The tooth

So before our grand adventure even started there was the saga of the tooth(Julie’s of course.)

No vacation of ours is ever complete without Julie getting dental work prior,during, or after the trip. This tooth even beat out the molar getting a root canal on a Sunday morning in Puerto Rico in a dentist office lined with barbed wire….

Think Eeyore on a rainy day, “I was so upset, I forgot to be happy.”

The complications

….. and more complications… a month later than when we wanted to leave but finally done…

1
810 S Ramona Ave, Indialantic, FL 32903, USA

10,176 \240miles (not including sightseeing, getting lost, detours and rest stops) gotta have those rest stops…

50 campsite locations

153 days

Just a little anxious (Julie)….no really, a lot anxious…(Julie)

John’s take is that- it is always something.

Yes we will probably:

Break down

Have at least one flat

Have at least 5-10 cruddy campgrounds

Get lost a kadzillion times

See a bear (hopefully not in our campsite)

and have an amazing time seeing a crazy assortment of nature, history, culture, cities and family!

Follow us as we

Let Our Grand Adventure Begin!

All packed up for the road

Our around the world traveler,Lilo, will be joining us on our adventure..

2
3131 Vickers Church Rd, Enigma, GA 31749, USA

Southern Grace Farms

Enigma, Ga

Our first stop out was Southern Grace Farms, a small u- pick farm. Currently in season \240were blackberries, sunflowers and strawberries. They offer school classes the opportunity to learn about agriculture, pick berries and hayrides. Pretty cool. \240John and I had a delicious peach and blackberry homemade \240soft serve \240when we got there. It was a quiet night and we were the only ones camping. \240We were able to walk along the rows of sunflowers, apples and strawberries this morning before the store even opened.

View of the farm and rows of strawberries. They smell heavenly!

Yum!

On the road…I-285 North was closed because of a major accident…we ended up driving the truck and trailer through Atlanta at noon. Straight through the city! John was amazing…

John with Peachtree Center and the Westin in the background.

Cannot Pass up the See Rock City sign…Rock City is 90 years old this year!

3
Fort Mountain State Park

Fort Mountain State Park

Fort Mountain State Park is located on the North Georgia/Tennessee border way up in the Smoky Mountains. \240Our campsite is tucked into a little valley up on the mountain so there is little to no Wi-Fi reception. The campsite is quiet… really quiet…really really quiet. When we checked in John had to sign a form acknowledging we would not feed the bears, even by accident …

Fort Mountain is known for a prehistoric stone wall that stretches 885 ft from one side of the mountain the other…no one knows the reason it was built. Speculation includes that it was used first \240by sun worshippers, then a defensive fortification for Spanish Conquistadors hunting for gold, and a honeymoon destination for the Cherokee tribe? Who knows?

Panorama of the mountains..

I am actually doing a red diamond! Haha!

The remnants of Fort Mountain Wall

Today we thought we were going to go to Chattanooga,TN but we only made it as far as Dalton,GA. \240Chattanooga was only 30 miles away v. Dalton at about 15 miles from Fort Mountain State Park. We had to drive through Dalton to get to Chattanooga and did a drive-by Dalton’s little downtown…It was small but quaint and we decided to stop.

Peacocks

More peacocks

Even more peacocks…

The town has one industry: Shaw textiles i.e.Mohawk Carpets. \240While there, Julie noticed there were a lot of Peacocks everywhere (Not live ones). In fact the main road, US41, has the nickname Peacock Alley .Like our highwaymen paintings that were sold on the roadside on US1, in the 1920’s and 30’s tourists, salesman and entrepreneurs would come to this region to literally buy thousands of Chenille bedspreads that hung on clotheslines in roadside stands.

The enterprising industry began with the tufting of one woman, Catherine Evans Whitener. Mrs. Whitener career began at the age of 12 when she saw a tufted heirloom bedspread at a cousin’s home. Determined to emulate the process, she worked diligently spinning her yarn and then tufting fluffy little tufts which she called, chenille. She clipped the tufts and then boiled the whole bedspread in hot water several times to shrink the cloth in order to lock in the tufts… She streamlined the process, taught some of her friends and the Chenille Bedspread industry was born. However, it did not stop there. The process expanded to mats, bathrobes and soon became mechanized. \240A one needle tufting machine became a 12 foot tufting machine and the carpet industry was born.Today, 90% of the rugs made in America are tufted and it all started with Catherine Evans Whitener in Dalton, GA . You go Girl!

Getting back to the peacock….The peacock was the most popular bedspread design.

Interesting fact…In 1916, ten bales of cotton was worth $1,000and one of every four bales of cotton that was grown in the U.S. was used in Dalton, GA.

We did did all the normal stuff had lunch and went in some shops too…

Dental report: Julie’s tooth is still not happy…..

Just had to post early! We had a visitor this am!

4
Cedar Creek Campground

We made it to Nashville without any weather and will be here for the next 4 nights… exploring Nashville and all that is country! Cedar Creek Campground is a beautiful COE campground created by the Corps of Engineers…Almost all of their campgrounds are on lakes, rivers, tidal basins or streams \240which may flood when the weather is bad… when the weather is good they are awesome!… plus with the golden age National pass we can camp for 1/2 price!

John relaxing at campsite

5
Nashville Zoo at Grassmere

We had an incredible time at the Nashville Zoo nighttime visions event Friday night.

The zoo was huge and immaculately maintained. \240All the animals were put to bed but lights, music and dinosaurs more than compensated for the lack of wildlife…

Wish we were able to see the monkey beats a little later in the evening!

Scary Dino on the Dino trail.

Julie and John practicing to be Jedi!

The Jedi trail…These lights pulse to the music and shine different colors with the beat…They would be great on our lower living room wall….

This was not a \240Disney water show but it was still pretty spectacular to watch.

Neon Flamboyance! Yep that is a flock of flamingoes and these guys were real!

Just because ….the little girl looked like she was telling the giraffe to hit grandma in the head…

6
Cheekwood

Okay, so almost everyone who knows us knows that we can probably list \240no more than 10 country singers off the top of our heads:

Johnny Cash, Kenny Rogers, DollyParton, Kenny Loggins, Loretta Lynn, Shania Twayne, Keasy somebody?… the only one we could quote a song lyric from would be Jimmy Buffet and I am not even sure he counts. Yes, we are pathetic. Kelly and Kate could \240start singing lyrics and we would reply, “Oh yea, we know that one. Oh and that one too.” But honestly, we are pretty clueless when it comes to country music and really all music. We’ll listen to it but it isn’t a part of who we are.

So instead of spending three days going to Country music destinations, we decided to branch out and see more of Nashville.

A couple of notes:

Nashville is a pretty clean large city.

All roads are called Pikes.

The Butter Milk Ranch Breakfast restaurant on 12 th street is closed Monday and Tuesday…. We missed it….

Our first stop today was Cheekwood Botanical Gardens. It was a gorgeous day and a lot rain (about an inch) is in the forecast for Monday and Tuesday so we flip- flopped our plans.

Cheekwood Estate should have ideally been called Maxwell House \240Enterprise. The Cheeks were wealthy wholesale \240grocers and investors. One coffee brand Cheek Sr. developed in the early 1900’s was Maxwell House.

Cheek Sr. gave the popular,Maxwell House Hotel a months supply of free coffee for its’ customers to drink. After a month, the hotel went back to its regular brand and customers complained. The hotel then started to purchase the coffee exclusively.

Cheek and the hotel struck a bargain and Maxwell House Coffee was born.( A side note- The hotel burnt to the ground in 1960 so we couldn’t take a picture of it.)

When President Roosevelt stopped to tour the childhood plantation home of Andrew Jackson, he also had a locally prepared dinner. The cook served him Maxwell House coffee. President Roosevelt declared that the coffee was, “Good to the last drop.” The slogan was born and marketing made Maxwell House the most popular brand of coffee in the US. \240Cheek Sr. sold the Maxwell Coffee Brand \240to Postum foods (Think Post foods) in 1928 for $45 million dollars! That figure in today’s dollars would be: $760,813,157.89 not too shabby for a ho-hum cup of coffee.

… because people needed to eat during the depression the family \240was insulated from the market crash and \240work on the estate continued. It is not as large as the Biltmore but it is huge. It originally contained 11 bedrooms and 12 bathrooms. Cheek’s daughter, Huldah, donated the estate to the city of Nashville and it became a public art museum and botanical gardens in 1960.

The front facade

One of the many fountains on the property

The son’s “office.”

The real library

The drawing room

The grounds were gorgeous too…

I swear Magnolias are bigger here than Alabama!

The water garden..

This is a wisteria arbor…think, Bridgerton with all of the purple flowers in the springtime..

Another fountain

And just a cute bunny

7
The Nations Silo

Okay Julie doesn’t know the story on this but we just had to see it… A 35 story abandoned grain tower with street art on it..

The area of Nashville this is located in was completely dilapidated in 2017. Since the mural was completed this area of town is seeing a renovation.

Okay so we don’t know country music…but we do like Nashville

Notice the Batman building between the two middle trees.

Just because…

Downtown Nashville

Downtown Nashville for the day…our campsite was 40 minutes out of the city on some very twisty roads. \240John didn’t feel comfortable driving home in the dark if we partook in the nightlife…the city is quiet during the day. It is probably on par with Key West and New Orleans at night.. there are street cleaner’s everywhere.

John in the first mobile recording studio

I’m not sure who the guy on the right is … oh I meant the left. So Tommye says the guy on the left is Chet Atkins. He was known as Mr. Guitar and created the sound that made Nashville and country music famous… John was so lucky to get to sit a minute with him!

Courtyard of the Nashville Public Library! This place rocked! We parked in the library’s parking garage so Julie had to pop in.

Coolest ultra modernbathroom sink ever!

The Peanut shop one of the oldest family owned stores in Nashville located in the Arcade.

Just a Michigander at heart

Puckett’s BBQ for lunch …supposed to be one of the top 10 in the city…not. We will try again tomorrow.

The bat building…

Just Because

Downtown NASHVILLE on BROADWAY

Downtown Nashville AKA Music City \240is everything that it lives up to be… we went down during the day and even in the afternoon it was still rocking..

Think New Orleans and Mallory Square on crack.. the place was packed with people liberally partying and most bars were filled.. All of the bars \240had live music and were competing each other for business…

This part of the city did need a good pressure cleaning … phew…

A selection of the bands…

Elvis of course

People

Partying

8
Hurricane Creek Recreation

We made it to Hurricane Creek COE Campground in Kentucky…just saw 5 geese fly over the lake…

Overnight stop…we are on the road again tomorrow to Illinois.

Sunset at our campsite

9
gun creek campground

Backup of truckers…. One lane road plus an accident…went for miles.. so happy we

were going the other way

National Quilt Museum

Paducah, Kentucky

On our way up to Rend Lake, we stopped at The National Quilt Museum in Paducah,Kentucky…

We had to drive about 1/2 an hour out of our way. John was not on board with the idea, but after a little cajoling, he came around. Happy we decided to stop!

My favorite

If you zoom in, all different materials…talk about color matching!

Amazing hand work

Up close ..

Huge hand construction..

Up close each octagon about the size of a quarter.

Up close hand work.

Gun Creek Campground Rend Lake, Illinois

Doesn’t look like much but Mahi with sun dried tomatoes and red pepper sauce

10
Lincoln's New Salem Historical Park

Hopped states today! Goodbye Tennessee, Hello Illinois!

We are in the heart of the nation’s breadbasket. There are corn and wheat fields for literally thousands of acres in every direction. The major 4 -lane road we were on literally detoured around silos like this one in the picture.

