Trecia and Erv on the Road

Sally and Pepper

2011-10-31T14:23:00.001-07:00

Here she is with her daddy, Chris. She's very alert for being only two months old.

Sally and her Uncle Sonny. Look how tiny Pepper is.

I can't get over how well Sally looks. She's a beauty.

Pepper eats about every three hours.

We had a really nice visit. We didn't go over until Sat. afternoon, and it's a good thing we didn't because Pepper got four baby shots Fri. morning. Poor baby, she had a very bad night and was just starting to feel better when we got there. She likes to have people talk to her. She smiles already. We went home and came back Sun. afternoon for more visit. We went out to supper and Pepper was a doll. You know how babies are at dinner time. But she let her mom and dad finish their food and even slept on the way home. We left there so they could get ready for work etc. We left GA this morning and drove to Manchester, TN. We should be at Beverly's on Friday. Then Branson and on home. See ya soon.

The Delta

2011-10-25T08:56:00.001-07:00

The last day of our trip we took a small plane ride over the delta. It is vast. But you should have seen us "stuffed" into that little plane. We had the pilot, who must be a body builder because his shoulders were very broad. In the co-pilot seat was little, tiny Marsha. She couldn't even see over the instument panel. And us in the back seat. The plane was a float plane and we took off down a channel and circled back to go the 20 miles on down to the Gulf of Mexico.

The pilot said that you couldn't walk on the "land" down there because it is 12 feet tall reeds and swamp.

We were only 1000 feet in the air.

You can see the wing in this shot. See, it's a tiny plane.

There is everyone waiting for us (and four other planes) to land so they can have their turn. That's the channel we floated down to take off.

This one of the planes.

After we all got a ride, we got back on the bus and drove back up the highway to an old plantation for lunch. This is an old church that they have turned into an event room. They cut the church in two pieces and moved it 14 mile down the road to the spot about 5 years ago. The lunch was great, especially the bread pudding.

This is the main house that is now used as a B and B. This is the house that was used as the logo on the Southern Comfort bottle. Your dad told me that the front side was on the label not the back side. This is the back side. Oh well.

This is the overseer's house. It will be rehabbed next. And the slave quarters as well.

This is Buddy, one of the owners "pets." She is 12 feet long.

This is one of Buddy's babies. This one is only four feet long. Last years hatchlings I think.

This one isn't as long as the last one. But Foster, the owner, said that Buddy has about 100 new hatchlings this year. I wander if he plans to put gator on his menu sometime.

We are in Biloxi, Mississippi today. We got here Sunday after we said our goodbyes to our old and new friends. We've been napping and sleeping in late. That was a very busy tour. But we drove the 1500+ miles from start to finish. I'm glad we did even if I had to endure Elvis for two days. We leave here in the morning to head towards Sally's to see the new baby. I can't wait. Pepper will be past he blob stage and developing a personnality. I'll bet she's cute. From there we are going back toward's Bev's and Branson. Then on home by the 23th. See you all then. I'll try to send pictures of Pepper and Sally while we're there.

New Orleans

2011-10-24T12:06:00.000-07:00

The first day we toured New Orleans we went to Mardi Gras World. This place designs and builds floats to go into the 55 or so parades during Mardi Gras. It's as important as the Rose Parade.

The floats start as a design board like this one. This one is going to be Beauty and the Beast.

This is a finished float ready to go to the storage warehouse until next February.

The church of St. Louis facing Jackson Square.

Jackson in the center of Jackson Square a pretty park near the river.

There was a Irish Pub Crawl in the French Quarter the Friday we were there. Boy were they loud.

typical buildings in the French Quarter.

We took a walking tour of the French Quarter. The buildings are right up to the sidewalks, so no yards. But they do have courtyards down the sides of the buildings like this one.

We also went to see the city of the dead. They bury their loved ones about ground. It use to be because of the shallow water table, but now the ground is well drained and it's just tradition.

The graves are in rows and look just like a neighborhood.

That night we went to a cooking school for a demostration. This is Harriet, our teacher. I've not had as good a time as we had that night. She was so funny. She told stories about her family that had us in stitches for two hours. I wanted to take her home with me. And the food was amazing as well. I got the recipes to try when we get home.

That was Friday and we were gone from 9:oo am until 8:00 pm. We were pooped by the time we got back to the rig. But the real kicker was we had to be on the bus again Saturday morning at 7:30. Oh well, we can nap. Right.

Natchez, Mississippi

2011-10-23T14:44:00.001-07:00

This is the view from our rig. We were right on the river and could see LA. across the river.

The view from the other direction.

We had a carriage ride through Natchez. There was five carriages in all.

This is one of the many churches in town. Slaves used to enter the balcony through the side of the building.

A big fancy antibellum house that has been turned into a hotel.

Can you tell where this water tower is?

This is George our driver and Roger our steed. George was a great guide. He told us some of the houses were built in 17 and 92. His accent was wonderful. To keep the streets cleaner, the horse has a large black bag just behind his tail. Well, Roger took a dump and we had to smell the aroma for the rest of our tour. Ugh.

The last carriage to return to the start.

This is the bridge taht crosses the river back to LA from our coach. It was a beautiful sight.

Memphis

2011-10-16T15:06:00.000-07:00

We spent four days in Memphis. It seems that the biggest thing there is Graceland. We spent acouple of hours there and I must say I'm Elvised out. I didn't even take any pictures although you dad did. I can't get over how over the top the mansion is. Of course it's still decorated from the 70's. Graceland is small in comparison to estates now-a-days. But the worst thing was we had to listen to Elvis music being played over loud ( and I do mean loud) speakers all over the property. It was almost like he was a deity now. Our tour guide from the next day met him when she was a girl and I think she is still in LOVE with him. She took us where he used to live ( three places) and showed us where he liked to eat etc. We went to the Peabody Hotel to watch the ducks parade in to the fountain. Now that was cute. It seems that the whole thing started as a joke back in the 30's. After we left there we had lunch at the Arcade. It's a very old resturant. It started in 1919. And guess what? Elvis use to eat there. We also went to St. Jude's and looked around.

