Goodbye, 2009!

Happy New Year to all our family and friends!

It's been an exciting year. We towed Venture nearly 12,000 miles through the US and Canada.

States we’ve visited

Provinces we’ve visited

It's been a wild ride.

Today was a lovely day for the 2009 finale--sunny and 79, with a beautiful clear blue sky. During breakfast a juvenile hawk (Coopers or Gray?) sat outside our window on the fence and posed for several minutes. I didn't want to disturb it--so no photos. Just a lovely experience.

Later we biked over to the World Birding Center, and this time lots of birds came out for Ken to photograph. I even got a shot of some javelinas at one of the water features with my Droid. The three javelinas walked up to the water and drank noisily. Then one decided to try some running water, so it reared up by the fountain.

This tiny Ferruginous Pygmy Owl was attracting big attention! Two big cameras with
long telephoto lenses were pointing up at this tree, so it was easy for us to spot this cute bird.

Ladderback woodpecker just arriving for a snack

A congress of Green Jays

Altamira Orioles showing off their brilliant plumage

This javelina evidently prefers running water 8-)

When we got back home, UPS had delivered a package, which turned out to be RV business cards with a picture of Venture on the back. Thanks, Terri!

We spent some time researching emergency road service providers. We have had Good Sam ERS, but weren't too happy with the response when we had our flat tire outside of Nashville. We noticed on the Boomer BB that some folks were recommending Coach Net. It's easy to find people happy with either of those services, and also easy to find people unhappy with them, but on balance it looks like Coach Net may be a better choice. One factor to be considered is that the Affinity Group that owns Good Sam appears to be having financial difficulties.