We made the most of our last full day on the road. We took our time at the hotel, then one last stop in Winthrop. Ed enjoyed his usual Saturday morning cinnamon bun while I did a little more shopping.
Simon and Garfunkel, our troubadours of travel, on the IPOD,
Homeward Bound, I wish I was homeward bound
Today was going to be amazing.
Our drive today was through northern Washington on the North Cascades Scenic Highway. The trip is only 126 km from Winthrop to the Skagit Valley but it took us 3 hours. We were amazed at the beauty along the highway. It is incredibly scenic and we would stop almost wherever there was a viewpoint. On the plains and the prairies the sky was the highlight, here the emerald green forests and slate mountain peaks capped with snow are breathtaking. We stopped at the lookout over Diablo Lake and the colour is the same turquoise blue as Lake Louise. Once again we see how the ice age glacial melts helped to shape the land. The force and power of nature is amazing.
We were amazed at how many cyclists were on the road toady. It has been another Tour de Mountain. We lost count of the number of cyclists we saw making the climb. We assumed that they had escort vehicles with them as they were not carrying a pannier. One exception was a young fellow that happened to stop at the same point of interest that we were at. He was from North Bend, Indiana, cycling coast to coast. He was giving himself two months to cycle from Anacortes, Washington to Maine.
We have been amazed at the number of folks traveling across the country on big motor bikes, mostly Harley Davidson’s. This is the new way for the middle-aged to travel. One couple that I spoke with at a rest stop in Wyoming were on their way home to Arkansas from Alaska. Over the past 3 years, they have ridden in all 50 states, with the exception of Hawaii, which they did in ’93.
We have also been amazed at the number and size of the motor homes we have seen along the highway and at the RV parks. These are not just campers; these are small houses on wheels complete with the car in the backyard. We wondered, what recession? Ed and I felt like poor relations with our borrowed tent which we had set-up down in the holler.
Our lunch break today was in Newhalem. It is a company town, with the employees working for Seattle City Light. We bought our sandwich from the general store and had our lunch in the park. The temperature was 27C with a gentle breeze to keep us comfortable. Ed and I have re-discovered the joys of a picnic lunch. Subway sandwiches may not be everyone’s choice for lunch, but when you have been driving for 300 kilometres, it is amazing how good a simple sandwich can taste, especially when you are sitting next to the one you love and have the most amazing view in front of you.
We never did find a Factory Outlet mall today, but we did pull into a familiar Pacific Northwest landmark, Bellis Fair Mall. I managed to find a pair of capris and a new battery for my watch. Time has stood still for us, literally and figuratively. Each day we would have to make a note of the day and date.
For dinner, we made the urban safari into the food court. I was true to my healthy eating program – fresh veggie and seafood stir-fry, brown rice and ice water. Ed decided to have the salmon chowder, calamari, fries and diet coke from Ivar’s Acres of Clams. (All I can say is that it is a good thing that Ed is naturally thin. He will be having his cholesterol levels checked in October.)
There were no waits crossing the border back into Canada. The Officer asked us where we had been, how much we spent and then sent us on our way. That was amazing. We were happy to be in familiar surroundings, driving along Highway 99. To my right I could see the north shore mountains and to my left, just a short distance away, Vancouver Island. We are spending our last night on the road at Club Ed in Richmond.
Tomorrow we will take the morning off from driving then one last time we will hit the road and head for the ferry. This time tomorrow night, we will be home.
Time it was, and what a time it was
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Friday, July 9, 2010
The Road to a Dam Fine Day
21 days, 5 provinces, 9 states and over 10,000 kilometers. We are on the home stretch.
What a difference a day makes. We took the I90 from Post Falls, Idaho to Spokane, Washington. Along the interstate it is very similar to driving through the lower mainland - urban sprawl for about 75 kilometers from start to finish. Whizzing past Spokane we can see part of the downtown core. It looks like it might be an interesting city with its historic brick buildings next to modern office towers and a large Gothic cathedral next to the McDonalds golden arches.
Just past Spokane we turned off onto US2 and we are back into the scenic part of the drive. This part of eastern Washington has some very unusual and interesting geography. Not far along the highway we were driving through miles and miles of rolling farmland. Green fields,yellow canola, golden fields ready to harvest and brown fields ready for planting.
We saw unusual wind funnels creating dust eddies that spiraled skyward. The temperature was also climbing. 32, 33, 34, thank goodness for air conditioning.
Soon we were driving through rough, barren land, sage, scrub and the occasional spindly pine.
We had a quick stop lunch in Grand Coulee City Park beside Banks Lake then started the drive along the road that is between Banks Lake and the Coulee Walls. A coulee is a valley or drainage wall. We learned today that these canyons were formed by unique geological erosion that was created by cataclysmic floods that swept periodically across eastern Washington down the Columbia River Plateau 40 - 60 million years ago. This area is called Grand Coulee because it is - majestic and grand.
Next stop, Grand Coulee Dam. Ed got a real charge out of visiting this.
Temperature now 37.5! Too dam hot.
We left Grand Coulee Dam and were soon driving in an area known as Channeled Scabland. During the great floods millions of years ago, large boulders were scattered across this dry, desert-like landscape. The canyon, the walls, the lake, the river, the boulders have been in this same spot for millions of years and we are only passing through for a minute. How fleeting our time.
We crossed the Columbia River at 4:15pm and the temperature was now 38.5. Now we are really cooking. We arrived in the Okanogan Valley, Washington - not BC. I had to keep reminding myself that we were not driving through the Okanagan, BC. The fruit trees, fruit packing plants, the small towns could have been in Oliver, Peachland or Osoyoos. The lushness of the area is an example of how the Grand Coulee dam has helped to irrigate this region.
Winthrop is a town from the old west. The storefronts (all 34) have been preserved to look as they did back in the mid-1800's. It was originally a gold mining town. When the minerals were depleted it became a trading post for farmers and trappers. When the scenic highway was opened in 1972 they encouraged travelers to stop by putting up the old west facades and turned the sidewalk into a wooden walkway.
We enjoyed walking around the town and stopping in at the local pizza place for our regular Friday night pizza.
What a difference a day makes. We took the I90 from Post Falls, Idaho to Spokane, Washington. Along the interstate it is very similar to driving through the lower mainland - urban sprawl for about 75 kilometers from start to finish. Whizzing past Spokane we can see part of the downtown core. It looks like it might be an interesting city with its historic brick buildings next to modern office towers and a large Gothic cathedral next to the McDonalds golden arches.
Just past Spokane we turned off onto US2 and we are back into the scenic part of the drive. This part of eastern Washington has some very unusual and interesting geography. Not far along the highway we were driving through miles and miles of rolling farmland. Green fields,yellow canola, golden fields ready to harvest and brown fields ready for planting.
We saw unusual wind funnels creating dust eddies that spiraled skyward. The temperature was also climbing. 32, 33, 34, thank goodness for air conditioning.
Soon we were driving through rough, barren land, sage, scrub and the occasional spindly pine.
We had a quick stop lunch in Grand Coulee City Park beside Banks Lake then started the drive along the road that is between Banks Lake and the Coulee Walls. A coulee is a valley or drainage wall. We learned today that these canyons were formed by unique geological erosion that was created by cataclysmic floods that swept periodically across eastern Washington down the Columbia River Plateau 40 - 60 million years ago. This area is called Grand Coulee because it is - majestic and grand.
Next stop, Grand Coulee Dam. Ed got a real charge out of visiting this.
Temperature now 37.5! Too dam hot.
We left Grand Coulee Dam and were soon driving in an area known as Channeled Scabland. During the great floods millions of years ago, large boulders were scattered across this dry, desert-like landscape. The canyon, the walls, the lake, the river, the boulders have been in this same spot for millions of years and we are only passing through for a minute. How fleeting our time.
We crossed the Columbia River at 4:15pm and the temperature was now 38.5. Now we are really cooking. We arrived in the Okanogan Valley, Washington - not BC. I had to keep reminding myself that we were not driving through the Okanagan, BC. The fruit trees, fruit packing plants, the small towns could have been in Oliver, Peachland or Osoyoos. The lushness of the area is an example of how the Grand Coulee dam has helped to irrigate this region.
Winthrop is a town from the old west. The storefronts (all 34) have been preserved to look as they did back in the mid-1800's. It was originally a gold mining town. When the minerals were depleted it became a trading post for farmers and trappers. When the scenic highway was opened in 1972 they encouraged travelers to stop by putting up the old west facades and turned the sidewalk into a wooden walkway.
We enjoyed walking around the town and stopping in at the local pizza place for our regular Friday night pizza.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
The Road of Peaks and Valleys - Yellowstone to Post Falls, Idaho
Montana is referred to as the Treasure State. This is due to its rich mineral resources. I would call it the treasure state because of its beautiful natural resources. The azure blue sky, the emerald green trees, the golden and ruby canyons.
Highway 287 and the I90 meanders along the river, up steep hills into wide pastoral valleys. Montana is also called Big Sky country. Today it is big and it is BLUE.
We didn't know what we would see on today's drive, but we knew there would be surprises.
In Yellowstone park we saw remains of the devastation caused by the forest fire of 1988. Today we saw where the flames had traveled into Montana.
The Yellowstone fires of 1988 formed the largest wildfire in the recorded history of the U.S.'s Yellowstone National Park. Starting as many smaller individual fires, the flames spread quickly out of control with increasing winds and drought and combined into one large conflagration, which burned for several months. The fires almost destroyed two major visitor destinations and, on September 8, 1988, the entire park was closed to all non-emergency personnel for the first time in its history. Only the arrival of cool and moist weather in the late autumn brought the fires to an end. A total of 793,880 acres, or 36 percent of the park was affected by the wildfires.
Hwy 287 just out from West Yellowstone follows along the Madison River. By the number of fishermen in and on the water we can see that this is a fisherman's paradise. We rounded the bend in the road and were surprised to see a lake filled not with people, but with standing, dead trees. Across the lake was a mountain with the front half sliced away. It looked very similar to the Frank Slide we had seen in Alberta. We learned that on August 17,1959 the Yellowstone earthquake, also known as the Hebgen Lake earthquake, occurred. The earthquake was registered at magnitude 7.3 – 7.5 on the Richter scale. The quake caused a huge landslide that caused over 28 fatalities and left $11 million in damage.
We then came across the Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park. These are a series of caves and caverns that fall between the 2 routes that Lewis, traveling the high ground & Clark, traveling the river way were mapping. (They actually missed the caves entirely). The river winds through Montana for many miles and has been called many names. Now it is referred to as Clark Fork.
We learned that the Interstate, I90, was the original Indian Trail.
Lunch today was in Ennis, Montana, a fly fishing mecca.We decided to deviate from our Subway Safari (we had bought our lunch in West Yellowstone and it was in our cooler waiting for us), but we were lured by the call of the bison cheese burger advertised outside a cowboy-style cafe, and also by the local pottery displayed in the window. This was one of the tastiest meals we have had on the road. With the burger came the choice of 2 sides - which is a common offering here - regular fries, waffle fries, or sweet potato fries, baked beans, cottage cheese or cole slaw. Ed selected the waffle fries, baked beans and a diet coke. I opted for the sweet potato fries, cole slaw and unsweetened iced tea (my usual). The pottery was locally made in Butte and half price. I couldn't resist buying a Montana sky-blue bowl for $10. (Bowls are like cardigan sweaters, I don't think you can have too many)
We still had over 500km to go until we reached Post Falls, Idaho. But the drive through Montana was relaxed and easy. We went at a good pace, but we followed the 10 + 1 rule and got to visit the Rest Stops along the way. In Montana there are two types of rest stops - the ones provided by the state and the Service Centres, which in Montana are referred to as a Travel Plaza. The State rest stops range from the 5 star variety complete with individual rooms per patron, to rest stops that look like they have been designed by the Federal Bureau of Corrections. You feel like you have just been incarcerated for a felony when you close the door. The Travel Plazas are not just gas stations. They are pleasure palaces - fast food, shower and laundry facilities, groceries and a casino. Just what that weary traveler needs.
The rest station we stopped to have our dinner (the Subway fare we hadn't eaten at lunch) turned out to be home to a small colony of ground squirrels. There were between 10 - 20 critters running around the open field, going down one hole and popping out of another. It looked like the game you play at the PNE.
We arrived at Post Falls, Idaho just after 9pm. We had chosen Post Falls because it was pretty much at the limit of what we wanted to drive and also because I had read that it had an Factory Outlet mall. We checked into the motel and walked over to Zips drive-in for an ice cream. Walking back I looked down the street and was surprised to see that we had selected a hotel around the corner from the mall. We walked over so I could do some recognisance for the next days shopping only to find about 4 stores, out of nearly 100, that remained open. The gal at the hotel front desk told us that the building had been sold and the tenants could not afford the rent increase.
Today another marathon completed, tomorrow we have decided to give ourselves a break. We are going to do a short 350km drive to Winthrop, Washington, with a stop at the Grand Coulee Dam. In 1996, we borowed an RV and took the girls on a road trip to Osoyoos, the Grand Coule Dam, Winthrop, and the Factory Outlet mall. We really enjoyed visiting Winthrop on that trip and Ed has not seen a dam yet on this trip, and not so surprising, I cannot resist a trip to the Factory Outlet mall.
Highway 287 and the I90 meanders along the river, up steep hills into wide pastoral valleys. Montana is also called Big Sky country. Today it is big and it is BLUE.
We didn't know what we would see on today's drive, but we knew there would be surprises.
In Yellowstone park we saw remains of the devastation caused by the forest fire of 1988. Today we saw where the flames had traveled into Montana.
The Yellowstone fires of 1988 formed the largest wildfire in the recorded history of the U.S.'s Yellowstone National Park. Starting as many smaller individual fires, the flames spread quickly out of control with increasing winds and drought and combined into one large conflagration, which burned for several months. The fires almost destroyed two major visitor destinations and, on September 8, 1988, the entire park was closed to all non-emergency personnel for the first time in its history. Only the arrival of cool and moist weather in the late autumn brought the fires to an end. A total of 793,880 acres, or 36 percent of the park was affected by the wildfires.
