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Those of us who enjoy the trip as much as the destination, soon learn to appreciate the many "Rest Stops" highway departments have placed along the way for us.
Far from being just a rest-room break, many, if not most, are planned with the comfort and enjoyment of the traveler in mind, with the beauty of the nearby countryside displayed at best advantage.
At rest stops, I often pull out my laptop and write or work on my web site. You can see some of my work and some of my sister, Grannie Annie's work on The Word Polisher.
It hasn't been many years since I was tickled pink to find a pay phone where I could, if I was very lucky, hold an acoustic coupler tightly to the mouthpiece and pick up my email.
If I was even luckier, I might find a dial-up connection in a campground where I could actually get on line and "surf" for the 10 or 15 minute period that was allowed before turning the connection over to the next camper in line. And there was always a line.
Check the link below for the results of an informal "study" of RVers and other friends.
How RVers stay in touch while traveling
Photography is especially well-suited as a hobby for the traveling RVer. I'll be adding more of my own experiences later, but for now, here is some rest-stop reading.
Basic Guide to PhotoShop Tutorials
Good Reading for Photographers
Below are stories from my travels, and other stories contributed by friends.
While I'm an avid bird "watcher", I'm by no means a
"birder"... so when it comes to identifying birds, I'm at
kindergarten level. One thing I do know, though, is that I
saw a most amazing sight this morning.
I live
in a conventional "sub-division" type neighborhood, at the
northern edge of
It was
barely daylight... about
When I
looked to see what was causing the fuss, I saw a 3-inch tall
shape of an owl on a small branch about five feet off the
ground, and about three feet from the edge of the deck.
Having never seen an owl in my backyard before, and unaware
that such a small owl even exists, I thought I knew that
couldn't be, but I moved closer, and sure enough, that's
what it was. As I stood on the deck, I was
eyeball-to-eyeball with the owl, and about five feet away.
The tiny
owl could have been a cut-out from a child's picture book,
it sat so still, and the shape, coloring, and marking were
exactly what I've most often seen in picture book
illustrations. In fact, I was so in disbelief that I thought
that might be what it was.., a toy someone had placed there
to surprise and amuse me.
I'd left the backdoor open, so was able to go back inside to get my field
glasses without making any noise.
A close
look confirmed just what I had already observed.., an exact
replica of what I most often see to illustrate an owl..,
large yellow eyes, short ear tufts, and the same coloring
and markings I've seen on much larger birds in zoos. There
was no muted color or softness of feathers that would
indicate a baby bird. I could see just a tiny edge of tail
feathers below the slender 3/4" branch on which he sat.
He sat
absolutely still, with the only indication that he *wasn't*
a picture book cutout, the occasional blink of those big
yellow eyes as he seemed to stare right back at me.
A
movement on a branch behind and slightly above him caught my
eye... and there sat another tiny owl, but this one was
quite different. It had no ears, and was almost shapeless,
its feathers were softer-looking, and it was mostly medium
gray with only a slight rippling of color, with no
distinctive markings. Its eyes were much smaller than those
of first owl, dark brown... not quite black, but so dark
that no iris was visible. It was almost exactly the same
size as the first, but I could see wing tips below the (also
probably 3/4" thick) branch, where I couldn't see wing tips
on the first owl.
Unlike the first owl, this one moved, ducked its head this way and that,
and appeared to be trying to get a better look at me, just
as I was trying to get a better look at it. It was an eerie
feeling, as this tiny shapeless *creature* with the piercing
eyes bobbed and turned to look at me.
At one
point, when I moved to the other side of a large branch to
try to get a better look, I thought I glimpsed another
similar bird join this earless one, but when I moved back it
was gone. In replaying that scene in my mind -- and, after
reading in the bird books of the large wingspan of pygmy
owls -- I realize it may have been the same owl stretching
its large right wing to groom itself. It did duck its head
in a grooming motion, and I had, at first, thought it was
grooming another, same-size bird. But if that third owl
existed, I never saw it again.
Both owls were about the same size as the mockingbird. I
wondered if they might be mother and child, but they were
about the same size, with the less colorful, and earless
one, being perhaps a bit -- but not much -- larger, and they
certainly appeared to be of different varieties.
Neither
bird showed any fear of me even though I was moving around
on the deck about 4 feet away, and neither showed any
reaction to the mockingbird that continued to flap and
screech at them. The mockingbird never went closer than
about a foot and never actually attacked them as I've seen
mockingbirds attack squirrels.
Both
owls did show a reaction (a sudden movement of the head) to
a coo-ing -- or was it a "whoing" -- bird call. I hear that
sound often, and had always thought it was a dove, as many
are in this area.
Shortly
after that, and after I had watched for perhaps 10 minutes,
I came out of my awestruck haze enough to go get my camera.
When I
came back the owls were gone.
