Reflections From the Fence

Friend of Friends Friday:: Randal, Slave of the Seeds Clan of Isle of Wight County Virginia

2012-02-10T19:41:00.004-05:00

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

I have been fussing with this transcription all week. It has been one thing after another, mostly personal errands that kept me away from the computer during the hours of the day that my mind is the most productive. I started with Transcript, finally printed this page, and still had (having) trouble with it. So, I am going to post the image of this page, give you some details and tell you where to find the entire file.

This is a Chancery Case of Isle of Wight County, Virginia. I found the images at the Library of Virginia Digital Collections Virginia Memory collection. The main page for entry into this wealth of genealogical data is here, at the Chancery Records Index.

This 1837 case surrounds the sale of the slave Randal, whose owner had been one William Seeds, deceased. William died unmarried, but was survived by his mother Amelia Seeds, brother Edmond Seeds and three sisters, Mary (wife of Armstrong Turner), Amelia (wife of Jordan Edwards) and Nancy Seeds (considered an infant).

This specific Chancery Case is Index Number 1837-005 at the Library of Virginia web site. It is 7 pages long and stored at this specific URL.

The page I have been trying to transcribe is page 2 of the 7.

This is what I have managed to transcribe, and I make no representation that it is correct. If you see corrections, please feel free to contact me, all assistance gleefully accepted. I have not started transcribing the additional pages, including page 3, which I believe is the rest of this first plea to the court.

To the worshipful the justices of the court of Isle of Wight County in Chancery sitting

Humbly complaining herewith unto your worships, your orators and oratrix Amelia Seeds, Jordan Edwards and Amelia his wife late Amelia Seeds, and Armstrong Turner and Mary his wife late Mary Seeds: That William Seeds late of this county died sometime about the day of without wife or child and intestate, leaving a mother Amelia Seeds, a brother Edmund Seeds, and three sisters Amelia Edwards, wife of your orator Jordan Edwards, Mary Turner, wife of your Orator Armstrong Turner and Nancy Seeds his heirs at law that the said William Seeds deceased was possessed at the time of his death, together with considerable other personal estates, of a negroe slave named Randal, that administration on the estate of the said William Seeds deceased has been duly granted by the worshipful court of this county to the said Edmond Seeds who has ???? himself of that ??? your Orators and Oratrix believes, that this said William Seeds deceased was not at all indebted, at the time of his death, and being desirous of protecting this interest in the said slave Randal to which they are by law entitled, have applied to the said Edmond Seeds, the administrator aforesaid and the said Nancy Seeds for a sale of the said slave for the purpose of a division amongst them. But, now so if it may it please your worships that the said Edmond Seeds adminstrator as aforesaid, and the said Nancy Seeds, herein after called defendants, have under various fortunes refused: the said administrator Alledging, that whilst he is willing to account?? your orators and oratrix in the promises in vilotions to their interests, he first ?? then ??? of the other defendant may interpose an objection at this time,and the said Nancy Seeds says that being an infant so far as she understands things she has no consent to give. All whilst ???? and doings of the said Defendants are contrary to equity and good conscience and ?? greatly

Nancy Seeds was my 3rd great grandmother.

.

This N That, Some of This is IMPORTANT

2012-02-09T09:27:00.000-05:00

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Reflections and Man have been a bit busy this week, running errands and other life stuff. A long walk here and there, and by the end of the day, I seem to have enough energy left to format a few pages of the next book I am working on for the Lenawee County Family Researchers, and not much else. I read blogs and Google+ and Facebook, and always seem to find some great articles, I found several this week that had great hints for me and where I am with technology, or need/want to go with technology.

I note with humble joy that I have added several new followers in the last few weeks, welcome and come back often, thanks for following.

Now, the REALLY important stuff:

Social Security Death Index, major news about that all over the net, blogisphere and GeneaBloggers. Here is a link, seriously, if you have not followed a single link I have ever put here on Reflections and you are a family researcher, then for cripes sake,

CLICK HERE NOW!!

And, for fun for our researchers - - the 1940 census comes to a web site near you April 2nd! Indexing will NOT be available on April 2nd. But, you too can get in on the fun and help index. I have not done any indexing at FamilySearch to date, as I have saved my volunteer energy for the Lenawee County Family Researchers, they have more work for me to do than I will be able to accomplish in my lifetime. However, I will be doing some of this indexing, what an opportunity, expand my learning curve, learn more about technology, help researchers for years to come! What is NOT to like here?? WOOT.

So, click here, and index 1940.

And, now, Man and I are off for a lunch with good RVing friends, laughter, possibly some planning of next winter's winter get aways, and who knows what else - -

THE Trip, Custer South Dakota to Sidney Nebraska

2012-02-07T15:02:00.002-05:00

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

July 9, 2011, it is time to move em out and roll down the road. We leave Custer with many fond memories and a bit of heartbreak as well, as this is when we lost our Miss Tilly. She is forever tied to our memories of Custer.

Our destination for the night is somewhere in Nebraska. As frequently happens, our RVing friends fed us many suggestions on things to see and routes to take. But, it is HOT again, and we decide we just are not up to any boondocking, we want a campground with power. Several of the routes suggested could have ended up with us having to boondock, sorry, not this time. We will add the missed scenery and places to visit to our bucket list. And, we are not up to any sightseeing, unless we can see it from the road and comfort of our air conditioned truck.

As we are driving out of Custer, I spied this pooch, you really have to see him, he is just SOOOOOO cute, go have a lookie see, and then come back - -

Off we go, south on US 385, which will be our route all the way, since we have decided to head for Sidney Nebraska. We will drive about 220 miles. I spy this wonderful water fall along the road, note, way up at the top, a US flag waving.

I also manage to snap off this photo of this double train track bridge, prairie grasses abound.

Welcome to Nebraska:

MOC friend Jan was chatting to me via Facebook and when she knew the route we were on told me to look out for Courthouse and Jail Rocks near Bridgeport, Nebraska. I saw them, but, they were a LONG way off, and the best photo I snapped lacks much. (What a horrible photo, sighhh.) Another bucket list add, deserves a visit and a stop, which we did not do.

One of the reasons we were not stopping was because we were headed to another MOC Rally, Nebraska style. So, we had a bit of a deadline. So, on we trekked. And, then, in the passenger side view mirror, what do I spy, but, a Montana, towed by this dark red truck. I said to Man, "MMM, that could be Bob and Mina." He doubted me until I explained that I knew they were leaving Rapid City that day and were also headed to the Nebraska Rally. Now, my smart phone is smart, but, Carol is not so much. Let me explain, I rarely text, Mina does. LOL She was texting me, to tell me they were behind us, but, since I had the volume turned down to minimum I did not realize it. DUH to Carol.

Eventually, we stopped for lunch, and so did Bob and Mina, we chatted, and compared travel notes. Always fun to visit with MOCers on the road, we ended up stopping at the same campground in Sidney, Cabelas campground. We even spent a hour or so wandering around Cabelas, enjoying ourselves, even more so, as we all left with our wallets intact and undisturbed. Unreal, eh??

We would travel to the Nebraska Rally with Bob and Mina, with a stop in Grand Island Nebraska for a couple of days. Errands and resting will fill a few days before the Rally begins.

* I was rather taken with the way cattle "herd" in this neck of the woods. Let me explain, in our little corner of the world we have a few milk farms (sorry, but these are nasty smelly obnoxious affairs) or free ranging/wandering, but fenced in herds. With milk farms, the herds are all bunched into massive barns. Free ranging herds tend to wander around and the only time I usually see them gathered in huge groups is when they are marching back to the milk barns for the end of the day milking (or resting under the trees in the heat of the day). I saw this "herding" phenomenon quite a few times in Nebraska and Iowa. In the middle of the day, the entire herd gathered tightly together. OK, maybe it is not weird, but, it struck me as such. What do I know?? Tee hee, not much! But, here they are, all "herded" together, with a few stragglers.

And - - Sigh - - For Now, Off With the Threads

2012-02-07T10:55:00.000-05:00

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

NOOOOOOOO, not your clothing, this is a family act, no nudists allowed, however, if you must, keep the shades drawn. Thank you.

OHH, what I mean, is off with the embedded threads. I love em, most you seem to love em, but, WordPress does NOT love em.

If my readers cannot comment without having to sign out of their preferred ID or format, or, if they must use only Chrome when they love IE, then, Reflections is NOT happy. Now, Reflections still prefers Blogger, even with ALL it's issues. And, Reflections LOVES Chrome, I have never had such stall free, trouble free surfing. Firefox was a fail for me, and IE, aka, Bloatware, all I can ~~say~~, err, ask, is why did I wait so long to dump IE??

Nothing stays the same, so, next year I may be disillusioned with Blogger, and IE may be back in the graces of many (ya, that will be the day). In the meantime, I try to make Reflections as fun and entertaining and easy for you, my readers, to comment on as I can.

So, for now, threaded comments are going on a vacation.

Here is a thread at Blogger Help that discusses this in more detail than many of you may care about.

.

THE Trip, Riding Through Wind Cave National Park, Hot Springs, South Dakota

2012-02-06T15:09:00.001-05:00

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

July 8, 2011. We spent part of the day down in the cave at Wind Cave National Park, but, it is time to turn Big Butt towards Custer and our last evening in the Black Hills. First though, we extend our time and visit here just a little bit more by riding around the prairie of the park and enjoying a leisurely ride back to Custer.

Now, Man knows this, and some of you may remember me mentioning it, I have this "thing" for prairie dogs. Poor Man, every time I would find a colony of prairie dogs, I was taking photos, making him stop so I could do so. Now, yes, I know that for ranchers and those that must make their living off the land, prairie dogs are considered a huge bother. Yet, I still cannot help myself, I want more photos of them.

So, I was taking photos of prairie dogs:

And, of pretty weeds:

When I got a bit of a surprise. I was concentrating on getting "the shot", had my head down, macro on, macro off, zoom, zoom some more. And, I looked up and noticed I had a friend (and a couple of riders) sauntering by. Now, I know that some of you will remember my close encounter with the bison at Yellowstone, I was not looking for a repeat of that experience, once WAS enough! This big guy (well, I think it is a guy??) was just walking where ever his little (big) heart desired. Like who is gonna stop him?? Not I! Oh, this is the second time something like this happened, where I was minding my own business, my nose and Sony in the flowers, when a bison walked very near by. These huge animals can be VERY quiet, and sneak up on you.

Back on the road again, the scenery is lovely, easy on the eyes, and for some reason we become enthralled with the clouds.

More poofy white clouds, nice rolling hills, deep green pines contrasting the prairie grasses, I ask, what is NOT to like here?

And much to my delight (not someone else's, eh??) another prairie dog colony, and yes, I got out of the truck in that heat (around 95 degrees) to take more photos of prairie dogs (there just is NO explaining some fascinations, is there?)

This guy is sending off a warning, Carol is here, Carol is here, and she has that stinkin Sony AGAIN! Geeesh, lady, give us a break (Man needs one too). Chatter, chatter, warning all his buddies underground to just stay there so maybe this nutso chick will go away!

OK, I got the hint, how bout a drive down a quiet back road:

As we approach Custer, one last photo of the clouds and the beautiful Black Hills.

When we got back to Tana we hooked up, first, getting stuck, but, of course. I was driving this time, we filled in the holes and I ran Big Butt back hard, through those ruts and stopped in time to not hit Tana. Actually, I got very close to the exact position we need for hooking up, which, made us very happy!

Next, Nebraska. THE Trip is winding down, gonna be a hot finish though - -

.

THE Trip, Wind Cave National Park, Hot Springs, South Dakota

2012-02-05T19:11:00.000-05:00

July 8, 2011. Our last day in the Custer area. It will be hotter than hades, 94 real temps (give or take) and I caught 107 on Big Butt's rear view mirror thermostat after Big Butt had been parked for a while. So, we decide to go visit some caves, where it will be considerably cooler (45 degrees in the caves).

According to the Wind Cave National Park web site, "Wind Cave was discovered by two brothers, Jesse and Tom Bingham. They heard a loud whistling noise, which led them to a small hole in the ground, the cave's only natural opening."

In the museum at the Visitors Center they have an old diary kept by Alvin McDonald. Alvin was one of the first systematic explorers of the cave. I was able to get a fairly decent photo of the diary, and then zoomed in on this tidbit, all my researching friends will surely enjoy this:

Our guide started our visit to the caves at that small hole that was the source of the whistling sound, the sound of discovery. She explained to us how sometimes the wind blows out of this cave and sometimes air gets sucked into the cave. It all has to do with barometric pressure. The day we visited, we could feel the air blowing out of the cave, it was distinctly chilled.

Again, from the Wind Cave National Park's web presence we learn:

"The cave is one of the world's longest and most complex caves... known for its outstanding display of boxwork, an unusual cave formation composed of thin calcite fins resembling honeycombs."

Here are a couple of photos I took of the boxwork, and, no, they do NOT do it justice. Remember, I do not use flash in situations like this, nor do I carry a tripod, so, I capture what Sony can. For the most part, boxwork hangs from the ceiling.

We had to do a bit of ducking:

Another take on the ducking, Man was on the other side:

Going down:

This photo is stunning, look at that huge slab of broken rock. OK, this photo is underwhelming in this interpretation. Those slabs were very long, and guessing, 6 to 12 inches thick. Rather unnerving to look at that split, isn't it?

A pool of water.

Our guide told us, and I cannot remember the exact numbers, that more of this cave has not been explored than has been. What we were allowed to visit is just a very, very small portion of this huge cave system. According to this page on their web site, 100 miles and 3000 chambers have been explored.

As with most caves Man and I have visited, this one was different, fascinating, and ya, cool!

Our visit to Wind Cave National Park would include a picnic lunch at the campground area and a lovely ride. A few more photos, coming soon.

Friend of Friends Friday:: Slaves in Bible Records::Virginia::Nathan Withers

2012-02-03T06:35:00.029-05:00

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

A genie angel shared with me the fact that the data base Virginia, Historical Society Papers, 1607-2007, is online at FamilySearch.Org. (Note: no promises that link will work, as you must sign in to use this data base. So, if it does not work for you, sign in to FamilySearch.Org, browse around to United States data bases, Virginia data bases, and you will find the link to this data base.) This is a browse only data base at this time.

When you get to the data base, there are 71 "boxes" to investigate. Note there is also set of index cards found after Box 71. It is alpha, but, you will still have to be creative with your search in the actual "boxes" if you find something of interest in the index cards. I have not yet figured out if there is a "trick" to the numbers on the index cards that would send you to the correct box right away. If you know the trick, please leave a comment.

So, the other night I was up in the middle of the night, yes and ONLINE too, something I almost never do in the middle of the night, and I was snooping around. In my snooping, I discovered the Nathan Wither's Bible records. See Box 70, pages 136 to 142 (hope I recorded those page numbers correctly in the middle of the night.)

The first page of the record is a collection record report. These pages contain a lot of hints as to what follows.

There are several pages of slave records. I saved the images to my hard drive and transcribed them to the best of my ability with Transcript. No editing other than cropping has been done to the images. My attempt at transcriptions of each page follow the image of that page. The pages are presented in the same order as they were online. I did not necessarily maintain the spacing as in the original record. The first page gave me the most difficulty in transcribing, and I urge you to be very cautious with my "take" on the names and dates. You will note if I was not sure, I put a (?) in my transcription. If there are errors, please leave a comment so I can correct them. Thanks.

Age Book for Negroes

Tillen was born August 1780

John was born August the 7th (?) 1801

Peggy was born August the 4th 1803

Daniel was born July 14th 1805

Nanny (?) was born February 3rd 1809

Lewis was born September the 6th 1813

Maria (?) wa born February 1st 1817

Lucy was born December 1st 1826

Amy (?) was born February the 3rd 1827

Eliza was born February the 16th 1829

Richard was November the 14th 1829

Fred (?) was born October the 16th 1831

John (?) Albert was born Sept the 5th 1832

Binns (?) was born August 3rd 1837

Mary was born February 22 1839

Sasen (?) was born March the 9 (?) th 1839

Matilda was born June the 15th 1840

Margarette was born August the 1st 1841

Betsey was born October the 28th 1841

George Daniel was born September the 5th 1843

James Munroe Patiences child was born June the 16th 1845

Susan Hill Nanny child was born September th 6th 1845

Wm Wilson Patience's child was born Nov. the 19th 1846

Ben Nannys child was born August 28th 1848

Henderson Anne's child was born August the 7th 1848

Sam. Patience's child was born November the 14th 1848

Green Thomas Nannys child was born April the 30th 1850

Martha Jane Patience's child was born May the 22th 1850

Alace Nanny child was born June the 16th 1853

Elias Marys child was born Nov 1st 1858

Marys 2nd child was born 1860

Note, this page was cropped more because there was nothing but white space below this.