Hwy 287 just out from West Yellowstone follows along the Madison River. By the number of fishermen in and on the water we can see that this is a fisherman's paradise. We rounded the bend in the road and were surprised to see a lake filled not with people, but with standing, dead trees. Across the lake was a mountain with the front half sliced away. It looked very similar to the Frank Slide we had seen in Alberta. We learned that on August 17,1959 the Yellowstone earthquake, also known as the Hebgen Lake earthquake, occurred. The earthquake was registered at magnitude 7.3 – 7.5 on the Richter scale. The quake caused a huge landslide that caused over 28 fatalities and left $11 million in damage.
We then came across the Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park. These are a series of caves and caverns that fall between the 2 routes that Lewis, traveling the high ground & Clark, traveling the river way were mapping. (They actually missed the caves entirely). The river winds through Montana for many miles and has been called many names. Now it is referred to as Clark Fork.
We learned that the Interstate, I90, was the original Indian Trail.
Lunch today was in Ennis, Montana, a fly fishing mecca.We decided to deviate from our Subway Safari (we had bought our lunch in West Yellowstone and it was in our cooler waiting for us), but we were lured by the call of the bison cheese burger advertised outside a cowboy-style cafe, and also by the local pottery displayed in the window. This was one of the tastiest meals we have had on the road. With the burger came the choice of 2 sides - which is a common offering here - regular fries, waffle fries, or sweet potato fries, baked beans, cottage cheese or cole slaw. Ed selected the waffle fries, baked beans and a diet coke. I opted for the sweet potato fries, cole slaw and unsweetened iced tea (my usual). The pottery was locally made in Butte and half price. I couldn't resist buying a Montana sky-blue bowl for $10. (Bowls are like cardigan sweaters, I don't think you can have too many)
We still had over 500km to go until we reached Post Falls, Idaho. But the drive through Montana was relaxed and easy. We went at a good pace, but we followed the 10 + 1 rule and got to visit the Rest Stops along the way. In Montana there are two types of rest stops - the ones provided by the state and the Service Centres, which in Montana are referred to as a Travel Plaza. The State rest stops range from the 5 star variety complete with individual rooms per patron, to rest stops that look like they have been designed by the Federal Bureau of Corrections. You feel like you have just been incarcerated for a felony when you close the door. The Travel Plazas are not just gas stations. They are pleasure palaces - fast food, shower and laundry facilities, groceries and a casino. Just what that weary traveler needs.
The rest station we stopped to have our dinner (the Subway fare we hadn't eaten at lunch) turned out to be home to a small colony of ground squirrels. There were between 10 - 20 critters running around the open field, going down one hole and popping out of another. It looked like the game you play at the PNE.
We arrived at Post Falls, Idaho just after 9pm. We had chosen Post Falls because it was pretty much at the limit of what we wanted to drive and also because I had read that it had an Factory Outlet mall. We checked into the motel and walked over to Zips drive-in for an ice cream. Walking back I looked down the street and was surprised to see that we had selected a hotel around the corner from the mall. We walked over so I could do some recognisance for the next days shopping only to find about 4 stores, out of nearly 100, that remained open. The gal at the hotel front desk told us that the building had been sold and the tenants could not afford the rent increase.
Today another marathon completed, tomorrow we have decided to give ourselves a break. We are going to do a short 350km drive to Winthrop, Washington, with a stop at the Grand Coulee Dam. In 1996, we borowed an RV and took the girls on a road trip to Osoyoos, the Grand Coule Dam, Winthrop, and the Factory Outlet mall. We really enjoyed visiting Winthrop on that trip and Ed has not seen a dam yet on this trip, and not so surprising, I cannot resist a trip to the Factory Outlet mall.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
The Road from Lander to Yellowstone National Park
O beautiful, for spacious skies
Wyoming, this truly is where the sky and the earth are joined. We are driving along a roller coaster of a highway. There are dips and dives and turns as the vista expands. We enter a red granite canyon, then we are on the top of a high plain, then back through another canyon - and this is all in the first 63k of our journey. We have to admit that if we were to pick the best scenic drive of all of the scenic drives we have driven over the past 19 days, the road between Denver and Yellowstone National Park would be the winner. Every mile there is something that is awe inspiring.
This is the first day in several days we have seen cyclists. So many in fact that we stopped counting. This is not a ride for the Sunday cyclist. This really is a Tour de Wyoming. Ed looked wistful as we passed the riders. It has been a long time since he has been in the saddle.
We had our first rest stop at the Diversion Dam Rest Station. I could do an entire blog on Rest Stations. This one was remarkable not only for its cleanliness, but also for the materials they used to construct the walls and also the wall separating the stalls. It was a river rock aggregate. It was so striking that I had to take pictures. I wouldn't mind having a feature wall made of these materials in my own home.
Our next stop came as a complete surprise. We rounded the corner and came upon the western-style town of Dubois, Wyoming, Pop. 962 It has some very interesting western art galleries, souvenir shops, a saloon, a coffee haus, and at the end of town a coffee shop that sold lattes.
Some of our local businesses could take a lesson about customer service from our neighbours to the south - thank you for stopping by, thank you for coming in, what do y'all have planned for the day?
Once past Dubois the landscape begins to change. The sage brush and high wind-swept plains are being replaced with lodge pole pines and we see the Grand Tetons and Rocky Mountains in the distance. Wowoming is what they should call this state.
The first park we entered was Grand Teton National Park. (The name "Tetons" originally was intended to describe several hills near the town of Arco, Idaho. They were named by a French trapper who thought that they resembled the female body. Many years later the name was mistakenly applied to the mountains of present day Grand Teton National Park due to the poor map-making and map-reading standards of the time.) The drive between Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Park is very similar to the drive between Jasper and Banff. The scenery is beautiful, just like at home we said. We had decided to go to Yellowstone National Park on our trip to see the geysers, particularly Old Faithful. We arrived at the site of the geysers about 30 minutes prior to the next eruption of Old Faithful. We took a short walk along the boardwalk surrounding some of the lesser geysers, then made our way back to take our place among the hundreds of others who had also come to see this phenomenon. The sun was shining, temp 22C and no wind, perfect, and old Faithful went off right on schedule - 10 minutes after the posted time. First there were puffs of steam, then gurgles of water, then up she went and just as she was at her peak, the wind picked up and the sulphur-smelling water sprayed the surrounding crowd. It was like were being blessed with holy water. Just as quickly as the wind came up, it was gone.
We treated ourselves to dinner at the cafeteria in the Yellowstone Lodge. Ed had vegetarian lasagna and I decided it was time for a little comfort food - chicken parmigiana, mashed potatoes with gravy and mixed vegetables. I savoured every bite.
When Ed told me that he had booked a tent site at West Yellowstone, I had assumed that it was in Yellowstone National Park, a site similar to Sleeping Giant and the Pinery. I didn't realize that West Yellowstone is a tourist town just outside of the gates of the park, across the state line in Montana. It is the jumping off spot for park goers and has all of the amenities that you would need before heading into the wilds - food, clothes, gas, you name it. It also had the Grizzly RV Park & Cabins -an RV park with about 10 sites for tents. This is high density camping. I felt like an evacuee from Hurricane Katrina as I lined up to use the facilities in the wash house.
We had heard that the temperature was going to go down to 34F that evening and so had tried to book a cabin. They were completely full and we were lucky that we had pre-booked the tent site. I had bought a souvenir Yellowstone Blanket at the gift shop and I had also brought along an old sleeping bag as a spare, just in case. It was still a cold night in Montana.
When we awoke the next morning, the air had already started to warm-up. The sun was shining, the sky was blue and we still had more many more miles to go.
Wyoming, this truly is where the sky and the earth are joined. We are driving along a roller coaster of a highway. There are dips and dives and turns as the vista expands. We enter a red granite canyon, then we are on the top of a high plain, then back through another canyon - and this is all in the first 63k of our journey. We have to admit that if we were to pick the best scenic drive of all of the scenic drives we have driven over the past 19 days, the road between Denver and Yellowstone National Park would be the winner. Every mile there is something that is awe inspiring.
This is the first day in several days we have seen cyclists. So many in fact that we stopped counting. This is not a ride for the Sunday cyclist. This really is a Tour de Wyoming. Ed looked wistful as we passed the riders. It has been a long time since he has been in the saddle.
We had our first rest stop at the Diversion Dam Rest Station. I could do an entire blog on Rest Stations. This one was remarkable not only for its cleanliness, but also for the materials they used to construct the walls and also the wall separating the stalls. It was a river rock aggregate. It was so striking that I had to take pictures. I wouldn't mind having a feature wall made of these materials in my own home.
Our next stop came as a complete surprise. We rounded the corner and came upon the western-style town of Dubois, Wyoming, Pop. 962 It has some very interesting western art galleries, souvenir shops, a saloon, a coffee haus, and at the end of town a coffee shop that sold lattes.
Some of our local businesses could take a lesson about customer service from our neighbours to the south - thank you for stopping by, thank you for coming in, what do y'all have planned for the day?
Once past Dubois the landscape begins to change. The sage brush and high wind-swept plains are being replaced with lodge pole pines and we see the Grand Tetons and Rocky Mountains in the distance. Wowoming is what they should call this state.
The first park we entered was Grand Teton National Park. (The name "Tetons" originally was intended to describe several hills near the town of Arco, Idaho. They were named by a French trapper who thought that they resembled the female body. Many years later the name was mistakenly applied to the mountains of present day Grand Teton National Park due to the poor map-making and map-reading standards of the time.) The drive between Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Park is very similar to the drive between Jasper and Banff. The scenery is beautiful, just like at home we said. We had decided to go to Yellowstone National Park on our trip to see the geysers, particularly Old Faithful. We arrived at the site of the geysers about 30 minutes prior to the next eruption of Old Faithful. We took a short walk along the boardwalk surrounding some of the lesser geysers, then made our way back to take our place among the hundreds of others who had also come to see this phenomenon. The sun was shining, temp 22C and no wind, perfect, and old Faithful went off right on schedule - 10 minutes after the posted time. First there were puffs of steam, then gurgles of water, then up she went and just as she was at her peak, the wind picked up and the sulphur-smelling water sprayed the surrounding crowd. It was like were being blessed with holy water. Just as quickly as the wind came up, it was gone.
We treated ourselves to dinner at the cafeteria in the Yellowstone Lodge. Ed had vegetarian lasagna and I decided it was time for a little comfort food - chicken parmigiana, mashed potatoes with gravy and mixed vegetables. I savoured every bite.
When Ed told me that he had booked a tent site at West Yellowstone, I had assumed that it was in Yellowstone National Park, a site similar to Sleeping Giant and the Pinery. I didn't realize that West Yellowstone is a tourist town just outside of the gates of the park, across the state line in Montana. It is the jumping off spot for park goers and has all of the amenities that you would need before heading into the wilds - food, clothes, gas, you name it. It also had the Grizzly RV Park & Cabins -an RV park with about 10 sites for tents. This is high density camping. I felt like an evacuee from Hurricane Katrina as I lined up to use the facilities in the wash house.
We had heard that the temperature was going to go down to 34F that evening and so had tried to book a cabin. They were completely full and we were lucky that we had pre-booked the tent site. I had bought a souvenir Yellowstone Blanket at the gift shop and I had also brought along an old sleeping bag as a spare, just in case. It was still a cold night in Montana.
When we awoke the next morning, the air had already started to warm-up. The sun was shining, the sky was blue and we still had more many more miles to go.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Here we are in Lander, Wyoming, at the Pronghorn Lodge. It is more of an auto court than lodge, but we have a room at the back away from the highway and it is clean and quiet.
We said goodbye to Denver and headed north to Wyoming.
Our first stop was in Loveland, Colorado - we liked the name and it had a Subway. The Debby & Ed Official Odyssey sandwich for this trip is the 6 inch sub - turkey breast, pepper-jack cheese, 12 grain bun, all the veggies, except onions and hot peppers, mustard, cut in half. Add 2 low fat yogurts and lunch for 2 is $6.14.
Wyoming, the Cowboy State, is famous for buffalo, Yellowstone Park, dude ranches, agriculture, coal, birthplace of Jackson Pollack and Dick Cheney. Wyoming's under 50-year old population is quickly declining. To entice people to stay and interest 20-somethings to move to the state, the government is offering cheap plots
of land if residents agree to live and work in the small towns for a set number of years.
We knew that this was the day that we would once again be wowing, oooing and aaaing over the scenery.
We drove the Scenic Byway Route 287 from Laramie to Rawlins and then the Chief Washakie Trail to Lander. Thousands of pioneers and first nations people have traveled these same Oregon, Mormon, California & Pony Express trails. If you close your eyes you can see the wagon trains and horses in the distant. The red rock granite hills, the rolling high plains and the empty landscape provides the perfect background to let the imagination go wild.
Once again the weather was a highlight of today's journey. We had enjoyed a beautiful sunny drive, and lunch stop. Around 2pm we could see the sky change as we drove further north. When the landscape is so open, you can literally see what the future will be. First we saw the black clouds, then we started seeing flashes of lightening. We were driving through the Great Divide Basin.
(The Great Divide Basin is the largest endorheic drainage basin of the Continental Divide of the Americas. The basin is between the Green River watershed on the west (drains to the Pacific Ocean/Gulf of California) and the Medicine Bow River watershed on the east (drains to the Atlantic Ocean/Gulf of Mexico).
The basin is a high desert dominated by sand dunes, bluffs and alkali flats. Flora and fauna include small trees in some ravines and the occasional shrub, along with many birds (e.g., sage grouse, pheasant) and pronghorn antelope, mule deer, feral horses, and the occasional elk. The basin includes uranium ore deposits and many oil and natural gas wells. Elevation, 6501 ft.)
Just as we came over the crest of the hill at the Continental Divide, the temperature dropped from 24C to 10.5 in a matter of minutes. First the rain came, then huge balls of hail. This only lasted about 3 or 4 minutes, but the velocity of the precipitation was enough to wash the bugs off the window and rinse 2 1/2 weeks of dust off the car. We were out of the foul weather just as fast as we had entered. The sun didn't come out again, but it was brighter for the remainder of the drive.
