Blogs from North America - page 8181

Here’s what happens to working holiday travel blogs: interlaced between rambles about climbing, you start reading about television, work, shopping (coming soon - I promise), cooking (also coming soon), housework even, (why not?). Right now, I thought I would share my standard jog route with you. By standard, I mean it is the jog I do when I do not have enough time to be creative or discover new trails. I probably end up doing this jog every second or third day. I run along the laneway behind our house, through a section of forest and then down through the middle of a pretty (but not exactly wilderness) boulevard and back. It’s a good combination of hills and forest and park. Probably only about 8 to 10 KMs in total. I love running back and ... read more

We stayed the night on the Ute Reservation, where we met some fellow campers (actually, we both just happened to be dumping our...um...waste water....at the same time). They told us about Mesa Verda, which we were only about 25 miles from and hadn't really been planning on visiting. But we're so glad we did! It was awesome...it was the home of quite a few "ancestral puebloan" ruins. To put it more interestingly, there were all of these awesome multilevel and multiroom homes built into the side of the cliffs, under natural arches. We even got to walk around in one. The strange thing about them was that the people seem to have just up and left, without leaving any clues to where they were going and why. and this was all in 1200-1300 ad. Check ... read more

So its been a while, for once through pure idleness rather than lack of access though. We arrived in Phoenix just under a week ago now and it is such a different place than anywhere else so far. We've done a huge city, tropical marshland and now the desert. Its nice to be mixing it up. The flight was good and it had the bonus of landing 40 mins early amazingly. Still had to wait when we got there though because we didn't see Rebecca who was picking us up. We were both stood at opposite ends of the baggage claim and didn't notice each other! Luckily it was only a few minutes before it clicked. On a slight aside, baggage claim is really wierd here, instead of collecting your bags and then heading to the ... read more

I had planned on doing a little more blogging, but I have had a little unexpected surprise. I have recently come across a small kitten who was placed in a box and thrown onto the side of a road in a more rural portion of the city. The kitten was extremely sick, weighing only three pounds and having a severe upper respiratory infection. Being an animal lover (having two cats and a dog of my own), I was moved with pity for such a sick little critter. Consequently, I took this little one into my possession, got it to a veterinarian, and paid for some treatment. It is amazing how something so small (and not even your own) can cost so much money and time. Nonetheless, she is slowly coming back. I am hoping to ... read more

Every journey has a dual nature. There’s the journey outwards, traveling to distant lands, encountering different cultures, making new friends and going to places that you’ve never been before. And then there’s the journey inwards, the inward itinerary that takes you to destinations within yourself, some of which may be familiar, and some of which may also be places you’ve never been before. It’s the mirroring of the outward and the inward journeys that makes traveling such a unique and rewarding experience. Though my trip won’t actually start for another six days, in many ways the journey began for me two years ago when I left work to begin studies in theology full time at St. Paul University in Ottawa. When my wife Guylaine found out that there would be internships as part of the ... read more