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Waltzing Matilda - Shelly & Jeff Randall

We are a writer/photographer and a land-use planner from Port Townsend, Wash., who quit our jobs to take a year-long "sabbatical" for the 12 months of 2006.

Our travel vehicle was a Volkswagen Westfalia camper-van named Matilda, after the Australian phrase (and song) "Waltzing Matilda" -- meaning to hit the road with your possessions slung in a bag over your shoulder. We were glad not to be wandering on foot like those Aussie swagmen!

We had a memorable trip waltzing around the U.S. and Canada, learning as much as we could about this vast and diverse continent we call home. So glad we did it at this point in our lives.

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Joined on: December 2nd 2005
Last Login: January 23rd 2009

Blog Entries: 23
Photos: 779

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Blogs & Travel Journals

by Waltzing Matilda, order by Date newest first.

By Waltzing Matilda
June 10th 2007

Final Trip Stats North America » United States » Washington » Port Townsend

Our Route
We Waltzed Matilda all around North America! Map outline (c) iStockphoto.com/Eugene Ilchenko.

"WALTZING MATILDA" TRIP STATISTICS • Spent 300 days on the road. • Visited 41 states, 5 provinces. • Spanned 20 degrees of latitude and 62 degrees of longitude. • Put 26,225 miles on the odometer. (Link to Wayfarer route map with cities and states identified.) OUR VEHICLE • Gas mileage: appr. 20 mpg. • Estimated gallons of gas: 1,300—a 747 could fly only about 25 minutes on this much gas! • Estimated amount spent on gas (average $3 [View Full Entry]

By Waltzing Matilda
June 10th 2007

Six Months into 2007: An Update North America » United States » Washington » Port Townsend

A Toast to 2007
Shelly & Jeff toast on New Year's Eve 2006. This is the parallel picture to the champagne toast we made in January 2006 at the start of our road trip (below).[photo=201591]

June 10, 2007 At home in Port Townsend, Wash. Approx. 6 months after our return The following letter was mailed in April to the 160 families we came into contact with (!) on our trip. It's been updated through June 2007 and, along with a separate entry detailing our trip statistics (see Final Trip Stats), is intended to be the final entry of this epic travel blog. Thanks for following along! 2006 was a life-changing year for us, and we will always remember your role in it. W [View Full Entry]

By Waltzing Matilda
December 11th 2006

Home Again 10 Months Later North America » United States » Washington » Port Townsend

Delicate Arch
Shelly stands beneath her favorite arch in Arches National Park, named Delicate. It used to be part of a rock wall, so its current freestanding position is truly amazing.

November 10 - December 10, 2006 Arches National Park, near Moab, Utah - Port Townsend, Wash. 25,796 miles wraps up our road trip 2,097 miles this final leg At 3 p.m. Pacific Standard Time on Nov. 17, Matilda crossed into the original time zone from whence she came, and well after dark at 7:30 p.m., we crossed the state border between Idaho and Washington and were HOME! Our road trip officially ended a few days later, on Nov. 20, when we pulled into the driveway of Jeff’s parents’ house in Coulee City, Wash. We thought the Thanksgiving holidays made a convenient [View Full Entry]

By Waltzing Matilda
November 13th 2006

Into Thin Air in the Rockies North America » United States » Colorado » Grand Junction

Shelly & Jeff
In the scenic Rocky Mountain National Park just west of Denver, Colorado. Photo courtesy of Sierra R.

October 21 - November 9, 2006 Billings, Mont. - near Grand Junction, Colo. 23,699 miles to date 1,315 miles this leg We were gasping for air Nov. 7, and not just because we’d spent two weeks at altitude. But because the preliminary election results showed a flip-flop of party power in both the U.S. House and Senate, and we could hardly believe so many voters had come to their senses. One of the national events that pushed us take a year to travel the country was the 2004 RE-election of George W. Bush. Surrounded by like-minded liberal and solidly Democratic citizens [View Full Entry]

By Waltzing Matilda
October 23rd 2006

Winter Migration North America » United States » Montana » Little Bighorn Battlefield

Ultralight Leading Crane South
In Wisconsin, we had the amazing experience of watching the start of the bred-in-captivity whooping crane winter migration: 18 juvenile birds being led to Florida

