Initial impressions of the Black Hills

Posted on May 13, 2014 by liv2rv

After 2 long days of driving (to stay ahead of the Winter Storm Watch), we arrived at Heritage Campground in Custer, SD in very heavy fog. Phil came over and welcomed us and we caught up on things since we last saw them at Amazon. Late Wednesday night it began snowing, and we were thankful we did not have to drive in the snow with the fifth wheel.

Heritage Village CG

view from CG

We can see Crazy Horse from the campground, even on a winter morning.

Crazy Horse from CG

view from CG

Makena and I were up early Thursday, taking pictures of the area from our campground, as well as scraping off a few snow-covered vehicles in the campground (I missed doing that all winter!). It was a beautiful and peaceful morning, and we are very happy we decided to come to the Black Hills for the summer. We have made a long ‘to do’ list of the area’s attractions that we plan on accomplishing this summer.

First, a little facts about our new ‘home’ state of South Dakota (remember, one should never stop learning!!). The population of the state is 814,180. Pierre (pronounced “peer”) is the capital, and the nickname is The Mount Rushmore State. The highest point is Harney Peak. At 7,242 feet it is the highest point east of the Rockies. The state dessert is Kuchen, a coffee cake. South Dakota is home to the Dakota, Lakota and Nakota. There are nine tribes from these three dialect, representing about 62,000 Native Americans.

We are in the area referred to as the Black Hills, as it encompasses 1.2 million acres of the Black Hills National Forest. The hills are primarily Ponderosa pines, and the valleys have Black Hills spruce. Many visitors to the area inquire about the orange trees in the forest, and those are the ones killed off by the Mountain Pine Beetle epidemic. The population in the Black Hills area is around 250,000, with Rapid City being the ‘big city’ at 69,200 people.

Custer State Park, at 71,000 acres is also nearby, and is home to over 1300 bison, as well as elk, mountain goats, burros and pronghorn. It has lots of fishing, hiking, biking, canoe/kayaking and horseback riding available.

Thursday night we went out for dinner with Phil and Rudee, at a nice restaurant in Hill City, about 9 miles away. They drove us around the area, past Mt Rushmore (never gets old seeing that), and to check out the rock formations on the back side of the monument (since this is a PG blog, I probably should leave out those photos, but Dan put them on Makena’s Facebook page!!!). We stopped in for a brief tour at Crazy Horse, and met some wonderful co-workers. They really have a large complex with many interesting things to see and do. I will have much more on Crazy Horse after we start our jobs there.

Friday, once the snow started melting, we ventured out into the city of Custer, which is about 4 miles away, and checked out the area and did some grocery shopping at the local market. They will have a farmers market in town on Saturdays, starting in June, so we hope to check that out. Friday night we went out for a fish fry near Hill City, with two other couples that we will be working with, Dick and Cheryl, and Phil and Sandra. Phil and Sandra have been full-timing for 13 years!

Saturday we took a drive on 16A, which goes thru Custer State Park, and up to Iron Mountain Road, which is a very scenic 17 mile road, with 14 switchbacks, 3 tunnels and past the 4 Presidents. We basically had the road to ourselves, which made for a pleasant drive. We were able to stop and take pictures in the tunnels which is something that won’t happen once tourist season is in full bloom.

Custer is famous for their buffalo, but we only saw two on this drive.

There are several lakes in the park.

ready for fishing!

After leaving Custer State Park, you enter right into the National Forest. On 16A, when you see the first park sign, that is when you get your first glimpse at Mt. Rushmore, from a distance.

Custer, SD

Mt Rushmore is just above the hood of the truck.

Mt Rushmore in the distance

Here is a closer view.

1st glimpse of Mt Rushmore

Black Hills

Black Hills & Presidents

scenic views

There are also some fun tunnels to go through, with two of them giving a view of Mount Rushmore.

No problem with this tunnel

tunnel with a view

coming thru with Presidents in view

There is an overview/stop off where you can see Harney Peak in the distance. They have several hiking trails to the top. We are pondering the 6 mile round trip hike. ( I think it would be easy to do if we had a scanner and a cart to push and pretended we were at Amazon!)

