Road Trip to Vermont!

The pandemic has meant that we don't feel like we can safely fly to Vermont just for a vacation. But Orion will be turning 4 in a couple weeks, and Aurora is 9 months old, and they don't stop growing just because we can't visit them. So we decided to visit them. My dad rented a camper trailer and hooked it up to his new truck, and my mom, dad, and I drove to Vermont. For the two weeks before our trip all of us, (my parents and I, as well as Paul's family of 4 in Vermont) did a strict two-week quarantine, not leaving our houses, so we could feel safe about seeing each other without masks when we got there.

Overall, I would give driving to Vermont towing a trailer one star: do not recommend. Avoid it, if you can.  We did it so we wouldn't have to interact with anyone or any places that might have Covid. We drove all day, popped into the camper at rest areas to use the bathroom and get snacks, and set it up at night for sleeping in. I never went in a building the whole trip, except for the bathrooms at the two campgrounds we stayed at.

Here comes the camper to pick me up! Off we go!

We started around 6am on Monday, July 6th. We drove all day the 6th. And by all day, I mean, we pulled into our campsite near Des Moines, Iowa at 9:30pm. We stayed at Rock Creek State Park. One reason our day took so long was that we started having car problems. When the transmission temperature hits 300, the car gives you an alarm that it's too hot. We had to pull over and turn off the car for about 20 minutes each time this happened. Alternatively, we tried driving at 55mph, which helped.  But either way, we were burning daylight that we thought we would have for driving. Since it was the first day, and we didn't yet realize we were having car problems, we had a long-ish lunch break (half an hour?) at a small park in a teeny town called Brady, Nebraska. One nice thing about Brady is their streets are wide and have basically no traffic, so they painted parking spots down the middle of the street. So we parked in several.  Had we known we wouldn't make it to our camping spot until almost 10pm, we certainly wouldn't have taken the time for a leisurely lunch. But we didn't know!

Parked in the center of bustling Brady, NE

Day 2 - July 7th. We made it to a campground outside Cleveland, OH. Again, arriving about 9:30 at night. This was a bad day of driving. It was incredibly hot out, and we had a really hard time keeping the transmission temperature below 300. At one point, dad pulled the car off the Indiana turnpike to try to find a mechanic, but it was already 5pm and we were in rural Indiana, so we couldn't find any. We did see several Amish folks running errands, though! That was pretty cool.

10pm taco dinner. Camper tour: Behind mom is one side that pops out and makes a bed. Next to her is a pantry on one side, and a door to the bathroom (with toilet, sink and mini-bathtub/shower!) on the other side. My dad is sitting by the door to the outside, on the bench that can turn into a bed. Across from him is the refrigerator. I'm sitting on the other end's pop-out bed to take the picture.

Day 3 - July 8th. Another long, hot day of driving. But this time, there was also rain! From upstate New York through Vermont it rained on and off. Sometimes quite heavily. Driving on small, yet high-speed-limit rural roads in Vermont with pouring rain can be a bit tense. Below is a 14-second video where pounding rain turns to sunny skies.  We were super excited to pull into Paul and Sarah's house about 8pm! They had dinner waiting, I got to read a story to Orion, and mom and dad got to sleep in real beds (Orion's bunk beds). Hooray, we made it!!

Day 4 - July 9th. During our visit, we were celebrating all the summer birthdays at once. Paul, Sarah, me, and Orion all have birthdays in July and August. So we each got one birthday party. Paul's was Thursday morning, when he made Eggs Benedict for everyone. It was quite delicious.

Playing in the camper!

 Orion was in love with the camper. After breakfast he and I went out to play in the camper. Then we got out of it and watched Paul and Dad try to rearrange where it was parked, and Orion had us play "towing the camper with the truck" with his toy truck and tire swing. He also likes to talk about the specific tonnage of the camper.  Thank goodness Paul knew how to back up the trailer because those of us driving it cross country were hopelessly incompetent at backing it up.

Getting the camper situated outside Paul and Sarah's.

(If you watch the video, note that cool kids tuck their shirts into their underwear.)

