Christmas Letter 2010

I really did not expect to get a Holiday letter out this year. There is no way to describe the year we have experienced this year. At the very least it has had some real high points and some really low points; basically we are glad this one is over.


When I wrote last year we had just arrived in CA from an exciting Fall with company joining us in New Mexico for the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta and attending the College graduation of son in law Dan Jacobi. Pam had been experiencing some medical issues for a number of years regarding stomach pain. This had become a more frequent issue and more intense. As soon as we arrived in CA we were again at Kaiser Hospital but this time it was with a surgeon. She had surgery Christmas week and missed out on the holiday activities last year. Pam has made a full recovery after losing about a foot of her colon. No more diverticulitis.

As I wrote last year, a major event was forthcoming, the birth of a grand daughter to Pam’s son Brian and his wife Christie. That simply didn’t go very well. We have a beautiful little gal named Sadie but she is a disabled child with Cerebral Palsy. The home birth with mid wives ended up at Phoenix Children’s Hospital in Phoenix , AZ where we faced Sadie dying everyday for eight days. In the end she defied all the doctors and went home. Many battles remain to be fought and some of you have followed Sadie’s’ progress on their blog, www.beckfamilyblessings.blogspot.com.

During the past two summers and over several trips to Washington within that time frame we have been involved in selling our Aunt Myrnes’ farm. She found herself being very happy in the Assisted Living home she selected and decided it was time to sell the 20 acre farm. It took the help of some wonderful Bailey relatives, our friend Mary Eden, and others to help empty the farm. After a lengthy battle with County agents over changes they demanded in a drainage ditch they now called a fish bearing stream, the second couple who looked at the farm met our sale requirements. We turned the farm over to them in early Sept. I have to say that it was difficult to let go. My family has many great memories of the farm but in the end Aunt Mryne was ready to sell and we moved ahead. We are now relieved to have this project completed.

As far as family goes, you can deduce from the above that Aunt Myrne is doing very well. She turned 98 on 9/11 and most of you could only hope for the blood pressure, and health that she possesses at that age. She has reduced the things in life that brought her pressure, i.e. the farm, no car, no driving, and has house care, served meals, etc, so I expect we shall enjoy her company for some years to come.

Pam and I are beginning our 6th year together and remain active travelers via motorcycle, motor home or auto’s. Pam has become our travel coordinator with some interesting plans in the future. Karl remains active with the Blue Knights, starting a second term as the Chairman of the West Coast Conference and serving on the International Board of Directors. This position does require travel to Bangor , ME every other January and at least two conventions each year. This year we were in Billings , MT and Grand Junction , CO and then visited a number of Chapters in CA, BC, and AB during the summer.

Daughter Holly remains in Temecula , CA with husband Dan and two children. Holly is still in pharmaceutical sales while Dan continues at Home Depot while looking for positions for which he can use his new college degree. We try to get over into that area of CA every winter to enjoy the grandkids. Emily has started school and remains quite the shy one while Luke is a bit more outgoing. We have started seeing all the grandkids a bit more by using Skype cameras on our computers.

Daughter Stephanie still lives in Orangevale , CA and works from home for HP Computers. Her husband John has his own business providing warranty and other work in the swimming pool field. CD (Cody) is in Middle school taking advanced classes for his college prep goals. Jessica is now playing clarinet and of course playing with her friends.

Son Brian is still working for Starbucks out of Phoenix . His commercial account territory takes him to AZ, TX and NM where he tries to see us when we are there. His wife Christie is back teaching but does it via computer from her home. With all the work baby Sadie involves, that was a good position for her.

I usually tell those up to date on our travels to stop here, you have had enough. This year I will not detail all of our travels but here is our blog address, www.sojouners-1.blogspot.com, for those interested. The blog has Pam’s story of our travels and pictures as well. Basically we spent Jan-March at our RV Resort Happy Trails in Surprise, AZ. April was split between WA and New Mexico while May found us at our home in CA but we took a motorcycle trip to Boise , ID over Memorial Day. June-Aug found us at work in WA on the farm with a motorcycle trip to Billings, MT, Grand Junction, CO and a short stay at our home in NM. Sept-Nov found us on a major motor home trip across the entire country of Canada , down the East Coast of the USA , then back across the middle of the USA to NM, AZ and CA. The motor home logged over 11,000 miles and our tow car an additional 4,000 miles. Late Nov we arrived in CA and will return to AZ after Christmas. You will not believe where Pam has us going in 2011. Of course you can stay up to date on our travels via the blog address listed above.

Happy New Year,

Karl and Pam

My home on the range

As I sit here and daydream at "my mountain" (it's really Sandia Peak that sits outside our backyard) I feel very tired but content. 

We arrived back in New Mexico the day before Halloween and started the process of unloading the motorhome and getting it ready for it's next journey to AZ for the winter.  But with this cross-country trip I was able to cross off one item on my bucket list.  I've always wanted to see Canada and go as far as I could.  Making it to the Maritimes and being in Atlantic time was quite a kick.  I've lived on Eastern timr for the first 18 years of my life then switched to Pacific for the remainer, but never have I ever been an extra hour away from Eastern.  Would I do it again?  Not the whole trip, but definitely go to the two provinces we missed which was Newfoundland and Labrador.  If Nova Scotia was any indication of what those two looked like that is a wonderful place to see.  We did have a friend that lived "on the rock" as he called Labrador, but he has since moved back to British Columbia.  Next on my bucket list is to visit Austrailia which we will be doing next April.

When Karl and I first got together I never realized how much I would be traveling, but after a while I realzed that if I didn't do it now while I was able, I would never do it as I got older.  The older you get the slower you get and I didn't want to miss things that I wouldn't be able to do as I got older. 

So here is a little advice that I have gleaned from my life so far: redo your priorities - housework can wait but kids and spouses can't - you may never know when they will be gone from you, when you retire don't retire to the couch and languish - get out and find a hobby to do - it will keep you young, don't wait until you have "time" - time will leave before you know it and you can't get it back.

