Getting the most out of Life - 2017!
(Scroll down beyond the pix for "The rest of the Story!)
January 2017 - New Zealand - our first "Trek" of the year
The kids rolled their truck off the road on a slick gravel mountain road!
Cable Car - Wellington, NZ
Hydrangea Garden - Wellington botanical Garden
Kirkwood's, Gill's and Bink's doing what they do best - sampling New Zealand's wines!
Mitre Mountain - Milford Sound
Greymouth sunset
On our way to Pancake Rocks!
Selfie-imposed tour of Christchurch
Happy Hobbits! Hobbiton - The Shire, Middle Earth
Rotorua sunrise!
Copyright infringing page from our Park Guide Book - Park Stamp!
New and expensively improved page! Park Notes
March 2017
March 2017
Kolob Canyon section of Zion National Park.
Cruz Bay, St. John Virgin Islands.
Turtle Bay
Trunk Bay
Our unit at the Concordia Eco-Lodge
Inside our humble abode!
Imagine what the hurricanes did to these southern exposed units!
Caneel Bay Resort - before Irma!
After Hurricane Irma - complete devastation.
Plantation ruins on St. John
Clever rock cairns adorn the beach at Drunk Bay.
Glad we got to see them prior to hurricane season!
June 2017 - Havasupai Falls Trek
Mountain Park Church group beginning hike to Havasupai and the Falls
Our friends Mary Cost (far left) and Nicki Kirkeby (far right)
Transition area between Upper and Lower Navajo Falls
Havasu Falls
Building Sand Castles with the Grand Kiddos in Del Mar!
A tad warm in Phoenix today! Time to head to the beach!
July 2017 - Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon Railway
Train Robbery. Khai says, "take her!"
August 2017
Day trip to Kartchner Caverns and Saguaro National Park with Jaylynn
Jaylynn and Skull Rock - Joshua Tree National Park
September 2017 - Trek #59 - National Park of American Samoa!
On the trail to the top of Mt. Alava
Pola Island
November 2017
She's still got it!
December 2017
The last remaining inventory from our 2nd print run of
Trekking the National Parks- the Board Game.
Still a few games available at www.binkink.com
Bink Ink 2017 - The rest of the story
My Auntie Ester died on December 4th, which,
coincidentally, is the date of my mom’s birth and the passing of Terry’s mom. Terry and I had planned on paying Aunt Es a
visit. Sadly, she passed before we could experience her kind, gentle, loving
personality one last time.
A couple of positive outcomes from her passing.
1 It
reinforced in me just how precious life is and how important it is (at least to
me) to stay healthy, be happy, be active and strive to experience the people
and places I desire and admire.
2 The
second “gift” came from her estate. My cousins David and Barbara (Esther’s
children) sent me a book that must have been given to Esther from her mother
(my Grandmother), Marie Binkele. I assume that to be true as there is a sticker
on the inside front cover with the following address:
Marie A. Binkele
234-C Elm Avenue
Burbank, CA 91506
The title of the book: Getting
the Most out of Life. It’s a collection of stories from The Reader’s Digest
published in 1946. Just the title alone is cause for the curious to dive in and
discover how to extract the most out of one’s existence.
Reflecting back on my Aunt’s life, it seemed to me she took
to heart the essence of this anthology for this woman exuded a happy persona
that got the most out of her 92 years.
So, for what its worth, here’s what the Binkele’s did in
2017 to get the most out of life!
January
1/20/17 - Our
first major “trek” of the year to harvest
the fruits of life was our visit to New Zealand in January. Terry booked us
standby
(my least favorite mode of long distance travel) to Auckland from LAX. We were
fortunate to get the last two seats on the plane! I’ve got to hand it to her;
she’s got a knack for pulling off these adventures. We made it to New Zealand
free of charge. We landed in Auckland on January 22nd. Somewhere
during our 12 hours flight, January 21st didn’t happen!
Since we were flying standby, we had not made any reservations
for lodging or rental car. Cool beans…we’re now homeless and carless in a
foreign country! Not to worry, Terry finds us transportation. We look at a map
and decide to head south to Te Urewera National Park…one of 14 National Parks
in New Zealand. The park is located about 6 hours south of the airport. It
rained during most of the journey as I re-acquainted myself with driving on the
wrong side of the road!
One of the reasons we booked the trip at this time of year
was because it was supposed to be New Zealand’s summer! Looking at the rainfall
charts, January and February are supposed to be dry months. As we were soon to
discover, the Kiwi’s were experiencing the “wettest summer in years!”
