On the road in the Canadian Rockies

We spent 9 days in the Canadian Rockies– spending time in all four National Parks – Banff/Lake Louise, Yoho, Kootenay and Jasper. We had snow flurries on and off for the first four days and lots of the trails were still full of snow! Even Lake Louise and Moraine Lake are still frozen over – what a surprise for late May! I thought I was going to get a picture of Lake Louise with the beautiful blue/green color but the picture I took was all white! Apparently the trails aren’t snow free until late June! We saw lots of wildlife , beautiful scenery and had some nice long hikes ( we were able to find some trails that weren’t a foot deep in snow)!


Plus – the chief of maintenance has gotten a break - we’ve had 9 days of problem free travel !

Highlights of Banff/Lake Louise/Kootenay and Yoho

• Beautiful scenery at Lake Louise, Moraine Lake, Emerald Lake and at our campground

• Wildlife – big horn sheep and elk

• Great hiking trails that Molly could go on too ( Canada National Parks allow dogs on the trails)

Highlights of Jasper National Park

• Icefield Parkway drive with lots of Glaciers

• More great hiking to beautiful turquoise blue lakes and thundering waterfalls

Click on the arrow to play the video of the loons - beautiful birds!

• Wildlife – black bears!

Next stop – Prince Rupert, British Columbia where we board the Alaska Ferry to travel through the inside passage of Southeast Alaska. We’ll spend the next week slowly meandering our way west on the Yellowhead Highway to Prince Rupert. It’s a road less travelled so we’re not sure what to expect – hopefully we’ll be pleasantly surprised!

Great Falls and Glacier National Park, Montana

We traveled from the Black Hills of South Dakota to Great Falls, Montana and on to Glacier National Park and also Waterton National Park ( the sister park in Canada to Glacier). Lots of wildlife sightings, beautiful scenery and waterfalls and history about Lewis and Clark and the indian tribes of the area.

We had yet another repair issue - it would be so boring if everything went smoothly! This time Rose had a coolant leak that Gary had to fix but fortunately it was just tightening the hose and adding more coolant that we brought along with us! As they say in Ireland - easy peasy, done and dusted!

Great Falls Montana

This was not a planned stop but turned out great! Getting there was a really long day - 11 and a half hours but fortunately the western scenery made it seem not as long....

Highlights

• Visited  Benton Lake Wildlife Refuge and saw thousands of migrating waterfowl.
• Stopped at the National Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center and learned a lot about the 18 month expedition from St. Louis to the west coast.
• Went to the Great Springs State Park on the Missouri river - the largest spring and the shortest river in the US that flows into the Missouri - 210 feet long

Glacier and Waterton National Parks

The scenery is incredible here. Beautiful snow covered mountains, glaciers and waterfalls and wildlife too!

Highlights

• Going to the Sun scenic drive

• Hike to St Mary and Virginia Falls

• Beautiful views from the campground - "slightly" better than our normal vies at a Walmart parking lot! Plus a Really unusual off road RV that a Swiss family shipped to the US to travel in!


• Wildlife sightings

We have loaded up Scooter in Rose's garage for the drive up to the Canadian Rockies tomorrow to see Banff, Lake Louise and Jasper National Parks. The price of gas is double what it is in the US - ouch! Plus roaming costs and our Verizon broadband are really expensive to use in Canada so we'll be on the lookout for WIFI hotspots to update the blog!

Exploring the wild west in South Dakota

We left home on Monday, May 10 – one week ago today. We loaded up Scooter ( our Smart car) for the long ride cross country in Rose. Rose was anxious to get on the road again and so were we!

We spent two days on the road and drove 1,200 miles staying at Walmarts each night. We’ve already had a few “repairs” along the way and fortunately the master mechanic, Gary, was able to fix them on the road. We had a loose windshield wiper that was “drooping” – yes we’re STILL having windshield wiper issues even though we changed out the windshield wipers to a different kind ( supposedly more “sturdy!) , the generator kept cutting off and our mud flap on the back came loose on one side plus we lost one hub cap on Rose. We sure do hope that we don’t have this many problems the whole trip!

Our first fun stop was at the Badlands National Park in South Dakota. We could see why it is called the Badlands. It’s a very desolate area – no wonder many of the pioneers that settled in the badlands moved on to better lands! It was truly the wild, wild west! I would have made a lousy pioneer – how did they survive without air-conditioning!

