And on the 13th day they finally saw mountains....

We're finally here in the Rockies. Staying in Banff Nat'l Park for a whole 4 days! Yahoo! Here's a shot that Ed took from our balcony:


It's really very nice but at this point, I'm exhausted so I'll be siging off. Hey, you guys from EIPL, where are you?

HOWDY FROM MOOSE JAW, SASKATCHEWAN

We left Moose Jaw this morning, but I wanted to write that intro. The photo is of the town's mascot (the one with the antlers), coincidentially named Mac. The other Mac is in Ed's hand.
We are now in the town of Brooks in the province of Alberta. We will be in Banff Nat'l Park and the Rockies tomorrow. Thank God! Driving through the endless prairie is getting to both, excuse me, all of us.

Here's a couple more photos to give you the idea




















PS to AK: Unfortunately, we won't be anywhere near Alaska for probably another two weeks. We are really taking it slow out here (although it doesn't feel like it!). Hope you have a wonderful cruise and sorry that we weren't able to meet up. But, then again, you never know!

Meet Mac the Mascot

We decided that we needed a mascot for the trip and Mac (named after all the Mac trucks we've been seeing) was just sitting there waiting to be asked. He's a bit of a ham and likes to be photographed, so you will probably be seeing him in most of the photos we post. He might not always be easy to find, but he'll be there. Sort of like Where's Waldo. Hours and hours of fun! By the way, we changed our route again. We got as far as Fargo, North Dakota and then headed north to Canada with a night's stop in Grand Forks, ND. Actually it was a rather nice city, sort of like an unpopulated, cleaner Long Island. We are now in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada, a city about 100 miles from Winnipeg. Will be pushing on tomorrow.

Greetings from Brainerd, Minnesota

Hi! We've changed our itinerary somwhat and we are now traveling west through the US rather than Canada. We will go as far as the Rockies in Montana, then head up north to the Canadian Rockies and the parks there. Hence, we find ourselves in the unappealingly named Brainerd. It's your standard large town , although this is really the center of the lake resort area (Minnesota's motto is something like Land of 10,000 Lakes). We've been traveling mostly on state roads rather than interstates, it's a little slower, but you see more of the towns and the 'atmosphere' that way.
We have been on the go doing one-nighters for the most part (very draining) and worrying about whether we'll have successful communications connections (even more draining). We did stay for a couple of days in Mackinaw City, Michigan and took the ferry over to Macinac Island where there are no cars allowed, only bikes and horses. We saw a UPS and garbage truck driven by horses, so they really take it seriously up there. It was quite nice and quaint but a little crowded. Oh, and the horse poop! It was everywhere. Some poor guy had the unfortunate job of sweeping it up.
When we were in Michigan we kept seeing signs for "Pasties." My first thought was "What the ....?" Even "Grandma's Pasties," now that's just weird. It turns out that pasties are meat filled pies. What a relief! Little bit of culture shock. Another somewhat amusing episode occured in Wisconsin. We stopped in a bakery for breakfast and ordered croissants with butter. They had no butter. This is the heart of dairy land and the only thing they could give us was that fake "I can't believe it's not butter" stuff. What's next, no cheese or milk?
Well gotta go it's getting close to check-out time. I don't have my act together yet with the photos, but I will try to start posting them soon.

We're finally on the road!

We got a late start yesterday, it had to do with missing maps so we had to go back to AAA, etc. Anyway, we took off around 1 pm and we ended up in Clarion, PA, it's about 30 minutes from the Ohio border. The drive on Rt 80 through PA was really quite nice, rolling hills and farmland, and best of all, no traffic! There was plenty of roadwork going on but it didn't even matter because, again, no traffic! We are heading out this morning to continue on 80 through Ohio and probably up through Michigan. I probably won't post again until we get up into Canada or if something exciting happens, whichever comes first. Bye for now.

about that picture

We selected that picture of the drive up Mount Washington Road because it looks kind of spooky and uncertain. And quite frankly, that's the way we are feeling right now. No driving off into the sunset. There has been a lot of planning for a trip of this length (almost an expedition) and a lot of stress that goes along with it. We want to be on the road already!

getting ready

Less than one week of work left! We're leaving on Saturday 6/16! For one year! I haven't started to pack yet! We haven't received our passports yet! Oh well. It will all work out, hopefully.