Travelog for: Rob Dyrduck

Right now, I am at home in Valley Springs waiting to travel to my first stop on my trip. My mentor is my owner's older sister. She has agreed to take me to Flagstaff, Arizona with her and another ToyVoyager. From there, I hoping she will help me find hosts all over Australia. After my Australian Adventure, I want to visit Wales. If you are insterested in hosting me, even if it's not in either countries, I would still love to visit.

Here i am half way through this wickedly long car ride. What did I sign up for man? I got stuck on a hard plastic seat next to a creepy guy in a mask (darth vader. Ben's sister needed a break from driving so we got to see the John Wilkie Rest Area on I-40. So beautiful NOT! Sleep is for the weak!

We didn't stay at the rest stop very long. We kept going through crucial party hours and then pulled an all nighter!

But it was all worth it. We saw the sun rise. I have never seen it rise over the desert before, and it was wicked cool!

Phew! After a very long drive, over 12 hours to be exact, I finally made it to Flagstaff, Arizona. I am hoping that Ben's sister will give me all the fun and excitement I live for! We got some pretty rad photos on the drive back, but she needs to get them from the camera before I can share them with all my lovely followers! I'll be back soon to share more about my awesome travels, if she ever finds me another host.

Until then, Peace Dudes

Hi! I've finally arrived in Orange - it's quite sunny but cold down here. Sara says I arrived just in time they're taking a trip out West today so I can already get some photos... she also says she hopes to get some photos of me with kangaroos next time she goes to Bathurst... she's been lucky with that lately! We'll see how it goes! Write again soon! :-)

We took a trip today to Wellington, which is on the Orange-side of Dubbo... around 45 minutes outside of Dubbo. Thankfully we weren't going that far... it was only 1pm and it had already been a long day... but we packed ourselves into the car and took off towards Wellington. Sadly the job in Wellington took a bit longer than expected so we didn't get any photos whilst in Wellington... fortunately there's not much to see in Wellington...

So Sara decided to take us to one of the lakes in this area... there aren't many natural lakes... this is the first one she's ever been to... it's called Lake Burrendong... sadly because it was getting so late we couldn't go down to the lake... it would have cost us $8.00 to get down there. Which normally isn't a lot, but when all you're doing is taking photos... it's quite a bit of money. So in the mean time we got a photo of us next to the lake...


Hopefully we'll get to stop there again sometime when the sun isn't setting behind us! Write again soon! :-)

Wow! I was here for less than a week before Sara was able to tick off one of my life missions... I was pictured with a kangaroo... a few of them actually... see the kangaroos in the background?


Here's a close up of the kangaroos... sadly there were only two to be seen...


...this one looked particularly concerned that we were taking photos of him...



Just as we were heading back to the car Sara noticed three more kangaroos... well, really four... see the joey in the pouch? Isn't it adorable!


...just as we tried to get photos of the others all of them hopped off... oh well, at least one of my life missions is already complete!


Sara says we're going back to Bathurst and another new place, Lithgow this next week... I wonder what I'll get to see...

Hi mom! I just got back from Lithgow it's a small town on the outskirts of the Blue Mountains... we had been on the road for a good two hours but we were finally here! This is close to Sydney as I'm going to get for now I think... since Sydney is literally just over these mountains...

First thing Sara did was took us to the Lithgow Miner's Lamp... which is pretty iconic, it's one of the first things you see as your coming into the city...


Honestly, Sara was very rushed so we couldn't see much in Lithgow, Sara had ten mystery shops to do between Bathurst and Lithgow, and be back in Orange by 3pm. It was already a feat in itself so we didn't want to push it... we saw a purple police car as we were driving through town... funny... usually they're not so brightly colored. Sara said there's one in Orange though that's a lime green color... I guess this color is quite nice...


Finally were at our first stop... Coles (a supermarket) and Liqourland (obviously a liquor store) we couldn't go in since were minors, we'll just wait in the car... Sara says she'll take us one other place before we head back in the direction of home...


Write again soon!

It had been a long day of sitting in the car for us toyvoyagers, so Sara decided to take us to the world famous Zig Zag Railway since we were on a close knit schedule we sadly couldn't take any trains but we got to see the famous train station (which is situated just outside of Lithgow)... here we are on the way to the train station... this is what it looks like through most of the Blue Mountains... lots and lots of trees!



