Kings on the Road

Cruising Australia

Posted on December 13, 2017 by Kings On the Road

By definition cruising provides a sampler of multiple destinations. Our time in Australia was a real sampler. The cruise on Explorer of the Seas ended in Sydney and our second cruise on Celebrity Solstice started a day later. Fortunately our friends Jeff and Kaye picked us up early on our arrival day and we had all of that plus most of a second day before we boarded. The cruise dock is right in the heart of Sydney so we had a walking tour of many of the city’s highlights including the Opera House, Circular Quay, Sydney Botanical Garden and the oldest part of the city. Crossing the magnificent harbor on the Harbor Bridge our friends took us to the interesting Q Station Sydney Harbour National Park on the North Head. Q Station was a quarantine holding and treatment area for immigrants for over 100 years. Kaye volunteers at the nearby cemetary where she researches the stories of those buried there. We learned a bit of Australian history. After many cool days at sea Sydney was hot. Our friends hosted us at their beautiful home on the cliffs overlooking the Pacific in the town of Dee Why. We watched Peregrine Falcons, whales and dolphins from their patio. After a great Bar-B-Q we walked Dee Why beach to Long Reef Point. We all rode together on the Manly Ferry to Circular Quay near our cruise port for a send off on our next cruise. Sure, we had just a short time in Sydney but we made the best of it. Big thanks to Jeff and Kaye.

Sydney’s iconic Opera House

Famous Harbour Bridge

Sydney Botanical Garden

3rd Cemetary at the quarantine station

Carved graffiti at Q Station

Fumigation building

View from Q Station to city

Lorikeet – Australian native

Dee Why beach

Jeff’s N Scale trains

Opera House from th ferry

Australian Aborigine playing didjeridu

Solstice awaits us

Melbourne was the first stop on our second cruise on Celebrity Solstice. We chose to take a ship offered excursion to the Puffing Billy steam train which got un into some of the country surrounding this city of 4+ million. Dianne saw one wild kangaroo from the train. Overall we just got a taste of Australia but it was enough to whet our appetite for a return. It is a beautiful, huge country with friendly people and a good exchange rate.

Puffing Billy Railway

Cocatoos are like pigeons in Australia

Beautiful Rosella

Farewell Melbourne

Posted in Australia, Cruises | Tagged beaches, Circular Quay, Cocatoo, Dee Why, Harbour Bridge, Manly Ferry, Melbourne, Puffing Billy Steam Train, Q Station Sydney Harbour National Park, Rosella, Sydney, Sydney Botanical Garden, Sydney Opera House | 2 Comments

South Seas Adventure

Posted on December 9, 2017 by Kings On the Road

Our cruise from Seattle to Sydney started with 6 days at sea. The first day or 2 we had rough seas courtesy of a cold front sweeping into the Pacific Northwest. Things settled down as we cruised to Hawaii. The cruise dock in Honolulu is conveniently located in the historic center of town. We booked a rain forest hike through Viator. Booking shore excursions from off ship companies results in big dollar savings. We hiked to Manoa Falls with a small group. After the hike we walked around Honolulu and toured a Mexican Navy training ship making a port call.

Morning approach to Diamond Head, Honolulu

Rain forest hike in the rain

Manoa Falls

Mexican training ship

Our next stop was Lahaina on the island of Maui. We love Lahaina for its history and small town ambience. The town provides a free walking tour which we enjoyed.

Lahaina famously huge banyan tree

Historic 19th Century building

Beautiful Lahaina street

In the course of our next 7 days at sea, we crossed the equator for the first time and experienced the line crossing ceremony transforming us from Pollywogs to Shellbacks in the King Neptune Society tradition. It was corny and fun. We got certificates.

Welcome to the Neptune Society

Our next 2 ports of call were in Fiji. First was Lautoka, a small city where we booked another off ship tour. Our guide was Indian-Fijian and we were his only customers that day – a far cry from the full bus tours the ship offered. Ashik took us to actor Raymond Burr’s Garden of the Sleeping Giant, his orchid collection. We then visited the Thermal Mud Pools for a dip and massage. We toured Nadi Town with its market and the famous tourist shop, Jacks.

