http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Waltzing-Matilda/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Waltzing Matilda en-us Sun, 29 Nov 2009 20:59:59 +0000 Sun, 29 Nov 2009 20:59:59 +0000 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 2 http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Washington/Port-Townsend/blog-167478.html WALTZING MATILDA TRIP STATISTICS bull Spent 300 days on the road. bull Visited 41 states 5 provinces. bull Spanned 20 degrees of latitude and 62 degrees of longitude. bull Put 26225 miles on the odometer. Link to Wayfarer route map with cities and states identified. OUR VEHICLE bull Gas mileage appr. 20 mpg. bull Estimated gallons of gas 1300mdasha 747 could fly only abou http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Washington/Port-Townsend/blog-167483.html November 10 December 10 2006 Arches National Park near Moab Utah Port Townsend Wash. 25796 miles wraps up our road trip2097 miles this final legAt 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 730 p.m. we crossed the state border between Idaho and Washington and were HOMEOur road trip officially ended http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Washington/Port-Townsend/blog-109913.html October 21 November 9 2006Billings Mont. near Grand Junction Colo.23699 miles to date1315 miles this legWe were gasping for air Nov. 7 and not just because wersquod spent two weeks at altitude. But because the preliminary election results showed a flipflop 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 http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Colorado/Grand-Junction/blog-101178.html October 3 20 2006Milwaukee Wis. Little Bighorn Battlefield Mont.22384 miles to date2241 miles this legNOTE ABOUT NEW PHOTO FORMATYou 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 http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Montana/Little-Bighorn-Battlefield/blog-97124.html September 13 October 2 2006Chatham Cape Cod Mass. Chicago Ill.20143 miles to date1792 miles this legWersquove been squinting a lot in the last two weeks now that wersquore traveling west into the setting sun. Our generally southern route through New England took a decided righthand turn when we departed Cape Cod Mass. All the months we spent driving east the roadway was nicely ba http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Illinois/Chicago/blog-92100.html August 21 September 12 2006St. Peterrsquos Nova Scotia Chebacco Lake Essex Mass.18351 miles to date1942 miles this legAh 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. ldquoIt wonrsquot be too hot or too cold and the leaves will be starting to turnrdquo was http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Massachusetts/Essex/blog-88775.html August 23 2006Richibucto Harbour New Brunswick Northumberland StraitWhatrsquos purplybrown armored like a tank can be right or leftclawed and goes by the nickname of ldquobugrdquo out here on the east coastWe 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 lobsterm http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/New-Brunswick/Richibucto/blog-85018.html July 26 August 20 2006Saranac Lake N.Y. Louisbourg Cape Breton Nova Scotia16409 miles to date2853 miles this legToday August 20 we crested the easternmost point of our roundthecontinent road trip Louisbourg on the magical tip of Cape Breton in Nova Scotiamdashwhat we consider a little piece of Ireland that has washed up on North American shores. The official longitude 59 degrees http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Nova-Scotia/Cape-Breton/blog-83666.html July 8 July 25 2006Gettysburg Pa. Montreal Que.13556 miles to date1217 miles this legSince wersquore in French Canada the headline must be bilingual Tomber Amboreaux des CanadiensOur Montreal host had to reference two dictionaries to properly translate that idiom and conjugate the verb and thatrsquos but one example of the lengths our new Canadian friends are going for us. The con http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Quebec/Montreal/blog-75482.html May 18 June 3 2006Biloxi Miss. Hendersonville N.C.9246 miles to date1490 miles this legApologies for technical difficulties that delayed the posting of this entry...On May 18 Jeff and I celebrated our fouryear wedding anniversary with a significant outing we went sailing for the first time since leaving Port Townsend. Jeff later argued that it wasnrsquot really sailing because we did http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/North-Carolina/Hendersonville/blog-64734.html June 23 July 7 2006Marshall N.C. Washington D.C.12339 miles to date1483 miles this legBecause we could we routed our trip to Washington D.C. for the Fourth of July. This was Jeffrsquos first visit to the nationrsquos capital I had made many trips there while in college but hadnrsquot visited since 1998. Our first encounter with the city core was after dark on the third of July http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/District-of-Columbia/Washington/blog-72470.html June 4 22 2006Hot Springs N.C. Savannah Ga. Charleston S.C. Charlotte N.C. Loop10856 miles to date1610 miles this legNOTE In addition to the updated Route Map we've made revisions to the Proposed Route Map for now it includes NewfoundlandFour and a half months after leaving our Northwest home we reached the Southeast apex of our roundthecountry trip. We first saw the Atlanti http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/North-Carolina/Charlotte/blog-69085.html May 3 May 17 2006Lake Providence La. Bay St. Louis Miss.7756 miles to date631 miles this legWhew. We hardly know where to start. Nearly all of the last two weeks was spent in Hurricane Katrinarsquos destruction zone and although nearly nine months have passed since this ldquostorm of the centuryrdquo itrsquos mindboggling to see for ourselves much more effort the recovery is goi http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Mississippi/Bay-St--Louis/blog-60092.html April 18 May 2 2006Leavenworth Kan. Lake Chicot Ark.Mile 71251750 Miles this LegDriving a 17yearold vehicle around the country we expected to have periodic mechanical troubles. And a few hours after the last blog posting we had to tap into the ldquorepairsrdquo reserve in our trip budget. Matilda ldquogave us a startrdquo when her starter failedWe had packed up on April 18 an http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Arkansas/Lake-Chicot/blog-56394.html March 21 April 2 2006Palm Springs Calif. Canyon de Chelly Ariz.Mile 3834On our trek into the southwestmdashdestination Canyon de Chellymdashwersquove been offered several different pronunciations of the famous Anasazi dwelling place. Upon arrival in the Navajo Nation we received the definitive answer itrsquos not Canyon de Shelly but drsquoShay as in the French. I was a bit http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Arizona/Navajo-Nation-Reservation/blog-50612.html February 27 March 10 2006Ferndale Santa Cruz Calif.Mile 1731Forget what I said about ldquosunny Californiardquo in the last entry. Itrsquos still winter here and wersquove had our share of precipitation in the last 10 days some of it frozen In the highelevation logging town of Redway we were pelted with such highvelocity hail that I worried our new windshield would shatter m http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/Santa-Cruz/blog-45896.html April 3 17 2006Cortez Colo. Leavenworth Kan.Mile 53751541 Miles this LegWe are now balanced at the easternmost edge of Kansas more than halfway across the continent from the coast we started on see Route Map. Since leaving Port Townsend on Feb. 9 we have traveled more than 5000 miles in nine weeks. Yet we have used up just a quarter of the time allotted for this road trip andmdash http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Kansas/Leavenworth/blog-53315.html March 11 20 2006Monterey Palm Springs Calif.Mile 2472Prologue Two months nearly 2500 miles already a million memories. To see a visual representation of the trip thus far click on the ldquoroute maprdquo link at left. I will add these maps to the beginning of blog entries every so often after an appreciable number of miles have accumulated. I have also created a map of our propos http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/Palm-Springs/blog-48088.html We threw Sabbatical Sendoff Celebrations for ourselves Dec. 3 and 10 otherwise known as PutaPinintheMap Parties. We're building a list of contacts across the country who will be glad to show us around their home towns. Here are a couple of photos from these fun gettogethers.Our sabbatical officially begins January 1 2006 so look for the first travel entry early in the new year. We plan http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Washington/Port-Townsend/blog-29655.html