Hello! We are back! The last six weeks have been epic, adventure-full. Alaska lived up to what we had heard about it (tho, the mosquitoes were waaaaay worse in Dawson Creek, British Columbia).
Here are some statistics:
National Parks Visited
Badlands NP
Yellowstone NP (1st National Park)
Wind Cave NP (1st cave designated as a National Park)
Mt. Rushmore National Memorial
Craters of the Moon National Monument
Tongass National Forest
Fort Seward National Historical site
Sitka National Historical Park (1st Alaskan NP)
Misty Fjords National Monument
Buffalo Bill Dam
Worthington Glacier National Natural Landmark
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore
Total:
International Parks
Jasper National Park (Jasper, Alberta, Canada)
Banff National Park (Banff, Alberta, Canada)
Total: 2
States Traveled Thru
WV
MD
PA
OH
IN
IL
WI
MN
SD
MO
WY
ID
OR
WA
AK
ND
MI
Total: 17
Provinces Traveled Thru
British Columbia
Yukon Territory
Saskatchewan
Alberta
Total: 4
Modes of Transportation
Car
Ferry
Motorboat
Riverboat
Bus
Train
Miles driven: 12,846.7 (The Earth's circumference at the equator is 24,901.55. We drove, essentially, 51.6% of the circumference of the Earth on this trip. WOW.)
Miles by bus: 176
Miles by train: 40
Miles by ferry: (Nautical) 1,180
Hours on riverboat: 2.5 (We didn't go very far.)
Hours on motorboat: 7
Animals seen
Moose
Mule deer
Dall sheep
Buffalo
Seals
Sea lions
Squirrels
Porcupines
Orca
Humpback whale
Dall's porpoise
Prairie dog
Elk
Snowshoe hare
Bighorn sheep
Grizzly bears (aka brown bears)
Black bears
Mosquitoes (the size of Texas in Alaska; the size of Alaska in Dawson Creek. We're not kidding. We have pictures.)
Chipmunks
Total:19
Birds seen
Bald eagles
Canada geese
Great blue heron
Sandhill crane
Stellar's jay
Burrowing owl
Gray jay
Red-winged black bird
Western meadowlark
Violet green sparrow
Mountain blue bird
American robin
Chipping sparrow
Black-billed magpies
Golden eagles
Common ravens
Trumpeter swan
Thrush
Northern flicker
Red-breasted sap sucker
Mallard duck
Puffins
Really big, tank-sized storks that I can't remember the name of
Total: 23
New favorite soda of all time: Squirt (It's this grapefruit-ish soda. Yummy!)
“Whenever we embark on a long journey, there is a sense of death and rebirth. The experiences we go through have a transitional quality. The moment we step outside our house and close the door, we begin to leave our life behind. We say goodbye to family and friends and to the familiar rooms and routines that we inhabit. We might feel regret mixed with excitement as we climb into the taxi that will take us to the airport. As our vision of home recedes, we are both sadly parted and joyfully released from all that defines us. The further from home we go, the more focused we become on our next destination. We think less of home and more about where we are going. We begin to look at a new map; we start to think about where we will land, about the new people, new customs and new environment–the new sets of experiences to come.”
We have missed some things while we were gone. But we're home now.
Friday, July 22, 2011
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Day 40: (Old) Home Sweet Home
No, we aren't back to West Virginia yet! OLD home is where we were today, very old home. But not a home for old people. No, when I was 2-ish and a bit before Ashley was born, we moved to Eau Claire, Michigan because Dad was going to seminary at Andrews University. So today we ran around that area a little bit to find a lighthouse, see how the area had changed, and to track down the house we lived in while we were here.
I tried to find that house almost two years ago. I was up at Andrews with some friends visiting some other friends over our mid-term break. We don't always think things through though, so when we went to go try to find my house 2 years ago, it was dark. Like, not twilight dark, but dead-of-winter-night dark. There are hardly any lights out here. We could see hardly anything. Except the "Bunnies for Sale" or "Free Bunnies" sign on one road. It took all of my powers of persuasion to convince my travelmates that no, no we couldn't take a bunny back with us all the way to Washington, DC. But I did convince them. We didn't find my house, but we also didn't bring back any bunnies.
This time though we found the house. But first, we went to find a lighthouse in St. Joseph's. Apparently we went out there some while we lived in the area. I don't remember most of the stuff we saw today because I was 3 and 4? No recollection really. We saw the North Pier Lighthouse, but we couldn't climb it.
We drove through Berrien Springs. Mom and Dad said that the whole area had really grown up a lot. They liked the "new" front entrance to the University. It was like that the last time I was there, but...that was only 2 years ago. I don't know how old it actually is. Then we found the house. It looks good. It looks really good. It is a really old house, but someone has cleaned it up really well over the last 20 years.
