Davidson Woods

June 25, 2008 – Qualla, North Carolina
Anne and Chuck submitted on January 15, 1970
Having remained stationary, there has been less reason to report our progress these months of May and June. That is about to change as we relocate to our little house on South Mountain in Pennsylvania next week, but there we have no Internet access and only poor telephone access, so I provide this update of the pilgrims’ progress.
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BLOG TITLEBLOG CONTENTHaving remained stationary, there has been less reason to report our progress these months of May and June. That is about to change as we relocate to our little house on South Mountain in Pennsylvania next week, but there we have no Internet access and only poor telephone access, so I provide this update of the pilgrims’ progress. We have enjoyed our stay at Ft. Wilderness Campground. Although a bit rustic, i.e. ill maintained, it is off the main road and at the edge of forests and fields. It is usually very free of traffic noise and there is a morning chorus of wood thrushes. Our neighbors are an interesting and quirky group. A Confederate flag is proudly displayed on one trailer within my view now. Another neighbor climbed back on his motorbike within days of walking away from the wheelchair into which the bike had put him. Of course each weekend there is a new group of short-timers. I suspect that this weekend the campground will fill completely. We will leave on Sunday. Anne has enjoyed her work and co-workers. She and they are sorry to separate. Today there will be a small lunch party for her. Still, medicine is hard and challenging work, and she is ready to complete it. The income has helped us to manage the sharp price increases we have seen this year. Chuck never managed to catch the attention of the tribe and managed the household and caught up on our personal business. The Internet has not made the process any easier. Keeping track of all the codes and passwords is a nightmare, and the websites often do not provide obvious links. Telephone communication has also become a bit of a maze too. In any case he kept busy and we ate much better than when we were on the road. He also learned more of the Eastern Cherokee. Theirs is a fascinating history. On weekends we explored the mountains and forests. Our children visited together for five days. We whitewater paddled, hiked, explored Cherokee Town, watched fireflies, dined out, visited an art show, and shared food, drink, and conversations. On our return to the airport we enjoyed a clear view of Cold Mountain and stood in the wind at the base of Looking Glass Falls. This last Saturday the two of us made the sturdy hike up Mt. LeConte, a popular 6K peak on the Tennessee side of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. On Sunday we merely walked up the Mingus Creek Trail and past an operating 19th Century steel turbine powered gristmill. There we chatted with the volunteer miller whom we had met on an earlier visit. This Thursday Anne is off and we will visit old friends of Chuck in Georgia. Anne works on Friday and we will pack on Saturday. On Sunday we will drive only as far as Roan Mountain, Tennessee where we will camp for two nights and see how the spectacular rosebay rhododendron patch for which that mountain is famous is doing. Then on Tuesday we will cross into Virginia and camp at its popular Grayson Highlands State Park. We will there check out the Rhod’ies in the Mount Rogers area. We will stay there for two nights also and then drive home on the 3rd of July in time to celebrate the holiday weekend with Chuck’s parents. We will be at home more or less in July except we will run up to Schenectady to visit family and see some Lake George opera and will be depart Pennsyvania again at the end of the month to backpack about Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts in September and October with a break to Cape Cod at the end of August and beginning of September. In October, after a short break, we may walk some more and pick up a last piece of the Appalachian Trail in New York and Connecticut. If we do it all, we will have finished all of the AT north of Virginia. Then we will return again to Pennsylvania for the rest of the fall. No plans yet for this winter.
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A great slideshow about where all of our plastic bags end up
Kara submitted on January 15, 1970
http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080506/MULTIMEDIA02/80505016 You have to use the scroll down button on the bottom right to go through it.
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BLOG TITLEBLOG CONTENThttp://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080506/MULTIMEDIA02/80505016 You have to use the scroll down button on the bottom right to go through it.
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UN warns of growth in climate change refugees
Kara submitted on January 15, 1970
Hannah Strange Climate change is forcing growing numbers of people in the developing world to flee their homes and seek refuge abroad, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees warned today. Announcing findings that the number of refugees worldwide had risen steeply for the second year running, António Guterres said that environmental degradation induced by climate change was forcing greater displacement as resources became increasingly scarce.