October 3 - 20, 2006 Milwaukee, Wis. - Little Bighorn Battlefield, Mont. 22,384 miles to date 2,241 miles this leg NOTE ABOUT NEW PHOTO FORMAT: You may have noticed that the photo format has recently changed on this (free) blogging service. If we post more than 30 photos per entry (highly likely), then the majority of the photos appear as tiny thumbnails at the bottom of the entry. But the captions and titles are still there (fear not!), and here are two easy ways to view them in the new format: 1) Click on the first thumbnail and then scroll through [View Full Entry]

By Waltzing Matilda
October 6th 2006

Westward Ho: The Setting Sun in Our Eyes North America » United States » Illinois » Chicago

Whale Jaws
Shelly at the entry arch to a Cape Cod whaling captain's house: the lower jawbones of a fin whale at the Capt. Penniman House.

September 13 - October 2, 2006 Chatham, Cape Cod, Mass. - Chicago, Ill. 20,143 miles to date 1,792 miles this leg We’ve been squinting a lot in the last two weeks, now that we’re traveling west into the setting sun. Our generally southern route through New England took a decided right-hand turn when we departed Cape Cod, Mass. All the months we spent driving east, the roadway was nicely backlit during our preferred afternoon driving hours. I remember thinking how bright that same low-slung sun would be when we reversed direction. You'll notice our odomete [View Full Entry]

By Waltzing Matilda
September 17th 2006

September in New England North America » United States » Massachusetts » Essex

Whales Ho!
Wow! Two humpbacks sighted on Stellwagen Bank off Cape Ann, Mass.

August 21 - September 12, 2006 St. Peter’s, Nova Scotia - Chebacco Lake, Essex, Mass. 18,351 miles to date 1,942 miles this leg Ah, September, this rarest and most treasured of months. When we were planning for this trip, friends and relatives across the country urged us to visit them in September. “It won’t be too hot or too cold, and the leaves will be starting to turn,” was the gist of their suggestions. But since we can only spend September in one spot, we chose New England. We crossed from New Brunswick into Maine on Aug. 24 and have meande [View Full Entry]

By Waltzing Matilda
August 30th 2006

Lobster Special! North America » Canada » New Brunswick » Richibucto

Leaving the Dock
Lobsterboat leaving the Richibucto docks before sunrise.

August 23, 2006 Richibucto Harbour, New Brunswick & Northumberland Strait What’s purply-brown, armored like a tank, can be right- or left-clawed, and goes by the nickname of “bug” out here on the east coast? We found out one week ago, when we were handed an opportunity that was too good to pass up: spending a day on a New Brunswick lobsterboat and seeing what the life of a lobsterman is really like. It ended with a dinner featuring those tasty “bugs.” The offer came through a new friend we met on a whale-watching cruise in Nova Scotia a few d [View Full Entry]

By Waltzing Matilda
August 22nd 2006

The "Unavoidables" En Route to Our Eastern Apex North America » Canada » Nova Scotia » Cape Breton

Close Enough to Our Eastern Apex
Us a-grinnin' at Cape North, Cape Breton island, Nova Scotia. What a scenic place!

July 26 - August 20, 2006 Saranac Lake, N.Y. - Louisbourg, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia 16,409 miles to date 2,853 miles this leg Today, August 20, we crested the eastern-most point of our round-the-continent road trip: Louisbourg on the magical tip of Cape Breton in Nova Scotia—what we consider a little piece of Ireland that has washed up on North American shores. The official longitude: 59 degrees, 58 minutes west of Greenwich. That’s 62 degrees of longitude (or more than one-sixth the circumference of the globe at that latitude!) traveled from Port Townsend, which lie [View Full Entry]

By Waltzing Matilda
July 26th 2006

Falling in Love with Canadians North America » Canada » Quebec » Montréal

Horseshoe Falls
At 167 feet high, the water (600,000 gal/sec) pouring over Horseshoe Falls makes a tower of mist, which the Maid of the Mist boats bravely enter.

July 8 - July 25, 2006 Gettysburg, Pa. - Montreal, Que. 13,556 miles to date 1,217 miles this leg Since we’re in French Canada, the headline must be bilingual: Tomber Amboreaux des Canadiens! Our Montreal host had to reference two dictionaries to properly translate that idiom and conjugate the verb, and that’s but one example of the lengths our new Canadian friends are going for us. The connecting thread of the past two and a half weeks has been the wonderful people we’ve met in an area of the continent where our address book was previously blank. We& [View Full Entry]

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Waltzing Matilda - Shelly & Jeff Randall

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