We then drove to South Bend, and found a CHIPOTLE! It's been forever, literally, since I have had that delicious-ness. :) Then we drove a wee bit more. We're on the edge of Indiana and Ohio. I got to swim in a pool for the first time this summer. That was nice. It was crisp and cool, which felt really good on my rather sunburnt shoulders. Yesterday's walk on the beach was not very nice to my shoulders.
My hair is getting ridiculously long. I can have about 3 different hairstyles now. At least. Maybe four, actually. I haven't had those options in years. I haven't been able to put it in a ponytail in years. Good thing I'll be home soon and can cut this mop off! It wouldn't be so bad in the winter--it's a nice covering for my ears--but it's over 100 degrees outside. I do not need ear covers right now.
I tried to find that house almost two years ago. I was up at Andrews with some friends visiting some other friends over our mid-term break. We don't always think things through though, so when we went to go try to find my house 2 years ago, it was dark. Like, not twilight dark, but dead-of-winter-night dark. There are hardly any lights out here. We could see hardly anything. Except the "Bunnies for Sale" or "Free Bunnies" sign on one road. It took all of my powers of persuasion to convince my travelmates that no, no we couldn't take a bunny back with us all the way to Washington, DC. But I did convince them. We didn't find my house, but we also didn't bring back any bunnies.
This time though we found the house. But first, we went to find a lighthouse in St. Joseph's. Apparently we went out there some while we lived in the area. I don't remember most of the stuff we saw today because I was 3 and 4? No recollection really. We saw the North Pier Lighthouse, but we couldn't climb it.
We drove through Berrien Springs. Mom and Dad said that the whole area had really grown up a lot. They liked the "new" front entrance to the University. It was like that the last time I was there, but...that was only 2 years ago. I don't know how old it actually is. Then we found the house. It looks good. It looks really good. It is a really old house, but someone has cleaned it up really well over the last 20 years.
We then drove to South Bend, and found a CHIPOTLE! It's been forever, literally, since I have had that delicious-ness. :) Then we drove a wee bit more. We're on the edge of Indiana and Ohio. I got to swim in a pool for the first time this summer. That was nice. It was crisp and cool, which felt really good on my rather sunburnt shoulders. Yesterday's walk on the beach was not very nice to my shoulders.
My hair is getting ridiculously long. I can have about 3 different hairstyles now. At least. Maybe four, actually. I haven't had those options in years. I haven't been able to put it in a ponytail in years. Good thing I'll be home soon and can cut this mop off! It wouldn't be so bad in the winter--it's a nice covering for my ears--but it's over 100 degrees outside. I do not need ear covers right now.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Days 36, 37, 38, 39: Greetings From Michigan!
So... Unfortunately, I don't know what's going on with Blogger and the picture upload, but I can only pick one picture at a time. And there's lots I wanted to put up. Even if there weren't crazy lots, I still wouldn't want to click every single image file, so... Until Blogger snaps out of it...no pictures. Sorry. But, hey, if you come to the vespers thing at Martinsburg Church in a couple weeks, you'll get more pictures than you even think are possible.
Day 36 (Saturday, July 16)
We did indeed see the World's Largest Ball of Twine. It lives in a hut with glass walls. I found a sign that my roommate from college, Sara-May, left when she went to see it last summer. It was very fun.
Then, we kept driiiivvvviiiiinnnngggg. I'm sorry, but that's really all we did for most of the next three days. We drove through the rest of Minnesota and into Wisconsin. We were planning on stopping early, but the area along the Lakes up north is prime vacation area. And it was the weekend. There was nothing all along Lake Superior through Wisconsin. Finally we found a place to stay at the very edge of the Wisconsin-Michigan border.
This was a pretty dull, long day.
Day 37 (Sunday, July 17)
Sunday was more interesting. We got into the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I wanted to drive through there just to be able to say I've been there. We all kind of thought we were going back into wilderness, but this area ended up being a really hot vacation spot. Hot as in very popular. Also hot as in temperatures. Man! We were wondering where summer was the whole time we were in Alaska, but I guess it's been hiding in the Lower 48! We didn't see anything more than 70 degrees more than a couple of days while in Alaska. Then we get out of Alaska, and then back to the US, and we are just BAKING. And it's supposed to be 100+ degrees when we get home...are you kidding me?
We saw a bunch of lighthouses while we went through the UP. We saw the Presque Isle Harbor Breakwater Light Station, the Marquette Harbor Light Station, the Marquette Breakwater Outer Light Station, the Munising Rear Range Light Station, and the West Pier Light in Manistique. We also went to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. It was pretty. The land fell away into the lake water, and there the rocks were different colors. We didn't stay too long because we were trying to, well, get more back towards home.
