Moral the Traveling Wombat

VLA, Painted Deserts and Wood Rocks

2007-11-20T18:15:00.000-07:00

Back in June or July, I don't remember it has been so long, I went on a trip to Albuquerque. On the way there we stopped at the Very Large Array (the VLA). There isn't just one REALLY large dish, but lots and lots of smaller dishes that are arranged so that people can collect radio waves from space and turn them into information. Below are a few more pictures from around that area. Like I said Big Dishes.

Here I am in one of the dishes. It was quite roomy.

After that we went to Albuquerque, but no pictures were taken there. On the way back we went to the Painted Desert/Petrified Forest National Park in northern AZ. There was a lot of red, and kind of reminded me of the color in the bush in Australia.

Here I am with one of my owners acting silly.

Finally, here I am sitting on a piece of petrified wood. So, this is supposed to be a piece of real wood that sometime long ago fell over, and then over time turned into wood. It is supposed to take a LONG time for that to happen, I think it is more likely God made some really cool rocks that look like wood. But only God knows for sure.

Overall another great trip. I will write more later! ARF!

Germany - the rest of the trip

2007-09-27T09:01:00.000-07:00

ARF!!!!!!!!!!!

Very sorry that I haven't written in a LONG time. My owners have been non-fun and therefore not allowing me to blog. But now there is some time, and they have allowed some blog time so I thought I would try to finish the Germany trip, just in case I don't have the opportunity to blog again for a long while.

So, here is am at a piece of the Berlin Wall. It has had some graffiti added since it was apart of the wall, but it was cool to see. And apparently it is located along the same line that the wall was originally at.

While in Berlin we also went to Checkpoint Charlie. This was one of the locations where people could cross between East and West Berlin. You can just see me off on the right side on the sandbags. There was a lot of historical stuff there as well to describe what the checkpoint was like.

Here I am at Sharlotesburg Castle, which is also in Berlin. Very expansive gardens, but it was rainy and not a lot of fun to be out in. The inside was also pretty nice, from what I remember. Very classical looking and very big.

Here I am a Norshweinstien castle. This is down south in Bavaria. Also a rainy day, but I got out briefly to get this great picture from above and the side. Not a lot of people get this shot, because you have to hike up a trail, and then across a narrow part where there is a sign that said someone died there in the 60's, and therefore be very careful. We were, hence you getting to read this wonderful blog of mine. This is also called the fairy tale castle. It was built by crazy king Luis, and only something like 10 rooms were ever completed. The rest are just empty shells. He ran out of money and was killed before it was finished.

Well, Munich is the area for beer and pretzels, and as you can see I had my fill while I was there. The pretzel was pretty good, but I got stuck in the beer stein as you can see. It just wasn't quite big enough for me. Oh well, it was an adventure none the less.

Below you can see me on a boat along the Rhein. That was a long day, and hot day. But there were a lot of castles to look at, and that was neat. But truthfully, now that I have done it once I don't think I ever want to do it again. Hot and Sunny and Humid and ARF!
To the left I am at the Dome in Koln (that's Cologne for those English speakers). This building was pretty much destroyed during the war, as were most building, and ever since the war ended it has been under reconstruction. this place was big and grand. Lots of intricate design work that you can't even see.

To the right I am in Bruel, which is a town near Koln and Bonn (where we stayed in this part of Germany). This was the summer (or maybe it was the winter) estate for some very well to-do people. This outside had another immense garden that was very nice, and the inside was also very nice. You can just see me on the left side of the picture. This was a nice day outside, nice weather and all.

Above was a picture taken in Bonn along the Rhein. There is this walking/biking path that goes along the Rhein, and so we ventured along it. Well, there was this thing in a wall along the way, and my owners thought it was a funny picture to take with me in it. I am there kind to the right of the middle.

Finally, I am almost done with the trip. Well, you can't go to Germany and not eat the chocolate. Well, my owners and I went a little overboard. And here is what happened. Here I am both before and after I ate chocolate. I collapsed after all that chocolate. It was WAY too much. And look how much was left to eat. I understand that my owners are still working their way through it all.

It was a fun trip, and I am glad that I can finally share it with all of you. I hope I get to go somewhere else soon, and write about it in a more timely fashion than I did with this trip.
Anyways, have am ARF day!

Back to Germany and Return - Day 1

2007-06-23T07:53:00.001-07:00

So, I got to go with both my owners to Germany in May. It was a lot of fun.

