Made it

Arrived back in Toronto on Friday night just before 8, having spent roughly 18 days, 11 hours and 44 minutes on the road. It was good to be back and not have to worry about the possibility of rain or finding another cheap motel with wi-fi. Ginny had also prepared a great welcome home dinner which beat all the meals on the road, even the ones I cooked, hands down.

The drive from Chicago to Toronto was unremarkable other than for the amount of roadwork underway. It seems a lot of that infrastructure spending we hear about is being used to refurbish the highways of America. No doubt a good thing in the long run, but frustrating for summer drivers. We crossed the border at Port Huron/Sarnia which was surprisingly free of lineups. It was then just a matter of navigating the holiday weekend traffic along Highways 403 and 401, while avoiding those OPP officers with their radar.

So there it is. Would I do it again? Absolutely. It was a good way to see many parts of Canada and the US that I wanted to see, but hadn't yet had the opportunity. Admittedly it would be preferable to travel at a more leisurely pace with time to stay longer at interesting places. However, it is surprising how much you can appreciate while driving through the country. I found this to be especially true in Oregon and Wyoming, where the landscapes were stunning and changed frequently enough to keep the drive interesting.

For those of you who asked about photos, I have been posting them to a Picassa web album that you can see here: http://picasaweb.google.com/rogmoss/GrahamAndMe#

Finally, a big thank you to the friends and family that put up with us on our journey:

Tim and Jane in Goulais Bay

Claire and Helen in Vancouver

Karen, Rachel and Nathalie in Snohomish

Trip Facts

Driven Today: 896 km

Driven in Total: 12,040 km

Run Today: 0 km

Run Total: 136 km

Number of TH Stops: 17

Number of Speeding Tickets: 1

Ipod Progress: 1104 songs Last: "Don't call me red" Ry Cooder

Song of the Day: "Don't stop me now" Queen

Lansing, Michigan

Number of TH stops: 17 :))

Pay, Pay and Pay again

Well. We are close to Chicago, having just passed the third tollbooth. Good way to use up those American coins I seem to collect. Unfortunately we've hit Chicago at peak rushour. Doesn't seem to matter which way you are going. In fact heaading out looks better. A sign tells us that it will take us an hour to get downtown!

It's not so bad

Today was one of the worst days on the road yet. It was one of those days that, no matter which way you looked, as far as the eye could see, the sky was grey. And not just any grey, but that socked in, here to stay for a few days, kind of grey. It didn't start off that badly though. After a wet night, we broke camp and headed to to see the Crazy Horse monument, which didn't look any closer to being finished than when I visited in 1992. We stopped in Custer for some sustenance and made a delightful discovery in the local bakery. The apple fritters they had there were the real thing, freshly deep fried dough with big chunks of apple. While I miss Tim Hortons dearly, this was several steps above. Graham was equally impressed with the chocolate chip cookie the size of a small frisbee. From Custer we headed north through Keystone which is like Deadwood on steroids, not so much with the gambling but with the wild west theme. From there it was back onto the I90, whcih disappeared into the grey mass to the east.

There was not much else to do but drive really, so drive we did. On through the badlands, which really didn't look that bad, more like the English countryside with green rolling hills. We drove passed the cheesy sounding Badlands Petrified Gardens, and unfortunately were too late for the prairie dog display in Fairmont.

South Dakota is the leading state for roadkill seen so far, or else they take longer to clean it up than the others. Billboards along the highway announced that "this is Graham country" and "I'm running on Biofuel", a particularly patriotic sign with a picture of the American flag and a footnote about reducing dependence on foreign oil. Perhaps they should add, "and starve them while we're at it". There is actually a lot more farmland to the east of the not-so-Badlands than I expected. It seemed we had finally found the southern equivalent to the Canadian Prairies, so perhaps it was a good day to just drive.

We made it as far as Clear Lake, Iowa, having crossed South Dakota, part of southern Minnesota (which will be the only state or province, other than Ontario, that we travel through twice) before heading south on the I35. It was still raining when we arrived so we checked into a motel for the night!

Quote of the day: "At least I'll be getting out of this place" Overheard in a gas station in Luverne a small farm town in the extreme south west corner of Minnesota.

Trip Facts:
Driven Today: 1,027 km
Driven in total: 10,533 km
Run today: 0 km
Run in Total: 128.6 km
Number of TH Stops: 16 :(
Number of Speeding tickets: 1
Number of nights camping: 5
No. of nights raining while camping: 4
Ipod progress: 881 Songs: Last "Living with War" Neil Young
Song of the Day: "What a Wonderful World" Louis Armstrong

Wyoming rocks

Following our night in the Wind River Canyon, we resumed our eastward journey by climbing out of the canyon passing seemingly endless buttresses and cliffs of rock (mostly sandstone and limestone). It was impressive. We continued onto Thermopoles, where I tried to convince Graham to visit the Dinosaur centre. Being barely awake he declined and so we continued on our way again. Thermopoles claims to be home to the largest mineral hot springs in the world.