Harney Peak

Iron Mountain Road (16A) is a must-do drive, but don’t bring your RV!

Not an RV friendly road!

After 16A, we turned West on Hwy 244, which goes right past Mt. Rushmore, so we took some more “drive-by” photos.

Mt Rushmore from Hwy 244

There is a turn-out down from the monument, where you can get a profile view of George Washington.

profile view

The scenery here is breathtaking and we look forward to exploring many parts of this majestic area. We would like to travel on the Needles Highway (Hwy 87), but there is one tunnel that has a width of 8’4”, and we did a rough measurement of our dually pickup, and we think it is 8’7”. So we will hold off on that drive for now!

Sunday was a cold, blustery day with constant winds around 25mph. So it was a perfect day to do laundry, and go through the many tourist brochures we had picked up. In the afternoon we visited with Steve and Joan and had a wonderful time getting to know them as well.

Monday we checked out the library in Custer, which not only has free wi-fi, but seems to be the social hub of the community, based on how chatty the librarians were with the patrons. It had the ambiance of a coffee shop, but no food or beverages allowed!

We took Makena on a long walk along the George S Mickelson Trail, and picked up annual passes at the visitors center in Custer. All user fees support the trail. The trail follows the old Deadwood to Edgemont Burlington Northern rail line, which was abandoned in 1983. The trail was originally called the Black Hills Burlington Northern Heritage Trail, but was renamed in 1993 after the death of Governor Mickelson, who supported the trail and dedicated the first 6 miles of it in 1991. All 108 miles of the trail were completed by 1998.

Tomorrow (Wednesday May 14) we have our orientation at Crazy Horse, and will find out what our schedule will be for the summer. We look forward to a fun summer getting to know our co-workers more, as well as visiting the many attractions in the area.

Quote for the Day: “Once a year, go someplace you have never been before.” – Dalai Lama

A Winter Wonderland??!!

Posted on April 15, 2014 by liv2rv

Once again, this blog is being interrupted by Makena…who occasionally likes to write about RV life from the dog’s perspective

Keeping my peeps informed!

I woke up this morning and my mom was staring out the window, mumbling. In my seven short years, I have learned that is never a good sign.

But first, a little background. We left warm and sunny Florida on Wednesday, April 9 and I happily took a nap in my kennel in the back seat of the pickup truck, dreaming of more places to play. We seemed to stop every few hours for potty breaks, but then got back in and kept driving and driving. Three days, 1480 miles later, we arrived back at my most favorite place, “Camp Meyer” in Hortonville, Wisconsin. Several acres of nothing but green grass to room around and play!! And, unlike most campgrounds, I am allowed full access to the “clubhouse”! Sometimes I even take a nap on the owners bed. I really appreciate Aunt Linda and Uncle Doug letting me stay here for a few weeks before we go off to South Dakota.

For a few days, I was able to go out and play and run wild, as the weather was pretty good. But then the mumbling started this morning….and next thing I know my mom is getting out my Wisconsin Badger sweater…yikes! Although it keeps me warm, I am not a big fan of it, and didn’t understand why she was chasing me around the camper trying to put it on. It’s been so warm….but this is Wisconsin…

Not happy:(

Then the door opened, and I felt a cold breeze, and I started mumbling as well. What in the world happened?? I thought it was Spring?

Winter Wonderland!

“Camp Meyer”

I don’t think my Mom will be doing any bike riding soon!

But when life gives you lemons, you make tasty lemonade!! So my parents dug out their winter boots, coats, hats and mittens and we all went outside and played in the snow!

Last week it was shorts and sandals

Venice, FL

Today it’s boots and pants (and boots and pants..!)

Hortonville, WI

snow doesn’t stop me!

I also want to thank Mary Jo for letting me come over to her house last week and try to catch lizards. Next time, I will do better!

Where did they go?

Well that’s it for now, hope you are enjoying my blogs!