We spent two days in the Black Hills of South Dakota to see Mt. Rushmore, Custer State Park and Wind Cave National Park. We saw lots of animals - bison, pronghorn antelope, mountain goats, coyotes, prairie dogs, marmots and lovely scenery! Mt. Rushmore is quite impressive to see….. We tried to take a hike with Molly but the snow on the trails was still too deep - Molly was up to her chest in snow!

Now we’re on the road again, headed to Great Falls, Montana and then on to Glacier National Park and Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada!

North to Alaska!

After 6 months of planning and anticipation, we are almost ready to leave for our BIG trip to Alaska - 10,000 miles in "Rose" our motor home! The comforts of home ( like a dishwasher, washer and dryer and  just more space to spread out in)  will be missed but it's the trade off for having a home on wheels that takes us to beautiful places that we've never seen before!

Our new granddaughter Lyla arrives!
Our original plan was to start out on our trip to Alaska in mid April but when we found out that Anna and Drew were expecting another little girl in May ( our second granddaughter) we of course changed our plans to leave after the baby was born! Since then we've been anxiously awaiting the arrival of our new little granddaughter Lyla Elizabeth. She was born 3 weeks early on April 27 and she is adorable! Her "big sis" Emmy just loves playing with her baby dolls and since Lyla is just about the same size as the baby dolls, Emmy's delighted to have a little sister to hold!

We took care of Emmy while Anna and Drew were in the hospital. Emmy is talking up a storm. We're still trying to figure out what "con corny" is - she points and says it alot but we don't have a clue what she's talking about.  It's so much fun to be with her- she is so full of energy and gets excited by the littlest things - like a flower or the wind in her hair!


Drew, Anna, Emmy and Lyla. Lyla is one day old.

Molly making sure Emmy cleans her plate!

Now it's time to head north to Alaska!
So now we're back home finishing our packing and planning for our trip. We'll be travelling through the Midwest with our first stop in South Dakota to see the Badlands National Park and Mt. Rushmore. Then we'll head north through Montana to the Canadian Rockies for a few days and then west to Prince Rupert to catch the Alaska Ferry through the inside passage. We're planning 6 stops along the way to Skagway, Wrangell, Petersburg, Juneau, Haines and finally Skagway.  At Skagway we'll be back on the road again heading north on the Klondike Highway through the Yukon and then into the main part of Alaska - Fairbanks, Arctic Circle, Denali National Park, Anchorage and the Kenai Peninsula. This is the  longest we've ever been on the road and the furthest we've ever driven in "Rose" so it will be quite an adventure full of lots of unexpected surprises and challenges!

Gary has replaced Rose's windshield wipers with a new style - sure hope Rose adjusts to them and doesn't throw them off like the last ones! Fingers crossed! Plus we're taking extra fan belts, spare headlight bulbs, fluids for Rose, etc.

Molly is helping with the packing. Her list includes dog biscuits, treats, toys, food and she prefers us to leave the comb and clippers at home. And - she's also helping with the planning - well sort of!

Molly hard at work planning the trip!

Now there's the oil spill in the gulf that is expected to raise the price of gasoline to possibly $5 a gallon (we sure hope not, it's not in our budget) and who knows what else will happen while we are gone for 5 months - flexibility is key!

We're watching the weather forecast now so that we can scramble through tornado alley between big storms. It looks like sometime this weekend or early next week will be a window of opportunity! But first we have to get Molly's health certificate to get into Canada and finish our "to do" list!

We invite you to follow along as we travel through Canada and on to Alaska and back! Broadband is scarce in rural Alaska and the Yukon Territory so we'll update our blog whenever we can - hopefully every couple of weeks.

Florida Space Coast

I grew up in Florida but never spent much time on the east coast except around Daytona Beach. The "middle section" of the east coast has changed dramatically thanks to the preservation of  many of the beaches on the  barrier islands - now protected from development and preserved for the nesting sea turtles. The space center and the wildlife refuges seem to live in harmony along the east coast of Florida.
We focused on three areas along the space coast:

• Barrier Islands from Melbourne to Sebastian along A1A
• Kennedy Space Center
• Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and Cape Canaveral National Seashore

Barrier Islands along A1A
We spent a full day driving along A1A and stopping at several excellent points of interest - Indian River Lagoon Preserve, Sebastian Inlet State Park, Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge ( the first wildlife refuge in the US) and the Archie Carr Environmental Center and Wildlife Refuge. You'll learn about the barrier islands and how they are changtles and their struggle to survive, local history of the area at the fishing museum and the treasure museum. There are also quite a few walking trails and interpretive signs along the way. We saw a wild bobcat at the Pelican Refuge while we were hiking to the boardwalk! You just never know what you'll see, do you!

