Day 10 & 11- The Travel Van Two-Step!

Do you remember those hand-held puzzles with the numbers 1-15? The objective was to slide the pieces around so that you ended up with all 15 numbers in the correct order - that's a little bit how we move around in the travel van. We have things down to a science. In the morning, Allison picks up her sleeping bag and mat, and moves to Laurie's bunk. Laurie gets up and gets her stuff to get ready for the day. Allison gets her stuff and we go shower at the campground. While we are gone, Scott gets up, makes coffee, and eats his breakfast. About the time Allison and Laurie are done getting ready, Scott heads off to the showers and the girls eat breakfast and finish straightening things up for the day. Laurie takes Popcorn out for her "morning constitution", Scott unplugs the van, and pretty soon we are off and running for the day! Overall, we have been getting along amazingly well! Today we decided to head on down the Washington/Oregon coast. (Time to filler up again! This time it's Allison's turn.) We headed over to Astoria, WA - there is a Lewis and Clark museum and fort that we took in. (Making moccasins out of buffalo hide) (One of the rooms in the replica fort) We also had the opportunity to see a flint-lock gun demonstration - it was pretty cool - something Laurie's Dad, Rudy, would have really enjoyed. (Here the 8th grade teacher shows off an air rife replica from the expedition) (A demonstration firing a flintlock rife) While at the museum, we received news that Scott's mom was in the hospital. She had chest pains and was being admitted for observation. Scott's Dad told us not to worry, that Marilyn was doing well, so we headed on down the coast. (Near Tillimook, Oregon) However, about 4:30, we decided we really needed to head on back home. So we continued on highway 101 until we could cut over to highway 5 in Salem, OR. From there, we just needed to stay on the 5. According to the GPS we were using, we were going to get into Lodi at 4AM. Allison drove for about 3 hours, then Laurie drove and around Medford, OR we decided that we needed to call it a night. So around midnight, we drove in to Redding, CA - pulled off into a parking lot near a Ramada Inn and got some shut-eye. Scott woke up around 7 AM and headed down the road. We stopped at a rest stop around 9 AM at a rest-stop just outside of Sacramento. Popcorn was happy to get out and stretch her legs. From there, it was only about a 1 hour until we rolled into Lodi! From the time we started driving the travel van in ND, to the time we pulled into our driveway, we have put on 3814miles - and we put on 866 miles in just these last 2 DAYS! Wow! (Time for an oil change already!) We all pitched in and carried everything from the van into the house - and we started the arduous task of unpacking, putting things away, and of course doing laundry! Popcorn was happy to romp around in her own backyard, then kept a close eye on us as we made numerous trips in and out of the van! It had been an awesome trip! We saw so many interesting and beautiful places - but as Allison said,"There's no place like home." Before we close for this trip we need to give a couple acknowledgements. First off, "Snaps" to niece Julie for getting this blog set up for us. If it hadn't been for her, we would not have had a clue as to how to do something like this. Thanks Julie, you are awesome! Secondly, we need to give a big THANK YOU to our neighbors, Tim and Monica. They loaned us a portable GPS unit. Believe us when we say it was a godsend! We'd probably still be looking for a couple of the campsites that we stayed at! Finally, love and thanks again to my parents (Janet & Rudy). We had a blast vacationing in the travel van and we look forward to more travel van adventures. And so the Two Babes, A Dude, and A Dog are signing off for this trip. Thanks for coming along on the ride! (Now it's time to give the van a thorough washing after 11 days of bugs!)

Day 9 - Back in the USA!!!!