They say a picture tells a thousand words, so instead of a “quote of the day”, I decided to use a picture (thanks Angie!):

Goodbye Florida

Posted on April 13, 2014 by liv2rv

After staying at campgrounds without internet, we used up all our data on our Verizon cell phone, so I have not been able to post for awhile….sorry! I will try to catch up on the last few weeks in Florida in this post now that we are in a new month of data.

We met up with Dan’s parents a few more times before leaving the East Coast area of Florida. In addition, we had a nice golf and dinner outing with 2 other couples from Dan’s hometown of Oconto Falls, WI that were down in New Smyrna Beach on vacation. Unfortunately, the photos of our golf and dinner are on Dan’s mom’s camera. But we had a great time with Les, Beth, Jeff and Cheryl. We had a nice dinner at Dixie Crossroads Restaurant in Titusville. It’s a bit of a touristy place, but the food was good. Not a place you would want to go for a nice quiet dinner however. Everyone recommended we try the Royal Red Shrimp, which we had never heard of before. We both love shrimp, and agree this was the best tasting shrimp we have ever had. Very sweet and tender. Royal Red is a very deep-water shrimp found off the Atlantic Coast in Florida. It is normally in season in the Spring. If you love shrimp, and ever get a chance to try these, you will not be disappointed!

Les and Beth enjoy fishing in the Atlantic Ocean, and Dan was curious about this style of fishing from shore, so he watched them for a few minutes when it was “fish on”!

Nice catch Beth!

We had a nice “end of season” cook-out at our campground, and by the time we left on Saturday, April 5th, the campground was pretty empty. It was too soon for us to leave Florida, so we headed back over to the Gulf side, and found a nice Passport America park in Venice, Florida. We got together that night with our friend Mary Jo to watch our beloved Wisconsin Badgers play Kentucky in the final four.

Go Badgers!!

Despite our cheering, the Badgers lost by one point. They had an excellent season, and almost all the players should be back next year. Who would have expected at the beginning of the season they would make it to the Final Four?!

On Sunday, we again got together with Mary Jo and watched two manatees at play right off the dock by their house. We were all invited for an impromptu get-together at Gary and Elaine’s, Mary Jo’s neighbors down the road. A few years ago, Mary Jo invited me to go on a boat trip with 6 other gals. Other than Mary Jo, I only had met one other gal that was going to be on the boat. To be honest, I was hesitant to go, as I was terrified of the idea of spending a week on a boat with complete strangers. It’s an introverted person’s nightmare! But Dan was very encouraging, and it was an opportunity of a lifetime, so I did go, and had an excellent time.

Elaine invited 2 other couples over for dinner as well, so we had a “mini reunion” of sorts with some of the other gals. And Dan finally got to meet all the people I was talking about.

Elaine, Mary Jo, Cindy, me and Terri

And of course, since we were back on the Gulf Coast, it was time for another sunset!

sunset in Nokomis

Monday was a special day, and I will do a separate post on that day’s activities.

Quote for the day: “My parents didn’t want to move to Florida, but they turned sixty, and that’s the law.” – Jerry Seinfeld

My parents didn’t want to move to Florida, but they turned sixty and that’s the law.

Jerry Seinfeld

My parents didn’t want to move to Florida, but they turned sixty and that’s the law.

Jerry Seinfeld

My parents didn’t want to move to Florida, but they turned sixty and that’s the law.

Jerry Seinfeld

Wine Walk and more family time

Posted on March 29, 2014 by liv2rv

We got together on Dan’s dad’s birthday (Makena already did her blog post, since they share the same birthday) for a nice dinner on the river in New Smyrna Beach. Dan’s brother Gary, his wife Julia and youngest daughter Jasmine joined in.

On Friday, the seven of us went on the evening Victory Casino Cruise out of Port Canaveral, Florida. The campground we are staying at organized an outing, and we went along with the group. The owner of the campground was able to get a group rate of $21.00 per person, which included admission to the cruise, a delicious buffet dinner, and $20.00 in match play. The cruise ship has to go out to international waters before you can begin gambling, which takes about 35 minutes once you leave port. They offer everything that you would find in a regular casino. Unfortunately, we have no big wins to brag about!

