INTRO TO OUR JOURNEY to THE WIND SWEPT COAST OF WALES

In the last  entry of The Soggy Moose Blog I asked you to stand by for this trip. So here is a rough idea as to what lies ahead for us. 

Our journey will start with a mighty long airplane ride to Dublin, Ireland. We will have one day and night to explore and recon for our return. So we will be exploring on foot the banks of the River Liffey, finding places to eat and drink for our return after our sailing. That night I believe we will make our way to The Temple Bar to enjoy a meal and music before we find the historic Gaiety  Theater and attend a performance of River Dance. This day should help us adjust to the time change, but not always as I will be up early either way. 

The next morning we will walk to another hotel where we will meet our fellow travelers. We will have a city tour and then board the Lindblad National Geographic Orion, casting off to sail to the wind swept coast of Wales.  

We enjoy Lindblad Nat Geo for many reasons and here are a few of my random thoughts. 

1. The ships are small expedition class. The expedition class ship was pioneered by Lindblad. 102 guests in 53 cabins to give you a feel for the size of this vessel. 

2.   An open bridge, yes one can wander onto the ships bridge and chat           with the on duty staff and crew. 

3,   While there is an itinerary, this is an expedition and all is subject to change, be it weather, government clearances (as experienced in Cuba), or maybe a unique wildlife sighting. 

4, The quality of the speakers is outstanding. On this we will have several historians, photographers, naturalists and yes an ethnomusicologist. 

5. While the ship is small there is no lacking on service or quality of food. FOR MY DISNEY CRUISE LINE FRIENDS THERE IS NO “EXCELLENT SPEACH”

There are more reasons, which will be revealed as the travel progresses.  

During this sailing we will be exploring the flora, fauna and history of many out of the way as well as some well traveled paths. Skomer Island, Fishguard, Isles of Scilly, Tresco, Alderney and Sark to name a few. We will also visit Dartmouth and Portsmouth. I am looking forward to being onboard the HMS Victory as there is great history on those decks. 

Our last morning will find us sailing up the Thames and I believe we dock alongside the HMS Belfast after sailing under the open Tower Bridge. 

We will then have a day and a half in London. Here we will visit a few of our favorite pubs and, as time is short, probably visit the British Museum for another round of Egyptology.  We do hope to meet up with friends and enjoy bits of the Totally Thames Festival. The Thames has a fascinating history which spans many years. 

Next we travel by rail and ferry back to Dublin, staying at a little Inn above a pub on the River. The only scheduled event in Dublin is the Guiness Storehouse tour. I am sure we will visit Trinity College etc.  and I have also discovered a walking tour (Ok a pub crawl) themed on the authors of Ireland who lived in Dublin. 

So kids, that is what one may expect to read about in the days to come. 

Thanks to one and all for reading and sharing our blog. I hope you get inspired you to explore and learn and experience and find the beauty of our world. 

Scott and Lynn 

TOTAL ECLIPSE AT Ft. KEARNEY NEBRASKA

Here is our Eclipse Trip to Kearney Nebraska - 

It was over a year ago we started planning our journey to see the 2017 solar eclipse. We had made a reservation at the Douglas, Wyoming KOA campground. We got the last available space and were set. Shortly there after we started talking to friends and soon needed three camp sites. We were fortunate enough to get three sites together at Fort Kearney State Recreation Area outside of Kearney, Nebraska and within the umbra of the total eclipse. 

Given the rush for reservations in Wyoming and other areas of Nebraska, we expected large crowds, crazy traffic, and a very full campground. Hence our plan was to arrive a few days before the eclipse to settle in and relax. 

Our plan was to view the eclipse and then the following day continue to Wisconsin to attend a gathering of folks. Ah the best laid plans go sideways as ours did, more on that later. 

So we planned ahead for a couple weeks in Campy (our name for our travel trailer), food and other provisions were packed and a solar panel was installed (glad we added the solar panel as will be revealed later). 

Bright and early Friday August 18, 2017, we headed out, bound for our gathering at Ft. Kearney. We were the first to arrive and got all set up. I made a run into Kearney to get friends to a rental car agency and upon my return Lynn advised the Air Conditioner was out and the Inverter cut out due to a low battery level. I reset the inverter and all seemed well. 

This evening we had a wonderful dinner of smoked chicken, veggies, and couscous with some very nice wine. The evening was highlighted with great friendship and conversation. 

