Our Ski Adventure

As mentioned here on Tuesday, Eric and I went skiing yesterday. The trip was a success, even if things did not go exactly as planned.

Here's what was planned... drive to the WV place on Tuesday night. It's about an hour from Wisp. We would leave there early on Wednesday to ski, spend the night at the WV place on Wednesday, then drive home this morning (Thursday).

Eric got off work late on Tuesday, so we didn't leave my house until 11:00 PM. It's a three-hour drive to the WV place. So we should have arrived at about 2:00 AM. I say should have because we hit a bit of trouble. Nothing horrible, but we were definitely delayed.

Before I tell you what happened, you need a bit of background. The WV place is not far east of Wisp. It's more in the foothills than the mountains, so it's not subject to the extreme mountain weather that hits the mountains not far west of the cabin. We haven't been to the WV place since Thanksgiving. They were hit with the same blizzard as us in December. But that was like three weeks ago, so we figured the snow would be gone.

We were wrong.

Hubby wisely convinced me to take our big, bad four-wheel-drive truck instead of my car (wimpy little sedan).

Unfortunately, not even the big, bad 4wd truck was a match for the foot of compacted icy snow on Turkey Hollow Road.

We got stuck. A mere 100 yards down Turkey Hollow Road. We were only about 1/4 mile from the house at that point, but...

It was 2:00 AM. It was dark. It was COLD.

It didn't take long for us to realize the truck was not moving an inch in either direction, so we grabbed our essentials and walked the rest of the way. Lucky for us there were flashlights in the truck!

I did mention that it was cold, right? About 20 degrees. The heat at the cabin stays set at 50 degrees when we are not there. It felt absolutely balmy at first. Because it would have taken hours for the radiant heat system to kick in, we just slept in the back bedrooms, which each have their own baseboard heating systems. It was 40 degrees back there. By the time we went to bed at about 3:30, it had warmed up to 45 degrees. Eric had an electric blanket and I had lots of layers, so we were okay.

I seriously had no idea there would be that much snow left at the WV place. Here are some pictures I shot on Wednesday morning...

Our (undrivable) driveway.

The house surrounded by snow.

Another shot of the driveway from just outside of the garage.

The big hill on Turkey Hollow Road, heading back toward where the truck was stuck. Notice all the critter tracks? It's a mix of deer, turkey and people tracks (Eric and me).

Looking down Turkey Hollow Road toward our driveway.

Eric with shovel and rake in hand. Those were all the tools we had to work with to free the truck.

More people tracks, me and Eric, going and coming, taken from right in front of the truck looking down Turkey Hollow Road.

That's Romney in the distance.

Just after we crossed the Potomac River back into Maryland, south of La Vale. Notice the pretty blue skies? It did not last long.

Not far west of La Vale on I-68.

The highway exit ramp from I-68 onto US-219 at Keyser's Ridge.

Eric (dude in center) adjusting his boot.

Here I am. I felt like a mummy. I was warm, but being so bundled up made it hard to take pictures, which is why there aren't many action shots. Plus, it snowed all day. They'd gotten 5 to 8 inches of snow the previous day and were predicting another 4 to 8 inches yesterday. The snow was awesome. The wind was bitter.

Skiing in powder was quite a treat, once we got used to it. It's a bit different than skiing on packed snow.

The ride home was quite scenic with all of the snow stuck to the trees. (The farther east we traveled, the less snowy it was.)

All in all, we had a good time. Aside from the 30-40 minutes required to free the truck, that is.

We will definitely try to do it again. Wisp has a special on Wednesdays where you can ski for $21 all day, 9 am to 9 pm. The same lift ticket costs $39 per person any other non-holiday weekday and $59 per person on weekends and holidays. It was quite a deal. And there were NO lift lines. None.

Hopefully it will be a little bit warmer next time.

Better Bird Pictures

Can you believe it? I had nothing better to do yesterday, so I went back to Conowingo and captured this picture.

Don't believe it? Good. 'Cause I am pulling your leg. This is a Bald Eagle in captivity, taken when Hubby and I visited the Alaska Raptor Center during our visit to Sitka, Alaska in 2008. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, unless you have a big, expensive camera lens or are very close to a bird, it's hard to get good bird pictures. Here are a couple of their other captive birds.

This is a Peregrine Falcon.

And this is a Golden Eagle.

Don't be sad that these birds are captive. They are only being held here because they couldn't survive in the wild. The Alaska Raptor Center rehabilitates birds.

I didn't explain in yesterday's post why I went to Conowingo. I mean, I've lived in this area for 42 1/2 years and never knew eagles congregate at the dam during the winter. It just so happens that I read about it on a Flickr "friend's" blog. I don't know the guy really. I just like looking at his pictures, because he takes really good ones. His name is Jon, aka Nikographer, and I was introduced to his work by another Flickr "friend" -- Alaska Dave -- in Soldotna, Alaska. I met AKDave when researching our Alaska trip. Dave introduced me to Jon, which is sort of funny since Jon lives in Northern VA. Small world...

