Zooming – September 2024

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Lots of photography done since my last Zooming post. There was travel to Arkansas and Texas…and then the classes (Missouri Master Naturalist and Identifying Woody Plants at a local university). I’ve used all three of my cameras this month: Canon Powershot SX70 HS (bridge), Canon Powershot SX730 HS (point and shot) and iPhone 15 Pro Max.

September has been a busy month, and I am still trying to settle into the higher level of activity away from home! Enjoy the slide show for September 2024….

Botanical Garden of the Ozarks

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If I lived in Fayetteville, Arkansas, the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks would be one of my favorite places. Our membership at the Springfield Botanical Gardens got us in as reciprocal members.

Even before we went into the gardens, I saw several swallowtails on the plantings at the edge of the parking lot.

There was also a water feature near the entrance with water lilies.

I spotted a grasshopper that stayed still long enough for a portrait.

We heard the garden’s rooster crowing as we walked into the first garden area - a vegetable garden with a corn shaped fountain and red okra. I had never seen any okra that color previously. It is evidently edible like regular okra but also a colorful plant for the garden. The gardener that was working that morning told me it was her backup plant for things that did not fare as well in the high heat over this summer…and it looked great.

There was a children’s garden with one adult sized entrance and several child size ones with tile mosaic arches.

Just outside the children’s garden here was a train of couches for reading.

And then we came to the screened in butterfly house! Lots of opportunities for butterfly photography!

Continuing through the garden…I noticed some structures. My favorite was a pair of porch swings that were mostly in the shade; we sat for a bit, enjoying the swing, appreciating the little break before we made our way back to the entrance of the garden.

Buckyball and Compton Gardens

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We visited the Buckyball at The Momentary on our only evening in Bentonville. There were not many people around; we enjoyed reclining on the wooden seats and taking pictures/videos….until we realized how many mosquitoes there were!

It was a Sunday evening, so the eating places were closed…we walked around the nearby garden area. The lights were still on the sculptures. If I return the area, I’ll plan to be there on an evening when businesses are open!

The next morning we walked in Compton Gardens. A few weeks previously when my daughter was there, she had seen lots of butterflies and goldfinches. We didn’t see any goldfinches but there were a few skippers (one was a tawny edged skipper) and a great spangled fritillary butterfly around.

The gardens had been damaged by a tornado recently and some trails were still closed. Some critical cleanups had been done. I took a picture of a recently cut stump and counted the rings in the image. The tree was more than 70 years old!

Terra Studios

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We spent a couple of hours at Terra Studios (southeast of Fayetteville, AR and a part of the our road trip that included Crystal Bridges last week). The art displays are outdoors. There were not many people there on the afternoon we visited – surprising since it was a holiday weekend and there is a lot to enjoy here in the woodlands and more open area around the pond. It’s free; donations encouraged. There were a lot of mosaics of tiles and glass – on walls and picnic tables. Some of the ones on picnic tables (i.e. horizonal surfaces) were damaged but the vertical ones were in good shape.

One of the picnic areas had a collection of playhouses!

There were lots of clay figures – in the forest…on the lawn. Some of them were old enough that they had lichen growing on them or were sinking into their environment! I particularly liked the figures riding turtles on a rail in the pond!

There were murals along the path into the forest. The materials must be durable enough to last outdoors for years.

The simple fountain, that incorporated stained class into part of its cover, was in a very shady area – maybe the coolest place during our walk!

We entered the maze – my daughter and I following my husband who opted to ‘take the left-hand turn’ strategy….and it worked!

Back in the gift shop/snack bar – I bought 2 pair of earrings made my artists associated with Terra Studios and my daughter bought a glass Bluebird of Happiness – first created by Leo Ward at Terra Studios in 1982.

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (2)

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There is also a lot to see in the outdoor area of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas.  There were some parts that were closed because of recent storm damage (downed trees…at least one piece of art: R. Buckminster Fuller’s Fly’s Eye Dome).

The first sculpture we saw was near the entrance – a silver tree.

Some areas are relatively wild: horse nettles, thistles, shelf-fungus, mallows and grasses.

I was thrilled to photograph a butterfly since I’ve seen so few larger ones this year.

The design on the upper level of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Bachman-Wilson House was attractive. We got tickets (free) when we first got to the museum, and entered the house less than 2 hours after our arrival (enough time to do a broad look at the art on display inside the museum). Pictures are not allowed on the inside of the house. I liked the main living room but felt the rest of the house was claustrophobic (low ceilings and narrow hallways).