The drive from Denver to Lander is just about 600 km. We arrived in town in time for a walk down Main Street, 1 mile each way, then stopped at Tony's Pizza for dinner. Vegetarian Pizza and a pitcher of Bud Light. We stopped at Betty & Ken's for ice cream then back to the motel to check our email, write the blog, then crash. Tomorrow it is just a short trip, 372 km, to Yellowstone National Park, home of the famous Yogi Bear and his little buddy Boo Boo.
We said goodbye to Denver and headed north to Wyoming.
Our first stop was in Loveland, Colorado - we liked the name and it had a Subway. The Debby & Ed Official Odyssey sandwich for this trip is the 6 inch sub - turkey breast, pepper-jack cheese, 12 grain bun, all the veggies, except onions and hot peppers, mustard, cut in half. Add 2 low fat yogurts and lunch for 2 is $6.14.
Wyoming, the Cowboy State, is famous for buffalo, Yellowstone Park, dude ranches, agriculture, coal, birthplace of Jackson Pollack and Dick Cheney. Wyoming's under 50-year old population is quickly declining. To entice people to stay and interest 20-somethings to move to the state, the government is offering cheap plots
of land if residents agree to live and work in the small towns for a set number of years.
We knew that this was the day that we would once again be wowing, oooing and aaaing over the scenery.
We drove the Scenic Byway Route 287 from Laramie to Rawlins and then the Chief Washakie Trail to Lander. Thousands of pioneers and first nations people have traveled these same Oregon, Mormon, California & Pony Express trails. If you close your eyes you can see the wagon trains and horses in the distant. The red rock granite hills, the rolling high plains and the empty landscape provides the perfect background to let the imagination go wild.
Once again the weather was a highlight of today's journey. We had enjoyed a beautiful sunny drive, and lunch stop. Around 2pm we could see the sky change as we drove further north. When the landscape is so open, you can literally see what the future will be. First we saw the black clouds, then we started seeing flashes of lightening. We were driving through the Great Divide Basin.
(The Great Divide Basin is the largest endorheic drainage basin of the Continental Divide of the Americas. The basin is between the Green River watershed on the west (drains to the Pacific Ocean/Gulf of California) and the Medicine Bow River watershed on the east (drains to the Atlantic Ocean/Gulf of Mexico).
The basin is a high desert dominated by sand dunes, bluffs and alkali flats. Flora and fauna include small trees in some ravines and the occasional shrub, along with many birds (e.g., sage grouse, pheasant) and pronghorn antelope, mule deer, feral horses, and the occasional elk. The basin includes uranium ore deposits and many oil and natural gas wells. Elevation, 6501 ft.)
Just as we came over the crest of the hill at the Continental Divide, the temperature dropped from 24C to 10.5 in a matter of minutes. First the rain came, then huge balls of hail. This only lasted about 3 or 4 minutes, but the velocity of the precipitation was enough to wash the bugs off the window and rinse 2 1/2 weeks of dust off the car. We were out of the foul weather just as fast as we had entered. The sun didn't come out again, but it was brighter for the remainder of the drive.
The drive from Denver to Lander is just about 600 km. We arrived in town in time for a walk down Main Street, 1 mile each way, then stopped at Tony's Pizza for dinner. Vegetarian Pizza and a pitcher of Bud Light. We stopped at Betty & Ken's for ice cream then back to the motel to check our email, write the blog, then crash. Tomorrow it is just a short trip, 372 km, to Yellowstone National Park, home of the famous Yogi Bear and his little buddy Boo Boo.
Monday, July 5, 2010
A Break from the Road - Day 2 - Denver
Today is the day we visited the city of Denver. Denver is the mile high city and for some the change in altitude can be challenging. The official Denver Visitor's Guide offers tips for high altitude: drink lots of water, and wear sunscreen (there is 25 percent less protection from the sun ray's at Denver's 5,280ft elevation) - good advice in any city. I would be a better golfer if I were to play here. A golf ball goes 10 percent farther! and so does the affect of alcholol. Ed is finding the change in altitude a little challenging (or perhaps he is finally catching up on 2 weeks without his usual mid-afternoon nap).
Our trip into town started with a tour of the old neighbourhoods that Andrew had lived and where he and Krystyna had their first home. It is always interesting to take a drive around the cities and see the different styles of architecture and construction materials. Seeing so many red brick buildings is a novelty to us where we are more familiar with homes having wood, vinyl, aluminium or stucco exteriors.
We parked near the 16th Street Mall, a mile long pedestrian walkway - and if you get tired of walking, you can take a free shuttle. This is the heart of downtown Denver.
Denver has many impressive examples of modern architecture. Most of them have a common theme - strong, sharp angles. I think that this is to reflect the sharp mountain peaks that provide the backdrop for the city skyline (but that is just my opinion).
Scattered throughout the downtown, and surrounding area, are many examples of public art - conventional, abstract and functional. Along the 16th Street Mall are old pianos that have been painted and are available for anyone to sit down at and play a song.
We sat on the patio of the Rock Bottom Brewery restaurant for lunch. I enjoyed the seafood salad and my companions all agreed that their fish and chips/onion rings were delicious.
After lunch we hopped on the free shuttle and went a little further to the original downtown Denver. It looks very similar architecturally to the LoJo area of Victoria and has several cafes, boutiques and home decorating shops. Here we found a very nice vase for our fireplace.
We headed over to see the new DAM -Denver Art Museum. The building is spectacular and is considered a work of art in itself. It is filled with works by Picasso, Monet, Matisse, Georgia O'Keefe. Unfortunately, it wasn't filled with people - closed on Mondays!
Krystyna assured us that the place to find art was the Cherry Creek Arts Festival - an open air market that is held for 3 days every year over the July 4th weekend - and she was right. We joined the hundreds of people strolling along the 3 blocks that had been cordoned off for this event. (Temp - 85F - hats & sunscreen as per high altitude tips!) We came upon a stall that had several beautiful examples of kiln-fired wall hangings, bowls, plates and other larger pieces. It was hard to choose just one piece - so we bought two. It has been several years since Ed and I have purchased any new art for our home and we thought that this trip would provide just the opportunity to do this. Denver has been just the place.
Our trip into town started with a tour of the old neighbourhoods that Andrew had lived and where he and Krystyna had their first home. It is always interesting to take a drive around the cities and see the different styles of architecture and construction materials. Seeing so many red brick buildings is a novelty to us where we are more familiar with homes having wood, vinyl, aluminium or stucco exteriors.
We parked near the 16th Street Mall, a mile long pedestrian walkway - and if you get tired of walking, you can take a free shuttle. This is the heart of downtown Denver.
Denver has many impressive examples of modern architecture. Most of them have a common theme - strong, sharp angles. I think that this is to reflect the sharp mountain peaks that provide the backdrop for the city skyline (but that is just my opinion).
Scattered throughout the downtown, and surrounding area, are many examples of public art - conventional, abstract and functional. Along the 16th Street Mall are old pianos that have been painted and are available for anyone to sit down at and play a song.
We sat on the patio of the Rock Bottom Brewery restaurant for lunch. I enjoyed the seafood salad and my companions all agreed that their fish and chips/onion rings were delicious.
After lunch we hopped on the free shuttle and went a little further to the original downtown Denver. It looks very similar architecturally to the LoJo area of Victoria and has several cafes, boutiques and home decorating shops. Here we found a very nice vase for our fireplace.
We headed over to see the new DAM -Denver Art Museum. The building is spectacular and is considered a work of art in itself. It is filled with works by Picasso, Monet, Matisse, Georgia O'Keefe. Unfortunately, it wasn't filled with people - closed on Mondays!
Krystyna assured us that the place to find art was the Cherry Creek Arts Festival - an open air market that is held for 3 days every year over the July 4th weekend - and she was right. We joined the hundreds of people strolling along the 3 blocks that had been cordoned off for this event. (Temp - 85F - hats & sunscreen as per high altitude tips!) We came upon a stall that had several beautiful examples of kiln-fired wall hangings, bowls, plates and other larger pieces. It was hard to choose just one piece - so we bought two. It has been several years since Ed and I have purchased any new art for our home and we thought that this trip would provide just the opportunity to do this. Denver has been just the place.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
A Break from the Road - Day 1
Happy 4th of July from Aurora,Colorado
Ed and I are experiencing a pleasant rest from our usual driving marathon.
Krystyna and Andrew are our hosts, tour guides, and drivers.
Today our destination was Colorado Springs, about 50 miles from Aurora. First stop, Garden of the Gods. Garden of the Gods is a free city park within the city of Colorado Springs. I was expecting a traditional garden - flowers, perhaps a few sculptures, maybe a pond and a few ducks. This was a garden unlike anything I had seen before. It is a group of magnificent sandstone rock formations. Many are over 300 million years old, sculpted through time by the forces of nature. We had left our home base under cloudy skies, but by the time we had reached the garden the sun was out and it was a very comfortable 75F.
Next stop lunch. Our hosts were very excited for us to see the Broadmoor Hotel. It is a destination 5 star resort, much like the Empress Hotel in Victoria. It is nestled under the mountains, complete with its own golf course and tennis courts. The hotel is spread out over several acres with an artificial lake in the centre. In one of the lobbys are several photographs displaying a Who's Who of famous celebrities, politicians and sports figures who have stayed at the resort. For lunch I enjoyed a Cobb salad, which I beleive is from California, but I thought it a good choice of American cuisine and Ed had the grilled salmon sandwich on sourdough.
After lunch and a stroll around the lake we were off to the Manitou Cliff Dwellings.The Manitou cliff dwellings are located in Manitou Springs, Colorado, at the foot of Pikes Peak. (Pikes Peak is the mountain that provided the inspiration for the writing of, America the Beautiful.) The Manitou Cliff Dwellings were built in their present location in the early 1900s, as a tourist attraction. The building stones were taken from a collapsed Anasazi site in southwest Colorado, shipped hundreds of miles to Manitou Springs, and assembled in their present form as Anasazi-style buildings.
Heading home our blue skies turned very dark and ominious. Soon we were seeing lightening in the distance and huge drops of rain began to fall.
Our 4th of July celebrations this evening are relatively quiet - with the exception of the natural light and sound show being put on by Mother Nature. The rain has returned and it is hard to tell the difference between the loud bangs outside made by fireworks being set off by the neighbours and the loud claps of thunder.
This holiday we are not only experiencing many different places, people and accomodations, but also weather.
If variety is the spice of life we are becoming well-seasoned.
Ed and I are experiencing a pleasant rest from our usual driving marathon.
Krystyna and Andrew are our hosts, tour guides, and drivers.
Today our destination was Colorado Springs, about 50 miles from Aurora. First stop, Garden of the Gods. Garden of the Gods is a free city park within the city of Colorado Springs. I was expecting a traditional garden - flowers, perhaps a few sculptures, maybe a pond and a few ducks. This was a garden unlike anything I had seen before. It is a group of magnificent sandstone rock formations. Many are over 300 million years old, sculpted through time by the forces of nature. We had left our home base under cloudy skies, but by the time we had reached the garden the sun was out and it was a very comfortable 75F.
Next stop lunch. Our hosts were very excited for us to see the Broadmoor Hotel. It is a destination 5 star resort, much like the Empress Hotel in Victoria. It is nestled under the mountains, complete with its own golf course and tennis courts. The hotel is spread out over several acres with an artificial lake in the centre. In one of the lobbys are several photographs displaying a Who's Who of famous celebrities, politicians and sports figures who have stayed at the resort. For lunch I enjoyed a Cobb salad, which I beleive is from California, but I thought it a good choice of American cuisine and Ed had the grilled salmon sandwich on sourdough.
After lunch and a stroll around the lake we were off to the Manitou Cliff Dwellings.The Manitou cliff dwellings are located in Manitou Springs, Colorado, at the foot of Pikes Peak. (Pikes Peak is the mountain that provided the inspiration for the writing of, America the Beautiful.) The Manitou Cliff Dwellings were built in their present location in the early 1900s, as a tourist attraction. The building stones were taken from a collapsed Anasazi site in southwest Colorado, shipped hundreds of miles to Manitou Springs, and assembled in their present form as Anasazi-style buildings.
Heading home our blue skies turned very dark and ominious. Soon we were seeing lightening in the distance and huge drops of rain began to fall.
Our 4th of July celebrations this evening are relatively quiet - with the exception of the natural light and sound show being put on by Mother Nature. The rain has returned and it is hard to tell the difference between the loud bangs outside made by fireworks being set off by the neighbours and the loud claps of thunder.
This holiday we are not only experiencing many different places, people and accomodations, but also weather.
If variety is the spice of life we are becoming well-seasoned.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
The Road to Denver
State of Kansas, where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain,
And the wavin' wheat can sure smell sweet, When the wind comes right behind the rain
Actually, it should be Oklahoma, but this could also be said about Kansas.
The early white migrants likened the rolling plains of Kansas like the ocean waves, a sea of grass. The covered wagons were likened to great masted ships and were called prairie schooners. When we look back at our time in Kansas, it is the wind that we will remember. They call the western part of Kansas the high plains. There are 600 miles of high plains from Kansas City to Devner. It would take 6 weeks by covered wagon to cover that much territory.
We had the luxury of time on our side this morning - we only had 549km to cover - so we spent some time exploring Historic Fort Hays. We had expected to see a wooden fort but this is the plains and wood was a very rare commodity. Instead, the fort was a group of buildings constructed from limestone that had been quarried a few miles away. They have a few wooden houses that have been preserved and depict the commanding officer's quarters. It is open to the wide-open winds of the prairies and it is not hard to imagine the soldiers and their families going about their daily routines. Across the road from the fort is a herd of bison. There were only 5adults and 4 calves. It is hard to believe to not too long ago hundreds of this huge, magnificant animals roamed all over the land.
We did our usual stop at the Subway to get our lunch for the road and then it was on to Denver. The temperature is up to 32.5C when we stopped to have our lunch at the rest stop on the Interstate. The wind was as welcome as air conditioning. Our car is handling the heat very well. We saw 4 cars pulled off to the side of the road today with their hoods up. Whether it was from heat or mechanical problems it is hard to say.
