Destination What?

Posted on February 25, 2017February 25, 2017 by Dusty Roads | 2 Comments

I’m going to talk nonsense for now. I don’t mean to have this sound like a plug for a TV program so apologies up front if it does.

Have any of you seen the Travel Channel’s program called Expedition Unknown? Do you watch it?

The host , Josh Gates, is a Massachusetts native raised in Manchester- by the Sea, a little town on the north shore.

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You may have heard of it. It’s also the name of a movie starring Casey Affleck, but I digress. I haven’t seen the movie even though it got great reviews.

Back to Expedition Unknown and Josh Gates. I first came across Josh Gates when he was the host of a paranormal, monster chasing adventure, reality show on Syfy called Destination Truth.

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Of course they never found any of the monsters or ghosts but the stories were great and the locales exotic. I loved the way Josh delivered his lines too. I was hooked. That show ran for 5 seasons. Who knew there were so many cryptids to investigate?

I was disappointed to learn that my favorite globe trotter was done with monster hunting but that didn’t last for long. Josh was back with a new program on the Travel Channel called Expedition Unknown.

On the “Expedition Unknown” series premiere, Josh Gates utilizes a bili-bili bamboo raft in order to get to a remote village on the island ot Viti Levu in Fiji/photo courtesy of The Travel Channel

The cryptids like Bigfoot are minimized ( although not completely gone) while real life mysteries are explored. The premier was an investigation into Amelia Earhart. Since then there have been investigations into King Arthur, Cloning the Woolly Mammoth and a visit to Everest Base Camp in search of the Yeti. (I told you the cryptids weren’t completely gone)

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Along the way he even hooked up with one of my favorite Naturalists, Casey Anderson.

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So why am I going on and on about Josh Gates and his adventures? ( Or should I say Exploits?) It’s because at the moment I’m stuck working for a living and won’t be able to go exploring for another couple of months so I’m living vicariously through his show. If I were younger (read that as in better shape) I’d love to be chasing around the world like he does, riding horses, climbing mountains, scuba diving undersea ruins, etc.

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I’d even settle for running around the US. I don’t need to travel the world but I do need to be out looking for new and exciting things to do.

I missed out on the Powerball. It was up to 4M before somebody in Indiana won. Oh the places I’d go !

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Well, if you’d like a firsthand glimpse of what I would aspire to be, take a spin by the Travel Channel and check out Expedition Unknown. Then when I say something like “I had to take a moment to channel my inner Josh Gates” you’ll know I just had an OMG moment!

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The Last 5

Posted on February 24, 2017February 24, 2017 by Dusty Roads | 2 Comments

I thought I should finish what I started. Of the top 10 things to do in Boston, I only got to 5 yesterday. Now I’m sure everyone has different things on their top 10 list. This is just the one Trip Adviser suggests So here we go. Starting with number 6.

#6, North End

A pretty cool neighborhood especially in the summer when they have all the Italian Festivals like the Feast of St Anthony’s.

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#7 Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum

I haven’t been in to visit this attraction although I have walked past it. It’s my understanding that the tour guides are in period dress and walk you through the events of the Boston Tea Party.

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#8 John F. Kennedy Presidential Museum & Library

Ok everyone knows the Kennedy’s in Boston. They are like a Dynasty. John, Bobby, Teddy, Joe, Patrick. The Mom, Rose, has a stretch of “Greeenway” named after her. Yes they are a Dynasty. And Thanks to JFK we have a Presidential Library.

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#9 Boston Public Library

This is an amazing building and that’s just the outside. Inside there are statues, Marble work and Murals. They have a lovely courtyard where you can find a spot to just curl up and sit. (once again a summer activity) A nice break from the usual rush , rush , rush.

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#10 New England Holocaust Memorial

This is a pretty unique memorial. I’ve walked through it and around it many times. It’s not a large Memorial but a lot of thought went into it. It has 6 tall glass towers. Each tower has 1 million numbers etched into the glass, each number representing a person who died. By the time you have walked past all 6 towers you realize that they represent the 6M people that perished during that horrible genocide. It really makes you think.

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Maybe if it’s nice this weekend I’ll make a trip into town. Then I can tell all of you what I think of the list. Have you been to Boston? What do you think should be on the list? The Old North Church? The TD Garden? Old Ironsides (In dry dock right now)? Don’t forget the “Cheers” Bar!

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What to Do, What to Do?

Posted on February 23, 2017February 23, 2017 by Dusty Roads | 2 Comments

Now that my globetrotting is temporarily on hold the age old question rears it’s ugly head. What am I going to talk about until my next trip (which isn’t until June by the way)?

If I were on a TV show you’d get to watch reruns for the next couple of months and I may dip into some of my older posts to share but I don’t plan to do that every day.

In hopes of finding topics I googled the Top 10 things to do in Boston. If the weather holds out maybe I can try to cover some of those.

According to Trip Adviser the number 1 thing to do is visit Fenway Park. That won’t work. The Sox are in Fort Myers Fl. for spring training.

#2. Is a visit to the Museum of Fine Art.

Well, I’ve been there and it is beautiful. I attended the special exhibit for the glass blowing artist, Dale Chihuly.

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His work is amazing!

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I also love the statue out front. Appeal to the Great Spirit.

Appeal to the Great Spirit at the MFA

#3. The Freedom Trail.