There were two installations of Chihuly glass.

There was a giant spider sculpture. It was a good place to take a little rest.

There were several animal sculptures along the trails. I photographed a bear with a fish, a smiling pig, and arabbit with an itching ear.

Water features are near most of the trails. I appreciated the structures in one of the streams to ‘slow the flow.’

There was a turn out from one trail to view quartz crystals in boulders that often contain imprints organisms from long ago in parts that are not crystals.

We probably spent at least as much time outdoors at Crystal Bridges as we did inside! It would be interesting to go again in a different season…maybe next spring.

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (1)

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There is a lot to see at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. My daughter had visited previously and had suggested it as a great start to our ‘end of summer’ road trip. The art is from various time periods often with links to American history: “We the People” with shoe strings, some favorite artists (Audubon, Chihuly, O’Keeffe, Norman Rockwell’s Rosie the Riveter), a dandelion made in metal originally made for a hotel, the red tinted lens looking out to a water feature, a river in silver on an otherwise blank wall…so much to see…these were just a few of my favorites.

One of the most thought-provoking pieces was a picture of the border wall….as a scar on the landscape. This stretch was a natural area not so long ago.

There were quite a few pieces from Yayoi Kusama (Japanese artist). The infinity room is a dark mirrored space where two people enter at a time (controlled at the door where there is almost always a short line) filled with polka dot orbs lit from within. The minder allows each couple 2 minutes in the space.

Outside there are flower sculptures with polka dots done by the same artist.

There is also a water feature that is partially covered with mirrored orbs made by Kusama …mostly in one group but some seemed to have escaped into the nearby reeds.

More tomorrow about the gardens and art outside the buildings.

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 31, 2024

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The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

A 13,600-year-old mastodon skull is unearthed in an Iowa creek - Researchers will now scrutinize the bones to look for “any evidence of human activity, such as cut marks.”

Wildlife Photographer Captures Intimate Photos of Alaska’s Grizzly Bears – The bears of Lake Clark National Park. Wildlife photographers from around the world started coming to the Kenai Peninsula in Lake Clark National Park around 15 years ago, but they can’t get up close to the bears without a trained guide close by.

Solar Energy Revolution Brewing In Arkansas, With An Assist From GM - As of Q1 2024, Arkansas ranked #27 on the state-by-state rankings of installed solar capacity tracked by the Solar Energy Industries Association. One area that has seen some healthy activity is rooftop solar and other small-scale projects. According to the figures kept by SEIA, a single utility-scale solar project in Chicot County accounted for an outsized share of the 1,122 megawatts of installed capacity (140 megawatts). Last week GM announced that it has entered a PPA for electricity from the largest ever solar energy project in Arkansas so far, the Newport Solar project. Located in the town of Newport, the 180-megawatt project comes under the umbrella of the firm NorthStar Clean Energy, a branch of CMS Energy.

Say 'aah' and get a diagnosis on the spot: is this the future of health? - Analyzing the color of the human tongue. The proposed imaging system can diagnose diabetes, stroke, anemia, asthma, liver and gallbladder conditions, COVID-19, and a range of vascular and gastrointestinal issues.

The weird way the Los Angeles basin alters earthquakes - The enormous five-mile-deep (8km), sediment-filled basin that LA is built upon plays a surprising role in the effects felt above ground. Imagine the Los Angeles basin as a giant bowl of jelly – the dense rocky mountains and underlying rock make up the bowl, while the sediment fill is represented by the gelatinous mixture. If you shake the bottom [of the bowl] a little bit, the top flops back and forth quite a bit. And atop this quivering mass of jelly is the megacity of Los Angeles. Other cities built on basins: Seattle, Portland, Salt Lake City, Mexico City, and Tehran.

Rethinking the dodo - The Dodo was the first living thing that was recorded as being present and then disappeared. Researchers went through all the literature on the Dodo encompassing hundreds of accounts dating back to 1598 and visited specimens around the UK, including the world's only surviving soft tissue from the Dodo, in the Oxford Museum. They confirm that the bird was a member of the columbid (pigeon and dove) family. Contrary to previous assumptions about its demise, it was almost certainly a very active and fast animal.