We arrived in Denver shortly after 6pm (it helped that we have are now in Mountain Time). We were very warmly greeted by Ed's cousin, Krystyna and her husband Andrew. They have gone out of their way to make us welcome. They gave us a very western dinner - bbq bison and a delicious fresh salad. They live in an area with wonderful views of the mountains. Looking toward the skyline, you would almost think that you were in Vancouver looking toward the North Shore.
The evening had cooled down to a very comfortble 80F. We took a much needed walk around their neighbourhood. Ed and I have been on the road for 2 weeks.
We have now completed over 8000 kilometers on our Odyssey. We are still one week away from home and there is still so much more to discover. Tomorrow we are headed to Colorado Springs.
And the wavin' wheat can sure smell sweet, When the wind comes right behind the rain
Actually, it should be Oklahoma, but this could also be said about Kansas.
The early white migrants likened the rolling plains of Kansas like the ocean waves, a sea of grass. The covered wagons were likened to great masted ships and were called prairie schooners. When we look back at our time in Kansas, it is the wind that we will remember. They call the western part of Kansas the high plains. There are 600 miles of high plains from Kansas City to Devner. It would take 6 weeks by covered wagon to cover that much territory.
We had the luxury of time on our side this morning - we only had 549km to cover - so we spent some time exploring Historic Fort Hays. We had expected to see a wooden fort but this is the plains and wood was a very rare commodity. Instead, the fort was a group of buildings constructed from limestone that had been quarried a few miles away. They have a few wooden houses that have been preserved and depict the commanding officer's quarters. It is open to the wide-open winds of the prairies and it is not hard to imagine the soldiers and their families going about their daily routines. Across the road from the fort is a herd of bison. There were only 5adults and 4 calves. It is hard to believe to not too long ago hundreds of this huge, magnificant animals roamed all over the land.
We did our usual stop at the Subway to get our lunch for the road and then it was on to Denver. The temperature is up to 32.5C when we stopped to have our lunch at the rest stop on the Interstate. The wind was as welcome as air conditioning. Our car is handling the heat very well. We saw 4 cars pulled off to the side of the road today with their hoods up. Whether it was from heat or mechanical problems it is hard to say.
We arrived in Denver shortly after 6pm (it helped that we have are now in Mountain Time). We were very warmly greeted by Ed's cousin, Krystyna and her husband Andrew. They have gone out of their way to make us welcome. They gave us a very western dinner - bbq bison and a delicious fresh salad. They live in an area with wonderful views of the mountains. Looking toward the skyline, you would almost think that you were in Vancouver looking toward the North Shore.
The evening had cooled down to a very comfortble 80F. We took a much needed walk around their neighbourhood. Ed and I have been on the road for 2 weeks.
We have now completed over 8000 kilometers on our Odyssey. We are still one week away from home and there is still so much more to discover. Tomorrow we are headed to Colorado Springs.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Highway to Hays, Kansas
What a difference a good night's sleep makes. I hadn't got the best rest camped beside the Indy Interstate and was not functioning 100%. If I had, I would have been playing Stompin Tom Connors on the IPOD on July 1st...It's Canada Day, Up Canada Way
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGHMw_67fOk
So today, with Stompin Tom, we headed back down Interstate 70 to Hays, Kansas.
When I get in the car each morning I have two questions for Ed, What day is it? What's our distance?
The first part of our drive takes us along the Lewis and Clark Trail to Kansas City. Thomas Jefferson’s private secretary was a man named Meriwether Lewis, a Virginian, frontiersman, and soldier. He had served in the army in Ohio with a former Army captain and friend, William Clark. These two men would work together as partners for President Jefferson. The two were to share joint command as they explored, mapped, and studied a new route to the Pacific.
There are many historic points of interest across Missouri and Kansas and we could easily spend a week here visiting them all.
Our lunch stop for today was in Lawrence, Kansas. Lawrence, and Topeka a little further down the highway, were known as abolition towns and were chief stations on the underground railroad from 1855-59. Lawrence is another university town. It also is well known its for main street. There are no shopping malls in Lawrence but they do have a Starbucks and even though the temperate was 32C, I couldn't resist.
Many famous folks are from from Kansas & Missouri, Mark Twain, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Amelia Earhart, Buffalo Bill Cody, Wild Bill Hickok, to name just a few.
Local radio choices are Christian, classical Christian, classic country, Country Christian or NPR. We were listening to classical music about 150 miles outside of Hays. The song was Ave Maria and just as we rounded a bend in the road, on a ridge were dozens of wind turbines. The combination of the musical background and the impressive stature of the turbines was ethereal.
They went on for at least 25km. This part of the country is very windy. Semi trailers have been known to been blown over by the force of the wind here. We kept an eye on the horizon for any tornadoes. It would be easy to see them coming, as you can see for miles.
We are spending the night at the Tea Rose Inn B & B http://www.tearose.net/, Hays, Kansas. Hays dates back to the days of the wild west. Calamity Jane, Wild Bill Hickok, Buffalo Bill Cody and George Custer lived in Hays. Hays is also home of the original Boot Hill cemetery, just down the street from our B+B. During the 19th century it was a common name for the burial grounds of gunfighters, or those who “died with their boots on” (i.e., violently) The house was built in 1909 and is near the historic part of town. Tonight is the start of Wild West Week in Hays and from our room we can hear the festivities taking place in the park nearby, including the fireworks. Fireworks are a really big deal for the fourth of July. PryoCity Fireworks temporary sales tents are all along the highway.
Today has also been a day of us saying I didn't know that. There is a town called Knob Noster. How would you like to say you were from Knob Noster? At Northwestern Missouri Univeristy, textbooks and a laptop are free with your tuition. We thought that a bus pass was a good deal. And, who knew that they had so many Adult XXX Outlet stores, open 24hours.
They say that travel broadens the mind. We are certainly getting an education. I am looking forward to what I will learn tomorrow on the way to Denver.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGHMw_67fOk
So today, with Stompin Tom, we headed back down Interstate 70 to Hays, Kansas.
When I get in the car each morning I have two questions for Ed, What day is it? What's our distance?
The first part of our drive takes us along the Lewis and Clark Trail to Kansas City. Thomas Jefferson’s private secretary was a man named Meriwether Lewis, a Virginian, frontiersman, and soldier. He had served in the army in Ohio with a former Army captain and friend, William Clark. These two men would work together as partners for President Jefferson. The two were to share joint command as they explored, mapped, and studied a new route to the Pacific.
There are many historic points of interest across Missouri and Kansas and we could easily spend a week here visiting them all.
Our lunch stop for today was in Lawrence, Kansas. Lawrence, and Topeka a little further down the highway, were known as abolition towns and were chief stations on the underground railroad from 1855-59. Lawrence is another university town. It also is well known its for main street. There are no shopping malls in Lawrence but they do have a Starbucks and even though the temperate was 32C, I couldn't resist.
Many famous folks are from from Kansas & Missouri, Mark Twain, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Amelia Earhart, Buffalo Bill Cody, Wild Bill Hickok, to name just a few.
Local radio choices are Christian, classical Christian, classic country, Country Christian or NPR. We were listening to classical music about 150 miles outside of Hays. The song was Ave Maria and just as we rounded a bend in the road, on a ridge were dozens of wind turbines. The combination of the musical background and the impressive stature of the turbines was ethereal.
They went on for at least 25km. This part of the country is very windy. Semi trailers have been known to been blown over by the force of the wind here. We kept an eye on the horizon for any tornadoes. It would be easy to see them coming, as you can see for miles.
We are spending the night at the Tea Rose Inn B & B http://www.tearose.net/, Hays, Kansas. Hays dates back to the days of the wild west. Calamity Jane, Wild Bill Hickok, Buffalo Bill Cody and George Custer lived in Hays. Hays is also home of the original Boot Hill cemetery, just down the street from our B+B. During the 19th century it was a common name for the burial grounds of gunfighters, or those who “died with their boots on” (i.e., violently) The house was built in 1909 and is near the historic part of town. Tonight is the start of Wild West Week in Hays and from our room we can hear the festivities taking place in the park nearby, including the fireworks. Fireworks are a really big deal for the fourth of July. PryoCity Fireworks temporary sales tents are all along the highway.
Today has also been a day of us saying I didn't know that. There is a town called Knob Noster. How would you like to say you were from Knob Noster? At Northwestern Missouri Univeristy, textbooks and a laptop are free with your tuition. We thought that a bus pass was a good deal. And, who knew that they had so many Adult XXX Outlet stores, open 24hours.
They say that travel broadens the mind. We are certainly getting an education. I am looking forward to what I will learn tomorrow on the way to Denver.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
The Road from Indiana to Missouri
Happy Canada Day from the USA
Ed and I enjoyed our Canada Day breakfast at the campsite, packed the car and hit the road. Our destination today, Columbia, Missouri.
We skirted past Indianapolis, just managing to get a glimpse of the skyline. We are sticking to the Interstate, driving past cities that have familiar names Terre Haute, St Louis and seeing the turnoffs for others - Memphis, Chicago, Louisana - if only there was more time to veer off the path.
We did stop at in Greenup,Illinois looking for a historical reference to Abraham Lincoln, which we didn't find, but I did manage to buy several pieces of milkglass at an antique shop.
Between Terra Haute and St Louis is Effington. This is the site of the world's largest cross, 198 feet tall. It is said to be at the Crossroads of America. We came upon that quite unexpectedly.
Just outside of St Louis, we stopped in Collinsonville to see the Cahokia Mounds
(www.cahokiamounds.com). These have been classified as a Unesco World Heritage Site. Cahokia contains the remnants of North America's largest prehistoric city (20,000 people)dating from AD1200. They have an excellent interpretive centre with replicas on the actual site of the village. Well worth the visit and the admission was by donation.
Coming into St Louis we were greeted with the sight of its famous arch. Then over the Martin Luther King bridge into the city. We were surprised at the size of St Louis and how long it took us to drive from one end to the the other (It is the 18th largest metropolitan area in the US)
We arrived in Columbia just after 6pm. We checked into our accommodation for the evening, the Courtyard Marriot. Our plan is to experience different types of accommodation. Tonight, the hotel. An excellent choice.
Columbia is a very interesting city. It is a university town and it has that vibe. Youthful and happening. The industry here is education and insurance.
Also, this is the first town we have come to that seems to have a Democratic feel to it. Up until know, we have definitely had the feeling that we were in the Bible Belt in a very Republican part of the country. On the local radio stations we have been listening to there are talk shows discussing the rally to Washington on August 28 protesting the Bill for heath care reform. When I was in Greenup, I was speaking to the proprietor of a small shop. He told me that he that his treatment for cancer at the Mayo Clinic cost $300,000. Yet he still didn't support the changes to US health insurance.
Happy Canada Day
Ed and I enjoyed our Canada Day breakfast at the campsite, packed the car and hit the road. Our destination today, Columbia, Missouri.
We skirted past Indianapolis, just managing to get a glimpse of the skyline. We are sticking to the Interstate, driving past cities that have familiar names Terre Haute, St Louis and seeing the turnoffs for others - Memphis, Chicago, Louisana - if only there was more time to veer off the path.
We did stop at in Greenup,Illinois looking for a historical reference to Abraham Lincoln, which we didn't find, but I did manage to buy several pieces of milkglass at an antique shop.
Between Terra Haute and St Louis is Effington. This is the site of the world's largest cross, 198 feet tall. It is said to be at the Crossroads of America. We came upon that quite unexpectedly.
Just outside of St Louis, we stopped in Collinsonville to see the Cahokia Mounds
(www.cahokiamounds.com). These have been classified as a Unesco World Heritage Site. Cahokia contains the remnants of North America's largest prehistoric city (20,000 people)dating from AD1200. They have an excellent interpretive centre with replicas on the actual site of the village. Well worth the visit and the admission was by donation.
Coming into St Louis we were greeted with the sight of its famous arch. Then over the Martin Luther King bridge into the city. We were surprised at the size of St Louis and how long it took us to drive from one end to the the other (It is the 18th largest metropolitan area in the US)
We arrived in Columbia just after 6pm. We checked into our accommodation for the evening, the Courtyard Marriot. Our plan is to experience different types of accommodation. Tonight, the hotel. An excellent choice.
Columbia is a very interesting city. It is a university town and it has that vibe. Youthful and happening. The industry here is education and insurance.
Also, this is the first town we have come to that seems to have a Democratic feel to it. Up until know, we have definitely had the feeling that we were in the Bible Belt in a very Republican part of the country. On the local radio stations we have been listening to there are talk shows discussing the rally to Washington on August 28 protesting the Bill for heath care reform. When I was in Greenup, I was speaking to the proprietor of a small shop. He told me that he that his treatment for cancer at the Mayo Clinic cost $300,000. Yet he still didn't support the changes to US health insurance.
Happy Canada Day
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
The Road to Indiana
We left Stratford, Ontario this morning at 9am and we arrived in Greenfield, Indiana just after 8pm - another 750km. The good news is we have done 60% of our driving.
After leaving Stratford, we drove to Pinery Provincial Park on Lake Huron. They call this Ontario's West Coast and I can see why. After having a look at campsite #298, where we didn't camp last night, we went down to the lake. It looked like we had arrived at the ocean,huge breakers were rolling onto the shore.
It was an easy entry into Michigan over the Port Huron toll bridge. Going through customs was a breeze. I almost had my orange confiscated, but when the border patrol guard saw that it was from Florida, not Canada, he let me bring it across. Global warming hasn't sped up our production of citrus fruits in Canada yet.
We were on our way through the USA and Ed says, "Isn't this great Deb?" We really are having a great time. Ed started to reminisce about his days working for the Minisitry when there was money for travel junkets and he was in Indiana to look at a high tech steel mill. During that trip there was no GPS and they had to phone for directions. Our GPS has become our trusted (for the most part) companion. We would be lost without her!
In Michigan and Indiana we have stayed on Hwy 69 all of the way. Driving the first section through Michigan you would think you were still in S. Ontario. As we got further south and into Indiana we started to see more and more cornfields and fields planted with soybeans. (Indiana is encouraging its farmers to plant more corn and soybeans and its residents to use biofuels made from them. According to the Lonely Plant guidebook, less corn for the hogs means higher meat prices)
We didn't get an opportunity to go into any of the larger cities and all that we have seen off the highway are the rest stops and the town of Auburn (which is more of strip mall with fast food restaurants and gas stations).
