Olaf Danielson's Blog, page 5

Day 4: Lifer Super chase: Maryland eastern shore and beyond

 

It was a very short night.  My flight to Baltimore from Houston TX last night was late and then I remembered why I did not like BWI airport the last time I blew through in 2013, the rental car experience.  First, I could not figure out at 0100 if Hertz was even still open, the phone number for them said they were closed, and then where was the shuttle pickup, it wasn't like ANY shuttle was running, I did see a Hilton shuttle, but then with the help of a parking lot shuttle drive sleeping in his van, he gave me some direction and then I found the stop.  No signs of anything, and ...it was cold outside, cold for even me.

Somewhere about 0130, I'm thinking of do I just sleep in the terminal and scrap my hotel room in Annapolis, and how am I going to even get a rental car?  Then, a bus heads my way, I figure it was a city bus, looked like a city bus and the last time I was here they had individual busses for each rental car line, by then I see Rental shuttle and it steams past me like I am the Devil, some guy a good block down from waves to the bus and it slams to the curb maybe a half a block past him.  He runs, and I think this is my last chance, I run.  Luckily, this older guy is not fleet of foot and I'm cold and desperate and as I near I hear the bus powering up and I hit the last door just as it is closing I throw a hip into it, the door freezes momentarily and then opens up and I peel myself off the door and fall in.  
"Stop blocking the door back there!" I hear on the overhead mic...""If you stopped the f^$$ing bus at the stop..." I mutter and off the bus goes before I sit down.  
I ask the guy next to me "where is this bus going?" I realize there are 6 people on this bus.  
"Rental lot." "Where did you get on?""At the rental bus stop at "A" terminal."
Surprisingly Hertz had a staff and my car so off I go to Annapolis then I pull up to my hotel "Hilton Garden Inn" at 0200, it turns out, there are two and the other one is on  the other side of town, it is 0220 until I get my room, realize the "buffet breakfast" is another $20 per person and I stumble to my room.
0600 came early and I skip the breakfast and see a Dunkin's, and pull through for a quick birder breakfast.  The credit card machine won't take my card, and finally the girl at the window winks and says just go.  So I got something
The Bay Bridge was nice to see at first light, I forget it is toll, well i think it was a toll bridge, it was hard to tell, but whatever, I'll see the bill later.  I pull into the Northern Lapwing spot, where there was only one report yesterday.  It was not a welcoming spot, no trespassing signs were everywhere, so I put on my flashers in the shoulder of the narrow road and scan from the warm car.  It is cold outside.  I scan the almost frozen pond with some black ducks and a small Canada goose flock keeping it open.  Shore looks frozen tight, and then I see a lump.  I get out my scope as trucks, cars, a bus roll past me on the edge of the road.  I see the head, long trailing crest on the head.  It is hunched down, like it is almost succumbed to the weather, but the head moved.  

Distant photos, but here is what it is supposed to look likeI had not seen one of these in Europe, yet, either and the numbers of this bird have dropped substantially in the last 20 years and it is no wonder that this bird usually seen almost every season in North America has not for the last decade.  I have been watching for any reports.  My friend Jim Brown one of the last ones seen in New Jersey years ago.It was for me lifer bird number 4!!
It wasn't moving, I looked at the snow geese flocks, spotted a couple of Ross's geese,   and then I repositioned the car and could not refind it so at 0800 I made a break for the airport.  A nonstop flight for Portland, so I drove hard.  I sped into the rental car lot, and on the bus to the terminal I booked a ticket, got through security.  Found my gate and boarded, I was off to the last stop, four in the bag.
I think I was in my rental car at Portland before the plane was fully unloaded.  I drove to Boothbay Harbor to look for the crazy Steller's Sea Eagle spotted here and almost everywhere else, Texas, Quebec, and I think this might have been the bird spotted near Denali in Alaska over a year ago.  It has been around New England a little as well.  The Common black hawk of 2018-2019 looks almost sedentary compared to this bird.
I got up there near 130 PM after getting lost, could I get a double?  It was no problem being late, the bird was seen early in the day and then.....no sittings.
It was somewhere between frozen and frostbite out there on the stakeout.  I got a tip of where a local saw it near 4 PM but I scrambled to where that was but nothing.....so i found a room and now I await for tomorrow.  This surely is not going to be an easy get.  It may make the bat falcon, seem easy, and a heck of a lot warmer.Long tailed ducks, something to pass the time
So, tonight, I sleep, tomorrow, I'm wearing every piece of clothing I have with, and we'll see....we'll see if I see the great and mighty eagle.
Stay warm, cause it is cold outside here, 
Olaf