Elite Woman’s Grave Found in an Abandoned Fortress in Mongolia - The fortress of Khar Nuur was part of a system of walls and fortresses that spanned nearly 2,500 miles. Radiocarbon dating of the burial indicates that it dates to between A.D. 1158 and 1214, after the fortress had been abandoned, and likely between the fall of the Khitan or Liao Empire in A.D. 1125 and the rise of the Mongolian Empire in A.D. 1206. The researchers explained that the burial is one of only 25 graves dated to this period that have been found in Mongolia. The woman was between the ages of 40 and 60 at the time of death, and she was dressed in a yellow silk robe and headdress made of materials likely imported from China. Her coffin, made of non-local wood, also contained gold earrings, a silver cup, a bronze vessel, a gold bracelet, and coral and glass beads.

The banana apocalypse is near, but biologists might have found a key to their survival - Today, the most popular type of commercially available banana is the Cavendish variety, which was bred as a disease-resistant response to the Gros Michel banana extinction in the 1950s from Fusarium wilt of banana (FWB). For about 40 years, the Cavendish banana thrived across the globe in the vast monocultured plantations that supply the majority of the world's commercial banana crop. In the 1990s, a new strain of the Fusarium fungus started causing problems….and the research race was on to save bananas.

Florida is building the world's largest environmental restoration project - In February 2023, a large digger broke ground on a multi-billion-dollar project that has been decades in the making: building a reservoir the size of Manhattan Island. The reservoir, which is part of an historic restoration of the Everglades ecosystem, is intended to help bring a secure, long-term supply of clean drinking water to Florida's residents. The whole project is due to be completed in 2029.

Streetlights Helping Trees Defend Against Insects - Streetlights left on all night cause leaves to become so tough that insects cannot eat them, threatening the food chain. Decreased herbivory can lead to trophic cascading effects in ecology. Lower levels of herbivory imply lower abundances of herbivorous insects, which could in turn result in lower abundances of predatory insects, insect-eating birds, and so on.

Quigley Castle

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We stopped by Quigley Castle on our way from Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge to Eureka Springs….and enjoyed it more than we anticipated! We were greeted by a granddaughter of the builders of the place and several very comfortable cats. The garden is full of plants and yard art made by Elise Fiovanti Quigley: bottle trees and aggregates of stones and other small objects on many different forms. She evidently started her collecting as a child and her husband moved the rock collection with them when they came to the farm that was near the lumber mill where he worked…and he helped her continue to collect too.

The house was built from lumber cut from their own property to Elise’s specification in the mid-1940s which includes 4 feet of soil between the edges of the living space and the walls making it possible to grow tropical plants that grow 2 stories high; the house has 28 windows. She worked for 3 years to cover the outside of the house with a collection of fossils, crystals, arrowheads, and stones; her work has proved to be very durable – the exterior of the house not requiring any significant maintenance.  She had parakeets that were free to roam through the plants (and her grandchildren have continued the tradition)!  Inside the house there are more aggregate covered surfaces...some with shells rather than rocks…and an insect collection in large jars and cover one wall in a bedroom. The moths had lost most of their color but some of the butterflies still look relatively fresh. There are original household items in the house too; the house has been continuously lived in since it was built. The granddaughter that handles most of the tours at the house lives there now (her rooms closed off from the places we walked through in the house).

Quigley Castle was a good finale to our Eureka Springs trip…and I’ll probably stop there again when I am in Eureka Springs.

Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge

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On our first day in Eureka Springs, we enjoyed the Eureka Springs & Northern Arkansas excursion train and the Blue Spring Heritage Center. We had dinner at a local café (Sparks Roadhouse) and were at the hotel (Quality Inn Eureka Springs South) before the thunderstorms started. The hotel was different than I expected – more Victorian and with gardens. I took a few pictures as we packed up the car after breakfast.

My daughter had give us a Pride Membership to Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge for Christmas and my husband made reservations for our morning tour (one of the benefits of the membership). Before the tour we walked around some of the enclosures. Taking pictures is challenging – requiring focusing on the cat rather than the cage; it’s possible to make the cage (almost) disappear!

In one enclosure there were two cats that were in motion. A staff member did a training session with one of them; using hand motions and sound to prompt the cat to move in certain ways…rewarding with a morsel of food (looked like chicken). This activity makes it easier to assess the animal’s health in the least traumatic way so is something they try with all the animals.