So, back to the why. It was through Nikographer Jon that I learned about the eagles at Conowingo. I also learned about a cool place called the Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge (BHNWR), in Smyrna, Delaware, through Jon. If you didn't click on the BHNWR link, you missed some amazing Red Fox pictures. He is also the reason I went to Wheaton Regional Park where I captured a nice great blue heron photo.

I've mentioned all of this before, but in case you don't remember, I had to explain again. If you missed my last discussion about these guys, you also missed a very cool Snow Geese video.

If all goes as planned, I may actually get to visit BHNWR on Friday. I'll sort of be in the area since I'm doing a 5k on Saturday in Ocean City, MD. The plan is to detour through Smyrna on the way. Maybe I'll get some good bird pics there. If not, that's okay. Again, I really just want to see the Snow Geese. There's just something magical about seeing the skies and fields full of Snow Geese and Canada Geese, not to mention hearing nothing but a cacophony of honking.

It's a bit early in the year, so I might be disappointed. I'm hoping to get lucky though. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Seeing is Believing

After spending the first part of Saturday morning watching my cute little jock of a grandson play football, I drove to Conowingo Dam to see the eagles.

I went, armed with my camera, knowing I was not going to get any great bird images. It was rainy and overcast, so the light wasn't great. You need good light to capture great details. I also knew I don't have the right equipment or skills, and presumed, correctly, that the eagles would be across the river.

I know birds. Not as well as some, but better than most. It's sort of geeky, but it comes from watching birds (as a backyard birder only) and looking at bird books to identify the birds I see.

As stated in an article in Nature Photographers Online Magazine...

Bird photography is a very challenging endeavor, requiring specialized skills and equipment – one does not simply pick up the camera used for family vacation photos and capture compelling avian images.

My camera is decent enough for a hobby photographer (Canon Rebel XT), but to get really good bird images like this one, and this one, and this one, you either need to be fairly close or have at least a 400mm lens, which lists at $1,799. A 600mm like this one wouldn't hurt either, but with a suggested retail price of $9,199, that's not an option for me either. (Check out the image on this page to see what that lens looks like when in use.)

Enough caveats? I just want to make sure my photographer friends don't think I'm trying to say any of the images I'm sharing below are good bird pics. They are merely snapshots to back-up my claim that there are some eagles to see at Conowingo Dam.

Since I don't have any great lenses, you will need to click on these images to enlarge them if you want to see the birds.

When I first arrived at the dam, I overshot the turn for Shuresville Road on the Harford County side of the river. The first image in this post (above) was taken from the Cecil County side just to show everyone what a dismal day it was.

Once I managed to get to Fisherman's Park at the base of the dam, I was happy to see there were actually eagles there. There are at least two in this shot of the rocks right across the river.

I walked downriver a couple hundred yards and looked again. More closely this time.

"Holy cow," I said aloud. "They're all over the rocks."

There are at least 18 mature eagles (with white heads) in the shot directly above. Eighteen is a lot of eagles.

Then I looked slightly further downriver and saw even more of the majestic birds. I honestly thought you could only see this many eagles at one time in Alaska.

Quite intrigued at that point, I kept watching. In this image, you can see one flying while others are still perched on the rocks below.

Even if I couldn't get any great shots, it was fun just watching. I mean, how often do you get to see multiple bald eagles flying around?

I kept snapping pictures, too. I tried counting the birds while there, but it's hard on a tiny little image screen. Once I got home, I looked through the MANY pictures I took to see which one had the most birds in it. Now, if you count mature and immature eagles, there are AT LEAST 36 of them in the above image. Maybe a couple more. There are some crows and herons in the shot, too.

Thirty-six eagles captured in one photo. I'm guessing there are at least 100 birds of those majestic birds in the general area. Probably more.

It really was neat to see. And they don't just hang out on the rocks. They fish and fly around, too. I actually saw two, at different times, flying overhead with fish in their talons.

It's neat just watching single birds soar. But what's really cool...

...is when two or more fly around together.

I wish I could have stayed longer.

You know what's really amazing? Supposedly the highest numbers of eagles are present December through February. You can bet I'll be back there later this year, with Hubby, to see this again.

Water, Water Everywhere

I've never been a short girl. I'm 69 inches tall (5'9" for the mathematically challenged). Yesterday a 72-inch water main broke in Dundalk. A pipe large enough that I could stand inside of it, fully erect, with three inches to spare. Damn.

Check out these Baltimore Sun reader photos. There are more photos here. It took over two hours to shut the thing down.

Where in the World?

Which of these four things do you think Hubby and I did yesterday?

a) Visit Paris
b) See the War Correspondents' Arch
c) Walk the Appalachian Trail
d) Ride an automobile ferry
e) all of the above

Come on, give it some thought. We couldn't go to WV because Hubby flew off to Chi-town this morning for a work thing.

Give up? You'll never guess.

We did all of the above!

Our trip to Paris, Virginia was brief. So brief, in fact, that I didn't take any pictures. But here's a good one that someone else shot.

