Km 6,362 - St. Andrew's, New Brunswick

We just passed back into Canada from Maine yesterday after finishing the final leg of our American journey. We really had a good time in he U.S. and look forward to heading back there in the future. We saw some amazing places and never encountered any problems (other than mosquitoes and a bit of rain). We hit 9 states and got a nice cross section of the northern U.S. While gas was significantly cheaper in the states, any savings were chewed away by the higher cost of campgrounds (we spent an average of $20 USD per night for a basic tent site). However, this upcoming leg of the trip (Canada's Maritime Provinces ...less Newfoundland & Labrador) is what we've been looking forward to the most.

After leaving New York state Thursday morning, we passed through Vermont and most of New Hampshire by the end of the day. Both are very nice, and very green. We spent most of the day on secondary roads (and even got a bit lost on a gravel road) and headed through Vermont's Green Mountain National Park and New Hampshire's White Mountain National Park. In between the two, we made a lengthy stop at a Wal-Mart Supercenter to stock up on supplies and a few other items that are much cheaper than at home (induced by the fact that New Hampshire has no sales tax). It gave us a chance to spend a bit more of our play money. Denise, we had to stock up on Bush's beans at your suggestion. The real highlight of the day was seeing two moose on the road side (I would have completely missed them if not for Melissa's shriek). Incredible animals.

We got rained on a little Thursday night, but it was dry enough by morning to pack up and head for Maine. We spent an uneventful day heading to Bar Harbor on the Atlantic coast (nice area, but very busy). We got nailed with rain a second night in a row and took this as our cue to leave the states. Another uneventful day (with a Laundromat stop to dry out our sleeping bags) lead us back to Canada and to St. Andrews where I can see the Bay of Fundy from our campsite. We are staying in a Kiwanis campground that caters to RVs (this means no trees). However, they were full when we arrived so we ended up in the overflow camping (with 2 others) nestled nicely into the trees behind the main campground and even got a $5 discount for the trouble of being put in the overflow. I guess it pays to pull into a campground at 8pm on a Saturday night.

Now that we are back in Canada, we are looking for any suggestions as to places to visit (especially the maritimes and Quebec). Please send me an email with any spots that are must see places.

Km 5,293 - Lake Placid, New York

We are now in upstate New York in the beautiful Adirondack region and starting to feel like we've covered some distance. Last Friday, we decided to slow things down a bit and we spent he weekend near Lake Traverse, Michigan located on the shores of Lake Michigan. We spent our free day touring the area. We only touched a small portion of the area (it is one of the bigger tourism areas in the state), but we did some amazing stuff. We spent the afternoon on a sandy beach on Lake Michigan. We've been to some great beaches and this ranks right up there. It's weird to think that beach culture can exist this far from the ocean, but these lakes are so immense that they might as well be oceans. We spent significant time in the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes National Park. This is really quite a phenomenal place with astounding lookouts over Lake Michigan.

From Northern Michigan, we spent a big day driving back to Canada (via Port Huron-Sarnia border crossing). We did stop in Frankenmuth, a little Bavarian town north of Flint. After we got our fill of glockenspiels and lederhosen, we continued down an incredibly poor highway with a remarkable amount of roadkill and into Ontario. Only highlight of southern Ontario was passing through Brantford, home of Wayne Gretzky. We pulled into Stoney Creek (part of the greater Hamilton Area) in the midst of a rain storm at 5pm. We spent the night with Norm and Zoria, relatives of Melissa's and continued back into the US. On the way to Niagara Falls, we drove by Lake Ontario. This made 4 great lakes in 3 days. We crossed into New York State by way of the Rainbow Bridge border crossing overlooking the stunning Niagara Falls. This gave us a chance to catch a glimpse of the falls without dealing with the parking nightmare that we experienced 2 years ago when we were there.

Once in New York, we spent 5 hours on a toll interstate. Do not do this. You see nothing. We were very happy once we got off this near the southern end of the Adirondack region. We spent yesterday (Tuesday) at the Six Flags amusement park in Lake George. It may be aimed at kids, but the roller coasters were a blast. We finished the day up by pulling into a little campground outside of Lake Placid. We decided to stay 2 nights to kind of slow things down after several long days of driving. We did a nice little hike to a fantastic lookout over the lakes region. Tomorrow, we will pack up with the intent of leaving New York, passing through Vermont, and ending in New Hampshire. It sounds like a big day, but it is only 400 Km. From there, it is only a day or two away from passing into Canada and the Maritimes.