We stopped at this hotel called the Beachcomber. It could have been really cute, but everything was about 50 years old. Including the pillows. Mom and Dad went for a walk, and a storm came along while they were out. Ashley and I were going to go rescue them, but did either of them have their phones? Nope. Eventually it started raining, and Ashley and I were just going to go wander around, but just as we were getting to the car, they ran up to the hotel. Sillies. Wandering around with storms and no phones.
Day 38 (Monday, July 18)
We finished the Upper Peninsula. We drove over the 5-mile-long bridge to get from the Upper Peninsula to mainland Michigan. Before we left we stopped at the Seul Choix Point Light Station. It was rainy and foggy, so the view wasn't that great. This took us into Mackinac City, MI. We saw and climbed a lighthouse, Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse. We went on a lighthouse chase, McGulpin Point Lighthouse, and we found it and also climbed it.
Lighthouse chasing is one of my parents' favorite pastimes. Apparently it's been relatively easy on this trip compared to their adventures trying to find Floridian and other East Coast lighthouses.
We also found Little Traverse Light and Pt. Betsie Lighthouse, but we couldn't climb them.
We also stopped at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. So there's this Indian legend about this place. A momma bear and two baby bears were swimming across Lake Michigan one day. Then a storm came up, and this made it very hard to swim. For some reason, the momma bear kept swimming to the other side, and she left her babies in the water. She kept swimming. She made it. Her babies didn't. So her babies became two islands off the mainland. The momma bear became this huge sand dune among lots and lots of dunes.
We climbed up a dune (but not the Momma Bear Dune). We were trying to get to Lake Michigan through the dunes, but...that didn't happen. We went over four dunes, still didn't see the Lake. I understand now, a very little bit, what people who get lost in the desert must feel like. There's so much hope with every ridge you climb, and then it's crushed when you get to the top and see no water. And my hope was crushed every time, and I knew I could get back to water just by walking a bit back to my car.
We also went on a scenic drive. From there we got views of both the Lake and the dunes. Lake Michigan was carved out by a glacier (duh!), and we got to see how a cliff which was clearly a glacier deposit or something was being carved away by wind and wave erosion.
Then we drove and drove and drove again. We got to Muskegon, MI.
Day 39 (Tuesday, July 19)
Today was devoted to lighthouse chasing for me, Mom, and Dad and chilling with internet and TV for Ashley.
We drove up north of Muskegon to find Big Sable Lighthouse. It was about a 2 mile walk out to the lighthouse. We got to climb up, and the view wasn't too bad even though it was hazy. (Have I mentioned how HOT it is? There's a nice breeze on the beach though, so...that was redemptive.) We walked back along the beach of Lake Michigan because it was quite warm, and we wanted to have the water of the lake to cool us off. It was pretty good. There were a bunch of small, dead fish on the beach though. That was gross.
Then we went and saw (but did not climb) North Pierhead Light and Ludington Harbor Light. We ran down a bit more south and climbed Little Sable Point Lighthouse. This "tour" was nice because there was no tour. You could just climb, see the view, and keep trucking. If you had questions, there were people to ask, but they left you alone otherwise. That's nice sometimes. The last lighthouse we were trying to get to for the day was White River Light Station. We weren't sure we were going to get to climb it because we were a little late from their posted hours. But, when we got there, they were still happily open, so up we climbed.
We picked up Ashley for dinner. Then Ashley and I came back to try to use the pool. There were so many children screaming, we turned right back around. It was very unfortunate, but I can't stand screaming children. Mom and Dad went and found Muskegon S. Pier Lighthouse and South Breakwater Light while we were trying to deal with the pool. We tried again at 10 pm and there were MORE children. It was incredible. Oh well. Pool time later.
Day 36 (Saturday, July 16)
We did indeed see the World's Largest Ball of Twine. It lives in a hut with glass walls. I found a sign that my roommate from college, Sara-May, left when she went to see it last summer. It was very fun.
Then, we kept driiiivvvviiiiinnnngggg. I'm sorry, but that's really all we did for most of the next three days. We drove through the rest of Minnesota and into Wisconsin. We were planning on stopping early, but the area along the Lakes up north is prime vacation area. And it was the weekend. There was nothing all along Lake Superior through Wisconsin. Finally we found a place to stay at the very edge of the Wisconsin-Michigan border.
This was a pretty dull, long day.