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BLOG TITLEBLOG CONTENTHannah Strange Climate change is forcing growing numbers of people in the developing world to flee their homes and seek refuge abroad, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees warned today. Announcing findings that the number of refugees worldwide had risen steeply for the second year running, António Guterres said that environmental degradation induced by climate change was forcing greater displacement as resources became increasingly scarce. The UNHCR’s 2007 Global Trends report says the number of international refugees under its responsibility rose from 9.9 to 11.4 million by the end of last year. Meanwhile the number of people displaced internally by conflict increased from 24.4 million to 26 million, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre. "After a five-year decline in the number of refugees between 2001 and 2005, we have now seen two years of increases, and that's a concern," Mr Guterres said. "We are now faced with a complex mix of global challenges that could threaten even more forced displacement in the future,” he warned. “They range from multiple new conflict-related emergencies in world hotspots to bad governance, climate-induced environmental degradation that increases competition for scarce resources, and extreme price hikes that have hit the poor the hardest and are generating instability in many places." Competition for natural resources has long been a source of conflict in the developing world, particularly on the African continent. Now, as climate change exacerbates environmental degradation, access to water and fertile land is becoming ever more scarce, feeding displacement either directly, as communities relocate in search of resources, or indirectly through conflict, poverty and food shortages. Darfur, where 2.5 million people have been displaced by conflict, was a case in point, Peter Kessler of the UNHCR told The Times. “The root of the conflict is greatly due to the competition for water and grazing land between tribes.” Sudan has become one of the world’s refugee hotspots, with over half a million having fled the country in search of a better life elsewhere, according to UN figures. “We are seeing right across the planet, particularly in the developing world, that climate change is generating levels of environmental degradation and wearing down the life support systems on which millions of people depend,” Nick Nuttall of the United Nations Environment Programme told The Times. “Whereever you look, the footprint of climate change and environmental degradation is bring people to a situation where resources are increasingly scarce and forcing them to move.” Mr Nuttall pointed to Uganda’s Rwenzori mountains, where retreating glaciers were threatening the existence of rivers – including the Nile - on which millions of people depended for their livelihood. In Haiti, he said, deforestation and the resulting erosion of fertile topsoil was contributing to conflict, while in Mali, Chad and Ethiopia, entire lakes had all but disappeared over the last two decades. Meanwhile in Asia, the Himalayan glaciers which fed the continent’s life-supporting rivers could have all but vanished by 2030, he added. In India, preparations to stem the flood of ecological refugees are already underway. The government is currently constructing a 2,500 mile barrier along its border with Bangladesh, from which it already sees a substantial flow of illegal immigrants. In this low-lying nation, rising sea levels and storm surges could force 34 million people to flee their homes over the next several decades. Mr Nuttall warned that increasing effort would have to be put into adapting to climate change, as even if greenhouse gas emissions were reduced to zero certain effects had already been put in motion. Regional cooperation on water supplies were particularly important, he said, alluding to anxieties over looming water wars which the British Government has cited as a major security concern for the coming decades. “Countries have in the past got together and cooperated over water,” he said. “Whether that same level of cooperation will endure in a world where climate change is not addressed is a moot point. “But in Darfur, a red flag has been raised.” http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4159923.ece?token=null&offset=0
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May 26, 2008 – Memorial Day – Cherokee, NC
Anne and Chuck submitted on January 15, 1970
Another beautiful morning in the Smokies and we have a busy day planned. On Saturday we bicycled the loop road in the isolated valley tucked in the mountains called Cades Cove. There isolated structures remain of a remote agricultural community that developed in the mid 1800’s and was purchased by the National Park Service in the 1930’s. Many of the structures that remain are primitive of log and rough-cut lumber.