The last day we carpooled to the Mud Island Museum down on the river. It was great. We rode a hanging cable car across the river. The museum was well down. I enjoyed it a lot after the school field trip left the building. I took a few pictures that day, but none were very good.

I'm not sending any photos with the blog today. The pictures from the trip blog has the ones I took. So if you want to go there to view and don't remember the address, here it is. http://www.avcgrr2011.blogspot.com/ More later from Vicksburg.

St. Louis

2011-10-13T18:53:00.000-07:00

This is the first stop of our tour of St. Louis. It's the huge Basilica of St. Louis. The inside is covered with mosaics. They are everywhere. I've never seen anything like it. Beautiful

I started to show more, but decided you might get bored and close the site.

This pool is a left over from the 1904 World's Fair in Forrest Park. The park is four times bigger that Central Park in New York. It has a zoo (free) two ar three museums and miles of walking trails all in the center of the city.

We toured Bush Statium three days before the play off game with Brewers. This from the broadcast booth. See the arch mowed in the grass.

The Card's dugout.

We got to go down on the field as long as we didn't step on the grass.

The next day we went out to Grant's Farm to see the Clydesdales. This is U.S. Grants house when he first married.

This building is a beer garden and some stables for the big guys. It looks very German and old.

Here are the two newest additions to the Clydsdale family. They are about four months old.

This is downtown St. Louis near the Gateway Arch. If you look at the glass building on the left you can see the reflextion of the Arch.

This is how you get into the visitors center under the arch. Your dad took the tram up to the top and looked over the city. It's over 600 feet tall. I stayed down below with about seven others of our group and watched a movie about Lewis and Clark.

We had two very busy days being driven around town. So on our free day, we did laundry and went to visit with Aunt Beverly and Uncle Marvin. We had a nice afternoon, and we got to see Kim and Bo and their three kids. I can't get over how big they have gotten.

We're in Memphis at the moment. I editted the pictures. I had twice that many chosen. I decided not to torcher you because I love you. So I blog later about our whirl wind tour in Elvis country.

Hannibal

2011-10-12T17:06:00.001-07:00

We took a tour of Hannibal the first morning we were there. The town is tiny and only there because Mark Twain lived there until he was 18. All the other industry is gone by now.

This is a statue of Huck and Tom at the staircase up to a lighthouse that has no purpose. The garden is pretty though.

This is the trolley we rode around town.

Downtown It's pretty clean.

This is Samuel Clemmens' statue in the park in town.

The view of the Mississippi from the statue.

The other direction

Becky Thatcher met us back in camp after our tour. This girl is in eighth grade at the middle school. She had to try out for the part. The process takes almost a year. She is one of five Beckys, and there are five Tom Sawyers. They take turns doing stuff like this for a year.

This is "lovers leap",and as the legend goes a couple of indians that could not marry lept fom there.

The view of Hannibal from "lover's leap."

The Mark Twain

We got on board and got ready for our dinner. Nothing to write home about.

That is Illinois across the Mississippi.

The evening's entertainment.

The next night we had dinner at a BBQ and walked across the street to see this man's one man show. He did it all take tickets, serve some cookies and tea, and played the part of Mark Twain.

We were in Davenport, Iowa for a couple of days before the Mark Twain tour. I didn't take pictures, but your dad did. We toured John Deere, toured an arsenal and had the tour guide from Hell the first day . We got to see Hoover's library the next day. When I have the time, I'll write about St. Louis. We have two very busy days to come in Memphis.

Down the Great River Road

2011-10-08T17:20:00.000-07:00

We have driven down the Great River Road for the most part, no freeways. The scenery is beautiful.

Every state has a sign like this telling you that you are on the GRR. This one is from Iowa.

One of our several crossings of the Mississippi.

This is JB, our gangster tour guide in St. Paul. He was great at filling in the lulls. We had a little fender bender. A car skidded into the back of our bus at a red light. She lost her brakes. He entertained us for about 45 minutes while the police did their job and we were stuck on the bus. We really had a good time.

We went into a cave dug into the wall near the river that was turned into a speakeasy in the 20's.

This is the main room that gangsters use to hang out in eating dinner and drinking hooch with the St. Paul police's blessing.

This is the side room of the speakeasy.

The church of St. Paul.

Inside St. Paul

Some of the beautiful scenery in the city center.

We took a river boat tour for lunch one day.

They have built condos on parts of the river.

The boat we rode in that day.

The next day we went to see Hairspray at a dinner theater. It was GREAT. I laughed so hard my cheeks hurt.

More river. The colors are beginning to really show.

The River

I've had trouble getting internet access until now. And Adventure Caravan has been keeping us busy. I'll blog Hannibel and St Louis at a later date. I'm pooped tonight. We spent eleven hours in and out of a bus today. I'll tell you all about it later.

The trip begins

2011-09-24T14:01:00.001-07:00

We are in Bemidgi until tomorrow morning. When the sun finally came out two days ago we went out exploring. Here is the visitor's center sign.

See how tall Paul Bunyan is compared to your dad.

It even makes me look little.

We saw these two dogs at the headwaters parking lot. Can you imagine living with that huge and tiny dog?

This is most of our group listening to our tour guide at Lake Itasca State Park. She has a beaver pelt in her hand.

The trees are starting to change colors up here. This is a young Sugar Maple in all it's splender.

We walked about 900 feet total to the headwaters.

There were loads of people there to look at where the Mississippi starts the parking lot was full. I put my hand in the water; it was pretty cold. My cells will be in the Gulf of Mexico in 90 days.

