T minus 7 days
Well, this is it....T minus 7 days and we'll embark on our adventure. This is our first blog post to test the waters technologically speaking as I've just created this blog post....I'm attaching our road trippers link so you can follow us on our trip and will update this blog regularly WiFi permitting. We love sharing with you and hearing from you. Wow....now we're gettin' excited!!!
Hello everyone,
We've be keeping a close eye on the weather and it seems that the weather is very unstable for Friday so we're going to leave tomorrow and make our way down to Albany, New York. This is our first stop on our road trip ...we're gonna be spending a couple days with our good friends Nikki, Ryan and Mike. We're also going to try to get an American cell phone number so that when we leave for Assateague National Park will have unlimited data to check for weather and traffic right on our cell phone.
Spent today getting the van checked out , good thing we did the air conditioning wasn't working properly!!!! Imagine that no
air conditioning in the middle of Arizona !!!! Have to admit I'm a little nervous but mostly excited. Hopefully all will go well and we will have lots to report on our adventure across the USA !
Ciao
Here's a link to our Roadmappers website....for those of you who wanna plan a trip, it's a very useful website.
https://roadtrippers.com/map?lng=-108.51669230769232&lat=36.0167997517965&z=3.7561309751563146&a2=t!16932610
Well it was a really good idea to leave yesterday as the bad weather that was forecasted panned out and the drive would have been miserable. We arrived at Nikki’s house around 5:30 and were immediately whisked off to Ryan’s art exposition at Roessleville Elementary. Ryan’s in grade one and was really proud to show us his work…the teacher in me enjoyed snooping around the school and took some photos for our teacher friends….
Today’s order of business was to get an American cell phone number, so we headed off to the mall in Albany and got all that sorted. Turns out that not all carriers are compatible with my iPhone 6 …so spent 25 minutes on the phone with a clerk and the verdict is that only AT &T or T mobile are compatible…who knew it was this complicated…. anyway we’re getting ready to head off to a traditional Fish Fry at the local firehouse tonight…. Mike (Nikki’s husband) is a volunteer firefighter and they are doing their fundraiser …. we’ll see how our first fish fry turns out....I expect it’ll be a lot of fun!
Once again the weather is playing havoc with our plans….we’re keeping a close eye on it cuz we’re supposed to leave on Sunday for Assateague National Seashore but freezing rain is on the menu…..argghhhhh …..we MAY have to stay an extra night here …we’ll see…..hope you’re all doing well….please send messages on our message board …we love hearing from you …
Love always
Greetings from Assateague National seashore ❤️
2nd destination!!!
Ahhh Assateague!!!
It was definitely worth the 25$ or so in tolls to get here. What a treasure this place is .... untamed ... untouched ... "primitive"......wild horses roaming free like they did about 300 years ago . Heres a brief history of this place;
This place is a barrier island stretching over 2 states Maryland and Virginia. The wild horses roam free in both states but the management of them is different. In Virginia they let the wild horses roam free and allow them to breed at will...then once a year the "saltwater cowboys" round the horses and swim them across the bay to an auction;thereby controlling the population roughly 300 or so. Maryland's approach is allowing the mares to foal once and then they are given contraceptives , via a dart gun,on a yearly basis. They have roughly 200 horses here. The story behind the wild horses dates back to 300 years ago when the Assateague Native tribe was here. WHen the colonists arrived on the mainland, they were issued a grazing tax for their livestock so they decided to use the island as a natural corral for grazing ... they've been here ever since. The horses are absolutely gorgeous and calm, not jittery at all at human presence... having said that we are very respectful of them and do not touch or feed them ... it's an offense and you will be issued a ticket.
Today we cycled 18 km up and the coast line. We checked out our geocache app and found all 3 geocaches on the isalnd. Time goes by realllly slowly here....it's primitive to say the least, we sat on the beach watching the waves roll in while soaking in all of the island's simple beauty. if you ever wanna completely disconnect, this is the place for you...
Sleeping in the van is going super well for me...Since I'm short , I fit nicely in there. It's very cozy under the duvet while it howled outside spitting freeezing cold see breeze at us. The bed is super comfy 4 inches of foam mattress with a 2 inch memory gel topper.Peter's not having such a good go of it, he's still adjusting.
Overall thoughts on Assateague. thoroughly enjoyed this island....calmness and serenity comes over you while being in the presence of these magnificent beasts ... I rate this leg of the he trip a 9/10... cuz it was super cold and windy otherwise "10"
Tomorrow more by we're off to myrtle beach state campground and hopefully it'll be a or warmer!
Sending hugs
We hit the jackpot with this state park campground. It's an absolute gem in the middle of this city. It's extremely well maintained and has its own beachfront. We are soo pleased to be here.
Anyway, today was a very chillax kinda day. We leisurely woke up, had a very relaxed breakfas,t then proceeded to check out the main boardwalk at Myrtle Beach. The beach itself is gorgeous and of course the boardwalk is a tourist attraction or "trap". The beach must be jam packed in the summer time but today it was super calm and quiet, only a few die hards in the water and the odd fisherman or two trying to catch the big one! Decided it was time to explore a little so we headed off towards Murrells inlet just south of our campsite. It's a quaint fishing village now mostly known for "Restaurant Row"...a cluster of award winning seafood and bbq restaurants on Main Street.
Decided, it was time to geoache, hopped on our bikes and off we went....we found 3/5. ONe in particular was a very touching geocache trubute to 911. An original beam from the Twin Towers was erected to honor all affected.
Spent the rest of the day walking to the pier and hangin out at the beach. We also enjoed this destination very much
"Oh Savannah you did not disappoint ... giant oaks, Spanish moss, St. John the Baptist Church , Tybee island , Forsyth Park, Fort Pulaski, botanical gardens and Wormsloe Plantation ... oh and we found the coolest geocache ever!!! What a day ❤️
Off to Florida tomorrow for a 2 week hiatus
This was our Facebook Post ..allow us to elaborate;
We arrived at this very secluded campsite after a 4 hour drive from Myrtle beach. Then it hits you why it's so remote, it was a fort used in the civil war in the 1860's between the Union and the Confederates. The campsite itself is very well maintained and the sites are very spacious. Our site overlooked the salt marsh which we drove across on the causeway. I've included a brief history of both forts below FYI.
Our first night we decided to hang out here at camp and realized there was a ton of geocaches. Time to hop on our bikes and head out hunting, and hunting we did....we found 5 out of 7 caches and were attacked by noseeums.....arghhhh.... we also found a baby tick on us sooooo off we went to hit the showers...I am super paranoid about ticks. We decided that tomorrow we were gonna go check out Savannah, which I heard so many good things about.
Got an early jump on the day. Drove about 45 minutes to our first stop, Wormsloe Plantation. We arrived to this beautiful site of oak trees draped in Spanish moss lining the plantation. It's the only plantation left with its descendants still living in it, they are the 9th generation. We took many photos, as did many other people, then headed out.
After the Wormsloe plantation we went to Fort Pulaski where we took a guided tour. Our young tour guide gave a very good animated version of the history that took place here. I guess this place is significant because it marked the first time that rifled cannons were used instead of smooth-bore ones. These rifled cannons were extremely accurate in comparison and the union soldiers were able to rip through the fort wall with relative ease resulting in the Confederates' surrender. We walked on the top layer of the fort walls and took several photos..... thoroughly enjoyed this fort...now off to Savannah!
Arrived in this beautiful city of 136,000 people ( way smaller than I had perceived) and tried to find parking. Apparently their meters are designated 30 min, 1 hr, 2 hr, 3 hr!!! So we had to drive around until we found a 3 hr one cuz we wanted to bike around the city. Turns out we parked on one of the prettiest streets, Jones Street. There were many other gorgeous streets such as Oglethorpe etc.
This city is surrounded by 22 squares (parks) of famous places or people. It's a wonderful place to go sit and have a respite from the biking. Wowwwww what a beautiful city....we biked up and down the streets, felt super safe on the roads as the cars are very respectful of cyclists and they would stop for you....a far cry form Montreal. We cycled to most of the popular attractions such as Forsyth Park, St. John the Baptist Church, the riverfront, which reminded me of old Quebec, they have an upper and lower sector. We also went to city market and the botanical garden, where we found the coolest geocache I have ever seen. It was a birdhouse with a very clever system. Have to admit I need help from google to open it..... but wowwww it was cool...it involved a balloon to release the latch!
After a full day of cycling and visiting, we called it day and headed back to camp. Indeed Savannah did not disappoint, we highly recommend visiting this very historical city.
sending love and hugs to all!
Got up bright and early because we had a lunch date with my cousin in Debary Florida. I hadn't seen my cousin in 16 years so this was gonna be special, plus my aunt would be there too!! It's a 3 1/2 drive from Savannah to Debary. The drive went smoothly and we pulled in on her driveway around 11:30. Garrett, her son jumped into our arms as soon as he answered the door. Wow what a fantastic welcome. We were greeting very warmly and had a wonderful lunch. Chit chatted with my aunt, then with Mickenzie , she's 16 , a very good softball player, and my cousin Toni. Mickenzie and I went outback to hit a few balls while Peter played guitar in the house. Garrett is a sweet boy who's really into Pokemon Go and video games. After a 2 1/2 stay we said our goodbyes as they had commitments in the afternoon. What a special detour this was.....off to Port Charlotte, our home for 2 weeks.