According to the Billboards along the highway, Wyoming is cattle country (although we didn't see many cattle) and a proud maker of Pepsi. There were also a few references to a crazy woman - Crazy Woman Creek, Crazy Woman Canyon and Crazy Woman campground. Don't know who she was or what she did, but we avoided all three places. One thing we were dissapointed not to see was the old style cowboy on horseback. We did see a few of the new style behind the wheels of pickups. There were lots of signs for rodeos, so I guess that tradition lives on. We also saw quite a lot of horses, and even what I think were a herd (right collective?) of wild horses with a few young colts.

I was very impressed with roadside signs that pointed out the name of the rock formations we were passing their age and era. Apart from the obvious geological interest, there are other observations to be made. For example, some people have thought that 3 weeks really isn't long enoiugh for a trip of this distance, and I would agree, but it does allow us to hit the highlights. On the other hand, according to the geological signs, driving about 20 kilometres through Wyoming yesterday we passed 375 million years worth of earth history recorded in the hills and mountains. How's that for time travel?

We rocked along I90 to the tune of Led Zeppelin - not a bad way to travel, and rolled into Deadwood along with a few hundred Harley riding motorcyclists in town for a rally. We had a quick look around the main street and hightailed it outta there. I'm sure it's going to be a happening place over the next few days. Deadwood is crazy, over the top with the gambling - casinos and slot machines are every where. Graham couldn't get over it. They should all be in a few places he said, why do you need slot machines in a cafe or a steakhouse? While we were walking along the street coffee and ice cream in hand, a couple of shots rang out. Apparently they re-enact the shooting of Wild Bill Hickock each day at 4.

We drove on from Deadwood south towards Mount Rushmore, passing lots more bandana clad harley riders looking ready to party. After pitching the tent in a Black Hills forest campsite we went to see the President's heads.

I had seen Mount Rushmore about 17 years ago, and while the sculpture has remained the same, the viewing are seems much more elaborate than I remember. For those unfamiliar with Mount Rushmore, it is a massive sculpture of the heads of four past president's (anyone remember which four?) carved into the granite cliff face of the Black Hills it really is an impressive feat, no less impressive on second viewing.

After the trip to Mount Rushmore it was back to camp, out for a quick 10km run, a late dinner and off to bed. But wait, the story wouldn't be complete without a rain shower in the middle of the night! Isn't camping fun?

Trip Facts:
Driven last two days: 1,200 km
Driven in total: 9506 km
Run last two days: 10 km
Run in Total: 128.6 km
Number of TH Stops: 16 :(
Number of Speeding tickets: 1
Number of nights camping: 5
No. of nights raining while camping: 4
Ipod progress: 785 Songs: Last Leonard Cohen "Take this longing"
Song of the Day Monday: "Forever Young" Joan Baez
Tuesday: "Over the hils and far away" Led Zeppelin

It's a zoo out here

Sorry for the delayed posting, but we have been without internet and cell coverage the last few nights - now that's really roughing it! I guess we should have expected crowds at Yellowstone, it being the middle of summer and all. It still came as a shock to see the number of cars and people on the road there. And this was a monday, it's hard to imagine being able to accomodate even more people on the weekend.

So what was all the fuss about? Those of you that have been there will know it is certainly spectacular. On Sunday we looked around the basaltic volcanoes at Craters of the moon and on Monday we drove through the Yellowstone Caldera, gotta love all this geology! The scenary is wonderful and the active fumeroles, hot springs and geysers are quite an experience. You can see the steam from quite a way off, and then, if you are lucky enough to find a parking spot, you can walk on a trail that takes you around to see the different geysers, fumeroles, hot springs, bacterial matte and boiling mud. It is a treat for the senses, or at aleast four of them. You can see the steam and the bubbling water and mud, you can feel the warmth of the steam as it wafts by, you can hear the whistle of the steam escaping through the narrower orifices and you can smell the sulphur dioxide escaping with the steam.

We did go on to Old Faithful, the main Geyser of the basin, and there the crowds were over the top. The predicted next eruption was in about an hour and a half, so we decided not to stick around for the show, spectacular as it undoubtedly was. We did see some wildlife, including two Bison, a coyote and a herd of Elk.

We hit the road south towards the Grand Tetons (pronounced Tee-tons by the ranger) delayed somewhat by more roadworks. These are fearsome looking mountains with jagged peaks and shear sides and high enough to still have snow on many faces. I'd like to return here and see what the hiking is like in the mountains.

We continued east through Wyoming and eventually ended up at a campsite in the Wind River canyon. It didn't take us long to find out how the river got its name. The wind was blowing hard while we were trying to put the tent up, and while we managed to get it up the whole windward side was blown in, effectively halving the space. It took about an hour of fiddling around to get it to stand up properly. And then it started raining. It was a rough night.

