Thursday, February 28, 2013

Exploring

Hi All,

Today we visited Avery Island and Spanish Lake, looking for birds and Tabasco sauce!

Avery Island is the home of the Jungle Gardens 

Camellias in bloom


More camellias 

Pagoda housing the 900 year old Budda

Statue looted from a Chinese temple, sent to New York for sale then purchased and given to Edward Avery McIlhenny as a gift.

Edmund McIlhenny invented Tabasco Sauce in 1865.

They now fill up to 700,000 bottles a day, all here on Avery Island

Spanish Lake offered hundreds of cormorants and a beautiful sunset.

Tomorrow we drive to Florida on the worst stretch of interstate highway on the country (I-10 in Louisiana).

Love,

Sandy & Carl 
Living & Traveling in our Motorhome
Volunteering across America
617-435-8502

Photographed and sent from Carl's iPhone
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Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Lafayette Louisiana

Hi All,

We began the day in the Police Station getting fingerprinted. No, we didn't get arrested, we needed the prints for our Park Service background check. After 7,000 hours of volunteering they decided to check on us;-).

In the afternoon we visited Atchafalaya National Wildlife Refuge. Lots of nice birds as we walked a couple of short trails.

Next we went to Lake Martin, described as the second largest wading bird rookery in the country. We saw hundreds of nesting great egrets as well as little blue heron, roseate spoonbill, black crowned night-heron and hundreds of white ibis that flew too deep into the swamp to be seen on the nests.

In addition to the birds, we were treated to a fabulous sunset.

This is a view over the swampy end of the lake.


Little blue heron

Black crowned night heron

Nesting pair of great egrets. No, it's not a forest fire but the sunset

Here's a better view of the sunset
One more day before we drive to Florida.

Love,

Sandy & Carl 
Living & Traveling in our Motorhome
Volunteering across America
617-435-8502

Photographed and sent from Carl's iPhone
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Friday, February 22, 2013

Davis Mountain State Park

Hi All,

Our next stop as we head east is this beautiful state park in west Texas

A pull through site with a great view


We hiked up this trail, above and around this rock outcrop.

The CCC built this lodge in the 30's. It's still used as a motel and restaurant.

Tomorrow we continue towards Florida.

Love,

Sandy & Carl 
Living & Traveling in our Motorhome
Volunteering across America
617-435-8502

Photographed and sent from Carl's iPhone
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Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Carlsbad Caverns

Hi All,

We were last here in 1977! It's amazing how little we remembered. This time we went on a ranger led tour of the King's Palace then toured the Big Room on our own. We spent over three hours more than 750 feet below the surface.

This view across the Papoose Room give a look at several different speleothems (cave formations).


These columns are incredible

As is this drapery formation

In the Queens Room, Ranger Kenny told us about the discovery of the room. Then he shut the lights out. It is amazing to see the same thing with your eyes open or closed
.
The formations in the Queens Room are awesome.
The Big Room is 114 football fields big; too big for any photograph to convey the immense size. All along the walks are these beautiful formations

And these.

This formation is called the Chinese Temple.

It was a great tour them we drove the coach 165 miles south to Davis Mountain State Park in TX.

Love,

Sandy & Carl 
Living & Traveling in our Motorhome
Volunteering across America
617-435-8502

Photographed and sent from Carl's iPhone
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Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Opportunities Lost

Hi All,

Today was planned as a direct drive to Carlsbad, NM hoping to arrive in time for the last cavern tour at 3:30.

Because of this time constraint, we drove past several interesting sites we might have otherwise stopped at:

Capitan, NM- burial site of Smokey Bear

Lincoln County- Billy the Kid sites

Roswell, NM- site of the famous UFO crash in July 1947 as well as friends we met at the Cradle of Forestry.

Still moving east towards Garrett & Wyatt.

Sandy & Carl 
Living & Traveling in our Motorhome
Volunteering across America
617-435-8502
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Monday, February 18, 2013

Very Large Array

Hi All,

After a morning hiking and birding on the refuge we headed west to one of the biggest radio telescopes on earth. 


The VLA consists of 27 antennas, each 82 feet in diameter.
These antennas can be moved on tracks in a "Y" shaped configuration. Each leg is about 20 miles long.


The VLA is located here because it is FLAT, HIGH (7,000 ft) and far from the radio noise of cities.

With last year's processing and receiver upgrade, the Enhanced VLA has the resolution of the best earth based optical telescope.

The new signal correlator is so fast that it could process the previous 30 years of VLA data in 100 seconds!

Geeky but fascinating.

Love,

Sandy & Carl 
Living & Traveling in our Motorhome
Volunteering across America
617-435-8502

Photographed and sent from Carl's iPhone
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Bosque de L'Apache

Hi All,

In previous visits, Bosque offered 50,000+ snow geese and 5,000+ Sandhill cranes. These birds usually stay until mid- February. There are still tens of thousands of snow geese but in the last two weeks the crane population shrank from 6,000 to 1,000 to 100.

We took an interesting volunteer led van tour and learned how they manage the water levels throughout the refuge.

A few hundred snow geese and a few Ross's geese


Wonderful contrast between the bare cottonwoods and clear blue sky

A few cranes flew in around sunset

But there weren't more than a dozen on this pond.

Love,

Sandy & Carl 
Living & Traveling in our Motorhome
Volunteering across America
617-435-8502

Photographed and sent from Carl's iPhone
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