 

Day 3: Lifer super chase, The Blues

The morning sky was blue, this morning in New Mexico after I drove past so much flaring of methane in the Permian the flames seemed almost blue at times.  I drove up to Rattlesnake Springs, the first time I had been here since 1993, and I got my lifer Audobon's warbler here, before it was taken away, on my first birding trip in America.  THE PLACE has changed or maybe it is January versus April, IDK. It was cold, many people's skins were blue, and I was driving a sweet blue Rav4 (actually it was a piece of crap, the check engine light was on)

It was a sweet color though
Then there was something far sweeter, the bluest of all blue birds in North America, the elusive blue mockingbird, it popped up right were I was and was only seen badly and many saw it only briefly, there were maybe 20 on the stakeout.  It wasn't good so I was patient, then everyone scattered and many were in groups talking and not watching.  
A half hour went by, some were shivering but it wasn't that cold, so I figured where it would come out again.  I young guy for Albuquerque came over who was birding on the quetzel stakeout a couple years ago.  "I heard a flicer call, was that the mockingbird?"  
"No, that was a flicker"  I replied.  Then I got the feeling someone or something was watching me.  I put up my camera instinctually.  I had it and it was looking right at me, the crazy skuly bastard was looking at me.  I froze, and took pictures.  "The Bastard is looking at me Ray, the crazy bastard is looking at me, I can't move."  It was frozen mid-preen.  My camera was fogging up and all I could do was stay froze eventually a couple of others wondered over and as best we could by voice, gave directions.
   Then finally it relaxed and I could move and change lens quick to something not steamy, it was nice to get a better perspective but it was still watching me. It flew into a hackberry and fed and despite 10 yards away, i\t was all twigs, almost all the time.  I never got a window and the bird was so flighty and skulky I dids not want to move and no one else did.  No one this time was talking about football or the chase a month ago or New Mexico politics




A most gorgeous bird, just a huge thrush, but it never really came out when it came out.  Then it made the loudest flicker call I have ever heard, and flew back in the Russian olive thicket and amde another call and that....was that.  We walked back to the parking lot happy, shared our good fortune with those still warming up and left I meandered back to Midland, drank a "Blue" Moon lifer beer, CHEERS!  Lifer beer savored, and then I booked a ticket on the Blue-tailed airline, United bound for Baltimore tonight and the next leg of this crazy trip.  Three days down and three lifer birds.....will number four fall tomorrow?  
I guess all I can say is stay tuned.  The Blue Mockingbird is a cool bird,  but I think the next two are cooler.  
Keep birding out there
Olaf

Day 2, life bird chase, It is a long and winding road to Pecos Texas

They say a picture is worth a thousands words, except when it isn't.  Find the Bat Falcon in the above picture..can you?  Clear as mud, I would assume.  I saw the bird with my naked eye and this is already at 7x.  
David Junkin and I were on the morning stakeout for the Bat falcon at Santa Ana NWR at Alamo TX this morning with 200 other people, it reminded me a lot of the Marfa Lights stakeout as neither of them turned up.  A lot of hopeful and some passerby lookers, It was a nice morning (no wind) and after it was a big "dip" about half went home and the others scattered around the park, or mostly around the parking lot, the tower filled up with the 8-10 people on it and we decided to walk in a far corner of the refuge because we had overheard someone say it had been seen on a snag there.  I left my scope in the car so there would be less to carry.  That would turn out to be the first of many errors for the day.
So we walked, and walked and then when a few birders I knew passed us on the trail, and they were on the tower, I got the feeling they knew something so we kept up.  We arrived at the Cattail Pond over look and they were calling ducks, white tailed kites, but did not say anything about a falcon, and then a tiny black dot caught my eye through a narrow window...too far for my bins to discern, but it looked like a falcon, I took a snap shot of the bird and blew it up which on the camera is only the second one and not as sharp as I can on the computer.  "That is definitely a falcon," I said to one of the guys I did not know, I asked to use his scope and then, the bird turned, white collar, red belly, the bat falcon.  My eyes and birdy sense had got it.   Pictures are nice, but it is hard to beat a scope.