Throwed rolls

Today was the last "official" cross-country trip stop before going on to New Mexico.  We stopped in Springfield, Missouri for a couple of days to see a friend of Karl's and to visit Branson again.  We had been here in '09 after my son got married and did a lot of shows in Branson - 16 in 7 days!  We weren't really excited to see anything this time, but his friends had to take us to see one show.  It was a variety show featuring six brothers that sing accapella including all the instruments.  They are from a family of 10 - count 'em - 10 boys!  No girls.  What was so inspiring is that their mom was told by the doctor that she would never bear children.  Unfortunately she passed away in 1992 from cancer.  It was a very good show and one you should see if you ever get to Missouri.  The show is called "Six".  Check it out.

While we were parked in Springfield we had to stop for dinner at our favorite restaurant called Lambert's - home of the throwed rolls.  What does that mean?  Well, as you sit eating the wait staff roams the place doling out fried okra (yuck!), mac and tomatoes, fried potatoes, sorghum and rolls.  Sounds tame, right?  Well, when the rolls are removed from the oven and nice and warm the staff comes out and THROWS the rolls at you!.  And I don't mean toss, but thrown!  They are nice, big yeasty rolls that are fantastic!  Unfortunately they have restaurants only in Missouri.

Tomorrow we go to another friend of Karl's (notice a pattern here?) and will stay at their place for the night.  Nothing is scheduled for visitation and we hope to take it easy for the rest of the trip.  It's been a fun journey and we have had a great time, but I am ready to get back to my "stick" house for a while, just to stay in one place longer that two days.  We plan on being home for a week then move the MH to Arizona before moving on to the CA house for the holidays.

I Saw My Boys!

We visited Nashville this time since I've already seen Memphis (thankyou - thankyouverramuch).  I've always wanted to see Nashville, but was always on the wrong side when we came through Tennessee.  This time I put it in our travel plans.

As usual we took a Greyline bus tour and got a lay of the land, so to speak.  We were taken through the city of Nashville and you really couldn't tell that they had a devastating flood six months ago.  There is a huge shopping mall that will probably never be open again because they had $50 million in insurance, but the damages are running around $150 million.  The Opryland Resort is still closed, but plans to have a grand re-opening on November 15.  We've been told that if you saw it before, it will be 10x better and more glorious.  The waters were about 6 feet deep and pretty much devastated the ground floors of the resort so there has been a lot of rebuilding and refurbishing going on.  The Grand Ole Opry House reopened in mid-September and we went to a show there on Saturday night.  But more on that later.

During the tour we were able to have a short visit to the Country Music Hall of Fame.  We were there for an hour, but again we could have spent 3+ hours there.  Would we have paid the $30 for admittance?  Probably not.  That is a little steep.  But they have a very extensive collection of show costumes, guitars, gold and platinum records, pictures, artifacts, videos and recordings throughout the museum.

Our next stop was at the "Mother Church of Country Music" or the Ryman Auditorium.  This was the original home of the Grand Ole Opry until 1974 when they moved to the new venue.  It started out as the Union Gospel Tabernacle and held church services from the 1880's until 1904.  It was renamed Ryman after Captain Thomas Ryman who built the church.  In 1904 until 1943 the Ryman became a venue for a wide variety of events; revivals, jazz recitals, operas, ballet, debates and boxing matches.  In 1943 it became known as "Carnegie Hall of the South" due to the upgrade of the performing arts that started there; Rudolph Valentino, Katharine Hepburn, Mae West and Bob Hope to name a few.  The owner of the Ryman also rented out the hall for a live Saturday night radio show that had outgrown it's current hall.  So began a long (1943-1974) love affair between the Grand Ole Opry and the Ryman Auditorium.  In 2001 it was named a National Historic Landmark.  It's still used for performances and has tours for your to go backstage to see where Patsy Cline, Hank Williams, Dolly Parton and Bill Anderson got ready for their turn on the stage.  The Ryman is so precious to the Opry that when they built the new Opry House they cut out a circle from the Ryman stage in front of the microphone and installed in it the new stage.  This auditorium has character.  The floors creak, the pews are scarred and nicked and the paint it a little worse for wear, but that's what makes it the Ryman.

Then, like I said, we went to a show at the Opry House and I SAW MY BOYS!!!  If your are into country music you will recognize these two:

Trace Atkins

Blake Shelton



We were seated about 125 feet from them and I was able to use my camera with the digital zoom and got real close without rushing up to the stage.  That night Blake was inducted as the newest member of the Grand Ole Opry family.  I think that was one of the highlights of this whole trip for me.  Karl?  Not so much.  He's not into new country.

Hatred

As I research my family roots for my genealogy I've discovered that 98% of my ancestors came from England and Ireland with a tiny bit of French thrown in.  Now think about yourself.  How many have, even a small amount, some Polish, Spanish, African, red Indian, Russian, Korean, east Indian or Romanian blood in the family?  How many of you, or someone you know personally, are handicapped, gay or deformed?  According to Hitler all of you, even though you may not be Jewish, but all of you are inferior to me.  Why?  Because I am of European descent - the superior race and you all need to be wiped out.

As you can guess our last stop was at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - one of the hardest museums I've ever walked through.  Again no photography allowed.  On one hand I'm glad there wasn't - much too hard to see.  On the other hand I wish there was - so I could remember what hatred can do.  But even pictures can't re-tell the full horror of the holocaust.  Videos?  They can seal images in your mind.  Exhibits?  They seal the reality of it when, on either side of a 60' hall, 6'wide and 1' deep are only a portion of shoes worn by the massacred.  Then you will walk into a tower and there on the walls, two stories high, are snapshots of people and families who lived in a town that was completely wiped out - wiped off the face of the earth.  Toys, toothbrushes, prayer shawls, hair brushes, scissors, pipes, things that people cherished, all stripped from them and tossed in a pile.

It hurts the heart.  And yet we still go on destroying lives because we think we are superior to everyone else - Sudan, Darfur, young gay students.  On the bottom floor is a wall covered by thousands of 4x4 tiles drawn on by children who went through the museum.  One little girl drew two people holding hands, side by side.  One was dark-haired with dark eyes and the other was a blue-eyed blond.  She wrote, "Why do we hate?  We are all the same."

