agent in Panama we were finally taken to a hotel. Of course they forgot to pick us up in the morning, so we took a taxi back to the airport. We flew to Quito without a problem, just arriving a day later than scheduled. Fortunately we had an extra day built into our schedule.

Trip Update Nov 2010 FL, Ecuador and Galapagos, Part 2

Land Iquana
Lonesome George
Baby Sea Lion
Blue footed boobie with baby


Our Galapagos trip started the next day with a flight from Quito to the islands. We checked into our room on a motorized catamaran Archipell We toured the Charles Darwin Research Station and saw several Giant Tortoises including Lonesome George, the last of his species. There are only 11 species remaining of the original 13 species of Giant Tortoises. The rest of the 8 day trip was spent island hoping to see the unique wildlife on each island.
Our first night at sea was rough, but we made it through the night okay. The trip was worth it because on Espanola we saw a natural nursery for baby sea lions. As we walked inland we saw masked boobies, blue-footed boobies, and baby waved albatrosses. Marine iguanas were everywhere and a Galapagos hawk watched us from his perch. Later that day we snorkeled in a wet suit in some very cold water. The Humboldt current from Antarctica chills these waters this time of year.
The remainder of the 8 day trip followed the same routine. On other islands we saw Sally light-foot crabs, land iguanas, lava lizards, oyster catchers, swallow tail gulls, red-billed tropicbirds, frigate birds, flightless cormorants, flamingos and Galapagos penguins. In addition to large schools of yellow tail surgeon fish and various other types of fish, we snorkeled with white tip sharks, sea lions, green sea turtles, penguins, eagle rays, very large marbled rays and an octopus.
Near the end of the trip we stopped at the Galapagos Post Office. No one is going ‘postal’ here because the post office consists of a rum barrel. You place your post card inside the barrel (no postage required) and pick out an equal number of post cards that you can personally deliver. This system was established by 18th century whalers and can be more efficient than the Ecuadorian Postal System. We mailed a few post cards both ways, and will let you know the results later.
The biggest surprise of the trip was the weather. Being at the equator we expected shorts and tee shirt weather. Well, the first thing we did was buy a sweatshirt for Pat and a fleece jacket for me. Most days were cloudy and cool. Jumping into the water straight from the Antarctic was not inviting, but definitely worth it.

Trip Update Nov 2010 FL, Ecuador and Galapagos, Part 3

Masked Boobies

Baby waved albatross

Bull on the beach with a couple of intruders

Trip Update Nov 2010 FL, Ecuador and Galapagos, Part 4

Opuntia Cactus

Baby blue footed boobies

Frigate bird

Trip Update Nov 2010 FL, Ecuador and Galapagos, Part 5

Galapagos Penguins

Just hangin' out with the boys

Making more green sea turtles

Trip Update Nov 2010 FL, Ecuador and Galapagos, Part 6

Tarzan - the tree climbing sea lion
Harbour at Puerto Ayora
San Francisco Plaza and Church
Equator Monument

We left the Galapagos on Census day. Everyone was required to remain in their house until 5 PM. When we flew into Quito, which is the capitol of Ecuador, the streets were empty. It would have been the perfect day to film a Si-fi movie, where aliens abducted the entire city’s population. Only a handful of locals were available to transport visitors to their hotels. It was a very quick trip across town as our driver ran every red light.
We made plan to tour the city the next day, but traveler’s diarrhea stopped by for an uninvited visit. With me preoccupied, Pat and two other guests toured the Old City and the Equator Exhibit with a tour guide.

