When we don’t see buffalo

We hunt locations for milky way and moonshots. This was what we did and I was able to get practice in on my camera. The lake we discovered is Lakota Lake, right around the corner. So, it is a short drive. We pull up and there were geese with young goslings just feeding on the grass. Of course when I lift my camera they do start to run.

I was able to navigate near the shore and capture this goose trying to be a flamingo. I told him that was a good impression but you don’t have the right color to be a flamingo. I don’t know if my new bird I see everywhere on our travels has changed from a Magpie to a Red Wing Blackbird, because they are everywhere.

After heading back towards the car I was able to be still enough and watch the geese return

We decided to find out if it was worth trying to photograph Mount Rushmore from the tunnels today seeing I had the energy. This is from one of the pullouts in the park that you can see Mount Rushmore. We voted to get up early one morning and do the tunnels.

On Wildlife loop we saw some pronghorns just playing near the corrals so I set about snapping pictures.

The next day we decided to head into town and drop off laundry. (yes, I drop off my laundry so I have more time for pictures.) On the way we stopped by the lake that I use for milky way shots to see if it would work for a moon rise shot. It might if there is no one on the beach that evening. This gave the osprey the right amount of time to catch a fish, which we didn’t see. We saw him circling and waiting for a place to land. Even though it was just a trip to the laundry I grabbed my whole camera bag. Glad I had because my bazooka lens was needed because he was way up in the tree.

I also have some news my brother Dave and my sister-in-law Candi are here for a week. We have Mount Rushmore and Reptile Gardens in the near future.

You have buffalo breath

That is what I told the buffalo I came face to face with. I’m in the car minding my own business. Ok, I was taking pictures. I’m focusing in my zone, I’m aware of nothing but me my camera and the buffalo. Well all of a sudden I can’t focus on this buffalo. I’m thinking why. I look up at this time and not more than three feet away, I see the face of this buffalo. To answer your question. NO I did not take a picture. My mind shut down and said holy crap. The look on the buffalo’s face was you don’t look like me. What led up to this meeting was another buffalo crossing.

This time when we pulled up to see the buffalo they were far enough off that people were standing on the side of the road gawking.

I’m not brave enough for that yet. They can still move quite fast. Today the buffalo were hanging more to the side of the road.

big guy

I am thinking this guy was the one who scared me.

The babies are getting bigger and more bold. Today they were not as crowding as they were the other day.

We stopped and ate dinner at Blue Bell before the rain came again and when we left it was starting to get foggy and dark so I almost left my camera put away. Here is another example of following your gut and being reminded by Roy. Camera went on lap. I was treated to one of the big boys rubbing on a tree right next to the road. These boys are older nomads and they usually have a territory they call their own. He was just scenting his.

scratch the itch.

I love the fact that he ignored me and just enjoyed scratching his itch. I also love the tongue. I know these are a little dark but he was close.

What a great way to end a day of close encounters with the buffalo.

Google Maps are not to scale.

Ask me how I know!

We pull into Timber Ridge Campground on June 1st. I had a time out scheduled for Fruita because we thought it would be a fun break and the campground was in town so we could travel around town on the day we stayed using the chair and scooter. This is where google maps was deceptive. The town looked easy to navigate in fact there is a Dinosaur Museum and a park plus food all nearby so scooter and my chair could get put to use. Well that didn’t happen. We made it work though. The goal on the way up was to not have to unhook the car from the trailer. So not disconnecting we needed to find something for dinner Monday and Tuesday night. Just remember Dominos does deliver.

I do have to say that ordering from Dominos this time was definitely an adventure. I did not know that Dominos has gone to a central regional call center to place your order if you choose option 1 on your phone. My clue came when they wanted a complete address and zip code plus had no clue where Fruita Co was. So, I call back again this time choosing option 2 and getting a real person at the local store. Side note: this 3 topping large pizza was one of the better Dominos Pizza we’ve had in a long time.

The local store clerk who took the order actually saved us money by upping the size of the pizza to a large. In 30 minutes or less we had Dominos knocking at our door. So, we did pizza and went to bed early because I was going to get up early and pull the chair out to go exploring the area in the morning being right on the river was a plus.

Roy did post on the LOA forum that we were in Fruita on our way to a 3 month stay in one place. (So, looking forward to dropping once.) When we pulled in our first night we had two Lance right next to us and saw a few more in the park. I had plans on making the rounds in the morning, when I got up the two next to us were gone, but I did see that there were still a few others I could visit.