We entered the northern reaches of Te Urewera on a paved
road. That lasted about 3 miles. From that point on, we were traveling on a
wet, slick gravel road that ascended and descended the hilly terrain.
The windshield view of the park displayed a dense rainforest
jungle with a wide variety of vegetation. Not much else. No Visitor Center. No
campgrounds. No facilities whatsoever. Very different than the parks here in
the States.
After carefully navigating about 15 miles on the slippery
gravel road, we caught a glimpse of three young men clawing their way up a
steep embankment. Odd? One of the boys flagged us down and asked us if we were
locals. “No, we’re tourists,” I said, wondering why he asked.
“We just rolled our truck off the road down that embankment,”
the young man said, pointing over his shoulder. We stopped the rental car, got out and peered
down the slope. Sure enough, their truck was resting on its side, lodged up
against a stand of trees, which kept it from rolling further down. We spent the
next several hours rescuing the three German students from their dilemma.
After dropping our three German amigos off at a youth Hostel
in Taupo, Terry and I decided we should probably find a place to stay for the
evening. The Hilton Taupo would serve as our “campsite” for the next two days. (Nice
place to stay for those interested.)
The next day, Terry and I would visit two more of NZ’s NP’s.
First up - New Zealand’s oldest National Park – Tongariro NP, located about 60
miles southwest (103 km) of the Hilton Taupo. We had hoped to do a bit of
tramping (in New Zealand, hiking is referred to as tramping), however, without
rain gear, we were relegated to spending time in the Visitor Center and Hotel
café! Yep…it rained steadily during our visit.
Our next stop - Whanganui National Park – featuring the Bridge
to Nowhere. We opted out of the boat ride in the rain up the Whanganui River to
the Bridge and instead took a couple of pictures of the river and left. A
couple hours later the rain let up!
The following day we headed to the west coast on the wrong
side of the road to New Plymouth the closest city to our next park stop –
Egmont NP. The drive was pleasant and rain free. As we entered New Plymouth, we
could see in the distance tomorrow’s destination – Egmont National Park and the
volcanic Mt. Taranaki. We found a delightful hotel in the city, had a terrific
lunch, walked along the coastline and finished off our first sundrenched day
with a bottle of New Zealand Pinot and a slew of hors d’oeuvres.
Still winging it, we woke the next morning to cloudy skies
and set off to visit Egmont. By the time we reached the Visitor Center, the
skies had darkened. The cloud cover was so thick; it drowned out any view of
the mountain. Again, it rained! While chatting it up with a couple of local
ladies, I learned that this was the “wettest summer in years!” Good grief! We’ve
travelled thousands of miles to experience New Zealand’s National Parks only to
find ourselves pelted by perpetual precipitation!
So be it! We’re not about to let a bit of moisture keep us
from getting the most out of life! So
onward we go heading south to Wellington. Don’t know where we're gonna stay
when we get there…yet I’m confident Terry will figure that out by the time we
pull into town.
Wellington. Gotta say, this city was well worth wading
through the rain. Terry booked us for two nights at the Hotel Intercontinental
right in the middle of downtown. The first night was spent soaking up more NZ
Pinot Noir and just relaxing. Good stuff by the way.
The following morning we awoke to partly cloudy skies. Or
the optimist in me concluded, mostly sunny! After breakfast we wandered over to
the world renowned Wellington Cable Car (one of Wellington’s Top 10 things to
do). The Cable Car ride was ok…yet the walk down through the Wellington
Botanical Garden was incredible! The Hydrangea’s were in full bloom. The
variety of plant material amazing. (I’d rate the Botanical Garden a far better
experience than the Cable Car.)
The tail end of the Botanical Garden found us in a Garden of
Roses. Here we stopped for a bite to eat before heading down to the scenic
waterfront and museums. The sights were nice; however, we were thoroughly
enjoying a rain-free day exploring KiwiLand!
Off to the
South Island!
We met up with our good friends John and Mary Kirkwood and
Karen and Greg Gill in Queenstown. The four of them had just finished trekking
about Australia. The next 10 days would find us cruising Milford Sound, tasting
many fine New Zealand wines, watching youngin’s bungee jump off the Kawarau
Bridge, trekking the trail to the foot of Franz-Josef Glacier, getting
acquainted with Snowy Mountain (a NZ sheep), exploring Pancake Rocks, viewing
earthquake devastation in Christchurch, wandering about Akaroa, floating
through Glow Worm caves, dancing with the native Maori, and hopping around
Hobbiton!
