Monument Peak Trail, Milpitas CA

Saturday 7/25/09, Kevin and I went for a hike in a county park tucked in the hills behind our town. Due to the absence of rain until the fall, the landscape is mostly brown. However, the rolling hills are a beautiful contrast to the bright blue sky. We walked about four miles round trip on Monument Peak Trail. The hot sun and uphill trails made it physically challenging at times with only a few shady areas along the way.

As we were heading back, a flock of about 20 female turkeys were quickly moving through the brush for no obvious reason to us. After we walked a few minutes further down the trail, we knew why. Two tom turkeys were duking it out on the hillside. They obviously were fighting for the rights to the female flock. The females didn't seem too impressed or they would have stayed to watch who won! See the video clip below and turn up the volume:

Many areas along the trail were sectioned by gates. They could be opened by hikers, but were meant to keep the grazing animals from escaping. Twenty feet in front of the next gate blocking our path were two very large bulls who didn't seem too friendly. They weren't budging. We had to walk around them uphill in the brush so we wouldn't spook them and get behind them to get past the gate. They watched us closely, but were either too hot or too bored to move. Nice cow paddy!

Yellow-billed magpie only found in California.

Here are two more turkeys we found fighting in the backyard earlier in the day! Do they ever stop?

We Made It!

It took what seemed like forever, but we finally made it to Milpitas, California on 6/30/09. Kevin and I did all of the work after the movers had left, but apparently Ingonish was the most exhausted of all of us!

Kevin just had his change of command on Friday 7/17/09 and will now take over as commander of his unit. I just completed week one as an endoscopy nurse in a Surgicenter in Mountain View. We are all settling in nicely. We'll blog more to stay connected as time goes on. Please comment if you can to let us know how you are all doing and what you've been up to!

More to come.......

Sand Dunes of Nevada

Kevin thought it would be fun to take a hike off the beaten path in western Nevada. The sand dunes were really cool and quite tall! Even though it was in the high 90's and I swore something was going to bite me in the leg, it was a really beautiful day.

That's me!

Creatures Along the Way

We saw many animals along our drive. This mountain goat was in the Mount Rushmore park. He wasn't very shy at all and seemed to ignore all of the visitors who stopped to get a peek. Buffalo, prairie dogs and pronghorn antelope were some of the inhabitants of the prairies of Wyoming.

We made a pitstop on the side of the road to let the dogs out for a potty break. Kevin was playing with them on the leash and they were jumping around having fun. I heard this strange sound, like a locust. I thought, great. Some gross bug is going to crawl up my leg! There was actually a snake within ten feet of me. That sound was a rattle! We stopped and quickly walked through the prairie grass to avoid getting near the snake. Funny thing was, I didn't remember seeing a rattle. We took one last peek to find it, but there was none. We came to find out (thanks to our Blackberries), that rattlesnakes are not ususally found where we were. It was actually a bull snake, which is not poisonous. They rub their tails against leaves or brush when they feel threatened to simulate a rattlesnake to fool their predators (and me)! This can also be their undoing because humans often kill them thinking they are rattlers. Well it worked for him this time. We backed off and he slithered away unscathed. This is actually a picture of the snake. I really wanted it to be a rattler. It would have made a better story. It was still pretty funny how clever he was!

These were the most ferocious creatures of all! I only got out of my seat for a second! I think they actually understand each other!

Mount Rushmore, Black Hills of South Dakota

The presidential sculptures at Mount Rushmore were very stately in the beautiful Black Hills surrounded by ponderosa pines.

Badlands National Park, South Dakota

The Badlands are a geological wonder located in the central region of South Dakota. Unusual rock formations span 244,000 acres that just seem to come up out of nowhere. The surrounding areas are the flat, green prairies. Wind, water and volcanic activity shaped the landscape over the course of millions of years resulting in its peaks and valleys. Violent thuderstorms preceded our entrance into the park. By the time we got there, the sun was out, the sky was blue and a beautiful rainbow spanned the landscape overhead. It was awesome! Volcanic ash, shale and fossil soils helped create the colorful striations in the rock.

We enjoyed hiking some of the trails and, of course, Kevin had to climb one of the peaks. Each turn revealed beautiful vistas that made you appreciate the wonders of nature.

Goin' Back to Cali

Hello All!

This is my first attempt at blogging. A very smart person suggested that I keep in touch via personal blog to stay connected with everyone while we are out in California. So......here goes!

It was very difficult to leave Canandaigua after having lived there for over ten years. We really made it our home. The peope we have met and the beautiful countryside made every wind gust and snowflake worth experiencing.

We realized we (I) had accumulated a lot of stuff (junk) over time and packing was a nightmare, both before and after the movers came. Our Goldens Ingonish and Cabot weren't much help in the cleanup process. In fact, they added to the mess. Nevertheless, around 5pm Tuesday 6/23/09, we left Canandaigua in our motorhome on our eight-day trek across the US.

The first half of our trip was uneventful. We drove through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Utah and Nevada on our way to California. The dogs were surprisingly well behaved for most of the trip until we got to Nevada. We would leave them in the motorhome each night while we went out for dinner. In Nevada, we ate and then gambled a bit at the local casino. We came back and Ingonish had eaten Kevin's laser pointer dangling from his utility bag. Oops! Poop patrol had begun. In the meantime, the next day we didn't realize that he was also eating numerous button covers that were on the upholstery in the dinette area of the motorhome. Needless to say, after two teaspoons of hydrogen peroxide were given, all fifteen button covers and the laser pointer were recovered. Thank God! We weren't looking forward to Ingonish having a third surgery!

The western half of the country proved to be the most beautiful, even from the highway. Wisconsin and South Dakota surprised me. The topography was very interesting and ever- changing the further west we went.