It turned out they had seen it from the tower a mile away and were trying to figure out where they had seen it.  Before we could sneak closer and closer may not have helped as that window was pretty narrow, it flew around and was gone, but bird seen and found by me, even with no help and I think we were the only ones to really find it today.  It ended up being a nice 5 mile hike.  It had been a decade since I was down in this location of the refuge. I yearned for my bicycle.

It is amazing how many people come for a few moments look, see "no bird" and then drive away.

It was time to bug out of the valley, I had miles to go and birds to seem so we went to Hertz, David dropped me off, and after a long line, (The Monterrey flight had just came in) I got the last car apparently in town, and drove north and west.  It was a nine hour journey of football, talk radio, Mexican country music, having to back track 18 miles and nearly running out of gas.  I actually filled with more than the stated capacity of the tank, I exaggerate not ( I violated the first rule of western driving), I then found out I bailed only 7 miles FROM a brand new truck stop that was NOT on my cellphone (thanks for nothing Siri!), and then later I was going the wrong way at the freeway (yes, jumped the curb driving a full circle around the wrong way sign), after getting totally lost and have two conflicting Siri's telling me where to go but to places on opposite sides of town (thanks again for nothing Siri!), luckily I wasn't killed, no one paints roads in west Texas.  I then ended up at the wrong Best Western hotel and forced to jump another curb and finally I got a room, and .........a lifer beer.  I needed a beer.  Maybe needed one 300 miles back.

I think all the flaring of natural gas (which should be illegal!) was affecting my mind.  Tomorrow worries me, I have an early appointment with a skulky bird and it is on the other side of the time zone, breakfast starts at 0530, but which 0530?  Sunrise is at 0658 and 0757, but depends on which time zone, and so can I get breakfast before I go or what?  Can I even get out of this hotel?

Natural gas flare, one of thousands in the Permian
The next lifer, a blue mockingbird awaits, we'll see, then I will need to head to the east coast
...and I have only been gone 48 hours...
Olaf

Social Birding, Day one of lifer trip

Well, I'm trying to clean up "birds on the board" for my North American life list, somewhat shockingly, I have left 6 birds simmer out there, which is kind of hard to really do.  I left these "ducks on the pond" as one could say because, 1) there was COVID, 2) thinking I had Covid (test negative), 3) I went birding to Puerto Rico, 4) nothing close 5) home for the holidays, 6) family trip 7) make sure I did not get COVID, 8) RV had to go to the shop for recall on a taillight 9) I promised to move someone's hot tub to the dump, 10) Do I want to fly with COVID protocols?  Finally the wife said, "go."  Then a few days later, "why aren't you going?"  I quoted reason 8, then a day later, "Why not now?" I quoted #9, finally yesterday morning I bought a ticket, moved a hot tub, jumped a plane to Texas and here I am in McAllen.

I started this morning at Santa Ana NWR, the place is essentially closed, the visitor center is tore up, no tram. they are not feeding birds, like no one cares, but again, why would the US Government or the local people care about birds and birders down here, how much tourism is birding to the Lower Rio Grande Valley?

I digress.  I was met by local snowbird birders Dave and Sandi at the hotel after  a short night after delayed flights and tight connections.  My shins hurt from the Houston Dash, The cold front met us at the stakeout for the bat falcon, the first one of these little falcons ever seen in North America.  The crowd was large.  a half a million in optic equipment sat waiting for a show.  As it turned out, there really wasn't much of a show

At half light the bird flew over, and with a 25mph gust of wind, it was quick, and then....it was gone.  I took a photo of those watching or missing it. The people immediately next to me never saw it.  It landed on the line 4 power lines down, some people ran a quarter mile and got too close and it was gone, 0730 and the chance was done.  IT LEFT THIS BIRDER WANTING! ....wanting to see it again.
So, we went for the back up bird, a social flycatcher at UT RGV in Brownsville.  It had been there for a while.  We arrived and then we saw what could have been it 80 yards away through grass, my photos were blurry as could not blow them up on the camera to see what it was, then an hour later, we had another quick view.  Then the birds went away, all birds, well not all of the birds, the local Muscovy ducks were there.

