May 30, 2018 - Report from Crabtree Falls, NC
Our rig is perched at the campground here on the Blue Ridge Parkway in western North Carolina. Lovely and quiet here. The state is under a flood emergency and we are on the top of Crabtree Mountain Range, some of the highest ground in the East. So, we won’t flood, but getting in and out is a challenge. We wanted to go to Asheville this morning. First way out was Curtis Creek Road. We got halfway down and found a tree across the road. Decided to take the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was closed just past the entrance to Mount Mitchell State Park. State Route 80 was closed too and we had to go north another ten miles to U.S. route 221. Then we reached I-40 to find it stalled. A landslide had closed two of three lanes westbound.
What should have been an hour drive took three hours. We visited the lovely Folk Art Center and took lunch at a Mexican restaurant. There we decided to abort our expedition and a planned walk about downtown Asheville, always a treat. The gal on the television overhead looked terrified as she spoke (muted) of the bands of red clouds approaching from the south. This was followed by images of swollen streams and cars rolled up under bridges. We returned to our home on wheels when we could. Not being able to get out is fine, not being able to get back would be unpleasant.
The rain has followed us from Florida. We finished up there with a week near Orlando where we explored the community and birded from Merritt Island to Yeehaw Junction. Moved to just south of the North Carolina border in Georgia on Friday of the Memorial Day weekend. That was a mistake! I didn’t realize what day it was when I prepared the travel plan. The schedule said 550 miles and eleven hours. That would have been fine any other day.
We rose at four and were on the road at five-fifteen. Had no problem getting out of Orlando, and the road was smooth across Florida and south Georgia. But the trouble began as expected when we approached the great city of Atlanta. Congestion, a closed lane here and there, and an accident stalled the line. We broke clear just before five o’clock in the afternoon and arrived at Turnerville and our friends’ home an hour later. This driver was tired, but we were happy to have arrived and spent a lazy weekend with them. It rained, by the way.
The rain followed us from Orlando to north Georgia and now to western Carolina. They have even given it a name, “subtropical storm Alberto.” We hope it leaves before we do.
On a positive note, we took the loop trail to Crabtree Falls this afternoon. The falls were roaring. No surprise.
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Report from Anne and Chuck
I’ve been asked to report on our Australasia tour and will try to do so here. Pass the word on if you wish.
We do have a really big trip planned.
Anne and I will be departing from San Francisco on August 21st after stopping there to visit with Alex and enjoying the usually refreshing westerly breeze that springs from the Pacific to replace the air warmed by the sun and rising from the arid land. The best birding there is in the morning before the land heats up and creates the wind. The autumn bird migration will have already begun. Imagine if you weighed 4 ounces, brought up four offspring in June and July in British Columbia, wanted to spend the winter in Panama, and were not a member of AAA. It might be wise to start the trip early.
Our long flight will be from SFO to Sydney by way of Auckland NZ. We will be bold and immediately jump onto a plane to Cairns in tropical northeastern Australia. We’ll stay there few days to adjust to the change in time and season (and loss of a day) and to join in the local annual festival. Then we fly to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea and on to Kimbe Bay on the island of New Britain east of the main island of N.G. We will stay at a dive resort and swim in the Bismarck Sea.
After a couple of days a birding tour run by Rockjumper Tours will join us at the Walindi Plantation. Our guide should start to show us the magnificent bird life of PNG. After a few more days we will fly back to Port Moresby and on again to Mt. Hagen with the tour where we will lodge first at about 7K ft elevation and then at 9K. I suspect the weather will be cool and damp as we seek out birds of paradise and megapodes.
Returning to Cairns, Australia we will rent a car and tour on our own the beaches and jungles and the Atherton Plateau after making a two day visit to the Great Barrier Reef.
We will go on to Sydney where we will see West Side Story at the Sydney Opera House and rent a camper to range on to Canberra and the coast south of Sydney.
After seeing just a fraction of Australia we will board a plane to New Zealand where we will first go to the far southeast of the South Island, Dunedin, and drive west to Fiordland to enjoy the lakes and mountains in the springtime. Then we will fly back to the North Island and make a tour about the beaches, volcanoes, and varied lands there. We will camp on two islands where predators are excluded to provide a refuge for native creatures including flightless birds.
Finally, we will visit Auckland before giving up the spring to return to our autumn becoming winter.
I don’t know how often I’ll be able to find a means to post, but I’ll do what I can. Wish us well. We will indeed be in the outback regions of the three countries we will visit, and Papua New Guinea is all an outback country, to put it nicely. The rewards should make the perils all worthwhile.