Moon rocks

Well it was another long day crossing eastern Oregon and Idaho. We hit the road around 8, but lost an hour on the way crossing into the mountain time zone. I hadn't really taken those time changes into account on the way back. Eastern Oregon was much drier than I expected. Driving through it I thought that it was the kind of place that rattlesnakes and Coyotes would be happy to call home. As if to confirm these thoughts, about half an hour later a coyote loped across the road in front of the car, stopped to give us a sidelong look and slunk off into the brush. It looked in good shape, so I gues there must be rabbits and rodents around as well.

Just before reaching the Idaho border, we went around Ontario in about two minutes - much faster than the two and a half days it took us to cross the province. Ontario, Oregon is a small farming commuinty near the border. It seems to pride itself on it's onions with several billboards proclaiming that they ship 22,000 loads of onions each season. Sure enough there are fields upon fields of onions mixed in with a sprinkling of potatoes and corn. If you think this image of abundant produce is difficult to balance with the earlier description of an arid rocky scrubland, you're right. The farming areas are heavily irregated and preumably are located close to water sources.

We crossed into Idaho and I was happy to see the highway speed limit was 75 miles per hour (that's just over 120km per hour). You can certainly cover a lot of ground driving at that speed all day.

After a quick lunch we pulled into the Craters of the Moon park. Have you noticed that whenever an area is lacking in vegetation and very rocky it is often reffered to as a moonscape, or otherwise compared to the moon? In this case, it was a large basalt volcano and it's associated products that earned the moon reference. It was quite spectacular. There are several preserved volcanic vents and cinder cones, all composed of black/brown basalt. The area for miles around was also covered in black basalt, some of it colled lava flows and some of it looking like roter tilled clods of earth. The eruption reponsible for producing this volcanic lanscape is thought to have occured just 2,000 years ago. That's like yesterday in geologic time. Consequently a lot of the features and textures produced as the lava cools can still be seen. The highlight of our visit was climbing down into a hoolowed out lava tube, These are tubes formed by cooled lava through which molten lava continues to flow until the eruption ceases. In some cases these tubes end up drained of lava and are hollow inside. It was one of these that Grham and I climbed into and walked along for about a hundred metres. It was so cool inside there was ice on the floor. This despite the 30 degree C baking heat on surface just 10 feet above.

We didn't quite make it to Wyoming today but we are close - just 60 miles from Yellowstone, which will be our first stop tomorrow.

Quote of the Day: "We don't belong in no trailer park" Graham after we took a wrong turn while looking for a camping.

Trip Facts:
Driven Today: 855 km
Driven in total: 8306 km
Run Today: 0 km
Run in Total: 118.6 km
Number of TH Stops: 16
Number of Speeding tickets: 1
Ipod progress: 628 Songs: Joan Armatrading Last "Empty Highway"
Song of the Day: "Radar Love" Golden Earing

No regrets

Had a good day on the road again today. Started off great with a leisurely breakfast with Karen and the girls. Then it was down the I5 to Oregon. There was some really slow traffic just south of Seattle, but after that it was a good drive.

Have you ever been close to a major attraction, but not taken the time to go and visit it

and then regretted it later? That happened to me several times while working in different parts of the world, including missing out on Machu Pichu and Everest base camp. Finally I resolved to take the extra time. To visit attractions if I was close enough. So, today we headed south to Eugene, Oregon. This was slightly further south than we had planned, but there was something I had been wanting to see for quite a while - Hayward Field. This is the historic running track

where Steve Prefontein set many of the American records in the early seventies while being coached by Bill Bowerman. It has been extensively renovated since then and has a new surface to the track and new buildings, but it is still impressive. The front gates were locked, but I managed to find a way in at the back, kicked off my sandals, took off my shirt and ran a mile on the track barefoot. That was cool.

The drive east of Eugene was really picturesque, with spruce-lined route 126 running alongside the Mackenzie river. Eventually we headed into the Cascade mountains, but the route we wanted to take was closed, probably because of snow. We finally made it through the mountains and stopped for dinner in Bend before searching for a campsite, although there were plenty of campsites in the mountains and along the river, there were none east of Bend. We kept driving until we reached Burns, without any sign of a campsite. BY this time it was almost 11pm, so we decided to check into the Knotty Pine Motel. So here we are, somewhere in Eastern Oregon in a motel in Burns!

Hopefully we will do a little better tomorrow, when we will be continuing east, hopefully reaching Jackson Hole in Wyoming, and finding a campsite before nightfall.

I learned today just how many bad George Michael songs there are (and I'm only half way through them!), and decided they are a waste of space on my ipod, even where space is not at a premium.

