Home sweet home...

After all the hullabaloo last night, we slept in this morning. Also, the last part of our trip home is not too long any more so we had some extra time. We packed up our stuff and checked out of our hotel. We decided to have a nice breakfast before hitting the road so we made a short hop over to Bob Evans. Since this was our last day on the road, I decided to have their large breakfast something like "steak and farm-fresh eggs omelette with toast and hash browns, etc.". Well... it was very nice but I had a hard time finishing it. It must have been about 3000 calories but what the hay...:-) I didn't have to eat for the rest of the day after that one.

We got onto Interstate 96 right away and motored on to Port Huron. The weather was just great, sunny and warm. When we travelled I96 previously, we noticed a large number of dead deer along the interstate. This time, thankfully, we only saw one dead one. It must be in the spring and fall that the deer come out and play on the highway I suppose. We did our usual duty-free shopping before getting onto the Bluewater Bridge to Canada. The traffic going in and out of Canada was pretty busy. We stopped about halfway on the bridge and then just crept along for 45 minutes before finally reaching the Canada Customs booth. Then in about 30 seconds we were on our way. What a waste of time, but that's the way it is sometimes.

We decided to make a small detour through Dashwood to visit the Arc Angel thrift shop where Annie's sister Jannie works. We had a nice visit with her and were caught up on the latest happenings in the family before setting off again for Acton. We arrived in good time around 3:30pm and were pleasantly surprised that the reconstruction of our road had been completed in our absence. In fact, when we talked to the neighbours, the final paving had been done the morning of the day we arrived. Talk about good planning, we missed all the dust and inconvenience of the road reconstruction and paving of our subdivision roads.

We're looking forward to sleeping in our own bed tonight. We have great memories and pictures of our Alaska trip and are glad we did the long haul. The total distance travelled came to around 18,000 km or 11185 miles. Thank you all for following our road trip adventures and we wish you all God's blessings.

Chicago traffic…

I promised to post the last two blogs of our Alaska trip. I'm finally fulfilling that promise. Well...better late than never eh?

This morning we left our motel near Madison, WI at our usual time with nice sunny weather. It promises to be a great sunny and warm day today. We’re still following Interstate 90 south for quite awhile. The scenery is quite nice but you can tell we’re now in a much more populated state. There are lots of farms and small towns everywhere. After about an hour driving or so, the clouds overtook us again and we even had some rain. The clouds stayed with us all morning until we had to get off I90 and onto I80. By that time the sun was coming out again which makes everything so much nicer. We’re now getting close to Chicago and the traffic is getting very, very busy. We’re not used any more to this heavy traffic and it takes me a bit to get used to it again. It’s the middle of the day and yet there are numerous stretches where it is stop and go and just creeping along. We can’t wait to get past Chicago. I say Chicago, but the city itself is quite a distance north of us but this is of course the greater Chicago area.

We finally left the GCA when we got off I80 and onto I94, phew… we’re glad that’s behind us again. We motored along I94 and got onto I196 at Benton Heights where we stopped for a coffee break. We got to our hotel in Grand Rapids by about 5 o’clock and settled in and had a nice dinner. We stopped in Grand Rapids in order to visit our niece Jeanette and her husband Dale. After supper we took a short drive to their home and had a wonderful time with them. We also met Hannah again as she was staying with Jeanette and Dale.

When we got back to the hotel, we noticed a group of young people hanging around and we were wondering if they were staying there as well. Sure enough, the whole group was staying right across the hall from us. Although I was totally oblivious, Annie could hear them all night carrying on and slamming doors. Eventually the police was called and things quieted down. Needless to say, Annie was not impressed. This was the only time on our trip that we had problems with noise fortunately.

Motoring along the I-90...

When we got up this morning the sun was shining and it was already 19 deg C. The sun didn't last too long though. Pretty soon the clouds rolled in and stayed with us until mid afternoon. The sun did appear from time to time but at least we had no rain during the day. The temperature went up to 27 deg C by mid-afternoon. I must tell ya'all that everything is thoroughly soaked here and all the way back to Washington. The rivers are all overflowing their banks, the fields are covered in pools and ponds and the marshy areas are expanded to their limits. Apparently the last few weeks and during the spring in general it had rained and rained and rained in the northern states. We also heard about the record setting rains in the Canadian prairie provinces and the hardship that it causes the farmers.

