When travelling, we occassionally come across the truly unexpected jewel that you'll always remember and treasure. Dr Clair picked up a brochure at his motel for The Peregrine Fund and their World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise,Idaho. Since not too far off his route, he stopped by for a quick visit and was absolutely delighted at such a fantastic find! Dr Clair wound up spending an entire afternoon learning about the center and their efforts at captive breeding and falconry! Though seemingly in the middle of nowhere, the facility is obviously very well funded as evidenced by their property and buildings. Specifically not a raptor rehabilitator, the center is very active in captive breeding programs for the endangered California Condor and other birds of prey. Dr Clair enjoyed their separate building devoted entirely to the history and sport of falconry through the ages. As a wrap-up to the afternoon, there was a session of freeflighting some of the birds including gyrfalcon, previously endangered peregrine falcon and the ubiquitous little falcon, the American kestrel. Dr Clair will never forget having a peregrine falcon swooping low overhead, barely an arms length away, and knowing that part of the success for their population resurgence is due to The Peregrine Fund. Above all, Dr Clair recognizes that this gorgeous, well funded center and well trained staff were started one day with just an idea and a grass roots movement of dedicated people committed to seeing their efforts succeed and literally "Take-Off!" One can't help but recognize the parallels to our own organization,AWSOM, and the endless possibilities that can result with peristence, dedication and funding. We need to keep our sights and goals set high in order to succeed!
I was told by multiple people that the approach road to Grand Canyon West, the site of the Grand Canyon Skyway, was only paved part of the way and the rest was packed dirt and gravel. Well, it was packed into a motocross washboard with whoop-de-doos and the dust was so bad you couldn't see the vehicle in front of you! Discovered the best way to attack the rough road was standing on the pegs, motocross style, which is a bit unconventional for a Gold-Winger! Had I known how bad it was, I would still do it all over again but would have left my electronics like laptop and stuff back at the motel. I'm actually pleasantly suprised that everything still seems to work ok despite the rough handling. Took a helicopter ride over and into the Grand Canyon, an AWESOME experience! Also visited the Skyway and was photographed pretending to climb over the railing like a BASE jump but the Toyota jump turned out to be the best picture! There was lots of AWSOM interest today and sold 2 Liz-Tech flamingo pins to workers at the Route 66 Visitors Center. Passed out lots of postcards and the other people on the chopper with me were bull terrier breeders from New Zealand in the States for a big bully show in San Jose, California. Still managed 450 miles today and in Tucson tonight poised for an early start for Hermosillo, Mexico, the home of Jose Talamantes. Jose was a Rotary foreign exchange student that lived with our family in Jersey Shore > 30 years ago and he found me on Face-Book and we're meeting in Mexico tomorrow! Small world really!
