Panther Swamp National Wildlife Refuge 7/24/2011

You know how it is on a lazy Sunday afternoon when you want to do something but not sure what to do? Well Becky and just hop in the hummer and see where it takes us. This past Sunday afternoon it decided to drive north towards Yazoo City. Which is the home of our Governor Mr. Barber. As you approach Yazoo you take a left and end up at Panther Swamp. We didn't know what to expect and hadn't heard a whole lot about it. Panther Swamp is dominated by Delta bottomland hardwood forests interspersed with numerous wooded sloughs, cypress-tupelo brakes and bayous.
During the afternoon Becky kept saying that she hadn't yet made the shot of the day and then there it was... You'll have to read below to find out.

Here's a little slough with a bunch of white egrets.

And of course we always like to get a good Gator shot.

Reaching for the Sun

this was a very beautiful field

We turned down this one dirt road still looking for the shot of the day and there they were. A humungous field of full grown sun flowers. I knew as soon as we saw them we'd be here a while... ;-)

 It was a very overcast afternoon that eventually gave us a good down pour at home.

Here is the most beautiful flower in the field.

 Another beauty.

What a nice surprise just outside the swamp.

Then we really got a surprise in that we were just about to leave when Becky spotted what she thought was an alligator swimming through the algae. We jumped out real quick and she started snapping off shots. I took the binoculars and looked but it wasn't an alligator. This guy was a little ways off from us and this was the best shot we were able to get. I told Becky that it wasn't a beaver or an otter but it looked like something I'd seen in wildlife shows from South America. I thought is was a Capybara which is a large creature that lives in the amazon region of south America. With doing some more research and talking to a few people it became clear that this was a Nutria Rat. It was a very large one at about 3 to 4 feet long. No one we talked to had ever seen one before. But we learned that they have a paid bounty on them in Louisiana. It seems that the French fur traders brought them into Louisiana to build up a population for the fur industry. They are an invasive and destructive creature. It is believed that they are to blame for burrowing into the levees in New Orleans and weakening them so as they gave way during Hurricane Katrina. In my research I even found some tasty recipes for Nutria Rat. So you never know where the yellow hummer will take us or the sites we will see. Until next adventure.

Our first trip to the Southern Coast July 2011

We flew our son Chad in from Albuquerque for a little vacation with us. We picked him up in the rain at the New Orleans airport and hit the road for adventure. We decided to treat this trip like a cruise on land and set up a couple of excursions along the way. Or first excursion was to ride an air-boat through the Mississippi swamp lands. We arrived just in time for the last outing of the day. So we were set for a private air-boat fun ride.

Of course we chased Alligators. He was right beside the boat.

A railroad bridge through the swap.

Here we are ready for a fun ride.

This was a big one.

Air-Boat swap fun.

and there were a lot of Aligators.

Our next stop was to stay at Pensacola Beach, Florida. The beach bums.

Sunset at the beach

Becky having fun.

Another beautiful beach sunset

A beautiful Blue Heron at the beach.

Sailing into the sunset.

Our Hotel Beach

More beach bums.

 And of course we had to do another excursion on our Land Cruise. So we all agreed to go and try Parasailing. We had a cool, calm morning for it and had a blast. Very relaxing sailing away up in the sky. No wonder people like skydiving. Maybe next???

Chad and Drew taking off

Up they go

1000 feet of rope and about 400 feet off the water

and of course a little dip on the way back in

Having fun

Chad and Becky discussing who's first

The fearless flyers

Dean and Becky being very brave. HA

We were able to have dinner one night with Shane's best friend from Albuquerque and his new bride Katie. He is stationed at Pensacola attending the Navy's flight school. He was just about to start flying the T-6 trainers. It was good to see them very happy.

Gavin and Katie and Us. All from Albuquerque in Pensacola.

 What a fun trip had by all. Until next adventure - 
"Life's an Adventure, Enjoy the Journey"

Vicksburg National Miltary Park

Vicksburg National Military Park

I thought I'd share some shots from one of our favorite places. It's right here in the heart of Vicksburg called the Vicksburg National Military Park. The park commemorates the campaign, siege, and defense of Vicksburg during Civil War. The city's surrender was on July 4, 1863.There are over 1370 monuments, a restored Union gunboat, and a National Cemetery. It's a 16 mile tour road. We sometimes get there when the gates open at 7AM chasing that ever elusive daybreak magic light. There is always something new that we find. Also there are deer, turkeys and other wild life that you can catch with the camera if you're lucky. The monuments are amazing. Here are some photos of different parts of the park to give a little taste.

One of the many, many monuments

If you like cannons this the place for you. They are everywhere you look.

Each state that was in the war erected there own monuments in the park. Here it the Illinois State monument which has the names of 36,000 soldiers on engraved on the walls. Pretty stunning.

More Cannons

Another Stately monument

The USS Cairo (pronounced Care-o), a Union ironclad commanded by Thomas O. Selfridge, Jr., was named for Cairo, Illinois, and commissioned on January 16, 1862. On December 12, 1862, in the Yazoo River north of Vicksburg, Cairo struck two underwater torpedoes (today called mines) sinking in less than 12 minutes with no loss of life. Preserved by mud and silt, Cairo sat on the bottom of the Yazoo River for 102 years. It was raised in 1964, and later restored. The ironclad is now on display within Vicksburg National Military Park.

Vicksburg National Cemetery encompasses 117.85 acres and includes over 18,000 interments.  Graves of Civil War soldiers total 17,077, of which 12,909 are unknown.  An additional 1,280 graves are occupied by soldiers who participated in the Indian Wars, Spanish-American War, World Wars I and II, and the Korean Conflict.

A Sunday Afternoon Drive for Dean and Becky's Hummer Adventures

Yesterday (June12th, 2011) Becky and I decided to take a Sunday afternoon drive and see how the flooding had receded. The flood waters have gone down a tremendous amount. I took a few shots to show where they opened up the flood wall. On the opposite side of the flood wall on Levee street you can see the high water marks on the wall. The photos on this blog are mostly taken with my Canon point and shoot camera. If you want to see the good photos you will need to go to Becky's web site when it is complete. It's in the works and I imagine will be live by the end of June. We also spotted a few alligators around the levees north of Vicksburg.

This is a casino boat where it is normally dry around it. The flood wall shows where the water rose to 57.9 feet.

This is the boat launch side of the flood wall. The other side has beautiful murals depicting the history of Vicksburg.

We saw 57.9 ft. The flood of 1927 was 56.2 ft.

My Becky doing what she loves. Taking great pictures.

this was somebody's lot north of town with the crape myrtles blooming and the bird bath now above water.

Life getting back to normal in Vicksburg with the kids playing in the water at the park by the flood wall.

One of our gator friends up by the flooded levees. It appeared to be about 11 or 12 ft long. A big one.

They can be very hard to spot as most times they are only showing there head and nostrils above water.

We think this one was sleeping as he wouldn't stir when we came close.