Epic Roadtrip April 22
The Drive Home
FINAL Road Trip Tally 7900 MILES 17 STATES4300 PHOTOS CATALOGED116 BIRD SPECIES IDENTIFIED12 BIRD SPECIES ADDED TO LIFE LIST After three weeks of brilliant weather and wonderful photo opportunities, the drive back home was characterized by weather: a haboob in Oklahoma followed by tornado warnings and severe thunderstorms. I was excited by the prospect of…
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Moab: Arches and Canyonlands National Parks
Road Trip Tally States: UTMiles: 400Total_Miles: 5600Keeper Photos: 800Total: 3500New Species Added: 2Total Road Trip Bird List: 99Added to Life List So Far This Trip: 11 Moab and the surrounding area displays some of the most iconic and breathtaking desert scenery in the United States. Even with dedicating two full days to the region, I…
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Bryce Canyon to Capitol Reef National Parks
Road Trip Tally States: UTMiles: 400Total_Miles: 5200Keeper Photos: 650Total: 2700New Species Added: 0Total Road Trip Bird List: 97Added to Life List So Far This Trip: 10 These two locations truly span the range of Utah’s national parks. Bryce is half the size with twice the number of visitors. It is filled with its unusual signature…
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Arizona: Canyon de Chelly
Road Trip Tally States: NM AZMiles: 400Total_Miles: 4300Keeper Photos: 200Total: 2050New Species Added: 4Total Road Trip Bird List: 97Added to Life List So Far This Trip: 10 So De Chelly does not rhyme with belly, as I learned the hard way in one of my typical social moments. It is “can-yn d-chay” according to the…
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Zion National Park
Road Trip Tally States: AZ UTMiles: 500Total_Miles: 4800Keeper Photos: 200Total: 2050New Species Added: 0Total Road Trip Bird List: 97Added to Life List So Far This Trip: 10 Zion is on my list of parks to which I must return for a longer stay. A day is not enough to fully explore the area unless you…
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New Mexico, Route 66, and Old Stuff
Road Trip Tally States: TX NMMiles: 700Total_Miles: 3900Keeper Photos: 250Total: 1850New Species Added: 9Total Road Trip Bird List: 93Added to Life List So Far This Trip: 8 From UFOs to Mid-Century Nostalgia This drive day began at the Texas/New Mexico Border, passing from one surreal scene to the next. First there were golden undulating grasslands.…
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That Side of Austin
Road Trip Tally States: TXMiles: 650Total_Miles: 3200Keeper Photos: 450Total: 1600New Species Added: 7Total Road Trip Bird List: 84Added to Life List So Far This Trip: 5 The “left half” of Texas I spent the evening in Austin, one of my favorite towns. There was a full moon…in Austin…need I say more? Continuing the music strand…
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This Side of Austin
Road Trip Tally States: TXMiles: 250Total_Miles: 2550Keeper Photos: 350Total: 1150New Species Added: NATotal Road Trip Bird List: 77 One Crooked Path Venture into the edges of Texas Hill Country, and the bucolic meadow scenes begin to come alive with an endlessly varied painterly and surreal pastoral palette. Blankets of wildflowers increasingly mix in with grasses…
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Texas Big Thicket
Road Trip Tally States: TXMiles: 300Total_Miles: 2300Keeper Photos: 150Total: 800New Species Added: 7Total Road Trip Bird List: 77 Moving away from the Gulf of Mexico, I began to set my sights on the potential for Texas wildflowers and any sort of roadside kitsch that suited me. The first surreal discovery on this rainy day was…
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Texas / Louisiana Gulf Coast
Road Trip Tally States: AL MS LA TXMiles: 1070Total_Miles: 2000Keeper Photos: 300Total: 650New Species Added: 70Total Road Trip Bird List: 70 This portion of the roadtrip was designed to correspond with the annual spring wave of neotropical migrant birds arriving on the coast after crossing the Gulf of Mexico. Therefore, my focus was less on…
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Muscle Shoals AL
Road Trip Tally States: TN ALMiles: 150Total_Miles: 930Keeper Photos: 50Total: 350New Species Added: NATotal Road Trip Bird List: NA Why Muscle Shoals? This is a destination that is of interest only to musicians, engineers, and music lovers. Muscle Shoals had the Swampers, according to Ronnie Van Zant, and they were known to pick a song…
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Nashville TN
Road Trip Tally States: TNMiles: 300Total_Miles: 770Keeper Photos: 220Total: 300New Species Added: NATotal Road Trip Bird List: NA In Music City I visited a couple of music stores and spent a little time in a number of clubs where musicians were playing. I heard some of the finest singing from artists none of us have…
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Johnson City TN
ROAD TRIP TALLY States: PA MD VA TNMiles: 470Total This Trip: 470Keeper Photos: 80Total This Trip: 80New Species Added: NATotal Road Trip Bird List: NA Johnson City was a stop on the way to Nashville, and I had no particular plan in mind. I walked through downtown and took a few snapshots to try and…
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Larry Goes 