Staying at Lincoln’s New Salem Campground adjacent to the New Salem Historic Site.

Love what the locals do here… \240It seems as if everyone at the campground knows each other. \240It is like a local street party. \240Kids are everywhere running between campsites, riding their bikes, parents socializing… it should catch on other places..

In addition to the Historic Site, the State’s Official theatre is located on the premises. It is a a little open air theatre perfect for watching a local musical opening night performance under the stars!

Way back when, this was a musical starring Shirley Temple complete with soft \240tap dancing … definitely some opening night issues….loved the audience’s enthusiasm for their players!

11
Dickson Mounds State Museum

Dickson Mounds State Historic Site

Okay, so this was a Key West moment for Julie. \240When we were twenty-something’s, she longed to see the pristine clear waters and the white sand beaches located in the Keys. Reality - the keys are built on coquina rock and the the beach sand is trucked into private locations (there are a very few exceptions). \240What a disappointment when she learned that!

This was a Key West moment.

The Dickson Mounds Museum and parking lot was built directly atop the burial mounds. We were able to look at other mounds from a distance but the main one was air-conditioned. If you want to see the real cradle of North American Civilization go to Cahokia Burial Mounds UNESCO site outside of St Louis.

Paleoindian, hunter gatherer tribes, inhabited this region from 12000 cte -1000 ad. Which is amazing ! They were one of the first of the continent’s peoples that did not follow seasons or game for subsistence living.

View from observation deck. Dickson Mounds are actually 10 ceremonial burial sites.. only two of which are accessible by footpath. We tried to go to one down “Forgotten Road” and \240ended up in someone’s driveway

Maybe this is a burial mound?

Artifact

Cool grain barges on the Illinois river

Glad we decided to try \240Broadguage in Petersburg to get a Hot Chicken sandwich instead of in Nashville. This sandwich \240is a Midwest staple but one is enough even though it tasted exceptional!

  • Spicy fried buttermilk chicken tenders
  • Pimento cheese
  • Red cabbage Slaw
  • Honey brioche bun
  • Homemade bread and butter pickles
  • = Stomachache for Julie but it was delicious
12
Lincoln's New Salem Historical Park

EVERYTHING LINCOLN

We visited the New Salem historic site today here at the State Park. \240It’s a reconstruction of the actual town complete with reenactors to interpret the time period. Lincoln lived here in his early 20’s while he worked on finding his purpose in life.

Lincoln didn’t actually own a house in New Salem \240but lived wherever he could get a room while he worked at his various temporary careers: \240Shopkeeper, Surveyor, \240amd Postmaster. Basically, he struggled to find his path.

This little town only existed for about 10 years and Lincoln was here for 7 of them. It then faded away due to poor planning. It had everything \240for a time: Twelve log houses, two stores, a wool mill, school, tavern, and various workshops including a cooper and a \240wheel wright. \240The works!

School

Cooper’s home

However, even back then it was all about location, location, location. \240New Salem was on the end of a dead end road. It was up on a bluff and unprotected from the winter cold . \240The area was deforested to build the houses and, according to one of the re-enactors, a muddy mess. \240Petersburg, just down the hill about two miles away, was much more successful and by 1840 New Salem was vacant. \240180 years later it looks idyllic with the huge trees and paved paths. In reality, it was a little dirty backwater town.

We were unaware that Lincoln had only one year of formal education.

Eventually he ran across some books on law (where?) and found his passion. He became completely absorbed in them and brought his new knowledge into the \240debates in the local tavern. \240Folks were impressed and when he ran for the legislature the second time around he won.

This building was AMAZING for 1830’s. \240It was a Carding mill where folks would bring their wool.

The picture above was the Carding Mill Ox Turntable. \240This thing was huge! \240The Ox walked up into what was basically a stall and tied to the front rail. He had to walk to stay there because the whole thing was tilted.

The Carding Mill machine was powered by the turntable.They came up with this in the 1830s!! \240Amazing.

We couldn’t figure out what this was and had to ask. \240There were several throughout the town. \240It’s an Ash Hopper. \240Town’s people put ashes from their fireplaces into it with hay. \240Add rainwater and let it sit for a bit and out comes lye and whitewash.

13
Springfield

All that is Springfield! Wonderful Day…

A Tale of Two Homes

The first house is one of ostentatious wealth.

We started our day with a tour of the Dana-Thomas/Frank Lloyd Wright home that was built in 1902.

It is one of the largest Frank Lloyd Wright homes designed and completed. The home was his 72nd design and first \240“blank check” commission.

Money talks:

The house cost $60,000 to build in 1902. It contains 12,600 sf in 35 rooms including 450 stained glass windows, 6 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, and 6 fireplaces on 3 main levels. A control box in the bedroom allowed the owner to turn on electric lights throughout the house. \240It also had a bowling alley, a walk-in safe for valuables and jewelry, a vaulted “spiritual” room, a music gallery for entertaining guests, and a 20,000 volume library.

Exterior facade of the home…

The “parlor”

The sitting area in the main bedroom…

Realize these two homes were only about 60 years apart in age….

Next we toured Abraham Lincoln’s home which was about three blocks away.

Lincoln and Mary Todd purchased their one and only home in 1844 for $1500. It originally had three rooms and was single story similar to the model below.

Over the next seventeen years they remodeled the home sixteen times. Talk about a nightmare! Lincoln had it easy..Most of this time, he was traveling the judicial circuit and was gone for months at a time. Mary Todd had to contend with the noise, dust and problems associated with all of the renovations plus kids!

Adding rooms etc.

To what you see here…complete with two stories, drawing room and parlor.

The Lincoln’s Parlor- notice how different the two styles were even though the age was not more than one generation different .

The wallpaper in Lincoln’s bedroom was positively scary!

  • no indoor plumbing
  • no electricity
  • final plan- 4 bedrooms and \2402 stories.

Bottom line-The Washington elite and wealthy industrialists were already living in the 20th century and Mary Todd was trying to play catch-up.

We think the Midwest doesn’t mind eating themselves to death… between the Hot chicken sandwiches and Horseshoes, people should be dropping dead all over from heart attacks.. we just could not do a horseshoe… the hot chicken was enough.

Cider and Brew on a Sunday morning

Ugh…talk about a stomach-ache..just couldn’t do it.

Capitol …no one …anywhere

Still no one.. there is no life downtown..maybe that is why it is spotless?

it was weird…

Grace Bedell, an 11 year old, wrote to Lincoln and told him, “All the girls like whiskers. If you let your beard grow, the girls will tease their husbands and get them to vote for you.”

Lincoln grew his beard.

The Lincoln’s in front of the White House plus one.

Mary Todd… was from a large wealthy slave owning family…

She was damned if she did and damned if she didn’t:

She tried to fit in with the Washington elite..they wouldn’t have anything to do with her.

If she didn’t entertain and dress in the most up-to-date clothes, they commented she was just backwoods trash.

Some historians think she was bipolar.

Her only surviving son institutionalized her because she was spending an exorbitant amount of money on spiritualization and seances after her second son and Lincoln died.

Mary Todd dated Stephen Douglas. She decided to marry someone more ambitious and chose Lincoln.

The Lincoln’s did not discipline their children…. AT ALL..

Lincoln’s tomb

14
George Wyth State Park Campground

Silos

More silos

Still more silos

And on

And on

Crossed the mighty Mississippi today! It is huge even in Iowa. The picture doesn’t show but it was moving fast!

George Wyth State Park is a sleeper…

Not a park that will be high on our list. \240Still backwaters, muddy, no water, and lots of mosquitoes…Little to no Internet even with two Verizon cell towers at the other end of the park… and John had to work. Frustrating.

15
Bertram Chain of Lakes Regional Park

Driving day… we frog hopped from Iowa to just outside Minneapolis,Minnesota at Bertram Chain of Lakes..

Fields of flowers instead of wheat and sorghum.

This is brand new regional park. \240It is too far away to drive into Minneapolis to sightsee but beautifully maintained. Trees are only about four feet high.

Next two days laundry and grocery resupply.

Quiet day

Laundry, oil change and grocery shopping..

Mississippi River still big in Monticello, MN.

Lakes and Rivers are beautiful here in Minnesota!

Lake “beach” at sunset

One of the lakes in the regional park we stayed in.

Dinner- Mahi with kale, apples, onions chickpeas and farro.

Welcome to North Dakota!

Winds are blowing 26mph gusting to 36mph. Slower drive…with lots of silos…

Crystal sugar company located here. 5th harvest sugar beets instead of cane.

Topsoil blowing off the fields

Another picture of the dirt blowing

Haven’t seen a dinosaur Sinclair station for years. We thought they went out of business.

Red River Rec Area used to be a neighborhood of 500 homes. In 1997, the Red River overflowed its banks and devastated the area. FEMA bought the structures then turned it over to state. It became a 1200 acre greenway smack in the middle of Grand Forks.

Our beautiful campsite.

16
I-29, Manvel, ND 58256, USA

On our way to Winnipeg, Canada

The flood gate in Forks

A tribute to those who lost their lives and those who helped in the 1997 flood.

Just for fun

We see a moose!

On our way on a sunny day..just looking at this water tower would make Julie happy every morning!

17
Town and Country Campground

Border crossing was nearly empty… they didn’t even search us. Julie guesses that we could be super G-MA and G-PA \240spies for the CIA.. we stick out so much in a crowd no one bothers us.

Made it to Canada!

Headliner for Indigenous Day Lunch be Concert … She was really good!

The iconic red chairs

Went on a River cruise… water is overflowing the steps.They have had some severe flooding and rains in Manitoba and everything is just starting to dry out. \240Our tour guide stated that the Red and Asssinboine Riversweee currently 11’ above normal. \240 Everything is muddy or dried out muddy. Local cars look like they have never been washed since winter…”

Cool bridge

Our campsite

Spinach ravioli,mushroom,and chicken cutlet in a white wine sauce..not too shabby

18
Gimli

Gimli is the “beach” town for Manitoba. It is about an hour north of Winnipeg. People of primary,Icelandic decent settled the town early in the 1800’s. It was a fishing village and commercial fisherman still fish the lake today. \240It was cold and windy.. not the perfect day for strolling the boardwalk but still fun.

The marina.

How different tulips and trees just opening in late June.

A purple Martin tower that was actually occupied.

Some of the fishing boats

The lighthouse

Great restaurant for Pickerel

Today’s ice fishing \240boat

A sea of electric lines for miles

19
Assiniboine Park

The Tale of Winnie the Pooh

The Bear

The story of Winnie the Pooh, the real bear, began in Ontario in 1914. Lieutenant Harry Coleburn, a young veterinarian who lived in Winnipeg purchased the orphan bear cub for $20 \240on the train platform in White River from a hunter. Colburne named the bear, Winnie after his adopted hometown. The bear travelled with Lieutenant Colburne overseas via packet ship and \240became the unofficial mascot of the Fort Garry Horse Militia Regiment

… Colburne spent months waiting to be called to the front lines and In that time he trained Winnie to be gentle to all humans.

When he was called to the front lines, Colburne found a spot in the London Zoo for Winnie. \240There Winnie gave visitors “bear hugs” by gently rubbing against them and allowing visitors to pet her. \240Visitors to the zoo adored her and she them. Colburne had every intention of taking Winnie back to Winnipeg after his tour but Winnie adjusted to the zoo and people so well he just couldn’t do it.

Two of those frequent visitors were Christopher Robin Milne and his father A.A. Milne. Christopher persuaded his father to purchase a stuffed bear for him. .He named his \240bear Winnie the Pooh after the sound Winnie made when she tried to rid her nose from flies by swiftly blowing out through her nose. Christopher Robin continued to see Winnie offer during his formative years and she was a large part of Milne’s inspiration for writing the tales of Winnie the Pooh.

