East of the Mississippi Bucket List

 I've spent a lot of vacation time and driving time hitting up as many things on my "East of the Mississippi Bucket List" as I possibly could afford in both time and money. It's not much of a secret that if I could spend a year traveling in the American west I would do it in a heartbeat. I make many financial decisions knowing that will be my ultimate goal. I would very much like to pack up and visit everything from the desert southwest to the Seward Peninsular in Alaska. I have a six foot bookshelf dedicated to hiking, fishing, bird ID, and national parks to prove it. Someday

   However, in the meantime, I have tried to see everything I have wanted close enough to do so. Since I got vaccinated in May 2021 I have planned vacations and getaways based on priority on what I most want to see and do than say price or convenience. Even when I've gone to places I've already been I've made it a point to include bucket list items. For example, when we went to DC to see the Cherry Blossoms (which in itself was something I've wanted to do for 30 years). We also included daytrips to Civil War battlefields and Blackwater NWR. I've wrote about all of my journeys on my blog so I won't relive them here. 

   Since I've really put in this effort, I spent a little while this week really coming up with what is left of my list and try to figure out if or when I can do them. I try not to put down every native fish on my list. There are a few fish species I really want to catch. 

   Same with birds, I try not to have a hundred different birds on my list. What I usually do is have a most wanted bird. Once I see it, then I'll figure out a next most wanted. When I first got serious about birding, I most wanted to see a Painted Bunting which happened in Florida 2019. After that I wanted to see Roseate Spoonbill, which I missed on that 2019 Florida trip. I saw my first one at Brigantine NJ in 2021. Then my next most wanted bird wasn't even a lifer. I wanted to Black Necked  Stilts. I'd seen one roughly twenty years ago. I only saw the one but didn't get a photo. I saw them at Pea Island this year and got decent photos at Bombay Hook on our way home from DC. The new bird on my list is Elegant Trogan which only lives in a small area of southeast AZ. As for birds east of Big Muddy, I haven't picked a new most wanted yet.

    Anyway, here is what I have left. Admittedly, this is a personal list for me, and may possibly be nothing the reader wants to do, but maybe it will get you thinking about accomplishing things on your own list.

Florida- When I say east of the Mississippi, I should also write north of Florida. Since FL is so much different than anywhere else, it has special animals and places like nowhere else in the lower 48. I want to catch a Peacock Bass and a Tarpon. I do not need a two hundred pound tarpon. I'd like a 25-40 pounder(s). I'd rather catch a few than fight the same one for two hours. There are also two places I want to bird/hike/ wildlife watch Merritt Island and Myakka River. I didn't get to these two places on my Florida trips. I'd also like to go shelling either to an island and/or Bowman Beach at Sanibel Island. 

  Of course there are many things I want to do again like snorkeling. Two places I want to snorkel are Looe Key and Sombrero Reef. I'd absolutely swim with manatees again. I'd stay at Bahia Honda and snorkel there again. Basically everything I've ever done in Florida from looking at Alligators to  eating Key Lime Pie in Key West I'd do again. I have so many memories from my Florida trips.

Fish- Besides Peacock Bass and Tarpon, there are a few species of fish I really want to catch.

   Chinook Salmon. I'd love to catch a Chinook Salmon from a Great Lakes tributary. Either the Oswego  River or the Salmon River. This may be the most exciting thing left on my list

   Northern Pike- I tried for a full day at Moore Reservoir, NH last year. I had one follow and caught a few Smallmouth. I will try again this fall.

   Catfish- I want to catch a big catfish. It doesn't matter to me if it is a Channel, Flathead, or Blue Cat. And size is irrelevant. Both the Blue and Flathead can reach up near one hundred pounds. I will be happy with any over ten pounds. Ten pounds is still a decent fish. I'll be happy with bigger, but anything over ten will make me happy.

Get a photo of a bull elk after it shed its velvet off its antlers. This may seem easier in the western part of the country, and you are probably right. But there are plenty of eastern states that elk have been introduced. They are famous enough in PA to have a county named after them. Elk can also be found in large numbers in eastern Kentucky and the Great Smokey Mountains. I have a friend that moved to western PA and said I could crash at his house if I wanted to go there. This would be a late Sept through early winter thing

See the AC/DC tribute band Dirty Deeds again. Seeing them has been something I've wanted to do for years, I saw them on Wednesday, but I missed the first twenty minutes. They sound and look just like the real AC/DC. 

Gunpowder Falls, MD Gunpowder Fall is one of the premier tailwater fisheries in the east. I tried to go there on my NC trip, but it was too far out of the way. I just want to catch one wild trout, species is irrelevant.

Cape May Birding- I'd prefer to go there during spring migration, but fall migration with thousands of hawks might be better. I just want to go there.

Conowingo Dam- is where dozens if not hundreds of Bald Eagles winter. The photo ops are endless of them fishing and trying to steal each others fish. Of everything on the list, including individual fish species and seeing a tribute band, this is the least important to me. But if the opportunity arose, I'd go. 

Two things very close to home are on my to do list this fall if possible:

Fish the Mashpee and Qhashnet River in Falmouth and catch a sea run brook trout. They are wild fish

See a Copperhead. There are Copperheads in Connecticut and someone told me where to look. I hope to make it there to see them.

   That's pretty much it. I could do everything north of Florida in a two week trip in September and early October. A Florida trip just focused on my bucket list would only take a few days, but there is so much to see and do in Florida, I'd spend a lot longer than that. Especially since I love to snorkel so much, I'd want to do that as much as possible. Still, this list was a whole lot longer a couple of years, some puffins, and many species ago!

Barely Anything

  I haven't done much this summer. Been nursing a sore back since the end of June. Still, if you barely do anything, that is more than doing absolutely nothing. So over the last six weeks I have accumulated a couple of memories despite spending most of my time lying on the couch. 

   By far the most important thing that happened over the last few weeks was seeing my son. After three years of living in Cambodia, he visited home. He was home for about ten days. Obviously, we didn't do a lot because of my back. Add to that, it was ninety five degrees almost the whole time he was home, there was a lot time spent by his mother's pool. We did get out twice. Once we looked for snakes, having a very memorable encounter with a huge Black Racer. The other time we went birding. The highlight was seeing a Peregrine Falcon on the mudflats at Charlestown.

    This weekend Laurie and I went to a skating competition in Norwood, MA. Unlike last year, there were very few former Olympians at this event. The field was not deep and there were a lot of falls. My back was hurting so the quality of the competition was only adding to my agony.  The best two people there were an American named Amber Glenn and a Canadian named Maddy Schizas. Neither performed to their potential. Though Amber bounced back the second day. 

Maddy Schizas

Other than seeing my son, the highlight for the last few weeks was a life bird I saw on Monday. My friend Patrick Felker found a  Red Pharalope in Newport in the morning. All day people were deciding if it was a  Red Pharalope or a Red Necked  Pharalope. Later in the day, my friend Sue Palmer refound the bird and confirmed it was a Red Pharalope. So I ran down at 7 pm and got it. I only know of one other in RI since I got serious about birding.

Today I went for a walk looking for Red Bellied Cooters. I didn't find any. I really didn't see much but I came across a Red Squirrel that did some really cool poses.