We had a nice drive from PEI to Moncton.  We went right to the Hopewell Rocks, and walked on the floor of the bay among the flowerpots.  It was interesting, I wish we could have seen it at high tide as well but the park closed before the tide was up.  We drove back to Moncton and had supper at the casino.  We each played the slots for a while, I lost all my money ($10), Lesley won $10 so together we broke even.

Today we drove to The Bay of Fundy National Park, we were able to do one Geocache before the rain came again.  So we didn't go for a couple of planned hikes.

Tomorrow we head for home, we've seen a lot of nice scenery, and ate a lot of seafood.  In fact tonight, for something different we ate Chinese.  I guess it's time to go home. 

Day 2 on PEI

Today we took off on the Scenic Drive North of Charlottetown.  We were trying to outrun Gabrielle!  They are calling for 50 - 70mm or rain.   It caught up with us so we headed back to the hotel.   It did give us a chance to upload some more photos.  Take a look at the link on the right.

Day 2 on the Cabot Trail & PEI

The trip around the trail was amazing.  We were also impressed with the homes along the trail.  They were mostly single story, wood sided.  They were all very neat and clean. The yards were all cut, and nothing (junk) in the yard.  Few gardens.  We had some light rain and fog early but the sky lightened up later and it was a nice drive.  We stopped for tea, and a piece of pie at Rita's
Tea Room, which was owned by Rita Mc'Neil.  It was a really nice place filled with memorabilia.
We spent the night in Antigonish, near New Glasgow. Yesterday we crossed the bridge to PEI and drove around the South East corner of the Island. We are staying in Charlottetown for 3 nights. Today we are taking a ride in a different area of the island. More on that later.
I'll try to upload photos tonight.

Halifax and Day 1 on the Cabot Trail

Tonight we are in Chéticamp along the Cabot Trail.  Yesterday we were in Halifax, we walked along the wharf, took the ferry over to Dartmouth just to see the harbour.  Then we had lunch on the patio over looking the harbour.  We started talking to a couple at the next table who were from Midand ON.  We met them later at The Old Triangle Irish Pub for dinner.  We had a good meal and listened to live music.  2 guys playing guitars and a fiddle.   It was a nice night.

Today we drove as far as Chéticamp, found a motel then drove into the Cape Breton Highlands National Park.  We took the Skyline Trail which took us to an amazing lookout.  The photos do not do it justice.  It took a little over 2 hours to walk the trail, it seemed like it was uphill both ways.  We had sore legs when we got back to the truck.  Then back into town for dinner at the Harbour House.  The restaurant over looks the bay.  We ate and listened to a lady playing guitar and singing.

Digby, Lunenburg & Peggy's Cove

We had an easy morning then a 3 hour ferry ride from Saint John to Digby.  From there we drove down the Digby Arm to Brier Island.  It took about 2 hours and 2 more ferry rides.  The last 2 ferries were only about a 5 min. trip across the water.  They had a problem with the second ferry so we had to wait about 1 1/2 hours until they got a diver to cut off a rope that got stuck around the prop.
We arrived at our Motel for the night, it was not fancy but what a view!!  We had a great dinner over looking the water & watching the ferry travel back and forth.

The next day we took a Whale watching tour.  It was a little windy and choppy on the water but it was a nice trip.  We saw 3 pairs of Humpback whales, the captain got us very close to them so we had a good look.  I have posted photos, the link is on the right.  The pictures don't do it justice.  We were on the boat for 3 hours.  The captain is also a Lobster fisherman during Lobster season which runs Nov - May.  He told us quite a bit about Lobster fishing, it was interesting.  There was a school of Atlantic White Sided Dolphons that came up to the boat and they were very active all around the boat.  They stayed with the boat for a few minutes then they took off.  I'm not sure how many but I would guess 10 - 15 of them. When we got back to the wharf we started our drive back to Digby, going over the 2 ferries again.  Then off to Bridgewater, on the East side of Nova Scotia to spend the night.

Today we drove into Lunenburg, that's where the Bluenose II is docked.  We walked around the waterfront then went into the Fishing Museum.  We both found that very interesting, they had lots of displays including 2 fishing boats in the water.  Each had a guide who was available for questions.  The first was a trawler the second was a sailing ship that had fished for Cod.  Both guides are retired fisherman, one spent a long time explaining scallop fishing.  Probably more than I needed to know, he was a real talker, but I really enjoyed the time he spent with us.  He then passed us off to a lady who's family were also scallop fisherman. She ran the Tidal Touch Tank where we were able to pick up live Scallops and other sea creatures.    We finished off with lunch in The Old Fish Factory located inside the museum over looking the wharf.  They had the best Seafood Chowder I've ever had.
Leaving Lunenburg we headed up the Lighthouse Scenic Drive to Peggy's Cove.  There it started to rain quite heavily, bad timing. It is a very small but picturesque area.  I have included photos from there in the gallery.
We will be staying in Halifax for 2 nights then off to Cape Breton.