This part of the odyssey has become the Tour de Rest Station. Driving along the interstate there are rest stops every 60miles. Along the Trans Canada Hwy when you came upon a rest stop there was usually a view, a couple of picnic tables and a couple of outhouses. Along the Interstate, the rest stops are modern and clean. There are vending machines and large areas for you to walk your pet. They are easy to enter and exit and have separate lanes for cars and trucks. Each rest stop is sponsored by a different branch of the military and each one is named for a serviceman who has lost his life. They are a welcome refuge for a weary traveler.
My dad used to call me the bathroom inspector.Some things don't change.
When we got to the KOA we decided against camping and took a cabin, similar to the one we had taken at Sault Ste Marie. This KOA is popular because of it's proximity to the Indy 500site. It is also borders on the Interstate so it sounds like we are at the Indy 500. We took a stroll around the campsite, came back to the cabin, sat down at the picnic table had a beer and pretended we were at the races. It was just beginning to get dark when I noticed little sparks in the air. Fireflies! This is the first time I have ever seen them. What an unexpected gift.
We really are having a wonderful time.
After leaving Stratford, we drove to Pinery Provincial Park on Lake Huron. They call this Ontario's West Coast and I can see why. After having a look at campsite #298, where we didn't camp last night, we went down to the lake. It looked like we had arrived at the ocean,huge breakers were rolling onto the shore.
It was an easy entry into Michigan over the Port Huron toll bridge. Going through customs was a breeze. I almost had my orange confiscated, but when the border patrol guard saw that it was from Florida, not Canada, he let me bring it across. Global warming hasn't sped up our production of citrus fruits in Canada yet.
We were on our way through the USA and Ed says, "Isn't this great Deb?" We really are having a great time. Ed started to reminisce about his days working for the Minisitry when there was money for travel junkets and he was in Indiana to look at a high tech steel mill. During that trip there was no GPS and they had to phone for directions. Our GPS has become our trusted (for the most part) companion. We would be lost without her!
In Michigan and Indiana we have stayed on Hwy 69 all of the way. Driving the first section through Michigan you would think you were still in S. Ontario. As we got further south and into Indiana we started to see more and more cornfields and fields planted with soybeans. (Indiana is encouraging its farmers to plant more corn and soybeans and its residents to use biofuels made from them. According to the Lonely Plant guidebook, less corn for the hogs means higher meat prices)
We didn't get an opportunity to go into any of the larger cities and all that we have seen off the highway are the rest stops and the town of Auburn (which is more of strip mall with fast food restaurants and gas stations).
This part of the odyssey has become the Tour de Rest Station. Driving along the interstate there are rest stops every 60miles. Along the Trans Canada Hwy when you came upon a rest stop there was usually a view, a couple of picnic tables and a couple of outhouses. Along the Interstate, the rest stops are modern and clean. There are vending machines and large areas for you to walk your pet. They are easy to enter and exit and have separate lanes for cars and trucks. Each rest stop is sponsored by a different branch of the military and each one is named for a serviceman who has lost his life. They are a welcome refuge for a weary traveler.
My dad used to call me the bathroom inspector.Some things don't change.
When we got to the KOA we decided against camping and took a cabin, similar to the one we had taken at Sault Ste Marie. This KOA is popular because of it's proximity to the Indy 500site. It is also borders on the Interstate so it sounds like we are at the Indy 500. We took a stroll around the campsite, came back to the cabin, sat down at the picnic table had a beer and pretended we were at the races. It was just beginning to get dark when I noticed little sparks in the air. Fireflies! This is the first time I have ever seen them. What an unexpected gift.
We really are having a wonderful time.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
The Road from Ottawa to the Pinery - Interupted
This was a day with a false start, serveral interptions and an unexpected finish.
After a hearty breakfast of pain dore (french toast) Randall and Diane bid us adieu. On our first left turn out of their neighbourhood we discovered our left turn signal was not working. We pulled over and Ed made a quick call back to Randall to find the nearest Volkswagon dealership. He entered the coordinates into the GPS and away we set. The dealership was fairly close and as it turned out it was just to be a loose connection.
When it came time to take our mid-morning break we thought that we would be able to pull over at one of the Service Centres that used to be all along the 401. I don't know what happened but all we saw were Closed across the Service sign or Open in July 2010. We pulled off at the exit for Shannonville. A great place if you are looking for tax-free cigarettes. There were several gas stations and stores promoting this purchase. (We didn't buy smokes, but we did stop at Deb's Restaurant & Service for gas & to use the bathroom)
We continued driving the 401 looking for a rest stop for the lunch which Diane had packed for us. Again, no Service Centres, so off another exit (we missed the name of the town we were going to because of a technical discussion regarding the IPOD) and ended up eating our lunch in parking lot somewhere.
Driving along the 40l,along the overpasses, starting just east of Trenton, we started to see rows of people, many dressed in patriotic red and white, firefighters standing on their trucks, police officers, veterans in their uniforms and large Canadian flags waving and draped over the railing. This lasted until well into Toronto. They were all waiting to honour the motorcade that was bringing home the two medics who had died in Afganistan. It was very moving seeing this. In the west, I feel very detached from the conflict that is going on in Afganistan and Iraq. Going through the towns with the Canadian Forces Bases and seeing so many reminders of our military actitivity makes it a little more real.
Around 3pm Ed felt that he needed a break from driving so we pulled off at another exit to switch seats. They had blocked the west-bound access to the 401 because of the motorcade en route, causing us to detour to get back onto the highway. This detour took us along the side highway. We don't know if it took us that much out of our way, but it was actually a much more pleasant drive. More picturesque than the 401, less traffic and far fewer trucks.
The plan was for me to drive til the next rest stop. That came in Stratford 3 1/2 hours later. We were now driving through Onterrible! The traffic through Toronto is fast and furious, 4 lanes, a meridian, 3 more lanes. The drivers are agressive and I am a girl from Victoria. Shelbourne Street is my highway. Things slowed to a standstill around Missasaga. There was a 3 car accident just past Milton (which is just west of Toronto). Our plan was to arrive at Pinery Provincial Park around 5pm - it was now approaching 7:30pm.
Our night in the wilds was becoming less and less appealing (to me - Mr. Wilderness was still keen). Ed made another phone call to my brother, this time for the name of a hotel or B + B in Stratford.
We arrived at our B + B, D & K Shady Nook around 8pm. We had been in Stratford in 1994 with the girls. On that trip my brother and his family joined us to see the Pirates of Penzance. (That trip also had its exciting moments when a tornado touched down just behind his house and took out 14 trees)
We put our bags in our room and strolled into town for dinner at Molly's Irish Pub.
Tomorrow is another day. Breakfast, prepared by our hostess Kathy is at 8 and then we are off to the USA. It's camping tomorrow night at the KOA in Indianapolis.
Traffic permitting.
After a hearty breakfast of pain dore (french toast) Randall and Diane bid us adieu. On our first left turn out of their neighbourhood we discovered our left turn signal was not working. We pulled over and Ed made a quick call back to Randall to find the nearest Volkswagon dealership. He entered the coordinates into the GPS and away we set. The dealership was fairly close and as it turned out it was just to be a loose connection.
When it came time to take our mid-morning break we thought that we would be able to pull over at one of the Service Centres that used to be all along the 401. I don't know what happened but all we saw were Closed across the Service sign or Open in July 2010. We pulled off at the exit for Shannonville. A great place if you are looking for tax-free cigarettes. There were several gas stations and stores promoting this purchase. (We didn't buy smokes, but we did stop at Deb's Restaurant & Service for gas & to use the bathroom)
We continued driving the 401 looking for a rest stop for the lunch which Diane had packed for us. Again, no Service Centres, so off another exit (we missed the name of the town we were going to because of a technical discussion regarding the IPOD) and ended up eating our lunch in parking lot somewhere.
Driving along the 40l,along the overpasses, starting just east of Trenton, we started to see rows of people, many dressed in patriotic red and white, firefighters standing on their trucks, police officers, veterans in their uniforms and large Canadian flags waving and draped over the railing. This lasted until well into Toronto. They were all waiting to honour the motorcade that was bringing home the two medics who had died in Afganistan. It was very moving seeing this. In the west, I feel very detached from the conflict that is going on in Afganistan and Iraq. Going through the towns with the Canadian Forces Bases and seeing so many reminders of our military actitivity makes it a little more real.
Around 3pm Ed felt that he needed a break from driving so we pulled off at another exit to switch seats. They had blocked the west-bound access to the 401 because of the motorcade en route, causing us to detour to get back onto the highway. This detour took us along the side highway. We don't know if it took us that much out of our way, but it was actually a much more pleasant drive. More picturesque than the 401, less traffic and far fewer trucks.
The plan was for me to drive til the next rest stop. That came in Stratford 3 1/2 hours later. We were now driving through Onterrible! The traffic through Toronto is fast and furious, 4 lanes, a meridian, 3 more lanes. The drivers are agressive and I am a girl from Victoria. Shelbourne Street is my highway. Things slowed to a standstill around Missasaga. There was a 3 car accident just past Milton (which is just west of Toronto). Our plan was to arrive at Pinery Provincial Park around 5pm - it was now approaching 7:30pm.
Our night in the wilds was becoming less and less appealing (to me - Mr. Wilderness was still keen). Ed made another phone call to my brother, this time for the name of a hotel or B + B in Stratford.
We arrived at our B + B, D & K Shady Nook around 8pm. We had been in Stratford in 1994 with the girls. On that trip my brother and his family joined us to see the Pirates of Penzance. (That trip also had its exciting moments when a tornado touched down just behind his house and took out 14 trees)
We put our bags in our room and strolled into town for dinner at Molly's Irish Pub.
Tomorrow is another day. Breakfast, prepared by our hostess Kathy is at 8 and then we are off to the USA. It's camping tomorrow night at the KOA in Indianapolis.
Traffic permitting.
Monday, June 28, 2010
A Rest from the Road - 4 Days in Ottawa
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Ottawa is a great place to visit. This is my 5th time here. The joke was I would come out to visit my brother every 5 years, whether I needed to or not. As the years go by, I realize that we don't have the luxury of time anymore. So I am happy to have the opportunity to see him and Diane, if only for 4 days.
We started the day on Sunday by sleeping in. What a treat not to have to hurry up and be on our way. Ed and I went to Mass at St. Patrick's Basilica. They didn't have a choir but they did have a pipe organ. At the end of the mass, the priest said that it wasn't usual for them to do this, but since it is Canada Day on Thursday, they would sing O Canada. What a fitting way to start our visit in the nation's capital. We met Randall and Diane and had lunch at Lapointe's in the Byward Market. It is the oldest fish shop in the city. When we were driving through Northern Ontario we saw a lot of fish and chip stands offering Pickerel. That seems to a regional specialty, so pickerel and chips lunch for Ed and I had maple glazed salmon and market greens.
After lunch we strolled around the Parliament Buildings. In the evening we took a picnic and went to the RCMP Musical Ride Sunset Ceremonies at the Rockcliffe Stables. At the end of the ceremonies, as the honour guard lowered the flag, we sang O Canada. A perfect way to close the day.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Today we were on our own in Ottawa. While Ed explored the exhibits at the Canadian War Museum I went to the National Art Gallery. Natalie and I had visited the Canadian War Museum when we here 5 years ago and I was interested in seeing the POP exhibit at the art gallery. I was also interested in seeing the works by the Group of 7 - having just driven through the countryside that they had painted. Ed took most of the day to visit the museum and that gave me time to return to the Byward Market then stroll along Sparks Street Mall. I was happy to come across the CBC boutique where I bought my first souvenir of the holiday - a Coronation Street Rovers Return t-shirt. Not too Canadian, buy just my style.
The temperature today is 31.5C. This is a big change from what they have been having and after a drive through the Ottawa rush hour, it was good to be back at brother's.
We enjoyed a glass of wine and a delicious stir-fry for dinner.
It has been good to be here now with my brother and Diane. And not just because of the comfortable bed and the chance to do some laundry. My brother and I have lived in different cities for over 30 years. It has been good to see him, even if just for a few brief days. But I know that even though we are miles apart he is with me.
Tuesday we are on our way to the Pinery Provincial Park, near Sarnia, on the shores of Lake Huron in Southern Ontario. This will be another wilderness experience. No WIFI, no mod cons. Let's hope there is also no rain.
Ottawa is a great place to visit. This is my 5th time here. The joke was I would come out to visit my brother every 5 years, whether I needed to or not. As the years go by, I realize that we don't have the luxury of time anymore. So I am happy to have the opportunity to see him and Diane, if only for 4 days.
We started the day on Sunday by sleeping in. What a treat not to have to hurry up and be on our way. Ed and I went to Mass at St. Patrick's Basilica. They didn't have a choir but they did have a pipe organ. At the end of the mass, the priest said that it wasn't usual for them to do this, but since it is Canada Day on Thursday, they would sing O Canada. What a fitting way to start our visit in the nation's capital. We met Randall and Diane and had lunch at Lapointe's in the Byward Market. It is the oldest fish shop in the city. When we were driving through Northern Ontario we saw a lot of fish and chip stands offering Pickerel. That seems to a regional specialty, so pickerel and chips lunch for Ed and I had maple glazed salmon and market greens.
After lunch we strolled around the Parliament Buildings. In the evening we took a picnic and went to the RCMP Musical Ride Sunset Ceremonies at the Rockcliffe Stables. At the end of the ceremonies, as the honour guard lowered the flag, we sang O Canada. A perfect way to close the day.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Today we were on our own in Ottawa. While Ed explored the exhibits at the Canadian War Museum I went to the National Art Gallery. Natalie and I had visited the Canadian War Museum when we here 5 years ago and I was interested in seeing the POP exhibit at the art gallery. I was also interested in seeing the works by the Group of 7 - having just driven through the countryside that they had painted. Ed took most of the day to visit the museum and that gave me time to return to the Byward Market then stroll along Sparks Street Mall. I was happy to come across the CBC boutique where I bought my first souvenir of the holiday - a Coronation Street Rovers Return t-shirt. Not too Canadian, buy just my style.
