The Rubber Duck Blog: Easy tips for travel blogging

 

Day 1: The Giant Rubber Duck is unveiled in Pittsburgh

To start your travel blog, you don't have to go far.  There are many opportunities in your own backyard.  When I read about the Pittsburgh Rubber Duck Project, I just had to get the latest City Paper to read up on it.

One thing about a blog that is different from news is that whether you read various newspapers or you watch the news on TV, it all sounds very similar, with perhaps a little variation.  But, a blog can cover many different angles. You can share your own unique perspective.

So, here is the start of my travel blog. You can write about your own unique experiences too. You can use my very first blog as a sample of how to start one:

My blog is about the Gigantic Rubber Duck that visited Pittsburgh this past weekend. I'm not going to repeat all of the: Who, What, Where, When, and Why's that the news already covered.  But, I am interested in how the Ducky was transported and where it would launch.

I took the inside photo from a recent City Paper of the Rubber Duck Project, with a photograph of the Just Ducky Boat around it and framed it as a cheerful reminder of the upcoming event and set it on my desk at work. The yellow duck picture really brightened up my work area.

This was the first year that I went on a Just Ducky tour from Station Square in Pittsburgh.  I could already envision the people on the Ducky boats quacking at the grand entrance of the Giant Rubber Duck. It was fun to think about this.

As the time got closer I tried to discern which direction the Duck would appear from.

The news reports gave opposing bits of information.  One said that it would come upstream and the other downstream. 

From the Pittsburgh Rubber Duck Facebook page I found places and names of where it would be manufactured and where it might be transported from, but I had to go back to the City Paper to find the best tip.

The writer, Bill O'Driscoll mentioned the Ohio River as a starting point. I know from living here that the Allegheny River is on the northern end of the Point and the Mon River is on the southern end. From my recent trip to Marietta, I knew that the Ohio River stops at the Point. That was the first clue.

But, the bridge party would be right off the 6th Street area, the 6th Street Bridge, otherwise known as the Roberto Clemente Bridge.  So, how can I follow the Duck and get the best photographs from all those areas.  On my bicycle of course!

After parking my car at Station Square's east lot, I biked towards the Just Ducky boats. I asked one of the drivers if they were going to quack at the big duck and escort her in.  He said they were banned from doing that and that the river near that area was closed off for traffic. At first I thought, what was Pittsburgh Cultural Trust thinking?  The Duck and the Ducky boats would have been a smash! But, after watching this YouTube clip, I realized that the entrance was slated to be more of a graceful, serene event than a noisy one. Please refer to: "The Rubber Ducky Comes to Pittsburgh" by Dave Cole of the Pittsburgh Magazine.  You can click on it directly from the Rubber Duck - Pittsburgh, Pa. Facebook.

I was a little disappointed that Just Ducky wasn't part of this event, so in support of Just Ducky Tours I bought a duck hat to wear over my head. It was like wearing this big entire colorful duck with a fluffy tuft, wings, even webbed feet.  Since I was recently promoting the Banana Split in Latrobe, PA, I still had  my recently purchased big chunky yellow jewelry and earrings along with my big yellow hair accessory. So, I dressed for the event.

A funny thing happened.  People started pointing at me and asking me to stop. Many people wanted my picture and snapped their cameras.  Especially the young children would yell, "Duck". I even sang my song, "A Latrobe Hit" (Banana Split) to one table seated outside at Bar Louie as a lady I spoke with was originally from the Latrobe area. (See www.youtube.com to Google the title, "A Latrobe Hit").

When my friend Olga caught up with me she was laughing, but somewhat embarrassed that I was wearing that hat.  So, I wore it as a necklace and from time to time put the cap on.

We biked to the West End Bridge and looked up the river as far as a neck could stretch and even with my binoculars, no duck anywhere.

Duck watchers sitting on rocks that we talked to earlier yelled at us on our way back to Station Square to tell us that the Duck was coming.  That's odd.  I didn't see any Duck.  All the guessing in the world didn't help me figure out how the Duck appeared so suddenly.

At this point, we peddled as fast as we could across the bridge to Point State Park to get some frontal pictures of it coming in.  Although it came loaded upon a giant pontoon boat, it was towed in by a small diesel riverboat with the letter "a" on it.

At the "Point" we ran into Randall Miller the Programming Manager from the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust wearing a duck pin and asked him where the duck came from and where it put in.  He was part of all of it, but was not allowed to disclose this information. It was a big secret.

I guess the planners thought the intrigue would make people more curious and this would add to the excitement of the event.

I'm so glad the fountain was on for this event, it was so refreshing to feel the water drops on our back and to see the rainbow through the mist. The next day I found that someone captured this wonderful picture from the other side of the fountain with the rainbow and the Duck in it. It makes Pittsburgh look so much prettier.  Now, at night there are lights around the fountain and if you were in a boat on the Ohio River at night, it would look like a "Monet" moment. And, the Duck makes Pittsburgh look even more cheerful.

There were gads of people everywhere.  I normally do not like going towards noise and hordes of people, but somehow I managed to bike to the bridge.  I walked the right side down from town with my bike on the bridge, turned around at PNC Park to gaze at the best view of The Rubber Duck. I captured some very nice photographs.  All the while people were eating and dancing and swaying to the music on the bridge.

There were persons with strollers on the bridge, so I strolled my bike along too. The only thing that saved me was my hat from being yelled at was my hat.  People were not too mad at me when they looked at my hat and my smile.  A very nice man took my favorite picture, a shot of me with my duck hat, standing on the bridge with the big Rubber Duck in the backdrop. 

By the way, as you know, it came out on the news, that not far from the West End Bridge, they put the deflated rubber duck in the river near Alcosan and pumped it to life. The pictures in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette the next day showed the lowering of it into the water and a small boat pumping air into it so that it could come to life.

That photograph reminded me of my one and only hot air balloon trip. I guess it is much more exciting to see a balloon being blown to full size and then sailing away on it, then to see the rubber duck blown up.  The timing and the appearance of seeing the 40 foot Rubber Duck on our rivers was crucial to its success. It was an exciting event!

Incidentally, this isn't the same duck that was on International waters, but was specifically designed to be smaller, to fit under the bridges of Pittsburgh.

 Florentijn Hofman, the creator of the Pittsburgh's Big Rubber Duck wanted to bring people out of their houses and into the community to mingle and enjoy art. In case you missed the event, the Duck will be moored until October 20th by the Point State Park on the side of the Allegheny River.

The Giant Rubber Duck has changed the landscape of Pittsburgh and the entire Duck with the color yellow just quacks pure -----
HAPPINESS.