Trip Facts:
Driven Today: 925 km

Driven in total: 7451 km

Run Today: 1 Mile
Run in Total: 118.6 km
Number of TH Stops: 16
Number of Speeding tickets: 1
Ipod progress: 519 Songs Last: George Michael "A moment with you"
Song of the Day: "Hard Sun" Eddie Vedder

Day 13 finally turning East

Well, we did make it through the border in about 50 minutes, while we listened to a Vinyl Cafe CD. The interrogation was short and, dare I say it, friendly! Then we were through and into the US of A. Still heading south though, should eventually turn east today.

Had a great time visiting Karen, Rachel and Nathalie in Snohomish, a community just north of Seattle. Rachel and Nathalie were kind enough to take Graham to see Bruno, much to his delight. Karen and I just caught up over some red wine and managed to keep talking until they arrived back from the movie. We did miss Paul, who is unfortunately stuck in Dubai for another month! Just about to head out on the next leg here goes Day 13!

Trip Facts:
Driven in total: 6526 km
Run in Total: 117 km
Number of TH Stops: 16
Number of Speeding tickets: 1
Ipod progress: 437 Songs: Last Echo and the Bunnymen "In the Margins"
Song of the Day: "LA Woman" The Doors

On the road again...........but not moving at all

Yes, you got it, stuck at the Peace Arch border crossing - what fun. Apparently the wait is only 50 minutes, but since we haven't moved in about 25 minutes, we have some catching up to do. Fortunately we made what may be our last Tim Horton's stop earlier so we have coffee and, of course we have Stuart McLein to make the time pass easier. Moving now, on to interrogation.

On the road again

Well, It's time to hit the road again for the return journey after an enjoyable break here in Vancouver. Graham had a great time with his online friend Clark. They had been playing games together online for almost two years before meeting a couple of days ago. They were both so excited about it, they were texting one another back and forth right up until we drove in the driveway of their house. In between ferrying Graham out to see Clark I managed to get in a few good runs to bump the mileage up to more respectable levels. Had a great run this morning along False Creek, over the Burrard Bridge and around Stanley Park. Weather is cool and overcast - perfect for running :) We also had dinner with Helen, Siobhan and Dave on Wednesday night, before Siobhan and Dave took off back to Montreal.

I have also finally manged to upload a bunch of photos of the trip so far, so those of you who were looking for more photos can find them at: http://picasaweb.google.ca/rogmoss/GrahamAndMe#

Roller coaster drive

Well, we made it to Vancouver late last night and are resting up for a few days visiting sisters-in-law (or is that sister-in laws?)/aunts Claire and Helen. Also a good time to catch up on other essentials - like laundry! Two guys in a car for nine days means ... well, you can imagine what it means. It could possibly give Sandra Shamus enough material for a new show.

Yesterday was a good day on the road, sunny and warm (starting off around 20 degrees C). We started a little later than planned from Nelson (mainly because I got out late for my run) and headed north along Kootenay lake to Kaslo, where Graham's grandfather lived as a young boy. The drive was along a highway that hugged a cliff to the west of Kootenay Lake and afforded some spectacular views of the lake. Kootenay Lake is the first of those three north-south elongated lakes that you see when flying into Vancouver over the Rockies from the east. Kaslo is a picturesque town with some interesting old buildings as well as a paddle steamer museum. Apparently it was a jumping off point for miners looking for silver in the surrounding hills. Graham and I stopped for a late breakfast at a little cafe before strolling around and checking out the town. We stocked up with provisions (Graham: Croissant, fruit roll ups, green tea; me: Muffin, granola bars, diet coke) at the grocery store and headed out back on the road. We stopped briefly at Mirror Lake and then it was back to Nelson and on to Vancouver.

I had been practising my zen driving, so the few roadworks we encountered didn't bother me, nor did the slower drivers along the way (at least not too much). It was an interesting drive, essentially cutting across the grain of the continent. Since the mountain ranges in the Rockies run approximately north-south, driving west means a lot of ups and downs. For someone from Ontario, whose idea of ups and downs are indicated by the direction of a line on a stock market graph, the drive is a challenge, especially on the long winding descents. Fortunately we managed to get through it without burning the break linings, but it was a relief to get onto the flatter sections closer to Vancouver.

We did stop at a fruit stall in the southern Okanagan. The stalls are located all along the highway in this area and offer fresh picked fruit from the local orchards. We would have visited a vineyard or two, but we were already running late and it was incredibly hot. The car thermometer indicated 40 degrees C as we made our way through the Okanagan. I was thankful for that one hot day before we left that made me realize the AC wasn't working, without it we would have baked. With a supply of peaches and cherries (that taste wonderful) we journeyed on. When I told Graham we still had 3 hours to go, he sighed and said "let's listen to Stuart McLean." Ginny had thoughtfully bought Graham a CD collection of Vinyl Cafe stories for just such an eventuality, so we spent the next hour enjoying stories of Dave toilet training the family cat and Sam taking piano lessons - it was great! We eventually arrived in Vancouver around 9:15pm and after a further half an hour or so managed to find Clair's place.