We awoke Saturday and I made pancakes and sausage for breakfast. During this day the inverter continued to need to be reset several times. Then, finally, it quit working and there was no AC power to our trailer. Thank goodness the solar panel kept the batteries charged. We were with out Air Conditioning and the temps were in the low 90’s with a humidity of 90% or greater. 

A good portion of the day was spent trying to diagnose the electrical issue to no avail, but got close to an isolation of the problem.  

For Saturday’s evening meal I made carnitas, cooking pork roasts in the dutch oven. These turned out great and were enjoyed by all. 

Sorry I should have taken many food pictures but it was just to dang hot and muggy to move any more than I had to. 

The night was made bearable as the temperature dropped and friends supplied fans to circulate air in Campy.  These were run by an extension cord run from power box into the camper.

Sunday started with a breakfast of bacon, biscuits in the dutch oven, sausage, and sausage gravy, fruit, a buffet of sorts. All meals were excellent. 

Again, much of the day was spent trying to keep cool in the shade and again diagnosing the electrical issue. Again we narrowed issues down even further. 

Dinner was a great lasagna with a cheesy bread. This was again an excellent meal. I must say we ate excellent meals and that is not saying enough. 

Monday morning breakfast was, yes, I must say it, a fantastic french toast casserole with sausage. 

We soon settled in for the eclipse, chairs and eclipse glasses at the ready. Due to a time zone change, we were an hour early. We enjoyed various dips, chicken salad and crackers as we awaited the event.   

As the dragon started to devour the sun, or a large packman was eating the moon, or the Death Star came into firing range, we were in total awe. We did have very few light clouds but they soon cleared out and our view was excellent. The skies grew dark, crickets began to chirp and the fireflies blinked, as the eclipse started. Then came the total eclipse, and darkness fell across the land. We noted a temperature of 76 F , down from about 90F.  One can not help but wonder what people of days gone by thought. There are stories of peoples firing flaming arrows into the air to restart the sun’s fire. Clouds on the horizon did get a reddish tint like an alien glow. Stars were visible and there seemed to be a hush over the land. 

I did grab my camera and snapped a few photos of the total event. After one minute and fifty nine seconds, things started to get brighter and brighter till soon the sun and moon were longer aligned. The temperature again started to rise and life as we know it returned to normal. 

Earlier in the day, I was able to contact a mobile RV repair service and had a 3:00 o'clock appointment. When the gentleman arrived we quickly found the burned up box and a repair was made. WE HAD A/C, and the charger/inverter was working as it should. Life was much cooler for us. 

We had leftover lasagna and I made garlic toast in the griddle. Even “more better” than before. 

Lynn and I had refreshing showers where we did not melt after drying off. We then went to  sleep in a cool camper. The Boys were also feeling the heat and sure enjoyed the cool A/C. 

The stress, I know sounds funny, of the electrical issue must have been lifted as I slept so soundly Lynn could not wake me up to react to the wind blowing our screen room about the campground. Poor Lynn, she went out and wrangled in the room and collapsed it and got it stored away. 

We have decided to cut our journey short as we were to have been traveling further east to see some folks. The plan is to stay here one more day in Kearney to see if the electrical system is stable and in solid working order, then return home on Wednesday with fingers crossed that all is well. We need to build confidence in this system. 

One plus to returning home is we will have more time to prepare for the Wales trip. The negative side is we were looking very much forward to seeing friends in Wisconsin. We feel better to be safe than sorry.  

Additional thoughts:

All our meals were excellent, mainly due to all pitching in to share the cooking duties and providing tasty dishes. As I once stated there was no possibility of us re enacting the Donner Party. 

We were very amazed how empty this campground was, given all the hype of the eclipse event. Maybe it was more crowded at other locations in Nebraska. 

It was a great weekend, even with our camper troubles. We enjoyed the friendship of our group and simply had a wonderful time experience the eclipse and more. Thanks to those who made it a great time.  We will not wait 7 years for the next eclipse to have another camping get together, I hope some place cooler and less humid and no camper problems.  

Stand By Folks we are headed to Ireland, Wales, and London in about a little over a week. 

Turtles at our waterfront campsite. 

The others have left, yet this is how busy our eclipse viewing area was. 

The Boys always enjoy camping regardless of camper problems.