home on day 58

After 855 km on our last day we enjoyed a swim at nearby Cresent Lake before crossing the Nelway Border at 6 pm. Having covered 18000 km over 58 days, we were ready for some squishy hugs from Kendra. We were 2 days earlier than Kevin and Laura expected, and they wondered who the heck was walking down the driveway when they arrived home Wednesday night. Dinner was a simple affair of tomatoes with tomatoes on the side. Yumm, it is so good to be home again. temperatures hot 33 C today, September 23, 2009. Driving up from Nelway and seeing the sun still shining on the mountain tops and the Salmo River curling through the valley bottom made us feel that we live in one of the most beautiful places on this incredible planet. We are grateful for a safe journey and a loving family

rocks in the Rockies

Got an early morning start on Day 57 with temperatures hovering between -2 and 0C.

Rocks everywhere amazed us. In Newfoundland we sat on 1.2 billion year old rocks and these were 1/2 a million years old. the forces that shaped them !!!

Yellowstone

The forests have been desimated on the eastern entrance to the Park and can be seen in the background of the Yellowstone Lodge. Hundreds of small spouts of steam burble out of the ground and smell of sulphur. We did a drive by of the official big Old Faithful, but did not wait around the 90 minutes until the next scheduled eruption. Instead this mini gyser responded to my proximity. Yellowstone Lake at SteamBoat Point looked vast and beautiful. There were warnings that swimming there would cause death within 3 minutes.......for some reason, George did not feel like testing out that theory. ANother fact we read about later ws that hundreds of people et gorged by buffalos every year, but the ones that we photoed seemed very indifferent to me.

Buffalo in Yellowstone

Stayed in a motel in Buffalo Wyoming. It had been cold and windy the night before, and we awoke to our first hard frost as Buffalo is just downhill from the big mountains.

And sure enough we began to see buffalo

day 56

Crossing the Iowa, South Dakota and Wyoming prairie has been more interesting on Route 80 and route 90 than on Route 2 which we did heading east. All the same, we are excited to see big Yellowsone Mountains immediately ahead of us. Seems they got a touch of snow there yesterday, and from our hotest night last night it turned very quickly with high wind to a cool fall day today.We had to sleep in the comacted trailer last night and the buffeting wind shook me like he Newfoundland ferry ride. So I did not sleep much. Tonight George suggested a motel and we are snugly enjoying all the convienences.

praires and summer heat

This morning it looked like fall in Clear Lake, Iowa, State Park.

This afternoon we hot some crumpled foothills.

And tonight it was, CAROL get this!!!!!!!!!!! 29degrees Celcius. A hot summer evening is upon us and I am sitting outside as the trailer is too hot and we are BBQing chicken. Oh I am glad to have this additional day of summer!

trains and camprounds

I think Angie would make a great album cover.............

Friday night now..
Sitting out in the evening warmth about 100 miles east of Chicago. Carol said "GO SOUTH" for the warmth, and it was 26 C today midafternoon. Managed 755 kilometers today with an early 7:25 am departure from Niagara Falls. Steady traffic all day and lots of toll roads, which the big rigs rumble down. At one point early this morning George just had to go pee and there had been no rest areas for ages, so off the side we pull and the truck and trailer were swaying from the big rig suction as they wizzed by. I couldn't quite figure out what to do with myself. We tried the audio tape of DUNE which has 20 CD's and we figured we were set, but we could not get into the story....... so I tried closing my eyes and 3 times today I fell asleep! Did not take one picture today. We are wondering how to best get by Chicago, but being SAturday morning there would be less commuting going on. There is some Huge US football game here tomorrow and they said we were lucky to get a site, but so far it is quiet. oops there goes the second train. They have extra state Troopers circulating through the campground- KOA again- so it should stay pretty tame- nothing that ear plugs can's handle.


I m looking forward to some more exploration, but likely that won't be until Yellowstone Park in a couple of days.

whilst in Montreal

Got up at 6 and headed in to the city with John and Carol who were registered in the Montreal Marathon to run 10K. George and I walked 5 k, but not in the marathon. We toured the Montreal Botanical gardens and the Olympic Stadium. The Chinese bonzai gardens were so neat, so Zen, so perfect. Then we had a great brunch that Angie and Jessie.,Sarah (with the help of baby Elliot) and Paul and Kelly put together. YUM! Such a nice family we have and great to hear how they are all doing and thriving. First baby for the Wilsons East.

