Early – Mid June, 2024 – Blue Mountains NP, Great Barrier Reef, Australia

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Katoomba and Blue Mountains National Park

The Blue Mountains showed up on one of my searches of Sydney.  It is roughly 63 miles ENE of Sydney.  Since we are not renting a vehicle this trip, we are using one of Sydney’s trains to transport us there.  We are traveling light, fitting only the necessary items into our backpacks, leaving the heavy stuff behind at our hotel.  We walk three blocks to a subway station that takes us to the central train station.  From there we board a longer distance train, transferring to the train that takes us to the town of Katoomba, our chosen destination to see the Blue Mountains.

Early June, 2024 – Trip Preparation; Sydney, Australia

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Background

Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House

Since December of 2022 we have been considering hiking to basecamp of Mount Everest, not the peak, basecamp.  Basecamp in itself is quite a trek.  But digging into it more and more we decided to put that trip on hold, possibly indefinitely.  About that time Gary Hart, landscape photographer from CA, announced his new photography workshops for 2024.  Among them is ‘2024 New Zealand Winter’, a 10-day workshop on New Zealand’s South Island.  Usually when I see the listing it is already filled, with a waiting list.  Not this time.  Nicida and I talk it over, then decide to send off a check for the deposit.  We are in.

April 8, 2024 – In the path of Totality

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Waiting...

I didn’t know it at the time, this posting started right around August 1^st, 2017, three weeks before the 2017 total eclipse over the United States.  It ended May 6, 2024, you are reading it now.

Before the 2017 total eclipse, the last time the contiguous United States experienced a total eclipse was June 8,
1918, I wasn’t around to see it.

2023 – Mid September – Ouray, CO; Black Canyon NP

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Molas Pass

Ouray

Waking to a cool clear morning, we head back into Durango for gas for the next part of our journey.  We stop at a farmer’s market for ‘Palisades’ peaches.  We happened across these a few years ago and are hooked.  We also find plums, crenshaw melons, and coffee; we are set to go.  The ride to Silverton turns into an adventure, first heavy rain, then sleet, enough to accumulate on the road.  The weather changes between rain and clear for the next 30 minutes before finally clearing, giving us dry pavement.  The road winds up and over mountain passes, dropping into valleys.  Passing Silverton, the mountains take on hues of gold, copper and cream.

2023 – Early September – Cinnamon Pass; Handies Peak; Durango, CO

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Molas Pass

Our 6 AM alarm wakes us, we are ready.  Opening the garage door, heat and humidity slaps our faces, yet another reminder of why we are leaving.  We will be gone only two weeks but will enjoy every minute.  As of September 6th, we have enjoyed/endured 62 days, 29 of them consecutive, 100°+ temperatures.

After breakfast we pack our essentials; clothing, laptops, and camera gear.  Food goes in last.  We stuck with our regular plan of cooking everything at home, only having to thaw, then heat our meals each evening.  Unfortunately, our camper doesn’t have a freezer big enough for all our meals, so some of our prepared meals stay home.  Don’t worry we won’t starve.

2023 – Late May – Miami, Everglades NP, Biscayne NP, Dry Tortugas NP

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Fort Jefferson, Dry Tortugas

We are heading to Miami, FL on this trip.  To our delight we find out the Everglades, Biscayne and Dry Tortugas National Parks are within a few hours of Miami.  Our trip is twofold.  We are seeing Nicida’s family, we also extended our trip by a few days to take in the national parks of southern Florida.

2023 – Late April – Carlsbad Caverns NP, Guadalupe Mountains NP

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Carlsbad Caverns

Wildflowers, along the backroads to our next destination, announce that spring is in full swing.  Here in Texas it has been on display for a while.  Bluebonnets, the Texas state flower, are on their way out, replaced by paintbrush, primrose, and blanket flowers.  There are more, but I only see them as blankets of buttery yellows, through oranges on the color palette.  Other places have pinks, whites and reds.  Our first hour’s drive is full of exciting colors.

2023 – Early February – Grand Canyon NP

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Image captions note the locations where the images were taken.

Maricopa Point

After a several hour drive from Kingman, AZ, we stop in Ash Fork, AZ to stretch our legs.  The first place we see is the Ash Fork Historical Society Museum.  We enjoy visiting museums, so we stopped.  A volunteer welcomes us, “This is a hands-on museum.”  “Feel free to sit with the characters playing cards, try on the fire fighting gear, and sit in the old car.”  I can’t remember if it was a model T or A.  We have a great time doing ‘hands-on’  We spend an hour looking, then another half hour listening to our docent tell stories of the area.  It’s a great little local museum to visit.

2023 – Early February – Death Valley NP

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Mesquite Flat Dunes

Our destination is Death Valley National Park.  Last year, we spotted openings for Gary Hart’s Death Valley photography workshop, it fills fast, within a couple days of it opening.   We jump on it immediately.  A couple years ago we attended his Yosemite Valley workshop.  We enjoy attending his workshops, in our eyes, he is an outstanding landscape photographer.  Gary shares his knowledge, teaching us to plan our shots then, applying it to our own photography.  Between shooting sessions, we have group image critiques, we see everybody’s selected image, then learn ways to look at them differently, possibly improving them.

2022 Early December - Chile, Antarctica

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Punta Arenas

Punta Arenas

Our flight arrives in Punta Arenas at 800 AM.  We were able to doze a bit during the flight, but no real sleep.  It is cool, 50’s, and windy as we arrive, coat time.  There is no traffic on our 20-minute taxi ride to the hotel.  Punta Arenas has a population of 127,000, very small in comparison to the multi millions we’ve experienced in the big cities.  We arrive at the hotel at 830, the room is not ready.  We sit for a while searching the internet for a nearby restaurant.  We find a coffee shop/restaurant three blocks away. 
We pass the time, coffee for Nicida, hot chocolate for me, breakfast for both.  Returning to our hotel, we find our room is ready.  We settle in, relaxing a bit, before heading out for groceries.  It is convenient being in a small town, almost everything we need is within a three-block radius of the hotel.  After shopping we stroll down to the water, the Straits of Magellan.  The wind is still blowing, the deep blue water is covered with marching whitecaps.  Tomorrow, we learn about our Antarctic Expedition.