Greenbrier State Park - Boonesboro, MD

This is our second time here.  Last time we had our dog in the Ash Loop...the Ranger told us to keep the dog inside, and be gone before sunrise.  This time we settled into the dog friendly Cedar Loop...the camp host told us that there is a "special" site in the Cedar Loop for people who are thrown out of the Ash Loop.

There is no alcohol allowed here, so we have to hide our skippy cups whenever we hear the Ranger's golf cart.  Not much different than when we were in high school... I wonder if there is a "special" site in the Elm Loop for those who misbehave in the Cedar Loop....

Tonight will be the farewell campfire...tomorrow, the RV is put to bed for a month until our next trip to Old Orchard Beach.

Streetboro KOA - Cleveland, OH

It's our replanned week-end portion of our return trip, in one of the most metropolitan portions of the country, so we have resorted to back to back KOA's.  We have gotten to do some social bonding.  There is a whole row of fifth wheel trailers with no pick-up trucks.  Where are all the people?  Well, these people were at their daughter's wedding and we got pastries and grab bag gifts...  The guy next to us, Carl, was working on some connection for an hour.  Deb made me go see if I could help.  It turned out his cable TV was not working.  I told him to turn off his antenna amplifier, and it should all work....he said that he would try it, and went back into his camper.  I don't know if that fixed it because he didn't sneak back outside to close the hatch until after dark.  I was going to go out and ask him if it worked but I couldn't be that mean.

Elkhart North KOA - Granger, IN

Last night, I said to Deb, "Well, this is pretty much the official end of our vacation...the rest is just getting home." She said, "but there's no reason that we can't do fun stuff on the way home."  I said, "But it's all "I" states (Illinois and Indiana).”

Boy did we do fun stuff today...we drove the beltway around Chicago which took hours and then got stuck in a construction zone when the trailer from a tractor-trailer fell apart going over a bump.  To add to our problems, we lost an hour going from Central to Eastern time. We got into the KOA at  5:30 PM after leaving at 8:30 AM.  Deb managed to get a load of laundry done so she has some short sleeve shirts ready for the sweltering heat we are going to.  It has been oppressively hot in Virginia for the last month.  We haven't had the courage to tell anyone that we have been wearing sweatshirts and long pants for the past three weeks...there...the truth is out...I'd say that I felt better, but I'm too numb to feel anything.

Mirror Lake State Park - Wisconsin Dells, WI

Ishnala Supper Club

It's our second day on the replanned trip. So we have been to every state in the lower 48 except Wisconsin, Michigan and Rhode Island...We were sort of cheating by saying we had been to Wisconsin when we were actually only driving through the northern corner.  That's when karma got hold of us. big time...with yesterday's  flooded roads redoing our plans, we had no choice but to spend a night in Wisconsin..  When we arrived at Mirror Lake, all the electric sites were taken, so we had to take a non-electric site right on the lake... Then to add insult to injury, there was a fancy restaurant right at the end of the path from our lake side non-electric site.  We went for a short walk to check the place out, and to walk out the dog.  The entire management team from the restaurant came to greet us.  We assured them that we would return later without the dog, but we did not sense any relaxation in their level of anxiety.

Echo Rock

We had a wonderful meal at the Ishnala Supper Club.  They put us at the nicest table right in the corner overlooking the lake.  After dinner we had a quick drink at the bar before strolling home.  Of course, we had to Google "Supper Club." It turns out that is just a Wisconsin word for nice restaurant.We can now, gladly, add Wisconsin to our list of visited states, and Mirror Lake State Park to our list of encore parks.  We might even redo our dry camping site #83.