We kept it low-key that day. we went down to the stream that's on their property, and Orion crawled around on rocks. We played with Aurora, but she hasn't really had the opportunity to interact with adults besides her parents (pandemic, remember?) so she wasn't too cool with any of us holding her or talking to her or looking at her for very long. Dad did take the truck into town to get the transmission looked at and flushed.

Aurora tolerating Nanda Cindy.

Orion and Paul at their little stream

It was a hot day, so Sarah got out the wading pool, and the kids splashed around in it. Later, Paul, Orion, and I walked down the hill to their neighbor's farm to pick up their CSA.

Relaxing poolside

One adorable game Orion would play with me was that he was my kitty. Here he is as a cat, curled in my lap for petting. A variation on this game is he is the mama cat, and I'm the baby, and he makes me mouse custard and takes me to school.

For dinner, Sarah got to have her birthday dinner choice, shish kebabs! Paul made his choice for birthday dessert, bananas foster! I got Sarah these crazy gardening gloves that have claws on the end for easier digging/dragon growling.

Claw glove!!!

That night, Paul and Orion slept in one end of the camper, and I slept in the other end. Orion just loved the camper, and wouldn't miss a chance to sleep in there!

It's just so exciting to sleep in the camper!!

Kids say the darndest things:
"If there's anything more exciting than military, it's military!"
"My papa isn't actually afraid of spiders, he's just afraid of interacting with them"
"If you would like, you would be welcome to drive my truck."
"I'm gonna swim for the very first time! Everybody's never seen me swim for the very first time!" (Everybody HAS seen him swim for the very first time, because he's been swimming since he was a small infant.)

Grandpa Craig made Orion a special book called "Orion Likes to Help"

Day 5 - July 10th. This morning we went to the Cascades, a lovely little section of stream/trail about 15 minutes from their house. The stream runs down a series of small rock ledges, making fun cascades for sitting in, playing in, climbing, etc. We took lunch and enjoyed the morning with the whole group. Sarah had the week off from work so got to join us!

Orion, Sarah, Aurora, and Paul at the Cascades

He loves it when I make him do selfies with me.

That evening was my birthday party, and I requested pizza, which Paul made a TON of. I think he made like, 8 pizzas. Pizza for days!!

A happy Aurora

Orion also set up his ice cream truck in the yard, and though his pricing structure is suspect, the ice cream IS fat free!

Kids say the darndest thing:
Orion: Have you been watching Mighty Machines At the Steel Mill?
Me: um, no...
Nephew: Let's watch it!
(I set up the video, then start looking at my phone)
Orion: No! You're supposed to watch this!
[I learned a LOT about steel mills!!]

Day 6 - July 11th. Orion and I played outside for a while this morning, he basically just tells me where to go and where to walk and what to say, and I do it. He made us a little fortress under a branch, and I was given permission to just lie there and look at the clouds while he dug in the dirt. My dad came over to see what we were doing, and Orion told him, "Grandpa Craig! Pretend you can't find us!!" So my dad starts "looking" for us, by the rocks, by the hammock...most of the time, Orion just kept on digging, almost ignoring the search. Once in a while, he would glance over at me with this sneaky grin on his face, and one time it just made me laugh out loud. Then he yell-whispered, "SHH!! Don't laugh!!" which of course, only made me laugh harder, and Orion says, "stop it!! Stop laughing!! He'll hear us!!" Which is hilarious, because obviously Grandpa Craig knows where we are. It was super funny and he was probably regretting inviting me into his fortress.

Our fortress! It is a crib-sized mattress with a crib-sized blanket, and two pieces of twine Orion tied into the branch above us!

After lunch, mom, dad, and I took Orion to the North Branch Nature center, which is just a few minutes from their house. Orion brought his crawdad hunting net, and I brought my binoculars. He hoped to catch crawdads, and I hoped to see some interesting birds. We were both disappointed in our endeavors but had a good time nonetheless.

I'm pointing out a bird to Orion at North Branch Nature Center. He super does not care.

He's looking for crawdads!

Crawdad fishing with Grandpa Craig

Dad managed to catch a teeny minnow to show Orion, so that was neat.

They caught a minnow!