The temperature today is 31.5C. This is a big change from what they have been having and after a drive through the Ottawa rush hour, it was good to be back at brother's.
We enjoyed a glass of wine and a delicious stir-fry for dinner.
It has been good to be here now with my brother and Diane. And not just because of the comfortable bed and the chance to do some laundry. My brother and I have lived in different cities for over 30 years. It has been good to see him, even if just for a few brief days. But I know that even though we are miles apart he is with me.
Tuesday we are on our way to the Pinery Provincial Park, near Sarnia, on the shores of Lake Huron in Southern Ontario. This will be another wilderness experience. No WIFI, no mod cons. Let's hope there is also no rain.
The Road from Sault Ste Marie to Ottawa
Saturday, June 26, 2010
While the leaders of the G20 are sitting around the fake lake in Toronto, we are driving around great lakes of Ontario. Our first stop on Lake Huron was in Blind River. Here I learned the difference between the Subway restaurant in the east and the Subway in the west. To allow for the large amount of snow in the east, there is a step up in the entrance to the restaurant (which we don't have in the west). If you don't step up, you can easily trip. (at least this time I wasn't carrying the camera)
Today we are trying a training technique from Ed's running group - 10 and 1's. We drive 100km, then rest 10 minutes. One of our stops was in Massey. We were driving along when I told Ed to pullover. There at the side of the road was a Mennonite couple with a baked goods stall. I knew that there was a large Mennonite population in the Kitchener/Waterloo area. And I had been told that anything that the Mennonites make is good. So we stopped and I bought a pie to take to my brother. (The pie was good, but not as good as Maureen's pies). We found out from a volunteer in the museum in Massey that the Mennonites are taking over farms in this area that people have walked away from. There are small townships all along this part of the highway and each seem to be different from the last. Tall water towers and church spires are visible long before you come into the town.
The scenery varies with almost every curve along the highway. We see mining operations, sawmills, farms, ranches and dozens of lakes. This is cottage country and we can see how this area would be a welcome retreat.
After a quick bite to eat at the Petawawa McDonald's! we were on the home stretch.
(Yes you can eat healthfully at McDonald's. I had the grilled chicken breast with southwestern salad, hold the dressing, Ed had his annual Angus burger and fries. He is good now until next year)
We left Victoria on June 19 and after 7 days of driving and 4850 kilometers were finally arrived in Ottawa. We were received with open arms and big hugs from my brother and Diane. It is good to be here.
While the leaders of the G20 are sitting around the fake lake in Toronto, we are driving around great lakes of Ontario. Our first stop on Lake Huron was in Blind River. Here I learned the difference between the Subway restaurant in the east and the Subway in the west. To allow for the large amount of snow in the east, there is a step up in the entrance to the restaurant (which we don't have in the west). If you don't step up, you can easily trip. (at least this time I wasn't carrying the camera)
Today we are trying a training technique from Ed's running group - 10 and 1's. We drive 100km, then rest 10 minutes. One of our stops was in Massey. We were driving along when I told Ed to pullover. There at the side of the road was a Mennonite couple with a baked goods stall. I knew that there was a large Mennonite population in the Kitchener/Waterloo area. And I had been told that anything that the Mennonites make is good. So we stopped and I bought a pie to take to my brother. (The pie was good, but not as good as Maureen's pies). We found out from a volunteer in the museum in Massey that the Mennonites are taking over farms in this area that people have walked away from. There are small townships all along this part of the highway and each seem to be different from the last. Tall water towers and church spires are visible long before you come into the town.
The scenery varies with almost every curve along the highway. We see mining operations, sawmills, farms, ranches and dozens of lakes. This is cottage country and we can see how this area would be a welcome retreat.
After a quick bite to eat at the Petawawa McDonald's! we were on the home stretch.
(Yes you can eat healthfully at McDonald's. I had the grilled chicken breast with southwestern salad, hold the dressing, Ed had his annual Angus burger and fries. He is good now until next year)
We left Victoria on June 19 and after 7 days of driving and 4850 kilometers were finally arrived in Ottawa. We were received with open arms and big hugs from my brother and Diane. It is good to be here.
The Road Through Northern Ontario - Day 2
Friday, June 25, 2010
This leg of the journey has been another marathon, and fittingly, there is a town called Marathon halfway between Thunder Bay and Sault Ste Marie.
Some people may refer to this part of the country as Onterrible, but according to the profile on the town of Rossport, this is one of Canada's most spectacular drives. Hundreds of kilometers of highway wind around the north shore of Lake Superior through the boreal forest,around inland lakes, over rivers and streams. The area is rich in mineral deposits and the small town of Dorion has experienced an economic boom in mineral exploration, particularly for uranium deposits.
We are still in Red Green country. This is the place for hunters, fishers, kayakers and conoers. We are following the trail that the voyageurs came along. (Voyageur literally means "traveller"). We are also in the same part of Northern Ontario where members of the Group of Seven including Tom Thomson, Arthur Lismer, A Y Jackson, & Lawren Harris would come to sketch. They would return to Toronto in the winter to paint.
At 6pm we stopped to see the Agawa Rock Indian Pictographs 2 hours out of Sault Ste Marie. The weather had started to change and there was a soft rain. At the head of the trail were signs, in red, warning of the hazardous trail conditions and the potential for loss of life due to slippery cliffs. Those types of signs make me nervous and I would have rather gone back to the car, but Mr. Wilderness convinced me to carry on and even though we couldn't really make out any pictographs, we were rewarded with some incredible views.
After a late start in the morning and a couple of construction delays, we finally arrived to a rainy Sault Ste Marie. We pulled into the KOA. Ed was keen to set up camp in the rain. But he could tell by the look on my face - like my cat had died - that perhaps the cottage option was the better choice. It was simply a log cabin with bunk beds and a double bed - the washrooms/showers were still a good walk across the compound - but given the weather conditions, it was paradise. We were able to get a good night's sleep and a shower in the morning. After a comfortable, dry sleep and a shower in the morning, we felt ready for another day on the road.
This leg of the journey has been another marathon, and fittingly, there is a town called Marathon halfway between Thunder Bay and Sault Ste Marie.
Some people may refer to this part of the country as Onterrible, but according to the profile on the town of Rossport, this is one of Canada's most spectacular drives. Hundreds of kilometers of highway wind around the north shore of Lake Superior through the boreal forest,around inland lakes, over rivers and streams. The area is rich in mineral deposits and the small town of Dorion has experienced an economic boom in mineral exploration, particularly for uranium deposits.
We are still in Red Green country. This is the place for hunters, fishers, kayakers and conoers. We are following the trail that the voyageurs came along. (Voyageur literally means "traveller"). We are also in the same part of Northern Ontario where members of the Group of Seven including Tom Thomson, Arthur Lismer, A Y Jackson, & Lawren Harris would come to sketch. They would return to Toronto in the winter to paint.
At 6pm we stopped to see the Agawa Rock Indian Pictographs 2 hours out of Sault Ste Marie. The weather had started to change and there was a soft rain. At the head of the trail were signs, in red, warning of the hazardous trail conditions and the potential for loss of life due to slippery cliffs. Those types of signs make me nervous and I would have rather gone back to the car, but Mr. Wilderness convinced me to carry on and even though we couldn't really make out any pictographs, we were rewarded with some incredible views.
After a late start in the morning and a couple of construction delays, we finally arrived to a rainy Sault Ste Marie. We pulled into the KOA. Ed was keen to set up camp in the rain. But he could tell by the look on my face - like my cat had died - that perhaps the cottage option was the better choice. It was simply a log cabin with bunk beds and a double bed - the washrooms/showers were still a good walk across the compound - but given the weather conditions, it was paradise. We were able to get a good night's sleep and a shower in the morning. After a comfortable, dry sleep and a shower in the morning, we felt ready for another day on the road.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
The Road Through Northern Ontario - Our Night in the Wild
Thursday, June 24, 2010
By the time we has visited the Terry Fox Memorial it was after 8pm. We knew that we were quite close to the campsite and since we hadn't stopped to get anything to prepare for meal, and given the time, we decided to pull into a truck stop gas station near the park turnoff for dinner. It was a step backward in time. I am sure that the decor and menu is the original - no lattes or fine dining. Ed had a hot dog and diet coke and I had a toasted clubhouse sandwich and a cup of joe. It was now just after 9pm. We thought that we had better start making tracks to the campsite. We checked with the waitress to make sure that we were at the right turnoff to the park. Heading down the road we thought that it was just a few kilometers to the campsite. Then we saw the sign, Sleeping Giant Provincial Park - 26km. When we finally reached the Park, we found the ranger's office closed, but there was a sign on the window confirming our Camp Site reservation and a booklet for the park with a map of the sites. We couldn't find our campsite listed due to the impending darkness but headed toward the general campsite direction. We saw the sign, Campsites - 12km. We had already driven over 700km that day, but the last 12 were definitely the longest of the trip. I am not the biggest fan of camping or wilderness for that matter. I am much more comfortable in a large urban jungle surrounded by shops and Starbucks. I like my comforts not my comfort stations. Ed looked as if he had finally found what he had been looking for. Who knew that he was actually Mr. Wilderness! There was still enough daylight to find our way along the secluded winding, steeply-graded in some sections, gravel road. I was on animal lookout. I stopped counting the deer after 17.
Luckily, #311 was the second site in. There was a small clearing for the car, then a path through the forest another 50 yards to where we would erect our tent. Luckily because we were further north, and on the western side of the time zone, we had enough light to see our way through the path and get the tent set up. There was a fire pit and firewood, so while Ed made several trips back and forth to the car to get our luggage, supplies, bedding, cots...... I made a fire. Sitting by the fire, listening to the loons, drinking a beer, deep in the Canadian wilderness there was only one thing I could think of - the cry of the wild from Bob and Doug McKenzie "coo coo coo coo coo coo coo chooo".
We woke up the next morning to find that our campsite was right on the shores of Lake Superior. It really was amazing. I was glad that Ed had selected this for our first true wilderness experience. As we were driving out of the park we saw foxes, deer, rabbits, squirrels and a partridge (not in a pear tree).
By the time we has visited the Terry Fox Memorial it was after 8pm. We knew that we were quite close to the campsite and since we hadn't stopped to get anything to prepare for meal, and given the time, we decided to pull into a truck stop gas station near the park turnoff for dinner. It was a step backward in time. I am sure that the decor and menu is the original - no lattes or fine dining. Ed had a hot dog and diet coke and I had a toasted clubhouse sandwich and a cup of joe. It was now just after 9pm. We thought that we had better start making tracks to the campsite. We checked with the waitress to make sure that we were at the right turnoff to the park. Heading down the road we thought that it was just a few kilometers to the campsite. Then we saw the sign, Sleeping Giant Provincial Park - 26km. When we finally reached the Park, we found the ranger's office closed, but there was a sign on the window confirming our Camp Site reservation and a booklet for the park with a map of the sites. We couldn't find our campsite listed due to the impending darkness but headed toward the general campsite direction. We saw the sign, Campsites - 12km. We had already driven over 700km that day, but the last 12 were definitely the longest of the trip. I am not the biggest fan of camping or wilderness for that matter. I am much more comfortable in a large urban jungle surrounded by shops and Starbucks. I like my comforts not my comfort stations. Ed looked as if he had finally found what he had been looking for. Who knew that he was actually Mr. Wilderness! There was still enough daylight to find our way along the secluded winding, steeply-graded in some sections, gravel road. I was on animal lookout. I stopped counting the deer after 17.
Luckily, #311 was the second site in. There was a small clearing for the car, then a path through the forest another 50 yards to where we would erect our tent. Luckily because we were further north, and on the western side of the time zone, we had enough light to see our way through the path and get the tent set up. There was a fire pit and firewood, so while Ed made several trips back and forth to the car to get our luggage, supplies, bedding, cots...... I made a fire. Sitting by the fire, listening to the loons, drinking a beer, deep in the Canadian wilderness there was only one thing I could think of - the cry of the wild from Bob and Doug McKenzie "coo coo coo coo coo coo coo chooo".
We woke up the next morning to find that our campsite was right on the shores of Lake Superior. It really was amazing. I was glad that Ed had selected this for our first true wilderness experience. As we were driving out of the park we saw foxes, deer, rabbits, squirrels and a partridge (not in a pear tree).
Saturday, June 26, 2010
The Road Through Northern Ontario - Day 1
Thursday, June 24, 2010
The road through Northern Ontario started for us in Winnipeg on Thursday morning.
Winnipeg is the longitudinal middle between the east and west coasts. Contrary to what many people who live in Toronto say, this is central Canada.
Driving conditions were good and the weather was perfect - sunny and warm. Once we left Winnipeg our focus was on our destination for the night, Sleeping Giant Provincial Park campsite, Ontario. We made one last stop at a truck stop between Winnipeg and the Ontario border for gas and coffee. We were greeted by some of the largest flies I have ever seen. Manitoba an ojibwa word meaning land of many mosquitoes and horseflies. (Actually, it is either a cree or ojibwa word meaning "strait of the spirit")
We stopped just inside the Ontario border at a tourist information kiosk. Here we picked up the official road map of Ontario. This map really helped us on our long journey through Ontario. Among the usual geographic information, it also shows where all of the rest stops are located. These rest stops were a much welcomed oasis.
Our first stop in Ontario was Kenora on the Lake of the Woods to find a bank machine for Ed and a coffee for the road for me. Just out of town we stopped a viewpoint to get a better look at the lake. There we met a young woman cycling across Canada from Vancouver to Newfoundland. She had given herself 3 months to complete the journey. We had seen several cyclists on the road and each time we did we would remark what a tough ride it would be. Not only because of terrain, but because at many parts of the highway there was very little room on the shoulder for the cyclist, making it even more dangerous. She seemed very determined to finish her journey. She said that her bike had a complete overhaul in Winnipeg and that she was going to take a week off with her family in the Georgian Bay area. After talking with her, my 9 hours in a car seat seemed very luxurious compared to her long days on a bike seat.
