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Thank you
Annie
ARE WE THERE YET?
By
Annie & Frank
2004
On The Road Again!
June 9th
With new tires on both vehicles, the bakkie (the little white S10 truck we are towing behind us – also known as little Skilpad) out of gear, camera on, compass attached and pointing north again, barefoot, tears rolling with my good-byes to the kids, we hit the road again this morning at 9.26am!
We had not looked at a map until the wheels started turning and I had finished waving goodbye to Joleen standing, all alone, in the parking lot at the shop. After wiping the inevitable tears away, out came the map. North. That’s what counted right then and I needed a “blank spot” to get over all my good-byes and back into travel mode.
We went up into Kentucky along the 27N, a smallish road, which turned out to be quite tiring to drive after the first 100 miles or so. The bakkie (little skilpad/the truck) towed beautifully and the motor home (Skilpad/the house) settled into its routine very well. Frank said that the whole rig became smaller as the miles slipped away. She looked an awfully long 55foot rig right before we left! But she handles beautifully and Frank maneuvers her around like a star.
As we were going around the corners on this gently winding road, the stuff in the cupboards all realigned themselves, and not gently either. Fortunately the cupboard doors stayed firmly latched shut. There is not much one can do about this except be careful when we open the cupboard when we stop, and repack to “Skilpad specifications”. Fortunately no glasses broke. This time. Normally our ability to pack improves along the way.
I split my little toenail ‘half-in-two’, as Frank would say, and had a few interesting minutes fighting with the super glue. Whenever I open one of those little tubes of the stuff, it all comes pouring out at once! No wonder they never last long. So here we are bouncing along a road that has degenerated quite dramatically and is liberally littered with road works and ‘anti-Annies’ (road barriers), the super glue is pouring out of the top of the tiny tube all over my fingers, with me aiming frantically at my little toe before my fingers become permanently attached to each other. My toe is now glued together again, and I spent about 30 minutes sand papering the dried super glue off my fingers and legs. I just know that Frank was laughing – but he did so very quietly.
There are a lot of road repairs going on and the color of the sand around mid Kentucky is pink - the same pink as in the Painted Desert, Arizona. I wonder if it all looked like that here too, once upon a time before all the towns grew up. The Daniel Boone National Forest is beautiful lush green and the road a really good smooth drive. We drove through these incredibly green hillsides eating biltong (jerky), drinking coffee just enjoying being fortunate enough to be able to make another long trip.
We got lost around Nicolasville, Kentucky, just south of Lexington. While looking for a turnaround place, we took a road that we both knew better than to take. According to my reading of the map, it indicated that we could stay on this little road and get out of where we did not want to be. But then we came across a signboard that said, in Huge Letters: Road Ends In River! Oh heck. Fortunately there was a good turnaround place right at the river. There was a fair sized area that a bulldozer was busy cleaning off just for us, or so it seemed! And so we did a tight and very happy turnaround and went 5 miles back up another awfully narrow road to the place we did not want to be in the first place. Some no-good navigating ……. This was just a reminder for me to study the map more carefully before heading down little roads. Finally we found a good road that lead in the right direction and got us back on the right track.
It rained so hard in Lexington that we had to drive through water 2 foot deep at one point - no rivers or ‘float away potential’, but interesting watching the cars all around us up to their doors in dirty, gray, cold looking water. After that rain induced bottleneck of traffic, we hit better roads and Skilpad was put into cruise control, pointed in the right direction and off we went to sleep ..................... only joking! But it was nice to relax a bit on a good, smooth and open road.
We got onto the 64E and drove into West Virginia around 5pm. Last year we had borrowed a really good book from a customer of ours and I had packed it again to take along this year. This book shows all the places of interest along the West to East interstates – and vice versa too, and in it I read about a place called Beech Fork State Park. It sounded wonderful so we headed off the interstate to look for it. And I thought we had been on a bad, narrow road when we got lost… this road was unbelievable!
Narrow and winding, the road fallen away in places and had fallen trees blocking off much of the road in places. I re-read the directions to this place and the exact words to describe it are: “Tortuous approach road”. If only I had read it more carefully! But we made it and here we are and it is a beautiful place. There is almost zero cell phone signal, which is why you will get this email a few days late. It’s 9.30pm and we have had a good Frank-cooked dinner, been for an hour long bike ride around the lake, saw an Enormous Beaver, had a good hot shower and are now relaxing with coffee gently brewing in the background. Maybe we will stay here for a day or so - it will delay the inevitable traveling of that awful road again, besides its lovely and peaceful nestled in the lovely green hills around us. We had a lovely 2 hours sleep and another bike ride today. We went to find a data point in the office and found ice cream in the store. It was lovely listening to the rain on the roof as it cooled everything off and turned all the colors brighter. I managed to get one short phone call through to Steven before the cell phone signal broke up :-)
It is really wonderful to be on the road again. It is truly amazing to see all the things and places we are seeing, and we do feel extremely lucky/blessed/fortunate - whatever – it’s fantastic!
So on that very happy and content note … and with thanks for “riding the ride” with us again……….
Lots of love to you all
Especially, once again, U3! You are all great!
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Lake Erie at Geneva
11th June ‘04
We had a good drive today. We left Beech Fork State Park at 9 am this morning - there are only so many times one can ride the same trails before the open road looks really good again. I was awake early (7 am!) this morning, worrying about that awful, horrible road we had to go back out on. Well, we missed the road that we came in on and for one short moment I felt good, until had to take one that was worse – much worse.
Frank just kept his cool, slowed down, cussed gently at the oncoming cars and it all worked out just fine. Phew. At times we were driving over downed trees, and through holes in the road that wanted to swallow the whole tire – just an incredible road.
We got our cell phone signal back again, so I happily sent text messages to the kids, promising phone calls after 9 pm when cell phone time is free. I did get to talk to Joleen as she was headed back to work.
I am not good in heavy traffic, especially going through big towns like Atlanta and now Cleveland, for instance. Frank, once again, just stays calm and keeps on ‘trucking’. My toes and stomach muscles go into spasms, and I force myself to look out of a window that does not show an enormous truck bearing down on us, with water and spray covering everything in its way. Now I know why my mom would say to my dad, tersely: “Watch the road, Erle, I will look at the scenery!”
Charleston was big and busy - like Chicago in rush hour traffic. Once one gets onto the interstate you just have to go with the flow hoping that we will get spat out at the right place. The roads are like enormous raging rivers flowing through the concrete jungles all around and there is no stopping or getting off very easily. I swear I sprouted a few dozen more gray hairs in a very few short hours! The coffeepot that Lisa gave us last year is working wonders again this year and keeping us awake and buzzing with a constant flow of hot coffee.
The roads here are generally a good, this one winding through the most incredible green hills. Nothing too steep and Skilpad is handling it just great, as are we. I don’t even want to think about tires at all. Last year on our trip to Alaska, we had to replace all of them and had endless valve core leaks. Maybe this year will be easier on our tires? Our daily dose of rain started at 11 am and lasted all the way till we stopped and set up here at Lake Erie this evening. It poured and poured not buckets, but bathtubs full all the way and especially hard while we drove through the major cities and the road works - of course!
We went through Akron, Ohio and then along the outskirts of Cleveland. We did first plan on staying in Cuyahoga Falls National Park, but they did not advertise any camping facilities on the road signs so we kept going. Cleveland is chaos in the pouring rain, with road works everywhere - utter chaos. I am glad we did that part today – it’s over.
Now we are parked in a lovely forest called Geneva State Park right next to Lake Erie. Frank is busy cooking, the coffee brewing and I am about to get the bikes out. We want to ride down to the lake - it looks like the ocean! But our stomachs call loudly first.
Ok – we have now been to the lake. We started out with our shorts and t-shirts on, only to turn back rather quickly to change into jeans and long sleeve shirts with a jacket in the bike carriers just in case! It’s definitely much cooler up here, especially in the shade.
That body of water is amazing. The waves come crashing in sounding just like at the ocean - minus the shells and sea smell, of course. We did not go to the beach section - we are leaving that for tomorrow, but we did find two different water access points waaaaaay down the road. So, off came my shoes, and I got my feet wet in Lake Erie! The water is c-o-l-d! And yes, I did pick up some stones - Frank just gently smiled. I also found a goose - yes, a goose - a large, gray, plastic/rubber goose. It was probably some decoy that came in on the waves, and I set it loose again after Frank took pictures of me kissing it goodbye. We rode along the road looking through the houses at the Lake and could see enormous cargo ships out on the horizon. The houses are very big with many trees all around them. Not much human activity but a very gentle area to live in, it seems.
There were a good few ships out there and the sunset over the water was beautiful – I got some good pictures. It is lovely down there, but too cold to stay for too long. Tomorrow we will go to the beach section and explore some more.
We will probably stay around here till the main weekend traffic is over before heading up towards Niagara Falls. We are also not sure at this stage whether we are going to go into Canada and then head up to the falls or go the southern route and go in from the USA side. We will chat to a few other folks first before deciding - we are looking for the least amount of traffic possible. We also hope to camp around Niagara Falls for a few days and maybe even get a boat ride at the foot of the falls. There is a place called The Whirlpool that sounds fascinating too.
But that’s another day and now I am going to sign off for now. I will be sending most of my emails after 9pm at night, except on weekends when my cell phone airtime is free. Maybe I can catch some of you online then too......and can avoid astronomical phone bills when we get back home again.
Love to you all
Especially U3 – don’t work too hard!
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
p.s.: Lake Erie is 570 feet above sea level!
Skipping Stone Beach – Lake Erie
12th June ’04
We are still at Lake Erie - we had some exploring to do around here still. This morning we went into the nearby not-so-little town, Ashtabula to hunt a Wal-Mart to get some supplies and a new battery for the house - the heater would not come on last night and this morning Frank discovered a dead battery. With a bright new battery the heater is working just great again!
The towns here are quite amazing – many of the houses are mansions and right next door to them are the grottiest of trailer parks one could imagine - all with the most amazing view of the lake. It’s a gentle suburban living area and also has the tourist section, complete with water rides and absolutely no access to the lake at all. The tourist attractions are here because of the Lake I would imagine, but now most of them don’t even use the lake as part of the attraction - quite strange. We both agree that all the coastal areas should be classified as public area and houses should be built off the beaches to allow people free and easy access to what is a natural phenomenon. It is such a pity that the access is so restricted to the general public - especially us!
The marina is very busy, which is good to see. An amazing variety of boats live there, from ones almost as small as a life raft to some enormous “bullets” with three motors and painted flames all along the hull. There are some lovely little sailboats – it’s really good to see that folks are actually using them.
We rode to the beach area, which is not very big, but is filled with flat stones that skip beautifully across the lake - I got 9 skips in one throw! That always reminds me of dad and the times he taught me to throw those stones. The sand is slightly dark and is liberally sprinkled with these flat stones and plenty smooth pieces of driftwood. Lots of people there too, but no-one was swimming - the water felt as if it were just above freezing! One very bored life guard sat high up on his perch while being admired by all the young teen girls there.........................
We rode the bikes further down the road, took some nice photos of swamp looking areas and then headed home, stopping for ice along the way. We had bought a gentle bottle of white wine this morning and were looking forward to relaxing with a mix of wine, orange juice and ice. This we did and now Frank is gently snoring in the room. We did not sleep too well last night as it was cold and for some reason neither of us got out a spare blanket - well it was too cold to get out and get one! Tonight the blanket comes out first, even though the heater works again. I have been playing with my new camera - a digital with interchangeable lenses. One of which is an incredible zoom lens, that got me some amazing pictures of a mama bird frantically trying to get enough food to her growing chicks. Poor thing seemed exhausted!
Tomorrow we will leave here, unless it is pouring with rain, and head a bit further north. We are not sure exactly which way we are going, but plan to get close to Niagara Falls and set up camp for a few days again. We are still not sure whether we will go into Canada and camp or try to battle the traffic in Buffalo, New York. Time will tell. We have everything on charge tonight just in case we camp along the road tomorrow. This is definitely the “cheating” way of camping - computers, tv, cameras, cell phone, battery chargers, hot water, a shower and a toilet, a comfy bed, and an almost constant supply of coffee, etc, etc! Spoilt, we are, but it’s really good to have the option of being comfortable.
I was watching a small group of campers at the site opposite us yesterday. They were obviously parents and son and daughter-in-law. The father appeared to be a military person and approached this whole camping business in a very important and military manner. The poor daughter in law did not know whether to sit down or stand up, and spent much of her time literally walking in circles. The father marched from tent to car saluting at the trees and anyone that walked by. It was fascinating to watch and many positive vibes were sent from me to the totally frazzeled young lady. The son and mother seemed to cope very well, just doing their own thing and apparently not seeing the stress and distress of the daughter in law or the pomp of the father. Ah well. It was almost a relief to me when they packed up and left. That poor girl was totally lost.
We are definitely doing this trip slower than the last one, and it is taking some getting used to. It was good to talk to U3 today - keep going, you are all doing great!
Love to all - Especially U3
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Into Canada and …………………
13th June ‘04
Today must end - the sooner the better, because then tomorrow will be here and we are riding the bikes around Niagara Falls. We have just got back from driving around there to scout it out. What a breathtaking time. We did not stop much - the place is choc-o-block full of people and very little parking place left – way too many people all in all. So. It being after 7pm, we have decided to get there tomorrow morning as early as possible. The only problem is getting me out of bed early enough but I just know that there won’t be a big problem with that at all. Not for this!
What we saw was awesome, totally awesome........ I really don’t know how to describe it. One can look on the top of the falls right where the water goes over, and then way down the river, it’s just a mass of white water at the bottom of the Falls and a weird but lovely light green/blue color further down the river - totally wonderful!! The poor camera worked overtime this evening - but will have to do so much more tomorrow. We will take both cameras and maybe the video camera too. Depends how much we can get into the baskets of the bicycles along with the required snacks and water.
We left Geneva-On-The-Lake this morning just after 10 am, knowing that we were going to be nearby the Falls by this evening. The road was terrible in Ohio but we just turned the radio up to drown out the sound of the cupboard contents going nuts. Pennsylvania passed by fast and we went through New York State with little problem other than missing the one turnoff because of MAD traffic. Then it happened, at 1:48 p.m. - for the first time Frank uttered “Damn Yank” at an idiotic driver! It sounded good and got rid of some traffic tension. Fortunately it did not become a regular utterance – I think he had been looking forward to finding one crazy driver in New York that he could mutter this to. This is a pretty state - very green and many little rivers running all over the place. All the flags are still flying half-mast for Ronald Reagan.
Because we missed the turnoff we had needed to take, we had to go across Grand Island instead and into a more Eastern entrance into Canada. At the border I got my passport stamped again even though it has expired by now – I had my Green Card to make the crossing and re-entry legal. There I was in a room with 5 Immigration officers and not any of them in the slightest way interested in giving me a hard time - nice! They were rather puzzled as to why I would want an expired passport stamped - but did not hesitate at all once I gave them a brief rundown of my immigration battle over the past 10 years. One even cracked a smile.
We found this campsite about 10 minutes from Niagara Falls and wasted no time getting the bikes out for a ride down the road, but in the opposite direction from the Falls, along the Niagara River - all very pretty, clean and gentle and so green. The Niagara River is beautiful. It’s about as wide as the TN River in places, but so clean and flows incredibly fast. Everything is a wonderful green with brightly colored flowers. The water seems to be a milky light blue and the bridges arch high above the water to the left and right of us.
It’s lovely and warm here - not too hot. The sun is starting to set now - 8.30pm. Right across the road from the park we are in, is a weird tree farm where they grow trees and then train them into weird and wonderful twisted shapes. Some spiral, some knobbly - but all amazing and beautiful lush green.
We have been doing a lot more walking and bike riding than the last trip and have also been successful, so far, in staying in one place for longer than a day at a time! Who knows how it will go later on, but all I can think of right now is cycling around those magnificent Falls tomorrow. We are both a tad tired today so it will be an early night tonight and hopefully a wonderful day tomorrow.
I loved your text messages today, Joleen and Frank promises another of his burgers when we get back, seeing as you did not want to come and fetch it today. In the meantime he will carry on getting them better and better, if that’s at all possible. And your messages too Steven - yes it is awesome being up here, and we are having lots of fun, thanks!
That’s it for me today
With lots of love to you all
Especially U3 again
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Niagara Falls!
14th June 2004
I don’t want to write this email - I want to keep looking at the stunning photos we took today!
I remember as a kid undoing the wrapping on a gift and trying to see what’s inside - just a peek in one corner. This is what we did yesterday by driving through the Niagara Falls area. We did not get out, we did not walk around, we just drooled a little over the thought of going back today – just a peek in one corner of an amazing place. This did not make for easy sleeping last night and I felt like a child expecting an enormous gift the next day. It thundered and lightening-ed last night so I was convinced that today would be rainy and dull. Fortunately I was very wrong. When we were driving through Buffalo, NY, we saw this cloud/plume of mist, and realized that it was Niagara Falls mist. All this added up to an incredible sense of expectation. And it was met, more than met......
Nothing we saw could have prepared us for the sights of today. We were up early and at the Horseshoe Falls by 7 am - that in itself is nothing short of a miracle for me. The cameras heaved enormous sighs and 350 pictures and a few short videos later, we could easily go and see it all over again! There is no way one can describe the thunderous noise, the ‘coolth’ of the constant mist falling, the sight, the enormity and beauty of this place. The sun was blinking on different sections of the falls, highlighting it through the spray/mist of the others. The water falls, and then bubbles, foams and sprays, boiling almost all the way back up to the top.
One can stand right at the top of the falls, at the very place where it drops over the edge. It makes one quite dizzy while watching this and had the ability to make my mouth drop open in absolute awe every time I was drawn back there. The water is so clear that at the top before it races over the edge and one can see a few feet down to the bottom of the river and see the rocks on the riverbed! Both of us just stood and looked at the power that is humanly impossible to stop. Right at the very point where the water goes over, the water is green/blue and this lines the rim of the Falls all around. The water boils its way down, catching on rocks on the way, creating the most amazing effects. One can see big rocks and boulders being swept down the falls.
It was wonderful being able to share this moment on the phone with you Mom. It is quite possible to sit on one of the many benches and just “feel the falls” for a long, long time – it’s just truly fantastic. The seagulls float and coast all along the river, above and below the falls and dart down wards to catch the dropped food of all the tourists. Some will even eat out of your hand. They are very healthy, plump birds.
We were very fortunate that we were there so early - there were hardly any people and we were able to ride all along the viewing area without any problem at all, stopping wherever and whenever we wanted to. Later on during the day, when thousands of people were wandering around, it became totally impossible to ride around there, but by then it was time to go....
We thought that we would go on a boat ride to the bottom of the falls, but then watched from way up, and saw that the boats did not really go as far into the mist as I would have liked. It might be far enough when one is on the boat, but from the top looks like it’s still far away from the actual falls. The helicopters stayed waaaay up in the air, so that was ruled out too. Both of us were content just to keep going between the top of the falls, and the other viewpoints.
The Niagara Falls is actually made up of 3 different falls: The American Falls, the Bridal Veil Falls and The Horseshoe Falls. 90% of the water from the Niagara River goes over the Horseshoe Falls, the other 10% over the other two. The Niagara Falls stopped once in recorded history - it was in 1848 when millions of tons of ice got lodged at the source of the Niagara River and stopped the falls for 30 hours. The story goes that there was quite some panic and praying and that it was quite an incredible roar that occurred when it all opened up again, although some folks were brave enough to walk across the rocks while it was dry - that would take some guts too! That must have been quite a sight.
Some more information: 300 years ago, the Horseshoe Falls was located 11 miles further downstream than today. The water eroded the rock at the rate of one meter a year. Now, with major water diversions for power generation, the erosion rate is “only” about 36 centimeters over ten years. And I love these words, written in 600 BC by a Chinese philosopher, Lau Tzu: “Water is fluid, soft and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. This is another paradox: what is soft is strong.” Quite some thoughts and teachings in those words.
So, we got to the falls at around 7am, rode around on the bikes for over 5 hours, only occasionally getting off to nurse our aching rear ends! I got my feet in the rushing waters of the Niagara River, although I have to admit that it was nowhere near the falls – safely a good way upstream, and there was only a good, gentle flow to the clear, cool water at this point. I also picked up some stones out of the river itself. Something just keeps me picking these up. There are trails for a long way all alongside the river. These were perfect for the bikes and were fairly level all the way with much shade and many benches to rest on. Sometimes the trail took us right next to the river and at other times through pine forests where some serious bikers went whizzing by. It was just plain wonderful. We now notice that we gained a gentle tan along the way. We had bought some sausage rolls yesterday, which we took along for snacks. We have not found these sausage rolls in USA, so were really happy to find them again here. We are also back in the land of smarties, crunchies and aero chocolates - all those things that make my willpower, and hips, shudder. But they taste SO good!
So, after a wonderful sleep when we got back, some darn good coffee, and the weather pretty muggy with thunderstorms coming in, we both feel pretty good. And we are still totally in awe with the photographs now playing as a screensaver on the computer. What a day - Totally Awesome! I have this ‘thing’ for photographing water (the proof is in last years photos), so I was totally in my element today - I am sure even this abundance of water will not dampen my need to respond when Frank yells “Water, Annie, water!!”
Lovely phone calls from both Joleen and Lisa - thanks my girls. And Steven, we will have to start calling you “Spiderman”.
We will be heading out tomorrow morning towards Toronto and then up towards Hudson Bay. Thanks for all the emails - we love getting them.
With lots of love to all
Especially U3 - please stay safe.
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
SERIOUSLY! Where are we?
15th June ‘04
I asked Frank this a few minutes ago and his response was as helpful and informative as mine was - somewhere between the moose crossing signs and Chisasibi near Hudson Bay. We are about 300 miles north of Toronto and now in Quebec. This is totally French country and after putting in gas a few minutes ago, we are both convinced that we were seriously ‘rooked’ with the exchange rate. Neither of us has the strength or language knowledge to argue the point, so we are on the road headed north again with enough gas to get us many more miles.