A huge shout out to Mindy, Peter's sister, and Bryan, her husband, for graciously allowing us stay in their beautiful home.
This is our first post since we arrived last Saturday. In a nutshell, we've been trying to relax as much as possible before we head west. We've been doing a lot of sitting by the pool reading, doing Sudoku and crosswords etc. It feels soooo good to sleep in a real bed and to have the luxury of a real home for 2 weeks. Occasionally we head out to buy groceries and check out the local stores. They have such different stores than we do....Bealls, Dillards, DSW Shoes, JC Penny and so on ....BUT since our dollar is soooo weak right now we are refraining BIG time from buying more running shoes and clothes....
We decided to do some velo caching....ok geocaching but on our bikes. We headed out towards Englewood Beach and ended up at this trail ... It wasn't too hot to begin with but mannnnn did it ever shoot up to 94 degrees pretty fast. So we found as many as we could and decided to go to the beach to cool off a bit.
So we went to BLind Pass Beach in the Lemon Bay area, it soooo nice out here...the beach was really busy today so we stayed for a little while.
Had a picnic lunch then headed back to Port Charlotte. Upon arrival we were super sweaty AGAINNN, so we jumped in the pool to cool off . More of the usual, reading etc....
After supper we decided to go chase down the gorgeous sunset. As we got an extremely late start, we barely had time to head over to a beach so I took the sunset photos off a canal overpass..... "better than nothing" I thought, as it turns out the sunset pics are stunningly beautiful....breathtaking actually!!
Soooooo, I'm really excited for Andree Anne to arrive today !!! She's spending a week at her parents' condo nearby...it'll be super seeing her....stay tuned!!!
we are enjoying ourselves in this relaxing environment
SENDING love and hugs...
send us your news, we love hearing from you!!
After supper we decided to go chase down the gorgeous sunset. As we got an extremely late start, we barely had time to head over to a beach so I took the sunset photos off a canal overpass..... "better than nothing" I thought, as it turns out the sunset pics are stunningly beautiful....breathtaking actually!!
Soooooo, I'm really excited for Andree Anne to arrive today !!! She's spending a week at her parents' condo nearby...it'll be super seeing her....stay tuned!!!
we are enjoying ourselves in this relaxing environment
Wow it's hard to believe that we'll be on the road again in a couple of days or so. Our stay here in port Charlotte has been a very relaxing and recharging one. As mentioned in the previous post we have been hanging around the pool for the most part but occasionally we have ventured off to go some geocaching and beaching. Here are some of the beaches we went to.
1 Englewood beach; known for its petrified shark teeth and shelling. My sister in law Mindy is so good at finding these teeth, she's found hundreds....then she creates her own artwork with the teeth. This shark photo is made from these shark teeth ....pretty cool huh?
2. Munche Beach and Pine Island : Not much to say say about this one except to say it smelled probably from rotting seaweed or something....so we had a quick picnic lunch and departed....We also ventured off to Pine Island on the same day.
Well as you can see from the map IT IS AN island, so we thought we would find a bike trail or some beaches we could swim at....well the bike trail is parallel to the main road..not my idea of a leisurely bike ride to enjoy the views so we DID NOT cycle and no public beaches to swim at ....for the most part the tips of the island are well maintained with expensive homes with private ocean front piers. It was quite apparent this island is not commercialized at all so there weren't many tourist type amenities.... in fact all we saw were palm tree nurseries up and down the main drag on the island.....needless to say wen turned around and left the island....
3. Siesta Key Beach: it's no wonder this beach has been voted America's #1 beach for many years ....it's by far my favorite beach of all. Last Monday was a very special day..... we met Andreé Anne and her family at this beach for an afternoon and evening of fun, laughter, dancing, singing, love and the pièce de résistance......the MOST spectacular sunset I have ever seen. Siesta Key Beach , which provides free parking and shuttle service to all three beaches on the island, has the finest , whitest sand which feels soooooo good and cool under your feet because it's made up of 99% quartz. What's special about quartz is that doesn't heat up like regular sand, soooooo you never need to run like a chicken when you're barefoot on this beach.. Siesta Key also has a very active village lined with restaurants, shops and nightlife!!!! We had so much fun we actually closed the beach down ....we left around 10:30 even though sunset was around 8 ish ...the moon provided enough light for us to enjoy ourselves til then...wowwwww amazing day.....
4. Turtle Beach and Point of Rocks Beach: these 2 beaches are south of Siesta Key and still considered to be part of Siesta Key. Turtle beach is the most southern one and oddly enough it doesn't have the same white sand, although it is a lot more secluded if you want privacy. we then moved to Point of rocks beach which is in between.....yeahh back to the white sand and snorkeling to boot off a point of rocks that just out from the beach. Welllllll it wasn't exactly the Great Barrier reef but we did see lots of fish....I managed to get a video of them check it out in our photo album...Off in the distance on the beach wedding was taking place during the sunset. It was pretty special for the bride and groom. All in all another great day at the beach...although Siesta Key remains my absolute favorite of all.
Davis Bayou State Park, Mississippi
After an 10 hour drive we finally arrived at this state park. This was only a one night stay. First order of operations was to try to find a bar to watch the habs......sooooo we googled it an Val's Sports bar was our spot....a real down to earth kinda place where the locals embraced us and got a talkin' with. Had a philly cheese steak which, was delectable, as recommended by the owner and enjoyed the games tremendously since our habs won....we also met a super nice couple, she's from Quebec but moved to Texas in the 70's....gave us a quite few tips about vising Texas....
Well we finally made it to Texas !!!! And let me tell ya the drivers are crazzzzzy!!!! Compared to all the other states we've been to , where drivers are courteous, respectful and laid back , these drivers are impatient , aggressive and a little loco 😜 ... seriously!!!! One guy actually passed me on my right!!! on the shoulder!!! on a highway!!!! ....whowwwwww la ....didn't expect that AT ALL!!! Anyway I switched to my Quebec driving skills and joined the crowd 🤣
This too was a one night stay, so we explored the park a little on our bikes 🚴 had a late supper then off to bed !!! Off to McKinney Falls State Park tomorrow
We arrived at McKinney Falls State Park, and at first glance it was super nice ...spent the first day biking and geocaching and exploring the park. We went to the upper and lower falls ... these were a huge hit with thrill seekers and sun worshippers as the younguns would jump off the rocks then suntan on the rocks ... well peter had to impress as well so he jumped off too ... we love exploring and finding these hidden gems.
The landscape at this park was pretty spectacular, especially the falls and the eroded rock it carved through to get to the lake below. We spent the afternoon there and enjoyed an lovely evening at the campsite. Sleeping in the van is getting much easier i.e. that we bought a FAN, it was much needed. Oh! Sidebar... we bought the fan at a Walmart in Baton Rouge, Louisiana... well let's just say there was a permanent cop stationed there... yep bought then fan and skidaddled out of there quickly !!!
The next day we went to the city of Austin, population 900,000. We kicked off our day visiting the state capital building. Our eyes 👀 were greeted with the splendid view if this building made of sunset red Texas granite. You'll see many photos of this in the album attached to this blog. Anyway we signed up for a free tour which we enjoyed tremendously... does that make us geeks?!?! After the tour we had a picinic lunch on the congress lawn before we headed out to 6th street where are the live music 🎶 happens. Next we drove over to Zilker Park where we saw the naturally spring fed Barton Sorings pool... we continued to bike 🚴 down the path zig zagging though a plethora of joggers running near Lady Bird Lake .... wow these Austonioans really take their fitness seriously... very impressive !!! Finally, we biked over to the south Congress bridge where a nightly phenomenon occurs ..... 1.5 million bats 🦇 take to the skies at dusk ... many people lined the top of the bridge and well as gathered below to witness this natural occurrence ...apparently they sleep in between the bridges' expansion joints then come out at dusk .... we waited with anticipation... then it happened ... it wa a sight to see ....but what was very peculiar about it was that all the bats flew out of one area ... hhhhmmm is there an order to this ... pecking order so to speak? Anyway all 1.5 million bats was quite something to see even though it was quite dark 👍
Once again driving in Austin Texas is like driving in the formula one... everyone scooted past you in all directions ... oh well 😔 I just nodded and said nothing !!! Some were downright lawless ... going through a full red ... bold !!!! Finally , we HAD to have some of Gus's world 🌎 famous fried chicken 🍗 it was so scrumptious.
Overall impression of Austin is a positive one even though we find it to be it past paced .. had a big city vibe unlike Savannah had more of a laid back southern hospitality vibe ... we enjoying visiting so many new cities and national and state parks ...we also enjoying the in between stuff such as Ms Bedroll giant squirrel on the side of the Highway and her pecan pie vending machine ... wow now I've seen it all!!!!
Love ❤️ always
Hello everyone,
Must admit it's getting harder to keep up with this blog because we're on the go sooooo quickly and state parks are starting to blend into one another .... but I am resolved to do this as it's definitely a diary of sorts of for us look back on and they'll be accurate as this all fresh our minds !!!
Okkkkkkkk ....this Park is in the middle of NOWHERE!!!! But worth it !!! It's another real gem 💎. After we checked in at #20 campsite we hopped on our bikes and decided to go find the Guadalupe River..... found a trail and meandered through woods until we saw the sun shining on a beautiful stratified limestone canyon wall... what a sight to see at a distance!!! So we bike right down to the river and explored the area.... wet our feet ....chatted with a lady and played pitch and catch with her son Josh... then explored some more. Our 👀 were feasting on the immense beauty surrounding us ... we're sooooooo grateful and lucky to witness these beautiful natural wonders.