Amanda Marys child was born Feb the 24th 1861

Betsey Mary child was born August 3rd 1862

Note, I do have Withers in my research. I suppose Nathan may be in my lineage somewhere, but, currently he is not on my data base. Therefore, I am NOT researching this line and I can not be of further help to you at this time. I find em, I share em, you research em!

Good luck!

.

What is a Tar Ball?

2012-02-02T06:45:00.061-05:00

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Man and I have been taking some of the nature walks here at Gulf State Park, the naturalists on staff take us on hikes, in the park, and at the beach and now and then out to the fishing pier. The walks are relaxed and of course, informative.

This last week we took a walk on the shore. They had us picking shells and the little girls that were along (5 little ones, one in a papoose, 4 on foot, yes one family) were finding all kinds of things, showing off their finds to all who would look. I mean, who can resist a little one, the awe, the innocence, the fact that they are closer to the ground and see things in a different way.

We learned a few new things, those shells with the small holes in one end, that could be hung from a string and worn as a necklace, the holes are drilled by another sea creature who then sucks the food out of the shell, usually a oyster. Who knew?? Not I. Fascinating.

Now, we all know that the BP oil spill hit particularly hard right here in Gulf Shores. We were a bit worried, how would the beach really look?? Not bad, considering.

BP still has clean up crews riding up and down the beach daily. They cover the tracks of their vehicles by "raking" the beach, so as to not leave deep tire tracks. They are looking for washed up tar. Small pieces don't get picked up for the most part, unless, they are in a deposit of many small pieces.

Above, several tar balls with sea shells and other shore debris.

The tar balls will not burn, all the volatile parts of oil have evaporated, and what is left is the tar ball. As you can see they can be covered in small shells and sand, they pick up the shells and sand as they are rolled around in the waters of the Gulf. They are not hard, as in rock hard, they will break with just a bit of effort. Inside, they are rather sticky.

Above, tar ball and a small shell that has tar along the edge. The line in the tar ball, left side, is where it has been broken apart. We just stuck it back together.

If the BP crews find a larger deposit of tar balls they will scoop up the deposit with small nets. Most of the tar balls that we have seen have been close to the water's edge, where they have been washed up by the surf. After a bad storm we have seen more.

You don't want to walk on one, if possible, because they are quite pliable, they will squish into the soles of your shoes.

All this said, you can walk for hours on the beach and the tar balls are not a huge issue, so come on down. The shores are constantly being cleaned up and are still a joy to walk. Personally I am more concerned about the Portuguese Man of War, than I am about stepping on a tar ball or two.

* The naturalists told us that there have ALWAYS been tar balls washing up on the shores, well before the BP disaster.
.

Heads Up on Comments, Around Blogger World

2012-02-01T10:00:00.000-05:00

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Blogger has obviously made some changes.

Trying to leave a comment?? Cannot find the captcha or publish buttons??

They added a scroll thingy. Here are two images, same comment box. First what you see when you start typing your comment. See that scroll bar to the right?? Ya, that one!

And, after pulling down the scroll bar, there we find captcha and publish button. (Noting I did not capture the scroll thingy in this image, sorry, it was over there on the right, same as above.)

So, if you have been confused and cannot seem to find the captcha letters or the publish button on some of the blogs you are reading, look over there to the right, scroll down. Ta Da.

Have a great day.

.

iGene Awards, 114th Carnival Of Genealogy, Reflection's Awards Go To

2012-01-31T06:12:00.038-05:00

Jasia at Creative Gene is hosting this years iGene Awards. As always, mega thanks to Jasia.

The parameters of the iGene COG:

"We'll announce our best blog posts from the previous year (in this case, 2011) in the following 5 categories: Best Picture (that would be a photograph), Best Screen Play (story you would make into a movie including the cast), Best Documentary (investigative research), Best Biography, Best Comedy."

With the first category I am in a huge bit of trouble. Best Picture, aka, photo. Snicker, snicker, snicker. I don't know how many photos I posted in 2011, but, it was the year of THE Trip, so there were hundreds of photos. Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Zion, Capital Reef, Bryce, Grand Canyon, Canyonlands, Arches, Monument Valley, Sedona, and that is just some of what I photographed and shared here. So, here is the deal, I have chosen some of my favorites. They will appear in this post.

Monument Valley

Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone National Park

Best Screen Play, a story of drama, which required an adult beverage and darkness to falsely proclaim victory over fear. I nominate and the winner is: my experience on the Palm Springs Tram, which left me changed forever, and not necessarily in the best way, eh?? THE Trip, Tramming WAYYYYY Out of My Comfort Zone, followed by two additional posts on the experience, THE Trip, Palm Springs Tram Ride, Palm Springs, California, Up, Up And Away and THE Trip, Palm Springs Tram Ride, Palm Springs, California, At the Top, And Back Down Again. (I am so disconnected with the current crop of actors that I think I'll skip by this part of the challenge, but, if someone could figure out how to get Johnny Depp in here, preferably in that d*a*r*l*i*n*g pirate costume, and eye makeup, well, that would work for me! Ehh??)

Apache Lake, near Roosevelt, Arizona as the sun begins to set.

Sunset at Gila Bend, Arizona

Best Documentary, I am stepping away from the definition that Jasia gave us, that this should be about investigative research. Instead I am substituting a series of posts that impacted me tremendously, and that is what I feel a good documentary should do, impact you and your way of thinking. It should stop you in your tracks and make you go, WHOAAAA. That is exactly what happened when Man and I visited Salvation Mountain. THE Trip, Salvation Mountain, The Tools of Love, introduces you to the tools used in the creation. THE Trip, Salvation Mountain, near Niland California, shows you the folk art based on love. The third post from March 1, 2011 was THE Trip, Leonard Knight, Salvation Mountain, A Photo Tribute. I have been extremely honored, as one of those photos has been chosen to further Leonard's cause.

Mesa Arch, Canyonlands National Park, Island in the Sky District

Sedona, Arizona

Best Biography, the story of Alfred Darden, Civil War era, which was my contribution to "THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR GENEALOGY BLOG CHALLENGE" hosted by Bill West of West In New England. My contribution became a 4 part series and eventually resulted in several more posts and a lot of learning too. Part 1 is, Alfred Darden, Civil War Solider Mystery, His Family. This was followed by, Alfred Darden, Civil War Solider Mystery, His War Record and Alfred Darden, Civil War Solider Mystery, As Best I Can Figure, The Last Chapter. My fourth post about Alfred was Alfred Darden, Civil War Solider Mystery, Sometimes Ya Just Cannot Let it Go, New Discoveries.

This post was eventually "found" by some Civil War buffs and a fabulous amount of conversation and information was posted to the blog post and to me privately in email. Yes, indeedy, this series was a total WIN. This series also receives an honorable mention in the Best Screen Play category.

Man experiences carrying a World War II pack, as his father did.
The experience was very moving and left a lasting impression.
Photo taken at Camp Verde Arizona.

Monument Valley, Utah

Best Comedy, my sick, dark humor at it's ~~best~~, err, worst, A Different Kind of Holiday Story, Having to do With Peppermints, a Horny Mouse, and a VERY Tiny Reindeer. I do so love peppermint, but, not mice or rodents, except for that photo way up there ^ .

Wolfe Ranch, Arches National Park, Moab, Arizona
Photo artistically enhanced.

Technically, I suppose the following photo should not be nominated as it actually appeared on my other blog, Reflection's Flora and Fauna, but, since I felt it was so special, I am bending the rules once more.

Signal Mountain Road, Grand Tetons National Park.

Ten nominations for Best Picture, I cannot pick just one. Maybe you can, if so, please leave a comment.

And, thus ends the 2012 iGene Awards, brought to you by Reflections, Sony, THE Trip, and a bit of family research. The awards will come to you live from lovely Gulf Shores Alabama, where we wear shorts and jeans, not formal attire.

At the after party Man and I will feast on seafood, deep fried chicken, gumbo, cheesy grits, home made biscuits and sausage gravy, baked sweet potatoes, deep fried okra, macaroni and cheese (thick and guaranteed gooey!), banana pudding with sliced bananas and vanilla wafers, apple or peach cobbler, all washed down with some sweet tea (not sweetened tea, real sweet tea).

The red carpet will be a bit gritty, as our presentation and the after party will be taking place down at the world famous Gulf Shore beaches of soft white sand. The evening will conclude with a beautiful sunset and a LONG LONG walk down the beach (will have to be long to walk off all that great food we pigged out on, eh?)

Congratulations to the winners, now, party down! Bring on the grits (both the sandy ones and the cheesy ones)!

* Even though I have not shown links to the photos, all have appeared on Reflections during the calendar year of 2011, with the one noted exception.
.

THE Trip, Badlands National Park, South Dakota, Part 2

2012-01-30T06:40:00.001-05:00

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

July 7, 2011

We are struck by the relative lack of color of the formations here in Badlands National Park, some faint streaks of brownish red, a bit of yellow, but mostly the stone is white and beige. There is however lots of green grass to give some relief to our eyes and to contrast the huge formations of beige.

In reviewing photos for inclusion in the posts on the Badlands, I was struck how many panoramic photos I took, and how I felt they best represented the area. It is a large area, the panoramic photo does a great job when presented with huge large open areas such as this. Sadly, they don't present well on a blog, but, I am going include them anyway! LOL

Below: this photo shows off the brownish red stripes of color quite well.

Below: This formation reminds me of a castle for some reason.

And, just when we think we will won't see anything more than green and beige, and I find:

We stopped at the walkway above, there was a sign that said to beware of rattlesnakes. Mmm, no one told this rabbit who was sitting about 2 foot from the walkway. He sat and sat and sat. I took several photos, and he sat all the time, poser! LOL

Below, a window. I think they are "fun" and intriguing.

We would drive 44 west towards Rapid City, passing through the Buffalo Gap National Grassland. We were in the Badlands National Park for about 2 hours. Not since Salton Sea California has an area affected me like this. The size of the park as well as being able to see for miles and miles and the barren beige formations left an impression. I find myself hard put to describe the feeling, lets leave it at "other-world".

To those people who told us "there is nothing out there", we respectfully disagree, there is a lot out there, an eerie kind of beauty and bad combined, and occasional flower, bison (we saw none, but, visit Becky Wiseman's blog post from last September), prairie dogs (which Becky also got great photos of) and, more bison (yep, Becky had a real interesting visit, see her dust rolling bison here). We missed seeing rattlesnake (no loss there, believe me) porcupine, bighorn sheep, bobcat, swift fox and black-footed ferret (think you have to be there at night to see them, as if, yea, right, mmmmm, NOT).

It was 91 degrees the day we visited, it was so dry it was as if it sucked the moisture right out of you. We were very thankful for a functioning air conditioner in Big Butt. I don't think I would want to visit if it were say, 100 to 120 degrees.

All in all, the Badlands was an interesting place to visit, with lots out there to experience, eerie strange beauty, a land that is so bad it is good. Just don't forget your bottled water!

* Not far from the Badlands National Park is the Minuteman Missile National Historical Site. We were unaware of it, have added to the bucket list.

** In late December 1890 Minneconjou Chief Big Foot, ill and tired, passed through the Badlands area, by the end of the month he and many others would die at Wounded Knee about 65 miles south of here. Lisa Wallen Logsdon of Old Stones Deciphered and I were chatting about the area and the history. She mentioned the book "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee", by Dee Alexander Brown, to quote Lisa: "...this book was historically correct and an exciting read. I couldn't put it down. If you ever have a chance to read it you will thank me for recommending it, I guarantee!" Thanks Lisa! For a brief summary, there is a Wikipedia page on Wounded Knee.
.

THE Trip, Badlands National Park, South Dakota, Part 1

2012-01-29T06:26:00.001-05:00

July 7, 2011. After our short but oh so interesting visit to Wall Drugs, we headed south into the Badlands National Park. I don't know about you, but even the name sounds a bit ominous to me. We found it to be fascinating, extreme, and, we could see where the name came from. What a wild bad place this is. Just how bad it can be is easy to understand if you read the following paragraph that is on the home page of the park's web presence.

Climate

The Badlands climate is variable and unpredictable with temperatures ranging from -40 F to 116 F. The summers are hot and dry with occasional violent thunderstorms. Winters are typically cold with 12 to 24 inches of total snowfall. Extremely high winds are common year-round. Sudden and dramatic weather changes are common. Dress in layers. Hats, sunglasses, sunscreen, and adequate water are recommended for hiking.

Read that paragraph carefully, the descriptive terms are clear as to the type of place this is, variable, unpredictable, hot, violent, cold, extremely high winds, sudden, dramatic.

Once in the park we took the Badlands Loop Road southeasterly. We stopped at most if not all the overlooks. I did a poor job of recording where we were stopping on our visit. We drove until the road dead ended at 377/44 which we took back west. 44 takes you through large expanses of the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands. We would eventually end up in Rapid City.

We had people tell us "there is nothing out there", and gave us the impression that it was rather a forsaken hunk of our country. They were right, there is not much out there. But, we were awestruck at the "forsaken" lands. Does not take much imagination to see how overwhelming and possibly unforgiving Mother Nature could be around here. It is a beautiful place, but could be dangerous, and BAD.

Below: this is the area known as the yellow mounds:

Below, somewhere in the top one-third of this photo you can see a ribbon of the road:

I will have one more post of photos of the Badlands National Park, coming soon.

.

THE Trip, Wall Drugs, Wall, South Dakota, Ya Gotta Stop

2012-01-26T06:11:00.007-05:00

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

July 7, 2011

THE Trip was surely assisted by all of our friends, who passed on suggestions via email, Facebook and sitting round the campfire or round a good meal. Many said, you have to stop at Wall Drug. Really, you just gotta.

On this day, we left Custer, drove through Rapid City and east on on I 90 to Wall. The drive was enhanced by signs, similar to the Burma Shave signs of my childhood, only for Wall Drugs. I loved them. I did not get a photo of all of them, but, here are a few, collage style:

There is a history of Wall Drugs online at their web site. The town of Wall welcomes visitors:

Describe Wall Drugs?? Well, there are all the regular drug store items, shampoo, over the counter meds, greeting cards. Now toss in tourist trap goodies, t-shirts, cowboy hats, boots, food, eclectic western art pieces, and lots, lots more. There is even a small chapel. Oh, and it is BIG, really big.

It was HOT when we finally arrived in Wall, sizzling HOT. There was no way we could leave Mr. G and Captain Hook in Big Butt in that heat. So, Man grabbed CH and I grabbed Mr. G and we marched right into Wall Drug. At first we did not linger long, charging from room to room to room. A few people looked at us and the dogs, even an employee or two, but no one said a word. In fact, I saw at least one other dog enjoying the cool air conditioning of Wall Drug. After seeing the other dog, I figured, they could ask me to leave, and I would, but, in the meantime, I was going to slow down a bit and take it all in. So, I did!

Below: some of the western gear, belts with holsters and boots. If you look a little harder at this photo you will see me, on the right, toting Mr. G and Sony and working the room! LOL You will also see the bottom of my legs in the middle of the photo in another mirror. Will admit that I had a bit of a giggle fest when I previewed this photo.

Outside we discovered a Jackalope, made just for riding, and no, neither Man nor I climbed up there.

Below: back inside we find this whiskey drinking cowboy guarding this corner of the store:

Man and both fur kids had a chat with this hombre (or is he the sherriff?):

We have more miles to drive today, so we head back to Big Butt. Next, Badlands National Park.

.

The Work Area, 21st Century Organized Family Historian, A Tana Failure

2012-01-25T06:34:00.007-05:00

Michelle Goodrum over at The Turning of Generations has a very interesting project/meme going on, she is trying to help us all get our files, digital and paper, organized. I have seen Michelle organize via her blog before, she is VERY good at this. I am following along, because I just know she will challenge me or teach me something new. I can use all the challenges and hints I can get.

Somehow, I felt Michelle was talking right to me this week when she posted as part of her challenge and directions for the week:

" We will need an area where we can work and return to. This week's project is to set up or designate such an area.

For those of you who don't have a space to dedicate for these projects, due to small living area or living the mobile lifestyle, you will have to get a bit more creative..."

