myretroperspective

Our next stop was Osaka. to be perfectly frank, it was our least favorite stop of the trip. It was like every other big city, lots of shopping and eating. but this one had, in our opinion, few sites that we, personally wanted to see. The major stop that we went to was the Osaka Castle. Unfortunately, this castle was also closed due to the new year. We were most impressed by the gigantic stone cut walls that surrounded the castle and formed the base of the castle. Our next stop is aways my favoite when traveling. We headed to one of the popular nearby markets.  They had large amounts of tea in huge containers so you could pick out your favorite and get a large bag of it.  Inside the market was a small peaceful little temple.  Rubbing the bull's head for good luck then going and writing good wishes for the new year. We had a Japanese pancake, Okonomiyaki for dinner. I have no idea what all was in this but it was the most delicious meal I have ever had. It had mac and cheese...

Last night when I checked my e-mail, I read an interesting possibility for this summer on the Workamper Hotline.  Seems there was a private campground very close to the Blue Ridge Parkway that was looking for workampers for the summer season in North Carolina.  Solos would be required to do 16 hours/week for a full hook-up site.  The campground is just south of the Smokey Mountain Nat’l Park and within 3 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway.  I’ve never spent much time in this area so it caught my interest.  I gave them a call, and left a message.  They called me back this morning while I was working in the Visitor’s Center.  It would require a commitment of six months, and most of my work would be in the office.  At only 16 hours/week, I was pretty excited about the possibilities of being in this area.  Just imagine the Blue Ridge in October with all the brilliant fall colors!  I had plans to send my resume and pictures of the rig and myself...

And I’m not just talking about the weather.  Although, we have had about an inch and a half of rain the last few days which has put a damper on my hiking plans for my days off.  My title refers to fellow volunteers Sally and Tom.  If you remember, from a couple of days ago, they went off on a trip to visit family and friends in Georgia last week, but had to make an emergency trip along the way to Florida.  It turned out that Sally’s father had suddenly taken ill, and died once he got to the hospital.  It was a shock to them, but they returned last Wednesday to the refuge.  Then early Friday morning, Tom began to feel ill.  Today, he ended up being admitted to the hospital for cellulitis.  I don’t know too much about that, but I’ve been told it can be very painful.  My heart goes out to these folks.  What a stressful time for them. With the wet weather, I’ve spent most of my time inside the rig.  I’m not complaining about that thou...

I really would like to post on my blog more often. I'm not sure how one finds the motivation to do so with the rest of life continuing full-force and maybe that's the point somewhat. It forces you to sit down and recount the past few days (let's face it, months, in my case) instead of flinging yourself headlong into the next thing. With lots on the horizon of 2012 but not much going on today, I thought I'd do a catch-up post. Just pretend I'm posting all of this in a season-appropriate manner... The holidays were a bit of a blur. I conferenced in Orlando before spending 6 glorious days at the beach with R and my family for Thanksgiving. I do believe November Florida sunsets are some of the best. We wimped out of the 10k and ran the 5k Turkey Trot before eating Mom's typical feast. For whatever reason I ended up helping prepare the feast more than usual and I really enjoyed it! (no photos- boooooo). December was pretty mild weather-wise. We enjoyed gett...

This post is about a month too late so I hope the saying better late than never applies on this one. We have a five day weekend right now (i love Korean holidays) so we're enjoying getting to slow down and work on little projects around the new apartment. Ok so hubs is the one working on the projects, the blog is my only project and I've mastered the art of procrastination with it. We went to Japan during our christmas holiday and flew into Fukuoka early Wednesday morning. We headed straight for the bullet train station to take the train up to Hiroshima for the first night. To get from Fukuoka to Hiroshima was only an hour train ride and man those trains are fast! But i'm sure you could've guessed that.  Our first stop was the Hiroshima Castle. There was a gorgeous trail around the entire castle with a large moat around the perimeter. Unfortunately, we couldn't go inside because everything was closed for the New Year. There were several men manicuring all of the tre...

After doing the time consuming chore of a week’s laundry in the Splendide this morning, I had to get out of the rig.  You see, I had decided to fix a pot roast for the first time in over six years, and the scents from the crockpot were more than I could stand. So, Emma and I hopped in the car and drove about 15 miles down I-10 to the eastern Mississippi Welcome Center.  I was able to get a booklet with coupons for businesses along the coast last year, but they didn’t have any this year.    Shucks!  Emma, of course, couldn’t go inside the Welcome Center with me, but I knew that at the far end of the center’s rest area was the Grand Bay NWR’s Escatawpa Trail.  That’s why I brought her along on this journey. For a couple of reasons, this trail is my least favorite of the four established trails in the two different refuges.  I chose to combine all three spurs of the trail today for a nice little walk.  The total distance is only a little ov...

It seems like it’s been a while since I’ve posted very many bird photos, so yesterday afternoon I spent some time hunting down my avian friends around the campsite. Depending on where you live, the appearance of the American robin has different meanings.  This truth was pointed out to me today by Doug, the volunteer coordinator.  If you live in the north, the robin is the harbinger of spring.  If you live in the south, it means it’s winter!  Well, we’ve been inundated with robins here in coastal Mississippi, and despite the warmer temperatures it is winter. A walk with Emma on the Dees Trail found us surrounded by brown-headed nuthatches.  They seem to call continuously as they work the pine trees, and their voice sounds like a squeaky toy to me.  Great bunches of yellow-rumped warblers have also been moving through the forest.  There are still plenty of insects for them to glean. A late afternoon visitor t...