Then I practiced shooting photos through the grass at a couple of least grebes and a blue heron, it was not a good location but what do I do, get a machete? 
I looked for butterflies, and the sun came out, I found a tropical checkered skipper
Then four hours at this stakeout, it was halftime and we went for lunch, food sore and hungry.We came back 40 minutes later, filled with Stripes tacos.  Half time worked.  I spotted it a time time in the grass again a crappy photo and disappeared but then posted next to the trail and the viewing window was tight but photos were had by all, I think.
Finally!!!!
So we went back to the falcon stakeout and three hours of cold wind later, no bird.  I had missed flights out of town so I found a room, walked to the mall to get food since, no one delivered, had no place sadly to even get a lifer beer and so I came back to my room with Chinese food from a place with a Japanese name, served by a Hispanic, oh well, food is food on the birding trail.  I needed to plot my escape from the valley tomorrow after a third visit to the bat falcon stakeout. 
A lifer bird a day, today, I guess 1 1/2 lifers, we'll say 812.5 lifers, I hope to get better looks and even a photo tomorrow to clean up that half.  I saw it but....., The morning will be cold, I bought a stocking hat, it is going to be nasty at 7AM
more tomorrow on day #2
Olaf

   

The Lowdown of the Lowcountry

On Wednesday, we moved from a very overcast and wet Southeastern Virginia to a sunny southeastern North Carolina.  We reached the Low country, set up camp and went to look around.  I had spent three days trying to get a photo of a red-cockaded woodpecker up in Virginia and all we found were mushrooms, and it was nice to get out of the darkness and into the light.  We did see a woodpecker, never got the camera on it...story of my life some times.                     
There were lots of butterflies still flying around.  
long-tailed skipper
salt marsh skipper (lifer)
Ocola skipper (lifer)
Gulf Fritillary always a colorful favoriteHuntington Beach State park has some good boardwalks for birding and I finally got into some decent birding.  They say this park is one of the best birding sites in South Carolina.  It was hot and crowded, and at low tide, only a couple of sandpipers were flying around, but I saw a few birds.
black throated blue warbler
Clapper rail
Belted kingfisher
Tricolored heron
seaside sparrowWe went across the street to the Brookgreen Garden, another part of the Archer and Anna Huntington estate, set up to feature his wife Anna's sculpture.  Despite throwing his enormous wealth around (he was the son of one of the wealthiest Americans, a railroad tycoon, one of California's big four) getting exhibitions and literally buying museums, Anna was a remarkable sculptor, many should just come here to see her work.We walked the huge garden and saw many of hers and others sculptors.






After all of the walking around, I sat down to take a quick nap. 
Some other views:
 A Coastal plains cooter

So that is a little taste of what is going on around here.  This is a nice part of the Carolinas and we have a few more days here.  We anticipate finding more neat spots and cool critters.  We have a swamp, a winery, and a pelegic/ fishing trip on the schedule....more on that later.
Olaf

A Great and Dismal Swamp

My wife and I have some rules of travelling.  One important one, is that we only visit one battlefield maximum per trip.  After a Bornholm, Denmark trip in which in an attempt to unlock the secrets of hidden Templar treasure, we visited all of the Templar churches of that island in the Baltic.  Now, one castle or church per trip has been added to the rulebook for harmonious travel (make it a good one, hun!).  Luckily, birding has had no restrictions, (yet) but again, I need to remember that I cannot over do it, or what happened on Bornholm, will happen again.  Bornholm is not one of those places to say "what happened in Bornholm stays in Bornholm."  It set a seriously dangerous precedent.
So, after Cowpens, and Biltmore (a "castle," per Silja), as we drove up and into Virginia, places like Petersburg, Williamsburg, famous Civil and Revolutionary War sites are not on the menu.  So, what is a guy to do?  
Oddly, (to some) a place I have seen on a map that I always wanted to visit has been the Great Dismal Swamp of Virginia...because with a name like that....it has GOT to be good.  I am reminded of an old Saturday Night Live skit where they parodied the Smuckers slogan, with a "name like Smuckers, it has got to be good jam."  The classic SNL players invented all sorts of vile names for jams using this theme.  I seem to recall Dan Ackroyd's, "With a name like painful rectal itch, it has really got to be good jam."  John Belushi added the name of his jam, "Hundreds of nuns and orphans..." when asked by one of them why would that be so bad...he replied, "they were all eaten by rats!"  Jane Curtain, Ackroyd, and Gilda Radner, all mumbled..."Good jam, really good jam."  So a great dismal swamp,....it has to be a good place.
So off we went to visit, the Great and Dismal Swamp of Virginia.
The place was named by Drummond, an early Governor of Virginia but it took George Washington to see the potential to the area.  He among others formed the Dismal Swamp Canal Company, which was the first canal built and operated in America and connected the waters of the Chesapeake to the Albemarle Sound, he even approved the government paying for it.  At the state line between Virginia and North Carolina, the Dismal Swamp Hotel was built, which had the state line go right through the salon.  It became a popular place for duels, lover's trysts, gambling, and all sorts of nefarious activity as whatever illegal or immoral happened, it would happen in one state and you would stay in the other.  Many would simply move the poker game to the other side of the room if authorities arrived.  The hotel is now long gone.  It would have been cool to see.  The Civil War battle of South Mills was fought over control in 1862.  It is still part of the Intercostal Waterway.
The swamp itself has been exploited and severely abused over the years.  The land eventually became owned by the Camp family business, Camp Manufacturing of Franklin, Virginia.  Six brothers bought a sawmill in 1887, and created the family motto, "Can't is not in the Camp vocabulary."  The area prospered and then during WWI, the company the community boomed.  The next generation of the colorful Camp family converted the company to pulp and paper production in the Thirties, mostly paper bags and largely deforested the area and the swamp.  In 1956, the company merged with the larger Union Bag Corporation, which after a transition with the cumbersome name on the 1956 stock certificate below, became the Union Camp Corporation.
With the swamp unable to provide any more profit to the company, Union Camp donated the land 43,000 acres to the government in 1973 and it became the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in August 1974 by the Dismal Swamp Act.  A law passed in the middle of the Watergate Hearings, it was one of the first items signed by new President Gerald Ford, after taking over when Nixon resigned.

