Missouri: Jefferson City: Three Observers on the Greenway

 On a recent walk along Jefferson City's Greenway, I encountered these three observers: 

Cultural Pedestrians sculpture on Jefferson City Greenway. Missouri. October 2022. Credit: Mzuriana.

The tall watchers immediately put me in the mind of the people and descendants of the Clotilda, "the last slave ship," in Mobile, Alabama, my most recent temporary base. 

I especially like this connection because Jefferson City is the home of Lincoln University, a historic black college or university (HBCU) ..... 

... As the American Civil War drew to a close in 1865, two regiments of emancipated Black soldiers took action on a decision that would reverberate from their Army station at Fort McIntosh, Texas, all the way to the Missouri state capital. The men, who learned to read and write as part of their training in boot camp, were determined to start a school for other freed Black people when they returned to their homes in Missouri after the war. The soldiers of the 62nd United States Colored Infantry, whose pay averaged $13 a month, came up with $5,000 to establish an educational institution in Jefferson City, which they named Lincoln Institute. The 65th Colored Infantry contributed another $1,400 to the school’s endowment. ... 

 

The allure of the installation's verticality, the faces, the jewelry - got me to stop my walk so I could look at all of the details. And isn't that one of the objectives of art? To seduce one's gaze, to prompt thought, to feel something - joy? contentment? sadness? discomfort? illumination? 

 

Cultural Pedestrians sculpture on Jefferson City Greenway. Missouri. October 2022. Credit: Mzuriana.

Cultural Pedestrians sculpture on Jefferson City Greenway. Missouri. October 2022. Credit: Mzuriana.

The installation also reminded me of my visits to the sculpture gardens in Colorado in 2016 here and here and here. 

It seem serendipitous to learn that the artist, Sue Quinlan, who created Cultural Pedestrians, is based in Colorado. 

Cultural Pedestrians was awarded to City of Jefferson Cultural Arts Commission through Sculpture on the Move, a program provided by Creative Communities Alliance, based in St. Louis. Participating communities rent a sculpture for a two-year period, making it more affordable than purchasing the sculpture. It costs a community $1,000 a year to rent these pieces and after a two-year period, the community has the option of buying the piece to have it on permanent display.

 Source: Jefferson City News Tribune

 

 

Dauphin Island, Alabama: COVID-19 Unfolding, Part 8888: Boxing Day: Audubon Bird Sanctuary

 

Audubon Bird Sanctuary-Dauphin Island Alabama. December 2021.

 

Oh, it felt good to be out. 

I'd been lamenting to myself, of late, at the difference in my getting-outedness the past two COVID years in comparison with my Alamogordo year. That year in Alamogordo, I think I explored a new destination in New Mexico just about every weekend. I visited all but three state parks, I think. I went to the national parks and monuments. I went to museums, to festivals. 

Yesterday I drove out (over?) to Dauphin Island.

Destination: Audubon Bird Sanctuary. 

But first, I ate my picnic lunch at the Estuarium (also known as the Alabama Aquarium):

• Carrots
• Roasted, skinless, boneless chicken breast
• Sweet potato
• White potatoes

I lunched at a bench that overlooked the Gulf. 

 

Gulls on rocks. Dauphin Island, Alabama. December 2012.

 

I saw gulls, pelicans, a heron or two. 

And oil rigs. 

After lunch, I drove over to the Audubon Bird Sanctuary. 

I walked.   

 

Yellow gem leaves. Audubon Bird Sanctuary, Dauphin Island, Alabama. Decembe 2021.

 

Peace, serenity, beauty, breeze. Soft colors, muted for winter. 

 

A slide show of Audubon Bird Sanctuary below: 

If you'd like to go down a rabbit hole re: Audubon and sanctuary:

• September 2012: On the Road to Alamogordo, Day 1: Faith and Fury
  
• September 2013: Montezuma, New Mexico, Part 1: Light
• March 2016: Louisiana: The Chimpanzees From Alamogordo, Chapter 3
• December 2017: Ferguson, Missouri: Our Lady of Guadalupe and One of her Stolen Sons

El Paso: Westside View and Walk

August 2016

A library on El Paso's westside is the Dorris van Doren Library on Redd Road. This library has a small courtyard; inside the courtyard is an A-frame. Groups use the A-frame for young-child activities or meetings. When available, individuals enjoy the space while reading, studying, or contemplating the artfully-framed view of the outdoors from within. The A-frame has a fireplace, a cozy arrangement of soft chairs, and a couple of large group-study tables.

The courtyard is a pleasant space to sit outside to read alone or have quiet tete-a-tetes between tutor and student or friends.

It is so good to sit inside the A-frame and do nothing but look outside. Once I saw hawks wheeling over the ridge. Another time a young rabbit tarried next to the window, perhaps enjoying the shade on a hot day.

The Westside Community Park is just on the other side of the ridge that you see through the window.

One day, after a meeting in the A-frame, I climbed up that ridge and walked along one of the park's trails. I saw both flora and fauna:

Cactus flower on Westside Community Park trail. August 2016.

Lizard on Westside Community Park trail. August 2016.

Missouri: Cuivre River State Park

Cuivre River State Park. June 2016.

I spent a June afternoon at Cuivre River State Park with family members who were camping there for the weekend.

