Finally~The Lions, Tigers and Bear

Finally, some pictures of the stars of the show-the lions, tigers and bear. Oh, and panthers. Words can't really ever truly give these majestic animals due justice. So I'll let the pictures do the talking.





The lions. A male and female.









The tigers. There are four here. Two of them, Samson and Delilah, are siblings and are 20 month old toddlers.











Beautiful. Just beautiful! Well worth the wait, right? If you are in the area, go and visit them. They are even better in person.

Beauty in the Morning

Each morning the beauty of the morning glories help me get started on another day. I have about 4 different areas where there is hundreds of blossoms each day. Sadly they are all gone by evening but I know another group of them will be there to greet me the next morning. I love this blue color but also have other shades of blue and some purple. Morning glories have always been one of my favorite flowers not only because of their beauty but because they are so easy to grow. They are an anual and do have to be replanted each spring but grow fast, with little fertilizer and not as much water as a lot of other flowers. One group decided to grow up into my Bradford Pear tree. A Bradford pear is an ornimental pear meaning it has beautiful white flowers in the spring but no fruit.

Where was I?

Oh, yeah. Prior to a brief interlude for a visit to my cousin and then meeting lots of online friends at Jamboree, I left Natural Bridges National Monument on the morning of May 25th.

The “plan” was to return to Capitol Reef and Bryce Canyon National Parks. And that is what I did. Sort of. After driving the 100 miles from Natural Bridges, through Glen Canyon, I arrived at Capitol Reef before 10 o'clock and was able to find a campsite. (It was the morning of Tuesday, May 25th.)

For whatever reason, Capitol Reef didn't do much for me. After a short rest break, I drove to the end of the scenic road and hiked one of the trails then returned to camp and read for a few hours. A short trip to the nearby town of Torrey later in the day garnered me a great hamburger and free wifi at a local restaurant!

The next morning (May 26th) I left for Bryce Canyon. The route took me through the familiar territory of the Boulder Mountains and Escalante National Monument. I stopped that night at Kodachrome Basin State Park, which was along on the way. The basin was named by National Geographic Photographers reportedly for the brilliant colors of the surrounding countryside. Although it was pretty, I was a little disappointed in the colors.

The campground in Kodachrome Basin as seen from one of the trails.

Bryce Canyon was less than a half hour from Kodachrome Basin, so I took my time getting around and arrived there at about 9:30 the next morning (May 27th). At the entrance gate I was informed that all but one of the campgrounds were fully occupied and there were only a few sites left at the one campground. That was when I realized the upcoming weekend was a holiday weekend – Memorial Day. I had completely forgotten about it. Finding an empty campsite on “normal” weekends is hard enough let alone on holidays!

I went on down to the campground that had sites available and saw just two that were empty. The entire campground was in shade, midst tall trees, which I imagine would be really nice in the middle of summer, but it was still a little on the cool side at Bryce (actually, it was cold). Plus, the sites were all very close together with little or no privacy. Most people, or so it seems, apparently aren't bothered by the lack of privacy at campgrounds. But it matters to me, a little. And, I guess, it sounds like I'm making excuses for not staying at Bryce... maybe so, but I decided to move on down the road and revisit Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park near Kanab, Utah. (If I had *really* wanted to stay at Bryce, the lack of privacy wouldn't have mattered – it didn't bother me at Death Valley or Zion! And some of the neatest people I've met was because of the lack of privacy.)

When I pulled into the entrance of Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park the “Campground Full” sign was posted. One thing I've learned during these travels is to ignore the sign and ask the attendant if the campground is actually full. Oftentimes it isn't, as was the case on this day. There were two sites available for the night, both small ones but plenty big enough for me. The park only has 23 sites and most of them are large enough for an RV with a trailer since many of the people who stay there have off-road vehicles for playing in the sand. I also asked if one of those two sites was available for the weekend and lucky for me it was!

I stayed at Coral Pink for four nights, until the morning of May 31st. I will admit that I felt just a little out of place. Most of the other sites were filled with families, which was cool. Everyone there (except me) had four-wheelers or sand buggies or off-road motorcycles, even the little kids!

However, I didn't spend a lot of time at the campground during the day. The library opened at ten o'clock on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and the wifi was free and fast. So I spent quite a bit of time there writing and scheduling blog posts, getting caught up on email and reading other bloggers' posts, etc. Of course, I also went for walks in the dunes, drove around some of the backroads, and took a few side trips.

Wild Flowers

Two different white wild flowers that we have in our yard. These guys are some of the few that really seem to like the dry sandy soil we have.

Ostria Restaurant Dinner in Votsalakia

Eating out in Samos Island, Greece is very cheap, you spend approximately 30+- euros for 2 pax (1 starter + 2 mains + 2 drinks). We normally have coffee somewhere else at a lounge or bar. Thus, we ate out every night (we still have a week to go to enjoy this island!) and I will be posting all our dinners (and lunches) at different restaurants.



Hopefully, those who stumble upon this blog whilst planning for their prospective Samos holiday will have an idea where to eat and what to expect. My way of giving back to travellers and holidaymakers out there.



First night dinner at Ostria Restaurant



We were quite intrigued with this restaurant because you cannot see the dining area except for a pathway leading to the beach. The pathway is partly covered with vines crawling on a trellis with grapes hanging from it. The restaurant is indeed located on the sea side which makes it very attractive and quite romantic as well.













The restaurant has no website but it is listed on Trip Advisor, go here: Ostria



Kambos area (Votsalakia beach) in Marathokampos municipality is small so it is easy to find this restaurant as it is located on the main town’s street.



