It’s early morning. The car is packed with snacks, lunch, water and lots of camera gear. Excitement fills the air. We chat about our hopes of seeing a Moose, of taking photos of other wildlife and capturing the serenity of nature, and of breathing into our lungs the fresh air in the higher elevations of Rocky Mountain National Park.

Leaving Loveland we travel west along the twisty Big Thompson River, into the narrow canyon and continue climbing until we reach Rocky Mountain National Park. We make one stop along the way. A stop in Drake; I want to look for a Dipper.

I have fond memories of observing Dippers feeding along the Big Thompson River years ago when we first moved to Colorado. We pull over and search the banks of the river, but our luck isn’t with us on this endeavor. We hop back into the car and continue our journey. We enter and drive through the town of Estes Park and soon we reach the entrance booth into Rocky.

We stop at Sheep’s Lake, because Linda had heard that the day before a Moose had been spotted wondering around the area. We stopped also, because we just couldn’t drive by this picturesque scene. We didn’t see a Moose, but stood in awe gazing at the beautiful, snow-covered mountain tops and enjoying the quiet.

After “drinking” in the beauty of Sheep’s Lake, we continued toward Endovalley.

As we travel along, I stop the car and ask Linda “What is that bird sitting on the branch of that tree? Oh, its a Tree Swallow.” I jump out of the car, grab my camera from the back seat and try to capture this gorgeous Tree Swallow as it sits in the sun preening. The first photo above is the ever swooping, diving, sliding little swallow as it takes a “sun” break. What a beautiful area this little Tree Swallow calls home.

Slowly driving a little further we enjoy the scenery and just had to stop when we saw these backlit, Aspens. Yes, spring has reached some areas in Rocky! The photos don’t reflect the beauty of these trees as a faint breeze and morning light kiss their new leaves.

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A glance across the road reveals the beauty of more Aspen, plus the signs that Elk have been enjoying a snack.

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Well little Tree Swallow, thanks for sunbathing this morning. You invited us to pause for a closer look, giving us a chance to observe your surroundings and to photograph you. Thanks for sharing your home with us today!

Our day in Rocky Mountain National Park  continues, so stay tuned.

Myakka River State Park, Sarasota, Florida

It began to rain last evening around 9:30pm. It has rained a lot while we have been in Florida this winter thanks to El Nino. The rain continued all night.

The rain was extremely heavy, the thunder loud, waking us up periodically. Around 3:15am or so our iPhones were screeching, lighting up our bedroom. We knew right away that a weather alert was sent to the phone. It stated: “Severe Thunderstorms in the area until 4:00am.” Okay, we could deal with that, we certainly knew we were right in the middle of a severe thunderstorm.

The next screech alerted us a few minutes later, “Tornado Warning until 4:15am, Seek Shelter Immediately.” Okay, this isn’t good.” What to do?

The next alert came within minutes, “Tornado Warning until 4:30am, Seek Shelter Immediately.” Still the question, “what to do”. Its very dark here in the park, it is raining hard, the wind is gusting and we are in a RV!

It continued to rain heavily, the lightning and thunder were frequent,  and the wind was gusting at times, rocking the coach. It was reported this morning, that in some areas the wind gusts were 125mph.

We began to watch the radar on the iPhone, watching the little blue dot that was us, wishing this storm would pass over quickly. Eventually it passed and we fell back to sleep. Needless to say, it was scary. Our winter home on wheels is no completion against a tornado.

This morning, watching the Weather Channel, we learned that there were two tornadoes near us, houses and businesses were damaged, two people were killed and many others injured.

We have never experienced anything this severe while traveling in our coach. Yes, we have been in thunderstorms and high winds, but we haven’t been in the vicinity of two tornadoes before.

We were fortunate, we had our iPhones and received these alerts, at least we knew what was going on. I have to wonder, what should/could we have done, if anything?

Our heart goes out to those who were in harms way.