Category Archives: Travels

Growing Up Thoughts

Texting with mom other day. Dawned on me that I’ve never fully explained why I can’t stand Indiana and other midwest red states like them. If it wasn’t for family there, I would never return.

I grew up on Army Posts…..I was use to growing up in a multicultural mix. My grade school years, living on APG, MD, being white, I was the minority in our housing and in school. We had Latinos…Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican…..we had Asians….Korean, Vietnamese….but mostly I grew up with African-Americans.

Like most military families, you create your own family with the military. My aunts & uncles were black…we were in military life together.

I knew that racism existed, I was reminded it of it when we visited family in Indiana and my grandfather would use the n-word and other horrible terms for anyone not white or christian. Everything that my parents taught me never to use.

But growing up in Maryland, I didn’t feel it that bluntly.  

I always thought it was the innocent of youth, but the more I reflect back on it, it was probably more of my white privilege not to see the racism that was existing…..the existing tensions. Even though my best friends were people of color…..even though rumors of the KKK activity scared us.

Moved to Alaska my middle school years, with a 1-2 months in Indiana in between, as my dad went on ahead to get housing ready for us to join him at Ft Wainwright.  

Not as culturally mixed as Maryland, but still not all white…..you still had a multicultural. I think, for us, it may have been more to do with rank. Housing it divided by rank and dad had become a NCO, a Master Sgt….when he was lower enlisted our housing was more multicultural. Even though I started to feel more of the differences/division between the races, even though my best friend was black.  

She would tell me of horror stories of living in Texas, how she couldn’t cross the tracks to the other side of town because she was black. I had such a hard time comprehending it.

One set of my grandparents had come up to Alaska, it was one of the few states that they hadn’t been to. During that time, for the first time in years, I was exposed to my grandfather’s racism. I loved my grandfather, but hated that about him. I finally wasn’t scare of him (he had a horrible temper and it use to scare me), and he said the n-word one too many times. And I went off on him about it (my best friend had just left, when he used that term), I was so mad. I don’t remember exactly what I said, but let him know in no certain terms that saying that word around me was not acceptable.  

What I really took away from that day, is that my parents backed me up and said that I was not raised to use that word or find it acceptable. I rarely heard that word in my presence from him after that.

Then we ended up in Indiana. I fully understand why we ended there…..even though I didn’t want to be there.  

Both set of grandfathers had strokes, my uncle was dying of AIDs and was going to move back to Indiana so we can take care of him. One set of grandparents were about to lose everything before they can get any help. You do what you have do for family, and with dad retiring from the Army, it is what we were going to do….we were in the best position to help. But I did not want to be in that state.

The 1-2 months of being at that Jr HS between moves from MD to AK convinced me that I didn’t want to be there. It was all white and no orchestra.

It was huge shock to my system when I was 15 when we moved there. I’ve never seen so many white people in my life in one place. And the town was only 20miles south of Gary, where my dad had been born, but it was another world….a very racist world.

Kids in that school used the n-word freely, teachers didn’t do damn thing about it. I learned more racist terms in that school then anywhere else. I never knew there was so many racist terms.  

Some guys in english class, used the n-word more times then I was able to handle and I exploded. The door to the class was open, so down the hall, people heard me tell them that I’ve known more blacks then whites, have gotten stabbed in the back by whites more then blacks, and I’ve meet more n-word people in this class then I ever did living with black people.  

The class was shocked into quiet, the teacher just looked at me and smiled and people learned quickly not use those terms around me unless they wanted to be punched….which I did as hard as I could.

Due to all that, I’ve never felt comfortable being with all whites. I like it where I go shopping that there is a mix of different people….different languages…. Latinos, blacks, muslims….I feel more at home

**The more I think about it, the more I think it is because when with all white groups, there is going to be a few racists who then assume that you believe the same way and feel free to say the most racist shit……ggrrrr

When I went to college, the majority of my history and political science classes were women studies and African-American studies….I had to expand my mind, get away from the narrow mindness that is the midwest.

My folks believe in god, more spiritual…church wasn’t a focus. Dad is a recovering catholic, when I asked him why we weren’t raised catholic (all of my cousins were), he stated because they rule on guilt and control, they don’t celebrate their beliefs.  

Mom used to read the Xmas store on Xmas eve. When visiting our grandparents, I went to lutheran services with one grandmother and catholic services with the other. I would take the “bible bus” that picked up kids in MD to go to church….looking back, I dogged a big bullet…it was pentecostal. 

So I was christian….but not a regular church goer. I would’ve become atheist regardless…..but Indiana pushed me quicker then it would’ve came to me.

Living in Indiana, also taught me, how hateful “christians” are. They couldn’t be good “christians” until they “judge” you and find you lacking. They believed that gays deserved to die of AIDs…..I’ve never meet such a hateful group of people.  

