New Orleans

We had a great time visiting New Orleans this pas March. I'm not a big "city" fan, but the French Quarter of New Orleans is totally awesome! I loved the food, and culture, and sights, and shops. Would love to go back. This video is of the courtyard of the little condo we stayed in. Dick really set us up finding this place that he usually stays in for jazz fest.

More progress

You can click on this for a slightly larger pic.

It now has road markers, town names, water body names, and that big text you can actually see in the photo.

Still need some finishing touches, but at least it looks like a map now.

Mottled Mucks: Bling Bling!

Hooozaaaahhh! to the Mottled Mucks!

Check out the news!

The team that raised the most money this year was the Plucky Mucksters who raised $1,302!!!! This is a remarkable amount of money for a single team to fundraise. It is the second year in a row that the Plucky Mucksters have come in first place for most money raised by a single team. The Plucky Mucksters team members include Bob McGuire, Deirdre Anderson, Susan Danskin, and Gary Kohlenberg. The second place team, the Capitol Cuckoos with members Jane Graves, Alison Van Keuren, John Hershey, and Larry Rowland, brought in $905. And, the third place team was the Mottled Mucks with members John Ballou, Amy Dreibelbis, Chris Langman, Dick Beery and Dom DeFazio, who raised $738. Ten teams raised over $250 and four teams raised over $500!!! We also received a number of cash donations from local businesses including Terry Precision Cycling, Wild Birds Unlimited of Johnson City & Ithaca, Nucor Steel, NYSOA, Bass Pro, and Avinet.

The total raised by all the teams was $10,411.10, breaking the goal of 10K. Way to go teammates, and way to go to all our idividual sponsors! We couldn't have done it without you. Special props to Dick and Sandy Beery, and to our coporate sponsor Micron Industries!

The Letterpod

Here is the podcast I do for letterboxers...

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Dillon Park

I have probably said this before, and I'll probably say it many more times in my life. There is no better place to be on the planet then the Adirondacks in the Fall. OK, so that is a pretty bold statement. Maybe I should say there is no better place that I would rather be then the ADK's in the Fall. This September certainly proved this to me.

I got a chance to camp this year with Dom and Ken in a great place, John Dillon Park. Dillon Park is owned by International Paper and managed by Paul Smiths College. It is unique. And I mean unique. It is one of a kind. It is the only place in the country that we know of, and that the staff at the park know of, that is a park for folks with disabilities. ALL the paths are 10% or less grade. That means you can use a wheelchair or scooter. They have lean-tos with ramps. All the outhouses are handicap accessible (and have composting toilets). They have large battery trailers they can bring to your campsite to recharge your wheelchair that is charged by two large solar panels in the parking lot. And the lean-tos, they aren't just ones you drive up to. Ours was about an 8 minute walk. The park is on Grampus Lake, which they have an accessible fishing dock and boat launch (though these were taken in for the year because we were there the last weekend of the year.)

So, with such a special place, we were all able to enjoy it. The weather was perfect. The place was perfect. The fishing could have been better, but it was fun. The food lockers were great, didn't have to hang a bear bag. Composting toilets...come on, that's awesome. No bugs in September...can't beat that. It was an amazing trip, and I hope we can go back again when they finish the trail that goes even further into the wilderness to two more lean-tos on Hansome Lake. Incredible.

Montezuma Wrap-Up

Well, this of course is a late report, sorry about that Marylee. But I wanted to thank everyone who made a pledge to our team. I still don't have a final total, but I think we will come in around the $500 mark again this year. Special thanks to our sponsor this year Micron Industries.

We succeeded in our goal, which was to come in ahead of the youth teams this year, especially the youth girls, which we dubbed the "Girl Scouts." They are probably not scouts, but last year we didn't beat them, so this year our goal was not be be beaten by a bunch of teenage girls. We didn't beat them by much, but we came in at 82 bird species, and that was up about ten bird species from last year. The top team saw 140 birds.

What is really more important to us is that we had fun. And we really did. Special kudos to Amy who competed despite having a broken foot. She is a real trooper, and probably still spotted more birds from the front of the car then the rest of us combined.

Some real memorable birds were an early morning pheasant that Dick spotted first, flocks of Bald Eagles, Bard Owls calling into the morning, and my first look at a Bobolink.

Thanks again for supporting the Mottled Mucks in our yearly adventure. You can read the full report of the Muckrace here.

Montezuma Muckrace 2007

On September 7th and 8th I will again be participating in the Montezuma Muckrace. If you remember from last year, this is a 24 hour birding marathon against other teams competing to see the most bird species in the Montezuma Wetlands Complex in Western New York. Our team, the Mottled Mucks, consists of myself (NY), Dick (OH), Dom (PA), Chris (PA), and Amy (PA). Last year we saw 72 species, which was fine for our rookie year, but we are determined to up that number this year (and try to manage to beat the team of "girl scouts"). Last year we raised well over $500 to help Ceulean Warbler habitat.

This is the part where you can help us. The Montezuma Wetlands just opened a new Audobon Center dedicated to educating people about wetlands and birds. We are again asking for donations and pledges to raise money to support the center. All you need to do is email me how much you would like to pledge, and I will contact you later about payment. You can sponsor us a flat donation, or you can pledge us an amount based on the number of bird species we see (i.e. $0.50 per bird). Please let me know also if you would like a receipt for tax purposes.

Thanks again, and wish us luck!

Podcasts!

So I have finally released the first episode of the Letterpod podcast, a podcast for letterboxers. I have picked up the reigns and taken it for a ride, and its been a lot of fun. Hope to hone my podcasting skills some more on a fun one like this.

I'm still working on my storytelling podcast as well, "Tell Me Again", and will be getting a new story out real soon.

New Letterbox

It's been awhile since I actually planted an honest to goodness letterbox. I have done a ton of postals and event boxes, but actually going out and hiding one in the woods...its been awhile.

My newest is a series, and it took awhile. It began with a simple box in Ohio. It got washed away by a flood. I planted a new box in a new spot. I hadn't even posted clues, and that one got muggled. So then I planted two new ones, in new spots. This time when I returned they were still there, and I planted two more. So I now have a series of four in Ohio, called A Drive Through the Marsh.

Special thanks to Dick for helping me with the new plants!

I hope you enjoy.

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