August 2, 2011 - Back to Sparks

Finally, we are home after the 3,507 mile trip that consumed 438 gal of fuel. Total driving time was 87:32 hours averaging 40 MPH and 8.0 MPG.

July 29, 2011 – Fort Stevens, Oregon

Today is Friday. Yesterday Bill, Robbie and I went for a fairly long bike ride (remembering that the bike I ride is battery operated). We rode down to an old ship wreck, to a World War II Battery (that Battery was the first place since the war of 1812 that a foreign power attacked U.S.A. soil) and to the lake. Robbie has made this ride about a dozen times on Bill’s mountain bike – great exercise for him. As always, we barbecued that night and Robbie began cooking the vegetables on top of the fire pit. Amazingly, the corn was delicious.
Today we went into Astoria and took the trolley along the river bank. It was an hour ride for $1.00 a person - the best money we’ve spent thus far. After that we dropped Robbie off at the Maritime Museum and while we were waiting for him, Bill and I went to lunch at a famous spot in Astoria called the Wet Dog.
We’re now beginning to pack up as we’ve decided to cut short our time in Fort Stevens. We will leave in the morning.

July 21, 2011 – Fort Stevens, Oregon

Well, so much for just resting. Most evenings when we watch television I have been in the bedroom watching from our small screen because there are not really three comfortable places to sit in the living area. Yesterday Bill decided it was time to tear that small television out and replace it with a larger screen. So, that’s what we did. We went to Costco and bought a 32 inch flat screen television and Bill spent the day uninstalling and installing. Although I didn’t want him to do that much work, I love it; however, I haven’t had a moment to watch anything on it yet.
Jim, Colleen and the children arrived today. That’s when we really get busy. It was around dinner time so we immediately started thinking about dinner which can be quite a production while camping with all of us. As Bill started cooking, Jim got all the bikes out. We are in a great area for bike riding and hiking so as soon as we ate the children, Robbie and Jim took off on bikes. I expect the children will have a wonderful time here. I think they plan on biking down to the beach tomorrow morning after breakfast.

July 20, 2011 – Fort Stevens, Oregon

We arrived at Fort Stevens around noon time today – finally! We need the rest. Robbie and Bill are setting up the campsite now. It will be so wonderful to stay put for two whole weeks. Bill and I found this spot accidentally last year and we love it. It’s a large national park and it is just beautiful. I feel like I’m in a forest but one that has 50 amps and it looks like we may have Internet and a little cell coverage too. We have very little planned for these two weeks. We will just let each day unfold.

July 26, 2011 – Fort Stevens, Oregon

We have been very busy the last several days with Jim, Colleen and the children. The bikes have been out and used every day. The children (and at least one or two of the adults) have ridden down to the beach every day and to the jetty and to the shipwreck and to the lake. In between times we’ve gone into Astoria,Oregon and Long Beach, Washington. There is a large arcade in Long Beach that the children remembered from a prior visit that we went to yesterday. Before that we went to Ilwaco, Washington for fresh crab and shrimp cocktails. Jim bought fresh salmon there (just caught that day) and barbecued it for dinner. We’ve had fires most nights and we seem to go to bed later and later every day. There are just not enough hours in the day for them. The children are having a wonderful vacation. Today is their last day with us. They will leave in the morning, heading back down the Oregon Coast where they have plans in several places. They are looking forward to meeting their other grandparents near the Redwoods for three days. We have another week here. We are really enjoying the cool weather. Where we’re camped it’s usually in the mid to high 60’s.
Bill and I looked at the map this morning. It looks like we’ll be home sometime early in the second week of August. We have a couple more places we want to go but I doubt we’ll stay longer than a day or two in any of them.