That night was Orion's birthday dinner and he had requested potato, eggs, pasta, and red sauce, with ice cream and lollipops for dessert! Paul and Sarah delivered! We had french fries, pasta shells with red sauce, vegetables, and Orion had a scrambled egg. For dessert we each got to pick what flavor dum dum we wanted, to go with our vanilla ice cream.

Kids say the darndest things:
"Hey! Crawfish!Come out wherever you are, crawfish!"

Orion: "Sometimes I like to sneak up on robins with my gun, and then shoot!"
Me: "You like to shoot robins? That makes me kinda sad."
Orion: "But there's lots of birds in the world."
Me: "There are, but every one is precious."
Orion: "I like to hunt them for meat."
[Paul told me later that in the many discussions they've had with Orion about shooting things (for pretend, he does not have a real gun!), it's come up that shooting animals for meat is okay, so now he pretty much just adds that on to any shooting conversations.]

Day 7 - July 12th.

The mornings were pretty relaxed on this vacation. Typically, Orion would wake up about 6 and come over to my end of the camper. We would read books and watch videos together until I was starving. Then we'd go inside with Paul, and the three of us would eat breakfast. Before long, Sarah would join us with Aurora. Eventually, mom and dad would wake up. We spent the mornings playing, reading a lot with Orion, sitting outside, just relaxing. It was very nice.

We took a walk down to the dam down the road from their house. Dad and Paul and I went, with Orion, and Aurora on Paul's back. The whole way there and the whole way back, we never heard a peep from Aurora. She just loves being strapped to her papa's back and going on an adventure.

At the dam, Paul and Orion skipped stones, and waded in the water. We didn't stay too long. Unfortunately, it was a bit too long, because Orion had a really hard time walking back. He was just crying and crying for someone to carry him, but Paul couldn't because he had Aurora, and I offered to give him a piggyback ride, but that wasn't what he wanted. It was a long, sad, walk home for the little guy. 

By the end of the trip. Aurora would sometimes put up with me for 10 minutes at a time!

Today we decided that during Orion's nap, Paul and Sarah would take Aurora and enjoy themselves however they wanted for the next several hours. They had to take Aurora because nobody wanted to witness her screaming for Mama for the next several hours.

Orion woke up nice and easy, had Grandpa Craig read to him for awhile, and then we all geared up and headed to the reservoir. There's a nice swim beach there, and when we arrived, there were plenty of people, but still few enough we could sit totally by ourselves and have sand and water space to ourselves, too.

Swim beach at the reservoir

On our drive over to the reservoir, dad gave Orion a breath mint to chew on, and he said, "that's a good idea, because my breath smells like rotten eggs!!" Aaahhh he's just so funny and cute!!

Orion played in the sand a bit, then went in the water with Grandpa Craig and Nanda Cindy while I sat in our chairs and read a book. We all do our parts, right?




When we were packing up, Orion and I headed back to the car a bit ahead of the grands. He held my hand while we walked, and said to me, "When Mama and Papa get home, do you think we could discuss with them you guys staying an extra day?"  awwwwwwwwwwwwww. That was the most precious thing I've ever heard, and especially in his little almost-4 year old voice using the word "discuss". I have to be honest, we did not discuss it. I think his Mama and Papa were ready to be rid of the houseguests and would not be keen to do an extra day. I definitely would have stayed if it had been practical.

When we got back, we served ourselves a bunch of leftovers, including pizza, shells and sauce, and veggies. When Paul and Sarah came home we learned they had spent their date researching new refrigerators (theirs started to die while we were there), doing taxes, and sitting on the statehouse lawn eating Thai takeout. A perfect pandemic date, I think!

Just imagine how adorable that giggle is to hear!!

Paul started up a campfire and we made s'mores! We all had a lovely last evening around the campfire.

That s'more is coming in for a big bite!!

Day 8 - July 13th. We got up early to hit the road, but we did take time to read a little bit to Orion and say goodbye to everyone. The hugs!! The wonderful, wonderful hugs!! So many good hugs!

I got him a Titanic book for his birthday, and I read it to him at least 6 times while I was there!