Trip Update Oct 2010 MD-FL Part 1

Train ride with Pat's father, Pat and Connie

Rick, Linda and Pat

Pat's family

Broken RV awing support

Trip Update Oct 2010 MD-FL Part 2

Killer whale on a stick
Halloween at Sea World
Whale surfing
Yellow crowned night heron
MD-FL
It was good to see our family and friends while we camped in the MD/PA area. We got together for dinner with my family and later headed up to Hills Creek SP in northern PA and spent Columbus Day weekend with Pat’s family. Except for getting lost on dirt roads after dark, we had an excellent weekend and we got an early glimpse of fall colors on a scenic train ride.
Several days later, while Pat was driving us to dinner, I started feeling chest pains, which continued for 20 minutes. I ended up spending the night in York Hospital. It was interesting in this day of electronic note pads, that I was asked about my meds and symptoms by every nurse and doctor that saw me (at least seven times). I felt like Bill Murray in ‘Groundhog Day’ when he found himself living the same day over and over again. In the end they could not determine the cause of the pain, other than it was not heart related.
One of the things we wanted to get done while in York was get new tires and brakes on the rear of the RV. Just before we headed south, we also got a front end alignment. The mechanic had considerable difficulty performing this work. He actually made it worse because we had great difficulty controlling the steering as it floated down I-95. While going through a narrow construction zone in Georgia, a semi squeezed by us on the left and I hit a traffic barrel on the right. This knocked the front RV awning support off the vehicle, which made it un-drivable (for fear of the awing falling down on the highway). Luckily we had enough rope to secure the awning and we were able to drive to the closest RV dealer. They removed the awning and we plan to have it repaired and reinstalled when we return north in December. We were glad we had not towed our canoe trailer to FL with this steering problem! We finally got the steering problem fixed, after the Ford dealer in Tampa corrected the problems from the previous alignment. After this, we took it in to an RV dealer to have maintenance done on the refrigerator and generator. We have certainly done our part to stimulate the economy!
We started our Florida trip in Orlando. We spent a few days in Kissimmee, visited Downtown Disney and spent a day at Sea World. Sea World was excellent - we saw all the shows and rode all the rides, including a new roller coaster which you ride in a position such that you are facing the ground. We spent a week in a timeshare on Bradenton Beach (north of Sarasota). It was a great location, but we spent a good part of the week dealing with the above RV issues.

Where in the World are Pat and Don?

DRAFT SCHEDULE are dates subject to change!
10/1/2010 Friday Patapsco SP, MD
10/4/2010 Monday Greenbelt Park, MD
10/8/2010 Friday Hill Creek SP, PA
10/11/2010 Monday York, PA
10/18/2010 Monday Laurel, MD
10/24/2010 Sunday Start Drive South
10/26/2010 Tuesday Orlando, FL
10/30/2010 Saturday Brandon Beach, FL
11/6/2010 Saturday Sebring FL
11/13/2010 Saturday Ft Lauderdale, FL
11/19/2010 Friday Fly to Quito Ecuador
11/21/2010 Sunday Cruise Galapogas
11/30/2010 Tuesday Black Sheep Inn, Andes, Ecuador
12/5/2010 Sunday Return to FL
12/15/2010 Wednesday Start Drive to MD
12/17/2010 Friday Laurel, MD
12/22/2010 Wednesday York, PA

Trip Update Sept 2010 MN to MD Part 1

Lake Itasca in MN, headwaters of the Mississippi River

Tamerack's color

Pat canoeing on the Upper Mississippi River

Colorful mushrooms

Trip Update Sept 2010 MN to MD Part 2

Pat with Paul Bunyan and Babe
Fall colors (in summer)
Canoeing the St Croix River
Waterfalls at Nerstrand Big Woods SP in MN

Sept 2010
We didn’t have reservations for Labor Day weekend, so we got to Itasca SP in MN a few days before the holiday weekend. We don’t like camping on long holiday weekends because the campgrounds are crowded and it seems to bring out the worst in people. The worst offenders are the adults and they teach their kids it’s OK to ignore camp rules and common courtesy. Yes, we were glad when they all went home. We spent several weeks in MN at various SPs or NFCGs in the vicinity of the upper Mississippi River basin. Usually when I think of the Mississippi River, I think of a muddy, barge filled industrial river. We actually found the Upper Mississippi to be more remote and scenic than its famous neighbor the Wild and Scenic St. Croix River. We did manage to get out and paddle on both rivers.
We had cool and wet weather in MN, and figured winter was starting early this year. We headed south into Iowa and found out that the heat was still around. We stopped in Humboldt, IA at the Born Free factory to get some work done on the RV. We keep hearing that it’s important to “stay connected” but when we pulled out of the campsite while our extension cord was connected to the power outlet, we pulled the electrical socket right out of the wall of the RV. They fixed this and several other problems and we were back on the road.
We had planned to visit Pat’s friend Margaret in Louisville, KY but, due to Margaret’s health problems, we were unable to see her on this trip. Hopefully next time she’ll be feeling better.
We stopped at our garage in Lewisburg, WV long enough to remove many boxes from our garage and leave it to the thrift store to find a home for our housewares and clothing. We are now back in MD.