(Later)
I went
out early the next morning to start looking at daylight, but
haven't seen the owls, and the mockingbirds are quiet...
they aren't even singing, come to think of it. It's cloudy
out, which might be the reason mockingbirds aren't singing.
I didn't leave the lawn sprinkler on overnight... which
-since the branches were wet -- might have been a factor in
the visit of the owls.
I've
looked through my bird books -- and on the Internet -- for
"Pygmy owls" and "Elf" owls, and find nothing that describes
them... either the ears are wrong or the eye color is wrong.
Not only that, but no location chart suggests that either
owl could be found in the
When I tell the story, many people suggest that I must have dreamed it… and I would, in fact, believe that myself… except for one thing… recognizing that the memory would become fuzzy with time, I sat down and recorded the whole thing within minutes of the visit.
Still… I
remember and sometimes wonder… It’s only the re-reading of
this story that convinces me that it all really happened.
The doors were open because new garage doors were being
installed.
The installer said he had heard the cheeping and looked up
to see this tiny thing perched on one of the rails that had
to be removed.
After trying a while to get the baby bird to fly away, so he
could get to the rail, the installer picked her up, and
carried her outside, hoping the mother would find her.
She did not resist when he picked her up, but within a few
minutes, she flew back inside the garage and sat on a shelf,
cheeping madly at the installer. He told me later that she
would follow him wherever he went in the garage, or out to
his truck… and he finally realized she was begging him to
feed her.
Obviously, she could fly a little, but not well enough to
take care of herself, and she did not know how to feed
herself. She stomped her tiny feet and flapped her wings
until the installer gave her some water and tiny pieces of
french fries from his lunch.
This was a bit time consuming, since he had to roll up the
french fry into a little ball and toss it into the baby’s
mouth, so he soon went back to work, leaving the little bird
still hungry.
When, on hearing the cheeping, I went out, she came to me,
looked at, me intently, and urgently begged me to feed her.
On thinking back, this was more than just a little spooky.
How did this tiny little baby bird know to come to a human
and ask to be fed? But she obviously did know. She would go
back and forth between us, looking intently into our faces
and cheeping at us.
It wasn’t until later when I took her into the house and fed
her several small slivers of fat – as nearly like a worm as
I could manage -- that she finally calmed down.
After the installer left, I fed the baby a few times, then,
when night came, I closed the garage doors against varmints.
My bird expert sister said the mother would come looking for
the baby “if she’s alive”… but since so much time had gone
by, that seemed likely.
The next morning, the little bird was feeling much better.
She would come up to me to be fed, but was not so frantic as
the day before, and was wandering around the garage, seeming
to be quite comfortable. I opened the garage door, so she
could leave if she wanted to
About noon, I went out to find that she had gone outside,
and was sitting in a small bush beside the house, chirping
away… but it wasn’t the frantic cheeping of the previous
day…she was not asking for food… she was, I felt sure,
calling her mother.
I didn’t think she was strong enough to fly up to a tree
branch, but suddenly she did, and managed to make it to a
very fragile lower branch. Then, just like in a Disney move,
a squirrel came down to investigate.
The squirrel didn’t chatter or swish his tail, but just
looked at her, close enough to touch her, or, perhaps, to
whisper encouragement in her ear.. That was more than a bit
unusual, as squirrels and adult Mockingbirds are usually
mortal enemies.
I saw a movement higher up in the tree, and thinking it
might be the mother, I went back inside the house and
watched from a window.
The little branch the baby was on was not strong enough to
hold an adult bird’s weight, so I wondered what would happen
next.
Sure enough, right before my wondering eyes, the mother bird
swooped down and brushed the baby with her wing as she flew
past.
The baby took off and tried to follow, but couldn’t get its
wings going, so it fell down into a bush. After a moment, it
recovered and climbed back up then fluttered up to the
highest point it could manage, and sat there cheeping.
From my viewpoint at a window inside the house, I could see
perfectly what happened next.
After a few moments of watching and waiting--for me and the
baby bird--the mother bird came back and made another
swooping pass.
This time, the baby managed to get its wings working, and
off they flew… with the mother bird in the lead and the baby
a few inches from her tail.
I felt so privileged to have witnessed this miracle of
Nature!
If
you are in San Francisco, you might want to see this project
by my niece, Dorothy Lenehan.
She is creating a 5000 square foot glass mural to be displayed on the outside walls of a 26-floor condo in the South of Market area of San Francisco.
If you can find a place to park your RV nearby, she might even give you a tour.
See the building and the art in work, here
John Johnston, of Watercolour For Beginners, gave me the idea for this section when he talked about his own rest area experience in England.
Read his story here: Watercolours for Beginners
Here is another website to enjoy when you have a few minutes.
The games and puzzles are fun and funny... and don't require instructions other than what appear as you play the games... just the thing to fill idle moments when everything else is packed away.
Tranquility Place illustrates what one RVing family did with their little bit of heaven "home base".
See it here: Tranquility Place
