Chaos in Grand isle La

Eds Adventures; I finally found out where the action is and am in  Grand Isle St Park, La and it happens that the president did a press conference at the park on Friday. Unfortunately a friend and I had left to see where the conference would be as noone really knew. Whe we came back to the camp Secret Service would not let us back in. 

We then went to get a bite to eat and were interviewed by the Finland Press who were hanging out. Sure wish I had Finland Cable to see my 15 minutes of fame. In the meantime a stranger overheard me and made a phone call to the head of Fish & Wildlife in the area. He then escorted me there and I met with him. He may have a paid job as an observer for wildlife damged in the spill. It will be a political process but may here something this week.

I met some great biologist at the camp and so it has been wonderful hanging out with them. Thank goodness as it has been very challenging in so many ways. The political process is so unbelievable and took a few days to get any contacts. Most of the folks working in the wildlife and science area are great. The people of the area are so worried about their livleyhoods most are commercial fishermen and the rest are oil related. BP has hired lots of the fishermen to help with obsering and catching injured wildlife so that is helping. They also have thousands working on the beach clean-up areas and reporters and other agencies.  It is helping the econmy as the beach is closed and tourist business is dead.

We ended up getting out on a observer boat yesterday for 5 hours and came back to a huge storm on the gulf. No problems with a great captain " Freddy"  except I did not know we would be on a boat all day. I left my camper open and came back to a wet mess of cushions and matresses. No damage thankfully but just another challenge along the way.  It has been pretty crazy and am trying to get into a rythem here. Tough with so much going on. The beaches are closed and no shade with 95 and 90 percent humidity and showers is not so much fun. Hopefully I will find a cheaper place to stay in the next week or so.

It is a wild ride but good things are happening and know that things are working out.

Hope everyone is having a great Memorial Day weekend.

Take Care

Ed

Back to Bayou Country of Louisiania

Eds Adventures: I did not get a chance to enjoy the La wetlands the first time through in April but am loving it now at end of May. Hot and humid compared to the desert but I spent the morning kayaking the Atchafalya river basin with gators and back in nature again. It always brings me back to what is real in life. The past few weeks brought so much change in different ways from the beauty of desert and mnts to the water and wetlands of La. All so amazing in different ways. It helps bring faith of a wonderful Spirit who created life and all its forms and calls us to protect and care for it as we care for others. If we can see the connection between religion and our planet and the need to protect all then a transformation takes place that changes everything. No longer are we driven by ego and power, money and material things. Then we are driven by compassion and love and caring for all things.

What a different eco-system this time around. I thought I was going to miss the wetlands and ocean but life has a strange way of bringing you to where you belong at the time. I wish it was for a different reason though. I am currently at Lake Fausse St park about 30  miles south of Layfeyette La. What a beautiful place as all the state parks have been along the journey. This one has a spot on the river with a deck and place to put my kayak in at. How much better does it get. The hiking and biking is great and I feel alive again. The l,ast 10 days of classes and driving left me a zombie. After a good nights sleep and excersize today for the first time in weeks  it feels good. Nature always does that for me. A good shower and nice dinner of Progresso Soup and Smucker P&J, and I am ready to venture forth to the unknown.

I started a great book that Fr Richard gave me called "Field Of Compassion" by Judy Cannato. It talks about the spirit of Christian Life of Jesus and the connection to the the spirit of energy and transformation of our lives. Sounds kind of heavy but a simple message. The key is meditation and contemplation. It is so hard to take time during our crazy lives to stop and just quiet ourselves so we are open to the spirit. It takes only a few minutes to quiet our minds and open our hearts to the spirit. So many wonderful things have happened to me these last few years.  I had no idea exactly but was open to change. Slowly letting go of what I thought was important and setting new values for my life. Making a difference for people and nature was the premise. I never thought I would end up working with  sea turtles and caregiving as a result. Allowing the thoughts and passions within brought me to the places I needed to  fullfill the dreams. The people and events all have devine spiritual purpose in our lives if we wake up and follow our hearts instead of our minds. Let go of the ego and marvelous things start to happen. It is not a heaven we hope for in eternal life but the heaven we create here and now that will bring lasting peace and joy.  Jesus taught us that we may be full of life and will do great things and that is our call.