Trip Update Aug 2010 BC, MT, WY, SD Part 1

View of Prince of Wales Hotel in Waterton from Bear Hump trail
Susan, Julie, Tom and Mimi as a pioneer family
Muddy racer from Trans Rockies event
Pat, Tom, Julie and Don at Lost Lake

Fernie
Our last two weeks in Fernie were filled with hikes and trips with friends. Mimi led the group on a tour of Waterton NP. Mimi and Susan left after a week, but Julie and Tom stayed for another week. Pat, Tom and Julie climbed Castle Mountain and also reached the Microwave Towers on the ridge behind Fernie. The Trans Rockies mountain bike race started in Fernie and in the first race the riders also climbed Castle Mt on some very muddy trails.
Butte
I visited Butte, MT in 1972 on my first cross country trip. It was the nastiest city I had ever seen. I gave it the nickname “Armpit of the Country”. In thirty eight years of travel I never found another city (of course, I don’t go looking for ugly cities) to defeat the title holder. Recently, I started to hear good things about Butte. I didn’t believe what I heard so I wanted to check it out myself. We decided we would start with a city bus tour, but the tour bus was booked for a wedding party, so we took a walking tour. There was a nature trail right outside the Visitor Center, with a nice clean stream running alongside it. The water was actually clear! We headed into town and visited many of the historical buildings in the town. The city had come a long way in cleaning itself up. I guess I’ll have to replace Butte with Huntington, WV or Newark, NJ as the new “Armpit of the Country”. If you have other nominees, let me know.

Trip Update Aug 2010 BC, MT, WY, SD Part 2A

Hot Springs waterfall at Mammoth, YNP
Cowgirl leading trail riders
Red Fox
Springhorn Antelope

Trip Update Aug 2010 BC, MT, WY, SD Part 2

Pat at Yellowstone Canyon
A family of bison being herded by a park volunteer in a modern version of a white horse
Baby Bison
Timber Wolves

Yellowstone
This was our 4th trip to Yellowstone. Instead of driving all around the park and stopping at all the road-side points of interest, we decided to hike the backcountry instead. We were sure we would see more wildlife that way. After two days and 12 miles of hiking, we had not seen anything larger than a chipmunk. So we headed back to the RV. While contemplating our next move a Red Fox walked right in front of the RV. We headed back to Mammoth, only to find a herd of Elk right in the middle of town. Go figure! We did find Yellowstone overrun with Bison. There are 3900 there and most of them will be standing in the road. In a good year (mild winter, wet summer) their numbers will increase by 600.
On our last full day, we were getting desperate - we had not seen a bear, wolf, or mountain goat in the park. So after another hike, we drove to the NE entrance and spotted a mountain goat on a distant cliff. It was getting late so we headed back to camp. Just before we got there, we saw a crowd had gathered. One guy let us look in his spotting scope. There was a dead bison in the distance and five grizzlies were taking turns at downing bison steaks. There was even a wolf sneaking in to get some meat. Our week was complete!
Cody
If you leave Yellowstone from the east entrance, you will go through Cody. Be sure to stop at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. There were sizable exhibits on Yellowstone, Buffalo Bill, Plains Indians, Western Art and Firearms, plus a Sculpture Garden. We spent 2 half days there and still did not see it all. Of course the reintroduction of wolfs in Yellowstone continues to be a hot topic in this ranch community. I saw this bumper sticker in town - “Wolfs - Government Sponsored Terrorists”.