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BLOG TITLEBLOG CONTENTAnother beautiful morning in the Smokies and we have a busy day planned. On Saturday we bicycled the loop road in the isolated valley tucked in the mountains called Cades Cove. There isolated structures remain of a remote agricultural community that developed in the mid 1800’s and was purchased by the National Park Service in the 1930’s. Many of the structures that remain are primitive of log and rough-cut lumber. They provide a glimpse of the heartier life of earlier times, and strangely the simple rectangular structures are pleasing to view even if they are tiny and “unfinished” by today’s standards. Yesterday we hiked with friends to a wonderful perch called the Pinnacle which overlooks the town of Sylva and looks up to the Great Balsam, Plott Balsam, Nantahala, and Great Smoky Mountain Ranges. There at 5,000 feet the oaks are just leafing out and the mountain laurel is in bud. In the valley the laurel is now in bloom and the domestic rhododendrons in front yards are beginning to fade. Today we drive back to Sylva where Anne will rent a sewing machine to assemble a quilt and Chuck will shop and launder clothes. Tonight he will grill burgers for a traditional Memorial Day picnic. We will have two or three guests. The weather should be great. The temperature may reach a blazing 80 degrees. Tomorrow Anne will work at the Cherokee clinic. She has found the work refreshing and exciting. Allowed a bit more time for each patient because the patients here often have more complicated problems than those she saw in private practice, she enjoys the challenges and rewards of medical practice. Still the work is demanding and its temporary nature makes it more enjoyable. Meanwhile Chuck is being a househusband. The tribal tourist agent has yet to get back to him and he assumes that the opportunity to work up a birding program is fading. That is too bad because the Qualla Boundary is a wonderful birding location. He most regrets not being able to inform the appropriate managers of the wonderful community of birds on the Kituwah Mound farm made possible unconsciously by informal farming. Now it is critical that conservation management be formalized to preserve the lovely “country farm” and its birds. We look forward to visits by our children. The canoe is ready for action and now that the weather is warming we may get out on the Tuckaseegee River ourselves. We are also planning our adventures for the end of summer. We have outlined our Appalachian Trail hiking in Maine and New Hampshire. We will be there in August. We hope to visit at Cape Cod at the end of that month. After Labor Day we will hike Vermont and New Hampshire with our neighbors and perhaps New York and Connecticut at the end of September and early October. After that no plans yet. So be it. Now we tidy up the motorhome and listen to the “Weekend Edition.” Anne, still the romantic cried a bit when a commentator reported on the Normandy Cemetery which we visited in January where The United States Memorial Commission has created a fitting monument to our fallen warriors in Europe and everywhere in place and time. We are, for better and for worse, the nation of the citizen soldier. Today we give tribute to the suffering of war. It is a holiday that finds joy only in reflection on sadness. It is a day to be sober of what war is and why the greatest honor is in its prevention, a skill that has not yet been mastered. We remain in a martial age. We wonder if we will live to see a time beyond the age of governmental murder.
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Dear Family
Therese submitted on January 15, 1970
Don't forget that you won't see everything if you don't sign in!
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BLOG TITLEBLOG CONTENTDon't forget that you won't see everything if you don't sign in!
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April 30, 2008 – South Mountain
Anne and Chuck submitted on January 15, 1970
We are “home” again even if only for less than a week to see Chuck’s parents, our daughter, our house, and a bit of that good old South Mountain springtime. We drove here yesterday from Cherokee where our motorhome remains waiting for our return this weekend. The drive was long and the Ford Focus is not the most comfortable vehicle for a long driving day, but the radio and a book on tape made the time go by more quickly. The greening Appalachians and blooming dogwoods and redbuds provided fine scenery.
