Jasper or Bust
Radium is NOT a big town. But, SURPRISE, it DOES have a free 54 MbpsWiFi network for residents, businesses and visitors!
I used the network to catch up on email (mainly deleting stuff so my account doesn’t get locked up) and post my blog for the previous few days. Denise caught some Z’s and did her Soduko in the back.
Then we walked around town. Took all of about 10 minutes (for both sides of the road).
So we repaired back up the road to the Hot Springs and went for another swim. When we had had enough we went back to town and ordered a pizza, having ‘happy hour’ in the van while we waited the 20 minutes for the pizza to be ready. Then we headed for the campsite.
Ate pizza instead of ‘chunky’ for a change. Watched ‘For a Few Dollars More’ and retired for the night.
Tuesday 18 Sept 2007
Drove up toward Golden (outside the National Park) and then angled back into the Park heading for Jasper.
As far as Denise is concerned, the stretch of approx 250 miles from Banff to Jasper is the most spectacular contiguous scenery we have encountered. Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Glacier, Grand Teton are all spectacular in their own right, but they have a limited local ‘range’. The Banff/Jasper Park just goes on for miles and miles, with these humungous peaks bordering a vast range of valley substrates and rivers ranging from small creeks to major maelstroms.
There is a dearth of wildlife on the road, despite frequent signs warning us of ‘Elk Crossing next 20 Km’. I think they have taken a leaf out of their human counterparts books and gone on strike for better benefits or something? I keep on saying ‘Here Elky, Here Elky’, but it doesn’t seem to help?
But, there are plenty of glaciers to see on this leg. One around every corner! But they are all ‘receding’ due to global warming (Crowfoot Glacier, which apparently had 3 ‘toes’, hence the name, now only has 1-1/2 toes!), so if you ain’t see ‘em yet, better get up here soon!
And Denise has been adding to her ‘rock collection’. By the time we get home there should be a few bucketfuls (or is that buckets full?). I’ll have to do a trip up here with the excavator and the trailer!
As we come into Jasper, we decide to book in at the campsite first, and, as we turn into the road leading to the campsite, there are a bunch of elk, a few does and a big stag! I got a few pics, and we head on into the camp to locate our spot, then drive out again and go visit Annette Lake and the Jasper Park Lodge (where we see more elk), then Jasper ‘town’. Not much bigger than Radium, but plenty of ‘tourist shops’, all expensive!
We go to the supermarket for some fresh supplies, and head back to the camp for a supper of re-heated pizza and Chunky Chicken & Sausage Gumbo! On the way we see another bunch of elk on the roadside.
Wednesday 19 Sept 2007
We consider going further North to Miette (supposedly the ‘hottest hot springs in the Rockies’), but decide that the extra mileage is not justifiable, so we get on the road ‘out’, heading for Tete Jaune Cache (the junction with Hwy 16 South to Kamloops).
Adjacent to Mt. Robson we stop at the ‘Robson Café’ for gas for the van and coffee & muffins for us. Quite a great view of the mountain itself from the table.
We get going on the road Southwards. About 2/3rds of the way to Kamloops, just before Clearwater, I see a ‘small dark moving dot’ on the range on the driver’s side of the van, which rapidly grows into a ‘large moving dark dot’ as we get closer, and we realise it is actually a BEAR, loping cross country between the highway and the river.
While it is quite clearly a bear, and quite a large one at that, it is still along way away, so we stop and get out of the van to get a good look from the roadside. Denise grabs the binoculars for a ‘close up’, and I take pics with the camera as the bear heads closer to where we are, angling toward a clump of trees e few hundred yards ahead of the van.
Our BIG MISTAKE was to get out of the van. If we had just stayed inside, the hordes of other onlookers that arrived would have probably have unknowingly passed us by at 120 Kph and we would have had the bear sighting to ourselves! With them seeing us on the roadside with binocs, we soon had 2 tour busses, various and sundry RV’s, cars and motorcycles stopped all over the place!
The bear, seeing and hearing all the activity, stopped moving our way, stood ‘on guard’ for a while, and eventually ran off directly away from us (when the motorcyclists started their engines, revving up of course for the sake of the attending crowds).
I think it was probably a ‘Black Bear’, despite it having a brown coat, but it was BIG, definitely bigger than a cow when on all fours, so it could possibly have been a Grizzly?
After that excitement, the rest of the trip to Kamloops was uneventful, other than stopping to buy fruit. When we get to Merritt, we pull in for gas, and go to the Walmart for some supplies. Walmart seems to have adopted a strategy of buying a farm on the outside edge of town, paving a huge lot, building their shop and waiting for the crowds to arrive, which they do!
On the other side of Merritt we get on the Coquihalla Highway and rip down South very rapidly, despite numerous ‘roadworks’ activities, arriving in Hope just before 17H00. Not bad considering we left from Jasper this morning?
We check into the riverside campsite in Hope, have our standard fare and take a walk around town, then retire to bed.
Thursday 20 Sept 2007
We look around Hope a little, then drive to Harrison Hot Springs, then drive on towards Vancouver.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Monday, September 17, 2007
Cross Country to Banff
Cross Country
Saturday 15 Sept 2007
We leave Drumheller and head East towards Banff and Jasper, following Hwy9, which also drops down South at times towards Calgary. At some stage we miss a turn Eastwards and end up much closer to ‘civilisation’ than we want to be in the ‘Country Hills’ area Northwest of Calgary, fighting through road construction and traffic jams.
We drove through this area 12 years ago when moving from Ottawa, and it was ranch and some ‘hobby farm’ population. Now it is a sprawling mass of thousands of cookie cutter yuppy homes in huge developments, not that they aren’t nice, as most have a fair-sized lot and 2 double garages!
We get onto Hwy1A and follow that for some while, rather than Hwy1, and drive through some nice country and a few reserves. Eventually get back onto Hwy1 just before Canmore. We drive through to Banff and head straight up to the Hot Springs on Sulphur Mountain.
We find that today they are celebrating their Centenial, and they have a huge cake floating around the pool! It appears that it was meant to have 100 ‘candles’ which the kids were given squirt-guns to ‘put out’, but the candles did not light up at all, so the kids just followed it around squirting water at the cake in general.
They also had a ‘guitar and singer’ combo performing poolside, which we could hear as we approached from the parking lot. Thankfully, they finished their act just as we got to the pool terrace, as the singer was chronically BAD (a female singer trying to sing well known ‘three tenor’ operatic pieces that she could not do justice to, if you will forgive the dangling participle.)
We luxuriated in the pool for a while, and then I got out and read the Parks pamphlet to plan what we would be doing. (The hot pools send my blood pressure soaring, so I can’t stay in for too long).
Then we head off to look for a campsite for the night. The only one in the Banff area that is located on a lake is ‘Two Jack Lakeside’, on Lake Minniewakka, a few miles back along Hwy1. When we get there they have only 2 ‘tenting sites’ available, which the Parks attendant says are too steep for RVs. We go take a look, and decide that we can fit in, and return to register. We fit in quite nicely, thank you, due to the relatively small size of the Roadtrek, which I back up the slope into the tent site, with only a slight ‘downward sloping angle’ once in position.
Denise wants to ‘walk around the lake’ and sets off. I follow after grabbing the parks pamphlet, which I seem to remember shows a somewhat bigger body of water than we can see. As it turns out, a stroll around the lake will probably take 3 or 4 days (!) as we are only seeing a little thumb-spur where the campsite is located. So we take a walk alongside the lake to a point where there is a public, grassed park with a boat ramp and facilities, which is obviously used by ‘locals’ rather than visitors. We return to the campsite and consume our standard fare of ‘bread & marg with chunky soup’ which is supplemented by potato chips and cheese to taste.
The plan is now to do ‘brunch’ at the Lodge hotel in Banff, gas up and head out of Banff National into Kootenay National to get to Radium Hot Springs, where we hope to spend the night, as I was unable to reserve a camp site there because they work on a ‘first come first served’ basis.
Plans change.
We drive back up Sulphur Mountain to see the more ‘historic’ Hot Springs Hotel, which, paradoxically, is not where the public Hot Springs pool is located, and does not appear to have any springs closely associated?
It IS a grand old building, and more recent additions appear to have been made with keeping the original architecture and stonework in mind, although it is fairly easy to spot the difference in the newer stone and stonework.
We decide to ‘have a fine dining experience’ for breakfast and head on into the imposing edifice of the Hotel, which just oozes ‘rich class heritage’! As we get to the entrance of the ‘Grille’ (which is, according to the Events and Happenings board, the only place which serves breakfast, the finer dining establishments being reserved for ‘Dinner’ only), the people in front of us are advised that the Grille is ‘FULL’ and they will NOT be taking reservations as they have to start preparing for serving Lunch.
However, the girl at the reception desk intimates that we ‘might’ be able to get a buffet breakfast in the ‘Rundle Room’, another level higher. We get into the elevator and head upstairs, only to find that we are definitely looking at one of the ‘finer dining experience establishments’ of the complex!
Although we admit that we are ‘interlopers’ when asked whether we are staying at the hotel, we explain that the Grille personnel have referred us here, and the Hostess (Supervisor/Maitre’D/Lady) at the desk says she will admit us, and asks for our names (which we find a little odd, but comply).
After making an entry in her register, we are bid “Welcome Mr. And Mrs. Currie, will you come this way?”, and follow our hostess to our table, at which at least one of us has a fine view! I look at the front wall of the next wing and the bowling green. Denise looks out at the mountainside scenery.