On our second day here we decided to go to San Antonio to visit the Alamo and the Riverwalk. I was really touched by the Alamo's history not to mention how beautiful the the grounds are. I had no idea that the Alamo was a church to begin with a religious mission trying to convert the natives. Many years later the Alamo was converted to a fort and saw a lot of bloodshed which ultimately led to the independence of Texas as a republic. I thoroughly enjoyed visiting the Alamo.
We decided to end the day with a stroll along the Riverwalk..... that's what San Antonio's famous for. This is a very creative riverfront which hosted many, many restaurants, we even saw a wedding and e managed to find a geocache as well. The people were super friendly and the city was very clean. As you can see from the photo album we enjoyed our stay tremendously.... now off to Balmorhea State Park in west Texas !!
April 22-23
Good morning,
We got an early jump because we had a 5 hour drive ahead of us towards west Texas to balmorhea. We found this state park on the internet that everyone raved about. The park has a natural spring fed pool with Crystal clear 💦. The drive from San Antonio to Balmorhea was equisite. As we drove we saw the terrain change from lush green forest 🌳, which we're familiar seeing at home, to this dry, arrid , barren landscape with beautiful mountains. Approximately 25 million years ago volcanic activity took place here and molten rock was exposed with erotion and created these beautiful rock formations ... they are absolutely gorgeous... peter couldn't stop taking photos !!!
Upon arrival we quickly went to check out the famous pool which is fed by Solomon springs. The water was perfect ... crystal clear and very inviting ... there were lots of fish and even soft shell turtles 🐢. But we couldn't indulge ourselves because we had a game to watch ... a crucial game 6 ... it could be the Habs last game !!! So we went to a local bar Jo's Bar and grill and asked if we could watch the game . Norman the owner was super sweet and said " I know nothing about hockey but I'll put it on for you" ..... thank God!!! cuz there were no other bars in town. So we watched the game and started talking to the Norman and his wife Diana, then to more locals like Nick and his 12 yr old son Logan who showed us their super cool rock collection !! They find rocks in the hills clean and polish them ... they were very impressive rocks ... who would have thought rocks could be so beautiful 😍 so they gave me a handful of rocks as a souvenir of Balmorhea Agate rocks.
As the night went on and our beloved Habs got eliminated ... Norman bought us a round of drinks .. we obliged .. then karaoke broke out.... followed by a crew of real cowboys coming in for a drink at their local. How cool it was to see real cowboys .....one even arrived on a mule into the bar ... he nearly took his own head off cuZ he banged in it so hard on the door frame ... it was hilarious... so they asked if I wanted to have my photo on the mule... how could I say No... so on I go with cowboy hat and all!!! It was a wonderful evening spent with some really down to earth good old fashion Texans ... sidebar .... Logan was so fascinated with our 20$ bill that he wanted a trade with his American 20$ ... so there you have it ... we traded $20's ...
The following day we went to Fort Davis yes I know another fort.... so we visited the fort ... went for a nice hike to the top of the mountain took some pretty nice photos then and came back to the pool to spend the whole afternoon swimming in the springs.... once again we highly recommend this Park ... tomorrow off to Carlsbad caverns !!
Love always
Mary and peter ❤️
We were so excited for this trip so we got an early start and left the beautiful Balrmorhea park behind us and hit the road again. The drive was straight and narrow as far as the eye can see!!! As we saw the Guadalupe Mountains in the distance we notice at the vey top some buildings ... the entrance to the bat cave!!!!
There are 2 options to enter the cave ... a natural entrance which is a mile long walk on a steep path deep down into the bowels of the earth and the 2nd option is an elevator . We opted to walk down ... an what a treat it was ... it was kinda scary and creepy but the path is well maintained and you immediately start to see the stalactites and stalagmites that were lit up. I'm sooooo glad we decided to come on a Monday cuz yesterday was the last day of free national parks day and this place was crawling with visitors .... instead we had the cave to ourselves which added to magical feeling of exploring the cavernous spaces below. Peter and I couldn't stop taking photo after photo because we were in such awe.... every corner we took a new vision of wonderful formations greeted us . The walk down was about 1 hour and we opted to rent the audio tour which was fantastic because then narrator would tell us some facts about the cave at specified numbered locations.
We finally arrived down into the big room, which is really three rooms and once again we werelike kids a at a candy shop ... look at this !!! Look at that!!! Wowwww... it took us about another 3 hours to explore the whole cave . The lighting was sublime !!! They hired a Hollywood lighting company to setup the lighting ,they were really good emphasizing certain formations with lights. The photo album includes all the facts, such as how it was formed , when , etc about this cave so have a quick peek at the photos ! The only way out today the cave is to take he elevator up ... no one is allowed to walk out !!!
At first we were daunted being so deep below the steer level but we wouldn't have missed it !!! It was by far one of the highlights of this trip !!
Love ❤️ always
Mary & Peter
We were so pleasantly surprised by this State Park. We didn't think we get so much out of it. Jose our park host,, in the red shirt and black dog in the album, was very pleasant man. He introduces to the park by showing us 15 minute video on the history of the park. Well we hit it off cuz we hung out with him and his wife Imelda at their site for the evening. They told us about Sparky's restaurant and La Paloma Hot springs since these were both on our way to our next destination. Well we followed through on both counts and enjoyed a world famous green chili burger as well as indulge in some natural hot springs to soak our achy bones after all we did a 5 hour hike earlier in the day.
Here's a brief summary of the history of this park:
The rock was formed beneath the earth's surface 34 million years ago, as magma pushed into and older limestone formation and then cooled. Over millennia, weathering processes eroded the overlying limestone and sculpted the now exposed igneous rock into its present forms. Hollows (huecos) capture precious rainfall.
these formations rise above the Chihuahuan desert floor to mark an oasis of nature and culture. thousands of pictographs left behind by prehistoric and historic native Americans.
The next day we took a 5 hour tour to explore 30 of these masks. Our guide Jorge was very knowledgeable and passionate about the history of this magical place, It was supposed to be a 3.5 hour hike but he kept saying ok....one more bonus mask....one more bonus mask....you're such a special group so i'm gonna show you 1 more mask...let's just slide down this rock into this cave....that's pretty much how dialogue went all afternoon....no breaks whatsoever. As you can see from the photos we had a blast and are blessed o have been a part of this place.
In the evening we went to have that delicious burger and hot springs....what a day....another 10/10
love always
Mary and Peter.
Today's big trip was going to the White Sands national Monument. We packed up our stuff and bid adieu to Waco tanks and hit the open road. Once again we were not used to driving in this weather of wind gusts that come from the side while driving over a Mountain and nearly takes you out !!!! WOWWWW
Anyway, we arrived at the park and immediately meet a super sweet young couple. Will and Erica 20 and 19 years old and basically doing the same trip we're doing ....in a car with a dog....wow...pretty impressive.....so we took a few pics and parted ways....
we had a blast in this white oasis!!!
love always
Mary and Peter
hello everyone,
we hope you're all doing well ...... we are well into the groove of travelling in our van and visiting so many cool places....and the Petrified Forest is another example. Last night we stayed in a hotel... a much needed stay I must say. We were running out of clothes and gettin' a little run down, peter and i got the sniffles .....perhaps a cold was looming...so sleeping in a bed was very welcome, in addition to getting our laundry done.
Next morning we set off to the National Monument.....man oh man did we have a tough driving day. not only were we driving over mountains to get to the other side we encountered inclement weather...from rain....no wait it's sleet....no way!!! it's snow....at 8000 feet on top of a mountain...wowwww seriously...... we left Montreal because of snow.!!!! anyway we drove slowly and came into a town town called Pie Town....well of course we needed to stop and check out the pies...well after a $7 (USD) piece of pie....we hit the road again...and it was mediocre at best!!!
Well we finally arrived at the monument....we thought we were gonna see some petrified wood here and there...nooooooo....we drove a 28 mile route right through the park and saw many beautiful sites....my personal favorite was the painted desert....the way it works is to drive along and stop your car at specified lookouts and voila...feast your eyes on the immense beauty before you. We enjoyed our day more than we thought, even though the weather did not cooperate with us cuz we were freezing.....we got snowed on and the wind howled and blew us around repeatedly. The Blue Mesa was also spectacular.
After several hours making our way through the park we headed for our next campsite at Homolovi Ruins State Park. When we arrived it was cold and windy so we decided to head into Winslow to prepare and shop for the next three days. Before heading to Walmart we looked for a place for Peter to "stand on the corner" after all we were in Winslow, Arizona. After driving on Rt. 66 for a few kilometers we stumbled on a sign that listed some of Winslow's landmarks including "Standin' on the Corner" Park. There was a mural and two statues honoring the song along with the standard gift shop. A steady stream of people arrived took pictures and left while Eagles music played from across the street.
After shopping we returned to the campsite in the dark only to find someone in our reserved spot. It was dark and when we confronted the woman who claimed she had arrived late and had not seen the reserved sign. We went to speak to the camp host, he said we could take another site or he could make her move. We had calmed down a bit and decided just to take another site, so we drove over and told the woman to stay where she was. The next morning we met a couple from Venice, Florida who had converted a van ( Bobb and Trish) and were travelling around the way we were. Bobb's van was a little better equipped than ours, he had everything. We slept well and had a good shower so all's well.... Tomorrow we head for the Grand Canyon and Mary's birthday.
fyi the lovely family we met at breakfast were super nice....Alexandre from France and Shawna his wife along with cooper and Zoe...they live in Phoenix ...loved chattin with them and exchangin' phone numbers....hopefully we'll see them in Montreal one day!