The tour is done on a tram with several parts; we were impressed that the sound system was very good and enjoyed the commentary about each cat.

Servals are not that much bigger than house cats…but they are evidently much more aggressive and spray frequently…they make awful pets. Evidently quite a few people have tried it and most of the rescues are from those failed attempts. They also have a serval – domestic cat cross; it is a bit smaller and looks more like a domestic cat…but has the behavior of a serval!

The enclosures have 3 areas – an enclosed ‘den,’ a night cage that includes the den and some area around it, and the larger enclosure. Most enclosures have two night cages to enable the refuge to house two cats in each (only one cat out in the larger enclosure at a time) to provide backup capacity for emergency rescues. When we were there, the cats (and the grizzly bear) were out in the larger enclosure…enjoying the morning sun.

The refuge offers several forms of lodging and we are considering going back in the fall for that adventure. The cats vocalize more at dawn and dusk!

Blue Spring Heritage Center

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According to its website, Blue Spring Heritage Center has been a tourist attraction since 1948 with the blue spring and surrounding gardens. In 1993, 33 acres became the Eureka Springs Gardens and then in 2003 the history of the area was incorporated into the attraction becoming the Blue Springs Heritage Center.

It is a bit pricey ($17.75 for adults, $15.75 for seniors) but it was worthwhile to do at least once. We all appreciated that the afternoon we were there was in the 70s rather than hotter. As we made our way down to the spring, we heard and then saw periodic cicadas! My daughter and I had heard them on our drive back from Hot Springs a week earlier…and were glad to see them on this trip.

Blue Spring is blue! It emerges underneath a circular enclosure wall and overflows to flow down to the White River. I wondered if the algae in the water means that nutrients from modern farming methods have penetrated to the rock layers that are the source for the spring (i.e. that the nutrients in the water are much higher now than previously).

Some native flowers were blooming and

The rock bluff that included an overhang that was a shelter for prehistoric people offered points of interest for the gentle walk. The area was a stop for the Cherokee along the trail of tears.

But the biggest drama of our visit was reptilian: a lizard shedding its skin and a black rat snake (the snake crossed the path at a leisurely slither right in front of us….but I was too startled to take a picture)!

Eureka Springs & Northern Arkansas Railway

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My husband, daughter, and I took a two-day trip to Eureka Springs, Arkansas just before Memorial Day. It’s less than a 2-hour drive from our home in Missouri. The nav system took us on a scenic route…curvy 2 lane highway all the way, with frequent road cuts that were generally well back from the shoulder (I wondered if students on geology field trips use them to see the underlying rock of the area), and over a narrow part of Table Rock Lake.

We arrived a little early and drove through the town. I remembered the main street from more than 50 years ago; the streets that turn off are very steep and narrow up the side of the valley. The place is a driving adventure! We parked in the Eureka Springs & Northern Arkansas Railway just after the terminal opened; we had reservations for the morning excursion train. It was a cloudy morning and had rained recently; the first photographic opportunity of the morning turned out to be butterflies in the gravel parking lot! The mourning cloak on the curb was not moving but all the others took some patience to photograph.

There was collection of old rail cars and engines. I was interested in a tractor that must have been quite a change on farms where horses or oxen had previously done the heavy pulling.

The car and engine that took us on our excursion was waiting for us. They had a ramp mechanism that enabled wheelchair access to the car, but we could also get into the car using stairs.

The train follows a stream, and I managed a few pictures while we were in motion. I saw a pawpaw tree with fruit beginning to grow (but didn’t get a picture); pawpaw is the food plant of the zebra swallowtail butterfly (like I photographed in the parking lot for the train).

The route is only 4.5 miles up and back (and takes about an hour). At the halfway point, we got out and I took some track and vegetation pictures.

The conductor gave us a tutorial about putting pennies on the track as an optional activity for this excursion. My daughter had told us ahead of time (she had done the excursion last fall) so we came prepared. I gave a penny to a man that didn’t have any change with him. We all stood away from the tracks and the train rolled over our pennies – waiting to retrieve our pennies from the track until the conductor got the word from the engineer that it was safe to do so.

Below is a picture of a penny and a train-flattened penny. I am thinking about putting some earring posts on two of the flattened pennies….wearing them as earrings!

It sprinkled a little while we were on the train but had cleared by the time we returned to the station. The train was an excellent start to our Eureka Springs adventure.