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BLOG TITLEBLOG CONTENTWe are “home” again even if only for less than a week to see Chuck’s parents, our daughter, our house, and a bit of that good old South Mountain springtime. We drove here yesterday from Cherokee where our motorhome remains waiting for our return this weekend. The drive was long and the Ford Focus is not the most comfortable vehicle for a long driving day, but the radio and a book on tape made the time go by more quickly. The greening Appalachians and blooming dogwoods and redbuds provided fine scenery. We made a stop at Greencastle PA for some of the best roasted-peanuts anywhere and another stop at Wallmart for a few groceries before climbing into the forest of South Mountain. In transition, our minds are full of many places and people. The campground we found near Cherokee, five miles from the hospital where Anne will work for two months, is rustic and off the beaten path. There last evening wood thrushes and Carolina wrens blessed the quiet air with song. The campground owners are from Long Island and seem cheerful and pleasant. They are preparing for the tourist season, which is still a month away. Frost was forecast for last night. We welcomed the “blanket weather” in the Carolina mountains after our last week in the Florida Keys where the warmth was becoming intense and awoke yesterday to a 33 degree dawn. The evening before our departure from the Keys we were made uncomfortable by our failure to find two birds, the Antillean nighthawk and the mangrove cuckoo. The original plan was to spot these birds during the first week of May after our trip to the Tortugas, but then Cherokee called for us to be there on that week and family called us to Pennsylvania a week earlier. We had sought these birds before our visit to the Tortugas, but had failed to find them. The nighthawk is the less intriguing of the two birds, though it would be a life-bird for both Anne and Chuck. It is very similar to the common nighthawk, but slightly smaller and browner. The only reliable distinction is a difference in calls. The male common nighthawk has a nasal “peent” call. The male Antillean nighthawk says “pity-pit-pit.” Both species are present in the Florida Keys. So, one goes to a place where nighthawks are displaying – the Marathon Airport is one such place – at sunset and waits for the nighthawks to come out. They can be dimly observed in the fading daylight or moonlight. If the birder hears the “pity-pit-pit” call, he gives a cheer and tics off the species. Unfortunately, the nighthawks were not yet displaying. We saw several nighthawks while in the Keys, but none of them were calling. We even found a roosting bird on Garden Key in the Tortugas. After much examination, we concluded it looked more like a common nighthawk than an Antillean nighthawk, but no one was sure. On our last evening at Marathon, we arrived at the airport at sunset. We heard the call of the common nighthawk and saw one flying nighthawk, but heard no “pity-pit-pit.” Probably the Antillean species had yet to arrive or had not yet started to display. We drove home from the airport disappointed. We were more frustrated this final evening in the Keys by our failure to find the mangrove cuckoo. Chuck has seen these species in his youth, but it would be a life-bird for Anne. It is a handsome diurnal species and one both of us wanted to see this year. Some are rumored to stay year-round in the mangrove forests of southwestern Florida and the Keys, but it is a secretive species and not easily observed until breeding season. We had started to look for it at Ft. Myers and then much more seriously after we arrived in the Florida Keys. We checked out nearly every location mentioned in Pranty’s bird guide to Florida. Arriving at Marathon, we went the first day to check out Boot Key where the book reported their breeding. This island is seaward of Vaca Key, the island on which the town of Marathon has grown. Boot Key remains undeveloped. We were sorely disappointed when turning down the road to Boot Key we found a barricade and the words “bridge closed.” That didn’t stop us. We paddled the canoe across the channel and through the mangrove creeks of Boot Key. We listened and watched. We played a recording of the bird. We found no sign of it. While at the Tortugas we looked for migrant mangrove cuckoos. We found several yellow-billed cuckoos, but none of this target species. Returning to Marathon for two nights and one day before starting north, Chuck fretted. He knew that we would spend our final day recovering from our wilderness adventure and preparing for departure. We had failed to find the bird near Marathon a week before. Perhaps we should camp at Florida City or Everglades City for two nights and search these