August 17-20th -- Our first, brief return to the US after arriving here in July. It was fun to visit, but we both have to admit that Vancouver (BC -- not the one in Washington we just came from) feels like "the home we want to get back to". We came back with a car full of cheap goods from the US -- towels, kitchenware... wine.
June 2006 -- We've begun that "thousands-of-mile(s) journey that begins with a single step" (toward the car). It has been long in the planning, and will be long in the execution (about six weeks driving, plus the summer spent in Vancouver, BC). We're driving across the US by northern route, and then in the Fall, back in sort of a "smiley face" route, going through some of the US's most splendid national parks, and visiting friends and family along the way.
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You can see our driving progress by clicking the map at left, and (sometimes) get a photo from our current location, here. |
June 14-16 -- We're in Keene, NY (upstate, not very far west of the Vermont border, just about two hours drive north to Montreal). Visiting friends Dave & Jim. The weather is glorious, and this area (the Adirondacks) is just stunning, yet the tourist season hasn't quite kicked in, so it's quiet as well.
June 17-19 -- Visiting old college friends in Ontario. We stopped at the University of Waterloo (Kathy's alma mater) on a nostalgia trip. It was great fun, seeing her "in her element".
June 19-24(?) -- Around Michigan -- call it "The Sibs & [pa]rents Tour". First stop Ann Arbor (Sister Joan, husband Jeff), then Lansing (Sister Sue, 2 dogs, 4 cats -- or is it 6?), Grand Rapids (parent's home), Baldwin (quintessential cabin-in-the-woods). We'll also be connecting with a new friend we met on our last cruise.
June 26 -- Madison, Wisconsin. Kathy wanted to stop here, rather than Scott's mathematically appropriate stop at "Friendship", MN. "It's a funky college town", she says. More on Madison here.
June 27 -- Fargo, ND. Well, almost. We drove 500 miles today (Scott drove 500 miles today) and our "Fargo" hotel ended up on the Minnesota border. So, we're actually still in Minnesota, but we could throw a rock to ND, if a) we had one, and b) we had any strength left after the drive.
June 28 -- 29th On the 28th we stayed at Medora, ND -- a sort of "synthesized" theme-town in the Dakota Badlands, living on the reputation of Theodore Roosevelt's times in ND. Attended a very hokey "Cowboy Musical" and ate a very "memorable" buffet there featuring "pitchfork fondue" -- basically deep-fried steak cooked on pitchforks. Like we said... memorable. Not something we'd, say, drive thousands of miles to experience again.
The connection with Roosevelt is a bit tenuous, perhaps, but we toured the T.R. National Park in the morning, then headed toward our next stop -- Havre. It's on the way to Glacier National Park where we'll stay the following night.
June 30 -- We spend the evening at a great old lodge (think Edelweiss...) inside Glacier National Park. It was stunning (we mean, the park -- but the lodge was great too).
July 2, 2006 -- We crossed the border into Canada about 400 miles east of Vancouver where our condo is. It's Canadian Independence Day ("Canada Day", once called "Dominion Day").
The story continues with the Vancouver page.