Some friends crossing the river on the rocks after our tour guide asked us not to. Didn't listen huh?

This is the lounge of the dining room where we ate lunch. It's a real log cabin hotel. It's called Douglas Lodge in the park.

We had a really nice trip today. We saw a bunch of eagles in the tree tops on the way back from the park. When we got back to Bemidgi we went to a woolen mill and toured it. We toured it yesterday and we still learned more today. I also found a box of yarn for sale real cheap, and I got it. I got about two lbs. Now I can make more baby blankets. Well, it's almost dinner time. So I close for now

On the way to our trip

2011-09-16T15:30:00.000-07:00

One day when Fern had an appointment we wandered around the UP. We stopped into this place just to see what it was. Fun.

They have all kinds of silly displays out in the yard.

This is a "hunting camp."

The other side of the camp.

I took this picture this morning in Cedar, Wisconsin. They are harvesting the corn for silage. I didn't know how they did it until this morning. The corn field was right next to our campsite.

We didn't have any WiFi the last two days. It was strange being out of touch for 48 hours. I can't believe how attached I am to this computer. Go figure!

We are in Cloquet, MN. That's just south of Duluth. The weather has been really cool the last few days. When we left Michigan is was rainy and in the fifties. In Cedar, WI it got down to 36 one night and last night it was 37. Now here in Minn. it's 6:00 pm and in the 60's. We'll see what happens tonight. We are going to go exploring tomorrow. More later

Visit with Fern and Roy

2011-09-12T15:42:00.001-07:00

While we were waiting for Fern to wake up from her nap Sunday, we drove up to Lake Michigan to walk the dog. We couldn't see very far.

Where we were we could only see the eastern part of the UP.

Here is a photo of us all in front of the rest home. The lady in pink is their daughter, Rene. She came to visit her mother today.

I took this picture of my grandmother's parents from a photo on Aunt Fern's dresser. They are Ory and Emanuel Ramsey.They had five or six kids. I only knew about two sibs of Granny.

Fern isn't doing all that well. She is in a great deal of pain from the broken neck and ribs from her fall. She is glad to see us every day but it is tiring for her. We try to leave and she thinks of something else to tell us. Except yesterday, she told us she was going to bed and would see us tomorrow. Tomorrow is the last time we'll see her because we head out Wednesday morning.
Will write more next time

Ishpeming, Michigan

2011-09-07T11:10:00.001-07:00

We stayed in Iron Mountain for three nights. It was cool and we got to drive around and explore. This photo is from Monominee right on Lake Michigan. The park is next to the restaurant where we ate lunch. You could even see the peninsula we were on in Wisconsin from here.

This is Bays de Noc from a park in Escanaba on Lake Michigan as well.

The light house is now a museum.

The wind was blowing so cold and hard that even the sea gulls are hunkered down.

The weather here is delightful compared to home. Helena tells me it was 100 there yesterday, while here it is in the 70's. At night it gets down in the forties. Maybe cooler here in Ishpeming. The lady at this RV park said it got down into the 20's a few nights ago.

We will be for the next week. My aunt fell again and has been in a rest home for rehab for the last six weeks. I'll call my uncle later to see when we can visit.

That's all for now.

Sturgeon Bay

2011-09-03T14:13:00.001-07:00

Thursday we drove up the spit from Green Bay. It was a short drive of about 25 miles. The little village of
Sturgeon Bay lies on Green Bay side.
This is a draw bridge
across Sturgeon Bay.

We watched it go up for a tall sailboat and a yacht.

It took about 10 minutes start to finish.

The scenery is rustic but peaceful. I'm just glad we aren't there this weekend. I'll bet it is crowded with last minute tourists.

We hung out here at the rig yesterday because it was raining cats and dogs. The wind came up and blew over a bunch of trees in the area. We watched the reports on TV. Boy it doesn't mess around here when it rains. It was coming down in sheets.

Today we drove down to Green Bay to look around. We couldn't get near Lambeau Field because they've closed everything off because of the Thursday game and a concert down there. Green Bay is just a little bigger than Santee and ten times older. The biggest thing in the city is Lambeau. And of course everything has a "tie" to the Packers. At this campground where we are staying we saw the Packer Mania last Thursday night, and it was just for a preseason game. The people up here live for the Packers.

We leave in the morning for Michigan. We'll be on the UP for about ten days.

Wisconsin Dells

2011-08-30T18:57:00.000-07:00

We drove to the Wisconsin Dells yesterday. It reminded us to Pigeon Forge,Tenn. The only difference was there are tons of waterparks in the areano Dollywood. The main drag consists of tee-shirt and trash gift stores. We opted to take a boat tour down the Wisconsin River through the Dells. It was beautiful down threre.

This formation looks like a stack of pancakes.

We walked through this cool spot where the water made almost a tunnel.

We saw a German Shepherd jump the fifty feet across from one formation to the other and back again. I tried to take picture of him jumping, but wasn't fast enough.

This spot is called the narrows. It is 100 feet deep here so passage is easy.

We sat up top so we got the breeze, the
sun and the view. Today we just ran errands and got rained on. We leave for the Green Bay area tomorrow. More than

Wisconsin

2011-08-27T13:12:00.000-07:00

I've taken no pictures this week. We were so delighted that the RV got fixed in time for us to get Helena to the Mall of America that I forgot about the camera. So here goes. We got to Minneapolis on Saturday and found a place to do laundry ( big whoop.) Sunday morning we got up and ate and left for the mall by noon. We followed Helena round for four hours as she bargain hunted on one and a half floors of that huge place. We ate dinner at the mall and drove back to the rig exhausted. Monday we got there ( the mall) at about the same time and followed Helena around again for four hours. We did the other floor and a half then. She spent all of her money for back to school, but got lots of clothes. The kid can shop. Her mother has taught her well. We ate dinner there at the mall again and went back so Helena could pack her treasures and get ready to fly out the next morning. She was very excited to be flying on her own, but I was a little nervous about it. I guess she grew up while I wasn't looking. We had a really good time with her this month. I can't wait until we can do it again.