The first day we went to the chocolate museum. I remember the chocolate fountain from the last time I was here. This time I got to see a purple cow. Look, I mean a purple cow!

This was only the first day and then the next morning it was off to another city - Berlin.

JAPAN! A few parting pictures

2007-05-05T08:35:00.000-07:00

As you can see Hover, my best friend, went with to Japan. We slept pretty well in the bed when own owner wasn't there.

We also ordered room service a few times that she was away. We figured the company she was working for would pay for it. The food was good, and the people were very nice to us.

Finally, the really weird thing about Japan, the toilets! ARF! were they out there. I mean look at those things. They have this thing that looks like a remote control on the side that I didn't want to know what all it did, but of course Hover wanted to push all the buttons. so he did. Water started flying all over the place, and a wet wombat is not a happy wombat very often, and boy did I let Hover know it. You could adjust the water pressure. I am not sure why you need that, and I am not sure I want to know (ARF!)

Anyways that was Japan, and it was fun. I will gladly go back at any time, but will avoid the tea and the toilets.

Sionara

JAPAN! The last weekend

2007-05-05T08:31:00.000-07:00

The last weekend I got to see more of Tokyo. Here you can see the dichotomy of new and old in Japan. I am in a old shrine (Arf! surprise surprise), and in the background you can see a new sky rise building. Tokyo was a BIG city, but a clean city. They can't smoke on a lot of street, and there was no litter that I saw.

I also got to go to a kabuki show. That was weird. I can say I went, but I will never go again. I cannot even explain what it was or what it meant. It was so out there.

JAPAN! The following weekend

2007-05-05T08:19:00.000-07:00

The next weekend we got into a big train that went REALLY fast. I mean REALLY REALLY fast. I heard it is called the bullet train and I understand why that is now. Anyways, We went to Kyoto for the weekend, and I got to see and do a few different things. As you can see I got to see more shrines (left). I think the architecture was really neat.

I also got to participate in a tea ceremony. I thought the tea was rather bitter, and won't do that again probably, but it was a great experience. I heard that my owner really enjoyed it.

Arf, another shrine. I am not sure the Japanese do much else than build shrines and go to them. Oh well, you can also see some peach blossoms in the picture. We missed the cherry blossoms by a couple weeks (too bad), but these blossoms we great to see in their place. Maybe next time I go I will get a picture of the more famous blossoms. Stay tuned for that...

Finally in Kyoto I got to see a giant gold building. It is a very important place, so important that regular people aren't allowed in at all. Even when the president of the USA came he was only allowed in the bottom floor. If they can let the president in I would have thought they would want Moral the traveling wombat to come in, but they said no. Their loss. ARF!

JAPAN! The early days

2007-05-05T08:06:00.000-07:00

Hello again! I got to go to Japan with one of my owners. She had to do some kind of work thing over there and so I got to go and relax. Above you can see a couple views of Tokyo. At first I didn't know what to think because I didn't speak the language, but I found out quickly that there are no other wombats in Japan (At least that I saw) so there was no problem there.

Below is me at one of the many shines throughout Japan. I am here with a stone carved dog. I don't think I would have wanted to mess around with the dog that had to pose for that sculpture. He doesn't look very nice.

Long time no arf!

2007-05-05T08:04:00.000-07:00

So, my owners have been pretty bad recently about updating the blog. I am very sorry for all of you who have been coming and reading about my adventures. I do have updates though. I will start them in the next post here shortly. I just wanted to let you all know that it wasn't my fault. ARF!

I miss home

2007-03-08T13:09:00.000-07:00

ARF! Right now I am in Japan with one of my owners. It is really interesting, but I miss home. I am doing my job of being moral support (hence my name). Hoover and I are having fun during the day playing with things around the room. The toilet is very interesting. I will tell more later.

Anyways - ARF!

Walking on the road!

2007-01-27T08:40:00.000-07:00

On the way home we stopped along the side of the road in an area near the painted desert in Arizona. You can kind of see it in the mountain behind me. BUT the key here was that I got to walk on the road. I mean look at me. I am walking ON a major road. And I am HUGE! I am as big as the cars that were passing. You never knew I was that big did you?

OK, I am not telling the truth. I am really not that big. It is all about perspective. I am a lot closer to the camera then the road is. It is like what they did in the Lord of the Rings trilogy to make the hobbits to look smaller than the other people.

All in all a GREAT trip. I just recently heard that I may get to go to Japan in the near future as well. I am really looking forward to that as well. ARF!