Having looked at many jewellery stores across the country I finally decided to try the city and lo and behold, I found Emily's 13th birthday gold bracelet! This is a tradition that I started with my grandchildren after having been given a gold bracelet from my grandmother when I turned 13. I slipped it on and never, ever took it off. As babies, all of the kids played with it repeatedly, and thern Deborah received hers last year when she turned 13. I did not realize how difficult it would be to find something similiar to my plain bangle, but hey, the search has taken me places that I wolud not have gone otherwise.

my bro and sis in Burlington

Took in the falls in day light this morning before heading up the QEW to Burlington. Happy greetings from Mireille and Jim who served us a delicious lasagna and we sat out back in the sun on a beautiful summer like day. We had lots of laughs and stories and Jim looks amazingly well! As you can see, their condo is charming and the corner lot gives it alot of grounds and privacy

Driving back on the QEW was busy but it seemed so much easier than heading up to Burlington and not knowing where we were going.

Niagara Falls September 2009

We are good in city traffic as long as I have at LEAST 3 maps and the Garmin GPS for me to instruct George. this is rush hour traffic crossing a bridge above Buffalo New York prior to heading up to Niagara Falls,pictured in purple at right.

Tonight, we left our KOA campround and drove 3 miles to the great falls. We parked in the no parking lane and enjoyed our illicit moment viewing the falls and having a honeymoon kiss. It is a warm night at 18 degrees C, so standing around in the mist was pleasant. Bet it would be nice on a hot day, too. I am not much for these touristy places. They have a factory outletd discount mall here like in North Conway with all the brand name stores, but we will likely pass that by tomorrow.

Port Lewis cottage is showing its age and we were so happy to have our own sweet accomodation to eat and sleep out of. It was quiet and the cousins were not around, and the lake is alway a pleasure to be around. It kindof smelled weedy and I did not swim, but George did twice. we kayaked around the 3 islands and biked a few km down past the golf course, washed the truck and camper and I got some painting done of some Newfoundland scenes.

still a couple

Here is the Camden Mass harbour picture.

and we hear tales of murder suicides of long time travellers and so to disprove that possibility I thought it a good idea to show us alive and enjoying each other.

Such extremes in culture and population density, Newfoundland to Maine This little boat was sitting on an empty beach near our Twillingate Newfoundland campsite.

Then this is the view of a beautiful harbour in Camden ,Mass.,USA

Maybe a picture will load? If not, it was a beautiful harbour with hundreds of boats,ships, and dingys, a hot afternoon and opulant wealth on and off shore.

We are driving south in Maine, coming in to New Hampshire, then Vermont before entering Quebec and heading for Dunany to see John and Carol and Irene Wilson. Now more than ever the contrasts in lifestyles and countries is evident. Both are very old and settled, but in such different styles.

Looks like a shopping morning in North Conway New Hampshire where the outlet stores congregate and there is no sales tax. We did visit an LL Bean in Mass. yesterday as a warm up> and talking about warming up, last night we had the best campfire of the 45 days camping. We finally got some dry wood that was smoke free and put out heat! Yea us!

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NOva Scotia

We met Nancy and Andrew in northern Newfoundland and they invited us to La Have south of Lunenburg, so we called them up and met them at a Folk Festival in La Have. Then Nancy made us local organic salad with fresh chowder with huge scallops etc.

on the NS NB ferry boat

With some sadness we are heading awy from Nova Scotia to NewBrunswick. we loved our time, the people and the places that we experienced in Nova Scotia. We thought Halifax waas great and spent a long day and night walking all over the city and then took a hydrobus in the water and on the land for a tour. Then Mahone Bay and Lunenburg which deserved the UNESCO title. Increbile restored and painted homes and towns. and the water,,,,, so clear and still the kayaking on the ocean was like glass and it seemed like snorkeling.........