Well, yes, we do live the mobile lifestyle and yes, it is a small living area. Were you talking to me Michelle? LOL

I took that challenge personal, and then, I looked around Tana, and I started giggling. And, even though I really don't believe I am going to do this, I am going to show you why finding a dedicated space for a work area is just NOT happening. I grabbed Sony and started taking photos, I did not clean up, nor pick up anything, this is what it REALLY looks like to live in a less than 400 square foot RV. True grit sorta stuff here.

GULP!!

Let us begin. Below: my kitchen on one side and the office on the other. The office is a small desk and yes, the kitchen dining table as well. What you see on the desk is my computer to the far right (under a pad of note paper. To the left is the keyboard and the monitor. Yes, I could do without both of them, but, well, NOT happening! As much as I work and use my computer, I want and need that monitor and keyboard. They stay! Let's see what else is there, web camera on the monitor, a wireless mouse, my Ott light (that stays as well, you don't want to be around me in the winter sans Ott light.) There is a small cup of pencils, pens, emery boards. My small external hard drive. Back in the far right corner, my earring board, beside it on the wall, is a gray plastic file folder thingy, it has papers in it, and I also dump my fanny pack, diabetes testing kit, battery charger for the camera and cords for the camera in there. Hanging from the Ott light is my headset with microphone, the cord for the scanner and my little iPod Nano thingy, with ear buds. Between the desk and the table, are dog crates, dog bed, and a bunch of other stuff, a BUNCH of other stuff. Oh, and down in the foreground, right, Man's foot resting on an electric heater! LOL

Below: Here is the rest of the office, the kitchen dining table. Shelf with plants, a photo digital frame, that small wooden basket holds our salt and pepper and stuff. Man and Captain Hook are sitting at Man's computer desk, err, the kitchen dining table. Assorted papers.

Below: a closer look at my desk area, let's see, a bottle of water, partially finished, some walnuts for a snack, hand cream (the really good stuff, made from goat's milk, yummy) and even a pair of earrings near the wireless mouse. There are any number of cords, including 2 USB hubs. To the far left is my cell phone, upside down in a little wooden wall thingy, getting charged. And, please don't look at all those electrical cords plugged in behind that. Whew. Maxed out. And, my string of holiday lights, I have 4 of these in the main living area of Tana, they look so nice at night, make it cozy and warm, atmosphere enhancers.

Below: is the space just to my left when I am sitting at my desk, currently not covered with something, frequently covered with papers, or other office equipment.

Oh, geesh, I thought hard before I included this photo. SIGH. This is a closet in the bedroom area. Down at the bottom, my washer/dryer combo. LOVE my Splendide. But, what I wanted to show you is where I stash some of the other techy toys.

Below: On the shelf immediately above the Splendide you will find, an extra set of wireless headphones for Man (in a black box), the scanner (which is currently not in this storage area, it is in the office), the printer and the projector, as well as the laundry detergent and fabric softener, our bath towels, one of Man's shirts he wants laundered, a 3 drawer storage container, and a couple of rolls of toilet paper. The techy toys are stored here because it is a very stable place for them to ride when we are running down the hard road. In other words, stuff does not bounce up here, those drawers will slide open, (that is why the bungie cord), but nothing else moves. It is safe for my techy toys. I like safe places for my techy toys.

Below: back out in the kitchen/office, when I want to scan I may use this space:

Or, I may use this corner of the kitchen dining table. Note that little round thing beside Man's computer, is his new compass to assist in finding the best direction for the new Dish satellite to be pointed. And, to the left, a few papers waiting to have something done with them. Piles of paper have a habit of showing up just everywhere!

The printer may occupy either space as well, here I am using it on the sink area. I have to catch the paper so it does not go in the sink and the printer is plugged in over by the coffee pot.

So, Michelle, my work area is, mmm, where I can find the space at any given moment for the techy toys. I'll have to rough it, with no specific area set aside for my projects. In a pinch, I can use the other side of the sink, where there is that huge hunk (about 3 running feet) of counter top, see the first photo. Don't laugh, 3 feet is a LOT of room when it is free and available. We were using that the other week when we had 3 computers, the printer, the scanner and two external hard drives all running and working away at the same time.

Not shown: several cupboards where I have boxes of research and books stashed. Shhhh, we don't want to upset Man, boxes of research and books are heavy. Tana needs to loose a few pounds. Ooops.

Before I added the keyboard and monitor to the mix, I could get the computer, the scanner and the printer all on the desk top. Oh, well, like I said before, the monitor STAYS!

Looks like Tana and I have failed this assignment. Michelle, does that mean I have to turn in my 21st COFH badge??

Oh, I Know I Need More Coffee Before Tackling This

2012-01-24T10:53:00.001-05:00

I really need a LOT more coffee before my brain will kick out all these relationships. Got charts anyone??

From the January 27, 1897 issue of the Michigan Messenger, Adrian, Lenawee County, Michigan:

"A little over two years ago there was a wedding in Rollin, when the bride was made to call her grandmother mother-(in-law). Now there is a new complication, for at Cadmus in the home of the said bride, Mrs. Willis Post, (nee Elnora Sloan) is a baby girl who will call Mrs. N.S. Post, (nee Mrs. Murphy) great grandmamma, or what shall it be. Oh, of course, L.L. Sloan and wife are proud to be just plain grandpa and grandma."

*This article will be part of a new book I am formatting for the Lenawee County Family Researchers, "Michigan Messenger, Volume III, 1897 - 1897". Available date will depend on how this formatting stuff comes along, when I get back to SE Michigan and how it all looks when I run a test print of it.

** Other publications from the Lenawee County Family Researchers can be found here.
.

Campgound Fun, Gulf State Park

2012-01-23T06:26:00.000-05:00

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

While walking around Gulf State Park, supposedly getting some exercise, I will sometimes tote along our friend Sony. I have taken a few photos, here and there, so let's see what Sony has captured.

Below, check out the license plate on this motorhome:

And, the toad (towed car) that goes with this bus, owners are rather clever, eh?

The streets in the campground have names, like Rabbit Road. Gotta say, that pink dude or dudette on the right looks especially uncomfy hanging there. Choke, choke.

And, there is Possum Road. There is a possum under this collection of clothing and trinkets. Poor thing sure has it's holidays in a knot, a Mrs. Santa skirt, under which it appears to be a floozy net skirt (for Valentines? floozy!) She is also wearing some Marid Gras stuff, a hat and beads with a shot glass. There is also that nice red heart. Me thinks she has filled that shot glass a few times already, eh??

Here is a photo of the same possum taken before Christmas, oh, my she was already dressed as a floozy.

And, there is, but of course, a Gator Road, he (or she) wore a Santa hat during the Christmas season:

Then there is Bear Road, here is the mascot pre-holiday season:

And, here is Bear this weekend, dressed for Mardi Gras. I rather love the two hats, one for each ear. LOL

And, while this well beaded chick does not reside in the state park, who could resist taking a photo?? Not I.

And, last for today's episode of fun photos, just for our RVing friends: The ultimate in sewer hose suspension products, some will do just about anything to get the fluids to flow!

Gulf State Park, Gulf Shores Alabama, Current Events

2012-01-22T06:30:00.006-05:00

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

I am fully aware that many of my readers, friends and family are really more interested in what Man and I are currently up to, what trouble we might be getting into, rather than reading about THE Trip that has been over for a good 6 months. I am happy to report, that for the most part, we are behaving. We have been in Gulf State Park, Gulf Shores, Alabama for 2 months and have not done much. Well, we have done a LOT of resting, visiting with RVing friends, making new RVing friends, quietly celebrating the holidays, and taken walks.

The weather, when compared to what it was 2 years ago has been fabulous. Two years ago, December brought something like 15 inches of rain and our campsite was flooded and never dried out the entire time we were there (left in April). This last December (2011) there was some rain, maybe 3 or 4 inches, yes, I am too lazy to even look that fact up, and our campsite has for the most part been dry, dry and did I say it has been DRY! We are enjoying the dry, oh, are we enjoying the dry! The temps have also been very favorable, many days the temps are about 10 to 15 above average. Two years ago there was snow about 40 miles north of here. There were frozen water fountains, frozen water lines and pipes that when thawed would spout water out the backs of homes and under driveways. This year we have had a bit of frost on the grass and such. (Of course, now, we all know that I have doomed us by talking about this, watch out. GULP!!)

Man loves old large live oaks, he is communing with this one. He loved that he could "wiggle" the tree a bit with that low hanging branch.

I have gone days without taking a photo (really!) and have given myself permission to slow down on the blogging, input, etc. I have taken some time to devote to learning curve with new programs and software, and still need to do quite a bit more of that.

I have captured a few good creature photos though, like this guy taking his holiday bath. To see the rest of the bath, visit Reflection's Flora and Fauna.

We took a few walks on the fishing pier and met Sam, a tame pelican. You can see the rest of his photos here, I had a great time taking these, Sam can be very entertaining!

One day taking a walk I found this green-backed heron just feet from our campsite. I have looked for this beauty every time I walk by that canal, and have not seen it again. By the way, the second photo over at Flora and Fauna is even better!

And, possibly the most fun photo(s) of the last several months, the armadillo, of course there are more photos and the full size version of this one over at Flora and Fauna, if you have not seen these, please go have a look, his pose is great.

We enjoy walking at the beach, even on days when it is windy. I am always looking for photo ops, so, I tried capturing some of the buildings as viewed through the ocean mist kicked up from the wind and waves. And, yes, that is a crane on top of that building.

I am still working on a caption for this photo of a lone shore bird strolling past these beach chairs whose occupants are down in the water splashing away.

Man and I have both been quite content to just enjoy the moments, a lot of very quiet moments. If nearby, you may hear a number of deep, soul cleaning, SIGHHHHHHHHHS. See, Man is QUITE content, except, maybe you better make that deep, soul cleaning, ZZZZZs.

THE Trip, Mount Rushmore, Independence Day Celebration

2012-01-21T06:31:00.002-05:00

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

We visited Mount Rushmore on July 3, 2011, the day they celebrated our nation's Independence Day. We had no idea they would be celebrating, we figured (ok, assumed) that they would celebrate on the 4th. Nope.

We took yet one more byway that we had not driven, and yes indeedy, there was one more tunnel, this one was marked on our map as being 11 foot 4 inches, and on the road sign, 10 foot 6 inches. And, here it is, no drama, no worries, just drive right on through:

The first time we tried to visit Mount Rushmore there were torrential downpours, buckets of rain. Today, however is beautiful weather, sun, pleasant temperatures.

We rented the audio tours and walked the entire park, learning and appreciating as we visited. This first photo is taken from the entrance and showing the tops of the flags along the Avenue of Flags.

The Presidential Trail gives you many different viewing opportunities, each just a bit different. There is signage along the way about the Presidents and the processes that were required to carve the sculptures. There is also the opportunity to visit the sculptor's studio. We even snagged t-shirts that say, "Mount Rushmore, 4th of July", for $5.00 each. At the amphitheater there was entertainment and we got to experience a "flyover" by the South Dakota National Guard. On July 4, 2011 I did a collage featuring the flyover and Mount Rushmore.

Close up (thanks to Sony's zoom) of the 4 featured Presidents of Mount Rushmore:

George Washington, President from 1789-1797:

Thomas Jefferson, President from 1801-1809:

Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt, President 1901-1909:

Abraham Lincoln, President 1861-1865:

Our visit to Mount Rushmore was more special than we could have imagined when we left the campground that day. I mean, really, is there anything more American than celebrating the 4th at Mount Rushmore??

Nahhhhh:

A Fourth of July Man and I will never forget.

* Some facts thanks to the publication "Granite Journal", from the National Park Service:

Four hundred men and women worked here to create Mount Rushmore. Carvers had to climb 700 stairs each morning to get to work. 90% of the mountain was carved with the use of dynamite. Carving of the mountain stopped in 1941 after the sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, died and World War II was looming. Maintenance is ongoing, every year rope teams rappel over the faces providing preservation repairs.

.

Follow Up, Needles Highway Tunnels

2012-01-20T20:23:00.000-05:00

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

MOC friend Wayne posted a link to this photo of a tour bus driving through that small tunnel. He was lucky enough to see three go through the tunnels while he visited. How's that for a photo op??? He did mention that he heard the mirrors scraping on that bus as it went through the tunnel. Ooops!

Another MOC contributor shared this YouTube video of a bus and the tunnel. And, I found another here, note quality of this one is not as clear as the first. This one shows a bus entering the tunnel in 2007 in the first part of the video.

.

THE Trip, Man and Big Butt Vs the Tunnel, Part 2

2012-01-20T06:07:00.000-05:00

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

July 2, 2011

So, we left off with Man breathing a sigh of relief, as we have cleared the first of the two narrow tunnels on the Needles Highway at Custer State Park, Custer South Dakota.

Between the two tunnels on this section of highway is some really pretty scenery. I am not sure how much of it Man saw, between the obsessing about the tunnel to come and driving the narrow, curvy roads. There were some turns that went more than a hairpin, more than 180 degrees, and at least one of them had a speed limit of 5 MPH. Here are a few of the photos Sony and I snapped off, noting, it is almost as hard to get a good photo at 20 MPH when the scenery is 12 foot away from the roadway as it is to get a good photo at 65 MPH when the scenery is one-half mile away. Translated, that means, there were a number of really bad photos, out of focus, whew. But, here, are those that passed my muster:

Well, "T" time (tunnel time) has arrived, first we pass the "One Lane Tunnel" sign. Then, the sign showing the width of the tunnel. Remember my comment (see above) about it being hard to get an "in focus" photo at 20 MPH? The photo showing the road sign with the width of this tunnel, is SOOOOO out of focus I cannot read it, and photo editing cannot fix it. I have looked at this photo a lot the last week or so, and, I believe it says 8 foot X inches, my wild guess is 6 inches. I have surfed the net looking for any reference to the width of the tunnel, the real width, eh?? Lots of sites tell of the "narrow" passage, however, the only one that stated an exact measurement was at Google Books, where I found "Frommer's National Parks of the American West", page 63, publication date of May 3, 2010. And, even that reference was not totally clear, as this quote shows:

"Tunnels on the Needles Highway/Sylvan Lake Road (S. Dak. 87) are as low as 10 feet, 7 inches and as narrow as 8 feet, 4 inches."

Nice, but, mmmm, what is not clear, is this the tunnel we have already driven through or the one we are approaching?

In any event, Man thinking that the tunnel is NINE foot, having successfully cleared the prior tunnel that was marked 10 foot 4 inches on our map, (forget that it is also marked 9 foot on the road sign, sighhh, color Carol confused by all these conflicting numbers) lines up and we drive through!

THE NINE FOOT TUNNEL (which is probably closer to 8 foot 6 inches, Big Butt is 8 foot wide):

And, below, this blur is inside the tunnel, the sides flashing by, with a bit of a hint of Big Butt's fenders, I know, ROTFLOL, HORRIBLE photo:

So, after we maneuver through the NINE foot tunnel that probably is not 9 foot, we find a place to pull over and park and get out and walk around. The sport of the day is to stand and watch vehicles driving through this narrowest of narrow tunnels. Lots of ooos, ahhhs, laughter, awe, snickering, giggling is going on by all the spectators as car after car, truck after truck bravely enter the tunnel. Here is a pickup truck coming through, note, not a big butt truck, and this is not the most narrow spot of the tunnel:

And, a smaller SUV type:

Believe me, people were watching Man drive Big Butt through, you could see the amazement and amusement on their faces (well I could, Man was too busy watching his big butt fenders in the side view mirrors and, mmmm, sweating a bit).

My out of wack sense of humor got tickled when I saw cars, you know, regular sized cars, approach the narrow tunnel, line up, and then pull in their side view mirrors. A regular sized car is about 6 foot wide, meaning they had more than 1 foot on each side of their vehicle. After the shoehorning of Tana into our campsite and the squeaking of Big Butt through this narrow tunnel, I just giggled. Also sighted, a automobile with a sun roof, roof open of course, someone standing up, their head and shoulders above the roof, camera in hand, let the photo op begin!

And, here is the Needle, which is just a few yards beyond the northern entrance/exit of this narrow tunnel:

Our last stop of the day was to drive around the Sylvan Lake Campground, it is a lovely area:

This day at the campground area there was a June wedding and sadly, several units from the Custer County Search and Rescue squad were there conducting a search. We did not hear why they were there or the results of all that activity, but, it is always concerning to see all those resources on a scene.

Our ride around the Wildlife Loop and the Needles Highway to Sylvan Lake Campground took about 4 hours. Man survived his "out of my comfort zone" tunnel drive and so did Big Butt, not a scratch to be found. I got some great photos and a few stories to tell. (OK, I will admit it, I was a bit gleefully overjoyed to watch Man obsessing over Big Butt's fenders, after his numerous teases about my fear on the Palm Springs Tram and my reluctance to go near the edges of 3,500 foot tall canyon walls. I know, my bad! See me smirk??)