We were exploring Northern Virginia, between Leesburg and Winchester, for a possible relocation destination. Any move would be quite a ways down the road.

Since we love back roads, and I love cool, quirky stuff, Hubby plotted a route that took us across the Potomac River at White's Ferry.

This is near Poolesville, Maryland, at mile 35.5 along the C&O Canal. There used to be around 100 ferries facilitating river crossings on the Potomac, but this is the last.

It is used by a variety of vehicles. We've been across it before, twice I think, on our motorcycles.

We passed a gazillion bicyclists yesterday (not one was chubby!). That's our green car in the foreground. Hubby is behind the wheel, but you can't see him because of the glare.

I think the ferry can hold about 21 cars.

It is actually quite efficient. I had just enough time to hit the potty and snap some quick pics before we boarded.

Notice the horse trailer? I told you it carries a variety of stuff.

Here come some bikers. It was a gorgeous, summer day. Too bad my bike is at the WV place.

This is the Virginia side of the river. It's just outside of Leesburg.

This is a view of the river, from the ferry, looking northwest.

The area around Paris was gorgeous. East of there, towards Leesburg, is horse country. Lots of very large horse farms. West of there is the Shenandoah River. It's sort of mountainous there, too.

On the way home, after crossing back over the Potomac at Harper's Ferry (no longer a ferry), I saw a sign for Gathland State Park. It's a Maryland state park I have never seen, and have always wanted to, so I said to Hubby, "Turn there!"

Of course he listened. He's pretty good about humoring me.

This is the War Correspondents' Arch. This is why there's a Gathland State Park. If you really want to know more, follow the link. I don't feel like recounting the history here.

I was sort of excited to see that the Appalachian Trail goes right through the park.

Since I'm sort of fascinated by the trail and anxious to hike on it (not the entire 2,000+ mile length!), I just had to walk on the trail.

We didn't go far. It was sort of hot and VERY gnatty (as in bugs). But I did get Hubby to agree to return later in the year for a 12-mile hike! (Remember what I said about him humoring me.)

The arch is sort of cool, I guess. Again, one of those odd, quirky things. I suppose if we were Civil War buffs, which we aren't, it would've been more interesting.

There were some picturesque buildings there (the remains of the summer home of the guy that built the arch). I like stone buildings.

Since I didn't get to take any pictures in Paris, at least there was something interesting to capture images of to share with my blog audience.

Hot + Humid = GROSS

Yep, summer has officially arrived in Maryland. It's hot. It's humid. And there are thunderstorms. In the morning and in the afternoon.

Even if I couldn't go outside first-thing yesterday morning, I had to go out. I had to walk. After the storms had passed, I was ready. I left the house at 10:15 (early lunch!). It was 71 degrees (not too bad) with 84% humidity (bad).

It was gross.

Humidity measures the moisture in the air. Just how bad is 84% humidity? Late yesterday afternoon, while it was raining, the humidity level was 74%. That's ten whole points lower than when it was not raining.

I was hot. But I did it. It's a good thing, too, because we got hit by some wicked storms yesterday afternoon. Check out these pics...

As the storm was rolling in, I snapped this shot from inside of the house.

Then Hubby said, "The sky looks really cool over there." I had to step outside to see (and document) just how awesome the sky looked. Notice the airplane in the pic? You have to look closely. At first glance, I thought it was dirt on my lens. It is towards the top of the frame, just left of the center line. If you click on the image itself, a larger view should pop up. I left the image large intentionally so you could get a closer look.

Here's what the sky looked like to my right.

And here's how it looked on the left. The storm was moving fairly quickly.

It had been thundering for a few minutes at this point, and I could see a few distant flashes of lightning. Then I saw a wicked lightning bolt straight ahead of me, but off in the distance. THEN there was a bolt of lightning that was much closer.

There was enough electricity in the air to change my camera settings!

That's when I went inside.

Election Day is Finally Here

I am really, really, REALLY glad November 4 has finally arrived. Not because I've been chomping at the bit to cast my vote, but because I am so sick of reading about it in the paper/on the Web, hearing about it on the radio, seeing billboards, etc.



I couldn't resist posting this video, though. My Mom sent it to me. It's cute. And timely. And is great fodder for my Blog.

I just haven't had much to say since my last post on Halloween. Not that a lot hasn't happened. Just not a lot of Blogworthy stuff.

Although I guess I could mention that autumn has finally arrived in my backyard. Saturday, despite the fact that it was oddly warm outside (about 75), I took some pictures. I'll share a few here.

At left is the "bigger picture" view.

Nice, but not overly dramatic.

You have to get out there. Look closely. Stop and appreciate the spectacular color while you can.

My yard really isn't all that big. Just under 1/3 acre, I think. But by actually going outside, looking closely and from different angles, I got some pretty cool images.

Like this one...

This is a close-up of a beautyberry bush. From afar, it is quite unremarkable.

I like all the greens in the image below.

And here's a close-up of a dwarf burning bush.

CLICK HERE to see the rest of Saturday's photos.