We left Minn. Wednesday morning and drove to Oakdale, Wisc. We stayed there for three nights. One day we wondered around the small Amish area. It's not as concentrated as Ind. or Penn. but nice. The next day we drove around the cranberry marsh area. It seems that 60% of cranberries are grown here. We went to a museum and learned a lot about growing and processing practices. We drove on down the I90 to Madison this morning. There seems to be a lot to do here. We'll let you know next time and maybe I'll even remember to take some photos.

Our little hickup in Bozeman

2011-08-14T19:03:00.000-07:00

We went to the Grizzly Encounter yesterday after we had breakfast. We saw four bears that were born in captivity and will never be able to go back into the wild. It was really interesting. Helena took over fifty photos alone. I only took a few. The smaller bear would run up to the male and slap it and run away. It was funny. She was more agile than the 600 pound male.

This was the two five year olds sparring in the pond.

This is Jacob, the five year old male, begging for peanuts from the keeper. He was a riot. When it was time for him and the female, Maggie, to go back to their den, he decided he wanted to swim some more. He wanted to decide for himself when he was going in.

This is Maggie hunting for the peanuts that the keeper threw.

Today we dropped off the RV to have the radiator fixed. Friday we were getting fuel and found a coolant leak (big time.) So we're stuck here in Bozeman until at least Thursday. This is the cabin we are occupying until the RV is fixed.

The desk and chair in our cabin.

Our bed.

Helena's bed.

This is how we collected the drips so we wouldn't ruin the parking site. Erv emptied it ever 10 or so hours.

Cute, right.

Helena has been entertaining herself in the pool. The heat has been bad today and we sat out in the shade to catch some breezes. Helena's big job is finding and directing us to places to eat. She did a good job for tonight. The place was a lodge way out a dirt road and the food was great.

We'll let you know how our first night goes. Helena got some bug spray so she would feel better about the bugs and spiders on our porch. Maybe she'll be able to sleep because we got up at eight this morning. Aside from that we're having a good time.

More Photography from Helena

2011-08-10T21:48:00.000-07:00

Horseback Riding

2011-08-10T21:16:00.000-07:00

Glacier National Park

2011-08-10T19:42:00.000-07:00

These are a mountain goat and her kid grazing.

We spent the day in Glacier National Park yesterday. We took a red bus tour. The scenery is spectacular.

We saw a herd of big horn sheep. These two were part of the group that a ranger was chasing out of the parking lot. It seems they come in and lick the pavement to get the dripped antifreeze there. They looked magnificent leaping over the guard rails running away.

This is a tiny island in the large Lake Mary.

Helena and Papa in front of snow up at Logan's Pass. She made snow balls, but didn't throw them. I think she was amazed by how cold it was.

The three travelers enjoying the day before it started to rain.

The red bus has a convertible top, so when we stopped to look a something we could stand up to get better shots.

There are waterfalls all over the place just like this one. At one point the whole wall we were driving by was "weeping."

Several mountains have glaciers on them.

This is an avalanche shoot. See there are no trees just low growing green stuff.

The bus driver said we might see a moose and her calf along this river. No Such Luck!

Here is the red bus. It was built in 1936 to 38. It was a fun ride. It can hold 17 tourists plus the driver. The inside is said to be original.

This is Helena conversing with nature. She's afraid of spiders, but she'll play with a tomato worm.

Today we went back to the park so Helena and Papa could go horseback riding. They rode for two hours back in the woods, across the river (twice), and discovered some muscles they forgot they had. We have had a good experience and we are off to make our way to North Dakota in the morning. More later

Last day in Yellowstone

2011-08-06T21:09:00.000-07:00

We are finished with our last day here. I;m sending no pictures this time because we went to a lot of the same sights. As Helena says, "Once you've seen one geyser, elk, or bison you've seen them all. The weather has been good to us so far. Only a little rain and very spotty. The only disappointment we've had so far is we've seen no moose or bear. Oh well, maybe on the way to Glacier. We'll be there Monday. We're traveling tomorrow and will do laundry( big whoop) in Deer Lodge, MT. More later

Pictures from Helena

2011-08-03T21:22:00.000-07:00

I took over 1,000 pictures today in Yellowstone. Here are some of my pictures from the whole trip. I had to lower the quality on the pictures so that it wouldn't take years to upload though.

Jellystone!!!

2011-08-03T20:45:00.000-07:00

Well today we went into Yellowstone. It was glorious. We stopped at several pullout parking lots and walked to see geysers and paint pots. We saw the Firehole waterfall. It was really pretty. I got a shot of Helena and Papa by the falls. The colorful mineral pools are spectacular. We watched Old Faithful erupt. It was suppose to go off about 5:04. We waited for almost 20 minutes before it really went off. But it was well worth the wait. We drove around some more and got caught in a traffic jam. We couldn't see what was going on, so we just drove inch by inch until we saw the biggest bull bison crossing the road like he owned it. I took the picture over Erv's shoulder and managed to get his big backside. I got a sunburned nose, but we had a wonderful day.

