Going Postal Tour – Days 7-9 – Trippin' and Skippin'

Day 7 – Kearney, OH to Davenport, IA

I had no idea the Mid-West was so windy! I’m trying to remember the last stop that was windless. And I can’t. But we managed to make up a little ground today, so we’re due in Bellevue, OH tomorrow evening. as originally planned. But I’m beginning to not have a grasp on which state I’m in anymore. I just know that Nebraska is all about beef and Iowa is about pork.

But despite the wind, we dined on our Skeeter Barnes (mmm BBQ!) leftovers on a picnic table at a rest stop near Underwood, IA. Koby accused me of inhaling my food and that I must have an ulterior motive, but it was the first time I had been out of the car except for potty breaks or food stops and I was lured by the siren songs of birds. Camera clicking was suddenly more important than picnicking. In Ohio I managed only to see a few crows, turkey vultures, and one lone pigeon – and got no pictures. I needed a break from “landscape” pictures and view, especially since the landscape hasn’t had too much variety for the last several hundred miles. There’s another silo, another windmill, etc.

At the rest stop, the Robins were out in force… rockin’ it all over the ground and up in the treetops (presumably all day long) – they were hoppin’, but not bobbin’ or singing their song though… And the 1st one seems to be thinking intently about something…

But a few House Sparrows did sing out – chirping up a storm… I managed to get pics of both a female and a male..

And one male who decided to hang with a Grackle for a bit – definitely rocking different wardrobe styles, but managing to coexist despite their differences.

I also managed to see (and not photograph) my 3rd bald eagle of the trip from my own perch in the back seat. Maybe the opportunity will still come!

Days 8 -9 – Davenport, IA to Sandusky/Bellevue, OH

Long long trip from Davenport. We decided to avoid the toll roads, and ended up not getting to our hotel in Sandusky until after 9pm (and we are now in Eastern Time Zone, so we “lost” hours. Not much downtime on Friday – just windshield time. And not much unique scenery, but did see some nice cloud formations and a glimpse of the sunset.

There was a train going nowhere in a field – ok that was kind of unique…

And the sky was pretty cool…

It was so nice not to pack up Saturday morning and spend the day in the Xterra. We traveled down to Bellevue for Warren’s Postmark Collector’s workshop and donated his boxes of postmarks..

We now have lots more room – even more, as we inadvertently left a bag of dirty clothes in Davenport. Oops.

I dropped the boys off at the workshop site which was located in the historic Lyme Village, and wandered around a little before I skedaddled off..

My skedaddling took me to the Sheldon Marsh Preserve. I was hoping to see birds – mostly I heard birds – they are good at hiding here! But I got a cool squirrel – and a red-winged blackbird.

I went back to grab the guys for lunch. Koby had homemade rhubarb ice cream for dessert (Warren was a little less adventuresome with chocolate), then took them back. While Warren sorted postmarks with the others – I think the median age was about 85 of the group, Koby got roped into doing all kinds of fetching and carrying boxes, moving stuff and other manual labor. I escaped back out to the grounds ands snapped some more pics..

Finally Warren was tuckered out from all that fine print and sorting, and I suggested we detour to Marblehead Lighthouse on the edge of Lake Erie before we headed back to the hotel. (That’s them standing in the right lower corner!)