Utah Advernture Day 2

2007-01-27T08:35:00.000-07:00

The next day we went to a place called Bryce Canyon. It was COLD and WEIRD looking. I thought that Zion was cold, but here it was cold and the wind was blowing hard at times. I think there were times I was growing icicles in my fur. Those things behind me are called hoodoos. Apparently they are men that were changed into stone by a wolf that was really mad at them. I knew a kangaroo that could turn koalas into bushes when I was growing up so I can understand how that can happen. You don't want to get on the wrong side of an animal that can change you into other things. I like being a wombat so I never made the kangaroo mad. I watched for that wolf all day, and never saw it. I am glad. I don't know if wolves like wombats or not.

It may not look cold in the picture, but trust me it was. Anyways, I really enjoyed Bryce, except for the cold. Maybe I will get to go back one day.

Utah Advernture Day 1

2007-01-27T08:33:00.000-07:00

As I was saying before, I was surprised to find out that we were not just staying in Arizona. We headed into Utah. We went to a place called Zion. It was quite pretty. It was this canyon with red rock walls.

It was cold though. Here you can see me at the river that runs along the bottom of the canyon with the red rock walls lining the side. The wind was blowing a little and I thought I would freeze. Thankfully I was held close and warm by one of my owners whenever a picture wasn't being taken.

On the way out there was snow on the side of the road, and I wanted a picture with my santa hat on with the snow. You know, maybe make it look like I was more like Santa. It was getting really dark, so we had to use the flash. I think the picture turned out well.

I liked Zion. It was different from other places I had been. BUT the last day was the most different, and interesting.

Northern Arizona

2007-01-27T08:20:00.000-07:00

ARF! Sorry for the long time between posts. I have had a good time the last two months since I last wrote. At the end of December my owners took me to northern Arizona. And I don't mean Flagstaff like most people around here mean when they say northern Arizona, I mean NORTHERN ARIZONA - Page, AZ.

Once there I was taken on a 4 wheel driving adventure. It was a lot of fun, well except I kept falling off of the dashboard due to all the bumps and hills. I think cars need to install seat belts for stuffed wombats on the dashboard so that we wouldn't fly all over the place.

Anyways, Page was nice. The lake was big and cool looking, as were all the rocks jetting out of it and lining the sides. It was all quite picturesque. I was surprised by my owners to find out that this was just the beginning of the trip. The next day we headed off into Utah (I had never been there before).

Flagstaff and Sedona

2006-11-28T10:55:00.000-07:00

Arf! A few weekends ago I was taken on a trip to the northern part of Arizona. I like it up there even if it is cold at times. We went hiking, and I got to see trees that are my size. Here is a picture of me with one of those trees. I am HUGE! Pay no attention to the fact that there are pine needles under me as big as me.

Then we went on through Sedona on the way back home. There were lots of mountains and rocks that were red. I guess that is why they call it red rock country. Anyways, in one of the pictures it is hard to see me, because it is a little dark at the bottom but I am there. The other picture is a little blurry, BUT it was getting late, and the sun was going down quickly.

Meeting New People

2006-10-10T14:39:00.000-07:00

This was really cool. My owner decided to let me meet a bunch of people at the photo show. I had never really met a whole lot of people before, and this was great - ARF! Here I am with Urs. He is a fairly well-known photographer. He has done fashion shows in Milan and Paris to name a few places, and he also does other photography as well. He was quite a good sport. He put he glasses on me. Apparently he is known for those red glasses. It was really great.

Then I got to meet Uli. He is a vice-president of Schneider Optics Germany. He is a VERY nice guy, and always was smiling and having a good time. He gave me this nice hug.

Finally, I got to meet Christoph. He is a camera dealer in Germany. Also, a nice guy. At first he wanted a picture taken of him pretending to eat me. That wasn't very funny. Finally, he relented and went with this picture.

Overall, Germany was a great time, and much better than 2 years ago. I hope next time is even better.

First Day Out in Germany

2006-10-10T14:27:00.000-07:00

Well, I got to go to Germany with one of my owners for a business trip. It was a lit of fun. I went two years ago as well, but never got out of the hotel. I think he was embarrassed of me back then. Anyways, I got to go to a chocolate museum. Here I am in front of a chocolate fountain. There was no chocolate flying out like a fountain, but there was chocolate around the base, and that lady you see was handing out chocolate to people on wafers (no, not silicon wafers, sugar wafers).