After a good breakfast we headed towards Flagstaff.
saw a sign for Walnut Canyon which is a national monument and decided to check it out. It was very impressive, with a long trail that led down into the canyon and through several cliff dwellings, we decided to pass on the walk but enjoyed the views and the info center then were on our way. We spoke to a woman at a gas station and decided to take the east entrance into the park. It was longer but more scenic. We stopped at a smaller canyon on the Little Colorado River, Mary bought herself a birthday present at a roadside Hopi Indian craft stand and then we proceeded into the park. We stopped at the Watch Tower and were blown away by how beautiful and immense the canyon is. The watch Tower is built in the native style and gives amazing views of the canyon, very well done. We were amazed at the way people would walk past the guard rails and down paths that lead out onto rocks that were in fact the edge of cliffs, some climbed onto rock towers to have their picture taken. One missed step or stumble would result in a 1000 ft fall and certain death but they posed and took selfies, it was hard to watch.
The views from all around the tower take your breath away, pictures and words cannot convey the feelings you get when you see this magnificent wonder of nature. We took picture after picture, for a place with so many people it was fairly quiet as people gazed in wonder, there was a sense of reverence. That happened over and over again as each new view or change in light made the canyon more beautiful. We stopped at 3 vistas on the way in each one with incredible views then decided to head for our campsite. The site was fine and we headed out to see our first canyon sunset. After a bit of a scramble we managed to find a place to watch the sun go down, it was great.
May 1st, 2017
When Mary got up the girl from the next campsite asked if she knew how to boost a car because her battery was dead. We helped her get it started then invited them over for breakfast. Marine from France was visiting her friend Charline, who was also french but working in California. They were camping and travelling together and were a joy to get to know. They reminded us so much of our wonderful friend Annaick as they shared their stories with us. After breakfast we headed to the visitor center to watch a video on the canyon and the decided to head back out in the direction we came in and finish the rest of the stops we missed the day before. Wanting to see the tower again we ran into Charline and Marine again and took more pictures with them. We again said our goodbyes and worked our way back towards the village stopping to marvel and take pictures at each stop along the way. After supper we headed out for sunset #2, this time we knew what we were doing, we went to Mathers point where we could watch the setting sun reflect on the eastern end of the canyon.
May 2nd, 2017
We got up early 4:30 and headed out to Mathers point again this time to watch the sun rise. After breakfast we took the shuttle bus and explored the western end of the canyon stretching from the Bright Angel Hotel to Hermit's Rest. There are 9 stops each with it's own perspective view of the canyon. We met a couple from Brampton and walked between one of the stops with them. We went to every point in the west side all the way to Hermit's Rest. This is a national park so it's very we'll maintained and run... there's a freeshuttle bus that takes you along the western rim in fact cars 🚗 aren't allowed on the west side. On the way back we decided to walk down the Bright Angel Trail for about 100 m or so ... this trail takes you right down to the canyon floor ... soooo cool...
Mary's Perspective
The whole point of this trip for me was to make it to the Grand Canyon for my birthday. We entered the park from the eastern side and went to the first lookout called the watchtower. As you're walking along you see people coming back from the tower on you're wondering what have you seen? what was I going to see? .... I'm the rookie here and they've taken at all in ....😳..... So with anticipation and butterflies in my stomach we want the lawn and then this vision appeared before my eyes it was the most spectacular view I have ever seen😲the EARTH opened up below us and the cliffs....the buttes ....the faults and the Colorado River were right there.... before my very eyes. I cried. The immense size overwhelmed all of my senses .... words cannot describe what I saw !!! My 55th birthday was so special being here in the canyon with Peter... we enjoyed the eastern 👀 lookouts al day then went back to camp ... had a delicious fajita supper followed by a birthday pie in the most serene place on earth 🌏 perfection !!!! I will most definitely come back I don't think this place ever yes old !!!!❤️❤️❤️
I want to go have one last look at the Grand Canyon before we left for Sedona , so we did just that......and the canyon was just as magical and as s spectacular as the first time I set eyes on her three days earlier !!! Except this time we met a nice French couple from Calais....we chit chatted for a while then hit the road for Sedona. The drive was easy, only 3 1/2 hours...we were aback by all the beautiful rock formations that surrounding the city.....kinda reminded me of Jasper with the Rockies in the background except here we have the Canyon formations....one word simply beautiful ....we immediately we set off for the shops area did a little bit of shopping ....we stayed at Dead Horse Ranch State Park about 20 minutes south of Sedona in the town of Cottonwood.
The next day we decided to hike up to the famous Cathedral Rock ....we decided we were gonna start to go up as much as we could and take frequent break in the unbearable heat. So we did....the climb up was tough on the old cardio but technically not bad at all....there was one section that was steep but a crevice gave us extra security to scale the rocks....anyway we made it the "NOTCH" and the view was absolutely spectacular....so we took a few photos and hustled down cuz we had a reservation for a pink jeep sunset tour of a local canyon at 5:30. We learned a lot about these very old rock formations and enjoyed the sunset in the canyon. Coming down was more fun and easier than i thought it would be....i am super happy we hiked to top ... it felt super good... a real confidence booster....oh yeah we also went to the famous church on the rocks...
we had an awesome time and day in Sedona....highly recommend it...
Lake Havasu
Also, Lake Havasu is also the location of the original London Bridge.....which was not sound enough to support modern traffic in London England , was put up for sale.... so a local man bought it for 2.1 million ...had it dismantled and each brick was numbered, then rebuilt here in the 70's ....who knew??? tomorrow were off to Joshua Tree National Park.....
love always
Mary and Peter
I want to go have one last look at the Grand Canyon before we left for Sedona , so we did just that......and the canyon was just as magical and as s spectacular as the first time I set eyes on her three days earlier !!! Except this time we met a nice French couple from Calais....we chit chatted for a while then hit the road for Sedona. The drive was easy, only 3 1/2 hours...we were aback by all the beautiful rock formations that surrounding the city.....kinda reminded me of Jasper with the Rockies in the background except here we have the Canyon formations....one word simply beautiful ....we immediately we set off for the shops area did a little bit of shopping ....we stayed at Dead Horse Ranch State Park about 20 minutes south of Sedona in the town of Cottonwood.
The next day we decided to hike up to the famous Cathedral Rock ....we decided we were gonna start to go up as much as we could and take frequent break in the unbearable heat. So we did....the climb up was tough on the old cardio but technically not bad at all....there was one section that was steep but a crevice gave us extra security to scale the rocks....anyway we made it the "NOTCH" and the view was absolutely spectacular....so we took a few photos and hustled down cuz we had a reservation for a pink jeep sunset tour of a local canyon at 5:30. We learned a lot about these very old rock formations and enjoyed the sunset in the canyon. Coming down was more fun and easier than i thought it would be....i am super happy we hiked to top ... it felt super good... a real confidence booster....oh yeah we also went to the famous church on the rocks...
we had an awesome time and day in Sedona....highly recommend it...
Lake Havasu
Also, Lake Havasu is also the location of the original London Bridge.....which was not sound enough to support modern traffic in London England , was put up for sale.... so a local man bought it for 2.1 million ...had it dismantled and each brick was numbered, then rebuilt here in the 70's ....who knew??? tomorrow were off to Joshua Tree National Park.....
love always
Mary and Peter
Hey everyone,
We started our day fixing our mirror which had fallen off at Lake Havasu...then we were off towards California at the Joshua tree national Park. We pulled up to the campground called Black rock Canyon campground and then decided to hike up to one of the peaks near our site. We had difficulty finding the trail head for the peak and then came across an ex- Marine who was shooting squirrels with his pellet gun on his property cuz they were "vermin around here" so we asked him for some help and he pointed us in the right direction. It was about a 30 minute hike up the mountain ...as usual look outs on top of mountains are absolutely beautiful .
The next day we got up early because we needed and oil change.... so we went to Walmart then off tot the national Park. Upon arrival to the park we were quite surprised to see how many boulders were there in fact just as many boulders as Joshua trees. Our first stop was the cholla cactus garden ...it was quite interesting to read about about the different types of cacti and how they survive in these extreme conditions. The layout is similar to the petrified national forest whereby you drive along this huge park and you pull off at the specified locations where they want to show you some pretty neat stuff.
Our second stop was the skull rock .....as you can see from the photos the boulders shape resemble a skull ...we found others like the old man....the big toe....etc. We also decided to go check out Barker Dam ..only we got lost there again!!! we started off on the trail and somehow we went off trail for about an hour and retraced out steps and found barker dam. Barker damn isn't as attractive after 1.5 hour hile to go see it....arghhhhhh....... We headed over to hidden Valley for a picnic lunch...this was was kinda cool because you picnic amidst the boulders....they provided shade and very pleasant view. Finally to finish off for day we went up to Keys View which was a good 10 to 15 minute drive up the mountain over 5000 feet in elevation and the view was absolutely fantastic .....wowwwwww....we were able to see the Coachella Valley .....Salton Sea..... Palm Springs and the San Andreas Fault ......big caveat .....there's also quite a lot of haze which was quite apparent....... caused by the pollution in California....what a shame!!!!!
