20-24 August Homebound While Hurricane Henri Hits Westerly

 Stressful times as we head home with the Delta COVID variant raging across America also affecting children this time,  very poorly executed U.S. troop pull out of Afghanistan strands 10’s of thousands of Americans and Afghan allies as the Taliban takes over the country killing and destroying on its way.  Drought and wildfires in the West, brother Steven scheduled for heart valve replacement upon our return all as Hurricane Henri barrels up the Atlantic coast and heads for New England.  

8/20  On our  way out of Minnesota we drop down and visit Steve Sorman in lovely Red Wing.   He loaded us up with veggies from his garden after coffee and delicious home made scones.   

Henri Waves In Westerly

8/21  Henri made landfall in Westerly but thankfully, only as a Tropical Storm.  Power went out for 24 hours due to wind and some downed trees and roads that typically flood along the shore flooded but not real bad.   Henri’s rain made its way to Pennsylvania just as we arrived at Bald Eagle State Park 20 miles West of Williamsport.  We have only seen rain twice since we left Westerly on July 6,  once on way out in Iowa and Saturday in Indiana.  While they had record rains this summer in the East, it is bone dry in the West with massive lakes drying up and wild fires while the east has been more rainy than usual.  I’m afraid the next civil war is going to be about water in the west. 

8/23 So disappointed as we had hoped to attend Little League World Series games this morning but only family is allowed due to COVID and it was rained out anyway. Leaving in the afternoon to avoid the rains up ahead, we drive 2 hours closer to home to leave a shorter drive on our final day and to avoid more flooding rains as Henri comes back around and blasts New England.  We arrive at Four Seasons Campground, Scotrum PA on a hillside in the Poconos as the owners are regrading the roads washed out in last nights rains so we can get to our site.  Evidence that the woods and creeks became rivers is everywhere.  The babbling brook (name of road at bottom of campground hill) looks like a raging stream with evidence of rocks, trees, debris on it’s banks.  

8/24 Ugly traffic on I-95 in Connecticut made for a much longer trip home but we made it!  Great to go away, great to come home.  

Deb Enjoying Home Sweet Home

We had NO TIRE ISSUES this trip.  Is that a first?  We drove 7,800 miles this trip.  I wonder how many times we have driven back and forth across this country.  We are trying to stop at different places along the way to break up the trip and spread the drive out.  We notice we don’t have the driving stamina like we used to and it’s a lot more fun to explore.  

8/19/21 Minnesota Visit With John’s Aunt, Sister and Cousin

 

Megan, John, Barbara

Joanne and Lucy

It has been fun tracking Megan and John as they RV from Salem, OR to join us in Minnesota.  Aunt Joanne and Barbara meet up with us at Baker Regional Park Campground where we have great time catching up and talking about old times. 

We trolley’d the kayak and paddle board to the lake where John and I had a great time kayaking and swimming.  I found a shark tooth fossil in the water along the shore!!   My research on it indicates it is from the Cretaceous period when dinosaurs  were still around and the Minnesota area was a large inland sea.  

To the dump, to the dump, to the dump dump dump......John and Megan

Jack, Michelle and Cian

 Jack, Michelle and Cian have been enjoying their summer at the beach and pool at our place and during a wonderful visit with Michelle's parents and brother at a lovely beach house on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire.   

We missed Cian turning 9 and 10 months old and even though we asked him to stop growing while we were gone, he didn't listen.  He is crawling all over and pulling himself around furniture standing up.   Cian, you should be smiling, you are sitting on rocks, your Nana's favorite things!  And three teeth came in while we were away.  

Jack has completed his first year of his Masters Degree at Tufts but doesn't have the summer off completely.  He has been invited to join the Aspen Strategy Group, Rising Leaders Program.  He will be able to use some of the research papers toward his Tufts degree.  

"The Aspen Strategy Group’s Rising Leaders Program brings together young professionals between the ages of 25-35 to discuss national security policy solutions for many of the world’s most complex problems.  Rising Leaders exchange ideas with: world leaders; senior government officials; members of Congress; journalists; prominent thinkers and practitioners in academia, policy, and business; and Aspen Strategy Group members."

