Road Trip – Wandering Dawgs

Lens Artists Photo Challenge # 215 – Planes, Trains and Automobiles – and the places they take us.

September 5, 2022Posted in Alaska, Road Trip, RVing, TravelTagged Alaska Cruise, Lens-Artists, Ocean Cruise, Planes Trains and Automobiles, Viking Ocean Cruise, Viking Orion27 Comments

The journey not the arrival matters
T. S. Eliot

John from Journeys with JohnBo has challenged us to focus on our journeys and the modes of transportation that got us there.

I am grateful for all the many places that planes, trains, automobiles, trucks, ships, boats, ferries, and buses have taken me. I have been fortunate to see most of the United States, several Canadian provinces, parts of Mexico, several European countries and several Caribbean countries.

For this challenge, I am focusing on our two journeys to Alaska. Our first visit to Alaska was in 2013 when we traveled from Georgia to Alaska and back towing our fifth wheel. Henry drove the truck 14,454 miles during our 106 days on the road.

We just returned from our long awaited second trip to Alaska. This time we flew to Anchorage and rode a bus to Seward to board the cruise ship Viking Orion for a 10 day cruise to Vancouver. We traveled in luxury and saw several new places we couldn’t visit by road.

Below you can see the two major modes of transportation from our two different Alaska journeys. Both journeys were spectacular with amazing landscapes and lots of wildlife.

While our truck was our main mode of transportation on our first Alaska adventure, we had to take a couple of ferries to get where we wanted to go.

We took the truck and RV on the Alaska Ferry from Skagway to Haines

There were places our truck couldn’t take us so we took a plane ride and landed on a glacier, took a ride on the Alaska Railroad, and took three amazing wildlife cruises.

This year, after two cancellations, we finally were able to take our Alaska cruise the end of August. Our journey involved planes, moving sidewalks in the airports, a beautiful ship, an Uber, sightseeing buses, a tender ride, two wildlife cruises, and lots of walking. It was wonderful seeing Alaska from the water. We really enjoyed returning to places we loved the first time as well as seeing places that were new to us.

Stay tuned for more from our latest Alaska adventure!

Many thanks to John of Journeys with Johnbo for his Lens-Artists Challenge #215 – Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #180 – Favorite Images of 2021

January 2, 2022Posted in Birds, Butterflies, Photography, Road Trip, SunsetTagged bloganuary, Favorite Photos, Lens-Artists, Photo Challenge, Road Trip, Sunday Stills31 Comments

I am grateful that in 2021 we were able to take a few road trips and get together with friends and family more than we could in 2020. The header photo is my favorite because we had such a fun day celebrating my birthday at Disney World’s Animal Kingdom.

January and February found me experimenting with closeups in my back yard, taking early morning walks on the beach, and enjoying the camellias in my garden.

In March we enjoyed a short road trip to Florida and a visit to Flannary O’Connor’s home Andalusia in Milledgeville, Georgia. A Brown Pelican in Cedar Key and a Peacock at Andalusia were my favorite images from those trips.

Spring flowers were spectacular in April.

May was a special month with a Mother’s Day weekend trip to visit our daughter’s family for the first time in over a year. I enjoyed her backyard garden and the wildflowers on a Mother’s Day walk beside a peaceful pond.

In June we made another road trip to Orlando to celebrate my birthday. A birthday lunch with a view of animals at Walt Disney Worlds Animal Kingdom Lodge was the highlight of the week.

In July and August the flowers in the garden attracted butterflies and bees and a Roseate Spoonbill made several appearances in the creek.

The rest of the year was filled with sunflowers, ospreys, beautiful mornings and spectacular sunsets.

There were also a few non photo worthy events in 2021. Among other things we survived a major remodel of a 1980’s bathroom, enjoyed a visit from my brother and his wife, celebrated a family Thanksgiving at home, cheered on one of our granddaughters at several sporting events, and enjoyed spending time with friends again.