Day 37 (Sunday, July 17)
Sunday was more interesting. We got into the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I wanted to drive through there just to be able to say I've been there. We all kind of thought we were going back into wilderness, but this area ended up being a really hot vacation spot. Hot as in very popular. Also hot as in temperatures. Man! We were wondering where summer was the whole time we were in Alaska, but I guess it's been hiding in the Lower 48! We didn't see anything more than 70 degrees more than a couple of days while in Alaska. Then we get out of Alaska, and then back to the US, and we are just BAKING. And it's supposed to be 100+ degrees when we get home...are you kidding me?
We saw a bunch of lighthouses while we went through the UP. We saw the Presque Isle Harbor Breakwater Light Station, the Marquette Harbor Light Station, the Marquette Breakwater Outer Light Station, the Munising Rear Range Light Station, and the West Pier Light in Manistique. We also went to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. It was pretty. The land fell away into the lake water, and there the rocks were different colors. We didn't stay too long because we were trying to, well, get more back towards home.
We stopped at this hotel called the Beachcomber. It could have been really cute, but everything was about 50 years old. Including the pillows. Mom and Dad went for a walk, and a storm came along while they were out. Ashley and I were going to go rescue them, but did either of them have their phones? Nope. Eventually it started raining, and Ashley and I were just going to go wander around, but just as we were getting to the car, they ran up to the hotel. Sillies. Wandering around with storms and no phones.
Day 38 (Monday, July 18)
We finished the Upper Peninsula. We drove over the 5-mile-long bridge to get from the Upper Peninsula to mainland Michigan. Before we left we stopped at the Seul Choix Point Light Station. It was rainy and foggy, so the view wasn't that great. This took us into Mackinac City, MI. We saw and climbed a lighthouse, Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse. We went on a lighthouse chase, McGulpin Point Lighthouse, and we found it and also climbed it.
Lighthouse chasing is one of my parents' favorite pastimes. Apparently it's been relatively easy on this trip compared to their adventures trying to find Floridian and other East Coast lighthouses.
We also found Little Traverse Light and Pt. Betsie Lighthouse, but we couldn't climb them.
We also stopped at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. So there's this Indian legend about this place. A momma bear and two baby bears were swimming across Lake Michigan one day. Then a storm came up, and this made it very hard to swim. For some reason, the momma bear kept swimming to the other side, and she left her babies in the water. She kept swimming. She made it. Her babies didn't. So her babies became two islands off the mainland. The momma bear became this huge sand dune among lots and lots of dunes.
We climbed up a dune (but not the Momma Bear Dune). We were trying to get to Lake Michigan through the dunes, but...that didn't happen. We went over four dunes, still didn't see the Lake. I understand now, a very little bit, what people who get lost in the desert must feel like. There's so much hope with every ridge you climb, and then it's crushed when you get to the top and see no water. And my hope was crushed every time, and I knew I could get back to water just by walking a bit back to my car.
We also went on a scenic drive. From there we got views of both the Lake and the dunes. Lake Michigan was carved out by a glacier (duh!), and we got to see how a cliff which was clearly a glacier deposit or something was being carved away by wind and wave erosion.
Then we drove and drove and drove again. We got to Muskegon, MI.
Day 39 (Tuesday, July 19)
Today was devoted to lighthouse chasing for me, Mom, and Dad and chilling with internet and TV for Ashley.
We drove up north of Muskegon to find Big Sable Lighthouse. It was about a 2 mile walk out to the lighthouse. We got to climb up, and the view wasn't too bad even though it was hazy. (Have I mentioned how HOT it is? There's a nice breeze on the beach though, so...that was redemptive.) We walked back along the beach of Lake Michigan because it was quite warm, and we wanted to have the water of the lake to cool us off. It was pretty good. There were a bunch of small, dead fish on the beach though. That was gross.
Then we went and saw (but did not climb) North Pierhead Light and Ludington Harbor Light. We ran down a bit more south and climbed Little Sable Point Lighthouse. This "tour" was nice because there was no tour. You could just climb, see the view, and keep trucking. If you had questions, there were people to ask, but they left you alone otherwise. That's nice sometimes. The last lighthouse we were trying to get to for the day was White River Light Station. We weren't sure we were going to get to climb it because we were a little late from their posted hours. But, when we got there, they were still happily open, so up we climbed.
We picked up Ashley for dinner. Then Ashley and I came back to try to use the pool. There were so many children screaming, we turned right back around. It was very unfortunate, but I can't stand screaming children. Mom and Dad went and found Muskegon S. Pier Lighthouse and South Breakwater Light while we were trying to deal with the pool. We tried again at 10 pm and there were MORE children. It was incredible. Oh well. Pool time later.
Friday, July 15, 2011
Days 33, 34, 35: It's All Becoming A Blur of Time and Fields
So...obviously I did not get that internet to work in the McDonald's parking lot of Calgary. Oh well! Here we are now.
