Dorothy AWOL

Has anyone seen my duck.  The last time she was seen was Monday afternoon, sitting on her nest at the base of one of the willows in my yard.  We were anxiously awaiting the arrival of her brood.   Here is a picture of what she will look like with 8 ducklings in tow.

I was hoping to get some pictures of the ducklings out frolicking in our yard under the watchful gaze of mother duck however when I checked her nest on Tuesday this is what I saw.  One egg still intact and now apparently abandoned by Dorothy.

Lots of bits of egg shells plus the one below that was almost intact with just the top broken open.

It appears that sometime in the past 48 hours 8 of the eggs hatched.  After a little research on todays version of Encyclopedia Brittanica I discovered that after hatching they stay in the nest for about 10 hours to allow their feathers to dry and then they are off to find water.   Its going to be a bit of a walk from our place but hopefully they find a better home than our yard.

Guess I can now cut the grass on that side of the yard.

Thats the report from Wiebe's Nature Preserve.

Later.

Dorothy Duck

I haven't posted since we got home from Snowbird 1.  We have settled into our normal routines although knowing that we plan to head off for Snowbird 2 in another 5 months does bring a little more urgency to some of those household projects. 

Lori and I have decided to take Golf lessons.  Neither of us has played much in the past number of years and the game had become more than a little frustrating.  While I have never been a good golfer, breaking 90 was an accomplishment, my game had deteriorated to the point where there was little joy in Mudville (to borrow a phrase) after a round of golf.  It was either take some lessons and commit to getting out more than a few times a year or put the clubs on Kijiji and free up some space in the garage.  Well last week we went for our first in a series of lessons.  Our neighbour had given us a coupon for a swing evaluation at Golf Tec and after watching the video of my swing a couple of things became very apparent.  My golf swing was UGLY.  Every part of my body was moving and not in a coordinated way.  It was a wonder that I could even hit the ball let alone figure out where it was going to go.  The other thing that was in full evidence was that I have become fat.  Don't know when that happened but obviously too much of too many good things results in a hefty profile.  Guess I need to quit making those midnight trips to the fridge and increase the pace, length and frequency of our walking regime.  

Now for the reason for my post.   I was cutting the grass today and as I was trimming around the willows there was a sudden flurry of feathers and the sound of beating wings. Kind of startled me but I quickly realized it was one of the Mallard ducks that has been hanging around our yard. As I passed by one of the willows what to my wondering eyes did appear. No, not a sleigh being pulled by 8 tiny Reindeer but rather a nest lined with duck down huddled between the protective branches of a large willow tree. The nest contained 9 large eggs, all perfectly arranged awaiting the return of Mrs Mallard to provide them with the warmth they will need to hatch.  
Now that I know they are there I will avoid that area but continue to view from afar and wait for the hatchlings to appear. The nest is located right at the base of the tree and only a couple feet from the ground so hopefully no predators raid the nest.  

A couple years ago we had foxes under our shed and it was a joy to watch the kitts playing under the watchful gaze of mom and dad. Deer make regular appearances and we have on occasion seen coyotes wandering thru our yard (I could do without seeing them).
Country living does have its benefits.

The only camping we are planning for this summer is 3 weeks at Clear Lake.  2 of my grandsons will be joining us for 1 of the weeks and we are looking forward their visit.  My son tells me that the kids don't take naps in the afternoon so I'm going to be one tired dude by the time its dark and we can light the campfire.  

Just a quick mention about our plans for next winter before I sign off.  We are planning on trekking west in late October and visiting with my Son and his family in Lethbridge.  From there we will continue through the Rockies to southern BC and down the Washington and Oregon coast, likely taking 101 most of the way.  We plan to spend much of our winter in California and are busy researching places to see.  We hope to return much the same way although we would like to pass through the Okanogan which should be beautiful in the spring.   This is all very preliminary but its the start of a plan.  Now if the Loonie could just get back to 90 cents.  

Later.  

Home Sweet Home

We arrived home on Thursday about 8:00 and I have been meaning to provide this recap of our last few days travel but we have been busy getting settled back in to the house.  So here it goes.