areas. Still, the bird might just not be here yet. Anne pointed out that we needed to drive each day to arrive in Pennsylvania in time to meet our daughter. She suggested that we check Boot Key again. This island seemed provide the best habitat in the near vicinity. What if we canoed there again the morning of our departure day? We could spend two or three hours in the search and still break camp by Noon. Chuck was hesitant. He likes to focus on travel during travel days and likes to start early. Still, it seemed the only option. Perhaps the birds arrived while we were at the Tortugas. We set the alarm for 5:30 a.m. as usual on Saturday, April 26, but we ignored its ring and rose a half hour later. Not a good start, but we ate breakfast smartly and arrived at Sombrero Beach Park at 7:00 a.m. The gate was open but was chained to a width of two feet. Anne was concerned that we could get the canoe through that passage. Chuck commented that we could do it and began loading the boat. We tipped the canoe to negociate the gate, launched from the beach and quickly crossed the channel to the landing on Boot Key. We walked the trail to the road and studied the mangrove forest. This was the spot where the book said the bird could be found. Chuck played a recording of its call, and we waited quietly. Nothing. Walking back a long-tailed bird flew across the trail ahead. “That could be it,” Chuck commented, but we never saw it again. Returning to the canoe we paddled across a sharp breeze in bright sunlight to the mouth of Whiskey Creek. Chuck didn’t like the conditions. Both the wind and the glare would make it difficult to see this bird. Still, we entered the creek and played the call a few times. The creek was more peaceful and the mangroves were lovely. As the channel narrowed we could begin to look into the dark interior of the swamp. That seemed to be where we might find the bird. Now the stream narrowed and the trees formed a tunnel. Chuck played the call one more time and began steering through the narrow winding tidal creek. A call came from the forest. “Gaw-gaw-gaw-gaw-gaw-gaw-gaw.” Chuck heard it but was uncertain of its source. He didn’t want to raise false hope. Anne heard it and was certain. She said it came from behind us. Chuck began backing the boat out of the mangroves. He worked carefully, but the wind and current made the process slow. He looked up and saw a bird fly to the edge of the channel in the tops of the trees some six meters above the water. It gave a short call. He paused and picked up his binoculars to glance at it while treading water with the paddle in the other hand. “That’s it!” he said with a low voice, and he returned his attention to controlling the boat. Anne looked up but could not find the bird. She saw it only when it flew across the channel and into the forest again. Her view was not satisfactory. Chuck stabilized the boat, played the call one more time, and then tried to hold the boat steady. The bird floated across the channel and took a position in clear view some ten meters away in the mangroves at the edge of the channel. We both brought up our glasses to watch it perched in its namesake tree. A male, it was beautiful and angry. It raised his head, gave a long call, and looked fiercely in several directions. If there was another male mangrove cuckoo there, he wanted it to know that it had no business being there. We observed its pale buff belly, the dark stripe through the eye, the lack of rufous coloration in the wing, the more strongly curved beak, and the wider tail spots. We watched it make its distinctive call. Anne scored the “killer view” that one always wants but does not always get of a life-bird. In a minute it would begin moving deeper into the swamp and bits and pieces of it would vanish until finally it would be completely gone except for its call, but we were now deeply satisfied. For Anne the bird went from an image and a description in a text to a deeply personal experience. This is the thrill of victory in the sport of birding. Birding is the sport, art, or hobby by which one confirms the presence of a species in nature by sight or sound. Finding a new bird may be easy in that many species are conspicuous at the right time in the right place. It may not, however, be so easy for the birder to be in that place at that time, and numerous species are not so easy to find anywhere at any time. Others are at best only transient and there is no predicable right place. The birder is blessed to add such species to his list. Probably our “best bird” of the Keys was the red-footed booby. We saw one while in the Tortugas. This is a bird that appears only every year or so and only briefly in Florida, usually in the Tortugas. This individual appeared roosting with frigate birds on Long Key. Our guide had