Road Trip: Mississippi River

Well, since the budget is a little tight these days my travels need to be closer to home, but that doesn't mean they need to be any less special. This week I took a spectacular two day drive through bluff country alongside the mighty Mississippi River. On the first day I drove down the Minnesota side (Hwy 61 South) and the second day back up the Wisconsin side (Hwy 35 North) for a total of 460 miles round-trip. Let me just say right now, if you have any affinity for bald eagles, water fowl, or birds in general - along that river is the place to be. Very cool. Let's get to some pics.

Day One: First stop, Frontenac State Park 10 miles SE of Red Wing, MN.



Great views. I took a nice walk in the park and saw a group of deer.

The next cool stop was in the Whitewater area. I guess Whitewater is a wildlife preserve/State Park. From what I saw it was a gravel road that went on for miles, surrounded by wilderness, mostly wetlands, and wildlife. In this picture below I was trying to get a picture of a Bald Eagle sitting in a tree.

I tried zooming but this was the best shot I could get:

Ah, If only I had an awesome camera.


View of Winona, MN from a bluff.



Next stop, Great River Bluffs State Park. It has great trails, my kind of trails anyway, through forest and meadows.


Didn't see any snakes there.


Crossed over into the lovely state of Wisconsin.

Stayed in a cheap motel in Onalaska, WI right across the street from the river. As the sun went down I sat on a bench and watched Pelicans migrating north up the river. I didn't have my camera with though.

Notice little Teeta at the bottom of the statue, she was my companion for the trip and proved to be a handfull. I don't think I'll take her on any overnight trips anymore, she doesn't let me sleep.

Day Two: On the way back up north I stopped at the historic Seven Bridges Road. I'm guessing the famous song is referencing this site. It was a neat little footpath.



And now for my most favoritest stop on the trip, Trempealeau National Wildlife Refuge.

I spent most of the morning, at least 4 hours, there and was having so much fun I forgot to take a picture of the welcome sign like I usually do. But I still have the brochures. What was so cool about this place is that it had wetland, prairie grass, and forest habitats. And there was a self-guided driving tour that consisted of a narrow one-way gravel path with several numbered point-of-interest stops along the way. The brochure gave great information about plant and wildlife and even history for each stop. It was exactly like a hike except you were in your car, which I appreciated because I was starting to get tired with all the activities and driving. I rolled all the windows down and crawled along, I don't think I ever went over 5mph and I turned the engine off frequently to just watch and listen. It was awesome. I swear those moments when I'm alone out in nature are just about the only times when I feel zero stress, anxiety, anger, or sadness - out there I'm not in a rush or locked in my own head, I'm just present in the moment and at peace. I feel really alive and a part of everything around me. It's the kind of high worth chasing. And when I do get lost in thought out there, I'm just imagining what life was like for the early European settlers, and before them the Native Americans. I wonder what the landscape was really like back then, and when early man hunted mastodons and sabertooths, and even before man when it was just dinosaurs. Before there was a Mississippi River, when the land was covered in glaciers that eventually melted, creating it. It's nice to get lost in nothing but those kinds of thoughts sometimes.
Alrighty, moving along, this is another pic I snapped at the wildlife refuge. It's a Common Flicker (Yellow-shafted)




Canada Goose

Muskrat

Canada Geese looking for food.


There was this great little grassy pike that stretched 3/4 mile I think. It was a narrow walking path with water on both sides; it felt like a narrow little island. There were tons of birds everywhere I looked. I saw a flock of Sandhill Cranes, many types of duck, a Blue Heron, what I believe was a White Egret, quite a few Bald Eagles and other unidentified hawk-like birds. It was incredible. The whole park felt like a paradise, or what my idea of paradise is anyway.


Beaver Dam


On the way back I stopped at the birthplace of Laura Ingalls Wilder who wrote the Little house books.



And that's it. I'm thinking for my next trip I should do a tour of the covered bridges of Madison County. Sounds like fun.

Happy Easter

It was Easter Supper at my sister Amy's house. And of course we had to bring Little T along...

She stayed in her little doggy purse 'cause she felt safer in there and likewise we felt the carpets were safer with her in there.

I baked a cake for the occasion.

Unfortunately it tipped over in the car and slid a bit but it still looked pretty good. This is my first successful attempt at baking a cake. (I think I may have tried once or twice many years ago when I hated baking and consequently sucked at it.) It's dark chocolate devil's food with chocolate butter cream frosting. I think it's safe to say it was a hit with everyone. Yay. Building up my baking confidence with each little triumph.