I got to see the entire chocolate making process while I was there. They had this cool machine that picked the chocolate up using suction and carried them to the next step. It was really cool to see.

Only a Week Later

2006-09-12T15:40:00.000-07:00

So, the week after I got back from New Zealand I got to go to Costa Rica. So, here I am playing cards with my best friend Hoover. I don't rememeber what we played but I am sure I won.

It was quite rainy the entire time we were there. Here I am outside enjoying the rain.

I wanted to make sure I kept in contact with my sweetie,Cherish, back home She is so very great am wonderful. I cannot think of life without her. So, I talked to her using Skype. Free internet talking. It was great.

This is what I spent most of my week doing. TV was hard to understand because they were all speaking another language. It wasn't German, I had heard that before, I think I was told it was Spanish. At least there were subtitles sometimes.

Overall it was a fun and exciting trip. I would go back, but hopefully when it was clearer so I could see more of it.

2006-09-07T09:37:00.000-07:00

The last day in New Zealand I was at Lake Takepo. A very nice lake with beautiful mountains all around. Using forced perspective it looks like I am standing on a rock, but that rock is really a ways away. My owners are so cool like that sometimes. All in all it was a great trip.

At the Fiord

2006-09-07T09:27:00.001-07:00

So this is a fiord, called Milford Sound. It looked a lot like a lake with mountains all around it. Nothing to special to me. Oh well, not everything can be really cool.

Another Cold Day

2006-09-07T09:19:00.000-07:00

Look at that me on a glacier. I spent most of the day in a bag, because it was so cold on the ice. But I did get to come out and get a picture and have a look around. I was amazed by how blue some of the ice was. Also, seeing waterfalls and green trees next to glacier. I guess that is why it is called a warm glacier. I was quite glad to be in the bag most of the day due to the cold. Arizona does have its advantages.

On the Southern Island

2006-09-07T09:13:00.000-07:00

This is Christchurch. As you can see there is a port, and that is the Pacific Ocean there on the right. Christchurch was quite lovely from this vantage point. Mountains, snow, fields, water, what more could a wombat want. I am currently on top of a mountain and it was quite cold.

Lots of Water

2006-09-07T09:05:00.000-07:00

Now here I am at Huka Falls. I was expecting an actual waterfall like Yosemite Falls, but it was more like a raging river. This water flow is the only outlet for New Zealand's largest lake, Lake Taupo. So, a lot of water needs to move through this very small area. It was pretty cool, and they also use it for hydro-electric power. Talk about smart. This pictures looks like I am ready to fall into the river, but don't worry my owner has a very tight grip on me (I made sure).

And here is the final outlet before it becomes a regular river.

The Smelly and Disappointing Day

2006-09-07T08:53:00.000-07:00

The day started in the car and I was in a bag as usual. We went to Hobbiton, the place where hobbits live, and I never got to come out of the bag. I heard them say later that they forgot, and then they appologized, but still. I wanted to see all the hobbits. I have been told that I will get to be in a picture via photoshop, but we will have to wait and see.

Later, we went to a place that smelled really bad. I understand that it was sulfer gas. It sure did smell like a rotten egg. This is what I got to see. A steaming lake. It was pretty cool, but I am sure not as cool as hobbits.

Here is another picture from the same park. That is a lake in the distance that is apparently very acidic, but they still take boats out on it. That doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun to me, but I am not like a lot of people. Maybe it is becuase I am a wombat.

Last Day in Australia

2006-09-07T07:50:00.000-07:00

The last day in Australia we took a boat on the river that runs through Brisbane. It is used very heavily by commuters going to and from work, school, shopping, and more. It seems like a very good version of public transportation since the river winds through city.

Meeting Other Wombats

2006-09-07T07:30:00.000-07:00

This day was really exciting. I found out along the way that we were going to The Australia Zoo. I knew it was a very nice zoo that was run by the crocodile hunter and his family (his passing is quite sad, he did so much for animals). Well, I had a feeling there would be wombats there, but buy were there ever wombats. I got to see quite a few, and they all seemed very happy. They had lots of room to run around, and they people there seem to feed them pretty well. I saw one eating sweet potatos - yum!

Then I got to take a nap with another wombat. That was quite nice as well. I mean all the excitment of being in Australia, at The Australia Zoo, and being near so many other wombats - I needed a nap.

Then we both woke up and rubbed noses in a show of freiendship and then I left. I got to see a lot of other animals that day as well, and they all seemed very happy.

What a GREAT day!