My plan is to work my way SE along the coast to the command centers. I have done my training and have signed up for several org doing wildlife rehab. The politics and coordination involved are a challenge so it seems best to just head to the sites.  After another day here I will leave on Thursday and head to Houma and a coordination center for the holiday.

I hope that everyone has some time off to enjoy family and remember those gone on this Memorial Day.

Check out some pics from bayou country below. A litle different than the desert.




Take Care







Ed

Back to Texas

Eds Adventures: I spent the last two days driving back east on I-10 to San Antonio.

The two weeks in the mtns was so beautiful and full of nature. The last day we got to help with a hummingbird monitering network and spent the morning catching, blackchinned, blue throated and magnificant hummingbirds. We caught banded and released about 30 birds and saw the beautiful orioles at the feeder. the experience was great and now have a good network in the area.

 Last week was an adventure taking a 5 day class on Haz materials with a group of mining folks in Tucson. The class and teacher were really good and I learned a lot about what I will be facing in the gulf with toxic chemicals. The class of students was quite a group and provided a real opportunity for growth. Fortunately the test was quite easy.
The week was great spending time with Fr. Richard. It made the week so nice coming back and having dinner and drinks with Richard and Jonah, Richards great dog. Richards borther, David and his wife are good friends from my Boston days so it sure was wonderful seeing them.What a nice time and respite from a tough week. I left yesterday morning and hope to reach Layfeyette La tomorrow. near there in Amelia is one of the regional centers for the disaster and hope to find out information with a wildlife refuge group to get hired. It looks like you have to work for BP or a aproved company handing the process. Hopefully I will have a good idea on where to get settled this week.

I am not sure what will happen or where I will end up in the journey but still feel a certain amount of comfort knowing this is my calling for the summer. It is going to be heartbreaking this week seeing the disaster and adjusting to the environment and people dealing with this disaster.  Please keep me in your thoughts as I enter another new chapter this week.

Hope that everyone has great plans for Memorial day weekend.

Take Care

Ed

Lab with High Speed

Eds Adventures: Andres, one of the volunteers showed me where the high speed int access is so am here updating the blog with pics and researching the oil spill recovery. Alos may have to come up and watch a little tv at night on the web.

Things are good here and enjoying the time and relaxing today a bit. I will be starting class again in a few days and then on my way again. It seems a few weeks is about the right time for being here. I have hiked and seem much of the area around here. There are a lot of great places but some pretty far drives on gravel roads.

Check out the great pics over the last week here.

Take Care

Ed

Mtns of AZ

Eds Adventures; Working this week mostly at night in kitchen for a fw hrs and rest of day off. Found the Silver Peak trail this morning. I have been hiking about three hours a day in morning and then read, e-mail and interent for the afternoon along with just hanging out on cave creek watching the water flow by and listen to all the birds.

It is the first time in my life that I have truly slowed down and no longer driven by events, time or ego and at peace doing nothing just  listening and appreciating the beauty. 

It is pretty quiet here with a few researchers and staff and birders coming through. Will be leaving Sun morning back to Fr. Richards and Haz MAt Training in Tucson. I still have a break problem with the camper and need to take down the camper and test the system to see if it wll work. I will probably do this on friday and stay in the cave for 2 nights incase I need to drive to get parts. Andres is a volunteer PHD student form Australia and has the cave to himself. It sleeps 6 and has barely functioning toilet and shower. I have been staying in my camper and just showering there. I really hope that Steve, maintenance person here is going to help look at it with me. It will all work out and I may have to take it in Tucson to be worked on. I need the awning fixed and check out the a/c and general maint. before heading to La.

Will download pics when have better interent serv in Tucson.