Dan’s mom and dad

sunset on the cruise

On Saturday (3/22), we met up with Gary, Julia and Jasmine for the Wine Walk on Flagler Avenue in New Smyrna Beach. Dan’s parents had their end of season dinner at their condo, so they did not join in.

New Smyrna Beach

For $25.00, you receive a souvenir wine glass and 20 coupons for wine sampling. The walk goes from 1pm – 7pm and covers 12 businesses in the thriving downtown of New Smyrna Beach. The weather was perfect and it appeared several thousand people were also doing the walk. It was a great way to see all the wonderful shops and restaurants on Flagler Avenue, and to sample many great wines along the way!

cheers!

You received a map of downtown with all the participating establishments. Each place had a list of the wines that were available to sample. Each sample required 1 – 5 tickets, depending on the retail value of the wine.

lots of choices

studying the wine menu

There were many choices available, from whites to reds, ports, and several sangrias. Several of the places made their own version of sangria, using mangos as the main ingredient. We all agreed it was one of our favorites. So if you like to make your own sangria, try using mangos as the fruit. It was very refreshing!

Dan, Julia, Jasmine, Gary

And there was even some entertainment along the way. We had never seen a baby grand piano on a peddle cart before. He was very good, and a lot of fun to listen to.

piano peddle cart

father-daughter time

Flagler Avenue

The ladies at the Galleria De Vitro were having a lot of fun handing out samples. They said life is short, so you better enjoy it! And they certainly were!

Galleria De Vitro

And of course there were the usual ‘touristy’ signs.

Not sure what Gary is trying to tell his friends…

hmmm?!

lots of choices

making new friends

a sangria siesta?

We kept track of the wines that we liked, and will take our list with us when we go shopping. It was a lot of fun, and they are doing another walk in April, in case anyone happens to be in the New Smyrna Beach area. It was a great way for the downtown businesses to bring a lot of people to the area.

On Sunday, we (Dan’s parents, Gary, Jasmine, Dan and I) played golf at Cypress Head in Port Orange. Julia opted to keep Makena company at the condo. It has been over a year since I last played, and it showed! I donated a few golf balls to the pond. But on a positive side, we finally saw the Florida Scrub Jay. We learned about these on our birding tour, but did not notice one until Sunday. We did not bring our camera along, but this is a photo from the internet that shows what they look like.

This is the only species of bird endemic to Florida, so we were excited to finally see two of them.

After golf, we all met up with Julia and had a nice dinner together, on their final night in town. It was a fun, busy week getting together. And they seemed to enjoy getting out of the cold and snow.

Quote for the Day: “Wine is the most healthful and most hygienic of beverages.” – Louis Pasteur

Kayaking and family time

Posted on March 26, 2014 by liv2rv

Dan’s brother Gary, wife Julia and youngest daughter Jasmine flew down from frigid Minnesota and Iowa for a “Spring Break” and some sunshine. They are staying just up the road in New Smyrna Beach, where Dan’s parents rent a condo for a few months to also escape the cold and snow.

While we were at the condo, Dan noticed a familiar site in the sand. Can you guess what this is? Hint, it was on March 14th…..

Happy Pi Day!

Yes, some creative math geeks spent their day on the beach making the “Pi” symbol, and wrote out a decimal approximation for Pi. Spring Break gets pretty wild in New Smyrna Beach!!

Dan was able to dust off the golf clubs and golf with his parents and brother last Friday. Julia and I joined the foursome later for a delicious dinner (we had to do the “early bird special” of course!). Saturday we had a quiet family day, with a long walk on the beach. Unfortunately, Dan and I both ended up with multiple blisters on the bottom of our feet from the hot sand (yes, I know those of you still wearing winter boots have no sympathy for us!). Dan’s mom fixed a delicious dinner and fresh strawberry pie, and we had a competitive card game of ‘hand and foot’, which the guys won. Sunday Dan and I just rested our very painful feet!