The center of the Dismal Swamp is Lake Drummond, a bit of an oddity and one of only two natural lakes in the state of Virginia and created by a meteorite impact recently enough to for Native Americans to have a legend about the creation via a "flaming thunderbird landing in the swamp."  It has neither an inlet nor an outlet. 
Lake Drummond
An update of our travels so far....
I had no idea of what to expect in terms of birdlife, but to be fair, it was ..."Dismal."
The somewhat pathetic list, 5 wood ducks3 Black vultures1 Great blue heron1 pileated woodpecker (heard only)2 Red bellied woodpeckers (heard only)a tufted titmouse2 American crows and a sparrow that was never identified.
Drummond Lake was totally devoid of birdlife, no gulls, no terns, no cormorants, and no ducks, just nothing.  I did see I guy come with two kayaks....but we left before he put them on the lake, if he even did.  
But, we did find butterflies, including two lifers   
Great purple hairstreak, a lifer and a really neat looking bug

Yehl skipper, another lifer

Sleepy Orange (winter form)

                                         Twin spot skipper
Eastern painted turtles, the most common critter on the "wildlife drive"
So that was that, as they say, "Been there, done that..."  Would I recommend it for your travel itinerary, I don't know, at least the mosquitoes weren't too bad.  As Dismal places go, it wasn't so bad....  but will I go again.......?   You never know where a rare bird report might take you.  Never say "never."
Olaf 

Operation Ostrich

We were planning on visiting Silja's, my wife's, cousin, his wife, and her aunt in Sanford, North Carolina on our way from Chesnee, South Carolina to the Dismal Swamp of Southeastern Virginia.  We were last out here during my big year in 2016, stopping by after Hatteras pelagics.  I have not seen Silja's aunt Mary Ann in a decade.  I looked at some ideas and then on Harvest Host, a site for more intriguing camping options, I saw the Misty Morning Ranch near Robbins NC.  It was an Ostrich Farm.  When the cousins heard we were camping at an Ostrich farm, they volunteered to drive over to see us.  I guess we were more interesting then their backyard in the pines.  How often do you get to have a picnic on the side of a road at an Ostrich farm?

A quick review of how we got here...this is day 12 of our 2021 epic RV tour

So, we pulled into the farm on the outskirts of the little town and set up shop right next to "Ed," one of the male ostriches.  Ed was an interesting neighbor and provided something to watch while we caught up old family stories and I "slaved" on the BBQ.

I have seen wild ostriches in Africa but I have never heard one, the deep almost frog like sound the male woke me up with this morning was a highlight of the day.  His little dance was also good for amusement many times. 

\
They even entertained the kids, Silja's cousin's two grandsons.
They have well over 100 birds here and they are mostly a meat and leather operation.  The family that runs this moved here from California a few years ago looking for cheaper land, and got into ostriches of all things.