Our serving waitress arrives ‘toot-sweet’ and again addresses us as ‘Mr. And Mrs. Currie, giving us orange juice & coffee fillips and fetching a glass of water for Denise (who does NOT drink OJ). It is a buffet service, with the food servery in a small room adjacent to the lounge in which we are ensconced.
The cold food (fruits, breads, muffins, etc) is all displayed on silver platters and the hot foods (scrambled egg, sausages, bacon, potatoes) in silver covered, heated pans, with a Chef on-duty to prepare to-order omelettes. We help ourselves and return to the table to eat. Constant checking from our server, Renee, that we are enjoying everything?
When we have both ‘had our fill’ we indicate to the server that we are ready to depart and she takes the bill-fold (with our credit card inside) and returns it a minute later. When I check the bill, she has not run it through the Mastercard system? The Hostess sees me looking strangely at the bill and hurries over, takes the bill-fold, goes to the front desk, does her thing and returns with the expected credit-card slip for Denise to sign (my card having been left in the ‘tray’ in the van after paying at the campsite). What has happened is that our server is obviously ‘new’, and it is equally obvious that this lounge does not normally accommodate non-resident guests, so she had not ‘run the card’, expecting that our room-number would be on the original bill-slip!
Although most likely the most expensive breakfast we have ever had, it was undeniably a ‘fine dining experience’.
We take our leave of the Hotel, and head on up to Lake Louise, where we first go to the campsite and register, then head up to the Lake itself. The Lodge here, which we did visit in 1994 (for a beer for me and ginger-ale for Denise & Angus), is imposing, but not as impressive as the old Hot Springs establishement.
We do the lakeside walk (4Km roundtrip) and head back to the van to visit Lake Moraine, a few Km further up the road. Still quite a few Km from Lake Moraine, the traffic is stopped head-to-tail. We wait a while, then I get out and walk ahead about 0.5Km to find out what is going on. It appears that all the cars and RVs are actually PARKED on the side of the road. Since this is a fairly narrow, twisting, mountain road (from which oversize RVs and 5th-wheels are supposedly barred), I find it odd, but walk back to the van, get in and then negotiate down the hill to the lake (having to pull over to avoid the oncoming traffic, since MY lane is full of parked cars!!).
When we reach the lake, it is obvious that the parking issue is as a result of too many visitors and not enough parking spaces! We are lucky to snag a spot, which has a BIG sign saying NO RV’s, which I ignore, since the section reserved for RV’s, which aren’t supposed to be up here anyhow (??), is FULL OF CARS!
We take a look at the lake, spend some money in the ‘Shop’ and retire to the van, returning to the campsite. Since it is quite quiet at the moment, we take the opportunity to ‘dump the tanks’, since there is usually a long lineup for the sani-dump(s) when people are leaving in the morning.
At our site we park and organise, and Denise heads for the bed to do a Soduku while I sit at the bench and write this log.
By the way, Nan says ‘WRITE MORE’, while Denise says ‘You spend too much time writing’? Angus says ‘Post more pictures’ while I find that the network sites that I can hack into usually choke when I try to upload images! ‘Two Bars’ seems to support accessing Webmail, but not anything more intensive?
Tomorrow, we will head for Radium (which is just outside the Kootenay National Park) and the Radium Hotsprings (just inside the park), after which we will return to Banff National and head North to Jasper National Park.
Pretty noisy camp site! Trains, cars on Hwy1, sirens, …. But we still slept and are up, ready to get going towards Radium.
The road to Radium is covered with signs warning you not to hit the elk! We don’t see a single elk the whole trip, but we do see 3 deer on the way and a couple of goats (right in the campsite at Radium).
The good weather that we have enjoyed to date has packed up and left! Clouds, cold and quite heavy rain at times, but the sun comes out tentatively after noon, just as we have left the Radium Hot Springs pool to have a bite of lunch in the van. We have day-passes, so we can go back later, not that there appears to be anything else to do in Radium!
The hot pool is located in a nice setting at the base of a steep cliff (with a few chain link fences higher up to stop falling rocks from diminishing the enjoyment of the patrons). Not as hot as the pool at Banff, but OK, and much bigger.
There is a ‘cool pool’ next to it, but nobody is in there. Must be a summer thing? There is also a 5 degree C ‘surprise plunge pool’ next to the hot pool. A few people try it, but not us!
We are going to go look around Radium, which should not take too long. After that, we’ll probably hit the hot pool for an afternoon swim before retiring to the campsite for the evening. I’ll have to see if there is a network available in Radium to post this and check emails.
Saturday 15 Sept 2007
We leave Drumheller and head East towards Banff and Jasper, following Hwy9, which also drops down South at times towards Calgary. At some stage we miss a turn Eastwards and end up much closer to ‘civilisation’ than we want to be in the ‘Country Hills’ area Northwest of Calgary, fighting through road construction and traffic jams.
We drove through this area 12 years ago when moving from Ottawa, and it was ranch and some ‘hobby farm’ population. Now it is a sprawling mass of thousands of cookie cutter yuppy homes in huge developments, not that they aren’t nice, as most have a fair-sized lot and 2 double garages!
We get onto Hwy1A and follow that for some while, rather than Hwy1, and drive through some nice country and a few reserves. Eventually get back onto Hwy1 just before Canmore. We drive through to Banff and head straight up to the Hot Springs on Sulphur Mountain.
We find that today they are celebrating their Centenial, and they have a huge cake floating around the pool! It appears that it was meant to have 100 ‘candles’ which the kids were given squirt-guns to ‘put out’, but the candles did not light up at all, so the kids just followed it around squirting water at the cake in general.
They also had a ‘guitar and singer’ combo performing poolside, which we could hear as we approached from the parking lot. Thankfully, they finished their act just as we got to the pool terrace, as the singer was chronically BAD (a female singer trying to sing well known ‘three tenor’ operatic pieces that she could not do justice to, if you will forgive the dangling participle.)
We luxuriated in the pool for a while, and then I got out and read the Parks pamphlet to plan what we would be doing. (The hot pools send my blood pressure soaring, so I can’t stay in for too long).
Then we head off to look for a campsite for the night. The only one in the Banff area that is located on a lake is ‘Two Jack Lakeside’, on Lake Minniewakka, a few miles back along Hwy1. When we get there they have only 2 ‘tenting sites’ available, which the Parks attendant says are too steep for RVs. We go take a look, and decide that we can fit in, and return to register. We fit in quite nicely, thank you, due to the relatively small size of the Roadtrek, which I back up the slope into the tent site, with only a slight ‘downward sloping angle’ once in position.
Denise wants to ‘walk around the lake’ and sets off. I follow after grabbing the parks pamphlet, which I seem to remember shows a somewhat bigger body of water than we can see. As it turns out, a stroll around the lake will probably take 3 or 4 days (!) as we are only seeing a little thumb-spur where the campsite is located. So we take a walk alongside the lake to a point where there is a public, grassed park with a boat ramp and facilities, which is obviously used by ‘locals’ rather than visitors. We return to the campsite and consume our standard fare of ‘bread & marg with chunky soup’ which is supplemented by potato chips and cheese to taste.
The plan is now to do ‘brunch’ at the Lodge hotel in Banff, gas up and head out of Banff National into Kootenay National to get to Radium Hot Springs, where we hope to spend the night, as I was unable to reserve a camp site there because they work on a ‘first come first served’ basis.
Plans change.
We drive back up Sulphur Mountain to see the more ‘historic’ Hot Springs Hotel, which, paradoxically, is not where the public Hot Springs pool is located, and does not appear to have any springs closely associated?
It IS a grand old building, and more recent additions appear to have been made with keeping the original architecture and stonework in mind, although it is fairly easy to spot the difference in the newer stone and stonework.
We decide to ‘have a fine dining experience’ for breakfast and head on into the imposing edifice of the Hotel, which just oozes ‘rich class heritage’! As we get to the entrance of the ‘Grille’ (which is, according to the Events and Happenings board, the only place which serves breakfast, the finer dining establishments being reserved for ‘Dinner’ only), the people in front of us are advised that the Grille is ‘FULL’ and they will NOT be taking reservations as they have to start preparing for serving Lunch.
However, the girl at the reception desk intimates that we ‘might’ be able to get a buffet breakfast in the ‘Rundle Room’, another level higher. We get into the elevator and head upstairs, only to find that we are definitely looking at one of the ‘finer dining experience establishments’ of the complex!
Although we admit that we are ‘interlopers’ when asked whether we are staying at the hotel, we explain that the Grille personnel have referred us here, and the Hostess (Supervisor/Maitre’D/Lady) at the desk says she will admit us, and asks for our names (which we find a little odd, but comply).
After making an entry in her register, we are bid “Welcome Mr. And Mrs. Currie, will you come this way?”, and follow our hostess to our table, at which at least one of us has a fine view! I look at the front wall of the next wing and the bowling green. Denise looks out at the mountainside scenery.
Our serving waitress arrives ‘toot-sweet’ and again addresses us as ‘Mr. And Mrs. Currie, giving us orange juice & coffee fillips and fetching a glass of water for Denise (who does NOT drink OJ). It is a buffet service, with the food servery in a small room adjacent to the lounge in which we are ensconced.
The cold food (fruits, breads, muffins, etc) is all displayed on silver platters and the hot foods (scrambled egg, sausages, bacon, potatoes) in silver covered, heated pans, with a Chef on-duty to prepare to-order omelettes. We help ourselves and return to the table to eat. Constant checking from our server, Renee, that we are enjoying everything?
