Back to the silence

There is nothing like it when you can hear the birds sing their beautiful songs. To listen to the breeze rustling through the trees or the rippling sound of a flowing stream. To hear the croaking of frogs, the chirping of crickets at night. It is a pleasure to hear such silence over the cacophony of the sound of the cities.

Oh! The crickets at night. Well let's get back to the crickets. At night, outside our bedroom window, I can hear the crickets transmitting their messages from one to another. they don't use cell phones so sometimes they have to be loud to get their message to go long distances. There are times I feel like a tower and that they are transmitting right through me.

These crickets are the loudest I've ever heard and they sound different. Extended notes like a bow pulled across the strings of a violin. At times the bow would bounce creating a musical flow of several notes. What kind of cricket are these? From the high volume of the noise I surmised they had to be big. Maybe as big as baby dinosaurs. Well maybe not that big but I did hear frogs in the distance and they seemed to be staying away from these crickets.

They were even active during the day so I went outside on a safari to hunt them down. Every step I took vibrated the ground and drove the critters to silence. I had to stand still, wait and listen for the next stringing of the violins. Then move toward it and repeat the process. I heard but never saw them.

But I did notice a few crayfish wholes in the area. Could this have been crayfish making the sounds? More research is needed.

- to be continued -

Weather

Ever since we left NJ we have had some of the weirdest strings of weather I've ever known. We've had storms that have come out of the Gulf of Mexico and worked it's way up the east coast, bringing the wind and rain that we mentioned in Ida vs Isabel.

Our journey further south took us through the rains of Georgia the cold at St. Augustine, Florida and even lower temperatures that threatened the crops in Florida and froze the water pipes in the panhandle at Pine Lake Resort in Fountain, FL. After two days of freezing pipes the management drained the popes from 4:00pm to 8:00am for the next five days.

California had rain storms that tracked their way across the southern US bringing flooding to the Gulf Coast from Louisiana to Pensacola, Fl. We consistently saw messages flashed across our TV telling us about tornado watches and warnings and to have alternative plans.

In a motor home there are only two plans I know of. Pack up and move or hope there is a tornado shelter near or in the campsite. The basement in the a motor home is in the the motor home not under. But then when we had the house in NJ it was on a slab and there was no basement there either. So you just settle in during the storms and don't concern yourself with things you can't control.

That's the weather man's job.

Williamsburg revisited

Return to Williamsburg, VA.

The title is a misnomer. It is not a return to Williamsburg but to the Williamsburg area which is full of so many historic sites. So the return did not include Jamestown, Yorktown and of course Williamsburg. This time we tried to visit places we missed in prior visits.

Williamsburg Pottery Factory. This is a factory that is in the process of rebuilding. Factory is not the correct title to put on it at this time and I'm not sure what it's future will be but it is a massisive outlet store for pottery, peanuts, lawn decorations, household utinsels and stuff. I looked at it as an over priced dollar store that was an outlet for Chinese stuff. Even the glassware and pottery were made in China.

Then there is Smithfield. Where those delicious hams come from. Our visit was during the wrong time of the year. The trees were changing their colors if not already changed and the festivities of the travel season are over. Make sure you get a map of the town so you cane walk the streets and find those areas of interest that make Smithfield what it is. There is plenty of public parking in town. I guess it was because smarter people don't visit the town after season and there is plenty of space available.

The big attraction appears to be the old homes throughout the town. They look nice, from the outside, if you are into old homes. The next big attraction(s) is the Arts, Shopping and Dining. Oh yea. The hams. We picked up a small one that we would have for Thanksgiving and whatever was left over we would apply to other meals. Well that ham was so salty that even after drawing it we still could not enjoy it. And when we had finally gotten it down to a point that the salt was acceptable the flavor was gone.

Deep Freeze

Across most of the country people have been victims of an Arctic freeze for more than a week. That's why we left the mid Atlantic and headed south. Mother nature saw us. She said "you can run but you can't hide". Maybe there is really no place to hide.

We are now in Robertsdale, Alabama, better known as down south, off the Gulf of Mexico. We are in what is suppose to be warm weather. Yes it is winter season but this is ridiculous. Every night I disconnect the fresh water hose to prevent freezing. Our auxiliary catalytic heater runs most of the day to kill the chill in the air that seems to go right through you. We run our heat pump during the late evening and switch to our heater when the temperature gets below freezing.

The cold has a chilling effect on socialization. People have been outside only when necessary. To walk the dog, dump their trash, maybe go shopping. But over all we have all hunkered down in our cocoons waiting for the big thaw.

I've spent time with freezing water hoses. Having to bring them inside at night to keep the water left in them from freezing up. And the park cuts off the water between 4:00pm and 8:00am each evening. My site feed pipe has been frozen for a couple of days and I've had to go a site away just to get water. It's nice to have extra hose