Headed West

Yesterday we started our journey westward from Iowa. The bad weather stayed to the south and we had clear skies all day. Unfortunately, the winds were strong and cold, making for a long day of driving. Between Grand Island, NE and Kearney, NE on I-80 there were tons of sandhill cranes! It is hard to say how many but considering we were seeing them consistently over a ~35 mile stretch I’d say we saw at least 10,000. There were large flocks across the fields and several flocks flying overhead towards the Platte River where they stay over night. We came to the area around dusk so it was perfect timing. We stopped at a rest stop where there was a flock of cranes hanging out in a cornfield behind the buildings. We took a few pictures but Matt’s new camera is giving him problems and neither of us has a wide-angle lens to get the full effect, but it was still cool to see so many cranes. We also saw flocks of snow geese, Canada geese, and ducks flying overhead. The rest of the day was rather uneventful. We reached our destination for the evening, Sterling, CO, around 10 pm Mountain time.

Today the drive was rather uneventful although the scenery was beautiful, and we did see several large herds of pronghorn antelope along the way. Through CO a blanket of snow covered the landscape but as soon as we hit the NM border the snow disappeared.

We arrived at the house in Bosque Farms around 8:30 pm MT. The house belongs to Geoff, a friend of our boss, and is apparently referred to as “Herp Tech.” The house is awesome and there are critters everywhere – 3 dogs, 3 cats, 2 tortoises, a rabbit, a skink, a hamster, fish, turtles, an iguana, and chickens! The house is what I imagine ours will look like one day with antlers, skulls, and herp stuff everywhere. Who could ask for a better place to hang our hats?

-Aubrey