                                                                    www.ushmm.org


First they came for the socialists,
and I did not speak out --
          Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I did not speak out --
           Because I was not a trade unionists.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I did not speak out --
            Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me --
and there was no one left to speak for me.

                                 -attributed to Martin Niemiller (1892-1984),
                                   anti-Nazi German pastor.

Potpourri

This is a conglomeration of things we have seen in about three days in Washington DC.  So where do I start?

We arrived in Virginia on October the 15th, Friday.  What would have taken us 4 hours to drive ended up being 8 hours!  Because of two accidents on I-95 just past Baltimore we crawled and crawled and crawled.  Finally, at about 8 miles from our campground we turned off of the interstate and took back roads to the place.  Thank goodness I lived here for a while and I knew where some roads went.

After setting up the motorhome we just crashed for the rest of the night and planned our methods of attack for the next three days.  On Saturday we met up with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law for lunch before we took off for the city.  We arrived late in the day and didn't think we would really have time to see anything, but both of the museums we scouted out stayed open late and we were able to get them done.

Our first museum was the National Spy Museum.  Unfortunately no photography allowed.  Why I'm not sure since a good majority of the exhibits were about spy "things" that dealt with World War II and the Cold War.  But it was still very interesting to see the things that spies used: button compasses, pen recorders, brass knuckle knives, etc.  But, did you know that a lot of the stuff that were "invented" for spy movies, such as James Bond's cars, the technology is used in our cars now as standard?  How about GPS, halogen lights, re-inflating tires, shatterproof glass?  All of those were ideas that came from spy novels and movies.  And did you know that George Washington was a spy?  Edger Allen Poe was an expert decoder?  What was really disturbing was the spies that were Americans spying on Americans.  What people will do for money or notoriety. 

Then in keeping with the theme we visited the National Museum of Crime and Punishment.  This one dealt with a lot of criminals and crime.  It was three floors and we were able to see one floor real well, but didn't get to see much of the other two due to time.  If you like to see and learn about criminals this is a great place to go and spend about 3+ hours.

On Sunday we went with the in-laws to visit the brand new National Museum of the Marine Corps.  They are in the process of raising money to continue expanding the museum.  It is impressive right now and I can't imagine how much greater it will be when they finish the whole campus.  The outside structure is a very odd looking things until you are told what it represents - it is an artist rendition of the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima.  Inside it starts from the beginning of the Corps in 1773 and continues through today with many exhibits and films.  There is one thing I can say about the Corps is that they are definitely a different breed of military - in a good way!

Today we went "Memorial visiting".  We visited the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, The World War II Memorial and the Korean War Memorial.

The Law Enforcement was rather hard for Karl to see because he knew many of the names on the wall.  It's a white granite semi circle in two halves with a lion family at each end of the semi circles.  That is to depict the lion defending and protecting the lioness and cub just as the law enforcement community does everyday.  Also on this wall, which starts from the early 1800's are names from those lost on 9/11, those killed by Billy the Kid, those protecting the president, the first officer killed, the youngest, first female, first African-American, first killed in the line of duty, oldest, Attica Prison Riot, and J.D. Tippit who was killed by Lee Harvey Oswald.  They broke ground for the museum on the 14th which will be across the street from the memorial and three stories underground.  The World War II Memorial was a very impressive memorial located at the end of the Reflecting Pool by the Washington Monument.  Again it is made with white granite and is divided in two halves depicting the Atlantic and the Pacific campaign.  On one side are the states that sent their people to fight and the other half depicts the different campaigns fought.  Lastly the Korean War Memorial was the most impressive in the way that it was done.  The memorial has soldiers "walking" through the trees surrounding the reflecting pool in their rain ponchos and watching for snipers.  It is a very eerie display as you walk up to it because you see these life-size men among the trees.  There are different races of human kind in this display that makes you realize that EVERYONE was involved.  Many still call this the "forgotten war" because it doesn't get the recognition it deserves.  We were near the Vietnam Wall, but I couldn't go there again.  I was there quite a few years back and I cried through the whole walk and I couldn't face it again.  But if you are ever in the the DC area I do recommend you see all of these memorials, they are well worth the visit.

Please take a moment to look at the pictures I have posted on the right of this page and you will hopefully be intrigued enough to go and visit for yourselves.

I Don't Get It

We arrived in New Jersey on Tuesday the 12th and are squatting in the Elks Club parking lot.  So much better than Wal-Mart.  I mean, don't get me wrong...God Bless Wal-Mart...but if you want a quieter spot without a lot of traffic, the Elks Clubs are great.

On Wednesday we met up with some friends who live in Somerset, New Jersey.  They came by the motorhome then we go to their house for dinner and some games.  After making plans for the following day Karl and I return to our "home away from home".

On Thursday The Hildebrands pick us up and we drive into the city for the day.  What city?  Why New York City of course.  Now to me, a girl who grew up in the country without a lot of people, or cars, or noise, this is a major getting used to.  When we were here a couple of years ago we went into the city then also.  Now I need to remind you that I grew up in New York State and lived there for 18 years before I ventured out on my own.  Not once did I ever go into the city nor did I ever want to.  So here I was, 55 years old, and an out-of-towner had to take me into the city for the first time!  Now I've been there twice.  But I don't get it.  How can anybody like a city, any city?  Too many cars, too many people, too much noise, too much of everything!  The wife, Joy, is from the Seattle area and absolutely LOVES NYC with a passion.  Her husband, Gary, is from New Jersey so he's okay with it.  In fact they both drive in that madhouse without a second thought!  Me?  I'll stay out in the country where I can hear and see nature.  Sure, it may be a slower pace of life, but I'm in not hurry anyway.

We plan on leaving tomorrow and the weather forecasters have forecast a nor'easter is coming in which means rain and wind (again).  Oh, well, at least it was nice while we were parked.  We plan on staying in VA for about 4 nights with an option to stay longer depending on how much we want to see.  I used to work in Washington D.C., so I would visit lots of places while I lived and worked there.  Unfortunately I haven't been a "tourist" there for a very long time (probably over 20 years) and I wanted to see things that have been added to our nation's capital.  Plus I have this annoying brother-in-law that keeps wanting me to visit them (LOL - just kidding Dave!  Love you.)

