Hooked bird :( and Katie's closet :)

Katie and I took a walk around the "berm" again this afternoon, but we went the other way.  When we walked about a half hour, I realized we were at the end, it doesn't go around.  I don't know what I was thinking, there are boats moored inside, of course they have to get out!  So, I got some photos of birds along the way:

 A flock of Seagulls

I love it when they all fly off, but I don't usually get the shot.

There were a couple of different types of ducks.

And these little black guys.

So we're walking along, and I see this black bird by himself at the water's edge.  He was going under the water, jumping back up, ruffling his feathers, kicking up a bunch of water.  I thought he was catching some kind of wonderful dinner for himself.  I started taking photos of him as we walked up to him.  

Surprisingly, he didn't fly away.  When I got closer, this is what I found:

 

 He had fishing line coming from his mouth.

 Poor thing, I could hear him breathing.

I wasn't sure what to do, no one was anywhere near us, and we were on the other side of the bermed off area from any activity, about a 20 minute fast walk.  So I tied Katie up a bit away, put my camera on the ground, rolled up my jeans legs, and went into the water a couple of feet so I could get close to him.

I held onto the fishing line, and he went crazy, then calmed down.  If the crazy spurt didn't dislodge whatever was in his mouth, I knew I wouldn't be able to pull it out without hurting him.  I tried to pull the line up from the water side, and something in the wet weeds was sharp; when I pulled the weeds off, there was a three barbed hook.  I pulled on it, and it broke off.   I was left holding the line with a bird at the end of it.  I figured the best I could do would be to shorten the line and he could swim away, with whatever was at the other end still in his mouth.  

I couldn't break the line closer to his beak and had no tools.  So I got two rocks and sawed the line off as close to the bird as I could.  And he turned around and swam away.  What a relief!

If we hadn't walked by when we did, he would have been tethered to the shoreline and since it was starting to get dark, I doubt anyone else would have come by to help him.  What a scary thought.  I don't know if he'll live with the thing in his mouth and a little fishing line coming out, or if he'll die, anyway, but I couldn't have left him there.  I'm hoping for a full recovery. :)

 Fly away, little guy!

 Yellow flowers in black and white shot

 

 Resident campground cat

Some people have mentioned Katie's wardrobe, but she only has four things and her vest for walks.  She has a princess dress, a blue sweater dress, a pink jacket and a raincoat.  She also has a Christmas sweater dress, but that's put away until December.  Here is her closet door where I hang her clothes on hooks:

 Katie's Door

 

 ...and her pink walking vest, with loops for the leash.

Can you see the blur where her wagging tail is?

 And finally, here are tonight's sunset shots:    

 

 I wanted to try a black and white shot and pick up the color of 

the clouds in the sunset.  Four ducks flying through.

Beautiful.

From Me and My Dog, have a great Thursday night, everyone!  :)

Utah, continued...We are in Provo

WELCOME to T - our newest follower!  His profile says, "I love the outdoors and look forward to FT adventures. Hobbies are trapshooting, metal detecting & coin collecting."  I've seen some people at RV parks running their metal detectors around empty sites.  You might even find some coins. :)  Actually coin collecting is a good thing, it won't take up much space or weight.  I hope you are a full-timer soon!

WELCOME, also, to two followers who didn't have photos, and I just found them at the beginning section of my follower list:  smdrm and Carrie Jordan.  I don't have any information about either of you, but I'm happy you are following along on our adventures.  Welcome aboard to you both, too!  :)

We ended up this afternoon at a State Park here in Provo, Utah called Utah Lake RV Park.  Utah Lake is the largest fresh water lake in Utah, and has fishing, boating, and camping.  This RV park isn't the prettiest I've been in, but it's not bad, and the setting and surrounding areas are gorgeous.  Our site:

This is the view from my window over the couch:

There is a path close to our site that leads to the Utah Lake parking area, and then the lake.  Here's the path:

And here's the lake:

Katie and I walked over to check out the lake around 5:00 pm, and we didn't get back to The Palms until 7:00.  There are lots of places to walk, there's a boat ramp, and we walked past it along the lake.  There is a berm (?) around a large area that separates a couple of areas of the lake, and we walked along that berm.  (I don't know if that's what it's called, but you get the idea.)