The drive went a lot better today. There was minimal rain, and the transmission stayed cool. We came to love the New York turnpike, because there was not too much traffic, and the service plazas meant we could pull over, use our own bathroom, get lunch, get gas, etc. and not have to pay tolls each time. We're big fans.

Pymatuning State Park

We made it to our campground at Pymatuning State Park in Pennsylvania in good time - I think we got there around 6 or 7pm. Yay!! It was a lovely campground, and I enjoyed taking a walk, looking at the birds, and eating dinner at a normal time. We also discovered that none of us are remotely competent at backing up the trailer. Everyone else at the campground had their trailers backed in normal, but ours was a real hack job. Backing up trailers- 1 star. Do not recommend.

Day 9 - July 14th. Before we hit the road, I did a little birdwatching, and got to watch a cardinal for a while, which is cool for me, because I've never seen one before, and it was beautiful!

You probably can't tell, but our trailer is waaaaay crooked. Super crooked. This was the only night I slept in a tent, just for fun. I'd give it 2 1/2 stars. It wasn't really fun, but it was fine. Except having to pack up the tent in the morning.

We drove and drove, and today we were driving twins with a van full of Amish folks! They were at two service plazas in a row with us, in a big white van, going into Burger King for lunch. The transmission stayed cool, and we were on track to get to Rock Creek State Park in daylight when mom read the weather forecast. It was supposed to be 100% chance of severe thunderstorms in the area basically all night. We quickly decided to push on through Des Moines and stay in a hotel on the Western edge of Des Moines. Decision made, hotel called, drivers switched, and we pushed on for our last 2 hours of the day.

15 minutes from the hotel, the severe thunderstorm struck. And oh. my. god. was it severe. I have never been in a hurricane, but I'm now quite sure I never want to be in one. The rain was so intense we couldn't see, we just followed the semi in front of us. The wind was blowing construction cones and small branches across the road. We couldn't really exit, we were moving 15mph on the interstate and didn't know if the side roads would get us to our hotel, or if they would be flooded out...and all the exits were completely backed up anyway with people bailing the highway. The underpasses were all full of people pulled to the side, so we couldn't pull over. We just kept going, very, very slowly. Dad was driving, and he did a really admirable job, because it was terrifying.

20 minutes later we got to our hotel, the sun came out, it was like nothing had ever happened. We checked in, made ourselves a late dinner (9pm though! Better than 10!) and crashed out.

Day 10 - July 15th. We were calmer today- we hadn't had any transmission trouble the whole way home. We had only to get home today, no matter how late it was, we would be home!!

We had a nice lunch at an interstate rest area near Kearney, Nebraska. I saw a Western Kingbird catch a dragonfly out of the air, so that was neat.

So pretty you almost don't know it's a rest area

We also stopped at a nice rest area near Julesburg, Colorado and learned about the Pony Express.  I would rate the rest areas on I-80 very highly- 4 1/2 stars, excellent places to visit.

The Pony Express came through here. And so did we.

Mom and dad dropped me off at my house around 6pm and it felt so good to be home. I ate some quick dinner and went out for a walk on the canal.

Definitely one of my favorite trash cans from this trip.

Trip accomplished!! I would not want to do it again, but I could envision doing the drive again but staying in air bnbs or something along the way. The trailer made things more difficult, though it certainly made using the bathroom easier, and definitely kept us from interacting with potentially risky spaces. It also really made us appreciate the long day of travel that it normally takes to fly there (up early, early flight, lose those three hours, change planes somewhere, land in another town, get picked up or rent a car or take a bus to their house, arrive by dinner), and that it isn't really so long after all.

Here's hoping we'll get to see them all again sooner rather than later....and flying rather than driving.

My Great Horned Owl Adventure

Early this spring, the Covid-19 arrived in the U.S. and we didn't know what the future would look like. On March 13th, Denver Public Schools sent me home for an unknown amount of time of working remotely.  I took my desk plant, my papers, and my computer, and said goodbye to my co-workers.