Driving this stretch of the highway I kept thinking back to the song I sang in elementary school,
Land of the silver birch, Home of the beaver, Where still the mighty moose wanders at will, blue lake and sandy shore
That is the road to Thunder Bay.
When we were first planning this trip, we'd hear the comment "it's a long drive". Ontario's motto is "Yours to Discover", and it is, we have discovered, a long drive.
But no one mentions what a scenic drive it is. It is not just trees. It is dozens of lakes, curious looking rock formations, home of the largest moose, the largest goose, the largest nickle, and the birthplace of Winnie the Pooh (White River).
Our driving marathon today finished at Sleeping Giant Provincial Park, just east of Thunder Bay. This is also near where in 1981 Terry Fox had to give up his dream to run across Canada and where they have erected a memorial statue in his honour.
Over the past 29 years, I have used Terry Fox as a source of inspiration to help me surmount challenges I have had to face. I would think "if Terry Fox can run across Canada on one leg, then surely, I can do this". As he ran across Canada, I watched the television reports of his run, amazed at his ability and tenacity to run the 26 miles every day despite the physical, mental and emotional pain. He had a goal and he was determined to keep going.
Our trip across the country is becoming more than just a holiday to see Canada. It is giving us an opportunity to revisit some very meaningful memories. It is also a time for us to create new memories and share new experiences. For the past 30 years our lives have revolved around children, work and house. We have forgotten what it is like to just be the two of us.
Camping at Sleeping Giant Provincial Park is a new experience. We haven't done this before.
The road through Northern Ontario started for us in Winnipeg on Thursday morning.
Winnipeg is the longitudinal middle between the east and west coasts. Contrary to what many people who live in Toronto say, this is central Canada.
Driving conditions were good and the weather was perfect - sunny and warm. Once we left Winnipeg our focus was on our destination for the night, Sleeping Giant Provincial Park campsite, Ontario. We made one last stop at a truck stop between Winnipeg and the Ontario border for gas and coffee. We were greeted by some of the largest flies I have ever seen. Manitoba an ojibwa word meaning land of many mosquitoes and horseflies. (Actually, it is either a cree or ojibwa word meaning "strait of the spirit")
We stopped just inside the Ontario border at a tourist information kiosk. Here we picked up the official road map of Ontario. This map really helped us on our long journey through Ontario. Among the usual geographic information, it also shows where all of the rest stops are located. These rest stops were a much welcomed oasis.
Our first stop in Ontario was Kenora on the Lake of the Woods to find a bank machine for Ed and a coffee for the road for me. Just out of town we stopped a viewpoint to get a better look at the lake. There we met a young woman cycling across Canada from Vancouver to Newfoundland. She had given herself 3 months to complete the journey. We had seen several cyclists on the road and each time we did we would remark what a tough ride it would be. Not only because of terrain, but because at many parts of the highway there was very little room on the shoulder for the cyclist, making it even more dangerous. She seemed very determined to finish her journey. She said that her bike had a complete overhaul in Winnipeg and that she was going to take a week off with her family in the Georgian Bay area. After talking with her, my 9 hours in a car seat seemed very luxurious compared to her long days on a bike seat.
Driving this stretch of the highway I kept thinking back to the song I sang in elementary school,
Land of the silver birch, Home of the beaver, Where still the mighty moose wanders at will, blue lake and sandy shore
That is the road to Thunder Bay.
When we were first planning this trip, we'd hear the comment "it's a long drive". Ontario's motto is "Yours to Discover", and it is, we have discovered, a long drive.
But no one mentions what a scenic drive it is. It is not just trees. It is dozens of lakes, curious looking rock formations, home of the largest moose, the largest goose, the largest nickle, and the birthplace of Winnie the Pooh (White River).
Our driving marathon today finished at Sleeping Giant Provincial Park, just east of Thunder Bay. This is also near where in 1981 Terry Fox had to give up his dream to run across Canada and where they have erected a memorial statue in his honour.
Over the past 29 years, I have used Terry Fox as a source of inspiration to help me surmount challenges I have had to face. I would think "if Terry Fox can run across Canada on one leg, then surely, I can do this". As he ran across Canada, I watched the television reports of his run, amazed at his ability and tenacity to run the 26 miles every day despite the physical, mental and emotional pain. He had a goal and he was determined to keep going.
Our trip across the country is becoming more than just a holiday to see Canada. It is giving us an opportunity to revisit some very meaningful memories. It is also a time for us to create new memories and share new experiences. For the past 30 years our lives have revolved around children, work and house. We have forgotten what it is like to just be the two of us.
Camping at Sleeping Giant Provincial Park is a new experience. We haven't done this before.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
So long Saskatchewan, Hello Manitoba
Today's travel was short compared to yesterday's driving marathon, which gave us the opportunity to make a few stops at some of the small towns between Regina and Winnipeg. The scenery is still very interesting to us. It is so unlike what we see in BC. The wide open spaces dotted with weathered old barns and grain elevators next to modern structures. Silos, feed pellet manufacturing plants, fertilizer terminals, fields of yellow canola (not mustard as I mistakenly had thought). Solitary farmhouses miles away from their nearest neighbour. You can see how, for the farmers, the trip into town was for more than just getting supplies. Prairie life is very community driven. My grandmother was a teacher in a one-room school in Bridgeford, Sask. It was at a church social that she met my grandfather, a young farmer, newly arrived from England with his two brothers to farm.
We listened to the local radio stations, hearing the latest farm reports, research on developing a leaner pork, and a public service announcement directed to those who may be suffering added stress and anxiety caused by the flooding to their farms. They were being counseled to talk to someone about their feelings and try not to resort to alcohol or drugs. Farming is hard work and the the weather this year has not been good. It was a late planting season, with a very narrow window, and if they haven't planted yet, it is too late for this year. The latest weather conditions are just another of the hardships they have to face.
My main challenge during this trip was not what you may think, being with Ed 24/7 (or vice versa), but how to maintain a healthful eating and daily fitness routine.
Before the journey I was worried that spending 9 hours on my bum might bother my back and hips (and make them wider). I bought a wedge cushion to sit on and that has helped. And I have developed a series of low back and ab exercises I do when I am in the passenger seat. Little does Ed know that while he is driving, I am exercising my ass off! I also brought along a flexband. I try not be be too distracting as I do my upper body workout and then a few pilates bend & stretch leg presses. Ed says he doesn't mind the exercises, it's the smell of the flexband that gets to him. During our rest stops, I do my body-break routine: picnic table push-ups, jumping jacks, squats, leg circles and add a few sun salutations. I try to be as discreet as possible as I call out, "take a shot me doing this exercise Ed".
It is actually pretty easy to maintain a healthy diet on the road. There are lots of places to buy fresh fruit, veggies, whole grain sandwiches - or fixings for sandwiches. Breakfast is usually homemade granola and yogurt. Going ethnic for dinner gives you lots of choices for "clean" eating. Steamed veggies and seafood & veggie combos. But let's not forget, this is a holiday and when traveling you have to sample some of the food indigenous to the area. In the town of Grenfell we stopped at the R & T Bakery where we enjoyed freshly baked cinnamon buns and bought a couple of prairie classics - butter tarts, to have for our afternoon snack. I have had to give up my old buddy Starbucks for this part of the journey but I have picked up another fellow to travel with, Tim Horton. On the road this afternoon, we pulled into a Tim Horton's just outside of Brandon. We were surprised to see that also getting their double, doubles were 3 army tanks carrying soldiers from a nearby CFB. On the back of each tank was a sign, Student Driver. You don't see that very often at the Shelbourne Street Tim Horton's in Victoria.
Tonight we are staying with Kate and James in Winnipeg. Even though they are undergoing major home renovations, they have opened their home to us. Ed has set the tent up on the back deck, but I have chosen to try to steer clear of the mosquitoes and have my cot set up in the living room. I will spend the night with George, their tabby cat. They had already had their dinner by the time we had arrived. They told us about Italian restaurant within walking distance. What better way to see a new town than to walk through the neighbourhood. Dinner tonight was a fire roasted pizza topped with basil, wilted arugula, buffalo mozzarella and goat cheese. For starters, I had the roasted beet salad topped with walnuts & goat cheese and Ed had a vary interesting version of a caesar salad. Accompanying all of this was a delicious cold Italian beer.
We listened to the local radio stations, hearing the latest farm reports, research on developing a leaner pork, and a public service announcement directed to those who may be suffering added stress and anxiety caused by the flooding to their farms. They were being counseled to talk to someone about their feelings and try not to resort to alcohol or drugs. Farming is hard work and the the weather this year has not been good. It was a late planting season, with a very narrow window, and if they haven't planted yet, it is too late for this year. The latest weather conditions are just another of the hardships they have to face.
My main challenge during this trip was not what you may think, being with Ed 24/7 (or vice versa), but how to maintain a healthful eating and daily fitness routine.
Before the journey I was worried that spending 9 hours on my bum might bother my back and hips (and make them wider). I bought a wedge cushion to sit on and that has helped. And I have developed a series of low back and ab exercises I do when I am in the passenger seat. Little does Ed know that while he is driving, I am exercising my ass off! I also brought along a flexband. I try not be be too distracting as I do my upper body workout and then a few pilates bend & stretch leg presses. Ed says he doesn't mind the exercises, it's the smell of the flexband that gets to him. During our rest stops, I do my body-break routine: picnic table push-ups, jumping jacks, squats, leg circles and add a few sun salutations. I try to be as discreet as possible as I call out, "take a shot me doing this exercise Ed".
It is actually pretty easy to maintain a healthy diet on the road. There are lots of places to buy fresh fruit, veggies, whole grain sandwiches - or fixings for sandwiches. Breakfast is usually homemade granola and yogurt. Going ethnic for dinner gives you lots of choices for "clean" eating. Steamed veggies and seafood & veggie combos. But let's not forget, this is a holiday and when traveling you have to sample some of the food indigenous to the area. In the town of Grenfell we stopped at the R & T Bakery where we enjoyed freshly baked cinnamon buns and bought a couple of prairie classics - butter tarts, to have for our afternoon snack. I have had to give up my old buddy Starbucks for this part of the journey but I have picked up another fellow to travel with, Tim Horton. On the road this afternoon, we pulled into a Tim Horton's just outside of Brandon. We were surprised to see that also getting their double, doubles were 3 army tanks carrying soldiers from a nearby CFB. On the back of each tank was a sign, Student Driver. You don't see that very often at the Shelbourne Street Tim Horton's in Victoria.
Tonight we are staying with Kate and James in Winnipeg. Even though they are undergoing major home renovations, they have opened their home to us. Ed has set the tent up on the back deck, but I have chosen to try to steer clear of the mosquitoes and have my cot set up in the living room. I will spend the night with George, their tabby cat. They had already had their dinner by the time we had arrived. They told us about Italian restaurant within walking distance. What better way to see a new town than to walk through the neighbourhood. Dinner tonight was a fire roasted pizza topped with basil, wilted arugula, buffalo mozzarella and goat cheese. For starters, I had the roasted beet salad topped with walnuts & goat cheese and Ed had a vary interesting version of a caesar salad. Accompanying all of this was a delicious cold Italian beer.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
The Road to Regina
We woke up early this morning to the sound of very large rain drops on the tent. That is the last thing you want to hear when you are camping. It was still dark, so I decided to just lay there hoping that the rain would stop, and wouldn't you know it - it did. By 6am the sun was shining and we were off to a good start for Day 3.
Ed and I de-camped, packed the car and headed out. Before leaving Fort MacLeod, we thought that we had better refuel. Who would have thought that a gas station in Alberta would have run out of Supreme gas?
Heading east thru Alberta we put Asleep at the Wheel on the IPOD. This was the perfect background music to travel through cowboy country.
Our destination today was Regina. Due to heavy rain and flooding along the TransCanada Hwy, we knew we would have to detour after Medicine Hat. The detour took us 130 km out of our way, but it gave us an opportunity to visit a small Saskatchewan town we would not have gone to. Think of the tv show, Corner Gas, and you can picture Burstal. Only not so Hollywood pretty. They too have suffered from the recent rains and have only been dry since this past Sunday.
Both of my parents grew up in the prairies during the depression and visiting Burstal gave me an idea of what life may have been like during the dirty 30's. It has not been beautified in anyway and if you changed the year of the trucks, you might think it still was the dirty 30's. It has a couple of motels for construction/farm workers, a Chinese restaurant, a hotel with a beer parlor, a gas station/general store and a post office.
Dad always referred to Saskatchewan as the "bald headed prairies". He joined the army at 17 and couldn't get out of Moose Jaw fast enough. I don't think I ever heard him say a kind word about the province.
I don't understand what he was talking about. Prairie landscape is anything but dull. It is always changing, undulating, rolling and curving. It is dotted with giant grain elevators and concrete storage towers. Fields of new green wheat, and fields of vibrant yellow mustard. Cattle, horses, llamas, elk. Prairie dogs darting across the highway, some making it, some not. Road kill, and lots of it - foxes, badgers, porcupine, skunk and of course, gophers.
I became somewhat nostalgic driving through Saskatchewan. Not from my time spent here, but thinking about my parents and what it may have been like for them. As I was waxing on, Ed said that it was like driving along with Stuart McLean on the Vinyl Cafe and all we needed was every once in a while to have someone singing from the backseat.
Finally, after 9 hours on the road we arrived in Regina. First on stop, 3222 Rae Street. This is the house my grandparents moved to after leaving the farm. It is strange to feel so connected to a place so far from home.
We are spending the night at the Turgeon International Hostel. It is a historic house converted into a guest house. It is another new experience for us. It is clean and quiet and centrally located. What more could we ask. Dinner tonight was Thai food, followed by a walk on a warm evening by the beautiful Wasacana Lake in front of the parliament buildings, along with a few hundred other strollers, joggers and skaters.
For those of you wondering - where's the pictures? They are on the way.
Tomorrow, Winnipeg.
Ed and I de-camped, packed the car and headed out. Before leaving Fort MacLeod, we thought that we had better refuel. Who would have thought that a gas station in Alberta would have run out of Supreme gas?
Heading east thru Alberta we put Asleep at the Wheel on the IPOD. This was the perfect background music to travel through cowboy country.