This is the late 80s/90s when AIDs was exploding to the forefront.

They hated people that thought differently, expressed individuality, who dared to be different……a girl/woman who demanded control of their own bodies….who didn’t believe in their bigotry/racism.

With what I dealt with in Indiana…..you can see why I’m still surprised I married a white guy from Indiana…lol  But what really got us together was that we shared same beliefs on racism, sexism and religion

My folks, my not have always understood or agreed with my sister and my decisions, but they have always accepted and loved us. What I was taught that being christian was suppose to be……not what I saw in the midwest.

I know that this just doesn’t exist in the midwest, but when I see the fascist laws they are passing, there is no way I would ever move to a place where I can’t be myself. Living there for 15yrs was more then enough for me.

The Chicago Dog Dilemma

Alright….I have a small dilemma.

I getting ready to get my tickets for Ind (June 6 – June 13). Tickets are really cheap right now….that is helpful, was concerned about visiting my folks with the travel.

Going to wear a mask in the house while visiting….dad doesn’t seemed as concern as I do…eye roll. But with the way my father ends up hurting himself while working, I rather see him before he hurts/kills himself in some sort of freak accident. (Love you dad!)

But back to the issue, most of the flights have connections other then Chicago…..now normally I’m more then fine with that….that a big fan of O’Hare….BUT….O’Hare gives me the chance to get my beloved Chicago dog….the issue is that the layover is only 38min…..so is it worth paying $2-5 more for the slim possibility of getting my missed Chicago dog?

What do you think?

A Month of Catching Up!

I didn’t realize it has been almost a month since I last did a post. I know I’ve been working on the blog, but that has been all in the backend so I totally lost track of time. I’ve had to go find my last post just to get a sense of what is has happen since.

I should be doing work voice mails, but we just had a storm cloud move through…no rain, unfortunately…..and it has finally cooled down from 91.4 to 79 and the humidity has dropped nicely…in fact the breeze can give a chill. Most pleasant it has been mid day in a long while, so I’m sitting outside and enjoying it. ToRn is trying to get some good shots of hummingbirds and I’m typing this up….grin

I know ToRn has done some blogging about this, but it helps me to figure out the timeline and what I’m going to say…so bear with me and my repeats.

We went to the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson in June. That was really cool and we highly recommend it. It is a combination museum, zoo and botanical garden. 85% of it is outside, so make sure you take water, wear a hat and lots of sunscreen. Saw the fattest black bear we have ever seen….no black bear in the wild gets that big….lol Saw the cutest gray fox and very cool ocelot. ToRn posted pictures here: <a href=”http://wherethehellarewe.com/2013/06/13/arizona-sonora-desert-museum/” target=”_blank”>http://wherethehellarewe.com/2013/06/13/arizona-sonora-desert-museum/</a>

It was much bigger then we thought and spent more time there then planned. But we still got to the Saguaro National Park, the west unit, just much later and much hotter….lol…..triple digits according to the Jeep. We went and saw the petroglyphs and got ourselves new sun hats at the visitor center. Now we look like typical birders…..LOL….but the hats are much lighter and covers the back of your neck and we got them in our favorite colors, I got my purple and ToRn got his green.

Found our first fresh kill on June 15th. It looked like it was a fawn. Since it was out in the open, we believe it was from a pack of coyotes, mountain lions would drag it back to the treeline and try to bury some of it to keep for later. We found it in the morning and I didn’t see any vultures the evening before when I did my walk that we think it was killed over night. The bones were still “juicy” but everything picked cleaned or on it’s way to clean. Now it looks like it has been there for several months it is so bleached and dried.

For awhile there we had 3 wild turkeys hanging around. If you ever had seen the movie Dark Crystal they reminded me of those 3 mystics, hunched all over…lol Last 2 weeks we’ve only been seeing 2 of them. Not sure if one of them became someone’s dinner.

Finally been seeing an occasional bobcat….and all without going out on a hike. ToRn saw one when I was out on a hike, just walking in front of the rig, about 30ft away. Of course, I had the camera as he looked for it before he remembered and grabbed the video camera. We got it posted : <a href=”http://wherethehellarewe.com/2013/06/21/last-nights-bobcat/” target=”_blank”>http://wherethehellarewe.com/2013/06/21/last-nights-bobcat/</a>

Then a few nights ago, we saw a bobcat bouncing in the grass in the middle of the drive away. The little bugger was hunting. =)

Yesterday, we had a visitor say that they saw a small black bear. About a year old, more chestnut colored, acting like it should and running from people. Then a staffer saw it running across the road after we were just out looking for it this morning…LOL So ToRn went back out later, didn’t find it, but got more critter pictures. =)