Moose Lake State Park - Moose Lake, MN

Lake Superior

We have been staying behind a severe weather system for several days.  There has been some indications of the storm as we have travelled....downed trees, high winds and swollen streams....but we have avoided anything serious.  We had lunch at the mouth of Lake Superior in Duluth, MN.  The lake was a chocolate red, with glacial sediment stirred up from the storm.  Fifty miles later in Ashland, WI we started seeing some "Road Closed" signs.  US2 was closed, so we tried WI77 which was also closed.  Since those were the only two roads that went to the northern part of Michigan, our destination...we suddenly came to the realization that our vacation had taken a turn...we were not going through Michigan!  So we pointed our land yacht south for a new adventure.  Happily on our way, we started planning our new trip...but no, "Road Closed," again!  We realized we had to backtrack.  So back to Ashland, back to Duluth, back to our lunch stop.. New, new plan.  It's 4:00 and a quick look for State Parks end us up in Moose Lake State Park, somewhere between Duluth and Minneapolis.

As we pull into our site, it's starts to rain...Deb's a trooper...she just stands there, directing me into the site, just as if the sun were shinning brightly.  The evening was spent doing the replan...not too exciting, the weekend is coming and we have to go around Chicago, and avoid some lingering severe weather.  Oh, the life of a prairie sailor.

Itasca State Park - South Clearwater, MN

Devil's Lake

After an enjoyable walk, we left Devil's Lake.
Photo at the right shows the effects of the rising water at Devil's Lake.  



It was a fairly short day getting to Itasca State Park, located in the middle of Minnesota.  Itasca Lake is the head water for the Mississippi River...only 2,552 miles from the Gulf of Mexico.  We took a little bike ride through the woods...pretty much up hill all the way out,  which made a lovely ride back.

Itasca Lake

Graham Island State Park - Devil's Lake, ND

The border at the International Peace Garden

We hunkered down at the Day's Inn in Brandon, MB last night, waiting for the storm of the century. In reality, we only got a little rain, but we saw, on the news, that other areas were hit fairly hard, so we don't regret being cautious.  Staying in Brandon, cut out 90 minutes of travel from our planned campsite from the night before.  The shorter distance combined with not having to do our normal morning chores, meant that we had oodles of extra time.  So we did an extended visit to the International Peace Garden.  This garden was established in 1932 to be a place between the US and Canada that would represent the long lasting peace between the two countries.  We unpacked the bikes and went for a nice bike ride.

Flowering Suculents

 As we got to the end, we stopped at the "Interpretive Center" which is tourist jargon for gift shop.  Actually, it turns out that there is an absolutely amazing botanical garden, designed using the border as an axis, and a succulent garden donated by Don Vitko a tire salesman from Minot, ND who has been collected them since he was eight years old.  This is an absolute must see for anyone traveling from the middle of North Dakota into Southwestern Manitoba.

From there, we headed to Devil's lake which is an endorheic lake (thank-you Prof. Google)...there is no outflow.  The lake has been rising dramatically due to farming which has increased the amount of runoff and due to more rainfall in recent years, so the lake keeps rising and they have to keep moving the road.  Our site is interesting, we have our own private yard, I mean a riding mower sized yard.

Day's Inn - Brandon, MB

There is suppose to be a severe thunderstorm coming through tonight.  We have decided to ride the storm out in Brandon, MB.  Tomorrow, the storm should pass and we should be on our way through the International Peace Park, and back to the US.

Went out for dinner at Joe Beeverz Sports Bar, #1 place to eat according to Trip Advisor, and the closest restaurant to the hotel.  Deb searched the menu for a plain ol' hamburger, and eventually needed the waitresses help - "Of course, you can have a plain Hambuger, it's called a Classic Burger." I went for the Canadian standard fare, a steak and Parmesan poutine. In case you having been living under a rock, poutine is French fries with cheese curd melted in and gravy.  Actually, way better than it sounds.

Asessippi Provincial Park - Russell, MB

After two days in Saskatchewan, we crossed the Manitoba border.  Saskatchewan does not recognize Daylight Savings Time, which may or may not be because of their Democratic Socialistic Government.  The border crossing included a valley, a steep hill and a time zone change from CST to CDT...truly the most excitement we had had in two days.

Asessippi Provincial Park sits on a ridge overlooking Shellmouth Lake.  The park is lovely and has a concession stand where I got some delicious Peanut Butter Chapman Ice Cream.  Dinner was Salmon with Mango Chutney and homemade rice-a-roni...