Since we decided to cut our time short in Vancouver, we headed out of the city towards the US boarder. We drove to customs near Clearbrook. The automated traffic signs warned us of a 40-90 minute delay. It was SO busy! Gee, we didn't have ANY traffic at the ND Customs boarder! When it was finally our turn for inspection, they gave us a pretty thorough interview: Asked what we did, how long we'd been in Canada and why, did we have papers for the guard dog :-), (Woof! Scary huh!) and why did our passports say CA but our vehicle plates were from ND . . . fortunately we had a certificate showing temporary registration for the van- so all was cool. Got going down the road - but we did celebrate at the closest DQ with those yummy Blizzards! It has been so nice to see signs with MPH instead of KPH. The converting Km to miles was strenuous mental math for us 2nd grade teachers! Filled up with gas for $2.79 a gallon (how nice to buy gas by the gallon instead of the liter!) Gee, it's great to be back in the USA!! (God Bless America!) Traveled through Seattle (definitely worth a trip back to explore!) and Tacoma- then headed over to Aberdeen and highway 101. We located a campsite in Westport close to the ocean. The description in the brochure made it sound a lot nicer than it really was. Why is that? (No picture of the campsite this time,) It was pretty cool and breezy, (Here is our "Little Mermaid!") so we opted not to make a fire and headed back to Aberdeen for dinner. We ate dinner at "Billy's Bar & Grill" - a cute "western" looking establishment. (Cheese already!) Scott and Laurie had their "lean & green" salads, while Allison chowed down on her favorite cheeseburger and fries! Everyone was a happy camper. (Love those fries!) Allison drove the van back to our campsite - she is getting better! (Don't talk to me, I'm driving) Tomorrow we will continue down highway 101 and the Washington/Oregon coast. Allison would like to be home tomorrow, (Please!!!!!) but we are still 622 miles from Lodi - so it looks like one more night of camping for us! All in all, we traveled 334 miles on this leg of our adventure!

Day 8 -Vancouver or "1159 miles west of Pembina, ND"

Since we were not impressed with the campground facilities at Knutsford, BC (particularly their water situation), we hit the road on to Vancouver. We headed south on highway 5A till it connected with interstate 5. It is a very scenic drive from Kamloop to Vancouver. We did not realize that Vancouver was so much like San Francisco! It is a very cosmopolitan area with a Chinatown, etc. We found an excellent RV park, Burnaby Cariboo RV Park - free showers and Internet! The grounds were very interesting. Scott took pictures - it will be easier for you to see than for me to explain! (Doesn't this look like something out of the Stepford Wives!?!) (This is one of the smaller RV spaces) (This was an RV wash across from our site.) We showered after getting settled and then headed into the city of Vancouver for dinner. Laurie found a place called "Yaletown Brewing Co." so we decided to check it out. We made reservations for 7PM and they would hold our reservation for 15 minutes past the reservation time. It took us a little while to get there, so Scott dropped Laurie and Allison off and went to park the 19' van! Allison and Laurie went in the restaurant and waited, and waited, and waited for Scott to show up. When he finally met up with us (30 minutes later), he was rather frazzled - he had a HECK of a time trying to find a place to park the van. He finally found a lot about 6 blocks away, for $20! After he settled down, (gulp, gulp!) we enjoyed a great meal. (Two babes waiting for the Dude, the dog stayed in the car at her own risk!) It was an interesting drive to and from the restaurant - through some of the seedier parts of Vancouver - like any large metropolitan area. (This was the seedier part!) We also saw some of the buildings we believe are being built for the 2010 Winter Olympics. When we got back to our camping area, we were all ready to call it a night. We have come to the realization that we are not going to have the time we need to explore Victoria Island. Allison is chomping at the bit to get back home and Scott and Laurie have decided that they will just have to come back - ON THEIR OWN - and enjoy the area at a later date! (Add it to the "Bucket List"!) Our plans are to head on down to the U.S. boarder tomorrow and spend some time driving highway 101 on the Washington/Oregon coast before heading home.

Day 7- So much to see, so little time!

First item on our agenda for today was doing some laundry. We headed back to the laundromat - this time we were successful! It cost 3 loonies per wash ( we did 3 loads) and .25 for 4 minutes of drying time! As you can imagine, we went threw a LOT of quarters!! From there we headed out for one last Banff experience before leaving the area. We took a ride on the Banff Gondola. You go from 5,194 ft. to 7,484 ft.- a climb of 2,290 ft. in 8 minutes. At the summit there is an observation building that allows you a spectacular panoramic view of the area. We took in the view, met a couple on "holiday" from Ireland, and had a bite to eat, before taking the ride back to the bottom. We headed out of Banff around 4PM - we barely scratched the surface of what is available to do and see in this area. (Original Tea House in Banff) To really appreciate Banff/Lake Louise, allow yourself a good week! It would have been awesome to take in the Banff Hot Springs, Columbia Ice Fields, and Jasper. We needed to get as far down the road to Vancouver as we could. We settled on Kamloop - a 397 mile drive from Banff. Once again, we were treated to beautiful scenery, lots of lakes, crossed the Continental Divide, and saw some areas that reminded us of the Oregon High Desert. The Trans-Canada highway for this leg of our trip, was mainly just 2 lanes - so the going was a little slower. We rolled into Knutsford RV campground around 9:15PM (we also crossed into the Pacific Time Zone, so we got an extra hour!). The campground office was closed, but someone must have seen us pull in because a guy showed up within minutes to check us in. Cute campground, but upon entering the restrooms after setting up, oops!, I mean plugging in our van, we noticed a signed taped to the restroom mirrors that said, "The county health inspector has determined that this water should be boiled or treated with bleach before drinking." GREAT!!! - so we decided at that point we could wait until we got to Vancouver to take a shower!

