Thanksgiving is almost here!

Our crane spotting trip was a mixed bag.

We arrived at Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge a couple of hours later than anticipated, partly because I could not get Dave moving to get us out the door when I wanted us to leave.

When we finally got there, it was only open for another half hour.  There was a visitor center, but it was locked up tight, and not staffed.  There was a lone port o potty set up outside of it.

No, thanks.

We took the auto loop first, and saw lots of ducks, but no cranes.  I opened my car window and could hear them, though. 

The auto loop lets you out back on the highway, with those spikes in the road so you can't back up and go back in.

We went around and found the entrance again.  There were no other humans anywhere around, which was kind of nice, but also a little uncomfortable, since it's deer rutting season.

We went back in, and drove to where there was a trail head.  We got out, and put on our parkas and touques.  It was 35 degrees and windy,but at least it wasn't raining. (it had been 60 the weekend before when we had first wanted to go but had too much to do and forgot!)

As we walked along the trail,  which eventually led to an elevated blind at the edge of the shallow lake, we started hearing cranes, and seeing them flying overhead, in the direction we were walking.

Sadly, they kept going, and were landing on the far side of the lake. 

The blind had a distance viewing device set up, though, and I was able to watch several birds drop down into landing position before they disappeared behind the distant brush.

While we were watching and listening in the utter silence (other than the lovely cranes calling), Dave heard something approaching the blind. 

It was a magnificent 8 point buck.  He was unaware of us at first, and I was able to get video of him passing below us.  Unfortunately, as I moved from one side of the blind to the other to track his movements, my boot made the smallest of sounds, and he bounded off.

It was still really cool!!

Dave was getting anxious to leave, as the posted closing time was 4:00 and it was 4:00, and he had messaged our Air BnB host that we would arrive around 4:30.  She had previously said that she would meet us at the house to let us in when we notified her.

We trekked out and left for our lodgings.  We were cold, and tired, and I sure had to pee!

Dave checked his phone, and he had not heard from the host.  We sat in the driveway for 30 minutes while he texted her and emailed her, and heard nothing.  He tried to call the phone number, and got a message that it was not in service.  WHAT?  It had worked the day before....
He got out and knocked on the door.

Nothing.

A little while later, he somehow found a different phone number, called it, and the host's husband answered.  "She's at choir practice.  Is the door unlocked?"

Dave and I looked at each other.

He went back to the door, and it was unlocked.  He explained that we had been sitting there waiting, not hearing anything, and that SHE DIDN'T TELL US that the door would be unlocked...only that she would meet us there and let us in!!!

Anyway, we got in, and the host's husband came to the back door.  Apparently, they live next door, and the properties are joined.

He told us the only place in town to get dinner was Pizza Hut.

Ugh.

So, we went and ate (no low carb options for us!), stopped at a grocery store and got some wine, and came back to settle in.

The Air BnB was nice enough.  A beautiful old house with nice plank flooring and woodwork, but really crappy WiFi.  We were not able to enjoy the hot tub because the wind was vicious and cold.

Dave was eventually able to pull up the Google Earth images of the wildlife refuge, and figure out where we needed to go the next day to possibly get a better view of the crane flocks.

The next morning dawned to snow and ice, and 25 degrees with 40 mile per hour winds.  It was BRUTAL.

Needless to say, we were unsuccessful, and were headed home by 8:30 am.

The roads were treacherous, with blizzard conditions and low visibility.  Our GPS sent us down country road after country road, bypassing every town, and going west, then south, then east, then south....it made NO SENSE... and there was nowhere to stop to rest or pee.

It sucked, basically, but we made it home in about 4 hours.

SO, that was that.  I messaged the refuge on facebook, and they told us where the cranes are, and that there is no access to viewing them any better than that blind. 

We still think that we could have possibly seen some if the weather had not been so much of an issue, but we would have had to have hiked into the park, down the trail past the barricade we found on the road when we got there in the blizzard.

Nope.  Next year, we will know.

I am glad that I got to see several flocks in the air, and that buck... so it wasn't a total waste, but it was not nearly as great as we had hoped it would be.

In other news, this is Thanksgiving week, and I can't wait for our annual cabin camping trip!  Our house sitters are all set, and the groceries are purchased. 

We got stuck in a cycle of aggravating dead ends yesterday on our errand trip (the dead ends having to do with the fact that it is nigh unto impossible to find women's hiking boots in this town), and it took almost 5 hours out of our day, but we got all of that done, so today, we can clean house and start throwing stuff into boxes.

I wish anyone who might be reading this (I know there is at least one person), a happy Thanksgiving!