Monday (3/17) we again got together for dinner and cards, and Jasmine flew in late that night. On Wednesday, Gary, Julia and Jasmine joined Dan and I down in Cocoa Beach, on a 2 hour Kayaking Tour on the Indian River, with Island Time Kayaking. We had seen this tour offered on Groupon, and the price ($25.00 for 2 people) was right. Neither of us had ever kayaked before, and we both wanted to try it out.

We all agreed that the kayaking was a lot of fun, but the “tour” was rather lacking. We would not recommend this tour company for kayaking. Part of the problem was the location, and the other was our tour guide. Despite the tour company’s advertising manatees, dolphins, and 300 species of birds, we saw 2 birds during the 2 hours. Our tour guide was lacking in customer service skills (we shouldn’t have to ask him what his name is), and really seemed dis-interested in the tour. Our first stop on our “tour” was to look at an old fence post that previously marked the border of the Kennedy Space Centers property. We stared at it while he went on about how the tug boats and cargo ships pollute the water. He spent about 20 minutes giving us his views on healthcare, and people who have purchased a trip to Mars. Then he paddled off to go check out a new boat that was on the dock by Sea Ray, and with 30 minutes left in the tour, he paddled back in and told us we had 30 minutes to ourselves to do what we wanted!

We certainly would love to go kayaking again, and may look into one of the inflatable Sea Eagle Kayaks that many RVers have and love. You can certainly get a nice workout when paddling upstream! And we have seen many photos from other blogs of nicer places in which to kayak in! It was a very relaxing time.

The brothers

Gary and niece Jasmine

Julia

floating along

Dan getting a workout

This is the new yacht that Sea Ray is apparently testing out, according to our tour guide.

Sea Ray’s new yacht

The two birds that we saw on our tour.

turkey vulture

unknown bird

After our tour, we headed down to Cocoa Beach, to catch whatever rays would soak thru our Broad Spectrum SPF 50 lotion! There were many families and spring breakers enjoying the beach. We discovered a nice restaurant right on the beach, where we had a great dinner, and some tasty “foofy” frozen drinks!

foofy drink time

Quote for the day: “The mark of a successful man is one that has spent an entire day on the bank of a river without feeling guilty about it.” – Chinese Philosopher

The U.S. Space Walk of Fame Museum

Posted on March 23, 2014 by liv2rv

Dan and I have always had a fascination with the Space program, so we stopped in at The U.S. Space Walk of Fame Museum in Titusville, after we finished our bird tour at Merritt Island. The museum, which has free admission (yea!), is crammed full of memorabilia from the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Shuttle missions. Currently, the museum is in an old building, and is literally bursting at the seams. In talking with the volunteer on duty, they just signed a lease for a new building, that will have about 7,000 square feet of exhibit space, compared with the 1400 square feet they have now.

Many of the items have been donated by employees from the space center, as well as the astronauts. While we were there, a woman came in inquiring about donating memorabilia her father received while working at the space center in the 60’s and 70’s. They were very eager to receive her late father’s collection, and she was happy it would be enjoyed by the public for years to come.

Below is a photo of the recovery suit worn by Virgil “Gus” Grissom after the Gemini 3 flight. Grissom was the 2nd American to fly in space. He was set to command the first manned Apollo mission, but was tragically killed when fire erupted in his spacecraft on the Launchpad in a training mission on January 27, 1967. Crewmates Edward White II and Roger Chaffee were also killed.

Gus Grissom

This is the hatch and frame that was recovered from Mercury Capsule #4. This was a suborbital flight, by Gus Grissom, that lasted about 15 minutes and was uneventful until splashdown, when the hatch cover blew. Grissom was saved from drowning, and the capsule sank into the Atlantic Ocean. It was recovered in 1999.

space hatch

various memorabilia

NASA used a high-speed camera (pictured below), capable of taking 4,000 photos per minute, to check rocket and missile engine performance during tests and during lift-off of the rockets at the space center. The camera was attached to a drive motor below the camera, and is about 3 feet tall with the motor attached.

high speed camera

They had a nice model of the space shuttle on the launch assembly pad.

model of space shuttle launch pad

This museum had a lot of interesting facts and figures for the math geeks.

lots of math involved in the space program!