It was a lovely summer day in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Perfect for a ride through a tunnel or two.

.

THE Trip, Man and Big Butt Vs the Tunnel, Part 1

2012-01-19T06:09:00.000-05:00

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

July 2, 2011. After our enjoyable ride around the Wildlife Loop Road we decided to drive 87, the Needles Highway north and then northwest past the Needles and on to Sylvan Lake Campground.

Now, to understand someone's (ok, Man's) severe reaction to this little ride (snickering, Carol is already snickering) it is necessary to understand how we travel and do things. For the most part, Man drives. Carol is perfectly happy behind the wheel of Big Butt and has no fears of driving Big Butt with Tana in tow. Now, backing up is another situation all together, a ugly situation, as I have not mastered backing Tana up, YET. But, I digress, anyway, Man usually drives. Carol is co-pilot, with rights to scream loud and clear if I feel we are going too fast, or over the edge of some cliff or about to miss the exit and the next one is 35 miles down the road, you know, those kinds of screaming events. I am the navigator. I read the maps, and suggest routes based upon knowledge gained from our years of traveling together. I help locate fuel stations and suggest campgrounds. I leave the final decision on campgrounds up to him, it is just less stressful that way, you don't want or need to know why, just trust me on that! LOL

Now, because I do 99% of the navigation (picking campgrounds is not really navigation), Man rarely looks at a map. I maintain he cannot read a map, but, I won't go into that ~~fight~~, errr, discussion here, in public. He depends on me to direct him in clear and concise language (not purple language) to get from point A to point B. He also depends on me to suggest sightseeing opportunities as we travel. Part of my navigator duties are to get him on new routes, he just HATES going the same way over and over again. He wants to see new stuff!

SOOO, on July 2, 2011, I mentioned to him, that there was this section of road (Needles Highway) that we had not driven. He said, lets go. Below: It is pretty isn't it?? Two lane highways winding their way through the lush green of the Black Hills.

Now, I knew that there was a little matter of 2 more of those small tunnels we had to pass through. I believe I mentioned same to him. I know I mentioned them. Of course, I did not mention that the last of these tunnels was the smallest, just 11 foot 9 inches tall and 9 foot wide (according to the map I have) OR 8 foot 4 inches wide (according to, Frommer's National Parks of the American West, page 63, publication date of May 3, 2010).

(A bit of a digression here, some of you may remember our passing through narrow places before, one was in Palm Springs, California. I wrote about it here, and there are photos too! If you have not read it or maybe don't remember it, go have a lookie see and then come on back, we will wait - - singing, la la ta ta la la - - ohhh, you are back, good, let's continue our little story - - )

SOOO, Man and I are on the drive to Needles, and after a while I mention to him that the last tunnel is 9 foot wide, (remember that is what my map said, I did not have a copy of Frommer's ). Now, we are not driving a small car, or even a small truck, Big Butt has his name because he has 4 tires back there on the back axle, and that makes him more wide than a normal pickup truck, oh, and his side view mirrors are rather wide too.

(Note, this is the beginning of the Man turning white, green and white again, in case you could not guess that - - just sayin - - )

Next I hear from a BOOMING voice from the driver sitting next to me, "NINE FEET, are you sure, NINE FEET??" Someone was getting a bit excited. He continued his ~~rant~~, errr questions, "How wide is Big Butt?" We had a discussion, he might have even had me start pulling out the owners manual (sorry memory a bit cloudy on this point, but I seem to remember pulling it out of the glove box). I keep telling him, look, we drive up there, take a look at this tunnel and if you cannot or don't think you can fit through, we will turn around and come back. We can backtrack, it will be fine, ya, I know, it is a long way, but, we can backtrack.

Bout now, Man spies a picnic area, Hole in the Wall picnic area. He pulls off. Parked right beside us is another big butt truck, which appears to be driving south (we were going north). I suggested that maybe Man could ask the other driver some questions, like, are you going north or south, did you drive your big butt truck through that tunnel, you know, stuff like that. So, Man does just that. Response from the other big butt truck, "I am going south, yes, I drove my big butt truck through the tunnel. Fits, just go slow and down the center. We watched a full size tourist bus go through there a bit ago. That tour bus fit, honest!"

Now, even though this other big butt truck driver has just assured him that we could fit OUR Big Butt through that tunnel, Man was just not convinced. He's funny like that, you would think he had been born in Missouri, the show me state.

There are restrooms, and a cute little cave at this picnic area. I take advantage of the restrooms, walk the fur kids, and take a photo or two of the cave and stream (above) while Man measures Big Butt. Yes, he really did, he got out his tape rule and measured Big Butt, more than once! He was gonna be sure Big Butt fit through that NINE foot tunnel.

AND - - - - ta da - - - - - Big Butt is 8 foot wide, give or take a quarter of an inch.

Well, Big Butt would clear the tunnel, not by much, but we will clear. Still, with just 4 to 6 inches on each side Man needs to drive RIGHT DOWN THE CENTER! I figure we are golden, (don't laugh so hard dear readers), and I encourage Man, reassuring him that I have full faith in his ability to drive Big Butt right down the middle of that NINE foot tunnel.

Besides, we have another tunnel we must clear before the now infamous NINE foot tunnel. According to the map, this other tunnel measures 10 foot 4 inches wide. We both contemplate the situation and agree, we should try this, partially trusting the other big butt truck driver. The least we should do is drive to the 10 foot 4 inch tunnel and see how that goes.

Man agrees to this plan. And, we are off.

Like I said (more than once), the first tunnel, according to the map was 10 foot 4 inch wide, but, lookie at the sign:

I know, it is not in focus, but, correct me if I am wrong. It says, 9 foot 0 inches wide. Good thing we could not read it as we drove by. Sony, caught the sign, but, Man did not see it, nor did I really either. So we just went right on through the tunnel. Actually, we had very little trouble with that tunnel. We did pull in the side view mirrors, testing, to see if we could pull the mirrors in part of the way and still use them to see where Big Butt's fenders were in relationship to the walls of that tunnel.

Below: the first tunnel, as we approach:

Below: A out of focus horrible photo of Big Butt's fenders and the side of the tunnel. I took this out of the side view mirror, seeing what Man saw when he looked in the mirrors, and yes, that dark stuff is the side of the tunnel, unforgiving granite.

So since we have managed to drive the first tunnel, which we thought was 10 foot 4 inches wide, we had more confidence that we could manage the second tunnel which according to the map was 9 foot. Man is still a shade of green, and he is not totally convinced that we will be able to drive Big Butt through that second tunnel and not scratch those 8 foot wide fenders. But, onward we go, did I mention that he was obsessing about that NINE foot tunnel?? The NINE foot tunnel just up the road apiece??

To be continued - - -

.

Stop SOPA Sympathy Day

2012-01-17T19:42:00.001-05:00

For users of internet sites, surfing around for the next 24 hours or so might be a bit different. That is because a number of web sites, including, so they say, Wikipedia will be doing a black out of their web site in an attempt to draw attention to SOPA, aka, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), also known as House Bill 3261.

You can read all about it on this Wikipedia page, but, you might have to wait a few hours, because, mmm, it is supposed to be blacked out.

Here is more information on SOPA. There is even a petition you can sign there.

And, one more site, SOPA Countdown.

Reflections will not be going dark on my web pages, because the only directions I found to do so looked scary to me, messing around with some parts of my blog where I never dare tread. (Add to that I am very tired tonight, we had such a wonderful visit today with our MOC firends.) I am sorry, but, I have had my fair share of internet/computer/blogger issues and I am more than gun shy - - -

So, instead I am posting this short post, giving you some links, and will not post again until the 19th.

THE Trip, Custer State Park, Wildlife Loop

2012-01-15T20:06:00.001-05:00

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

It is July 2, 2011. We return to Custer State Park, the weather is much more favorable, although this entire week will be filled with bouts of rain and thunder and even a horrific hail storm. We were away during the hail storm, in fact by the time we returned to the park the icy evidence of the storm had melted away. There were, however, some hints at the fierceness of the storm and the size of the hail. One hint, there were a lot of pine needles and small branches on the ground, many more than when we left earlier in the day. Seeing that the ground always has a lot of pine needles laying around, you can guess that if I could see that there were more deposited it must have been a significant amount, and, it was! LOL The next hint for us was the fact that our sewer hose was damaged, well, in fact, ruined. The hail had left it full of holes. I will leave it to your imagination as to how this was discovered and who had to deal with it, let's just say he did not enjoy the clean up. EWWW. He looked around at the roof and awnings and could not find any damage, which was amazing, as other vehicles in the park had lots of dent marks. Those pines that made for our close parking and shoehorning of Tana into the campsite must have protected us from all that hail.

The thunder was rather amazing. It would start and just go on for hours and hours. It was what I call "rolling thunder". It was almost as if you could hear it rolling across the skies, like bowling balls in heaven's bowling alley. Rumble, roll, rumble, roll. At our stick built in SE Michigan we don't have rolling thunder very often, we have crack, bang, boom thunder. The lightening hits, crack, then we hear the thunder, boom, gone. The next hit of lightening does the same, crack, then the thunder, boom, and it is over. Usually there are a few minutes, or at least a few seconds between the sounds. There must be something about the hills in and around Custer, the Black Hills, as we heard rolling thunder several different times. It is rather amazing, for the first hour or so. I have to say, after about 6 hours, though, it was getting rather old. LOL

So, let's look at our map again:

We will start again from the west, at Custer and drive east. However, today's ride will turn south near the Legion Lake Campground and we will drive the Wildlife Loop Road (not all of the road is shown on this map, trust me, it joins and it is a loop). Another day we will actually drive the loop again (in search of prairie dogs, what else??) but, from the opposite direction.

The beginning of our drive shows off the beauty of the Black Hills:

And, the some of the stars of the Wildlife Loop are, prairie dogs:

Below: Having seen the bison up close and personal, with lots of babies, and walking the line, back in Yellowstone National Park, we were just as happy as could be to find this herd way off the road and resting, quietly.

Another beautiful view of the Black Hills, along the Wildlife Loop.

Below: These guys were traffic stoppers, and if you want to really see what show stoppers they were, take a little side trip over to Reflection's Flora and Fauna, our RVer friends really like the last photo.

More beautiful rolling hills, it was such a peaceful drive:

We were in wildlife heaven, pronghorn antelope and bighorn sheep:

After leaving the Wildlife Loop, we would drive east on 16A till we came to the intersection of 87, part of the Needles Highway. Here we would turn north and Man would turn white and green and white again. I'll show and tell you all about it real soon - -

.

THE Trip, Crazy Horse, South Dakota

2012-01-14T20:23:00.007-05:00

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

On July 1, 2011, after riding through Custer State Park and getting rained out of the opportunity to visit Mount Rushmore (no fear, we visited later, in what turned out to be a very special day), we continued our ride. We headed west on 244 and then south on 16/385 to Crazy Horse.

Crazy Horse has much to offer, there is of course, the sculpture itself. It is rather overwhelming in size. In fact, it is mind boggling, HUGE! It is a project that has not and they say will not take any taxpayer/public funds.

The first blast was done in June of 1948 and 62 years later it is still not finished.

Consider that Mount Rushmore took about 14 years to complete. Each president's face at Mount Rushmore is 60 feet long, the face alone for Crazy Horse is 87 feet 6 inches. Eventually the entire structure will be 563 feet high and 641 feet long. The feather will measure 44 foot in height.

Below a photograph of a graphic showing Crazy Horse as it will be, with the current view underneath:

On the grounds there is also the Indian Museum of North America, a theater, a restaurant, a gift shop and the home and studio of the sculptor, Korczak Ziolkowski. The gift shop offers some beautiful articles, not all of which are made in the US or made by Native American Indians. The theater offers an informative film, don't miss it if you visit. The museum was, in our opinion, well done, packed full of beautiful artifacts and history lessons.

Of special interest to Carol, a small display covering Osceola. One of my gg grandmother's brothers was named Osceola (he was born 1851). Seminole Indian Chief Osceola was born 1804 in Georgia, died January 30, 1838 in Charleston South Carolina. None of the other siblings of our Osceola have what may be considered Native American Indian names, they were named Harriet, Sarah, Charles, Julius, Evilena. We have no family stories or traditions to really tell us why our Osceola was so named, and, so far, no research done has turned up any hints. But, we are fascinated by both our Osceola and the Seminole Indian Chief Osceola. I was pleasantly surprised to see the small display in this museum on Osceola.

The displays were varied and nicely presented. We could have spent many more hours here. As it was we actually visited twice (that is why some of the photos above have gray skies and some blue skies). For our entrance fee we were allowed two visits (in a specified time frame, seems it was 2 - 4 days?). So, we spent a hour or so this day, and came back a few days later and had a nice lunch and visit with MOC friends Mina and Bob. We had not seen them since we left Gold Canyon 3 months earlier. It is a funny thing, give us all wheels and we tend to end up in the same places during the year. LOL

We enjoyed our visits to Crazy Horse, we did not take the extra fee ride to the front of the structure. I am thinking we made a small tactical error there. Crazy Horse, can be seen from the road, no admittance fees required, but, for such a small fee, we can't figure out why you would not drop the few $$ and learn so much, there is so much to appreciate here.

The 2nd of July will be spent back in Custer State Park, and hubby will show that he is not fearless after all. I smile every time I think of Man and the tunnel!

THE Trip, Custer State Park

2012-01-13T22:53:00.000-05:00

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Our first visit to Custer State Park was on July 1, 2011, and before we even got into the park we were enjoying the beautiful scenery.

At the park entrance, stone and a artistic rendition of a bison. The park is home to a herd of about 1,300 bison.

Let's take a glance at a map of the park and surrounding area first, this is from one of the signs at the park:

We entered the park from the west, at Custer, driving east on 16 to the area near Badger Hole, from thence continue west on 16A to the Peter Norbeck Visitor Center. The center is our first stop. After we leave the visitor center we will continue east and then north on 16A, our eventual goal will be Mount Rushmore.

At the visitor center we found some nice docents, and informative displays, including some examples of the local fauna (prairie dogs, but, of course, because I am over the top crazy about prairie dogs, go figure). There are several nice displays talking about the history of the park. I took this photo of the inside of the building, isn't it wonderful? The building was built by the CCC (Civil Conservation Corps) in 1935 using the local rocks and logs. Both are visible in this photo, the logs were massive.

It started raining while we were in the visitor center, but, we decided to continue our drive anyway. It was pouring, really pouring. And, look how green it is.

The rain continued, at times it slowed down a bit and we would stop at some of the pull off viewpoints. Eventually we left Custer State Park and entered the section of the road that has 3 tunnels, narrow short tunnels. We had been told when you exit one of these tunnels you will get a view of of Mount Rushmore that will take your breath away. We had been given strict instructions on how to come from the south, driving north. This next photo is of the first tunnel, it is 13 foot 4 inches wide and 12 foot 4 inches high. The first sign gives the size of the tunnel, the next sign says, "Falling Rock", then the last sign says, "Sound Horn". Big Butt fit through the tunnels just fine, Tana would not have, as she is 13 foot 1 inch tall.

Let get a bit closer:

And, while we are inside:

And, here it what we came for, our first look:

We were able to find a spot to pull off and take a few more photos, I liked this one, even with the heavy, rain laden skies:

This is the last of the 3 tunnels on this section of 16A, but, it is not the last tunnel we will drive during our visit in the Black Hills of South Dakota. You know, not much fazes Man, the Palm Springs Tram, he loved it, standing on the edge of canyons in Arizona and Utah, not a problem. But, I found something that made him blanch and maybe even turn green, a tunnel! I'll tell you about it soon. Oh, that pickup truck in the photo below, same size as Big Butt, a bit close, but, just you wait - -

From here we drove over to Mount Rushmore, but the rain was coming down in buckets, so, we did not stop. From Mount Rushmore we drove about 14 miles west on 244 and then south on 16/385 towards Crazy Horse. More on the rest of our day in a future post here on Reflections.

.

Let the Comments Roll - -

2012-01-11T22:24:00.000-05:00

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

I have engaged what Blogger is calling Threaded Commenting.

If you look at last night's comments (that sunset photo post) you will see that the first few comments look like they used to. Go to the bottom of the list however, and you will see that I can now reply to each and every reader's comments individually. I think you as reader can respond to other readers as well, although I will admit I am not totally clear on that, we can learn together.

