Turtles and Rattlesnakes and Tipis, oh my!

What a beautiful planet we chose to live on! ;)

This past weekend, we had quite an adventure in the Nebraska Panhandle! PJ had 37 hatchlings left over from last winter's research and wanted to return them to the Sandhills. We thought it would make for a nice little road trip that would allow us to take in a couple of national monuments as well.

We have loads of photos in this post. If you would like to see them enlarged, then just click on the photo and it will open in full-size.

Originally, we wanted to camp at the Crescent Lake National Wildlife Refuge where Collin and I went with PJ in March for part of his research (a long-term research site for PJ in the Nebraska Sandhills). We weren't able to make contact with the appropriate people at the refuge, so we ended up camping in a tipi near Chimney Rock Nat'l Monument. And this, is where our adventure really began!

A tipi?

Yes, a tipi. We brought plenty of camping gear and stopped at a state recreation area near Bridgeport, NE to camp, but we were quite unimpressed. The state rec area was surrounded by a couple of scary looking trailer parks and the crowd at the lake was a bit rowdy for us. En route to Scottsbluff, where we originally planned to eat dinner, we discovered that right in front of Chimney Rock there was a small convenience store and campground. One of the camp sites had a tipi and Collin begged for us to rent it. It had a great view of Chimney Rock, so we decided to go for it. We paid for the site and drove up to the Chimney Rock overlook because the visitor's center was closed.

Chimney Rock National Monument

Pioneer Cemetery next to Chimney Rock

One great thing about this stop was that PJ found an ornate box turtle in the pioneer cemetery nearby Chimney Rock. Chimney Rock was beautiful, as you can see in the photos here and seeing a pioneer cemetery is always cool because itleads you to start imagining what it must have been like to make that Oregon Trail crossing. It's pretty amazing when you think about it.

We explored the area until just before dark and then decided to head back to Bridgeport to find some food, rather than go all the way to Scottsbluff. Our options were limited: Runza (which PJ says will have you running to the toilet) and Karette (a small drive-thru burger place). We decided on the latter option, though part way through eating, Collin began to complain that his tummy was hurting ...

Now, I hope that I can accurately represent how our night unfolded ... with all its "humor". After unpacking the car and rolling out our sleeping bags in the tipi, PJ started a fire. We were hopeful that the mosquitoes would die down a bit. I cannot in words describe to you the number of mosquitoes that were trying to carry us off to their lair, or at least drain us of all our blood. As the fire died down, we decided to test our luck in the tipi, though we weren't convinced that our circumstances would improve. Collin was especially attractive to the mosquitoes, so PJ and I decided toset-up a small mosquito net / travel tent we had brought. This comforted Collin and we were hopeful that we could now sleep, though PJ and I were slapping ourselves silly trying to keep the mosquitoes off. That the tipi was open on the top was no help because we simply could not get rid of the little beasts!

Suddenly, and without adequate warning, Collin ripped open his 'tent' and was rushing out the tipi door. Before we could follow him we heard him, er, well, uh, getting a little sick outside. After he was finished, PJ hauled him off to the bathroom. This whole event lasted about an hour and was fairly high stress for us all. We managed to finally get Collin back into his little tent and on his way to sleep. No sooner had we got into our sleeping bags, still slapping ourselves silly from the mosquito attacks, when we were hit with our next surprise: several rounds of drunken domestic violence coming from the camper parked near us!

I started laughing ... not because I think violence is humorous ... quite the contrary ... but because it was so unreal! PJ, with a smile on his face, looked up and said, "Dear God, thank you for this cherry to top off our night." We soon lost our sense of humor because these two folks were getting rowdy, well, mostly the woman. Her voice! I cannot describe it, but PJ had a great description: A woman has a voice like that for only one of two reasons. Either to stand in church on Sunday and proclaim her love for the Lord, or to shame a man in public. She was in the latter category. I won't tell you what exactly she screamed (think: drunken sailor).

Just when we thought all the commotion had died down (or passed out as the case may be), a truck came screaming into the campground and right by our tipi. It stopped just past our little spot and began hoking its horn! Mind you, we are now well past midnight at this point in our evening. Apparently, this woman had called someone to come and get her. After she was gone, we were relieved and hoped that the truck didn't return or any severe violence break out.