Kennedy Space Center

We visited the space center with our son 25 years ago and there wasn't much there except one museum and the launch pad and assembly building. What an incredible change since then! Not only has the technology changed but there are MANY new exhibits to see as well as two really good 3D movies - one about the space station and one about landing on the moon. You can even take a tour of the clean room where they assemble components of the space station and attend a talk with an astronaut. There are lots of "hands on" exhibits where you can try your hand at landing the lunar module on the moon or landing the space shuttle- I crashed and burned, Gary as a former pilot did very well - it was lots of fun! Admission is for 2 days in a 7 day period. If you're interested in this sort of stuff, you can easily spend a day and a half there. If you're a flying enthusiast like Gary, we recommend the Astronaut Training Experience. You actually go through astronaut training and fly a mission to the international space station! Plus you get to tryout two of the simulators that the astronauts use for training.

Canaveral National Seashore/Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge

We thought we might spend an hour at each of these and we ended up spending all day!  The Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge has a 7 mile wildlife drive called Black Point. It is well worth the time! We saw 1,000's of blue winged teals, wood storks and roseated spoonbills!

he north district ( Apollo Beach) portion of the Cape Canaveral National Seashore has many interesting areas to explore. You can hike to an indian mound, tour Eldora - an early settlement in Florida, walk on miles of beaches and take a pontoon boat ride with the ranger through Mosquito Lagoon. The name of the lagoon sounds forboding but if you visit in late fall, winter or spring you won't meet any of the critters it's named after!

When we were there in January it was unusually cold for Florida. The sea turtles were washing up on the shore in "shock" from the cold water. The manatees were huddled into little canals trying to stay in water that was 68 degrees or higher so they wouldn't die. It was distressing to watch as a nat lover but comforting to know that the rangers were doing everything they could to protect these endangered species.

Now we're busy planning our REALLY BIG trip though British Columbia and the Yukon to Alaska! We'll continue our blog in May with our next adventure! We hope you'll follow along and just maybe it will peak your interest in planning your own trip to Alaska or at the very least you'll be entertained by our "mis- adventures and get a Real perspective of what it's like in western North America's last frontier! You can see our planned route on our website http//www.travelguidetothecountryside.com.

Traveling in the Florida Keys with our Friends from Ireland

At the last minute we and our friends from Ireland - Mary, Paul and Geoff, decided to meet in Miami and travel together in Rose to the Florida Keys. What an adventure for all of us!

Mary. Paul and Geoff flew to Miami from Ireland and we met them at the Homestead Walmart. Mary had broken her arm 3 days before they flew to Miami but she was determined not to miss the trip - what a trooper she is!

The next morning we all drove down US-1 through the Florida Keys to Big Pine Key where we spent 4 nights. The first day we decided to go to Key West for the day. The sun was shining and the temperature was warm - just as we had hoped it would be! We spent the day exploring Duval Street, going to the southern most point in the US, drinking margaritas ( buy 1 get 1 free), having lunch at Sloppy Joes and watching the sunset at Mallory Square. Molly was with us the whole day and much to our surprised, she was welcome in the bar and the restaurant that we went in! The waitress said she liked the dogs better than most people and she gave Molly a biscuit and a bowl of water.

The sunset celebration at Mallory Square is not to be missed! There are lots of street entertainers and "colorful characters" - it really doesn't matter if you see the sunset or not - it's quite an experience in itself! I wish I had thought to take a picture of the drunk sword swallower - bummer!

The next day we went kayaking through the mangroves, lagoons and around little islands. It was Geoff and Paul's first time to kayak - a really fun experience! We saw all kinds of Florida "critters" including horseshoe crabs, hermit crabs, mangrove crabs, sponges, jelly fish, egrets, herons and a couple of dolphins!