Christopher Robin and Winnie.

And the rest is history

Random cool artwork

Awesome street tacos for dinner!

20
Assiniboine Park

Happy Father’s Day ! We love you Papa John!

It was hot! 37c or 104f!

Le Moi sculptures.. A Ukaraian, he moved \240to Winnipeg during WWII and lived in the community until his death.

One of the many park buildings

Crazy sculpture . Not Le Moi.

.

21
Indian Head Campground

Made it to Saskatchewan! We will be here two nights… the topography has a little bit more of a rise than Manitoba and definitely not as humid! Still pretty flat though… didn’t get to Regina..it rained most of the day…ended up turning on the heat, it was 62 this morning.

22
Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park - Alberta

We made it to Alberta and our camping in Cypress Hills Provincial Park. It is one of the only areas in the country that was not affected by glaciers. \240It is gorgeous!

Just coming into the park

Our campsite

John checking out the pines

Babbling brook behind our campsite

23
Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park

Writing-On-Stone is a UNESCO World Heritage site in Southeast Alberta. \240We both absolutely fell in love with this place. \240Driving up we crossed fields and fields of yellow flowers. Come to find out, Alberta grows the largest percentage of Canola in the world.

The fields are flat as a pancake. In the distance \240there is a little rise on the horizon and then a dip. In the hollow runs several coulees, the Milk River and Writing-On-Stone. To the Blackfoot tribe this area is sacred. Young warriors would come to come to take their spirit quest and only the most esteemed warriors were able to carve on the rock.

The Canola Fields

Rise that hides the valley

A hoo-doo

24
Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park

The Hoo-doos are naturally carved sandstone that has been worn away with time and weather.

Lewis and Clark \240thought the River looked like milky tea and so named it the Milk River. It is the only river that begins and ends in the US, but meanders through Canada. It was the principal conduit for Whiskey trading in and smuggling during the 1860’s

The “tall people “ tribe of Blackfoot were approximately 7’ (men) and 6 1/2’ (women). They used this area especially during the cold winters.

Writing on Stone was occupied for thousands of years and the last picture was legally etched in the 1920’s, several pictures of model t’s by Bird Rattle.

Table rock is in the background ..

Table rock. It reminds Julie of Pride rock.

Looks like a fish but our interpreter and historians believe it to be a representation of the area:the two distant mountains, two coulees, and several Hoo doos.

The valley at sunset

Deer on our walk

Our campsite

Hoo Doos

25
Townsite Campground

The Rockies just seem to materialize from the flat land.

Driving up to our next destination, Waterton National Park

Canada’s National Park mascot,Parkee.

Gorgeous views

26
Waterton Lakes National Park of Canada

Part of red rocks canyon…whole families were playing in the white water a little further upstream

You can really see how the fire wiped out the area in this picture

Gorgeous scenery..

John trying to give me a wet willie

Line of \240demarcation between US and Canada and yes they need to cut the trees every five years or so and the countries take turns.

We thought this would be the only bear we would see

Little deer grazing outside the camper.

Real black bear…we didn’t know it but all of the bears were out of hibernation only about a month and still staying in the lowlands.

Lake Cameron boy the mosquitoes were like vultures!

John is attacked by a bear ! Oh no!

Same black bear eating marigolds on the side of the road on the way back from the lake.

Brown? Baby grizzly?about 1/3 mile up the road from the black bear eating more marigolds…all the bears were out today!

Deer with baby antlers just coming in for the year back at the campground.

Spotted a huge beaver dam

What a guy!

27
Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump World Heritage Site

Head Smashed -In Buffalo Jump is a UNESCO Heritage site and actually older than the pyramids in Egypt. Blackfoot tribes would gather and in a coordinated effort drive the Buffalo down a chute using cairns and waving branches and men dressed under wolve skins would harass the herd from behind until they stampeded. \240Sometimes they would slaughter hundreds of Buffalo during a drive. Many years they would move \240south and do drives at other locations. The cliff \240rock face originally stood at 20meters but because of the stampeding Buffalo herds , the size has been reduced to 10 meters.

Haha we thought we were going to be driving to Buffalo Jump on a “Secondary Two Lane Highway” turned out to be 20 miles of gravel road …

Out in nowhere land towing the trailer down the gravel road…

The jump

The wolf skin the Blackfoot tribesmen wore

This details the story of the Blackfoot tribe and when the Buffalo disappeared in 1879

Buffalo skulls

Canadian Mounties and European hunters would fashion Buffalo hide coats like this one… They would skin the Buffaloes and leave thousands of carcasses rotting in the sun.

We left feeling a lot like we had just toured an exhibit similar to the Holocaust museum.. it was awe inspiring the courage these people had and so sad how greed just cut all the Buffalo down.

28
Finnegan

So my good friend Suzanne sent us on a quest to find Finnegan’s Ferry.Her great- grandmother, Belle, was the daughter of the first ferryman, John Finnegan and his wife.

We went down a 15 mile dirt road in order to find it. The road stretched on and on and on. Julie loved being on an adventure. \240John thought we were on a wild goose chase and did we miss a turn somewhere?

Dirt road

More dirt road

We finally arrived and met, \240Jim Mittelstadt, the current ferryman. Jim started the job at 75 and is now 83. He was born and raised a couple of towns over in Rosesale. He always wanted to \240be a ferryman and loves his job. He is going to work for two more years. He looked 65! Maybe 60! And was quite a character.


He has eagle, hawk, pheasant , falcon feathers in his hat. They are all feathers people have given him when making the crossing.

The crossing is open Late May-October and farm families on both sides of the Red Deer River use it all the time since it is another forty miles to the next crossing/road. He also said it is a tourist destination and we can see why. He is the main attraction!

Just going to meet Jim made the day worthwhile.
He said the wind/weather can get very bad and one time, the whole ferry was pushed four feet downriver. Luckily the cables held.
Last week, waves were crashing over the guardrails.


Jim normally has 6-7 cars a day but sometimes it can be up to 20 or more. When it isn’t busy he fishes Gold eye and Walleye. He catches fish only on one side of the river and doesn’t understand why. Never thought we would have so much fun driving around the middle of nowhere Canada!

An old grain elevator we saw on the drive

The abandoned /turned museum Atlas Coal Mine.. one of the few things we did not get to

Dinosaur miner

29
Royal Tyrrell Museum
30
Horsethief Canyon

Our gorgeous campsite in Bow River Provincial Park.. plus sides spectacular scenery, electric and water! Minus pit toilets … it’s cold!

We didn’t get on the river but it is a beautiful site

Picture before rain! It is supposed to be sunny and 80 next week! Ugh…

First fire and freezing!

31
Banff

Bow River Provincial Park-The Bow River was originally named because the Creek Indians would make bows from the Douglas Fir trees that line its’ banks. It was used in the 1870s as a primary means of traffic and commerce… Trans-Canadian Highway #1 runs next to it for a significant portion.

We thought this was a Big Horn Sheep- nope just a Mountain goat that is losing all its’ winter coat.

Elk on the way in to our campsite

Downtown Banff … we saw the highest concentration of US plates here. Had a great Elk sausage pizza with Kale \240and chili crisp dipping sauce at Three Bears Brewery downtown… crazy amount of tourists here not our cup of tea.

View from sitting on a bench at the Cave and Basin National Historic Site we were talking to Scott. What a beautiful view!

Cave and Basin National Historic Site is Canada’s first National Park.

Lake Minnewanka

32
Banff Gondola

Just about ready to go up Sulphur Springs \240Mountain for the view and lunch. The gondola has been operating since 1956 and the top end is located at the altitude of 7486 ft.. we were thinking about walking down the mountain but the hike down was 4 1/2 hours…and the weather looked a little questionable up on the mountain.

John checking out the weather.. the only time I have seen him more attuned to the weather was on our sailboat,Cradle Song.

Our chariot has arrived!

Rode up with one of the workers named Leigh. She was from Ontario and said most workers are from Quebec or Ontario and Australia.. those Australian’s so like to travel!

Town of Banff in the distance and the Fairmont Hotel.

Bow River going through the town

Incredible open faced salmon sandwich with avocado and crème fraiche at the Sky Bistro up top.

Talk about a scenic view for lunch.

Postcard picture

Kids on tour playing for their supper on top of the mountain.

33
Peter Lougheed Provincial Park

The Province of Alberta adopted the wild rose as its’ flower in 1930 and goes by the motto, This is Rose Country.” The flower grows \240literally everywhere in the mountains. It seems mind boggling that people have such a hard time growing flowers and we have seen orchids, roses and daykillies just growing in the wild.

So this is a bonafide grizzly with tag and everything saw him eating dandelions and other tasties on our way down to Upper Kananaskis Lake to go fishing. He was enjoying himself so much he literally sat down in the wildflower/dandelion patch.

We found out that you can tell it is a grizzly by the big hump on it’s shoulders. A brown bear has German Shepherd like ears.

You can see his tag in this photo

Okay so here are more mountain goats standing in the road and licking the pavement.

More mountain goats

And more mountain goats.. we imagine locals get really very tired of them. The goats were principally standing down the center line of the road and licking the pavement.. we can only surmise that they were getting salt out of the raised/indented road bed in the center lane either that or mountain goats get a Rocky Mountain High off road lickor (liquor).. haha

34
Lake Louise Lakeshore, Lake Louise, AB T0L, Canada

On the shore of beautiful Lake Louise in Banff National Park… This spot is crazy busy even since we were here 6 years ago.. This time we needed to take a shuttle bus to get to the lake. The Fairmont Lake Louise was closed to all public except for registered guests and parking was non existent. Not as much as a beautiful experience as the last time but still the Glacial Lake is breathtaking.

Rock flour, fine grained sediment from glacial erosion reflects the blue sky.

Just liked this picture with the flag and the glacier in the background.

Finally the sun came out… okay saw some really whacky photo shoots and tourists here

1. Woman wearing stiletto heals trying to pose on rocks.

2. Man flossing his teeth

3. Woman wearing skin tight leathers (she almost fell into the lake posing.)

4. At the visitors center- Asian woman getting dressed in complete wedding gown and tennis shoes. Not sure if she was just going to just do a photo pose, get married or doing cosplay.

5. Julie is in a sweater and green parka. Asian woman in white cotton sundress \240with spaghetti straps, straw hat, sandals and sunglasses.. She was determined everyone knew she was enjoying her warm summer vacation.

Magical

35
Columbia Icefield Skywalk

After the Icefield we went to the skywalk and it literally was jutting out into the sky over a huge ravine with a Sunwapta \240River which drains off of 3 additional glaciers running under us.

The glaciers in the background

Look to the right and see the snow on the mountain peak!

The glass floor in the skywalk is 3 sheets thick!

Walking on glass

John is holding on for dear life! For those of you who don’t know John is afraid of heights and this is huge for him! He didn’t stay on the skywalk long but he did it! Go John!!

Looking down into the ravine

Another view

36
Columbia Icefield

Today was an epically gorgeous spectacular day. Drove up the Icefields Parkway from Lake Louise. We got behind a couple of motor homes and missed our 4:00 pm tour which actually turned out for the best. We were able to hop on the 5:15 tour which was the last tour of the day. We pretty much had the Abathasca \240Glacier all to ourselves

We were in awe by the vistas around every turn. Photos can never capture or do the scenery justice. The area around Columbia Icefield has winter season typically 8 months of the year. A normal season sees 30ft or more of snow per year. It snowed 10” last week. One animal, the Yellow Bellied Marmot hibernates 9 months of the year. Most animals including bears, elk, deer etc prefer lower altitudes. The Golden Eagle is the supreme predator here preying on Bighorn Sheep and Mountain goats.

