Totally Perfectly Imperfect

Here comes the stormy season!
So rainy and windy today. Such a change from this past few months, and while I love hearing the rain and wind, I hate having to run to not get wet when I get stuck parked 7 miles from my house. Ok that's an exaggeration but people on our street are so selfish and park just shy of enough room for another car away from each other, just like they do at work. So I just did the dishes and read my new national geographic special and added new places to my places I have to visit list.

Fifty of them to be exact. So far the places topping my list are:

1) tepuis of southeastern Venezuela. The high plateaus that inspired sir Arthur Conan Doyle to write the book the lost world where dinosaurs still lived on top of the plateaus.

2) bialowieza, the last remnants of a primeval forest that once covered most of Europe. Once a hunting ground for nobility on the border of Poland and Belarus. Guided horse drawn carriage tours into the forest from the town of bialowieza, Poland.

3) badlands of South Dakota. Very cool look back to the place the dinosaurs lived, rich in fossil history.

4) Cape York, although I may never go due to the insane spiders in Australia, this area has it all: sand dunes, wetlands, savannah, rain forests, and scrub. Full of interesting animals including the cassowary, bandicoots, and sugar gliders.

5) jocassee gorges of north and South Carolina. Gorgeous waterfalls, wild turkeys, and the highest concentration of salamanders on earth. Also home to 90% of the worlds Oconee bells, a rare flower that blooms in April.

6) banff, probably the easiest for me, and the only one I've been to before. Next time I want to go on the sulphur mountain gondola.

7) namib, the desert in Namibia. I'd love to see the old abandoned mining towns that the sand is reclaiming.

8) baja, I want to see the cave drawings in San borjitas, north of mulege, Mexico.

9) big bend national park, Texas. More than 40 species of cactus and many animals are found here. One of the least visited national parks in the USA.

10) the great sand dunes of Colorado. You'd never expect sand dunes in Colorado, let alone ones you are encouraged to break pieces off, as they will be smooth again by morning.

11) cordillera Blanca, huascaran national park, Peru. Giant hummingbirds live here and home of the worlds largest bromeliad, the puya. They're 30-40 feet tall.

12) thar desert, India. The desert festival at Rajasthan has camels adorned in colorful finery, snake charmers, puppeteers, acrobats, dancing, and people in bright costumes singing ballads of bravery, love, and tragedy. Sounds brilliant,

That's how far I got so far, I still have to finish the chapter on arid places, and then there is coastal (hellllo white sand beaches), equatorial, and polar. Looks like I have a lot of traveling to do!

Then I realized my hay bale decoration was getting wet and I had to act fast because I'm pretty sure wet hay is akin to wet dog, smell wise. So I pulled a black garbage bag over the top, and with great difficulty, around the whole thing and tucked the edges underneath, all while moving it slightly more out of the rain. It is under a roof but the rain is just blowing sideways. I think it's safe now, although the big scarecrow fell over and a couple mini pumpkins came unglued. I can easily fix those. Tomorrow is gonna be hard though, I get off work at 11pm tonight and I'm covering afreen's shift at 6:30. But at least I'm off at 2:30 then. And I can live off caffeine. It's only one day, and I can nap when I get home. Winner winner chicken dinner.