I recalled that when we were last in New York, PJ's sister, Denise, had given me two OFF! Bug Repellent towelettes (THANK YOU!!!!) for a hike out there. I had stuffed them in my camera case but we hadn't used them. PJ searched the car for them and we were able to use them for some relief, though they wore off in couple of hours and we were back to slapping ourselves silly.

Finally, Collin was fast asleep, the dogs were asleep, and PJ and I were able to drift in and out of sleep. Well, until it began to rain ... recall the open top of the tipi? Yep, that's right! I was sleeping under the opening and awoke to raindrops a fallin' on my head. At this point, I didn't even care anymore. I really just wanted a little bit of sleep.

First light began to break around 6:00 am, and PJ and I were now awake and laughing about the whole thing when suddenly, our tipi's cloth door began to move about. There was clearly an animal trying to come inside! We sat up quickly and stared at the door waiting ... when a small, white chihuahua head popped through the door! I freaked out because Chloe, the chihuahua, had never been out without a leash and now she was a dirty stay out with Marcy dog! She had no collar on or anything. She was covered in mosquito bites that made her look like she had severe acne. This ultimately required a visit to the vet upon our return to Laramie for a precautionary heartworm treatment.

Crescent Lake Wildlife Refuge

After breaking camp and repacking the car, we drove to Oshkosh, NE where we could pick up the road to the wildlife refuge. The roads were in good shape and the hills looked really green, especially for September 1. Small yellow sunflowers were in bloom everywhere! We stopped to look for fossil turtles in the ravine near blue creek; however, there were none to be seen. PJ found one spot where a turtle had recently been removed. Collin also collected two insects for his collection.

Selecting a place to release the hatchlings at Smith Lake.

Collin releases Western Painted Turtle Hatchlings in the reeds.

Releasing hatchlings into a ditch across from Smith Lake.

PJ and Collin walking up from releasing some hatchlings in a nearby ditch.

TJ plays with Marcy and Chloe next to Smith Lake.

After that we drove to Smith lake where PJ wanted to release the hatchlings. We parked at the fishing access spot and let Chloe and Marcy out to relieve themselves. Collin and PJ released half of the hatchlings in Smith Lake and half in the ditch on the other side of the culvert.

Walking back to the car ...

On the way back to the car, PJ saw something move in the grass. We were collecting inverts for Collin's science class project and PJ thought it was one of the squat green grasshoppers that we noticed were really abundant as we hiked around; however, as PJ's eyes focused in he saw that it was clearly the slowly waving rattle of a prarie rattlesnake sticking out of a rodent burrow. With Collin and the dogs safe in the car, I came over and took some photos. PJ "coaxed" the snake to turn and face the camera and we got a few diagnostic shots of face and tail, but no estimate of size. Based on the rattle buds, PJ estimated it was ~5-6 years old.

We left the refuge and headed north toward Alliance, NE where we took in a great piece of Americana, the world's greatest roadside attraction and the scene that should have graced the back of the Nebraska quarter: Carhenge!

Collin spots the ever ellusive Carhenge Crane!

Other views of artwork on display at Carhenge.

After enjoying a walk around Carhenge and taking loads of photos, we took in lunch at a Mexican restaurant in Alliance. We followed this up with some fancy cross-country driving to visit Agate Fossil Bed Nat'l Monument in northwestern Nebraska.

Unfortunately, a nasty storm came in just as we were getting ready to hike. The visitor center is really nice and we learned much about the natural history of the site. We also learned about the human history of the site, as many of the displays were incomplete because they were recently burglarized of some priceless Native American artifacts. The dumbasses that did the job were captured and are now in jail, but it will take time (and $$) to fix the exhibit.

We drove into and then around the storm, which was producing some impressive lightning as we crossed into Wyoming. The dramatic high plains landscape was enhanced by the "magic light" produced by a setting sun under rain clouds. Somewhere southwest of Lost Springs, WY (population: 1), I spotted a complete double rainbow with the most saturated colors any of us have ever seen. We stopped and took several photos and enjoyed a peaceful drive through Wyoming's beautiful wide open spaces.

Overall, it was a fun trip. We like to think it was a bit of a warm-up for more fun camping trips out here in the West in the coming weeks before we leave. And of course, it's good preparation for traveling with us all together in preparation for our move to Ghana. We are hoping to drive to New York after my defense in early October and we'd like ot take in more of the unique aspects of the American landscape, such as Carhenge and tipis.