Blogs from North America

This trip has been in the works for a few years. Here's what our trip looks like!... read more

Hi I hope you hav enjoyed reading about my wonderful 9 week trip of the States and Canada. Apologies go out for taking forever to finish the blogs off, and I hope the wait for some people was rewarded. I thoroughly enjoyed originally writing my journal as I went on my Tour, then writing it up into a book, then extracting and editing each entry for my blog, and as I finished entering the last few entries, even almost 2 years after it had all happened, all theemotions came back to me once more. I would just like to finish the blog with a brief summary of what has happened since the Tour ended. I'm sure there are people who might like to know, whilst others may not give a damn. Here goes: After coming back ... read more

The Late Jurassic age Mygatt-Moore Quarry is located in the middle Brushy Basin Member of the Morrison Formation. Located in western Colorado, this quarry has been worked since the early 1980s, producing a large sample of fossil vertebrate material consisting mostly of dinosaurs. For this study, 796 identifiable bones were counted from the Museum of Western Colorado's collections with the goal of characterizing the vertebrate fauna from this site for the first time. The bone sample consists of 50% sauropod bones and 30% theropod. A minimum number of 21 individual dinosaurs are represented. The most abundant taxon at the quarry is the theropod Allosaurus (29%), which is represented by 233 skeletal elements indicating a minimum of 6 individuals (5 adults, 1 juvenile); in addition, more than 190 mostly shed teeth of Allosaurus have been recovered from ... read more

I reached Seattle safely late on May 14th. It was good to see my house and sleep in my own bed. I quickly got back into my usual routine; went to the opera to see Madame Butterfly with friend Nancy, reconnected with my favorite little girls next door and then on the 19th started off on a bicycle ride on a clear, sunny day. At about mile 30 on the popular Sammamish River trail I swirved to avoid a yappy little dog, hit the pavement edge and crashed in a heap. I am now slowly recovering from surgery to repair a shattered left wrist. I also have several bruises, cuts and sprains to deal with. I'll be out of commission for some time but I consider myself a very lucky man. I could have been much ... read more

Day 7. One week down, fifty-one to go. On this lucky-numbered day, we finished up the Big Sur coastline. The sun was coming through the clouds, and the water sparkled. We passed a beautiful cove: waves crashing against worn rocks, a little stream coming out the hills, a sandbar covered in shorebirds, the hillsides glistening with dew. In another cove, we saw two sea otters resting amongst the kelp and at least 25 harbor seals relaxing on the rocks. Passing over several historic bridges built in the early 1930's, we came to Monterey, a city set like a gem on the oceanfront. Following signs for the famous aquarium, we came down alongside the beach, where we found some surprisingly decently-priced parking. ($2 an hour! Downtown!) Before heading to the aquarium, we took Rascal for a walk. ... read more

When we woke up in Jasper we had every intention of paying to dispose of the car and then either hitch hiking or catching a bus to Vancouver. We went to the towing company that would tow the car out of National Park and were about to pay but had no cash and they did not take debit. We drove to the nearest ATM and pulled our cash out, but on the way back we stopped in an empty parking lot and did a few donuts to say goodbye. After a good slam on the brakes all of the noises suddenly stopped. The brake screeching was gone, and the strut noise was gone as well. We made the decision right then that it was fate and we had to try to drive it to Vancouver. We ... read more