Pike Provincial Park - Saskatoon, SK

We are traveling through Sasketchewan on the Trans-Canada Highway.  It's similar to traveling across Kansas, except  that instead of miles of corn, it's kilometers of rapeseed.  They take out some of the undesirable parts of rapeseed oil to make a "Canada" oil, which we call "Canola."

Pike Park is on an oxbow lake made by the mighty South Sasketchewan River.  It really appears to be the party place for all the residents of Saskatoon, the capital and largest city is Sasketchewan.  It's Friday night and the place is hopping...  We have another day of rolling Sasketchewan hill coming up,  so we went to bed early.

I wouldn't have used the word Sasketchewan so many times, but I am so proud of myself for learning to spell it!

Elk Island NP - Ft Saskatchewan, AB

Elk Island is a game preserve outside Edmonton, AB. There are two campgrounds, the pretty one in the woods and RV parking lot.  Although, we chose the RV lot, we were happy because there were fewer bugs. Turned out there were long paved bike trails all over the park. We got enough exercise to work off the steak  and potato salad we had for dinner. Yeah, right.

Wildlife count/ 4 Bison, one deer, one coyote

Hinton/Jasper KOA - Hinton, AB

It's the start of our return trip with a stop to do laundry and catch up on our real lives...paying bills, etc....from here it is all South and East.  Just down the road there is a traffic sign which says, "Scenic Route to Alaska" with an arrow pointing north, maybe next time!

Smartphone apps are getting a little scary.  I don't ever remember telling my phone that I really like boardwalks...but there it was...a personal message to me, telling me about the "Beaver Boardwalk" in Hinton, AB.  It's a 3km (that's Canadian for really long) boardwalk that butts up to a residential area.

Jasper NP (Wabasso Campground) (Day 3) -Jasper, AB

Top tram area

When we were in Jasper, thirty years ago, we said, disparagingly, if we got so old that we would find the Jasper SkyTram exciting, "Just shoot us now!."  Well, we sold our souls to the devil! We are so glad we did...well maybe Drex wasn't totally excited about the dog friendly hike.  From the top tram station, it was still another thousand feet to the top.  The clouds kept the sun away, so the temperature hovered around freezing.

In the afternoon, we strolled through Jasper, had lunch, did some grocery shopping,  bought some presents for our house sitters (spoiler alert), and had "tea" at the Jasper Brewing Company.  Deb ordered Nachos...they brought a huge plate large enough to feed four for dinner.

Sunset at 10:30PM

Back to the campground for campfire #2...it's been rainy every evening since we got to Canada, but tonight, it was clear with the sun shining till after 10:30.  We finally had some beef stew about 9:00, once the nachos had settled.  There are no night time campfires because the sun sets at 10:45 and the fire curfew is 11:00.  

Jasper NP (Wabasso Campground) (Day 2) - Jasper, AB

The Red Chairs at Pyramid Lake

Armed with a Jasper NP Hiking Guide, we set out to do a few walks.  First on the list, Pyramid Lake. It's a tiny lake with an island.  You can walk to the island over a little bridge.  Behind the lake is a wooded climb up a hill to a pair of Red Chairs. These are chairs placed on hillsides around Jasper that have tranquil views.  I wanted to sit in all the Red chairs in Jasper, but Deb used the word "obsession"...now I don't want to anymore.

The rest of the morning and early afternoon was spent hiking around Maligne Canyon.  Absolutely fascinating.  A stream that has cut a hundred foot deep gorge through limestone and granite, but the gorge is only ten to thirty feet wide.  The steam is fed by a large cave system and you can see water just gushing in from these cave openings.  And at the top, just when you think it couldn't get any better, there is a tea house serving lunch.

Water from a cave in Maligne Canyon 

In the afternoon we walked along the shore of Maligne Lake, a favorite photographic location.  On the way back, we stopped at Medicine Lake, where the devistating forest fires burned last year, and ate dinner.