When we have both ‘had our fill’ we indicate to the server that we are ready to depart and she takes the bill-fold (with our credit card inside) and returns it a minute later. When I check the bill, she has not run it through the Mastercard system? The Hostess sees me looking strangely at the bill and hurries over, takes the bill-fold, goes to the front desk, does her thing and returns with the expected credit-card slip for Denise to sign (my card having been left in the ‘tray’ in the van after paying at the campsite). What has happened is that our server is obviously ‘new’, and it is equally obvious that this lounge does not normally accommodate non-resident guests, so she had not ‘run the card’, expecting that our room-number would be on the original bill-slip!
Although most likely the most expensive breakfast we have ever had, it was undeniably a ‘fine dining experience’.
We take our leave of the Hotel, and head on up to Lake Louise, where we first go to the campsite and register, then head up to the Lake itself. The Lodge here, which we did visit in 1994 (for a beer for me and ginger-ale for Denise & Angus), is imposing, but not as impressive as the old Hot Springs establishement.
We do the lakeside walk (4Km roundtrip) and head back to the van to visit Lake Moraine, a few Km further up the road. Still quite a few Km from Lake Moraine, the traffic is stopped head-to-tail. We wait a while, then I get out and walk ahead about 0.5Km to find out what is going on. It appears that all the cars and RVs are actually PARKED on the side of the road. Since this is a fairly narrow, twisting, mountain road (from which oversize RVs and 5th-wheels are supposedly barred), I find it odd, but walk back to the van, get in and then negotiate down the hill to the lake (having to pull over to avoid the oncoming traffic, since MY lane is full of parked cars!!).
When we reach the lake, it is obvious that the parking issue is as a result of too many visitors and not enough parking spaces! We are lucky to snag a spot, which has a BIG sign saying NO RV’s, which I ignore, since the section reserved for RV’s, which aren’t supposed to be up here anyhow (??), is FULL OF CARS!
We take a look at the lake, spend some money in the ‘Shop’ and retire to the van, returning to the campsite. Since it is quite quiet at the moment, we take the opportunity to ‘dump the tanks’, since there is usually a long lineup for the sani-dump(s) when people are leaving in the morning.
At our site we park and organise, and Denise heads for the bed to do a Soduku while I sit at the bench and write this log.
By the way, Nan says ‘WRITE MORE’, while Denise says ‘You spend too much time writing’? Angus says ‘Post more pictures’ while I find that the network sites that I can hack into usually choke when I try to upload images! ‘Two Bars’ seems to support accessing Webmail, but not anything more intensive?
Tomorrow, we will head for Radium (which is just outside the Kootenay National Park) and the Radium Hotsprings (just inside the park), after which we will return to Banff National and head North to Jasper National Park.
Pretty noisy camp site! Trains, cars on Hwy1, sirens, …. But we still slept and are up, ready to get going towards Radium.
The road to Radium is covered with signs warning you not to hit the elk! We don’t see a single elk the whole trip, but we do see 3 deer on the way and a couple of goats (right in the campsite at Radium).
The good weather that we have enjoyed to date has packed up and left! Clouds, cold and quite heavy rain at times, but the sun comes out tentatively after noon, just as we have left the Radium Hot Springs pool to have a bite of lunch in the van. We have day-passes, so we can go back later, not that there appears to be anything else to do in Radium!
The hot pool is located in a nice setting at the base of a steep cliff (with a few chain link fences higher up to stop falling rocks from diminishing the enjoyment of the patrons). Not as hot as the pool at Banff, but OK, and much bigger.
There is a ‘cool pool’ next to it, but nobody is in there. Must be a summer thing? There is also a 5 degree C ‘surprise plunge pool’ next to the hot pool. A few people try it, but not us!
We are going to go look around Radium, which should not take too long. After that, we’ll probably hit the hot pool for an afternoon swim before retiring to the campsite for the evening. I’ll have to see if there is a network available in Radium to post this and check emails.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Dinosaur Country
Dinosaur Country
Thursday 13 Sept 2007
Spent Wed night in Cut Bank, Montana. We were not ‘moved on’ from the Rest Area, but from the continual ‘traffic’ it is obviously the chosen night-time meeting place of the local ‘youth’! Freight trains also made some considerable noise during the night, but they don’t squeal, or curse and swear quite the same?
Drove on to West Glacier, and proceeded up the ‘Going to the Sun’ highway, which runs through the park from West to East. Driving this road is a harrowing experience for one who hates ‘heights’, as I do. The situation was exacerbated by the massive roadworks being conducted on the worst stretches, in a number of places requiring a 15-minute stop while a pilot car guides batches of single lane traffic through the ongoing reconstruction.
How those guys built the original road back in the 1920’s is beyond belief. There are sections where the side of the road, generally bounded only by a small stone wall about 6” high, literally ‘falls away’ vertically for a 1000’! One of the ‘visitor blurbs’ by the roadside said that labourers and equipment were suspended over the cliff face on manila ropes in order to drill the rock for blasting charges to create the initial ‘bench’ on which the road was laid.
Most of the roadworks being conducted were replacing said ‘stone walls’, many of which have either been ‘washed away’ or suffered subsidence. Lovely feeling, driving next to a 1000’ drop on a sinking piece of roadway with a massive ‘camber’ tilting you the WRONG WAY!!! And that was on the ‘good’ pieces that weren’t being repaired!
As luck would have it, the traverse from West to East put me on the ‘outside lane’ all the way!! Nevertheless, I persevere to the summit, and then spend the next 12 miles ‘Going Away from the Sun’, on the downhill equivalent of the earlier uphill. Heart palpitations and sweaty palms aside, the scenery and towering cliffs are magnificent and the water in the lakes is crystal clear.
Although the general ‘speed limit’ for the park appears to be 45MPH, I find that travelling that fast is either totally unnerving for me (on the steep parts) or too fast to see anything (on the ‘other’ parts). So, I set my cruise control for ‘25’ (when on the ‘other’ parts, not on the ‘steep’ parts), and pull over often to let the ‘idiots in a rush’ get past & on their way to see nothing at all. It amazes me that people will drive thousands of miles to not see what they came to see?
On one stretch of flatish road, being closely followed by an ‘impatient minivan’ (no joke, you should have seen him fuming and pacing around when we were waiting for our turn to get through one of the construction roadblocks), we saw a ‘fox’ (later re-identified as a coyote) on our side of the road, but obviously looking to cross the paving. As I slowed down to let the little critter get across safely, ‘The Idiot’ tries to pass me on a section of ‘No Passing’ road!!
Seeing him accelerating up behind me in the rear view mirror, I hit the horns and the brakes simultaneously, which resulted in disrupting ‘The Idiot’ in his passing manoeuvre and in the coyote removing himself rapidly from harm’s way, avoiding ‘The Idiot’ running him down, which would have been inevitable if he (‘The Idiot’, not the coyote) had been left to his own devices!
Despite the pandemonium, I managed to stop the van, open the window, grab the digital camera, turn it on and take a fast snap of the coyote, which was by now heading up the steep bank on the opposite side of the road at a rapid pace. Before I could adjust for a second ‘close-up’ shot, he disappeared in the undergrowth and his progress could only be determined by the swaying of the grasses and brush as he headed up the hill.
After leaving Glacier National, already a ‘detour’ from our originally intended path, we decide not to detour further to Waterton Park, and get back on track to Drumheller, reaching the USA/Canada border in the early afternoon. The border guard seems to be interested only in whether the Roadtrek belongs to us and is ‘Canadian’ (He is obviously unaware that they are actually made only in Canada!!), and whether I have had any ‘repairs or modifications’ made in the USA?
On the next leg of the journey I encounter one of the little complexities of life that can be encountered by trusting too fully in computers! Although I am vaguely aware that you can ‘tell Microsoft Streets & Trips what sort of roads you want to travel on’, one assumes that ‘it’ is clever enough to know what you should be doing?
The upshot of this is that we leave the main road North and end up driving towards Drumheller on a series of ‘secondary roads’ that change gradually from ‘double-lane, paint-marked asphalt’ at the turnoff from the highway, to ‘single lane asphalt’ to ‘oiled gravel’ to ‘compacted dirt’! This is not really a huge problem, since the roads are actually far from the worst I have driven, particularly if compared to some of the dirt tracks we have followed in our previous life’s travels in SA (like going to Cob Inn or Mazeppa Bay, in the Transkei) and our Roadtrek is built on a full 1-ton truck chassis.
HOWEVER, the trail which we are so faithfully following winds through very rural Alberta, with only a few little dorps (Afrikaans for small towns) along the way, all with ‘No Services’, specifically, NO GAS!!! With the needle having been hovering on ‘E’ for some while, we eventually reach the intersection of our dirt road with the Canada-1, and find a very welcome gas station right there!! We fill up and press on North.
If the guys in Montana think they have the monopoly on ‘Big Sky’ country, they obviously haven’t been directly North to Alberta!! In Montana, there is generally a fairly close ‘horizon’ bounded by some form of hills/mountains. Between the USA border and Drumheller, Alberta is literally as flat as a pancake, and you just see ‘rolling wheatfields’ for miles & miles in a full 360 degrees! (With the occasional oil/gas derrick!!).
Reaching Drumheller fairly late in the evening, we locate an RV/Camp operation on the outskirts and ‘self-register’. We drive around and pick a site to park, which is quite easy since there is literally nobody else there! (One other small car arrived some time later and tented around the corner from us).
Friday 14 Sept 2007
We head for the Royal Tyrell Museum, the world’s premier Dinosaur Research facility and we tour the exhibits for a few hours. The whole facility is ‘excellent’ (probably with voluminous thanks due to huge dollops of public funding).