Stores shut down. The libraries closed. (I forsaw a library closure and went on Saturday, March 14th and grabbed 4 huge novels...to get me through the shutdown, I thought. Shows how little we knew about what the shutdown would be like.) Every event was cancelled. Everything screeched to a halt.  We didn't leave our houses. People rushed to the stores to get essentials, not knowing how long we would be in our homes, or if indeed, the grocery stores might close down, the supply chains break, or the world itself come to an end. Nobody knew what the next day would be bring. We started sewing masks, wearing pajamas all day, and people with kids at home started thinking about how much teachers are really worth to them.

The beginning, in March and April, was especially scary and nerve wracking. But for me, as a healthy person, who didn't lose her job, and wasn't stuck in a house with young children, there were several benefits to the stay-at-home orders.

The biggest benefit for me was no more commute. Working downtown, I typically spend about 35 minutes to get to work, and 45-55 to get home. Not to mention time in the morning to shower, get dressed, and eat breakfast, none of which I had to do before starting work anymore.

So I started taking long walks. I moved to my condo a year ago, and I live right on the Highline canal. In April, I made a goal to average 7,000 steps a day.

In late April, I discovered a Great Horned Owl in a tree that's about a 10-minute walk down the canal from my house! It was so cool, and it was always there!! Every time I took a walk, I checked, and he was always there.

April 30th. My Great Horned Owl

Right at the end of April, I learned about a Great Horned Owl nest in Fairmount cemetery and went there several times to check it out. I told one of the other bird watchers about my owl and he said if the owl is always camped out in the same tree, there is a nest nearby, and a mate. wwhhhhaaaattt!!? Mind blown.

On May 1st, we really got to know each other.

I went out on May 8th and stood under my owl and looked around with my binoculars, and quite quickly, I found the nest!! It was amazing. Two chicks were in the nest. I couldn't get close, as the tree was inside the golf course, but I could see them pretty well with my binoculars.

May 9th. Owls in the nest.

 
But wait a second. Is that two babies? Or a baby and an adult? The adult owl was right over my head...is that his mate, in the nest? Are there two babies or one? I had lots of questions that needed answers.

For May my goal was to average 8,000 steps a day, which was easily achieved as I went out to visit my owls every day, and often twice a day. Finding this owl family was a magical moment. Watching them every day, their behaviors, their growth, was completely fascinating. I came home and read about owls. I borrowed my dad's camera to get pictures.

And one of the best things about the owls was the joy it brought the human community. Most nights, as I stood watching them, neighbors would ask me what I was looking at. A mom and her little girl were so excited to see the nest and babies, they were thanking me. Two young women, when I showed them the owls, ran home to get their nice SLR camera, and took great pictures, which they then emailed to me. I met several people that live in my complex. Some people I would see every single night. Lots of people didn't care very much about the owl, but most were enchanted, as I was. In such a scary, uncertain time, finding the owl family brought us all a moment of calm, a time with our community, and a hint of magic.

So, May 15th, I got one of my questions answered. As I approached the Owl Tree, I discovered two adults sitting in it side by side! I looked at the Nest Tree, and there was clearly at least one baby in the nest. Now I could tell, from all the reading I'd been doing lately, that I had only ever seen the papa owl. The mama is bigger, and a lighter color.

May 15th. I didn't have my camera on me, so I took a picture with my phone, through my binoculars. The two adults sitting together.

May 16th I saw all four of them! I went out at dusk, and the two babies were really active in the nest tree, walking all over the place, flapping their wings. I thought they might fledge that night, leave the nest for good. I could only see papa in the Owl Tree, but then I heard a ruckus high up in the tree, crows screaming at something. Crows, I have learned hate owls. They like to sit next to them in the tree and scream at them, and pick at them, trying to drive them away. Nobody was bothering the papa, so I looked up, up, up, and there at the very top, I found mama, being harassed by the crows. She was probably in this tree all along, and I never thought to look for her! Magic is all around us, but we so often don't think to look for it! The papa owl was hooting quite a lot, which is another remarkable gift the owls gave me- watching a Great Horned Owl hoot is as cool as it sounds. Then he flew out to hunt.

Here's a photo that young woman took and sent to me- the mama owl often sat in this other tree, farther into the golf course. Here is her silhouette at sunset.