Our destination today was Regina. Due to heavy rain and flooding along the TransCanada Hwy, we knew we would have to detour after Medicine Hat. The detour took us 130 km out of our way, but it gave us an opportunity to visit a small Saskatchewan town we would not have gone to. Think of the tv show, Corner Gas, and you can picture Burstal. Only not so Hollywood pretty. They too have suffered from the recent rains and have only been dry since this past Sunday.
Both of my parents grew up in the prairies during the depression and visiting Burstal gave me an idea of what life may have been like during the dirty 30's. It has not been beautified in anyway and if you changed the year of the trucks, you might think it still was the dirty 30's. It has a couple of motels for construction/farm workers, a Chinese restaurant, a hotel with a beer parlor, a gas station/general store and a post office.
Dad always referred to Saskatchewan as the "bald headed prairies". He joined the army at 17 and couldn't get out of Moose Jaw fast enough. I don't think I ever heard him say a kind word about the province.
I don't understand what he was talking about. Prairie landscape is anything but dull. It is always changing, undulating, rolling and curving. It is dotted with giant grain elevators and concrete storage towers. Fields of new green wheat, and fields of vibrant yellow mustard. Cattle, horses, llamas, elk. Prairie dogs darting across the highway, some making it, some not. Road kill, and lots of it - foxes, badgers, porcupine, skunk and of course, gophers.
I became somewhat nostalgic driving through Saskatchewan. Not from my time spent here, but thinking about my parents and what it may have been like for them. As I was waxing on, Ed said that it was like driving along with Stuart McLean on the Vinyl Cafe and all we needed was every once in a while to have someone singing from the backseat.
Finally, after 9 hours on the road we arrived in Regina. First on stop, 3222 Rae Street. This is the house my grandparents moved to after leaving the farm. It is strange to feel so connected to a place so far from home.
We are spending the night at the Turgeon International Hostel. It is a historic house converted into a guest house. It is another new experience for us. It is clean and quiet and centrally located. What more could we ask. Dinner tonight was Thai food, followed by a walk on a warm evening by the beautiful Wasacana Lake in front of the parliament buildings, along with a few hundred other strollers, joggers and skaters.
For those of you wondering - where's the pictures? They are on the way.
Tomorrow, Winnipeg.
Monday, June 21, 2010
The Road to Alberta
"On the road again"........That is our traveling theme song.
We have arrived in Fort MacLeod, our destination for the second day of our Odyssey. It is 10pm, we have the tent set-up, the beds are made, the citronella candle burning and have almost used a full bottle of "natural Buzz Away". One of the first things on our to-do list tomorrow is buy industrial strength, Deep Woods OFF. Forget about non-toxic. We are being eaten alive.
If the journey yesterday was a trip down memory lane, this was a road less travelled. We were listening to CBC's This is Canada, and hearing lyrics from a song by the Tragically Hip, "we are making new memories and sharing the way together". That describes our trip today.
Points of interest along the way today - scenery, scenery and more scenery. From deep green valleys to rocky mountains, the world's largest truck, rows of wind turbines, 4 elk, 1 prairie dog, the Frank Slide.
We changed the voice on our GPS. "Jack" was beginning to sound like the Dustin Hoffman character in the movie "RainMan" - re-calculate, re-calculate. We are now traveling with a Julie Andrews sound-alike. She does not sound quite as irritated with us when we decide not to follow her directions.
The highlight of the day today - driving past the Pincher Creek area, viewing the wind turbines, not realizing that Ed was increasing his speed until the flashing lights behind us pulled us over. This is Ed's first ticket in 30 years. The last ticket he got was when we were driving back from Banff on our honeymoon. How's that for a coincidence?
Our solstice supper was at the Silver Grill Chinese restaurant. We had fresh shrimp with broccoli and mushrooms, beef chow mein and steamed rice. Surprisingly, it was very tasty, followed by pumpkin soft serve ice cream for me, and blueberry soft serve ice cream for Ed from the Igloo ice cream stand (25 flavours of soft-serve ice cream). Also, as we were walking around Fort MacLeod we found a heritage alley listing prominent people from Fort MacLeod. It turns out Joni Mitchell was born in Fort MacLeod. Now I know why we are here.
....and the seasons, they go round and round, the painted ponies go up and down, we're captive on a carousel of time, we can't return, we can only look behind from where we came, and go round and round in the circle game.
We have arrived in Fort MacLeod, our destination for the second day of our Odyssey. It is 10pm, we have the tent set-up, the beds are made, the citronella candle burning and have almost used a full bottle of "natural Buzz Away". One of the first things on our to-do list tomorrow is buy industrial strength, Deep Woods OFF. Forget about non-toxic. We are being eaten alive.
If the journey yesterday was a trip down memory lane, this was a road less travelled. We were listening to CBC's This is Canada, and hearing lyrics from a song by the Tragically Hip, "we are making new memories and sharing the way together". That describes our trip today.
Points of interest along the way today - scenery, scenery and more scenery. From deep green valleys to rocky mountains, the world's largest truck, rows of wind turbines, 4 elk, 1 prairie dog, the Frank Slide.
We changed the voice on our GPS. "Jack" was beginning to sound like the Dustin Hoffman character in the movie "RainMan" - re-calculate, re-calculate. We are now traveling with a Julie Andrews sound-alike. She does not sound quite as irritated with us when we decide not to follow her directions.
The highlight of the day today - driving past the Pincher Creek area, viewing the wind turbines, not realizing that Ed was increasing his speed until the flashing lights behind us pulled us over. This is Ed's first ticket in 30 years. The last ticket he got was when we were driving back from Banff on our honeymoon. How's that for a coincidence?
Our solstice supper was at the Silver Grill Chinese restaurant. We had fresh shrimp with broccoli and mushrooms, beef chow mein and steamed rice. Surprisingly, it was very tasty, followed by pumpkin soft serve ice cream for me, and blueberry soft serve ice cream for Ed from the Igloo ice cream stand (25 flavours of soft-serve ice cream). Also, as we were walking around Fort MacLeod we found a heritage alley listing prominent people from Fort MacLeod. It turns out Joni Mitchell was born in Fort MacLeod. Now I know why we are here.
....and the seasons, they go round and round, the painted ponies go up and down, we're captive on a carousel of time, we can't return, we can only look behind from where we came, and go round and round in the circle game.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Our First Day on the Road
Sunday, June 21, 2010
We are on our way. We spent our first night on the mainland at Ed's mother's house, aka "Club Ed", in Richmond. After a light breakfast we were off to an early start. Our plan today was to be in Nelson around 6pm. That meant that we had about 737kms to travel.
Today's journey turned out to be a trip down memory lane. Over the years, Ed and I have driven that stretch of the highway many times for many reasons. Starting in 1976, the road to Hope. That is where I had my first job teaching and in August 1976 Ed drove me to my interview at the Hope School board for the position of Grade One teacher at Coquihalla Elementary school. I got the job and spent the next year taking that same road back and forth from Hope to Richmond/Victoria almost every weekend.
When we drove past Bridal Falls, we remembered the time when the girls were small and we took them to visit Flintstone Village. It was pouring rain that day but the girls were so happy to be there that the weather didn't matter. Today, as we drove past it was grey, cloudy and dreary looking. Flintstone Village isn't there anymore. Now it is Dinotown. We arrived in downtown Hope for a much needed break to stretch our legs and buy gas. On a whim I bought a Gold Rush lottery ticket in honour of the Gold Rush days along the Fraser River and was thrilled to win $2.o0. I think I will buy a ticket in every town that we stop in. Let's see if my luck holds out. Also in Hope, I did my first "Body Break" - 25 jumping jacks and 10 curb push-ups.
We stopped at the rest stop in Merritt - 2 bus loads of Chinese tourists and 2 working toilets - we spent more time at the rest stop than we had planned.
We took the turnoff for Peachland, Penticton, Oliver, Osoyoos looking for a fruit stand and a place to stop for lunch. The highlight of this part of the trip was listening to CBC's Stuart McLean's Vinyl Cafe and hearing our good friend Maureen's story being read on air as part of his story exchange. We applauded after the reading and I felt so proud to be her friend.
Just past Oliver we stopped to take a picture of the aftermath of the recent slide. As I was climbing up an embankment to get a better shot of the slide impacts, I too had a slide and landed with the digital camera in the mud. We are not sure how this will effect our future photos. We haven't uploaded any shots yet so hopefully the pictures will still be the same.
On the drive from Osoyoos to Castlegar, Ed was remembering his years working at for CPC. When the weather was bad and they couldn't fly in or out of the Castlegar airport they had to take a bus or drive the 4 hours to get to the Penticton airport.
We got to Castlegar and stopped at the Brilliant Dam Expansion project. Ed can look back with pride at the time he spent helping negotiating legal and finance agreements.
We arrived in Taghum, just outside of Nelson around 6pm and were warmly welcomed by Pam and Russ, our hosts for tonight. Pam and Ed worked together at CPC, and they said we could set up our tent in their backyard or if we preferred, they also had a spare bedroom. I gratefully accepted their offer of the comfy bed over our camp cot, Ed also choose this option. They took us on our tour of their property, accompanied by their four legged family, Gracie & Chester, then back to the deck to enjoy a much welcomed cold beer. We enjoyed a delicious dinner of bbq chicken, greek salad, rice pilaf and strawberry/rhubarb shortcake and ice cream for dessert. Ed and Pam had lots of stories and laughs sharing their times working for the good ol' power corp.
Choosing the indoor sleeping option proved to be the right choice - later in the evening, while writing this post, a thunder storm passed over, lots of rain, thunder and lightning. We have had a good variety of weather today, from sunny skies, fog through the Coquihalla Pass and then the light show in the evening.
(We lost our modem connection for the night so I am posting this Tuesday morning.)
Tuesday, June 21, 2010 - Summer Solstice
I was awakened this morning by a four-legged alarm clock - Gracie the 2 year old West Highland Scotch Terrier came into the bedroom to say hello. She reminds me of the Westie I used to have, MacDuff. I took her on her morning walk around her neighbourhood. There are beautiful views of the Kootenay River from the the top of the street. This is really beautiful country and I can see why Pam and Russ love it here.
We are on our way in a little while. Next destination, Fort MacLeod Alberta.
We are on our way. We spent our first night on the mainland at Ed's mother's house, aka "Club Ed", in Richmond. After a light breakfast we were off to an early start. Our plan today was to be in Nelson around 6pm. That meant that we had about 737kms to travel.
Today's journey turned out to be a trip down memory lane. Over the years, Ed and I have driven that stretch of the highway many times for many reasons. Starting in 1976, the road to Hope. That is where I had my first job teaching and in August 1976 Ed drove me to my interview at the Hope School board for the position of Grade One teacher at Coquihalla Elementary school. I got the job and spent the next year taking that same road back and forth from Hope to Richmond/Victoria almost every weekend.
When we drove past Bridal Falls, we remembered the time when the girls were small and we took them to visit Flintstone Village. It was pouring rain that day but the girls were so happy to be there that the weather didn't matter. Today, as we drove past it was grey, cloudy and dreary looking. Flintstone Village isn't there anymore. Now it is Dinotown. We arrived in downtown Hope for a much needed break to stretch our legs and buy gas. On a whim I bought a Gold Rush lottery ticket in honour of the Gold Rush days along the Fraser River and was thrilled to win $2.o0. I think I will buy a ticket in every town that we stop in. Let's see if my luck holds out. Also in Hope, I did my first "Body Break" - 25 jumping jacks and 10 curb push-ups.
We stopped at the rest stop in Merritt - 2 bus loads of Chinese tourists and 2 working toilets - we spent more time at the rest stop than we had planned.
We took the turnoff for Peachland, Penticton, Oliver, Osoyoos looking for a fruit stand and a place to stop for lunch. The highlight of this part of the trip was listening to CBC's Stuart McLean's Vinyl Cafe and hearing our good friend Maureen's story being read on air as part of his story exchange. We applauded after the reading and I felt so proud to be her friend.
Just past Oliver we stopped to take a picture of the aftermath of the recent slide. As I was climbing up an embankment to get a better shot of the slide impacts, I too had a slide and landed with the digital camera in the mud. We are not sure how this will effect our future photos. We haven't uploaded any shots yet so hopefully the pictures will still be the same.
On the drive from Osoyoos to Castlegar, Ed was remembering his years working at for CPC. When the weather was bad and they couldn't fly in or out of the Castlegar airport they had to take a bus or drive the 4 hours to get to the Penticton airport.
We got to Castlegar and stopped at the Brilliant Dam Expansion project. Ed can look back with pride at the time he spent helping negotiating legal and finance agreements.
We arrived in Taghum, just outside of Nelson around 6pm and were warmly welcomed by Pam and Russ, our hosts for tonight. Pam and Ed worked together at CPC, and they said we could set up our tent in their backyard or if we preferred, they also had a spare bedroom. I gratefully accepted their offer of the comfy bed over our camp cot, Ed also choose this option. They took us on our tour of their property, accompanied by their four legged family, Gracie & Chester, then back to the deck to enjoy a much welcomed cold beer. We enjoyed a delicious dinner of bbq chicken, greek salad, rice pilaf and strawberry/rhubarb shortcake and ice cream for dessert. Ed and Pam had lots of stories and laughs sharing their times working for the good ol' power corp.
Choosing the indoor sleeping option proved to be the right choice - later in the evening, while writing this post, a thunder storm passed over, lots of rain, thunder and lightning. We have had a good variety of weather today, from sunny skies, fog through the Coquihalla Pass and then the light show in the evening.
(We lost our modem connection for the night so I am posting this Tuesday morning.)
Tuesday, June 21, 2010 - Summer Solstice
I was awakened this morning by a four-legged alarm clock - Gracie the 2 year old West Highland Scotch Terrier came into the bedroom to say hello. She reminds me of the Westie I used to have, MacDuff. I took her on her morning walk around her neighbourhood. There are beautiful views of the Kootenay River from the the top of the street. This is really beautiful country and I can see why Pam and Russ love it here.
We are on our way in a little while. Next destination, Fort MacLeod Alberta.
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