Cuivre River State Park. June 2016.

We went on a photography walk.

Cuivre River State Park. June 2016.

I played with my new camera, with mixed results.

Cuivre River State Park. June 2016.

 Much more practice ahead.

Cuivre River State Park. June 2016.

Cuivre River State Park. June 2016.

Cuivre River State Park. June 2016.

Cuivre River State Park. June 2016.

It wasn't all about flowers. There were crawdads in the river. Not sure how their taste would stack up against the mudbugs in South Louisiana.

Cuivre River State Park. June 2016.

And I followed one of my descendants on the trail. She always likes to be out front.

Cuivre River State Park. June 2016.

Cycling Across America

No, that's not me doing that.

But on my way to Raton, New Mexico yesterday, I saw a guy tooling away on a bicycle on I-25 South, hauling one of those baby carriages behind him.

As I noted here, long journeys have been on my mind lately. Today, I tried to find any online evidence of this person's trek, didn't succeed, but discovered a cottage industry on such journeys:

Bicycle Routes Across the USA, by Shular Scudamore. You can also access his blog and related information via this link.

The Across America North Tour does all the planning and logistical arrangements for you. It ain't cheap.

Bike Across America offers trip reports and guidance for those interesting in giving it a go. The info's a little dated, but still interesting.

New York Times reporter, Bruce Weber, has cycled across America twice: 1993 at age 39 and 2011 at age 57. Good reading. (Google on "On Wheels: America at 10 M.P.H." and then pull up the cache versions of his 1993 entries. Alternatively, if you're actually a card-carrying NYT subscriber, maybe you'll be able to get to the archives via the links in the 2011 articles.)

Trek Travel, like The Across America North Tour above, facilitates the cross-country affairs for you - all you have to do is ride the bike. 2013 cost: $15,999.00. 

The Adventure Cycling Association offers cross-country trip journals here.

Again, cycling across America is not in my plan. Noooo, I'm still fixated on mountain lions on a New Mexico trail. .... Carrying a boxcutter sounded like a good protection strategy til a conversation with one of my sisters today, who told me that another sister carries a very big, very sharp knife when she hikes in the wilderness.

So that's what I'm thinking about.

Cloudcroft, NM: Salado Canyon Trail, and a Whistle Killer

Salado Canyon, near Cloudcroft, New Mexico

AKA: New Mexico: Fall Colors, Part 2


Recently, New Mexico's rails-to-trails organization opened a new trail route to Bridal Veil Falls, which is in the Salado Canyon, near Cloudcroft. Truthfully, it's closer to High Rolls, so you can go with that, if you prefer. 

I didn't go there.

But I did take a short walk on the related Salado Canyon trail, to the trestle bridge.

Before that, though, I did a due diligence search for some fall foliage, and I found a little here, at the creek crossing on the road that I have not yet followed to its end.

Salado Canyon, near Cloudcroft, New Mexico

I turned around at the creek and went back to one of the trailhead markers. Got out and almost as soon as I set foot on the trail, proceeded to slip and slide on the loose gravel.  What the heck? So I placed my feet a little more carefully, and all was fine. As I walked, I could just feel myself become lighter, airier, freer. Disney bluebirds were about to flutter into my bucolic bubble. Just as I puckered my lips in preparation for whistling a happy tune, I saw a flash of something unnaturally white in my peripheral vision, to the right.

Salado Canyon Trail, near Cloudcroft, New Mexico

I walked over to investigate.

Bones. A trail of them. Leading to an empty hide, dried and contracted from days of exposure to the sun. A dark brown pelt. Largish.

Mountain lion? Mountain lion?

Trail of bones, Salado Canyon Trail, near Cloudcroft, New Mexico

Carcass that used to cover said bones, Salado Canyon Trail, near Cloudcroft, New Mexico

The Disney bluebirds evaporated in a pouf, as did my whistle of a happy tune. My inner wuss had returned.

My rational mind told me not to be stupid. There wasn't even a sign at the trail head saying to watch out for mountain lions. But my wuss side tried to do numbers on my head.

This didn't keep me from continuing my walk to the trestle bridge, however. The train that used to chug its way through here was the Alamogordo and Sacramento Railway, primarily used to transport lumber from the mountains to the basin below. I'd learned from a museum docent a couple of weeks ago that once trucks were pressed into the lumber-transporting service hereabouts, it was discovered they were more economical than trains, especially since they were able to carry longer logs than the trains. So the train business petered out.  

View from trestle bridge. Salado Canyon Trail, near Cloudcroft, New Mexico

There were quite a lot of large droppings on the trail. Probably horses. I didn't take a picture of the droppings.

It was nice to stand on the trestle and listen to the creek below.

Later, once at home, and having successfully rebuffed all non-existent mountain lion attacks, I thought I'd exercise some cognitive therapy and find out how many mountain lion attacks actually occur in New Mexico. I estimated virtually none.

I didn't want to see this headline right off the bat: New Mexico Man Torn Apart by Mountain Lion.

I found a less salacious source of information here: Mountain Lion Attacks from .... . The author has compiled reports of confirmed (and unconfirmed) attacks for North America, formatted per decade. This link happens to take you to the 2001-2010 page.