February 6th.
We depart Auckland (pronounced Oakland by our three German friends and the locals) on another standby
ticket. This time we had no problem getting aboard. The weird thing about traveling
long distances east-west is that time gets warped! Whereas we never did
experience January 21st on our way to New Zealand ... on the return
trip, we arrived in Los Angeles 3 hours BEFORE we departed! All said, we got the
most out of our trip to New Zealand!
Side note: Once we had rescued them, I asked the German kids how they got to New Zealand from Germany. Their response: "We departed Munich and flew to Dubai. From Dubai, we flew to Oakland and here we are!" Why, I thought, would you fly from Dubai to Oakland and then to Auckland? Auckland...Oakland...one and the same. Just goes to show what a difference pronunciation can make!
Side note: Once we had rescued them, I asked the German kids how they got to New Zealand from Germany. Their response: "We departed Munich and flew to Dubai. From Dubai, we flew to Oakland and here we are!" Why, I thought, would you fly from Dubai to Oakland and then to Auckland? Auckland...Oakland...one and the same. Just goes to show what a difference pronunciation can make!
Park Guide Book
Just prior to departing to New Zealand, we received a
message from Jack Ryan. No, not the character from Tom Clancy’s novels. This
Jack Ryan is affiliated with Eastern National, a non-profit organization that
helps raise money to protect and preserve National Parks east of the
Mississippi.
Jack informed us that our brand new Park Guide Book infringed
on Eastern National’s copyright to their National Park Stamp products. You see,
in my infinite wisdom, I thought it would be a terrific idea to include a space
on each page of the new Guide Book where people could get the park insignia
stamped into their Guide Book!
Unfortunately, our attempt to offer our customers a way to
memorialize their visits to the parks had created a major faux pas. Our
choices: (a) ignore Jack and continue distributing the new Guide Book, (b) lawyer
up and fight the behemoth Eastern National, (c) do the right thing and reprint
the book. We chose option “c.”
For the next several months, we ripped the shrink wrap off 2500 games in order to extract the illicit Guide Book and replace it with the freshly reprinted (and very expensive) new one. Then, we painfully re-shrink wrapped every stinking one of those little bastards!
By the way, if you're looking for a cool gift idea for a park enthusiast, let us know and we'll get you a copy of our Guide Book...the new one!
By the way, if you're looking for a cool gift idea for a park enthusiast, let us know and we'll get you a copy of our Guide Book...the new one!
March
The highlight of this month was our journey to SaltCon – a gamers trade show in
Layton, UT (just north of Salt Lake City). Terry stayed home with the dogs,
while Charlie and I peddled our goods! (Trekking and his new game PUPS)
While the show was ok, our quick visit to the Kolob Canyon
section of Zion NP on the return trip was awesome!
April
The fickle finger of fate was favorable to us this year
insomuch as we visited Virgin Islands
National Park in April before
Hurricane Irma devastated the island of St. John! VINP was to be #58 on our
quest to visit all 59 of our country’s major National Parks. Had we not gone when we did, there is no
telling when we’d be able to return due to the damage done by Irma.
During our visit to the Virgin Islands, our first “campsite”
was pitched at the Concordia Eco-Lodge located on the southeastern reaches of
the island. Exactly where the hurricane slammed into this tiny isle.
Since the structures we lodged in the first couple of nights
were plywood and canvas tents, we doubt there is any hope they are still
standing! (I just checked their website and the facility was severely damaged.)
Nevertheless, once they rebuild the units, we highly suggest
you spend a night or two at this facility if you ever find yourself on St.
John! Great people. Unique lodging experience and we were introduced to
Caribbean Pain Killers at this resort!
The other couple of nights were spent at the Caneel Bay
Resort. (Very upscale and pricy and not nearly as people-friendly as Concordia)
Even this resort constructed out of rock and mortar took a major hit from Irma and will be closed for at least a year.
June
For many moons, Terry and I have longed to hike down to the
waterfalls located on the Havasupai Indian Reservation in the western reaches
of the Grand Canyon. We got our opportunity in June when our good friend Mary
Cost invited us to join her church group for their annual trek down to the falls.
All of those pictures you may have seen of Havasupai, Navajo
and Mooney Falls aren’t nearly as exhilarating as witnessing them with your own
eyeballs.
Later in the month we spent a week hanging out at the beach
in Del Mar! Not a bad place to be when the temperatures in Phoenix were pushing
126° and upward! Building sand castles with the Grand Kids proved to be one of the highlights of this visit!
