MAY 12TH, 2008

After a rainy spring weekend here near Mount St. Helens Washington, we’ve started out the week with quite a beautiful sunshiny day for a Monday.

Spring has its awakening spirit showing in so many ways, as the winter season succumbs to the growing radiant warmth from our wonderful sun.

Such awakenings I discover in the mornings with the usual spring peepers finishing up a night of song and giving over to the robins as they begin their day with a new chorus. A ruffed grouse adds melodious drumming, as does a woodpecker with its own rendition and timing. A lone goose flies over, almost barking out the start of a fresh day, which is probably meant as a “Hey! Where is everyone? Wake Up!”

I surely love the sunshine! And actually I require it so much more in the spring than any other time of the year. By now I’ve had my fill of winter and its coldness, though I must admit that snow can be pretty to look at,… for awhile. It just lasts so very long in my home region of Canada. I tend to feel robbed of my daily dose of sunshine during the long winter months, and that is why I really look forward to the warmth and the natural vitamin A supplement that are anticipated in the spring and summer months.

Today looks like a fine day to explore more areas of this wonderful state of Washington. As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, we weren’t successful in getting very far up the mountains. Mt St Helens and Mount Rainer are both still “socked in” with snow covered roads and barriers limiting access.

We have discovered some other roads shown on a map, that we may be able to gain access from another side of the mountain and perhaps we will try these routes to see if we can travel further up and see more sights.

Mt St Helens anniversary is May 18th, 2008, and they will be plowing the roads at some time prior to the celebrations. Unfortunately we probably won’t be here quite that long.

I was quite pleased yesterday though, to see so many elk in our travels! They are quite literally, everywhere! We were warned by long time park residents where we are staying, that Hwy #12, that the park is adjacent to, is a road that the elk frequent, and to be careful. The elk are a very large animal and are similar to moose in northern Ontario, Canada. Elk are a very striking animal. They are so large and yet so graceful. We watched several of them as they easily cleared fences they were jumping at a 5ft height.

Onward to new adventures and more critters!

~ Paula

http://www.uxcritter.etsy.com/


****************************
A side note of a wee setback we encountered yesterday. Upon opening the RV door to the outside, the steps did not extend. Most of the day yesterday was spent with electrical testers working to assess the problem, which in turn, for some rather strange reason, began blowing fuses and breakers. This morning has been dedicated to a continuation of the assessment, as we are still without front steps to use to get down from the RV to outside. Funny how important and useful this retractable and extendable feature can be, and how we can take it for granted when all is working fine.