Hummingbirds have really picked back up. They are going nuts right now. We have broad-bill, violet crown and black chinned on a regular basis. The rufus showed up a few days ago. Larry at Patons told us that they have 2 magnificents hanging around there. Got the feeling we are going to be taking a trip down there…lol

Finally got the iBird Pro app for our iPhone and iPad. They also have a new one out just for iPad only, called Waite’s Birds…free to download with 50 different birds, the cost of getting them all is normally $49.99 but we got it on sale for $9.99! I LOVE sales. What is really cool about it, is over a month ago we had some of the people from iBird Pro, they all have some of their bird pictures in there and the guy that does support was showing me the new one while it was in beta. Showing all the cool things it does. So I’ve been looking for it, I really wanted to get it while it was on sale….so I’m tickled by that….grin

We went to the small parade Patagonia has for the 4th. Kind of reminds of our small one of Troutdale Summerfest. But with a few differences….like here in Patagonia, you are encouraged to bring your water guns and balloons…lol It is the only day of the year you get to throw water balloons at the town marshal and the parade participants return the favor….grin With the heat and climate here I can full understand that, it was hot. And they “hung” the Grand Marshall…lol

We’ve had one actually thunderstorm and a few rumbles here and there. Boy, our kitties do NOT like them. They totally go into hiding, we feel so bad for them. They didn’t grow up with thunderstorms in our part of Oregon. I’m so hoping they start doing much better with them by the time we leave Arizona.

Wow, this turned out much longer then I expected and I probably missed something. Nothing unusual there….grin

Cats & Cattle

We are totally enjoying ourselves here at the Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve.

I’ve been going on morning walks about 6:30am, because I really, really want to see a bobcat. I finally got my wish on the 16th. I saw an animal jumping away over the trail in front of me. It didn’t have a long hairy tail and sure didn’t move like a coyote, it moved like a cat! I was so psyched!! But after a few days I felt like I dreamt it because it moved so fast and I just got a glance at it, not a good long look. So I’ve been determined that I was going to see another one, so taking my early morning and sunset walks when critters are the most active.

On the 22nd I got to see two bobcats on my morning walk. I was looking across a clearing and I saw two “short” animals, at first I was thinking of javelina, but then they ran towards each other to greet and circle each other. They didn’t move like either javelina or coyote….it was a cat movement. I got to see two bobcats!!! Of course, I had no camera or binoculars…..lol After they greeted each other one started walking in one direction along the tree line and the other in the opposite way, more in my direction. The one in my direction stopped a few times, looked as if he was sunning himself and looked as if he was rolling around like our kitties do…..LOL

Well…with no camera or binoculars I’ve been more determined to see them again. Not sure if I’ll carry a camera, because it would need to be one the SLRs and on my morning walks, I’m really trying to move fast to get my heart rate up. But I can carry the small binoculars of the preserve (we’ll be getting our own soon). Now with my luck I won’t see them again since I was prepared, but I was lucky today! I saw a critter sitting in the clearing, not too far where I saw them last time. It was kind of hard, even with the binoculars, to see it because the grass is so high. I could see that the nose was short, so not a coyote and the ears weren’t that big, so not a deer. It was a cat!

Now the question was what kind of cat. I texted ToRn and he stated it he was on his way. I was on one side of the clearing and ToRn ended up on the other. With the camera, ToRn was able to get a few pictures and clean them up enough to get some good looks at him….and it was a bobcat….grin

ToRn headed back to the trail to try and outflank him so he could get a better shot and as he is heading down a trail he looks up and about literally runs into a mountain lion! The lion just looked at him like “I’m not afraid of you” They just looked at each other, ToRn texted me a pic and then took more pictures until the lion decides to walk off.

I’m so jealous! The ironies of this is that I just laminated and posted an article in the visitor center’s office about the last sighting from Dec, the preserves motion camera got a blurred rear-end and tail of one a couple of weeks ago and yesterday a couple saw the lion just walking along the trail yesterday.

The really funny part is later this morning ToRn was doing dishes and Drew decided to jump on his back. He was not wearing his normal hoodie and ended up with a lot of cat scratches. Who knew that he was safer outside with the wild cats? LOL

We really had an exciting beginning of the day today and we are very please by that. To see the pictures that ToRn got you have to check out his post : http://wherethehellarewe.com/2013/05/25/day-of-the-cats/

A few days ago, ToRn looked out the bedroom window and says “We have cows out there” with surprise. We had a small herd of 7 cattle including a big bull just out there eating the grass. They left their ranch through the creek. The preserve manager Matt has a couple of cattle dogs and he came over to herd them out. ToRn and I have never seen dogs work herding in person. That was really cool.