So we are NOT complaining about the weather, it has been great for us. We appreciate the warm summer weather for sure.

The scenery along I-90 from Sioux Falls to the Minnesota border with Wisconsin is pretty boring. This is the southern part of Minnesota and is the same as northern Iowa, cornfields as far as the eye can see. When we crossed the Mississippi River though the landscape became a lot more interesting again. There are still a lot of farms but the terrain becomes much more hilly and there are lots of trees everywhere as well. We made good time today and did about 700km (435 miles) of easy driving.

Now that our trip is coming to it's conclusion, we are also looking forward to seeing our family and friends again. It is not until you've been away for awhile that you really appreciate the people that are important in your life. Annie and I are so blessed to have great a family, from siblings to kids, grand kids, nieces and nephews and also to have so many good friends as well.

Tomorrow we hope to reach Grand Rapids and visit Dale and Janette. We're looking forward to sharing and spending some time with them. I won't be blogging tomorrow night but will post a final blog on Friday or Saturday. So, stay tuned. I'll end today's blog with a reflection on all the beauty we've seen on this trip so far. It just makes us so thankful to our Creator for everything He has made. When He created the natural world, He created it perfect. You can click on this link that expresses it for me so well: "Awesome God" by Brian Doerksen. I hope you enjoy the video as much as I do.

So, no pictures for today but I wish you all a good night and special greetings to Sue in Arizona.

Nothing looks as good as the Badlands ;-)

This morning we were awakened by some early birds on the floor above us. They decided to get up at 6 o'clock and it sounded like a herd of elephants were walking around. Needless so say we could not sleep too well after that. In a way, that allowed us to help get used to the time zone we passed through today. The weather was great when we got up, bright sunshine and 19 deg C. Yes, we're enjoying summer weather after all these cool, wet weeks. The temperature got up to 31 deg C this day. As I'm writing this blog, we have not had the promised t-storms but the weather forecast is still predicting them for tonight and tomorrow morning, so we'll see.

We decided to make a bit of a detour from I-90 and catch a section of road going through the Badlands. Badlands are semiarid regions with sparse vegetation that experience high rates of erosion. Water and wind sculpt soft sedimentary rock into intricate mazes of narrow ravines, v-shaped gullies, knife-sharp ridges, buttes, and colourful pinnacles. For badlands to form, the land must be composed of alternating layers of hard and soft rocks and soil. When easily eroded material, such as clay or mud stone, is topped by more resistant material, such as sandstone, the harder horizontal layers offer some protection to the beds of soft deposits below. Uncovered layers of softer rocks or soil wash away quickly, while protected deposits form nearly vertical walls beneath the harder material.

We also saw lot and lots of flowering wild Yucca plants all over. The roots of this plant was used to make soap by the native Indians in the past and is also called the Soapweed. The flowers are not exactly beautiful, but from a distance, they look quite good. We also saw lot and lots of fields of flowering yellow flowers. We don't know what they are but they look sort of like canola flowers. They appear to grow in the wild though. The landscape continues to change when we travel eastwards. Once we were away from the Badlands, the scenery changes to a rolling prairie. The scenery becomes somewhat monotonous with a seemingly endless open range populated by beef cattle and some horses. We did see a Pronghorn Antelope and a bunch of deer. Also, I saw a number of prairie dogs popping up in places. These cute little guys live in huge colonies, sometimes more than 1,000,000 in one colony.

We crossed the mighty Missouri River at the town of Chamberlain. Incidentally, that's where we stayed overnight on our last trip. At this spot, Lewis and Clark, the famous American explorers, stopped here and left their boats behind before setting off further west, eventually all the way to the Pacific coast. Two years later, they stopped at this same spot on their way back east.

Today was another good day but consisted mostly of travelling because we like to get back home before the weekend. So for today, this is about it. I'll say good night again to everyone, especially to Renita, Hannah and Noah who are always in our thoughts and prayers.

Visiting old favorites...

We didn't travel very far last Sunday. After watching/listening to Dr. David Jeremiah on TV we left the hotel around 10 am. We had planned to attend the local Baptist church but for personal reasons we couldn't go ahead with our plans. In any case, we heard an excellent sermon and didn't feel too bad about not worshipping with the saints.