Then we watch a short documentary and follow that with a 1-hour guided hike through the surrounding ‘badlands’, covering ground typical of where fossil remains are found. There have apparently been ‘finds’ in this very area, but they have been ‘worked’ a number of years ago. Interesting, but not exciting!
Back in Drumheller, near to the Visitor Centre is a Parking Lot designated for RVs and Buses. It adjoins a public park with tables and benches, backing on the local stream. There are again no ‘No Overnight Parking’ signs, so we elect to push our luck and stay the night. Since the Roadtrek is fully self-contained, not being in a serviced RV-site does not present a problem for us, even if we want to watch a DVD or read till the late hours, or use the loo!
I had put some rechargeable batteries in the digital camera yesterday (not being in places where reasonably priced replacements were available), and it suddenly ‘froze’, then indicated that the memory card was corrupted and must be reformatted. By some stroke of luck, I had downloaded the last 3 days worth of pics to the laptop just after breakfast this morning, so I only lost 3 pics which had been taken right there at the Museum!!
In order to justify exhorbitant expenditures on planned meals in the Banff and Jasper “Lodge’s”, Denise decrees that we will feast once again on ‘Bread and Chunky’, and we park in the Bus & RV lot near to the Visitor Centre, which again, like Cut Bank, has no signs saying ‘No Overnight Parking’.
While I am writing this log, parked in the back of the RV lot, sitting in the front seat of the Roadtrek with a beer next to me, after having eaten already, a local RCMP car comes across the lot, takes a slow pass in front of the van, stops, hesitates, then moves on again. I think we may yet see them back later tonight? Still, I doubt they will do worse than tell us to ‘Move On!’.
On the other hand, if you can camp out in tents in Beacon Hill Park with impunity, or on Parliament Hill for that matter, why not in our van in the RV Lot in Drumheller?
Thursday 13 Sept 2007
Spent Wed night in Cut Bank, Montana. We were not ‘moved on’ from the Rest Area, but from the continual ‘traffic’ it is obviously the chosen night-time meeting place of the local ‘youth’! Freight trains also made some considerable noise during the night, but they don’t squeal, or curse and swear quite the same?
Drove on to West Glacier, and proceeded up the ‘Going to the Sun’ highway, which runs through the park from West to East. Driving this road is a harrowing experience for one who hates ‘heights’, as I do. The situation was exacerbated by the massive roadworks being conducted on the worst stretches, in a number of places requiring a 15-minute stop while a pilot car guides batches of single lane traffic through the ongoing reconstruction.
How those guys built the original road back in the 1920’s is beyond belief. There are sections where the side of the road, generally bounded only by a small stone wall about 6” high, literally ‘falls away’ vertically for a 1000’! One of the ‘visitor blurbs’ by the roadside said that labourers and equipment were suspended over the cliff face on manila ropes in order to drill the rock for blasting charges to create the initial ‘bench’ on which the road was laid.
Most of the roadworks being conducted were replacing said ‘stone walls’, many of which have either been ‘washed away’ or suffered subsidence. Lovely feeling, driving next to a 1000’ drop on a sinking piece of roadway with a massive ‘camber’ tilting you the WRONG WAY!!! And that was on the ‘good’ pieces that weren’t being repaired!
As luck would have it, the traverse from West to East put me on the ‘outside lane’ all the way!! Nevertheless, I persevere to the summit, and then spend the next 12 miles ‘Going Away from the Sun’, on the downhill equivalent of the earlier uphill. Heart palpitations and sweaty palms aside, the scenery and towering cliffs are magnificent and the water in the lakes is crystal clear.
Although the general ‘speed limit’ for the park appears to be 45MPH, I find that travelling that fast is either totally unnerving for me (on the steep parts) or too fast to see anything (on the ‘other’ parts). So, I set my cruise control for ‘25’ (when on the ‘other’ parts, not on the ‘steep’ parts), and pull over often to let the ‘idiots in a rush’ get past & on their way to see nothing at all. It amazes me that people will drive thousands of miles to not see what they came to see?
On one stretch of flatish road, being closely followed by an ‘impatient minivan’ (no joke, you should have seen him fuming and pacing around when we were waiting for our turn to get through one of the construction roadblocks), we saw a ‘fox’ (later re-identified as a coyote) on our side of the road, but obviously looking to cross the paving. As I slowed down to let the little critter get across safely, ‘The Idiot’ tries to pass me on a section of ‘No Passing’ road!!
Seeing him accelerating up behind me in the rear view mirror, I hit the horns and the brakes simultaneously, which resulted in disrupting ‘The Idiot’ in his passing manoeuvre and in the coyote removing himself rapidly from harm’s way, avoiding ‘The Idiot’ running him down, which would have been inevitable if he (‘The Idiot’, not the coyote) had been left to his own devices!
Despite the pandemonium, I managed to stop the van, open the window, grab the digital camera, turn it on and take a fast snap of the coyote, which was by now heading up the steep bank on the opposite side of the road at a rapid pace. Before I could adjust for a second ‘close-up’ shot, he disappeared in the undergrowth and his progress could only be determined by the swaying of the grasses and brush as he headed up the hill.
After leaving Glacier National, already a ‘detour’ from our originally intended path, we decide not to detour further to Waterton Park, and get back on track to Drumheller, reaching the USA/Canada border in the early afternoon. The border guard seems to be interested only in whether the Roadtrek belongs to us and is ‘Canadian’ (He is obviously unaware that they are actually made only in Canada!!), and whether I have had any ‘repairs or modifications’ made in the USA?
On the next leg of the journey I encounter one of the little complexities of life that can be encountered by trusting too fully in computers! Although I am vaguely aware that you can ‘tell Microsoft Streets & Trips what sort of roads you want to travel on’, one assumes that ‘it’ is clever enough to know what you should be doing?
The upshot of this is that we leave the main road North and end up driving towards Drumheller on a series of ‘secondary roads’ that change gradually from ‘double-lane, paint-marked asphalt’ at the turnoff from the highway, to ‘single lane asphalt’ to ‘oiled gravel’ to ‘compacted dirt’! This is not really a huge problem, since the roads are actually far from the worst I have driven, particularly if compared to some of the dirt tracks we have followed in our previous life’s travels in SA (like going to Cob Inn or Mazeppa Bay, in the Transkei) and our Roadtrek is built on a full 1-ton truck chassis.
HOWEVER, the trail which we are so faithfully following winds through very rural Alberta, with only a few little dorps (Afrikaans for small towns) along the way, all with ‘No Services’, specifically, NO GAS!!! With the needle having been hovering on ‘E’ for some while, we eventually reach the intersection of our dirt road with the Canada-1, and find a very welcome gas station right there!! We fill up and press on North.
If the guys in Montana think they have the monopoly on ‘Big Sky’ country, they obviously haven’t been directly North to Alberta!! In Montana, there is generally a fairly close ‘horizon’ bounded by some form of hills/mountains. Between the USA border and Drumheller, Alberta is literally as flat as a pancake, and you just see ‘rolling wheatfields’ for miles & miles in a full 360 degrees! (With the occasional oil/gas derrick!!).
Reaching Drumheller fairly late in the evening, we locate an RV/Camp operation on the outskirts and ‘self-register’. We drive around and pick a site to park, which is quite easy since there is literally nobody else there! (One other small car arrived some time later and tented around the corner from us).
Friday 14 Sept 2007
We head for the Royal Tyrell Museum, the world’s premier Dinosaur Research facility and we tour the exhibits for a few hours. The whole facility is ‘excellent’ (probably with voluminous thanks due to huge dollops of public funding).
Then we watch a short documentary and follow that with a 1-hour guided hike through the surrounding ‘badlands’, covering ground typical of where fossil remains are found. There have apparently been ‘finds’ in this very area, but they have been ‘worked’ a number of years ago. Interesting, but not exciting!
Back in Drumheller, near to the Visitor Centre is a Parking Lot designated for RVs and Buses. It adjoins a public park with tables and benches, backing on the local stream. There are again no ‘No Overnight Parking’ signs, so we elect to push our luck and stay the night. Since the Roadtrek is fully self-contained, not being in a serviced RV-site does not present a problem for us, even if we want to watch a DVD or read till the late hours, or use the loo!
I had put some rechargeable batteries in the digital camera yesterday (not being in places where reasonably priced replacements were available), and it suddenly ‘froze’, then indicated that the memory card was corrupted and must be reformatted. By some stroke of luck, I had downloaded the last 3 days worth of pics to the laptop just after breakfast this morning, so I only lost 3 pics which had been taken right there at the Museum!!
In order to justify exhorbitant expenditures on planned meals in the Banff and Jasper “Lodge’s”, Denise decrees that we will feast once again on ‘Bread and Chunky’, and we park in the Bus & RV lot near to the Visitor Centre, which again, like Cut Bank, has no signs saying ‘No Overnight Parking’.
While I am writing this log, parked in the back of the RV lot, sitting in the front seat of the Roadtrek with a beer next to me, after having eaten already, a local RCMP car comes across the lot, takes a slow pass in front of the van, stops, hesitates, then moves on again. I think we may yet see them back later tonight? Still, I doubt they will do worse than tell us to ‘Move On!’.
On the other hand, if you can camp out in tents in Beacon Hill Park with impunity, or on Parliament Hill for that matter, why not in our van in the RV Lot in Drumheller?