Idaho Falls

2011-08-02T21:30:00.000-07:00

We were in Idaho Falls yesterday. We went to see the falls and took tons of photos. We drove over to show Helena where we lived in 1967 to 69. The road to the apartment was all torn up so we had to hunt with the help of Helena's iPhone. Then we drove way the heck out of town to The Cellar to try some escargot. But we were disappointed that they weren't on the menu last night. But the food was really good. Helena chose well. Today we drove to West Yellowstone, Montana. Tomorrow we drive into the Park. More later

Start of trip

2011-07-31T21:18:00.000-07:00

We are on our trip to Mall of America with Helena. We started out on Friday and drove to Las Vegas. Helena wanted to see the M&M store on the strip. We parked and then we walked for a mile to see the four stories of the store. It would have been better if the 3D movie had been working. It was closed down until the next day. Bummer! The next day we drove to Beaver, Utah. The town is very small, so we just swam ( all three of us) poor Papa waited outside while we girls took our showers. Today we drove to Salt Lake City. After we got setup we piled into the car and drove to the Great Salt Lake. We went over to Antelope Island out in the lake. It was pretty. Helena wanted to walk down to the shore and wade in, so her and Papa walked down about a quarter of a mile. I sat up top because walking in the sand was hard on my back. Helena ran back quickly because it started to thunder and lightning was coming too close for her liking. But she had a good time. That's all for now. More later

Home again

2010-08-20T18:28:00.000-07:00

We are in Red Bluff today. We should be home Tuesday the 24. We are back in the heat. Today it got up to 96. Welcome home!!!

We stopped for three days in Salem, OR. We drove around the countryside one day and the next day we met with Erv's cousin, Bill Perin and he took us through the Mission Mill Museum. He's a docent there and he's a talker. We learned a lot about the mission from 1840's and the mill from 1870's (I think.) We were on the site for about 3 hours. Anyway it was really interesting. And they have a yarn shop in the museum.

We left there and drove down to Medford, OR for three more days. We drove the 80 miles up to Crater Lake. It is beautiful up there. I'd forgotten how big the lake was. We wondered around up there for a couple of hours. The weather up there was fantastic. The temp. was 68. As we drove back down the mountain the temp. went up to 95 when we got down to Medford. Yesterday we visited a few wineries in Sourthern Oregon. I've refilled my cellar again. It was getting pretty bare.

This is the last blog for this trip. And of course these are the last pictures I'll be sending. Hope you all enjoyed our trip. I know we did.

Coming home

2010-08-14T09:47:00.000-07:00

We're in Bothell, WA today. We leave for Salem, OR in a couple of hours. We went to Seattle two days ago to Pike Place Market. It was very busy and a great place to people watch. I love it there even though I hate large crowds. They have huge bunches of flowers for $10 and some even larger for $15. Of course I got some Alder smoked salmon, YUM. I also got Mick's pepper jelly to use all sorts of ways. We ate lunch at Pike Brewery. We've eaten there before.

On the way here we stopped in two places in Canada. In Clinton, BC we went to a historical site called Hat Creek Ranch. It's a road house from the gold rush in 1898. but the most interesting thing was there was a Pow Wow held there. That's the only pictures we took after the goodbye dinner, so I didn't take any in Hope, BC. where we also stayed.

The dinner was not much to write home about, but the company was great. We were sorry to have to go.

See you all about Aug. 24 or 25. Can't wait!

Canada on the way home

2010-08-05T06:26:00.000-07:00

We're in Smithers, BC right now. On the way here we stopped at a First Nation site and took some pictures of their buildings. We leave for Vanderhoof this morning on our last day of the tour. We should be back in the lower 48 on about five days. I will call you offspring when we get to Seattle.

We were in Stewart for two days so we could go across the border to view the bears in Hyder, AK. There is a stream where the salmon go to spawn, and of course the bears like it there. Well our luck didn't hold to see bears feeding on fish. We went there twice and only saw one bear who was more interested in berries than fish. At least we got pictures of it. One couple saw a Grizzle eating fish there at 7:oo yesterday morning. Dee said it tried to catch a fish and couldn't so she ate one that was laying on the bank. The bear peeled it like a banana before she ate it. I guess the skin is tough. Hyder is a dumpy little town about ready to fall apart in a brisk wind. They have a post office, but the mail only goes out twice a week and isn't delivered to houses. You have to pick it up yourself like the Waltons did on TV. Stewart is just a bit above Hyder. At least it's school is still open for kids to attend.

The road in and out of Stewart is beautiful. We drove by at least eight glaciers in various sizes. We could stop by one, the Bear Glacier, to get pictures. And the waterfalls up there are spectacular. Yosemite doesn't hold a candle to this 25 mile stretch of road. One of the falls had three falls coming down the mountain side-by-side meeting up in a huge fall into the Bear River. We also saw a bear running and I do mean running down the left side of the road. I think a motorcycle scared it and it ran for the bushes to hide. The roadsides are for the most part very dense with brush, so lots of bears could hide and not be seen. This was all while driving, so no pictures. There was no real place to pull over. But at least I have the pictures in my head.

That's about all of the things we've done since last we wrote. See you soon.

Skagway and Juneau

2010-07-30T19:02:00.000-07:00

We have had a busy three days here in the panhandle of Alaska. Wednesday we went to a show about Soapy Smith, a con man from Skagway who was shot in a gun fight with the marshall. Then we walked over to the train depot and got on the White Pass and Yukon Railroad train bound for White Summit. The whole trip took about three hours and the scenery was amazing. We could see all the ocean liners in port on the way up. The train goes up the mountain hugging the side and at times it looks like there is nothing holding us up there. It was fun though. After the ride we all walked over to the Skagway Fish Co. and had halibut for dinner. It was terrific.

Thursday we got up at o-dark thirty to catch a ferry to Juneau. It took three hours to get over there from here. On the way we were lucky enough to see bald eagles on trees over looking the fjord about every quarter of a mile or so. They were probably looking for fish (their favorite food.) We also saw six humpback whales feeding. They didn't put on the show like before, but it was great to see them doing whale things. We also saw Stellar sea lions basking in the sun. But the best thing was we were right in the middle of a pod of Orcas. I didn't get any pictures because they were too fast. We followed them for a while, and one of them was right near our ferry. It was pretty cool.