We stopped off at a special landmark in Wyoming, the Devils Tower. This is a unique volcanic outcropping. We had visited this landmark almost 2 years ago and wanted to see it again. It didn't disappoint, it's still awe inspiring and kinda weird.

The weather today (Sunday) is another mix, clouds, sun and the threat of t-showers. The temperatures started off at 12 deg C and climbed all the way up to 27 deg. An interesting side note is that yesterday we went through the town of Billings, MT and today we heard that a tornado went right through the town on Sunday. We're in for some active weather for the rest of the week apparently.

When we crossed into South Dakota, we decided to take a detour through the very scenic Black Hills. When you think of South Dakota, you may think it's all rolling prairies and badlands. However, in the south-west part of the state lay the Black Hills. These medium sized mountains are rugged and crossed by fast rivers and canyons. There are also beautifull waterfalls. It is here that the famous Mount Rushmore is located.

That brings me to today, Monday. We decided to stay over for a day in Rapid City, SD so we could re-visit the sights we had seen 2 years ago. At that time, the weather was miserable, cool and rainy. It was the only day on that trip that it rained. This time however the weather was quite the opposite. We woke to bright sunshine and 19 deg C. As the day went on, the temperature went all the way to 27 deg C. Definitely shorts and t-shirt weather!

First we visited Mount Rushmore where we renewed our acquaintance with George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. This time the pictures turned out much better due to the brilliant sunshine and almost total absence of clouds. We had a great time walking around and taking pictures. We also saw a marmot when we strayed a bit off the beaten path where no other tourists dared to go. We didn't see any of the mountain goats this time. We found out however that Canada donated 27 of these goats to the US forest service. These mountain goats are not native to this area originally but continue to thrive today.

After visiting Mount Rushmore, we travelled to the Chief Crazy Horse Memorial. This about 15 miles away from Mount Rushmore. This was another landmark we visited 2 years ago. At that time we visited it at night. The reason was that that evening they had a public blasting show that only happens twice a year. It so happens that next Saturday they have the first of these two blasts again. However, we hope to be back home by then. We took numerous pictures of this awesome mountain carving. It is vastly larger than the Mount Rushmore Monument. All of Mount Rushmore's presidents apparently fit on Chief Crazy Horse's head to give you a comparison. The blasting has been going on for 62 years and is expected to continue for another 40 years. The picture shows a scale model in the foreground as it will look when finished. It'll be the largest statue in the world when finished.

After Chief Crazy Horse, we went and visited the Chapel in Hills. Nestled at the foot of the Black Hills, on the western edge of Rapid City, SD, the Chapel in the Hills is open to all visitors. The chapel itself is an exact reproduction of the famous Borgund Stavkirke, or Stave Church, of Laerdal, Norway. The building is entirely made of wood. There are no nails used in the structure, they used wooden dowels and mortise joints to construct this church. The workmanship is amazing, considering the tools they had back in 1350. This particular church is of course a replica and modern tools were used. The construction techniques though are the same as in the original.

By now, we were hearing weather warnings on the radio. There were severe thunderstorms again in the area with the possibility of tornadoes. Indeed, we could see an ominous sky to the north of us. So, we decided to head back to the hotel and check the weather channel. Since it was only 3pm, we had planned to visit the Air Force Museum at Ellsworth Air Force Base. After assuring ourselves that the t-storm cell we saw to the north was tracking due east about 10 miles north of us and that it was unlikely to hit us, we decided to go to Ellsworth AFB after all.

Well, we were not sorry, even though some of the pictures reflect the black threatening sky, it just moved off to the east and dissolved after a few hours. I had a great time looking at all the familiar airplanes. Being an retired Air Force soldier, I was in my element. I even found a F-84F Thunderstreak on display. This is the fighter-bomber that I cut my teeth on way back in 1960. It was like seeing an old friend again. There were all kinds of airplanes, WWII through fairly recent models. I'll try to list them from memory and I'm sure I'll forget a few; B-29, B-25, B-52D, KC135, B-1B, F-111, F-105, F-102A, F-101B, F-100, F-86C, F-84F, A-7D, EB-57B, T-33A and C-47A (DC-3). There was also a Nike Ajax, a high altitude anti aircraft missile. This was the fore runner of the Nike Hercules, a missile system I also worked on as a radar specialist when I was in the Air Force.