I however still need to learn more about my camera and that being said. I was headed down to the river in my chair to take pictures, this is after I figured out how to put on my shade umbrella bungy cords work to secure this. (pictures to come). I got lost. Surprise! The camp host came to my rescue and led me to the paved bike path so I could get close to the water.

I am still learning what works with this camera. I wanted to practice tracking birds but every time that I was going to take the picture the birds flew away same with the dragonflies. I figured it was the shutter noise at least with this camera I can go into silent mode.

I was getting warm, so I headed to the boat ramp. I thought about seeing if I could float but the river was moving too fast. I did however started to watch this little girl who seemed to be deep in play. I thought I would just snap a photo; I was wrong. Right as I took it, she had turned around and posed. It got even more funny when she shouted up and asked if she ruined the moment. (she had but I said no)

I headed back to camp but I had one stop to make and that was the Lance trailer I had seen on the way down to the river. This was when I met Rachel and Greg, she posted on the LOA forum and asked if we were the ones who had Dominos delivered. BUSTED. It is enjoyable when we are on the road to meet fellow Lance owners who have common interests. They do travel in style even carrying their own bird feeders. The funny thing to this is the feeder was active with hummingbirds and orioles I would get ready to capture one and they would takeoff. I did get this one.

We chatted about photos, traveling, staying cool, and dealing with challenges. I am looking forward to them joining us for a lunch or dinner this summer when they pass through Custer State Park. It will be a blast catching up and exchanging stories from the road.

Catch me tomorrow when I share my impressions of a short tunnel and lots of curves.

Fluffy white Cow?

If you are wondering they do not exist. That is, unless it is me seeing it from a golf cart at the PSA festival in Colorado Springs. More on that later. We decided the summer travel wasn’t enough and I enjoyed myself last year so come back this year. It has been fun connecting with old friends and meeting new ones.

We came in on Sunday which is always good, it gives us a day to recover and get used to the area. Monday was a lay low day but Monday night the cowboys were out to play. After getting a lift into the bus, (who knew that they had lifts), we were off to the Flying W Ranch. The ranch itself has been in operation for 70 years. They recently rebuilt due to the massive fire that swept through Colorado Springs a few years ago. The ranch featured the standard chuckwagon fair and food line. It also had some Native American dancers which was worth the price of admission. I have to say I was amazed at seeing my first ever hoop dance performed by a 70+ woman. (I will post a video when I am home.)

We were waiting for the dancers to start and you know me I have to be in the thick of things right. So, I invited myself to take a trip around the ranch on a golf cart. There was no way I would make it with the rental chair. (learned lesson from Alaska). Stephanie our driver said she would stop whenever we wanted so we could take pictures. First stop, donkeys almost as friendly as the ones in Custer. Second stop, big horn sheep on the hill feeding. I think I only got butt shots but that is ok.

Here is where I encountered the fluffy small white cow. In my defense I only did a quick look and the color was right. What makes this even more funny is the fact that after my mind said that is not a cow, my mouth kept insisting. I could hear what the others were thinking and not saying. (She needs a lesson in animal identification. She has been in the city way too long. What was she smoking can I have some.) I did get my mouth to catch up to my brain and now know that it was a sheep. At least I make things funny.

On the way out of the event I almost did trying to be funny run over a friend. Not to worry I have all week. This year it was no outings for me as it would be too much of a pain with the chair. However, I will be exploring macro photography and learning more about night photography. I might even get some cool photos out of this trip.

Fly Away Home

Both the sandhill cranes and Roy and I are doing just that. Tonight, (Aug 31) is our last night in Fairbanks we head down the Parks Hwy and eventually to Whittier and the ferry. The cranes migrate every year and they congregate at Creamer’s Field in Fairbanks before flying south. It was neat watching Canadian Geese and Sandhill Cranes sit side by side each getting fat for the trip south.

The third weekend of August is the Tanana Valley Sandhill Crane Festival. This was our first weekend in Fairbanks, so we headed over to see what was flying overhead. We also went over to the field a few times before the festival to take some pictures of the cranes.

Here are a few pictures of the cranes just hanging out and flying about.

I was in one of the photo blinds waiting for the birds to come to me. It took a bit of time, but they moved slowly towards me with cute little movements and even some one-legged posing.

The birds seemed to be happy just to hang out and fly every once in a while.

That is until the bald eagle comes around looking for dinner. This got the birds to fly up all at once. I really need to work on tracking these birds when they take off En masse. I also think they need to give me an alert saying we are taking off. They do make an alert with a vocalization I just am not sure what that is.