When I last left you we were checking into a hotel in Denver while RV Four Seasons was going to fix our brake problem.  I spent an hour with their tech while he checked out the brakes and the wiring harness.  Turns out a loose wire on one of the magnets was causing a short and overloading the system.  The result was total brake failure.

I had been getting a wiring fault message since early in our trip however it was intermittent and we still had lights and brakes and the fault warning disappeared when I plugged the trailer into the receptacle underneath the bumper rather than the one in the box.  I chalked it up to a loose connection in the receptacle in the box and figured I would check it out when we got home.  Well that intermittent problem became permanent at the worse possible time going through the Rockies.  Thankfully we didn't have an accident and the warranty took care of most of the repair costs.  Kudos to the RV Dealer as they worked us into their busy schedule and we were back on the road just after lunch on Tuesday.

The hotel room was a nice change.  A square room as opposed to a long narrow trailer which has been home for 5 months.  Charli liked the King size bed and made herself right at home.










Interesting fact.  On Monday when we had stopped to look for a dealership to help we found RV Four Seasons via our search on the Keystone website (our trailer Mfg).  Lori commented that it was essentially the same name and logo as the dealer back home in Virden, Mb where we had purchased our previous Cougar and perhaps they were related.  Turns out that the Virden dealership purchased the Denver dealer a few years ago along with another dealer in the US.  We had always been impressed with Four Seasons and their professionalism and focus on the customer has translated to their US acquisition.

We left Denver and took I76 Northeast with the hopes of getting to North Platte, NE.  The drive was uneventful, the road was good and no mountain grades to contend with.    We checked into Holiday RV Park which only had a few seasonal residents and some returning snowbirds like ourselves.  We decided to push the next 2 days to make up for the lost day in Denver.  Not that we had anything pressing to return to at home but we were simply tired and wanted to get home.

Wednesday we headed north on Hwy83 which is 2 lane but good smooth pavement for the most part.  Unfortunately there are lots of rolling hills and we drove in heavy fog for most of the day.  An idea for the US Gov't:  "Day Time Running Lights". They are mandatory in Canada and given the number of drivers we met, about 50%, that refused to turn their lights on in heavy fog (even after I flashed my high-beams) mandatory day time running lights would be a life saver, literally.

We decided to follow the GPS which took us on a slightly shorter route on State highways 18 and 44 before eventually getting us onto I90.  This is a lesson I never seem to learn.  Even if its a few more miles get on an Interstate.  The American highway system is not what it once was and while even some of the Interstates are a bit beat up, many of the state highways are simply Rock and Roll.  By the time we reached I90 my tummy was so tired of jiggling.  We eventually made it to Sioux Falls, SD and found Yogi Bears Jellystone RV Park.  A nice park with pull throughs and we set up quickly as it was cold, 42F, and raining.  Found my gloves, touque (or beanie as its called in Az) and put on my heaviest coat.  Back to reality I guess.

We were in bed by 9:00 and slept soundly till 7:30 the next morning.  These long driving days seem to take their toll on me, especially when the roads aren't the greatest.  Before we hit the road we had one main priority.  Book a campground in Clear Lake for a 3 week stay in August.  Since we have got back into camping we have made it a priority to spend at least a couple weeks each summer at Clear Lake.  Its in the National Parks system and has a nice little townsite, great campground, biking and hiking trails.  We also have friends that own a store in the town and its always great to catch up with them.

Thursday was the first day the Park was taking reservations and based on past experience I needed to be online ready to go at 8:00 AM sharp.  Well I was on time but but by the time I navigated the website and made it to the reservations page all the full service sites for our selected 3 weeks were booked up.  I quickly moved over to the Electric only sites and there were only a couple spots left.  I booked one and finalized the reservation.  I'm thinking that somehow someone is getting in early and booking up sites before the general public.   The Electric only sites are actually the best sites in the campground with the most privacy and shade.  Trees in a campground will be a nice change after 5 months staying in what essentially is RV parking lots in Az.  I will have to bring a long garden hose and my tote so that I can replenish our water tanks and drain our grey and black tanks without having to move the trailer but thats a small sacrifice.  We will also have to use the campgrounds showers which are actually pretty good and more of an issue for Lori than myself.   Oh well, we all have to make concessions periodically.