I think I am going to like this, what do you think??

Let the comments roll - -

* You can read more about this new toy on Blogger, here.

** More THE Trip posts are coming, honest, I have been spending some time organizing files, email and computer stuff and in the learning curve sphere with Evernote and Legacy. Or, not sleeping, like last night, that sunset brought a bit of wind to us during the night, waking both Man and I. I lost 3 to 4 hours of sleep. Feel like someone beat on me of course. Yawn. Night - -

.

A Reward for Reflections

2012-01-10T23:33:00.000-05:00

Copyright 2010, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

It was a rainy day, I sat at the computer all day, deleting email, cleaning up files, scanning memorial cards, trying to learn Legacy and Evernote, discovering tidbits about a line in ole Virginy, making a neat word processing file about those tidbits including some maps.

Finally late afternoon the rain ceased, and I stayed right here at the computer working away. Time for the fur kids dinner, I fed them, and Man took one of them outside for a potty stop. He gave me one of those, "grab that camera" hollars, I grabbed, rang outside, and was rewarded with this glory. My reward for a long day of work at the computer, thank you Mother Nature:

* And, I hope this makes some sense, cause, I am tired, but, it was too pretty not to share, NOW!

** And, now, rest well friends and family, Carol is going to zzzzzzzzzzz land.
.
.

THE Trip, Custer South Dakota, The Town

2012-01-09T06:28:00.000-05:00

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

June 30, 2011

A quiet day, consisting of a ride into town, a few photos.

I love the unusual (of course, you all know that if you have been reading Reflections for any time), the quirky and most anything artistic. Custer had some of each.

The first photo of the day, was of this pick up truck full of antlers, and such, parked out front of the Claw-Antler & Hide Company. Sure will draw your attention to the store front.

There is also this free museum, in Way Park, they claim it to be the oldest standing structure in the Black Hills:

You cannot actually go into the building, but there is a nice display of artifacts, photographed through the Plexiglas barrier. Love that fireplace.

For me the most fun thing going on in Custer in the summer of 2011 was the display of artistically painted buffalo statuary. There were quite a few of them, displayed up and down the main drag. I took photos of most of them. Here are a few:

Below: Scenes of buffalo on the buffalo.

Below: I really liked the symbolism reflected on this statue, with the ghosts of the tepee, the buffalo and the Indian ancestor revealing all to the child. Note the large rolls of straw (or hay) in the background, representing life today on the prairie. (These are my thoughts on this particular painting, it may or may not be what the artist was trying to depict.)

Maybe my favorite, George Armstrong Custer.

Below: the opposite side, same statue.

Nearby are Custer State Park, Crazy Horse Memorial, Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Wind Cave National Park, and Badlands National Park. We will visit all of them during our time here in Custer South Dakota, some more than once.

*Disclaimer, I have no connection to any business mentioned in this post, no $$ has been paid to me to mention them. I may or may not have even stepped inside their doors, and may or may not have $pent any $$ there.
.

THE Trip, Big Butt Gets Stuck, Tana is Shoehorned, And Its Hotter Than - -

2012-01-07T22:23:00.001-05:00

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

On June 29th 2011 we got up quite early for this "I don't do mornings" gal and got rolling. Master plan, drive from Buffalo Wyoming to Custer South Dakota a distance of about 185 miles before it got H*O*T. Our route would be I 90 east to 16, which runs southeast to Custer. We were able to snag a campsite that was reasonable (as in not so expensive that we would need to sell the gold fillings out of our eye teeth) and we could stay there for 7 nights. Note this will be over the 4th of July weekend, near Mount Rushmore and in the Black Hills, very busy and a favorite tourist area for the 4th.

The scenery was different than what we had been seeing, the Black Hills, are just that, big hills, almost black in hue due to the pines that grow there. I would love to show you photos, but, well, they are horrible. Seems we had a LOT of dead critters on the windshield, and even though I took a few photos, the photos ended up being of dead bugs splattered instead of pretty green/black hills.

That said, the real story of the day was getting into our campsite. Did I tell you that we managed to snag the LAST campsite in a reasonably priced campground for the 4th of July week?? That translates to, it was this campsite or none, do whatever you MUST to get Tana in there. The campground could not offer us any other campsite, period.

Here are the other circumstances:

Big Butt is not 4 wheel drive, I'll just bet you are starting to figure out where this is going, right?? Yep.

Our campsite was the at the top of a short but sorta steep hill. NOT a pull through site. To get into it, you had to back in, on what Man so lovingly calls the blind side. That means he will have to put Tana into the campsite by backing her in and the back end will be turning right. At times it is pretty danged impossible to see where Tana is going. I am not describing this well, but, our RVing buds will get it. When backing in on the blind side Man really depends on me (I am running around out side during this process, by the way) to watch carefully, watching that he does not hit a tree or limbs, or rocks, or poles or any other number of obstructions that seem to jump up and do damage while units back in on the blind side. He also needs me to be "visible" by staying where he can see me in the side view mirrors on Big Butt. It is not as easy as it sounds.

So, with me standing behind, in the campsite, Man pulls the unit into position on the short hilly, gravel -- Ohhh, did I tell you the campsite AND the road were all gravel, loose sandy gravel?? Ohhh, I didn't?? Well they were, even though at that very moment we did not realize just how soft the campsite was, it did not look soft - - Anyway, Man starts backing UP the gravel steep road and turning Tana's back end into the sandy loose graveled campsite. Of course, just to add some spice there was the issue of a lot of trees, close to the road and lining the campsite (we will be very thankful for these trees and the protection they offer later in the week during a hail storm).

Man backs up, gets out a time or two to check out where things (Tana) are going, and jumps back in to continue backing up.

Then, it happened, we were moving (err, backing up) slowly, and all of a sudden we were not backing up at all, Big Butt was not pushing Tana backwards, he was spinning those 4 tires on the back axles, spinning, spinning, spitting sand and gravel, sinking in, sunk, stopped.

We were STUCK! OHHHH NO!!!

Here is a lookie see, note how close Big Butt is to that pine tree. Also note that the side view mirror is pushed to the rear. Side rear mirrors do that, and now, we know why. When pushed in they give you a few extra inches of clearance when backing in blind sided and up hill and into soft sandy gravel campsites that are lined by trees. More on that later. (By the way, Man is looking for a shovel, which he could not find. SIGH)

And, below, here is the hole we dig with those tires. Yes, there was a hole on both sides of the truck, rather 2 holes on both sides of the truck, one for each of the 4 tires. This set of holes was somewhere between 10 and 12 inches deep. I know the photo is not the bestest, but, I think you can get the idea.

After we filled the holes in by scuffing the dirt back in with our feet (shovel still has not been found as far as I know more than 6 months later), Man pulled forward, onto the street again, and next he said, "Stand back, I am gonna run 'er in." I am weak kneed by now, as I see us ripping off that side view mirror, or hitting Tana on that tree (could have scrapped the entire outside at the top, we were SOOOO close, inches between us and a long nasty snarly scrape). And, Man hit the gas, charging backwards up the hill, turning back into the campsite, misses the tree and rammed past that filled in hole. All the time he is watching me so that he does not back up and push Tana off the back end of the campsite, which had a 3 to 4 foot sharp drop off. When he stopped we were pretty much perfectly parked. No kidding. It only took some minor adjustments after that to have Tana just where she needed to be, leaving enough room on both the left and right to open the opposing slides, not hitting any trees with the slides.

Below: A look at Tana's back. This is the kitchen slide area. That slide must come out 24 inches and NOT hit that tree. This is what we call "shoehorning" a unit into a campsite. It is rather nerve wracking with normal conditions, the loose gravel upped the ante a bit. You can also see that the campsite falls off back there. It falls off all around the "pad" of the campsite, we are, after all, in the hills! Hills = NOT flat!

Shoehorn procedure complete! Successfully even! Oh, did I mention, that it was close to noon local time and it was 98 degrees? Ya, hotter than - -

A few days later, when Man had settled down a bit, I begged another set of photos, showing just how close we were to that back tree:

See he is even smiling a bit by now:

I posted on Facebook and chatted with friends via email telling them we were really shoehorned into this site. I can hear them, ya, ya, Carol. But, later in the week MOC friends Mina and Bob came by to visit, and the first thing she said, was, something like, "Wow, you REALLY are shoehorned in." Yep, we were Mina!

And, what I cannot show you, is how when we were backing in, Tana was actually listing seriously to the right, tipping in further at the top than at the bottom. So, that photo with the side view mirrors pushed in, that is not a true representation of how close Tana and that tree were. Even Man does not know how close it really was. Let me tell you, if he had seen it from where I saw it, he might never have rammed Big Butt back up that hill shoehorning Tana into our campsite. I am gonna guess, it was less than 4 inches clearance.

But, we were in, and we had 7 nights and days to explore the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota. It would be a time of awe, wonder, friends and sadness as we lost our Miss Tilly here this week to kidney failure. Oh, and those soft spots from the 4 tires, would come back to irritate us once again, next time it would be my turn to ram Big Butt through them, only I had to do so and not run Big Butt into Tana's nose. But, that would be days away - - in the meantime - - we have sights to see - -

.

Friend of Friends Friday:: Slaves Found During Transcription

2012-01-06T12:35:00.000-05:00

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

I do a bit of volunteer work in Lenawee County, Michigan. I host several blogs where I put up memorial cards and Bible and Bible records. Both projects are on going, the Bible project has been ongoing for many years, and I dream of it being finished, however, it is languishing. Both projects are on my list of "THE To Do List", my plan is to try to do some on this every week, maybe twice a week.

While working on some additional data I found that I wanted to add to an existing Bible record, I also found some slave information. Time frame: 1700-1799. Possibly, New York State. Sadly, there are huge hunks of information missing in this record, I can only hope that the tidbits of data are helpful to someone, sometime.

You can find the entire Bible record and new information on the slaves, here. Names I have indexed from this set of records are:

Delon, Dillon, Hodson, Morgan, Morrison, Rowe, Symons, Talyer, Taylor

.

THE Trip, Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument

2012-01-04T19:07:00.007-05:00

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

We are headed east again, planning to stop for a few days or more in Custer, South Dakota, land of the Black Hills. We leave from Billings Montana and head out I 90 east. Our stop this night will be in Buffalo Wyoming, about 165 miles driving. But, first, we will make a brief stop at Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument.

RV parking is available, however, there are not a lot of spaces that the big rigs will fit in. Big Butt and Tana are 53 running feet long when all hooked up and ready to roll, so we need a nice big piece of real estate to park in (53 feet by the way is the length of an 18 wheeler trailer). Our experience, it is better to get there earlier in the day. We arrived about 10 AM local time and there was only one spot we could park in. It was going to be a hot day, very hot (just 3 days prior we had been in Yellowstone at 8,000 plus feet and mid 50's). As luck would have it, we snagged that last parking spot, and it was under and in a shade tree, yes, the side of Tana was in the tree, no damage done, and we had SHADE! We put the fur kids in Tana, opened windows, turned on fans and hustled off to see the park as fast as we could. It was already quite warm and we knew it would not be long before it was unbearable. We had to move rather fast, see the park, and get those fur kids back in the air conditioned truck. Due to our running length and width, we did not drive out to the second area of the battlefield, which is a 4.5 mile one way drive on a narrow road.

Even though I truly love history and family history, I am not much on battlefields and such. I enjoy visiting and looking at them, but, the science and theory and maneuvers, just are beyond me. I don't know a company from any other kind of unit. However, I must admit I had a bit of interest in this battlefield due to the fact that we live very near Monroe County Michigan where there are a number of monuments and other sites connected to George Armstrong Custer who, as we know, led the U.S. Army's 7th Cavalry in the tragic battle with the Sioux and Cheyenne.

There are two memorials for George Custer at Find A Grave, one for Little Bighorn, where he was originally buried, and one for his final interment at West Point, New York.

Let's have a look at a few of the photos I took. Let's do that quietly, as this place demands, peace, quiet, reflecting, honoring all.

Below, part of the National Cemetery here, photo textured for effect.

Below: Looking up the hill to part of the battlefield, the soldiers were originally buried where they fell.

Wreath near the Indian Memorial, which was dedicated June25th, 2003. The memorial was placed in memory of all the tribes defending their way of life at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, June 25 and 26th 1876.

Below: a very small part of the Indian Memorial.

There is a nice visitors center/museum. The displays, as with so many of the wonderful national parks are well done, interesting, and a few minutes spent reviewing are minutes well spent.

There is of course, a lot of information on both Little Bighorn and George Armstrong Custer on the Internet. There is a lengthy Wikipedia page, where you find this great photo of George and his bride, Elizabeth Clift Bacon, whom he married on February 9, 1864. Elizabeth also has a Wikipedia page, makes for some interesting reading. I believe the photo to be in the public domain, please see this page for full details on that.

I do so love it when I can combine my interests of photography, history, family history, my travels and my knowledge of our home counties in SE Michigan. It is a little known fact that Custer's horse is buried in Tecumseh Lenawee County Michigan. I have a photo of the monument boulder somewhere, but, of course, cannot locate it at the moment, so, if you want to see a photo of it and read the story, please visit this blog.

After our visit we continued down I 90 to Buffalo, Wyoming, where we spent the night. Oh, and those high temperatures, I recorded a temperature of 91 degrees, that was about 1:40 local time. After all the time we spent in the upper elevations of Yellowstone, it was a bit of a shock to our systems to experience 91. It was not the warmest day we would experience in the next month or so, but, you will hear about some of those later in THE Trip.

THE Trip, West Yellowstone to Billings Montana

2012-01-03T06:09:00.000-05:00

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

June 27, 2011 after a wonderful visit to Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Teton National Park, it is time for us to move on. Our route today will take us north on 191 to Bozeman and then, EAST to Billings. Other than our ride from Salton Sea California to Yuma Arizona and then on to Gold Canyon Arizona, I think this is our first turn back east since leaving the stick built in mid November 2010. Last winter's monster snows (4 times the normal snow pack) will keep us from wandering up to say, Glacier National Park, they are still digging out up there from 90 FOOT (not inches) snow drifts on the Going to the Sun Road. So, a little bit reluctantly we make the 230 mile trip to Billings, but, THE Trip is not over yet.

The drive from West Yellowstone to Bozeman is 90 miles give or take. It is beautiful country and there are few buildings, homes, ranches, small towns, it is big and ~~empty~~, errr, full of mountains, rivers, beautiful sights.

We had not been on the road long when we encountered a traffic stop near a construction zone. We don't see this in our neck of the woods (southeast Michigan), and in fact, this was one of the first times we encountered this, a real true escort through the construction zone, a pilot car, or in this case, truck. (Photo lacks in quality.)

The scenery was well, awesome, breath taking, BIG and WOW!

The next two photos are for our Montana RVing friends, they will totally get this:

MMM, excuse the reflection of Sony and my fingers in the screen of the Acer Iconia tablet. Look closely, that little blue arrow, was were we were, north and east of Big Sky, Montana. OK, I will admit it, I did not realize there was a town named Big Sky in Montana, again, our MOC RVing friends will get this, and probably just shake their heads at me and my silliness.

We really did not see a lot of buildings, but this cluster of barns with good ole barn red paint was very attractive sitting there on this little piece of heaven.

Big country, big snows, big snow fence! And, this one is small, we saw some that seemed to go on for 1/2 mile. Very long! None of that orange plastic stuff out here!

Big country:

At Bozeman we jump on I 90 and head towards Billings Montana.

We would spend one night in Billings in a campground just a stones throw from the first KOA (Kampgrounds of America) campground in the country. We saw the sign to the campground, but at those rates, we were not going near the place. Maybe we should have stayed there to say we stayed in the first KOA, but, it just was not that important to us, so, snicker, we did not!

*That disclaimer thingy, KOA and Kampgrounds of America did not help with our expenses or pay me a plug nickle to mention them. We have been in the past and probably will be in the future members of KOA value card reward program, which allows us a small discount in their campgrounds. Yep, we pay for our value card membership and all our camping fees, they get mentioned, they own the copyrights, and all that other stuff.
.

Found:: 1879 Obituary, Bibles Sometimes Hide Surprises, Nice Surprises

2012-01-02T06:22:00.018-05:00

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

In the past I have done a hunk of family research for my nephew, and his mother, my ex-sister-in-law, Deb. Lately she has taken some interest in adding to my foundation of work. She is also a RVer, on the road for the coolish months. This fall she and hubby Ron stopped in Kentucky and Tennessee to visit family and friends. One of their stops was in Adair County, Kentucky. Deb's father's clan was from Adair County Kentucky and family is still there.