And even something of interest for radiology geeks! The lunar EVA spacesuit boots that Neal Armstrong left on the moon were x-rayed on July 7,1969, 9 days before the launch of Apollo 11. The radiograph was done to insure there were no foreign objects in the boots which could compromise the integrity of the spacesuit.

x-rays used to document history!

The Space Center has it’s own fire department, and they had several displays in their honor.

fire fighter suit in the 60’s

The museum had a tribute to the crews of the 2 Space Shuttle missions that tragically ended. The Space Shuttle Challenger blew up just 73 seconds after the launch on January 28, 1986. I remember hearing about this during a Physics class in college (UW – Eau Claire). Our professor was visibly upset and released class early and we all went over to a cafeteria to watch the news on television. (life before the internet, where we had to ‘wait’ for news!) Dan was doing his student teaching in Marshfield, Wisconsin when word came in during an algebra II class. This shuttle launch was one of the most widely viewed live space events, because Christa McAuliffe, was on board. She would have been the first teacher in space. The space shuttle program was grounded for 3 years after this catastrophe.

Challenger Crew

On February 1, 2003, all seven members of the Space Shuttle Columbia crew perished when their shuttle disintegrated upon re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere over Texas and Louisiana. Again the shuttle program was put on hold for 2 years.

Columbia Crew

The photo below is a giant rotary dial phone used in the control rooms. It’s hard to tell from the photo, but it is about 8 inches high by 10 inches wide. Amazing how much technology has shrunk the size of phones today!

a giant phone

NASA used these giant Lithium Chloride Batteries on 3 Titan missile missions. One battery has a 250 amp hour capacity, and was the first lithium battery used of this capacity.

a big battery

The photo below shows a mission control room, and the museum has on display several of the actual control panels from this room.

photo of mission control

control panels

Overall, we enjoyed this museum, even though it is in very cramped quarters. We were the only 2 people visiting at the time. We look forward to coming again some day, after they move into their new building.

Quote for the day: “Looking down the road, space exploration and the benefits it yields – in medicine and information technology – should not be overlooked.” – Bob Barr

Happy Birthday to me and Grandpa Stu!!

Posted on March 20, 2014 by liv2rv

Keeping my peeps informed!

Today is my 7th Birthday, so my mom is letting me post again!! I share my birthday with Grandpa Stu (Dan’s dad). He turns 77 today! And since we are both in Florida, we were able to share some cake together!!!

Grandpa Stu and I

My parents have always let me have a small lick of a piece of cake for every birthday that I have had. So when I saw the little piece on the table, I was very excited!!!

Yummy!!

And my grandparents bought me a stuffed hamburger toy, which I was able to “destuff” in under 2 minutes!!

Stuffed burger

My grandparents also took me for a nice long walk, which I always enjoy! But before we drove up to visit them, I did get to go for a walk at our campground. My mom was a little afraid on our walk, because she saw an alligator by our campsite. She just stopped, and then my dad started laughing.

I’m not afraid

Turns out the new owners of the RV park have been busy putting out all kinds of decorations around the park, including a fake alligator. I wasn’t afraid at all, and told the gator to stay away from my football!

And even though today starts “March Madness” with non-stop basketball (Go Bucky!), football is still #1 in my heart. So no birthday would be complete without another game of football!

I love to play!

Now for those who are wondering about my “people age”, it is a myth that one dog year equals seven people years. A dog’s age varies by their size and breed. Since I am only 12 pounds, my “people age” is 44 years.

I hope everyone has a happy first day of Spring!!! Yea!!! And tomorrow is my Aunt Linda’s birthday, so I want to wish her a great day too! (I won’t disclose her age though!)