Thursday was perhaps our windiest day on the road.  Took about 3 hours before we drove out of the rain but the wind never stopped and my mileage dropped from close to 10, down to just over 7 MPG.  We made our last fill-up of cheap US diesel, $2.60 p/g, at Pembina, ND and made it to the Customs office at the border.  Only one car ahead of us so no wait.  We made our declaration and since we were over we went in to pay our due to the Province and the Feds.  We declared abut $2,700 however what I hadn't anticipated was that they convert that US amount to Canadian and then charge the GST and PST.  Given that the exchange rate is just shy of 30% the total damage came to $200.  We will have to try to spend less next year.  After all how many t-shirts, hats and purses can we possibly need.

After clearing Customs we started our drive north up Hwy 75 and were quickly reintroduced to Canadian roads.  We bounced and jiggled all the way home.  I don't know where the Provincial Govt has spent that extra 1% sales tax that they are taking from me but it hasn't made its way to Hwy 75 or the south Perimeter yet.  We pulled into our driveway about 8:00 with just enough light to easily back-in and unhook.  As we were finishing a few snow flakes started to come down.  Welcome home I guess.

In the next few weeks I hope to put together one more post which will be a bit of a recap of our trip including our learnings which we will use for Snowbird 2.  Yes we are already planning our second trip.

Later.
     

Page to Denver and a Mountain Lion, no kidding!

While the main focus of our visit to Page was the Antelope Canyons there are many other attractions in the area.  We only had time for short visits to a few but here are a couple of pictures so show that all the beauty is not below ground.

This is Horseshoe Bend just south of Page and thats the Colorado River winding its way through the rocks forming horseshoe pattern.

This is the Glen Canyon dam which holds back the water to form Lake Powell.  They do offer tours but unfortunately we didn't have the time on this visit.
    

This is the short channel upriver from the dam and beyond is Lake Powell.   Check out all the colours.
 

On Sunday we left Page and headed to Grand Junction, Co.  Every time we have a travel day I think we have seen the best possible scenery.  Sunday was no different.  Out trek up through Utah took us very close to Arches and Monument Valley.  We didn't stop but got some good shots from the road.

 We went through the town of Moab, Ut. and off in the distance we could see the changing  landscape that we would encounter the next day.

We checked into Junction West RV Park in Grand Junction and early on Monday we set out for the Rockies.  Our goal was to make it through Denver and on to Ogallala, Ne. for the night.

We had just passed Gypsum and guess what I spotted walking along a fence line, not more than 50 feet off the road.  A Mountain Lion.  I couldn't believe it.  I only caught a glimpse of him for a second and by the time I could blurt it out to Lori we were past him.  No pictures this time but he was a big fella.

Just past Vail we reached the highest elevation of our trip.  11,163 ft.  There was probably 4-5 feet of snow just off the road with plenty of skiers on the slopes.  It was 43F.  A far cry from the 93F temps in Yuma.

The trip from Grand Junction to Denver had plenty of elevation changes.  Going up our speed dropped to 60 kph and 3rd gear and while going down I was in 3rd gear and having to apply and release the brakes to keep below 90 kph.  I sure was missing the engine bake that my Dodge had. With the Cummins I could have set the engine brake, down shifted and never touched the brakes.   For the life of me I cannot figure out why Ford spent all sorts of money developing their new Diesel engine for their 2011 model and it has taken till their 2015 model for them to come out with an engine brake.  I'm going to have to  do some research to see if there is an aftermarket engine brake available.  

During one of the particularly long and steep downhill grades I started to smell my brakes and they started to feel kind of spongy.  Not a good thing.  We pulled out at the bottom of the grade and stopped for lunch and let the brakes cool off.  When I pulled out again the truck brakes seemed fine but the trailer brakes were gone.  We still had some pretty serious downgrades left before pulling into Denver and I was pretty concerned.  Fortunately for us there was lots of construction between us and Denver so driving was stop and go which was fine for me.  I found that putting the truck in 2nd would keep us at 60 kph and 3000 RPM without using the brakes.  That was as fast as I wanted to go.