The sun was starting to go down when we started out, and we walked until it was almost down.  I took a ton of photos.
 

Me and My Dog :)

These are some of the shots I took as the sun was going down.  The clouds were changing, and it was really beautiful.

 

 

 

This is the same shot that I took from my window, but after we got back from our walk as it was getting dark:

And finally, as I was closing my shades, I looked out the window and there was a beautiful full moon coming up over the mountain:

To get the full effect, click on the photos and you 'll see the details more clearly.  What a beautiful spot this is.  We're staying here at least five days, and then we'll see.

I've made reservations at Zion National Park for ten days at the end of October/beginning of November.  I'd rather not make reservations, but those are the first dates I could get a site for more than one day, and I really want to stay there.  I want at least a week, and October 29th was the first available date.  There may be more sites available as first come, first served non-reservable sites, but I'm not sure about that and I didn't want to take a chance.

So, we may stay here longer than the five days I've paid for, or find another park on the way to Zion.  The price here is $20 per night, and at Zion it's  $9 per night with my Senior Card.  Good deal!

From Me and My Dog, have a great Wednesday night, everyone!  :)

We're in Utah, Walmarting tonight

WELCOME to two new followers!  Donna and her husband have a 5th wheel, but it doesn't sound like they get to use it very often.  According to your Profile, though, it sounds like you are living the good life.  Welcome, Donna, we're glad to have you along!

Welcome, also, to Hobo Joe, who has come off the road for a while to help his sister in Hawaii do some remodeling.  Not a bad place to help out the family!  Joe does some , "Hillbilly philosophizin', or somethin' like that" on his blog.  Welcome aboard, Hobo Joe, happy to have you along, too!

We hung around this morning until after noon, then drove into town to get our mail at the post office.  I went through all the mail, organized and dealt with stuff, etc. and then we headed out around 1:30, I think.

We had a nice, uneventful drive down Highway 84 and crossed the border of Idaho and Utah.  Nice roads up here in the Idaho/Utah area.  The views out the window were beautiful all the way.  Lots of great cloud formations, some large mountains with snow on the top and sides, a little rain.  Utah's landscapes are a little different than Idaho's in this northern part of the state.  They still have vast fields and lots of mountains surrounding them, but the mountains in Idaho that we saw seemed smoother and flatter.  The Utah mountains are tall and craggy, and snow capped.

 

We ended up a little way into Utah at Tremonton, where I stopped for gas and had dinner at a Denny's.  I seldom eat out, but I hadn't had anything good all day, and wanted to have something nutritious before we stopped at the WalMart in Perry, UT for the night.  I really like Denny's - and they have a 20 percent discount if you show your AARP card.  Nice.  I had Talapia, spinach, coleslaw, side salad and toasted bread for less than $10.  It was really good, AND I brought the bread and coleslaw back to The Palms for tomorrow.

 Leaving Tremonton

We got here at WalMart around 7:30.  There are two other RVers here for the night so far, I make three overnighters.  This is a 24-hour Supercenter,  and we are parked quite a ways from the store, so it might be quiet tonight.

 The sunset sky and clouds were beautiful when we got to WalMart.

This WalMart is in a beautiful setting. 

A lot of the homes and cities in this area are right up against the mountains.  It must be quite a view some of the homeowners have out their windows.

No special plans for tomorrow.  We'll drive through Salt Lake City and continue down Highway 15 toward Las Vegas.  If I see a good campground, we'll stop.  I want to visit Brice and/or Zion when we get to that area, too.  I'm told they are both beautiful parks and worth a visit, and there are lots of RV sites in both parks.  I'd  like to stay for a few weeks in Utah if the weather is good. 