ME, NH, VT, NY

Well we have finally reached my Mom's house in New York.

We stayed in Bangor, Maine for a couple of nights because we had to visit the Blue Knights International offices for some business (yes, we paid homage to Mother Ship) then took off for our trip south.

We traveled from ME to New Hampshire and met up with an ex-Riverside PD that wanted to have his picture taken for the Riverside PD web page that was started because of Karl's travels.  Had a great visit and a wondreful meal with Dave and Wendy Barrett.  He is now the head of the Marine Division of the Lake Winnepisacke region.  What a job - on the water all summer long.

As we travelled south we noticed that the colors are getting a little less now.  A lot less red and more golds and yellows.  As we travelled from Concord, NH to the I-90 New York Thruway the roads took us through lots of small towns.  Did you know that in New England, during the end of the season, they have lots of flea markets, car washes, bake sales and roadside chicken bbq's?  Well they do.  It would have taken us about 7.5 hours to drive, but with all of the small towns having things on Main street the trip ended up being 9.5 hours.  We arrived at the Elks Club for the night around 8pm then ran over to Mom's to pick up our month's worth of mail.  Today I took Karl and Mom for a ride to a very nice state park, Letchworth State Park, to see the colors there.  As we arrived closer to the park we noticed that the traffic was getting worse and worse.  It took us almost an hour to go 2 miles.  When we finally got into the park we found out that there was a HUGE crafts sale going on at the same time.  So there was Karl, my Mom and me with about 100,000 of our closest friends. 

After we finished with the park we moved the MH to the driveway of Mom's house for the next two nights.  We do make quite a sight for the neighbors.  On Tuesday we take off for our friend's house in Sommerset, NJ for a few nights.

We've Arrived

Bruce Springsteen "Born in the USA...I was born in the USA."  Kate Smith "God bless America...Land that I love."  George M Cohen "I'm a Yankee doodle dandy...Yankee doodle do or die."

No more meters, kilometers, Celsius, millimeters, funny colored money, 1 and 2 dollar coins.

If you can't tell from this we have arrived in the USA.  As of noon today we crossed the US border in Maine and are SO glad we are back on American soil.  Canada was great, but like Dorothy said, "There's no place like home."  We are still travelling down the East Coast and across the south to our home in New Mexico so there will still be a travel blog, just not daily.  But don't stop checking in every few days or so.  I will keep you up-to-date as to where we are and what we see.

For the next two nights we are camped in Bangor, Maine and will take off west into New Hampshire still looking for the fall foliage.  Stand tune for more pictures.

Canada 17

What can I say about Nova Scotia or New Scotland?  It's a lot bigger than we thought and it's covered with trees.  That about covers it.

When I first planned out this trip I got a lot of AAA books to check out things to see in each place that we stopped and I wanted to make sure that I found things that would interest Karl because he's been to most of the provinces except for PEI and Nova Scotia.  So I found things that would interest him and me both.  Now PEI, if we really wanted to, could have taken us two days to see.  Not because of the size but because of the timing and what we wanted to see.  Nova Scotia on the other hand is a different story.  Neither of us realized how much driving we would have to do to see things on this peninsula.  It would take us about 3-4 days to see all we wanted and that's because of all the driving.  So we sat down and re-analyzed our desires.  After taking a hard look at what we highlighted we were able to take out a few things because we have done things like them at other places.  That left us with four places to see - two on the southwestern end and two at the northeastern end.  The problem?  The "ends" are about 9 hours apart!  So we are spending the night in Nova Scotia and cutting the peninsula in half.

Today we took in the southwestern end and visited a beautiful little village called Peggy's Cove.  It's a very small (only 35 year round residents) village that the people make a living lobster harvesting.  But during the season thousands descend on this place.  The cove is a picture postcard with craggy coastline, lobster boats in the cove, small homes and a lighthouse.  We had lunch at a great place called the Sou'wester and there I finally had my lobster roll.  It was worth the wait.  While we were there tour buses showed up to let their passengers off.  It's amazing the number of people that come here in this desolate area.  But it was well worth the drive.

We drove back into Halifax (typical large capital city) to go to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic.  This was a very good museum showing how the sea is an intricate part of life on Nova Scotia.  On the first floor they showcase the Canadian Navy and different sail boats that have been donated to the museum.  That was okay, but to me the second floor was much more interesting.  There you had displays of shipwrecks and the artifacts they have recovered.  The most exciting display was one on the Titanic.  They had stories and artifacts from the doomed ship.  It was rather sobering seeing things that were recovered and you knew that people once held those items or wore those items.

The next day we took off from Halifax to drive northeast to see our destinations up there.  About 70 miles outside of Halifax we noticed a commonality in street names: MacDonald, MacInnis, MacIntyre, Campbell, Ross and in town names: Inverness, St. Andres, Invernary, Glendale, Glencoe.  See similarities here?  All of a sudden we are into the heart of New Scotland.  Even signs are in Gaelic!  The areas opened up more and you could see the countryside.  A lot of Scots landed there because it reminded them of home.  Our first stop was at a living history area called Highland Village Museum.  It was like Fort William was in Thunder Bay, but more people were there at the village.  They get a lot of cruise ships docked in Sydney, about an hour north, and tour buses bring them there so they are open until the end of October.  They have recreated a Scottish village and moved buildings there that would have been used by the immigrants as the years went by.  The only buildings that weren't original were the stone soddy house (the first house they would have built) and the log house which would have been the second house they built.  Every one else was moved from a previous location in the area to be preserved to the village to be preserved.  Another place I would have loved to have seen during the "season".

Our last stop was at the Alexander Graham Bell Centre.  Here they told the story of his life and inventions besides the telephone.  They had artifacts, photos and stories about him and his family.  Here are some things we found out that we never knew:  His father, being interested in speech and audiology, created the first visual speech system; his mother was practically deaf; his wife was completely deaf; his passion was trying to find a way to help deaf people hear; the telephone was created by an accident when he was working on perfecting the telegraph; he helped invent a hydroplane; he invented the first flying airplane in Canada.  There was so much stuff that he worked on that I can't remember it all.  A very educational place to go.