Anyway, I had a ball and felt like a kid in a toy store. We had a great meal at the Outback Steakhouse right next to our hotel. This was still a treat for fathers day since yesterday the line-up was just too much. Even today, the next Monday, the place was packed. Recession...what recession??

This is about all I have for today. We hope and pray that we won't run into heavy weather tomorrow. To all a good night, also to Miriam :-)

Can it be? Is summer finally back?

We woke up to a nice sunny day this morning. The temperature was around 10 deg C. It's promising to be a fine day but you never know with the weather. We're hearing all kinds of bad weather reports about the mid-west with severe thunderstorms. So, we keep our options open except, what the hay...I'll wear my shorts today for the first time since leaving Ontario eons ago (or so it seems to us).

Travelling from Butte, MT we are going through some good sized mountains where once again the clouds re-appeared and it was spitting a bit. Once through the mountains, we are now on the open Montana range. This is a totally different landscape. It consists of gently rolling hills and dry grass and sage land. This is where the beef cattle roam unrestricted. The mountains stay visible in the distance and I must say, the scenery never seems to get boring. Here and there are cultivated areas where crops are grown. They need irrigation though to survive. You see these massive central pivot irrigation systems all over the place. We're driving along I-90 through a large valley basically until we get to Bozeman. There we had to cross another mountain range, the Bridger Range. Once we crossed these mountains, we were again on what I call the open range. The nature of this part of Montana is a lot rougher. Again the landscape consists of rolling hills and low mountains. There are few farms to be seen. We often drive for 30 minutes or more without seeing any sign of human habitation. A fair amount of cattle can be seen grazing on the sparse grass. Also, we saw numerous deer all over. These appear to be white tail deer. We saw mostly does but also a number of bucks.

After Billings MT, we came to the Little Big Horn area. This of course triggered my "trivia brain" and I got to think about General Custer who lost the battle against Sitting Bull and his Lakota and Cheyenne bands at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Next weekend there is a re-enactment of this battle on the Crow Indian Reservation there. Too bad we're a week too early, I would have liked to see that. This reservation is enormous, we drove for about 2 hours before we were through it. It is 2.3 million acres large and the fifth largest Indian Reservation in the US.

The reservation ends at the Montana-Wyoming state line. We continued on through Wyoming. They call Wyoming "Big Sky Country" and that is an apt name for it. By now the clouds were mostly gone and the temperature reached an astonishing 24 deg C. I was glad to be wearing shorts I tell you. The scenery is just great and ever changing. I'm going out on a limb and say that the east-west route through the northern states will prove to be well worth taking. If we go due north we would be in Saskatchewan, not so interesting. Also, from Montana north we would be in Alberta, also not so interesting with the exception of the extreme western part of the Rockies. So far, we have had a beautiful drive since leaving the Pacific Coast.

We will continue to follow I-90 until Madison, Wisconsin. Tomorrow we plan to attend church here in Gillette, WY where we're staying overnight. After church we'll travel to Rapid City, South Dakota, where we'll stay for two nights. Then we are again in familiar territory since we were there two years ago on our last big trip. We are planning to visit Mount Rushmore again, barring the weather conditions of course (thunderstorms are forecast).

I'll probably not blog tomorrow so I'll say goodbye for now and I'll catch y'all on Monday night again.

Go East Old Man!!

Today it's Thursday the 18th of June. I'm just reminding myself since we sort off loose track of the days and dates. The morning greeted us with another mixed bag of weather. Mostly cloudy and a bit of sun. The temperature was a balmy 13 deg C. Lucky for us, as the morning wore on, the clouds started to thin and the sun came out. The temperature climbed to a nice 16 deg. In other words, weather wise, we had a pretty good day.

Today we're pushing on and we got onto the I-90 and made good time. As I mentioned in my last blog, we crossed into another time zone when we entered Montana. It's a lot harder to adjust to being short an hour than gaining an hour we find. The scenery does indeed change when travelling east from Spokane, WA. We're now off the Channeled Scablands plateau and starting to get into the mountains again. Shortly after leaving Spokane we crossed into Idaho. Here we really are back into the mountains. The landscape is very scenic with lots of forest and mountain rivers. I-90 twists and turns up, down and around the mountains. Too bad we can't stop where we want, to take pictures. Being on an Interstate Highway is fast but it limits you to where you can stop to admire the surroundings.