Abathasca Glacier on the Columbia Icefield. It is receding around 30cm per day

This is the Ice Explorer.. only 20 of these are In operation in the world and 18 are in use at the Icefield. \240They are really necessary and not an advertising hype.. The Icefield changes daily and a geologist will certify whether it is safe to drive on and where the boundaries for tourists will be. The Ice Explorers needed to go down a 30% grade in order to reach the glacier and cross a runoff stream.. our tour guide said to buckle up and she wasn’t joking .. Although we were going very slow it felt like we were hanging.

The snow/ice was really blue

Hold on! The wind is picking up!

John is loving it!

A short video of the glacier

37
Okotoks Erratic

Call us crazy but we drove out of our way to see a big rock! Not just any big rock though, this is a giant rock god that split in half chasing after the Blackfoot god Napi.

The actual giant quartzite rock travelled down the Continental. Ice sheet from the Abathascsa Glacier millions of years ago.. There was an earthquake , rockslide, and this is one of the rock that travelled on top of the glacier nearly 400 miles away.

Napi and the Big Rock

Napi had cheated someone out of the nice buffalo robe he was wearing as he trekked northward with his pal Coyote. Napi had played tricks on so many other creatures the Sun and the Wind thought that they would play a trick on him. The Sun shone very brightly making Napi hotter and sweatier and the robe heavier. When the robe got too heavy to wear

Napi asked Coyote what he should do with it. “Why don’t you give it to the Big Rock?” said Coyote.

So that is what they agreed to do. They went over to the Rock, praised the Rock, and Napi made agift of the robe to the Big Rock. No sooner had Napi and Coyote headed off again when the Wind started blowing very cold air. Napi began to think he should have kept his robe. He tells Coyote to run back and take the robe from the Rock. Coyote doesn’t want to have anything to do with taking back the robe.

So Napi goes back and tells the Rock that he has come for the robe. To which the Rock replies, “You gave the robe to me.” Napi responds, “What are you going to do? You have always been here and are going to stay here. I am going to be on my way.” Napi takes the robe and heads off again with Coyote reluctantly by his side. All of a sudden Coyote hears some noise and looks back and sees the Rock rolling after them. Coyote and Napi become quite startled at what is going on and the two of them start to run.

Rock rolled faster and faster toward Napi and Coyote.

Napi asks squirrel to stop the rock and squirrel agreed.. but rock ran right over them.. that is why the area has ground squirrels instead of tree squirrels because Rock pounded them into the ground.

Napi now asked beaver for help.. Beaver agreed but Rock just ran over his tail. \240(The isnt our picture, we still have only seen a dam).

Finally Napi asked Swallow to help him and Swallows pecked and pecked or in other stories pooped and pooped until Giant Rock split in two and Napi escapes.

These are the rocks where the story originated. Nature and erosion are still splitting the rocks.

38
Eau Claire Distillery

Went to the Eau Claire Distillery for a “Prohibition Experience.” The owner realized that Scot’s used Alberta Barley for their Scotch Whiskey in Scotland. He purchased land, grew Barley and hired some of the best chemists and started winning awards. We had a great time learning about Prohibition in Alberta, sampling the Prickly Pear Vodka, Gins, and Rupert’s Whiskey. We decided we needed some food and even stayed longer for another drink.

The speakeasy.. was behind a false wall and completely opened up to a beautiful patio area behind the screen.

Our flights.

Our prohibition hostess progressed from being a teetotaler to fairly soused as the tour went on!

Yep!This was amazingly delicious but Julie still cannot eat sausage! Ugh

39
Bar U Ranch National Historic Site

The \240Bar U celebrates the history and importance of ranching in Canada. The Bar U had numerous owners over the years and pre WWI had over 1000 Percheron horses, 2000 regular horses and over 100,000 head of cattle. The Draft horses were what the ranch was known for and the Prince of Wales actually purchased horses from here.

The Bar U was completely self sufficient complete with saddlery, post office, barns etc.

Side note-

Some of the Percherons were used in WWI and their life expectancy during battle was 7-10 days.

Old Combine tractor

Chuck wagon

One of the barns

40
Calgary Stampede

Calgary Stampede was everything we expected it to be! A great day almost sensory overload.. the fair was packed and people were having a great time.. we were disappointed that many of the ag events were cancelled because of Covid… sheep sheering etc but there was still plenty to do and see.

Back again.

Midway

Just having fun in the Nutrien Arena

Cutting Horse competition-the \240horse has to keep the cow from going back to the rest of the herd. It is harder than it looks.

This was a HUGE bull

Mounted troops

41
Heritage Park

Heritage Park is an amazing historical village set on 132 acres in Calgary.. Between Calgary Stampede visits on Monday and Wednesday we visited the park and only saw 1/2 of the exhibits.. this park has exhibits from the 1860’s-1950’s..We toured the Midway, took a train ride, went to the post office and learned how a grain elevator worked…

We also saw Calgary Theatre’s Emerging Young Actors’ presentation of the Merry Wives of Windsor.

Lilo in the post office

Main Street with Mountie walking down it.

John in “jail”

Ferris Wheel and Merry-Go-Round

Camp kids have to dress up in order to attend the week. They sleep in the barn converted as a dorm and each day attend presentations and do experiences from all of the different jobs.

People working in character.

Loved the grain elevator.

42
Calgary Stampede

More from the Stampede!

Ha!Ha!

Stock dog competition was a lot of fun. \240The dogs have to follow a preset path to drive the sheep around 3 barrels and a fence. Sometimes the sheep just don’t want to go and the dog gives the sheep a “grip” a fancy word for bite.. the dog gets disqualified but boy it was worth it.

Picture from the bucking horse competition. We also watched the bull riding, barrel riding and bull roping.

CS also has a huge pow wow

Heavy draft horse competition

For Tommye… no we didn’t eat donuts, fried onion blossoms, fried Oreos but CS had it all.

Wow amazing fun

Bull riding

43
Jasper National Park

Made it to the furthest North location on our trip.

Check out the daisies

And the elk in our campground

Mama Bear had two babies only one is in the picture. \240They were having sooo much fun romping in the field and climbing the tree in the foreground.

Tiny orchids

So this is a bear right near the side of the road

AND here is the Bear Jam.. there are signs everywhere not to feed the bears, get out of your car etc. people are so stupid.

More Bear Jam

Really beautiful Alpine Roses

44
Maligne Lake

Maligne is French for “evil” or “wicked.” Father Pierre-Jean de Smet, a Belgian Jesuit Missionary, used the word to describe the river after \240having trouble crossing it on his horse in 1846.

The lake close to the 5 glaciers \240that feed into it is a bright blue green color. The farther you get from the lake, the more normal green it becomes. \240“Rock Flour” pours off the \240glaciers and reflects the blue from the sky as the silt settles on the bottom of the lake. \240If it is churned in a river or lake, the water will be a white color until it settles.

Indigenous tribes called these 7 mountains the Hall of the Gods. They believe that if the gods came down from earth, they would sit here.

Maligne Lake and River feeds into the Arctic, Hudson Bay.

The record cold on the lake was -56c or -70f. The lake typically freezes completely over to a depth of 10 m. A freight train could drive over the ice and not break it. However, brook trout and shrimp survive to breed. \240

Spirit Island

Having lunch beside the Maligne River

Maligne Canyon

More red chairs

Sunwapta Falls

45
Pinegrove Campground & RV Park

So we started at Whistler, Jasper. Went to Alpine Meadows. It was 20 miles up a dirt/gravel road to a gorgeous campsite. Nestled between two mountains with a lake, free canoes and fishing in a stocked lake. When Julie booked the campground, they assured her they had satellite wi-fi and speeds were good. Fast forward: No cell coverage/ wi-if dismal. We had to drive down the mountain and spend half the day at the info center in town. We drove up the mountain realized that this was a Hei-Hei moment and packed up. Wouldn’t have been bad if John wasn’t working. To top it off the mosquitoes were like vampires. We packed up.

Down the road… we are now at Pinegrove Campground.. It is not pristine, secluded or photogenic but John is sitting next to me getting something done. We have hamburgers cooking on the grill and all is well.

Working day.. made quiche, spanakopita, oatmeal scotchies and scones then off to do laundry

Our new campsite at Pinegrove Campground,McClure.

46
Lake Country

EPIC day…. So we were still camping up by McClure and we had the choice of going to the fourth largest waterfall in Canada or going to some of the best wineries in North America.. we chose driving an additional 2 hrs one way and went to the wineries.. so glad we did! The drive was absolutely spectacular… it looked a little like the Smokey Mountains but zero commercialism and larger Ponderosa Pines… also there were a lot more lakes.

Of the following vineyards, we went to 5 of the 8 and each one was more stunning than the last

Blind Tiger- this was our first stop.. the view was on a hill overlooking the vineyard. Reminded us of Provence,France… most of the vineyards also had lavender blooming in huge bushes. This was the only winery we did not purchase anything

2nd stop the Gray Monk - wow what a view of Lake Okanagon. We had a nice cheese tray complete with Blue, Camembert and ? \240and a couple more glasses of wine . Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir were the winners!

Our first lunch!

The view!

Where Gray Monk had old world charm, 50th parallel rocked modern from the menu to the decor. We had oysters on the half shell and shrimp cerviche. Chardonnay was the winner!

Lilo in the vineyard

Intrigue was our next stop.. this is a Lille mom and pop… wines were not as good but they were very reasonable so we purchased a light white and a chocolate bar .

Next and last stop was across the street at Peak Cellars.. wow saved the best for last. Rrelly pretty building with the bar shaped like an oak keg.. the grounds had a stunning view of Lake Okanagon. We purchased a Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris and a Chardonnay.

The vineyards

Our haul…

47
BC-99

So yesterday we drove from Kamloops to Squamish via the \240TransCanada Highway, \240Highway 99, and the Sea to Sky Highway… First of all notice the word HIGHWAY… these are major roads. We were not the only ones on them but at times it felt like it.

1. We had absolutely no cell service for over than 80% of the 5 1/2 hour drive.

2. We went through two different biomes: desert and temperate forest. Julie thinks at least 3 First Nations Reservations.

3 We went over 2 one lane WOODEN bridges and through a 1 lane tunnel and a portion of the road that was washed out and another that was gravel.

( Julie guesses this is a warm-up road for Alaska.)

4. We went down 10%, multiple 11 1/2%, multiple 12 a 13% and a 15% grade(s).. \240there were only 2 runaway ramps and very few pull offs for the whole journey.

John was a Champion! The trailer performed well and the truck engine brake was a hero!! Big round of applause👏 we made it to Alice Lake Campground after it was closed but still we were able to get into our gorgeous campsite! \240Multiple drinks were required. \240

Hello Pacific! This is the furthest North and West we will be staying.

Lake Kamloops

Wild Horse sign in the reservation..

The First Nations people appear to keep their forests thinned out and consequently they looked much healthier!

Fraser River \240Canyon. \240Pictures just can’t do this justice. \240

Not running on empty!

A pretty waterfall taken going 60mph and cropped

Bridge ahead

Maybe they are made of wood to replace quickly if they wash out? Julie missed taking the one lane tunnel and the” watch for Grizzly Bear”sign. Like we weren’t having enough to watch for.

Here come the Pacific Mountains and the hair-raising part of the drive!

Just one bumpy section! Watch the video and the truck! Our cabinets stayed on!