As May went on, I just loved watching them and learning their behaviors. On the 20th, the crows were really going nuts, and both adults left the Owl Tree to go sit in the Nest Tree. I managed to get one picture with all four owls in it. They're hard to see, can you spot them all?

The babies were getting big! Any day now they would leave the nest, and after that, from what I understood from my research, they would stay with their parents, in their territory, until the fall. The parents would keep feeding them as the babies grew and learned to hunt. In the fall, the babies would leave to go find their own territories and mates. And the adults would stay here and get ready to commandeer a new nest in the spring (Great Horned Owls steal old nests from other birds, rather than make their own.)

Mama on May 22. If you compare to the male owl, you can see a different in coloring and around the eyes. Also, she got harder to see because the tree leafed out!

 May 23rd I took my dad's camera and got lots of pictures of the babies walking around their nest tree, flapping, taking short hops to other branches. They're nearly ready!

May 23rd, the siblings looking at me from the Nest Tree

What a perfect little owl! May 23rd.

May 23rd. Baby practicing in the Nest Tree

And then, on May 26th, they were gone! It wasn't too sad, because papa was still sitting in his spot in the Owl Tree, so I knew the others must be quite nearby. And now I had a new mission- to try and find the babies. It's one thing to know they'll be in exactly the same place every morning, noon, and night, and another thing entirely to know they are somewhere "in this territory." I don't know how big the owl's territory is, or where it is, or what trees they like....but I wanted to see those babies again.

Papa Owl on May 23rd

Just a few days later, I saw one of the babies!! I usually take my binoculars out with me, especially to look for the babies, but I didn't have my dad's camera, so again I took a picture through my binoculars. She was just sitting there in the setting sun, close to the Owl tree, waiting for me to come say hello. (I call the babies she, but there is no way of knowing if they are males or females until they are fully grown). It's so good to see you again, little one!! I looked all over, but couldn't find her sister or parents.

May 29th. Just waiting for me to stop by for a visit.

Now I am birding a little more earnestly around where I live. I've found some awesome birds, including a kingfisher, Snowy Egrets, hawks and a night heron.

And I have seen a baby owl twice more! The first time, June 20th I saw her sitting in a completely different tree and different area, in the dusk, and I happened to have my dad's camera with me! I pointed the baby out to a woman walking her dog, and she was enthralled! We watched together for a while, and when we parted, she was so thankful to have seen it, and said we'll meet again to spot the owls in the future. It's so awesome to share my excitement with neighbors.

Nearly a month out of the nest - June 20th.

I wonder if she recognizes me?

The last time I saw the baby was on June 24th. It was getting quite dark, and I couldn't get any other pictures.

Update!! On the evening of August 5th, I saw one of the owls again! As I walked along the Cherry Creek through Paul Hentzel park in the evening, the birds were quiet. I hardly saw or heard any. Then....I heard a ruckus. The sound of several crows screaming! When several crows are sitting together, screaming, in a tree, it means one thing to me: An owl is there!!  Crows harass owls, and it is one of the best ways to spot an owl. I started running towards the noise!  And there, in a tree directly in front of me, were 4 or 5 crows screaming their heads off at a Great Horned Owl!   I watched it a while, and got a picture through my binoculars. I can't say for sure, but my gut tells me this is one of the babies, almost all grown up. The eyes were very yellow, and the papa owl from this spring had darker, orange-y eyes. And it definitely wasn't the mama. I just felt like the face looked different. I always like to spot my owl family and say hi to old friends! Here's a picture through the binoculars!

If I see any of my Owl family again this summer, I will update this post again!

I could not have asked for a more special, amazing gift to get me and so many others through the scariest time of the pandemic. Thank you, Great Horned Owls! I can't wait to look for them again in the spring, as they hopefully make a new nest somewhere nearby!

I also got several good pictures of other birds over the last few months. Here's a couple for fun:

Snowy Egret in Cherry Creek

Same Egret, after I scared it off the log. : )

Red Tailed Hawk right by my complex

Belted Kingfisher in the Cherry Creek (taken through my binocs, so not as good as the others)

Bluejay