Jack Hanley, Naval Officer, U.S. Navy

Jack Hanley is a U.S. Navy Fleet Scholar and Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy candidate at The Fletcher School, Tufts University.  His studies center on international security and global maritime affairs with a regional focus on the Asia Pacific. Prior to attending The Fletcher School, Jack served as Navigator of the USS CHUNG-HOON (DDG 93) homeported in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.  During his tour, the ship completed multiple deployments to the Western Pacific and Middle East, steaming more than 86,000 nautical miles while building capacity and interoperability with allies and partners to enhance regional security.  Jack planned and supervised more than 20 transits through strategic chokepoints and contested waters in the South China Sea, Strait of Malacca, Bab el-Mandeb Strait, and Strait of Hormuz.Before receiving his commission, Jack worked as a public relations executive in practice areas including advanced technology, renewable energy, and sustainability.

Loves The Beach

Lake Winnipesaukee

8/15/21 Theodor Roosevelt National Park, Medura South Dakota

 

7/14 Here we are again at Theodor Roosevelt National Park which is one of our favorite National parks.  Never tire of the views and especially the close up buffalo encounters.  Unlike our last visit in August 2015 when we practically had the place to ourselves, the small town of Medora was packed to the gills.  We assume it was from the rodeo in town but also probably from the massive surge in RV sales and pent up vacation demand from COVID.   

Medora

Love being back to Red Trail RV Park.   We toured Painted Canyon area where John took a hike into the canyon when it was 99 degrees!  

At 6 a.m. the next morning while it was cool and very few people in the park, we drove through to catch the wildlife.  The prairie dogs, bunnies, turkeys, wild horses were out as were 5 herds of buffalo. Like last time, they were all over the roads and the bulls grunted their disapproval as we slowly drove by.  Some nut was riding a bike through them but we noticed he seemed to wait to go through with a car and not by himself.  There are about 600 bison in the park and that is about the max the park can sustain.

Petrified Forest 

Then we took a ride on a 7 mile gravel road to hike out to the Petrified Forest.  60 million years ago these massive sequoia or cypress trees grew in a tropical shallow swamp like today’s Florida Everglades. Volcanic eruptions and flood buried the trees and the minerals inside the tree turned them to stone.   Some the trees were 8 feet in diameter. Feels so good to get into nature and not just see it from the car.  

Just outside the park entrance is the remnants of a slaughter house from the very early days when the French Marquee De Mores and Teddy Roosevelt first came to the area and started cattle ranching around 1883.  It operated successfully until it was destroyed by fire in 1907. 

De Mores Packing House Remains

 

12-14 August 2021 Washington and Idaho

Alberton, Montana “Parking Area”

 Aug 12  The smoke moved in the morning we left Washington and was really really thick after leaving  the Blue Anchor RV Park in Osborn, Idaho.  Many fires are burning all around western Canada and northwest US.  Much earlier than usual according to Zoe.  It was September last year when their house got smoked in for weeks.  You can taste the smoke and it gives you a headache and makes it hard to breath after a while. 

Smokey Idaho

Aug 13 By the time we got to Alberton, MT along Clark Fork there was very little smoke when we stopped at a “parking area” to change drivers.  The river was beautiful and there were lots of curious animal tracks. The fellow cleaning up the area said he lived at the  rest stop we passed  some miles back for 15 years until it closed recently.  I assume the driftwood shelter by the river was his. 

Driftwood shelter

Some Americana along I-90 and I-94 Idaho and Montana..........

Our Lady of the Rockies (90 feet high)

1-12 August 2021 More Fun At Zoe’s

Making Pickles From Her Garden

Zoe was away doing fieldwork in Northeast Oregon for a few nights, camping with a wolf biologist.  They met with a range-rider whose job it is to drive an ATV around and scare away wolves from the livestock.  She checked out how things were going and offered him some more non-lethal techniques.  In return, he left a thermos of hot coffee between their tents at 4 a.m. while making his rounds.   Finally getting into the field after being shut down by COVID for so long was a great feeling she said.  Unfortunately, Defenders has already cancelled some of her future events due to the Delta variant.  