Time to check the seat belts!

So worth it

48
Alice Lake Campground

This so far has been the ultimate best campsite ever! \240We have an old growth pine forest surrounding us.. just glimmers of sunlight come through even though it was a sunny day today. Moss and pine needles cover the ground and the mosquitoes were way less than in Clearwater,BC .

At the campfire!

Move over Edward and ET, the Cooke’s love your forest as much or more than you do!

Fun at Shannon Falls!

Look at the plume!

49
Steveston

Started today by getting up very early to go to a Fishing Village in Richmond, BC called Stevetson… it is located in the South Side of Vancouver \240and around 1 1/2 hours away from Alice Lake. We went on a whale watch but unfortunately, did not see any whales.. the scenery on the boat trip was incredible and we did see some seals and eagles. The good thing about it is that we are going to go back and try again on Thursday.

Stevetson itself was absolutely charming. This is a REAL fishing village, 3/4 of the boats are ocean going trawlers. The other quarter is made up of a row of trawlers that are used to sell fresh fish, crabs and live sea urchins. The dock was filled with Japanese and Chinese Nationals buying their fish for the day/week. We scored two Dungenous Crabs!

The wharf…when we left it was around 65 degrees.

Everyone bundled up to go out!

On our way!

One of the islands near Victoria!

A \240fishmongers stall

Okay so this was really different and cool.. Gulf of Georgia Cannery National Historic Site, which was located next to the wharf , was having a special day and booths were set up outside for kids and adults to participate in activities.

One of the activities was SCRAPING FISH SKINS and then tanning them.. this was once a very common way to make leather

Fish skin leather

This is what a sockeye salmon actually looks like, for those who have never seen a whole fish.

Notice the name on the machine… the area wasn’t racist or anything. One of these machines would replace 30 humans on the line and this cannery had 3 of them.

Gut and chop off fish heads

John feeding the fish into the gutting machine

Fillet and boning

Out pops the can. from here tops are put on and the can is pasteurized..

Women worked in the freezing cold with their kids from sunup until sundown… it was a crazy dangerous environment that makes the sweet ships in London look like a peaches and cream job.

50
Alice Lake Provincial Park

Out dungenous crab dinner… the pot was too small, the crabs were too big but it was incredibly tasty and worth all the effort!

It’s a big one!

Cannot ask for a more romantic setting Okanagon wine, crab, French bread, and corn under the huge pines.

Look at this root system plus the \240blow down! \240The \240trees are still growing even with all of the moss!

Bearded tree!

View from the lake

One of the forest tree trunks

People enjoying the warm weather at the lake “beach”

51
Porteau Cove Marine Park

Porteau Cove was actually a ferry stop at one time. Because the parking lot was so small, BC Parks decided to make it an underwater marine sanctuary. They sunk several boats and people snorkel and dive them right from the beach. While Julie was watching a seal swam by and several Coast Guard employees were getting dive certified.

An exquisite campsite! The campground office had a notice of Santa Claus asking a little girl what she wanted for Christmas. The little girl replied,”A dragon!”

Santa said, “ That is really difficult.. what is your second choice?”

The girl thought about it and asked, “How about a camping reservation at Porteau Cove?”

Santa groaned, “What color dragon do you want?”

This sums up the fabulous campsite!

We didn’t do a whole lot of running around but chose just to enjoy the view with several campfires and dinners.

John enjoying the view

Sunset at the campsite…John was playing with editing the picture but \240it looks great!

Our other view

52
Britannia Mine Museum

Britannia Mine Museum was once one of the largest copper mines in the world. Over the course of its history workers mined over 1.3 billion pounds of copper ore. Our tour guide said they closed the mine November 1, 1974ddue to unprofitably , John and Julie suspect that it was a superfund clean-up site and the copper was poisoning the salmon fishing industry. Regardless, the history of the Britannia Mine was eye opening.

Workers and their families were literally cut off from civilization. A boat would drop off supplies and take \240families to Vancouver for stays but for the most part the whole community lived and worked around the mine.

It wasn’t until the Sea Sky Parkway was built in the 1940’s were the miners and their families less isolated.

The rock mover, Julie has a thing for standing in front of big vehicles this trip!

Our guide directing our little mine train

Diamond drill which used water and air compressor to power it. Yes it was LOUD and our guide said that they often had 30 drills going at once.

The softball size rocks would start at the top of the mine and drop levels after being crushed and pulverized. The factory was ungodly loud …when the rock dust was ready, workers would fill large wooden troughs with water and pine oil. The copper would float to the top, They would take this slurry and make cakes and then smelt t.

Rock/copper was ground on top floors, floated, caked and then smelted. The runoff went out into the bay.

Building was built right into the rock

It doesn’t look like 20 stories high but it was huge. Building had over 14.000 window panes.

Panning for gold

All done for the day!

53
Capilano River RV Park

Today was moving day.. we were in a real dilemma. Our Porteau Cove site required us to be out at 11:00 and we were not allowed to check in to our campsite in Capilano until 3:00. We weren’t sure where we were going to go and \240anticipated spending four hours in a parking lot somewhere. Luckily, Julie took a short walk before leaving and stumbled on the Porteau boat ramp and parking.. we had a great view for the next several hours which had to tie us over for the next five days because our new campsite home was squished between two monster 5th wheels, under Lions Bridge, located in traffic central AND surrounded by a barbed wire security fence. If we had stayed just one night we would have left severely disappointed but in the end it worked out to be a great location.

Our new home

54
Queen Elizabeth Park

Butchart Gardens on Vancouver Island is one of the premiere gardens in the world BUT we have decided that hands down \240Bloedel Conservatory and Queen Elizabeth Gardens are better! Why? No crowds.. no bus tours.. way less expensive.. sure it isn’t as large but we didn’t have to take a ferry to get here. Plus we had an exceptional lunch with a view of the city at Seasons in the Park restaurant - Seared Cajun Ahi appetizer, Cioppino, and chocolate mousse cake .

55
English Bay

Had an amazing time watching the fireworks on Wednesday and Saturday nights. The \240Celebration of Light has been going on for the last 30 years in Vancouver. \240This year Japan, Canada and Spain competed. We missed the first night with Japan competing but Canada and Spain were fantastic! The fireworks drew an estimated 4 to 500,000 people each night! English Bay was packed with people, bands and families. Surprisingly, the crowds were so well behaved and orderly you would have thought that twenty people were there instead of 500,000. We expected not to be home Wednesday night until 2 or even 3 in the morning but the bus system worked so well we were back at the trailer by 11:30. \240Each presentation lasted about 1/2 an hour and was choreographed to music. This year’s theme was heroes and team Canada 🇨🇦 won the competition! John called it!

Part of team Canada’s competition.

John having fun before the show

A food truck

Another cool one

The Snow Birds performing

Part of the crowd

Part of team Spain’s show

Whale watching and University of British Columbia Botanical Gardens. What a day! Because we didn’t see a whale on Sunday, we were allowed to come back for free anytime and chose Thursday. We were able to see a Humpback whale named, Divot. She did whale cartwheels, splashed her tail and generally gave us quite the show until our time ran out. The only thing she did not do was breach.

Divot has been sighted every year since 2011, so she must be at least 11. She is one of the largest whales that migrates to the area every summer. She is a grandmother and has 3 children, Zephyr, Olympus and a new calf born last year. Humpbacks give birth every 2 or 3 years and live to fifty or sixty.

Eagles do not get their white heads until they are mature..

Divot having a ball

After whale watching, we went to University of British Columbia Botanical Gardens. It was so hot, we felt like we were melting. We did not stay as long as we had planned. But we did walk under the canopy of Cedars and Redwoods while there. Some of the trees were several hundred years old.

This Golden Redwood from China was once thought extinct. Now it is grown in over 400 botanical gardens all over the world.

Just a pretty daisy

We are melting!

This is one flower!

John checking out a split cedar tree! Some trees had 2 or 3 varieties all twined together.

Stopped for a cold beer across from Kitsano Beach.

56
Squamish

We went back to Squamish and Howe Sound for a sunset sail. Conditions couldn’t have been more perfect. There was not a cloud in the sky and a light breeze.. we just wish we could have stayed out longer to see the night sky.

Squamish means “ mother of wind” and it isn’t unusual for Howe a sound to have 30-50mph winds.. the sound also has 18ft tides

We went fishing today in the am..Spain’s \240fireworks were in the pm. \240(Julie posted the pictures with Canada’s on Wednesday). Amazingly, we caught 4 Rainbow Trout!

We started off just using artificial lures and worms.. we would cast and nothing.. cast and nothing.

Meanwhile the trout are jumping and this family next to us is reeling fish in one after another.

Finally, Julie took her pole over and asked whether the hook was correct size..

The father replied in broken English,” no worms…use shrimp,” and gave us the rest of their shrimp.. they had already caught 16 trout and were leaving..

Whallah.. we couldn’t reel our 4 fish in fast enough!

Who would have thought trout like shrimp?

Cleaning our fish in the camper… ugh

Fresh fish with peach salsa

57
North Cascades Scenic Hwy

On our way to Winthrop….North Cascades National Park is one of the newest National Parks (1959) and also one of the least accessible . There is basically one road, SR 20 that traverses the park. The mountains are stellar and currently the park has over 30 glaciers, even more than Glacier National Park.. However, because the way the road was laid out, we only saw some snow at our elevation and no glaciers.

Glacier fed river

Rock overhanging roadway

Look at that great airstream!

Former volcano

Pine sap just glistened in these pinecones

Wow what a view!

58
Winthrop

Having fun in Winthrop and Twisp.. this is a short post but fun pictures.. Winthrop recognized it had an identity problem in the 1970’s and decided to become a “true” Wild West inspired town.. all architecture within city limits needs to look Wild West authentic and most buildings really look amazing.. it would have been made even better if the town was walking only but alas, parking is in front and ruins the effect.

We also went to the National fish hatchery.. they were working on counting Chinook salmon and getting the fry to release in October.

Tiny fry already learning to jump

Monster trout in the kids’ fishing pond..

Stuffed Animals in Hank’s grocery store in Twisp.

Real craziness… pinch to enlarge ..really ?

Really?

59
Black Pine Lake

Okay so Julie is skipping ahead to right now and will go back and fill in the last couple of days..

We thought it would be great idea to take a walk after dinner and do some fishing at Black Pine Lake.. why did we pick this lake

Well the tourist bureau touted it as a pristine lake with a paved path around it.. Julie loved this idea since she wouldn’t have to trip over roots, slip on gravel etc..

WHAT THEY DIDN’T SAY

It was fifteen miles up a gravel logging road that was currently in use but everyone had gone home for the night.

Oh and did they mention the road was one lane with a sheer drop off the whole length?

Oh and did we mention there were no guardrails?

Oh and there was no cell phone coverage?

Oh and the road was currently under construction (destruction?)?

Oh and we needed to watch for logging trucks, falling rocks, wash-outs and falling timbers. (Fresh cut logs partially in the road.)?

Oh they didn’t mention the lack of directional signs?

John was concerned we were going to get lost and not find our way down in the dark. Julie was just freaking out. She could hear Dueling Banjoes .playing in the background.

Sorry no pictures on the way up just hanging on to the oh $<%* bar…We finally made it to the lake! There were a couple of cars and a truck camper up there but we had to hunt to even find them.

Did we walk the lake? No, we were too worried about getting down off the mountain without going off the edge of it or getting lost.

PS John is getting real good on gravel mountain driving.

PSS we looked at the brochure when we got home and took the wrong going up the mountain..the road we should have taken was not an active logging road but still scary.