Trip Facts:

Driven yesterday: 885 km
Driven in total: 5997 km
Run yesterday: 9 km
Run Total: 69.5 km
Number of TH Stops: 14
Number of speeding tickets: 1
Ipod progress: 328 songs Last: Daniel Lanois "Rocky World"
Song of the Day: "Boys don't cry" The Cure

It's the journey stupid

Well, we rolled into Nelson at around 8 o'clock after a long day on the road. It started off nicely enough, stopping to see some of the sights along the Icefields Parkway south as far as Lake Louise. Most of these involved lakes of varying colours, the best being Peyto Lake that was an intense green colour, apparently from all the dissolved glacial till (silty debris) dissolved in it. It was a steep hike up to the viewing platform though, and Graham was really not sure it was worth the effort! We also saw a few deer and a lonely big horned sheep on the side of the road. After a brief stop in Lake Louise, we headed out on Highway 1 - the trans-Canada in these parts - big mistake. It was only about 10km west of Lake Louise that we hit the roadworks that delayed us so much. The only bright side was that we got to see O'Hara Lake in Yoho National Park, before we hit traffic.

It appeared that roadworks on the trans-Canada were not going to end at Golden, so in order to have any chance of making it to Nelson by nightfall, we went to plan B and headed South (way south) to Cranbrook. I mentioned previously how much I liked the highways of Saskatchewan and Alberta, but I can't say the same for BC. While the speed limit on some highways is a decent 100 km/h, there aren't enough passing lanes to be able to consistently travel at that speed. Especially after being in a very long line of traffic due to roadworks. Where passing lanes do exist, many of them are incredibly short - like 500m. If you are wondering, that's about enough to pass a car, if you are sitting on their tail and floor the gas as soon as you hit the lane. It seems like a strange system to have in a region with lots of hills and bends in the road. Perhaps it is due to British Columbian's laid back attitude, something to do with the journey being more fulfilling than the destination, so let's spend more time getting there!

Nelson is quite a bit bigger than I imagined, it even has city status. The little we saw of it tonight was very pleasant, and we will be sure to explore it more tomorrow.

Quote of the Day: "........and then he goes and wrecks a classic" Graham on Cake's version of Gloria Gaynor's "I will survive"

Trip Facts:

Driven today: 822 km
Driven in total: 5112 km
Run today: 0 km
Run Total: 60.5 km
Number of TH Stops: 13 (starting to get withdrawal)
Number of speeding tickets: 1
Ipod progress: 231 songs Last: The Ceasars "Jerk it out."
Song of the Day: "For what it's worth" Buffalo Springfield

Road trip nightmare

Just arrived in Golden B.C. After taking about two hours to drive the last 100Km. Roadworks!! Might have to revise our stay in Nelson tonight. More later if there's coverage.

Ice.....on the rocks

Still camped out at Jasper and no rain :) We spent the day exploring the northern section of the Icefields Parkway between Jasper and the Columbia icefield. There are many sites to see, but the glaciers really do take the cake. The Athabasca glaciar is the most (only?) accessable one, and is the most well known. There are a steady stream of tourists making the trek up to the toe of the glacier, only to be confronted with a rope guard rail and notices about the dangers of walking on the glacier. There is even a story of a nine year old boy who broke through the icen fell into a crevasse and died of hyperthermia before he could be rescued. They clearly don't want people walking on it. But walk on it they do, even after reading the dire warnings. On Graham's urging, I threw my usual caution to the wind and climbed over the rope and followed the crowds onto the glacier. Who was it that said do one dangerous thing everyday? Well that was mine for today.

One of the neat things for me was to be able to look at the rock over which the glacier had advanced and retreated. The movement of the glacier, scours the rock below forming striations that you can actually feel as scratch marks in the rock. Geologists use these striations to deduce the movements of ancient glaciers, so it was neat to see the striations and the glacier together.

After returning to camp I took off for my run and this time ran on a trail alongside the river. It was one of the most scenic runs I've ever had, which somewhat made up for the fact that it was also very slow!

Tomorrow we head south on the Icefields Parkway again, hoping to make it to Nelson, and explore the boyhood haunts of Graham's grandfather.

Trip Facts:
Driven today: 230 km
Driven in total: 4290 km
Run today: 15.5 km
Run Total: 60.5 km
Number of TH Stops: 13
Number of Speeding tickets: 1
Ipod progress: B's Bob Marley Currently "Positive Vibration."
Song of the Day: "Easy Skanking" Bob Marley

Running with elk

We've reached the Rockies and what a sight. It's easy to imagine what went through the minds of the first explorers opening up the west - something along the lines of "Oh f*# k!" After making it through the praries and presumably expecting to reach the sea any week now, what else could they think. Those mountains really are magnificent, and we are excited to spend the next few days exploring them.