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Heading North Again
Heading North Again
Wednesday 12 Sept 2007
Spent the night in a very nice little (private) campground, on the Yellowstone River, just outside of Gardiner. I’m glad now that the Mammoth Hot Springs site was ‘full’. Very clean washrooms, nice hot showers, nice parking spot backing on the river, cable TV, Internet, Sani-connect, power all included in the rate, plus 10% off because I had my CAA card! Dumped & flushed holding tanks and filled up with fresh water.
Up the road Northwards, with a side trip to Chico Hot Springs, an upscale resort in the middle of nowhere, with a private airstrip, fishing facilities, ‘dude ranch’ activities. We decided not to use the hot-spring, as it was just a smaller pool alongside the hotel swim pool, and did not look that ‘inviting’. Headed on up one of the minor roads via Pray and Pine Creek, passing through obvious ranching & ‘hobby farm’ area to Livingstone, where we get back onto the I-90, heading West & North.
The land is flat and/or rolling hills for as far as the eye can see. Not a particularly interesting vista, other than the remoteness, dryness and scarcity of population. Mainly wheat farming as we get more North, although earlier there was a region which looked like cattle ranching.
We bypass Helena (the State Capital, or Capitol as they seem to call them here) and continue Northwards through Great Falls, stopping for gas in a little ‘wheat town’. Nice old truck in the back yard next to the gas station. Looked like it might be an early 30’s IH.
At Shelby we turn West on Hwy2 toward Glacier National, and stop at a Rest Area in Cut Bank (on the edge of the Blackfeet Indian Reserve). Since the town boasts it is in both the Wheat and Oil & Gas territory, did they get the name Blackfeet because of the Oil?
The Rest Area seems to permit overnighting. It doesn’t say so, but there are other signs saying what you can’t do, and ‘Overnight Parking’ is not one of them! So we will see how we fare.
I’ll probably post this now if I can hack a wifi network, since there is unlikely to be anything else until we get up to Drumheller.
Wednesday 12 Sept 2007
Spent the night in a very nice little (private) campground, on the Yellowstone River, just outside of Gardiner. I’m glad now that the Mammoth Hot Springs site was ‘full’. Very clean washrooms, nice hot showers, nice parking spot backing on the river, cable TV, Internet, Sani-connect, power all included in the rate, plus 10% off because I had my CAA card! Dumped & flushed holding tanks and filled up with fresh water.
Up the road Northwards, with a side trip to Chico Hot Springs, an upscale resort in the middle of nowhere, with a private airstrip, fishing facilities, ‘dude ranch’ activities. We decided not to use the hot-spring, as it was just a smaller pool alongside the hotel swim pool, and did not look that ‘inviting’. Headed on up one of the minor roads via Pray and Pine Creek, passing through obvious ranching & ‘hobby farm’ area to Livingstone, where we get back onto the I-90, heading West & North.
The land is flat and/or rolling hills for as far as the eye can see. Not a particularly interesting vista, other than the remoteness, dryness and scarcity of population. Mainly wheat farming as we get more North, although earlier there was a region which looked like cattle ranching.
We bypass Helena (the State Capital, or Capitol as they seem to call them here) and continue Northwards through Great Falls, stopping for gas in a little ‘wheat town’. Nice old truck in the back yard next to the gas station. Looked like it might be an early 30’s IH.
At Shelby we turn West on Hwy2 toward Glacier National, and stop at a Rest Area in Cut Bank (on the edge of the Blackfeet Indian Reserve). Since the town boasts it is in both the Wheat and Oil & Gas territory, did they get the name Blackfeet because of the Oil?
The Rest Area seems to permit overnighting. It doesn’t say so, but there are other signs saying what you can’t do, and ‘Overnight Parking’ is not one of them! So we will see how we fare.
I’ll probably post this now if I can hack a wifi network, since there is unlikely to be anything else until we get up to Drumheller.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Pictures!
The 'fox' (coyote) beating a hasty retreat!
In the Royal Tyrell Museum
One of the many Yellowstone Pools.
Denise in the distance.
View of Old Faithful through the looking glass!
One of the Locals!
Denise in the distance.View of Old Faithful through the looking glass!
One of the Locals!
Many USA models, but only one MG?
Yellowstone
Yellowstone National Park
Sunday Sept 2007
Driving through Montana
Breakfasted in the Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park RV camp, then drove the 3-miles up to the Caverns and went through the Visitor Centre, watching their video and reading the historical info. We passed on the ‘2-hour tour’, neither of us being ‘cavern loving creatures’.
I don’t know why they call them the Lewis & Clark Caverns, other than that they were apparently famous, since the info centre blurb said that L&C didn’t actually go there, passing by despite having been told about the caverns by the local Indians. They were ‘found’ by a couple of the early ranchers (Pannin [?] & Williams) whils’t hunting in the area, and actually developed by a guy named Morrison, and were originally known as Morrison’s Caverns. The early 1900’s ‘cavern trip’ consisted of somehow getting to the ‘Lime Spur’ section of railroad, a considerable feat in it’s own right, then hiking 2 hours up to the cavern entrance, where you literally climbed down 250’ of rope, wandered around in candlelight, then hauled yourself back up 25’ of rope! There is a photo of a group of nuns that did the trip in 1910! After the site was declared a National Site in 1908, the gov’t kept locking Morrison out, since he was deemed by the courts to be trespassing on land granted to the railroad, despite his having filed land claims and operating a Lime & Flux plant adjacent to the rail spur. Morrison apparently waited till the federal officials (from Yellowstone) had departed, removed their locks, replacing them with his own, and carried on with his tours. A guy after my own heart!!
Drove on toward Bozeman, leaving the I90 at Gallatin, heading South to Yellowstone. Very beautiful scenery. We are driving next to the river just about all the time, with a disconcerting optical illusion that the van is going down hill, but the river is continually flowing towards us! I eventually get the Streets & Trips GPS set up and monitor the altitude, which is sure enough climbing, although the road ahead looks like a continual downgrade? Must be the channelling effect of the side-slopes of the canyon?
Have now reached the ‘summit’ and definitely going DOWN toward Yellowstone! The Alt reading is dropping like a stone and the van is definitely running against compression together with the judicious use of brakes! Still next to the river, but it is running ‘with us’ now.
West Yellowstone
We get into West Yellowstone about 13H00 and check out the shops. This is most certainly a ‘tourist trap’. Nevertheless, we buy a few odds & ends and then head over to the IMAX Theatre complex to watch the Yellowstone film. Not particularly good compared to others we have seen (IMAX films that is, not Yellowstones).
Yellowstone National Park Entrance
The gates are literally on the outskirts of West Yellowstone, so we buy a 1-year National Parks pass (US$80) and head on through Madison toward ‘Old Faithful’ and our intended campsite at Grant Village.
I take a few ‘side roads’ as we go, and we see Firehole Canyon, Fountain Flats and Fountain Paint Pot before deciding to head for Old Faithful, which apparently fires off about every 90 minutes, but can take up to 3 hours. We park and walk to the viewsite, grab a bench seat and wait. About 5 minutes later, the geyser spurts off and the show is over! We head for the campsite as it is getting late, book in and make our supper (bread, cheese, chunky soup).
Monday 10 Sept 2007
We decide to visit Grand Teton National Park (just South of Yellowstone, since we have the multiple-entry pass anyway, and drive South past Lewis Lake (I wonder if he went there either??), crossing the Continental Divide (@ approx 8000ft).
Totally different scenery. Very attractive area. Lots of lakes and water. Then, all of a sudden, these huge mountains just sticking up out of the plateau! We stop at the Visitor Centre at Jenny Lake, which is brand new and very well laid out with great exhibits. Then we head round the big loop via Moose & Moran Junction, lunching at Signal Mountain Lodge. (Not a memorable meal, but we did clean the plates).
Back up the road to Yellowstone, where it is getting late afternoon again, so we book into our overnight camp at Bay Bridge, which looks to be ‘small’ from the road, but turns out to be the biggest campground in the park. Very nice little cove with a fair sized marina.
Most of the camp is already closed for the winter, but there are still a few hundred sites open. Supper will again be bread, cheese & chunky!
While eating at our picnic table, we hear a solid ‘thunk, boing’ sound, and I comment that nothing good has happened! Within a short space of time we learn via the bush telegraph that some idiot has backed his truck over a stump and ripped a hole in his gas tank. The ‘authorities’ begin to arrive in droves! Two Ranger vehicles, 1 ambulance, 2 fire trucks and 1 tow truck, which finally drags the miscreant from the field of battle. The actual gas/petrol spillage was minor, and was contained and mopped up with 2 buckets of sand by the ‘campground host’ well before the rest of the disaster response team arrived!
Tuesday 11 Sept 2007
After rising and breakfasting, we retraced our steps to Old Faithful, and hung around for a few minutes at the viewsite. We then decided to go have breakfast at the Lodge first, on the assumption that the next waterworks show was still about ½ hour away. We have barely bought our stuff (cafeteria style) and are walking to find a table when the show begins! We quickly find a window table and watch the fun from inside.
After that, Denise takes a long walk around the Old Faithful site, which has a lot more volcanic activity than just 1 geyser! Meanwhile, I find a gas station and provision the vehicle.
When we meet again, it is shortly before the next predicted eruption, and we take a bench and wait. A few minutes and off it goes again. Quite a long one this time. Certainly longer than the other two times that we have seen.
We head back along the road to Madison, and take in some of the ‘loop drives’ that we missed the previous afternoon. The variety of different scenery and pools, springs, cones and geysers is quite amazing. While some of the sites have a sulphur-tinged smell, I find it much less pervasive than I have experienced at other hot-spring places. Nevertheless, the info boards tell me that some of the springs are very highly acidic (sulphuric acid) due to the action of sulphur-dioxide eating bacteria, which produce the acid as a byproduct of their metabolism.