Garvan Woodland Gardens (2)

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Our second afternoon at Garvan Woodland Gardens was after we hiked to the Hot Springs Mountain Tower. Our lunch had helped us recover somewhat, but I still took more bench breaks in the gardens! The model trains were running; the tracks were wet and the trains stored during our previous visit.

I took a few more pictures along the way to the Treehouse…we had only seen the outside on our Golf Cart Tour and seeing the inside and the area around the structure was our priority for our ‘on foot’ experience of the garden.

The view from inside the treehouse is full of vegetation and structures – I loved the tree patio and the high bridge. Both my daughter and I tried the pinecone seat; it was reasonably comfortable. It could move from side to side and I wondered if there could be a home version if it that could be used like I use my Swopper chair at my computer table.

There are nooks and crannies in the rocks and vegetation around the treehouse. There was a path lined with young trees and boulders, an Ebony Jewelwing on a fern, quartz veins in rocks, and sculpture…a cave…so many things to hold the interest of children (and adults).

I took a few more pictures of fairy houses as we walked past.

It was the perfect time of year to see mayapples forming under their leaf umbrella.

At one of the paved path intersections there was a cluster of flowers in the pavement.

The Japanese Garden on foot is quite different than staying on the paved areas as the Golf Cart does. We went down stone steps and meandered over stones to cross some water features – saw a Ouachita Map Turtle, a bamboo fence (we learned the previous days that the fences are made from bamboo from the gardens!), and another perspective of the Full Moon bridge.

The oak leave hydrangea and Asian hydrangeas were blooming profusely.

I used my phone for some macro views of the Asian hydrangea flowers.

As we headed back to our car we stopped at the Anthony Chapel….another of the wonderful architectural features of the garden.

I am already thinking about going again to Garvan - earlier in the spring when they have a lot of tulips or in the fall when the leaves will be flying….or maybe in late November or December to see their holiday lights.

Garvan Woodland Gardens (1)

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I’d heard about Garvan Woodland Gardens from one of my neighbors – decided that it was a place to see along with Hot Springs National Park. Out membership in Friends of the Springfield Botanical Gardens provided us with free admission so we visited on both days we were in Hot Springs.

On the first day, we arrived after lunch and noticed the carillon as we walked from the parking lot to the welcome center.

It had rained earlier in the day and the humidity was very high. We opted to take the Golf Cart Tour (which cost us $20 each) – which turned out to be a great way to orient ourselves to the place. Our driver/guide was very informative about the history, maintenance, and highlights of the gardens. Our visit between spring and summer flowers so there were not a lot of blooms…but the trees and the ambiance of the place made the visit worthwhile. I took a few pictures along the tour: pools of water on rocks, a stone bridge, a few flowers, the slope down to the lake, butterfly weed, ferns with horsetails, fairy houses, and the shape of an eye in stone.

Tomorrow’s post will be about our second visit to Garvan Gardens when we revisited our favorite places.

Hike to the Hot Springs Mountain Tower

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The morning was cool – a good time to start an uphill hike. My daughter and I had a hearty breakfast at the hotel and headed toward the visitor center at Hot Springs National Park, following the signs to the parking garage near the visitor center (the Fordyce Bathhouse). We walked uphill to the back of the bathhouses and along the Grand Promenade seeing steam coming from some open hot springs.

I had loaded the NPS app on my phone and was looking for the Peak Trail what would take us to the Hot Springs Mountain Tower. We missed the trail’s connection to the Grand Promenade (signage was not good) but headed uphill and eventually connected with it.

There were quite a few burned trees along the way. Some looked like they had burned from within…others simply scorched on the outside. I read that the park service does controlled burns on the mountain to reduce the risk of wildfire. Were the ones that looked like they were burned from the inside caused my lightning?

The tower is at the top of the mountain. We took the elevator up (they don’t use the stairs except for emergencies) and walked around the two levels seeing how parts of the town emerge from trees, while much of the area continues to be forest (or at least appears to be forest). There was smoke from two fires in the distance….hopefully controlled burns.

On the way down I took time to notice more than the burned trees – lichen and moss decorated with pine needles and a branch ripped from a tree during a storm.  The lichen and moss reflect the aspect of the forest that develops over time…the branch an example of a change that can happen very quickly.

I appreciated the downhill hike back to Bathhouse Row…and was glad our next activity would be lunch! The hike resulted in my Garmin detecting about 100 intensity minutes.

