Blogs from North America - page 7958

Hello, Manitoba! (Just to warn you, this is fairly long!) Thursday, 5 July, 2007 It was another lovely park morning, almost on the cool side. I will say we’ve been really fortunate on the whole with respect to weather - I’m not the sort who enjoys going out for a day in the rain, sorry, and we’ve somehow managed to “just miss” a lot of the bad weather which has affected communities we’ve visited or which we were planning to visit - maybe someone’s on my side. This morning I packed up all my stuff & left it for Bob to pack in the van, then headed out on Silver for Roblin, Manitoba. The previous evening we’d located where the TCT in Manitoba begins, and it was a fairly easy 7 km ride to that point, ... read more

High temperatures have prompted authorities to issue warnings stating that activity anytime other than the early morning hours could be dangerous. You know, I thought we were really going to enjoy this break from the open road, lounging around in a temperature controlled environment but claustrophobia is quickly setting it. Temperatures here reached up to 116F (47C) yesterday and have reached record highs throughout the southwest. Not quite hot enough to fry an egg (yes, we tried) but pretty darn close. What a perfect summer for a cross-country road trip—record gasoline prices and record heat waves! Talk about good timing. Last we wrote we were waking up in the cool, shady groves of San Juan National Forest. Originally we were going to spend some time down around the four-corners area, but as the landscape rolled on ... read more

We visited Mt. Rainier today and were so impressed with the beauty of this place. It is hard to imagine that several days of rain in a wet region such as the Pacific Northwest would close a national park for six months. But when copious amounts of water (18" in 34 hours) rushed down hillsides and roads and overfilled the rivers within Mount Rainier National Park's boundaries, the end result was a loss of campgrounds, roads, trails and utilities. The devastation was amazing. The flood occurred on November 6 and 7, 2006, just last year. It was an historical, natural event unlike any other that has been recorded in Mount Rainier National Park's 108 year history! The river which is normally very small in comparison to most rivers swelled to 100 times it's size , rushed ... read more

Several of you expressed concerns about NOT getting some of my travel entries this winter. Well here you go ...and I might be able to attach photos this time...... read more

We spent the last week at the Ron Jon Resort in Cape Canaveral, which is near Cocoa Beach and Kennedy Space Center. World famous Ron Jon Surf Shop has a resort and it's nicely set up for a family to relax on and near the beach. Although the Resort is advertised as beach front, the main building is a short walk from the beach. They get away with calling it beach front because they have a second (smaller) building closer to the beach. The main attraction of the Resort is the large pool area that features a water slide, lazy river, and seperate large pool to satisfy anyone's preference while soaking up the sun's rays and keeping cool. There is a pool side bar and grill that is perfect for ordering food and drinks while ... read more