FINAL TALLY

Here's the numbers:

     Starting mileage:   397,173

     Ending Mileage:   402,345

       5,172 Miles

Covering California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon plus Alberta and British Columbia in Canada.

Speaking of states ~ We started playing "I Spy License Plates" when we left (could only be on a four wheel vehicles - no commercial vehicles - also could not be in the state of issue for the plate) and here's the final tally:

We found ALL 50 states EXCEPT:  Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, New Hampshire and Vermont

PLUS found Canadian Provinces of:  Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia

AND:  Mexico, Baja, Northwest Territories and US Government

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Well, we spent the night in Weaverville, CA, a really nice small community in the mountains of the Coastal Range

We wandered over and headed down towards Sacramento and then decided rather than high-balling it back down the freeway, it might be nice to go across to Tahoe so that we could say we had crossed the Rockies, Canadian Rockies, Coastal Range AND the Sierra Nevada range during our travels. It would only add about an hour and a half to our trip and it sounded like a good idea!

 Well, fortunately our schedule had some "fluff" in it (I'm sure you all know how important it is to stay on schedule while on vacation!)  During the course of the next few hours, we hit THREE areas where they were doing road construction and had the two lane road closed down to a single lane, which meant flagmen holding traffic from one direction at a time while the other side drove through ~  After a delay of almost an hour at each of the locations, we decided it still seemed like a good idea to "head for the barn" 

So we headed down 395 towards home a bit later than we had intended due to the delays, but . . . .we were coming through a small town on Old 395 and up ahead we see cops cars and flashing red and yellow lights ~ Doesn't look good ~ As we slowly come into the town we find out that they are moving an oversize load (a large airplane wing) and are stopping traffic.

Finally get past that and we were coming down the 15 through San Bernardino and guess what . . . the freeway was CLOSED due to overnight construction ~ They had skimpy detours signs that took us off to the 210 freeway and then had us take the 15 South off of the 210 and merge back into the 15 south ~ If it sounds confusing here,m at close to midnight last night it was even more so!

We got past that and are nearing home coming south on the 215 ~ Another surprise!!  215 South at Cojalco is CLOSED ~ Fortunately that was a get off the off-ramp and re-enter on the on ramp to avoid bridge work they were doing ~ Larry said it must be a conspiracy to keep us from getting home!! So, just about the time we figure there can't be any more road construction to cause delays . . . the 215 South at 4th Avenue in Perris is CLOSED for bridgework ;-{ 

Got past that and FINALLY made it home about 12:40 am ~ Not being night people, we were tired, but Patches (our 70 pound Australian Shepherd) was there to energetically greet us when we got home!!  He really likes staying with his cousins when we travel, but he's always glad when we get home!

Hope you all enjoyed your travels with us ~ I'm sure Larry will be happy to "bore" you with vacation pictures soon!!

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Still a bit foggy this morning,but the weatherman seems to think it will clear by about 10 am, so Larry and I decide to continue driving down the Oregon coast ~ There are a number of places where there is a partial beautiful view, but there is also spotty, heavy fog mixed in ;-/  Here's a sample (see the heavy fog extending out from the point on the far side):

One thing I noticed about Oregon, they have some huge draw bridges over the major rivers that are flowing into the ocean.

Every time the road turned inland it was clear blue skies ~ As soon as the road hit the coast again, fog.  So when we hit California again we decided to turn inland ~ We drove across Highway 299, best know for being Big Foot Country!!  I told Larry if we could find Big Foot and take a  picture we could be famous ~ but no such luck! 

L & P

Left Seattle this morning ~ It was fun to see the area we had lived in back in the late 00’s ~ Like everywhere, it was surprising how much some of the more rural areas had grown.  Mt Rainier is still majestic overlooking the Seattle area!  We headed south for Portland.  After we had crossed the Columbia and Willamette Rivers, we turned west and headed for the coast.  We were driving along and noticed a lone airplane headed for the Portland airport ~ It was Air Force 1 ~ It’s a beautiful plane (you can ask Larry off line for his additional comments)

We continued south following the Lewis and Clark Trail ~ As we went through St Helen’s, Oregon we got a great view of Mount St Helens ~ She’s minding her manners at the moment, unlike she did on May 18, 1980 while we were still living in Seattle!  We journeyed down the coast and decided to stay in Newport, Oregon.  Today was a breakthrough day ~ Larry took off his cowboy boots and put on his shorts and sandals ~ We decided to walk down to the beach and it was really windy ~ Here’s a very short video so you can hear the wind:

The water was really, really cold!!