July 19, 2011 – Portland, Oregon

Today was the day Robbie has been looking forward to from the first day. We took him to Powell’s New and Used Bookstore in Portland. I believe it’s the largest, or one of the largest, bookstores of this kind in the country. Bill and I knew he would want more time in the bookstore than we did so we dropped him off and went to lunch before joining him. He was not disappointed and on the way out of town he told us he spent less than he had thought. What happened was that he filled up one bag with books and put it down while he filled up another one. He ended up leaving the first bag in the store. I am certain that was a good thing and I think he realized that too.

July 17, 2011 – Seattle, Washington

Yesterday, we passed a farmers market that had beautiful flowers and goats walking across a goat bridge.

Today didn’t go as planned. We had planned to get to Seattle around noon time (which we did), park in a nice RV park (which we did) and then take Robbie to see the Space Needle, the first Starbuck’s and Pikes Place in downtown Seattle (which we did not do). Instead, we did the following:
1. We parked in a nice RV park and Bill immediately began to fix one of the drawers that had broken during the trip.
2. After the drawer was fixed, Bill had to fix the window shades above the couch which had broken during the trip.
3. We then looked down and saw that we had a flood in the living room. It took us a while to figure out what had happened. Bill had connected the water to fill our fresh water tank and he forgot to turn it off. The water continued running after the tank was full and it seeped into the motor home under the carpet. We spent the rest of the day sopping up the water, tearing up the carpet and trying to dry it.
It’s now 6:30 p.m. The motor home is still torn up and Bill is busy trying to get directions so we can take Robbie to see the Space Needle, the first Starbuck’s and Pikes Place tomorrow.

July 16, 2011 – Leavenworth, Washington

We crossed the border from Canada to the USA yesterday afternoon. The crossing was interesting. After checking out our passports the border patrolman asked us to line up so that the motor home could be X-rayed. He said all three people and the dog needed to be in the cab section so that they wouldn’t be harmed. We’ve been to Canada before but this never happened. It must be from our Homeland Security. We wished we would have taken a picture of the process but we were caught by surprise and didn’t think of it at the time. You can imagine how large that X-ray machine was.
Today is Saturday. Thursday and Friday were driving days with little to talk about on the blog. We stayed in the Walmart parking lots for our last two nights in Canada.
We are in Leavenworth, Washington today and this is one of my favorite places to visit in the state of Washington. Leavenworth’s nickname is “German town”. Every store and restaurant looks and feels like you are in Germany. There is a wonderful year round Christmas store called “Kris Kringle”. It is the most incredible Christmas store I’ve ever been in. I loved revisiting it. I think Bill was a little worried because the last time we were here we spent quite a bit of money. I was good today and just bought the small pyramid candles that are so hard to find.
As we wandered through the town Robbie had a Jalapeno Cheddarwurst and Bill bought German Hot Links to barbecue tonight. We also visited the German bakeries. Yum!
Tomorrow we hope to be off early for Seattle.

July 13, 2011 - Revelstoke, BC

Today started early. Bill had Robbie and me up and ready to drive by 7:00 A.M. We were both still in our pajamas as we rolled out of our campsite. We drove for about three hours and opted to stay for the day in Revelstoke, B.C. We have done absolutely nothing today other than laundry and watch a movie on TV and it feels so good.
Our motor home is emptied out of food so we have plans to go to Costco and Walmart tomorrow to fill up again. We have only eaten out once since leaving home and that was just to get a McRib at McDonalds.
All is well with the campers.

July 12, 2011 - Columbia Ice Fields, Jasper

We had an adventure today. We started out early for the Columbia Ice Fields in Jasper National Park. We had thought it would take about an hour to get there. It took double that time. Along the way we stopped to take some pictures of a beautiful waterfall and Robbie, as he usually does, hiked down a nearby trail to get better pictures (with my camera this time). We were in the motor home for this outing so Bill and I waited inside for him to return. When we saw him turning the corner from the trail to where we were parked we wondered why he seemed so tired. It looked like he could hardly make the last few yards. When he came inside we saw that he was wet and muddy. He told us that while taking a picture he fell off the embankment into the icy glacier river. He was in the river up to his waist. He then had to climb back up a very steep hill. He was exhausted and a little rattled but after a warm shower he calmed down.

