A Walk In The Woods

Today was shopping day. We popped into town for groceries. James came with us because the grocery store has the fastest WiFi around. For the rest of the day we just hung around the trailer.

I took Kody for a walk down by the river. We walked up the river for a bit but then there were some loud bangs from woods across the very small river. Gunshots - crap. I put the leash on Kody and headed back to the trailer as quickly as possible.

Later Kathie joined me outside. We heard more gunshots from the same area. I told her what I heard earlier and then we heard 50 or more shots go off in just a few seconds. I guess automatic weapons are legal here.

Sunny and Hot

The weather has been nice while we have been here. We were over 30 again yesterday. We spent some time down by the river that runs through the woods behind our site. The campsite does not have a pool but they do have a river. Kody will fetch a couple of sticks but he seems confused because the sticks float down stream. He is used to lakes where the sticks stay in one spot.

Working and Playing

Today was spent working and playing.  We went into town so James could watch some videos on the internet.  The WiFi here is not bad but they ask that you not watch videos.  We are using our Virgin 3G MiFi for most of our stuff but videos take up too much data.  The grocery store had the best WiFi so when we go shopping in a couple of days James wants to come with us.

I went out this afternoon and got some barns.  There are lots of old barns around here so I did not have to go far.  I just had to make sure that they had been abandoned because some of the old barns are still being used.  I was out in the heat of the day, it was sunny and over 30 C.

When I got back to the trailer I played for a while.  There is a small pond a couple of campsites from us.  It has turtles, snakes, frogs and dragonflies.  Turtles and frogs are not that interesting and the snakes were no where to be found so I spent the time taking pictures of the dragonflies.

Nice Drive

We had a nice day today driving around the north end of Lake Michigan. The road follows the lake for most of the way and there are many beaches along the way. We then took a toll bridge and headed south to Saginaw. We have paid enough in tolls on US highways to pay down their national debt.

We had reservations - they got lost. We phoned our reservation agent and they faxed another copy over. "Sorry you can't stay here we are fully booked for the weekend". We found another place a half hour north and it is quiet and the people are really nice but it did make for a long day.

We will be here for the until Sunday and then we have reservations south of here for July 1-4 because we want to make sure we have a place to stay.

Michigan by the lake

The drive today was along Lake Michigan.   We travelled for a couple of hours this morning going down the peninsula and back up the Wisconsin side - then we were right across from where we started.  It would have been much faster if the RV and truck could float (heehee).

We are stopped near Hiawatha National Forest at a campsite on Indian Lake.  It is near the City of Manistique.

Tomorrow we will cross the bridge and go down the Michigan peninsula side.

Sturgeon Bay Wisconsin

Camping on the banks of the Mississippi was great. Among the wildlife that we saw were herons and baby ducks and (James' favourite) water striders. We watched all the neighbours using boats as their mode of transportation, and all the children playing in the water and getting rides behind the boats on tubes. That part reminded me of being at Faye and Walter's cabin. Yesterday we moved to Sturgeon Bay Wisconsin. Wisconsin is very green with lots of dairy farms. But the area we are in, on a peninsula in Lake Michigan, reminds me of the east coast villages. Egg Harbour has lots of little shops and restaurants. This morning we had pancakes - I'm still working on getting the heat right with the stove, and we are sitting in the shade relaxing.

The People You Meet

Today was an interesting day.  There have been a number of very fast boats in and around the campsite (remember we are right on the Mississippi).  I wanted to get some pictures of them running down the Mississippi today.  Everything was quiet and just before 3:00 boats were racing up the river.  I got my camera ready and went to get some pictures but all was quiet again.  Crap - there is a bass tournament on and the weigh in was at 3:00 so no more boats.  It is a Bass Master Tournament  and the leader is Todd Faircloth from Texas and he is camping right across from us.

Later on I was talking to a fellow from Spain, Kim and his wife are traveling around the US on a motorcycle.  Click here for Kim's Blog.  His main complaint was the speed limits are too slow here.  Of course he races motorcycles at home so 70 mph would be a little slow - for us with the trailer 60 is fast enough.

I was out hunting more barns - we are in a new state - and I found this one south of where we are.