My sister Amy and Grandma Bernie share a moment.


For this next one what can I say, 3 generations worth of beautiful women! :)

... And possibly 4 generations (my sister is pregnant and although everyone seems to think it will be a boy, I think it's a girl.)

Well that's all for now. I hope everyone had a safe and happy Easter weekend.

Hiya!

I had an interview for the Hennepin County Library system today. Fingers crossed.
And in other news, still loving the new sassy 'do :)

A Little Catching Up

Hi there. Right now I'm sitting cross-legged on my bed drinking grape soda and listening to The Beatles, I sorta feel like a teenager again. Sorta. I have a few more lines on my face these days but at least I'm acne-free. Phew! I've been slacking on the blogging lately so I thought this was a good time to sit down, relax with some good tunes, and catch up with you folks out in cyber-land. Little T is sound asleep, wheezing and snoring on her bed next to me. Be grateful you can't hear it.

Over the winter I wasn't all that into photography so I didn't take many pics, relatively speaking. But I was still into nature walks and at the Eastman Nature Center I became interested in birds. I started watching them outside the window because I was bored one day. They have signs up depicting the species found in each season and soon I was familiar with and easily able to identify the "winter" birds from the sign and even some that weren't on the sign. On one trip to the nature center I met a retired gentleman from Wisconsin. He's an avid birder and he taught me a lot. We were sitting there quietly enjoying the birds when I spotted one in the distance that didn't look like or act like the others. I pointed it out to him and he took a picture with his awesome zoom lens and determined it was a varied thrush. According to him this is a fantastic and pretty rare sighting for the time and place. Most people might find it boring, but I thought it was pretty exciting and so did he. I started journaling about my bird and wildlife sightings (with pen and paper). I don't have many photos to share because my camera is a cheap model and very limited when it comes to zooming and motion shots, so most of the time I didn't even bring it with me. But I had a lot of cool sightings, I'll list a few: deer, coyotes, barred owl, wild turkeys, bald eagles, ring neck pheasants, many species of birds including trumpeter swans recently.

I found another new hobby during my long winter hibernation - baking. I found that I'm actually pretty good at it. I was always terrible at baking in the past because I never really learned how and didn't much like it. But this winter I taught myself and now I love it. In fact I'm having a bake sale in the yard next week. The weather is supposed to be great and it should be fun.

I learned that my little sister is expecting her first child in September!
** Spoiler Alert** She wants a little boy and everyone thinks it's going to be a boy, but I know it will be a little girl :) and I've been crocheting a blanket and pillow for her. (Hopefully my sister is like everyone else and doesn't read my blog, otherwise she'll know exactly what my baby shower gift is.)

Let's see, what else is new? Oh, I changed my hair the other day. I took a scissors to my ponytail on a whim and now it's really short (boy-length), black, and spiky. It's the shortest my hair has ever been and I know the style isn't "me" at all, but I'd like to think that I am always changing, evolving... (read "I'm impulsive and get bored easily").

BEFORE:


AFTER:




wth?? Hey! Who posted that pic of Bob's Big Boy? I'm so offended! :-p
I noticed the resemblance after I snapped the pic of myself. It is a little uncanny but unplanned.
The faux-hawk was a surprise. The stylist left it longer on top and the hair just sort of went that direction on its own. **Update: I've taken some more length off the top since this photo was taken and it looks better now. When I got home from the hair salon it was even higher than pictured here, I had already cut alot off. I'm not sure what the stylist was thinking??

Alright, let's get to some more photos.

JANUARY:

Elm Creek Nature Reserve

Brrrrrr!



Eastman Nature Center

Great Horned Owl
Lives in captivity at the nature center. No, he's not winking at you, he was born with only one eye.



The following photos were taken at night leaving the shutter open for maximum light and cool effects with the lights of the passing cars on the highway.













FEBRUARY:

I made a sled for Tee-Tee out of a plastic Sterilite storage bin. I pulled her behind me a couple of times before the snow melted, around the yard and on trails at the Elm Creek Nature Preserve.


Tuckered out from sledding.

Sadly, that was pretty much the extent of my outdoor activities in February.

MARCH:

Tee and I took some walks on and around our land. We found an interesting animal track.



Once again Teepa was wiped from the strenuous activity. Hey, it's tough being a senior citizen! :P


Okay, I think we're all caught up. I doubt I'll be blogging much this summer. I do have a trip planned to the north shore this summer though and I'll be sure to bring my camera!