In Juneau we had a bus tour of the small city. I cracks me up that it is the only state capitol that you can't get to from a road. Any way we were dropped off in town, and we ate lunch in the Red Dog Saloon. It was noisy and there was sawdust on the floor, but the food was pretty good. We walked around the five or so blocks of gift shops and then got on the bus to be taken out to Mendenhall Glacier. The visitor center is up a steep hill but the view is fantastic. Some people went for a hike down a trail to see bears eating fish. They saw a bird. Bummer!

We got back on the bus and she took us back to the ferry for the trip back to Skagway. We didn't see many animals except eagles and a group of porposes splashing in the water. We did see a liner go back out the fjord, and it's wake made our little boat ride like a bucking bronco. We didn't get back until 8:30 . The poor dog was glad to see us after 14 hours. Holly was walked twice while we were gone, but she was lonely anyway.

Today was a free day. The staff made us breakfast of omelets and toast, and then our travel meeting. We did laundry and played around in town for a while. Well we have to get going now. See you all soon.

Prince William Sound

2010-07-24T21:36:00.000-07:00

We spent the day ( 10 hours) on Prince William Sound yesterday. It was wonderful. The weather was the best. It was sunny and warm as long as we weren't going into the wind. The best part was the glaciers we saw. We saw the Columbia Glacier first. We couldn't get very close to this one because it calfs huge iceburgs as big as our boat. We got about ten miles from Columbia, and the ice field we had to travel through was very icy and you could hear the pieces of ice hitting the hull. Capt. Amanda went very slow so no damage. The next glacier is called Meare. And we could get about a quarter of a mile from it. This one only has little pieces coming off of it. But the noise is like listening to thunder. And the ice made a huge sound as it hits the water. It was the neatest thing I've ever seem.

The glaciers were not all we saw. We saw a mother whale and her calf, tons of birds ,and lots of piles of Stellar Sea Lions on beaches,rocks, and on big pieces of ice. The whales we saw in the sound were feeding on krill and they breached high in the air. It was amazing to see how big they are. And of course we got no pictures of all of this because I can't take it fast enough. One of the whales laid on his back and flapped his big front flippers just to make a big noise, maybe. The cutest thing we saw were rafts of sea otters. There are loads of them up here. The are much bigger than the otters in Monterey. We had a good time, and got very tired.

Today we took a bus tour of the history of Valdez this morning. It was very interesting to learn that the earthquake that hit in 1964 made it neccessary to move the whole town up the hill to solid land. One of our group's mother was born up here in 1912 or so. So he couldn't find any place that she would have known. It is all gone or moved. This whole town as it is, is only 45 years old. Wild

The rest of the day was to do laundry and stuff. We had a potluck and of course we both ate to much. We leave for Tok in the morning. The on to Distruction Bay, YT and then on to Skagway. So it's early to bed because we have 270 miles to go tomorrow. Bye for now.

Homer

2010-07-19T16:51:00.000-07:00

We haven't done much of anything here except try to get over this cold. and most of the pictures we took are in the group blog. We didn't go anywhere yesterday, and today we went out to lunch and to Safeway for milk, etc. We leave for Palmer in the morning, and we don't know what kind of WiFi we'll get so don't know when we'll blog again. We only have 15 or 16 days left of our tour. Time has just whizzed by. The weather here has been cool and drizzly, but today the sun has finally come through. I think I like it here in the summer. It looks like a lot of other people( boaters) like it here as well.

Anchorage and Seward

2010-07-15T14:37:00.000-07:00

We went from Denali to Anchorage; it seems to be the largest town we've been in since we left the lower 48. We got a bus tour of the city and went to the Wildberry Theater to watch a film about Alaska and then we had dinner. After dinner we walked around and we saw an eagle that can't be in the wild anymore because his half of his right wing is missing. He was beautiful and very proud looking. I'd hate to be a small animal with those talons coming at me. We also saw some reindeer. Both sexes get antlers in the spring. the anlers are in velvet until they stop growing. I touched them and they feel just like the fur on the animal. They are warm because they are supplied with blood while they grow.

The next day we went to the Native Cultural Center. We saw some dancing and storytelling, some totem carving, and a few of the native dwellings. A lot of the houses were built underground or built up with bones and rocks and covered with dirt. They seem to be very cozy. The clothing that they wear in winter is made from fur and skins of the animals they hunt for food. The native people used everything from the animals. There was no waste. Bones became tools or building materials, innerds became rope or waterproof clothing, and the hides became clothing and or blankets. Of course the meat was eaten or dried for storage. I was impressed by the culture.

The next day we drove to Seward. It is on the Kenai penninsula. It really is pretty here. Wednesday we got up early and went to the aquarium for a behind-the-scenes tour. Our guide was a student from Missouri. He was very interesting to listen to. The place is nothing compared to Monterey, but nice nonetheless. At eleven we all got on the bus to be taken down to the dock to board The Star of the Northwast. We were going on a tour of the bay here. Wow!Did we get our moneys worth. We were weren't out of port for more that an hour ( in which we were feed very well) when we came upon a humpback whale. He spy-hopped a lot, rolled over on his back and slapped the water with his flippers, breached and slammed the water, and did some vocalizations. It was amazing. The captain told us that he had only seem one other whale this season and it just left the bay. We really had a show. The whale hung around for twenty minutes or so. It was great even though I only got a picture of his tail when he dived. We also saw a group of basking Steller Sea Lions, and we saw tons of sea birds nesting along the the rocks that lined the bay. We saw puffins, kittiwicks, common murres and a tern looking bird. We also saw a sea otter floating out there just resting. We saw at least four bald eagles as well. We saw iceburgs coming from Bear Glacier. It was an action packed five hour boat trip. We had a forest ranger on board too, and she gave us a running commentary on what we were seeing. This place is almost as beautiful as the Denali park.

We leave for Homer tomorrow morning. It's drizzly today, but we've been lucky so far as far as sightseeing goes. It's always a beautiful day for the sights. That's all for now.