          The first "cell phone"   

The first "Ipod"

And that ladies and gentlemen concludes our tour of the great country of Canada.  We hope you have enjoyed this tour as much as we have enjoyed your company.  Now please check around your area and make sure you have all your personal belongings.  Please stay seated until we have come to a complete stop.

Join us next time as we explore the next great country, The United States of America which starts tomorrow.  Until then, good-bye.

Canada 16

To get to Prince Edward Island (or PEI) from New Brunswick we had to cross The Confedereation Bridge which is 8 miles long.  The island is a very clean and uncluttered place.  There are no billboards on the roadways except for ones advertising your buisness placed on your property.  Lawns are kept mowed, most houses are well maintained, no graffitti and even the "large" capital of Charlottetown is clean and well kept.  We were pleasantly surprised.  There isn't much to see in the capital, but we did find a great place called Founder's Hall that told of how Canada became the Canada as we know it now.  It was cleverly done with video monitors in each section and followed a reporter who was telling the story of how it all began.  Very well done.

Unfortunately the other sites we wanted to see were closed, such as:  Avonlea Village and Anne of Green Gables, Orwell Corner Historical Village and the International Fox Museum.  Sometimes it doesn't pay to come off season.  We drove out to East Point and did tour the lighthouse that was built in the 1800's.  It's the only octigonal shaped, wooden lighthouse on the island.  The others are square to save wood and one is a round shaped stone one.

We did want to see the Bottle House, but we were way too late to make the hours.  So we decided to go find a good lobster restaurant instead.  Didn't find that either.  Oh, well.  There's always Maine.

Once lobster season is over just dock your boat in your side yard

                                        I dunno......waddaya think......long, cold winter ahead?



Canada 15

New Brunswick is our home for a few days.  We drove from Quebec and took about two days, but we did stop at a few places to see interesting things.  We are using New Brunswick as our jump off point to visit Prince Edward Island (or PEI) and Nova Scotia.

We our first stop in NB was in a town called Grand Falls because, guess what, it had a falls in town!  How ingenious!  But seriously - on Monday the falls were dry, no water at all - they were in a drought.  Then two days later this is what we saw ----------------
They usually use this as a flow release dam, but the river behind it was rising.  The Maritimes have had 48 hours of continuous rain, not hard just continuous.  Everything is soaked.  They had also just installed a new zip line that goes over the falls and a training class was going on when we were there.

Our next stop was in Florenceville at the Potato Museum.  Believe me, this museum was close to the Spam Museum in Iowa (but not better than).  It traced the life of a potato from seedling to your table.  Did you know that the company right next door, McCain foods, provides 50% of the Northern American continent the french fries you get in restaurants?  HA!  You didn't know, did you?

We spent the night in Fredericton, NB (the capital) before moving to today to land at Moncton, NB.  On our way we stopped in the town of Sussex - the Mural Capital of North America.  They paint murals on the buildings around town and range any where from NB's history to a common cause.  The town or county is known for covered bridges.  You've heard of the Bridges of Madison County in Iowa or you should have if you follow my blog, since we were there.  Well this town has more and most of them you can actually drive through.  Some have their floors blacktopped and others have wooden roads.  Did you know that they are also called "kissing bridges"?  They are called that because during the days of buggies it took enough time to travel the darkened bridge that you could steal a kiss from your sweetie before you come out on the other side.  There is a rumor (that Karl and I tried) that if you make a wish then hold you breath and lift your feet off the car floor until you are on the other side, your wish will come true.  We'll see.

Canada 14

As you can tell by the above picture, today wasn't a great day for sightseeing.  But when you are here for only a day you do with what you've got.  We've got Tropical Storm Nicole bringing all her lovely water.  Oh well, off to the city we go.

We stopped at the Citadel in Quebec City and had a nice tour of the facility.  We couldn't tour by ourselves because it is still a working garrison.  This is where the governor general of Canada stays when she/he is here.  The current governor general is just now retiring and the new one is in Britain learning how to be a governor general.  This is also where Churchill, FDR and PM King met to discuss their strategy for WWII.  Within some of the buildings there are a couple of museums that hold artifacts and medals.  One room (a converted jail cell) holds all the medals given to former military that have passed away and the families don't want to keep them at their residence.  Stories behind the medals are also stored there.  Each family has their own personal key that they use if they want to come and visit the medals.  There is also another full building that holds the records, medals and stories of every medal holder, including the Victoria Cross - the highest medal in Canada.  And in the same building the ashes of three of the five Victoria Cross holders are interred there.  The other two are still living, but when they pass their ashes will also be interred there.

Then the rain started a little harder, so we decided to drive through Vieux Quebec for a little until the rain let up just a bit.  It decreased long enough so that we could park for about a hour to have some lunch and walk the streets to window shop.  This is a very unique town in that it has an upper section and a lower section.  But it is a very beautiful city and one I would love to have spent more and drier time in.  Facing the St. Lawrence River is a HUGE building that dominates the skyline and that is the Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac - a very classic hotel.  We asked our Citadel guide how much rooms are and he said they start at $200 and go up to 4 figures!  I guess if you have to ask you can't afford to stay.

Canada 13

We took a break from French-Canada for a few days.  My brain was on overload trying to translate things with high school French.  We moved the MH to a small town that had a campground by a lake.  When we pulled in the lady informed us that they were closing down on Weds and if we could leave by noon on Weds she would give us a break on the nightly price.  Our original plans were that we would spend Monday at the campground then take off for Vermont Tues and Weds.  We were to meet a Blue Knight who lives between Montreal and Quebec City for lunch on Thurs.  Well, when we were told that the camp was closing on Weds we changed plans real quick - closed up the MH and took off to Vermont that day.  We drove down to St. Johnsbury for Monday night then on Tues we drove a drive around a 300 mile circle to check out the foliage.  It wasn't at peak yet, but the colors were still great.  They didn't "pop" like they would if the sun was shining on them, but we figured that we will be coming back through VT and NH in about 1.5 weeks and we will see more.  I have posted some of the better pictures I took.