We did manage see a few deer along the road and a wild tom turkey. We stopped at a large gift store along I-90 that was heavily advertised already starting shortly after leaving Spokane. There was a lot of stuff but we didn't buy anything except a cowboy hat for me. This area is also known for its mines. A lot of silver is mined in Idaho as well as other minerals, including gold. We visited an outdoor display of historic mining artifacts. I've got to say that modern man doesn't know what hardship and hard work is. If you compare what our great-grandfathers had to do to make a living to what we do, then we have it super easy today. No wonder that the average lifespan then was so much shorter than today.

Once we drove into Montana, the landscape changes again. Everything is much drier and the spruce and pine forest become smaller and sparser. Also we see our good friend the sage brush starting to make it's presence know again. The mountains are further away but still very much visible. After passing through Missoula we leave the Bitterroot Mountains behind and start getting into the Rocky Mountains again. The Rockies are definitely higher and are snow and glacier capped.

When we got to the town of Butte we decided we had done enough driving and stopped for the day. Today being Friday, we were a bit nervous about getting a hotel room. In the past we have found that on weekends lots of families go somewhere and stay in hotels/motels and if you don't have a reservation you may have to hunt around for a room. This time, they still had one room and we took it right away. The room is very nice and priced very reasonably to boot, so we lucked out for today again.

Here in Butte (pronounced Beaut by the locals) there is a giant statue on one of the mountains behind the town. It's called the Lady of the Rockies and is a 90ft white statue of Mary the mother of Jesus. It overlooks the town at an altitude of 8510ft.

I haven't talked about the bug situation on our travels. That is because we have hardly seen any. The only place where we had a bit of a problem was in Northern BC when we stopped at a campground for a pit stop. There were swarms of mosquitoes there, but that was the only time we were bothered by any insects. I guess that when the temperatures go up eventually, the bug problem increases as well, but for us it was a bonus.

Well that's about it again for today. Goodbye and good night to all.

Can it get even better??

Well, this morning we woke up to, you guessed it, rain! I had to quickly dash to the car to get my jacket because of the wet cool weather and then we packed everything up again for today's trip. We had kind of planned to visit the Boeing factory here in Everett. However, the rush hour traffic here in this part of Washington state is like the Lower Mainland in BC or Toronto Ontario. We also didn't know if we could get to the Boeing plant in time for the first tour, so in the end we decided to get out of town fast and into the more rural part of the trip. We took route 2 east which is mostly a 2-lane highway and and excellent road. Up until Monroe, there wasn't much to see, a lot of farms and commercial enterprises line the road and it's pretty flat. However, just past Monroe the road goes up into the Cascade Mountains. Now, let me tell you, if you ever have a chance to travel route 2, I highly recommend you take this highway over Interstate 90. From Monroe to Leavenworth this road is one of the most scenic roads we have travelled so far. On the west side of the Stevens Pass (4061ft) the forest is again the typical Pacific rain forest. Moss grows everywhere and the undergrowth is lush and green and wet. We saw lots of old forest Douglas fir trees, some of them enormous. We drove for quite awhile along the Skykomish River which is wild and wonderful (as are all the tributaries). Note that by now it was still cloudy but the rain had diminished to a bit of spitting on and off. The temperature went down to 4 deg C though.

We climbed Stevens Pass where we briefly disappeared into the low hanging clouds. After we crossed the divide, we started to descend into a different weather system. The rainclouds disappeared, the sun came out and the lower we got the warmer it got. It even reached 19 deg C. The river that parallels route 2 is now the Wenatchee River. This river is even wilder than the Skykomish and the scenery is no longer rain forest but a kind of in-between (rain forest and desert). It is a lot drier but not yet desert like. We took lots of pictures of wildflowers again (different ones than before).

We stopped along the road to take some pictures of some unusual wood carvings, inclucluding this eagle feeding her young. The nest is made from an upturned tree's root system. Neat eh?

When we came to the town of Leavenworth, we were in for a surprise. The whole town had been made to look like a Bavarian town. All the buildings, including the gas stations and McDonald look like typical alpine Bavarian buildings. Everything is "Alles muss in ortnung sein, da?" clean and organized unlike some of the typical hillbilly settlements we've come to expect in other parts of North Amarica. We stopped for awhile and walked around the various town center streets. The buildings sport the typical Bavarian murals on the stucco walls and there are flowers everywhere. Annie had a ball looking at all those flowers. Go ahead, please click on my link to the website for Leavenworth if you want to find out more. There is a beautiful section on the town's Christmas lights on this page here. Click on the slide shows and be amazed.