Love, Mom AND dAD

Denali National Park

2010-07-08T22:01:00.000-07:00

We went to Denali National Park today. It was great. We'd heard that it is really rare to see the mountain because of the cloud cover. Well today was as clear as a bell. We could see both peaks of Mt. McKinley. It's over 20,000 ft. tall. The highest peak in North America. I got a picture of a moose; in fact we got pictures of two moose in two different places. We saw five grizzles. Two were a mated pair, and the other three were a mother and her three year old cubs. We saw a wolf but it was too far away to get a picture. We also saw a male moose with a hugh rack. He was up on a hill, so no picture. This was the best tour. The bus was late picking us up due to miscommunication. We were on and off the bus for about 14 hours. We stopped at the end of the road ( 92 miles) where a lodge is located. We had a lovely lunch and we could walk around before our trip back down the road. We got home about 8:00 this evening. The big joke here is we'll get back to our rig before the sun goes down. It never really sets until August. I hope you all get a chance to see this beautiful place.

That's all for tonight. Love, Mom and Dad

Fairbanks

2010-07-06T23:31:00.000-07:00

I'm on your dad's computer because my modem sucks, and I can't get on line. Anyway the pictures are on my computer. So there will be none this time. But it's not too bad because you have seen most of what we've seen on the group blog. We have been very busy here in Fairbanks. For two days we lived on a tour bus. We saw the late Ididarod champ, Susan Butcher's dog kennels and watched her husband do a training run with a team of Huskys. They were pulling a quad with the man and his ten year old daughter on board. Boy could they run, and they appear to love the whole process. I'll not bore you with any more because you've heard it before.
Love to all, Mom and Dad

The Yukon

2010-06-26T22:44:00.000-07:00

This is the first time in a week that we've got to stay in one place for more that one night. We are in Whitehorse, YT. We've been very busy here for the two whole days we've been able to explore. But let me start with the road to get here.

We drove 285 miles from Dawson Creek to Fort Nelson We rode over several frost heaves on the way. At least most are marked so we could slow way down to get over them. We got to see the Heritage Museum that was next to the RV park. That was about all we did that day.

On Tuesday we headed out for Liard (Lee-ard) Provential park. We saw at least three caribou and a wild ram. We stopped for lunch at a roadside place that has a gift shop. We saw a sign that said, " I drove the Alaska Highway both ways, Dammit!"The park is a beautiful place. We dry camped again, but the scenery was outstanding. the trip that day was 185 miles. We went over to the hot springs thatare very famous up here for the "cures" the water is suppose to do. All we saw was steam rising from the water. It's said to be about 105 or 108 degrees. We didn't partake. We got a lot of mud and bug "guts" on the windshield.But that's an everyday occurence up here.

We went to Watson Lake next to put our sign up at the Sign Post Forest. I couldn't believe how many signs there were. We got overload looking at them. That night we went to a theater to see a show called the Northern Lights. It was wonderful. And it's probably the only way I'll see them since they can only be seen at night.

Here in Whitehorse, that is 289 miles from the last place we've seen an old stern wheeler, a museum about the ice age up here, and a vaudville show. It's eleven o'clock and the sun is still up. This about like it was in Scotland.

So far we've only been in three provences in Canada, and we've seen all kinds of flora and fauna. There are wild roses everywhere and some blue flowers as well as some sweet white ones close to the ground. We saw them on our walk to a waterfall. And we saw our moose finally. In fact we saw three that day. One was out in the middle of a river and another was a mother and her calf crossing the road. Both times the moose way there and then gone, so no pictures. But I saw them.

hat's all for now. Love, Mom and Dad PS I was having trouble with the pictures, so they are mixed up. It's mid-night and I'm done...

Going to the Alaska Highway

2010-06-20T21:25:00.000-07:00

We stayed one night in Valemount, BC where I got some laundry done before we had a staff prepared supper. It was good and everyone had a good time. The pulled pork was great. We left there the next morning for Prince George, BC.

The scenery on the way up here was fantastic. And we saw three bears. Two were smallblack ones. One was running across the road like his mother was calling him, and the other was just munching away in the field. It was a good trip. We spent two days there and met our new travelers. There are five new couples. And they are just as nice as the old eleven couples. We had a free day so we went to the Costco to get some necessities to last a while and then we went wandering. We went into a Canada Tire Store, and they don't have many tires for sale. But they have sporting goods like hockey sticks and camping gear as well as car supplies, bikes, container store type stuff, paint, plumbing stuff like a Wal*Mart without the clothes. It was different to say the least. We left there on Saturday morning.

We drove up to Dawson Creek, BC. It was a long trip with not much scenery to look at. Then we started to cross the Rockies again. The mountains are magnificent. We stopped a couple of times just to watch. We saw a couple of bears along the way, but still no moose. One couple, the Beavers saw two mose on the same trip. We did stop at Chetwynd where they have a chainsaw carving contest every year. The town folks display the carvings along the main road. They were amazing to look at. We got here in Dawson Creek in time to listen to a lady, Keltie, from the chamber of commerce give a talk. It was interesting to hear how the Alaska Highway was built. It seems that in 1942 30,000 or so Army men came up and built he darn thing all 1450 miles of it in about ten months.

We went to the Mile Zero post and had our picture made this morning as a group. That was the official start of the highway. Then we got our picture at the original maker post that has been moved into the center of an intersection. After that we drove out to see an original bridge over a river. The new bridge is on the new part of the highway. Tonight we went to dinner at a game farm and had a hayride around the farm to see a herd of bison,up close and personal. We also saw elk,mountain goats,deer, wild boar, and Dahl sheep. We ate wild boar, Bison, and venison with all kinds of salads. The desserts were fantastic. Yum.

We leave in the morning for Ft. Nelson. It's a longer trip so good night for now.