We left the Niagara Falls area early this morning, I was a bit nervous about being back on the road again for some reason, but settled down and got used to the travel sounds pretty soon. Nothing fell out of the cupboards and the wheels kept turning the way they were meant to. The traffic quickly picked up and the around Toronto I just wanted to sink into a hole and disappear. I navigated us onto a toll road that seemed to go on for 10 times longer than what the map showed, but got us around the worst of the traffic and downtown - we would have hated getting dumped in the middle of that town! These are roads where it is best that one gets into one lane and just stays there – the chances of successfully changing lanes looks and feel slim with all the traffic screaming along – all knowing exactly where they are going, leaving us in mute wonder and horror, at the madness of it all.
It was misty this morning so the only view of Lake Ontario was a quick snapshot between a gazillion apartment buildings, while heading deeper into the insanity of the morning rush hour. It was astounding to see the number of apartments around here – the buildings went on for miles and mile covering the landscape in all directions – quite amazing.
There is a lot of British influence here and the road signs, the ones that tell the name or number of that particular road, are all made in the shape of a crown and the writing inside that. The names all seem to have a British leaning and there is a coat of arms is stamped in the cement pilings on most bridges. The main road around Niagara is called the Queen Elizabeth Parkway. Frank tells me that we have done 1426 miles since home!
We both tend to read the signboards or town names and such stuff out loud as we pass by, which leads to the inevitable discussion about the correct pronunciation and or meaning of the words and places. Now that we are in Quebec those discussions have stopped - its pointless discussing this when we have no idea how to even try to pronounce some of the places! A good laugh at some attempts, though.
I cut my hair the other day and it turned out very well, the parts that I can see anyway, and Frank is not laughing so the rest must be ok too. Or he just wants to live longer… The bicycles have been doing great too - we do get many stares when we pack them up or unpack them - they are the fold up type and look like wheelchairs when folded - maybe this is why no one has tried to steal them.
McDonald’s in this town in Ontario has a drive through that appears to say that it is self-service - it’s under the building too. Quite something to see.
Ok, here are some names of the places we have been through today: Timiskaming, Nipissing, Rouyn-Noranda - and that’s just some of them. We are still headed in the general direction of Hudson Bay. The roads are getting smaller, but more like the roads in Yukon and British Columbia - open, green and virtually no traffic at all – wild roads! We are approximately 1/3 of the way to Chisasibi, and might lose contact for a few days although half an hour ago we had a great signal - one never knows.
We have not seen any wildlife of any kind as yet. There are many signs saying that one must be careful, but not one single moose or buck. There are more signs along the road with pictures of animals than there are visible animals – no wonder the signs are full of bullet holes – hunting?
We will probably pull off next to the road somewhere tonight, somewhere. We are now nearing Amos, in Quebec.
Lotsalove to you all
And especially U3 - well done, Lisa on your Job!
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
James Bay Road
16th June ‘04
We slept at the SOS telephone somewhere south of Matagami, at least we knew where we were. They have SOS telephones dotted along the remote roads, just in case of problems. The roads are narrow ribbons of tarmac with no amenities or stores along the way at all. There is also not much traffic either, with us seeing an average of one vehicle every 3 hours or so. The place we pulled off for the night was a wide open parking lot used by the road workers of the area and was level and available and looked just wonderful after a long days drive. We each had a bowl of soup and headed off to bed at 10.30pm, in broad daylight (very odd again), adding an extra blanket this time - it was definitely cooler and we had been driving with the heater on for quite a way already.
We left the back blind/curtain open just in case we would be lucky enough and see the northern lights. At various times during the night I opened one eye, peering out of the window in hope - nothing but a light sky – it was too light even to see the stars. The sun did not set till waaaaay past 11.30pm. I only opened one eye because the other was firmly planted in the pillow and I was not about to move my head - too cold by far, so my one eye tried to be like a chameleon eye, but still could find no northern lights. Frank was also awake at regular intervals checking the night sky, but he also had no luck finding those illusive lights.
When we woke up this morning we needed some serious heat – it felt as if everything was coated in a layer of ice. For some reason the new heating unit won’t work on gas, so we are back to heating the house by running the engine and putting on the coffee when we are alongside the road for the night. Ah well, life could be a lot worse. I got up, not feeling too bright, looked in the mirror and realized that I really should not do mornings - at all! I put on my face (a light dab of eyeliner and lipstick) checked the mirror again and gave up. Only then did I notice the time - it was only 6am! No wonder I looked like cold dog soup. Frank did not scream or run away, so I sat down, gently sipping good warm coffee and thanking my lucky stars for my life.
We then headed north towards Matagami and the James Bay Road. Chisasibi (Shee-suh-sea-bee) is 679km north of Matagami. The road is not bad at all, a bit bumpy but once you realize that Canada has marked most of the bad spots on the road with a permanent looking red square on a steel pole, life becomes easier - slower but easier. At times, when we missed seeing one of those squares, we bounced quite impressively and little Skilpad behind us complained loudly by trying to jerk us backwards. After a while the bouncing, bumping, jerking, insane noise and that “at sea in a storm” feeling becomes normal. I think it’s called the give-up-and-survive tactic. We either spoke louder, did not speak, turned the radio on, or just laughed, our eyes growing wider as the miles went by, in desperation for some peace and quiet.
There are no mountains around here, just gently rolling hills, big open sky and green trees everywhere - lovely.
So here we are, driving 600 kilometers up North on a remote road, and I mean remote…….. We see another vehicle every couple of hours, at times. We don’t have a cell phone signal, gas stations are hundreds of kilometers and miles apart, we don’t speak the language (Cree, French, Inuit etc) and we don’t know what the weather is going to be doing............. amazing! There is a check in point at the very beginning of this road that one has to register at for safety reasons. They give you all the details of the road and a map and directions how far it is between the SOS phones. We had to let them know approximately how long it would be before we headed out of there again so they knew when and if to come looking for us. Comforting, to say the least and makes us wonder about what is ahead. We have to sign out when leaving, just so they know. The folks there were very friendly, interesting and helpful.
We have just had a very wide load pass us, they nearly pushed us right off the already narrow road into the bog land. The guy drove right in the middle of the road leaving us no space at all to even park on - it was close. It is raining, and the road got worse for a looong time - back to the ‘ker-chunk’ style road – that gets tiring too. This is quite a ride and was our choice to come this way, although we doubt our sanity and wisdom of this choice right now! The scenery is the same for miles and miles, swampy ground, lovely lakes behind big green trees, massive colorful rocks and reindeer moss all over the place. It’s like a different world. A world far from anything we are familiar with.
We stopped at Rupert River to take some photos. The river looked like a horizontal Niagara Falls, with the water boiling over the rocks and jumping high above the river - very spectacular. But by now it was sleeting lightly and we did not stay long. It was good to stop for a little while and stretch the legs and give the ears and soul a rest from the constant noise. We brewed a fresh pot of coffee while we were stopped and enjoyed the peace of the area from inside the house. It is amazing to be pulled off alongside the road in the middle of nowhere, it sleeting, an amazing river rushing by, nothing for miles and miles around and nobody really knowing where we are. And that smell of freshly brewed coffee…
1pm - we saw Wolves! Wow. They were just standing there, not howling, not hunting, just standing in an old gravel pit. They were lovely healthy looking animals that just watched us going by. I wish I had the camera ready – what a photo that would have been! We also saw moose poop - no moose. Saw a porcupine - I wanted a quill, but he did not look too friendly, and I figured that the situation could get very prickly, so left that one alone!
There are little houses in the oddest of places along the way. Mostly they have no windows or the windows are thoroughly boarded up and generally there is no sign of a driveway, let alone a car or snowmobile. They all look deserted, yet used. The roofs are covered with an incredible variety of stuff - seems like they used anything and in some cases, everything, to cover it up and keep the tarpaulins anchored down. Most had teepees in the yards in various stages of disrepair or total breakdown. Enormous piles of firewood outside every structure - no matter how dilapidated it looks. I would not want to be caught out with no wood up here in the winter either. I wonder how much the locals enjoy the effort to survive out here in the winter cold and with the summer mosquitoes.
We just had supper now and the computer went onto screensaver - I still have the Niagara Falls photos on as my current screensaver- they are still awesome.
We are now up at Radisson in a campground about 30 miles away from Chisasibi, on the East coast of James Bay. We plan to drive down there tomorrow as well as to James Bay itself. We drove past places called Waskaganish and Wemindji. They sound like fascinating places but are all about 100 kilometers from the main road, on a gravel road. I am not sure either of us would survive those roads in the motor home right now. Wemindji means ‘colorful hills’ in Cree and it seems as if it could be another Painted Desert with trees. Pretty name....another day. Maybe.
It’s lovely and quiet here now, we are picking up a French tv channel, and the kids here are clever - even they speak French fluently. Just joking!. We are having quite some fun trying to imagine what the folks are saying - becomes interesting at times especially when their hands wave around madly all over the place.
The sky is big and blue and almost icy looking and goes on forever all around us - maybe tonight we will get to see the northern lights? We will certainly keep looking. We are backed up into a site that has a small-tree forest behind us, so it will be ok for us to leave the blinds open again. Tonight we have a power hookup, and the electric heater is already plugged in and chugging along quietly doing its job really well. It’s just too cold to go for a walk and actually nice to sit and do nothing constructive at all. We went for a shower that had a seemingly unending supply of hot water. There are very few people in the campgrounds so there was no reason to rush that either. So a good long soaking was greatly enjoyed.
We have been on the road for a week already - time goes so fast! I miss the kids tremendously, especially when we have no cell phone signal. I have learned how to send text messages to their phones, but not even that will work up here. All too soon we will be back in contact and I can bug them again!
Well, that’s it for today. I know you won’t be getting this for a few days yet but if I don’t get this all down while its all still fresh in my mind, it will be gone forever! There are so many little things that I remember after sending the emails, but I try to put them in other emails.
Love to you all
And U3 - I love you all and miss you tremendously and have your pictures on my wall again so I see you!
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
And now Frank is voluntarily picking up stones too! Just let him comment on the weight of the stones we will no doubt collect along the way...........
Chisasibi & Radisson – N.Quebec
17th June ‘04
See? We know zigzaktly where we are! If you look at the map of Quebec, find James Bay at the bottom end of Hudson Bay, and then look for the little town of Chisasibi on its eastern coast - its as far north as you can drive in a normal vehicle in Quebec – that’s where we are. The town of Radisson is where we are camped - with electricity and water and all. As a matter of fact, the water tastes so good here that we are draining the house tank and going to refill it with this good stuff. We just came back from doing the laundry but the dryer did not work, so Skilpad now looks like a laundromat with wet clothes hanging all over the place, drying slowly.
We woke up this morning and headed to Chisasibi and James Bay. The scenery was pretty much the same as everywhere else here - little trees, lakes, no wildlife and overcast most of the way, which totally killed my thoughts of “stunning lake” photo opportunities. There were a few highlights along the way: a caribou back leg on the side of the road – wonder what took the rest of it? A big steel fishing boat in the middle of nowhere with no water anywhere nearby – we had to get out and explore that one. There were some interesting stones and moss all around and some tiny little flowers. This area is so open, and its lovely and quiet too. There was green couch perched all alone up on a hill over looking miles and miles of nothing at all, and a checkers game along the side of the road, also in the middle of nowhere, being played with already shot shotgun shells - no one around though. Maybe the game is played as the various people pass - but by the time we got there, the game was over. Not a boring road all in all.
The road itself was good, not gravel or dirt as we had expected. We had to register along that road too - they want to know who goes into and out of the Indian Settlement and James Bay area. Two very bored looking Cree guys wrote our names and registration number down on a tiny piece of paper. Guess it works........... We had the definite feeling all the time that someone, somewhere was aware of where we were and what we were doing at all times.
Chisasibi is another story. There is a little church as one comes into the town - it’s really lovely, and neat and tidy. And then it all seems to fall apart - by our standards anyway. The various shops/stores are mostly not labeled or advertised - they are just very drab/dull buildings sitting there with no open or closed signs, no ‘come in’ or ‘stay out’ signs. We could not tell the difference between what turned out to be a community center and the grocery store. At times we wondered if some of the places were private houses or stores. And we don’t speak Cree too well yet, so it was difficult to ask. That really was not a problem - most of the folks there that we spoke to spoke English very well.
There is trash lying everywhere - I mean everywhere - its been years since I last saw trash lying around like that - along the road to Chisasibi itself and especially a beeeg problem in the town itself. The houses look terribly drab - the weather must play havoc with them and the rubbish around each house and building is quite amazing. Everything looks so run down, poor and totally uncared for. It looks like the poorest side of town in any big city. The Indians are not a ‘smiling nation’, and we were not greeted in a manner familiar to our culture at all. There are no sidewalks or greenery around, just dust. Just dust, trash and the faded roads. It’s a sad looking place.
We did find a bank and exchanged some American dollars into Canadian money - the Cree lady at the bank did not know how to cope with this at all, so it took quite a while, while she counted the money about 20 times just to make sure. She was very sweet though and smiled and chatted a lot. We then went into a building that housed offices, a few shops around the perimeter and had a big open gathering area in the middle. There were no tourist shops to speak of, just many, many people hanging around the center of the building, seemingly doing nothing but watching us with very serious faces. A distinctly uncomfortable feeling and we were very happy to leave the building via a different door, so that we did not have to walk past them all again. It was definitely not the most comfortable feeling place, but I might be very wrong, and send a silent Cree apology if I am. We were actually quite happy to leave there. I cannot imagine living in Chisasibi. The people are probably fantastic folks once you get to know them, but it was all so totally foreign on all levels.
Then we went on to James Bay, which is only about 10km further down the road - gravel road this time. And I did forget - Frank does not like dust, and after being dragged over 1000 miles, the bakkie was definitely dusty! But we got there. And ‘there’ was a place at the waters edge, filled with upside down snow sleds, snowmobiles, canoes and boats with outboard motors. Some of them were up on racks, but there were lots of them - all just sitting there on dry ground all over the place. I tried hard to get a good, clean photograph of James Bay, and might have, I think. But they have a serious problem with trash there too and the shotgun shells littered the ground everywhere - no wonder we saw no wildlife at all. We saw no boats out on the water either and there was still ice floating around everywhere out in the bay. We stood and wondered why people like James Bay, or this part of it anyway. There is simply nothing there at all that we could find to rave about, nothing we could see that made us want to stay for any length of time. Maybe we had the wrong time of year, or the wrong attitude or just did not see clearly, but it was quite a disappointment. Both of us are glad we came up here - it is different in a strange way and the history of this place is incredible and sad too. “Progress” does not seem to have dealt this place a pretty hand……….
I did read quite a bit about the actual land/ground around this area and wish I could remember what fascinated me - something to do with tectonic plates and minerals and suchlike things, but my mind just won’t grab it right now. I know I am going to kick myself for missing something when we get home and I look on my computer there and find what it was that got my attention.
Anyway, on the way back from James Bay, we saw an amazing lake filled with Canadian Geese gently floating around. It was a perfect shot - sunshine, mirror water, not a ripple and these elegant, colorful geese floating majestically around in the middle of nowhere creating fantastic reflections. Frank came to a screeching halt and I fired off a good few shots (with the camera!), and then it hit home - a flock of geese on a pond and not a ripple on the water??? They were all decoys!! Beautiful, elegant, majestic but all genuine plastic. All the Canadian geese are in Tennessee - not here. We should have known that. So now I look at those photos and just laugh - it still made for a good few lovely photos - close to National Geographic style, but totally false!
So that was Chisasibi and James Bay - done. The roads are wonderful and quiet – virtually no traffic at all. The peace and quiet up here is something different – it is totally wonderful!
At 2pm we went on a tour of the hydro electric plant in Radisson. It is incredible, enormous and was very interesting. They had to schedule us an English tour and there were only 4 of us in the group. The amount of space dug out of pure rock is stunning. We drove for over a mile down underground just to get to see the turbines and those were about 450 meters underground in solid rock. The place is huge, huge, huge. When underground you have to drive on the left side of the road in case there is a problem then you can see the side of the tunnel while driving to get out of there.
Then our guide took us for a drive up over the dam and surroundings. There is still a lot of black ice floating in the water here and they say that summer is starting late this year. This whole project is humongous - totally incredible and this is only one of the six power plants in this project. Sitting here in the house we can see, way in the distance, the dam wall and the water and the spillway, now that we know what we are looking at. Those steps of the overflow of the dam are enormous and we took many pictures – snow and ice solidly clinging to their places and with lovely reflections of the clouds in the standing water. They look like a stairway for a giant.
The Cree Nation is the biggest Aboriginal tribe here. Most of the road signs are written with this language as well. There is no original written Cree language - only an alphabet that was made up by the missionaries so that the Bible could be translated into a ‘readable’ Cree. It seems to be made up mostly of triangles, sideways S’s and upside down letter J’s - totally confusing to me, but obviously understood by many here. It fascinates me for some reason and I wish I had the mental energy and will to want to learn it.
There are many little ‘piles of rock’ here - and the story goes like this. The Inuit Nation piles these rocks up in the shape of a man with arms, legs body and head, always leaving some essential supplies nearby, like rope, food or water. It is a marker to show the traveler that he is on the right path and to help him along the way and going in the right direction. The hunter will also pile these rocks up so that he knows the way back home, some of them have a gap in the middle of the pile where the stomach or legs would be - and when looked through, will line up with the next little pile of rocks. They are called Inukshuk. It is a custom that is still used today within the tribe and many of these are found along the road. Some of them have one arm longer than the other and this points to certain things, could be water, shelter or direction - always to help the traveler find his way safely. Some are made so big that they are supposed to scare the caribou onto a different track, into the hunter’s path. They are rather fascinating little ‘statues’....... Many people, like us, build these whenever we stop alongside the road and I believe this is why we see so many.
And now it is bedtime for us. It has been a long and interesting day in so many ways. It is cloudy again tonight so we can sleep without wondering if we are going to miss the northern lights. Apparently there were a few short shows nearby last night, but they say that they were nothing spectacular - any little show would go well with me, but we both need a good nights sleep. Tomorrow morning we head back down the James Bay Road - all 617km of it. We will probably camp out along the way and I hope we hear the wolves howling - they say that the wolves were really abundant this past winter. They also say that the caribou traveled a lot further south than normal and that we will probably find many antlers along the way - we will look - I would love to try my hand at carving them!
Radisson is a lovely town with friendly folks. There are many little stores to look around and it’s nice and clean there too. The campsite was beautifully kept with wonderfully helpful folks. It’s peaceful and quiet and it takes quite a bit to imagine this whole place covered with many feet of snow and ice during the Winter months. I could not imagine living with that much cold for that long a time. So, with my thoughts very much with U3
I say goodnight
Lotsalove
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Last Day in Quebec
19th June ‘04
I have been getting phone calls from everyone wanting to know where we are. Even if we knew, I could not say because we cannot pronounce those words! Right now we are in Ontario.
Yesterday (Friday, we think) we left Radisson and Chisasibi and headed down that road again - 600km’s of absolutely nothing different at all atall! We did see one moose but he ran away and I did not even capture him on the camera - there are very few places to pull over on the road and get any photos, so they are all done ‘on the move’. There is no side-of-the-road at all, just bush, rock or sand that one does not want to get into especially in such a remote area. We drove for 9 hours yesterday and stayed in a pull-off last night, right opposite the SOS phone place we stayed at on the way up. This side was more sheltered from the road and had a row of trees to shield us from the one single car that passed by. There was a storm and the wind whipped those trees, making a lovely swishing sound all night that was accompanied by the motor home dancing to the wind too. Lovely. We were too tired to look for the northern lights and it was overcast with the storm anyway.
A few things we noticed on the way down: the burned trees are everywhere even though these are from some of the fires that happened in 1989. The trees don’t rot, it seems, and a devastated area stays that way for a long time. There are incredible areas of fire-devastation all around this area, but they let the fires burn naturally unless it threatens a settlement or structure.
Porcupines live in trees - this blows my mind - I would never have thought so. But it was written down in a book that had lots of accurate information, so I believe it now. We did see one live on-the-ground porcupine - a big one. I did not want to mess with him – seemed like he had quite a few advantages over me – and they all ended in a sharp point!
There are snowmobile roads along side the main road and they even have smaller traffic signs for them - it looks cute. These smaller roads look like pedestrian walkways but stretch for miles, way out in the middle of nowhere between hidden houses or settlements, no doubt. It must be fun in the winter here – to a certain degree.
This was a terribly boring road and we kept on expecting something different to happen - but no - it just went on and on - all the way to Matagami and then further south to Amos. It was what we wanted, open road, little traffic and all that. But sometimes one must be a big more specific when asking for something!
At Amos, we turned west and are now traveling towards Iroquois Falls on the 101 West, which is the official Trans Canada Road, well one of the two roads one can take. Sometimes these roads meet but we plan to stay on the more northern route hoping to get into some scenic routes and maybe even some interesting roads with some wildlife. Hopefully.
That road from Chisasibi was so bad that while we were driving I ventured into the cupboard that hold the mugs and glasses to try to rearrange them - the noise was just too much! I placed plastic lids between each mug and glass - it helped for a while, until the lids shook themselves loose and set the rattling going again. The road really jerked, yanked and tore at all the joints in the house, and us too! The bakkie behind us is shrouded in dust and pulled continuously at the tow hitch like a petulant child on a leash.
When we eventually stopped for the night, Frank went outside to fine tune the generator and put the spare battery on charge - he came back in, swiping at his legs, head and arms, convinced that the giant mozzies (mosquitoes) were “drilling into me!” Needless to say neither of us went outside unless we just had to after that.
I was attacked by some eggs when I opened the fridge door - they jumped out at me and smashed themselves on the floor a split second before I put my foot into this cold, soggy heap of squishy raw egg. Fortunately, while holding onto the refrigerator with one hand, I could reach over to the kitchen sink and get a rag to wipe the now dripping egg off my foot. Frank just laughed, standing safely at the door. I knew I could get him – it was either the mozzies or me, and at this point I was less “dangerous” so he stood there and laughed at me!
All was made better when Frank finished cooking us steak and fries for supper. That went down exceptionally well, along with a cold beer. This combination really put us to sleep and we hit the sack at about 9pm! We were woken up with the wind roaring around us, the lightening lighting up the sky all around us with the thunder thundering. Was nice, but so pitch black dark that it was quite spooky. We went back to sleep and only woke up just after 9 o’clock this morning! I miss the kids but with not even a trace of a cell phone signal, I just have to get used to it.