After the tour of the operation, saw the hoard of chicks, we petted the farm cats, saw two pot-belly pigs that had just been dropped off. We bought some ostrich meat for later, and we got to camp for free for the evening.  I am not sure on a cost benefit model if the prices on the sustainable ostrich meat was worth the night of camping, but well, it was something to do.
Anyhow, as the trip turns more into birding, this was a bird that won't count for anything, but well, it was interesting
Olaf

POKING AROUND THE PIEDMONT

Well, the report from South Carolina and our RV trip continues.  We did the tourist things, we drove up to Asheville and saw the Biltmore, George Washington Vanderbilt's impressive mansion, brother of CNN Anderson Cooper's Great Grandfather.  This is the largest privately owned house in America.  It was over the top, in a kind of Mad king Ludwig of Bavaria sort of way, but with more planning.  Just imagining the costs of keeping that house is astounding.  What that generation of Vanderbilts were thinking between this, The Breakers in Newport, or the Marble House or the Petit Chateau in NYC, just makes me scratch my head.  It cost the equivalent of 200 million to build this one.  They funded this for a decade by selling 83,000 acres in the Thirties with the old legacy money largely spent to the US Government to start the National Forest here in the Smoky Mountains.  The builder, died in his 50s from an appendicitis and really never even enjoyed this.  Vanderbilt was scheduled to go on the "Titanic" but demurred and sailed on the "Olympic" sending a servant with his luggage in 1912, who drowned.  His nephew died on the "Lusitania" when it was torpedoed in 1915.   

The indoor pool was cool
In my opinion, Olmstead, who laid out the gardens made a mistake in putting them where they can't be seen from the house.  In 2021, they had butterflies, so I guess that is okay.  The waiting line was long, and it was $160 to tour it, with proceeds going to the Vanderbilt heirs, but, I would recommend it
Clouded Skipper, a lifer
Dusted skipper
Cloudless Sulphur 
Fiery skipper, 

We drove a few miles to walk along the Cowpens National Battlefield, where much maligned British Colonel Tarleton's army was largely destroyed and set the stage for Cornwallis to chase Generals Morgan and Greene all the way to Yorktown, Virginia to his surrender the end of the Revolutionary War.  The movie "Patriot" was based largely around here, Mel Gibson played Francis Marion who led the local resistance, the local rebel leader, nicknamed the Swamp Fox was the bane of Tarleton.  They really took two battles and wove them together in a fictional movie, that seems real, we did win the battle.  Mel's big speech was sort of correct, except it was Morgan who gave it, well, sort of gave it. History is Hollywood, correct?  Morgan was a master tactician, and in here at the Cowpens, Tarleton wandered into a trap after overplaying the event.  I doubt he was as much of an asshole as the man who played him in the movie, but who knows?   

It is hard to believe more battles of the Revolutionary War were fought in South Carolina than any other state.  A trivia question for later.

We went up in the Mountains

We went to Devil's Kitchen at Caesars Head State Park, Legend and local lore, however, say that early Scottish-Irish immigrants who made their own alcohol allowed the Devil to make his own and one drop split the rocks.  Must have been some strong stuff.

We walked over Poinsett Bridge, the oldest Bridge in the state made in 1820, and by the same guy that made the Washington Monument.  It is also hard thinking Model T's bounced up this road between Asheville and Greenville 100 years ago, and then this bridge was 100 years old. 

We went to Spartanburg, and saw the monuments to Daniel Morgan, Revolutionary War hero who if not for his exploits, we'd be British citizens.  Few know his great story. 
Fewer still know about Chaser, a border collie who knew 1000 words and the research dog at Wofford who amazed, considered the smartest dog of all time.  Then we ate Mexican food after looking at an Indie book store.
                       

We skipped the huge Peachoid (water tower) in Gaffney, and more and more battlefields. We skipped the corn maze but not the ice cream, which as it turned out was filled with MSG, (sorry Silja). Tomorrow, we head off to North Carolina, on our way to Virginia, with cousins, ostriches, and red-cockaded woodpeckers are in our future, rain is expected, so we will see what we see and how it goes.  

The only RV issue is a cracked sewage hose, but nothing the rain didn't clear up for us.