After passing through Madison (for the second time), we take the road heading for the North entrance/exit gate, via Mammoth Springs. At one of the roadside viewsites, Denise catches her finger in the door while closing it, which is an unhappy experience for all. While I am pouring cold water on a cloth wrapped around her finger, the guy from the truck in front comes back with bandaids and antiseptic cream, so the wound is quickly attended to. Then I search my own bag for a T3, as the finger is already starting to throb!
Despite the discomfort, Denise climbs out for the next view area, which is ‘Norris’. About a 2-mile circular walk, but again, worth the effort in ters of the different sights. The Steamboat Geyser obligingly gushes a few times while we are there, but they are very ‘small’ compared to what it can do when it really goes off! Last recorded ‘major event’ was about 350’ in May, 2005. Supposedly, it can go as high as 400’ when it really lets go, and the steam vents for days after the event.
On to Mammoth Springs! We are now outside the ‘caldera’ (crater) formed by the volcanic eruption that formed Yellowstone about 250,000 years ago, but there are still plenty of signs of volcanic activity. Unfortunately, you can’t reserve a spot at the MS campsite (because it is run by the Park Rangers, not Xanterra, the company that manages everything else in the park), and it is ‘Full’ when we get there.
We head out of the park into Gardiner, and again find the local, private campsite ‘Full’, but manage to find a beautiful site backing onto the river at another park a few miles out of Gardiner. That’s where we are now. It has a WiFi hotspot, but it is at the other end of the camp, and I can’t get connected from our site. Once I have finished this log, I will try walking nearer the transmitter to connect and post this ‘blog’.
Sunday Sept 2007
Driving through Montana
Breakfasted in the Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park RV camp, then drove the 3-miles up to the Caverns and went through the Visitor Centre, watching their video and reading the historical info. We passed on the ‘2-hour tour’, neither of us being ‘cavern loving creatures’.
I don’t know why they call them the Lewis & Clark Caverns, other than that they were apparently famous, since the info centre blurb said that L&C didn’t actually go there, passing by despite having been told about the caverns by the local Indians. They were ‘found’ by a couple of the early ranchers (Pannin [?] & Williams) whils’t hunting in the area, and actually developed by a guy named Morrison, and were originally known as Morrison’s Caverns. The early 1900’s ‘cavern trip’ consisted of somehow getting to the ‘Lime Spur’ section of railroad, a considerable feat in it’s own right, then hiking 2 hours up to the cavern entrance, where you literally climbed down 250’ of rope, wandered around in candlelight, then hauled yourself back up 25’ of rope! There is a photo of a group of nuns that did the trip in 1910! After the site was declared a National Site in 1908, the gov’t kept locking Morrison out, since he was deemed by the courts to be trespassing on land granted to the railroad, despite his having filed land claims and operating a Lime & Flux plant adjacent to the rail spur. Morrison apparently waited till the federal officials (from Yellowstone) had departed, removed their locks, replacing them with his own, and carried on with his tours. A guy after my own heart!!
Drove on toward Bozeman, leaving the I90 at Gallatin, heading South to Yellowstone. Very beautiful scenery. We are driving next to the river just about all the time, with a disconcerting optical illusion that the van is going down hill, but the river is continually flowing towards us! I eventually get the Streets & Trips GPS set up and monitor the altitude, which is sure enough climbing, although the road ahead looks like a continual downgrade? Must be the channelling effect of the side-slopes of the canyon?
Have now reached the ‘summit’ and definitely going DOWN toward Yellowstone! The Alt reading is dropping like a stone and the van is definitely running against compression together with the judicious use of brakes! Still next to the river, but it is running ‘with us’ now.
West Yellowstone
We get into West Yellowstone about 13H00 and check out the shops. This is most certainly a ‘tourist trap’. Nevertheless, we buy a few odds & ends and then head over to the IMAX Theatre complex to watch the Yellowstone film. Not particularly good compared to others we have seen (IMAX films that is, not Yellowstones).
Yellowstone National Park Entrance
The gates are literally on the outskirts of West Yellowstone, so we buy a 1-year National Parks pass (US$80) and head on through Madison toward ‘Old Faithful’ and our intended campsite at Grant Village.
I take a few ‘side roads’ as we go, and we see Firehole Canyon, Fountain Flats and Fountain Paint Pot before deciding to head for Old Faithful, which apparently fires off about every 90 minutes, but can take up to 3 hours. We park and walk to the viewsite, grab a bench seat and wait. About 5 minutes later, the geyser spurts off and the show is over! We head for the campsite as it is getting late, book in and make our supper (bread, cheese, chunky soup).
Monday 10 Sept 2007
We decide to visit Grand Teton National Park (just South of Yellowstone, since we have the multiple-entry pass anyway, and drive South past Lewis Lake (I wonder if he went there either??), crossing the Continental Divide (@ approx 8000ft).
Totally different scenery. Very attractive area. Lots of lakes and water. Then, all of a sudden, these huge mountains just sticking up out of the plateau! We stop at the Visitor Centre at Jenny Lake, which is brand new and very well laid out with great exhibits. Then we head round the big loop via Moose & Moran Junction, lunching at Signal Mountain Lodge. (Not a memorable meal, but we did clean the plates).
Back up the road to Yellowstone, where it is getting late afternoon again, so we book into our overnight camp at Bay Bridge, which looks to be ‘small’ from the road, but turns out to be the biggest campground in the park. Very nice little cove with a fair sized marina.
Most of the camp is already closed for the winter, but there are still a few hundred sites open. Supper will again be bread, cheese & chunky!
While eating at our picnic table, we hear a solid ‘thunk, boing’ sound, and I comment that nothing good has happened! Within a short space of time we learn via the bush telegraph that some idiot has backed his truck over a stump and ripped a hole in his gas tank. The ‘authorities’ begin to arrive in droves! Two Ranger vehicles, 1 ambulance, 2 fire trucks and 1 tow truck, which finally drags the miscreant from the field of battle. The actual gas/petrol spillage was minor, and was contained and mopped up with 2 buckets of sand by the ‘campground host’ well before the rest of the disaster response team arrived!
Tuesday 11 Sept 2007
After rising and breakfasting, we retraced our steps to Old Faithful, and hung around for a few minutes at the viewsite. We then decided to go have breakfast at the Lodge first, on the assumption that the next waterworks show was still about ½ hour away. We have barely bought our stuff (cafeteria style) and are walking to find a table when the show begins! We quickly find a window table and watch the fun from inside.
After that, Denise takes a long walk around the Old Faithful site, which has a lot more volcanic activity than just 1 geyser! Meanwhile, I find a gas station and provision the vehicle.
When we meet again, it is shortly before the next predicted eruption, and we take a bench and wait. A few minutes and off it goes again. Quite a long one this time. Certainly longer than the other two times that we have seen.
We head back along the road to Madison, and take in some of the ‘loop drives’ that we missed the previous afternoon. The variety of different scenery and pools, springs, cones and geysers is quite amazing. While some of the sites have a sulphur-tinged smell, I find it much less pervasive than I have experienced at other hot-spring places. Nevertheless, the info boards tell me that some of the springs are very highly acidic (sulphuric acid) due to the action of sulphur-dioxide eating bacteria, which produce the acid as a byproduct of their metabolism.
After passing through Madison (for the second time), we take the road heading for the North entrance/exit gate, via Mammoth Springs. At one of the roadside viewsites, Denise catches her finger in the door while closing it, which is an unhappy experience for all. While I am pouring cold water on a cloth wrapped around her finger, the guy from the truck in front comes back with bandaids and antiseptic cream, so the wound is quickly attended to. Then I search my own bag for a T3, as the finger is already starting to throb!
Despite the discomfort, Denise climbs out for the next view area, which is ‘Norris’. About a 2-mile circular walk, but again, worth the effort in ters of the different sights. The Steamboat Geyser obligingly gushes a few times while we are there, but they are very ‘small’ compared to what it can do when it really goes off! Last recorded ‘major event’ was about 350’ in May, 2005. Supposedly, it can go as high as 400’ when it really lets go, and the steam vents for days after the event.
On to Mammoth Springs! We are now outside the ‘caldera’ (crater) formed by the volcanic eruption that formed Yellowstone about 250,000 years ago, but there are still plenty of signs of volcanic activity. Unfortunately, you can’t reserve a spot at the MS campsite (because it is run by the Park Rangers, not Xanterra, the company that manages everything else in the park), and it is ‘Full’ when we get there.
We head out of the park into Gardiner, and again find the local, private campsite ‘Full’, but manage to find a beautiful site backing onto the river at another park a few miles out of Gardiner. That’s where we are now. It has a WiFi hotspot, but it is at the other end of the camp, and I can’t get connected from our site. Once I have finished this log, I will try walking nearer the transmitter to connect and post this ‘blog’.
Saturday, September 8, 2007
In the Mountains down to the Plains
Creston : at the Columbia Brewery
Most obstinate woman in Idaho (see narrative)
In the Mountains
Friday 07 Sept 2007
A quiet night in Salmo.
Took a walk around the town (which took all of 10 minutes). But a nice stop-off place!
Used the campsite sanidump to flush my Roadtrek holding tanks and topped up drinking supply with fresh water.
Coffee in the morning. Then off to Creston. Quite a beautiful valley, very fertile and lots of farming activity. Also the home of Columbia Brewery, the home of Kokanee and the beer-drinking-stealing Sasquatch! We took a drive into town,parked and walked around, buying some odds & ends and having morning tea (coffee actually) and pastries at the local Bakery. Also found a network site to send off the last blog post.