Ever since then we’ve been finding fresh cow pies…rolling eyes. Matt thinks we have a bull that has claimed this as his territory and is pushing his way through the now enforce “T” fence on the creek to make his rounds. We have over 300 wooded acres in this part of the preserve and so far we haven’t found him yet to drive him out. But I keep finding fresh tracks and scat in the morning.

Now I just learned today that in AZ you are responsible for fencing them OUT…the owners are not responsible for fencing them IN! That makes no sense and lets just say I totally DISAGREE with that…ggeezz.

I have a few more critters to talk about, but this post is long enough…..grin

Our New Life (at least for the next 5 months…lol)

As of this Sunday, May 12th, we have been here 3 weeks at the Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve.

It has been a very interesting experience and time has been flying much faster then expected.

We knew that is was a birder destination, but boy it is huge here. It is a totally different world. The majority of them are very friendly and very happy to share their knowledge. Some are total tunnel vision, with one focus only……I don’t know how to describe it, but it is sometimes funny to see. We’ve had people waiting at the gate long before 6:30…..lol It has slowed down some, but you still get them.

So far, out of all the states, we’ve encounter more coming from Oregon and the Pacific NW in general. It is great to talk to fellow Oregonians….grin For out of country, lots of people from the UK. Those are some of the most fun of the birders, love UK humor. Some joke about how all their birds are so boring, so that is why they come to the states.

Right now, my favorite group of birders came from Belgium. There was four gentlemen and they had never seen humming birds before, they were so delighted and had so much enjoyment. We have three feeders for them at the visitor’s center and that day we had like 20-30 humming birds, they spent hours there before even hitting the trails. When ToRn put the spotter on one of our grey hawks, they about ran to the spotter…grin

We are learning but there is so much. Don’t know if we’ve ever be as good as some of them, but we catching on to some of the birds. ToRn is doing much better then me on that, but he is much more observant and quicker on seeing them. We’ve always been interested in all sorts of wildlife and I’ve enjoyed birds, just never to the extent of serious birders.

When we’ve ID birds, we normally went by the first thing we noticed….colors and markings. Well, we’ve learned you just can’t go by that or even start with that. You have to go by shape of tail, wings, beaks, body and talons…all that, then the markings. Markings may change based on age…juvenile and adult and, of course, male and female.

For example the Summer Tanager male is beautiful bright red, while the female is a pretty bright yellow. Now I’m use to the females usually being darker, more brown or grey from the normally more colorful males, but never such an opposite bright color as the male and female Summer Tanager.

We are the type that notice the more colorful birds, humming birds and raptors. We just love hawks, eagles, falcons, owls….those are so cool to us. The Grey Hawks are here very frequently. I got to see one at 5:30am with a nice size lizard in it’s talons. ToRn saw one warn a Red Tail off the other day…..lol

I do love looking out the bedroom window in the morning and seeing a male and female Northern Cardinal. The female is much prettier then we thought she would be. Just love watching her. Then watching the male Vermillion Flycatcher bounce from piece of grass to piece of grass.

Of the humming birds, we’ve seen the Anna (had a family of them in Oregon at our place), Broad-Billed, Violet Crown, Black Chinned and Broad Tail. The Gila Woodpecker is noisy as heck….lol Also have seen the Ladder Back and Acorn Woodpecker. Even got to see an owl the other day, I’ve never seen one in wild before. The Great Blue Heron is really cool to see fly, reminds me of those big clumsy looking sea planes that once they take off, they are so graceful. That is just some of the birds we’ve seen. I know we’ve seen a lot more and I know ToRn probably could ID more, but those are just the ones that I could ID.

At 4000 ft and a creek that has continuous water, there is a lot of wild life here. We run into javelina all the time, even hear them outside of our RV forging a couple of nights. We see white tail deer all the time. The ones here have bigger ears then the ones farther north. Almost like mules. Saw coyotes the other night at sundown, I’ve never seen any with those markings. They had dark grey/black markings and didn’t look as skinny as the ones I’m use to seeing in the Midwest. Unfortunately we haven’t seen the bobcat yet, others have, but not us. =( I so want to see it. And the mountain lion hasn’t been seen since last Nov. That would be TOTALLY cool and out of this world…..grin

ToRn posted this on his facebook the Friday night, it happened about 9:30 pm, and tells what happen the best :

Well that was different.

Pauline went to the office to reboot the modem, and as usual Drew cried for mommy over and over. Pauline returns after a few minutes and as normal I mimic Drew’s “mommy cries” for her in the same pitch and frequency as Drew. And as normal we both laugh.

Unlike normal was the coyote crying in a loud response about 30′ from us. Over and over.

That took us by much surprise.

This post got longer then I expected….lol Hubby has been working on the pictures, he has a much better eye and unlike me, won’t post them all….only the best. Once he goes through those, he’ll be posting them I’ll close for now and go talk about the town here in my next post.