Waltzing Matilda

"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/gal., which included higher Canadian prices): $3,900. • Number of oil changes: 8. • Number of mechanic shops Matilda visited: 5 (in Blaine, Wash., Vancouver, B.C., Kansas City, Mo., Louisville, Ky., & Levis, Qc.). • Parts that failed: - Starter (twice), - Engine water pump, - Fresh water tank pump. - Al... read more

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 endpoint for our travels. Our year-long sabbatical continues, but there'll be no more wandering for Waltzing Matilda. We worked our way to Port Townsend a couple of weeks later over very familiar territory, and in ... read more

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 the photos in order using the forward and back arrows, like a slideshow. The images show up big and the captions and titles appear alongside. 2) At the end of the blog text, and just ... read more

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 meandered from that state’s coastal band through New Hampshire to Vermont and on to Massachusetts. We’re glad to be back in familiar territory—as I (Shelly) attended college in Massachusetts and explored pretty far and wide—and especially ... read more

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 lies at 122 degrees, 45 minutes west. We’ve turned the corner. From now on, every mile traveled is a westward one. We can hardly believe it. Cape Bretons justifiably consider their homeland to be the center of the universe, so when locals ... read more