Olaf

Score one for the Palmetto

 Item Number 119 on my bucket list was simple, "visit South Carolina."   Why the Palmetto State? (what even is a palmetto?) In 2016, I visited Rhode Island for the first time, my state number 49, South Carolina will make an even fifty, a complete set.

On September 29, this item was crossed off from my list as we crossed into The "Palmetto" state on a little traveled road, after spending 270 miles driving up down and around from southern Kentucky, around Knoxville, Tennessee, through the Smoky Mountains into North Carolina and around Asheville to where the above photograph was taken halfway up a little hill.

So where did we head?  What part of the great state did we decide for a destination?  Our destination was a small generally textile-free resort-campground called Carolina Foothills near Chesnee just two miles into the state, southeast of Asheville, and probably the closest point to Minneapolis.  Maybe too Bohemian for many but well, it is what it is.

It is a place filled with miles of trails and a center for activities. For the next week we will be using this place as a base to see what the state has to offer and enjoy the waning days of summer or the early fall, it is still warm here and as such, camping in a place such as this remains ideal.  

Some of the trails
Of course, I am not going to take any pictures of people here, but here is a picture of a large Fishing spider  Dolomedes tenebrosus
A update on our route

We plan on visiting battlefields, mansions, mountains, and forests in and around the Piedmont, which means the "foot of the mountains."  We hope to get some sun, hike in the woods and enjoy the new pickle ball court opening this weekend at the campground.

Silja still needs two states now, the same Rhode Island, and Vermont, a state I have not been to since 1982 when I toured Fort Ticonderoga, and crossed Lake Champlain by ferry during a family vacation driving up from the Baseball Hall of Fame.  Has it been almost 40 years? Those would have to come on a different trip as 48 will be the best she can do on this tour.

More updates to come

Olaf

 

 

A Grease Spot on the L&N

Days 5-6 of the RV jouney of 2021.  Ah, Kentucky, the land of bourbon, blue grass, hills, horses, and fried chicken, and despite the brevity of two days we tried to see them all,

We awoke just a mile from Kentucky as the crow flies, but it took an hour to get there and some tense nerves to do it.  After Clifty Falls we planned on driving straight out, take a right, go a mile and get on a bridge to the Blue Grass state.  It seemed so simple, but alas ....NO!  Main street in Madison IN was closed for two blocks, the entire town was about as RV friendly as a village in Malta or downtown Paris, so we drove in our car to scout a better route leaving the RV behind.  I talked to the ranger woman back at the campground, stating I was afraid to drive back out the way we came in because if we met someone as big as us, there was no way we'd both fit.  She did NOT seem concerned, mostly I think because it would not be her problem to get us unblocked from the road.  So, I just said, screw it, and off we went, on a detour through the park on 15 foot wide roads with over hanging trees, sharp curves, steep grades and well, drop-offs.  Somehow, we did not meet anyone.  Then we drove four miles east, then four miles south to get exactly 2 blocks from where we had just been, just as they were removing the detour signs. Sigh, isn't that the way things go.  It was noon.

We crossed the big river but the road Google wanted to go on was NOT a truck route so we took a road along the river with all the other trucks, but there was no shoulder, the bluffs and trees were straight up on my side and so I drove 30 mph for 10 miles backing up everyone, but alas, their lateness was not my problem.  It was Kentucky's. I laughed that I was a Kentucky Chicken.  Well, somehow, I got us to the freeway, and then twenty miles later just as the road was slowing down to a crawl, Silja announced "oops!"  The road we wanted was 35 not 127, so I got off on 127 and although it looked like I could go to 35, I looked closer at the map, and saw 127 buried in the fold of the map and decided caution was warranted and we drive back for 7 miles to 35 ands then headed south.  10 more miles later, I came upon 127 (my road became 127, and where it met, it looked like it was just a driveway when it met up and there was a big yellow sign saying no trucks allowed, steep grades and sharp curves, somehow, they needed to put that on the other end.

We bumped and grinded into Frankfort, got turned around, got on the freeway and ended up taking the long way around Lexington before heading off to Paris. Nit that Paris, but Paris in Bourbon County, Kentucky.  This was our destination for the night, we'd gone 45 miles as the crow flew and it took us four hours.

We had joined "Harvest Host" as a new idea to stay at odd little places, in Paris, we were to stay at a farm.  I talked to owner (male)  a couple weeks back...no problem he said, figured we'd stay for a day and buy some store products...it was not to be, as when we turned into the place the bridge was blocked with a cement truck.  Fresh cement blocked our path.