At the ice fields we took a tour onto the glacier itself via a specially designed vehicle. We were able to get out and walk on the 300 year old glacier and drink the fresh water that was melting from it. It was icy cold and clear and delicious. The glacier was 900 feet thick and moves at about two inches per day.

We got home later than we had hoped. We quickly had a light dinner and off went Robbie again to do some hiking through the trails where we’re camped. Bill and I are tired!

July 11, 2011 - Lake Louise, Alberta

We left relatively early this morning, heading to Banff, Alberta – Canada. We have reservations for two nights at Lake Louise and may extend it for another night as we have much we want to do.

We arrived at the Lake Louise campground a little after lunch. We had thought we had full hookups here but that wasn’t the case. We have 30 amps for electricity but no water and no sewer. That means no laundry will get done here. The weather is perfect – high 60’s to low 70’s. After eating a quick lunch we grabbed Daisy and took off in the car. Our first stop was to walk around beautiful Lake Louise. Bill’s knee is about 90% better, thank heavens. We even took a short canoe ride and, yes, Daisy went with us. The canoe ride was pretty bad for me. I sat in the middle seat with no backrest and my back hurt so badly that we had to come back very soon after we started. I am often a complete party pooper but neither Bill nor Robbie complained about it. Soon after that we left for Emerald Lake. We had never been there before. Someone at our last campsite in Cochrane told us about it. She claimed it was even prettier than Lake Louise and I think she was right. It’s about a 40 minute ride from Lake Louise. The water truly was an emerald color and it was in the middle of a beautiful forest. We took lots of pictures there and then headed home. We were all tired. Bill barbecued and we went to bed early. I should say Bill and I went to bed early. Robbie stays up late every night and then he’s up with us early each morning. I don’t know how he gets by on such little sleep.

It rained and rained and rained this night but not until we were all tucked away inside and the barbecue and chairs were put away. Luck has been with us on this trip as far as the weather is concerned.

July 10, 2011 - Bow River, Alberta

We decided to leave Calgary this morning and drive for about an hour to Bow River RV Park in Cochrane, Alberta. This park had full hookups and it gave me a day to do some laundry. The day started out wonderfully. It was beautiful and relaxing. Mid afternoon Bill decided to lay down and take a nap. Five minutes after that I noticed the refrigerator wasn’t on. I tried all I knew to get it working and finally had to get Bill. We had no power at all to the refrigerator. Bill worked on it for over two hours. All four fuses were good and they were not easy to get to. I wish I had taken a picture of what he was doing. The entire picnic table was full of his tools. After doing all he could think of he got out the refrigerator book to see if there was something he missed. There wasn’t anything. He finally resorted to looking for a place to take the motor home the next day for repair. It is Sunday and nothing can be done today. Bill thought and thought and finally decided to try one more thing. He bypassed the heat thermostat and that, thankfully, resolved the problem. He is unreal! I don’t think there’s much he can’t fix. I hope this fix lasts until we get home.

This is the first day that it’s rained and it just poured but I am happy to say that the rain didn’t start until after Bill had finished his work outside. It rained all night and all three of us enjoyed it.

July 8th and 9th, 2011 - Calgary, Alberta

We took another look at the weather and decided it would be okay to go to Lake Louise after all so we headed out for Calgary, Alberta today. Poor Bill. The wind he had to drive in was terrible! However, we did arrive in Calgary and ended up staying in the Blackfoot Casino parking lot. It was great. We were allowed 3 free nights stay and the weather was cool enough that we didn’t need air conditioning so it worked perfectly for us. We planned on going to the “Calgary Stampede” rodeo but changed our minds once we realized how crowded it would be and how many people attend. They expected over 1,000,000 people in a week – about 100,000 a day. We drove to where the event was being held and realized there was too much walking involved. Bill had hurt his knee and was hobbling and, of course, I wouldn’t have been able to walk much so we just relaxed for two days.