Day 33 (Wednesday, July 13)
So we slept in WalMart's parking lot last night. This made for an early morning, but that's okay because we're trying to get across Canada pretty much as fast as we can, minus the two things we had to do today: Jasper and Banff, Alberta.
Jasper and Banff are both two cities and they are two national parks in the Canadian national park system. Jasper is supposed to be Canada's equivalent to the US's Yellowstone. It was beautiful, don't get me wrong, but...I was just at Yellowstone 5 weeks ago or so, and there's just no comparison. Granted, our National Parks System is way more organized and much larger. Also, Yellowstone doesn't have a HIGHWAY running through it. It was weird being in a place with so many people. There was a lot of traffic, and in the few places we stopped and got out to look at things, there were people everywhere. After being in Alaska for that long, darkness and people are taking some getting used to.
First stop in Jasper was a canyon. Not the Grand Canyon, by any means, but it was a pretty impressive canyon considering. We get to the parking lot, and I am not hoping for much. There aren't any mountains super close by, the walk is supposed to be easy...what is this canyon? It was actually really cool. The river has just cut this massive gorge into the ground. There are millions of gallons of water coming through this itty bitty, narrow space. There are little cubbyholes carved out. In one place, there's a rock wedged between the two sides of the gorge and there's a tree growing out of the rock. The water is loud. It was surprisingly cool. The power of water will never cease to amaze me.
It was pretty all throughout the park, but it was cloudy, so where there were lakes that would have had super cool reflections in them, there was just gray clouds. We stopped at a couple of other places. A waterfall was one. It was nice, but nothing crazy. Then we went to see one more glacier off the Columbia Icefield. You could walk right up to this one if the park didn't have it roped off! This means it was extra cold. And there was a brutal, nonstop wind tearing down the glacier hill. We literally almost got blown over. Ashley got some glacial silt from the river that flows out from under the glacier. Then we really hit the road through Jasper. It was pretty, but Alaska and Yellowstone were better.
We got to Banff just a bit before sunset. (SUNSET!) We were hungry. We thought we were going to have to resign ourselves to Chili's when, wonder of wonders, there was an Old Spaghetti Factory. I don't think sourdough bread, salad (or soup), pasta, and vanilla ice cream ever tasted so good. It was fan-freaking-tastic. Mmmmm. I had some weird cheese-topped pasta (Mithzner? That's not right, at all, but...it's rich and salty and very, very yummy.), the other three had spaghetti with marinara and mushrooms. De-lec-ta-ble!
Then we drove to Calgary in the almost completely dark. Lovely. We saw the ski jump from the last winter Olympics, held in Calgary, as we were driving to our hotel. It was cool.
Day 34 (Thursday, July 14)
In the morning, we were in Calgary long enough to grab some more groceries, coffee mugs from Starbucks, and eat breakfast at a Park-n-Bike place. They really love their bikers up here! Then we pushed east. And south. And while I was thinking it was more east than south, it was definitely more south than east. Since we took the ferry up to Alaska, we really had no concept of the actual driving time it took to get there. We were in a nice big boat with someone else driving for 2.5 days. What were we paying attention to? Dolphins and whales. Well...these days, we are in a tiny van. And Dad's doing all the driving. And while there are some nice big lakes or wide rivers occasionally, there have definitely been neither dolphins nor whales. We keep hoping because the landscape is way more boring than it has been: flat.
We had to push straight south again this evening, actually, because we decided that getting back into the good ole USA would be a good idea. Gas is cheaper, there's no silly exchange fees, etc. etc. Plus we could actually use our phones for what they were made for rather than using them as clocks. That is when the storm came. We watched ourselves blast 100 km/hr down the highway towards it--the lightning was fantastic. (100 km/hr really isn't blasting speed. It's around 65 mph.) I posted about the storm already, but I'll say one more time: It was terrifying. Yet with all the rain and all the wind, part of our van, the back right bumper/tire area, is still covered in dirt.
We made it to customs. Had to get the officials' attention because their sensors were all off because of the storm. They made us eat our oranges rather than take them into the country. Then we were back on home soil. Still quite a ways from home, but in the United States. Dad kept driving and Mom stayed up with him. I went to sleep. I had said I was going to take a nap about 2 hours earlier, but then the storm hit. Finally the adrenaline wore off, and I passed out.
