Can you handle another geography quiz?
I think the last one was far too easy. This one may make y'all think a little harder and I'm going to be really mean and not give any hints. The winners will receive the same prize as was earned on the last quiz. (Snort.)
Ready? Set? GO!
Well, guys. It's time to admit that I'm tuckered out.
I've been pushing my limits all week and I think it would be a prudent choice to get some serious rest before everything comes crashing down around my ears.
So. No Provigil or Monster drinks today. Since we have a full day of driving ahead of us, I'm going to put down the camera, grab my pillow and blankie, and zonk out as the miles roll by.
Here's a few shots from yesterday.
The best times are simple moments spent doing small things with the people you love.
While John and I are traipsing around the country, Lulu has been hanging out with her BFF Skipperdoo. She is very comfy at Skippy's house and vice versa. We're so lucky to be able to do doggy-sitting favors for each other. But I miss her, even though I know she's happy and well cared for, so I texted Skipperdoo's person, Susan.
"How's the mutt-mutts?"
This is what I received in reply:
AAaaaand the answer to yesterday's quiz is, as everyone guessed correctly, Duluth Minnesota.
.::ding ding ding ding ding!:.
Yes, that is a far distance from Portland Oregon as someone noted. We stayed at a lovely upscale hotel/lodge and several of the pictures from yesterday's post were taken from our hotel window. I love hotels that combine luxury with rustic beauty.
Today, we headed further east, and the landscape changed from piney woods and big water to gently rolling hills populated by deciduous trees just beginning to leaf out.
I will be without reliable internet access for the next several days. I will still post something every day but it will be from my phone, which means that the posts will be brief and won't appear promptly at 12:30 am Pacific time as they are usually set to do. This post is being written from a Saint Paul Applebees restaurant (with free wi fi, woo hoo) and will be auto published on Friday am. By the time y'all will be reading this I will be probably just waking up to a lovely north woods morning and just outside our bedroom window, Lake Julia (yes, that's really it's name) will be sparkling in the sunshine. I'll pour myself a cuppa and pad out to the dock in my flip flops. I'll squint into the sunshine and scan the glassy lake surface for the pair of loons that claim this lake as their own. And after that, who knows?
See you tomorrow.
Wanna play a game? Of course you do.
Here's the rules: Ahem. I'll post a bunch of pictures from our location yesterday, and y'all can guess where we were. And the winner gets.......um. Probably nothing but pure satisfaction, people.
Sorry.
Here ya go:
Before I share a sampling of yesterday's adventures, I wanted to respond to all of the emails that I have received which go something like this: AAAACCCCKKK! Julia, for heaven's sake don't get out of the car to take pictures of wild creatures. You could be putting yourself in serious danger!
I appreciate your concerns for my body's integrity, really I do. But rest assured: all the pictures that I have taken of animals have been from the safety of our SUV with all windows rolled completely up.
Promise. Cross my heart.
Some pictures appear as if I were within arm's reach of the critters, but it only appears that way because I have a telephoto lens. In reality I'm a very very long distance from any horns or hooves or any other potential damaging animal part.
Now, mountains are another story. A fair amount of those pictures were taken while standing firmly on the ground and camera propped on my trusty monopod. So. Rest easy. I promise to behave myself.
And for those that have asked how I have been feeling energy-wise and pain-in-the-hinder-wise, my answer is great! Really and truly. I couldn't be more pleased with the way the timing of my rituximab infusion and epidural injection played out. I'm comfy and while tired at the end of a long traveling day, find myself ready to head out the next morning, renewed. Yessss.
Yesterday's geography changed dramatically as we moved east from Glacier. So did the weather: we ran into our first heavy cloud cover and rain, which actually I didn't mind at all. Change is good sometimes.
I will try over the next week or so not to blog endlessly about our vacation......but it will be hard. This will not be one of those non-vacation posts.
Buying a monopod for my camera turned out to be a very very good idea. John took this iPhone picture of me using said monopod.
One of my goals for our time in Glacier National Park was to see a mountain goat. Because I love goats. I don't know why. I just do.
So when we entered the park and had a chance to talk to a ranger, we were told where to go to have the very best chance of seeing my goat: the goat lick, which is where they go to lick salt and minerals off a cliff. We immediately zoomed over to the lick.
