Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Rossland, BC.. magic mountains & times... now 4,000km to drive.



We had a wonderful two days with Travis, Jerry's son. He lives in the middle of the mountains. His home is under construction, he and his house mate finished putting up the dry wall in the kitchen 10mins before we arrived! :) Rossland is a perfect town for the outdoor nut, it has amazing mountains and trails everywhere. I think Travis knows everyone in their town. Jerry made us a nice meal the second night.. can't keep him out of the kitchen for too long! :) The stuffed zucchini was amazing!


Jerry, Travis and Travis's roommate Jessie went golfing.. they had a blast!  Later in the night Jerry & Travis had reverted with an arm wrestle. Duke loved it at Travis's no leashes required, and dogs would just pop in for visits, Duke ran through the woods for days, coming home when he needed a cuddle.

We took off first thing in the morning, realizing we had 4,100km to go to get home in four days... so 1,000km/day.  We went through BC, Washington, Idaho and stopped 2/3rd of the way through Montana today.  We're aiming for Michelle, South Dakota Wednesday, Chicago Thursday and home by Friday.

We had a wonderful roadtrip... now we are just going to drive for 10 to 12 hours every day, I should say, Jerry drives, I work and Duke sleeps!

Thanks for reading our blog.. it's been mentioned to us to turn out trips into a book, especially the two Mexico ones and this x-country roadtrip, we might actually do so!

OK.. My chauffeur is sleeping, I'm exhausted.. so, please forgive the typos.
Sof

Monday, June 14, 2010

Majestic British Columbia!






She is Majestic, everything about her, the coast, the mountains, we have seen two of Jerry's children, had (having) wonderful reunions with them.. we've whale watched, snow bird watched, hiked, golfed, and, of course ate.  Two sleeps with each of Kaily & Travis.. we're not finished out visit with Travis, they're out bonding while they golf right now, that's OK as Travis & I went for a hike earlier and bonded.. you do what you love. So, i thought I'd take a moment and update you on our time with Kaily, ferry rides and four mountain crosses..
First day with Kaily & in Victoria, which is on Vancouver Island, we went down to Fisherman's Wharf, had lunch, feed seals (that's what we're doing in the above photo), had lunch, wondered around, it was beautiful.  Loved the houseboats on the wharf.



We got to go see Kaily's baseball team play a double header, visited with Norm & Lee, then we had a late night snack. The next day we headed back to the downtown area and went Whale watching.  They should call it Whale searching, we ended up seeing one humpback whale, that's it! I was spoiled 10 years ago, when i went with Heather & Angela, and we followed a pod of transient killer whales for an hour.  At the time they told us it was rare, and it was only happening that day, i assumed it was a sales ploy, i see now, that it wasn't and we were lucky.  The whale we saw wasn't interested in hanging out with us, we only saw a tip of him twice.. i was able to get that tip on camera (because I'm that good!)

It was also the Navy's 100th birthday while we were in Victoria, they had 10 Navy ships in the harbor, and the Snow Birds where performing for us. 
Jerry & I headed to the Vancouver Island Ferry's on Saturday night, and drove toward Travis's for just two hours, as he's 10hours away from Kaily, we wanted to get a head start.. the Ferry's are huge, we liked the Ferry's from the US to the Island, as we were able to bring Duke up on the decks, but the Canadian once don't dogs up on the deck, Duke didn't mind, he stayed below and we went up and watch the beautiful crossing from Vancouver Island to the mainland.


We ended us staying in Hope, BC, at a cute little cabin.  IT was late by the time we stopped, so we opted for a cabin vs trying to figure out where to camp. 

Then we continued through the four mountain ranges for 6 hours to get to Travis, here in Rossland, BC.  It's beautiful, he lives in the mountains.  He renovating his home right now, so, he, his roommate (Jessi) & Jerry installed some stuff today, and now they boys are golfing.. Earlier they took us for a little site seeking tour of the area..

Tonight Jerry's going to cook for us, steak, potatoes and stuffed zucinni.. we're all looking forward to that. Then tomorrow, as soon as we wake up, we start our trip home, four straight days of driving, we should (we think) hit Peterborough by Friday.  We'll keep you posted!
OH, this photo of the bikers, we started seeing them when we hit the coast in Oregon, they're insane, they ride their bikes about 80 miles/day through the mountains.. for months on end.. i would love to do that.. but, I'm thinking Jerry's not so into it as I'd be! :)  After all of the food on this trip, i need a bike trip!
The area is beautiful, it was skiing, water sports and vineyards.. everything you need in life! (Ok, there's also allot of mining and logging.. but.. those pictures aren't as nice.. )

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Triple D & The Oregon Pacfic Coast

We spent more time in Boise, Idaho then expected, good stores, people and food. We went to Cabela's on the way out of town, then stopped off at a second Triple D in Boise.  This one was called Donnie Mac's Trailer Park Cuisine, the owner, Don Mackenkie has a number of restaurants through Montana as well. 
We had a great meal, the place was crazy, as they all were.  They had tailgates as counter tops, cars as table booths.. the owners & staff were very welcoming.

We travelled across the State of Idaho to the State of Oregon.   We camped in a State Park outside a town called Bend.  We found the State Parks in Oregon one of the best from across all the other parks we stayed at. 
We spent the night in Bend, as we knew the next day we'd have to cross BIG hills.


The camp site was great.  The next day we climbed the mountains toward the coast, we had to travel through clouds in the mountains. The trees became "furry" with moss, grass grew..


We had our first glimpse of the Ocean in Newport, Oregon.  It was rainy, as coastal weather often is! We went directly for Clam Chowder at an old classic restaurant called Mo's.. we saw seals, fishing boats and everything felt soo very different then the rest of the country. 



We stayed the night in another State Park just outside of Newport, then left first thing and slowly headed up the coast.
It has vast beaches and trails, it cleared up long enough for us to enjoy it.
We explored a lot.. there was a Fort in Fort Stevens, it's actually the only place in North America that was actually shot at by a Japanese Sub during the 2nd world war.
We had a great camping spot in Fort Steven's State Park. There were only two of us in the area we were in, so, we liked that.
We're now in Port Angeles, Washington.  We're going to take the ferry over to Victoria, BC tomorrow, hand out with Kaily & Ryan for two sleeps..  Kaily's got some whale watching planned for all of us on Saturday, we'll looking forward to that.  Sunday we'll head toward Rossland, BC for another two sleeps.. then we cross back across.. so, one week left to the roadtrip now!