Day 35 (Friday, July 15)
And, oh wait, more driving. Dad drove until I have no clue. 4 am? 5 am? And then he and Mom slept until 6 am? The sun was blinding them, they cried. The sun wasn't bothering me... They got up and kept going. We stopped for breakfast at Cracker Barrel--Cracker Barrel!--we haven't seen one of those since...probably 5 weeks ago. We had a wonderful breakfast, then kept what? I'll give you one guess. Good job: We kept driving. I actually drove. Dad was falling asleep at breakfast, so we decided it would be best for the health of all if he wasn't in the driver's seat. I drove through North Dakota today and into Minnesota. We ran up to Bemidji to see a giant Paul Bunyan and his blue Ox statue. It was soooo coool! Paul Bunyan had much too broad shoulders however. Then we headed south. We are in St. Cloud with hardly a cloud--or mosquito--in sight. Maybe this is a saintly city. Tomorrow we see the world's largest ball of twine! (Thanks Sara-May Colon!) Then we head up to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We'll lose one more hour--closer to home we be!
Again, I apologize for only more words and no more pictures. Constant driving is actually really hard work, and I am quite tired. I think it's been decided though that there will be a vespers on August 6 at Martinsburg Church. At some time. I don't remember the time. I'll definitely post all the details once I get them. And I promise, there will be many, many pictures at the vespers, and many stories as well. Eventually pictures will be posted, but mark your calendar now if you want a live event. :)
Day 33 (Wednesday, July 13)
So we slept in WalMart's parking lot last night. This made for an early morning, but that's okay because we're trying to get across Canada pretty much as fast as we can, minus the two things we had to do today: Jasper and Banff, Alberta.
Jasper and Banff are both two cities and they are two national parks in the Canadian national park system. Jasper is supposed to be Canada's equivalent to the US's Yellowstone. It was beautiful, don't get me wrong, but...I was just at Yellowstone 5 weeks ago or so, and there's just no comparison. Granted, our National Parks System is way more organized and much larger. Also, Yellowstone doesn't have a HIGHWAY running through it. It was weird being in a place with so many people. There was a lot of traffic, and in the few places we stopped and got out to look at things, there were people everywhere. After being in Alaska for that long, darkness and people are taking some getting used to.
First stop in Jasper was a canyon. Not the Grand Canyon, by any means, but it was a pretty impressive canyon considering. We get to the parking lot, and I am not hoping for much. There aren't any mountains super close by, the walk is supposed to be easy...what is this canyon? It was actually really cool. The river has just cut this massive gorge into the ground. There are millions of gallons of water coming through this itty bitty, narrow space. There are little cubbyholes carved out. In one place, there's a rock wedged between the two sides of the gorge and there's a tree growing out of the rock. The water is loud. It was surprisingly cool. The power of water will never cease to amaze me.
It was pretty all throughout the park, but it was cloudy, so where there were lakes that would have had super cool reflections in them, there was just gray clouds. We stopped at a couple of other places. A waterfall was one. It was nice, but nothing crazy. Then we went to see one more glacier off the Columbia Icefield. You could walk right up to this one if the park didn't have it roped off! This means it was extra cold. And there was a brutal, nonstop wind tearing down the glacier hill. We literally almost got blown over. Ashley got some glacial silt from the river that flows out from under the glacier. Then we really hit the road through Jasper. It was pretty, but Alaska and Yellowstone were better.
We got to Banff just a bit before sunset. (SUNSET!) We were hungry. We thought we were going to have to resign ourselves to Chili's when, wonder of wonders, there was an Old Spaghetti Factory. I don't think sourdough bread, salad (or soup), pasta, and vanilla ice cream ever tasted so good. It was fan-freaking-tastic. Mmmmm. I had some weird cheese-topped pasta (Mithzner? That's not right, at all, but...it's rich and salty and very, very yummy.), the other three had spaghetti with marinara and mushrooms. De-lec-ta-ble!
Then we drove to Calgary in the almost completely dark. Lovely. We saw the ski jump from the last winter Olympics, held in Calgary, as we were driving to our hotel. It was cool.
Day 34 (Thursday, July 14)
In the morning, we were in Calgary long enough to grab some more groceries, coffee mugs from Starbucks, and eat breakfast at a Park-n-Bike place. They really love their bikers up here! Then we pushed east. And south. And while I was thinking it was more east than south, it was definitely more south than east. Since we took the ferry up to Alaska, we really had no concept of the actual driving time it took to get there. We were in a nice big boat with someone else driving for 2.5 days. What were we paying attention to? Dolphins and whales. Well...these days, we are in a tiny van. And Dad's doing all the driving. And while there are some nice big lakes or wide rivers occasionally, there have definitely been neither dolphins nor whales. We keep hoping because the landscape is way more boring than it has been: flat.