Deb emailed me while they were there and we chatted about what she might do research wise while she was there. During a visit with a cousin a mention of a family bible was made. I knew from my previous research that there was a family bible. I actually found a transcription of it in a book at the Allen County Public Library, Fort Wayne, Indiana. The way I remember our discussions that evening, I urged her to contact her cousin again and inquire, was this cousin open to allowing Deb to photograph the Bible. Deb was indeed able to obtain photos of the bible pages, including the title page.

Deb emailed me the photos that evening, I was time challenged, we were packing Tana for departure within hours. The photos were dark, eventually I would lighten them all a bit with the photo editing software. But, on first glance I knew this was not the bible that I had the transcriptions for. This was not the Marshall Bible, this was the Clinton A. Walker Family Bible. The birth page had Clinton's birthday and wonderfully, it also had his "reborn" again date. It has the dates of birth of his two wives and of his children. The marriage page has the dates of his marriages to both of his wives. On the Memoranda page is recorded Clinton's parents birth information, all new to me. The death page did not have as many entries, but, each one was another piece of information well appreciated. These pages contain many dates and names I do not have in the data base, some prior to when I expect I will be able to find any vital records.

Then there was this blank page (as in no printed heading) that was filled with more names, dates and fabulous little tidbits like, "house burnd June 9th 1889" and "snow 27 inches deep Feb 3rd 1886", and one lone newspaper clipping, an obituary for Clinton's first wife, Susan.

I had found Susan in my research, she was on my data base, Susan H. Beard. Susan's full name and supposed place of birth came from information provided on the death certificate of her daughter. Not much else had been discovered about Susan, I could estimate a year of birth from the 1870 census enumeration. And, now, we have a copy of Susan's obituary, a bit dark, but we have it.

Did not take me long at all to import this image into the photo editing program and start tweaking, see:

Oh, my, her full date of death, cause of death, fact that she is survived by husband and 3 young daughters, and yummy, her parents names! In my research anyway, there are not a lot of old newspaper clippings, I was so happy to see this one, and so well preserved, no frayed edges, and not faded away either.

It also did not take long for me to transcribe the obituary. And, now, the image and the transcription have been added to the data base.

Of course, I informed Deb that she had found a:

TOTAL GOLD MINE!!!!!!!

Yes, indeedy, sometimes there are wonderful tidbits and surprises hidden in your family bibles. And, sometimes they are a gold mine.

* Susan H. Beard Walker's obituary publication data is unknown as this time, thanks to Deb for granting permission to use it here at Reflections.

.

Happy New Year

2012-01-01T07:02:00.001-05:00

2011, Stepping In and Out of Comfort Zones

2011-12-31T06:06:00.002-05:00

Copyright 2011, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

2011 became for us, really more specifically, for Moi, a year of stepping in and out of my comfort zones. Sometimes dramatic steps, other times cautious, slow, small baby steps. As I was walking (for exercise) around the park the other day my mind wandered, well more like blasted sideways, every which way, random thoughts, somewhat disconnected, but, all about my comfort zones. Here, in no particular order, just blasting sideways outta my memory banks, some things that took me IN and OUT of my comfort zones in 2011:

THE Trip, lots of comfort zone stuff, bears and bison in Yellowstone, trams in Palm Springs (the over the top, largest OUT of my comfort zone event ever).

Below: Sedona Arizona:

120 heat factor near Amana Colonies Iowa (that heat was also an over the top OUT of my comfort zone event, dangerous too).

Hiking in Moab and sliding down boulders and formations taller than I (OUT of my zone, but I did it).

Below, Man in Dead Horse State Park, he was IN his comfort zone, I was OUT of mine, even just taking the photo I was WAYYY OUT!

The views in Monument Valley, Bryce, Moab, Arches National Park, Zion National Park (the drive in was something else), Capital Reef (thanks Jan). All new and visually exciting, but I am going to call them IN my comfort zone. My eyes could not take it all in, Sony tried, but, also in reality failed. It was all just so H*U*G*E!

Below: Mesa Arch, Island in the Sky District of Canyonlands National Park:

Boondocking vs full hookup camp sites. Full hookups, definite IN the comfort zones, boondocking was at first OUT of the comfort zones, but, I loved it, even more than Man. It was especially fun with all our MOC friends.

Lousy photos and some that take my breath away (both IN and OUT of my comfort zones, I think I learned something, then, I forget it, so I go learn it again! LOL)

Reminded myself how much I don't like captcah, the necessary evil of blogging and the internet. Many of my friend and readers don't like it either so this is an OUT of comfort zone, which sadly will remain here on Reflections and my other blogs till someone shuts off all the snarly nasty spammers. Like that is going to happen, well, no, don't see that happening at all. SIGHHH

Babies born, loss of angels. Both remind me of the circle of life, bringing me IN and OUT of my comfort zones, some shaking me to my foundation, leaving me different forever.

A huge IN the comfort zone: We have friends all over this nation, so we are rarely somewhere alone. We met bloggers and RVing friends almost everywhere we stopped. It is comforting to know that our friends are nearby, and are available for lunch or dinner, a walk in a park, shopping and visiting.

In the family research part of my life: Salt Lake City and the research mecca, TOTAL IN my comfort zone. I miss onsite research, I miss research at the local Family History Centers. I walked in, felt right at home, breathed in the familiar, hear Carol sigh, a total enjoy, the total IN!

Other family history comfort zones, I had to upgrade to RootsMagic 4 during my research time in Salt Lake City. Giving this an OUT of my comfort zone. Learning curve is never fun, makes me snarly. I was familiar with RM, but, 4 was quite a bit different than 3. I still am not IN my comfort zone with RM4. So, to take myself even further OUT of my comfort zone, I am now seriously looking at Legacy. I am so far OUT of my comfort zone with this that I stopped all input for a month or more, thankfully, I was not doing a lot of research, but, still, events piled up, I need to address this. So, I am doing what any right minded researcher does, I am using both and inputting my data to both. Yea, the OUT of my comfort zone just grew larger yet.

Other IN and OUT issues: Snarly volunteers cross the web make the OUT of my comfort zone list. Being addressed as "Miss Carol" while here in Alabama, way IN my comfort zone. Time learning new software, new web sites, Google+, takes me OUT of my comfort zones for a while, hopefully, eventually, this morfs to IN my comfort zones and become good things. Google + is really expanding my horizons, meeting new people, having new ideas tossed at me. The photography I see there challenges me in so many ways, and if nothing else, I sure am enjoying the OUT of my comfort zone time I spend at G+. Sometimes being OUT of my comfort zone is a very good thing.

Coming back to Gulf Shores Alabama for some of our winter months, so so so IN my comfort zone, like coming home again. We were here for 5 months during the 2009-10 winter season, we are back and just enjoying it, breathing deep, IN our comfort zone.

The ultimate (for Carol) IN my comfort zone, being with Man and the yorks in Tana and a bunch of deep red rock (below, Monument Valley camping):

So, in hindsight, 2011 was packed full of IN and OUT of my comfort zone moments. Can't help but wonder, what 2012 might bring. I think I am ready!

Happy New Year to all our friends and family, may 2012 bring you many opportunities to reach out and step IN or OUT of your personal comfort zones. With any luck at all you will get to experience both IN and OUT events, go ahead embrace the challenge.

* By the way, no goal setting or resolutions here at Reflections for 2012, part of my comfort zone experience is trusting my Maker to put me where I need to be when, to not question, to trust, to give up the false belief in control. The ultimate step OUT of my comfort zone.
.

What Man Got Tana for Christmas, Well, What Man Got Man For Christmas

2011-12-30T18:08:00.001-05:00

Copyright 2011, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Dish, mega millions of telie stations delivered 24/7. Man loves it because it is month to month. He's happy. Merry Christmas Tana, errrr, Man.

THE Trip, Yellowstone National Park, Roosevelt, Snow and One Last Look

2011-12-30T06:21:00.001-05:00

Copyright 2011, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Our last day in Yellowstone was June 25th, 2011. We were driving what I have chosen to call the north loop in the park, it was called Grand Loop on the GPS. After the bear sighting/photo op thrill, we continued east towards the Tower-Roosevelt area. Below, this is the Roosevelt Lodge area, this is the lodge and general store. We stopped for a short break and a snack.

Below, the cabins, yes, you can book a stay in them, they open in mid May and close early September. And yes, they are quite small. Cute, aren't they?

Next we stop at the area known for the bleached cliffs, which also had these outstanding formations, but, first the beached cliffs. In this area there is a lot of steam that rises from the Calcite Springs, steam and chemicals. The combination of steam and chemicals actually turn the cliff above the springs and river a pale yellow/white pulp. Sure makes for a pretty photo.

In the same area there are some basalt formations called hexagonal columns. They were formed due to lava which actually caused a flood of fire about twenty five feet deep. That is a really horrible description of the notes I found on the signage, and now we all know why I was never meant to be a scientist or geologist! LOL Here are two photos, see that contrasting stone that looks like it was just chiseled out , neat, eh?? The river cannot be seen in this photo, but, it is down there.

Zoom a bit:

The road now takes a turn towards the south, we are headed toward Canyon Village, but there are several more beautiful sights to see, and one last really good dose of snow. Not far from the Calcite Springs area shown above is the Tower Falls. They drop 132 feet, it is a short 150 yard walk down to the viewing area.

Back in Big Butt heading UP the mountain we stop for a photo op, panoramic style:

We climb from about 8100 feet to close to 8450 feet according to the photos I took of the GPS (my techy way of taking notes! LOL) and it was 56 degrees and there was just a bit of snow left on the ground from last winter:

As we continue back down the mountain from Dunraven Pass (elevation 8859 feet) I take just a few more photos of this huge magnificent Yellowstone National Park, our first national park, the last is below:

Our visit to Yellowstone will be over as soon as we drive from Canyon Village back west to Norris, then south to Madison and then west to West Yellowtone. I took no more photos. It has been quite the week, geysers, mountains, fish, bear, bison, baby bison, rivers, waterfalls, lakes and more of each. It was expensive to stay there, even with Tana, the most we have paid anywhere, I believe. The elevation was an issue for us and thus there were sights we did not see, roads we did not drive. Not sure we will ever be able to go back, but, the crystal clear lakes, streams, rivers, snow covered mountain tops will be forever in our memories and I have just a few photos to help maintain the memories.

Yellowstone was, simply - Totally! Awesome!

THE Trip, Yellowstone National Park, It's Bear Time

2011-12-29T06:31:00.001-05:00

Copyright 2011, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Man had a few bucket list items during THE Trip. One was to see bears, black and grizzly. Our first chance at seeing a black bear had been a couple of days prior and even though he saw the bear, the photo op was a bust. Man had tried, but, bear was not cooperating. I'll tell ya right now, that his bucket list still includes the grizzly, and I for one, am just fine with that. I was already pushing my luck and comfort zone with my close encounter with the bison and the elk or mule deer that just about ran into Big Butt two days prior in the Canyon Village area.

On June 25, 2011 after lunch in the Mammoth Hot Springs area, we continued our drive around what I am calling the "north loop". Now headed east we are headed for the Tower-Roosevelt area of the park. From the photo below you can see that the rivers are all quite full, they had four times the normal snow fall the winter before in and around Utah, Montana, Wyoming and other northwestern states of the US. Snow was still on the mountain tops and the rivers had not yet crested from the melt off. All that water and the spring green sure made for some beautiful scenery.

There are several areas in the park where we noted there had been fires, some set as controlled burns, others, acts of Mother Nature or careless visitors. Burned areas are dramatic, one can imagine the drama of the event, and the prior beauty. But, it is a time of re-birth as well, and I find it rather fascinating to view the aftermath, the new tiny trees and their pale green beginnings. You can see the lay of the land, pockets of water, maybe paper thin springs and running water that you cannot see through the heavy forests. During our ride from Mammoth Hot Springs to Tower-Roosevelt I spied this area that had burned, and there near the base of this burnt tree, a shelf mushroom. The photo is not the best of the mushroom, but check out the evidence of the fire and the evidence of a forest being re-born.

We continued on our drive, and not 2 minutes later we saw, yes, here it comes, a BEAR! It was lumbering down the hillside coming directly at the road, and us. And, I had Man do just what they tell you NOT to do, pretty much stop on the roadway, and of course, you block other traffic behind you (cause you know the oncoming traffic has done the same thing - - stopped). There are no shoulders to speak of, so, if you stop, you stop on the road. We wanted to watch bear and of course, Sony and I wanted a photo op. I rolled the window down, and started shooting.

See, here it comes:

Closer, and moving along at a pretty good clip, even though you think of them as lumbering, from our first glance and photo till my last photo, about 3 minutes time.

And, closer yet.

About this point in the photo shoot Mr. or Mrs. Bear was getting pretty close to Big Butt and occupants, which included all 3 yorkies. Taking no chances that said bear would smell said yorkies and become overly interested I gave Man the "let's get outta here NOW" command, and he hit the gas peddle. We were the first vehicle stopped in the queue, so away we went. I tried for one more photo, best of the photo op in some ways, only, missed the head portion, SIGHHH. Only regrets this entire trip, photos missed. If Man had not stepped on the gas quite so hard, oh, never mind! LOL

And, that is our bear story/sighting of the entire trip. Close enough for moi. Total encounter a little over 3 minutes, you just saw ALL the photos I was able to click off. The rest of the time I was in stunned awe!

* By the way, none of these photos were edited as far as size, I most likely had Sony zoomed some when the photos were shot, but, the post photo editing I did with Photoshop consisted only of a bit of auto correct, a little brightness and/or contrast adjustment and maybe a tweak with the sharpness tool. So, yes, that bear came fairly close to the truck and occupants.
.

THE Trip, Yellowstone National Park, Driving to Mammoth Hot Springs

2011-12-28T06:24:00.002-05:00

Copyright 2011, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

On June 25th 2011 we made our last visit to Yellowstone National Park. We left West Yellowstone, drove to Madison and turned north. At Norris we kept going north, heading to Mammoth Hot Springs. On tap for the day is to have lunch at Mammoth Hot Springs, then drive what I am calling the north loop, east to the Tower-Roosevelt area, then south to Canyon Village area and returning to Norris, Madison and West Yellowstone.

Below: Sheepeater Cliff, name for the Shoshone Indians who used the bighorn sheep. The cliffs are now a very popular climbing place, for young and old(er) alike. You can't tell from this photo, but, lots of youngsters just scamper up this cliff, almost as if they are bighorn sheep.

Sony brings us closer. And, no, Man, nor I, attempted a climb.

Below: another view of the area, more cliffs The cliffs were formed some 500,000 years ago by basalt lava that formed these columnar joints when it cooled.

This is the Golden Gate area, ya, we drove over that bridge, and ya, ole Carol was looking out the window of Big Butt on that far right side.

On some park signage nearby I found this photo and information. The signage explains that a wooden trestle was built in 1885 by the Corps of Engineers. It has been replaced twice since 1900. I have to say, I am really glad it was replaced, cause the chances of getting me over this wooden thing are slim and NONE!

Turn around 180 degrees from the view of the bridge and behind you, Rustic Falls. Putting the search engine to work I found some web sites, one web site that talked about Rustic Falls, here, and another site is here. Fun to look at the difference in the amount of water coming over the falls on these two sites.

Continuing our drive north to Mammoth Hot Springs, at one point you can see the town, the Albright Visitor Center and Historic Fort Yellowstone, below.

We drove through the Upper Terraces area, and probably would have stopped for a photo op or two, but we could not find a parking spot for Big Butt (and we were getting hungry!). But, Man snapped this nice photo of the Orange Spring Mound out the truck window. This spring flows from vents from the top and the side. The color comes from thermophiles that living in the hot water. (As a reminder, when I link to another web site, you must be the judge as to the validity of the information. I find em, lead you to em, you read em and judge em!)

The formation below is called Liberty Cap, it is 37 feet tall, created from a hot spring that was active in this one location for maybe hundreds of years. The internal pressure raised the water to a great height, which allowed the mineral deposits to slowly build up. Kinda cool, err, warm eh??

We finally made our way into Mammoth Hot Springs and had a wonderful lunch. Many of our friends asked us if we saw the herds of elk while there. Well, mmm, NO. Not one elk. Even the sign said we should see elk. SIGHH.

We did spy this bird, it is a black-billed magpie.

And, we saw these rodents, believed to be the Uinta ground squirrel. They were busy little creatures, scurrying, having some lunch of the weeds and grasses growing there.

I have to admit, they are kinda cute, and my faithful readers will remember how much I love (?) rodents. NOT!!