In Matagami, right as the phone indicated a whisper of a signal, the phone rang and I was able to have a good few minutes on the phone with Joleen before being cut off. That was good. . I picked up messages from Mom and Lisa too, but by then the signal faded. Got Katie on the phone but only for a little while before that faded too. Bright spots in another wonderful day.
The crows here are enormous - like big black shiny chickens! We saw one that was flying with a plastic bottle in its mouth – wonder if it will try to fit that in its nest? Their nests should be interesting places to see - maybe better than a yard sale? Most of the houses one sees here have a barn bigger than the house, and the woodpiles are enormous – many cold winters I bet!
1.15pm – We saw our first bear. A big healthy looking black one and Frank stopped the house alongside the road and got out to take photos. - we left the door open for a quick escape in case Big Black Bear wanted a close up! We thought we had been seeing bear poop on the road a mile or so earlier, so we were half expecting to see a few along this stretch. The sides of the road are lush and green, ideal places for animals to feed. Its really pretty here, like being enclosed in a totally different world.
Thanks for all the phone calls. So for now - with lots of love
And U3… I miss you - lotsa.......
Love to all
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Staying in Touch
20th June ‘04
Hi everyone
We are having a problem finding a telephone/internet connection or signal along this stretch of Canada- but we will be in contact as much as we can. The cell phone only has a signal long enough to get my hopes up, and by the time I get the laptop ready, it’s gone again.
We will be fine - and have too much to do to have anything happen to us so even if you don’t hear from us for a few days, we will be back!
Love to you all
Especially U3
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Near Winnipeg, Canada
21 June ‘04
I am typing while Frank is driving so my fingers don’t always hit the right keys - so please excuse any spelling mistakes – the road is not smooth at all but it’s good to be heading West again.
We are driving across Ontario, headed for Winnipeg still on the Trans Canada road. The size of the town on the map is already making me nervous and I have spent quite some time trying to figure out if there is a good road around the mess of traffic that I am sure there will be. No luck so far.
It is raining again, or should I say, still raining. There are so many lovely lakes around here but they just do not make for good photos in the rain.
In the last two days we have seen a bear and two moose (meese/mice/mooses??). We had to stop so the one moose could cross the road - they are about the most ungainly, inelegant animal I have seen. Their legs just don’t seem to go in the same direction at all and they lope along in the most awkward manner in and almost knock-kneed way. They seem to walk with the same neatness that a right handed person does when writing with their left hand - none at all! They seem to carry an attitude with them, so we have no inclination to try to get too close to one either. I also saw an enormous bull moose off in the swamp, with an amazing rack of antlers. But he started to move off when I got the camera ready, and I missed a wonderful photo. Next time maybe.
We stopped at Lake Helen at Nipigon and took some photos – so many lovely lakes out there. It is all part of Lake Superior just a tad more inland. We passed through Thunder Bay at Lake Superior - it was a traffic mess, raining (still) and we were starting to get really tired by then. Its amazing driving up through places that were once just names on a map to me. The views are beautiful and as hard as I try, the camera just cannot do justice to some places.
The wind was really bad yesterday while we were driving and Frank had a hard time keeping the house on the road - it took two hands and constant fighting. One gets used to it until the enormous trucks come from ahead, screaming around the corners all over the darn road blowing us all over the place adding their wind too! Well, we made it. This road takes one mostly through farmlands and what appears to be a less affluent part of the country.
There are an amazing number of houses and barns with their roofs buckled in. They are wooden structures, some small and others fairly big. The farmers do not take these piles of wood out of the way – they just farm around them. They have no doors or windows, just the rugged basic structure. There has got to be a story about these, there are just too many of them all over the place. I can almost imagine ‘granny’ living in some of them many years ago – now the roof rests tiredly on the current crop.
The weather is unusually cold for this time of year, and everyone is complaining at the amount of rain and the cold - we have officially added our voices to the masses!
Last night we staying in a place called Wabigoon. We had a stunning sunset and the camera did a sterling job in capturing it. The heater in the house decided to start working again after Frank wiggled wires and fuses for a while and it was wonderful to be warm - the joy of waking up to a warm house - luxury! There was an enormous lake right nearby the campground and I so wished for a moose-in-the-sunset photograph – but no luck. I did get to speak to Lisa and Steven - lovely The camp hosts were very friendly, we had a wonderful hot shower and managed to get online as well – all in all a good stop!
The water in the town of Dryden stinks like sulfur and coffee is just no good made with this water - one taste and it went down the drain - all of it. So we made coffee with bottled water and will hunt a good water supply later today further down the road. I guess if one lives in this town I imagine you would get used to the water or buy a serious filter!
All along the way people have tried to copy the Inukshuk (the pile of rocks that the Cree make for guiding - remember?), with little success. It is astounding to see just how many little piles of rock there are all the way across Canada. It’s nice to see that something helpful from a different culture has made some kind of impact on this culture.
The kids are still in school up here in Canada - and it is strange to see them all sitting on the busses with the same look on their faces as the American kids. The kids across Canada look just like the kids in the USA - they all go through the same stages, long hair, ear and face piercing, tattoos and mean or bored looking attitudes - just generalizing! There are the good looking ones too - its just interesting to see that the kids are all trying to be “different”, or to “make a statement”, and yet millions of others in another country are all doing the same thing and making the same statement. I still wonder if they know just what that ‘statement’ is. I guess life is the same everywhere - it only becomes ‘exciting’ or ‘romantic’ when you do not live there full time and can pass right on through the place.
There are many little towns that make one wonder exactly why they exist and what the people do here, and if one blinks you will have missed the “town”. I have this feeling of causing just a very minor ripple as we amble through the different small places, and once we are out the other end, everything goes back to being exactly the same as before. Almost like a snake swallowing a big meal…
Right now we are driving on the 17 west, almost into Manitoba. It’s raining which gives my camera hand a rest but is very boring. This Trans Canada road is not at all what we expected. We had visions of undulating wild roads, through some mild mountains or even hills, with wild animals and a definite lack of people and “progress”. But. The road is generally not good, its narrow and it is not rigged for motor home travelers in any way with no pull offs at all. It is all cultivated land, farms and small towns. Just not what we expected at all for this area. We are both looking forward to the road north to Yellowknife. Maybe I should be more careful of what I wish for? Hopefully it will take us back into the wilder areas that have less traffic. The number of big trucks and tractor-trailers here is stunning. It’s not a relaxing drive at all. Beautiful at times, but terribly busy most of the way.
There are not many places to stop at all so we just keep on going till the next gas station. Gas is a tad higher on this trip than the Alaska one, going up as high as 94.5c per liter! There is no point in moaning about it too much - either we pay up or stop moving and that is definitely not an option at all........
We are now heading close to Winnipeg so I am going to close this down and get the map out again, still hoping for a way around the main traffic areas. Thanks for all the emails - it really is so good to get them!
I miss U3 Lots and love you stacks - stay safe, please.
With love
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Manitoba Monday
21st June ‘04
The biltong is finished, but the dry sausage is a really good substitute. I managed to get online while driving into Manitoba and got to have a quick chat with Kate - nice. We stopped along the way at a “Chip Stand” and bought an ice cream each. It was warm in the motor home, but we nearly froze standing outside in the wind eating the ice cream while waiting for the order of chips/French fries. It was worth it - they were great!
Driving around Winnipeg was not too bad at all. Not nearly as bad as I thought and Frank just tootled us right on through with no hassle at all - almost disappointingly easy with no teeth clenching traffic at all. Some of the names of places and rivers around here make one wonder about the person who named the place or reason it was named like that. The one we had the best laugh at, so far, was the “Assinaboind River” Seriously!
The Yellowhead Highway heads off north around this area on road number 16 and it’s the road of our choice, or rather, the direction of our choice. It takes a more northerly route and will hopefully get us out of these farmlands into the wilder areas.
The sky around here is big - like Montana. Actually we are not that far from Montana at all, just a bit north. It is raining at all four points of the compass with blue sky and fluffy white clouds in between. Very strange indeed. The fruit we bought earlier is fantastic - one strawberry was so big it almost makes a complete snack by itself and they are so sweet! Frank waded his way through the bag of cherries - not my thing at all.
How long does a mosquito live? We have a sneaky one on board, which causes us to do a ridiculous dance around the house while clapping our hands trying to squash the little buzzer! He has taken a lot of blood from both of us so far, and lurks, surreptitiously (how’s that, Wendy?) under the dashboard or table until he gets hungry again. I know how long he would live if only we could catch him!
The fields stretch out endlessly and are a lovely green, dotted with ponds, and littered with little ducks, cowbirds and yes! real Canadian Geese - we saw them move this time. The clouds look like the clouds Microsoft Windows uses - lovely and gentle. And again, it’s like being put into a whole different world. A gentle, kind and warm world.
All across Canada they have stop signs warning one that there is a stop street ahead. It is terribly frustrating at first because instinct makes one stop at the first one, only to discover there is nothing to stop for! So you ease up to the second, almost hoping that no one has seen you stop at the first - kind of like tripping in a crowded street. It takes a while to get used to and mostly makes us laugh, so its not all bad at all.
The sky in front: cloudy ‘sunset’ - its only 6pm. To the right of that - blue fluffy clouds; 90deg right of that - black tornado looking weather and driving rain; behind us - light gray clouds. And to the left? Beautiful blue clear sky! What else could one ask for? We have it all! And it changes by the minute – it’s like being on a big flat round board, with all the different types of weather going around us in a giant circle all the time - quite amazing.
A big stone from a very large passing truck just hit the windscreen, sounding like a shotgun going off. Now we have two holes in the windscreen, but this one is quite a bit bigger and we will need to replace the windscreen when we get back to Tennessee one day. I must say that my thought at the moment of impact was “Oh s**t, I am shot!” (Thanks Dad!) At least it’s not cracked across the window, just a good size dent with a tiny pinprick hole in the middle, so all is ok for now and I will have to learn to photograph around that one too. The other hole in the windscreen was from a stone we collected from a passing truck when we got back into the USA after going up to Alaska last year.
We stopped for gas/petrol, and headed on our way again. Then the storm hit us. The sky got blacker and blacker and for a while it looked like we might just get the edge of it, but then the wind picked up too much to be able to drive and Frank pulled over in a small, uneven area alongside the road. It was very interesting watching the storm - till the rain got harder, and the ice started falling. It came down so thick and hard that we could not even see the front of the motor home! I mostly had my hands up in front of my face, peering through my fingers, not really wanting to see, but also not wanting to miss anything. Thankfully it was short lived, but it got my heart rate up nicely and washed off the two Skilpads somewhat.
I sat there, almost stone like, staring through my fingers at the ice beating against the windows, hoping the wind would not blow us over and trying to see if I could see a tornado! The house was rocking like crazy. I was also hoping like heck that a big truck would not hit us from behind although we were a good way off the road. It was good and scary - but Frank was totally in his element!
While I was sitting with teeth and stomach muscles clenched in “tornadic expectation” during the storm, that sneaky little mosquito made very good use of my temporary paralysis - I am sure he got a good pint through about 10 different places! I hope he is too full to fly – and I can almost picture him crouching down in a safe place staying out of the way of our feet, with his big fat full belly and smug attitude………..
These are just little farm roads, with absolutely no pull off places that one can safely stay in for longer than a storm, and all the little towns or campgrounds are miles and miles off the beaten track. So we drove on a whole lot longer than we really wanted to, finally finding a truck stop near Dafoe and Kandabar, and here we stopped at for the night. This is about 100 miles from Saskatoon, Canada. It was 10pm already and we were both very tired.
We did not eat anything, just fell into bed to the sounds and smell of diesel engines running all night long - the semi’s parked there for the night too, humming away. We slept like logs, unaware of Tuesdays “trauma” approaching.
We were given a lovely sunset and took a short walk around, and watched the duck in the next door pond. This is a bird reserve area and there was a huge board outside telling about all the different birds in the area, their habitat and how to help protect them.
Ok - I am going to end this email here, or it becomes too long.
With lotsalove
Especially to U3
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Sick Skilpad………
22nd June ‘04
Today started out well. I woke up to the sound of the generator spluttering and coffee brewing. The sun was shining and the trucks were all gone – all was quiet. Lovely. Peaceful. Calm before the storm.
We decided to get an early start and packed up ready to go and then............. very interesting, very large plumes of white smoke billowed out of the exhaust pipe along with a small river of liquid. (gas/diesel/water?), while she spluttered, muttered and refused to do anything at all apart from make the most horrendous noises. Oh dear. Our hearts sank.
The cell phone was dead, the little trucks battery was dead and the house would not start. Fortunately we had that back up power source, so I recharged the cell phone a little bit, and called Good Sam’s Roadside Service, explaining to someone on the east coast of USA, that we were “somewhere on road #16, about 160 kilometers south of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan”. A long pause, then a quiet, disbelieving “WHERE?” was the first response. I had to laugh! It took three times of calling them back to get all the details to them as my cell phone kept dying on me. A few minutes charge gave me only a few minutes talk time if we were lucky. Very frustrating on all sides.
Then they jumped into action. Within two and a half hours the tow truck arrived. We unhooked and jump started little Skilpad, washed off her windows so we could see through them - that storm did not do a good job on her at all and she was still decidedly filthy - and watched in silence as they hooked our house up to a wrecker. Not a happy feeling at all. The guy unattached the drive shaft so he could tow her, and came out from under the house with a part of our universal joint in his hands - we were about to lose that too! That would have been SO much worse had that happened further along the road somewhere, or even in some places we had just been. So we are mildly relieved about the situation as it is right now – mildly.
And then the black wrecker truck pulled out with our house firmly attached to it. We followed behind watching from an unwanted and strange viewpoint, as everything we owned was dragged into town. At this point of our lives, we lived in the motor home full time and it was literally our house and everything we owned was in it. Frank did a serious “I gotta p”, dance all the way to Saskatoon. The spare wheel cover on the motor home was covered with a canvas cover that I had painted yellow with a smiley face on it. This face blinked, winked and laughed at us all the way into Saskatoon as the wind got under it and pushed a thousand expressions on the smiley. At times it was very worried looking and it definitely kept us laughing…
So now we sit at a place in the center of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, surrounded by sick or dying semi trucks, waiting for the “truck doctor” to fix Skilpad. Well, at least it’s not the tires this time. On last years trip to Alaska, we blew and replaced every tire on the motor home and had multiple flats – an average on one every 6 days! At least its not tires this time…
Ok - serious for a moment. It looks like we got diesel in the gas tank somewhere along the way yesterday and stopping for the night made it settle to the bottom of the tank. The mechanics and Frank are busy draining it now and will undo lines and such stuff to get all the diesel out of the system – and out of the generator too. They will then replace the universal joint and with a little bit of luck we will be out of here before rush hour traffic hits - although right now, it does not look as if that will happen.
Frank has just gone into town to change some money into Canadian dollars and buy some gas. Hopefully he won’t get too lost! I will keep you updated. But we have no big problem yet - we have a roof over our heads and food to eat, and they cannot make us leave here if the house won’t run - so we are just fine.
We are still trying to work the remains of the diesel through the system and its costing a fortune in gas! Frank has to keep going back to the gas station with a gas can to get the remains of the diesel diluted enough to run this thing. Hopefully its not something worse that diesel in the tank. Who knows? At this point she is broken. They are busy putting on the universal joint, so we should be in some or other shape to be able to get out of here tonight. It only 5pm here, but we both feel as if it is 11pm already.
I have had some time to play with some photos and here are two classics - the best, so far, and definitely the worst! Such is life - and we are still enjoying it greatly...... (photos: Niagara Falls and Skilpad being towed). Hopefully there will be many more of the good kind to follow.
With love to all
Especially U3 - take care!
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Update:
We left Saskatoon, and are now back there again after a second tow job. The gas had backed up into the oil and filled that up impressively. We had changed the oil before leaving, but she just did not seem to run ok, with the tappets knocking louder and louder. She kept running worse and worse, missing terribly with the engine sounding as if there was no oil in it at all - and when we stopped to check – the oil pan was full of gas again! So we called the tow people again and are now back in Saskatoon waiting for the new repair place to open tomorrow. We are not at the same place this time. This is insane…. Maybe it was not diesel in the tank at all? And hopefully we have not done irreparable damage to the motor.
Tomorrow will tell which direction we will be going in if that’s in any direction other than back to Chattanooga by a different means. We will have Skilpad thoroughly checked out before leaving again. Now we think it’s the fuel pump and/or a “busted diaphragm”. I think Skilpad just enjoyed the first “free ride” and wanted another tow! While we were stuck alongside the freeway, one could almost feel the looks from everyone driving by. Interesting that no one stopped to help this time – maybe it had something to do with the time of day – close to rush hour. It was also interesting to see that neither of us was too stressed out – not that I noticed anyway. By now we have realized that what will be, will be – no matter how we feel or act about it. The sunset gave everything around us an orange glow – rather pretty.
So. It is now 11.30pm your time in Chattanooga, we are plugged up to electricity at the auto repair place, heating water for a wash, coffee brewing and all electronics and batteries being recharged. There are electricity access poles outside this place, so although the business is locked up and there is no one in site, we are fortunate enough to be able to use these power points.
Bye for now
XXXXxxxx
Skilpad in Hospital
23 June ‘04
We are sitting inside the motor home, which is inside an enormous garage with 4 mechanics milling around the front end of Skilpad, fixing her up. Apparently some of the things she has been doing are not normal and the mechanics are learning something from her weird behavior – what, I am not sure, but that’s for them to figure out, not me.
The gas was being pumped directly into the oil pan, no wonder we lost a quarter tank of gas in 20 minutes yesterday! This is a fuel injection engine so it’s apparently not a simple thing to get at in order to be able to fix it - I will leave it up to the mechanics and trust that they will do it right. These ones certainly look much more capable than the last crew at the other place.
We were parked outside their doors last night, quite level, there was an electric plug-in belonging to the shop next door, which we used - they did not mind, or did not know. This is a very neat, clean industrial business area and we even got the bicycles out and rode around for a bit.
This morning they needed us to get Skilpad inside the workshop, but had no way of getting us in there – the driveshaft had been disconnected so she could be towed. So, Frank hooked the bakkie up to the tow bar again and pushed her in! I did not have my camera but it was quite a site to see the little Chevy S10, 4 cylinder bakkie push the house into the workshop. The mechanics just laughed. It was a good, light-hearted moment.
So, here we sit, inside, with music playing, coffee brewing and stuff happening all around us. We are still trying to get used to the time difference - the house clock is still on Chattanooga time. Frank went off to the bank again and found that they only open at 10am local time. Chattanooga is two hours ahead of us right now. The coffee brewing smells delicious.
This side of Canada is mainly farming, or so it seems. Some places have names even though they only consist of two little roads crossing each other and a silo or two, along with a pond that houses either two or three colorful little duck. There is no other road that we can go on here, unless we want to zig zag across on little dust farm roads - this does not look appealing at all. I am sure we will head into better roads soon, one way or the other!
Anyway, with nothing really of any consequence to report and with a fair amount of quiet but real trepidation at the outcome of Skilpads operation, I will sign off now - hopefully will have good news later on.
Lotsa love to all
and U3 too
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
And yes, we are still smiling, with no ‘freaking’ or too much worrying - what will be, will be. And we will “Just Be” with whatever the outcome is.
SHE LIVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
23 June ‘04
Weeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaa - we are rolling again! Skilpad is going like never before! Smoooooooooooooooth ....This is wonderful and feels like the start of another trip.........wow!
They did four oil changes, tightened up a zillion hoses and things, changed the fuel pressure regulator, purged the rest of the diesel, checked and rechecked everything and sent us on our very happy and relieved way. Wow! They were fantastic folks at Propane Plus – definitely wonderful, nice, friendly people who knew what they were doing. What a pleasure dealing with them.
We were very fortunate - the first crowd that we were towed into sent us on our way yesterday saying that we would be fine in about 40 miles or so – yes - safely out of town and their territory! Had we run the house much further than we did (about 10 miles out of town) - we would have lost the engine for sure.
Well, all that is part of the ride, and thankfully behind us. I am certain that both Frank and I have lost a few pounds in sweat over the past few days - also good. So, we are in wonderful shape, excellent spirits and heading west, north west as I type.
I could almost hear all the “Oh No!’s” coming from you all - thanks for the thoughts. There were a few hours when we were planning how to get all our stuff back home and then where we would live once we got back home. Skilpad is our full time house, and carries almost everything we own. Thankfully we did not have to end the trip here.
We are very happy to have a new universal joint and all that other stuff that will ensure a smooth ride from now on. All in all we were very fortunate and got to get some things fixed that would surely have caused bigger problems further down the road, and Skilpad got an engine clean out which will probably make her run for a good many more years to come. So with BIG smiles from us both........................
Love you all - Hey U3 - Love you!
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Peace River
25th June ‘04
We are headed directly north from here on - wonderful. We are nearing Peace River, Alberta, Canada right now. I am not sure how much of a cell phone signal we will have until Yellowknife. We have heard that they have great reception up there, but time will tell. We are also not sure how long it will take us to get up there - at least a few days, at least. Hopefully.
We have been driving through farmlands for 3 days now - pure farmlands. There are no major roads around them to bypass this area and one travels at the speed of the tractor or cow in front of you. Neither of us wants to explore the cities - yet. We are still hunting for that elusive “wild road”. We would both be very happy to get off these farm roads though, they get tiring after this long and there is really nothing much to see or photograph at all.
There are, however, some things along the road that make us smile. One farmer put ball caps on every fence post around his farm – and he has a big farm! The one stretch we drove was over 10 miles long and the posts were about 15 foot apart. Zillions of ball caps and a few hardhats too. I wonder what makes someone even think of doing that??
There are also an incredible number of bird houses put up everywhere - on fence posts, on trees, and on posts that are put up just for these - everywhere. The bird conservation up here is serious, and there is an amazing amount of wild life around the lakes as well.