It was really nice to see rock again, and what rock it is! Beautifully bedded sedimentary rocks, that would have been lain down horizontally, but now the layers are standing on end, testament to the tectonic forces that formed the Rockies. Amazing!

I decided earlier today that Northern Ontario gets a bad rap. The best scenary between Toronto and the Rockies is in northern Ontario. The combination of lakes, trees and, yes, rock makes for an ever evolving landscape. Far more interesting than the farmscapes of the praries, although they do have their own, albeit repetitive, beauty. The common element between northern Ontario and the Rockies is....... You guessed it - rock! Erode the Rockies for a couple of billion years and subject them to a few ice ages and you would probably end up with something like northern Ontario today. So, the shield of northern Ontario could be thought of as a more evolved form of the Rockies. The earth's elder vs. the teenage Rockies.

We saw our first wildlife shortly after entering the park. A big bull elk was grazing beside the road. We were among the first to see it but by the time we left there were lots of people gathered around. A little farther on we saw a few mountain goats and just before the campsite about five elk.

The campsite is huge, more than 700 sites but it is still full, as are two of the other three sites. Sure glad I booked the sites before we left Saskatoon. Soon after getting the tent up and campsite organized I took off for my run. I ran a ways up the hill on a trail but turned around when it started to get too steep! I ended up running along a trail parallel to the road which was quite pleasant. After about 15 minutes on this trail I suddenly came across an elk cow who was walking towards the trail about 20 feet away. She walked onto the trail, stopped and looked at me very calmly and did absolutely nothing. I had, of course, stopped running as soon as I saw herand so there we stood staring at one another. This seemed like it could go on for a while so I could either turn back or wait. Instead I said "Well?" The elk lingered a few more seconds before continuing slowly along her way, allowing me to continue with my run.

You may not believe this, but on my way back from my run it started to rain. That's right, after three beautiful days,including most of today, and a good weather forecast for the next few days it decides to rain tonight!!!!! It must be some kind of test we are being put through. We did manage to get a fire going (we were planning to barbecue steak) and setup the stove to boil water for the noodles. The rain came and went while we made dinner, inconvenient, but nowhere near the nightmare of Quetico. With dinner ready, I was preparing to drain the noodles when the handle of the pot came off in my hand and the pot landed upside down on the ground. So, steak and salad it was for dinner. Still it was good and we had granola bars and rooibos tea for dessert.

I can still hear raindrops on the tarp (yes, I'm typing this in our tent), so hopefully it will clear up by tomorrow so that we can do some exploring.

Quote of the day: "I'm really glad we brought that tarp." Roger to Graham as it starts raining yet again.

Trip Facts:
Driven today: 423 km
Driven in total: 4060 km
Run today: 8 km
Run Total: 45 km
Number of TH Stops: 13
Number of Speeding tickets: 1
Ipod progress: B's Bob Dylan Currently "Tangled up in Blue."
Song of the Day: Roam B52's

WEM - WOW!

Yes, we've made it to Edmonton. That four lane Yellowhead highway lasted all the way into Edmonton and we arrived just in time to catch rush hour :( We did make a stop at the Vermilion Provincial park for lunch and finally managed to spread out the tarp and let it dry. The park was small, but well maintained and had a Becky Scott theme. Scott is the gold medal winning cross country skier, and has the entrance road named after her as well as a a sign on the transported CN railway station, dedicating the area as the Becky Scott nordic ski area. Perhaps she is from here.

Following our arrival in Edmonton I headed out for probably the most scenic run of the trip so

far. I stumbled upon a trail that ran alongside the North Saskatchewan river. Only ran for about 10km though. Graham and I then headed to the West Edmonton Mall to see what all the fuss was about. We were completely underwhelmed when we entered and walked around a bit. It seemed smaller than Toronto's Eaton Centre, and it was only two floors! Needless to say, we were walking along a small part of it. When we finally walked into the

main area we were impressed by the size of things contained in the space. These include a hockey rink, a pirate ship and a beach. Quite amazing, but a bit of a nightmare to find anything! We had dinner at one of the restaurants on the strip and contemplated a movie but none started before 10:30, so we headed back to the hotel.

Tomorrow we head to the rockies and try camping again! We will be staying in the Jasper National Park just south of the Jasper townsite and hopefully get to hike some of the trails in the park.

I'll be sure to send updates if there is any cell coverage.

Quote of the Day: "Every one of my electronic devices is out of batteries!" Graham about an hour out from Edmonton.

