Riverbanks Zoo, Columbia, SC and Congaree National Park, Hopkins, SC - June 20, 2011

June 20, 2011

Everyone got up and got dressed and we had breakfast at our host's house. We stayed with Bonnie's uncle Glen and aunt Ellen. Once the girls had their fill of fruit and yogurt and such, we were off for Columbia, SC.

We arrived at the Riverbanks Zoo and Garden just in time for the penguin feeding which was pretty cool. I loved seeing the rockhoppers, I must say they are my favorites.

We toured the zoo for a while seeing all the animals there were to see.

 I think the highlights would have to be getting in the enclosure with the kangaroos and wallabies and feeding the giraffes.

We ate lunch at the Kenya Cafe there in the zoo. It was pretty much the standard food service grub found at most zoos, nothing more to say on that really.

After lunch we went around and saw more animals and took Emily to the Children's Zoo so she could go on a pony ride.

We also took a little hike over to the gardens area. We didn't know until afterwards that the gardens are rather large and taking the tram over is the best way to go see them without wearing yourself out, but we still had a nice walk in the woods through a small loop trail just past the bridge that connects the zoo and gardens.

The archway above was part of the Saluda River Factory and is part of the "ruins" of that historic district that was situated in the area.

After our hike and a trip to the gift shop I pulled out my South Carolina visitor's guide and saw that there was a National Park not too far from where we were. I suggested we go visit (as I also like seeing our National Parks and this was one I'd never even heard of). The family indicated they were up for it, so away we went. 

We arrived at Congaree National Park around 4pm and hit the visitor's center as it closed at 5 and the rest of the park is open 24/7. We looked at the displays, watched a short film about the park, and I picked up a few souvenirs (a magnet [to grace my fridge and to join the ever expanding collection] and a National Parks Passport book which I promptly stamped so that I'd have that done before they closed).

We then made a quick restroom stop and I checked the mosquito meter and we hit the boardwalk trail.

The trail is 2.4 miles and winds through a nice portion of the old-growth floodplain forest. It was a bit humid, but still a pretty nice walk and the girls got through the hike with little complaining.

 After a while, Katie started getting tired and so she and Emily would walk down the trail ahead of us for a while and "skip a bench" and then stop. This allowed me to walk the trail in a bit more quiet and at my own pace so that I could listen for birds...this strategy paid off as I FINALLY got to see Pileated Woodpeckers. We have them in Oklahoma and I've been numerous places where evidence of their living there is all over the place, but until this trip I'd never seen one.

We left the park around 7 and headed back towards Waxhaw, NC where we were staying. As we still had an hour and a half of driving ahead, we opted to stop at a regional chain, Bojangles, and grab some chicken for the road. We made it back to our "base of operations" around 9:15 or so and stayed up chatting for a bit before heading off to bed.

All in all a good day seeing animals of both the caged and un-caged variety.

*Special note: All of the photos in this post were taken on our phones.

Staying Awake

So I'm just curious what other road trippers do to stay awake on those long stretches between activities and accommodations, those stretches of road that are rather devoid of interesting things to look at or the ones that just can't hold your attention after a long day of seeing the sights.

I've found that eating sunflower seeds helps out a lot, especially the flavored ones (hot or bbq are my go-to's, but be sure to have a "wet wipe" or something to clean the seasoning off your fingers or else you could end up with funny colored stains on your duds). The act of getting the seed out of the shell and the necessary crunching seems to get my face involved and keep my eye lids open.

Another favorite is peppered beef jerky, I'm pretty partial to the Jack Links brand on that. They pepper theirs up to the point it becomes a bit spicy, which then forces me to start downing beverage...preferably something caffeinated, my choice being Dr. Pepper usually.

My strategy for an overnight drive from Tuscaloosa, AL to Oklahoma City, OK was pretty simple. Stop at the next stop at the top of the hour, whether I needed gas or bathroom or not, and run a few laps around the car in the parking lot or rest area. I was also hitting the aforementioned Dr. Pepper pretty hard that evening, but I'm still alive to tell the tale.