P.S. Thanks for the emails and blog comments - it's great to hear from you and we look forward to being back in touch with all of you shortly!

Day 6 - Something for your "Bucket List"

We spent the day exploring Banff and Lake Louise - if you haven't had a chance to visit this place, it is really worth a trip . . . add this to your "Bucket List". First we headed to the Banff Springs Hotel. This hotel looks like a castle - everything about it is impressive. We spent some time just walking around grounds and taking in the grandeur.

From there, we headed to Lake Louise. It is only about 30 miles away, but with construction, it took us about an hour. The Triple A book recommends visiting before 10 AM or after 4PM, due to crowds. Of course, it was about 1:30 when we got there and there was absolutely no place to park - so we ended up turning around and parking on the side of the road, along with numerous other people. We hiked up the hill to the parking area and spent some time wandering around the Chateau Lake Louise. This is another impressive, castle-like structure - the interior reminded us of Yosemite's grand hotel! From there we walked out to Lake Louise and just soaked up the sites: the beautiful turquoise blue lake, the snow capped mountains, and various assortment of trees and native plants.

We headed down a paved walkway along the way, and then Scott noticed a sign for a "short" hike to the Lake Agnes Teahouse. Laurie was thrilled because this was the same hike that she went on when she was 16! (The teahouse is right where the snow is in the middle of the picture) So we headed up the trail . . . however it was a lot more strenuous than Laurie remembered! About half-way up the 3.3 km hike we realized that we didn't even bring a bottle of water! Allison was a trooper and patiently waited for Scott and Laurie to catch their breathes a few times . . .Laurie was sure her heart was going to explode out of her chest! It was very humbling to remember that Laurie's parents were 53 when they did this same hike, and Laurie doesn't remember them complaining about the difficulty of the hike! Before reaching the Teahouse, we came to Mirror Lake and had two hiking options for the remainder of the hike. One trail was 0.8 km and the other was 0.7km - we chose the shorter option only to realize it was very steep! We hung in there and soon saw the steps to the actual Teahouse - all 89 of them! By the time we got to our destination, Scott and Laurie were a sweaty mess! It was a welcome respite to sit at the rustic Teahouse and feast on tea and chocolate chip cookies. We were entertained by the chipmunks that were begging for food - they were very well-fed chipmunks. One chipmunk crawled up Scott's leg and sat on his knee waiting for a bite of cookie - of course after such an arduous hike, there was no way Scott was parting with ANY of his cookie! After catching our breath, we were ready for the hike back down the trail. (This is Mirror Lake at the Teahouse) Let's just say, going down was much more our speed! We met some very interesting young "20 somethings" on the hike down. They were from various parts of Canada working for a theater company in Banff for the summer. We appreciated their humor! When we finally reached our van, we were one of the only vehicles left on the road. We headed back into Banff to do some laundry. We got the downtown laundromat at 8:35 PM only to discover that the last load had to be started by 7:30 PM - so we were out of luck. Went to the nearby DQ for a grilled chicken salad - and they were out of salads! Ordered a bite to eat (not on the plan) but kind of out of options at this point! It had been a full day and time to call it a night. Tomorrow we will try laundry again - Scott doesn't want to "go commando"!

Day 5 - Banff or Bust!

