The words Queen Bee conjure in my brain a single-minded bee, buzzing around more sedate bees, going here and there, owning the hive. That’s me. I buzz around endlessly, exploring, hiking, camping, paddling, bird-watching. The hive that I own is the mosaic of ecosystems called North America. The honey I seek is simply knowing, seeing,…
I don’t expect to have such an exciting date for awhile (see Two Senior Citizens and a Dog on the James River) In fact, we won’t have any kind of date for at least a week. Don loves my van, Flying Cloud, as much as I do. He hitched up a trailer, loaded his motorcycle,…
Sometimes I find a word that I love, typically creative, silly sounding words. Today’s Word of the Day email presented me with a new favorite: Stinkaroo (noun) Slang. something markedly inferior in quality: a stinkaroo of a motion picture. Origin: Stinkaroo arose in the 1930s from the word stink combined with -eroo, a suffix that creates…
We avoid slamming into the trees and debris that block our path. We paddle back upstream to a place where we should be able to exit the boat. I am shaking from exhaustion and maybe nerves. Don is in the front of the boat so he gets out first. Problem is, this bank is also…
June 23, 10:30 AM – We left the van back at the take-out site in LaMoure, ND. We are now at the little campground where we will park the truck and put in the boat. We are tromping around along the shoreline looking for a good place: not too steep or slippery since we don’t…
Last winter: We are discovering that we like the same things: camping, hiking, fishing. Rivers, lakes! I have an inflatable kayak, he has a small boat that fits in the back of his pickup. We both love floating rivers. Hey, why not do a trip down the James River on his boat next summer? We…
Cooking is not the big thrill for me while camping, not like the old days when I cooked big meals for my son. However, recently I developed a love for cooking over campfire coals in dutch ovens and other cast iron pans. Last year I bought a tripod that suspends a pot over a direct…
I pack up Half Moon and Flying Cloud and set out for home by 11 AM. Tango jumps in and we head down the Turtle Mountains (plateau), towards the south. Our ultimate goal is to be home by nightfall, but I plan a long layover at Arrowwood NWR. This area, north of Jamestown, ND, is…
Our adventures were low key this time. I confess that I slept a great deal on the Turtle Mountain trip. I was exhausted and the weather was perfect for sleeping. I zonked out for 8-9 hours every night – despite screaming Loons — and took long naps too. No matter, with the skies light until nearly…
I like camping in the Turtle Mountains. Seriously. However, there is some weird stuff around here. The first weirdness presents itself as I hook up Half Moon to the electric box at my campsite.I splurge on electricity because I do not expect enough open sky to run the solar panel. As I reached over to…