July
Family vacation time! Tosh, Greg and the two munchkins (Khai
and Jaylynn) met us in Williams, AZ to begin our Grand Canyon Railway
experience! After spending the night in Williams, we boarded the Grand Canyon
Railway and headed off to that huge hole in the ground known as the Grand
Canyon!
Khai is a big fan of all things trains so he had a marvelous
time boarding the Pullman Car. Both JJ and Khai got a real kick out of the
Train Robber incident, willingly handing over the loot Papa John provided!
We overnighted at the Maswik Lodge. Grammy Terry had us
scheduled to take the Hermits’ West Bus Tour. On the way to the bus, Khai had a
few issues and opted out of the tour. Grammy Terry and he went back to the
Lodge and engaged in a raucous pillow fight!
Meanwhile, Tosh, Greg and Jaylynn joined me on the bus tour
that headed out on the West Rim Road to Hermits Rest. The twilight tour was
accentuated by a summer thunderstorm complete with jagged streaks of lightning,
loud claps of thunder and colorful rim-to-rim rainbows.
August
Jaylynn had wanted to spend a week with Grammy Terry and
Papa John after the Grand Canyon experience; however, she had some other
commitments and had to wait until August to join us for a week of fun and
adventure. First up, a visit to Kartchner Caverns for a cave tour. The cave
captivated a bit of her interest; however, I think she got the biggest kick out
of taking “Bat Pictures” in the Visitor Center!
Off to Saguaro and Joshua Tree NPs to study the park’s
unusual cacti and yucca’s and to collect Park Stamps in our illicit Park
Guide Book! JJ’s legal Park Passport!
After dropping JJ off in Temecula, Terry and I met up with
our good friends the Gill’s and Kirkwood’s in Ramona for several days of getting the most out of life playing
golf, tasting wines, attending plays and the Laguna Art Festival.
September
In 2009, Terry and I established a Life Plan Goal of
visiting all 59 of America’s major National Parks. As
previously mentioned, we visited #58 (Virgin Islands NP) in April. This past September, we made it to the National Park of American Samoa – the
59th and final destination on our Trek to the Parks!
The park was nice; however, the highlight of the trip was
meeting the local Samoans. Delightful people! When the Park Rangers learned
that our visit concluded our mission of tramping about all 59, they make up a
special Certificate of Completion for us!
On the return trip from American Samoa, we stayed at the Big Island Hawaii's Kilauea Lodge for the 2nd
time. This is the lodge where we decided to visit all 59 parks.
October
I briefly came out of retirement for a month to help write a
Low Voltage Lighting Training Manual
for Hunter Industries – the company I last worked for after they bought FX
Luminaire. It was exhilarating to
reacquaint myself with the brave new world of LED lighting…and get paid to do
so!
November
Online sales of Trekking and PUPS began to heat up in
November; however, we took time out to
head to Las Vegas to see Cher perform
at the Monte Carlo with our good friends Karen and Greg Gill. At 71 years old,
Cher is still a fabulous entertainer.
Prior to our Vegas junket, Terry and I snuck up to Sedona to
celebrate the 36th Anniversary of our First Date - November 5th!
December
Shipping games like crazy! We’ve got less than 200 Trekking
games left in stock which means we've sold over 6400 copies since we began this project. Charlie is working on a new version of the game he hopes
to Kickstart some time soon!
One of the motivations behind the creation of Trekking was
to create a product that the many National Park non-profit organizations could
offer in their gift shops to help them raise money for the further preservation
and protection of our country’s natural treasures.
Currently, 21 different park associations are offering our
little game. During 2017 our park affiliates sold 983 games; which means
collectively they raised over $39,000 for their coffers by selling our game in
their gift shops!
The current Administration plans on cutting the National Park Service’s annual budget. With that being said, the Binkele family will continue to
do what we can to support the parks. These special places have been set aside
for all of us to enjoy. If you are interested in preserving and protecting
these precious resources, we encourage you to reach out to your local congress people and let them
know how important the preservation of these parks are to the benefit of all Americans. Help keep these treasures for the good of all rather than for benefit of the gas and mining industry or the rich.
If you’re rich and do not care about these places, please
ignore this rant. Otherwise, we encourage you to do what you can to help
protect the parks. Go visit these outdoor cathedrals. The more people who show
interest in the parks, the harder it will be for the power brokers to pilfer
them from the general population.
I am convinced a visit to the parks will help you get
more out of life! Go take a hike and we wish you well in
the New Year.
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