The part about travelling that we love is meeting people.....today we met a very young couple from Texas named Kelly , Christopher and their baby Ezra. Christopher was so familiar to us because he look just like my sister's nephew Christopher Neves. We chatted with them for 10 minutes or so and took some photos and went on our way. We also met Sandra and Rohan from Australia...they helped us get back on track when we came off the trail while bouldering..... were super nice.... they are visiting the area here for eight weeks or so. We were going to stay for the sunset but we were tired and hungry because we got lost twice so we headed back to camp had supper...did some star gazingand called it a night..... ... we enjoyed our stay here at Joshua tree....tomorrow we're off to San Diego...
PS the Joshua Tree is not a succulent as many believe....it got its name from Mormons who said it resembled Joshua praying with arms spread to the sky.....
love always
Mary and Peter.
hey hey everyone
I hope you're keeping well ....sooooo we made it to Califonia....it's the furthest west we have ever been and we're sooo far from home, as you can see from the pic. I must admit, it was pretty cool smelling the pacific ocean and putting our feet in the very frigid water. Our timing is not good at all, as it's unusually cold in California this week compared to last week's temps of 90 Fahrenheit. Oh well, good thing we're Canadian and we have winter jackets. In fact we had to switch our campsite because the wind was howling so badly that we couldn't even cook. Anyway, we settled in and decided to go check out the downtown area.
We quickly stumbled upon fisherman's village and the USS MIDWAY Naval ship.....she was a beaut, acting as a backdrop to the Unconditional Surrender Statue; a man kissing a woman after V-J Day as you can see from the original picture.....so we did like all the other tourists ....took a selfie in front of it....lol......we strolled along the oceanfront geocaching along the way....it was a really good intro to San Diego.!!!
The next day we decided to go the the Cabrillo National Monument at Point Loma. National parks are fantastic because there offer free tour guides explaining the preservation of a natural resource such as the park forests or tide pools or caves etc. Our guide told us that Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo was the first European to ever set foot in California but it was Gaspar de Portolà who established the first settlement there...interesting facts huh? So we went to his statue...looked out to the bay and we could see Mexico across the bay. Tijuna was right there!!! wow so close.....afterwards we proceeded to the lighthouse then the tide pools and called it day.....we had to hurry out of there and pick up some supper because we had a show to catch....Jersey Boys at the civic theater. We absolutely loved the show!! Of course it helped that the music was so good and of course the acting was spot on. I didn't really know much about Frankie Valli's story ...I cried a couple of times too. Anyway totally recommend this show.
The last day we were in San Diego we decided to beach it. So we went to La Jolla beach and it didn't disappoint. although it was a super cold day to swim, it was hot enough to sit on the beach an vegge out while Peter went for a hike. He found some hand gliders doin their thing and some beautiful homes on the beach. we spent a deal of time there and recharged our batteries.
We headed back to our campsite for supper ...woohooo, fajitas. We met some kids from Kansas next door to us who had trouble strign a fire. .....so we went over with our hatchet and help split the lod into kindling.....they were very polite and offered us a beer bu way of thanks.....so we hit it off....we had supper then hung out by the fire pit exchanging stories... mostly about what it was like growing up in Kansas.... they were hilarious , and delightful.....a great night all around.....tomorrow we head off to LA.
love always
Mary and Peter
WE arrived in L.A full of expectations since we always hear so much about this city. So the first thing we did was check into our Airbnb house in North Hills. We were greeted by Jocelyn and her sisters. It was gonna feel good sleeping in a real bed and not in the van for four days. We immediately hit ti off with Jocelyn, Theresa and Pamela. They made us feel right at home. So the first order of operations was to figure out what we wanted to do in this town.
We decided to support local theater and went to a Green Day musical at the cupcake theater in LA. The theater was in an obscure part of town in very tiny place....the local artists did a fairly good job at singing and dancing in the musical but they were NO Jersey Boys that's for sure.
The next day we decided to get into beach mode. We hit the coast and went to Saint Monica's pier and Venice Beach. Another cold day in Cali.....once again we did not swim in the ocean but we had a picnic lunch and met a lovely young girl from Nevada named Lexi. She was practicing her cartwheels so naturally we struck up a conversation!!! , Heidi, her mom, was very friendly and Lexi was delightful... she was in grade 4 !!! After a 15-20 minute conversation we took a selfie and went our ways. We headed towards the Santa Monica pier which was an amusement park. We strolled along and enjoyed a pleasant afternoon.
We kicked off our second day with the infamous walk of fame on Hollywood Boulevard ( had to do it), luckily we went early in the morning because we passed by later in the evening and was absolutely jam packed. So we did the touristy... thing took pictures of some stars on the walk. From there we went to the Chinese theater where we saw some footprints and hand prints of some stars and notably Marilyn Monroe was the only one that flowers on hers. We saw the Dolby theater with the infamous red carpet....it was quite cheesy and we did feel very touristy but when in LA you got to do at least once right?
We stayed for a couple of hours and then decided to head over to the Getty Museum .....NOW this place is a spectacular place that's absolutely immense and it was very very well laid out. There's a tram that takes you from the parking lot to the museum since the museum is up on a hill. The museum boasts some exquisite our collections from original artists such as then go Monet,Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt, Van Gogh many etc. we enjoyed it so much we stay till the very end we actually closed the place down. Best of all it's all free!!
😮
As usual when we got back to the house we chitchatted and exchanged our day events with our house Jocelyn and her family, this time we met her daughter Stephanie....it was so cool the way Jocelyn's family embraced us .....they give us many tips on where to get free food ...seriously they should have a blog on how to get free food...and it was very very pleasant. After about an hour and a half of chatting we decided to head to bed.
Our 3rd was an exciting day......we knew we had tickets to the James Corden show so we decided not to take any chances and headed down to the CBS studios. We decided to park her car in indoor facility and then headed over to the farmers market which was right nearby. Walked around the farmers market for a little while and had some lunch and then started to notice that the line was forming for the James Corden show so we proceeded to the line ourselves. Official check-in was at three o'clock and we got in line at 1:40 and so it began... waiting ....waiting.... waiting .....waiting. Suddenly an intern comes out to tell us there should be two lines one for priority tickets one for general mission ....we felt lucky since we had priority tickets and we were fairly close to the front of the first line. At about 4 o'clock they ushered us into the first waiting area in the building after we had cleared security through metal detectors and then finally were given a bracelet. So basically Peter and I deciphered that if you were young and hip you were given two colors purple and gray ....if you were not you were given just the purple and if you're lucky you're given a gold bracelet (gold bracelet meant that you were invited by somebody who worked at the show ). While in line we met some young kids from Montreal ....they were actually from France but are working Montreal ...doing a work stage ...they were all in their early 20's ...so when we were ushered in and we thought we're gonna sit together but noooooooooooooooo..... they got the two bracelets (young and hip) so they were sent immediately to the front and we were sent to the middle ............oh well I guess if were 20 or 30 years younger. Once we got inside and told where to sit, I was struck by the size of the studio 56....it's very very small and intimate ...so every seat was a good seat....and there were A LOT of people working behind the scenes. The director gave us strict instructions to cheer at the top of our lungs in certain specified moments ....which were a lot of them..... and we were NOT to jeer or yell out words.... just cheer and clap very loudly. He certainly cracked his whip and made sure that we did this.... he told us to fake it if we have to but we have to clap and cheer as loudly as we could!!!! by the end of the night my voice was shot my triceps got a work out...... but it was kind a neat to watch a live show and it was so fun to be in the audience......James is very affable although he did not come to the audience to say hi how are you doing...thanks for coming....oh well!!!!
tomorrow we're off up the coast to San Luis Obispo at Psimo beach
Pismo Beach, Morro Bay and Monterrey Photo Album
Hello everyone
We said our goodbye's with Jocelyn in los Angeles and hit the road up north toward Pismo Beach....we chose this stop because it was half way between San Francisco and LA. We checked in our campsite and biked around the camp a little while geocaching. I dropped off a travel bug I had picked up in Sedona and picked up a new one which i'll take home to Montreal.
Bar's Motto
Peter having trouble choosing
Once again it was too chilly to sit at the beach so we decided to drive up to San Luis Obispo which is Caltech town. We ended up at a bar where you can try 36 types of beer and wine. Basically the way it works is that you check in with your credit card and are given a bracelet with a chip. You go to the taps and decide which beer you wanna have, tap you bracelet and pour yourself a drink. They are a variety of beers at different costs of course. At the end of the night you can check out by paying what you owe with card and give bracelet back....I found the beer to be delicious and the system to innovative and cool. On our way back to the car we stumbled upon Bubblegum Alley....yep you guesssed it....it was pretty disgusting.....so I added mine too.....GROSS!!
The next day we drove to Morro Bay to see this giant rock...we also saw a school of sea otters playing in the bay and of course the wind was howling so we stayed for about an hour...took photos and had to retreat to the car for some warmth...
kite surfers...