Burr’s orchid garden

Red Sealing Wax palms are happy in Fiji

Thermal Mud Pool treatment

Di with massage ladies

Randy with massage ladies

Abundant market in Nadi town

Ashik and Di returning to ship

Suva is the capital of Fiji and our next stop. We decided to tour on our own. A short walk from the port was the Fiji Museum, government buildings, a Carnegie library and the historic Grand Pacific Hotel where we had tea. Fijians joke that they used to see foreigners and think “dinner”, now they say “Bula Bula, Welcome home”.

Welcoming dancers

Suva

Fiji Museum in Suva

Once fierce Fiji now friendly- Bula Bula

Grand Pacific Hotel

Tea time

Lifou in the Loyalty Islands is an overseas territory of France. Here we took a ship tour and learned about local customs including a taste of a traditional meal baked in the ground. Actually we were scheduled to make another stop at Vanuatu but there was a medical emergency on ship and we had to change course to get the passenger close to a helicopter evacuation. Really reminded all of us that we were on a ship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean – a long way from civilization.

Welcome to Lifou

Catholic Church on uplifted coral atoll

Chief’s hut

Preparing a traditional meal

Friendly kids

Coconut crab, huge and endangered

Clear water, beautiful beaches – no resorts

Mare, New Caledonia is another French colony in the South Seas. Here again we toured on our own and found a quiet cove, a natural aquarium filled with beautiful tropical fish.

Mare from our ship

Welcome music

Totem carving

“Aquarium naturel”

Back to the Explorer of the Seas

Next stop Sydney.

Posted in Cruises | Tagged Grand Pacific Hotel, Hawaii, Honolulu, Lahaina, Lautoka Fiji, Lifou, Loyalty Islands, Mare, New Caledonia, Suva Fiji | Comments Off

Big Cruise Adventure

Posted on November 22, 2017 by Kings On the Road

We are back stateside after a great Transpacific Cruise adventure. We traveled on 2 different cruise ships across the Pacific to Australia and New Zealand. The trip was five weeks plus start to finish. We sailed from Seattle on Royal Caribbean’s Explorer of the Seas after leaving our RV at the Elks near our son in Puyallup WA. The itinerary included many days at sea with stops at Honolulu and Lahaina in Hawaii, Lautoka and Suva in Fiji, and then Vanuatu, Lifou in the Loyalty Islands and Mare, New Caledonia before ending in Sydney Australia. This was a true trans Pacific cruise crossing the equator and the International Dateline.

Leaving Seattle

Diamond Head Hawaii

Our ship Explorer of the Seas

South Seas sunset

Sydney at dawn

Great thanks to friends Jeff and Kaye in Sydney for hosting us for a tour, a BarBQ, a night as well as a beach walk.

Sydney Botanical Garden

Hosts Kaye and Jeff

Dee Why beach

Opera house from the ferry

Our cruise adventure continued on Celebrity Solstice from Sydney to Melbourne and then 5 stops around New Zealand. We flew back to Seattle from Auckland, New Zealand.

Solstice from the ferry in Sydney Harbor

Solstice at Tauranga New Zealand

Solstice at Bay of Islands New Zealand

Solstice at Akaroa New Zealand

It was an amazing trip. It was a long trip. We have many stories from all our stops along the way. What a grand adventure. Look for more posts of our South Seas memories.

Posted in Australia, Cruises, New Zealand | Tagged Celebrity Cruises, Celebrity Solstice, Explorer of the Seas, Hawaii, Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, Sydney | 4 Comments

Month in Montana

Posted on October 2, 2017 by Kings On the Road

We got to know Montana while workamping in the Summer of 2010. We loved the Big Sky, the rural atmosphere, the abundance of wildlife, the friendly people. As we planned our travels for the Summer of 2017 we hoped we could visit Montana or Colorado. Turns out we visited both. This time around we spent time in Hamilton, Whitefish and Missoula with a side trip to Wallace Idaho. Unfortuntely Montana had one of the worst wildfire seasons in its history. Smoke was an issue all over the state with no real relief expected until the Fall rain and snow. For part of this time our grandson Graham joined us.

