Almost Home

Oops. Soor no pictures of Montana. I somehow must have deleted them before downloading into this website. Maybe Scott or Jeff can find them for me. We have just left Kalispell Montana after travelling west through the National Glacier Park. It is like being back in BC. Lots of high snow capped mountains. There is still snow quite low down and actually a week before we went through there was snow on the roads. Quite a change from what we have experienced as far as weather goes. We stayed in the park one night and it went down to 10C. But we didn’t complain and it was quite pleasant. We got a nice surprise when we got here as Ed’s cousins happened to come to visit their mom. We have Gary and Sherri from Alaska, Bonnie from Minneapolis, Ed from Polson, Montana and his daughter Kylie from Kona Hawaii. So there is quite a crowd here and we have been all having a great time. We went to a farmer’s market, Art in the Park, a Show and Shine car show and have done some great shopping. There is no sales tax here and the prices are cheaper than at home so that is nice. Of course Ed went out fishing as they have some great lakes around here. We have spent some really nice time together visiting and playing some games. It is not very often that we all get together so this is a nice way to spend time towards the end of our journey. Tonight we made it into Washington state and tomorrow hope to make it back home. This has been a wonderful adventure and a BIG ADVENTURE (not a bad venture at all). We have been so many places and have seen so many things. Many more pictures to sort through and we have lots of stories to share with each of you. Hope to see you all soon and hope you enjoyed following along on our journey.

Ed and Arlys

Saskatchewan

Hills of Qu"Appelle Valley

Flooding in Saskatchewan

Salt Fields near Morris Saskatchewan

Salt Fields

We travelled west of Winnipeg through Saskatchewan. It started off very flat but then we took a little side trip through the Qu'Appelle valley. It is very picturesque and there are many rolling hills.  Though we were sent there by a tourism person it turned out that much of the valley was flooded. Luckily we found a campsite on higher ground and were just fine. I guess they have had a lot of rain here too. We started out this morning towards Regina and were going to travel through to Alberta but found out it wasn't going to work out visiting the people we were planning to see, so we turned south and are now in Montana. We are headed towards Kalispell to see Ed's auntie there. It is a lot more hilly here but just as hot.

Winnipeg

Ed with Pickerel fish

At the Lake

Arlys and Auntie Eleanor

We have been in the Winnipeg area from Wednesday thru to Monday. We went to a fishing resort with my Aunt Eleanor and my cousin Barrie. Though Ed and Barrie tried valiantly they only caught a few pickerel that they could keep. So we will have a couple of good fish feeds on the road. It is very hot here. (34F). And lots of huge mosquitoes. I am so bitten. Now I remember why we left Winnipeg! It has been a very nice visit with them as we don’t see each other very often. On the road again towards Alberta. We just passed through the Souris area which has had a lot of flooding. There is nothing on the road but you can see all the flooded fields. It is very flat and lots of long straight road for Ed to drive. He can’t wait to get back to the mountains and a little different terrain with a few bends in the road.

Heading West

Lake Superior

Waterfalls in Wisconsin

We left Bracebridge and started heading West through Sudbury and

Sault St.

Marie Ontario. This part of Ontario is full of lakes and we followed Lake Huron for quite a way. We stopped several times and Ed threw his fishing rod in the stream or lake and caught many small fish. He threw them all back but had a great time. There is a lot of mining done in this part of the country. Lots of bare rock, some reddish color as Copper is mined here. We crossed back into the US and have travelled through Michigan and Wisconsin and Minnesota. The trees are much smaller and more sparse.  Following Lake Superior is quite pretty but now we are in North Dakota and there are no more coniferous trees. There are a few hills but it is getting quite flat. We will continue travelling through Grand Forks and then head North back into Canada and go to Winnipeg as I have relatives and friends there.

Ontario

We left Ottawa and travelled through Algonquin Park on our way to Bracebridge Ontario.

We stayed in the park overnight and Ed finally got to go fishing. He has a belly boat and went out on one of the many lakes and caught several small trout and then finally landed a nice large mouthed bass. The locals said is larger than most of them so that really made him happy. It’s nice to be back in Canada in the land of forests and lakes. We stayed at friends (Rich and Lisa) in Bracebridge for a couple of days. We had a really nice visit with them and Rich took us out on his boat for a ride on the Muskoka Lake. It is so nice and peaceful here. Just a lot of mosquitoes and flies though that we are not used to. We had a huge thunderstorm the first night here and it helped cool things off. We are headed towards Winnipeg now and should be there by next Wednesday.

Ottawa

Canada Day with Glen and Carol

Crowd downtown for Canada Day Celebrations

Parliament Buildings

Ottawa River Valley

William McKenzie Kings summer house

Supreme Court of Canada

Ottawa canal with locks

We have celebrated Canada Day in Ottawa. William and Kate were here waiting for us. We are staying at my cousin Carols but Will and Kate are staying elsewhere. We went downtown for the celebrations along with 300,000 other people. What a party! Ottawa certainly knows how to celebrate July 1^st. Fireworks were great. Weather is very hot here. It is about 29C and only goes down to about 20C at night. Seems that is the way it is almost everywhere we go. Hope it continues as we head west as Manitoba is flooded. We also visited William McKenzie King’s summer retreat. He was a rather strange one. He built ruins on his property and held séances. But it was special to go where he once lived. We had a nice drive with Carol and Glen and drove up to a spot where we could see the Ottawa valley. Today we went back downtown and had a tour of the Supreme Court and the Parliament Buildings. It was very interesting. Also they have a lock system for the Ottawa river. Ed was especially interested in that. He enjoyed watching the boats go down the locks. It has been a very enjoyable visit here and we are so glad we came to Canada’s capital city.

Qubec City

Hotel de Frontenac

View from ferry

Arlys with Laval

Old town streets

Today we visited Quebec City. We camped in Levi, Quebec last night and took the walk- on ferry across the St. Lawrence River into the Old Town Quebec City. It is like going to France. Quebec City was a walled fortress. The whole old town is within these walls and set on a hillside. Lots of cement stairs to climb from one part of the town to another. There are many winding little streets, with old buildings from the 1800’s and lots of little outside cafes with umbrellas. We enjoyed a self walking tour and are plenty played out from all the climbing. Really a lovely day. Tonight we are camped outside of Quebec City on our way to Montreal. Thank goodness the people here at this campground speak English. It has been a little difficult trying to remember our high school French. People are always excited to see our license plates as they seem to have been or know someone from BC. It helps start a lot of conversations with locals wherever we go.