We had to push straight south again this evening, actually, because we decided that getting back into the good ole USA would be a good idea. Gas is cheaper, there's no silly exchange fees, etc. etc. Plus we could actually use our phones for what they were made for rather than using them as clocks. That is when the storm came. We watched ourselves blast 100 km/hr down the highway towards it--the lightning was fantastic. (100 km/hr really isn't blasting speed. It's around 65 mph.) I posted about the storm already, but I'll say one more time: It was terrifying. Yet with all the rain and all the wind, part of our van, the back right bumper/tire area, is still covered in dirt.
We made it to customs. Had to get the officials' attention because their sensors were all off because of the storm. They made us eat our oranges rather than take them into the country. Then we were back on home soil. Still quite a ways from home, but in the United States. Dad kept driving and Mom stayed up with him. I went to sleep. I had said I was going to take a nap about 2 hours earlier, but then the storm hit. Finally the adrenaline wore off, and I passed out.
Day 35 (Friday, July 15)
And, oh wait, more driving. Dad drove until I have no clue. 4 am? 5 am? And then he and Mom slept until 6 am? The sun was blinding them, they cried. The sun wasn't bothering me... They got up and kept going. We stopped for breakfast at Cracker Barrel--Cracker Barrel!--we haven't seen one of those since...probably 5 weeks ago. We had a wonderful breakfast, then kept what? I'll give you one guess. Good job: We kept driving. I actually drove. Dad was falling asleep at breakfast, so we decided it would be best for the health of all if he wasn't in the driver's seat. I drove through North Dakota today and into Minnesota. We ran up to Bemidji to see a giant Paul Bunyan and his blue Ox statue. It was soooo coool! Paul Bunyan had much too broad shoulders however. Then we headed south. We are in St. Cloud with hardly a cloud--or mosquito--in sight. Maybe this is a saintly city. Tomorrow we see the world's largest ball of twine! (Thanks Sara-May Colon!) Then we head up to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We'll lose one more hour--closer to home we be!
Again, I apologize for only more words and no more pictures. Constant driving is actually really hard work, and I am quite tired. I think it's been decided though that there will be a vespers on August 6 at Martinsburg Church. At some time. I don't remember the time. I'll definitely post all the details once I get them. And I promise, there will be many, many pictures at the vespers, and many stories as well. Eventually pictures will be posted, but mark your calendar now if you want a live event. :)
Days 31.5 & 32: Oh the Wild Life!
Hahahaha, before you get the wrong idea about the title of today's blog, it should probably be title "Oh the Wildlife" because that is what we have seen today.
So last night (Day 31.5, Monday, July 11, aka Free Slurpies Day at 7-11) we drove and drove and drove. We were going to stop at this place in northeast British Columbia called Watson Lake, but there was no rest area with restrooms. And by restrooms, I mean outhouses. We kept driving. And driving. And driving. We went through an area of about 200 kilometers (since we're in Canada after all) where there were no rest areas with potties. 200 kilometers! Eventually we found one, we all used the outhouse, and we set up the van for sleep time.
Oh, big news story of the trip. It kind of got dark! As in, our headlights were both necessary and useful! As in, the moon was big and bright. It must have been setting, but we kept going up and down in elevation, so it just clung to the mountainous horizon all bright and a week-from-being-full for what seemed like hours. It was beautiful. We saw the morning star. That was the unfortunate bit, I guess. We drove for so long that the morning star was coming up and I think the sun was about to come up too.
But we did eventually make it to the rest area. We tried this new thing the last time we slept in the car. We shuffled things around and laid down the middle seats in the van so we could unroll and blow up one of our air mattresses. Then three people can sleep on the air mattress and one person sleeps up on the two front seats. Dad slept up front the last time but didn't actually get much sleep because we had our cooler up there too. This time we shuffled things a bit more and had the cooler on a floor. No cooler up front. I slept up front and with all the clothes stuffed between the seats and only minimal fighting with the seat belts, I actually had a pretty great night's sleep. (I pride myself on being able to sleep anywhere. I can almost sleep standing up. It's a gift. I enjoy it.)
Anyways, we didn't wake up until almost 10 o'clock this morning. This is crazy because who knew when the sun came up. But we didn't go to sleep until around 3 am local time, which was still 2 am Alaska time, so... But we got up and got moving. We saw so much wildlife on our drive so far today. We saw a herd of bison with a bunch of babies within 15 minutes of being on the road. We saw a black bear soon after that. We saw a moose. We saw some mountain goats with a baby goat. We saw an elk and a porcupine. Dad saw another bear. We were half expecting to see porpoises jump out of the lakes and rivers!