Hamilton is the site of copper king Marcus Daly’s home. Irish born Daly made a fortune in Butte copper and Hamilton timber. His home reflects his success and its still a focus in the town of Hamilton. Our guide was a life long resident.

Daly Mansion

Missoula is home to the University of Montana, Fort Missoula, the US Forest Service Smokejumper Center and a fabulous farmers market. We went whitewater rafting on the Clark Fork River. North of Missoula we visited the National Bison Range, a preserve established by Theodore Roosevelt in 1908.

Missoula Smokejumper Center

Not a museum. this is where men and women prepare to parachute into wildfires

Planes they jump from. Thru the smoke there are mountains in the distance.

Fort Missoula Heritage Park

National Bison Range

Graham

Rocky Mountain Elk

Montana may have more ghost towns than any other state. The ups and downs of mining are mostly responsible and the state has turned misfortune into a something of a tourism asset. Garnet is near Missoula and a well preserved state park.

Garnet

Classic Western town

Graham at the bar

Wallace Idaho is the nearest town to the Hiawatha Trail, a top ten Rails to Trails site beginning at the MT/ID stateline and continuing 15 miles downgrade along the former Milwaukee Road railroad line. Along the way we passed thru 7 trestles and 10 tunnels including the 1.66 mile St. Paul Pass Tunnel. It was a great ride for us all.

St. Paul Pass Tunnel

Dianne on 1 of 16 high trestles

Deer Lodge is home to the first Territorial Prison in Montana. It opened in 1876 and closed in 1979. The prison was plagued with overcrowding, underfunding and antiquated facilities. Problems led to a famous riot in 1959. We were reminded of Alcatraz.

Deer Lodge Prison

Cell blocks like Alcatraz

Whitefish MT was a nice surprise. It is a very nice tourist town with a beautiful Tudor Revival train station. Rail traffic is heavy along this BNSF line as well as Amtrak’s Empire Builder’s busiest station. The Stumptown Historical Society operates a museum in the station. Stumptown was the nickname for the town for in the early days trees were cut down so fast the place was littered with stumps. Great Northern was the original railroad in town and commisioned the Bruck to ferry freight and passengers from nearby Kalispell when the short rail line was no longer profitable. The smoke was too bad to stay long but we will go back someday.

Whitefish Station

Unique Great Northern Bruck, a bus truck built to GN specs

Local sculpture celebrates railroad history

Our last stop in Montana was the National Forest Service campground at Yaak River near the Kalispell River and the BNSF mainline. Again smoke kept us moving.

Kalispell River in smoke

Posted in Montana, RV Travel, trains, wildlife | Tagged Alcatraz, Amtrak, Deer Lodge MT, Garnet Ghost Town, Great Northern Railroad, Hamilton MT, Hiawatha Trail, Marcus Daly Mansion, Missoula MT, Montana Territorial Prison, National Bison Range, Smokejumper Center, Stumptown, Whitefish MT | 1 Comment

Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area

Posted on September 11, 2017 by Kings On the Road

Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area is a huge reservoir in northeast Utah and southern Wyoming. The lake is 97 miles miles long and over 400 feet deep. It was created by a dam on the Green River. The steep sided canyon was named by John Wesley Powell during his expedition down the Green and Colorado Rivers in 1869. The river was known to be deadly dangerous before the dam inundated the rapids. With dificulty we found a great campsite in the Mustang Ridge Campground. We’re glad we did because we met Trish and Chris, fellow travelers from Florida and avid kayakers. We had a couple excellent days kayaking together in the beautiful reservoir.