Canadian Rockies

2010-06-16T21:56:00.000-07:00

I'm going to try this for the third time tonight. I keep getting kicked off or I make sutpid mistakes. So here goes.

You all probably read all about our day in Oliver, so I won't bore you except to say we had a fun time.

We drove on up the valley to a place called Revelstoke. We camped in a canyon surrounded by mountains. The only problem was we had no WiFi signal, but the scenery was georgous. We only stayed there the one night and we were on to the next place.

We went to Canmore, Alberta and stayed in a very nice park except that it rained almost the whole time there. We had a bus tour of Banff and Lake Louise. Wow, as you can see from the photos the palce is amazing. The national parks here have little towns in them unlike in the states. A person can't own the land they live on only lease it. It seems to work for them up here. The rain stopped for the most part when we got off the bus to take pictures. The bus driver said we had good karma going with us that day, but in the morning we left the campground with overcast skies and a promise of more rain to come.

We drove on up the the Columbia Icefields. Now that was fantastic. We got snowed on as we traveled, but only for a while. We saw a black bear and a light colored bear along the way. Most of the way up there we could see several glaciers. We got to the visitors center in time to eat lunch and head over to the museum before our trip out to the Athabasca Glacier. We took a huge bus/snocat thing out onto the glacier. We got to stop and get out and look around for a while. It was great. We tasted the water from the melted ice and climbed up a snow bank and looked around while some of us had a snowball fight. I on the other hand decided to fall on my way down the mound and slid down on my bottom. I got very wet, but it was fun. I was a kid again. We dry-camped at the visitors center so I got changed and we ate supper. We sat there for a while and it rained yet again so our leader had a CB meeting for our trip the next day. During the meeting it began to snow and snowed for about an hour. The ground temperature was to high for it to stick, it didn't stick. But it sure was pretty. It got down to 34 degrees last night. Brrr

We drove west today and we are back in BC. The weather was beautiful. We saw a waterfall and more mountains. Tomorrow we leave for Prince George, BC and will pick up the rest our our tour group, five more couples.

That's all for tonight. Now I have to try and up load the photos. Wish me luck

2010-06-16T19:33:00.001-07:00

Pictures

2010-06-10T20:10:00.001-07:00

Now I can send pictures. The top three are from Grand Coulee Dam. It was a nice place. The next one is from the Dry Falls. It was a waterfall that happened after the last iceage. The glacier "dam" broke and the ensuing raging flood came over the cliffs for about six miles and 400 feet down. It was huge. The last picture is the view from our RV park in Oliver, BC. It is the wine country of this part of Canada.

Our group is doing a blog as a group. We each have a day,and our first day is tomorrow. The address to the blog is http//www.awaywego2.blogspot.com. More next week. Love, Mom and Dad

Washington

2010-06-08T21:30:00.000-07:00

We can't get a signal on Verison, and the WiFi is slooow here in the back woods ( really the desert)so no pictures this week. We're in Soap Lake Wash. We got here Sunday and everyone in our tour group is here already as well. So we've been getting to know every one thus far.
Last night we drove up to the Grand Coulee Dam. We saw a few films about the dam and one about the geology of the area. Very interesting. At 10:00 last night the dam had a laser show that they did on the water coming over the dam. It was complete with music. It was really nice. The only problem was we had to drive back the fifty miles on very dark roads. Thank goodness we have the GPS.
We go into Canada on Thursday. We have to got to a meeting tomorrow afternoon to get the latest info about crossing the border. Things like no fresh produce, two bottles of wine per person, and the most important is no firearms. We have no problems with either of those things. And we have our passports and the dog's medical stuff all in order. This is going to be sooo much fun. I hope we get better service ahead,or I'm not going to be able to send many pictures this year.
I send more next week. Love, Mom and Dad

Oregon

2010-05-31T14:13:00.001-07:00

We've seen a lot of the Oregon coast this week. Even though it's been raining cats and dogs most of the time. Poor Erv has driven in the rain all but two days ( today included.) We are now in Portland where it is finally dry and warm, but not for long. They expect one inch of rain in the next three days. Oh well we won't melt.

We visited with Erv's cousin Mickie in Florence for a couple of days. She's your dad's Aunt Sarah's oldest. She looks so much like Mary Ann. She has a big back yard and tons of Rhodys. The Rhodys are blooming like crazy now. I guess that's because they get so much winter rain here. Mickie said she's going to try to come south to Santee sometime when we're at home.

We went to the mouth of the Rogue River to watch the jet boats and heard the sea lions yelping, so we took their picture. There seemed to be 12 or 15 all on the pier all trying to get the best spot. It reminded me of the kinders jostling to get first in line at the drinking fountain.

We're having fun just wandering around making our way to Soap Lake, Wash. I'll try to write more then

Love, Mom

The adventure begins

2010-05-19T21:27:00.000-07:00

We're on the road. We left May 10 and have gotten as far as Arcada, CA. We've just been slowly making our way to Soap Lake, WA to meet our tour group. We stopped in Stockton and met up with JoAnn and Matt for dinner. They've sold their fifth-wheel and are now traveling space-available on military jets. They just got back from Spain. Sounds like fun.

We spent three days in the Sonoma Valley. We went wine tasting, but didn't buy anything because we could only take two bottles into Canada. Maybe next time through. Yesterday we went over to the coast to Bodaga Bay for lunch. It was foggy for a while, but the sun came through to see the bay itself. We ate lunch at The Tides; they have the best clam chowder I've ever tasted. We also ate dinner the night before at Johnny Garlics. It's one of Guy Feiri's resturants. The food was very good but spicy. Yum

The whole way up here from the valley it rained on us. We got very little rain last year, and this year we've gotten more in ten days than the total in the four months last time. I haven't taken any pictures yet ( nothing new), but probably next week. Maybe.......

2010-04-20T19:16:00.000-07:00

We leave for Alaska in May. Look for pictures after June 16.