Black Pine Lake at sunset

Looks like a great place to fish

One of the informative signs…

This wasn’t one of these steepest drops

We are flatlanders

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Rainy Pass

Went back today to North Cascades National Park to view Diablo Overlook and take a hike at Lake Rainy… both events after yesterday were a success!

Diablo Overlook

Trees that are bowed like this have a condition called “snow creep.” The pressure of the snow sliding down the mountain causes the tree trunk to curve in order to compensate for the stress. It was unusual to see literally a hundred trees with bent trunks on the walk.

Rainy Lake with glacier on the other side of mountains on the right.

Wildflowers

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Spokane

Spent August 3rd driving to Spokane pronounced Spo-can. We were corrected. Using next couple of days to get new tires on Skeddadle(airstream) \240 Oil change on truck, haircut for Julie and new tennis shoes.

Miles and miles of uninterrupted wheat fields

Rainbow trout, spinach and corn

Our view at the campsite

The state park we are staying in is called bowl and pitcher for these rock formations..

Upper falls in downtown Spokane Riverfront Park

They also had an old fashioned carousel but John didn’t want to ride it😠 He said it was for kids … Julie counts!

Pistachio pesto salmon bruschetta! Wow!

Milan clams with wine,pork belly and light cream sauce from Mizuna

I

Was

\240 \240 \240Scalped … please disregard the hair for the next 2 months

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Lake Cascade

We took the Palouse scenic Highway to Lake Cascade today.. the sheer immensity of our country is mind boggling. We didn’t stop except for restroom breaks because it was a 6 1/2 hour drive but Julie sure wishes she could have..

No picture can do this area justice and we stumbled into it because the Moose Fire rerouted our trip.

In the small towns we saw a stock ticker that told the price of wheat and barley instead of the weather, grain elevators, gorgeous barns new and old and combines harvesting the grain .

This region is characterized by gentle rolling hills covered with wheat fields and Julie means A LOT of wheat fields .They stretch for as far as the eye can see and really do roll in amber waves. They look like giant sand dunes with wheat and barley? Planted on them.

The Palouse is the LARGEST producer of wheat in the entire USA and we saw that today.. combines were hard at work harvesting the wheat which was perfectly mature.

The landscape changed after several hours and we were back in rugged Salmon River territory.

Lake Cascade campsite plus mountains in back of the lake

On the road today and going to a new mountain range, the Sawtooth Mountains!

Some of the craggy volcanic rocks

Our second tumbleweed!

Salmon River

Sawtooth range.. what did the settlers’ think when they came over the crest of the last hill and saw these monsters?

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Sunny Gulch Campground

Today started out fairly cold,dreary and just plain dismal. \240John had to work so it wasn’t that bad being stuck in the trailer . After lunch the weather brightened and so did our activities. We first popped down to Redfish Lake which has to be close to twenty miles long. It was still drizzling so we didn’t stay. \240We then went to \240the Sawtooth Fish Hatchery, Julie hoped they would let her fish in the kids pond but no such luck.

After lunch, we \240decided to take a ride on the Sawtooth scenic byway.. like we aren’t doing enough driving .. but another route to Arco was recommended to us and Julie still wanted to see the mountains.

You can tell why they are called Sawtooth!

The Salmon River valley

John at Stanley Lake fishing after taco Tuesday

Fishing at Stanley Lake. Please let Julie fish in the kid’s pond! Not even a bite!

Okay, we have love bugs, Idaho has clouds of grasshoppers! Driving back from the scenic byway, it sounded like the windshield was being hammered by tiny pebbles! Flying pebbles that splat yellow goo! Yuck .. love bugs

Are NOT BAD

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Craters of the Moon National Monument & Preserve

We weren’t planning on stopping here but with the Moose fire, it fell into our itinerary and we are so glad it did.

President Calvin Coolidge described Craters of the Moon as,, “a \240weird and scenic landscape, peculiar to itself” when he designated it as a national monument in 1924. In 1970, Congress designated the area surrounding it as a National Wilderness.

Craters consists of three lava fields formed by volcanic eruptions from 15,000 to just 2,000 years ago. Unlike St Helen’s, the volcanic eruptions were formed by a tear in the earth crust called the Great Rift.

The Shoshone see a great snake that squeezed the earth until hot lava spewed forth.

Scientists believe that thel fissure will again erupt but do not see it in the foreseeable future.

Campsite 12

Lilo in the Devil’s Garden

Trees have a symbiotic relationship with Dwarf Mistletoe.. The dwarf mistletoe caused the tree to spurt growth shoots that form what is called a “witch’s broom”. You can see these in the pics of the dead tree where the end of the branches are a tight bundle of little branches. Park rangers originally cut all of the pines that exhibited the growths but learned later that the two loving together were necessary.

Hiked to the top of a cinder cone. If you pinch the picture our truck is way down in the parking lot!

Not sure why some of the rock shines and others do not

John in one of the lava tunnels

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Alpine North Loop Campground

Drove through Idaho Atomic Energy range today.. miles and miles from anywhere. No wonder this is where atomic waste is stored. Didn’t take any pictures because there was nothing to see. We also saw wheat and potato fields today (glow-in- the-dark-potatoes anyone?).. staying in the Caribou Targee National Forest at Alpine Campground.. the Pallidades Reservoir is about twenty feet below normal level.. people were driving on the lake bed.

Wheat fields harvested

The reservoir below level.. if you pinch the screen you can also see some nesting eagles.

This was all lakebed not too long ago… 2-5 yrs max…what is left of the lake is seen in the distance

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Colter Bay RV Park

Made it to the Grand Tetons! Not as much wildlife as we thought we would see. We’ve been informed that most of the wildlife has moved up into the higher elevations even though we are at 6700+ feet.

So far we have seen: 1 each mule deer, coyote and eagle and 3 ravens.

PLUS a lot of incredible scenery!

There are tons of people here.. we did not leave early this am and could not believe the logjams of people driving, hiking etc… crazy busy.

\240 \240 \240 \240 \240 \240 \240 \240 \240 \240 \240 \240 \240 \240 \240 \240 \240 \240 \240 \240 \240 \240 \240 \240 \240 \240 \240 \240 \240 \240 \240 \240 \240

Lots of traffic and backups!

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Jackson

Jackson Hole is a lot like Gatlinburg but switch the t-shirts for bistros and art galleries.. this town oozes wealth. . .We experienced it first hand at lunch one day when a teenaged boy complained the whole meal about being in the Grand Tetons.and Jackson. Talk about entitled. Jeeze.. it couldn’t be a more beautiful place!

Jackson derives its name from the fur trappers and mountain men who inhabited the area in the early 1800’s. They used the name \240“hole” for any high valley bordered by mountain ranges \240and named it Jackson after trapper Davey Jackson There are four arches made of elk antlers on each corner of the town square. The elk are not slaughtered! Boy Scouts pick up the antlers from the elk refuge every year.. repair the arches for the summer and sell the rest. What a fundraiser!

Instead of a taxi you can hop a stagecoach for a ride around town!

A fake furry \240Buffalo

All the stores have at least one to dozens of animal heads in them.. can be a little creepy!

Learned that Wyoming people love their guns and furs.. yes, they still have a fur coat store.

Went to the National Wildlife Art Gallery.. saw some gorgeous art !

The realism in this oil painting really is astounding. Look closely at the door behind the birds. It is 2d flat.

Just liked this hawk.

We did end up seeing a whole lot of animals in Grand Teton! AND also learned that …

“Look for a Moose by a willow,” meant these little bushes by the river.. We were looking for trees the first four days we were here!

Found one American Pine Marten… we were sitting on a log by Leigh Lake and it just reached down and grabbed a fish not fifteen feet away from us!

At least six big deer

2 coyotes and is it coyote or coyotee?

7 beaver all on our river float trip

1 Moose yea! We saw a Moose

2 Otters also on our float trip

A bunch of Eagles both juvenile and adult

More deer

1 fox

6 herds of Pronghorn Antelope

Another. Beaver… We didn’t know that Beavers weigh between 40-100 lbs..

Another Beaver… river beavers don’t build dams.. they will use blown down trees and build a cave into the wall of the river… The beavers \240really do gnaw \240down trees to look like a pencil point!

Our scenic float and some beautiful scenery!

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Yellowstone National Park

Moved from Grand Teton to Yellowstone today and although the parks are connected they are soooo very different.. Grand Teton is relatively compact with the mountains bordering one side and National forest/high plains prairie on the other. Yellowstone is just plain huge.. crossing into the park it still took us approximately 45 minutes to get to our campsite at Fishing Bridge.

Yellowstone is bigger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined!.The park is approximately 3,472 miles and is located in Wyoming,Montana and Idaho.

Yes, we were driving on a supervolcano and yes it is still very active.. This fact is something that really messed with Julie’s head especially when she found out that Yellowstone has enough magma under it to FILL the Grand Canyon 3x +…

We drove up the Hayden Valley on our way to the Lower Canyon of the Yellowstone and ran smack into a giant herd of Buffalo.. since it was one of the only animals we had not seen we were thrilled!

Lower Falls at Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.. the perfect short trip \240before heading to bed.. when John was here last he hiked to the lower falls..

Yellowstone River is the largest undammed river in the lower 48 states.. it runs for 671 miles without obstruction

A beautiful sunset on the Hayden Valley.

Still last night, this is Sulphur Caldron.. we can literally walk by the side of the road to see geysers, paint pots, mud pits, fumaroles and pools. Ten times more acidic than lemons, Sulfur Caldron is near the epicenter of the volcano. The sulphuric fumes bubble up here in muddy pools that are teeming with life.

The colors in each pool are made by thermoacidophiles. Microorganisms that love to live in extremely hot acidic environments. Depending on the ph and heat colors will be orange, blue, gold etc.

Old Faithful is not the largest, not the most regular but truly the most loved and photographed. \240Magma is approximately 5 miles below the surface it provides the heat which superheats the rain and snow melt that flows down into a reservoir \240mixed with fractured rocks that contain silica. When a \240geyser or any other steam eruption it deposits silica on the side walls of the flume thus building a shape. Depending on whether the steam vent is large or small the shape of each geyser is formed.

Beehive Geyser

Chromatic Pool

Beauty Pool and Chromatic Pool are linked. When the water goes up in one, the other pool goes down

Grand Geyser

Daisy Geyser

Castle Geyser

Old Faithful erupting (video)

Grand Geyser ( not going off).

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Mammoth Hot Springs

Yesterday, we spent the day checking John out in the ER in Cody, Wyoming. His back had been hurting but only on the right side. We both thought it would be better to check it out before we went further East.

Today, we went to the Norris Geyser Basin and Mammoth Hot Springs..Norris was awe inspiring! It is a huge area covered in sulphuric pools, fumaroles and bubbling mud pits.

Norris Geyser Basin is the largest and most active area in Yellowstone. It contains Steamboat which is Yellowstone’s and the world’s tallest geyser but we took it easy and did not make the hike to it.

Superheated water pouring into one of the creeks

Had lunch at one of the many picnic areas. The guy next to us pulled up in his car, put on his bear spray and then proceeded to walk into the fields around the picnic area. We weren’t sure whether he was a citizen volunteer, a person looking for bears or just off. He spent less than 15 minutes and then just drove away. Strange. Glad there weren’t any bears.

This is the Golden Gate on the West Side of Yellowstone on the way to Mammoth Springs.

4 gorgeous butterflies are enjoying the sunshine. Can you spot them? Just pinch the picture.

We never knew there were so many ravens out West. Yes, they are a part of Native American folklore but the sheer number of the birds is mind boggling. Wherever we went we saw or heard Ravens.

