Fly the Friendly Skies with Delta? NOT!

Posted on October 28, 2015October 28, 2015 by Dusty Roads

On Monday 10/19 I drove off to a little town in upstate New York to meet up with my sister and traveling companion. Bright and early on Tuesday morning we headed to the airport for our date with Delta airlines. I fly quite often and for a long time Delta was my airline of choice but that is starting to change. Delta is being edged out by Southwest and on this trip I had a chance to really compare the 2 airlines. We were flying Delta to San Antonio and Southwest on our return from New Orleans.

Our flight was a two parter with a layover and change of planes in Detroit. I say that only because I’ve had the misfortune to witness first hand extreme rudeness from Delta attendants. One time the flight attendant lost her temper with an elderly couple who just wanted to sit together. She screamed and yelled at them and threatened to have them “removed from the airplane”.

Another time the attendant was upset over something unknown and threw the hand set to the intercom across the cabin. Whew! I sat very quietly all through that flight!

But I digress. I don’t go into these flights expecting a bad experience. In fact it has always surprised me when there’s an outburst like that. So back to our situation.

I paid extra for us to have more legroom on the 1st half of the trip from Albany to Detroit and I had specifically selected aisle seating. As we were getting ready to board Sandy mentioned that our seats had been changed. She’d been moved from an aisle to a window and so had I. To make it even worse I was in row 1 so there is no seat in front of me for my carry on. My carry on had to go in the overhead bin or get checked.

Since I had a laptop and about $2400 worth of camera equipment in my carry on you can imagine I did not want to be separated from my luggage. It was at that point that I realized that our “friendly” attendant was not a morning person. Maybe she hadn’t had her coffee yet because she was not fooling around. Of course she wouldn’t help me try to make it fit in the overhead either. You’d think if you have a customer that will pay extra for a seat upgrade that you’d treat them a little nicer but noooo, she just stood at the front of the plane telling me to get a move on because I was holding everyone up. I finally gave in and let her check the bag. (Against my better judgement, I might add.)

I told her if there was any damage I would hold Delta responsible to which she said I was out of luck because she had given me a verbal warning about checking a fragile item.

The laptop did not make it unscathed but the damage was minor and can be worked around. Thankfully the camera and lens were fine. I suppose I shouldn’t feel too bad. The poor trainee flight attendant was being growled at the whole flight. She was just one of those “not nice” people.

The 2nd half of the trip was uneventful. My carry on went into the overhead with no problem but it seems every trip on Delta there’s at least one unhappy flight attendant.

It was good to arrive in San Antonio and leave the unfriendly skies behind.

How about an Amtrak Vacation

Posted on October 27, 2015October 27, 2015 by Dusty Roads

My fall vacation finally got here. After a crazy spring, summer and even fall at work I was more than ready for some R & R.

This vacation was something a little different. It was billed as an Amtrak Rail Vacation but I have to admit we did a lot of flying too. So before I break things down into specific adventures let me give you an overview.

The trip name is Riverwalk to the French Quarter (Don’t worry, we’re not walking)

As you may have guessed by the title, this is San Antonio to New Orleans.

Our trip began in San Antonio Texas where day one was basically our first travel day arriving around 5:30 in San Antonio via Delta Airlines.

Day 2 was a Grand Tour of the city starting with the Alamo. It was a full day.

Day 3 was also in San Antonio but it was a free day where we could explore at our leisure.

It Rained!

Included in the package for San Antonio was 1 dinner voucher. (Hard Rock Cafe)

Day 4 was the train trip arriving in New Orleans around 10 pm. (They sure like their pharmacies in New Orleans)

Day 5 was in New Orleans starting with a 1/2 day tour of the city. The afternoon was ours to explore on our own.

Day 6 was also a free day but dinner was at the Court of the Two Sisters with a voucher.

Day 7 was our travel day back to New York this time with Southwest Airlines.

We arrived in Albany, NY at about 5:30 pm. I spent the night at my sister’s and drove back to Massachusetts in the morning. I really wasn’t ready for the vacation to end but my fuzzy little fur-babies were glad I was home.

So now that you have the general idea of what this vacation entailed I’ll get down to specifics in the next posts coming up soon.

Sachuest Point National Wildlife Refuge

Posted on October 17, 2015October 17, 2015 by Dusty Roads

Good morning everyone. I’ve been up since 6 am in hopes of spotting some of those deer I’ve been hearing about down at Sachuest Point National Wildlife Refuge located in Middletown , RI.

The first time I tried I overslept so missed the dawn, the best time for those shy little critters. Today I was up but it took me longer to get out of the house than I expected so I saw the sun pop over the horizon as I left Fall River. Darn!

Well I figured I might as well check out the trails. On my last visit I didn’t stay long, just made sure I could find it.

I was surprised to see quite a lot of cars in the parking lot considering it was only about 30 minutes past sunrise, still pretty early. As I pulled out the camera I saw a bird watcher with his big spotting scope but most of the rest were fishermen. I didn’t spot any other photographers so I guess I really did miss my chance. I decided to check out one of the trails anyway.

The Flint Point trail is a 1.4 mile loop with a couple of observation platforms. Everybody seemed to be going that way so I did too. I didn’t intend to walk the whole trail since this was one of my first jaunts since my back started improving but it was a beautiful morning so as long as it wasn’t hurting I just kept going.

There are a couple of benches along the way so it was a cool but pleasant trek. I didn’t expect to see any deer. That window of opportunity had closed, or so I thought but as I approached a corner I heard something larger than a bird off to my left in the brush.