Hot Springs National Park – Bathhouse Row

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My daughter and I headed to Hot Springs, Arkansas after visiting my dad in Dallas. It was a 2-day vacation in celebration of Mother’s Day. There are lots of things to do in the area; we chose to focus on two: the national park and Garvan Woodland Gardens. This is the first blog post about our trip.

There are eight bathhouses that are the historic core of Hot Springs National Park. Only one (the Buckstaff) still functions as a traditional bathhouse. The Fordyce functions as the park’s visitor center. It has many restored features – stained glass skylights, tile floors, a gym, elaborate baths. The changing cubicles seemed very small; there must have been fewer obese people when they were designed!

The Quapaw has been renovated as a modern spa.

We had lunch at the Superior – which is now a brewery. I enjoyed their root beer that is made with water from the springs and sweetened with honey.

My daughter and I spent the most time at the Buckstaff – enjoyed the Traditional Bathing Package: whirlpool tub, sitz bath, vapor cabinet, hot packs, and full body massage. The bathtubs and equipment are original to when the bathhouse opened in 1912! It’s a great way to experience history. One of the learning experiences: how to wear a sheet to be securely and completely covered.

Across the street there is a row of shops – appealing to tourists. I noticed the top of one of them looked like it might be painted tin (I learned to look for it in old buildings when I was in London, Ontario in 2022). There are also murals painted on the sides of buildings.

There are magnolias that line the street in front of the bathhouses. They were beginning to bloom.

There were mushrooms coming up near one of them and I couldn’t resist some macro pictures of the magnolia bark and the view into the top of one of the trees.

Tomorrow’s post will be about our hike from bathhouse row to the Hot Springs Mountain Tower.

Vacation to Pensacola, FL

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Our trip from home (Nixa, MO) to Pensacola, FL in April was our most substantial post-pandemic vacation…three days in a place we had not visited before bracketed by long driving days. We thought we were used to long drives because of all the trips between Maryland and Missouri last spring associated with our move, but the non-Interstate roads and long rural expanses going to Pensacola made it a harder drive. The only rest stops were welcome centers when we crossed state lines; we made stops at fast food places and gas stations but sometimes they were further apart than we prefer.

It was scenic…with roadcuts and forests, rivers and fields. In Arkansas there seemed to be a lot of farmers plowing…kicking up dust; I’d seen so many no-till fields in recent years that the plowing struck me as a retro strategy (and one that obviously depleted topsoil). In Mississippi, we noticed a community with blue roofs; as we got closer, we realized the blue was from tarps and there were big stacks of fallen trees nearby; a police car monitored the comings and goings from the community. By the time we got to Alabama we were tired…glad we were getting close to our destination.

Our previous visits to Florida had been primarily to the Atlantic coast and Orlando. Pensacola had a deep South vibe. The military presence (current and historical) also influenced our perception of the area. We wanted to see the Gulf Islands National Seashore and several other natural areas – for birds and plants. We stayed at a hotel with a small kitchen…took advantage of the breakfast they provided and snacked in our room in the evening after having a substantial lunch while we were out and about during the day. There was a magnolia blooming near our room.

Overall – the trip was OK but not spectacular. We learned about ourselves as much as about the area:

  • A google maps time of 11.5-12 hours is too much for us to do in a day – particularly if the route is not mostly Interstates.

  • Spring is a great time for road trips….fall will be too. Summer is often too hot and winter weather can be problematic.

  • Birding festivals give us the discipline to get up and out early…into places that are harder to find on our own in an unfamiliar area of the country. We’ll register for a festival to structure our next trip.

I’ll be posting about our Pensacola vacation in the upcoming days….stay tuned.

Coming Home from Texas

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The morning I left Texas, I was up early to treat my bug bites and the sensitive skin left from my round of hives. The bites were my main concern…lots of calamine lotion on them to stave off itching. I did the last bit of loading into the car; my parents woke up a little early to see me off. It was dark when I set out. There was about an hour when the sun was in my eyes after the sun came up, but the weather was crisp and clear - great for driving.

I stopped at a Pilot for a rest stop in Texas (and to get my morning caffeine). The upper part of the wall was decorated with ‘Texas tourist art’.

The part of my route in Arkansas was easy…just a little construction around the cities but didn’t slow me down.