After our lunch we wandered over to the visitors center, and had a look at the displays. It was time to get back on the road, we will head east towards the Tower-Roosevelt area, and we will have a bit of a close encounter with - - well, come on back, and soon I'll show you - -

.

Tuesday's Tip, Revisiting My Top Ten Soapbox

2011-12-27T06:47:00.006-05:00

Copyright 2011, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

I have been spending the last few days concentrating on one of my many projects, that of copying blog posts individually into a word processor and saving them as individual files. I use this as another method of backups, I can convert to PDF files which I can use in a book project or attach to my family history data base. I am way behind on this project, like so many other projects, some would say I am having too much fun. Sounds good to me! LOL

So, I am working on December 2010 and am enjoying re-reading posts, taking a trip back in time, Las Cruces New Mexico, the Organ Mountains and some end of the year type posts.

I really liked this post, liked it enough to decide to share it with you again. This is a first, I have never re-posted. I hope my family history readers enjoy, maybe take away something that will help you in your search.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Barbara over at Life From the Roots, has done several posts about her Top Ten - Top Ten Sayings, Top Ten Hints, Top Ten - Brick Walls, etc. I have enjoyed her "series" a lot and told her so, and she immediately issued the challenge, "Do one of your own." I giggled and said, if I had ten tops, I would.

And, then, the other day I had one of those memory trigger things go off in my head. Next thing I knew, I had my own Top Ten - My Soapbox Times Ten. Ten lessons I repeat time and time again when I have the opportunity to teach. Here ya go Barbara, in no particular order:

1.) Spelling don't count.

2.) Source, source, source. State your sources, in your notes, in your footnotes, source it baby!

3.) Do your census work.

4.) Don't skip generations. Work generation by generation. Ya, tedious sometimes, but skipping creates major trouble for most of us sometime down the line.

5.) Give credit where credit is due. Cousin Joe shares a photo with you, mention him, thank him somewhere, in your data base, in the caption of the photo in your printed work, on your web site. You owe him, give him credit. You would not have that photo without his generosity. It does not hurt to give credit to others. It does not diminish your volume of work, it only enhances it, shows community.

6.) Thank your volunteers. Did you get all this fabulous family stuff without the help of volunteers?? If you did, may I say, WOW. If you had help, thank them in email, or even better, send them a small donation, tell them to go have lunch on you. Oh, and if they had expenses on your account, pay them, and then add that lunch $$.

7.) Give back. Volunteer to help someone else. Feels great, pay it forward.

8.) Share your research. Keeping it to yourself?? May I ask, why?? Not saying you have to share everything about the 25,677 people in your data base with every 10th cousin 3 times removed you meet up with, but, sharing some about your connection, that far flung ggg, something or other, is the right thing to do.

9.) Have fun, laugh. OK, this is serious to you, you want exact dates, places, you do sourcing that would make Elizabeth (Shown Mills) proud. But, remember, all work and no play makes the family researcher a grouch. (Or something like that! LOL) Really, look for the silly, the ridiculous, the absurd. Smile!

10.) Start with yourself, be very sure you know WHO you are. Many many years ago an article was written about an English gentleman, we shall call George. George researched for something like 20 years, personally interviewed over 2000 of his closest kin. Finally got around to interviewing his aunt (no times removed, just his aunt) and, the very first thing out of her mouth was,

"But George, you were adopted!"

As far as I know this is a true story, but, even if it is not, I think you get the lesson.

Go forth and research, I'll get off my soap box for now.

*Graphic courtesy of freeclipartnow.com, noting I stitched the numbers together to make one graphic to get the number 10!
.

Where Did All The Comments Go?

2011-12-26T12:59:00.000-05:00

Copyright 2011, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

I have been spending time reviewing old posts here on Reflections, copying them into individual word processing files for backup purposes.

It is an interesting trip down memory lane. Fun, joyful, sometimes sad, but, always interesting.

But, I cannot help but wonder, where did all the comments go?

Last year this time I received quite a few comments on quite a few posts.

Maybe you all are bored with THE Trip. Maybe, I really should have moved THE Trip to it's own blog. Maybe I just don't write interesting stuff these days.

Maybe you are all just so busy. Maybe turning the captcha back on discouraged you.

Maybe you just aren't reading?? Well, someone is reading, my numbers reported by StatCounter have made me smile, 35 so far today, the days prior, Christmas day 98 hits, going back further 153, 120, 181, 203, 158 and 150. I smile at those numbers.

So, why the downturn of comments?

I have chatted about this with other bloggers, I am not the only one noticing this.

Has the heyday of blogging come and gone? Or is it that we have so many great things to read that we zip in and out, or use email delivery to read or one of the RSS feeds/readers and never visit the sites, so, rarely comment.

Where or where did the comments go?

*Ohh, for the record, I noticed the down turn well before the holidays, so it seems to be an ongoing issue.
.

The Crèche of Salvation Mountain

2011-12-25T06:13:00.002-05:00

The reason for the season.

Merry Christmas to all.

From Man and Moi.

.

Man, Santa and Moi, Wishing You a Merrrrrrry Christmas

2011-12-24T15:28:00.000-05:00

HO HO HO, Merrrrrrry Christmas

* BTW, Santa gave the gal that sat down just before me a VERY large diamond ring, the ring was not large, the diamond was! I figure I must have been bad all year, maybe for years, Santa did not give me any diamond ring. Hmmmmpphhhhh. Good thing I really don't wear much or covet jewelry, don't you think?? Ya, me too! I would prefer that Santa bring me a new techy toy! Or pay for a months rent in a fabulous campground. Just sayin - -

.

Tana Decorates With Yorkies, But Of Course!

2011-12-24T06:12:00.016-05:00

Palms, Sand and Holiday Decorations, I'm Adjusting to The Idea

2011-12-23T07:15:00.006-05:00

Copyright 2011, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

After many many years of Christmas in the north country (let that read, cold and frequently snowy country), I have to admit being somewhere warm at this time of the year is a bit different for us, nice and different! The first time I saw holiday decorations hanging from palm trees I shook my head and giggled. Several years later, I am still amused, I love being warm, mind you, but, street decorations next to huge palm trees, well, they do make me smile! LOL

So, I thought I would share a few photos of some of the holiday decorations I have found around Gulf Shores Alabama. BTW, the third photo, was taken right at the city beach in Gulf Shores, just beyond that railing is the sand and the water. The bow was not made of normal ribbon, whatever material it is, it can take a beating. Lots of visitors to the area visit and have their family holiday photos taken with the water and sand and those big bows in the background. The more than life size toy solider has been included cause I think he is just too cute, I mean, don't you just love a man in uniform?

Come to think of it, sand is almost white like snow, if you can get past the palm trees - - ya, I think I can!!

.

Lighted Boat Parade

2011-12-22T07:28:00.000-05:00

Copyright 2011, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Cruising down the Intracoastal Waterway, Gulf Shores, Alabama. Big boats, lots of people having a grand time on those boats. Some dressed as Santa, one boat had about 6 Mrs. Santas, dancing on the bow. They use generators to light the lights and blow up the large Santas and Snowmen. Reindeer, decorated trees and even some lighted palm trees were spotted. Lots of cheers of "Merry Christmas" were heard. A fine time was had by all, the boaters and the land lovers watching from the banks.

*It was harder to shoot these moving light shows than it was to shoot mountains doing 65 MPH. Who knew??

.

When in the Land of Cotton, Decorate for the Holidays, With Cotton

2011-12-21T07:23:00.001-05:00

Copyright 2011, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

These photos were taken at the Swift Cole House, near Bon Secour, Baldwin County, Alabama during their "White Christmas of 2011. We were given special permission to take photos in the house, just this one time. I did not use flash for any of the photos, so most of them have a distinct golden cast. I think it adds something to the photos, as if they were taken years ago, a step back in time. The decorations are for the most part natural, and the use of cotton, raw cotton, just picked from the fields, is quite prevalent. The staircase is a prominent feature of the home, decorated with lights (electric) and cotton, two photos of the staircase are included in this collection:

A Different Kind of Holiday Story, Having to do With Peppermints, a Horny Mouse, and a VERY Tiny Reindeer

2011-12-20T09:44:00.000-05:00

Copyright 2011, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

The following story is "R" rated. R for a bit "racy". Just sayin - -

Man and I have been RVing since 1972. Well, we started "camping", you know, tenting. We worked our way up through the ranks, popup camper, hard sided travel trailers and now, we "RV" in our beloved Tana.

We have been wintering away from the chill and snow of SE Michigan basically since he retired in 2001. Had to stay home a couple of years for medical reasons, but, other than those 2 years we have been escaping. The first year we did not escape winter, we escaped Michigan March. I have to say, Michigan is a pretty state, even WITH snow, but, March is the ugliest, nastiest 1/12th of the year in Michigan, bar none. It is cold, really wet, ugly gray, I don't think the sun EVER shines in Michigan in March. Well, almost never. (Hey, that's my story and I'm stickin' to it!)

Over the years Man and I have developed procedures for leaving the stick built long term. Who to contact, who to hire to do certain work while we are gone, how to winterize the house, what to suspend (saving $$ - wahhooo). We have a detailed and a long list, typed into a word processor, usually edited and tweaked a bit each and every year. The list has served us well over the years, getting better with age, working, UNLESS, yes, you know there is always an "UNLESS", we don't follow it, faithfully, and fully.

And, if you happen to forget an item for say, ohhhh, 2 years in a row. Can we say, ooops, and, messy?? Well, for us it was.

One of the to do items is to spread a low nitrogen plant fertilizer, Milorganite, that is produced from human sludge. Ya, I know, TMI, and it also has a rather strong distinctive and not real pleasant odor. But there is a little something besides feeding my plants and trees that I have learned along the way about Milorganite, and that is that it discourages mice and deer and other critters from eating my trees and bushes and for some reason, it discourages rodents, like mice and shrews from seeking refuge IN our house. Really it does.

And, for some unknown reason, other than a temporary (one can hope it was only temporary, can't I??), but major case of the STUPIDS, I forgot to put the Milorganite down for not one, nooo nooo nooo, but TWO years. First year slipped by and there were no mice in the house and well, that made it pretty easy to forget in year number 2.

My luck however did not extend into year 2. That, topped off by the other really STUPID thing I did, leaving a huge bag of peppermint candies in the house. You know, those really large bags you buy at places like Sams and Costco?? Ya, the mega bags, that last more than a year. I saw no reason to transfer that large bag of candy into Tana. I mean, it would not spoil over the winter in a house with the temps down to 47 degrees F. Hard candies, wrapped individually - -

Did you know that mice can unwrap individually wrapped hard candies? Yep, they can. Did you know that they can carry those candies for extremely long distances?? Yep, they can. Did you know they can carry those candies for extremely long distances up the inside of your walls?? Yep, they can.

Cut to April when we return to the stick built. It did not take long to determine we had a issue, with mice, with peppermint candies and wrappers strewn everywhere in our home. Partially eaten pieces of candy and wrappers in every closet, lots of drawers, under things, in potted plants, on all 3 levels of the house, basement, main floor and top floor. I even found those little give away hints (peppermint candies go in, something must come out, eh??) in of all places, the toaster. Man said, we can clean it. Oh, that was the wrong thing to say. I went ballistic. Over and over and over again. He actually dumped the little hints out of the toaster, but I took said toaster to the garbage and informed him he was to go purchase a new toaster and I guess he figured I meant it, because he did what I insisted he do, he purchased a new toaster.

As I opened more drawers and closets I discovered more and more of those hints, and lap blankets shredded for nesting purposes. Yes, partially eaten candies and wrappers were everywhere. Every new piece of evidence was cause for me to become more and more agitated, the tears started, the ranting started, screaming too. Every day for weeks I was more and more mean and I was MAD. Man did not hear one nice thing out of me for quite some time, even after he volunteered to help me clean (or was it that I demanded he help me clean?? )

And, clean we did, it took some time, all day, every day for several weeks. Cupboards and drawers were totally cleaned out, everything stored in them washed, lots of disinfectant was being used. We filled a couple of trash cans with all those stinking candy wrappers. All the time, ole Carol was ranting and raving, and all but foaming at the mouth (and I am not sure that I did NOT foam at the mouth). I was no fun, I was nasty, I did not even like living with me. Gotta say, when I don't want to live with me, that is about as bad as it gets.

Eventually, we ran out of creative places to look, we felt we had done a fairly decent job of the clean up. I began to relax some, especially after Man caught several of those F*A*T, and most likely, diabetic mice, and they left my home. I had no idea that a mouse could be that F*A*T!! Plumb, round, and F*A*T!

But, for months, I found more wrappers, buried deep in some large house plants, one day I was removing dead leaves from inside the pot and yep, out came several candy wrappers.

At some point my angst began to subside and my weird dark sense of humor started to return. Then, one afternoon in July or August I found more candies. They were on top of my buffet, the top of which is about 4 foot tall. I found several wrappers and then some partial pieces of candy. Then, I found,

The reindeer. On it's side, obviously, sighhhh, dead.

I know you all are aghast, asking, "in your house Carol?? really?? reindeer??"

Yes, in my house, on my buffet, the reindeer, all of 2.5 inches tall, was part of my Christmas in the City collection, which for several years has been left up, pretty much all year round. If you look very hard in the photo above, on the far right, close to the top of the snow covered tree, you can JUST barely see the little reindeer, see that white tiny blob between the tree and the German Beer Garden?? Well, you can take my word for it, the reindeer is there. (I hear you snickering!!)

Obviously a mouse had knocked over that little reindeer while scurrying up the back of the buffet with his treat looking for a peaceful and pleasant dinner setting. I mean, what mouse would not appreciate the lovely Christmas in the City buildings and the bridge. That mouse had a really nice dining atmosphere, he even had the Salvation Army playing a little ditty during dinner.

But at that very moment, when I spied my reindeer lying on his side, obviously DOA, my dark sense of humor went in the gutter. I decided on the spot that the mouse was a horny little mouse, that he took out his affections on my reindeer, making whooppee with my reindeer, sugar induced whooppee, which probably means, lots of energy, mmmm, and that the mouse killed my reindeer with all that whooppee. Gasp! That is why I found my little white reindeer lying on his side DOA! (Are you tearing up yet??)

And, that my dear readers is how I take peppermint candy, an infestation of mice, my holiday decorations and one poor little 2.5 inch tall DOA reindeer and come up with a holiday story of a different kind.

Yea, I know, ole Carol is one sick lady.

* You know it is coming, the disclaimer: Milorganite is copyrighted by them. They did not ask me to mention them, and the only connection I have with the company is that I use the product. Ditto for Sams and Costco, I spend my $$$ there, I get no special discounts, they did not ask me to mention them.

**The candy photo is courtesy of Gospel Clip Art. The mouse clip art is courtesy of Classroomclipart.com

*** I no longer leave candy in any shape or form at the stick-built during the months we are out and about in Tana, I think you know why. I also no longer forget to put the Milorganite down, HEAVILY! And, we should have purchased stock in some mouse trap company. Yea, we bought that many of them, snap ones, sticky ones, we bought em! It has been several years now since the peppermint/mouse incident and our house sitter has only found 1 shrew, in a trap, in all those years, the Milorganite is working. See Carol smile!
.

Dreaming of a White - -

2011-12-19T10:13:00.000-05:00

Tis the Season, Coming Soon, After This n' That From Reflections

2011-12-18T20:56:00.001-05:00

Copyright 2011, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

It has been a wild couple of weeks. There was a weekend of broohaa over RootsTech, and vendors and books. I could not help myself, I was reading social media and blogs as fast as something new came online. And, no, I am not going to RootsTech. It was an interesting weekend, for the most part, the discussions were respectful, passionate, but, pretty much respectful. It was some weekend alright and some great reading was to be had!

No sooner did that settle down and there was another interesting discussion, held for the most part at Google +. Discussion covered Ancestry and the old search engine vs the new search engine. This discussion did not go viral as did the RootsTech one. Again, I could not stay away, and even participated, expressing my true feelings more than once. No final outcome, but, as always, I learn something from the discussions.

And, for the genea-trifecta, searching the Social Security Death Index is no longer the same This is so disconcerning to me that I can barely discuss it. It is gone from RootsWeb.com, and partially disabled from other web sites, if you are looking for social security numbers for someone that died in the last 10 years you better start collecting them now. A few web sites that offer the SSDI still have those numbers, but, that may not continue.

Genealogical speaking it has been one heck of a roller coaster kind of week!