Let me know what other strategies you have for those long stretches.

Number 35 - South Carolina

My mission is finally back to moving along. I was blessed to be able to spend a few days in my 35th state, South Carolina last week. I'll be posting some new stuff on that trip soon.

Shenandoah National Park, VA - May 25, 2009

Monday 5/25
We got up and had a good breakfast. Bonnie's aunt made a breakfast casserole that I had more helpings of than I should have, but it was delicious and my will power was non-existant. Bonnie's cousin Lori and her family joined us and we got to visit with them for a little while before we departed for a visit to Shenandoah National Park.

Shenandoah National Park, VA

Shenandoah National Park, VA

Shenandoah National Park, VA

Shenandoah National Park, VA

Shenandoah National Park, VA

Shenandoah National Park, VA

Shenandoah National Park, VA

Shenandoah National Park, VA

Shenandoah National Park, VA

Shenandoah National Park, VA

We saw quite a bit of beautiful scenery. We stopped for lunch at the lodge at Skyland. I had a nice open face turkey sandwich and finished the meal with some delicious local blackberry ice cream. I added a new bird to my life list while there, the American Redstart. After a good day out and about in the park, we headed onward to Frederick, MD where we arrived some time around dinner and got situated at my aunt Cindy's place and had some baked ziti for dinner. This was to be our home base for a fair part of the trip. After we'd talked and got the girls situated, we all headed to bed.

Livermore and Oakland, CA - May 27, 2008

Tuesday May 27
We got up and got around. The girls went and had breakfast at the hotel while I packed up the car and we got on Highway 198 and drove over to I-5 and headed for Oakland. We saw more "fruits and nuts" on the way. Also saw the San Luis Canal which is part of the California Aquaduct system, not all that signifcant to most people, but I'd heard a news story on it about a week before we left. About 3 miles onto I-5 from 198 we experienced something that I will forever forewarn people about that may be travelling that way...the stink to end all stink. Be sure to pack nose plugs. There is a HUGE feedlot not far up the road and it was loaded with cows literally as far as the eye could see. When you get on I-5 there just turn your vents off, trust me the being hot is better than the smell you will pull into your car if you leave them on. The only thing I could come up with to describe the smell would be to take the most heinous of dirty baby diapers you can find and duct tape it to your face and then go stand in a closet full of upset skunks, dirty gym socks and vomit. It was so foul!

Once we got past that and the smell started fading away (a good 1/2 hour or more later) we encountered more wind farms and I saw my first lemon tree grove, which got a song by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass Band stuck in my head (check out a YouTube post of Lemon Tree, the Theivery Corporation remix...good stuff).

We stopped for lunch in Livermore, CA at a plaza we found off the highway. We had choices of Vietnamese, some deli place, or Mediterranean...we voted and the latter got the nod, so we ended up at Piccola Casa Restaurant. This was by far the best meal we'd had up to that point in the trip. I had the pistachio crusted lamb with garlic mashed potatoes, it was quite good. We decided since we'd skipped lunch the day before we'd splurge on dessert and ordered the chocolate chambord ganache; beautiful presentation, looked like some kind of Native American painting of a sunset and the taste was...to quote one of my favorite Food Network stars, Guy Fieri..."off the hook". After that awesome meal we headed to Oakland and arrived at Bonnie's brother's (Bruce's) house around 2 pm. We took the tour of his house as neither of us had been there before. It's a really nicely restored 2 story bungalow with solar water heating and a nice garden area where many birds would come to hang out at all the feeders that were out for them. After we got our bags in and sat for a little bit, we headed over to Tilden Park. Along the way we stopped to take a look at the Bay Area and snap a picture.

The park was a nice park with numerous hiking trails and a small farm known as "The Little Farm" where there are a few animals that are part of a petting area. We walked around and of course my binoculars were on me and I was looking for every western bird I could spot.