Mammoth Hot Springs

The white \240Travertine Terrace at Mammoth Hot Springs is made from limestone deposits that interact with the superheated water. The area which is brown is currently active. The park ranger said this is one of the fastest changing features at the park. The terrace can be flowing in one part one day and dry the next but the output of water and calcium carbonate remains pretty much the same at 2 tons per day.

Another view of the Terraces, only the left side was active.

Close up of an active part

Newer area that has recently dried up

Canary Spring

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Yellowstone National Park

Today we took a 1937 White touring bus for a sunset wildlife tour and boy did we get an adventure straight out of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom! Although it was too far to take pictures of, we saw using a scope two wolves harassing? Trying to take down? a bear.,The bear would periodically rear up on its’ hind legs and then charge after the wolves. We couldn’t understand why it didn’t run for a Lodgepole pine but it stayed on the bare hillside. The action continued for at least 3/4 of an hour and the only reason we didn’t see the resolution was that it got to dark to see. We will never be sure of the outcome but boy what an adventure!

Another spectacular view

A Pronghorn just chilling..

we learned some really cool facts about this antelope on the tour. The Pronghorn can run 65 mph. It is the fastest animal in North America. It technically is NOT an Antelope or a goat and is in its own species category.

If you pinch the screein the center,, the little red Buffalo is a new calf.

Lamar Valley..this area has been closed to the public because of the recent flooding. We were able to see a Golden Eagle’s nest, Pronghorn Antelope and 3 newborn Buffalo..

Pronghorns on the grasslands

One last gorgeous Yellowstone sunset

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Cody

Made our way to Cody. It is only seventy-seven miles away but it took us a couple of hours. A Buffalo decided that it wanted to take a stroll on the \240highway. With sheer cliff on one side and a crazy drop off on the other, the only thing it could do was saunter along.

Our campsite at Buffalo Bill State Park. The river was just beyond the grass.

We really loved Cody! It is Jackson Hole’s unpretentious little brother. A truly working town, it had enough tourism revolving around Buffalo Bill but not unduly so. The hotel Irma, was Buffalo Bill Cody’s money pit. He had to refinance and mortgage 2x to bring the hotel to fruition. The original facade is gone but his dream lives on.

John with a crazy huge burger from Prime Cut!00

Buffalo Bill Center of the West is actually an affiliate of the Smithsonian and contains 5 museums under one roof. The Center contains Indigenous, Western Art, Western Wildlife, Gun and Bill Cody museums. We spent a short amount of time in the gun and wildlife museums and still couldn’t see everything in the other 3. So happy Roy and Lori mentioned this as a must do!

Making beans and biscuits at the chuck wagon

A cradle board worn on the back. Notice the reeds, an early “head restraint car seat.”Indians also used reeds to make back rests for the teepees.

A Buffalo Hide tepee.. one of the few left in existence.

A mural showing the different attitudes and viewpoints on gun rights from Time magazine cover.

An early 19th century gun. \240Julie doesn’t think she would want to be around it when it was fired. They also had an animated target range for kids and adults to try their shots.. Sigh

A painting of lower Falls at Yellowstone .. the rocks contain the artist’s words and events at the time .0

This Tumbleweed is actually bronze! The artist deconstructed made molds and reconstructed it piece by piecek

Stagecoach that was used in the finale of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. Cody would ride out and save the passengers from ambushing Indians.

Annie Oakleys gun and one of her travel dresses. She stated , she was treated like a Queen.

The Wild West Show touring group. Cody was the ultimate showman. Sitting Bull is also pictured after Little Big Horn and the rout in Canada, he was approached by Cody and offered to tour with him.

A double rainbow on the way home.. it went all the way to the water..

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Buffalo

On the road from Cody to Buffalo… Julie brought her needlepoint to work on…. So how much does she need to get done? A lot .. how much has she done? A little… the scenery is just too beautiful. We drove most of the way through the Bighorn National Forest and the Bighorn Mountains… Our fifth mountain range and we think we can start calling the mountains including the Smokies just big hills..

Flat and nothing but sage prairie for miles.

A small little town… whatever industry was here is now gone

The perfect sillouette of one fantastic husband!

Wish we knew more about geology! Everywhere we go there are different types of rock formations, colors and sizes.. These buttes (?) were huge and stretched for miles.

Just a road picture

Ten Sleep an idyllic little town nestled in the Bighorn National Forest. CJ Box mentions it in all of his books.

Part of the Bighorn National Forest, the mountains in this area are waaaay older than the Tetons, dating back millions of years to Precambrian era.

Erosion has weathered away everything but the granite shells

Driving on the scenery changed,we climbed to even higher elevation and the temperature dropped!

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Sheridan

We thought it was crazy scary that the expressway authority had gates at every highway entrance. They must really get some hellish winter weather conditions here!

Right outside Sheridan is where our hero, Joe Pickett, a fish and game warden resides. He is the imperfect character who doesn’t say a lot but always figures out the murder. We though Sheridan was going to be a small tow. Nope. It has five expressway exits.. talk about what your mind’s eye sees and reality.

Main Street still had an old west feel.

A bronze statue on every corner and no vandalism!

Mary Beth Pickett, our hero’s wife, fictionally is the Director of the Library. ( No, we couldn’t bring ourselves to go in here or the Fish and Game Dept.)

Whe re Joe fictionally works

Another incredible sunset at our campsite.

74
Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument

Okay, some days are better than others. John worked late. We were originally going to drive up into the Bighorns on an alternate route which we didn’t want to take the trailer on. It was raining in the mountains.. very overcast and heavy cloud cover. So we nixed that idea.

We started to drive to Little Big Horn which was an 1 1/2 hours one way from Sheridan.. and another 1/2 an hour back to our campsite. We drove for 1/2 an hour and said this is stupid… 4 additional hours in the car was to much to drive after driving all day yesterday…

SO we turned around and drove 1/2 hour back to Sheridan and had a picnic lunch. We decided, what are we doing? Nothing.. we are retired.

Got in the car and drove all the way up to Montana and saw Little Big Horn..

Words to describe the battle and memorial… serene, peaceful and well done. Both sides in the confrontation were honored and respected.

US Army should not have attacked an enemy of 7,000 with a battle group of less than 500.. not a good idea at all

National Cemetery at the site… they only stopped burying soldiers here after the Korean War

Valley where 7,000 Indians were encamped when Custer’s men attacked.

Most Indians remained nameless but some were identified and red gravestones are placed on the battlefield.

Custer’s stone ( He is buried at West Point.)

Sage Grouse aka Prairie Chicken

During the last stand soldiers shot their horses to give them a barrier to hide behind. Several years after the battle, \240soldiers created a mass grave of all the horses and human bones in a 10x10 square for burial. They were later reburied as best as possible in the National Cemetery at the site.

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Devils Tower National Monument

President Roosevelt proclaimed Devils Tower a National Monument in 1906 but the Tower or Bear Lodge has been a sacred site for ages.

The Kiowa story is that, “Eight children were there at play, seven sisters and their brother. Suddenly, the boy was struck dumb and began to run on his hands and feet. His fingers became claws and his body was covered with fur. He had become a bear.

The sisters were terrified, they ran and the bear ran after them.

They came to a stump of a great tree, and the tree spoke to them. It told them to climb onto it, and as they did it rose up into the air.

The bear tried to kill them but the girls were just beyond its reach. It reared up against the tree and scored the bark all around with its claws.

The seven sisters were borne into the sky, and they became the Pleiades.”

The name Devils Tower was coined in 1875 when a Lieutenant Colonel Took the Indian name ,”Bad God’s Tower” and changed it to what it is today

Devils Tower is not the core of ancient volcano. Magma did play a role but it cooled and contracted underground. As it cooled and contracted, the magma fractured into columns. Over millions of years , erosion exposed the Tower.

It rises 867 feet from its base, 5112 feet from sea level. The base tower walk takes you in a loop in a mile and a half walk.

About 200 climbers a year make the ascent.

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Sanford Underground Research Facility
77
Deadwood
78
Beaver Lake RV Campground
79
Wind Cave National Park
80
Needles Highway Scenic Overlook
81
Mount Rushmore National Memorial
82
Custer State Park
83
Minuteman Missile National Historic Site Visitor Center
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Chamberlain SD Rest Area facility

Our New Frontier Campsite in Presho,SD.. very clean and quiet-perfect after a day of driving.

At a South Dakota Rest Area in the middle of nowhere. Statue called Destiny, represents the Sioux people. The colored panels spin in the wind, too bad there was none when we were there.

A perfect Ponderosa Pine..

Fun Fact-Lewis and Clark Expedition was a military operation.

Fun Fact- President Jefferson wanted to know literally everything about the West. He wrote pages and pages of instructions out for Lewis and Clark.

Fun Fact- Men on the expedition at approximately 9lbs of meat a day! Pinch the screen to see the sheer numbers of game they devoured.

Fun Fact-In August 1804, Lewis almost poisoned himself tasting “alum/copperas” from a riverbank. He was just trying to figure out what it was.

Fun Fact- Lewis and Clark in addition to mapping and exploring, sent fossil remains of a Momasaur back to President Jefferson for study.

Known as Mt Pleasant, Lewis and Clark camped here both on the way to the unknown and on their way back…

85
Blue Earth

Still on the road in Minnesota.

Stayed at a Harvest Host Vineyard last night listened to a guitaris/vocalist who did best playing Neil Young,Van Morrison and Bruce Springsteen.

Gorgeous sunset over the vineyards.

We couldn’t resist stopping at Blue Earth, Minnesota, the home of the \240Green Giant. This little town of 3,000 is primarily responsible for producing and canning \240all the peas and corn for Green Giant, thus the 55 1/2 ft \240statue.

The Giant was originally placed in the location in 1978 at \240a cost of $43,000 and travelled from to Blue Earth.

Little Sprout and Lilo

Wish there was a T-shirt with this logo!

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Lanesboro

We stayed Labor Day Weekend in Lanesboro, Minnesota. \240Lanesboro is a quant little town that is on the Root River Bike \240Trail.. Eagle Cliff Campground also had river tubing, music etc… nice place and people. Would definitely return if we were passing through again.

Lanesboro is the rhubarb capital of Minnesota? The nation?No, we didn’t buy anything rhubarb.

Part of the little town of Whalen population 63… it was busier on Saturday

Root River is known for it’s fishing… we didn’t catch anything. Julie needs lessons.

Lots of farms … happy there was no drought here!

Downtown Lanesboro

John looking at the falls downtown.

Just a touch of color!

Root River

We took a couple of walks on the trail.

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Wells State Park

Literally drove through Wisconsin and made one overnight stop in Dorchester, WI… when we woke up it was 49 degrees..

Wisconsin is the poorer stepbrother to Minnesota. Many of the towns looked tired and sad and there were more bars than anything else. There were still a lot of farms but they did not look as fertile or productive as those in Minnesota.

Just a pretty church going by at \24060 MPH

The fields are really hilly here!

We are officially EAST of the Mississippi!!

Onto MICHIGAN!

Wells State Park site #10!!

Wow

The first State Park we are at in Michigan is exceptional. Looking forward to spending the night on Green Bay/Lake Michigan.

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Munising Tourist Park Campground

We went to Kitchen-Iti-Kipiin the middle of the upper Peninsula. It is something like Weeki Watchi or Blue Springs however, there is no swimming. We had fun taking the raft to the middle of the Spring by spinning a large wheel.

Raft is all the way on the other side of the spring

Julie turning the wheel!

Can you find the skull?

A Munising sunset! We made it to Lake Superior!