A few miles down the road we hit the US border post, and wait behind all 3 cars for about 2 minutes. A few questions about where, why and what we have with us and we are through and on the way again.
Stopped in Bonner’s Ferry (which I remember from reading westerns is an old Goldrush supply town). Quite interesting, old architecture and a FREE local museum with a collection of generally old stuff (including a SUN Auto Tester unit exactly like the one WRC Currie’s had in the workshop back in the 50’s!!). Some interesting photos of the early 1900’s in Bonner’s Ferry, with quite a few of the town flooded by the river.
A short drive to Moyie Springs, where I had hoped to find hot-springs, but the locals (Pop 665) obviously don’t want the tourists using their facilities! We head on over the 2nd highest bridge in Idaho (see 2nd photo above showing 1st most obstinate woman in Idaho when it comes to taking pictures!).
Very pleasant countryside, and we are now in Montana. I assume the valley is an extension of the same plateau as Creston? Right now entering Libby. Since it has a Casino, I assume it must be at least close to Indian land? Continued on through Happy’s Inn to Kalispell, a surprisingly large town. Stopped for gas, then saw an interesting ‘yard’ on the road out and stopped for a look. The ‘Cycle Haus’ is a motorcycle graveyard! It also had a few old Jeeps and Dodge trucks, which was what caught my eye.
Continued on South down the side of Flathead Lake (about 50km long), mostly in Flathead Indian Reserve. Very attractive area. Lots of little marinas.
Stopped in Poulson at the southern tip of the lake and went to Annibell’s (purportedly the ‘Greatest Gourmet Café in the West’) for supper. Denise’s food was fine, but my 16oz ribeye was neither a nice piece of meat nor well done!! Probaby due to the kitchen being overloaded by a large party, but it sort of spoiled my night, even though they apologised profusely and took the charge for the steak off the bill.
On the way out of town, with darkness approaching, saw a Safeway, so stopped for some essential supplies (beer, Zinfandel), and then saw Walmart next door, so went there to use the washrooms and decided to park for the night, which is where I’m catching up with the blog-writing.
Saturday 08 Sept 2007
Headed for Missoula. We were on the bypass when we saw a ‘market’ set up in the local town, so went in & walked around a bit. Bought some fruit, curds. Went back to the van & had coffee, bread & cheese. Heading out of town I saw a Jiffy Lube that was ‘open’ but empty, so I drove in and had an oil change/filter change in 12 minutes!
Down the road, came to Deer Lodge, exceptional only in that about 50% of the buildings are ‘museums’, including what at some stage was the State Prison. Mom had a nap while I visited the Car Museum. About 150 vintage cars, mostly early 1900’s, mostly American, but still interesting. What I found interesting was a poster on the wall giving the names of some 2,600 MANUFACTURERS of USA cars over the past century.
Dropped in at Warm Springs, but found only the State (Mental?) Hospital. Drove on till we hit the Fairmont Hot Springs Resort (Hot Pools & Golf), which is where we are now.
Most obstinate woman in Idaho (see narrative)
In the Mountains
Friday 07 Sept 2007
A quiet night in Salmo.
Took a walk around the town (which took all of 10 minutes). But a nice stop-off place!
Used the campsite sanidump to flush my Roadtrek holding tanks and topped up drinking supply with fresh water.
Coffee in the morning. Then off to Creston. Quite a beautiful valley, very fertile and lots of farming activity. Also the home of Columbia Brewery, the home of Kokanee and the beer-drinking-stealing Sasquatch! We took a drive into town,parked and walked around, buying some odds & ends and having morning tea (coffee actually) and pastries at the local Bakery. Also found a network site to send off the last blog post.
A few miles down the road we hit the US border post, and wait behind all 3 cars for about 2 minutes. A few questions about where, why and what we have with us and we are through and on the way again.
Stopped in Bonner’s Ferry (which I remember from reading westerns is an old Goldrush supply town). Quite interesting, old architecture and a FREE local museum with a collection of generally old stuff (including a SUN Auto Tester unit exactly like the one WRC Currie’s had in the workshop back in the 50’s!!). Some interesting photos of the early 1900’s in Bonner’s Ferry, with quite a few of the town flooded by the river.
A short drive to Moyie Springs, where I had hoped to find hot-springs, but the locals (Pop 665) obviously don’t want the tourists using their facilities! We head on over the 2nd highest bridge in Idaho (see 2nd photo above showing 1st most obstinate woman in Idaho when it comes to taking pictures!).
Very pleasant countryside, and we are now in Montana. I assume the valley is an extension of the same plateau as Creston? Right now entering Libby. Since it has a Casino, I assume it must be at least close to Indian land? Continued on through Happy’s Inn to Kalispell, a surprisingly large town. Stopped for gas, then saw an interesting ‘yard’ on the road out and stopped for a look. The ‘Cycle Haus’ is a motorcycle graveyard! It also had a few old Jeeps and Dodge trucks, which was what caught my eye.
Continued on South down the side of Flathead Lake (about 50km long), mostly in Flathead Indian Reserve. Very attractive area. Lots of little marinas.
Stopped in Poulson at the southern tip of the lake and went to Annibell’s (purportedly the ‘Greatest Gourmet Café in the West’) for supper. Denise’s food was fine, but my 16oz ribeye was neither a nice piece of meat nor well done!! Probaby due to the kitchen being overloaded by a large party, but it sort of spoiled my night, even though they apologised profusely and took the charge for the steak off the bill.
On the way out of town, with darkness approaching, saw a Safeway, so stopped for some essential supplies (beer, Zinfandel), and then saw Walmart next door, so went there to use the washrooms and decided to park for the night, which is where I’m catching up with the blog-writing.
Saturday 08 Sept 2007
Headed for Missoula. We were on the bypass when we saw a ‘market’ set up in the local town, so went in & walked around a bit. Bought some fruit, curds. Went back to the van & had coffee, bread & cheese. Heading out of town I saw a Jiffy Lube that was ‘open’ but empty, so I drove in and had an oil change/filter change in 12 minutes!
Down the road, came to Deer Lodge, exceptional only in that about 50% of the buildings are ‘museums’, including what at some stage was the State Prison. Mom had a nap while I visited the Car Museum. About 150 vintage cars, mostly early 1900’s, mostly American, but still interesting. What I found interesting was a poster on the wall giving the names of some 2,600 MANUFACTURERS of USA cars over the past century.
Dropped in at Warm Springs, but found only the State (Mental?) Hospital. Drove on till we hit the Fairmont Hot Springs Resort (Hot Pools & Golf), which is where we are now.
Friday, September 7, 2007
On the Road Again
On the Road Again
Monday 03 Sept 2007
Well, we are on the 12H00 ferry, heading for Surrey and a family ‘combined grandchildren’s birthday supper’.
Hope we have not forgotten anything really important.
Remembered at the last second that the hot tub still needed to be drained! Set the hose up and left the water running out. Maybe Angus will disconnect the hose, sponge out the dregs and put the cabinet door back in place?
Denise is asleep in the back, and I’m about to start updating the Trip Plan (in MS Streets & Trips). No network(s) on the ferry, so unable to any lookup for info or research.
Arrived at J & M’s and B & B arrived a little later for the Party! Food, cake, presents for Jake, Cleo and Gavin (1 week earlier).
Spent the night at B & B’s.
Tuesday 04 Sept 2007
Spent the morning babysitting Cleo and Eden, then dropped them off at their daycare for the afternoon. Went to Guildford Mall and did some minor shopping, plus lunch at the foodcourt. Picked up Kira from school and went back to the house. BBQ supper.
Wednesday 05 Sept 2007
On the #1 toward Hope and beyond!
Through Manning Park, lunch at Princeton (A&W), then headed for Penticton. Half of the roadsigns show Penticton and Osoyoos to be exactly the same distance away, the others differ by 1 or 2 Km! Wonder who keeps moving these towns around?
Into Penticton early afternoon, and go looking for the place where you can get on the canal. Found the launch site, then back to Canadian Tire to pump up the plastic raft. Air system is out of commission. No hose!! They send someone to fix it, but it still does not produce air! After trying (unsuccessfully) to inflate the raft with the car tire pump (which is designed for small volume/high pressure rather than large volume/low pressure), WE BLOW IT UP BY HAND! (actually, by MOUTH)!
We take a couple of beers and ciders (plus our travel mugs to pour them into, so it looks like we are drinking coffee), plus Denise takes shoes, shirt & shorts (to walk back for the van) and we launch intrepidly off onto the canal, which is flowing fairly fast at this point. Denise shifts position on the raft and it is nearly ‘into’ the canal rather than ‘onto’! The water is quite chilly! We try to stay in the same place from then on, with no rapid moves.
We float ‘Gently Down The River’ for some while (about 2-1/2 hours it turns out), gradually moving slower and slower as the canal widens and deepens. The afternoon turns from beautifully sunny and warm to cloudy, colder and getting darker as we travel even yet slower! Our arms become oars as we attempt to assist nature in getting us to the end of this trip, but it is still well past 5H30 when we eventually float up to the stairs at the Skaha Lake end of the canal.
There is no ‘return bus’ waiting, because the official operators of the ‘float’ have shut down for Winter the previous day. Denise had intended to walk back to get the Roadtrek, since we were told by our offspring (Justin and Angus) that the distance was about 1-1/2 Km. They must have been on a different river, because we have floated about 6 MILES!! It is also late and getting dark.