Quote for the Day: “Such short little lives our pets have to spend with us, and they spend most of it waiting for us to come home each day. It is amazing how much love and laughter they bring into our lives and even how much closer we become with each other because of them.” – John Grogan

Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge

Posted on March 17, 2014 by liv2rv

Last week we headed down to Titusville to take a beginning bird tour at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Back in 1962, NASA acquired 140,000 acres of land to establish the John F Kennedy Space Center. NASA needed about 10,000 acres for their buildings and launch pads. In 1963, the US Fish and Wildlife Service signed an agreement to maintain the remaining acreage as a wildlife refuge.

Today there are more than 500 species of wildlife, including 15 endangered or threatened species, that can be found on the refuge. There are also seven different habitats on the refuge: beaches, coastal dunes, scrub, pine flatwoods, brackish impoundments, hardwood hammocks, and open water estuaries.

Titusville, FL

There are many activities and classes available at the refuge. Since our knowledge of birds is limited to “look at that big white bird”, or “is that an Eagle or just a big black bird?”, we decided to sign up for the Beginning Bird Tour. It is a 3 hour small shuttle bus tour around the main roads in the refuge, as well at the Black Point Wildlife Drive. The cost of the tour was only $3.00 per person, and children under 16 are free. We highly recommend the tour. If you do not own binoculars or a bird guide, you can check one out from the visitors center for free. Our tour bus driver, Ned, is a retired high school biology teacher, and he did an excellent job both educating and entertaining us.

There are over 900 species of birds in the United States, and over 500 of them can be found in Florida. Ned recommended focusing on the wading birds when starting out, as they are among the easiest group to identify. There are 5 main ways to identify birds: Silhouette (shape and size), Plumage/Colorization, Behavior, Voice, and Habitat Preferences.

Our tour started out on the main roads and we had a few stops near a parking lot, where several birds were busy watching the fisherman. I don’t recall the names of all the birds. After 3 hours, I was on ‘bird overload’!

We then entered the Black Point Wildlife Drive, which is a 7 mile one-way drive through pine flatwoods and very shallow marsh impoundments. The cost to drive on this road is $5.00, but is included in the Bird Tour. The money raised by the refuge is used to make improvements, such as the viewing station shown below. There are several people on the dock, but you can’t see them. They are designed to allow viewing of the birds without scaring them away.

hideout for photographers

Across the marsh is part of the Kennedy Space Center. The water that you see is only a few inches in-depth, and is brackish (mixture of fresh water and salt water).

Kennedy Space Center

And we did see a few alligators hanging around the refuge as well.

Alligator

One of the wading birds that people come to see at the refuge is the Roseate Spoonbill, which has bright pink colors.

Roseate Spoonbill

Roseate Spoonbill in middle

Some of the folks we saw watching the birds had very large (and expensive) zoom lenses on their cameras. They had some excellent photos. I was limited with my little zoom lens, unless we were close to the birds.

Great White Heron

Snowy Egret

Tri-Colored Heron

Little Blue Heron

We did also see a Great Blue Heron, but he was too far away for my camera.

American Avocet

Turkey Vultures

Roseate Spoonbill and egrets (?)

And another Tricolored Heron, which was probably the fastest bird we saw. He loved to run around the water!

We will definitely return to the refuge in the future. If you are in the area, it is worth a trip!

Quote for the Day: “In order to see birds it is necessary to become part of the silence.” – Robert Lynd

RVillage is up and running!!

Posted on March 13, 2014 by liv2rv

You check into your campground, get all set up, and then what? Some campgrounds will give you a list of activities they have planned, or brochures for attractions in the area. But how do you make connections with your new neighbors in the campground? What if you are looking for someone to go golfing with, or watch your favorite sport’s team? Maybe you play an instrument and want to get together for an impromptu jam session. Need someone to go hiking, biking, geocaching, or whatever interest you have with? What if the park has no activities, but you want to meet up with your neighbors, but don’t have the time to walk around hoping people are outside and you can stop and chat?