Flaming Gorge Reservoir

View from Red Canyon Overlook

Chris and Trish paddle the reservoir

Dianne and Randy paddling

View from campsite

Beautiful Utah

Posted in RV Travel, Utah, Wyoming | Tagged Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area, Kayaking | 1 Comment

Curecanti, Gunnison and Crested Butte

Posted on August 31, 2017 by Kings On the Road

On our journey from Durango to Montana we wanted to visit parts of Colorado we had never seen before. Curecanti National Recreation Area is located near Gunnison Colorado. It is home to several reservoirs and is also near Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. We visited that area several years ago to see the Black Canyon and take a boat trip on Morrow Reservoir.

This time we stayed near Blue Mesa Reservoir, the largest reservoir in Colorado. We had a beautiful hike to the Dillon Pinnacles. Gunnison was nearby and we visited the local Farmer’s Market and went to a local theater production called “I Hate Hamlet”. It was great fun in a very small theater in a historic building. From Gunnison we also drove to Crested Butte, a famous ski town with another great market.

Dillon Pinnacles Trail

The Pinacles

Beautiful views

Local Theater
“I Hate Hamlet”

Crested Butte Farmers Market

Ski Museum –
Historic lift car

Crested Butte City Hall

Crested Butte ski area

Famous 2 story outhouse

Posted in Colorado, RV Travel | Tagged Crested Butte CO, Curecanti National Recreation Area, Farmers markets, Gunnison CO | 2 Comments

Colorado National Monument

Posted on August 27, 2017 by Kings On the Road

Colorado National Monument is located near Grand Junction CO. It was established by President Teddy Roosevelt in 1911 making it one of the oldest parks. It features huge sandstone cliffs and steep canyons as well as towering pinnacles. Its one of those second or third level parks that many of us have driven right by. The name itself doesn’t tell you much of what you will see. We were amazed at the views, the hiking, the wildlife.

Grand Junction from CONM

Pinnacles at the monument

Serpent’s Tail trail follows 1920s road

Big Horn Sheep

Elusive Collared Lizard

On the other side of the valley of the Colorado and Gunnison Rivers is the Grand Mesa. Grand Mesa is the largest flat top mountain in the world. While the temperature was 93 in Grand Junction on a Sunday afternoon in July, it was 61 on top of Grand Mesa. There are hundreds of natural lakes on the mesa and lots of beautiful hiking trails. We thoroughly enjoyed our day on the mesa.

Grand view on the Grand Mesa

Hundreds of lakes

Lovely meadow

Wildflowrs on the trail

Alpine lake on the trail

Posted in Colorado, RV Travel | Tagged Colorado National Monument, Grand Junction, Grand Mesa National Forest | 2 Comments

Sweetwater County and Pinedale Wyoming

Posted on August 23, 2017 by Kings On the Road

On our way out of Colorado we headed north on US 191 into Wyoming to meet our good friends Mark and Lyn. Fellow full-timers, they were traveling from Tacoma WA to Colorado while we were traveling from Durango CO to Montana and eventually Washington. Wyoming was a natural meeting point. We met in Pinedale, just west of the Wind River Mountains, south of Jackson Hole. Our first evening in Pinedale we all saw a giant moose cow with 2 calves in the local city park.

“All The Civilization You Need”

Museum of the Mountain Men

Family hiking with llamas

Hail in August

Bolete mushroom

Pounds of flavorfull Boletes

Pilot Butte

View from Pilot Butte

Wild horses near Pilot Butte

Pronghorn

Reliance Tipple

Exploring Petroglyphs north of Rock Springs

Ancient petroglyphs

Pinedale is home of the Museum of the Mountain Man. It was the mountain men of this area who trapped the beaver until fashions changed (just before they were completely extinct). These same men then led pioneers in the westward expansion of the United States – they needed work and knew the way. The great book and movie “The Revenant” is based on this time and place.

Pinedale is also a gateway into the Wind River Mountains. Unfortunately smoke from many fires obscured some of the best views but it was still beautiful. The area has many natural lakes including Fremont Lake which is 11 miles long and over 600 feet deep. While there we hiked into the mountains and met families hiking with llama pack animals and many groups of mostly women hiking into the wild on multi day trips. Pinedale is a base from which hikers ascend Gannet Peak, the highest point in Wyoming. On our hike we had to wait out a storm of pea-size hail. Looking around we found many king bolete mushrooms. We collected several pounds of these delicious gems.