Special menu of the day



We ordered their special menu of the day that includes a Greek salad. Dutchman, the Burger special with Tzatziki, and moi, the Grilled Dorade Fish (gilt-head bream or bream fish) special with lemon sauce. Of course, a quarter Samian white wine for me as well. Samos has its own wine culture and is quite famous locally.











Food here is quite good. Not a fan really of French fries but I loved my Grilled Dorade fish. 4.25 stars out of 5. The ambiance here at the restaurant is fresh and lovely. They also gave us free coffee to close the dinner. In Samos, all restaurants give you a surprise free thing after dinner. The surprise vary per restaurant!



Beach view



But what we really enjoyed most were the beautiful views, and oh, the sunset! So relaxing...









If in Votsalakia - Kambos area, don’t miss this restaurant, for lunch or dinner.



More food posts coming!

Pink Geranium

It is so hard to get any decent photos of the Sandia Mountains and my flowers without getting the power lines in them.

Arches Revisited

Ten days ago I left Hovenweep National Monument and continued north toward Moab. My intention was to stay a few days and spend some time at Arches National Park. I immensely enjoyed my visit there, about a year ago. However, after a stop at the visitor center, where I learned that most of the campgrounds in the area were already full and booked for the weekend, I resumed driving. There is a State Park at Green River about 45 minutes northwest of Moab and, as luck would have it, they still had quite a few campsites available. It was mid-afternoon when I checked in and before the sun set the campground was full.



The next morning (Friday the 13th), I decided to stay at Green River State Park for the weekend. It was a gorgeous day and after doing a few chores in the morning took a drive over to Arches National Park.





One of the numerous formations at Arches. It was late afternoon and nearby formations cast their shadows, slowly creeping ever closer to this formation.





Another formation silhouetted against the skyline.



The snow-capped La Sal mountains rise up in the distance and dominate the horizon



Balancing Rock. From this angle it really does looks like it is doing a balancing act.



But as you walk around it, the angle of view and perspective change; it is securely attached to the base rock. In time, the wind and rain will erode the base further and some day, in the distant future, the balancing rock will be no more.





And, of course, the setting sun marked the end of another beautiful day!

Seminole Canyon State Park

After leaving Padre Island, I headed west on Texas Route 44 connecting to U.S 83 west of Encinal. From there it was north to Uvalde, which has a very nice public library with excellent wifi, where I was able to schedule those posts on Padre Island. The next morning it was west on U.S. 90 with Big Bend National Park as the next destination. I was tempted to stop at one of the camping areas in the Amistad National Recreation Area just west of Del Rio but the campgrounds I saw weren't all that appealing so I continued on a little ways to Seminole Canyon State Park near Comstock.

The campground was on the top of a very large hill. The sites were quite nice, with a covered picnic table, which provided some protection from the sun but none whatsoever from the wind!

Arriving at Seminole Canyon in the early evening of February 19th, it was too late in the day to hike the trail to the canyon, a six mile roundtrip, but it wasn't too late to catch a wonderful sunset!

Early Winter Wonderland on the Arrowhead Trail

More than a foot of snow already blankets the landscape along the Arrowhead Trail in Northeast Minnesota on November 23, .

Change of Venue

After leaving Picacho Peak State Park, I stopped in Tucson long enough to use the wifi and check weather reports. It really didn't look good anywhere. It seems that those winds that blew in from California and wreaked havoc in many places also changed weather patterns. There has been a cold spell in southern Arizona the past few days. I checked weather in southern New Mexico and it didn't look much better.



So, I headed toward a place where I've stayed several times. In hindsight it probably wasn't the best of decisions. But it is what it is.



On Saturday, December 3rd, I arrived at Kartchner Cavern State Park (south of Benson, about 10 miles from I-10) and decided to spend the weekend, knowing that the temperatures were going to be cool. At the time I just didn't realize how cold it was going to get! For the next three days the daytime temperature did not get much above 40 degrees and during the night it dropped into the mid 20s.



Actually, I was quite comfortable as long as I stayed in the van! Since being on the road for so long, I've learned a few things – like how to run a heavy-duty extension cord through the window so that no outside air enters... It's quite cozy in the van with a little heater on. So in spite of the cold weather I enjoyed my stay here. It's a great little park. I didn't take advantage of the nice trails but did take several short walks daily to help keep the blood circulating ;-)





This was the view from my campsite at about 8:15 on Monday morning when the temperature was about 28 degrees! I thought that the clouds might be clearing, but Mother Nature had other ideas.





Less than 15 minutes later the dark clouds rolled in. We even had snow flurries for a short time Monday afternoon.



Tuesday, December 6th - - I've left Kartchner Cavern State Park and am making my way further east. I'll be taking my time, and a meandering route, through New Mexico and Texas to northeast Louisiana to spend the Christmas and New Years Holidays with my friends (who are also distant Joslin cousins). It will be nice to spend the Holidays in the company of family and friends.



Below is the temperature map for the time this post was actually written... looks rather chilly everywhere in the U.S. except the southern-coastal areas!! Yuck.





One advantage of staying in one place for a few days is that I was able to get some genealogy posts written and scheduled. So for the next few days that is what you will see here at kinexxions...

At Griffith Stadium

The Village of Eastport

Tuesday, September 18th - - So many things are "the eastern-most" thing here in Maine - the eastern-most campground, the eastern-most town, the eastern-most point, etc. The Village of Eastport lays claim to being the eastern-most port in the United States. It was one of the places that I was told that I "had" to visit - a quaint little fishing town that is the epitome of all Maine fishing towns.



What I found was a quiet little town. Quaint, to be sure, with little shops selling a variety of artistic and crafty goods. And, of course, the harbor filled with boats.