Tuesday, March 26, 2013

A Slow Migration Northward


     The other day we woke up and Dash Dog was doing tricks.

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                Dash Frog was definitely NOT impressed.
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      The time has come for us to start making tracks again.
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There’s a campground and a lake in Pennsylvania awaiting our attention and we are not known to travel great distances in one day.  A ‘big day’ for us consists of 20 miles or so.  We’ve been known to hit around 100 on special occasions but that typically entails six hours or so of driving and requires a full day or two of recovery afterwards (read: no driving).

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      We made a point to soak in a few more days by the seaDSCN0506
            puttering around finding cool shells and stuff.
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                                        (Shells)
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                                        (Stuff)

Then we said goodbye to Nicole’s folks and drove off into the sunset.DSCN0496

O.K., fine.  It was 11 a.m. when we left but isn’t that sunset amazing?!  You’d never know we saw it from the parking lot of Home Depot.  Not unless we told you.

As can be expected, our travels thus far have been non-stop excitementDSCN0582

                             in beautiful locations
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                   where we’ve learned to sleep withDSCN0761
                               one eye slightly open.

Our first stop after the beach was lakeside for a week.  It only seemed right to get in some practice for our summer gig.  There’s more to say and share but we’ll save that for another post since there are way too many photos to sort through at the moment.  This one might hold you over for a bit though.

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And this one is a memorial to a life we saw cut short on our drive today.

Despite our roads being cut through their habitats animals are smart and (for the most part) have adapted.  They have learned to ‘watch for cars’ when crossing the road.  This morning as we were driving through a Wildlife Management Area an Ibis decided to cross the road in front of us.  He took off in plenty of time and we had a spectacular show on our own personal dashboard movie screen.  Beautiful. 

And then Darlene yells, “CAR!”  A truck had decided to pass us at a high rate of speed and the timing was… well, unfortunate.

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Sort of makes one think that all of those safe driving slogans ending with some variation of ‘save a life’ apply to more than just we humans.  Be aware out there.  Especially when driving in areas with a high animal presence. 

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

A Little More Southern – Part 3

 

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Not a token Florida shot.  These are wild, sour oranges (think, lemons).
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       Air Potato!  She had a lot to say but we didn’t listen.
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              Super cool punk tree with spikes on the trunk…
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             and big (as your hand) thick, waxy flowers.IMG_4667
           No, thank you.  We’ve brought our own water.
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             Cool things...  Look inside the cinder block.IMG_4752
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                         Purdy shells that no one lives in.
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                          And some that someone does.

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                                     Manatee!!!
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                                 Manatee nose…
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                                   Manatee tail…
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                                  Manatee trail…
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                                     Snail trails.

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                                        Scenic walks.
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                               Cactus characters.
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                                 Happy Campers!
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                And, we’re loving every minute of it.