While she was gone we went to Portland and had lunch with a Dartmouth classmate, Dave and Kay, at their lovely home.  They told us about all the gang/protestor activity, some of which recently occurred close to their house where a couple hundred people took over a major intersection, blocking traffic for hours while they drove their cars around in circles until some of their tires worn off.  Police just looked on as there were too many of them and not enough police since over 15% of the force quit or retired in the last year due to all the violence and protests against police brutality.  25% of Oregonians now support abolishing the force in lieu of creating alternative teams of social workers, drug counselors, and mental health experts.  A trend being considered by other states since many people feel Police behavior is way out of hand.  

John, Aunt Shirley, Meghan

Then we went to Salem, Oregon to visit John’s cousin Meghan, her Mom and husband John.  Always fun to spend time with them.  Aunt Shirley is doing pretty well at age 92 as she gave us tour of all the wonderful memorabilia in her assisted living apartment.  She and John had a good time sharing genealogy stories.   We will meet up with Meghan and John again in a couple of weeks as we both RV to Minnesota to see their Aunt Joanne and sister Barbara.

The weather has been all over the map out here.  40’s some nights to 103 degrees during the day.  With no AC on the downstairs of the house stays a nice 73!  Gets a little hazy now from the hundreds of thousands of acres of wildfires burning in the Northwest but not immediately around them but can’t smell the smoke.  That is due to change right when we leave.  

It occurred to us that we have been with Zoe for several major events.  We were touring with her in the Oregon coast red woods when she found out she was selected for the Washington State University PhD program. We modified our trip and drove out to Pullman, WA so she could meet her advisor and check out the town.  I remember feeling OMG as we drove for hours through nothing to get there! We were visiting her in Walla Walla when she got the call from Defenders saying she got the job.  On another trip we were kayaking with her and Gabe in White Salmon when she got the call that they could move into the house they bought. Now that I think of it, we were all with Jack vacationing in Florida when he was notified that he got into the Navy.  Hummm, synchronicity.....

Almost Daily Deer Grazing In Yard 

Pearl and Lulu

Had a another great visit with the girls at the beach with Zoe’s neighbors (Liz, Jay and boys Jack and Abe).  This picture was in their house of Pearl and Lulu among the red woods.  

Time to head East after a most wonderful visit!  If Delta variant doesn’t shut everything down again (like it already is), we hope to see them when they come East for Christmas.  LOVE LOVE

 

Pearl, Lulu and the Cats

Pearl and Dad, Gabe

We are so honored to be part of 13 year old Pearl’s “Coming of Age” ceremony.  Gabe spent many hours putting together academic, physical and emotional challenges for her (one of which I don’t think I could have done).  She passed all of them and now warrants the responsibilities of social media access, future dating, drivers license, etc.  Missing in the photo are Pearl’s mom’s parents and Zoe’s neighbor, Liz who is taking the picture.  We really had a grand party afterwards.

Their one-year old cats are so snuggley and want to be outside all the time.  Here Orion is falling out of the hammock as Zoe picks up Kira to join them.     

  

One early morning I was looking out the RV window next to our bed and saw a large cat walking by.  My first thought was bobcat even though I knew it was too big.  My brain went “tilt” as it registered the large tan cat with a tail as long as the body walking down their driveway about 15 yards from my window!!  In their jobs traveling the wilderness, Gabe and Zoe are told of all kinds of sighting of wolves, cougars and bears which often turn out to be dogs, sheep, deer, etc.  So Gabe, being a scientist, gave me a “show me the money” look.    He went out (and almost ‘master tracker’ that he is), saw the prints!!!!  This is not an actual picture of the cougar (aka mountain lion) I saw because it was only in my view a few seconds and I was so shocked I didn’t think to get my camera.  Interesting, but no big deal to those living up here in the wilderness.  I stayed in and no walks to the river or bike rides for me for a while.  Bears also spotted in area now and then so Zoe always wears bear spray around her waist when she runs or hikes by herself just in case.....

Lulu and I spend time together playing games, tromping through the forest, and cooking. I took Pearl and Lulu and their friends to the Columbia River one day where we paddled, swam and had lunch on the pier.  WHAT A BLAST!

Lulu on Pistol’s Back