An albino deer - very unusual

One of the many OLD cemeteries we found - the oldest stone in here was 1743

Canada 12

Quebec drivers are rude and impatient!  They are worried just about themselves and to hell with the rest of the public.  I am surprised that there aren't more accidents.  The highway speed is 100 km/h which is about 70 mph.  If you go any slower than 85 you will be run over.  And heaven help you if you stay a fair distance from the car in front of you!

Our last day in Montreal found us at Exporail - Le Musee Ferroviaire Canadien (The Canadian Railway Museum).  For those of you living in SAC and have gone to the Railroad museum in Old Town - well, I think this one will outdo it.  It is a HUGE place that has about 40 restored engines and railway vehicles located in a warehouse that you can walk among and in, and another warehouse that holds about 30 more that haven't been completely restored, but you can still walk among them.  Then outside the warehouses are old engines and cars that need a lot of work.  All in all, they have about 150 vehicles that were used with the Canadian Railroad.

Now after you browse the first warehouse you can take a working streetcar that was used in the early 1900's in Montreal to take you to the other warehouse.  One of the stops of the streetcar is what is called Miniature barn.  It is full of miniature trains like probably most of you guys had when you were young.  Then the kids can take a ride on  a miniature train around the area.  Once you've seen that then you can catch a passenger train for a short ride around the property.  We also saw a short film that was filmed to be an IMAX film called The Rocky Mountain Express.  It is supposed to be shown in the fall of 2010 so watch for it.  And sitting in the mail warehouse were two  old gentlemen (probably in their 80's) that were telegraphing notes to a military camp down by the other warehouse.

The greatest part was that when we showed up, there were a bunch of cars in the parking lot and tons of kids!  We weren't sure what was going on, but we decided to go in anyway.  When we got to the ticket counter we were informed that yesterday and today were free culture days between 10am and noon.  So we got in free!  The way we look at it is that we were able to get into two museums free and that covered about two days of our campsites.  Not a whole lot, but better than a sharp stick in the eye.

Canada 11

Went into Montreal today and did our touristy thing again, but first I have to tell you about the ride into the province of Quebec.  Just west of Ottawa you will start to see a few bi-lingual signs, usually road signs, in English and French.  Then as you drive around Ottawa you will see that more and more things have both languages written and spoken.  In fact when you converse with someone they will say, "Bonjour, Hi," just to see how you will replay and that is the language they will use.  What we didn't know is that just across the river is the community of Gatineau which is in Quebec and that is why they speak both languages.  Anyway, just before you cross the province border from Ontario to Quebec, on the Trans Canada you will see a welcome sign welcoming you to Quebec.  The difference?  It is only in French!  So from that moment on I have had to try and rely on my bad high school French to get by.  Thank God most of the people speak English also.  But the funny thing is, now I don't feel like I ever need to go to France anymore - I've already been there!

The first thing we did this morning was take another Grey Line Tour around the city.  It was a great 3 hour tour and we got to see some things that we had on our "want to see" list.  We even stopped at some of them so we could visit and take pictures.  Plus we got to see things that we "thought" we wanted to see, but after going by and taking a look, changed our minds.  One case in point was the Olympic stadium used in the 1976 Summer games.  It is a very weird looking structure, but because of all the architecheral problems and flaws it isn't used anymore except for the swimming pools.  A billion dollar building sits rotting.

One stop we made that I wanted to see was the Notre Dame Basilica.  It is a gorgeous church.  I have been in many, but this had to be the most beautiful.  The original church was constructed in 1672 and then reconstruction began in 1823 because the original was too small.  All the wood is rosewood inside and gold inlay on the altar.  The organ has 4 keyboards, 99 stops and 7000 pipes.  The wedding chapel is dominated by a bronze sculpture which consists of 32 bronze panels cast in England and the organ has 25 stops and 1648 pipes.  It is a very impressive and beautiful building.

Next we picked up the car and drove around "Old Montreal" for a while.  You can tell by the pictures that they still keep the cobblestone streets and small alleys are used for the artists to sell their wares.  Unfortunately most of the shops are souvenir sellers.  You see one, you've seen all the rest.  Still, the town was great to walk through. 

Then we had to wait for a couple of hours before we were to go to dinner at a dinner "theatre".  It was in an old 1700's restaurant and they put on a show in both languages.  The ambiance was great even though the dinner was so-so.  As we were leaving an older gentleman who was sitting with a group in front of us stopped us outside and wanted to know where we were from.  I didn't think this would ever happen to us, but when we said we were from New Mexico he wanted to know how we said, "Good to meet you."  So Karl and I look at each other and say, "Good to meet you."  He shook his head and said, "Not in English, but in your language."  We tried to get him to understand that we are part of the US and we speak English.  We finally left him, but I think he still thought we should have spoken Spanish.  Oh well, like they say, one of our 50 is missing.  Que sera, sera.

Canada 10

Here is an interesting fact for your trivia book - Ottawa is the national capital of Canada, but not the provincial capital of Ontario, Toronto is.

Ottawa is a big city full of people and buildings - just like any other city.  But it did have some great places to visit.

Our first duty was to grab a Grey Line tour bus and tour the city to get out bearings.  This is a great way to do your first day in any large city.  It helps you to find where things are and to let you decide if you want to stop any see anything later.  We were trying to catch the 10am bus, but the AAA book gave us the wrong directions to meet the bus.  So after I called Grey Line they told us we were a block away and only about 5 minutes to walk.  While she had us on the phone she called the supervisor to see if he could hold the bus for us.  Off we got hot-footing it to the next block only to discover that we had missed the bus, but the next one would be at 11am.  As we were deciding what to do, the supervisor walked up and asked if we were the people that were called about.  He took us to his car, radioed the bus and told them to stay where they were and drove us to meet them!  We missed about 10 minutes of the actual tour, but the supervisor gave us a short tour as we were racing to meet the bus.