L & P

Today was a driving day ~ Heading out of Idaho and across Washington via Snoqualamie Pass ~ so many trees and everything is so green ~ and it smelled like Christmas from all the Evergreens!  Every lake we passed was full and all the rivers were running fast. We've seen this not only in Washington, but throughout Idaho, Montana and Canada as well.

From just west of Spokane we started seeing the top of Mt Rainier in the distance.

As we were approaching Seattle, Larry offered to buy dinner for me and my best friend from high school if I could get hold of her ~ I dialed her number, she picked up and we both accepted Larry's offer.  So we're staying in Seattle tonight ~ we just got  back from a really nice dinner (with the two of us jabbering all the time dinner only took about 4 hours!!)

Sunday, June 22, 2012

Well, we decided we’d try Going to the Sun Road one more time ~ but before leaving we found a really cool ministry ~ A Christian Ministry in the National Parks (Encountering God in the Wonders of Creation) ~ It’s an organization out of Denver Colorado and they normally hire seminary students to work at the National Parks to offer services on Sunday.   We attended the service and it was really nice with a beautiful view of some of God’s creation right outside the window.  Larry did comment that it’s probably the first time he’s attended church that was held in a “lounge/bar” area.

The weather today looks perfect ~ Blue skies and white puffy clouds, instead of the storm clouds that have been around for the last few days ~ We found out from some other travelers that if we had tried the road the middle of last week we would not have been able to do it because it was closed due to a rock slide. 

So, we packed up our goodies and left the Prince of Wales Hotel ~ As we were leaving I caught “critter motion” in the field next to the hotel ~ It was a beautiful fox who looked like it had just caught breakfast!  Good start for the day! 

We traveled back down to the Canadian crossing and this time while waiting in line, I decided it would be a good idea to take a picture of the Border Crossing sign, so I picked up the camera and took the picture.  About a minute later, one of the Border Guards comes walking towards the truck and I assume he’s going to take our passports and expedite things ~ WRONG!  He came to my side of the truck ~ When I rolled down the window he asked what I had taken a picture of and I told him ~ he said he needed to see the picture so I showed it to him ~ He went on to explain that it was NOT acceptable to take a picture of a government employee (they aren’t even allowed to have Facebook pages according to him) ~ So I apologized and they let us back into the US ;-}

Just before arriving at the East Entrance to Glacier, Larry suddenly realized that with Franklin, our bellhop in Canada, talking so much as we were putting our luggage in the truck, we totally forgot to check out of the hotel and OK our breakfast charges on our bill ~ and they had old fashioned keys and Larry had both of them in his pocket still!  So we stopped at the St Mary’s Hotel where we had stayed the previous day, and since all of the hotels/lodges in the two national parks are owned by the same company, they helped us square it away and said they would send the keys back to the hotel via the shuttle so they would have them for the next guests.

Finally, we started over the Going to the Sun Road and it was awesome weather.  Like we told you in a previous post, this is a 2 lane, narrow, winding road ~ much better drive today than it had been during the storm!  And there was much lighter traffic, so it was a nice drive through some gorgeous scenery ~ Going over Logan Pass we saw a small group of Mountain Goats, including a young kid, who were grazing in the meadow near a small waterfall ~ Speaking of waterfalls, the road had waterfalls at almost every turn as the winter snows melted ~ in some places they water was just running down the entire face of rock next to the road ~ The only drawback to driving the road is that because of the short season that the road is open, they also have a very short time to do repairs and they had a couple of areas where they had the road down to a single lane.  After getting over the road, Larry commented that he would bet 1 in 3 people driving over that road had absolutely NO idea how wide their vehicle was and shooting them should be legal for this short summer season!