Trip Facts:

Distance Driven Today: 568km

Distance Driven Overall: 3,647km

Distance Run Today: 10km

Distance Run Overall: 36.5km

Number of TH stops: 11

Number of Speeding Tickets: 1

Ipod progress: 49 songs, Last Annie Lennox "Don't let it bring you down"

Song of the Day: Amy Milan "I'm losing you"

Accessing the untapped recesses of the ipod

Both Graham and I brought our ipods along on this trip. It's hard to imagine driving so far relying only on the radio, or even a cd collection. Not that I'm knocking radio, far from it. In fact, I've been pleasantly surprised by some of the CBC programming, but that's a topic for another day. I had a few thoughts about getting my ipod ready for the trip, including putting together some kickass driving tunes, but as with most other preparations, it didn't get done. The other thought was how long my songs would last on the trip. The first few days, I had it on shuffle or selected specific playlists, but it is surprising how quickly you go through play lists when you're driving all day. So, I decided to try something else today.

If you're like me, you have way more songs loaded on your ipod (or in your CD collection) than you listen to. I'd guess I play less than a third of the songs (I currently have 1937 loaded) on a regular basis, and even when I put it on shuffle, it seems to repeat the same songs (although it often somehow finds a Christmas carol!). So, I decided today to go through all 1937 songs on the ipod and see how long it takes. It will probably take longer than expected since I do listen to CBC in the morning, and Graham usually needs to hook up his ipod to recharge sometime in the afternoon. This generally results in us having a father-son moment over the merits (or lack of) of heavy metal/rock and various guitar solos. Still, I started at Loydminster today. I'm going through the music alphabetically by artist, so for example today I listened to ABBA, AC/DC, Alanis Morissette, Annie Lennox among others. I have already re-discovered an album that deserves to see more airtime and that is Amy Milan's "Honey from the Tombs" (thanks Bud). I'll also make note of stuff that can be ejected, didn't hear anything in that category today.

I'll let you know how this goes by adding it to the trip stats.

I Love Saskatchewan Highways!

Just arrived in Loydminster, where the Alberta/Saskatchewan border goes through the town at the second traffic light. We had a late start this morning due to some reservations I wanted to make to ensure we have a place when we arrive in Jasper tomorrow. We headed out of town, again on the Yellowhead highway (must find out what that is - after travelling on it for two days You'd think I'd know) and get this: the speed limit is 110km/h and it has been 4 lane all the way to Lloydminster. Yeah! Unfortunately we almost got hit by the remains of a big mac and fries ejected out of the window of a truck just ahead of us. Truckers!

Just picked up some lunch fixings and will head out and look for a spot to eat. Then it's on to Edmonton for the night.

Driving by Kandahar.

Yesterday was a long day, hence the delayed post. Following an 8:30 breakfast, we headed out of Winnipeg on the Yellowhead Highway to Saskatoon. Conditions were good for driving - sunny, cool with a bit of wind. I was happy to see that speed limits on Manitoba and Saskatchewan are 100km/h :) The reason for the longer day was a detour north to the Riding Mountain National Park which added about 150km to the trip. The park is centered on Clear Lake and has many trails, campsites and a bison reserve. We stopped at the visitor centre in Wasagaming on the shores of Clear Lake, and stocked up on lunch fixings (including freshly baked cinammon buns!). We drove on to Moon Lake where we assembled our baguettes and tried to enjoy our lunch despite what had become an increasingly strong wind.

Following lunch we headed back to the Yellowhead Highway, which is when we passed Kandahar, Saskatchewan. This Kandahar is situated on the shores of Big Quill Lake which, according to billboards along the highway, is famous among birds of the world. Driving through Saskatchewan, and to a lesser extent, Manitoba, a common sight is the fields of canola. The seemingly artificial intense yellow colour stetches in some cases to the horizon. Assumng most of this is for biofuel production, a lot of grain, destined for food has been displaced.

We arrived in Saskatoon around 7:00pm Central time, and I managed to get out for a 15k run. Unfortunately I hadn't read the map properly, and instead of running along the Assinaboine river, I ended up running through an industrial park. Other than the scenary it wasn't too bad - at least there was no traffic! We went downtown for diner and briefly contemplated getting something to eat at the "Taste of Saskatoon" festival, but it was completely packed so we opted for pizza at a nearby Italian Taverna,

Today we head into Alberta. It should be a shorter day, ending in Edmonton. The West Edmonton Mall is on Graham's must see sites. Perhaps we'll go and see Bruno in the Mall.

Quote of the Day: "What are we going to do in the US when there are no Tim Horton's?" Graham thinking ahead to potential problems.

It is going to be a problem, perhaps we will have to return to Toronto through Canada after all!

Trip Facts:

Total distance Driven: 3,079km

Number of TH Stops: 10

Number of Speeding Tickets: 1

There's a mozzie in my coffee!

Two words sum up our Quetico experience: mosquitos and rain. We arrived in Quetico under drizzling rain, which meant some organizing to get the tent up without getting it soaked. Fortunately we had a tarp that covered everything and kept most of it dry. It didn't help with the bugs though which made the experience completely miserable. The rain picked up during the night until it became a complete downpoar around 2am. While, thanks to the tarp, we didn't get wet, neither of us wanted to hang around this morning, especially since we were still getting showers. So, it was onward to Winnepeg.

