A Season of Reconnection

We decided to sell our 29' RV and refocus on international travel. (More about this in our upcoming post.) As soon as we sold our RV, we were invited to two camping trips with friends. The first was with Steven and Darcy at Hopkins Prairie. After birding and enjoying dinner conversation around the campfire, they slept in their overlanding trailer, us in our rooftop tent. All four of us on the king-sized bed! Daddy woke up well-rested and surprised how much room he had, while I ended up with both kids practically on top of me. 

A week later, Kelley, a friend I hadn't seen since high school, visited us during a Florida road trip with her husband and son. After camping in our yard for a few days, we joined them at their next hipcamp spot. This is someone's four-acre backyard in Meritt Island, Florida. An absolutely incredible piece of property! Parking was too far away for our rooftop tents, so the owner set up these teepee tents for us to use. 

We had so much fun together! I love that we were able to reconnect and look forward to future adventures together.

After these two camping trips, I realized my days of enjoying tent camping are pretty much over. We ended up buying a used Weeroll overlanding trailer to make our trips more comfortable (A/C, real bed and a little bit of kitchen space). We put our rooftop tent on top and Asher and Daddy used it on the father/son church campout. The awning has another tent that attaches to it, so we have three options for sleeping. 

Later he accompanied Journey to the father/daughter dance. Daddies get to have all the fun! Somehow seeing your daughter all dressed up makes you realize how much she has grown.

It turns out this was truly a season of reconnecting. The Logsdon family invited us to visit them at their house in Venice, and let us stay in their beautifully decorated guesthouse (the RV they usually live in fulltime). They took us to the parrot rescue where they volunteer and to the wildlife sanctuary where we met a leucistic (all white) Screech Owl named, Luna. 

We spent time together at the beach and took a day trip to Peace River to do some shark teeth hunting! 

Six weeks later, they came to stay with us and we hiked Ocala National Forest, kayaked Silver Springs and they experienced bird banding!

We took our friend Helen and her husband, Art, boating and swimming at Salt Springs. 

Mom and her friend, Sandy, came for a visit. We watched a plane land on the lake while we ate at Gator Joe's. After kayaking, we got to see a manatee from the bridge! They also helped us decorate for Night to Shine.

Easter at church

One morning in March, I got the most shocking phone call from my dad. My aunt, Janie, had passed away. That morning she had taken her beloved dog, Zoie, out and then reclined in her chair for a little more sleep, and just never woke up. It didn't feel real. Four months later, it still doesn't. We had become very close over the past five or six years. The only person I called more often was my dad. I looked forward to our conversations. She loved to hear about my family, our adventures, and the birds I was seeing. She had begun her own path of learning about birds. She signed up for a birding class and was looking forward to joining walks with her local Audubon chapter. She particularly loved eagles, hummingbirds and was enjoying being able to identify the birds coming to her feeders. She is very greatly missed. But if you knew Janie, you'd understand that's exactly the way she'd have wanted to go- no sickness, no fuss, straight to Jesus in a blink.

Journey and I flew to Ohio to be with family and attend her funeral. The cousins are growing up! 

A flamingo in the Tampa airport welcomed us home.

A couple months prior, my friend, Lisa had offered for my family to stay at her condo on the beach in St Pete, during the Villages birding trip. The timing couldn't have been better, as Daddy was able to pick us up from the airport and go straight there. It ended up being an opportunity for healing and processing what just happened before going back home.

This is the view from her patio of the kids playing flashlight tag on the beach.

We spent a day at Fort DeSoto where Asher fished from the pier while thousands of fish swam in a huge swarm below us! 

He also did lots of fishing, day and night, at Lisa's while I enjoyed beachcombing plus birding Fort Desoto with my friends Liz, Alice, Wendy, and Candi.

As we were prepping for our upcoming trip, we had visits from multiple friends. Our dear friends, the Bemis Family, had moved away to Michigan during our road trip last summer. It was great to have them visit and reconnect. Everyone has grown so much!