We pulled into Denver at 2:30 and found an RV dealer who said they would make time to help us out.  We left the trailer on their lot and have checked into a hotel room for the night.  We'll go back in the morning and, fingers crossed, pick up the trailer and continue our trip home.  I'll let you know how we make out at our next stop.  I do know that Disc brakes for the Trailer has moved up on my trailer upgrade list.

Later

Lower Antelope Canyon

Saturday morning I collected all my gear and headed out to Ken's Tours and my Photographers Tour of the Lower Antelope Canyon.  Felt a bit strange to be leaving Lori behind but the rules for the Photographers tour were that each person had to have their own DSLR and Tripod.

I arrived an hour early for my 12:30 tour and good thing cause there was a long lineup.  I got in line and waited and waited and waited some more.  The line just didn't move.  Finally the young fella handling the registrations came out of his booth to ask that everybody with a confirmed reservation get in one line and the walkups, without reservations, form another line.  He also explained that the Credit Card machine was not working and it would be cash only.  I quickly checked my wallet as I'm not in the habit of carrying a lot of cash.  Breathed easier when I spotted a $50 in my wallet.  Not everyone was so fortunate.  They definitely needed more help taking registrations.

When I finally got to the front of the line I told him that I was on the 12:30 Photographers tour and he suggested that I might not want to take the Photographers tour.  I gave him a perplexed look and he explained that due to the large number of people I would have difficulty setting up with my tripod to take pictures.  Since that tour was double the price of the regular tour he got me in to the 12:20 tour for $28. instead of $50.  I was thankful for his honesty.

I was not very impressed with Ken's Tours.  The lack of organization, credit card system going down (ok, perhaps not their fault) and the fact that they seriously overbooked their tours.  It was apparent to me that their main priority was to squeeze as much money out of the tourists as possible and not to ensure a quality experience.

I figured that, since the handheld pics from the previous day had turned out ok I would be able to get some good pictures here as well.   We had to climb down some steep steps and ladders to get down into the canyon.  A fact that was well advertised on their website.  There were a number of families on the tour and some had children as young as 3 or 4 years old.  Far to small to be climbing the ladders.  There was a father in front of me with a camera in one hand and his young son in the other and trying to negotiate the stairs without pitching forward and falling 30 feet to the canyon floor.  I think some rules about the ages of children should be implemented before someone gets seriously injured.

The entrance to the canyon and below the some of the stairs we had to navigate to get down the 30-40 feet to the canyon floor.

This canyon is much narrower than the Upper with more openings to the sky.  The additional light meant for faster shutter speeds (a good thing) but there was less variation in the colours and I found it difficult to get an even exposure.   As you will see most of the pictures are shades of the same colour.  Still dramatic but I think I preferred the Upper Antelope Canyon.

After our experience here, at the GC and Sedona we definitely need to be somewhere else when spring break is happening.  The problem is that the States in the area (Arizona, Nevada, California, Utah) seem to stagger their spring breaks so it is crazy busy with families from early March till mid April.  Combine the families with the foreign tourists (ok I'm a foreigner here but I'm referring to the huge tour groups from Europe and Asia) and then add a sprinkling of Snowbirds and its just too busy.

The one advantage the Lower canyon has is that its all one way traffic.  You enter at one end and exit at the other and then make your way back to the parking lot above ground.  A good thing cause two way traffic would have been impossible in this narrow canyon.

On to the pics.

Here we were making our exit from the canyon.  You can see the narrow channel behind the people.  That is the top of the canyon.  Only a few feet wide.  Down at the bottom the channel varies in width with a few small caverns perhaps 6-8 feet wide.  For the most part the channel is only 3 feet wide.  Not the place to be if you are claustrophobic.

Thats it for the Antelope Canyons.  We did take about 400 pictures of the canyons over the two days plus another 40 or so from a few other scenic lookouts.  I'll post some of those when I have some time during our drive north.   If we had more time we could have explored a little more.  Perhaps another time but for right now we are ready to get home.  We have about 5 days of serious driving ahead of us so I'll report back when I can.  Till then.