Get out your walking shoes because if you want to walk the whole thing it will take you awhile. The Freedom Trail is a 2.5-mile-long (4.0 km) path through downtown Boston that passes by 16 locations significant to the history of the United States. Marked largely with brick, it winds between Boston Common to the Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown. Of course while you are at the Bunker Hill Monument you’ll want to climb the 294 steps to the top for views of the Boston Harbor. Bunker Hill Monument is a National Historical Park.

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#4. Boston Public Garden

This is one of my favorite places in Boston but not in February. In the spring there are flowers everywhere.

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Swan boats cruise the little lagoon and there’s always the Make Way for Ducklings sculpture. Of course in the winter there’s skating on the Frog Pond but it’s been so warm I bet all of the ice has melted.

#5, Boston Common

I really don’t distinguish between the Boston Common and The Public Garden. They are all sort of one big park.

According to Wikipedia they are a pair of public parks in Boston. I’m sure my friend Joe would be quick to point out the differences to me. He is far more of a “Bostonian” than I am even though he’s lived in the south a number of years now.

Well that’s about all I have time for in this post. I guess we’ll have to finish off the last 5 another time.

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My last Chance

Posted on February 20, 2017February 20, 2017 by Dusty Roads | 4 Comments

It was Friday. My last day on Maui. My last chance for that elusive photo. I’ve had a lot of fun on my whirlwind visit but I still don’t have that Breaching whale photo.

Photo By Anna Smith

I’ve got one more chance. My plane isn’t leaving until 6:30 pm so I have time for 1 more whale watch.

This time I switched my approach. The 3 previous whale watches were on good sized catamarans. Maybe the boats were intimidating the whales. We can’t chase or encroach on the animals. The boats can’t approach closer than 100 yards. Now that doesn’t prevent the huge mammals from coming close to the boats but that means we are leaving it up to the animals.

Whales Nose

On one of the previous whale watching trips I’d spotted a tiny little boat that seemed to be attracting lots of attention from the whales. They were blowing and flipper slapping all around it. It was a pontoon raft style boat.

Ocean Raft

I found a flyer for Ocean Rafting and made sure I tracked them down in Lahaina Harbor. I got a spot on the 10 am trip.

Lahaina Booths

I had a death grip on the captain as I stepped onto the pontoon to the boat. We had bench seats to start out. Once out of the harbor we could move to the pontoons if we so choose. Standing up was also ok.

All Aboard

Man O War

Right away we saw action and the whales did come closer to the boat. Mostly we were looking at the wide backs as they cruised along with us.

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It was a hazy day. Not the bright , sunny days we’d been having but the seas weren’t too rough. We did get splashed a few times as we flew over the water .

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At one point a whale dove right in front of us. The captain brought us up to a stop and killed the engine. We all held our breaths and listened. We could hear the whale song without any magnification! The captain said we were right above the whale that was doing the singing. They tossed in a hydrophone which brought in the whale song loud and clear. It was much cleaner than the one from yesterday, probably because we were so close we were just picking up the one whale.

Another Tail

As we passed the Queen Elizabeth, a cruise ship in Lahaina Harbor, we saw a mom and calf. The Mom dove giving us a nice shot of her flukes.

Cuise ship sighting

It was another successful whale search but still no breaches. The Captain said the whales breach every day but as I mentioned in the beginning, you just have to be in the right place at the right time. Unlike trained whales at Sea World, they don’t jump on command.

Pectoral fin glows emerald through the water as this whale swims beside out raft

Pectoral fin glows emerald through the water as this whale swims beside our raft

I guess that means I’ll have to go back next season!

Whale Watch #3

Posted on February 19, 2017February 19, 2017 by Dusty Roads | 2 Comments

Thursday I awoke to a real cacophony from the hundreds of birds perched along the roof line, most appeared to be Myna birds. It was amazing the volume of their chirps and calls. I hesitate to use the term “song”. I stuck my phone out the slider and pressed record. I was sure no one would believe it without proof. (I haven’t figured out how to get the recording from my phone to this page, Any ideas techies?)

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Both whale watches from Wednesday had been fun and successful as far as seeing whales but I still didn’t get the photo I was seeking. I consoled myself that even National Geographic photographers sometimes had to wait weeks to get that special picture. If it was easy everyone would do it!

I still had the whale watch coming to me for becoming a member of the Pacific Whale Foundation so I headed back down to their shop to see if they had any open spots. I was seeing whales breaching all around me on every trip, just too far away. It’s just a matter of being in the right place at the right time and that means getting back out there.

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Luckily they had an opening on the 2 pm whale watch on the catamaran Ocean Intrigue.

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I had high hopes for this trip as it was active almost as soon as we took off. We saw a female with two male whales chasing her around. There was a lot of tail slapping and flipper waving. Everyone on board got very excited.

Whale Chase

At times it looked like the whales were climbing right over each other. But no breaching.

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Whales Nose

We moved on to a mother and calf. The calf was very excited by our approach and began slapping the surface with his little tail. It was like he was standing on his head and slapping his tail back and forth.

Baby Humpback

So much splashing, So much energy but no breach.

Whale of a Tail

As the action slowed a bit a hydrophone was dropped over the side. We could hear many different whales as they sang their songs. The naturalist said it was probably about a 25 mile radius.

Mom and Calf

Finally it was time to head back into shore. We passed the 3 whales from the start of the trip and they were still going strong with their chasing and competing. The whales had been closer to the boat this time and certainly we saw some fun behaviors but still no breaching. My time was running out.

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