Monday, April 6, 2015

Heading South

There is so much to tell about our travels so far!  I think about all we are doing and write down the highlights when I can.  I can't even nap when I am the passenger because I am afraid I will miss something!

Tonight I write from a beautiful state park just north of Arkadelphia in Arkansas.   I cannot get auto correct to stop changing the name of the park!  It's wooded and quiet, except whenwe first arrived when the air was filled with bird songs and calls. Hearing our first black and white warblers of the spring. Glorious! Now it is peaceful and as we are the only campers on this part of the camping area!

Last night we were at another state park called St. F rancois, in Bonneville Terre, Missouri. Another great spot, but not like tonight's!

Between yesterday and today we have driven 632 miles.  Highlights are:

- birds including kestrel, a black-necked stilt, cattle-egret, a huge kettle of what we think were wood storks, snow geese flock, and if I didn't know better, I'd think turkey vultures were here to take over the world!  They're everywhere!

- really a low-light, but Arkansas allows smoking in restaurants.  Gag!

- from a low of high twenties in Wisconsin, right now it is in the mid-seventies!

- much of the terrain was horse and cattle ranches with some agriculture mixed in. In Missouri,  we saw our first budding trees and flowers in bloom.

- ate at our first Golden Corral of the trip yesterday.  We discovered this buffet years ago on our travels and we loved all the food for a reasonable cost per person.  Yesterday we ate for four!

- saw tons of wind turbines on farmland in Missouri.

Went by the St. Louis arch and it is quite impressive.

 We stopped at a Wendy's to use bathrooms and watched purple Martin's at a birdhouse right behind the restaurant. It's obviously not being monitored, as house sparrows were there as well.

-  Saw a huge sink-hole in a field in MO.  Some rain had fallen at some point and most of the fields were like marsh lands.  We even saw a flock of coot swimming in the huge puddles.

Although we had hoped to be in Texas today, we will get there tomorrow.  It's about a 255 mile drive.  We have been getting about 17.5 mpg and today Michael had to lower the tire pressure in response to the dashboard tire pressure alert.  It was too warm for the pressure we had in them from Massachusetts.   As soon as he did that, the light turned off.  I learn something new every day!

Michael cooked grilled cheese sandwiches for the first time using the Solo bio-mass gasification stove.  To perfection I might add!

Apologies for the lack of photos.   They will come as soon as I am typing on my tablet which is under repair at Dell.

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