We are now in Dawson Creek, British Columbia about to head into Alberta. Then we'll only be 2 hours off home time. One last bit of wildlife to tell you about here. The mosquitoes are ridiculous here. More ridiculous than anywhere else we've been this entire trip. They are monsters. They are bigger than any other mosquitoes we have seen this entire trip. There has been erratic driving to try to breeze them off so people can get in and out of the car. They just flocked to the car for a while. It was gross. I think we have pictures.
Sorry for another day with no pictures. The internet is not so great in this McDonald's parking lot. In fact, I think I'm going to have to fanagle with it to make it work just to get this up. We'll be in Calgary in a couple days, so hopefully I can do a couple picture posts by then.
So last night (Day 31.5, Monday, July 11, aka Free Slurpies Day at 7-11) we drove and drove and drove. We were going to stop at this place in northeast British Columbia called Watson Lake, but there was no rest area with restrooms. And by restrooms, I mean outhouses. We kept driving. And driving. And driving. We went through an area of about 200 kilometers (since we're in Canada after all) where there were no rest areas with potties. 200 kilometers! Eventually we found one, we all used the outhouse, and we set up the van for sleep time.
Oh, big news story of the trip. It kind of got dark! As in, our headlights were both necessary and useful! As in, the moon was big and bright. It must have been setting, but we kept going up and down in elevation, so it just clung to the mountainous horizon all bright and a week-from-being-full for what seemed like hours. It was beautiful. We saw the morning star. That was the unfortunate bit, I guess. We drove for so long that the morning star was coming up and I think the sun was about to come up too.
But we did eventually make it to the rest area. We tried this new thing the last time we slept in the car. We shuffled things around and laid down the middle seats in the van so we could unroll and blow up one of our air mattresses. Then three people can sleep on the air mattress and one person sleeps up on the two front seats. Dad slept up front the last time but didn't actually get much sleep because we had our cooler up there too. This time we shuffled things a bit more and had the cooler on a floor. No cooler up front. I slept up front and with all the clothes stuffed between the seats and only minimal fighting with the seat belts, I actually had a pretty great night's sleep. (I pride myself on being able to sleep anywhere. I can almost sleep standing up. It's a gift. I enjoy it.)
Anyways, we didn't wake up until almost 10 o'clock this morning. This is crazy because who knew when the sun came up. But we didn't go to sleep until around 3 am local time, which was still 2 am Alaska time, so... But we got up and got moving. We saw so much wildlife on our drive so far today. We saw a herd of bison with a bunch of babies within 15 minutes of being on the road. We saw a black bear soon after that. We saw a moose. We saw some mountain goats with a baby goat. We saw an elk and a porcupine. Dad saw another bear. We were half expecting to see porpoises jump out of the lakes and rivers!
We are now in Dawson Creek, British Columbia about to head into Alberta. Then we'll only be 2 hours off home time. One last bit of wildlife to tell you about here. The mosquitoes are ridiculous here. More ridiculous than anywhere else we've been this entire trip. They are monsters. They are bigger than any other mosquitoes we have seen this entire trip. There has been erratic driving to try to breeze them off so people can get in and out of the car. They just flocked to the car for a while. It was gross. I think we have pictures.
Sorry for another day with no pictures. The internet is not so great in this McDonald's parking lot. In fact, I think I'm going to have to fanagle with it to make it work just to get this up. We'll be in Calgary in a couple days, so hopefully I can do a couple picture posts by then.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Stateside!
We are back in the Lower 48. We just got into Montana, but we're just trucking through. We had to drive through a ridiculously crazy storm. We couldn't see 5 feet in front of us. Literally. There was hail. The grass was flattened by the wind. Lightening shot down all over and lit up the sky. The only thing we didn't see, thankfully, was a tornado. Our adrenaline is pumping pretty good right now, so we are gonna keep heading south. Then east. Word updates of the last few days to come soon. And pictures too, I promise. Internet is...bad. Awful. Horrible. Terrible. No good. Did I say very bad? Anyways, now the internet should be better, and faster, so picture uploading will be better and faster.
Go, go, USA!
Monday, July 11, 2011
Day 31: Go East, Boggess Family, Go East
Today we said goodbye to Alaska for the last time. There are no bears in Hyder which means we are just heading straight east to Jasper and Banff in Alberta. It's something like 1400 miles. YIKES! We are in Whitehorse, Yukon right now. Our ship needed new sails...okay, our van needed new tires. We tried for a really long time to connect to internet at Starbucks, but it failed miserably. Now we're at the library (bibliotheque in French) where they have quite lovely internet, but you can only have it for an hour. It is not the speedy-est internet however...I was trying to upload pictures, but it took about 6 minutes to load one picture. I won't detail the math for uploading the number of pictures I wanted to get up. It will just have to wait until we get faster internet.
Until we hit internet again, adieu!
Until we hit internet again, adieu!
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