And the piece de resistance was driving up the coast on Highway 1 to Monterrey...... OMG the coastal views of the rugged coast with the beautiful bluffs and the deep blue ocean was breathtaking ......we took our time and stopped frequently to take soak in the beauty. We watched the HBO series Pretty Little Lies so we wanted to go the the bridge and the cafe they filmed at on the show.....it did not disappoint....we got a kick of seeing these locations in real life.....then we drove south again on highway 1 towards Big Sur right to the end of the road, since the landslides have damaged the highway and therefore closed a huge section of the highway. We promptly performed a U-turn and headed back north on highway 1. The next day we drove did the 17 Mile Drive at pebble beach....that was also pretty cool....we stayed to watch the sunset at one of the lookouts....spectacular....I can't ever get enough of the sunsets !!!!
beautiful coastline
happy Mary and peter!!!
OFF to San Francisco!!!
Love always
Mary and Peter
Pismo Beach, Morro Bay and Monterrey Photo Album
We said our goodbye's with Jocelyn in los Angeles and hit the road up north toward Pismo Beach....we chose this stop because it was half way between San Francisco and LA. We checked in our campsite and biked around the camp a little while geocaching. I dropped off a travel bug I had picked up in Sedona and picked up a new one which i'll take home to Montreal.
Bar's Motto
Peter having trouble choosing
Once again it was too chilly to sit at the beach so we decided to drive up to San Luis Obispo which is Caltech town. We ended up at a bar where you can try 36 types of beer and wine. Basically the way it works is that you check in with your credit card and are given a bracelet with a chip. You go to the taps and decide which beer you wanna have, tap you bracelet and pour yourself a drink. They are a variety of beers at different costs of course. At the end of the night you can check out by paying what you owe with card and give bracelet back....I found the beer to be delicious and the system to innovative and cool. On our way back to the car we stumbled upon Bubblegum Alley....yep you guesssed it....it was pretty disgusting.....so I added mine too.....GROSS!!
The next day we drove to Morro Bay to see this giant rock...we also saw a school of sea otters playing in the bay and of course the wind was howling so we stayed for about an hour...took photos and had to retreat to the car for some warmth...
kite surfers...
And the piece de resistance was driving up the coast on Highway 1 to Monterrey...... OMG the coastal views of the rugged coast with the beautiful bluffs and the deep blue ocean was breathtaking ......we took our time and stopped frequently to take soak in the beauty. We watched the HBO series Pretty Little Lies so we wanted to go the the bridge and the cafe they filmed at on the show.....it did not disappoint....we got a kick of seeing these locations in real life.....then we drove south again on highway 1 towards Big Sur right to the end of the road, since the landslides have damaged the highway and therefore closed a huge section of the highway. We promptly performed a U-turn and headed back north on highway 1. The next day we drove did the 17 Mile Drive at pebble beach....that was also pretty cool....we stayed to watch the sunset at one of the lookouts....spectacular....I can't ever get enough of the sunsets !!!!
beautiful coastline
happy Mary and peter!!!
OFF to San Francisco!!!
Love always
Mary and Peter
Brixby bridge in the show
Cafe in the show
Pismo Beach, Morro Bay and Monterrey Photo Album
We said our goodbye's with Jocelyn in los Angeles and hit the road up north toward Pismo Beach....we chose this stop because it was half way between San Francisco and LA. We checked in our campsite and biked around the camp a little while geocaching. I dropped off a travel bug I had picked up in Sedona and picked up a new one which i'll take home to Montreal.
Bar's Motto
Peter having trouble choosing
Once again it was too chilly to sit at the beach so we decided to drive up to San Luis Obispo which is Caltech town. We ended up at a bar where you can try 36 types of beer and wine. Basically the way it works is that you check in with your credit card and are given a bracelet with a chip. You go to the taps and decide which beer you wanna have, tap you bracelet and pour yourself a drink. They are a variety of beers at different costs of course. At the end of the night you can check out by paying what you owe with card and give bracelet back....I found the beer to be delicious and the system to innovative and cool. On our way back to the car we stumbled upon Bubblegum Alley....yep you guesssed it....it was pretty disgusting.....so I added mine too.....GROSS!!
The next day we drove to Morro Bay to see this giant rock...we also saw a school of sea otters playing in the bay and of course the wind was howling so we stayed for about an hour...took photos and had to retreat to the car for some warmth...
kite surfers...
And the piece de resistance was driving up the coast on Highway 1 to Monterrey...... OMG the coastal views of the rugged coast with the beautiful bluffs and the deep blue ocean was breathtaking ......we took our time and stopped frequently to take soak in the beauty. We watched the HBO series Pretty Little Lies so we wanted to go the the bridge and the cafe they filmed at on the show.....it did not disappoint....we got a kick of seeing these locations in real life.....then we drove south again on highway 1 towards Big Sur right to the end of the road, since the landslides have damaged the highway and therefore closed a huge section of the highway. We promptly performed a U-turn and headed back north on highway 1. The next day we drove did the 17 Mile Drive at pebble beach....that was also pretty cool....we stayed to watch the sunset at one of the lookouts....spectacular....I can't ever get enough of the sunsets !!!!
beautiful coastline
happy Mary and peter!!!
OFF to San Francisco!!!
Love always
Mary and Peter
Brixby bridge in the show
Cafe in the show
Yosemite National Park Photo Album
Sequoia National Park Photo Album
Tunnel View
Alas, we committed our first faux pas of our trip!!! welllll we were having sooo much fun at Maggie and Max's that we forgot to leave on Tuesday morning...instead we were merrily going along visiting Alcatraz..happy go lucky ....until we checked my iPhone calendar that said we should have checked in at Yosemite.......dohhhhhhh ......oh well so 2 nights at Yosemite quickly turned into 1 night. So we knew we had to make the most of it ....we drove quickly to the park and arrived around 1 o'clock...prime time for it to be a complete and absolute ZOO. It was absolutely impossible trying to park the van in the village ....so we had to circle around and around...until we decided to park about 2 km away from the village and biked in. That's when viewing of all the glorious landscape began. We biked to the bottom Yosemite Falls and were flabbergasted at the intensity of the water coming down the rock face....and it was freezing....so we got a little wet and moved along. Then we drove over to El Capitan, Tunnel View, then up , up , up to Glacier Point, 7000 feet high.....wow the view was spectacular....it momentarily took our breath away!!! how can rocks be so beautiful ?...why do I go gaga over nature wonders like this? I've seen the most special place so far in the Grand Canyon, yet I am reduced to tears every time I see such a vision. Maybe it's the history behind these million year old rocks and how they came to be in its present form that moves me so much. Various emotions dance through my body as I sit there soaking it all in..... trying to sear these memories into my brain. I just can get enough...between Yosemite and Seqouia Parks I have been so overwhelmed with an abundance of such beauty. Finally I got myself together and headed down the mountain and went to Bridalveil Falls. By now it was getting dark...we decided to have supper in the park down in the village near a river and called it a night. The drive back to the campsite was intense as it was pitch dark and witch back and forth over the mountain range. yikes!!!
Sequoia National Park was our destination the next day. Once again we had to drive switchbacking (see red line on the map) on the edge of the mountain up towards the national park. We took the Kings Canyon entrance but didn't have time to stop at the canyon as we wanted to visit all of Sequoia Park. Interesting fact...unlike the grand canyon which was formed buy flowing water such as the Colorado River, giving the canyon the v shape....the King's Canyon was formed by glaciers thereby giving it a u shape basin!!
So we finally arrived at the visitor's center and were told to visit 3 main areas since we only had 1 day. General Grant tree, General Sherman Tree and the Giant Forest.
General Sherman Tree
Imagine our surprise at the sheer size of these beautiful trees...unless you have a reference point, it's hard to fathom their size and their age as some are over 1000 years old. We learned how these giants grew so fast,,,basically the seeds, which look like an oat seed, grow straight up as fast as they can to the sky for about 600 years...then continue to go in width after that....cool fact!!! So we drove off to find General Grant,,,yes he was a beaut....took some quick pics and set off to find the biggest tree on earth (not in height but in width) General Sherman
General Grant Tree
The parking for Sherman was about 1 km away from the tree and it was a downhill walk getting to Sherman...which meant a vigorous hike up hill after we visit Sherman. We were greeted by so many other giant Sequoias along the way...just as beautiful as sherman. Along the path we saw a cross section of a giant sequoia tree trunk and it was absolutely massive, see photo album . Well, just as I was leaning against the tree I heard a lady call my name.....what ???? how was it possible that I knew someone here !!! well it's a small world after all ...I met a former parent Judy Smith....wow ....after chatting and catching up for a while we took some photos and said goodbye. We continued to walk along and finally stood face to face with General Sherman.....as I stood there all 5 ft of me ... I was in awe....felt so small in front of this very old tree since Cleopatra was queen of Egypt while some of these trees were saplings, since some estimates of the ages of these tress run about 1800 to 2700 year of age. How do you wrap your head around that??? so I cried ....AGAIN!!
We stayed for a while then drove off to see the Giant Forest. The forest was so beautiful as the giants were near a meadow....so the contrast of the lush green against the orange red sequoias was spectacular. The walk was pleasant as we meandered through the forest on a boardwalk. We left the park rather late and we still had a 2 1/2 hours to our hotel in Bakersfield. Tomorrow.....Vegas !!!
love always
Mary and Peter
Las Vegas and Hoover Dam, Nevada
For this leg of our adventure we slept in a motel in Bakersfield California. The room was really nice, it was clean and very modern. The next morning we woke up and realized we had a flat tire so the first thing we needed to do was get that fixed. Luckily we found the garage really close to the hotel and they fixed the tire for $15!!!! Our drive to Vegas was four hours long and we finally got to the Stratosphere Hotel which, is a casino hotel on the end of the famous Las Vegas strip. We had no idea we were in Las Vegas on Memorial Day long weekend.....arghhhhhh......we actually picked the busiest weekend of the year to be in Las Vegas so we were very lucky to actually find a room at the Stratosphere Hotel.