I was playing with some long exposures the last couple of nights.  This 7 minute shot are the campsites across the bay from us.

For those of you who remember our other two Bernese Mountain Dogs you will know that neither of them liked the water.  In fact both of them walked around puddles and if it was raining Max would walk under the eves of the house until he had to walk out into the rain.  Kody on the other had will swim and retrieve sticks.  Here he is in the bay behind our campsite.  You can see his whole back is wet and even now 7 hours later his coat is still quite damp.

Picture Catch Up & On the Bayou of Wisconsin???

Here are some pictures that I have taken over the last couple of days.  The first one is an old covered wagon without it's cover.

These two are barns that I got the other day when I was out.  The one on the right I found in Minnesota on the border with Iowa and the one on the left I found in Iowa.

In the campsite last night there was the motorhome / hauler pictured below.  The jeep on the back is an old Willys with a V6 in it for rock crawling.

Last night Kathie and I were talking to our neighbours and the fireflies were out.  It is the first time we have seen them.  It was really neat to have the area suddenly lit by tiny lights that disappeared as quickly and they came on.

We moved east from Minnesota to Wisconsin today.  We are staying on the banks of the Mississippi.  The river is very wide with lots of islands and bays and it is well treed and shaded so it reminds us of the bayous further south.

Working Hard

Today was a work day for two of us. I was out finding barns and farm houses and Kathie was working on her courses. The weather cleared up and it is warm. We took Kody for a swim and his coat is really looking good. When he first comes out of the water he looks really skinny and when his coat dries out it is really fluffy and he looks like he weighs 150 pounds. The sites in the Rv park we are staying at are amonst the largest we have had. The site we are in is 75+ feet long and 30+ feet wide. With no one behind us the site looks like it is 150 feet long. We are moving tomorrow toward the Mississippi and then we will head to Lake Michigan.

Thunder and "Leak"ening

Thunder showers were scheduled for today.  No big deal, we thought.  They are supposed to be finished during the night and tomorrow will be nice, so we'll just putter around the campsite.

Mid-afternoon the rain started, then the hail, then massive amounts of rain.  James went to close the door and noticed a puddle on the floor.  We mopped it up, and realized it wasn't coming from the door but from under the cabinets.

After searching and checking, it looked like it was coming from the hot water tank.  Oh no, that was not good.  Then, Paul realized it was actually coming from the hot water vent on the outside of the trailer.  So, outside in the rain he went to silicone up the area.  He got the leak stopped and we dried out.

After a while, it seemed to have stopped raining, and Paul went to take Kody for a walk.  He got no more than 30 feet and the thunder and rain started again.  We decided to eat out tonight rather than try to BBQ in this weather.

Minnesota

We are sitting in the Flying Goose Campground. It has one of the 10,000 lakes that the state claims.

It was hot here yesterday, but today we are supposed to get some thunder showers. All the lakes keep it green and it is very pretty.

Oacoma SD

This morning, after signing James up for his UVic courses in the fall, we left Hart Ranch and started working our way east. We went through another time zone as South Dakota is split on zones.

We drove beside the SD Badlands - they look remarkably like the badlands of Alberta, and everywhere else we have seen the badlands.

The drive today was hot. After lunch we drove with all the windows open, including the one in the back. This, unfortunately, meant that Kody could stick his head into the cab of the truck and bark when we arrived at the campsite tonight. It was pretty loud.

We are back into the climate zone where they have places to go in the campsite "in case of weather". I think they don't like to say the "T" word out loud.

South Dakota Pictures

The other evening a jet flew over with quite a roar.  I got my camera and got a picture of the silhouette.  It was funny looking.  It had narrow wings that stuck straight out.  I sent the pictures to a friend who ID'ed it for me - It was a B1 bomber.

On our way back from Deadwood we stopped by the South Dakota Air and Space Museum and what was parked in front but a B-1B Bomber.

This is the control panel from the B1 flight simulator - makes driving the truck look easy.

Part of the display in the museum was a control room for the ICBM's that were/are(?) housed in the sourounding area during the cold war.

On my way out to take pictures early this morning, I passed a convoy of Hummers.  Most of them had a soldier sitting up in the gun turret with his had on the gun.  Maybe they are looking for the person who reported seeing the Presidents plane take off from Edwards a few months ago.