Many thanks to Tina, Patti, Ann-Christine and Amy for another year of Lens-Artists Challenges. In 2022 we welcome three new hosts Sofia, Anne and John. I’m looking to forward to finding out what challenges they come up with this year.

Wishing you health, happiness, and much joy in 2022!

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #158 – Along Back Country Roads

July 24, 2021July 24, 2021Posted in Photography, Road Trip, TravelTagged Along Back Country Roads, Blue Ridge Parkway, Cataloochee Valley, Dalton Highway, Dead Peoples things for sale, funny signs, Great River Road in Arkansas, Lens-Artists, Ocala National Forest, Top of the World Highway158 Comments

I am honored to be guest hosting this week’s Lens-Artists photo challenge. As I pondered what topic to choose for the challenge I thought about how many of us are happy to be able to travel again. For this challenge I am asking you to show us your images that show your interpretation of going along a back country road. It can be a road where you walk, go for a bike ride, take a scenic drive, go off-roading in a jeep or four wheeler, or a road you take to get somewhere.

To me, a back country road can be any road that’s off the beaten track. The road can be paved, gravel or dirt. It can be one that takes you through farmland, desert, forests, quaint small towns, or in the middle of nowhere. It may even be one with quirky roadside attractions or funny signs you see along the way.

When we go on a road trip we enjoy getting off the main highways for a more scenic drive. Recently, we have even started avoiding interstate highways altogether. The header photo at the top of the page was taken on the Dalton Highway north of Fairbanks, Alaska.

Have you ever driven by a dirt road and wondered where it went? That’s just what we did one time when taking a scenic drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina. We couldn’t resist turning on the road in the first image below. I don’t remember where we ended up but the beautiful stream shown in the second image ran beside the road.

Sometimes the only way to get where we want to go is on a dirt or gravel road. These next three images are examples of some we have taken in our adventures.

*The Great River Road in Arkansas follows the Mississippi River*

*Top of the World Highway in Yukon Territory, Canada*

*A steep dirt and gravel road to Cataloochee Valley in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park in North Carolina*

On a recent trip to Orlando, we traveled over 1,000 miles without driving on an interstate or major highway. It was heaven not dealing with semis or drivers passing us like it was the Daytona 500.

The roads were paved, two lane roads with little traffic. There were some fun things to see as we drove along.

*Woodbine Fire Museum and Antique Shop on Highway 17 in Woodbine, Georgia*

*Businesses just outside the Oca*la National Forest, Florida

*I wondered where this road went in the* Ocala National Forest

*Lunch was delicious at this popular local restaurant in Salt Springs, Florid*a

I’m honored to be one of the guest hosts for the month of July while Tina, Ann-Christine, Patti and Amy took the month off.

In your post, please include a link to my original post and use the Lens-Artists tag so everyone can find your post in the WordPress reader. Be sure to check out the first three guest hosted challenges.

John Steiner of Journeys with JohnBo – On the Water

Anne Sandler of Slow Shutter Speed – Black and White

Bert and Rusha Sams of Oh the Places we see – Getting Away

Next week on July 31, please visit Ana Campo of Anvica’s Gallery for her challenge – “Postcards.”

I’m looking forward to seeing where your back country roads have taken you!

A Magical Birthday Week

July 5, 2021July 5, 2021Posted in Celebration, Florida, Restaurants, Road Trip, TravelTagged birthday, Chef Mickeys, Disney World, Kona Cafe, Orlando, Palatka, Sanaa, Walt Disney28 Comments

That’s the real trouble with the world, too many people grow up
Walt Disney

Henry and I both celebrated milestone birthdays this year. His was in May and mine was the last week of June. Sorry, you’ll have to guess our ages! What better way for two seniors to celebrate than to be kids again. We went to Disney World!

We took our time and stayed off the Interstates on the way to and from Orlando. We even broke up the trip on the way down with a night beside the St. John’s River in Palatka, Florida. Our room overlooked the Veteran’s Memorial Plaza and river walk beside the river. We enjoyed two fabulous waterside meals our first day. Lunch at Skippers in Darien, Georgia is always delicious. Corky Bells on the St. John’s River was crowded but we found two seats at the bar and enjoyed a great dinner.