The last rest stop in Arkansas had a tree with a fresh wound…a big branch must have come off recently. .

I crossed the Mississippi into Tennessee at Memphis heading toward Nashville. The drive was easy enough that I talked with my daughter on the phone (through my car) - noticing areas of recently downed trees along the highway and a kettle of birds (I think they were pelicans…certainly were not vultures…at 70 mph I didn’t take my eyes off the road for better identification).

I turned north at Nashville toward Bowling Green, KY which would be my stop for the first night. Overall – I made it to Bowling Green 20 minutes earlier than my car’s projected ETA first thing in the morning! It was a long day of trouble-free driving.

The next morning, I got up even earlier since I was trying to get myself back to east coast time. It was dark when I set out again even though I was on the eastern side of the central time zone. The driving was easy at first. It was a weekday but I managed to miss rush hours in the few cities along the way.

By late morning I was in West Virginia and enjoying the scenery….shortly after a long highway construction/special closure caused a 30 minute delay but the weather was good and the rest stops along the highway were frequent.

After a rest stop that included buying gas as I got close western Maryland – I got a rude surprise: snow and wind. I didn’t stop at the first rest stop in Maryland. It was white knuckle driving by then and continued for about an hour through Garrett and most of Allegany Counties. I was lucky that I68 did not have much traffic and few trucks. Everyone slowed. And we all made it through to Sidling Hill where it was cold but not snowing at all! My car was covered with salt, grit…and melting ice.

The sensor in my windshield gave an error that cleared after I use the wiper fluid/wipers so the adaptive cruise control functioned through it all. By the time I got home I had calmed down a little from the stress from that hour of hard driving. The exhaustion from the two days of driving (or maybe more the last afternoon) set in the next day. I took a long nap!

Road Trip: Maryland to Texas

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I made the drive from where I live in Maryland to Texas in two days (best case about 21 hours of driving)…confirming that I really don’t want to do drive it in 2 days again. There were no accidents either day and I made only quick rest stops that only prolonged the original time my nav system calculated for the day by about 30 minutes each day. I was exhausted (mentally and physically) at the end of each day and beginning to ache every time I got out of the car. I had a painful back my first day in Texas! My solution is to do the trek over 3 days instead of two from now on…and take more time at rest stops to move/stretch. The pandemic strategy of having all the food I need in the car saves time and makes it easier to eat my normal diet…I will probably keep that as part of my road trip strategy.

The first day was from Maryland…through Virginia just west of Shenandoah National Park…and halfway through Tennessee. The first hour was in darkness and through the heaviest construction zone of the entire trek; it’s good to get the challenging part of the drive over with as early as possible! I only saw one sign about masks and very few people were wearing them at the rest stops; I did put a mask on when I was in buildings even though I have gotten the booster vaccine already; the whole purpose of my trip was to visit 90 year old relatives and our family is taking precautions to reduce the risk of them getting a breakthrough infection….and I don’t want to get even a mild case of COVID-19! It was a very cloudy day with a lot of mist and light rain…a few patches of heavier rain. It was weekend and there seemed to be less traffic. The fall foliage was wonderful during the short periods where the weather did not obscure it! There were several rest stops along the way that had roses blooming. I was surprised by the strong exhaust smell as several rest stops; it was a cool day, and perhaps more vehicles were keeping running than usual – or maybe the weather was holding the fumes closer to the ground; I didn’t linger. My car has a range of about 400 miles, so I don’t have to stop for gas very often; usually that is where I anticipate some vehicle smell rather than at the rest stops. The hotel was just west of Nashville. I was glad I had brought my air purifier along since the hotel room smelled of disinfectant when I first went in.

The second day route completed the trek across Tennessee, crossing the Mississippi River on the bridge that was shut down with the discovery of structural issues a few days after I crossed it last spring (evidently repairs were completed), and then across Arkansas. I’m about 200 miles to my destination when I cross into Texas. The weather started out foggy in Tennessee…then sunny in Arkansas and Texas. The temperature started out at 50 and climbed to 80. The drivers seemed to get more aggressive as the day progressed – and the speed limits were higher with more traffic! Fortunately, there were no accidents along the route to slow me down (as there had been in the spring). I learned more about the solar panels around one of the rest stops in Tennessee since there was a person at the desk (they feed the grid and the university that installed them gets the credit!). I appreciated a rest stop in Arkansas that is closed but has port-o-potties; it was perfectly placed for when I needed a stop and, of course, I had hand sanitizer in the car. The trees were still green on the second day….fewer trees along the route. The welcome center in Texarkana had its usual neatly trimmed landscaping. There some roses blooming at my last rest stop.