Wildlife Count - two bears, two moose, forty caribou, many marmot (it's a Canadian word for squirrel)

Maligne Lake

Jasper NP (Wabasso Campgound) - Jasper, AB

Banff NP, a glacier in the background

We took the same drive we took over 30 years ago from Banff to Jasper.  I asked Deb if she wanted to  revisit any of those nostalgic moments...nope, "Been there, done that...wanna do new stuff!" Okay then.

It was an awe striking drive along the Ice Fields Parkway...seeing glaciers and waterfalls, and canyons cut through bedrock.  We had on again, off again rain all day, and the clouds covered the peaks of the mountains, which made it seem even colder than it actually was.

Jasper NP, Athabasca Falls

We got to Wabasso Campground, just south of Jasper in time for "tea."  I tried to stay outside to enjoy the ambiance, but with the temperature in the low forties, and the drizzle it was hard.  We are far enough north that the sun doesn't start to go down till 11.  The other night we watched a camper pull in at 10:30 and still have enough light to spend 30 minutes getting his camper perfectly level.

Banff NP (Tunnel Trailer Park) (Day 2) - Banff, AB

Top of Sulphur Mountain - Banff, Alberta

Well, we have a full day in Banff.  It's Canada Day weekend, so everyplace is packed with people.  So first on our list is a hearty breakfast.  We decided to bike to town, they said it was only a 10 minute bike ride...yeah, 10 minutes down the hill 30 minutes back. According to a Trip Advisor, the best breakfast place is Melissa's Missteak.  They must make hollandaise sauce in five gallon tubs, the place was packed and everyone was having a Benny (that's what us Canadians call Eggs Benedict).  After biking back (I'm glad that Ded is as out of shape as I am...when she gets to the point of having to walk her bike up the hill, it's about two nanoseconds before I would have quit.  She says, "just go ahead!"...I say, "it's okay, I'll walk with you"

We took the RV to the Sulpher Mountain Gondola, but there was no parking, so we took it back to the campsite and took the bus to the gondola...although there were thousands of people there, it only took about an hour to get to the ride up the mountain....at the top was a boardwalk...we haven't done a boardwalk in months...this one had a total of 300 steps and went right to the top of the mountain.

Bow River - Banff, Alberta

Although we thought about doing dinner in town, there were just too many people, so we just went back to our campsite for a five-o'clock "grape" juice.  Really, an alchohol ban on Canada Day week-end.   Canada, we thought you were better than that!

Banff NP (Tunnel Trailer Park) - Banff, AB

Deb and I typically try to avoid large crowds as we travel, so we visit places like Glacier Park during the week, instead of week-ends.  So thinking about this well in advance, I carefully planned our trip so that we would be in Canada for the 4th of July week-end.  Well, July 1st is Canada Day, a day where every Canadian hops in their RV or whatever they have available and goes someplace for parades and fireworks.  Whoops!

Overflow parking, we are in #849!

We are spending the night at Tunnel Trailer Park. As an RVer there is nothing more scary to me than the word "Tunnel."  It turns out that there is no tunnel, it's just next to Tunnel Mountain, Phew!

Banff Avenue

With the throngs of people and the evening parade,  Friday "date night" is out, but we may bike in for breakfast in the morning.  

Saint Mary KOA - Saint Mary, MT

Glacier Park Lodge, East Glacier Park, MT

We returned the rental car.  I didn't really have this figured out when I planned this.  The car rental place was 40 miles away, the KOA that we are going to is only 1/4 mile from where we were camping.  But the silver lining was that the car rental was next to the Glacier Park Lodge, the park terminus of the Great Northern Railroad.  The hotel was built in 1913, with huge tree trunks.  The timbers still have the bark on them after over 100 years.  We ate lunch at the Lodge...delicious. The Lodge is a daily stop on the Chicago to Seattle Amtrak train, maybe someday, we will return by train.

The KOA was a good stop for doing laundry and cleaning the RV, with a nice view of the mountains, and good ice cream.  I'm not sure that being packed into a 5 acre site with 200 or 300 other RVs gives you a real feel of the Rockies.