The number of dead and dying barns and what looks like old houses around here is amazing. They sag gently in the middle, or just sink down until all that stands is the roof resting on the ground. There seems to be a large Ukrainian population in this area and their churches are very impressive and noticeable and quite beautiful too. The hills are gentle and rolling, brilliant green with blue, blue sky holding up fluffy unthreatening clouds. Oil/Gas wells gently pump their product into massive multi-colored barrels dotted all over the hillsides. No mountains yet. We saw a mother and baby moose alongside the road and a few deer too.
4605 miles since TN.
We stopped at the Winagami Lake Provincial Park last night. It was deep inside a forest with strange animal sounds going on all night. We went for a long walk to the lake and got some amazing pictures of ducks, moorhen and their chicks, beavers and much more - lovely and peaceful. We relaxed after a long drive with a wine and orange juice, and a good supper made up of leftovers from yesterday and some snacks. We had to get rid of the little bits and pieces, and it was all good! It was an early night for us both. Neither of us sleep very well when traveling - every night one is adjusting to new sounds around until we get to a night when we are just too tired to care much - last night was it. We slept soundly till we both woke up cold again. Frank put the heater on and we went back to sleep. Oh yes -we heard wolves howling on Wednesday night – lovely, eerie and spooky and just a lovely sound.
At this stage of the trip, we are headed up the road called “#2” to a place called Peace River. After that it’s straight up North on the Mackenzie Highway to Yellowknife.
I have this picture of Yellowknife being a quaint small place up in the middle of nowhere, but I hear they have a Wal-Mart up there! We are looking forward to spending a few days around that area at least. It is a place that has fascinated me for many years, maybe it’s just the name or area of it that gets to me as I know absolutely nothing about it at all. I did not even research it on the internet before leaving, preferring to leave my mind to wonder about it.
So, with not much to report other than we are alive, all four of us doing very well, and heading, hopefully, towards the wilder roads, I will close this off for now and be back in contact when the reception allows.
I keep hearing this voice in my head saying that I should be very specific when asking for “wild roads”. Maybe I should start listening to it?
Love to all
Especially U3!
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Getting to Yellowknife
25/26th June ’04
The past few days have been interesting and so totally different from what we imagined. I have also learned that I will have to be much more specific and particular when asking for ‘wild roads’.
On Friday we hit our first true hill on the trip and along with the wonderful feeling of finally climbing again, we were given some tall elegant trees too for a change. The hill was not dramatic at all, just a good downhill and then a good ride up again – nice to hear the motor winding up like that again. That was all for the benefit of a stunning river with a little town that passed by in a little more than a blink of the eye! Under one bridge there was the cutest little church almost hidden by tall trees and shrubbery. We took the little dirt road down and under the bridge where we stopped, brewed more coffee, walked around for a while and just enjoyed the river noise and being out of the house. It is totally wonderful to just stop when we see a good place and then to hear the absolute peace around one.
We are now on the Mackenzie Highway heading directly north towards Yellowknife and the Northwest Territories. We stopped along the way at a ‘lounge’ for a steak and eggs breakfast. It was good and the folks there wonderfully friendly, but what was really amazing was that the business actually survives out here! It was a great hour we spent there chatting to the folks that were in and out all the time. As soon as people hear the South African accent, they want me to talk all the time – it gets a bit embarrassing at times.
The road up this way is much less civilized and wonderfully open. We saw a bear and a bald head eagle too. It is not the most interesting countryside we have been through, as we are totally locked into this ribbon of a road, surrounded by beautiful thick forest, with an occasional view of a stunning lake. There is virtually no wildlife around here now except for the almost ever-present crows that are enormous – they would fill a big pot! They get quite daring and don’t move off the road till the very last moment. I can only imagine the mess if they don’t get out of the way fast enough.
Last week sometime, the road we were on was so boring that I was taking photos of the clouds - this road just has me endlessly clutching my camera in fervent hope that something, anything, will change or happen worth taking a photo. I have an impressive collection of “road pictures”, but there are not even any clouds to photograph today! Its gentle, easy driving with the windows open and quiet everywhere – the radio does not pick up a signal most of the time. We are both missing the absolute glory of the snow-capped mountains we saw last year. There has not been a single mountain in sight - as yet!
There are many, many bugs around and to take photos I have to aim the camera through the bugs that are inelegantly decorating the windshield! Not always possible but I can edit them out of the photos once we get back again. When we stop along the road, it sounds like the old rice crispies “snap, crackle, pop” when the big black flies hit the house! As we start slowing down, we both quickly roll up the windows again to keep these enormous insects out. It’s quite amazing and only after the motor has cooled down a bit, do they become less of a swarm. We dash outside with our arms flailing like windmills, and time our re-entry into the house with precision otherwise the flies and bees swarm inside. It’s quite a trick. I wonder what they do when there is no one around. Do these pests survive simply to aggravate the occasional person that wonders along?
We lose the radio station up here quite a lot - actually we hear it way more than we expected in the first place. But when the signal deserts us, the radio goes on “automatic search” till it finds another station - sometimes hours go by with no sound, just the humm of the tires and us talking and the wind whistling gently through the windows. Well, when I am totally used to, and enjoying the silence - it will find a station right as we go over a bump or around a sharp corner, blaring its way into the house, nearly scaring the pants off me! Now we have learned to turn it way down or just play the cd’s when we do want some extra noise around.
We are seeing many more of those Inukshuks again – either we are back in Cree and Inuit country or there are plenty copycat tourists around here. The problem is that there are no hills to put them up on, not even little ones. So they stand alongside the road, more often than not ending up in a simple streak of rocks spread along the road. A message in itself? We saw beautiful white swans and chicks on an amazing “mirror pond” - I could not get the camera up fast enough!
Friday afternoon we crossed over the 60th parallel and into Northwest Territories of Canada. There is a teepee there, a signboard and an information center with some interesting information in it and a big stuffed polar bear! I believe there is even a campground behind these buildings, but we were not ready to stop yet.
This whole area is a beaver protected area, with only the Indians allowed to catch and trap them. There are many, many beaver dams around and unfortunately quite a few dead ones on the roads too. I look at the map and think that we are totally crazy driving up this road! But hey.
Then we came to the Mackenzie River and had to cross over by ferry. It was an enormous ferry and it was collecting a couple of cars and a 53 foot tractor trailer from the other side of the river, so we had a little wait. We walked around, went down to the river and took some photos enjoying the outside sunshine. I found my stomach knotting up - Frank just gently grinned at me, not taking the risk of saying anything at all. The water was very strong and it looked like a vulnerable place to be, out there with the ferry doing an enormous loop upstream to get itself into the spot on this side of the river. But the crossing was smooth and wonderful - we had a double fuel carrier behind us on the same ferry and four other cars too. It was an interesting movement when the tanker boarded – and the ferry scraped the bottom for quite a distance when leaving the dock. The flow of the MacKenzie River was really strong and the water light muddy brown. It was really great being out in the middle of the river like that. A bit nerve wracking but nice.
After the ferry ride we entered a Bison Reserve. We saw many herd of them and one can actually smell them way before you see them. We are really glad that the wheel well on the motor home is properly fixed from last year’s blowout - there is bison poop all over the road! They are enormous creatures with very thoughtful, questioning eyes and flies buzzing around them in a constant swarm. Strange and amazing creatures that I would not like to have to have much hands on dealings with at all.
The road got progressively worse, with some bumps heaving us so badly that both Frank and I instinctively yell NOooooooooooooo!” as we try to stop from being yanked (no pun intended) out of our seats. Little Skilpad behind bounced quite nicely too and we got to see her jumping up in the rear window, constantly straining against the hitch all the way.
The sky was clear blue, the road a slow one, we were barefoot, cold water always at arms length, windows wide open - just riding. No pressure, no time limit. It was good.
And then the road disappeared and became a track of gravel and rocks, dented with craters and forcing us to slow to 10 miles per hour. Even the big, fat, black flies were passing us by which meant that we had to close the windows or they would all come in. It also meant that we wanted to exchange the water for something much stronger! This was a rub- board road for close on two hours. The pretty lakes become just pieces of water to pass by while hanging raggedly onto our seats, eyeballs shaking in our heads. There was no thought in our minds other than to get this road over with as soon as possible. No wonder the Canadian Tire Company is so big out this side of the world! It is quite incredible to be on a road like this – no options of turning around, not knowing how long it goes on ahead of us and no respite from the soul-aching noise and jarring.
We made it in one piece, as far as we know. About 10 miles out of Yellowknife, the road improved dramatically and we could outrun all those flies again. We could breath again and it was lovely to be able to hear each other speak for a change. Fortunately all the cupboards stayed latched closed – it’s going to be very interesting tonight when we need to open them. Now we know why people come here and decide to stay - they don’t want to travel that road back again! But there is no other way.............unless one waits for a thick winter snow.
We are now in Yellowknife in a campground slightly north of town. The sites are a good size and the place is fairly full.
With lots of love
Especially U3 - I miss you!
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Yellowknife
27th June ’04
We are still trying to figure out Yellowknife. When we came into town, we drove past the camp to go and get gas first so we would know we could get back out of here. The skyline was not at all what we expected - at all. Tall, towering buildings stretched way into the sky, a Big City skyline! My first thought is not printable, but was certainly a big surprise and disappointing. I expected a much less busy town that would be much smaller, more basic and less touristy.
We put in gas and headed back up to the campsite. We were both tired after that “road”, so we ate and just platzed and watched a comedy on tv. Here we were - in one of the most popular, out-of-the-way places of the world and we sat watching a funny cowboy movie! That’s what we felt like - so that’s what we did. I think we were a bit in shock about Yellowknife and exhausted from the road bashing. Admittedly we did not do enough research about this place, but it is amazingly built up for a place so far north of everything else on the continent.
This morning early, we went to explore the town. We had forgotten that it was Sunday and the banks and 90% of the shops were closed for the day, so we explored along a little road out of the other end of town and went driving to see where it went. The signboard said it went “to the end of the road” and we figured that that was a good enough place to go and see. It was a dirt road, but so much easier in the bakkie and not the motor home. The lakes were beautiful and after 70 miles of winding around the countryside the road ended gently at what they called the “winter road” – The End of the Road. We stopped in a good few places and picked up stones and just breathed in the open air. It smells so clean up here, clean and fresh. The road has been blasted out of pure rock and there were quite a few Inukshuks along the road - got some good shots of them. These were big, well-build Inukshuks – very impressive. Many of the tourists build them along the road too - some just a pile of rocks, but at least they tried, and it was much better than painted graffiti. There are many little houses or rather, huts or shacks along this road. They are not neat and tidy and each place has about 600 “projects to do” in the front yard, let alone the back yard! The homeowners don’t seem to get rid of broken cars, they just add them to what appears to be an ever growing pile and then get another one, leaving most yards looking like scrap heaps. Actually very sad looking.
And then there were a few very fancy houses alongside some lakes. Solar panels, very large glass windows and enclosed porches all around. Very fancy indeed. Not sure I liked either setup at all. Again, it was not at all what we expected but it was great to be out there in a place that not too many people get to see.
Yes, Yellowknife has a Wal-Mart. It also has almost any other store you might want to get to - almost. There is the most amazing building going on here - houses and land going for $72 000-00. There is a whole housing area being built at a phenomenal rate, when it is light long enough, I guess, things have to happen quickly. Some folks seem to be moving in before the house is quite finished. These are large double and triple level houses and just so unlike what we expected here, but now thinking about it, I can see why people are building such big houses. The winters are long and cold and dark and I bet it is good to have a fair sized place to move around in during those months.
There are dog kennels breeding dogs for the winter season, no doubt, but they stank so badly that we rolled up the windows. The town is like any other town - red lights and signs, hamburgers and tourist trades, people and things happening like anywhere else. Going grocery shopping was weird - there were people yelling quietly at their kids, rushing them past the candies, harried looking women and puzzled looking men folk. All the same as anywhere else in the world - except for the crunchies, smarties and sausage rolls............... These are some dangerously good candies and snacks that make our thighs sigh.
We were hoping to go and watch the sunset tonight - around midnight, but it has been cloudy, it rained for a while and it was quite cold too. There is no chance of seeing the Northern lights or even a sunset tonight. But we did squeeze a good bike ride in around the camp before the rain came in and we found the “beach” on Long Lake. There were groups of people playing net ball and just ambling alongside the water. It is a quaint and gentle place. We went up one of the hills here to an area where we could see out over the town. The trees grow right out of the rocks all over the place, as there seems to be no soil around.
Tomorrow we will go and look around the town some more and do some laundry, or not. Laundry is never high on my priority list - besides, it does not go away - it just sits there and grows and waits for one day when we get to it.
So, till tomorrow..................
Lotsalove to all
And U3 - I miss talking to you and love you lotsa
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
The Cookies Crumbled .....
29th June ‘04
The oatmeal cookies literally crumbled. They slowly became just little crumbs in their zippy bag the further we bounced and were yanked down the road away from Yellowknife. Actually they had done some work on the road since we went up and it was not as bad as we remembered, mostly. Maybe the way up there was worse because all the trucks go up there fully laden with their goodies and really mess it up. Frank says it’s a breathtaking road - it literally takes our breath away as the Skilpads leave the ground at the bumps, even at 10 miles an hour. It crunched our teeth together and numbed our feet after hours of vibration. But it’s over now.
As we were coming down the road, we could see the ferry waiting for us at the Mackenzie River, so we picked up speed, took some last Bison photos and boarded the ferry again. It was a lovely ride across the river and this time we got out and walked around a little on the ferry, took photos (of course) - just enjoyed the warmth, water and the breeze. At this point I figured that we had survived the road, so we would survive the river – it could not be much worse!
The Mackenzie River is about the size of the Mississippi River and freezes over totally in the winter. An ice road is made across the river when that happens and the ferry is parked on the riverbank for the cold season. I am sure that I would not like to be the first one over an ice road! We found quite a few little roads leading directly down to a river or a lake, with a sign saying ‘winter road closed’. I hope that there are not too many folks that need this sign in the summer! It must be lovely in the winter around here - a totally different way of life and it must take a special type of person to survive it too. I am sure that I could not handle that amount of time in temperatures so cold.
Yellowknife has 18 000 people living there. We are sure that they all spend their days driving around the town. The traffic there is totally amazing for such an out of the way place. The town has everything any other city or town has and then all the tourist stuff added onto that too. I read somewhere that there is going to be another gas pipeline put in from somewhere up in the Northwest Territories and that Yellowknife will be quite involved in this too. That would explain some of the building going on up there.
It is interesting to see the intermingling of all the cultures there. There are Cree, Inuit, Dene and other Tribal cultures too. Much of the t.v. time is made up of teaching reading and writing to all ages and cultures, and also much time and effort spent on sharing stories from the different tribes and cultures from long ago years. There seem to be different areas for the different tribes to live - one for the Cree, the Dene and then there are the areas with everyone living together. It seems to be a natural way of doing this up here. The various tribes are all trying to get the younger generation interested in the old ways I gather that its not as successful as they would like - but that happens in every culture and family, methinks.
The campground we stayed in had very interesting showers. They did not had a tap/faucet that you turn to put the water on, they just had this knob that you push and get water that has been heated to a very comfortable level. The major difference is that each push only lasts about 45 seconds. So you wet your hair, press the button, apply the shampoo and scrub, press the button, rinse it off, press the button, etc, etc. Until someone comes in to use the toilet....... then you frantically keep pressing the button with gritted teeth, not only to keep the water running while they flush, but also to keep the hot water coming! It seems that flushing the toilet cuts off water to the shower for a little, only leaving a really cold trickle available, and it takes at least 3 pushes of that little, now very slippery button to heat it up again! We showered at times when most folks were asleep......
Ok, so we have left Yellowknife, the cookies have crumbled, the water tanks are full of good water, and the Skilpads are still going great. The water up here tastes better than bottled water. We stopped at a rock quarry, just to stretch our legs, get some fresh air, and to stop the bouncing and rattling for a while. It was so lovely and quiet - the quarry was full of water and the ducks had moved in making it home. Guess who picked up more stones than I did? There are an amazing number of colors in the stones - from white, pink, mottled and mixed colors, to a dark green color. Very pretty. It was awesome to just be still in that wide open space and listen to the silence. It was a good and comfortable temperature and so peaceful. While we were parked there, three other motor homes passed us heading south – all occupants looking very ragged and slightly frantic! We knew our turn was about to catch up to us and we had to drag ourselves back to the house to head back down the road.
There is a place called Twin Falls Gorge along the Mackenzie Highway. We passed it going up, made a mental note to stop on our way down – so here we are today. What a beautiful place! We walked down to the river on a rickety but totally sufficient wooden walkway from the car park down to the slate river bank - and put our feet in the water. I have no idea of the name of the river, but the water was wonderfully warm. It had a brown color, like mountain water and tasted great! We walked downstream to the waterfall and a rainbow arrived, sometimes dancing its way into a double rainbow. It was amazing! Needless to say, the camera hummed continuously. It was wonderful that there was nothing touristy about this place – it was all as natural as it could be – just wonderful!
We stood right at the point where the water goes over the cliff - the power is awesome and it’s just so beautiful, so wow! The noise of the falls is crazy, but its so peaceful right at that edge too - a strange peace in the face of an awesome power. The spray gave us a gentle soaking, but did not chase us away. The rock there was like slate, piled up on the river bed in odd formations, and half washed away in other places creating pits and caves along the edge of the river. The falls were about half as high as Niagara, not nearly as majestic, but really beautiful and with no tourist trade around it at all – just wide open natural Canada! Awesome.
Those rainbows really yanked my chain and I am sure I would have kept us there all day except that I had limited place on the camera chip and I ran out. It was sad, but time to move on again, and the insects were starting to bite seriously. We discovered why people here seem so friendly, they are waving the bugs away from them - not waving at us! Anyway, after taking as many ‘last looks’ at the rainbows and waterfall, we ran back to the house, making like windmills with our arms all the way and even getting some waves from other folks in return who had not yet figured out the biting bugs! It is not a good idea to run with your mouth open either. These huge bugs are persistent and once they manage to get a hold of you - they just hang on, no matter what until you pick them off. They especially like Frank........ he especially dislikes them!
So we got back on that long boring ribbon of black in between trees, and headed south again, very happy that we had stopped at that amazing place. What is really lovely is that it is not over run by people or been made into a commercial site – it is just naturally beautiful and available to everyone. On this road heading south again, there were no places to stop and we kept driving till after 10pm, broad daylight still, until we found an old, overgrown rest stop and pulled off for the night. We had seen the sign that was still standing but accidentally drove past the turn off as it was so overgrown. After a few miles, we turned around and looked again. We missed it again! So around we went and found the entrance on the third try. It was once upon a time, a nice place, but now just had trash everywhere and looked very deserted. We pulled around so that it would be a straight road out of there, just in case……… Frank made a good supper and we had a long solid sleep. We woke up early and are now headed for the mountains.
We both agree that we need the mountains after weeks of flat lands. We have a few hours left of farmlands and will then be up in the Rocky Mountains again! We want to drive right across the top of those mountains, across to Banff National park. Hopefully it will not be raining and we will see more this time than last year, and hopefully be able to get to Lake Louise too. We might even go back to Glacier Park to take another look. We will probably get back into the USA right at the same place that we bought little Skilpad last year.
And then? We don’t know yet....... but for now
With lots of love - Maaaaaan, I miss U3!
Annie and Frank - XXXXxxxx
Oh! Those Mountains!
2nd July ’04
Awesome, amazing, stunning, breathtaking, beautiful, and any other word that could describe absolute wonder!
It was overcast most of the time and raining lightly. The mountains loomed above us, all around, like enormous, towering shadows. It makes one feel very vulnerable and is humbling, to say the least. The lakes are an incredible blue/green and reflect the surrounding peaks and valleys perfectly. The snow peaks rear up so high that they disappear into their self made clouds. Some clouds were wispy and floated around aimlessly all light and fluffy, while others were heavy and sagged into the valleys. Some of the higher peaks had clouds circling them and at times looking like they were boiling around them. This is a place where even the clouds are fascinating. And then the sun would break free again and the brightness of the ice and glaciers would make us wear sunglasses and grab for the other camera too! We filled up multiple camera cards and could have done more.
The hills were incredible with Skilpad huffing and puffing, screaming her way up and up and up to be met by yet another astounding waterfall and impossibly wonderful view. Then the down hills, where the only way to go was second gear, stomach muscles tightly clenched (as if that would help), and trying desperately to capture every inch of this amazing place on very tired cameras.
Jasper National Park runs right into Banff National Park and then into Kootenay National Park. The splendor just went on and on. Around every corner was some amazing sight, a bear, a deer, a wolf and still more of the stunning peaks and valleys. This road is called the Icefield Parkway because of all the glaciers along the way. They are amazing and when we looked through the telephoto lens we could see cracks all along the glacier edges as if they were going to come crashing down at any moment. It’s quite astounding that that amount of ice stays up there at the angle it does. There were beautiful waterfalls all over the place that stretched from waaaaay up there to down into valleys that we could not even see!
Just absolutely stunning all the way.
We were right at the road to Lake Louise and the rain came down heavily, the sign read that the road ahead was “steep, winding, narrow, and not recommended” for vehicles with our length. I chickened out and Frank turned us around - Ah well, we cannot see everything, I guess. Next time, maybe.
It was wonderful to have so much to photograph and the camera almost went on ‘automatic’ taking photos at every turn of the road, and in between too. We took hundreds of photos and could have taken hundreds more.
It was an amazing day that we would love to repeat one day.
Last night was spent at a campground outside of Grand Prairie, right next to a lovely lake - Musreau Lake - named by the Natives of the area a few hundred years ago We had a gentle evening that included a lazy walk all around the park looking at some really pretty little flowers and just enjoying the peace and quiet and talking about seeing the mountains again in the morning, and then we took the bakkie to the lake for a wash off - it is amazing just how gritty and dirty she gets being pulled along these roads. Getting to this park was interesting too. There was a signboard in clear view along the main road, and then the road went around a tight corner and turned into a single lane, closely hugged by trees and shrubs all the way – and it was a good long way, about 15 miles of it. There was no way at all to turn around and we wondered what would happen if someone tried to come the opposite way – hopefully we would have ‘right of weight’ if that happened. It really was a lovely park, but we did not get a site that was level at all. So when I got out of bed this morning, I was put into an immediate downhill run the length of the house - can this pass as a ‘running start’ to my morning?
