WOW, it’s 2023. How many times will we now write 2022 in error? A bunch if previous years are an indication. We are still enjoying our time at Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores. Since our NOMADS project for ECHO, a wonderful agency that teaches farming skills to small plot farmers worldwide, had to be canceled due the hurricane damage in the North Fort Myers area we have some extra time here. The weather has greatly improved and we are having much more normal temperatures. Tuesday we attended another naturalist presentation, this time on turtles. Of course, we shared with her our story of Aunt Jean’s box turtle who is now 51 years old. The park has one that is about the same age – they aren’t sure of his exact birthday, so they say it is between 50 and 60. Friday was a stormy day with heavy rain, but at least it was warm. We have been enjoying shrimp and other seafood, walks on the beach, hiking and biking along with some great sunsets. We also met some friends from Blount County while walking around the park, and we met another Blount County couple who saw our Blount tag and just stopped to chat. Today being January 1, the state park sponsored a “First Day Hike” which we joined. It was a two mile hike on a flat paved path but it was fun. We saw an alligator and birds and flora and fauna. Later while photographing the eagles, we met another couple originally from our area who have retired to Foley. Thanks for checking in on our ramblings. May God bless you and hold you close during 2023.
This was our campsite for the first 2 weeks here. Because in the winter so many of the campsites are designated for monthly (snowbird) rental it can be difficult to get one short term site for our whole stay. We have moved twice since we checked in.
The turtle presentation was very informative and entertaining.
This Great Blue Heron stayed in our campsite most of Tuesday.
The incoming storms made for a windy walk on the beach Thursday …
… and the wind-driven spray made it hard to see very far on the beach.
This is what most of Friday looked like.
We have been able to watch two “shift changes” at the bald eagle nest. Since there are eggs on the nest, one of the eagles is always there. Every few hours the other one returns and takes over.
Last sunset of 2022
The First Day Hike was well attended and the naturalists did a great job entertaining us.
Merry Christmas to all our family and friends and thank you all for following along on our journey this past year. We hope you have had a great Christmas season and remember the reason for the celebration. We have had a quiet but unusually cold Christmas in Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores, AL. While it’s been warmer than north Alabama and way warmer than our family and friends farther north, but it’s still been very cold for here. One night was a low of 18 and we have had pretty icicles at our water hydrants since we were told to leave the water dripping beginning last Thursday. We are glad the forecast for this week is a little warmer.
This is how the water faucets at the empty sites in the park looked.
Our last entry left off with our return to Alabama from our Polar Bear Photography trip. The next morning we headed back to Johnston, South Carolina to Randy and Debra’s house. We did a quick change out from Beyond Blessed (van), back into Fred (Class A) and on Saturday drove to Gaffney, SC to Freightliner for Fred’s annual service. Fortunately, all the work was routine and no problems were found so we were back in Johnston Monday afternoon. We had a great Thanksgiving week with Randy, Debra and their family. It was also great to see nieces and nephews and their children who were able to come visit while we were there. We made a quick trip back to Red Bay, AL to get other work done to Fred and then returned to Johnston to begin a deck project. Randy and Debra have a large deck on the back of their house and we helped them get started on rebuilding it with Trex. We had several “weather days” when we couldn’t work outside so we had time for some games, puzzles, cooking, and just enjoying our time together. We also celebrated Anne’s birthday with Randy and Debra and of course it included some yummy ice cream.
The new decking was delivered while we were in Red Bay.
The “almost” before picture. We had only removed a few boards before we thought to take a picture.
Removing the old wooden decking
With most of the decking removed we could see how much of the framing needed replacing.
Some of the new framing
Anne and Debra preparing for the new decking.
This is how the deck looked when we left. Randy and Debra have added a few more boards since then.
Anne’s birthday treat
We have now been in Gulf Shores for a week. After getting settled in here we finally got out our Christmas decorations. They may have to stay up later this year since we just got them up. We have enjoyed the many trails in the park when the weather allowed. We spotted an alligator at one of the usual places they hang out and went to a good raptor presentation by one of the naturalists. The past three days we have been inside a lot due to the strong winds and cold temps. Next week will hopefully be better and we can get our bikes out. We will let you know. Stay safe and warm everyone!
We went to see the sunset on the beach our first evening in the park.
Enjoying the sunshine
We walked out to see one of the resident eagle nests. It was cold and windy so the eagle kept its head down. We saw the other eagle flying around but it never returned to the nest while we were there.
This barred owl has a damaged wing so is now used for education at the park such as the presentation we attended.
We only carry a 3 piece nativity so we used available actors for the camel, wise man and sheep.
Wednesday morning (November 16th) we awoke in Churchill to a heavy overnight snow. It was cold and windy. Very cold and very windy. When we met Barry and Donna in the lobby for breakfast we met some local construction workers who were working on our hotel roof. We don’t know how they were up on that roof in the extreme temperatures. When Max said something to one of the men he said, “It’s ok. We have gloves.” When we looked up on the tin roof when we returned from breakfast – he didn’t have any gloves on his hands. The people of Churchill are certainly hardier than the two of us.
Roof worker in 3°F
The schedule for our last day was busy. We toured a little more of the town, first visiting Churchill Rocket Research Range. While no longer active this was the location from which rockets were launched to study the upper atmosphere off and on from 1954 to 1985, including studies of the aurora. It is now a National Historic Site of Canada.
Touring Churchill on Wednesday
Driving by Hudson Bay
The landscape around Churchill. The trees are called “flag trees” because the prevailing winds cause most of the limbs to grow on one side of the trunk.
