Catching Up

I'm afraid I haven't had a lot of internet time lately so I have to get caught up now. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up better in the future but I wouldn't count on it.


Here I am with the McKenzie kids. That's Evie on my right, Kenny on my lap, and DJ on my lap. I had a lot of fun with them and their parents, and I am very grateful for their hospitality. On Sunday I went to church with them and in the evening I went to Kenny's Cub Scout banquet. What fun!


On Monday and Tuesday I went to Acadia National Park. It was beautiful but a lot of it was closed for the winter. I did get some nice shots though, and I added my first lifers of the trip! They were the Black Guillemot and the Common Eider.


These are the Eiders. The close-up one was cropped out of a larger image to show you that it has a sea urchin in it's mouth. They actually swallow those things whole!


On Wednesday I left the farm house in rural Maine to dip my toe into the deep urban waters of New York City. Here's a shot of the view from the condo that my good friend Michelle shares with her friend Thea. I had every intention of getting to New York in plenty of time to make it to see the Blue Man Group but my estimated time of arrival was a long ways off of my actual time of arrival and I ended up driving in New York City at rush hour! The blood is just now returning to my knuckles. Parking was also a pain. We barely made it to the show on time but it was good.

Everything in New York is expensive too. Much thanks to Michelle and Thea for their generosity. They kept me from suffering too much. I owe them both... big time.

I left the next morning and I took a detour to see Ground Zero. Here you can see some of the construction that's finally happening there.

This is a memorial they have set up at one end of the site. I played around with this shot and I thought I would include a version with the color removed except for the homeless guy in the orange coat and hat. He was there playing "Amazing Grace" on his flute. It was already a moving experience and I think he added a nice touch.

From there I pointed my truck south. I was heading for North Carolina. I took my time heading down and went to Shenandoah National Park. A lot of that was also closed but what I could get to was nice.

One spot had these semi-tame deer. They must have seen a lot of people without guns because they didn't seem to mind at all that I was there. The light was nice too. I had a great time with them.

The day ended with this sunset. I'd like to say that I carefully planned to have a raven fly across the scene as I was taking the shot, but I just got lucky, or blessed, depending on your perspective.

The next day I spent the morning at Crabtree Falls, just south of Shenandoah NP. It was partially frozen over which made for some interesting photos.

After that I went on to Charlotte NC. My old friend Henry Harris live there with his wife Julie and their seven or eight children. I say "seven or eight" because Julie is due with their eighth any minute now. It could even be here as far as I know. I enjoyed a supper with them and moved on to Shelby where I am now staying with my friends the Renns. I didn't want to add to the potential chaos in Charlotte if the baby came while I was around. I might just return there before I move on if the baby comes.

Here in Shelby I've been staying with Jeff and Leigh Renn along with their three girls Gracie, Isabelle, and Lilly. I'll add some photos of them soon. Jeff is the music minister at Putnam Baptist Church and I went to church with them yesterday. Right now I'm in their church office using their high speed Internet. I've heard a lot about southern hospitality and these folks haven't disappointed me. They've all been very good to me.

I've mostly been taking care of business here today. I had to get this blog entry out and I had to get my truck in. My brakes have been squeaking and it looks like I have a costly repair ahead of me. I don't have to do it immediately so I will work on getting that done later this week when I'm at my brother's place in the Atlanta area. I should be able to absorb this one alright bet I hope this isn't a sign of things to come.

It was a beautiful day here today. I think it got into the 50s. As I drove down from Virginia things just kept getting greener and greener. There are actually quite a few flowers blooming already. Maybe I'll be able to get out in it tomorrow. Until next time... thanks for reading and keep praying.

Steve

Albion Maine

I made it to my first official stop of the trip. I'm staying with my friends the McKenzie's in the little town of Abion Maine. Yesterday I Started out from Home and My Dad snapped this shot of me with my truck. I'm in my Parent's driveway and that's my house in the background, on the right.


The only photo-worthy stop I made along the way was the Niagara Falls. I would have spent more time on these shots but I was already a couple days behind and I had a lot of driving ahead of me. It was also cold and windy, and besides, I had to go to the bathroom. It's hard to make good photos when you can't stand still. I'll try to plan better in the future.

There was quite a bit of ice at the base of the falls that you can barely see through the mist.


All the trees around the falls were covered with a thick frost/ice.

Tomorrow the plan is to go to Albion Christian Church with the McKenzies and then spend a couple days in the area, hopefully making some good photos before I move on to New York. I'll post again when I get some more material. Thanks.

Steve

Finally On The Road

It took longer than anticipated but I'm finally on my way! A week ago I was at Windy Lake Lodge with friends, and I had hoped to be on the road the day after I got back, but it just didn't work out that way. Right now I'm in a hotel room near Syracuse, NY, on my way to visit friends in Maine.

I had a great time at Windy Lake as I always do. The temperatures were cold, but for some reason it never felt that bad.

















Maybe it because of the warm friends. Here's Tom Lee on the left. He and His wife Shirley run the lodge and they feel like family to many of us who go up there regularly. Next to him is yours truely, followed by Christie, Randy, Tom, and Sue.








The skiing and snowshoeing are great up there as is the food! Shirley sees to it that nobody looses weight up there no matter how hard you ski. The scenery is wonderful too. Here are a couple of my early morning shots.
















This year seemed to be a good year for birds too. One of the best sightings I came up with is this Hoary Redpoll. This is the full frame shot with one that I cropped down. the quality isn't that good but I think you can clearly see that it's a lot lighter than the Common Redpoll above it.















I took a few photos today but I won't have time to go through them tonight so I'll post some of them at a later date. The last few days have been kind of stressful but now it does feel good to be on the road. The road conditions have been a little spotty, especially here in NY, but "so far so good". Keep the prayers coming. Thanks.

Steve

Counting Down

Today was my last day of work for many months. I feel like I've just jumped out of a perfectly good plane. I hope my parachute works!

I leave early Wednesday morning for Windy Lake Lodge, North of Sault Ste. Marie, Canada, to do some cross country skiing with friends. When I get back from there, the following Monday, I'll be off on my solo adventure. I could even leave directly from The Soo, but at this point I think I'll stop back home first and leave the next day. I still have a lot to do before I go, so I'll have to keep my nose to the grindstone for a few days. It will sure be good to finally be on the road.