After leaving the park we headed west and stopped for the night in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

L & P

Saturday, July 21

Really windy today and another storm brewing over the Going to the Sun Road, so we went exploring the Many Glaciers Road in Glacier National Park ~ As we were driving we saw a large wolf crossing a meadow (the bad news is I had the cameras covered up from making a morning stop and couldn’t get one out before the wolf disappeared into some heavy brush on the edge of the meadow ;-{ )

Then we headed for Waterton Lakes in Canada.  Shortly after entering the park, Larry stopped quickly and pointed out a Bald Eagle soaring overhead. 

There are three main lakes in the areas, all of them very deep and carved by glaciers.  They are Upper, Lower and Middle Waterton Lakes (doesn’t seem very original).  In addition there are a number of other smaller lakes in the area.  We went exploring today and saw more beautiful country.  The first side road we went down wound around to a really pretty lake.  On our way back, we saw a rusty red colored Black Bear leisurely foraging on the hill. 

Later we drove down the Red Rock Road which led to an area with really deep red coloring in the hillsides (totally different red from Utah or Hawaii).  On our way back down this road we saw a dark charcoal colored Black Bear eating berries on the hillside.  We stayed and watched him for quite a while ~ the wind was blowing his fur and he almost shimmered in the sunshine!  Waterton Lakes/Glacier National Park is one of the few areas where Black Bear and Grizzly Bears are both found.

We then went to check into the Prince of Wales Hotel ~

 It was built by one of the big shots with the Great Northern Railroad back in the early 1930s, so it is somewhat "vintage" ~ Here is the ONLY elevator in the hotel 

The elevator can only be run by the staff because of it's age there's a certain amount of training and manual operation needed ~ so I thought I'd better include a picture of Franklin, who was an expert at the elevator and also was our bellman for our stay

Here is a view from the hotel property, which sits high on a hill overlooking Middle Waterton Lake

We had one final surprise at the hotel ~ Not only do the wait staff wear kilts, but they also have the entire place decorated like Christmas!!  Of course, I had to ask why and they told us that they are never open during the Holiday season and they like to celebrate Christmas.   

So Merry Un-Christmas to all of you!

L & P

Ooops, almost forgot ~ THE BIG NEWS FOR TODAY ~ Ford rolled over 400,000 miles!!

Friday, July 20

Today was an adventure.  We headed south from Radium Springs towards the U.S.  Our plan was to drive the Going to the Sun Road and explore along the way ~ We were wondering what we were going to do during the day tomorrow before going to Waterton Lakes, Canada where we have a reservation tomorrow night.  Funny the way things work out ~ took a couple of back roads thinking we had plenty of time.  When we got to the Canadian border there was a bit of a backup ~ the Border Patrol on the US side were being very thorough in their questioning of each car.  When it was finally our turn they asked how far north we had gone and Larry told them just north of Jasper.  The guard’s next question was “Why?”  FORTUNATELY, Larry didn't give him the first answer he thought of!!!   

After we finally got through customs we headed down to the West Entrance of Glacier Park.  We noticed in quite a number of places that right next to the electrical lines there were single poles with “platforms” on them ~ Larry thought they had put them up for the large birds of prey to build their nests to keep them off the electrical poles.  The next one we came to proved his point ~ There was a large nest with two Ospreys in the it.

On our drive south we had been watching the thunderheads building up over the mountains and figured we’d probably have thunderstorms tonight.  The “Going to the Sun Road” is 51 miles long and before we had gone the first 10 miles we started getting rain drops.  By the time we were going up Logan Pass on a NARROW, one lane each way, winding, twisting road we were in the middle of a full fledged storm with thunder with huge flashes of lightning.   Logan Pass is where the road crosses the Great Divide at 6,646 ft.  So as you can guess, no critters were out and the visibility wasn’t great ~ Saw hints of lots of beautiful waterfalls and mountains.  We’re staying at St Mary’s, the West entrance to Glacier, this evening.

