Around the world with two suitcases
Reading the newspaper you wouldn’t think there were any small farmers or ranchers left in California–it’s all sprawling cities or thousand-acre farms. Driving from Petaluma to Mendocino, we passed through, and were surprised by, rural California alive and well. Small farms and ranches extended from Petaluma to the coast.
We had a free day before moving into our house in Mendocino, so we did what all visitors do in California–taste wine! We drove to Sonoma, visiting the Robledo Winery on the way there, and then we visited the Walt tasting room off the Sonoma plaza. What lovely wine, and enjoyable conversation. It was a great way to spend a very hot afternoon.
We left Twin Falls, Idaho, crossed that beautiful country and stayed overnight at the Nugget Casino in Reno, NV (June 6). The Casino was not particularly inviting, especially considering I don’t ordinarily gamble. Too much smoke.
We had a nice dinner at the oyster bar, however, and the room was a bargain compared to anything else in the area. In the morning we headed out, stopping to look out over the landscape. It was shocking to see that Washoe Lake is empty. It still appears blue, a regular lake, on the map, yet it is a black blot, not even marshy. Anyone who thinks the decrease in water in California isn’t serious should drive out and have a look.
We continued on to Lake Tahoe to see some of the shore that once belonged to the Haas family. It is too bad that the land was sold long ago–the shore of the lake is very beautiful. The area is popular in the summer and reminds me a lot of Lake George when we visited in the summer. Lots of motels, watersports, and traffic.
We stopped at the museum in Tahoe City to see the basket collection. There were some wonderful items. Some of the baskets were decorated with tiny black feathers, quail topknots. There used to be a lot…..of quail, considering the number of these tiny feathers around all those baskets. We ate our picnic lunch outside the museum.
By the end of the day we made it as far as Petaluma.
By the end of our visit to the cabin in Bailey, CO we had seen a remarkable list of birds and animals. We’d been on a hike in the nearby Pike National Forest, visited a quarry to hunt for amazonite crystals and eaten everything from elk to quail. What we discovered is that the best wildlife viewing may be in your own backyard. As our friend Mark pointed out, when you walk the trails in the National Forest, the animals and birds are often hiding. You may here a few twittering birds in the distance but you don’t ordinarily see birds and animals.
Sitting on the deck of their cabin, we saw an AMAZING range of birds and animals. The birds are all habituated to the people on the deck by the bird feeders.
The broad-tailed hummingbirds visit their feeder, while chickadees, nuthatches, black-headed grosbeak, and red-wing blackbird visit for the seeds. Stellar’s jay and nutcrackers come by for the peanuts wedged in the branches and perched on top of the fence posts. Bluebirds were building a nest in a dead tree down the road. We watched a red-tailed hawk harried by a raven and a red-winged blackbird.
Animals are protected by the prohibition against hunting near houses and roads. As a result, they roam more freely among the houses than you would imagine. In four days we fed the ground squirrels, squirrels and chipmunks, saw mule deer wading across the shallows of the lake and browsing their way across the hill below us, male and female red fox and their four kits (one of the adults is a black morph with a fluffy white-tipped tail. On the drive from the cabin to dinner at The Fort, in Morrison, CO, we watched a coyote raid a red-winged blackbird’s nest, pounce, and eat a baby bird. By the time we left the cabin we were only waiting on the extremes: elk, moose, mountain sheep, and bear. Today, after we left, this is what Jonathan got on his cell phone:
3 hrs after you left!!!
Young moose wading in the lake. Mark and Marcy’s cabin in the background…….
Who knows how much longer it would be before we saw the others!
The moral of the story is that sitting on the deck looking at the gorgeous surroundings may be a more effective way to see wildlife than hiking through the National Forest. 
Who knew? And the views…
I recommend a week in the mountains to cure…..everything.
In addition to all the birds and other wildlife outdoors, when you look around a cabin constructed of pine planks you might see:
A brown bird sitting on a brown egg?
Or you might see a sad bird:
You might even imagine yourself lying on the bottom of a lake watching a fox swim by overhead:
We arrived at Mark and Marcy’s cabin in Bailey, CO, overlooking a small lake. On the way in we saw a herd of mule deer:
The setting of the cabin is idyllic, the porch stretches from east to west and you can move your chair from one sunny (or shady) spot to the next all day long.
There are birds coming to the feeder that ignore us, and their chipmunk (ground squirrel) named Scar, will take peanuts from my fingers.
The goal of our route through Nebraska was to see Carhenge, in Alliance, NE, which we did. We stayed overnight at to Grandma Lala’s B&B, a lot more memorable than the Red Roof Inn we stayed at in Council Bluffs, IA last night. Our room had a cherub theme:
As we drove from Alliance, NE to Denver, we passed beautiful country and even saw an antelope among the cattle.
Driving across Nebraska on this sunny, cool day, we crossed lots and lots of open land, some farm fields, some grazing land with cows everywhere. Our destination was Alliance, NE and CARHENGE!
It looks a bit like Stonehenge from a distance, but from up close it’s a car collection, spray painted gray, welded, wedged and hammered together.
An intriguing fact makes visiting Carhenge in late May an excellent idea. The structures are used by all kinds of birds to build their nests. The metal frames provide shelter and at this time of year, the chicks have hatched and are peeping like crazy and the parents fly back and forth constantly to feed them. Carhenge seems alive with birds among the autos.
Some other sculptures have been donated to the site and this struck me as one of the best–Leaping Salmon.
Here’s our selfie of the day.
We had a good dinner at Ken and Daves’ on 3rd St. It was prime rib night….
After our comfortable time in LaGrange, we packed the car for our trip to California. It was a bit more crowded than we expected.
Even though Jonathan took the car to the Toyota dealership (again) at 7 am, he was able to return home with a new headlight and we were packed and on the road by 11 am.
The midwest is at its greenest right now. We spent the day crossing Illinois and Iowa, arriving in Council Bluffs, IA, (across the river from fabulous Nebraska). We passed this truck–at the time I hoped he had a spigot on the side and some go-cups.
We drove down to the edge of the Missouri River, just to have a look and found that this weekend is LOESSFEST, including the Taste of Omaha. 
We may give it a try on our way out of town, but since it was raining and involved a shuttlebus ride across the river to Omaha we passed up tonight’s opportunity. We did see the bridge with four huge spiky sculptures on each corner that goes over Rte 80–that was strange and interesting. We may go have a look at the water tower shaped like a coffee pot before we leave. (Oh yes, you ought to give Iowa a try…).
Do you know what the next line of that song is? A good one for us.
During the month of May 2015, from the day before the closing on the sale of our house until the week after Memorial Day, we are renting an apartment in a (very nice) two flat in LaGrange. We found it on Airbnb, the owners live upstairs and so far it is both comfortable and convenient.
We have managed to put our own stamp on the extremely clean and orderly surroundings.
All the cardboard boxes are ours. The desk has a wireless printer–a very handy amenity. There’s also a nicely equipped kitchen.
Llywindatravels 2025 