At the town of Wenatchee, the Wenatchee River joins the mighty Columbia River. We have been going down from the Stevens Pass for quite a long time now but now we are in the Columbia River valley and follow that river for awhile. From Cashmere on there are lots of fruit orchards lining both the Wenatchee and Columbia rivers. In particular, there are lots of cherry orchards and we stopped at a roadside fruit stand to pick up a few pounds. The vegetation is now mostly desert-like again. Unless cultivated by man of course.

At Orondo, we turned away from the Columbia River and climbed up to another high plateau called the Channeled Scablands. This is again totally different from the Columbia River valley. This large plateau is situated between the Cascade Mountains on the west, the Bitterroot Mountains in the east and the Monashee Mountains in the north. The plateau is intensively farmed and for all intents and purposes looks like the prairies. Wheat fields stretch from horizon to horizon. There is hardly a tree to be seen. Only where there is a settlement do you see some trees and shrubs. In the un-cultivated parts it looks exactly like a desert, lots of sage brush and a bit of scraggly grass and lots of rocks.

We made a spur-of-the-moment decision to make a detour to the Grand Coulee Dam. This was well worth it. First of all it allowed us to descend to Banks Lake where the landscape looks like the badlands, very rocky and rugged. The Grand Coulee dam is also very impressive. It is the largest dam in the US, even bigger than the Hoover dam. I won't bore you with the statistical details, if you want to know more go to the Grand Coulee Dam website to learn all about it. We toured the area and checked out the visitor center. All-in-all, we were suitably impressed with Yankee ingenuity and took lots of pictures.

The weather has become cloudy again it's starting to spit again. By now we were ready to get to our hotel in Spokane and relax. We put the pedal to the metal and got there in good time. I suspect that Spokane is at the eastern edge of the Channeled Scablands plateau and that tomorrow we'll see more mountains again in Idaho and Montana. We're also crossing the next time zone tomorrow so we'll have to advance our clocks and watches.

Well, I think I've covered the more important parts of today's route section. "Good nite Irene" and to all other friends and family members as well of course.

Wild rivers and such, oh my...

We left Williams Lake in good time after a good night's rest. The weather is overcast, what else is new and the temperature about 9 deg C.

We were driving down the Cariboo Highway, or Hwy 97, which is a pretty good 2 lane highway. We're still on the Interior Plateau and the scenery is mostly pastoral. By that I mean that there are endless farms along the highway interspersed with some trees. Again, the farms are almost all pasture land with some livestock here and there. Not too interesting to a non-farmer like me. We did see a deer along the road. It was so close that if Annie had opened the side window, she could have almost touched it. It just stood there watching the traffic go by. A little further I saw a bald eagle sitting on top of a tall pole, quite a sight. We also had another encounter with a small grizzly bear. I had to brake sharply to stop in time. It just dashed across the road right in front of us.

By about 9 am, the sun came out a bit, hooray.. When we came to the town of Clinton, we started to get off the Interior Plateau. Until then, we were at an altitude somewhere between 800 and 900m. Now we were descending quite a bit down to an altitude of 200 to 300m. The terrain also changed from the pasture land to rough desert like mountains. Very little grows here, a bit of scraggly grass and lots of sage. The trees here are sparse and the pine trees are infected with the dreaded mountain pine beetle. It's not a pretty sight but unfortunately it's wide-spread in BC. We've seen the devastation in lots of areas.

Shortly after passing through Cache Creek, we turned onto highway 1 which then descends into the Thompson River canyon. At this point we had to endure the first wait of the day for road construction. We were allowed to continue after waiting about 10 minutes. The road gang was hanging enormous steel netting on a sheer rock face about 200ft high. They do this to prevent loose rocks from bouncing off the vehicles below on the road. The crane they used had to straddle the road, thus the need for us to wait until they were done. We were to encounter numerous delay this day because of road construction.