While we were in Deadwood there was a DuckDog Competition.  The handler throws the ball into the pool and the dog leaps into the pool and the dog is marked on how far he jumps into the pool.  Some of the distances were over 20 feet.  The picture below is one of the junior handlers with the dog in mid air and the ball is high in the picture.

 Here is my latest image.  I was up very early this morning (before 6) and I drove down to Nebraska.  I was gone for 4 or more hours hunting for barns - it took me a while but I did find one there.  This one is about a mile from our campsite.  I wish they were this easy to find.

No wild bill but airplanes

Yesterday we went to Deadwood. We went on Will Bill Hickok Days thinking there would be even more things to see. Well, they had more - but it was concerts and super dog competitions. And there were no gunfights or other displays because of the 'special day'. Between that, and that the fact that James couldn't breathe because there were so many smokers outside, it was pretty much a bust.

But we also stopped at the South Dakota air museum. Paul and I walked around and looked at the displays. The museum was free and they had quite a few planes on display (plus some stuff on the rocket silos from the cold war).

This morning Paul headed out to get pictures in South Dakota and Nebraska. I am doing laundry. Hope it doesn't rain.

Lazy Rainy Day

Today was a day to laze about in the sun in the morning. Then, in the afternoon we did some grocery shopping and picked up some RV supplies. The RV supply place was hilarious. Their regular front counter person was not in and it was like an Abbott and Costello show watching them try to figure out the catalogues. The credit card machine ran out of paper;and that was another production as they first needed to find, and add the paper, then needed to try to figure out how to reprint the receipt. The predicted thunder showers came in this afternoon. As we were passing different signs that showed the temperature, we watched it drop from 87 to 75 in less than an hour just before the storm started. We didn't get a lot of thunder and lightening, but Paul cooked the veggies in the RV just in case. Tomorrow the weather is supposed to clear up again, and we plan to go into Deadwood.

Crazy Horse, Mt Rushmore and Pictures

Today we drove around to a couple of sights in the area.  Mt Rushmore and Crazy Horse.

Crazy Horse is still under construction and will very large when it is finished.  The completed structure will depict Crazy Horse on his horse pointing over the horse's head.  His face can be seen and his arm is the flat part.  The hole is the start of the gap between his arm and the horse.  His head is 87 feet high and the arm is 263 feet long.

At Crazy Horse they have an "Indian Museum of North America" with artifacts from many nations including the north BC coast.  The museum has a cultural centre that hosts Native American artists who are selling their crafts.

They also had a native dance display.

 Here is the national champion.  He is a little blurry because I slowed the shutter down to capture some of the movement.

I took a series of pictures and ran them through my digital darkroom and came up with this image where I was again trying to capture the movement.  He was moving very fast, the 5 images were taken in less than a second.

We also stopped at Mt Rushmore.  It was much more sedate there.  There was some sort of ceremony going on - It may have been a citizenship ceremony.  Beneath the heads at ground level there is an amphitheater and a grand entrance walkway up to the viewing area.

Rapid City

We spent the day driving from Bismarck North Dakota to Rapid City South Dakota. As someone who lives here said - "there is no easy way to get from here to there." We drove a few miles west then turned south and drove a few miles turned right and then left on to a different highway and continued for a while and then we did it again. After about 5 hours we turned right and headed through Sturgis and then south east to Rapid City.

 The roads were secondary highways and some were OK and others reminded us of the rough highways in Saskatchean or the roads in Edmonton (OK they weren't as bad as the roads in Edmonton).

We also went through another time change. We went backwards in time. The time change divides South Dakota in half so we are now in the mountain time zone again.

We are at an RV Resort several miles from town, and they have everything here, including a gas station, large pool, tennis courts, planned events, out trips and a concierge.  It is one of the better places we have stayed over the last year - and we have stayed in some nice places.

The weather warmed up today.  It was over 30 when we got here.  We were dressed for the weather when we left, it was around 11.  I was wondering why the truck was running warmer that it usually does.

Tomorrow we are off to see the sights around here.