We said goodbye to the Dinosaur Provincial Park around 10:00 AM and started the the next leg of our journey - to Banff National Park, Alberta. (mountains ahead! yeaaa!!!!) It is like going down memory lane for Laurie. 33 years ago, Laurie visited the park with her parents, Rudy and Janet, and her cousin Kay. She was 16 years old . . . just like Allison! Anyway, we headed back to Highway 1 - the Trans Canadian Highway and traveled through Calgary. We experienced some delays due to construction. Just like in North Dakota, there are 2 seasons in Canada - winter and road construction! As we drove through Calgary,we passed the Calgary Olympic Park - host of the 1988 Winter Olympics. We also heard the news that Michael Jackson had died. Since we haven't seen a newspaper since Monday, we are a little at a loss as to what's happening in the rest of the world. We arrived at Banff National Park around 3PM. Paid for 2 days admission to the park - about $20 per day! Then we headed over to Tunnel Mountain Village II(one of the few places that have hook-ups and showers. There are lots of areas to camp, but we REALLY wanted electricity! We are kind of lame campers!) We were hoping we would be able to find a spot to stay for the next 2 nights. Fortunately only 1/2 of their sites are available for reservations, so "Fly-by-the-seat-of-their-pants" travelers like us have a chance of finding a place to stay! When we pulled into the camping area, there were at least 5 RV's ahead of us . . . however there were plenty of sites available. The "busy season" doesn't technically start until July and August. We found our spot and then headed into the city of Banff to walk around. The place is just beautiful - the Canadian Rockie Mountains are so impressive - such a change from the prairies we were driving through the last couple days. After getting a bite to eat, and walking around the town of Banff, we headed back to our camping area and called it a night. (This is what our down-time looks like...) Tomorrow we will explore Banff and Lake Louise. P.S. In case you have been wondering about "the dog", Popcorn has been an excellent traveler. In fact, she hasn't once complained about wishing we were already back in California, like SOMEONE in our group keeps doing!

Day 4 - Dinosuar Provincial Park(The Canadian Badlands)

Well, we got going fairly early for the Bradley's - we had to go to the Concession building to change our US dollars into Canadian money. In order to use the showers, we needed 2 "loonies" - that's the American equivalent to $2.00 - but in coin form. We exchanged enough money so we could shower today and tomorrow. For 2 loonies, we got a 5 minute shower - Allison's shower went from hot to cold to hot and she ended up needing 4 loonies! Scott and Laurie were both successful with just the 5 minutes! After showering, we went out to explore the Dinosaur Provincial Park. You would never know this place is even here unless you read about it in the Triple A guidebook or on the Internet! However, it is an extremely cool place. You have all this flat, rolling plains-land, and then suddenly, you are in a hot, arid area with strange landforms. We took in 2 self-guided walking tours. First we went on the "Badlands Trail". This took us on a loop where we saw hoodoos and various land formations. Don't know what a hoodoo is? (Neither did we! But imagine a rock formation with a tepee shaped bottom with a large rock formation balanced on top - created through erosion.) From there we went on the "Trail of the Fossil Hunters". This hike took us through an area in which large fossil beds were first discovered around the turn of the century. There were 2 display "houses" on the hike that showed some of the fossils discovered in this area. After this, we decided to head to the visitors center and check out the museum area and signed up for an "interpretive" 2 hour bus tour. The museum was cool. Scott and Laurie checked out the displays while Allison slept in the travel van! Then at 2PM we all boarded the bus for our "Badlands Bus Tour". This was advertised as ,"a 2 hour bus ride, led by a park interpreter, into the badlands to see what makes Dinosaur Park unique: unforgettable landforms, dinosaur remains and wildlife!" We had a VERY PERKY tour guide/bus driver named Corrie. She taught us about the park and even called on audience participants to act out "how a dinosaur fossil is made ",(requiring a guy to fall on the ground and act like a dead dinosaur) and "how the glaciers caused the stunning landforms in the area" (requiring 4 people to act as glaciers moving forward and backwards across the plains 75 million years ago). Believe it or not, both Allison and Scott grabbed Laurie's hands so she WOULD NOT be a volunteer! It was an interesting tour, but if looks could kill, Allison would have taken Laurie out by the first bus stop! After returning to the visitor's center, we headed down for a bite to eat. It had been SO windy today, that we were totally exhausted - we didn't even buy more wood for an evening fire - it was that windy (There were 15 mph winds with gusts up to 30 mph - so glad I fixed my hair)! We hunkered down in the travel van and watched a DVD on the computer - isn't technology great? Tomorrow - on to Banff!