noticed it from Garden Key where we had spent the afternoon, but he could not identify it from a distance of a kilometer. Still, his experience told him that a pale brown booby-shaped bird perched among the frigate birds was probably a red-footed booby. So, he interrupted the ferrying of his tour group from the shore to the boat to take the skiff across to Long Key. The “excuse” was to take there four members of the group who had not yet seen the frigate bird rookery. He radioed back to the boat that the rare bird was there and that he would take everyone across – four at a time – to see it. We were already on the boat. The sea being calm, Chuck grabbed the spotting scope and took it to the upper deck. Setting it up he saw the skiff starting back from Long Key. He found the bird and focused the scope at 30 power. He saw what was clearly a booby, but he could not identify it. Then he zoomed the lens to 60 power. Normally this would not have provided a view while on a boat, but amazingly the wind and seas were so calm that the bird came into sharp focus. It was pale brown with a breast band and bubble gum pink feet. He scored the bird and called to Anne to come up. Se saw the bird too. We were elated but still wanted a better view. Suddenly something, perhaps a coursing peregrine falcon, disturbed the roosting birds on Long Key. They were all taking off. Chuck looked for the booby through the scope and found it missing. He scanned the scattering birds with binoculars and found the booby flying. This bird appeared very different from the multitude of frigate birds, and the frigate birds would sometimes turn and briefly pursue the booby even while within the pandemonium of stampede. Chuck realized that he was probably the only person to have the bird in view. He dared not loose sight of it. He followed it as it coursed from east to west and then watched it turn south and cross over the boat. He urged Anne to spot it with her glasses, but she couldn’t find it. Then the bird turned to the east and made its way back with numerous frigate birds to Bush Key. Finally it landed. Chuck studied its position and then lowered the binoculars to see its location on the island. He raised the glasses again to confirm the location and then radioed the new location to the guide. The bird remained at the new perch as three more runs of the skiff took members of our group in for close views. Chuck was very pleased to have obtained a reasonably close view of the bird in flight, but both of us eagerly awaited our chance to motor across to see it perched. The bird wore immature plumage, as do most of the red-footed boobies that appear in the Tortugas. While not as handsome as an adult, it was still a sweet bird to see there. This was actually only an “ABA Area Life-bird” for us. We once saw hundreds of red-footed boobies on Kauai, Hawaii. Many of these were handsome adults. Certainly we enjoyed seeing them there, but it was very special to see one in Florida. We joined a very small group of birders who have added this bird to their “North American” life list. While finding the booby was sweet, Chuck returned to Marathon disappointed at not finding the mangrove cuckoo for Anne. Finally turning up the bird on our last morning in the Keys gave great satisfaction. This bird had clearly arrived while we were in the Tortugas. If it had delayed his arrival by another week, we would have missed it. Such is birding. After seeing the bird, we immediately brought the boat around and returned to our place of departure. Both of us hooted and “gawed” a bit. Chuck asked Anne if she had noticed a pair of white-crowned pigeons, another “south Florida specialty” fly by while we were watching the cuckoo. She had. “Sweet,” he said. We were back at the car at 9:30 and pulled out of the campground an hour latter. Our mood had gone from melancholy to triumphant. We still felt bad about missing the nighthawk, but after finding the cuckoo were very satisfied to take the view that the failure to find the nighthawk only “provides a reason to come back to the Keys.” The next time, we will make sure that it is at least May 1 before we come looking for the Antillean nighthawks. We’ll probably want to look again for our cuckoo. It will be time to refresh our vision of this marvelous bird.
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April 25, 2008 - Marathon FL
Anne and Chuck submitted on January 14, 1970
We have returned from the Dry Tortugas. We enjoyed six days there residing three nights on the boat and three camped on Garden Key. Scored five life-birds and probably twenty year-birds there. Were enchanted by the stark scenery and dramatic wildlife above and below the surface of the turquoise sea. Met wonderful people on our boat and other boaters, campers, rangers, and volunteers.