The Duren family included us on their summer road trip (via minivan) thru SEVENTEEN states! We took them kayaking and they taught us to play the One Night Werewolf game.

Our friend, Carrie, brought her boys, Trevor and Logan, to spend a few days with us. This time we got to see monkeys up close! While they are regularly at the park, this is only the third time I've seen them and the other times were from a boat.

June Challenge was a super fun experience. Basically it's a contest to SEE more birds in the county that anyone else. Hearing them doesn't count, so it's a lot more challenging. On day one, Alice, took Liz and I birding by golf cart, which is SUPER fast and fun! 

Steven and Darcy took us birding by boat many times during the month and helped us get birds we needed.

Tami ended up winning the contest with 115 (+2 non-ABA) species and Alice came in second. It was a fun way to spend the hot mornings and helped our group grow closer together.

Three Days

To the other passengers it was probably just another boring Tuesday. To me, it was

anything but. 

We were still newlyweds when my husband left. I was flying to DC to see him after 10 months. I should have been excited, but I wasn't. 

I arrived at midnight. Two darkly-dressed people displaying my name ushered me to a waiting car, then to the building and into an elevator, that seemed to take forever. As they inquired at the desk, my eyes found him. It didn't look like him, but it was

him. His eyes were closed. There were marks all over what I could see of his body, tubes hiding beneath the sheets, his arm wrapped tightly, a ventilator breathing for him.

When he deployed, I kept my sanity

by picturing myself running into his strong

arms for the tightest hug and a kiss to make me forget the pain. This is not the reunion I spent the last year dreaming about. 

Five days earlier I had received the dreaded call. My husband was not dead, (I really wish she would have led with this, because that's what I initially thought!), but he was critically injured. The woman rattled off a long list of the injuries they knew about so far: traumatic brain injury, 2 broken vertebrae, broken arm, broken clavicle, broken hip and most of his ribs were broken, his front teeth were missing (he had always had a recurring

nightmare about losing his teeth) and both lungs collapsed. Five days ago, he was in the best shape in his life. Today he lay in a hospital broken, bruised, crushed, unable to breathe on his own. It was a shocking way to reunite with the love of your life. It was clearly a miracle just to be able to.

It took time to stabilize him in Afghanistan, then Germany, where he had his first surgery, before being transferred to Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington DC, where I was finally able to see him. FIVE DAYS. That's a long time to be alone in your house wondering if your husband will ever return to it.

He woke but couldn't speak because of the ventilator. The ICU nurse gave him a printed alphabet so he could communicate by pointing to letters. I watched as he pointed to "I" then "L" then some other letters that didn't make sense. With tears welling up in my eyes I asked if he was saying "l love you". He was! Of course he was.

His injury happened 15 years ago. That day is what we now refer to as his Alive Day. It's only by the grace of God that he survived and now we share his experience with others so they can see how God still does miracles and most importantly, know that he cares, not just for us, but for you.

________________________

He has published a book detailing his experience. If you are interested in ordering it, please contact me.

Harold Albers Teacher Ecology Camp

This summer Mama went to camp! I was invited to attend the Harold Albers Teacher Ecology camp hosted by Sensing Nature and St Petersburg Audubon. The purpose of this week-long science camp is to educate teachers thru experiences so they can pass along an understanding of wildlife and the need for habitat conservation to their students. It was divided into two sessions. The first two days were focused on aquatic wildlife, the next three on paleontology. I attended the first session which started off with a boat ride in the Tampa Bay Estuary conducting a net two to collect data about the aquatic wildlife that lives in the sargassum (the floating vegetation). (I should mention this is part of a daily survey completed under a permit and the data is sent to Florida Fish and Wildlife.) They dropped the net and dragged it for a specific number of minutes, then moved everything from the net into the large blue tub. Next they carefully sorted thru the sargassum with small nets, removing and counting each species of fish, seahorse, etc. They kept some in a tank on the boat so we could see them up close. 