Geograhphic Centre

Today, we landed just outside of Bismarck North Dakota. We passed the geographic centre of North America. We backtracked a little west after leaving Terry and Natalie's place this morning, but there are some sites in South Dakota we want to see. We got to the campsite today and took the last open spot. But it was actually reserved. So they put us in the overflow for free.

Dogs and Easy Barn Hunting

We have stayed with Terry and Natalie at their farm for the last couple of days.  I knew they had a couple of big dogs that protect the farm animals from the various predators in the area.  The farm yard is also protected by an electric fence.  When we arrived we just let Kody out and he went to say "Hi" to Terry's dogs.  He jumped through the fence and greeted the dogs.  They weren't that happy to see him and there was some growling and we called Kody back and he jumped through the fence again.  The other dogs would not go near the fence because if you touch it you get quite a jolt.  We with think Kody did not feel the jolt because of his thick coat and maybe because when he touched the fence (if he actually touched it) all 4 feet were off the ground.

It has been great staying here.  I asked about old barns and farm houses in the area and I was given a map of the area with hand drawn barns where the old ones were.  

I drove north down one road and got a series of pictures, drove west down another road got some more, drove south and got some more.  I ended up driving in a big circle and got a number of good shots all inside of 3 hours.  That was way easier that what I normally end up doing, because I have drive around hunting for the barns not knowing where they are, it would take me much longer and I might only get two barns.  One time in Winnipeg I spent the better part of a day without seeing anything worthwhile.

This is the "spooky" house as described by Natalie.

This one is another spooky looking house but James thinks it looks like a happy face.

This was at the side of the road in Parkbeg Saskatchewan.  James and I drove by it and we turned around to get the pictures.  Of course it wasn't that easy.  There was no place to turn around for 5 miles or so and we ended up on a very bumpy gravel side road towing the trailer.

Wyatt

Today we stopped to visit my grand-nephew Wyatt.  Okay, well, since he is only 8 months old, we also visited with his parents - Terry and Natalie.

We will stay at their farm near Wawanesa, Manitoba for a couple of nights while Paul gets some Manitoba barn pictures.

Swift Current and Edmonton to Regina

Today was a moving day. James and I moved from Swift Current to Regina. The drive was very wet for the most part and we drove through Chaplin which is a stopover for birds flying north to the arctic. Right now there are 100,000's of shore birds in the area. I looked for a place to pull over but did not see one. We also saw an accident. A car going east crossed the median and flew into the west lanes and rolled. We came along just after the emergency vehicles got there. Kathie flew from Edmonton to Regina. She had fun at the RIDES conference. It has really inspired her. On Friday John lent her his truck so she could drive to the conference and he rode his Harley to work. They, Kim, John, and Kathie had dinner with Wayne on Friday night. His band had a gig in Edmonton Friday and Red Deer on Saturday, then he has to be back in Vancouver for work on Monday. I saw a moose.... Well sort of. While we were in Swift Current the couple beside us were attending (well he was - she was going to the casino) the Royal Order Of Moose conference. Who would have thought - the campsite here is full. We got one of the last sites, and people who came later were turned away. I guess the problem is there aren't that many campsites around here.

Rest Day

Today was a rest day for James and I.  Kathie was in Edmonton doing her presentation at the RIDES Conference and we were going to move to Regina.  When I checked out the comments on campsites there were a number of complaints about all of the campsites.  The one we have chosen to stay at has issues with their WIFI.  Since the WIFI here is not bad we stayed here an extra day.

It was nice to "sit around" for a day after driving 2,000K in the last 5 days.

While I was sitting around I started working on some pictures that I took when we were in Lethbridge.  The first two are of the bridge in Lethbridge.  It is a high level bridge and is the longest / highest in the world.  I took the pictures from the entrance to the campsite.  It is over a mile long.

Here is another picture of the Prince of Wales hotel in Waterton.

In the campsite we are staying at there is an old truck.  It is old enough that it has wooden spoked wheels so I think that would mean it was made in the 1920's or before.  The truck has not moved in some time as the gravel  has covered the wheels.  Someone must have thought the steering wheel was worth something because they cut the spokes to take the wheel.  The seat must have sat on the gas tank - the seats are gone but the tank is still there.

I was playing around with the images is some of the software I have and here are some of the results.

