UPATE~NH Dream Vacation Photo Contest

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I have spent several hours trying to upload my 5 photos to the NH Dream Vacation Contest.

First I ran into problems because some of my photo files were too large so I had to reduce them and reload.

Then 3 of my photos were on my desk top computer and 2 were on my laptop. Although they are networked I couldn’t get them to all upload to the same entry form. The entries have  to be submitted all at once. I finally gave up that battle, copied the 2 from the laptop to disk and reloaded them on the desktop so they would all be in the same place.

So you’d think it would be easy from there, right? Well putting them in the entry form was easy but then I hit submit and nothing happened. When I hit submit a 2nd time I got a message, validating form. Well It’s now been 15 minutes and it’s still “validating form”. Maybe they are getting a lot of traffic. I wish it had a progress bar so I’d have some idea if it’s doing anything or just frozen.

The link is: http://nhdreamvacation.com/browse-and-vote/

If it ever uploads they will probably be under Recently Submitted.

I finally canceled out and reloaded all of them This time they went right in and I got a message that “All photos have to be approved. My pictures will appear shortly” So at least I know they got there this time. I’m not sure what “shortly” means but I’ll keep checking and let you know.

Speaking of checking, I haven’t seen anything on the Cog Railway pictures either. Maybe I didn’t make the cut or maybe they are just behind.

The 5 I am trying to submit are:

C is for California, Colorado, Connecticut

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The dilemma with “C” is that I have been to California and Connecticut and more than just a touch down at the airport. I haven’t vacationed in either state so I don’t think that I should check them of my list.  When I set the goal I was thinking along the lines of a vacation to really explore each state. I’m hoping that eventually I’ll have a travel trailer/RV and tour the lower 48 at my leisure. In the meantime my paltry vacations will have to suffice.

I went to California in 1996 for a business trip but I didn’t really get to see much. We did take a few hours to visit the Queen Mary but there’s so much more to the state. From Baja in the south to the famous Highway 1 that follows much of the Pacific Coast there’s just so much to this state. I want to see the LaBrea Tar Pits and Channel Islands National Park and the giant Redwoods of northern California.

Of course the first Disney Park is out there and even though I’m not a huge Theme park fanatic, it certainly deserves at least 1 visit. Hollywood on the other hand isn’t high on my list. I think I’d be happy just taking a picture of the Hollywood sign. 🙂

Connecticut is one of my neighbor states. I like the Connecticut River Valley a lot.

 I really hope to get back there again this year. It was pretty cold when I went eagle watching in March. I want to explore Gillette Castle too. I only saw it from the River.

 I spent a spa weekend in Connecticut once. I was kind of bored because I’m not a big “pampering ” kind of person. Once I got my  massage I was ready to go home while everyone else went shopping. That’s just not me. I do want to visit the Mystic Seaport and their aquarium. It’s supposed to be terrific. Still, I’m not sure I want to spend a week’s vacation there. Day trips work for me. I think I can check that State off the list.

Colorado… Sand Dunes National Park, look for mountain goats in the  Arapaho & Roosevelt National Forests, spy bald eagles swooping above the reservoir in Navajo State Park, and that’s just the beginning.  There are Dude ranches and waterfalls, John Denver country. Gaze at the sunset behind the rugged Rocky Mountain’s peaks. This state is definitely on my must-do list.

Have you been to any of the states? Do you live in one of these three? What do you think are the best places to visit in these states?

Comments “Off”

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Editor in Chief

 

Rocky here, your Editor -in- chief.  I wanted to apologize for the comments section being turned off again. Apparently WordPress had a problem with one of their tools. It required Dusty to reset her password. No other changes were made but once again the comments section was turned off. We value your comments, in fact if Dusty didn’t get comments she would probably lose interest in writing this blog because as any blogger knows, it takes a lot of time and effort to keep a regular blogging schedule.

We have sent two requests to WordPress asking for their assistance in resolving the problem but so far no response. We will continue to keep you updated but we are hoping that you will see the results when it’s fixed before we will. 🙂

Editor In Chief Aces Medical Exam!

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It’s been a busy week.

Editor in Chief

Editor -in-Chief Rocky got a clean bill of health and will be continuing with his oversight of this blog. We are all happy and very relieved. We still don’t know about Smokey. His appointment isn’t for another week.

The stress and excitment has taken it’s toll. So there’s no real post prepared for today.

We were just too beat!

We’ll be back on Monday! Have a great weekend. 🙂

New Hampshire Dream Vacation Images

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I reviewed the website and official rules. The Grand Prize is a $2,500 vacation. There are 2 first prizes each for a $500 NH vacation. The pictures have to be uploaded all at once and the deadline is September 5, 2011. That means I have no chance for a “do- over” or to hit the state line attractions. Work has launched into it’s Fall-Rush mode so we’re all working overtime for the next 3-4 weeks.

A lot of pictures have been uploaded already and the current leader has 15,751 votes! I have a feeling I’m not going to get an honerable mention but it’s fun browsing and seeing what other’s have done. I’ll have a better idea for next year. Plus I’ll have to work on my networking skills. I’m really blown away over that number 15,751!

The 2nd place picture at the moment has 6, 525 votes. After that the vote levels starts to be more realistic..the third place in the popular vote as of today has 2.008 votes.

I was also told by a volunteer at one of the locations that there are a couple of groups that have rented busses and are going around taking pictures to submit. They said there was over 100 in one of the groups. Wow. If they win I wonder how they will divide up the prize?

I think to garner lots of votes it’s good to upload your photos early in the contest. So my meager offerings are here so you can see them. I’ll upload them next week but you are getting a sneak preview.

Once they are uploaded, I’ll post the link . I hope you’ll vote for at least one of mine. 🙂

As you can see, I missed a lot of opportunities. My vacation photos were much better, like the Cog Railroad and the Flume gorge or the Cannon Mountain Tram. The problem was remembering to bring that sign. So like I said , there’s always next year. I have a better idea about the contest now.