The ship is equipped and all systems appear to be in order.  We plan to rise early, breakfast, load the last minute items (including this computer), and depart at 7:15 so we can obtain a charge of propane in Shippensburg before 8 o'clock.  Then we fill the gasoline tank at Giant, taking advantage of a 30 cent per gallon discount and aim the rig west on the historic Pennsylvania Turnpike.  We usually avoid toll roads with the RV, but the tunnels make passage through the Ridge and Valley Provence much, much easier. 

We woke up to a (29 degree F) freeze this morning.  The bird bath was covered with ice.  Still the forecast is for a warming trend and good weather at our first stop near Burlington KS.  The birders report active migration there, even a flyover of a pair of Whooping Cranes yesterday.  If we see them we will know we are not in Pennsylvania anymore.  Spring is here even if the weather does not know it, and tens of thousands of birds are moving north up the Mexican mainland, across the Gulf of Mexico, and over the plains.  We should encounter many of them in our travels. 

This morning while carrying a load from the house to the RV I heard the calls of a Broad-winged Hawk, the first of the season, announcing its return to breeding territory in this forest.  I called to Anne and we spotted it flying across the back of our property.  How nice.  In a few days we may be finding Swainson's Hawk, a western species.  The reports indicate flocks of them sweeping across Kansas in the past few days.  We look forward to seeing them.

It will be almost a week before we reach Colorado.  We're hoping the snow starts to melt.  We'll be careful and were sobered by the report of snowboarders being lost in an avalanche at one of the high passes.  Avalanche warnings give me the willies.  If the conditions are bad, we will stay off of the snow.  We won't reach the Rockies until the end of the month.  Remarkably, Denver was warmer today than here. 

Jove, Allah, Jesus,
Nature, or Zeus.
Whatever you call
the creator, give him/her
thanks for the flowers.