Here I am in front of the train station...


...and here I am in front of an interesting sign, it's a station sign but it says 9 and 3/4... why? I don't know but it's kind of funny isn't it?


Lastly here I am in front of what looks like a lost little caboose... I wonder why it's here but it looks stuck... maybe for museum type memories of the railway's past... it's cool anyways...


Sara says that this railway is the steepest incline railway in the Southern hemisphere... sadly she's not had a chance to ride on it but she would like to in the near future... anyways just as we were about to go back to Bathurst we saw a whole bunch of railroad tracks... do you see me mom?


...here I am!


There were tons of them there... I wonder what they were doing with them? Oh well...

Here's a photo of a Lithgow hillside on the way back home...


Oh well, it's time to head back home it's getting late! Write again soon!

We all took another trip to Bathurst today and we were able to spot some kangaroos... sadly we couldn't see them very well... see how far away they are? You can just see one between the tree and the bush in the photo I'm in...


...and here is a close up of the kangaroo in the above photo... obviously he didn't want to face the camera for the photos... maybe he's a bit camera shy?


...what you're missing is Sara making noise to try to get him to turn around for the photos... finally she got him to look in our direction, sadly it didn't last long...


...on the way back to the car Sara spotted two others, behind a chain link fence, so not that great of photos... but here are two others. The one on the left side is very noticeable and Sara has seen many times... he's got odd eyes... but he's quite cute isn't he? The second photo is a close up of him...



Well that was that... Sara's going to Bathurst again soon so hopefully we can see a bit more of the city next time... write again soon!

We've been driving a lot lately going out of town... and what seems like going everywhere around New South Wales for job's and a bit extra money here and there... well today we took a road trip as far South as Yasswhich is just above of the Australian capital territory... Sara's only been to this area of New South Wales a couple times...

Sadly since we were on a very tight schedule we couldn't do any sight seeing today... here are some photos of us on the main street...



Finally we found what we wanted... the Westpac bank... time to go!


Write again soon... at our next stop!

Next stop was an even smaller town called Cootamundra... again we couldn't get any photos in the main bit of town, it was a very quick stop... even quicker than the stop at Yass but we had to get back on the road... here are some photos while in Cootamundra driving around...




Write again soon! :-)

Next stop we were given a bit more time to sight see... we got to see the big sign welcoming us to the town... we are now in Young! The cherry capital of Australia, hence the very large cherries you see in the photo...


...here's a better and more straight on photo of the sign...


...and here's some photos of us in the main street of the city:



...and lastly we got to pay our respects at the local war memorial... can you see us?


...how about now?


...well here's an even closer photo of us... it was very very very windy... so a few of us took flight and Sara had to catch us and put us back on there to get our photo taken...


If you want to read what the plaque says here you go...


...and here are all the names... amazing isn't it?



Lastly there was this really nice plaque on the ground, it was very pretty... it says Lest We Forget...


Well that was it... we also made a stop off at Cowra which was our last stop before heading back home... sadly no photos were taken but here's a photo of us on the highway heading South towards Canberra...


That was a big day! Write again soon! :-)

Today is Sara's son's 3rd birthday... so we helped out in making the cake... for being allergy free (no gluten) it's actually really yummy!

One of the big reasons Sara hasn't been taking us out lately and doing updates is she's been very busy, and the change of seasons (aka a drastic change in temperature) has caused Sara to get a bit sick... along with everyone else in the area... this hasn't changed much though she's still got to be up every day, cleaning, and taking care of her husband and her son... so we've not been doing much... hoping we can do something sometime soon...

Although in the mean time, Sara looked outside tonight, and noticed something on her car... not much by any means but what is that?


Snow in June? Seriously?! It still surprises Sara (since she's from Washington - safely in the NORTHERN hemisphere) haha... really early even yet for any snow... it was August before we got any snow last year. Not much though, obviously it's no blizzard, but a big thing this early in the year... it's been raining HEAPS lately! Lots of wind and rain... it's been crazy!

It's definitely been cooling down, and it'll be a cold winter in Orange I think!