Katie actually ate some dinner tonight, which she usually doesn't do after a travel day, so hopefully she will not be sick tonight or tomorrow.  She's been sleeping in the bunk with me because of the cold at the last park, but tonight she's going back on the couch to sleep on her favorite pillow.  I put that light, down blanket over her when I got to bed, and she's snug as a bug until morning.  Unless she gets up. :)

 
From Me and My Dog, have a good Tuesday evening, everyone!  : )

We're not leaving today - it's Columbus Day

WELCOME to our new follower, WestieWaggin'!  I don't see a blog for you, but the photo of your Westie is soooo cute!  Katie and I are happy you are along for our adventures on the road.  Welcome aboard!

Well, we haven't left town yet.  I have a package waiting for me, General Delivery, at the post office here in Twin Falls.  Every so often my daughter, Kristy (actually it's usually my son-in-law, Matt) sends me my mail when I'm in a town for a while.  It probably arrived Friday, but I forgot to go to the post office when I was in town.  I also could have gone back Saturday, but I thought, Heck, I 'll stop on my way out of town on Monday.  I didn't know today is Columbus Day and the Post Office is closed.  

 So...  I'm trying to figure out if I want to stay here for one more day, or hang out in town for a while and sleep overnight at the WalMart.  I think for the $15 per night I'm paying here, I'll stay another night.   

So, for one more day we have:

 Beautiful skies

 Beautiful flowers

 Critters on the path

 Rushing creek

 Easy walking paths

And another nap in the sunshine

But you know how you feel when you're ready to go?  You're ready to go!  I'm just glad I heard it on the radio last night, and was able to check Post Office holidays on-line this morning.  I would have been pretty disappointed standing at the locked door and seeing the "Closed for Columbus Day" sign.

So, tomorrow we go!!!

It's sunny this morning, but rain is expected later today, so I will also have one more rainy day to enjoy.

From Me and My Dog, enjoy your Columbus Day, everyone!  :)

Thank you for your comments!

Thank you all for you comments!  I had no idea there were so many Followers not having my posts updated, and I'm glad to be back.

And thanks, also, for the Magpie answer for the birds around my campsite.  They are so beautiful, they should have a fancier name, I think.  I've never been a birder, but I can see I'm getting more and more interested in knowing what the birds are that come around.  I might have to get a book of Western birds with good photos so I can do my own research.

Tomorrow we are leaving Rock Creek RV Park in Idaho.  I'd like to start heading through Utah, to Las Vegas and finally Arizona where I plan to stay for a while.  I've never been to Utah or Arizona.  I was in Las Vegas once for a weekend - to get married.  But let's not talk about that.  :(

I've read a lot about the boondocking opportunities in Arizona and want to check them out. I'm thinking I might have trouble finding a good spot in an RV Park with all the regular fulltimers reserving in advance, but boondocking shouldn't be a problem.

The camp hosts here, Angie and Keith, were telling me lots of things yesterday.  They gave me the info for a good on-site RV repairman that they trust in Yuma, and also the company in Yuma that handled their solar system.  They had very good references for both in case I need them.  They used to spend every winter there.  They live here in Twin Falls and spend half the year at home and half the year here at the RV park as hosts.  They drive home two days a week to keep up the home front.  They've got the best of both worlds.

Where we end up tomorrow will probably depend on the weather.  I'd like to find somewhere a bit warmer, although it has been a nice weekend here.  I don't take Katie for very good walks when it's cold outside, and we're both getting cabin fever a little.  We did take a good long walk this afternoon, though, and it felt good.

This morning I fixed myself cereal and raspberries.  I dropped a few of the berries and thought I got them all, but I guess I missed a big one that rolled under the lower kitchen cabinets. Later in the day, Katie was acting funny, walking back and forth from the kitchen to the dinette, looking at me, back to the kitchen, etc.  Finally she went into the kitchen, stuck her nose under the cupboards and came out with the berry in her mouth.

She came back to me, jumped up on the dinette bench and just looked at me.  I told her she could eat it, but she  just sat there.  It was so funny.  She acted like she didn't know what to do with it, but she didn't want to let it go.  She doesn't usually get people food, and has never had a berry before.

Can you believe that silly face. She sat like this for a few minutes.

Finally she jumped over to the couch and ate it.

Yum.  I think she liked it!

That's it for now.   Tomorrow is a travel day, I wonder where we will end up.

Goodnight, everyone, from Me and My Dog!  :)