On December 15th we learned of the passing of Kevin Eubank who had been the caretaker of Leonard Knight of Salvation Mountain, Niland, California for the last couple of years. Leonard and Salvation Mountain were highlighted here on Reflections back on March 1st. And, you may remember that I was honored by a filmmaker by the choice of one of my photos to use in the promotion of a film about Leonard. Leonard has had a mini-stroke and is suffering from dementia and has been placed in a very good care facility. Kevin notified the Facebook followers of Salvation Mountain about Leonard's condition and situation via a YouTube video and less than 24 hours later he was gone. All are shocked. Personally, I have my own beliefs as to the timing, but, it is all in our Maker's hands, now isn't it??

Man and I have been trying to walk more, my health issues demand it. I will be the first to tell you that even though I enjoy hikes in places like Gold Canyon, Arizona and Moab, Utah, I am not at all enthused about most walking for exercise. OK, I rather abhor it. Getting me out the door is like pulling teeth outta chickens. SIGH. The only thing that might relieve some of the agony is the possibility of something fun or interesting to shoot with Sony. So, I walk with Sony in one hand, always searching for something to shoot. I have been partially successful, the armadillo photos over at Flora and Fauna were done while investigating a new hiking trail. OK, I feel better when I have had my walk, but, still, it is not my preferred chore of the day.

Man and I went to a boat parade the other evening on the Intracoastal water way. Sony and I only managed to get a few photos that are salvageable. I have taken some other fun holiday type photos while here. So, from now until Christmas, I'll be sharing some different kind of posts, photos of course, and maybe a holiday (?) story. Some will be serious, some will not. Some down time, time to reflect on the true meaning of the holiday season as well as some of the fun things. It is my holiday gift to you and to me.

By golly gee, I'm not sure, what do you think?? Is that Santa I spy?? Photo sure is not in focus, but, yes, I think it is - -

THE Trip, Yellowstone National Park, Bison, Symbol of the American West

2011-12-17T20:14:00.009-05:00

Copyright 2011, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

According to the Yellowstone National Park web site, the population of their herd of bison fluctuates from 2300 to 4500 members. I can tell you that when Man and I left Yellowstone our lasting memories were of snow in June, cold crystal clear waters running wild and deep in streams, rivers, water falls and lakes, stinky thermal geysers and pots and hot springs, the true green of pines and trees and grasses, and Bison.

On our way home at the end of a long day, June 23, 2011, the huge herd of bison that seemed to be hanging out along Madison River between Madison and West Yellowstone were off the side of the road, but, still attracting a large crowd of humans, including, yep, Man and I. We snagged a parking spot in one of the viewing areas and watched the babies playing, kicking up their heels in the dust and the parents lumbering around content to chew a bit of grass.

I shot a little over 30 photos, and if you don't tell my kids, I will fess up to getting out of Big Butt and taking my photos at the edge of the parking lot. Of course, bison have no idea I am standing in a parking lot, and so, they do tend to wander over into "my" space, errr, their space, always their space. I am only so brave, and snicker, I don't think it is that brave at all. While the bison were 30 or more feet away I was so so in my comfort zone. But, when one walked closer than that, I started hugging someones car. Not Big Butt, someone else's car! Oh, and Man was not real happy with me. So, don't do as I do, do as I say, best to stay in your car! Cause they can run at speeds of around 35 MPH, so, mmmm, that 30 feet, well, let's be honest, it was not far enough, nor was it safe.

But, enough of that, no more words, just 7 of the photos of the bison of Yellowstone:

* Now, please remember, that Sony can zoom to 20 times! Remember before you lecture me for being too close! LOL
.

THE Trip, Yellowstone National Park, The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and MORE Waterfalls

2011-12-16T14:19:00.003-05:00

Copyright 2011, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

June 23, 2011

After our drive to Fishing Bridge and our little bear hunt gone lousy, we turned back north and drove along Yellowstone River to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone area. This entire area is around 8000 in elevation, Man and I were having issues walking down to the view points and then back out again. We went slow and easy and managed to fill the day, our senses, and Sony.

The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone is on our hit list for the afternoon. First stop on the way north is the South Rim Drive where we stop and walk out to Artist Point. Here are some photos of the beautiful Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

Below the Lower Falls:

Let's let Sony bring us closer:

Turn around from this view point 180 degrees and look up the canyon:

Sony, zooms again, the colors are muted, soft, and yet, beautiful. The water running fairly hard, they had 4 times the snow pack the winter before we arrived, lots of melted snow down there running through the canyon:

Another view, less zoom, more overall, here it comes: WOW!!!

One more view:

After we left the Artist Point we made our way back to Uncle Tom's Point, we had to settle for photos from the upper edge of the canyon, as the strenuous hike down into the canyon (500 feet down 300 steps and a series of paved inclines) was deemed to be more than Man and I could manage. Course, this is not such a bad photo, is it??? These are the Upper Falls, looking west from the south rim.

From this vantage point we could also see this water fall, between the trees and all. It may be Crystal Falls, note the disclaimer "may".

Time to visit the North Rim, there is a one way road, North Rim Drive, not very long, but, there are 3 parking areas, with views and trails. We will be viewing the falls and the canyon from different view points, different angles, so, yes, I will be showing some of the same water, sorry, can't help myself! LOL

The first is Brink of the Lower Falls, see my post of December 14, 2011 for different and closer views of the Lower Falls.

More of the Lower Falls, this time from the vantage point of the Lookout Point area.

Turning and looking the other way, the canyon walls:

Another view of the canyon, overall. When I look at this photo, it almost looks like a painting. I might have to play with this one and some of those special effects on Photoshop.

Inspiration Point pretty much finished up our visit to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. We still had a bit of a drive to get home, we were tired from the day and the altitude, so at this point we began the drive back. We stopped briefly in the Canyons Visitor Center area for a late picnic snack where either a mule deer or elk almost ran into the side of Big Butt, that was a thrill, not one we needed, but, you know, Mother Nature and all.

Between Madison and West Yellowstone that huge herd of Bison made themselves known, but, they were not in the road. We managed to snag a parking place and - - well, since Bison are such an important part of the Yellowstone experience, come on back and I'll show you - -

.

THE Trip, Yellowstone National Park, Water and Waterfalls

2011-12-14T10:18:00.002-05:00

Copyright 2011, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

On June 23, 2011 (after a FULL day of rest, the never getting out of our jammies all day kind of rest) Man and I made our way back into Yellowstone National Park. We missed the TWO HOUR delay of Bison on the road from West Yellowstone to Madison. The traffic was stopped, and backed up for several miles, the delay was the chatter of the day all around the park. We were not one bit sorry to have missed it! LOL

This time when we got to Madison we turned north to Norris Geyser Basin area and at Norris we turned east heading towards the Canyon Visitors Center. Along the way we took the one way side road to Virginia Cascade falls. A little internet snooping tells us that the falls are 60 foot, there is no known way to hike any closer and that parking along the road is iffy. Agree about that parking issue, we pulled over a bit, rolled the windows down and shot out the window without ever getting out of Big Butt. But what a lovely way to begin our day.

Next stop, Canyon Visitors Center, still some serious snow piled up here. Catch the short sleeved tops.

Not parking any bikes here for a while.

Inside the visitors center among the displays there is this HUGE 3 dimensional relief model of the entire Yellowstone park. I was quite taken by it and could have studied it for longer than I had. SIGHH. The following photo starts to show the size of this model.

A closer inspection, details, graphically shown, gives a different impression of Yellowstone. This must have taken hours to design and produce.

After our stop at the visitors center we headed in the general direction of Fishing Bridge (south). We made a few stops here and there. At 8,000 feet Man and I both were feeling the effects of the elevation, and found this day to be the most taxing on us physically of our visit to Yellowstone. We carried water even on the shortest of walks to viewing areas, and moved very slowly, stopping frequently. We did not try to win any speed contests getting in or out of scenic stops. My note taking (via Sony) lacked some on this day, but, lets see if I can muddle through.

Just south a bit of the Canyon Visitors Center is what is referred to as the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. We would visit this later in the day, first we stopped at the Brink of the Upper Falls. The Upper falls drop 109 feet.

I am not sure this little waterfall has a name:

After this short visit to the Upper Falls we drove along the Yellowstone River to Fishing Bridge. At Fishing Bridge to the south is Yellowstone Lake and to the north is Yellowstone River. We stopped and had a nice visit with one of the Rangers who was standing on the bridge, sharing some information on the area. She pointed out how high the water was, how some of the hiking trails were now under water and told us of a black bear sighting just up the road. Yes, we eventually went bear hunting, the photos were less than spectacular, translated that means, they were horrible. But, the photo of the Yellowstone River from the Fishing Bridge area is pretty:

Since there was this bear to go hunting, we decided to take the road from Fishing Bridge east towards the East Entrance of the Park, originally we had not planned to drive any of this part of the park, but, Man was anxious to see bear. He sorta saw the bear, photos not worth sharing, that bear was not coming close enough to show off, camera shy?? After the failed bear photo attempt we drove a bit further east to Lake Butte, 8,348 feet where I got this photo of Yellowstone Lake, well, part of the lake, it is huge.

At this point we turned back towards Fishing Bridge and north again towards Canyon Village, the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone was waiting. We made one more stop along Yellowstone River at LeHardys Rapids where the cut throat trout jump in July and August. We were there June 23rd and there were a few early arrivals. I highlighted the trout on Flora and Fauna, I got a photo, not the best, but I GOT the photo! The rapids:

On the way to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone we encountered more Bison, with babies:

I took over 110 photos of the Grand Canyon and the Lower Falls. Soon I'll bring you some of them, I promise, not all 110! LOL

.

THE Trip, Grand Tetons Round Up, Old Faithful

2011-12-11T13:20:00.000-05:00

Copyright 2011, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

A few photos taken during our day trip to the Grand Tetons National Park, June 21, 2011. Pretty scenery and a few "critters".

Below: Chapel of the Transfigurations, near Moose Junction, Grand Tetons National Park.

Below: the water, rivers, lakes, streams, clear, the colors are amazing, gorgeous, and great reflections!

Our long long day trip was not over quite yet. We were driving past the Old Faithful area of Yellowstone National Park on our way back to Tana, when Man suggested we stop and see if the Old Faithful was close to doing the old faithful thing. We were so tired, ok, I was so tired, I really did not want to stop, but, Old Faithful was some distance from our campground, and Man pointed out to come back would be retracing our miles and since time was of the essence - -

We stopped and quickly discovered that Old Faithful was probably going to erupt in the next 20 minutes or so. So, we stayed, and Old Faithful did not disappoint, pretty much on time, there she blows:

Old Faithful is one of the most popular and very dependable, time wise. Some interesting facts are found on this page. There is a web cam set up at the Visitors Center there, but, when I checked it, all I saw was a black image.

Sony and I spied this pretty blue bird while watching the Old Faithful show, bird unidentified, lots of Sony zoom at work here, focus lacks a bit, but, isn't he pretty??

As we were leaving the area around Old Faithful another geyser erupted, I am not sure of the name of this one, but, it was (to us) just as spectacular. In fact, Man and I liked it even more! It was close to 7 PM local time, the light was starting to wane, we were some distance from the geyser, the photo does not do justice, still, tis wonderful! The structure that runs left to right along the foreground of the photo are benches, look close, to the far left, you can see a gentleman sitting, taking in the show, it will give you some perspective as to the size of this geyser.

What an end to an overwhelming, exhausting, exhilarating day!

No Total Lunar Eclipse, But, Pray Tell, WHAT is This?

2011-12-10T13:26:00.003-05:00

Copyright 2011, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Nope, Man and I are too far east to even have hoped for a viewing of the total lunar eclipse that my friends in the western US saw this morning. Of course, there is that "you gotta be up and outside at o dark thirty". HAHA, like that is gonna happen unless one of the fur kids just HAS to go potty. Let's just say we don't really have an alarm clock in Tana, so we either wake up, the fur kids wake us up, or we sleep!

But, they do need to go outside during the night, and last night was no exception, one trip was at about 12:15 Central time. I looked at the skies, I do that frequently when they are going potty, I love to see what the conditions are, how many stars I can see - -

Last night I saw this (photo is not the best, no tripod, too many lights on by Tana, etc., etc., etc.)

Not sure how well you can see it, but, in the middle is the full moon. Surrounding it was a full halo. Not one star in sight. I don't recall ever seeing anything like this before. Have you??

* By the way, you might try clicking on the photo, it will open to a black screen behind the photo, I think you can see it a bit better that way.

** Had to do some google research, this site explains my halo. Try a google search of this term, halo around full moon, interesting stuff.
.

Blog Caroling, Little Drummer Boy, Sung By John Denver

2011-12-08T11:57:00.002-05:00

Thanks to footnoteMaven's sponsorship and challenge, it is time for the Christmas Carol - Blog Caroling.

Just call me a child at heart, one of my favorite holiday songs has always been "The Little Drummer Boy", it really tugs at my heart. In 1968 Rankin/Bass Productions released the animated television version of the story of the song. I don't remember watching it back in 1968, but, by the 70's I had young children and this was one of the several holiday stories we found ourselves watching just about every single year. Ya, I almost always teared up, sappy Carol. I loved the story, I loved the animation, I loved the song.

When I went searching for a version on YouTube, I was delighted to find snippets of the original animated version and the song sung by the late John Denver, another one of my favorites. WIN!! And, here it is, I hope you enjoy! The reason for the season.

May the blessings of the season be with you.

This video was posted by YouTube user mistikay.
.

THE Trip, The Grand Tetons, My Ten Fav Photos

2011-12-07T11:50:00.001-05:00

Copyright 2011, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

On our day trip to the Grand Tetons National Park, June 21, 2011, Man and I drove south from Yellowstone National Park, across the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway to the park, continuing our drive south all the way to Moose Junction. At Moose Junction we turned back north via route 191/26/89. When you reach Jackson Lake Junction you can retrace your route through Colter Bay and head right back to Yellowstone the way you came, and that is what we did.

Along the route we took several of the cut offs and scenic drives, like Signal Mountain Road, the Jenny Lake one way drive, a brief stop at the Chapel of the Transfiguration and the Snake River Overlook. Trying as hard as we did to "see it all" there was a bunch we just could not see, missing a highly recommended drive along Antelope Flats Road, where we were told we most likely would see lots of large wildlife.

Every where we stopped I took photos of the surrounding mountain ranges, of the Tetons. Here are my ten top favorites of the day. Yes, the last two are very similar, I had a HARD time picking between them, so, did not pick, just included! LOL So, no more chatter, just eye candy:

Eye candy, Grand Tetons style. Magnificent, stunning, eye candy.

.

THE Trip, Colter Bay Visitors Center & Indian Arts Museum, Grand Teton National Park

2011-12-06T13:42:00.000-05:00

We had been in the truck for some time driving from West Yellowstone to Colter Bay. It was more than time for a break, lunch, stretching, walking around and tending to the needs of the fur kids. We pulled into the Colter Bay Visitor Center, snagged a parking spot and went to investigate the center and the museum.

The museum had a really wonderful collection of Indian artifacts. I took a number of photos, however, I do NOT take photos with a flash inside museums and use only available light - - unless I am told it is fine to use the flash, which does not happen often. In this case the light was very low, a good number of the photos are out of focus. I also had to fight reflection and protective glass cases that most of these artifacts were displayed in. However, with the magic of photo editing software I can share these with you.

Below, the grizzly bear claw necklace, according to the signage, proved great hunting skill and bravery. Some of the claws in this particular display came out of necklaces dating from 1800.

Below: the art of Navajo silver smithing:

Below: Pipe bags, the bag at the top of the photo is said to be Sioux, made about 1890.

Have no information on the artifact below, looks like a drum head:

Below: Fabulous samples of clothing.

As wonderful as the museum was, lunch was screaming our names. We asked the staff where the picnic area was, happily it was not far. After a short drive, we carted the cooler and picnic basket down to the lake, finding a picnic table front and center. There were a few bugs, but the food was delish, and the view, well, what say you, winner?? Ya, I thought so too! LOL I actually sat at the table, between bites of my lunch, I balanced Sony on the top of the table and shot and shot, just because I could. But, this panoramic was by far the best of the best of the photos. (Do try clicking on this photo, larger is so much better! LOL It is too wonderful on my large monitor with larger resolutions! WOWSERS!!)

With lots more to see, and many more miles to drive, (we will return to Tana the way we came, via 3 crossings of the Continental Divide) we could not linger long enough at this very special luncheon site. So, sadly, we pack up, and head out for more vistas to discover.

As we turned to leave this beautiful spot I found these, bright, sunny, joyful: