Tassie: Epic Adventure

The highlight of our Tassie trip was a kayaking adventure on Lake St Claire with Dad, Rhyanna and Zachary. It was gorgeous but tough going as we only have sit on top kayaks which are not built for speed. Plus we had an extra person and our attempt to just have them as a third person in the 2-man kayak ended in a desperate bid for land as the whole thing became submerged in the middle of the freezing lake. Instead Zachary braved the 3-hour hike alone and met the rest of us at Echo Point on the famous Overland Track. Justin and I slept in the bush hut while the other 3 put tents up on the little beach.
The tents on the beach:



Cooking tea next to the hut:
View from the jetty at Echo Point:


Dad and Zach taking a break after a bit of a hike:
The next day I did the hike back and was surprised to get back before the kayakers. Unbeknownst to us there was a wind warning out that day for small craft. Zachary and Rhyanna in the single kayaks had slogged their way through the waves to make it to the meeting point, having lost sight of Dad and Justin an hour before so we sat on the beach waiting as the sun got lower and lower in the sky. It turned out they had been forced to abandon the 2-man kayak after having to pull over to tip the water out every 100m. In a move that would make Survivorman proud they hid it in the bushes, hacked a piece of life jacket off with a pocket knife to mark to location on the track and then hiked back, with Justin wearing only Aqua shoes on the track that was rocky and involved lots of clambering over tree roots and muddy pits.
We topped off the grand adventure with a drive home at dusk as hundreds of wallabies threatened to leap out on the road at any moment!
It managed to snow up there the day after we got back but a few days later Dad was able to go up with a friend and his boat and easily retrieve the hidden kayak.

Tasmania - Part 2

It's great to be back in sunny Australia where even in the supposedly rainy state of Tasmania it's still normal to dry your washing outside on that great Australian icon, the Hills Hoist.
Less power consumption + fresh smelling clothes = win!


We went for a roam around Cataract gorge in Launceston, where the peacocks roam wild having been introduced in the early days of settlement. Apparently they'll snatch the food off your table if you're not looking.


My sister Philippa was feeling less sunny. She went to bed feeling sick and ended up at the hospital a few hours later with appendicitis! I did take photos of her looking sad in hospital but I'll be a kind sister and not post them on the internet for all to see.

Tassie Part 1

Farmers Union Ice Coffee. It's a South Australian thing, but they have plenty of it in Tasmania. And it is good.


Since our last visit Kate's parents have "adopted" a young Wallaby. It is blind and wandered into their yard and now it lives in a shelter and is content eating the grass and fruit in the backyard.

Kate and I hiked to the top of Ben Lomond, its more known for its skiing in the winter, but it has an easy track to the top in the summer. It's very cool at the top, rocks, moss, lichen and lots of small streams and puddles to hop around.

The trail is denoted by these weather-beaten mossy poles every 50 yards or so.

Towards the summit there are a few old cabins from before it was a national park, you can see one of them peaking out behind Kate.

Sunny Sydney

Sunny Sydney! Made it to Australia intact, with minimal jet lag. Warm weather, sunshine and Adam Lemmey abound.

Hung out and checked out the sights of Sydney with Adam. After a thanksgiving/Wisconsin 3 weeks of meat mania we were extremely grateful that 1. Adam is a vegetarian and 2. He knows of some amazing vego restaurants.

He also is proud owner of a 1979 (or maybe 1981) Toyota Corolla. Sometimes I had to hit the engine with a hammer to start it, other than it is in great shape. Here is Adam before our road trip to the Blue Mountains.

At the visitor center there was an old candy crane game from 1909 (made in France). We all won two pieces of candies.

The Blue Mountains are home to the steepest grade of train in the world (they claim anyway). It can be scary.

The Blue Mountains

Adam also knows the location of a Rambo arcade game. It is a wonderfully good time pretending to be Rambo and shooting 4,000 guys and increasing your rage meter.

My RAGE meter is Heroic.

Back In Wisconsin

Had an exciting time in our last few weeks in Wisconsin. Got to catch up with a lot of people, go to some shows, cook lots of food, eat lots of food, stand out by some fires, and on and on.

A few highlights included a bike trip from Madison to Baraboo with Aaron, something we both have wanted to do for a while now. It was supposed to be sunny and warm but ended up being foggy and cool. Still we had a blast.

In line for the ferry



Also celebrated my Wisconsin heritage in the basement with Chris and James.



We had a big Thanksgiving meal, I ended up being so full I felt sick. Because James and I won't be in Wisconsin for Christmas we also had a Christmas celebration over the weekend as well. As you can see I splurged on my brother, the 99 cent can of Lost Lake.


Went to a show in the small town of Roxbury with my parents and Kate. It was a cool bar (Roxbury Tavern), Lake Louie on tap and cheap eats, oh and the band was pretty good too (The Dang-Its). Nice to get a little folk-country-americana show in before we depart.

Chris and I wrapped Madge up like a baby…. stunts like this could be a reason for her dislike of Chris...

Back in Madison!

Wheee!!! we made it back to Madison 83 days and 10,225 miles since we left.

We've had an awesome time seeing so many places, so many old friends, and so many new ones. It was so good to see so many people before we move, we are honored to have so many great friends and will always remember the special times we had with all of you.

I want to do a special honor roll here of everyone who let us crash at/invade their houses, we owe you.

Kerry
Chris
James
Justin
Jayne
Josh
Uncle Roger
Aunt Jan
Joe
Chelsea
Linds
Jeb
Andre
Yolande
Eli
Javier
Becca
WEC
Res
Joel
Nick
Beth

As far as the blog... We will keep updating it for the rest of our travels and will keep updating after we move to New Zealand in January. Please keep reading!

Milwaukee

Stopped by Milwaukee for a couple of days to visit Doug & Mollie and Nick & Beth. It was a pretty relaxed time, we had some nice dinners and hangouts and also managed to clean out of the van and begin packing things up as we are only 80 miles from our final destination. Didn't take many photos but we did get some cute photos with Waffles and Chester.

Kentuck

We didn't make it to the deep south but we did find a good bbq place in Lexington, Kentucky... it looked like a tin shed, in fact it was a tin shed, but it was good.

RIP Daniel Boone

After driving through the bluegrass and rolling hills of Kentucky we thought "hmm what else would we do here?" Answer? Bourbon Whiskey! By law Bourbon has to be produced in the US and contain at least 51% corn along with either rye or wheat (other whiskeys can be any blend of corn, wheat and/or rye). Turns out that all of the Bourbon in the US, therefore the world, is produced in a small patch of Kentucky. We got in on the last free tour of the day of the Buffalo Trace Distillery. It was lead by a charming old southern gent who told us some good info but also told us a lot of jokes.

Here is the beautiful old buildings from the 1880s that they still use today.

and the tour guide giving Kate some info

It smelled liked whiskey in the aging room and made me ready for the free tasting after the tour.

West Virginia (I'm coming home)

Got out of DC and drove to the edge of the Blue Ridge Parkway and spent the night. Early the next morning we started out by driving 50 miles or so of the parkway.

Then we drove into West Virginia on our way to visit Joel, who lives in the Southwestern corner of the state, a major coal mining area. Here is a coal mine:

Out back of Joel's house in Logan.

We went to take a hike with Joel in the state park near Logan and ran into a Pioneer days fest and learned about a Native American vision quests and how to make a good knife blade. After pioneer fest and hiking we purchased some Big Wheels ice cream treats and did a short driving tour of the city. Yum!

We didn't stop here, but we did notice this at a stoplight on the boarder of WV and Kentucky. We were in real Appalachia.

DC (Part 2)

Res took a day off of work and we went on a big bike cruise around DC. We started the day at the Florida Ave Grill, a greasy spoon soul food diner that did not disappoint. When Kate and I said yes to butter on our grits we did not realize that it meant a ladle full of melted butter... glad we are moving into a country with socialized medicine. Here we are, almost bursting with food.

We biked to the National Arboretum and saw a cool display with lots of Bonsai trees

We biked around a bit more then ended up at Res's house for a break. Then we ate dinner at an El Salvadorian place complete with a Mariachi band.

Oh and did I mention that we went to the bar called "The Big Hunt." Yes, it was called "The Big Hunt" It was a good dive bar with, of course, Big Buck Hunter.

In the Adams Morgan neighborhood we saw bluegrass music and continued with our theme of ridiculous bar names. The bar the band was at was called the Madams Organ (a clever play on the neighborhood name....)

DC (Part 1)

Res works at a bike shop which means he has extra bikes! The weather was nice enough to bike around, and Res's old clunker cruisers did the trick. We biked from his house along a creek and ended up at the Lincoln Memorial. The authorities didn't seem to mind that we rode bike around in the pedestrian mall area of DC and that made it a breeze to get around.


After visiting the Museum of the American Indian (very cool) and the Air and Space Museum (also cool) we stumbled upon the capitol building and lots of protesters who were against the health care bill... luckily they we just finishing up their whining (ahem, sorry, right to organize....).

This fellow has "Live Free or Die Hard" on the back of his truck, not sure if he is in favor or against the bill or just really pumped about the Bruce Willis movie.

And glad to see that after a hard day of protesting AGAINST health care reform these protesters are happy to stuff their faces with lots of calories, fat, saturated fat, corn syrup, cholesterol, etc..... ahhh FREEDOM! (sarcasm).

Now to de-stress... a monkey at the DC zoo, a very cool zoo.

WEC + Delaware

So remember how I grew up in Africa and went to boarding school and had pet monkeys and chamelions and ate snakes? Well a few hours south of NY, near Philiadelphia the mission my parents work with has its US base and a few old friends from Cote d'Ivoire live there. It's like visiting extended family, I got to see (L-R) Lee and Liz, the Mums of fellow boarding schoolers, Aunty Marilyn my 6th grade teacher, plus (not pictured) all three Durben girls and their dad Dan.

We continued south towards Washington DC via the lovely, picturesque Delaware wetlands. A nuclear power plant was the highlight of what our Atlas labelled a scenic drive.


Adventure highlight: we had to ford some rivers, apparently the wetlands weren't aware there was a road there. I thought I saw a log under the water but Justin just yelled "Do it! Do it! Go! Go" So I did, and we survived.


On the banks of the Chesapeake these big lumpy balls smell good like citrus, does anyone know what they are?

NYC!

With great daring Astro braved the drive into New York City and lived to tell the tale.
We stayed with Becca, who hadn't done laundry in a month or 2 so we decided to use team power to lug all the laundry downstairs, walk it to the laundromat and have a drink next door while it washed. In the picture below you can see Becca on the phone with Alexa who is foolishly offering to do Becca's laundry if we will instead meet her at another bar (one with free pizza!) So we did, we had a couple beers with the laundry cart in the bar and Alexa took it all home and washed it. Impressive friendship.


We only had one full day in NY so decided to explore somewhere new. We had the obligatory delicious bagel for breakfast before hopping on the subway to Queens, remember, the place where Eddie Murphy found his bride in Coming to America?

The MoMa (Musuem of Modern Art) has an outpost there that had loads of cool stuff, including these structures in the courtyard:


and a swimming pool to be viewed from above or below. I want to turn my bedroom into this:


Across the street is a building where people can apply to graffiti.



We rounded out our visit with Molly and Darren, raw food, Philipino food, ice cream, and baked goods. Most of our tourism seems to revolve around food.