Mark and Lyn invited us to join them in exploring nearby Sweetwater County in their 4X4 Trail Rated Jeep. Sweetwater County is in far Southwestern Wyoming and involves miles and miles of gravel roads and some serious rutted 4WD roads. This area is famous for wild horses and after going around Pilot Butte and back on the loop road again we saw about 8 big wild horses up close. Beautiful animals, healthy, well nourished. We then visited the Reliance Tipple – a coal delivery structure of the Union Pacific Coal Company supplying the railroad with coal along its original transcontinental route through Rock Springs. Working our way back north again we saw Native American Petroglyphs and the Boar’s Tusk geologic site. Mark was a master driver getting us into these places we couldn’t have gone in our CRV. Along the way we saw lots of pronghorn antelope and some sage grouse.

The Boar’s Tusk

Mark, Lyn, Dianne, Randy

We had never been to Pinedale before but we discovered so much to see and do we can certainly see a return.

Posted in RV Travel, Wyoming | Tagged Boar's Tusk, Fremont Lake, Gannet Peak, King Bolete Mushrooms, Petroglyphs, Pinedale WY, Pronghorn, Reliance Tipple, Rock Springs WY, Sage Grouse, Union Pacific RR, Wild horses, Wind River Mountains | Comments Off

Total Solar Eclipse

Posted on August 21, 2017 by Kings On the Road

For those lucky enough to see it, the total solar eclipse today was amazing. We viewed it in Challis Idaho. The RV park we stayed in was buzzing with excitement all morning. For us the moon started taking a bit out of the sun at 10:13 AM and we looked up through our approved solar glasses every few minutes as the lunar disc crawled across the sun. As it neared totality the temperature dipped noticably. Then at 11:30 it got dark, the temps dropped some more and we could see the corona of the sun around the moon with no eye protection. Then came the diamond ring glistening at the upper left corner of the disc. Then suddenly the blaze of the sun peeked over the upper right and it was bright again. The moon then continued to reveal more and more sun and the temps climbed again. Darkness was quickly gone. Glasses back on to watch the second half of the show. The period of total coverage by the moon was very very fast. Where we are in Idaho it was said to last 1 minute and 4 seconds. It was the fastest minute of our lives. All around us there were gasps, applause, cheers and for us stunned, happy silence. What a cool thing to witness. And aren’t we so lucky to be able to be at the right place at the right time.

RV park buzzing with excitment

Mesmerizing show

We came all this way for what?

Ready, action

Darkness falls, streetlights on

Totality

Sun’s corona

The Diamond Ring effect

Last of the ring

Posted in Idaho, RV Travel | Tagged Challis ID, Total Solar Eclipse | 9 Comments

Butte MT – An Ri Ra Irish Fest

Posted on August 18, 2017 by Kings On the Road

A major goal in planning our travels this Summer was the An Ri Ra Irish Festival in Butte Montana. We attended the fest in 2010 while workamping in Livingston MT after learning that our favorite Irish Rock band, The Prodigals, would be there. We are fascinated by the rich ethnic and mining history of the area. Butte’s Berkeley Pit is one of the largest Superfund sites in the EPA’s efforts to protect the community from mining’s toxic waste. Butte has learned to celebrate its mining heritage and its World Museum of Mining sheds light on this often neglected realm of history. Even today Butte has the highest percentage claiming Irish heritage of any city in the US.

In 2017 our friends the Prodigals were coming back to Butte and we could fit it into our travels. Are we glad we did! Butte has created a performance stage out of a historic mining headframe. A beautiful lawn and an incredible view welcomes visitors. Organizers and volunteers do a flawless job putting on a friendly classy event. This year the festival was free with attendees urged to donate generously. The crowd was so large we thought Butte’s entire population of 33,000 were all there. Families from infants to 90 year olds showed up to see their daughters, sons and grandchildren perform Irish Dance. All ages enjoyed musical acts from Butte, Ireland and New York City (The Prodigals).