I acquired a TxTag for the toll roads in Texas and Oklahoma to make it a little less expensive and avoid having to stop for tolls in Oklahoma when I head back on a more northern route though Springfield.

Overall – a good trek. I did it in 2 days and made it to my destination when I wanted…but I don’t want to do it that quickly again!

Road Trip from Maryland and Texas

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The road trip from Maryland and Texas was done in two days…stopping in Dickson TN for the night. It was done on a weekend when I thought the traffic would be lighter. It was a pretty drive with redbuds blooming along the highway. Virginia apparently plants them along the interstate. The dogwoods were beginning to bloom as well. I got through Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, and half through Tennessee on the first day. I tried to take pictures at the rest stops which were all open along the route. Virginia seems to have more frequent ones that the other states.

The adaptive cruise control made the driving easy….until I got into Tennessee and there was an accident that closed the highway. Traffic was stopped for over an hour – no way to detour. It made the day longer and more exhausting. I was glad that the daylight lasted until I was at the hotel. I opted to eat food from the ice chest rather than get a takeout or drive through meal.

The second day drive started at sunrise at the Best Western and ended at my Parents house. The route was through the rest of Tennessee (some fog in the morning), then Arkansas (lots of construction around Little Rock and a huge traffic jam when the construction took the Interstate down to a single lane), and Texas. The rest stops were open except in Arkansas where several were closed.

There was another Interstate closing accident when I was only a hour away from my destination but there was a detour around it that my nav system guided me through – so it only added about 30 minutes to my arrival time.

Overall – there are some lessons learned from the road trip that I will apply on the way back:

  • I had rounded up on the food/drinks I had in the car with me and that worked well since stopping for takeout/drive through would have been stressful.

  • I drank a Gatorade on both days because I felt like my hands were going to cramp by the end of the day. I’ll do it again for the trek home.

  • Most people were masked at Interstate rest stops…but not always at the inside part of gas stations (I stopped a Love’s and Shell). On the way home, I’ll prioritize stopping at rest stops to avoid going into facilities at gas stations. Even though I am fully vaccinated – I am not comfortable being around people inside buildings that are not masked.

  • The motel worked well. Checking in was quick – with a person behind a clear barrier in the lobby – and the lobby was otherwise empty. The air conditioning/heating was on an outer wall of the room – not shared. I ran my air purifier for about 30 minutes before I took off my mask but that was probably not necessary. I’ll look for similar accommodation for the trek home.

  • Doing the drive from Maryland to Texas in two days is overwhelming if there are serious accidents that close the Interstate along the route. I arrived exhausted. Next time I make the trek, I’ll consider 3 days and plan some sight seeing along the route if there are not accidents that slow down the drive. My route home from this trip will be up to Springfield for a few days before heading back to Maryland….so a different route and shorter drive days.

Road Trip to Texas – Part 2

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The next morning, we were up and having breakfast shortly after it the service opened at 6 AM. It was a cold start to the day – a frosty morning in Dickson Tennessee. The sun was just coming up through the trees we loaded the car and headed out about 6:30. We’d were already on central time so would not benefit from a time change on this leg of our trek.

The first rest stop was about an hour later. I cheered when the vending machines had my favorite caffeine drink (diet Pepsi). The day was still chilly but not frosty. The rose bushes at the rest stop were full of buds.

Our next stop was the welcome center after we crossed into Arkansas. It was a newer facility with some interesting architecture and posters; my favorite poster was the one of ‘mud bugs.’

We had a long wait on the highway that added more than an hour to our drive; a truck had lost part of its load and a crane had to be brought in to move it off the roadway. When we went by all the traffic was slowly funneled by on a shoulder. We recovered with a barbeque lunch near just before we got to Little Rock.

Then it was on to Texarkana and the welcome center for Texas. It’s a little tricky to exit the highway for the place…it was large with relatively few people around.

The next stop was the old-style Texas rest stop with tile mosaics unique to the place. The surprise of the stop was the historical marker; my sister recognized the name from her genealogy work!

The last stop of the trek was just before we entered the Dallas traffic…wanted to make sure we were in good shape for the final push to our destination.

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