This morning when we got back onto the main road south towards those long-awaited mountains, we passed through an area where there had been a mudslide across the road the evening before - just as well we had stopped for the night where we did. We heard afterwards that the traffic was backed up for hours waiting for the road to clear. It would not have been too bad, having the motor home and all, but was much better the way it worked out. The mud slide was a goodly sized one and created a really dirty splotch on the road! We drove over an enormous bridge that has a tiny little church right underneath it. It seems to be a popular place to put a church.
After the “mountain run”, we were both quite tired from an amazing day and the light was getting bad to drive in – you know, that stage between day and night. The deer also decided that the road was the place to be, so we looked for a place to stop for the night. We found a good spot right next to a wonderful, fast flowing milky river about and hour from Radium Hot Springs and still half way up the mountain. This was just a parking place for day hikers, but was perfect – a lovely river, gorgeous mountain view and level too! Frank had done a long and heavy concentrating drive through the mountains and it was good to hear him make “gentle” accompanying sounds to the rushing river. From inside the house, I see the river rushing by like a milky ribbon, swishing against the stones and boulders on the side. Over on the other side is a display of the most amazing mountains, all at different levels, topped with glaciers and swirling clouds. And it’s so quiet.
Last year when we went to Prudoe Bay in Alaska, something in my eye seemed to shake loose and give me blurred vision for a few days. The road to and from Yellowknife did the same again this year, and fortunately Frank stopped me deleting some pictures that appeared blurry to me but were actually perfectly ok. It took a few days and then it settled down to normal again. It is just very disconcerting and I have had to adjust and use my other eye as the “photo eye”.
This morning we drove through Radium Hot Springs - an amazing place built to suit every need of any and all tourists. The gas stations were the most popular meeting place for those just off the mountain and those going up and we joined the crowds and long lines at the cheapest station. We also had to stop for gas, but that was our only stop – neither of us like the crowds or the traffic that comes with them.
And now we are back in British Columbia, Canada. We headed south on the 95 along the Kootenay River - lovely and actually quite an impressive river. There are many people exercising along the highway, walking, running and jogging, looking like they would give anything rather than doing what they were doing. It does not make sense to me - one has got to be uncomfortable, hot, and unhappy along a hot, busy road to live longer? Hmmmm - I know what my choice would be, especially when there are all the trails in the mountains here.
Now we are back in the USA. We did not come in the same way as we left the USA last time. Maybe were afraid that little Skilpad would want to stay? Besides we simply had to drive through the town of Skookumchuck in BC – how can one not want to see that? I don’t remember much of it at all – I think I blinked. We stopped at the duty free store just north of the border, and bought plenty of really nice goodies to eat and to share around when we get back. The house now also has a good supply of crunchies, aeros and other luxuries. Hopefully the air conditioner keeps working and we can keep them all from melting. At the border shop there is a big car park with trees around it and out of the trees appeared a young deer, walking in a very cautious manner, but not too worried at all. I managed to get inside, get the camera and walk fairly close to it before it ran back into the trees. It did not go far, though, and as I headed back towards the house, it was already back in the car park.
Anyway, we drove through Spokane Washington. If you love traffic and can think of nothing you would rather do than sit in bumper to bumper traffic, then go there. Otherwise - don’t do it! Anyway, we got through there safely and are now in a little campground, under gently whispering pine trees, a good Frank-made supper, a soft breeze, hot showers available and the sun about to call it a day. We crossed another time line, so we are now 3 hours behind Chattanooga. And tired.
The cell phone has a better signal now and hopefully we will be able to stay in touch a bit more regularly again. I miss U3 lots! Lovely chat Steven and Lisa - hopefully will catch you later, Joleen.
We will probably head towards the Oregon Coast again, and spend a week or two just being beachcombers and riding the bikes again. They are filthy dirty, folded up in the back of the bakkie - carrying half of the dust from Yellowknife and desperately need to be cleaned and ridden.
So until then ........................
Love to you all - and again, to U3
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
BACK IN USA
Oregon Coast and...
4th July ‘04
After leaving the camp site in Washington, we headed to the interstate, but somehow got off the main roads in Kennewick and ended up driving on gravel, dusty, winding, narrow farm roads for what felt like hours. There just are no turn around places for rigs like this on the farm roads. I think I will write to the Farm Board and demand that they make turnarounds in these fields - just in case we find ourselves back here some day. Hopefully we never do. We could see the interstate but could see no way of getting there – very frustrating. There were those enormous power generator windmill-type things all over and onions growing all around us. Far to one side was the highway and on the other side was the river, with no obvious or apparent way out.
Anyway, after what felt like forever, we were finally spat out of there after doggedly following a trail through tightly curved, incredibly steep, onion lined roads that rattled our brains more than they deserved. We had apparently done an enormous circle as we came out on the same road we went into the fields on! We found a hamburger joint that made a wonderful hamburger and chips and gave accurate directions back onto the freeway too - one could ask for more?
It’s quite a change being down south again - when we turn off the lights it’s actually dark. I woke up last night and could see absolutely nothing - not even a glimmer of light at all which took a little while getting used to and also accentuated the fact that we have started the home run already – like it or not.
We bought some fruit drops at the border - two tins of mixed fruit flavors and one tin of just lemon drops. They are fantastic! The lemon drops make your mouth pull in and your eyes water and gives one that totally involuntary full-body shudder with their lemony-ness. What other word could I have used there? Once a day we cut one of the chocolates in half and try to make it last as long as possible. Any more than one a day would be criminal – but it is an ongoing battle when the boxes sit there in the shower staring at us all day long!
The fine for not wearing your seatbelt in Washington is $101, and in Oregon - $94. I remember wondering about this last year when we were out here and seem to remember California being $77. I wonder what the reasoning is to have them such odd amounts.
There is a lot of volcanic rock around here making the scenery quite strange and eerie at times. The wind howled all day long making Frank fight with the steering wheel to keep the Skilpads between the lines on the road. It was not an easy or relaxing drive at all. The road took us alongside the Columbia River and through the Gorge for over 100 miles – it was lovely! It’s a wonderful wide river that runs along and inside a deep gorge, along with the road and train track. The water has a strange but lovely green color. And then we came around a corner and saw a beautiful, enormous snow peaked mountain with its own following of clouds. I believe this was Mt Hood, and it was beautiful and of course the camera snapped away endlessly. We stopped in one of the pull off places and stood watching the folks playing on the water. There were many wind surfers skidding across the choppy water – all in different directions. It was amazing that none of them collided. There was also an enormous barge heading up the river and it was interesting to see the wind surfers steer clear of it with a very wide berth.
There is moss growing on everything, the roofs, stones, rocks, trees, and this makes everything green - lovely rich green all over, with a million different shades. Driving through Portland was not as bad as I anticipated. I was not feeling good, so did not really think too much about it, but it took some time to get through the town itself. It was nice only driving 55 mph through a major city – that’s the speed limit out here and it makes for a much gentler ride. Even my fingernails survived this one.
Then we got off the interstate to the 20W and headed to the coast. This is an easy, narrow, winding and lovely road with trees hanging over the road everywhere making a long interesting tunnel of rich green foliage. A gentle ride. A wonderful change.
This winding road led us straight to the coast, literally to the same place as we camped last year. We were hoping that we could go back to that same campground, but we forgot that it is 4th July weekend and everything was fully booked! So we headed further south for about an hour before finding an open spot in a lovely State Park pretty close to the beach. We were way too tired to care much about getting the house level so we stopped and went straight to sleep. This morning we find that we are at an uncomfortable angle, so are going to try to straighten her out a bit. We also have to go and find a place to do some food shopping. We had to empty the fridge out before coming through the border back into USA. Last time they put us through the “agricultural” side of the customs too, but this time we had nothing at all that they could even look at to confiscate - getting clever! But because we ‘got clever’ they did not even ask to look inside the house. So shopping has become a necessity now.
Well, that’s it for now. I am feeling 100%, my eye is in focus again, Frank is full of energy too so we are going to hunt down some beach.
Love to you all - and especially U3
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Rocking Oregon
6th July ‘04
We went to the beach today. Quickly. We got the bikes out, wiped the crusted layer of dust off them and headed down to the water despite the howling wind. I had to get to the ocean - we had been here 22 hours already and I had only seen it from a cliff top! Not good.
It was not what one would call a warm day, especially with the wind blowing off the ocean. But off we went, pedaling faster and faster to try to warm ourselves up. Then we pushed the bikes down the little path over a wind flattened dune and over enormous sand and water blasted trees. I just love those natural made beach sculptures. So now we are on the beach. And? It’s cold! The wind blew solid white sheets of sand at knee height, sandblasting our legs and just about freezing the feeling out of them. But I was determined to get my feet, at least, in the water. So we shivered our way, very quickly, down to the waters edge. Why was this beach so wide??? The first impression of the water was that it was warm - this was only because there is no wind underwater! Frank took the required photo to prove that I did get my feet wet, staying well out of the water himself. Then we ran and shivered our way, even more quickly, back to the bikes and pedaled like heck back to the house - all 3 blocks of it! We were totally exhausted by the time we got home and the wind was so cold it took our breath away...
So, we have been to the beach. Kate, being envious of us swimming in the ocean is totally unnecessary - no swimming for these chickens - not at this temperature anyway! Not even any lazy, gentle beach walking happening right now.
The first night we were here, we parked at an angle - feet down, too tired to care much. So the next day we decided to turn Skilpad around and get more level. We did turn her around, but “level” was not in the picture at all. The site we had just would not allow that, so instead of sleeping with our feet way above the height of our heads, we turned around and slept back to front in the bed and uphill – again. By this morning we were both really keen to move on and come to the campsite we are now at. We had scouted the area out the day before and reserved this site which was a good few miles to the north, closer to the beach and level which was a big bonus by now.
We are now settled in - level, and backed into a nook with trees all around us and nice warm showers right next door. We went shopping and stocked up on lots of fruit and vegetables and plenty other good stuff. We bought a wonderful steak that was pre-spiced and looked great. Frank started cooking it, and as all cooks have the right to do, tasted it. Right at this point the steam just came pouring out of his ears! It was spiced really, really hot. A couple of choices presented themselves, but he simply washed the spices off the meat although it was 90% cooked, rinsed out the pan, and kept cooking it - ‘twas wonderful. What a cook! Even though his eyes were still watering…….
So now we sit, effectively grounded from exploring on foot or bike by the howling wind, Skilpad rocking not so gently despite the surrounding windbreak. The shops are still closed because of the long weekend but we have discovered some interesting looking little stores with some very odd and unusual stuff in them - glass floats, wood sculptures and such goodies. If the wind keeps us off the beach, there is still much to do around here and we have yet to hunt down a good clam chowder!
We have this spot reserved and paid for, for a week and are hoping to clean out the dust-bucket that is the bakkie, wash both the Skilpads and actually get a long beach walk or two in without being blown back home. There is a not-so-thin layer of dust and sand on everything. I even had to open up my camera and clean off the inside lenses – a distinctly uncomfortable place to be in. Frank dislikes dust, but has been really good this trip about it - we have not even put the Skilpads through a car wash once – yet.
We are sure that after a week of sitting still in one place, we will both be very ready to move on again. We would like to go to Crater Lake National Park, Bryce Canyon, and Arches National Park. But time will tell. It’s lovely to get all your emails - keep them coming! Steven - thanks for being accountant for us, Joleen - thanks for all the calls, Lisa - payday week - enjoy!
Love U3 Lotsa.
and love to everyone else too
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Sand Sun Wind and Dune Riding!
8th July ‘04
And the wind blows........ and blows ............. and blows. The house bounces around as if at sea, but hasn’t blown down - yet - and the trees whistle for at least 20 hours a day. The only time we have felt relative calm has been early in the morning. So this morning we headed off to the sand dunes for a Dune Buggy Ride. What a ride!
We got onto this enormous spider looking machine with roll bars all around it. We were told it was an old school bus with seatbelts and air conditioning added - it was totally open, and did have the belts. I could enjoy driving this animal! It seated about 26 people, all bundled up warmly, no - warmer than that. The driver hopped on, put on his toboggan hat/balaclava, gloves and heavy warm coat. We had jeans and our warm wind proof jackets on and zipped up firmly, but had the distinct feeling that we were still going to be cold at times. We were right.
And so we headed out down the road. The buggy is a whole lot higher than a normal vehicle and caught the attention of many of the other folks along the road leading to the beach and dunes – really good advertisement. The first dune we went up was straight up! The couple behind us had already started their unending, and sometimes involuntary, but always hilarious, commentary. The woman had warned Frank that she might grab hold of him around the neck to make sure she did not fall out. Instead, she hung on silently with big eyes and very white knuckles all the way, to the back of his seat. The guy caught his breath at every serious uphill and downhill but his silences were the best - one could almost hear his heart stop beating. The best was his deep, enormous sigh at the end of the ride - I just burst out laughing loudly. Fortunately they were nice folks and took my laughter well. I wish I could have taped them - it would have told the story without any video or photos at all.
The ride itself was lovely, winding through deep sand between pine trees at times, and across enormous bare dunes at other times. We briefly saw two enormous black bears - the first in 11 years seen in that area by the dune buggy driver. The bears were not far from the beach and there were many small dune buggy riders in the same area – I wonder what they would have said if they knew they were sharing space with bears. There were many bear and deer tracks along the way making smaller paths all over the dunes. The trip took us along the beach for about two miles and that’s where it started getting really cold. There were lots of shells, in big patches, on this beach, but we were unable to climb out and explore. We will have to come back in the next day or two - whenever the wind stops blowing.......... The mist was also starting to blow in, adding to the sub zero feeling temperatures. Then we headed back into the dunes, some of them nearly 500 feet high! The sand was being blown off the top of the dunes, but fortunately the driver kept us out of the blowing sand, mostly. The dunes go on for 40 miles up the coast and are totally spectacular. I would have thought that they would be preserved and protected more than what they are, but there are literally hundreds of paths created by the dune buggies and bikes, totally ruining the scrub and any other growth there was or might be. Maybe further up the coast they are better preserved. Hopefully.
So, heading down a dune at about a 40% grade, the ride ended, as I said, much to the relief of the guy behind us. We were sand, sun and wind burned in the face and it felt wonderful! And all for only $10 each. That really was a ride to remember.
We than drove to Darlingtonia Botanical Gardens. We saw a little pull off alongside the road near the sign and drove past it, thinking that actual botanical garden was further down the road. And on we went for another 3 miles or so. There was a lovely lake parked between the trees and houses ranging from multi million dollar buildings to shacks all along the water. There were also the first big Redwood trees we have seen in the area. These enormous trees are so majestic and just have a vibe all of their own. Anyway, that road became smaller and smaller and finally ended in what seemed to be a private boat launch so we headed back again to the original little parking place and found what we were looking for.
This is no big botanical garden as we expected, rather it is a very short circular walk - about half a mile in total. There grows the plant - the “Darlingtonia Californica” that are insect-eating plants that are being preserved and showed off here. They are amazing and I find myself incapable of adequately describing them, so you will all have to wait to see photos - and we took quite a few! The plants are about 2 foot tall and have a bulbous looking top to them that has little see through places in it that apparently confuse the heck out of the insects once they are inside. There is an entrance under this bulbous looking part for the insect to get into and when they die of exhaustion from trying to get out, they fall down into the stem and are eaten. Sounds wonderful…….
We did also take a little detour off the marked trail, trying to find a place to walk for a while. We only went a short way because that trail became too small and narrow to follow, forcing us to literally crawl at times. I wondered what actually created that path - more bears. It was good to be out of there and standing upright again. What made us go in there in the first place?
And now, after a lovely ice cream we are relaxing in a warm house. I am not sure what it is we are hearing, the sea or the wind, but my suspicion is that it is just, or rather still, the wind.
Yesterday we put on our jeans, socks and shoes, jackets and headed down to the beach. Talk about being determined to get in some beach time! We chose to go left - the direction the wind was blowing in. We rode down the beach for about a mile to the inlet, which effectively ended the beach and made it impossible to keep going. There are no shells on this beach, just a gazillion half eaten crabs, and they were enormous! The waves are small but constant, and the beach shallow. Not madly exciting as beaches go, but the smell – it was pure beach smell, lovely. By the time we got to the inlet, the wind had picked up and we opted to go back on the road. The sand got really soft in places, and we discovered many leg muscles that we had forgotten about. The road back was around a mile and a half long and very narrow – quite uncomfortable what with oncoming traffic. After a while on this road we headed back to the beach at a point closer to home. We were very pleased that we were once again headed in the right direction and just bent our elbows outwards, the wind picked our jackets up like sails and we scooted along at a leisurely pace totally effortlessly on the hard sand section of the beach. It was just a short ride from there back home. ‘Twas good to relax inside again!
There are many odd little shops around here - some are serious antique shops with the most amazing things in them, others the typical “made in China” gifts. We found a fresh fruit and vegetable stand and stocked up on some good healthy food. We are both looking forward to moving on again on Monday. We had the refrigerator and the heater fixed yesterday, and Monday we have to have the front end of Skilpad aligned - she is wearing the inner rim on her tires too much. And that’s all I will say about tires. Now we are relaxing with a good wine and orange juice, so I will leave you for now to enjoy.
Love to you all
And U3 - I miss you and love you lots.
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Beach Riding
9th July ‘04
We woke up with the wind not blowing! What a wonderful way to start the day. We had a good Frank-made breakfast and headed out to the beach before the wind changed its mind. This time we had a multiple choice - the wind was dead quiet even on the beach, so we could go either way. So to the right we went. Waaaay in the distance we could see a lighthouse up on the cliff side blinking its light at regular intervals.
There were huge piles of seaweed dotted all over the beach, smothered with that seaweed smell, the ever-present gazillion little black flies and those almost see-through, flea-sized little hopping bugs. Frank steered well clear with his nose crunched up against the smell, but something drew me to the almost moving masses of kelp, making me poke around in the piles in the hope of some sea-treasure - driftwood, or a float or something like that. I did not find any, but the smell was so familiar, and ............ just so familiar.
There were large starfish, eaten crabs and huge logs washed way up on the beach, and then for nearly a mile - nothing. Little streams run into the ocean at odd intervals and it took some thought and planning before crossing them as they were quite deep in places. At first it was cool on the beach and Frank did not really want to get his feet wet, not right then anyway. But pretty early on, we came across the biggest of these little rivers we had to cross over. I have the photos of him riding the bike through it - shoes on, socks off, jeans rolled up a little with the back wheel of the bicycle at least half submerged, along with a totally submerged left foot and jeans dripping on the other side too! He gave up after that - with a smile, as always.
Riding on the beach makes for some interesting exercise even though we do have mountain bike tires on the bicycles. The sand changes from rock solid to almost quicksand in a split second. One minute we are fairly zinging along and the next we are mired down so deep that we can simply get off the bikes and they stay standing! I learned to do some pretty impressive rear wheel skids and sliding too - lots of fun when you know it won’t hurt too badly when you fall. At times I nearly went over the handlebars when the front tire hit the soft sand. Interesting riding and lots of fun. Many laughs.
So, we kept on going, shooing the gulls away by whooping loudly and ringing the bells on the bikes - just for the fun of it. And besides, the gulls looked fat and in need of some exercise too! Sometimes I got the impression that they were not screeching horrible things at us as they flew away, but rather laughing as I hit the wet sand and ground to an ‘oomph-ing” dead stop yet again. We saw many broken sand dollars at first and then started to find them all over - big, whole, beautiful sand dollars, all over the place. I think we collected 10 perfect ones before leaving the rest to the other folks on the beach. At times there were places that were thickly littered with dead crabs, then nothing, then suddenly we would come across a ‘rock garden’ where there were only little rocks littering the sand for a stretch. Some of these were lovely flat, round stones of different colors and patterns and others fairly large clumps of unsightly black shiny rock. Then, once again, the stones would give way to a section filled with broken sand dollars, dead crabs and seaweed. I found one living crab being hassled by the gulls so I put him back in the water, but he had a death wish and climbed right out again into the waiting gull’s beaks. Ah well, so much for my good deed of the day.
And so we rode on taking full advantage of the total lack of any wind whatsoever. We zigzagged between the water line and the high tide line - not wanting to miss anything that might have washed up on the sand. And then the hillside or cliff draped itself all the way into the ocean, blocking us from going any further – the beach ended. At the top of this enormous rock face is the road, and I wonder what the drivers would think if they knew that there was a cave under their wheels. We found part of a car in the cave and enormous pieces of washed up logs amongst and around all the boulders lying around. There were many smaller driftwood pieces and Frank built a wooden Inukshuk - yes, I did take photos. The waves washed up against the cliffs, creating little almost accessible pools filled with rich, deep green anemones and brightly colored starfish. The barnacles and muscles cling to every available space on the rocks, and when that space ran out, they just cling to each other creating multiple layers of hissing shells. The water in the pools was beautiful and clear - and fffffreeeezing cold and I got some lovely photos of the anemones under the water and of the many starfish clinging to the sides waiting for the tide to come back in again. The high tide mark was way up on these rocks, and we could still hear the water bubbles popping and hissing gently inside the mussel shells clinging to the rocks, water from the last tide.
So we had reached the end of this side of the beach and now had miles to go to get back home again. We realized that we were both quite tired and would have really loved to have a chocolate with us. We did have water and fruit, but we both felt that we had ‘earned’ a chocolate. Too bad. Fortunately the wind had not started yet, but it still felt like uphill all the way back, we were starting to get really tired now. I think that the brake pads had swollen with the salt water and it felt as if we had permanently applied brakes - all the way back. Even the gulls knew that there was no rush in moving this time around and they just quietly chuckled as they walked away from us.
The mist started coming in, but it was strange - it was as if it was formed under the sand, and it oozed upwards in milky strands - I have that in a photo too! Then it became thicker and it was as if we were riding in our own world. Every now and again we would come across some people and the dogs that were walking them, but they would disappear again within a minute or two, back into the mist, leaving only their tracks which were washed away before too long. Quite eerie, fascinating and nice. As Frank says, it’s like a Steven Spielberg movie: (Mysterious voice required here) “They disappeared into the mist, never to be seen again.” I was on the edge of my seat anyway – saddle sore and looking for home.