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Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

On the Pictured Rocks boat cruise … third ? fourth boat cruise the trip? Grand Isle is 4 x as large as Mackinaw Island and about the same size as Manhattan Island. There are only about 25 seasonal residents.. no cell phone, no electricity and no stores. Not for Julie!

Lake Superior is 186 miles long and 2,880 miles in circumference. It is approximately the same distance from NYC to Liverpool, England.

It is the roughest Great Lake with waves sometimes reaching 25-30 ft and winds rivaling strong hurricanes!

The deepest part of the lake is 1333 ft and temperatures in that cold region only fluctuate from 42 degrees in the summer to 38 in the winter.

If you emptied Lakes Superior into the ALL of \240continental US it would FILL the country with 5’ of freshwater.

Pictured Rocks is our first national lakeshore established in 1966. The colorful 200 ‘ cliffs and rocky outcroppings started development over 500 million years ago during the Cambrian ice age. As the glaciers retreated, wind, ice and erosion played a toll on the soft sandstone and harder limy sandstone.

Pictures Rocks gets its name from both the eroded formations and the colorful streaked freshwater deposits that leach out of the rocks

Black-manganese

White-calcium

Blues and Greens- copper

Red- iron

And of course a little mold and lichen thrown in for good measure

We were amazed by the turquoise blues and greens of the water.

A lone pine getting all its’ nourishment from a huge root that reaches back to the mainland.

Established in 1868 the East Channel Lighthouse was decommissioned in 1908. George Pryor, the lighthouse keeper, lived here with his wife and 12 children. The kids went to school only in the summer. It is primarily constructed of brick and wood and has been recently restored but closed to the public.

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Au Sable Light Station

So we are in Michigan and are practicing being a Yooper (person from the U.P.). One of things Yoopers like to eat are Pasties, pronounced pass-tee. Not the little doo- dahs dancers like to wear. Originally, immigrants from Cornwall, England came here to work the iron ore mines. They brought with them these meat pies.

Our Yooper Meat pie included shredded potatoes,rhutabaga, carrots, onions,pork and beef.. it tasted like we were eating a whole weeks worth of calories in one sitting! Although it had a \240light and flaky crust, it sure was made with lard.. great food for a miner!

Au Sable is French for “with sand.” As early as 1622 this area near Grand Marais was known as an extremely treacherous for anyone traveling Lake Superior. In the height of the ore boom, mariners noted, “ In all navigation of Lake Superior, there is none more dreaded by the mariner than that of Whitefish Point to Grand Island.”

Between the sandstone shoals that at times were only 3 ft below the waterline and the thick fog caused by warm air from the sand dunes interacting with the cold lake air.

In addition, mariners would hug the coast for fear of capsizing further out in the lake and because it was the shortest route possible. It became known as the “ship trap.”

The Au Sable Light went into service \240in August 1874.

The light originally burned lard oil but it was changed later to kerosene… the light has been changed and automated . There is no caretaker today but the light still serves as a beacon for ships navigating this treacherous stretch of coastline.

Sable Falls cascades down 75’ down several sandstone \240formations on the way to Lake Superior. If you want to experience it you need to walk down and UP 177 steps!!!

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Lower Falls

At Tahquamenon Falls State Park…

Have you ever noticed that National and State Parks have a funny way of measuring distances.

Everything is either 1 1/2 miles away or 3 miles away.

The trail is always longer than what is stated.

Distances are different depending on which way you are driving on the road. For example: Distance from Lower Falls to Upper Falls was 4 miles.

Distance from Upper Falls to Lower Falls was 3 miles. Where did the extra mile go?

The name “Tahquemenon” =shortcut. It comes from the island at the mouth of the Tahquemenon River and Whitefish Bay \240that points directly at Sault Saint Marie. The river has two falls the upper and lower.. which are 3 or 4 miles apart depending on which way you are driving to see them.

The river has a brown tannin color from the cedars, decomposing hemlock and other materials. Hemlock bark was used to tan deer/ cowhide. It takes 125 lbs of hemlock bark to tan one cow/deer hide.

The day we were there, the Upper River was flowing at 5,340 gallons per second. The largest flow rate 52,272 gallons per second..

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Soo Locks

The Ojibway people call it “Bahweting” or gathering place.

Father Jacques Marquette called it Le Sault de Sainte Marie” (the rapids of St Mary) when he established the settlement in 1668.

Tourist bureaus \240call it the twin Saults for both Canadian ( pop 80,000) and US (pop 15,000) but Yoopers just call it the Soo.

By the 1700’s the area was mostly deserted until the French built a fort at the Ste Marie de Sault. It wasn’t until 1820, that the US flag was raised here

In 2017, the American Integrity made the world record by carrying 75,095 TONS of ore! A person can tell this is a Great Lakes carrier because of the shape of its’ bridge.

It doesn’t look like much but the pan- fried Walleye dinner we had here was some of the best fish we have ever eaten!

A Walleye! They can get much larger..

New Glarius Beer Crossing sign for Kate

Cold and overcast… not real great weather..

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McGulpin Point Lighthouse

Driving over the Mackinaw Bridge in the pouring rain… not John’s idea of fun. It did finally clear up for a day and a half… enough to get Mackinaw Island in.

John at the HeadLands International dark sky Park… it clouded up that night 🙁 Gorgeous facility for watching the aurora!

McGulpin Point Lighthouse and rock (1869-1906) was right around the corner! This lighthouse had a really interesting history… supposedly French explorers landed here at least 5 x possibly more BEFORE the pilgrims on Plymouth Rock. They used the rock as a water level … to gauge Lake Michigan..

French explorers explored these shores in 1615 … Yep, the Vikings were also here earlier than the Pilgrims…

During the winters the McGulpin family would move 3 miles to Mackinaw City. Sam McGulpin would make the trek each week to check on things and in the spring, he would sometimes trek two or three times a week to check whether the ice was breaking up in the channel.

A great Eagle Scout project… someone constructed this shade gazebo although it was only 70 out…. Who wouldn’t want to be in the sun?

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Mackinac Island

Wow! What a bridge! It is the longest suspension bridge in North America spanning 5 miles…all of it has grates so that the fierce winds can blow through it and allow for sway.

An interesting fact… it was only opened in 1957, the year John was born….Julie thought it had been open forever… previous to this you needed to use a car ferry to get to the U.P. Because icebergs hit the piers of the bridge, the piers were sunk at angles and reinforced.

Funny story.. this hearse is still used to bury people today who live, work and die on the island… However, the gate below was constructed at the cemetery entrance to fit the hearse \240but not the carriage rig and driver.. they need to dismount or use an alternate route to get into the cemetery.

Also the cemetery was originally located down by the docks.. it was the first thing tourists would see when they disembarked from the ferry. Townspeople wanted it moved. Two \240trappers waiting for season to start moved the headstones in 1924 to the new cemetery and then went back for the bodies…they didn’t write so had no idea who was buried where… best guess people are laying under their correct headstone.

Arch rock… on Mackinaw Island. Formed when Lake Huron eroded the softer sandstone rock about 5,000 years ago and left the limestone arch… look at the color of the water! Gorgeous!

Pretty harbor picture..

A work team of Percheron horses… there are more veterinarians than drs on island, 7:1…

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Mackinac Island

Ojibway legend has that Michilmackinac was a great turtle that would get up and float into the water.

The Grand Hotel was built in 93 days…there were 188 original rooms and a second addition added 200 rooms. Each room is decorated completely different. If you stayed for a complete year, you would never see the same room 2x…

The Grand was beautiful but looked tired to us..similar to Catherine’s Palace…maintenance was not what it should have been. Everthing was in place but not perfect for such an iconic hotel.

Fort Mackinaw…these guys really loved their rifle drill firing.

A canon ball from this cannon could be fired three miles out into the bay but the only time the Fort was besieged, the Americans gave up without a fight. On July 17,1812 \240the British, Canadian and Indian forces captured the Fort without a shot fired. It was one of the first battles? Of 1812. The British held the fort until the end of the War of 1812

Statue of Father Marquette .. one of the original settlers..however there is no known picture of him so the artist used his own visage to complete.

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Petoskey State Park Campground

Moved to Petoskey State Park… wow view from our campsite

More Walleye at a brewpub.. not the greatest but still Walleye.

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Petoskey
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Charlevoix
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11362 Farthing Dr
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Michigan Renaissance Festival
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11362 Farthing Dr, Sterling Heights, MI 48314, USA
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Sugarcreek

Our \240view at the Swiss Festival National Airstream rally.

Mr Warther’s shop..he

The Schoenbrunn Village was Ohio’s first settlement.Founded in 1773, \240It was a Moravian Settlement that welcomed everyone and was peaceful in nature. It grew to over sixty dwellings but was abandoned in 1777 and burned to the ground by the inhabitants who did not want their meeting place used for warring purposes during the American Revolutionary war and refused to take sides or bear arms. As a result they were raided by both the revolutionaries and British.

Jeff and Cherie’s trailer company based on Amish beliefs! The factory was solar powered and had many Amish workers.

The Nu Camp pledge

Amish buggies lined up at Mrs Yoders \240Kitchen

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Sugarcreek
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Sugarcreek
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Sugarcreek
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Mountain Top Campground
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Pittsburgh
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Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens
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Carnegie Museum of Natural History
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Longwood Gardens
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Havre De Grace
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Pohick Bay Regional Park
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403 9th St NE
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Annapolis
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Smithsonian Institution
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Glenstone
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Maryland Renaissance Festival

So this little taco truck was in a pawn shop parking lot. Not many who came to it spoke English and boy was the food good!

Sun at the Maryland Renaissance Fair!

Ugly bats that Tommye loved

At Union Market for dinner

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Colonial Williamsburg

Chenna and her proud parents

Silversmith making spoons

General Lafayette met George Washington when he was 19 and served in the French army without pay and supported his troops. George Washington was like a father to him.

Law in the Continental Congress was unusual. Depending on where a person stood on an issue, they would sit on the side they supported. \240Compromise was everything!

Intricate woodwork all done by hand

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Chickahominy Riverfront Park

We visited Williamsburg and really enjoyed seeing Chenna in action… so happy she loves her work. We loved visiting her!

General Lafayette explaining his political views

An interesting composition of leaves and rocks

Isn’t Chenna beautiful? Couldn’t be more proud of her!

Supreme needlework

Tasting history!

Connie and Donny were able to drop by for a visit! They brought amazing barbecue for Julie’s BDay. Weather cleared and we were able to finally have a campfire by the river

Our campsite at Chickahominy!

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The North Carolina Arboretum

We always enjoy the Arboretum in Asheville

National Geographic had a photographic display of endangered animals. Julie particularly liked the wise old owl.

A pretty cool Monarch life cycle mandala on the property.

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Cradle of Forestry in America

One of the homesteads that is on display at the cradle of forestry.

Kisses for Smokey!

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Lake Powhatan Campground

Nope we didn’t catch all of these Rainbows.. because of the low temps, they closed the trout ponds early. Luckily, we were able to snag these beauties while the girl was feeding the fish!

Trout dinner in the portal. A little cool but not in the 30s like previous evenings.

The colors couldn’t have been more spectacular this year. We hit peak season!

Last night at Lake Powhatan and we saw 4 bear cubs crossing the road while driving into the campsite. Mama had to have been up ahead… They were a little frazzled because of our truck but they were able to cross just fine! Yes, we were completely stopped.

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Jekyll Island

Last stop before HOME! We love Blythe Island Regional Park. Plenty of room between sites and bunnies to feed all of the time.

First time John is in shorts and sandals in months!

One of our cute friends

A toast to our Grand Adventure

One last picturesque photo