new adventures ahead!

Logan Pass in Glacier National Park, Montana
Copyright (c) 2007 Wendee Holtcamp

A quick update just so everyone knows I haven't fallen off the face of the planet! We had to reschedule the camping and tubing trip from a couple weekends ago to this coming weekend due to rain... the Texas Hill Country desperately needs rains to replenish its aquifers and nourish its wildlife and so forth but we were a bit sad... the weather was so warm back then and now it's started to cool down. Normally you'd think, ok, that is a good thing for camping right? But the thing is... and this is a minor thing, really, but the San Marcos River emerges from a spring and stays right around 72 degrees, which is a bit chilly. It's perfect when it's blazing hot out but when it's 80 or 85 as it will be this coming weekend... well that may be a bit cold on the toesies (and behinds). But we will have fun anyway! Sam is bringing a friend of his and Doug is coming too. We plan to do the same basic thing I mentioned before- camp at McKinney Falls State Park and tube down the San Marcos River. Yea!

Hope I can upload a couple pics afterwards but the reality is I may not be able to for a while, as I leave on TUESDAY for yet another trip! And yes, as you can imagine I am totally inundated, overwhelmed, swamped, and basically going crazy. I have two bags packed for different trips, trying to back up my computer and print things I'll need for the plane trip, taxi the kids here and there (school, soccer practice, cross country practice etc) me to the gym, and write and research as many blog posts as I can SO that I can focus on one thing during the next 3 weeks while I'm away... writing a couple chapters in my book!!! Aye yi yi.

So where am I going you ask? Well, I have researched secluded getaways and friends' cabins for a couple years and after talking about it for oh months, years, I'm doing it! I decided to go stay with my friend Elissa in Bozeman Montana who is graciously opening her home to me to stay there! She has a basement (I think) that is like a self contained apartment so I'll stay there, work work work while she's at work (she and her husband own Sweetpea's Nursery) and we'll get to visit together in the evenings, and take a couple little excursions! Mostly I plan to write day and night! We plan to try to get to either Yellowstone National Park which is only an hour and a half away from her place (in Wyoming) or Glacier National Park which is 5 or 6 hours west, in Montana.

I've been to Yellowstone twice and absolutely love it! I love the geysers and grand prismatic pool and the bison and bears... The last time I went was a decade ago with the kids and Matt on our way back from our insanely long drive to Alaska and back (we got to visit Elissa then too) and the other time when I was 14 years old and moving between Portland, Oregon and Minneapolis, Minnesota. I went to Glacier a couple years ago with my dad, and if you're a faithful Bohemian Adventures reader, you may remember my blog post from then!

I am writing a feature about pikas, and hope to visit with a biologist working on them at Yellowstone but that may not be possible... again you may remember Dad and I went pika-spotting in Glacier a couple years back (pics are at the blog post in previous link) with grad student Lucas Moyer-Horner and I will be writing up that experience in this article. Pikas are so cute! They are also threatened by global warming, and there's a petition into the US Fish & Wildlife Service to list them as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.

I'll end this now, and hope to update a wee bit from Montana! Godspeed!