A new website has now been launched that we believe will quickly become a favorite for those who love RV’ing and/or camping. It doesn’t matter if you have a tent, or a fancy motor home. Welcome to http://www.rvillage.com, a site created by RV’ers, to connect with fellow RV’ers wherever you are (in the United States and parts of Canada for now).

When we were staying in Cedar Key, FL for the month of January, we were invited to join RVillage as Beta testers, which is a fancy word for people who could access the site and try out the features and report any glitches. We were quickly impressed by what this site could do in making connections on the road. For those that know us, we have never joined Facebook under our own name. We only joined so we could see what others were doing, and stay connected with relatives, friends, and some of the groups that we were a part of. We were always concerned with privacy issues, and the fact there seems to be a lot of junk on the site. We have no concerns with RVillage. RVillage is designed to get fellow RV’ers together, face to face, for activities.

If you are an RV’er and you do sign up for an account, you can search for us by ‘Dan and Jonell Anderson’ and look at our page and perhaps send us a friend request!

When you go to the website, you sign up for a free account, and then you can create your profile. When you enter a park, you sign in to that park, and you can see if any other members of RVillage are in that park. You can also keep track of where your friends are staying, and where other members of the groups you belong to are staying, in case you want to plan some get-together.

We feel this website has so much untapped potential, and will continue to grow as word gets out. To get a better idea of this website, please read Chris and Cherie’s (Technomadia blog). They have an excellent article describing more details, as they were instrumental in getting this off and running.

The best part of this lifestyle is meeting so many people from all walks of life. Everyone has a story to tell, and RVillage will really open up the floodgates when it comes to making connections on the road. Please join in!

Quote for the Day: “It’s fine to have social media that connects us with old friends, but we need tools that help us discover new people as well.” – Ethan Zuckerman (director of the MIT Center for Civic Media)

Blog post # 50 – stolen by the dog!

Posted on March 10, 2014 by liv2rv

Hi Everyone, I heard my parents posted blog #49 the other day, so I decided I needed to take over the big 5-0 post, since my dad has already past his big 50, and my mom won’t reach that until April!

Hello!

I am really starting to settle into this RV lifestyle, which makes my parents happy. I no longer get nervous when they start to pack up their belongings, because I know I won’t be left behind. And it is always fun to check out my new backyards, and new neighbors, knowing that I will always have my house wherever we go. Same old creature comforts, just with a different view and smells! It’s a good life!!

Keeping my peeps informed!

This new backyard, or campground as my parents call it, has a great fenced in area for dogs. It is even better than the last park, as it has grass, not wood chips. I have a need for speed, and I can go pretty fast when I play on grass!

Ready!

Set!

Gooooooo!!!!

We have been spending a lot of time visiting my grandparents in New Smyrna Beach, which I really enjoy. Even though I am not allowed to walk on the beach, they always take me for a long walk. Or am I taking them for a long walk? I seem to wear them out!

pooped grandparents!

My dad took the above photo, boy won’t they be surprised when they see this!!! This is why you don’t fall asleep when my dad has the camera!

In my mom’s last post, she talked about the gators that they have seen at the park. I still haven’t seen any, because they would not take me down by the lake when they saw them. I was stuck in the camper, so I had to watch from the bedroom window. If you look close, you can see my sad face in the window:(

stuck indoors

But given that I’m afraid of most other animals, it’s better that I stay safe and sound.

Take care, stay warm, and see you soon!

Quote for the Day: “A dog doesn’t care if your rich or poor, smart or dumb. Give him your heart.. and he’ll give you his.” – Milo Gathema

Liv2RV

Living and working around the country in a RV

Tag Archives: Full-time RVing

Initial impressions of the Black Hills

A Winter Wonderland??!!

Goodbye Florida

Wine Walk and more family time

Kayaking and family time

The U.S. Space Walk of Fame Museum

Happy Birthday to me and Grandpa Stu!!

Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge

RVillage is up and running!!

Blog post # 50 – stolen by the dog!