So tomorrow we are going to go up through Many Glaciers and go back over Going to the Sun Road and see what we missed during the storm ~ then we head back to Canada.

More later . . .

L & P

Well, up "at the crack of dawn" ~ Not!!!

Yes, even on vacation we get up early, but we are so far north that it is light at 5:00 in the morning AND at almost 10:00 at night!!  Not sure how early "the crack of dawn is" but by the time we get up it is already light.

Another fact we've learned about the Canadian Rockies ~ They have 2 very distinct seasons up here that can be determined as follows: 

• Winter = Snow  
• Summer = Mosquitoes

So far we haven't been snowed on . . . the good news is that we did bring insect repellent that they don't seem to like and we also found some stuff called "After Bite" and it does seem to take away the itch  if when we do get bit.

Headed to Glacier . . .

. . . will post next time we have Internet service.

L & P

Finally back to an Internet connection ~ at least for tonight (will explain at the end of this post)

We left Calgary and headed into the Canadian Rockies and have spent the last two days driving through the Canadian Rockies ~ primarily Banff and Jasper National Parks.

The weather cleared up today and we finally had blue skies with puffy white clouds (wish we could send some of the rain down to Southern California!!)

We have to admit ~ the "star attraction" of the past two days has been the scenery ~ The Rockies are totally awe inspiring and there are rivers, lakes and waterfalls everywhere.  We drove the Icefields Highway and along the way are a number of huge glaciers ~ one of the largest was Athabasca Glacier in the Columbia Icefield.

Tomorrow we're going to be going into Glacier National Park and drive over the Road to the Sun ~ This road was just plowed completely through on the 28th of June! After exploring Glacier we will be going back into Canada to Waterton LakesNational Park.  We will be staying in Glacier one night and at the Price of Wales Hotel in Waterton on Saturday.  It's an historical hotel that should be interesting ~ Apparently many of the staff still wear kilts as part of maintaining the history, etc.  Here's a picture of it:

My guess is that for the next 2 days we won't have any internet so if there's no post, don't worry, we aren't lost, just out of internet contact ;-}

L & P

Sorry we've missed a couple of days ~ Have had Internet, but wasn't able to log into the blog !?!

So this morning I'll give you a "Reader's Digest" version and hopefully we will be able to do a better update this evening.

We worked our way through Montana yesterday and zigzagged through Wyoming and Yellowstone the day before ~ The weather has been a bit rainy which has limited some of the picture opportunities but we've seem quite a bit of wildlife ~ 2 kinds of Chipmunks, Bighorn Sheep, Elk, Deer with their Fawns, Antelope, Canadian Geese and Goslings, Bald Eagles, Coyotes, Rock Chucks, Buffalo, plus Hawks and a number of unique Birds.

For those of you that know how Larry likes bears ~ We found a license plate yesterday that he thinks would be really cool to have ~ he just can't figure out a real good way to license the truck in the Northwest Territories ;-}

Today should be an awesome adventure ~ We stayed in Calgary last night and today we are headed for the Icefields Parkway ~ a 143 mile scenic highway that parallels the Continental Divide and runs the length of Banff and Jasper National Parks of Canada.  According to Triple A "there are too many scenic overlooks and turnouts along the way to name".  It will also get us up close and personal with the glaciers that are throughout the park. 

Hope to "see you" this evening ~

The first 2 days have been "get out of town" days ~ We left (almost on "time") on Saturday to muggy heat in Sun City ~ We headed out the 15 and just before the California/Nevada state line hit heavy rains (probably the edges of than monsoon that hit Havasu on Saturday!)

The rest of Saturday and most of yesterday we had overcast skies and off and on showers so the temperatures haven't been quite so warm.

Last night we got to Cody, Wyoming and the skies started to clear and last night was beautiful.  Today we start exploring some new territory so the next post should be more exciting!

L & P

Well, we're getting lists made and on Saturday, July 14th we are headed out on one of our "follow the hood ornament" trips ~ The only set plans we have are to be in Glacier National Park the weekend of July 20 & 21 ~

We will keep you posted via this blog of what we find along the way

L & P