Bar Harbor

On the road again.

We left Amherstburg Sept 3 and drove to Bar Harbor Maine.   Sept 5 we continued to Saint John via Saint Andrews.  There we had dinner overlooking the harbour.  Lesley had her first Lobster of the trip.
Tomorrow we take the ferry to Digby Nova Scotia.

On the road again

As we continue to continue our continuing journey after 5 days laid up in Chamberlain South Dakota. We spent the time being lazy, catching up on some rest.  We've been on the move for quite some time and hadn't taken a day off.
We'll be busy when we get home, so the rest probably did us good.  We did do some sight seeing while there, we went to a large antique store, a quilt store, a Lakota Indian museum, and the South Dakota Hall of Fame.  I found out Bob Barker and Mary Hart both came from South Dakota.
The truck is working fine now, we got on the road at noon so got a half day of driving.
We're aiming to be home some time on Sunday.

Still waiting

The truck is still not fixed.  Waiting for parts!  With any luck we'll be on the road tomorrow. It will take 3 days to get home from here.  I'm worried about finding a campground this weekend because it's the American long weekend and everywhere around here has been booked up for weeks.  We may end up in the parking lot of the Flying J for the night?
This has been a nice campground, we have a beautiful view of the Missouri river and as you know Lesley and I never tire of watching water.  We went for a swim at the indoor pool and hot tub in the resort next door.  The campground is part of the resort and convention center. The managers here had a cancellation and have held that spot for us in case the truck isn't done tomorrow.  That is really nice of them.  If we don't leave tomorrow I'm afraid we'll be here till next Tuesday.
We'll see.

Truck Problems

Yep! we had trouble with the F 150.  Not sure yet, it looks like it's tranny problems but the dealership isn't open till tomorrow.   I hope it won't take long to fix.   We drove out of the bad lands and had problems right after we stopped at a service center and had lunch.  We phoned Ford Roadside assistance and they were great helping out.  The tow truck driver was really nice and dropped us off at a campground.  It didn't cost us anything.  Ford picked up the cost of the truck and the trailer. While we waited for the tow truck Lesley picked out a campground from our Woodall's Directory, she picked out a gem!  The tow truck took us right to our site and dropped the trailer.  That is no small feat getting through a campground with this rig.  Here is a photo of our site and view of the Missouri River.  The campground is part of a resort so we can use their pool and hot tub.  We had a very nice dinner at the resort restaurant tonight then watched the sun set sitting by the waters edge near our site.

Bad Lands

Today we drove  Band Lands National Park. It's a unique park with beautiful mountains that have a lot of colour.  Pictures won't show the depth of colour that we saw.  Here are a couple of photos and I have uploaded more in the Badlands Photo Gallery on the right of this page.

Patches is helping Mom with the navigation!.

Custer State Park

Today we spent the day in Custer State Park.  We drove around the Wild Life Loop where we saw Antelopes, Prairie Dogs, and lots of Buffalo.  We took a dirt road off of the main loop and almost ran right into the back of a heard.  They were walking right down the road, I didn't see them until I came over the crest of the hill.  It was an amazing sight there were about 40 plus the calves.  They blocked the road for quite a while while they were walking.  Here is a link to video we shot.  Custer State Park Buffalo
We had buffalo for lunch, it was ground and wrapped with bacon.  It tasted very good.



 We also went to the the Hot Springs Mammoth site.  They found skeletons of  Mammoths that are about 26,000 years old.  They were preserved in a mound of dirt. They put a building over the dig site and we could see the bones of many mammoths where they are digging.  The rain held off for most of the day. We hit some rain as we came over one peak and could see where they had quite a bit of pea size hail.  Thankfully we didn't get any of that.
Tomorrow we go to the Bad Lands so I hope the rain stops before we get there.

Jasper, Lake Louise, Banff, Montana

We have had an amazing few days driving through the Canadian Rockies.  We spent a night in Jasper National Park, a night in Lake Louise and a night in Banff National Park.  The mountains were spectacular, I can not describe and pictures don't do it justice.  We have not had internet, no TV and except for 1 radio station in one park we have been on our own.  Thanks to Loris and Kelly & Mark, we had lots of movies on DVD to watch.
This morning I'm working off my internet stick so I won't post our pictures but as soon as we get to a park with WiFi I'll post some to the gallery.

                                   Here are a couple photos of our camp site at Banff National Park.

We are just west of Billings Montana and heading to the Bad Lands in South Dakota.  I'm not sure if we'll make today or tomorrow.