After the tour we walked to an Irish pub that we passed on the tour and had a great lunch with a glass of brew.  Then off we went to see the Rideau Canal and Locks.  The canal, which was built in 1832 is 123 miles long and was hand dug by Irish immigrants to connect the Ottawa River and Lake Ontario.  To go from one end to the other you will have to pass through 45 manual locks and it will take you three days because you can't go any faster than 10 miles per hour.    He ran out of money twice and the second time he asked London for more money they refused him.  His workers were on strike and he had no cash to finish his project.  Before he started digging the canal he was to buy up millions of acres of land for England.  So he got smart after their refusal to pay him and he promised the Irish workers that if they would finish the canal he would pay them in land.  They accepted and he finished the canal.  When it was done he was ordered back to London where he was branded a thief because they thought he was stealing the money they sent for the canal.  He died alone and disgraced.  A few years later some prominent Englishmen came over to look at the canal and they agreed that he had done a remarkable job and gave him the recognition and respect he deserved, a little too late though.  It was built for the purpose of military defense for the British.  But like all things that government gets involved in the first vessel to travel the canal was a shipload of pigs for slaughter and was never used for the military!

We then walked to the Currency Museum of the Bank of Canada.  This museum has all sorts of coins and paper money.  It even had things that were used before money was "invented".  Most of the artifacts were real and had dates on them from as far back as Egyptian times.  I even saw a $50,000 bank note made in 1924 for Canada.

Getting in the car we were able to drive to the last destination which was the Canada Museum of Civilization.  This has got to be the best museum I have ever seen!  It is HUGE!  We showed up at 3:30 and the clerk was sweet enough to tell us that if we wait until 4pm the admission is free on Thursday!  So we went to the cafe and sat until 4pm.  We didn't leave the museum until 7:15pm and we didn't really take a lot of time reading everything that was there.  It was on three floors - floor 1 dealt with First Nations from all over Canada and upper Alaska, floor 2 was dedicated to changing exhibits and this current one dealt with horses, fur trading and gold rush - the third floor was called Canada Hall and had displays set up like pictogram's with buildings you can walk in and see artifacts.  We could have spent a lot more time in this place.

Today was a travel day to Montreal - and that is an experience I will tell you about tomorrow.

Canada 9

Today is a travel day as we move from Nipissing to Ottawa so I think, after what I have observed, I will get on my soapbox.

Now I'm a person with, I hope, a hot of common sense.  I know what to do and how to do it that, to another person, would seem logical.  Today I have determined that road engineers have absolutely NO common sense.  None, nada, zilch, zip, zero.

In the US we have stimulus money flowing though the system.  In Canada they have revitalization money that was to be used by, I think they said, December of this year.  Because of rain and bad weather they've had they are trying to get the Prime Minister to extend the deadline.  So far he hasn't agreed.

Now, in Eastern Ontario the roads could compete with CA in being the worst roads ever.  They punished the MH pretty badly when things were shaken out of their normal places.  Think of going up I-80 to Truckee in a school bus in the back seat.  That's how they were.  As we are rocking and rolling on these horrible roads we come upon a long stretch of very smooth, rut-free sections that go for about 10-15 miles.  Then - BAM - road construction!  And here they are REPAVING AN ABSOLUTE PERFECTLY GOOD ROAD!  Yet not 5 miles back is a road that will knock your alignment out in a heartbeat.  Now, here's my question - why are they paving a road that doesn't need it in the least when they should be paving roads that need it in the worse way?

Like I said, road engineers have no common sense.

Canada 8

Sault Ste. Marie - a Tale of Two Cities.

Sault Ste. Maire (pronounced SUE Saint Maire) is really two cities - one is in Ontario, Canada and the other is in Michigan.  We were about 2 miles from the US.  When I started mapping out things to do earlier this year I never noticed that some of the things we wanted to see were on the US side!  Our passports were back with the MH so we decided to do what we did in Winnipeg - wing it!

We first stopped at the Sault Ste. Marie canal locks.  They are doing major work so the locks weren't in operation, but we were able to walk around the grounds and look.  They were first used in the mid 1800's for "big" ships to move between lakes Superior and Huron.  Now "big" ships are too big and they have to use the locks on the US side.  The Canadian locks are only used for pleasure craft.  Still in operation today is the original swing dam.  That is a mechanical "bridge" that will swing into the channel and drop steel "fingers" that will stop the flow of water in case the locks fail.

Stop #2 was at the Sault Ste. Marie museum which is housed in an old post office.  This was a great place to get to see the beginning and on-going development of the city.  Three floors of history.

After lunch we are off to discover the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre.  For plane nuts (which I'm not) this would be a great place to hang out for a few hours.  It has everything you would want to know about bushplanes, bush pilots, and bush fire fighters.  They had a couple of short films that were interesting to watch, but that still doesn't make me really interested in planes - bush or otherwise.  Karl said it was a great museum.

Our last stop was at the Ermatinger-Clegue National Historic Site.  This piece of land housed the Ermatinger Old Stone House (original site) and the Clegue Block House (moved to this site).  Both were residences of prominent Sault Ste. Marie businessmen of the 1800's.  Ermatinger owned shares in the Hudson Bay Company and Clegue was an entrepreneur - sometimes successful, sometimes not.

Canada 7

We are now into the large province of Ontario and we are starting to see the trees changing.  Not a whole lot yet, but it won't be long before they all have their fall colors on.  This is really the only time I miss on the East Coast, especially in New England.  There is NOTHING like a New England autumn.  Karl is checking the Vermont Fall Color Watch website and they are stating that the colors are starting early this year due to the temps and water.  So we may have to drop down into Vermont before we continue into Quebec.  That will be the closest to the state.

Now, after saying that, I wish I was here in Summer to visit Fort William.  Not so much on the West Coast, but especially in the East, they have living history museums.  We stopped at one in Thunder Bay that I wish I was here earlier.  Fort William was a fur trading headquarters for the North West company - competition to the Hudson Bay Company.  It is a recreation of the original fort that was built farther up the Ottawa River.  During the summer months they have actors living at the fort to give the visitors an idea of what life was like back in 1815 during the heydays of fur trading.  They even have a fur store house that holds real furs!  This is one of the largest and best recreated fort because they have all the buildings that were in the original fort.  And all are working buildings.  But since it was off-season only a few people were still there and they were the tour guides.

I had to include a road sign that I thought was rather funny.  You need to remember what a "Beware of deer" sign looks like - a graceful antlered deer trying to jump up or over the car, right?  Take a look at the moose sign they post.  Notice anything?  Look at how the moose is poised.  Gracefully jumping?  No way!  That sucker is poised to ram the car full on!