Almost missed them

The lights were a dancing again. I checked my app and saw that the auroral oval was right overhead at about 11:30pm. Off we went, and yes, they were out. Driving up the Steese Hwy we could see them right outside the car windows. Trying to get to our spot before they fade away. We had passed up the local viewing spots at the top of a hill. It was fairly busy for a small area plus I wanted to see if I could get reflections by the pond.

The lights are still dancing at this point but, the sky was getting cloudy, and we were driving straight into fog. So, we pull in the pull out and realize the fog is just getting thicker no lights out here. I was amazed what 15 miles makes in weather and clouds. We decide let’s turn around and head back to the place where the locals hang. I’m glad we passed it by the first time because this time we had one pullout all by ourselves.

We shot here for about an hour before I got too cold, and the lights started to fizzle out. The fizzle didn’t fizzle for that long, as I was getting ready to put the camera away. I go and snap a picture right as Roy turned on the car lights. Here is the result of that picture.

There are some disadvantages to shooting in a pullout near the road and I also took a few of those pictures.

There is one picture where Roy flashed headlights.

I enjoyed watching the lights ebb and flow. The clouds wisps in my opinion put some added personality to the lights. Once everything was packed back in the car it was time to head home. We did do a detour because the lights came out again a stop by Creamer’s Field explore Fairbanks said this was a good place for viewing the lights it was. I stayed in the car and just enjoyed the view. It was funny seeing people pulled off the side of the road out of their cars to watch the sky.

Enjoy the slide show of lights.

Clear SKIES

Yes, it did happen. We have had almost two weeks of clouds and rain at night. I was starting to give up hope of seeing the Auroras this trip. I looked at the forecast for possible lights it looked promising. (Just like 5 times before) The next thing was to find out if it was cloudy or not. I found an app for that windy the clouds were not overhead. Time to pack and go outside I look up and see stars and what looks like a small green cloud. I will give you a clue stars don’t shine through clouds. I knew the lights were coming out. We had plans of driving off the base to a spot northeast of town plans changed. The lights were out and did not want to drive for an hour. We went right down the road from the camper and set up the camera. After a few pictures we noticed that a tree was blocking some of the light so, we changed locations.

The next location had an added bonus of a beaver dragging a tree to his lodge. It was cute but made me paranoid of every noise I heard when I was outside. I was imagining that a beaver was right next to me with every sound I heard.

bigger than him

I took a few more pictures here and decided to head back to where it all started for the night. The whole show lasted about two hours and the lights were gone.

Enjoy the slideshow.

Space Force

No, I did not get on base. We did drive over to the base in Clear Alaska. Roy and I tried to talk our way on to the base, the best we could do was take a picture of the sign. The AP at the gate said they have a BX and they only have radar at the base. We did turn around and I did take a photo. Clear did have an airport and a heliport.

the airport Clear AK

This was an area that had a major wildfire move through earlier this summer, although we saw no evidence of the fire.

The locals did mention how a few weeks ago Anderson was full of firefighters and equipment. Speaking of Anderson. The town has seen better days, it was originally used to house civilians who were building the Air Base.

There is also a local campground, great for people who would like to be off the main road. Some sites have electric, they are also very level. The lions club maintains the campground. There is also a shooting range for the town. I have to say this is the first time I’ve seen a 5mph road sign.

At one point there was an annual music festival but unfortunately not anymore.

The whole town does seem to be well kept even though it doesn’t have many people living there. They do have a DMV which is interesting beats the alternative of having to drive into Fairbanks. I did not see a bank though.

The one thing I did see in Anderson that you won’t see in a big city is a guy chasing his cow. Yes, that is what I videotaped. Strange things happen in Alaska. It was comical to watch. I think the cow knew exactly what she was doing.

MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE

After spending the day south of Nenana, we decided to go out to eat north of town and grab a sunset after 10:30pm. That I have to say was hard for me.

The Monderosa Restaurant we ate at is known for a 1lb burger. That is one thing I have noticed in Alaska they do not skimp on food. I’ve been working on composition and trying to catch the right light so that is what we did on the way home. I love this color purple, I’ve never seen anything like it.

The rest of the week we hung around town and explored the history of Nenana had some great food and met some interesting people. I will share more soon.

Thunderbirds Fly High

We were at the Artic Thunder Air Show at JBER (Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson) on Sunday July 31st. I am going through the pictures, and I have to share this slideshow of the Thunderbirds. They were the closing act. I did not know that they are an elite flying group rich with history. I will say that my camera work was a little shaky. The action was so fast and everywhere.

From start to finish the whole experience was choreographed down to the landing. We were not close enough to see the precision routine of getting into the plane. I was a tad bummed until they started the performance, and we were front row center.