My species list from there ended up being as follows:
Dark-eyed "Oregon" Junco
Violet-green Swallow
California Towhee*
Pacific-slope Flycatcher*
Song Sparrow
Barn Swallow
Common Raven
Chestnut-backed Chickadee*
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Stellar's Jay
American Robin
Mallard
Wilson's Warbler
Brown Creeper

So I managed to add 3 new birds (*) to my life list on that little outing. 

We headed back to Bruce's place and had some yummy lasagna that Juliet had made for us. She got home from work later and joined us at the table and we sat around and talked for a while before retiring to bed. I sat up and listened to some of the stations there in the Bay Area while I made some notes that became my previous note and this one as well. 

Seligman, AZ and Westward - May 26, 2008

Monday, May 26
I woke up early since I was anxious to be out of the dump of a place where we were staying. I went outside and put a few things in he car that weren't needed and grabbed my binoculars. Just standing around outside in the parking lot I managed to spot: Cassin's Finch, female Wilson's Warbler, Mourning Dove, Great-tailed Grackles doing their mating ritual and a bunch of mice with wings, I mean House Sparrows. I also saw a young jack rabbit making his way across the street. Everyone else got up and got around and we got on the road as this place didn't have a complimentary breakfast and even if it had I wouldn't have risked the ensuing food poisoning roulette that I'm sure I would've encountered. We drove to the big town of Seligman, AZ where we enjoyed a good sit down breakfast at a local place (finally!) called the Copper Cart Cafe. I had the Mexican skillet that had home-fries, egg, and pulled pork covered in a homemade green chile sauce with cheese on top...it was quite yummy.

We went next door to Seligman Sundries and checked out the store there. They had a variety of things there, we picked up a metal Coke sign for the kitchen to go with our slowly emerging diner theme. At the register they had a number of foreign coins and bills that various patrons had given to the owner. Seligman is on Route 66 and a number of foreign tourists have stopped in there as part of their US Route 66 experience. I was quite jealous of the collection, she had money from everywhere.

After our breakfast stop was complete we got back on the road and continued our westward trek. We stopped for gas around the Lake Havasu City exit and it was a mad house. Memorial Day weekend, trucks pulling boats everywhere, long lines at the pump, had we not needed fuel we would've gladly skipped that 30 minute stop. We got back on the road and drove, drove, drove. When you get to the Mojave desert part of your westward drive I would advise making sure you have a full tank and check out a map before you get out there and make sure you know where the rest stops are. We learned that by stopping at a gas station that was a good 40 or 50 miles from the last station we saw as someone needed to use the bathroom, so we pulled in. They had signs everywhere saying restrooms for customers only, which is fine, I have no problem with that, but their prices were insane...I got a 20 oz. bottle of A & W and was out close to $3.00. Luckily we were fine on gas. Within 3 miles of that stop there was a rest stop, but you couldn't see it for the hill that it sat on the back side of...ugh. 

We drove and drove through the Mojave desert or we were at least near it if nothing else; lots of yucca (which I prefer grilled or fried in case you were wondering), joshua trees here and there, and the area was just absolutely barren. It had its own beauty, but after about 20 minutes of it, it got old in a hurry. We wanted to get to civilization so bad we just snacked and didn't even bother stopping for lunch. We passed hundreds of wind turbines near the city of Mojave, CA. I spotted the most random thing of the trip so far...a lamb was standing next to a guard rail right there next to the interstate, weird. Not far from there we saw the first of what we dubbed "skinny pointy trees".

We drove until we got to Delano, CA and had dinner at a western chain called Perko's, it was alright, nothing too memorable though. We drove on to Visalia, passing numerous almond, grape, walnut, pistachio, and orange groves along the way. We stayed at the Days Inn in Visalia that night and thus ended our day.

Hoover Dam, NV & St. George, UT - June 5, 2008

Thursday, June 5
We got up pretty late, I think we were finally all out of bed around 10am. We got cleaned up, packed up, and checked out and we were on the road again (feel free to get the song stuck in your head). Bonnie made a rather fitting remark on the way out of town, "I feel a little like Lot's wife, but I'm not looking back." We drove to Hoover Dam.