We left the camp site just after 9, relieved to be protected from those blood-thirsty bugs. Today's route took us west across northern Ontario to the Minnesota border at Rainy River. From there we headed west and north across northern Minnesota back into Canada and north to Winnipeg arriving around 5:30. Highlights of the day included my first speeding ticket in 20 years, just outside Fort Francis, narrowly missing hitting a deer just after crossing the border back into Canada, and dinner at "The Forks" in Winnipeg. After last night's trial we are recovering at the Holiday Inn tonight, and will leave for Saskatoon tomorrow.

Trip Facts:

Number of TH stops: 7

Number of speeding tickets: 1

Where's the lake?

Well, it turned out that Tim and Jane were home and delighted to see us. The cabin across from their house was vacant so Graham and I stayed there. This is the same place we stayed with Ginny, Mark and Danae about 8 years ago. I've been back several times since then for work and usually rented the same place.

We headed out at 8:12 this morning on our way to Wawa and the Big Goose. This was also the one and only TH stop of the day. We picked up food for a picnic and continued driving north and west around the big lake. Traffic was a little heavier today, but the weather still perfect for driving. We kept looking for a spot to pull off for our picnic, but the only places on the lake seemed to be the towns of Marathon and Terrace Bay. Finally, we found a spot just north of Terrace Bay where we could have a late (2:30) lunch on the shores of Lake Superior.

I tried to get Graham to sit up front after lunch to take in the view, but he responded "it all looks the same" I guess that's what people dislike about northern Ontario, but I like it. Rocks, trees and lakes in abundance! It is awe inspiring to come over the top of a hill amd look out over a canopy of spruce and pine and see Lake Superior stretching to the horizon.

I'm writing this at the Terry Fox memorial lookout that sits just above the trans-Canada overlooking Lake Superior and Thuder Bay to the west. We have about another two hours to Quetico, after stopping in Thuder Bay for supplies. Unfortunately it appears the good weather is coming to an end, and there's rain forecast for the next few days. So we may cut our stop at Quetico short. After Quetico we will be travelling across northern Minnesota and back into Canada south of Winnepeg. There is no mobile signal outside of the main towns, so we will be unable to update again until we reach Winnipeg.

Quote of the Day: "You have to give me breakfast, I'll sleep until 3:30 if I don't have breakfast." Graham at Tim Hortons this morning.

Trip Facts: Driven today: 720 km
Total Distance Driven: 1410 km
Number of TH stops: 4

We're off.......

Rolled out of Rusholme at 8:08am heading north. The drive was uneventful other than Graham's foot falling asleep. Graham settled into the road trip, spending most of the day napping in the back seat, waking for food and drink as necessary. He said yesterday, that he is sure something bad will happen on the trip! Hopefully that's just teenage angst. We managed to hit two Tim's along the way (Parry Sound and Espanola) and showed great restraint by driving right past the one in Blind River. We arrived in the Sault just after 4pm and lightened our load considerably by dropping off a substantial part of my geology library at the Sault Resident Geologist's office.

Now we are driving north looking for a place to stay, we have three options, cabin motel or campsite. Stay tuned to find out which we managed to get. Don't know when we'll be back in coverage, it's very spotty along the trans Canada.

Trip Stats: Mileage driven: 698km, time on the road: 10 hours and counting. Tim Horton's stops: 2.

Car and work conspire to delay start of trip.

With the first hot day of summer came the realization that the air conditioning in the pathfinder is not working. Now, while I am still willing to rough it and camp at night, despite Graham's dislike of the idea, driving 10,000 kilometres without ac is just not on. So, the pathfinder is in the garage getting flushed and hopefully will be cool again tomorrow.

Unfortunately something has also come up at work that may require my attention next week. Isn't it just typical? You decide to take advantage of the slowdown and plan a three week trip, only to find that it gets really busy the week before your intended departure. Go figure!

Right now the plan is still to leave for Sault Ste. Marie on Monday. Stay tuned.

Campsites Available

Allright, it looks like Quetico has lake side campsites still available. Time to start going through the camping gear!

What about Quetico?

I thought Quetico Provincial Park would be a good place to relax after two days of driving, which makes Thunder Bay the first decision point. Take the high road through Kenora to Winnipeg, or the low road through Atikokan, stopping at Quetico, before heading into the US at International Falls and driving through Northern Minnesota to Winnipeg - sounds cool! Difference in distance is only 13 kilometres. Now to check on campsites in Quetico.

It's a long way!

Finally got around to planning a route for our road trip and realized it's an awfully long way! It works out to just over 10,000 kilometres. So, if we take three weeks that's almost 500 kilometres a day with no days off. I might have to rethink the route .....