The first thing that struck me was that there was ablsoutley NO secutriy checks anywhere...this made me slightly nervous to say the least....I also noticed the heavy smell of cigarettes smoke from the patrons at the casino and the loud casino bells ringing at the slot machines. Our room was on the 20th floor room 102..... so the we decided to check out the pool on the rooftop. It was very impressive and interesting to say the least ....it felt like a rave party with a lot of young adults Chilling by the swimming pool... we felt a little out of place. we met some nice ladies from France,,, so we spoke to them for a while then went to the famous strip. We decided to take the monorail.... so we bought a ticket took it to the MGM Grand Hotel.
WOWWWWW this was Las Vegas.....so We wanted to catch a show....but all the shows i wanted to watch were sold out so we kept walking down the strip. I found to be very commercial and it was jam packed with people ...afterall this was Vegas.... ... so we proceeded to walk down the strip and of course we saw the fountains at the Bellagio.... we did the New York ,New York .....we saw Caesars Palace Casino Hotel....the Venetian...etc.
Well we walked and walked and walked all the way back to our hotel...my feet were killing me cuz i had sandals on....anyway our hotel was still buzzing with action...so we went to our room and called it night!!
The next day we took a tour to the Hoover Dam....after doing all our homework we decided a tour was just as expensive than if we went by car. So we got picked up at our hotel and off we went to the dam. Please watch the video below to get a history of the dam...it's very very very impressive. The video explains everything...
So we got dropped off and had 2 hours to take a tour of the power plant below in the dam and to check out the dam up top ....we were blown away with the engineering marvel which stood before us....it was majestic to say the least.... a must see as some consider it to be the 8th wonder of the world!!
On our way back the dam we got off at Fremont Street.....which kinda reminded me of a poor man's Vegas strip. This place was also hopping...there were a lot of punk rockers walking around and the usual debauchery stuff.....so we watched a band play for a while then took an uber to the hotel....wow what a day!!!! We enjoed our stay in vegas though next time we'll catch a show or tow for sure....tomorrow ....Zion!!!
Love always
Mary and Peter.
Zion Means a place for sanctuary by early Mormon Pioneers
Video on History of Zion little history lesson on Zion....it's very impressive.
Hello everyone
well it's official....we are officially heading east....only 2 weeks left of this epic trip and we were super excited to visit Zion National Park in Utah! So we got an early start and left our hotel in vegas around 8 am. We drove for 4 hours and arrived at the park on the busiest day of the year since it was Memorial Day ( 55,000 visitors that day record number for the park).... during the peak time of day.....Once again there was absolutely no parking so we had to park in the town before the park called Springdale. So we grabbed a free shuttle bus straight to the visitor's center. Zion Park is super well organized....absolutely no cars are allowed to go to the trail heads and lookouts. So the line up for he shuttle was extremely long.
Upon arrival to this place it immediately reminded us of the grand canyon and sedona landscapes. So our plan was to go to he museum and watch the orientation video. This is imperative because it give you a heads up about the history of the park. The pan for the rest of the day was to do short hikes and to go to a few lookouts. But I can tell you that some of the most spectacular scenery was past the village eastward towards our campsite. As you can see in the photo album we couldn't stop taking photos. There was a section of rock formation that reminds me of the pastry Lobster tail ( my Italian friends will know what i'm referring to) ...so i climbed up the rocks and stood in awe again at the scenery before me. Yes Annaick...i did it again.!!! This place is sooo special I can see why the Mormons called this a place for sanctuary.
We had heard about the Narrows Hike so we thought we'd go as far as we wanted and then turn back ....we picked up some walking sticks left behind by other hikers and set off. ..good thing we did because the currents is soooo fast at some crossings that you need to anchor yourself with the stick or else you'd lose your balance and off you went.....the stick were also useful to check ahead of your
next step because the river bed is fulled with rumbling ..tumbling rocks and uneven terrain...so it was challenging in that respect ..but there were no elevation changes....cuz we were on the canyon floor....how cool is that!!!....now the beauty of a canyon is that there's always another bend.....so that was our motto...let's see what's around the next bend etc......until we made it to the narrows....it was by far the coolest....most humbling...most beautiful hike hike i have ever done....the pictures say it all....a must do !!!
love always
mary and peter
Zion Means a place for sanctuary by early Mormon Pioneers
Video on History of Zion little history lesson on Zion....it's very impressive.
Hello everyone
well it's official....we are officially heading east....only 2 weeks left of this epic trip and we were super excited to visit Zion National Park in Utah! So we got an early start and left our hotel in vegas around 8 am. We drove for 4 hours and arrived at the park on the busiest day of the year since it was Memorial Day ( 55,000 visitors that day record number for the park).... during the peak time of day.....Once again there was absolutely no parking so we had to park in the town before the park called Springdale. So we grabbed a free shuttle bus straight to the visitor's center. Zion Park is super well organized....absolutely no cars are allowed to go to the trail heads and lookouts. So the line up for he shuttle was extremely long.
Upon arrival to this place it immediately reminded us of the grand canyon and sedona landscapes. So our plan was to go to he museum and watch the orientation video. This is imperative because it give you a heads up about the history of the park. The pan for the rest of the day was to do short hikes and to go to a few lookouts. But I can tell you that some of the most spectacular scenery was past the village eastward towards our campsite. As you can see in the photo album we couldn't stop taking photos. There was a section of rock formation that reminds me of the pastry Lobster tail ( my Italian friends will know what i'm referring to) ...so i climbed up the rocks and stood in awe again at the scenery before me. Yes Annaick...i did it again.!!! This place is sooo special I can see why the Mormons called this a place for sanctuary.
We had heard about the Narrows Hike so we thought we'd go as far as we wanted and then turn back ....we picked up some walking sticks left behind by other hikers and set off. ..good thing we did because the currents is soooo fast at some crossings that you need to anchor yourself with the stick or else you'd lose your balance and off you went.....the stick were also useful to check ahead of your
next step because the river bed is fulled with rumbling ..tumbling rocks and uneven terrain...so it was challenging in that respect ..but there were no elevation changes....cuz we were on the canyon floor....how cool is that!!!....now the beauty of a canyon is that there's always another bend.....so that was our motto...let's see what's around the next bend etc......until we made it to the narrows....it was by far the coolest....most humbling...most beautiful hike hike i have ever done....the pictures say it all....a must do !!!
love always
mary and peter
Bryce Canyon National Park Photo Album
We left early from our campsite hoping to get to Bryce Canyon early because campsites are first come first served. On the way in we passed through Red Canyon and once again started to get excited about what we were about to see. we arrived at Bryce Canyon, found a campsite and had breakfast. Then it was off to the visitors center to watch the introduction movie, (this has become our routine as it explains what you're about to see from a geological and historical perspective.) We took the shuttle out to Bryce point and were blown away by the beauty of the amphitheater. Each shuttle stop had a different perspective and something new to see, it's amazing that the destructive forces of erosion and rust can create such beauty. When we got to Sunset Point we participated in a ranger walk as he explained about the geology and the native legends that are associated with the rock formations
The day before we met Jenna and Austin at the river walk, sweet young couple from Atlanta Georgia, and they had warned us that Bryce canyon was going to be beautiful. I thought to myself how can anything be more beautiful than the Grand Canyon? And we had already seen the beauty of Zion so what could Bryce possibly offer. But as predicted when we got off the bus and went towards the lookout point at 8100 feet we were completely blown away at jaw-dropping.....out of this world..... straight out of JR Tolkien's fantasy world..... beauty!!!!
amphitheater at sunset
we were standing in front of the "amphitheater" and were at a loss for words....it was sooooo different from the other parks....so we immediately took tons of photos...stood there in silence for a while and i began to cry .....AGAIN!!! I am such a sap for this natural beauty!! As Peter mentioned above...we went to all the lookout points on day 1. We camped inside the park...so we decided that the next day we woudl hike with the hoodoos...a 5km round trip hike down in the canyon...so we had a delicious supper...hung out in the hammock for a while then called it a night!!!
amphitheater during the day
I called this one Bart Simpson
hikin the hoodoos
The next morning we got an early start because we didn't want to hike in the heat....we were on the trail by 9:30 and began our decent on a switch back trail called the"Queen's Garden" ...we took our camelbak filled with water and off we went...the trail was well maintained and not sooo steep to begin with....along the way we saw gorgeous hoodoos, spirals and canyon walls. After visiting the Queen's court ( rock formations resembling the queen!! ( between me and you, the queen's head eroded because it didn't resemble the queen anymore!!!) we decided to continue our hike by hopping onto the Navajo Trail...the end of the hike was difficult as we had to switch back and forth , a la Lombard street in san fran , to get back to the top....all in all it was an amazing hike ...not tooo difficult to walk and enjoyed the sensory overload the canyon had to offer us....a must for ya'll...
This park experience ranks up there with grand canyon, sequoia and yosemite......we are sooo lukcy and blessed!!!
tomorrow Moab!!
love always
Mary and Peter
view from below
splendor everywhere..