Upper Antelope Canyon

Friday was Upper Antelope Canyon tour day.  We were pretty excited as the pictures we had seen of the canyons were so filled with light, shadows and amazingly vivid colours that they didn't look real.   The Canyons are on Navajo land which requires a day pass of $8.00 each to gain admittance to their land and then another $40.00 each for the tour.  A bit pricey however if it was anything like the pictures well worth the price.

We arrived at 10:00 as the website had requested, an hour before our scheduled departure time.  Our transportation from their staging area to the site of the canyon was by way of 1/4T trucks.  They had outfitted them with benches on the sides of the boxes and a canopy for shade.  We had to drive about 3 miles down the bed of a dry wash to the canyon site.  The temp was only in the mid- 50's and with the truck going 30-40 mph it was pretty breezy and cold sitting in the back of the truck.  Fingers and ears were numb by the time we arrived.  The trucks were outfitted with extra large and under inflated tires and I expect a softened suspension so the ride on the soft sand was bouncy but not jarringly rough.   Each truck contained 12 people and there were 9 trucks going for the 11:00 tour plus a special Photography Tour (they had to pay $80. each).  There were probably 8 tours each day (only one Photography Tour per day, I think.  There are 2 other canyons that they provide tours although I don't think they are as popular.  There are also 2 other tour companies, all run by the Navajo band, that provide tours to these 3 canyons.  Then there is the Lower Antelope Canyon where a 4th company is the only one providing tours.
Bottom line, a real nice source of cash flow for the Navajo's.

We arrived at the entrance to the canyon, which is actually on the down river side of the wash, where  the water exits the canyons during floods.

Flash floods and high winds can result in closing of the canyon.  The floor of the wash and canyon is a very fine sand, about the size of grains of salt.  All the rocks and canyon walls are sandstone, so basically the same sand as is loose on the ground but compressed and hardened over millions of years into rocks.  The unique lines in the rocks have been formed over the years by erosion caused by wind, sand and water.

The sand on the floor of the canyon is deposited or washed out downstream during the periodic flooding.  As a result the floor of the canyon can change levels from season to season.  A few years ago a flash flood saw the water levels almost fill up the canyon, about 30 feet of water.

The best time to tour the canyons is around noon as the sun is the highest and results in sun beams entering the canyon from gaps in the ceiling.  As you can see the results are truly amazing and well worth the cost of admission.

We weren't alone and if there was one criticism of the tour it was the large number of people in the canyon.  The interior space isn't very big as you can see and the picture above is one of the larger caverns.  Much of the canyon is no more than 5 feet wide.

 Here you can see one of the sun beams hitting the floor.  You can see the fine sand hanging in the air making the sun beam visible.  I had to suppress the urge to stand in the beam and say "beam me up Scotty".

The BBC was actually filming here for a documentary to be released sometime next year.  Some of the professional photographers have done quite well selling pictures to National Geographic and various travel magazines/websites.  One picture was sold for over $1 Million.

 The indirect sunlight made for some interesting photo opportunities.  Although due to the number of people it was get in position, snap a picture and get out of the way for the next people.  The tour guide was actually very good, showing us the best picture opportunities and suggesting settings for our cameras.  We took about 400 pictures, me on my DSLR and Lori on my iPhone.

One of the tour guides was throwing sand up into the sun beam to enhance its effect.  Had to keep my camera lens covered when not snapping.  We had fine sand in our ears, hair and all over our clothes by the time we were done.  Some people had their cameras in plastic bags to protect them from the sand and only took them out to snap pictures.  Although as many pictures as I was taking the camera wouldn't have been in the bag very much.

Here is the end of the canyon or where the water would enter during a flood.  As you can see its not a very large opening and given the size of the dry wash the resulting torrent of water going through the canyon creates enough force to shape the interior over the years.

Thats it for the Upper Antelope Canyon.  I'm going on a Photographers tour of the Lower Antelope Canyon and will be able to bring my tripod but not my wife.  Only people with DSLR cameras and tripods are allowed.  No spectators.  The above pictures were taken handheld and even though I set the ISO to 800-1000 some of the shutter speeds were pretty slow, up to 1/2 second.  I hope the use of a tripod will make for crisper pictures although I am pretty happy with the above results.

Later