The poor bikes were squeaking, screeching and throwing their sea sand off when we hit the regular road near the campground again. When we finally got back, we washed them off thoroughly first and then I sat down on a gloriously comfortable seat, downloading the photos of the day while Frank cooked lunch. Fortunately he does like cooking!
Which reminds me of my “horrible dream” last night - Two big, mean ‘dudes’ had a knife at my throat, driving down the road in a car with the back window broken out. In the dream, Frank was not too worried about the “mean dudes”, but terribly bugged that it was a muddy road they were driving on and the mud was being flung into the broken back window and all over the place and making a mess of everything! Frank dislikes dust and mud - and this dream really showed me just how much.
So, we got our windless ride on the beach at last. The ‘weather guessers’ (with all due respect) promise that Sunday will be free of wind too and we might find ourselves dragging our aching muscles down to another part of the beach, the part that looks as if it has shells, for a replay of today. Its rough - but someone has to do it - so relax, we will take care of it all.
Later: The next day was wonderful in all ways. The weather was perfect with little or no wind at all again. We packed a backpack with fruit, chocolates and plenty water and drove a few miles down the coastline to a place beyond the water break we had come across earlier in the week. We started off the day by walking up a very impressive dune and headed south down the beach this time. What a lovely day – we walked for about 5 hours, splashing in the water, collecting shells and chasing gulls. The sunshine was wonderful and the beach was virtually deserted – just a wonderful day.
There were very few folks on that part of the beach, so we felt as if we were on a planet all of our own for long stretches of time. It’s absolutely wonderful having no time limit – just enjoying and relaxing.
The wind is due to pick up again for the next few days, so tomorrow we are going to be heading inland again to see what we can find to photograph. A week on a windy beach is enough – even for me.
With love to you all
And again, especially U3
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Inside a Volcano!
13th July ‘04
The water was the bluest blue, the most amazing reflections danced across the surface, there is a ‘ghost ship’ and a volcano island - all inside this enormous dormant, water filled volcano. Water that changed color from crystal clear to iridescent green, to the deepest royal blue you can imagine, all in a few feet. At times we could see through the water to the rocks and pumice 50 feet below, and other times it seemed that the clouds bounced off the surface of the water letting nothing through at all. This is Crater Lake in Oregon. We had seen a program about it on tv just a few days before leaving Chattanooga and it was wonderful to discover that we were literally just around the corner from it - so on Monday we headed this way.
First thing on Monday morning found us at a tire place in Oregon getting the front end alignment on the motor home fixed - and that’s all I am saying about tires other than all is well and we still have all our original tires, unlike last year. While we were waiting for this to be done, there was a 6.2 earthquake. I have to admit that neither of us felt it at all but once we heard that it had happened, we waited around for a short while to see if there would be tsunami warnings, but nothing happened so we headed out of the coastal area. Yes, we are crazy people! The gas price along the coast in Oregon was $2.23 per gallon. Further inland it came down to $1.87 so we quickly filled the gas tanks of both Skilpads, as well as the extra gas can we carry, at the lower price.
We got our first real mountain in the USA on Monday - a 6000ft masterpiece of beauty and wonder. Skilpad screamed up the hills only perspiring mildly herself, while I shed gallons at the sight of the sheer drop offs hugging my side of the road way too closely! Then the shuddering down hills began. I really wish that some of Frank’s calmness at these elevations would wear off on me. It also took me a few miles to get used to the rattling and jerking and other sounds going on in the motor home, what with being back on the road again. We have become clever and store only the light stuff in the overhead cupboards, so we are feeling a little safer opening up the cupboards at the end of the travelling day. Nothing has jumped out at us again, apart from the small can of peas that jumped at me the yesterday..... we ate them!
So off we went along small, winding, narrow roads with no barriers at all for miles and miles. It takes some concentration being on these roads, especially from Frank, and we find ourselves taking a good few breaks along the way. At times I find myself concentrating so hard that my teeth hurt and I have to pull my feet away from the imaginary brakes…. It is so lovely and quiet in the forests around here – so peaceful and it always tends to make me draw in a deep breath and relax. Just nice. We headed up towards Crater Lake on a very straight road that looked like it was impossibly steep and pencil straight. Fortunately we took the road that goes around the road that goes around the lake - a good long way around, but a really good choice especially after seeing it today. The scenery on this stretch was lovely! Enormous Redwood trees, with green moss and lichen growing on the sides that lights up when the sun hits it, making my camera hand come flying up only to catch the blur of trees going by through a bug splattered window. There were also enormous pine trees, and the forest looked so friendly - just a gentle rolling, totally undisturbed mass of trees – the kind that one could wonder through and feel quite safe, or so it looked. The forests in Canada look untidy, nothing seems to rot there so the dead trees lie around for many years, making it look like it desperately needed a good housekeeper in places. Another thing I forgot to mention are the enormous dandelions in Canada. They were each as big as a tennis ball! Ever tried picking a dandelion while keeping it intact? And then trying to walk with it without it flying into a million pieces? We could not walk slowly enough - we tried. So you don’t get your giant dandelion, Mom - sorry!
Now we are inside the Crater Lake National Park, booked here for two days. We had a good long bicycle ride all through the park yesterday evening - finding a wonderful gorge with a river waaaay down below. There is snow and ice lying in big puddles all over the place and the forest is so thick that when we are in our campsite it’s almost impossible to see any of the other campers – the trees gently lined all the pathways and campsites. There were many folks walking around and riding bikes, and one even carrying his tent around – fully extended – he seemed rather surprised when I took a photograph of him, but it did seem strange and I wondered whether he was scared of losing the tent, or what? There are an extraordinary amount of dogs travelling with people in enormous and some tiny motor homes. We even saw a couple travelling on their motorbike with a trailer behind - on the top of the trailer was a dog transport cage with a dog in it! These people have got to be serious dog lovers. There are signs everywhere saying that there are bears in the park and I wonder at the rule that says dogs must be tied up at the camp ground - if a bear comes, they cannot run! Many folks were out today leaving their dogs tied up outside the motor homes all on their own, all day long. For me, this raises many questions.
The mosquito’s here are like those ones in the comic books, they are enormous! They land like helicopters on one and you can actually see them sticking their ‘sticker’ in. They feel like a fly when you swat them they are so big, so it feels better to just pick them off. I could almost imagine them looking at me indignantly while I picked them off my arms and legs. They are persistent but fortunately not fast at all, and they can only get you if you sit still, which did not do much for the idea of relaxing outside at all.
Today: Today was totally and absolutely awesome! We had heard that it would take about 2 hours to drive around the lake and were a bit concerned that after two hours it would all be over. We could not have been more wrong. The first point that we got to at the rim was about 4 miles from the campground, and it took our breath away. The size of this crater is an amazing 5 miles across. The different blues and greens just stunned me totally into utter awe and absolute silence, for a change. There is snow and ice lying all over, inside the rim too, which is steep and a long way down to the incredible blue slab of water. The fluffy white clouds duplicated themselves in the rippling water creating pictures that I am incapable of describing well enough. We stopped at each of the pull off areas, which at times were close together - just to get a different view of this amazing place. Each time it was slightly different. The green water gave way to the deeper blue and then the clouds took the rest. It was amazing to see the different layers created in the different eruptions of this volcano. There are pine trees growing all around the rim and pure white, undisturbed snow lies piled up all over the place, both making for wonderful props for photos.
We went to play in a level piece of snow and ice. Frank got a t-shirt full of ice and retaliated very well with an unexpected snowball that clipped me squarely on the side of my head - he is going to pay for that one! The ice and snow is still piled up all along the road, sometimes at depths more than 10 feet high.
We had seen a boat way down in the crater and knew that this was what we had to do. So we hunted down the ticket sales area and promptly bought the tickets to our ride on the blue water. We listened, almost unbelieving, as they told us that it would take about an hour to hike down the side of the crater to the water and the boats, it did not look like that far down. It was. It was a very steep and narrow dusty path that wound itself down the side of the crater for a distance of one mile and an elevation of 700 feet with the most amazing and constant views of the incredible blue lake through the trees. Needless to say, the camera clicked away endlessly, filling itself at a tremendous rate.
It was quite stunning how fast that path grew. By the time we had to come back up it felt like it was 3 miles straight up and over 2000 feet! Going down, we slid, skidded and walked down the inside of this volcano - an incredible feeling, and got down to the lake with almost an hour to spare before our boat was to leave. So we climbed over the rocks, found a place to sit down, took our shoes off and dangled two pairs of hot, sweaty and sore feet in the water. They did not stay in there long at all the first time. The water temperature is 55 degrees in the top two feet of water and then it goes down to 40 degrees below that - stirred up it feels like 20 degrees! After a little while, our feet got numb, so we just enjoyed the feel of the water on them. I took photos of the rocks under the water and some other people jumped in and ‘swam’. It was more like an insane dance to get to the nearest person that would help pull them out so they could breath again! “Big Bubbas” before they jumped in, but blithering idiots by the time they got a towel around them again. One guy said afterward that the water was ‘brisk’, but then he disappeared, barely able to walk, down to a big warm rock and he draped himself like a limp lizard over it. The shivering stopped after only 5 minutes! Really good entertainment.
The boat ride was just under two hours long - what an amazing experience. There are so many interesting things inside that volcano - we went right up to the island in the lake, Wizard Island - also a volcano. One can get dropped off there for a few hours and fish and hike all you want to, but our boat ride was too late in the day for this and they would not let any of us off. Wizard Island has a crater of 90ft deep but has no water in it as the bottom has not sealed off and the water seeps through, but it is a volcano inside this massive one.
There is a log in the lake that has been floating around since 1929 and maybe before that too - they call it “The Old Man of the Lake”. It is a 35foot log that is floating straight up and down, roots to the bottom. It floats a distance of up to 4 miles per day with the wind and current and has an ant colony on its tip – yes, an ant colony! It sticks up about 3 feet above the water - very strange. This volcano blew 150 times as much stuff out of it than Mt St Helen’s did in 1980, and spewed its ash and pumice over 8 states and 3 Canadian Provinces!
Crater Lake has the clearest lake water in the world and is 1900 and some odd feet deep in its deepest place. Its only source of water is snow, ice and rain and the last time it froze over solidly was in 1949. Recently, thermals have been found way down at the bottom of the lake with bacteria growing down there, which means that the volcano is still alive and not totally dead at all.
There is a flight ban over the lake as about 8 years ago two people in a private helicopter flew over the Caldera and because the water is so clear, they could not see exactly where the water was and they crashed into it, drowning them both. The helicopter and the two occupants are still in the lake, and no one else is allowed to fly over there anymore – a total flying ban is in effect over the volcano.
One does not need a fishing permit there and there is no limit on the number of fish you can catch either, unlike in the rest of Oregon. Fish were introduced many years ago but only two species survived - they are not restocking or encouraging, or protecting the fish, although some good has come from them - they now have bald head eagles nesting around the lake.
There is an amazing, big outcrop of rock that towers about 300 foot above the water called the “Ghost Ship” and looks just like one, especially seen from distance with the mist swirling around it. It has 7 species of trees growing on it and that’s quite a feat as it is not that big at all. There are also many beautifully bright colored flowers growing out of the rocks all over this little island of rock. Quite lovely. It’s just an amazing place all in all. It’s like whole different world in a relatively small piece of rock.
We took hundreds of photos, and could have taken more. The blue was the most exquisite color and difficult to capture, but we tried. At times the Lake looked like a Bob Ross painting, so still and perfect, and at other times it was harsh and cold, filled with jagged edges. A fantastic and surprising contrast around every gentle curve.
So after this amazing ride all around the outer edge of the lake we headed back to shore, totally amazed that two of the tourist people had to be woken up to get off the boat - they had fallen asleep! And then we headed back up the wall of the crater again. Our legs and faces were more than gently sun burned, but we still bubbled with the sights and beauty of the place. The steepness of the walk up provided many stops to take pictures and catch our breath and to let the dust from our walking, settle. This is when the ice water came in handy too, although we took small sips while looking up at the distance we still had to climb. There were many quite tame chipmunks along the path, hoping and waiting for tidbits that nobody had the energy to get out and give them. One posed very nicely for a photograph and then scuttled off to a more likely target behind us. There was a solid respect for the area and we all spoke in a kind of a reverend tone with no yelling, even at running kids – the parents hissed in hushed tones at them.
Everyone automatically looked out for the others going uphill, checking that they had enough water and were ok, and there was much laughing at the “jaunty walking” of those going downhill, uttering dire warnings about what goes down must go up again! A happy walk. One guy muttered to his seriously puffing wife about half way up - “remember, you paid for this!” There was absolutely no trash lying around at all, anywhere. Lovely.
We had only driven half way around the top of the lake at this point and still had many photos to take. It was good seeing things from the top that we had ooh-ed and aah-ed at from water level. They were all duly sighed at, photographed and looked at again over our shoulders as we kept on going. It was getting late and we were tired, burned, and very hungry. One chocolate and a good few bottles of water just did not cut it well enough for the amount of energy spent.
We drove through some thick snow piled up alongside the road, dodged plenty fallen rocks, took all of the many side roads to see what else there was or to catch yet another view. We found a few waterfalls, some lovely flowers, just enjoyed the quiet, chatted to some folks - all the time heading definitely in the direction of food and face cream! Many of the trees are bent at the bottom and the snow piles against them and then they seem to keep growing around it - enormous trees and the new growth too - it makes the whole forest look like its leaning. I read that the reason the trees lean like this is because of the movement of the ground in that area. I guess it makes sense that it would slide slightly downhill over time – gravity and all. Looking over the rim of the lake on all sides, there are snow peaks everywhere, sticking up through an endless sea of greenery and undulating hills. It’s just too beautiful to be able to put into words, and we both found ourselves taking that zillionth last look over our shoulders or in the rear view mirror.
Now we are home again, burned and tired. A lovely, satisfied and exhausted tired. Tomorrow we are heading east, south, east towards Salt Lake City, we think. That’s the plan for now anyway. I am sure I will dream of blue water tonight, and will leave you now to do just that.
With lots of love to you all and a big extra bunch for U3 - I love you guys and miss you lotsa, and it was great chatting to all three of you tonight! :-)
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Nevada and Utah
15th July ‘04
I cannot stop thinking about Crater Lake and want to share some other little fairly useless, but interesting, details. Firstly, the volcano is called Mount Mazama and used to stand 12 000 feet high at its highest times. The volcano has not stirred for the past 5000 years - yet! There is no stream out of the lake - just some seepage holes in one area but no one has found exactly where they come out on the other side. There are water sources near the crater wall, but it is said that there is no proof yet that they come directly from the lake. The depth of the lake varies less than three feet annually. The Lake is 6,173 ft above sea level and the little volcano, Wizard Island, stands 767 feet above the water level in the lake. The average amount of snow in this area is 44 foot per year and lots of it is still standing around – even in mid July.
And it still amazes us and has the bluest blue water we have ever seen! And now we leave it behind us. Or try to.
The road from there to Nevada varied from gentle, winding roads with elegantly tall trees, to roads creating a pencil straight line through an incredible valley surrounded by snow peaked mountains. Dust devils danced all around us and the sky varied from blue with gentle clouds to angry gray boiling masses of water laden clouds, flecked with lightening every now and again. The rain dropped so hard in places that we could see it bouncing back up all around and quite a distance away too - and in the same view, the sunlight broke through the lighter clouds and lit up the mountains with a light brush of gold. There was a lovely lake that stayed with us for miles, but it looked yellow, and we could see why – enormous, swirling clouds of pollen were floating across from the farmlands all around us, giving everything in their path a delicate hue of yellow/gold. Thankfully pollen does not have too much of a negative affect on either of us.
Some of the mountains are huge piles of pumice with very little of anything obvious growing on them, and others are covered with little round bushes all over the place - all looking like they would give up half their roots for a drink of water. All the mountains seem to disappear into the heat haze at different times just leaving us with shimmering mirages. We had to watch that the chocolates that we bought in Canada did not melt - that would be just too terrible. I felt like a mother hen with her eggs, checking the temperature of the chocolates at regular intervals.
Somewhere in Nevada we stopped at a pull off to make something to eat and just take a break. It was hot and it was time to stretch our legs too. We had been driving with the generator running, keeping the house air conditioner on and also the fridge - it just refuses to work on gas anymore. Anyway we stopped for a while and found a pipe spewing lovely cool, crystal clear water out into the middle of nowhere. It had created a whole eco system all of its own – a beautiful, lush green oasis. There were little fish, brilliant blue dragonflies and plenty little white butterflies with lovely patterns on their wings. The reeds grew tall and the algae flourished - all in an area no bigger than the average six seat kitchen table. The shrubs, trees and plants all around it were a healthy green color too. There were numerous little paths leading to and from this watering hole telling us that many animals knew of this little wonderland.
At one place we were stopped for quite a while at a road works site and all over the road were millions of grasshoppers, big, dark brown grasshoppers. But they did not hop much at all - they either scuttled, ate or got squashed! Once they were squashed they quickly became food for the others that scuttled into the road to get to them and fast became squashed too. Talk about the circle of death. It was not a place one wanted to get out and walk around at all. We were entertained for a little while when a lady from one of the cars behind us got out and was trying to catch one of them in a plastic cup – all the squeaks and squealing made for a good diversion, for a while.
We drove last night till very late - about 11pm Chattanooga time. There were very few RV parks along the way and we wanted to get to Elko, Nevada. Eventually we found a campground that had power hookups and hot showers, both very welcome. After connecting the house up to power and water, and having a good hot shower we had a glass of lovely cool wine and orange juice. Much needed relaxation indeed and it was good to be not moving for a change.
We fell into bed at 1.30 am – a definite no-no for us. And then Lisa called at 3am our time, forgetting about the time difference. I did not have the energy nor the heart to tell her, but wished her a good day at work and went back to sleep - quickly! It was good to hear from her, even at that hour.
Today we drove through the salt plains and past the Great Salt Lake. This is quite a weird place - it looks like snow or pure white sand, but it smells like the beach complete with the decaying fish and seaweed smell. This is not what we expected but fortunately it did not last for too long. The mirages created by the heat on the salt made it look like the mountains floated on or above the water, and it is so flat that it’s difficult to get a good picture from road level.
Then we went through Salt Lake City itself. One has to be insane to have to do this every day! There are 7 lanes of traffic going one way and then road works everywhere too. It made Atlanta traffic feel like a walk in the park. I don’t remember breathing much, nor moving much at all. Traffic came at one from all sides, all in an amazing rush to get to the next piece of busy road. And it went on and on and on. But, like all other horrendous places, we were spat out the other side, still physically in one piece. We got off the interstate as soon as we were through the main town area and drove along a gently winding, easy riding farm road. What a pleasure! We can breathe on this type of road.
The sky had gentle summer day look to it on one side, pouring rain on the other and the mountains were layers of looming shadows in varying shades of ........shadows. Interesting.
A story we heard while in Canada: A guy was suing his neighbor for having ‘exotic animals’ in his back yard. The ‘exotic animals’ were chickens! He did not like the sound they made in the morning - and he won the lawsuit. Life is full of strange stories and people. Thankfully.
After the rain had cooled the whole area off, we opened all the windows and had a wonderful fresh breeze blowing all the hot air out of the house – lovely. It was a wonderful change from running with all the windows and blinds closed against the sun while everything heated up and the chocolates got soft.
Then we hit Utah and the scenery changed almost as if Utah knew it was separate from Nevada. The hills turned pink and red and orange and all shades in between. We drove on a road that wound easily through a canyon surrounded with all these different colors, and the little Sevier River gently raced us around the curves. It is a lovely deep-breathing area. Before long, it changed again, to farmlands with the healthy smell of cow poop.
At around 6pm we found a park about 15 miles from Bryce Canyon National Park, a little further from Zion National Park and a good many other places to see - tomorrow.
The elevation of this area is around 6000 feet and Skilpad handled the up hills very well, even with the air conditioner going full blast at times. The surrounding area is lovely and there is so much changing all the time. The camera never rests and it’s just wonderful having the wheels turning underneath us with the constant changes and clicking camera.
We are now trying to empty the coffeepot before heading off for a good night’s sleep.
Love to you all, especially U3
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Bryce Canyon, Utah
June 16th ‘04
From the blue of Crater Lake (I just cannot get it out of my mind) to the orange, red and whites of Bryce Canyon – the sights were awesome. Stunning scenery - amazing colors, amazing stone sculptures and pinnacles. They are officially called Hoodoos, but right now it does not matter to me what they are called, they are just too amazing. Some of the formations look like faces, others look like cathedrals, and yet others can be anything you want to make them and so many of them are cartoon characters. The camera not only took photos but had to lean to the left and lean to the right to try to get the big picture.
We decided to hike down into the canyon for a short way on a path - just a mile or three to see what there was to see. Out came the boots that we bought last year and never used, our Florida hats - the ones that make me look totally stupid and make Frank look like Dr Livingstone (I presume), especially when he has the backpack on and hiking stick in hand. And so we started out on this trail of just over a mile long. It was a good downhill, some serious drop offs, gorgeous cliffs, stunning scenery and some amazing and beautiful twisted dead trees. Yes, dead trees lying everywhere. They all seem to grow in a tight twist and make for some seriously beautiful artwork when all dried up. We felt fine after doing most of that little trail and still had plenty space left on the camera, so headed down another trail of about 8 miles long. We knew that we were not going to finish this trail, but wanted to go part of the way anyway, besides, we had our boots on!
This was a serious downhill, you know the kind when you take tiny steps, and make sure you stop before taking a photo or looking at the view. We were extra careful where we put our feet on that narrow path. And then the trees cleared and the glorious cliffs showed themselves clearly to us. At each rise there were more hoodoos to see, more sculptures and different shades of multiple colors. For a while we walked right across the top of one section on a really narrow pathway slightly cut out of the red sand, with deep and impressive valleys half a step away - just amazing. And all this while walking on fantastic orange/red ground. The camera almost performs by itself these days, and it did very well here too.