July 7, 2011 Waterton Lakes National Park

We had planned on going to Lake Louise, Canada but we found out that there was a 90% chance of snow so we cancelled those plans. Instead, we drove around the Canadian side of Glacier National Park which is called Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta. It was a beautiful drive. We saw a mother grizzly bear with her two cubs which was pretty exciting. We spent the night in Pincher Creek, Alberta where we have never experienced such extreme wind.

July 6, 2011 - Glacier National Park

We arrived in Glacier National Park, Montana today. We were told that there were 250 glaciers and it is now down to 25. The glaciers will disappear completely by 2030. It was really beautiful driving around the glaciers but we never really got to see one up close. I think what most people thought were glaciers were just a snow packs.

July 5, 2011 - Gates of the Rockies

We were in the Rocky Mountains and decided to go on a boat tour to the “Gates of the Rockies”. It was about two hours long. It was hot and crowded and by the time we got back my feet and ankles were terribly swollen. It was interesting but not something I would repeat. This was the least enjoyed thing we’ve done so far although Robbie really seemed to like it and he got pictures of a Bald Eagle and her nest with two baby Bald Eagles.

July 4th, 2011 - Helena, Montana

We stopped for the night in Helena, Montana at another park which Robbie found for us. We left for this trip without reservations anywhere but Fort Stevens as we were unsure how long we wanted to stay at any one place. The RV park had a potluck dinner to celebrate the 4^th of July which we went to and enjoyed. We were told we would see the best fireworks we’ve ever seen and that was indeed true, not only from the park but 360 degrees around us fireworks were going off. It was truly spectacular.

July 2-3, 2011 - Yellowstone National Park

We arrived in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming today. We didn’t have a reservation for the night which really concerned us but Robbie got on the Internet and found us a one night accommodation at Fishing Bridge. The first thing we did was take Robbie to see “Old Faithful”. Robbie then abandoned us and went to see the other geysers where he took lots of pictures. Along the way we saw all kinds of wildlife and he got wonderful pictures of animals. He plans on blowing several of them up to poster size for his home. This was Robbie’s first time in Yellowstone and he loved it as we all do the first time. It’s always an incredible place to visit but the first time is quite special.

July 1, 2011 - Grand Tetons

This was a driving day – heading to Yellowstone National Park. We went through Jackson Hole, Wyoming and saw the Grand Tetons. We saw antelopes, a bear and elks – more wildlife pictures for Robbie. We stopped for the evening in Afton, Wyoming where Robbie was able to finish the banking he needed to attend to and where he also was delighted to fine a used book store. He bought a couple Agatha Christie books and a 1965 Ian Fleming book. He’s a real reader!

June 30, 2011 - Salt Lake City, Utah

We arrived in Salt Lake City in the early afternoon. We had some time before going to see the Morman Tabernacle Choir that evening so we took a tour of Bingham Copper mine. This is the largest open pit mine in the world. It was more interesting that I had thought it would be. Bill and Robbie were really glad we went.
Tonight was wonderful! We were all looking forward to hearing the Morman Tabernacle choir in rehearsal. The rehearsal was open to the public and it was an hour and a half long. There were 360 people in the choir with a full orchestra of 110 plus an organ with 11,623 pipes. The evening exceeded our expectations. The choir was rehearsing for their 4th of July performance that weekend. All the songs were patriotic and we heard each of them at least three or four times. They practiced in the Morman conference center which was absolutely stunning. Many of the Morman fellowship were there dressed in suits and dresses to direct all of the visitors. The conference center looked like a beautiful church. We were not able to tour the Tabernacle across the street so I can only imagine how magnificent that is. Robbie was thrilled as was I and Bill enjoyed it too. It was a wonderful experience and one I will never forget.