3/26/10 IT'S GOOD TO BE BACK HOME AGAIN

A BAYFIELD EAGLE
ALMOST EASTER DINNER
DENVER SNOWSTORMS
ROCKIES SOUTH OF DENVER
A TEXAS SUNSET
EACH TEXAS COUNTY SEAT HAS A UNIQUE COURTHOUSE
THE Y START 'EM YOUNG IN TEXAS
Thursday, 8:30 AM. 15 degrees, wind NW, light. The sky is mostly clear, the barometer predicts sunny skies and the ice is gone from the channel. The ferry is running again.
We got back late last night and crashed into bed. This morning our eyes are like road maps and my neck is stiff from tension after traversing 4,000 (+ or -) miles of every kind of road. Thankfully we had good driving weather.
A brief synopsis of the trip is as follows. Our first stop was Madison for an Urban Forestry Council meeting, then on to Columbus, OH, to visit daughter Greta, then to Weatherford, TX, to visit Dutch, Leslie and toddler Allison Eleanor, then to Denver and Eva, Doug, Nickolas and Katie. All are well, busy and the children of course growing. We played with all the dogs, petted all the cats as well as the hedgehog, but wouldn’t get on the horse. We saw no signs of spring until Arkansas, but by the time we left Texas pears, cherries and peaches were all in full flower. We arrived in Denver in a blizzard and left just before another hit. We saw lots of wildlife along the way including large herds of antelope in northeastern Arizona and in southwestern South Dakota. Also lots of turkeys, including this big Tom hit by a vehicle on the Rosebud Reservation. It was still warm when the photo was taken, and if I had had any room at all in the trunk I would have taken it home for Easter dinner. The eagle was on the side of the road outside of Ashland, and we were greeted by a flock of tundra swans on Chequamegon Bay.
Listening to local radio stations and eavesdropping on conversations in restaurants and bars throughout our trip I get the impression that the economy is limping along to an eventual recovery, but the political mood is sour, to say the least. In Texas, particularly, it borders on insurrection, with songs of open rebellion played on the radio (Texas was admitted to the union on the express condition that it had the right to secede whenever it wished, and although it is probably not likely it gets talked about). I think incumbent politicians of any stripe are in trouble in November, as people feel they have been ignored, conned, and screwed over in general.
But now its back to work with landscape plans and jobs, and all sorts of catching up to do, including cleaning the chimney now that the ice is gone from the roof. I am not fooled by the weather, however, and I am certain we will get at least one last major winter storm to discourage the budding daffodils.