On the Road With Yellow-Billed Magpies

Did we mention that we're on the road, heading south for a family reunion? We left on Wednesday and expect to reach our destination, my mom's in Orange County on Friday. Spent the first night at our good friend Tara's house. She cooked a delicious meal for us and gave us her bed. How incredibly generous and hospitable is that? I'm writing this from my sister's in Ventura County. We've covered 650 miles in two days, and on two tanks of gas-- that's $120 bucks (gas is still over $4.00 a gallon here). All of my siblings, their children and partners will be together for the weekend. We haven't all been together in many years. It should be a wild adventure.
One of our favorite things about traveling south on Highway 101 through the productive agricultural valleys, is a rest area just north of San Luis Obispo. We stop there because we know we'll see the Yellow-billed Magpies scavenging and begging for food. These magpies have never been seen outside of a small area of California. I have to admit it's hard to feel like we're seeing such a special bird when it's hanging out on a rest area garbage can scrounging around for any crappy crumb it can find. Still, we're always delighted to see them and glad that they were there, just as we had hoped.

Life is good. Our kitty cat has been left with two wonderful caregivers. We're driving along at 65 mph thinking of names for a new blog, laughing and crying about the state of the world, and wondering how it's all going to turn out.

How are you?