Km 3,213 - Manistique, Michigan

Since my last entry, things have started to feel like a road trip. After arriving in the Minneapolis/St. Paul Area Monday night, we spent Tuesday touring the cities with our guide, Terry. We stepped foot in the Mall of America and got a driving tour of the University of Minnesota (Terry's alma mater). As agriculture is big in Minnesota and surrounding states, the university has a large agriculture school. Similar to the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, this results in cow barns and test crops in the middle of the city. I mentioned to Terry how nice it would be to have a house in the city with a massive cornfield out the front door. He said that there is a townhouse complex that is marketing this exact idea.

After a nice visit (although brief), we headed north to Brainerd. The Brainerd area contains over 500 lakes and is known as "up north" to the city folks and is a popular cottage area. We stayed for a night in this area before heading out. Yesterday, we headed up to Duluth. It is quite a nice city situated on the far west corner of Lake Superior (touted as the greatest of the great lakes). Because of its location, it is a major shipping port. They have taken an area along the water that was formerly a run down dock district and converted it to a hip tourist area with lots of shops and restaurants. I wish we had more time here, but we did spend an hour. We headed over the bridge into Wisconsin and through to the upper peninsula of Michigan. We ended the day late and set up the tent in the dark. Today is a big day so we were up at 5:20 am and packed in 30 minutes. It is now 10am and we just caught site of Lake Michigan.

We've had a busy few days on the road and are ready for a break. Today, we are heading to Traverse City in the lower peninsula of Michigan and are planning on spending 2 nights there before heading briefly back into Canada.

Km 1,582 - Tower City, North Dakota

We rolled away from home Sunday morning at 7am. As there is not a great deal to stop and see across Montana and North Dakota, our intent is to make it to Minneapolis in 2 days. First day was good. The border crossing went far smoother than I expected. I was fully expecting an intense questioning and investigation once they uncovered the Yemen stamps in my passport. The last time I went through the US a few years ago, I had every piece of my luggage disassembled and was questioned for 15 minutes what business I had in Yemen. For some reason, the border guards didn't see me as any sort of national security risk and we were admitted straight away.

The scenery of Northern Montana (the route we took) is not a whole lot different from Southern Alberta. There isn't much more than a whole lot of cows and fenceposts (and cheap gas...about 83 cents/litre). The drive went well enough and we did pass though some interesting landscapes before landing in Glendive, MT for the night. We set up our tent and BBQ'd supper as the sun went down on my new BBQ. Earlier in the day, we stopped in Great Falls (home of the CFL's Dave Dickinson) and went to the Walmart Supercenter to do some shopping. Funny thing about the store is that the city's population is about 65,000 yet the store is significantly bigger than any Walmart in Calgary. It is amazing that they can support such a store, but it was surprisingly busy. Anyways, I bought a little hibachi style BBQ for 6 bucks. In fact, the steak I grilled on it cost more than the BBQ.

This morning, we were up, packed and on the road in 35 minutes from waking up. I was impressed. This morning saw us pass into North Dakota. It seemed as though the scenery changed instantly. We stopped at the Theodore Roosevelt National Park for an amazing view of the Badlands. Since then, the grassy hills have turned into sprawling. farmland. We are still an hour from Minnesota, but I expect the landscape to change dramatically again before rolling into Minneapolis tonight.

Km 0 - Crowsnest Pass, Alberta

When I accepted my current job doing rotational work, the intent was to take advantage of the situation and travel to the places that Melissa and I had always aspired to visit. Number one on the list was always a road trip across Canada. It took almost two years for everything to line up, but we are now on the eve of setting out for a 5 week trip through Canada and the Northern USA. We have no idea how long it will take or how far it will take us, but the vagueness of it all is quite appealing to me. Normally, I am a little out of my comfort zone unless our travels are planned to a reasonable level (not obsessive, but more than just a fuzzy idea of where I may end up). However, this trip takes away a lot of the planning for a few reasons. First, we are traveling in our own country which takes away some of the normal obstacles (language, money changing, safety) of smooth travel. Secondly, we have our truck (complete with new truck topper) and all of our gear. This gives us more mobility than we would normally have. Anyways, we set off Sunday morning straight south into Montana and we will take it from there.