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BLOG TITLEBLOG CONTENTWe have returned from the Dry Tortugas. We enjoyed six days there residing three nights on the boat and three camped on Garden Key. Scored five life-birds and probably twenty year-birds there. Were enchanted by the stark scenery and dramatic wildlife above and below the surface of the turquoise sea. Met wonderful people on our boat and other boaters, campers, rangers, and volunteers. At anchor off Garden Key one is subject to the constant racket of the sooty and noddy turns swarming about Bush Key. "Wide-awake wide-awake" call thousands of birds. The fort to the north is a pale shade of brick subdued by the intense sunlight, direct from the incandescent blue sky and indirect from the white beach. The harsh light is scarcely subdued by the multihued blue ocean that surrounds it. On shore the walls of the fort and precious buttonwood and palm trees provide some shade. The cool ocean water beckons. Sand channels, grass flats, and coral heads surrounded by tropical fish provide a contrast to the warm air above. The passenger ferries arrive about 10:30 a.m. and release a swarm of tourists, birders, and snorklers. The ferries gather their passengers at 2:30 and depart. The island suddenly becomes peaceful. The rangers and volunteers, a dozen or so camper and boaters, and another dozen construction workers remain. The desert island it theirs until the return of the ferries. The island trees and a small fountain and pool of fresh water provide refuge to a small flock of bird refugees that arrive each night on northward migration. Tired and hungry they put on a grand show. Birds such as blackpoll warbler and white-eyed vireo that are normally very difficult to see because of their cryptic behavior bathe and preen in full view providing wonderful photo opportunities. Birders sit for hours a few feet away from the displaying birds. Delightful. Out of time we caught a ferry back to Key West yesterday afternoon. Tomorrow we are on our way to Cherokee.
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April 18, 2008 - Key West, FL
Anne and Chuck submitted on January 14, 1970
Greetings and a short note from Old Key West. We board the "Playmate" this evening to join our bird tour of the Tortugas over the next three days. Then on Monday morning we will leave the boat to camp for three more days on Garden Key in the Tortugas. On Thursday, we will catch a ferry to return to Key West and then drive back to Key Vaca (Marathon).
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BLOG TITLEBLOG CONTENTGreetings and a short note from Old Key West. We board the "Playmate" this evening to join our bird tour of the Tortugas over the next three days. Then on Monday morning we will leave the boat to camp for three more days on Garden Key in the Tortugas. On Thursday, we will catch a ferry to return to Key West and then drive back to Key Vaca (Marathon). We look forward to seeing the fort and snorkling off the beach as well as birding this historic location. The Tortugas are the culmination of this spring's venture southward. We have now reached our southernmost point. Garden Key is 70 miles west of Key West, sort of between the Gulf of Mexico, the Straights of Florida, and the Carribean Sea. The Tortugas are at a crossroads. The fort reflects its strategic position. The wildlife take advantage of its remoteness. We will enjoy a full moon while on the boat and then starry nights while camping. We will also be able to watch the sun rise and set over the sea each day.
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Matt in Italy April 17 08
Patty submitted on January 14, 1970
went to assisi on our way to florence yesterday. saw the churdch built in memorium of st. francis (san francesco), where his tomb is below (which i also saw). again, gorgeous and very sacred. also saw the tiny little church in which he originally preached- it has been preserved by another huge church built around it. the tiny building where he died has also been preserved, it is inside the same church.
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BLOG TITLEBLOG CONTENTwent to assisi on our way to florence yesterday. saw the churdch built in memorium of st. francis (san francesco), where his tomb is below (which i also saw). again, gorgeous and very sacred. also saw the tiny little church in which he originally preached- it has been preserved by another huge church built around it. the tiny building where he died has also been preserved, it is inside the same church. now in florence, nice city, they all are here, saw the <st. <florence cathedral that took 143 years too build out of white, pink, and green marble all from different areas. it is HUGE the 3rd biggest church in the world. already saw the 1st biggest, ST. Peters. saw the david statue, it is 17 feet tall, and pretty cool. michelangelo carved that when he was only 24, took him 4 years. i donàt know if he started at 24 or finished. pretty tired again, mom, kids are starting to wear me down. we
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44417
Patty submitted on January 14, 1970
Save the date? Mike's bday and Hesler catered reunion in Guilderland
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BLOG TITLEBLOG CONTENTSave the date? Mike's bday and Hesler catered reunion in Guilderland
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