Churchill Rocket Research Range. The tall structure is the launch tower.
Rocket at the entrance of the Research Station
One of the murals at the research station
A different kind of mural in Churchill
We also visited the Itsanitaq Museum, a museum dedicated to the Inuit culture. It was very well done and very informative on the people, animals, region and culture. It’s in a small space but is packed with displays and information. We weren’t expecting to see wildlife this day but saw another fox perched on a large pile of snow. Next we went to the Parks Canada Visitor’s Center where there were other great displays. We were also very glad to find two geocaches located at the Visitor’s center. The multicache was buried in the snow outside the visitor’s center. The ranger offered us a snow shovel and then went outside with us and dug it out for us. He was so excited we were looking for the cache because he had hidden it. We had a good conversation with the young ranger. We asked him about working in such a remote and isolated place. He had only been assigned to Churchill a few months but said it was his dream location. He was so excited to be there.
Inside the Itsanitaq museum
One of many displays at the Itsanitaq museum
Our big event for the way was dog sledding. We visited the kennels, got to pet the dogs and then go sledding – so much fun and a very different experience sledding out through the woods. Very different from the tundra and ice.
We really enjoyed our first ever dog sled ride ..
… but it still cold!
After our dog sled ride one of the owners gave an interesting talk on the Métis people. The Métis are one of the indigenous people of Canada with a mixed French and indigenous ancestry.
We had lunch and time for a little souvenir shopping and then were supposed to head to the airport for our flight back to Winnipeg. However, the weather took over and changed our plans. It began snowing very hard during lunch. Our original flight was cancelled and we had a later charter flight which meant we remained in Churchill for supper. The snow was very heavy when we finally arrived at the airport. It took a long time to deice the plane and then we headed to Winnipeg. It probably wasn’t a blizzard but it sure was to these Alabama natives. It was still snowing when we landed in Winnipeg a few hours later. We turned in all our -40° gear, got a good night’s sleep and returned to Birmingham on Thursday. The polar bear photography tour was a wonderful, exciting, beautiful experience. A once in a lifetime adventure that we feel so blessed to have been able to experience.
Strolling around Churchill
The province posts this polar bear report on their office door.
The continuing saga of our experiences on the tundra north of Churchill, Manitoba. In case you are interested, today, 12/2/2022, at 7:30pm EST, it is -19 degrees with a wind chill of -39 in Churchill. Weather Bug cautions that it is “very cold”. So glad we had the opportunity to visit this almost magical place, but very, very glad we do not live there.
Now back to our story of this cold far north area. We forgot to mention in our last post, for Sunday, that the northern lights were out again late Sunday night. The sky was not as bright as Saturday and there was some cloud cover but you could definitely see the lights. We were so blessed to see them both nights because the rest of our nights we had lots of clouds.
Monday and Tuesday began as Sunday with another great breakfast and then a full day on the tundra. After the spectacular viewing day Sunday, we really didn’t know what to expect. The next two days, we did have time to get to know our fellow travelers better. As we quit totally concentrating on wildlife, we began to appreciate all the different cultures and backgrounds in our buggy – people from Canada, USA, Germany, Holland, and Japan and maybe elsewhere. We also learned more about the tundra, the environmental concerns with the melting of the polar ice, and we noticed more of the plant life in the tundra, and the smaller things we had missed on Sunday. We met Tundra Buggy One while we were roaming the tundra Monday and Tuesday. It is the research vehicle our tour company (Frontiers North Adventures) provides to the Polar Bear Institute for their research. Buggy 1 is equipped with some great camera gear and web cams anyone can watch. The look and feel of our surroundings became more real as we spent more time there and began to take more in than just the wildlife. Not that we were not still looking for and photographing wildlife both days. But we began to notice other things too. We saw more bears, fox, ptarmigan, and seals, but the big thrill for the day Monday was spotting an arctic hare – a rare find. Our guide has only photographed one arctic hare in all his time on the tundra. The hare is so beautiful and so very fast. Most of the time all you get is pictures from behind as they run away. They are very difficult to spot because they blend in perfectly with the snow, as do the arctic fox and ptarmigan. Until they move, they go unnoticed even when they are right in view. We had a gorgeous sunset Monday and then a very peaceful evening drive back to the lodge for another amazing dinner – our last dinner at the lodge. Tuesday was another wonderful sunset but instead of heading to the lodge we went back to the buggy dock for our bus ride back to Churchill and our own hotel room and bathroom. The lodge was actually very nice but it’s been a long time since we slept in bunk beds like at church camp and shared 3 bath rooms, 2 with showers, for 20 people. We really enjoyed our long hot showers back in Churchill. Check back in for our final day of this adventure. There was lots of fun on the final day.
Our fleet-footed arctic hare
Arctic fox in the Monday morning sun light
This is how we saw bears on Monday.
Sunset and bear tracks
Headed back to the lodge on Monday evening
In case you thought we were the only buggy out there. This reminded us of the bear jams in Yellowstone.
The light was not as good on Tuesday morning but this picture shows how well the arctic fox blends in to its environment. We watched this one …
… run under the tundra buggy lodge and back out again.
Find the ptarmigan on a cloudy day
Tundra Buggy 1
We did see a couple of seals at this distance. That dark speck out on the ice was the last one.
For a while we thought we were going to end our time on the tundra the same way we started – looking at a sleeping polar bear …
… but then we saw this one. We thought is was fitting that the last bear we saw on our last day on the tundra was walking off into the sunset.
Tuesday evening sunset on the tundra buggy ride back to Churchill
RVing With a Purpose 