The next day, our room was ready when we arrived at our resort in Orlando early in the afternoon. Our condo was about 15 minutes from any place we wanted to go at Disney World.

On most trips to Orlando we spend at least one day in one of the theme parks. This was not one of those trips. Our plans for the week were to relax, enjoy the amenities at the resort where we were staying, and get our Disney fix by dining at three Disney restaurants.

Our first Disney dining experience was at Kona Cafe at the Polynesian Village Resort. As we explored outside before lunch we had fun reminiscing about our stay there about 40 years ago. Lunch was fabulous!

We weren’t going to a theme park but we still wanted to experience some Disney magic. What better way to do that than to go to Chef Mickey’s Fun Time Character Dinner at the Contemporary Resort on the night before my birthday.

We arrived at the Contemporary Resort about an hour before our reservation. Sipping a cocktail while watching an afternoon thunderstorm over the lake was a nice start to the evening.

Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto and Donald Duck all made appearances. As each character walked through the restaurant they stopped in front of each table to wave and pose for pictures. Seeing the excitement in the kids eyes as each character came by was priceless. I don’t know who enjoyed it more – the little kids or us.

It was pouring down rain after dinner but before heading back to our condo we took a monorail ride around the lake.

The next day was my birthday. It would be hard to top dinner with Mickey Mouse but we did. Our lunch in Sanaa Restaurant in Kadani Village at the Animal Kingdom Lodge was amazing. The restaurant overlooks a savanna with giraffes, zebras, impalas, wildebeest, and other animals. Before and after our meal we watched the animals from an overlook outside. Our table was at a window with a great view of the animals as we ate. The meal was the best we had all week and the live entertainment outside the window was perfect.

When we weren’t out eating we enjoyed sitting on our screened in porch overlooking a pond or going to one of the pools. The pond attracted several Florida birds who came to the pond to fish. Great Blue Herons, a little blue heron, egrets, an osprey, and an ibis all made appearances.

We’ve been to Walt Disney World many times since the 1970’s. We learned on this trip that you can have fun without going to one of the theme parks. You are never too old to be a kid at heart!

I only hope that we don’t lose sight of one thing – that it was all started by a mouse.
Walt Disney

Lens-Artists #104: Summer

July 10, 2020Posted in Photography, Road TripTagged Lens-Artists, Photo Challenge, summer35 Comments

This July “Seasons” will be the theme for the entire month with a different season featured each week. Amy is starting the challenge with “summer”. For this challenge I’m taking a trip down memory lane to some of my most memorable summer road trips.

When I was growing up my family took a road trip every summer to visit relatives. However, the most memorable summer road trip from my childhood didn’t revolve around visiting family. In the summer of 1959, when I was eight years old, my father’s work required him to spend several weeks in California. My whole family went with him on a cross country road trip to see America. I spent many hours sitting between my two brothers in the back seat of our Ford station wagon as we made our way to the west coast. We stopped at national parks, a Santa Claus village, prairie dog towns, and bought cowboy hats. While in California we panned for gold, went to Disneyland, San Francisco, and Yosemite. On the return trip back east we saw more national parks and many more road side attractions. There’s more about my 1959 adventure at Revisiting My Childhood in Pictures.

Ford-on-Utah-State-Line — Our family of 5 traveled cross country and back in this Ford Station wagon in 1959

Old-Faithful-Lodge — Old Faithful Lodge in Yellowstone National Park, 1959 ~ photo from my Dad’s digitized slide

San-Francisco-street — San Francisco street, 1959 ~ photo digitized from my Dad’s slide

Now flash forward to 2006 when Henry and I made our first cross country RV trip. Our main destinations were the Grand Canyon North Rim, Yellowstone, Glacier National Park, three Utah National Parks, the Black Hills and lots of places in between.