Tale Care

Ed

SouthWest Research Station

Eds Adventures: Going on my second week here. I had Sun off and went to Douglas Az with stores and cell service and everything. It is kind of funny after being in the mtns. but sure do love the peace and serenity surrounded by the stream and mtns and birds.

We have entolomogist studying bugs at night here this week from Univ of Canada. It is so fun to have all kinds of scientist here studying diiferent plant and animal life here. It really is a unique and diverse ecosystem. When I came back yesterday it was so amazing to drive down this raod for about 10 miles leading nowhere and then you see this unbelievable canyon cut out fo the mtns with Douglas Fir Trees and old growth forest as yuo climb in elevation from 2500ft to 5500ft.

I drove up to Rustlars Park and barfoot Lookout on Sat. It is 10 miles straight up the mtn at 10-15 mph to 8200 ft. It is really something hiking up there. I went on the Crest Trail and Barfoot Lookout trails. I have pics of snow still up there. It was just me and the birds and bears. We sae a coatimudi, think cross between a racoon and a Lemur run across the road the otehr night. It seems most of the wildlife is seen close to or crossing the road. I think I will just walk the road at night to see my wildlife. No cars to speak of up here.

We had a fire start last week about 6 hr hike into the mtns. About 95 acres have been lost and they brought in the Hot-Shots from Tucson who have been battling it with the US Fire Service from around. The winds really picked up yesterday and I spoke with the Us Fire folks in Portal AZ and said it was out and they were going to moniter it for a few days. It can be really bad news around here when fire hits as the canyons trap you in when a fire starts.

I played golf at Douglas Golf Club on the windiest day I have ever played. About 40-45 mph and it was crazy. There were all the great birds there because of ponds and water along the course. It was quiet and just great to play 18 holes. Shot a 89 with 4 pars on the back nine.  Nice to get back to civilaztion a bit and shop and wash my car.

Sunday I will be ttraveling back to Tucson to stay with Fr. Richard for the week while I go through Haz Mat Training from 5-17-5-19. Then off to Louisiana and wil probably start near Port Charles and work my way east depending on what I here from the organzations I have been in contact with.

Hoping everyone had a nice Mothers Day weekend. I spent mine with MOM in mind knowing she loves the desert and the fact I was back here again seeing Pat and Sue and my nieces. Can not seem to get any more pics to download right now.

Take Care Ed

Update from S AZ Coranado Nat Forest - SW research Station

Eds Adventures;  Made it back down here after the best visit with family in Phoenix and my friends Richard, David and his wife. It has been 25 years and still great friends even if we do not see each other for years at a time. Fr Richard has been at Corpus Christi InTucson for 11 years and they ahve just finished a magnificant church in the desert surrounded by the mtns. It is an awesome parish and very progressive. It was great to catch up with friends and now am down about 3 hours from Tucson In Coranado natl Forest and Southwest research Station. I have been reduced to KP duty for about 10 days but 4 hours of work and rest of day top hike and enjoy the outdoors. I get 3 meals a day and free hook-up and my own nice spot down by the straem with the camper.

It is a lot fo fun and other volunteers and most of staff are great. A few need to be killed with kindness and then try to stay out of the way and do the best job i can.  I spent the morning with Ceaser who is a bilogy student from NYC studying black tipped rattlesnakes. We found a rock rattlesnake, pics below and had a great morning hiking. All the volunteers are fun and the researchers and staff have been great.

I will be here until May 16th and then in Tucson with Haz Mat training before heading to the  Gulf. I have signed up for a number of orgs so will find out where the needs are in a few weeks.

What a journey with its twists and turns but the road is clear and although it is going to be really hard to see the devestation, know that is where I am called. So I will enjoy the beauty fo SW desertt and mtns for the next week and journey forth back east.

I appreciate sharing the journey with you and hope that everyone is well and healthy. Summer is almost here and hope evryone has wonderful plans with family and friends for vacation.

Take Care and God Bless

Ed