We circled a protected island where tons of birds are nesting, including pelicans, herons and egrets.

Our classes were held at the Tampa Bay Watch Discovery Center so we were able to see their exhibits and wildlife. Back in the classroom, they helped us examine shark specimens and record data on them. 

The Lionfish. It's such a striking fish, right? Well, unfortunately, it was never meant to live in our waters. It's native to the South Pacific and Indian Oceans, and was introduced to the Atlantic Ocean 30 years ago. Today they can be found all along the coast from Brazil, along Mexico and up to Maine.

They will eat anything that will fit in their mouth, and they have no predators, so they've really wreaked havoc on our ecosystem. They can reproduce at an incredible rate of 30,000 eggs every 4 days (that's more than 2 million eggs per year) and can live up to 15 years! Our next project was to dissect a lionfish to learn more about their anatomy. 

Its 18 spines are used in defense to deliver venom that is extremely painful to humans and can cause difficulty breathing and on rare occasion, death. Thankfully, they've already been removed for our safety. He looks a bit grumpy, eh?

Pictured here is an ovary with eggs exposed and floating (bottom left), a gill (bottom right) and the stomach contents, which we believe to be a parrotfish (top). There was also a tiny shrimp, not pictured.

The next day we went out on the boat again in search of bottlenose dolphins. They stay in a general area, and can be identified by the markings on their fins. 

It was a challenge, but I was able to snap a few photos and when we compared them to the chart, we were able to identify this dolphin as Malone.

I was surprised to learn that the Tampa Bay is only about 6ft deep, except for the shipping lanes that were dredged thru it. Because this group has been collecting data on the aquatic life in found in the sargassum, they were able to chart the effect of the red tide in 2021. The pigfish and pinfish populations took a big hit that winter, while the mud crab population exploded. They eat dead fish and had fewer predators. A year after the red tide event, they were all approaching pre-red tide numbers.

We learned how installing a Living Shoreline can protect homes along the coast during storms. The Tampa Bay Discovery Center has a great display to show this in action. The vegetation reduces the reach of the waves. It also provides habitat for birds, oysters and other wildlife.

Next we learned about water quality by taking samples of the Bay and testing it. This is an activity I plan to do with my own kids and the students in our local nature club. 

Now this last part was not something I was initially interested in, but it ended up being one of my favorite parts. Plankton! We used special nets to collect plankton from just below the Bay pier. After a few minutes the little bottle was packed full of tiny phytoplankton (plant) and zooplankton (aquatic microorganisms). 

They just looked like little dots in the dish, but when I looked thru the microscope...

WOW! I saw details of so many different creatures. Things you can't even imagine. They moved so quickly it was hard to get great photos, but this gives you an idea. There were baby jellyfish, a horseshoe crab, and lots of other things. I wish everyone could experience seeing the tiniest of creatures like this. I found this the most exciting and shocking part of the camp. I am so thankful for being able to attend this special camp. It was a great experience and I'm looking forward to sharing what I've learned with others.

I'm thankful for my friend, Lisa, telling me about the camp and for hosting me at her lovely condo on the beach. She even took me to Fort Desoto to see the latest celebrities, three baby American Oystercatchers. This is the first time this species has successfully fledged young at the park in more than 20 years! Big thanks and congratulations to the volunteers who kept them safe. 

These are distant cell phone shots thru my scope. I didn't want to risk disturbing them.

If you are a teacher in the St Pete area, I strongly suggest applying for this camp. It's extremely educational and fun and will inspire you to share what you've learned with your students. I wish more organizations offered ecology camp experiences for adults. You can also work directly with Jeanne and Brian of Sensing Nature to book a family or group field trip, ecotour, custom program or attend one of their camps. They make learning a really fun experience! The Tampa Bay Watch Discovery Center has a mobile educational program where they will bring experiential learning to your school. Contact them for more info.