A little bit earlier we had noticed a dark cloud hovering overhead and now heard some rumbling thunder too, but we decided to go just a little bit further. The cloud grew, the thunder thundered louder and it got darker and darker. And then the rain started. We plonked ourselves down on the side of the path overlooking the cliffs, heels firmly dug into the path to keep us from sliding downwards, with the most incredible view you could imagine spread out in front of us. The rain did not last long at all because the hail started! So here we are, scrunched up under a semi solid tree on the side of Bryce Canyon with hail bouncing all around us and the clouds looking like they hold a lot more of it too. And my cell phone had full signal! You don’t know just how many of you I nearly called. It was interesting sitting there but we were getting cold - fast. We were ‘good hikers’ though - we had the right foot wear, hats, plenty of cold water, and snacks. Nothing to keep us warm though, but we were not too far down the canyon to worry about it at all. The helicopter tours were still flying so if all else failed I could have waved my pink t-shirt around and got some attention. We were not worried, just cold and hoping it was not going to get much worse.
After a while the tree started leaking and we decided to start the walk back again, rain and hail or not - we had to get back sometime. The hail had stopped but the rain persisted and we huffed and puffed between sheltered spaces along the path. The rain was cold and as it hit our backs it soaked through our t-shirts placing yet another icy spot to the ever growing bone cold feeling. At least the ice bounced off without creating a freezer affect. The mud collected by the pounds per step on the bottom of our boots and we had to stop regularly to catch our breath, scrape our boots off and take more photos. We were at about 8000 foot in elevation and the air was cold and thin and the extra pounds on our boots (amongst other places not to be mentioned!) did not help at all.
The little chipmunks scuttled across the path with their heads and tails pointed as far north as possible and little feet creating their own dust clouds as they scuttled away staying mostly in the dry areas.
The rain did amazing things to the colors of the cliffs - it turned them almost bright red, and the orange, vermilion, chocolate and whites became even more stunning - brilliant in places and then the sun came out and added an even more amazing shine to them. We got a break in the rain when we arrived back at the parking area and managed to un-boot and sit quietly and gratefully in the truck for a few minutes before heading towards some of the viewpoints we had missed on the way in, and then home. A few minutes later the rain started again and the clouds let loose a torrent of rain that would have had us looking and feeling like drowned rats had we been caught in that lot! It was fun and beautiful and the air smelled so good out there. There were not many birds around, but the forest was somehow alive - maybe it had something to do with all the little holes dug all over the place, tiny trails criss-crossing all over and the lovely flowers growing in colorful puddles everywhere.
We are in a little town called Panguitch in Utah. There seems to be plenty of history to discover and explore in this area and a good few National Parks and beautiful places around here. We plan to do a hike that is about seven miles, down into the bottom of the canyons in the next day or so - there is a trail that will take us right through towering sand sculptures and plenty incredible scenery. We also want to see Zion National Park, and so many other things around here. Fortunately we still have plenty time to see what is in the area. But for now, with the sun setting, a gentle breeze blowing and the smell of campfires, I will say goodnight.
With lots of love to you all
And U3 - stay safe! we love you lotsa
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Bryce Canyon Close Up
July 18th ‘04
I don’t know quite where or how to start. This place is stunning. It’s enormous, beautiful, fairytale-like, colorful, tall, steep, deep and just plain amazing.
The story goes something like this: many years ago demons and bad people lived in this area and the gods got really mad with them and turned them all into stone. Looking at the thousands of pinnacles around, it’s quite possible that that is exactly what happened! You can see so many different peoples, animals and strange creatures in each natural sandstone carving. Imagine anything or anyone and then smudge the edges just a bit to make you have to guess at the identity just a little, and you have the top of one of these pinnacles or Hoodoos. These figures peered at us from below, until we got down in the bottom of the canyon when we could look up and see them looming precariously above, disappearing into the sun, staring unblinkingly at us now at their feet.
We started off going down the Navajo Circle hiking trail. The start of this trail was seriously downhill and a very narrow path and many people got themselves into slippery situations with the wrong shoes. It zigzagged at an amazing angle, with only about 10 very close steps between a zig and a zag. Very steep, but so lovely, and so orange! It was a trail that we stopped on at very regular intervals because the scenery was just stunning and I needed to try to commit some of this scenery to memory, as well camera chip. The cliffs around us went straight up and we headed down right in between them. These cliffs are the most amazing deep burned orange in color and were so narrow that we could touch each side in places by stretching our arms out, and they stretched way up only leaving a thin strip of sunlight in places. There were undercuts that one could walk under or let other folks go past, but fortunately there was not a crowd hanging around down there. Around each corner was something totally different, a different view of a canyon still to be walked through, the sunlight filtering through from the high place we have just come from and the trail filling up again with people as tiny as ants. Then an enormous tree made its appearance - tall without limbs all the way to the top of the canyon where it spread its foliage to create a large umbrella – really awesome.
We had only brought the one smaller camera along with us today - the other one needs a bit more protection and is quite heavy by comparison. So - I had to be careful about just snapping away carelessly. It was not easy at all with all this around us. There were many visitors walking down the path and all their talking kind of took the silence away. At times it sounded like birds insanely chirping as they shared with each other the wonder of this place, with the echoes bouncing off the side walls - and then they all seemed to disappear and it was quiet! I had just seriously wished that all the noise would stop. Gosh, I do hope I don’t have talents I don’t know of and that they just decided to go back up to the top….. Anyway, the silence was wonderful, we stopped and just breathed in the air and the absolute stillness - apart from an occasional piece of sandstone falling or a little, careful bird chirping. They say that the air here is of the cleanest in the country. We can well believe that.
We came across a split in the path and decided to head out on the Peek-a-Boo Trail - it was ‘only’ 3 miles in total and would bring us back to this point where we could either go back up the zig-zag path or go further on a different trail. The Peek-a-boo trail went north - I mean directly up! The surface of the path had also changed quite a bit as we were now sharing it with horses and this tore up the surface a bit more making fine orange and white dust and many loose stones, which did not make for very easy walking at times.
It was lovely hiking - really lovely. There is nothing quite like walking uphill constantly with screaming leg muscles, so steep that at times we had to stop after only a few steps - a good excuse for stopping was the amazing and ever changing view. We had a lovely dark cloud directly above us for quite a way, which stopped the worst of the sun but did not spoil the pictures we took, or the view. It rained at odd places to the left and right of us, just lighting up the sandstone colors more, but did not get to us although we could clearly hear the thunder booming through the canyon and the lightening was spectacular. By this time we wanted it to rain - it cooling effect would have been very welcome indeed. We climbed and climbed and breathlessly ooh-ed and aah-ed through very thin air. A few horse tours passed us and the horses left very pungent smelling remains behind - at least they feed them well here – very well. We tiredly tried to buy a horse, but there were no takers at all, everyone stayed firmly planted in their saddles, smiling at us as if we were totally mad. The trail was well marked by horse poop and there was no way could we get lost! And then we were headed straight down again, which let us know clearly that we had not finished climbing yet at all but was a wonderful break from the uphill battle we had going. There are short tunnels through the sandstone allowing a path, and us, to go around yet another amazing corner of the Canyon. Each of these openings is a doorway to yet a different world, different scenery and sometimes even the weather was totally different too. It was like getting a gift at every turn. Very intriguing.
By the time we finished our 3 mile hike of the Peek-a-Boo circle, we did not have the energy to do the zig zag hike back up that path again to our starting point, so we headed out on the Queens Garden Trail - only another 2 miles or so, and looking like much easier walking. It looked way more gentle a path than that straight-up trail.
It was easy walking along the more level trails and we had left the part that the horses shared so the path was much smoother walking all in all. Then the cloud above us got serious and we dashed madly up a hill, off the beaten path to an enormous, precariously balanced piece of sandstone for some shelter. We scrunched ourselves up underneath the small overhang, getting only our legs and shoes wet and watched our world turn grey with the downpour. The thunder thundered, and the lightening struck nearby making me really glad to be under that rock. The hoodoos towered way above us, dissolving into the gray clouds that hung low pelting us with their contents. As the rain slowed down, we could see the orange shining through again, only much brighter now. It is amazing how stunning the orange is together with the greens of the pine trees, and the bareness of the dead trees still standing, stretching high up.
While we were sitting under our rock, a family passed by on the trail with very brightly colored raincoats on – it was an incredible picture – everything gray and wet, with these figures marching determinedly by with amazing bright colors. Another lovely photograph.
When it stopped raining we headed out from under our rock, and this time the end of the path was evident – waaaay up high, with the viewpoint directly above us, filled with people the size of baby ants peering down at us.
With the up hills come the stunning views so we did not mind too much, mostly, at times, etc. The whole area was bright now because of the rain, and I wished I had sunglasses. There are still numerous little tunnels one has to walk through and each one still delivers yet another absolutely awesome view. On the sides of these tunnels we could get close up to all the different colors of sandstone and we found quite a bit of yellow and purple stone along with the orange and whites and pinks. Unfortunately sandstone did not travel well in my pocket and I ended up with a mess of very dull looking sand.
By the time we got to the top of the canyon again, we had been hiking for 7 hours. We had had 4 bottles of water each and had not needed the bathroom once - sweated it all out. We sat right at the top point of the trail, drank the last little bit of water, ate the last sandwich and then headed for the bakkie which was a quarter of a mile away. Fortunately for us this last bit was a very good and level path right on the edge of the canyon, providing a last amazing look. A total hike of seven and a half aching, but wonderful miles!
De-booting was glorious!! I could almost hear my feet thanking me with deep and grateful sighs. Actually the boots are only now starting to be ‘walked in’ and are getting more comfortable. The next hike should do it and make them feel really good. Maybe.
Both of us are feeling as if we did some real exercise today and we relaxed with a well deserved supper and glass of wine and orange juice. We both feel that we deserve a break from all this exercise - for a day or so, anyway. Yesterday we had a slow start but then decided to drive the bikes up to Red Canyon which is on the way to Bryce, and then ride up the bike trail as far as we felt like going. The operative word here is ‘up’. Again. The bike trail is all uphill. But hey, we could do it!
Do any of you remember playing with a frog or toad, trying to make it hop a bit further, a bit faster by endlessly prodding the poor thing? Well that is what we felt like on this bike trail. Shortly after we started out, a beeeg, very dark cloud formed right above us – we seem to attract these clouds. We looked at the direction of the wind and decided that we could out-cycle the rain as it was going cross-wise to us, at that time anyway. After only a few minutes, the first thunderclap arrived - not too bad. We had our backs to the storm so could not see the lightening, and besides, we were very busy trying to ignore the fact that our legs were straining to get us uphill and ahead of the cloud.
Each time we stopped to huff and puff , the thunder reminded us to get over it fast and move on! The cloud had become bigger, more solid and more serious, but we still thought we could get away from it as the path changed direction just ahead. Prod. Lightening close by. A quick, short, uphill sprint on the bikes. Heavy breathing break. Prod! Thunder echoing through the hoodoos. Thunder can’t hurt - break time, huff and puff. We looked back and saw it raining heavily and carried on. Prod. Lightening closer. We pedaled faster and further this time. Frank does not mind a thunderstorm too much, but I am not really fond of them. But on we went. Prod. It thundered and lightening-ed almost at the same time right above us. There was a bridge ahead and we aimed for this but Franks bicycle chain needed adjusting - the bikes were taking the strain too. PROD!
I found myself with my fingers firmly planted in my ears, my arms wrapped around my bike (rubber tires and all), crouched down - cowering, with the hairs on my arms and neck standing straight up. Frank screeched with laughter at me, but we were prodded enough. We turned the bikes around and raced downhill directly under the storm back to the bakkie. It felt wonderful! I even dared the lightening to catch me if it could - fortunately I did not speak loud enough.....
There was ice all over the trail and under the little bushes half an inch deep! The petals from all the flowers along the way were lying strewn all over the road - the hail had knocked them all off. The water was pouring over the trail in rivers, bringing plenty stones and soil along with it nearly de-biking us at times. We had taken the mud guards off the bikes when we put the mountain tires on a few months ago, so the water from the trail poured upwards soaking us totally from the bottom up, while we collected rain from above too.
But we had stopped being prodded and were out from under the worst of the storm. We screamed downhill with our legs stretched at 90 degrees from the bikes, howling with laughter and pure joy at the speed, freedom and coolth of the downhill sprint. It was an exhilarating and exhausting ride - uphill and back down again, only taking a fraction of the time to get back down than it took to battle up that path. Wonderful, wonderful.
The bikes and the boots are in the back of the bakkie - all needing cleaning, but we are in no rush to do this right now.
Tomorrow, Monday, we are planning to head out to Canyonlands and Arches National Park. That’s the plan, not set in stone yet. And we have another humdinger storm headed this way right now.
It’s been an amazing few days, and I have hundreds of photos to put on the computer - only managed to take 241 pictures today. It’s quite a trick naming them and sometimes trying to figure out why I took the photo in the first place.
From two footsore but contented folks
Love to you all
And especially U3 - I wish this for each of you!
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
To Arches National Park
20th July ‘04
With still aching muscles, we packed up the Skilpads to leave the Bryce Canyon area and head towards Arches National Park. It’s then that we saw an almost flat outside rear tire. So out came the pump and it pumped and pumped and pumped to no avail. It was the inside tire of the double set on that side that was flat putting all the weight on the outside tire. The valve stem had broken - once again. Last year we went though all our tires, and numerous valve stems, so we knew exactly what to do - look for a place to have it fixed! I left in the bakkie to go and find a tire place in the small town of Panguich leaving Frank to do the rest of the packing and stuff. It did not take long for them to change the valve stem and we were on our way again. It is still strange for me to see the house up on a little jack stand and I hope we don’t get the chance to get used to it - ever!
We were given the most beautiful scenery all the way today. The road was very steep uphill, which gave us a wonderful view of the canyons below. At times we were driving on a narrow road on top of very narrow ridge top, making it feel at times as if we were driving on a road through the clouds. It was odd having steep, beautiful canyons, hundreds of feet down, on both sides of the house – it felt a tad vulnerable much of the time! The road up there wound its way around numerous bends and curves making the road totally disappear at times - very weird indeed. The shrubbery was also low which helped give the whole area a different worldly feel.
At times the road was so steep that it felt as if we should get out and help push the house up, but she did it - screaming at times, but not even heating up much at all. And then the down hills. I don’t mind them that much anymore, but when one is in second gear, the house screaming and the brakes starting to get warm, the shuddering gets to me. Fortunately the amazing, ever changing scenery took my mind off that and I left it up to Frank - I am not sure who appreciated that more.....
We drove through the Escalante Grand Staircase National Park - it was just stunning, and then through Capitol Reef National Park, also amazing in different ways. How do I keep describing this amazing area? They call it Canyon Lands - this whole area, and it’s just amazing. There are the red canyons, then the multicolored canyons and then the white canyons and rocks and formations that take our breath away too. Then we were presented with amazing valleys that stretch on forever with the road winding like a narrow ribbon through the ankle high scrub disappearing over the distant hills. And at times it’s all mixed in together - just awesome. There is black pumice and lava rock strewn all over the tops of the layers in the canyons. They sit up there as if they were just dropped there yesterday, some balancing precariously and many, many of them look almost perfectly round. There are enormous rocks littered all over the place too - fallen from way up onto leaning and precarious looking cliffs and hills. It must be quite a job to keep the road open and free of natures ‘mess’ around here.
And it rained, actually stormed an amazing storm. The lightening was brilliant and the clouds deep gray - one section started looking green and I took out the other camera just in case we were lucky enough to see a tornado. No such luck. In places the clouds reflected the red/orange color of the canyons and hoodoos and made for a very interesting and colorful storm. There seemed to be even more colors in the cliffs than normal today, and we found deep purple, green and blue mixed in with the now standard other colors. It rained so hard that each raindrop made a definite plop and spread itself widely on the windshield. Of course this happened because we washed the Skilpads off before we left this morning!
Just before getting under the heart of the green looking storm, we turned onto the Interstate 70 eastwards thereby missing most of it. I have to admit to breathing a grateful sigh, just a small one. I do not relax very well traveling in rain or storms.
The interstate was flanked by even more amazing cliffs and hills of all colors that followed us all the way to Moab, Utah. We are now camped in a park that is about two miles past the entrance to Arches National Park and about 30 miles from Canyonlands National Park south entrance, with the Colorado River within two minutes walk. It’s a muddy river, not deep at all here and not madly impressive right at this point.
Last night we drove through the town of Moab, to see what there was and to find some groceries and wine. It is a lovely clean town and is not all that little at all. We also went to see about local tours, and got ourselves booked on a four hour, 4 x 4 jeep tour tomorrow morning, back here for lunch at the local restaurant and then out on the river for a four hour ride on a jet boat. Sounds like much fun and someone else will be doing all the driving so we can both equally enjoy the scenery for a change. And take photos.
Today was a slow starter - I slept in late and then we went driving around some other roads of the area. We found one that followed the Colorado River and led us through some more amazing red cliffs and hoodoos and mesas and spires. I can only use the same words to describe this place, so you all already have the picture - except that it was different again - awesome all over again in a slightly different way. Each set of rocks or hoodoos changes with each little bit we drove. The sun also made them all seem as if they were alive and moving. The people in the water trying to raft downriver were mostly walking next to the rafts or just floating on their back alongside them - the flow was very slow around here, and the river was less than waist deep in many places. We did stop at one place and put our feet in the water - lovely and cool. We also picked up some more stones out of the river.........yes, Frank picked some up too.
It is indescribable feeling to stand at some of these places and just think: “I am here.” Just to think of the place, all the times I have read and heard of it, to think of the pictures I have seen and am now seeing the real live thing and I am here! Quite a thing, quite a thing.
Anyway - we drove about 35 miles out on this road and then headed back - we wanted to go and see Arches National Park. We have a National Parks card that allows us into all National Parks free - it’s really been wonderful. Each time we go into a park, they give us a map of the park and other information about the history of the area and what to see - very helpful and full of interesting facts.
So we drove around Arches NP, ooh-ing and aah-ing all over again. It is amazing to see how each area is different although they are so close to each other. The arches were lovely - and the colors! We walked out to three of the arches on a path that did not look long at all. It was further than we thought and we were very glad of our hats and the bottle of ice water Frank had grabbed at the last moment. It was deep into the 90 degree temperatures. It is totally awesome to stand underneath those arches - they are enormous! The formations all around the area keep us pointing to one or another and saying what “picture’ we see in them. Some looked like elegant African ladies with full headdress, others looked like elephants, and there was a boat, buildings, the roadrunner bird and even Mickey Mouse, to mention just a few. It’s all in the mind and we do have weird minds at times but that made it even more interesting. It’s quite a thought that all of this was underwater long, long ago and makes me look at all the surrounding areas in a different way.
The red color became a burned red as the day got hotter and one could see a heat haze over the valleys. The colors change by the minute and in some photos I took, the changes are enormous from one picture to another even though they were taken just minutes apart. No wonder another name for the area is Color Country! Tired and full of colors, we headed home for the evening.
We have had a lovely Frank-made dinner, a glass of wine and are heading for an early night as tomorrow starts at 7am!
So, with love to you all and thanks for all the emails.
And U3? Go for it - you are all doing so well! Love you.
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Moab, Utah - Never Ending Orange Canyons
22 July ‘04
You know when you mix up the ingredients to make a cake and it gets to that thick sloppy stage and you fold it over itself again and again? It makes those layers resting gently on top of each other, also like the layers of skin on one of those wrinkly dogs. That’s what so many of the rocks and cliffs look like here - only they are deep orange mostly and enormous. They were, once upon a time, masses of moving mud that is now part of the most amazing countryside.
We started out yesterday very early going on the 4 x 4 tour. It was a lovely comfortable, air-conditioned Explorer that happily seated nine of us. We started off by seeing some petroglyphs alongside the road and I took a photograph of some shape in the rock face that looks exactly like a baby dinosaur - and then we drove up the side of the cliffs. Yes, up the side of the cliffs. From the “proper” road it was not evident at all that there was even a possibility of going up where we did, and at times it did not seem possible that we could get anywhere either, but those wheels kept turning and we kept going up. The major difference being that from the ‘proper’ road, I could get out and walk if I wanted to, from the other place - not a road - if I got out, that would be the end of me. Even the lady behind me was sucking in her breath more than I was and her knuckles were totally devoid of any color. We were really, really close to the edge many times, but did not want to say anything that might distract the driver at all. He was good and had obviously done this trip many times before. Obviously I was on the side of the drop off!
It was amazing to see these incredible spires, hoodoos and cliffs from close up. There were arches that could only be seen from up there. We drove up on top of one of the sections of the cliffs - the flat part - like an incredibly large mesa. The views were stunning.
From Deadhorse Point State Park we could see where they filmed the last scene of Thelma and Louise. Wendy, I photographed that point from above as well as below, later from the boat. They apparently flung the car over there twice for the final scene and had the cars and dummies on show here in Moab for a while until the one dummy - they did not say which one - was stolen so the rest of the props are now in the local museum.
We could see the river winding its way around the different color cliffs, sometimes getting lost, but always coming out somewhere else. There is not much white water at this part of the river at all - most of it is downstream where the Green and Colorado Rivers join together. The water here is a distinct brown color – it looks like a big fat earthworm winding its way through the hills.
The tour guide had so much information on the area that it was mind-boggling. So much history here - not only with the rocks and hills and cliffs, but with all the different tribes, the times they were in the area and how their lives were impacted during the ages and dramatic changes. Many dinosaur remains have been found here and on the very top of one of the cliffs, 2000 feet up in the air, there is a layer of petrified mussel shells 100 foot thick! There are petrified trees half sticking out of solid rock that was once mud. And the colors, all over the place - it is just a totally awesome place - the wow’s keep on coming and the jaws start aching from hanging open. The bugs love it.
So we bounced our way across and back down the mountain, banging against the doors and the folks next to us. By the time we hit a proper road again we were all exhausted but still trying to absorb the enormity and beauty of what we had seen.
We were then driven back to the campsite where I quickly downloaded the photos off the cameras onto the laptop computer, giving us plenty space to fill them up again on the boat ride. Frank went to get the bakkie from the tour offices and bring it back to the campground. We had a quick sandwich - part of the package deal - and then got onto the jet boat for another amazing few hours.