I didn’t see what it was but it made me slow down my pace and I turned the corner cautiously. And there in the path to my right was the tail end of a deer.

Turns out it was a doe and a a smaller deer. No spots so I don’t think it can still be called a fawn but clearly smaller than the adult. The little one watched me all the time while Mama only paid attention when I moved.

Thanks to the sun’s angle and the brush playing havoc with the auto focus, the pictures aren’t going to make it into my portfolio but at least I was rewarded for my trip.

I don’t know how long those deer and I would have stood eyeballing each other if a jogger hadn’t rounded the bend at that point. The deer just drifted quietly into the bushes.

I figured I was about half way around the loop so I finished the walk. No other deer but that was two more than I expected to see. I guess I’ll have to try again only leaving at 5:30 am next time!

The Wild Life

Posted on October 10, 2015October 10, 2015 by Dusty Roads

I was thinking about wildlife. Now if I were still in my 20’s and 30’s it would be reasonable for you to think I was talking about WILD LIFE! You know, crazy, partying and carrying on. But as I left those wild days behind long ago I was actually thinking about animals in the wild.

Of all the things I’ve tried photographing, pets, people, landscape, travel, flowers, and anything else I run across, wild life, animals in the wild are may favorites. Its also probably the most frustrating and truth be told, the style in which I have the most failures.

My best work seems to be birds. Why? Because there are always birds of some kind around. I can stake out a bird feeder and have all the “models” I could ever wish for.

But wildlife doesn’t always cooperate. First you have to find them. Then you have to wait for them to do something. A perfect example is the great blue heron that summers at the Herring Run. I have spent hours with this bird and over the past 5 years I’ve seen him catch 1 fish. Normally he stands as still as a statue for hours. I finally got this picture this year. But he’ll be back next year and I’ll be waiting.

It occurred to me that I haven’t been out to photograph any deer in the last couple of years. I take that back, I photographed deer

and elk

on my vacation in Tennessee but not around here since I got my first camera. According to a photographer friend of mine, now is the perfect time to try to get more deer shots for my portfolio.

The weather is changing there’s crispness to the air and the bucks are looking for love. He got some really fun shots in RI this week but you have to get there early.

Now I’m not an early riser. Must be a throwback to all that “Wild Life” when I was young so even though I had the best of intentions this morning I missed sunrise. Yup, overslept.

I took a run down to the Wildlife Sanctuary anyway so I can be sure to find it in the pre-dawn light. I’m going to try again tomorrow.

Since there wasn’t any action going on there I headed to my old faithful sanctuary in Marshfield, MA, Daniel Webster. I’ve never been there without seeing deer but this afternoon I came up empty. The reason is that it was crowded with families walking the trails. Kids were whooping and yelling. I stayed until after 5 pm and I could still hear them. My previous schedule allowed me to explore mid week so it was always quiet. Often my car was the only one in the parking lot. So note to self, try after work mid-week.

So cross your fingers. I’m heading back out to the RI sanctuary in the morning and this time I have set the alarm.

Chasing Puffins Again

Posted on September 27, 2015September 27, 2015 by Dusty Roads

Some of you may remember that back in 2012 I went on a “Quest” to photograph those clowns of the sea, Puffins.

I went to Maine, joined a boat tour and headed off to Machias Seal Island. It was cold, the sea was rough and just about everyone on board (except me) got sea sick, but I did see Puffins. That trip showed me how hard getting that “Nat Geo” picture was going to be.

Those birds are small and the ocean is large and you can only get so close to an island with waves crashing against a rocky coast.

Then I went to Alaska in 2013. That trip promised Puffins, eagles, bear, moose , caribou, otters, sea lions and on and on. Our timing was a bit off and although we saw some of these animals whales didn’t breach for us, the bears were in the distance, just waking from hibernation, and there were no Puffins or otters.

Since then, wrapped up in a new job (career?) I’ve been really busy and not thinking about much wildlife photography. In spite of having a new camera and an awesome new lens, I haven’t been out roaming the woods much.

So now another opportunity has presented itself and I jumped at it. The Mass Audubon Society is planning a trip called Puffins and Peatlands in July 2016. As soon as I heard I called and made my reservation. This trip we are to actually to set foot on the island and there are blinds set up to allow close up photography. Be still my heart!

I’m really excited, then they sent me the itinerary. Oh Oh. I’ve been less than athletic since my fall off the airplane two years ago which started the downward spiral of health problems. Although I’m feeling much better these days my knees still hurt,my left hip is arthritic and my back still hurts occasionally.

Their first consideration. You must be able to walk on beaches and through spruce forest where exposed roots and rocks can provide difficult footing for 1/2 to 1 mile in length. I used to be able to do that but can I still? Some days walking to my car is a challenge.

But the 2nd consideration is the one that really strikes fear in my heart. “The landing onto Machias Seal Island can be difficult. Participates must be able to get in and out of a smaller boat. We may need to walk over rocks that are wet and slippery.” OH MY WORD! I nearly fell into the fake canal in Las Vegas getting in and out of the gondola. Will I be able to pull this off?

I remember when I quit smoking. I wanted to lean to scuba dive but no one would accept a smoker in the class so I quit. Cold turkey. I wanted to do something and I did what was necessary.

But how do I get my creaky, aching joints in shape? I’ve got 9 months. October – July.

I need some advice quickly!