Category: Animals

The Big Fair

August 26, 2014

We went to a bigger and better fair this past Saturday! The Dutchess County Fair to be precise.

That’s KLS with a prized turkey. It was for sale!

We saw many, many animals, such as this lovely duck…

A baby kangaroo…

And even camels!

The animals were all quite friendly, with the exception of a savage fowl that big my finger! Here’s the criminal:

If she wasn’t so cute I would have roasted her!

Speaking of food, I’ll shamefully admit I ate a gyro and a plate of fries at 10:30…

And then only a couple of hours later had a ‘Pluto pup’ (to use the Oz vernacular):

Don’t let those smiles fool you, because not ten minutes later I looked like this:

KLS enjoyed her Greek vegetarian platter, even though she could hardly eat it all!

Of course we saw the other fair attractions, such as the produce and flowers and farm equipment and – one of my favourites – the art!

This ‘painting’ made of flowers and plants was extremely impressive:

But you all know what I wanted to see most don’t you? Yes, the rides!

Sadly my gluttony had ruined me and I was too green to consider riding any…

This didn’t stop me admiring them just long enough to bore KLS! This one in particular I’d never seen before and was quite taken with:

Unusually (for us) we made quite a lot of purchases at the fair. But those are mostly Christmas gifts and will remain secret 😉

It was a fun day, and a good end to the summer!

Wendy’s serves the full menu all day did you know? That’s how I had a spicy chicken sandwich at 7:30 am! This was my breakfast of course, and we had woken early since we had a busy day planned. On our way to our second Vegas hotel we had two stops to make. The first was this place, about an hour from the Grand Canyon:

Bearizona is a wildlife park with a three mile drive-through section and a more traditional zoo for smaller beasts. The focus is on wildlife of Arizona and it’s a very impressive park.

That’s a goat and a white bison. They also had buffalo, wolves, burros and other goats. The star attraction of course is these guys:

Look at that show off bear being cute in the water tub! The large bears roam free in 14 acres, not caring at all about the cars and people within! There are many of them wandering around, and in the zoo portion of the park there are many more in two enclosures divided by age. Here’s a shot of the cubs:

They look peaceful enough there, but 99% of the time they were play-fighting with each other like little fuzzy wrestlers! The little buggers were so cute!

In addition to bears the zoo has foxes, porcupines, otters, an American badger and a few other beasts. It’s laid out very well and we both enjoyed Bearizona quite a bit. If you’re ever in the area, it’s worth a visit 🙂

A few hours later and we were back in Vegas. Only a few blocks from our next hotel was today’s second attraction: the Pinball Hall of Fame.

This is essentially a warehouse containing hundreds of pinball machines, almost all working and playable. They range from old EM games from the 1950s through to the last pinball made (so far) from 2013. They also have retro arcade games and a few other odds and ends.

It’s a pinball fans dreamworld, and I scurried around playing as many as I could. This included some landmark games like Black Knight, Fireball, Haunted House and Pinbot.

One of the appeals of pinball for me is the art. Many of the games on display were beautiful, especially restored as they are and lit up like they would have been when manufactured.

All the games had historical information on them. Impacto (look at that art!) was an oddity since the guy that owns the museum in 40 years of looking has found no info on the game or the (Spanish) company that created it.

Needless to say I loved this place. If I lived nearby I’d visit all the time 🙂

And then we arrived at our second Vegas hotel, Caesar’s Palace. It’s a bit posh and a bit expensive and a bit luxurious. Should be fun!

The Great Australian Road Trip

July 15, 2014

One day I’m going to drive around Australia. And I don’t just mean here and there, I mean drive all around Australia. As in this:

It’s a trip of almost 20,000 km, or over 200 straight hours of driving at 60 mph. That’s 40 days of driving 5 hours a day, which means this would be lengthy and expensive. But what a trip it would be!

I’d do the reverse route from the map above, starting in Sydney and heading north through Newcastle, Brisbane and all the way up to Cairns. That’s a few days right there, with many stops and things to see on the way. The beaches and coastal roads, especially as you get more and more north, would be beautiful.

And then a several-day trip to Darwin through the outback. Hundreds and hundreds of dry empty miles with not even a radio station on the radio. That would be quite an adventure!

The Darwin to Perth leg may take a week. It’s some of the least inhabited parts of Australia, but there are just enough small towns to make a daily stop possible. Accommodation on this leg may include a tent, or sleeping in the car! I may stay in a comfy hotel in Perth for a day or two to reset 🙂

Half the trip would now be complete and I’d be on the opposite side of the country. But the southern coasts are still to come, and some say these are the most beautiful roads in all of Australia.

It may take a week to get to Adelaide from Perth, stopping everywhere that looks interesting. Between the desert and the southern ocean there would certainly be a lot to see!

And then the windy roads along the Victorian coast would take me to the extreme southeast, at which I’d have to make a decision: Tasmania or no Tasmania? After 5 weeks on the road, who’s to say what I’d decide at that point?

Eventually the landscape would become vaguely familiar, as I drove into NSW and found myself within a few hours of Sydney. Six weeks after starting, I’d reach my destination: exactly where I started.

I’d have seen the entire country, and made enough memories to last me forever.

I’ll do this one day. I have to. Who wants to come with me?

Robot Claw

Category: Animals

The Big Fair

Busy Day

The Great Australian Road Trip