Today was a travel only day and we ended up in Wawa, Ontario for the night.  No, really I'm serious.  The town is called Wawa - look it up.  Stop laughing!

Canada 6

Our last day in Winnipeg consisted of us trying to find things to do because one museum I wanted to see, the Costume Museum, had closed it's doors.  So off we go to the Manitoba Visitor's Center.

Our first stop was at The Forks.  It's called such because it is where the Red River and the Assiniboine River meet.  It is a huge shopping and events area.  For Tom and Debbie: take a look at the picture and see if that doesn't remind you a little of Santiago.  It's very similar in that it has your fresh fruit and vegetables and in amongst that they have eating areas.  As soon as Karl and I walked in there we both thought of Liz and our shopping day.

Anyway - The Forks has been a gathering sight for over 6,000 years and has everything - restaurants, shops, food markets, river walkway, sculptures, pictographs and historical items.  It has been (and still is) a railroad center, steamboat docking area, immigrant debarkation point and a stableyard.  Most of the original buildings are still standing and after much renovation, are being used today for Via Rail Canada depot, The Forks Marketplace (once the stables) and boat tours on the river (once the steamboat docks).  A lot of history in that place.

Stop #2 was the Manitoba Legislative building.  Perched on top of the dome is "Golden Boy".  It is a bronze statue covered in gold and represents Mercury holding a bunch of wheat in one hand signifying prosperity and a torch in the other hand signifying the bright future for Manitoba.  They are very proud of that boy.  While we toured inside we were lucky enough to be there during the showing of The Magna Carta.  I'm quoting from the information sheet we got - "The document here displayed is an original Magna Carta - not a copy, but an official engrossment or exemplification of the Latin text, sent out by the royal chancery to Oxfordshire in 1217.  No master prototype has survived from King John's ceremony at Runnymede.  Instead engrossments were distributed to county courts across England by the chancery, both in 1215 and as official reissues another five times before 1300."  This one was brought over on the occasion of the visit by Queen Elizabeth to Winnipeg on July 3 of this year.

Our final stop on our tour was to the Dalnavert Mansion.  It is a beautiful old restored Victorian house.  When we showed up we just missed the start of the tour by about 5 minutes.  So instead of trying to catch up with that group Karl and I were given our own guide and we had our own private tour!  The house was the residence of Hugh John Macdonald, premier of Manitoba and son of Sir John Macdonald, Canada's first Prime Minister.  It was completed in 1895 and was on the cutting-edge in technology in that it had central heat, indoor plumbing, telephones and electric lights!  It was built for around $10,000 and was considered a middle-class house.  When the Canadian Historical Society bought it and restored it in 1979 it cost $500,000.  Most of the work done was donated.

So that, ladies and gentlemen, concludes our tour of Winnipeg, Manitoba.  We hope you enjoyed your time here and please recommend us to your friends.

Canada 5

If you look at a map you will see that Winnipeg is almost exactly north of the North Dakota-Minnesota border.  And boy can you tell!  The Scandinavian accent is carried up to here.  And so far, since we left Calgary, the terrain has been very muck like Nebraska - FLAT with lots of wheat fields.  Also in the Winnipeg area we are surrounded, literally by hundreds of thousands of migrating Canadian geese.  They definitely do have the sound of autumn. 

Yesterday we made two stops on our visiting.  Our first was a nature center called Fortwhiyte Alive.  It's a 640 acre center that has a 30-head Bison herd, 5 lakes, 7km of trails, Prairie Dog Town (with 21 inhabitants, they think), bird feeding stations, a Prairie sod house, tipi encampment, floating boardwalks and an aquarium.  The sod house was fun to go in until you read that this "house" which consisted of one room probably no bigger than an average kitchen in today's houses would hold, during winter, 6-8 family members and 2 oxen!  It was a beautiful day for a hike with blue sky and temperatures hovering around 15 degrees (that's about 62 for you non-metric types).

Our next stop was at the Royal Canadian Mint where I got to hold about $500,000 in my hands!  In the lobby, under armed guard and chained to the floor, was a gold bar that weighted about 30 pounds, was worth about $500,000 and was 999.9% pure.  This site creates all the circulation coins for Canada and 60 other governments (including us).  A little info we were given that you probably haven't heard, but the US is in talks to this mint about creating another dollar coin for us.

During the tour we were told that ALL coins made are usable currency, even those that are "collectibles".  You could take your collectible coins to a bank and they would accept it just like regular currency.  They create all circulation currency here while special and collector pieces are done in Ottawa.  The paper currency is actually authorized to be done by a private company.  Hopefully today will be great weather again for our next outside adventure.

Canada 4

On Monday we ended up in Brandon, Manitoba, the 2nd largest city in Manitoba with a population of 50k, which was a short drive from Regina.  That was good because laundry really needed to be done.  But during lunch with a couple of Blue Knights (gee, surprise) one mentioned that there was a great WWII museum to visit.  Those of you who know me know my philosophy - you've seen one airplane, you've seen them all.  So with my blessing I told Karl to go visit and have fun while I washed clothes.  When he returned I asked him to be a guest blogger and let you all know what he saw.  His response?  And I quote - "What?  It's a WWII museum with WWII stuff.  That's all."  So I guess if you would like to know what he saw I guess you'll have to ask him

Today we made Winnipeg and will be here for the next 3 days.  After we set the MH up we set off to visit The Manitoba Museum which was very well done.  It took you on a journey from the beginning of Manitoba to present and future.  It incorporated pictures, artifacts, relics, dioramas and replicas.  The most impressive display was a 58' replica of the Nonsuch Ketch that sailed to and from England for the Hudson Bay Trading Company.  On the upcoming 300th birthday of the Hudson Bay Company in 1969, they had this replica built in Seattle, trucked overland to Manitoba and sailed her in and around Canada and upper United States.  It was manned by 12 crew and one of the crew was on the ketch while we were there to give us information about the Nonsuch.  The display of the Ketch and the facades of buildings around it reminded me of Disneyland - "Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me!"