Lake Mead, part of the water that Hoover Dam keeps back.

We didn't go on the official tour as it was quite expensive and was rather warm by the time we got there. For some reason they didn't take our National Parks pass for anything there, which I found rather irritating as the pass says it is good at Bureau of Reclamation sites...of which Hoover Dam is one. Anyhow, we just walked around and looked at the free stuff, took a few pictures and then had lunch at Highscalers Cafe which is there at the dam.

Highscaler statue outside the cafe.

The current road to and over the dam.

After we'd had some lunch, we hit the gift shop, got our magnet and we were off for Utah. 

Unfortunately there was no good way to get to the highway we needed to take into Utah without going back the way we came and passing through Vegas again. This was not fun at all. We were in stop and go traffic for probably a good half hour to go maybe 4 miles. Once we got past all that, it was smooth sailing on into Utah. 

We drove through the Virgin River Gorge, which was quite beautiful in its own way.

We made our way to the town of St. George, UT and checked in to the Days Inn there. After we'd got settled in a little, we decided to venture out and find some dinner. We ended up at The Fairway Grill. I had chicken picotta, a lightly breaded grilled chicken breast with lemon caper butter sauce, a baked potato, grilled veggies, a tasty turkey sage soup and probably one of the best scones I've ever eaten (I let everyone at the table that wanted a taste have some, but secretly I was wishing that the scone was the size of another dinner plate...it was so yummy). After dinner it was back to our room where we lounged around and finally went to bed.

Salisbury, MD - May 28, 2009

Thursday 5/28
We slept in and had breakfast with Melissa (well, more like she made it and we ate it), Craig had headed off to work well ahead of our even stirring to get out of bed. After we'd got around and packed the last of our stuff back in the car we headed over to the Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art.

Like the sign says...Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art, Salisbury, MD.

The grounds at Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art, Salisbury, MD.

Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art, Salisbury, MD.

Walking the trail around Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art, Salisbury, MD.

Canada Geese at Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art, Salisbury, MD. Yes folks, those are live.

Flowers at Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art, Salisbury, MD.

It may not sound like the most interesting place, but it was really neat...unfortunately they don't allow photography in the galleries, so you'll just have to check out their website or take my word for it. They had many wood sculptures of various birds that looks insanely realistic. The museum traces the origins of the art form from old Native American duck decoys, through the various mutations of the wood duck decoys and the era of massive duck hunting into the years when duck hunting became regulated and duck stamps originated all the way up to the modern wood carvings, ending a large gallery with all kinds of competition winners from the '90s to present. After viewing the galleries we went out for a short hike around the grounds, didn't see much but the Canada Geese and their young and I also spotted a female Red-winged Blackbird sitting on a nest. After we'd hiked a bit and got good and warm, we packed up and headed back towards Frederick. 

We stopped and had lunch at the Easton Diner in Easton, MD. The exterior of the restuarant didn't look as dinery (if that's really a word) as I would have expected seeing other diners in the state, but the interior was classic diner with some modern hints here and there. They had two nice aquariums that looked like they were actually maintained. The portions were huge...I had cheese ravioli with Italian sausage and some chicken noodle soup (no, not at the same time) and Bonnie and Katie both got the flounder sandwich which was pretty much the whole fish sans head and tail. Bonnie also got the salad bar which apparently had a colossal selection as she came back with about anything you could ever imagine a salad bar having. It was all pretty good and the service was decent, I'd go back.

After lunch it was back over the Bay Bridge and into rush hour traffic getting back towards Frederick. We also got into some rain which made it more fun. After we got back to aunt Cindy's place we just sat around and relaxed. Bonnie and I had a piece of pie for dinner and the girls finished off the left over chicken nuggets. The girls and aunt Cindy played some Boggle and Bible Trivia and then we all headed to bed. All in all, a fairly laid back day.