#airstreamwanderlust

[anamericanstream]

Adaptation through natural selection

Adaptation through natural selection

Trees migrate “What!?” you say. Wood is hard, slow growing, and rooted. Are trees sentient? Can they perceive and feel things? There is growing evidence that trees and plants have these characteristics, and are able to inform each other chemically—through soil at least—about environmental effects on a basic level. The below link is an 18-minute TED talk from a forest scientist on her research…

View On WordPress

[anamericanstream]

Canada Ho!

Stardate 2001 A 21-years-younger us pulled into the queue before the Matanuska Ferry, operated by the Alaska Marine Highway System—the only highway that reaches many towns in the 49th State. We had reservations for our Toyota pickup, and a small berth for the four-day journey up the Inside Passage from Bellingham, Washington to Haines, Alaska. After being flagged on board the parking deck with a…

View On WordPress

[anamericanstream]

North with the spring

For those of you not familiar with Edwin Way Teale, he was a peripatetic naturalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer who lived in the first half of the twentieth century, primarily known for his book series, The American Seasons. Edwin and his wife Nellie documented the changing seasons, flora, and fauna during their more than 75,000 miles of North American automotive travels. Ruth’s and my…

View On WordPress

[anamericanstream]

Muskeg, Moose, Muskrats—and Mosquitoes

Muskeg, Moose, Muskrats—and Mosquitoes

As we drive north through Maine, the passing geography changes decidedly. The earth begins to take on a rich mufti of red, green, and brown mostly unseen in the Lower 48. Around 20,000 years ago, the on-again-off-again ice sheets had made their way all the way down to New York City, reaching a height of over 1,000 feet over present day Manhattan. During the last retreat, this massive ice field…

View On WordPress

[anamericanstream]

**IT Happens…

Yep, freewheeling on the road is an antidote to constipation of the spirit. What strange synchronicity of events conjures a “good” or “bad” day? Do events in time create attractiveness like magnetic black holes?

We wind through dark, narrow, rain-drenched canyons, encountering no traffic crazy enough to be on these serpentine roads in this ominous weather. Passing entrance and exit markers of…

View On WordPress

[anamericanstream]

Arizona Cataclysm Reprised: In the Matrix

Arizona Cataclysm Reprised: In the Matrix

One of our readers, Michael Luxem, wrote a fact-check comment in response to the blog post, Arizona Cataclysm, that stated, “It is difficult to imagine something only 160 feet in diameter—about the length of three semi-tractor trailers—having that much destructive power. F = ma.”

I pulled the statistics for this blog post from numerous web sources including Wikipedia, but I must admit I didn’t…

View On WordPress