Kitimat

Yesterday we went out in Gail and Kevin's boat for the day.  As usual it was raining and overcast so we were not able to get a good view of the mountains.  It was a really nice ride, the water was very calm.  We stopped for lunch, tied off to a log boom and Kevin dropped a crab trap to see what we could catch during lunch.









When we pulled up the trap he had caught 10 crabs, 7 big enough to keep.  We had a wonderful crab dinner last night.  It was a great day!

This is the view out of Gail's kitchen window. This is the first time we could see the top of the mountain.  Usually the clouds hide the top.

Tomorrow we start are trip back East.  We'll be hitting Jasper, then down to the Bad Lands then home.  The plan is still to get home by June 1.

Kitimat

Yesterday Gail took us on a tour of Kitimat including a fish hatchery.  The fish hatchery was very interesting, Gail was friends of the fellow that gave us the tour, he was very knowledgeable.  They release over 5 million salmon each year including chum salmon, steelhead, and coho.  Today we went to Prince Rupert.  It was about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Kitimat.  It's a port right on the coast. We had lunch overlooking the marina, then went for a walk on the dock.  We spotted several Eagles and a couple of Ospreys circling overhead. We think they were looking at Patches, when Lesley picked up Patches they went away, as soon as she put Patches back down they came back. It was an awesome sight watching all of them.

Smithers to Kitimat

We are now in Kitimat after a beautiful trip from Smithers.  The mountains are are huge and snow covered. We   stayed at a campground on the Bulkley River.  Last night we camped right beside the fast moving river.

It was a beautiful view out the back window of our trailer as the river was full of spring run off.
Tonight we had dinner with Gail, Kevin, Cory, Theresa, Erin and Aiden. Patches had a ball with Gails dogs Seth and Bella, and Cory's dogs Miky Fin and MoJo.

Surrey - Lac La Hache - Prince George

As we continue to continue our "Continuing Journey", we are in Prince George tonight.  Last Monday we spent a large part of the day at Stanley Park.  It was a rainy overcast day but we were able to stay dry as we visited the park.  We also had a quick stop at Grenville Island, just to see what it looked like.
Monday evening we took the Sky Train down to the waterfront, next to Canada Place, and took the Sea Bus over to North Vancouver. We had a coffee at Lonsdale Quay then did the return trip.  Hard to believe we traveled from Surrey to North Vancouver and back for only $5 each.

Tuesday we drove North along the Fraser River.  The scenery was magnificent watching the mountains change from green trees to desert sand. Then we left the mountains and drove into rolling hills.  We camped along Lac La Hache, we pulled the camper around so we could view the lake from our back windows.  We watched a couple of Loons and saw an Osprey.  It was a fantastic sight.
It was to bad that it was cold and rainy again. The temp. got down to 37F  or just under 3 C.  We had both the little electric heater and the furnace on for a while to warm up.


Today we drove to Prince George, a totally different view, the mountains were more rolling and less spectacular but enjoyable all the same.  Today Lesley saw a mother bear and 2 cubs along the road, yesterday she saw a lone wolf just sitting watching the traffic go by.  It was an early stop today so we went into Prince George and did some shopping.  I picked up a case of beer, the cashier said they were on sale.
I explained I paid almost half that a week ago in Oregon so I didn't think it was much of a sale.
Tomorrow we're off to Smithers, another short day as it's only about a 5 hour drive.  Take a look at the Photo Gallery on the right to see the photos of our campsite.

Capilano Suspension Bridge

Today we went to the Capilano Suspension Bridge.  It was a very enjoyable day walking on the bridge, the tree top walk and Cliff Walk.












Then we went to Horseshoe Bay to watch the BC Ferries and have lunch. It was a beautiful view.
Tomorrow we visit Stanley Park in Vancouver.

Surrey BC

Back into Canada.

Yesterday we drove to Surrey.  The weather was clear but cool.  It's in the upper 50's.
We have switched over to our Canadian Cell phone so if anyone has to get ahold of us call
that number.
The truck is in getting an oil change and I'm sitting in McDonalds using their WiFii.  We don't have good WI Fii at the campground so I may not update the blog every day.
We'll be here for 3 or 4 days then off to Kitimat.

Mount St. Helens

Today we took a drive up to view Mt. St. Helens.  It was rainy and very cloudy so we couldn't see the mountain. We went to 2 visitor centers and couldn't get to the last one because the road isn't open for the season yet.  We saw a nice video of the event in 1980.   and tried to drive up to where the road is closed but decided to turn around when it was snowing and the temp was falling to below freezing.  I didn't see anyone salting the road and they were very wet and steep.  So I decided it was time to turn around and head back down.  The photo is from the second visitor center looking toward Mt. St. Helens.  The mountain is in the middle of the picture but behind the clouds. (At least that's what we've been told)

Tomorrow we head to Surrey BC.