Day 18 July 21 Colorado Springs to Ruidoso We drove to Ruidoso. Very uneventful except for a stop at a roadside park where I found a cell phone. I called the listing for Mom and mailed it to her so she could send it back to her son who was on his way to take his wife to a doctor in Mexico. It felt so good to get back to Ruidoso. They had a lot of rain so everything was very wet. For several days we just laid around except for a trip to Alamogordo to see Journey to the Center [View Full Entry]

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Day 17 July 20 Casper to Colorado Springs We continued on our journey to Fort Laramie, Wyoming. Having seen a lot of westerns growing up I expected to see a large walled fort. As we were walking up to the fort a German tourist was asking one of the guides dressed in a blue wool military uniform they wore back in the day where were the walls. The guide said that this fort was very peaceful and had no need for walls. Ft. Kearney was the site of many of the battles with the Plains Indians and soldiers rode from Fort [View Full Entry]

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Day 16 July 19 Bozeman to Casper Bozeman with 38,000 people is the largest city in Montana. Imagine that. Since we entered the US there have been lots of motorcycles everywhere. Wonder if it has something to do with Sturgis and the big motorcycle event they have. I loved driving through Big Sky Country. Everything was so wide open and you could see for miles. Everything looked very green so I imagine they had been receiving a lot of rain. Our first and only stop of the day was in Cody, Wyoming at the Cody Museum. It is divided into five [View Full Entry]

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Day 15 July18 Windermere to Bozeman When we turned on the car it was great to see we were back in the range navigation system. We had to rely just on MAPS for the last couple of day. The first stop back in the States was perfect. A duty free joint in Roosville, Montana (no relation to Hannah, girls) named The First and Last Chance Bar. It was about 10:00 in the morning and both patrons were already deep in their cups along with the bartender, who had a vicious little dog he said did not like anyone, except apparently the [View Full Entry]

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Day 14 July 17 Jasper to Windermere Jasper National Park, just north of Banff National Park contains northern part of the Rocky Mountains. There are numerous glaciers. Our day started out with a trip to the grocery store to buy picnic items. We always like to visit grocery stores to see what different regions carry and it’s always interesting. This store didn’t disappoint. Many local brands and Canadian brands of food that we had never seen before plus some old favorites that seem universal. Heading down the Icefields Parkway we immediately spied a large black bear walking [View Full Entry]

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July 16 Victoria to Harrison Hot Springs From Victoria we drove to Butchart Gardens at Brentwood Bay. But first we had breakfast at a quaint little café called the Seadrifter with the locals. Butchart is divided into several gardens, including the Rose Gardens, the Formal Gardens, the Japanese Gardens, the Sunken Gardens, and the Totem Gardens. Jennie Butchart developed the gardens on a played out gravel pit her husband had quarried for his successful concrete business. They traveled the world collecting plants. Entering the Rose Gardens was overwhelming in its magnificence with more t [View Full Entry]

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July 17 Harrison Hot Springs to Jasper First off there is no ice in Canada. Its frustrating for people like us who like iced drinks that we can't pull into a gas station and get an icy diet coke. Most of them just have pepsi. Ugh! The day started with a breakfast to the Lakeview Restaurant. The view of the lake was vey scenic. The town was built by tourism. There are hot springs accessible by walking up a mountain or 4 wheel drive. There are also manmade hot springs in the town but we were told they smell bad. The [View Full Entry]

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We got to the ferry at 10 in order to insure a spot on the 12:45 ferry to Victoria. We walked around the town and had lunch at Rick's American Cafe. The ferry ride was about an hour and half and was very scenic. Arriving at Victoria we found our hotel, The Delta, another Priceline find and very, very nice. We walked over the draw bridge to the main part of the city. First stop was the Parliament House. Victoria is the capitol of British Columbia. It was very impressive, especially from the outside. Since the Empress was close by we [View Full Entry]

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First stop was to the Pike. It was so crowded. There is very little in this world that will get me to push my way through heavy crowds so we proceeded to Pioneer Square. The firefighters we having some kind of competition. We had interesting sandwiches at a deli and proceeded to the aquarium where the line was so long we went to the Seattle Museum of Art to see Inspiring Impressionists. Heavy on the Renior and very enjoyable. I think we are getting ready for the Impressionists exhibit in Ft. Worth. We should be experts by then. After taking time [View Full Entry]

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Arousing early we arrived at the Space Needle at opening. The view was fantastic. The guide said you can see Mt. Baker 50 days out of the year and this was one of them. Very day of this trip we have had great weather. We walked by the Museum of Science Fiction and The Museum of Music. Most unusual building but they weren't open yet so we went to the zoo and saw a Komono Dragon. The zoo is organized with different areas and villages representing those areas. The animals have large very roomy areas. There were 2 groups of gorillas, [View Full Entry]

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