There was little camping around, and seemingly no way to get here, so I pulled to the side and was beginning to unhitch the car planning to drop the trailer and make the laborious effort to turn my one-way rig around to get out of the situation, while Silja made a desperate attempt to find a place to camp.
Halfway into taking off the car straps, the owner showed up.  I was accused of having an "attitude" and I had not called ahead again saying when we would show up, apparently, twice was not enough.  We will discuss Harvest Host more on another post.  Anyways, she led me on a serpentine route through her field, along her cornfield, past the donkey enclosure to another bridge and then to the other side of the bridge and then we dry camped in the yard below the farm store.  Their store was still closed for COVID, so that was our only interaction.  They were building a 75 lot campground to the left of the picture and the place was being filled with trucks of debris from the road construction in town for $75.00 per load, trucks came all day and all night.  But it WAS a place to camp.  I drank some wine and chilled out.  I needed wine, as I was whining and the two do mix.
Eventually I went looking for butterflies
Mating sachems
Tawny edged skipper
Variegated fritillary 
Morning came and we went of to nearby Claiborne Farms to look at ....racehorses.  This was why we had came here.  Our visit included the last resting place of the greatest of all time,,,,Secretariat.

The great stallion after his monumental 31 length Belmont win in 1973 setting the record for a mile and a half that has never even been close to being broken.
We saw his stable and some of the living greats of the farm.
I am petting War Front, one of the richest sires in the world, $250,000 per insemination, and worth around $80 million.  Just a big horse up close.  He started getting a little nippy and the stableman smacked him with the bridle strap.  80 million dollars and corporal punishment is still the best method to discipline him. 
Silja giving a peppermint to War of Will, the 2019 Preakness winner.  He was a sweet horse
Here he is with his Black-eyed Susans as the champion horse to the big race
Then there was Blame
This horse is Blame. Blame cost quite a few people a lot of money.  Blame is now 15, when he won the Breeder's Cup in 2010 beating an undefeated horse, Zenyatta, he got death threats, here is what the horse thought of his detractors when I asked him.  He made 4 million racing and has the life of leisure siring foals at 30K a pop, three times a day.  You can't "Blame" him for sticking his tongue out at you.
This below is Julio, Claiborne's "teaser."  No one knows what breed he is, but he acts like the Giglio he is, he gets to mount all the girls, gets kicked, bit, but never gets to do the deed.  But he has that look about him, all testosterone, and he gets to live the life of luxury.  
Year bird, mute swan pair flew in for a photograph between stallion pictures
We left the horse area, got the RV out of the farm and headed south without any issue.
They say Corbin Kentucky is a railroad town, located in Southeastern part of the state on the line of the old L&N,  During the infamous race riots of 1919, the entire black population of town was loaded on the same train and sent out of town.
Despite this, what people think most of about Corbin, Kentucky is chicken, and the man that changed restaurant chicken in America, Harland Sanders.  He opened his first restaurant and developed his recipe at his cafe in North Corbin, before franchising the idea in the late 1950s, he closed his cafe in 1959 and sold out Kentucky Fried Chicken in 1964 for $2,000,000.  It would later become the second largest restaurant chain in the world. Sanders retained the Canadian rights and moved to Canada. He died in 1980 quite wealthy and not always a fan of what by then PepsiCo had done with his gravy.
So we drive into Corbin to have Kentucky Fried Chicken..... with Colonel Sanders It was finger lick'n good.
The "cafe" was being remodeled as was the museum, so we had to go eat outside.



Filled with greasy chicken, I stopped at the "\CORBIN KISSING STONE" The stone was placed in July of this year as a place to get engaged and celebrate anniversaries.  The story goes that it is already 100% successful, no one has turned down an engagement here, but...it has only been three month.
happily married, and not needing the effects of the stone, we came back and looked for more butterflies
Eastern Comma

Question Mark (not the different mark on the closed wing view)

Eastern Tailed-blue
Carolina Satyr
We then drank some wine, and enjoyed a great evening in southern Kentucky listening to frogs and the freeway traffic.  The fried chicken even digested well, and so we did not become our own grease spot on the L&N.
Morning would come and we had to squeeze out of our KOA campsite and head south to hopefully knock off a bucket list item.  It had been two years since a bucket list item thanks to COVID, so it would be good to get this one......more on that next time
Olaf