When we got to the town of Lytton, the Fraser River and the Thompson River merged. The Fraser from there on wends itself through the Fraser Canyon. Both the Thompson and the Fraser Canyon are spectacular. As dry and desert like that the Thompson Canyon is, the Fraser Canyon is lush, coastal rain forest like. The canyon is now so narrow that the highway at times has to go through tunnels in the canyon walls. The Fraser Canyon's role in the province's history and identity is actually unrivalled by any other route. Originally perceived as a major obstacle to travel between the coast and the interior, the canyon over time became the principal route for commercial and passenger traffic. Originally dangerous in the extreme, travel through the canyon was always a formidable prospect, although today's vastly-improved modern highway does not hint at the once terrifying and difficult road that clung to the canyon's walls as if by sheer nerve. The narrowest point is the Hell's Gate. These are un-navigable rapids in the Fraser River that prevented the stern wheelers from travelling from the mouth of the Fraser to Prince George. The river is about 1000m (3300ft) down from the canyon top. The Fraser River Canyon if one of the most spectacular sights we've seen on this trip. If you ever visit BC, this is a "must see" area in my humble opinion.

This whole area was developed because gold was found in the Barkerville area near Quesnel. If you are interested in this fascinating history here's a good introduction to read: Cariboo Trail.

When we came to Hope, we were out of the canyon and highway 1 turns into a fast 4 lane limited access highway. We made good time to reach Annie's sister's place where we were welcomed like long lost family. We had a great time together, especially when our nieces Irene and Miriam with their husbands joined us for a delicious Chinese supper. We had to play cards of course after supper and had a good time of fun, laughing and sharing together. Note that we had only seen Corrie and her daughters in April when they were in Ontario to visit us.

Forward one day...

Today, we said goodbye to Corrie and Keith and then went a little further down Highway 1 to visit our good friends Ron and Tina. Again, we had a great time with them as well and did lunch. We were staying at their home just a year ago but it seemed more like last week. After saying goodbye to them we travelled a relatively short distance to Everett, Washington. Here we had some trouble finding our way to our hotel. The interchange has many roads going everywhere but we eventually sorted things out and we got here in due time.

Joining the mighty Fraser River...

After getting the Honda packed up this morning we left beautiful Smithers. The weather was mostly overcast and about 6 deg C which was twice as warm as yesterday morning. Today we're traveling to Williams Lake. The route we're taking is Highway 16 or the Yellowhead Highway. We're driving through an area that looks much like Ontario say from Orangeville to Collingwood. This is a large plateau with rolling hills called the Interior Plateau. The altitude varies somewhere between 800m and 900m. The real mountain ranges can sometimes be seen in the far distance. These are the coastal mountains to the west and the interior mountains to the east.

By the way, I forgot to mention that yesterday we crossed over into coastal mountains. The forests are quite different on the Pacific side of the mountains. The trees are much taller and mostly deciduous and large firs. Also, there is a totally different plant ecology growing on the forest floor. This is the Pacific rain forest, lush and riotous. Shortly after leaving Smithers, we're leaving the coastal mountain range again and are on the Interior Plateau with a different mix of trees.

There are a lot of farms along Hwy 16 and 97, mostly hay farms or beef cattle it appears. We are definitely no longer in the remote parts of BC, lots of small towns and hamlets! Nevertheless, the scenery is different again and we're also enjoying this part of the trip. Annie photographed quite a number of different wildflowers. She received a booklet on all the different Yukon wildflowers from a tourist information place and is trying to match the flowers we see with the description in the booklet.

When we came to Prince George, we also joined the Fraser River and turned onto Highway 97 or the Caribou Highway. The Fraser is already quite wide and a substantial river at Prince George. We will basically follow the Fraser to Abbotsford and Surrey where we will visit Annie's sister Corrie's family and our good friends Ron and Tina respectively.

The Frazer River is navigable north of the Fraser Canyon and Hell's Gate (un-navigable rapids) and again south of the canyon. Tomorrow we expect to see some spectacular scenery in the Fraser Canyon, lets hope that the weather cooperates.

BTW, today's weather was a mixed bag of sun, clouds and showers, heavy at times. As the day went on, the temperature rose to 16 deg C by the middle of the afternoon.

Since I don't have much more to say this time, I'm going to quit this blog for today. I'll post a few of the pictures we took of the various wildflowers we saw during our travels below. They are "clickable" (oh my...) to enlarge them. Enjoy...