Luckily, there are 2 other couples that have floated down ahead of us, and one of their group has walked to the nearby RV Camp and called a taxi! Denise cadges a lift back with them (only room for 1) to get the van and I read my book and have the last beer while waiting for her to get back.
At the RV park where we stayed for $10/night 2 years ago they demand $35 for an ‘unserviced site’ and $45 for a ‘serviced site’! We head on toward Osyoos, stopping on the roadside for a sandwich supper, get into Osoyoos about 21H00 and park for the night at the back of the Husky Truck/Car Stop.
Thursday 06 Sept 2007
Up at 07H00 and have breakfast at the Husky ‘restaurant’. Big helpings and good food, but far from ‘fine dining’. Fill the gas tank, clean the windscreen (having killed a few thousand bugs the previous evening), and back on the road at about 08H30.
Osoyoos is a pretty nice little place, but even at this time of day and this late in the year it is already hot and muggy. We stop at the top of the hill on the road out of town and take a picture back down the valley.
Just passed through Kettle Creek, but a quick search for an open network turns up nada. Will post this lot once I find one.
We roll into Nelson (Marijuana Capital of the World) about 12H00, park, have a sandwich and then walk around. We locate the ‘Still Eagle’ shop, which proudly claims to be “BC’s 1st Hemp Shop, and they dig around to find a ‘L, Black, Men’s Hoodlamb’, a coat which Angus has petitioned for, which seems to be sold only by various Hemp Shops. They locate the only one they have, an XL, and we take it. If too big for Angus, I’ll keep it myself! (Although Angus is now considerably taller than me, and just about as wide).
We look in a couple of other establishments, but after an ice-cream we wander back to the van and head on for Salmo (yes, no ‘n’), which is on the road to Creston. Entering Salmo we see a sign saying ‘Overnight Camp’ (with Sani-Dump), so we pull in to take a look. It is a very quiet municipal park, next to a stream, with washrooms and ‘unserviced sites’ for RVs and tenting. Apparently ‘Gloria’ comes around every evening and collects $15 per vehicle. We decide to stay the night, although it is only about 15H00.
Monday 03 Sept 2007
Well, we are on the 12H00 ferry, heading for Surrey and a family ‘combined grandchildren’s birthday supper’.
Hope we have not forgotten anything really important.
Remembered at the last second that the hot tub still needed to be drained! Set the hose up and left the water running out. Maybe Angus will disconnect the hose, sponge out the dregs and put the cabinet door back in place?
Denise is asleep in the back, and I’m about to start updating the Trip Plan (in MS Streets & Trips). No network(s) on the ferry, so unable to any lookup for info or research.
Arrived at J & M’s and B & B arrived a little later for the Party! Food, cake, presents for Jake, Cleo and Gavin (1 week earlier).
Spent the night at B & B’s.
Tuesday 04 Sept 2007
Spent the morning babysitting Cleo and Eden, then dropped them off at their daycare for the afternoon. Went to Guildford Mall and did some minor shopping, plus lunch at the foodcourt. Picked up Kira from school and went back to the house. BBQ supper.
Wednesday 05 Sept 2007
On the #1 toward Hope and beyond!
Through Manning Park, lunch at Princeton (A&W), then headed for Penticton. Half of the roadsigns show Penticton and Osoyoos to be exactly the same distance away, the others differ by 1 or 2 Km! Wonder who keeps moving these towns around?
Into Penticton early afternoon, and go looking for the place where you can get on the canal. Found the launch site, then back to Canadian Tire to pump up the plastic raft. Air system is out of commission. No hose!! They send someone to fix it, but it still does not produce air! After trying (unsuccessfully) to inflate the raft with the car tire pump (which is designed for small volume/high pressure rather than large volume/low pressure), WE BLOW IT UP BY HAND! (actually, by MOUTH)!
We take a couple of beers and ciders (plus our travel mugs to pour them into, so it looks like we are drinking coffee), plus Denise takes shoes, shirt & shorts (to walk back for the van) and we launch intrepidly off onto the canal, which is flowing fairly fast at this point. Denise shifts position on the raft and it is nearly ‘into’ the canal rather than ‘onto’! The water is quite chilly! We try to stay in the same place from then on, with no rapid moves.
We float ‘Gently Down The River’ for some while (about 2-1/2 hours it turns out), gradually moving slower and slower as the canal widens and deepens. The afternoon turns from beautifully sunny and warm to cloudy, colder and getting darker as we travel even yet slower! Our arms become oars as we attempt to assist nature in getting us to the end of this trip, but it is still well past 5H30 when we eventually float up to the stairs at the Skaha Lake end of the canal.
There is no ‘return bus’ waiting, because the official operators of the ‘float’ have shut down for Winter the previous day. Denise had intended to walk back to get the Roadtrek, since we were told by our offspring (Justin and Angus) that the distance was about 1-1/2 Km. They must have been on a different river, because we have floated about 6 MILES!! It is also late and getting dark.
Luckily, there are 2 other couples that have floated down ahead of us, and one of their group has walked to the nearby RV Camp and called a taxi! Denise cadges a lift back with them (only room for 1) to get the van and I read my book and have the last beer while waiting for her to get back.
At the RV park where we stayed for $10/night 2 years ago they demand $35 for an ‘unserviced site’ and $45 for a ‘serviced site’! We head on toward Osyoos, stopping on the roadside for a sandwich supper, get into Osoyoos about 21H00 and park for the night at the back of the Husky Truck/Car Stop.
Thursday 06 Sept 2007
Up at 07H00 and have breakfast at the Husky ‘restaurant’. Big helpings and good food, but far from ‘fine dining’. Fill the gas tank, clean the windscreen (having killed a few thousand bugs the previous evening), and back on the road at about 08H30.
Osoyoos is a pretty nice little place, but even at this time of day and this late in the year it is already hot and muggy. We stop at the top of the hill on the road out of town and take a picture back down the valley.
Just passed through Kettle Creek, but a quick search for an open network turns up nada. Will post this lot once I find one.
We roll into Nelson (Marijuana Capital of the World) about 12H00, park, have a sandwich and then walk around. We locate the ‘Still Eagle’ shop, which proudly claims to be “BC’s 1st Hemp Shop, and they dig around to find a ‘L, Black, Men’s Hoodlamb’, a coat which Angus has petitioned for, which seems to be sold only by various Hemp Shops. They locate the only one they have, an XL, and we take it. If too big for Angus, I’ll keep it myself! (Although Angus is now considerably taller than me, and just about as wide).
We look in a couple of other establishments, but after an ice-cream we wander back to the van and head on for Salmo (yes, no ‘n’), which is on the road to Creston. Entering Salmo we see a sign saying ‘Overnight Camp’ (with Sani-Dump), so we pull in to take a look. It is a very quiet municipal park, next to a stream, with washrooms and ‘unserviced sites’ for RVs and tenting. Apparently ‘Gloria’ comes around every evening and collects $15 per vehicle. We decide to stay the night, although it is only about 15H00.
Monday, September 3, 2007
Almost on the road!
I will be unlikely to continue the 'animated series', since it is Angus (with his newly inherited USB camera) that has been pushing this barrow (so to speak) until now. But maybe I can use some of the leisure hours over the next few weeks to work out how to take videos on the camera and transfer them to here?
Last, last minute preparations this morning (Modnay Sept 3) as we pack personal items, clothing, final 'tools and bits & pieces' and stock the galley.
The 'last minute prep' came pretty close to being cancelled, along with the trip! Having been out visiting yesterday afternoon, we returned home to find Angus sitting on the front steps (instead of being at work!), with bandages on his arm and the wreck of his motorcycle in the driveway, where it had been offloaded there by the towtruck operator after Angus was returned home by the ambulance!
His misadventure on Land's End Road has taken care of questions about using his bike for the next while, as it is probably a total write-off (Bent rear frame, twisted front-end). From the damage to the bike it is obvious that the damage to Angus is far less severe than could have been the case!
Thanks to Justin for convincing Angus to always wear a leather jacket when riding his bike!!
(While working on his arm the ambulance attendant apparently remarked that he would have been a lot better off if he had been wearing leathers! When Angus showed him that he had, displaying the torn and tattered sleeves, he said Angus was extremely fortunate to have suffered as little as he had.)
Nevertheless, we will soon be off on the 12H00 ferry, headed for Surrey. Lots of little things still to do, but they can be done tomorrow while we look after the kids.
Last, last minute preparations this morning (Modnay Sept 3) as we pack personal items, clothing, final 'tools and bits & pieces' and stock the galley.
The 'last minute prep' came pretty close to being cancelled, along with the trip! Having been out visiting yesterday afternoon, we returned home to find Angus sitting on the front steps (instead of being at work!), with bandages on his arm and the wreck of his motorcycle in the driveway, where it had been offloaded there by the towtruck operator after Angus was returned home by the ambulance!
His misadventure on Land's End Road has taken care of questions about using his bike for the next while, as it is probably a total write-off (Bent rear frame, twisted front-end). From the damage to the bike it is obvious that the damage to Angus is far less severe than could have been the case!
Thanks to Justin for convincing Angus to always wear a leather jacket when riding his bike!!
(While working on his arm the ambulance attendant apparently remarked that he would have been a lot better off if he had been wearing leathers! When Angus showed him that he had, displaying the torn and tattered sleeves, he said Angus was extremely fortunate to have suffered as little as he had.)
Nevertheless, we will soon be off on the 12H00 ferry, headed for Surrey. Lots of little things still to do, but they can be done tomorrow while we look after the kids.
Sunday, September 2, 2007
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