We were very fortunate in that the tour group was a small one. The boat was more than half empty and the group friendly - all those that were bundled into the 4 x 4 in the morning were with us on the boat and one extra couple. The guide on this part of the day was young and also full of knowledge of the area. I was also more comfortable because I can swim and I knew that the river was not deep at all. There is a six year drought happening here right now and the river is very low. There are many sandbanks/sandbars all over the place and we could see so many places that the water swirled only inches above rocks and trees under the muddy water. This little boat is one of the fastest in the tour industry in this area, and we screamed down the river at about 35 miles per hour at times. Totally exhilarating. Totally awesome.
It was a wonderful feeling being up “on the plane” and skimming across the top of the water, skidding almost all the way around at times. He obviously knew the boat well, and knew well how to add excitement to the ride! There was a natural tendency to scream ‘wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee’ as we slid around yet another corner and a few of us recognized this in each other and just laughed out loud.
At one place along the river, the layer of rock rises above the water at an angle, creating the image that the river is actually going downhill. It is quite strange to see this and makes one wonder if there was not a dramatic waterfall just around the next bend! I managed to capture that illusion on a few photos - and its still looks weird. There were times that the guide switched the motor off and we just floated gently downstream, it was beautifully quiet. There were a few couples paddling canoes downstream - the water flow is too slow to push one at any speed downstream at all.
It was equally stunning to see the canyons from the below. The reflections of the red cliffs, blue sky and white fluffy clouds in the Colorado River made for some stunning photos and some serious breath sucking in! Then when I looked back I got the spray of the speeding boat in the photo as well....... totally wonderful views.
There are thick layers in the rocks alongside the river that are just shell fossils and one can clearly see when some or other catastrophic change happened on earth – the stories are all told in the rocks - maybe not in black and white, but definitely in reds, whites and oranges.
We zigzagged down river for about 32 miles, stopping along the way just to float or to get some question answered by the guide. The views of the canyons changed by the minute and just when you think you have seen a face in one of the hoodoos, it would change to another. There is a cave right along the river edge that is used in the spring for a music hall. Two baby grand pianos are carried down river in jet boats, as are all the musicians and audience. They play for 4 hours every second Thursday of the month with a large audience inside the cave and also many folks floating outside on the river gently fishing to the beat of the music. Apparently it sounds wonderful. I bet it would.
And then, sadly, we arrived at the turnaround point.
The boat was put into full tilt and we skidded, skipped and danced across the Colorado River all 32 miles back again. What a ride! The camera clicked all the way. The shadows had totally changed the scenery, creating new colors and new shapes all along the way. The sun hid behind pure white clouds giving us much needed shade, but not hiding the wonders at all. We stopped once to look at a lone rock climber who was just coming down a sheer cliff. I guess there have to be crazy people in the world - it just seemed to be an impossible place to get to. His view must have made it all worth it. Another amazing four hours today!
By the time we got back home - we were totally exhausted and all our muscles ached, full steam. We fell into bed and slept a fitful nine hours.
This morning we drove through Canyonlands National Park. First the north end. This area is a wonderful place for hikers and trail walkers, but the views were nothing like those that we had seen in this area so far. There were amazing panoramic views and beauty that was awesome, but unfortunately I think we were tired and had seen so much – almost too much in such a short time, and I don’t think we appreciated it as much as we could have and certainly should have.
It was lovely, but in a definitely different way. So we stopped off back at the house, picked up more ice water and headed south to the southern entrance of the Park. This was about 50 miles away in total, on a road winding through lovely cliffs, arches and canyons. The southern part of the park was definitely more impressive than the northern part, but maybe we are just spoiled after all the places we have seen so far. We stopped at a picnic place and had some lunch/supper while looking at a lovely open plateau with red cliffs and spires riding high in the sky in the distance. So quite and peaceful - no noise at all, not even traffic sounds, no one else was around in this enormous expanse. It makes one take a deep breath and let it out slowly. It’s a beautiful feeling.
The camera clicked and the views were truly lovely, and we both feel that it is time to move on again. So tomorrow, Friday, we will be heading into Colorado somewhere.
So, for now and with lots of love to you all and especially U3 - I am proud with all you are doing and we love you lotsa.
Annie and Frank
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Out of Colorado into Texas
24th July ’04
Pink and white mountains escorted us out of Utah and into Colorado. In places it looked as if someone has sifted the mountain and left them in smooth, wonderfully shadowed piles with nothing growing on them - mostly a wonderful mix of pink and gray dotted with shades of green sand all over.
The Colorado River is also not as big and impressive as I had thought it would be – not this part of it anyway. The water looked colder up here nearer the mountains as it wound itself all around the road, showing off many rafters and a good biking trail for miles along the banks of the river. Lovely!
At Vail, Colorado, the mountain pass went up to 10 663 feet. There were pure white mounds of snow dotting the mountains here and there. The town of Vail looked very Swiss like and the building going on there was just incredible. One could see where the ski slopes were and some more were being cleared off, getting ready for a new season. It looked like we were transported to another country while driving through this area. The views from all the chalets on the mountainside must be simply amazing - we could only think how beautiful it must be with all the mountains covered in snow. Imagine all the people though!
Then the road took us up to 11 900 foot. Skilpad did wonderfully, not skipping a beat, just chugging her way up that incredibly steep mountain, even passing a truck or two at 30 miles per hour! The clouds closed in and hung close against the mountains, cutting out much of the view, but they kept us as well as the house nice and cool.
And then came those totally tremendous down-hills. And on and on those down-hills went. I think I am mostly over steep up-hills and narrow roads (I might eat those words soon), so my latest pet bug is these roads that wind themselves downhill at a rate of knots that is just beyond a comfortable feeling – mine anyway. Frank handles it all totally in his stride as do the Skilpads. Me? I close my eyes and think of Florida. (level ground). The road department makes real sure that one stays slowed down - a signboard at one point of even road read: “Don’t be fooled! It’s not over yet - use low gear!”
Ok, so now we are off the worst of the down-hills and looking for a park to stay for the night. No parks anywhere to be seen and Denver is arriving much faster than is wanted. And the clouds were becoming heavier and heavier. Before we knew it, we had but one ‘choice’ - go through downtown Denver! The traffic was horrendous, the cars crept along and we had obviously just missed a major downpour. The roads were totally flooded and we heard later that many roads were closed. It took just an hour to get wetly spat out of the other side of this enormous town and to where we found a campground about 30 miles further down the road. Half the campground was flooded and we were lucky to get a site. It was lovely to be stopped after that race through town and very nice to rest. The rain on the roof of the house makes a wonderful noise to go to sleep with - like a rain stick.
We had decided to get ourselves off the main roads and interstates and find some smaller road and just amble around and see what there is to see wherever we end up. I love this way of traveling - I can navigate us in a really big circle around most major cities. It rained all night last night and it was still raining when we left this morning. The clouds hung heavy almost on the roads and emptied themselves at regular intervals. At times it looked as if we would be in the middle of a major storm, and then it would quickly lighten up and give us a few minutes break. Nice easy traveling most of the time. This side of the Rockies has an enormous cloud blanket draped over it totally cutting out any view from our now lower position. We were slowly moving south and down from the Mile High City of Denver. Maybe it is not good to look back at times anyway....besides, the view forward was mostly calm and quiet.
We drove through the little town of Kit Carson and then went through the panhandle of Oklahoma. For this stretch, we were given lovely rolling farmlands with the shadows of the clouds dotting the hillsides and the scene totally peaceful, with cows of every shade and size gently forming part of a wonderful easy picture.
Then we came across a bunch of those rather futuristic looking windmills. Not the roundy-roundy normal farm windmills, but the ones that reach way up into the sky and have three enormous blades gently turning themselves into the clouds, making some of the fins disappear for a short while. Each windmill, or rather - power generator, has a little blinking light right at the top of the pole it stands on, forming this long and eerie line of gently blinking eyes marching through the mist. They somehow have an ‘other worldly’ feeling about them, and are quite incredible.
We went across the Canada River shortly after coming into Texas - it was totally dry and not very big at all, despite the fact that it showed it as being quite a wide river on the map. My camera hand jumped into action, but the button stayed unpressed and us, unimpressed. I am beginning not to believe much on that map anymore! Texas also has some of those amazing red and orange hillsides spotted with perfectly round green bushes, and we even saw a few bunches of hoodoos around – although they were not nearly as big as the ones in Bryce Canyon. This side of Texas is quite green and it was very pretty driving through a few of the canyons even though they are little ones by comparison.
It rained most of the day, on and off mostly, but we really got a heavy bout right when we found the State Park we are now in, right when we had to unhook the bakkie and hook Skilpad up to water and electricity. That’s the way life goes, and fortunately the rain was not really cold. So here we sit in a park that we don’t know the name of - yet - and have no real idea of what is around us as dark was closing in when we got here.
Tomorrow we will see what it looks like, we did see some bison on the way in and it said it is a wildlife preserve. It sounds nice and there are hiking trails and a bike trail too. It is right at Quitaque Texas, and Frank has just found the name for me - Caprock Canyons State Park - close to Turkey, Texas. Go find us - I bet Mom will go and look us up!
Lots of love to you all
and U3 - I miss you all so much, and love you lots!
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Dinosaur Valley, Texas
27th July ‘04
It rained and rained at Caprock Canyons State Park. We sat and watched the birds playing in the trees and the water running down the side of the house in rivers - endlessly. There is no town around this place to explore and the little shop down the road had about half of the essentials in it. When it finally cleared up a tad, at about 3 in the afternoon, we went for a bike ride around the park. The canyons were by now brilliant red from the rain and the strangest of stone was all over the place. It looked a bit like petrified wood, but was too ‘frilly’ and broke very easily which stopped me from collecting any. But I did take photographs.
Many of the roads in the campground had been closed due to the incredible amount of rain in just a few days. But we did find a steep down-hill path that was still open, which was wonderful - going down. It was good to walk around where it was really quiet, beautiful and smelled clean too. There was an area for ‘equestrian campers’, people who brought their horses here while camping to go riding on the many, many trails around here. Those areas had a distinctive smell to them - but not offensive to me. Now Frank, that’s a different story - he did not appreciate the smell at all and it was hilarious to see his whole face screwed up while be pedaled quickly through that area. It did not take too long.
We parked the bikes at one place and walked to the edge of one of the canyons - it was quite deep down, and there was some very interesting rock down there but we did not feel like turning all our clothes red and orange and stayed up at the top. Then we came back to that hill we so enjoyed going down. We walked up. At the entrance to the park, it says that it is a wildlife preserve and right when we looked up there stood three huge bison and a little baby one too. They were just a bit off in the distance in an overgrown field - a nice peaceful scene right out of the history books. When we left the park, we saw that they were huge metal cutouts planted in the field! They were really realistic looking, especially to two tired travelers in the late evening, as we were when we came in – we were thoroughly fooled.
So we headed South some more, passing many dead armadillo’s, and through many more dead and dying little towns. Some of these towns look as if they are still alive, but only just and it’s impossible to see just how they keep hanging on - or why. One can almost hear the creaking doors as we drove through. We stopped in Dinosaur Valley State Park just south west of Dallas Fort Worth and right near the town of Glen Rose. It’s lovely here. There are two enormous models of dinosaurs at the entrance of the park. Our spot is directly under some lovely shade trees with the birds quite tame and some of them bright red, bouncing around on the trees right outside the windows.
The Paluxy River runs around much of the park and is shallow in some places, running gently over large sheets of rock that have dinosaur footprints in them. We have stood in dinosaur footprints – right on them! And I have, of course, picked up stones that had washed into the footprints. It is a truly amazing feeling - the history, the age and the forever-gone stories of this place are astounding. It was wonderful just to paddle around in the water, looking for those hidden fossils that just had to be there and wonder about the long gone years and animals. We did find some fossilized shells and some interesting looking rocks. But no rock collecting allowed in the park. So.
Then today we went to look at Glen Rose to see if they had a car wash for one really grubby little bakkie. They did - “had” being the operative word - the place was closed as in forever. So we tootled back up the road to go to Fossil Rim, trusting that we would be able to keep our windows open for any photos.
Fossil Rim is a wildlife center that has a drive through course of about 10 miles long and is 1650 acres in total size. There are over 1000 exotic, threatened and endangered animal here that roam freely in huge enclosed fields and one can feed them by hand if you are prepared for the slobber that comes with that. We were quite content to watch others do this, and it was funny to watch the faces of the animals when they discovered that we had nothing for them! They looked quite indignant and hurt at times. The mountain goats have a naturally aggressive look that is accompanied by a walk that says “don’t mess with me!” We did not. Their eyes have an “I dare you” look in them. It was lovely driving around there - the road wound its way through lovely shady trees, up a fairly steep grade to the top of the rim and yet more inquisitive animals.
The view is lovely and it was quiet no matter where we were there, apart from the cicadas that zinged endlessly. We were fortunate that there were not many cars at all and most of the time it seemed as if we were alone in the park. Frank was trying to explain to one of the horned residents, an antelope, that he did not have food for it, but would scratch his head for him instead. The response to that came back loud and clear - he hit his horns hard against little Skilpad while glaring straight into Franks eyes just a foot away! I guess the answer really was “nope”. And Skilpad scuttled off with us thankfully inside.
We had an ostrich peck at the windows and try to eat the windshield wipers off - pretty determined and by this time Frank had his window firmly shut - those beaks are not small that close up! We also had a zebra put his nose into the car while posing nicely for a good few photos and an emu that nearly pecked my camera while it was aimed elsewhere. We managed to get some really lovely photographs. One giraffe stretched himself straight up and then extended himself even further in his attempt to reach that juicy branch, by sticking his enormous tongue out to grab it - it almost looked like he would come up off his front legs, but he got it just in time.
There were numerous youngsters around and they were all just learning the ropes - go to the car, get fed. Most of them were carefully watched by big mamas that were quite prepared to outstare us while they stood in mute warning. All in all a lovely drive and wonderful to see all the animals with plenty place around them and all looking very healthy, but none of them really tame either.
Right at the end of the drive, there is a place one can get out and walk to the rhino pen. A ginormous rhino rules that space. He lumbered up off the ground and proceeded to eat some grass by pulling it out by the roots - we could hear it! Then Frank starts talking to it, and must have made a sound that it did not appreciate - an immediate charge happened, but only a few steps - quite amazing to see how fast this enormous, half sleepy looking animal can move. It took a little while for the dust to settle again. And for our heart to stop pounding, even though there was a good solid bar between us.
It would be wonderful if there were hiking trails around there - it looks like a place that is full of fossils still to be discovered. My big problem would be with those arrogant looking mountain goat!
Now we are getting ready to have a wonderful Frank cooked steak, baked potato and glass of wine and orange juice. We will then probably go for a last walk in the river - all the little kids are snugly in their campers by now and its quieter there too. The sun is starting to break through the clouds, trying to warm the last of today, so we will take advantage of that. Tomorrow we will be on the road again to a yet unknown destination. No matter which way we go, I have already mapped out a route around Dallas Forth Worth! I refuse to go through that mess of roads!
And on that note and with much love to you all
Especially U3 - Love ya!
Annie and Frank
XXXXxxxx
Are We There Yet?
29th July ‘04
In what looks like an enormous and very wobbly circle, we have once again, boomeranged ourselves across this amazing continent in what feels like days, and at the same time, like years.
After us both quietly feeling this for a few days, Frank started the conversation: “Are you ready ………?” My answer? “Yeah - I am!” And that was it. So, after driving past Frog Holler Road and Bug Scuffle Ave in Texas (I am serious!), we looked at the map for the most direct route back to Chattanooga. The road was a dull gray ribbon winding through gentle hills, disappearing into the rain. It was a wonderful, cool drive all the way back through Oklahoma, Arkansas and Tennessee along the interstates - even right through the center of the big cities. And today, Thursday 29th July, we pulled back into our driveway and just sat for a while, soaking this in too with a smile.
How do I tell of the feelings, emotions and excitement that have been permanent and constant companions over the past two months? I have tried to put the adventures, the sceneries, the places and the colors into words, but they just don’t come close enough so many times. We took photos as fast as our fingers will allow – over 7000 in total! But they don’t tell the story the way we have seen it - they don’t come close. The awe and wonder, the amazement and gut wrenching beauty just defy acceptable explanation so much of the time. So many people have tried to explain what they have seen. Their words hang in the National Parks and at many of the stunning viewpoints across the country. Not even their brilliant words paint the true picture.
We were talking just the other day, naming our ‘best places’ along the way. They added up to just about all the places we have been to. Except Saskatoon when Skilpad suffered her ‘temporary malaise’. Even that has created some lovely and fun memories for both of us. It was interesting to see that neither of us got ourselves tied up into knots, even with that. What will be - will be, and every day, every situation just added up to make for two months of total wonder.
I look at the photos, trying desperately to label and explain them and keep them in some kind of order. The colors are the most amazing. I don’t have to see each photo individually at all, I just look at them all while they are in thumbnail format and the color tells me where they were taken - from the powerful, whitewater and gentle mist of Niagara Falls, through the green of Canada, to the bluest blue of Crater Lake. The ocean colors, the sand dunes and the multi color cliffs and canyons of Utah - Bryce Canyon was totally awesome. The colors……. And those snow covered mountains! All too amazing.
Standing in so many of these places, just thinking about where I was, stunned me to tears at times. So many places had been just a place in a geography book a long time ago, a scene on television or a name on a map - a place others had seen and ooh-ed and aah-ed about and tried hard to describe. A dream. Now I had been there too, soaking in the wonder, and I can also not explain them in a way that would give them enough credit. Some places we just breezed through, others we felt as if we were glued to and had to drag ourselves away. The wind pinned us down at times, as did the heat, but nothing took the wonder away. More often, the beauty pinned us in place, as did the thin air in many of the high elevations, giving us even more time to enjoy the scenery.
I have had my feet in the Niagara River, the Great Lakes, James Bay, the Yukon River, the Mackenzie River, Slave Lake at Yellowknife, in the Colorado River, Green River, the Pacific Ocean, in underwater dinosaur footprints and any other piece of water that I could find - and yes, in Crater Lake’s icy waters too! We still have not figured out quite what this thing is about me and water, but my feet have recovered well from some of the freezing waters they have been subjected to and keep looking for more. The one piece of water that was totally unexpected was the one that came in ‘snowball format’ accurately delivered by Frank - he is still laughing about that, but only when he is able to make a quick getaway. My time will come……….
We have seen quite a bit of wildlife along the way - bear, moose, caribou, big horn sheep, mountain goat, deer, little critters, enormous beavers, bison, and even a gorilla. Ok, ok - that was a plastic one. We saw almost any kind of animal, including a troop of elephants, in the hoodoos and spires of the canyons, but I am sure those really won’t count either. We saw cheetah, rhinos, giraffe antelope and ostrich, amongst others, in Texas. We have walked, hiked and biked and driven many places that have shown us more beauty than we could have dreamed of. At times we moved at a slower pace, and other times at full speed, keeping the camera working full time. Yes, we overdid some of the hikes and biking trips, but that simply and sorely at times, added to the enjoyment of the trip. That feeling of being totally muscle numbingly tired, so that the only thing you can do is lie limply on the bed with your heart still pounding at the energy used and beauty of the surroundings, and play the wonders of the day over and over again in your head - what a joy!
We have been in wonderful places. From hugging a plastic duck on the banks of Lake Erie; North East to the banks of James Bay; North West to Yellowknife; hiking down the inside of a stunning volcano and floating around on its indescribable water; ooh-ing at the amazing length of a giraffes tongue; 4x 4 driving on top of 2000 foot cliffs; skidding around the Colorado river in a jet boat or bouncing madly in the dunes of Oregon on a speeding dune buggy. And so much more. We even stroked a polar bear - yes, he was stuffed - but very real looking, and big and beautiful too.
We learned so much about the tribes of Northern Canada and also those in the west of the USA. We saw the amazing results of the tremendous upheavals of the earth millions of years ago and the layers of fossils in what is now solid rock. So much history, so much to learn, absorb and appreciate. It is all so much bigger than we are, and we can only wonder at the comparable insignificance of our “daily troubles”. When looking at a photograph we took in Bryce Canyon, the people in the photo look like specks of dust against the towering, wonderfully colored surroundings - it had an incredibly humbling effect on me and yet brings a deep sense of freedom too.
The Skilpads have performed perfectly despite us pushing them both beyond their requirements at times. We have only had one flat tire, and that was due to a broken valve core, discovered while in camp - easy fix. We have huffed and puffed up mountains higher than 12 000 feet, only to scream downhill again, seriously trusting that the tires will all hold tight, as will everything else too. We have driven for over 12 hours a day and come close to only giving her the smell of gas rag until finding the next fill up point. They have not let us down at all, and still hum along beautifully. Our checklist to keep them both running smoothly has grown somewhat since the last trip, but we don’t expect to perfect it - that would take some anticipation and excitement away from the big picture or maybe the next trip!
There have been so many times that we have thought of each and every one of you, wishing you all the chance to see at least some of what we are so fortunate to have seen and experienced. You have all been in my mind so much of the time, and have really been with us at different times along the way. Thanks for your ever-present company!
I have missed the “U3” group tremendously- my three amazing kids - oops sorry - young adults! They have all handled themselves amazingly, succeeding in what they needed to do and then adding some wanted adventures and responsibilities of their own to the mix. It is a privilege to see just how they have the confidence to deal with their daily learning and growing. A tremendous big thanks goes to them for being so darn great and amazingly capable that it has freed us up to be able to experience our own adventures. A very big Thank You! to Steven, Lisa and Joleen. I am tremendously proud of U3.
And finally, Frank, who drove tirelessly for close on 11 000 miles, just enjoying and smiling all the way. It has been, once again, fantastic to share all this with you, to see the wonder and happiness in your face, that ever present spark in your eyes, and the excitement of seeing new places together. The ride has been amazing, and the company the best - the many laughs, the peace and happiness, the wonder of it all….. Thank you, sweet man, thank you!
Are we there yet? I truly hope we never “get there” - the ride is way too wonderful…….
With lots of love and many thanks to you all
And especially U3
For now
Annie and Frank
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