The next day we decided to "chill" at the beach near our campground. We spent the day at Bahia Honda State Park. There's a beautiful beach - one of the few beaches in the keys, a nature center, a fishing pier and several walking trails. The weather was starting to get colder but that didn't discourage our Irish friends who are used to swimming in cold water. They jumped right in! We decided to just relax on the beach....

We packed up camp and drove back up US1 to spend 4 nights in Key Largo - the northern most Florida Key We had a lovely campsite right on the water with our own thatched roof cabana and dock - what a treat!

Paul and Geoff wanted to swim with the dolphins ( gary and I opted not to since we had already had the chance in the Bahamas. The experience they had was so much better than ours so we highly recommend swimming with the dolphins in Key Largo - but if it's cold, wear a wet suit!  Paul didn't want to spend the extra $10 ( my kind of guy)!. Click on the link to get more info on this and other things to see and do in the Florida Keys. http//www.travelguidetothecountryside.com

Since the weather had turned must colder, we opted for the glass bottom boat ride to the Pennekamp coral reefs instead of the snorkeling trip. We saw lots of beautifully colored tropical fish, coral and a sea turtle too!

Our last day together we went Homestead to the Alligator Farm. We took an air boat ride through the Everglades aw an alligator show and a snake show too. It was a really good value for the money.

We reluctantly said our good byes and Mary, Paul and Geoff flew back to Ireland. Gary and I continued our Florida travels. Next stop the Space Coast!

Our first big road trip reluctantly comes to an end

It's hard to believe it has been three months since we left for our first big road trip in Rose. What a fabulous adventure we've had - beautiful sights, wonderful memories and interesting people and history! Rose's windshield was a constantly changing panorama of incredible scenery. We've learned so much about travelling in an RV and we'll put our hard earned knowledge to work on our next adventure to Alaska in the spring!

We spent the last 10 days of our trip meandering our way south along the Maine coast before heading to Atlanta to move our stuff to Tennessee. We had visions of eating lobster every night in Maine for $3 each like we did 15 years ago. Well - unfortunately lobster prices have increased even more than gas prices - from $3 to $14 for a "take out" lobster dinner eaten at a picnic table at a lobster pound! So needless to say - our lobster consumption was very limited this time in Maine....but still delicious! Fortunately the scenery hadn't changed - it was still beautiful! We had a special surprise in Acadia National Park - we were asked to interview for a TV program highlighting National Park Day - the day we were there. So Molly and I did the interview for the 6pm news! The last of the interview is posted on this blog....

Highlights of Maine

• Campabello - Roosevelt's summer home and Eastport - a quaint historic village on the very northeast coast of Maine

• The scenery in Acadia National Park and Molly's TV interview on National Park Day

• Lovely little seaside villages of Camden, Stonington, Booth Bay, Freeport and Rockport

• Kennebunkport - very picturesque and interesting to see the Bush compound

Reflections of our first big road trip....

• There are helpful, friendly people wherever you go - it's fun to meet new people and hear all about their travels
• Only take things that we REALLY need -it's amazing how much we can do without and how little space we really need
• It's a good thing we didn't know how how much we didn't know about traveling in an RV before we started our trip ....
• We can't be in a hurry when you travel in an RV (especially Rose) - it did help us to stop and smell the roses
• Flexibility is key - plans will constantly change either by desire or by circumstances beyond our control - we never knew what "surprises" lie ahead - we weren't bored that's for sure!
• It's a great environment to raise a puppy - that was a big surprise, we thought it would be harder but it was actually easier in a smaller space!

• Don't trust the GPS exclusively- use a map to verify!
• It's a fantastic way to REALLY see North America !!!
  

Next stop - Atlanta....

As soon as we finished our trip along the coast of Maine we were like cows headed to the barn. We couldn't wait to get back to see our family - especially our little grand daughter Emmy.

We dropped Rose off at the RV dealer in Tennessee for some R&R and warranty repairs. We'll pick her back up in early October with hopefully all of the little "bugs" fixed - including new windshield wipers that won't break -we hope.....

We spent the next week in Atlanta visiting with family and a fun day taking care of our little grand daughter Emmy while Drew and Anna were at work. Emmy and Molly had a great time together. Molly just LOVES playing with Emmy and also LOVES Emmy's food!

Spring will be here before we know it and then we'll be off to Alaska in Rose!