At long last we are back home again. We ended our road trip, right where it started, in the garage! No road was travelled twice... one big loop through five provinces and ten states. We spent our last two days driving from Madison Wisconsin to Yale Michigan and then on to Home. We got a good start out of Madison, thinking that hitting Chicago around noon would be good for traffic. I guess there is no good time to hit Chicago as there are far too many people there with cars. Between the usual congestion and the summer construction season it [View Full Entry]

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Today's big adventure was to find Spring Green, WS, and the House on the Rock. I know there are many who have no clue what we are talking about, but even so, if you are ever within a five hour drive, you gotta see this thing! It is literally a house built on/in a rock formation in rural Wisconsin. So why is this so interesting??? Well, first off, it was constructed by a guy named Alex Jordan, who has no formal training in engineering architecture. He had a dream, and finally convinced the city to let him do it... once he [View Full Entry]

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Three more sleeps… Not that we are getting bored or anything, just a little road weary perhaps. We drove a long way today, through South Dakota. We started early this morning in Wyoming, and have ended our day in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, which is almost on the border with Minnesota. Today’s fun excursions included a drive south of the I-90 through Deadwood Gulch, to see Crazy Horse, a similar carving project to Rushmore. The thing that makes Crazy Horse so unique… they’ve been working on it for 55 years and it is still not done, and doesn’t even look [View Full Entry]

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Today was a big drive day. We left Idaho as early as possible (waited long enough for the sun to be out of our eyes). We blazed through Montana and ended the day in Sheridan, Wyoming. We were surprised by the terrain in Montana. We both thought it would be relatively flat, but it has lots of peaks and valleys which combine for an exciting ride of climbing and coasting in and around a lot of mountains. It wasn't until late in the afternoon that we got to some straight roads. Part of the fun of travelling in places that you [View Full Entry]

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...sponsored by the wishy washy washing machine company of Walla Walla Washington. Phew, say that ten times fast!! We started out this morning searching for Twin Peaks Kitsch. Remember now, the tv series we are referring to was over fifteen years ago. The Mar T Diner is there, but renamed after being rebuilt from an arson fire. We went in and it still advertises Damn Fine Coffee and Cherry Pie! They have done a good job with memorabilia from the series in the corridor as well. There is construction in North Bend so we were not able to go and see [View Full Entry]

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We were up early and on our way from Victoria to Snoqualmie, Washington. This necessitated a two hour ferry ride between Sidney to Anacortes, Washington. The ferry ride was really gorgeous as it weaved between many large islands between Vancouver Island and the US. The drive from Anacortes towards Seattle was smooth but the highway traffic was thick. We didn't get into any mountain driving until we bypassed Seattle. The trip was actually one of our shorter drives. Snoqualmie is one of the small towns in upper Washington State that was home to the cult classic Twin Peaks. Both Eric a [View Full Entry]

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Today's outing was to Pender Island. To get there we needed to travel up island to Sidney to catch a ferry, for a 45 minute ride. Wayne and Nichole organized the excursion to go play frisbee golf. Eric and I had never done this so we figured it was a golf course that you use frisbees. Not too difficult right? Were we wrong! Frisbee Golf is better described as a sport for mountain goats! The course is on the side of a mountain and the idea is to throw your frisbee up or down, in between and around trees toward a [View Full Entry]

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Since this was Eric's first trip to Vancouver Island, Nichole played tour guide and took us up island to Duncan and Chemainus. The murals in Chemainus are amazing and tell the story of the town's evolution. They have added life like sculptures now too. We had one thing to see in Duncan. The world's largest hockey stick. Given the state of the NHL and that they finally have come to terms on an agreement, it was even more fun to see the stick this year! To get a good picture we had to walk around the arena, through a ball field [View Full Entry]

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Eric and I left Vancouver after a delicious feast at Slickitty Jim's Chat and Chew Diner! We travelled to Victoria on the ferry (Eric's first big boat ride), and found our way to Nichole's place. Wayne arranged for them to be away for a little while in the afternoon just long enough for us to get there and get ready for the big surprise! The plan was to be in their back yard, behind their plum tree just partially out of sight so that we could shock her a little. Wayne thought it would be a good idea for us to [View Full Entry]

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Spent a couple of days seeing the sights of Vancouver. Yesterday we walked along the seawall in Stanley Park, had a wonderful dinner at the Fish House, followed by a drive through the rest of the park. Although dinner was good, it wasn't sitting so well with one of us overnight! Today we ventured to North Vancouver to the Capilano Suspension Bridge. No one told me we had to do it twice! I thought I could scamper across real quick and no one would realize that I am afraid of heights. I made it across and then was told that it [View Full Entry]

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