Swift Current and Edmonton

Paul and James moved on today to Swift Current.  It was a very windy drive.   Tomorrow they move on to Regina.

I attended my convocation during the day and this evening went to a wine and cheese.  Tomorrow I am participating in RIDES (Research in Distance Education Symposium).

I am staying at my brother John's here in Edmonton and hoping to meet with up my brother Wayne, who is from Vancouver, tomorrow when his group - Car 87 - is in town playing at DV8.

Driving, Rain & Wind

The last two days have been spent driving up to Calgary.  When we left yesterday Lethbridge was nice but the weather changed and we drove back to the trailer in a driving rain storm.  This morning we drove Kathie up to Calgary for her flight to Edmonton.  The rain and wind continued this morning.

When James and I drove back to the trailer the sun had come out but the wind was ferocious.  James thought my door was open, but it was the cross wind hitting the passenger side of the truck and causing a vacuum on the drivers side.  We were lucky that we were not pulling the trailer.  We stopped for lunch at DQ and I even managed to get into the truck without banging my head.

Moving on tomorrow - I hope the wind subsides.

Lightning storms

After spending a relaxing morning, including a walk/jog (for me) and a run (for Paul) around the Elizabeth Hall Wetlands, we drove into Calgary in the afternoon. We purchased a new GPS, a Garmin Nuvi 3490LMT. The old one kept locking up and freezing on us - which would not have been good when we are travelling in unknown places. The new one is pretty neat. It keeps up with traffic information (and let's you plot a detour to get around it). It also has voice command which is really cool. We also went to see another breeder of Irish Water Spaniels. Paul Price (his site is down right now, but we will link when it is available). We met his six (yes that was six) IWS and are still loving the breed. Driving home, there was lots of lightening and rain. Big strikes all over the place. I'm glad Paul was driving, it would have taken me much longer to get back.

Waterton Lakes National Park

 We drove to Waterton Lakes National Park today.  It has been about 40 years since I was last there.

We drove into the townsite and bought lunch and then drove up to Cameron Lake to have lunch there.  Here was our view during lunch.  The lake is still mostly frozen and Mt Custer, the mountain in the back, is across the boarder in the US.

James wanted a picture of him in the snow with the mountains in the background.

Here is a picture of the Prince of Wales Hotel that overlooks Waterton Lake.

Here is a picture on one of the Waterton bears we saw today.  When we were in Jasper going up in the gondola one of the ladies with us said "The bears are so tame, you can just walk right up to them."  Tourists say the darndest things.
By the way Barry emails me when ever he sees wildlife now that I am no longer in Kitwanga.  The other day he got pictures of a moose with her calf.

I was going through my pictures and found this one of the Hudson Bay Glacier by Smithers.

Updates, Moving and Pictures

We have been following the updates from our friends in Texas where Nancy was undergoing surgery.  The surgery was successful and she should be going home in the next day or two.  We hope to see Ken and Nancy next year after Nancy has recovered.

We moved today to Lethbridge.  We have a busy schedule for the next couple of days.  We are going to go to Waterton National Park, visit with an Irish Water Spaniel breeder and then I have to drop Kathie off at the airport so she can fly up to her convocation ceremonies and go to a conference.  James and I will continue on to Regina where we will pick her up.

Here are some more pictures of barns.  The first two are Brian's and the other one I found on the way to his place.

Dinosaur Barns

Last night we visited with my friend Brian who moved here when he retired.  He was showing us around his property and in the back was an old barn.  Before we left I took a series of pictures.  I hope it doesn't fall down before we come back so I can take some more pictures.

We did one of the hikes from the museum today.  It was their 7 wonders of the BadLands hike.  They explain the various layers in the valley.  In the picture below you can see the pop corn rock which is volcanic ash.  Above it you can see other layers of deposits.  Later we went to one of the talks about how our understanding of dinosaurs has improved over the years.

We will move on tomorrow and the post will come from southern Alberta.

Dinosaurs and friends

Yesterday we went to the Tyrell Museum. Not too much has changed in 10 years, but then the dinosaurs were around for a long time before that. Today we enjoyed the weather and visited with Brian and Linda this evening. Tomorrow, a hike through the badlands.