Bryce Canyon National Park Photo Album
We left early from our campsite hoping to get to Bryce Canyon early because campsites are first come first served. On the way in we passed through Red Canyon and once again started to get excited about what we were about to see. we arrived at Bryce Canyon, found a campsite and had breakfast. Then it was off to the visitors center to watch the introduction movie, (this has become our routine as it explains what you're about to see from a geological and historical perspective.) We took the shuttle out to Bryce point and were blown away by the beauty of the amphitheater. Each shuttle stop had a different perspective and something new to see, it's amazing that the destructive forces of erosion and rust can create such beauty. When we got to Sunset Point we participated in a ranger walk as he explained about the geology and the native legends that are associated with the rock formations
The day before we met Jenna and Austin at the river walk, sweet young couple from Atlanta Georgia, and they had warned us that Bryce canyon was going to be beautiful. I thought to myself how can anything be more beautiful than the Grand Canyon? And we had already seen the beauty of Zion so what could Bryce possibly offer. But as predicted when we got off the bus and went towards the lookout point at 8100 feet we were completely blown away at jaw-dropping.....out of this world..... straight out of JR Tolkien's fantasy world..... beauty!!!!
amphitheater at sunset
we were standing in front of the "amphitheater" and were at a loss for words....it was sooooo different from the other parks....so we immediately took tons of photos...stood there in silence for a while and i began to cry .....AGAIN!!! I am such a sap for this natural beauty!! As Peter mentioned above...we went to all the lookout points on day 1. We camped inside the park...so we decided that the next day we woudl hike with the hoodoos...a 5km round trip hike down in the canyon...so we had a delicious supper...hung out in the hammock for a while then called it a night!!!
amphitheater during the day
I called this one Bart Simpson
hikin the hoodoos
The next morning we got an early start because we didn't want to hike in the heat....we were on the trail by 9:30 and began our decent on a switch back trail called the"Queen's Garden" ...we took our camelbak filled with water and off we went...the trail was well maintained and not sooo steep to begin with....along the way we saw gorgeous hoodoos, spirals and canyon walls. After visiting the Queen's court ( rock formations resembling the queen!! ( between me and you, the queen's head eroded because it didn't resemble the queen anymore!!!) we decided to continue our hike by hopping onto the Navajo Trail...the end of the hike was difficult as we had to switch back and forth , a la Lombard street in san fran , to get back to the top....all in all it was an amazing hike ...not tooo difficult to walk and enjoyed the sensory overload the canyon had to offer us....a must for ya'll...
This park experience ranks up there with grand canyon, sequoia and yosemite......we are sooo lukcy and blessed!!!
tomorrow Moab!!
love always
Mary and Peter
view from below
splendor everywhere..
Arches and Canyonlands National Parks Photo Album
The plan today was to sleep in as long as possible, eat breakfast and then head to Arches National
Park. The steady pace of sightseeing, hiking and driving has taken its toll lately and we've been feeling a little worn out. It's hard to slow down when there's so much to see! A good shower before bed and a good night's sleep had us feeling more positive and ready for a good day.
On the way to Arches we saw Canyonlands National Park. so we thought we'd finish our first afternoon in Moab at Canyonlands and the next day would be reserved for Arches.
As usual we visit the visitor's center watch the video on the geological history of the park then decided to drive to the view points as per usual. I hate to say this but i did catch myself saying " meh.....I've seen better" ...which is true....but completely unfair to this park. Perhaps we were getting jaded at the parks...perhaps we were getting a little tired....nonetheless, this park should been pretty good too....the views were also very spectacular....but when you sandwich it between Bryce and Arches......it didn't stand a chance.....so i'm gonna apologize to Canyonlands National Park and say that it was worth the trip.
Arches National Park is five miles north of Moab and is renowned for it's 2000+ rock arch formations. We drove in to the deepest part of the park and started to explore. We hiked into a few of the view points, rock climbed and met more wonderful people (from France.)
Delicate Arch
This park is similar to Sequoia and Zion in that you drive to the viewpoints in a huge park , although Arches doesn't have a shuttle service. We hiked to several arches and rock hopped..... but the heat was intense..so kept our hikes short and drank a lot of water.... I really don't think we drank enough water cuz we were fading...fast...!!! So we took our time....and finished the park later than we expected, around 5:30 ish) .....oh well.....
windows arch
we wanted to go biking as well but we put the kibosh on that ...there was no way we had any energy to bike in this heat....it was well over 100 Fahrenheit!!! ....Instead we decided to go back to camp ...do some laundry....update blog....and ....oh yeah ...I also cut peter's hair too....he feels like a new man...
So now we can say that we are finished our canyon visits and heading eastward towards our beautiful home....i'm staring to get excited ...I miss my family and friends...and DJANGOOOOOO
This park offered some extraordinary views of rock
formations which we enjoyed tremendously...we definitely recommend this to ya'll.......and NOW we are officially heading Home....Denver.....then Kansas....Indianna...who knows which route we'll take....thank you all for joining us on our EPIC JOURNEY..... we had a blast....
love always
Mary and Peter
Arches and Canyonlands National Parks Photo Album
The plan today was to sleep in as long as possible, eat breakfast and then head to Arches National
Park. The steady pace of sightseeing, hiking and driving has taken its toll lately and we've been feeling a little worn out. It's hard to slow down when there's so much to see! A good shower before bed and a good night's sleep had us feeling more positive and ready for a good day.
On the way to Arches we saw Canyonlands National Park. so we thought we'd finish our first afternoon in Moab at Canyonlands and the next day would be reserved for Arches.
As usual we visit the visitor's center watch the video on the geological history of the park then decided to drive to the view points as per usual. I hate to say this but i did catch myself saying " meh.....I've seen better" ...which is true....but completely unfair to this park. Perhaps we were getting jaded at the parks...perhaps we were getting a little tired....nonetheless, this park should been pretty good too....the views were also very spectacular....but when you sandwich it between Bryce and Arches......it didn't stand a chance.....so i'm gonna apologize to Canyonlands National Park and say that it was worth the trip.
Arches National Park is five miles north of Moab and is renowned for it's 2000+ rock arch formations. We drove in to the deepest part of the park and started to explore. We hiked into a few of the view points, rock climbed and met more wonderful people (from France.)
Delicate Arch
This park is similar to Sequoia and Zion in that you drive to the viewpoints in a huge park , although Arches doesn't have a shuttle service. We hiked to several arches and rock hopped..... but the heat was intense..so kept our hikes short and drank a lot of water.... I really don't think we drank enough water cuz we were fading...fast...!!! So we took our time....and finished the park later than we expected, around 5:30 ish) .....oh well.....
windows arch
we wanted to go biking as well but we put the kibosh on that ...there was no way we had any energy to bike in this heat....it was well over 100 Fahrenheit!!! ....Instead we decided to go back to camp ...do some laundry....update blog....and ....oh yeah ...I also cut peter's hair too....he feels like a new man...
So now we can say that we are finished our canyon visits and heading eastward towards our beautiful home....i'm staring to get excited ...I miss my family and friends...and DJANGOOOOOO
This park offered some extraordinary views of rock
formations which we enjoyed tremendously...we definitely recommend this to ya'll.......and NOW we are officially heading Home....Denver.....then Kansas....Indianna...who knows which route we'll take....thank you all for joining us on our EPIC JOURNEY..... we had a blast....
love always
Mary and Peter
31. 32. 33. St. Louis, Muncie and Syracuse Photo Album
Today the plan was to drive to St. Louis making our way east..... towards home. So we had a really relaxing breakie at the campsite near the lake which was quite a beautiful lake. The drive took about 5 hours to go to St, Louis. As we arrived in the city of St. Louis we remarked how quiet the downtown area was ....and how cleannnn it was. It was unfortunate we would not be able to stay very long in this city it seemed like a very interesting city...next time i guess!!! So we found parking near the Gateway Arch and proceeded to the visitor's center. I had no idea this was a National Monument....so I quickly reached for my National Parks Passport book and went to stamp the appropriate page at visitor's center.
this is the video we saw... part 1
part 2
After watching the video we bought a ticket to take the tram up the south arch. The north arch was out of commission as they were performing some construction near it. The tram (orb like ) was so small it was hard to believe we would sit in there with 3 other adults. It took 4 minutes to ascend to the top and 3:30 to descend. There are 8 orbs in total 40 people can go up at once. Anyway once we got to the top , we were 630 feet high above the city and the Mississippi River. We took photos from tiny slits and stayed for about 15 minutes.
it was really interesting seeing the city from above. We saw the old courthouse and Busch Stadium
where the Cardinals play. I would recommend the $10 fee to go to the top... well worth it.
So we had to rush out of there because Peter had reconnected with a Dorval friend who now lives in Muncie Indiana with is wife, Yoko and their beautiful and extremely talented daughter Maya. She's a violinist. Ray and Yoko are both professors at Ball State University, piano and voice respectively. Ray's parents were also visiting from Mexico. It was a fabulous evening. Yoko and Ray were wonderful hosts and Maya was a very delightful teenager.
I learned so much that night because this was a very musical family. Ray's dad, Michael was a cellist
for the MSO and his mom, Janet had perfect pitch. So its was no wonder Maya is so gifted , she also has perfect pitch and plays the violin like a child prodigy. Her violin is sooo expensive as it's a restored violin over 100 years old or so..
We enjoyed a delicious salmon supper and then chatted in the living room as the men were reminiscing about their childhood....we were enjoying ourselves immensely and left around 1:30 in the morning. That night we stayed in a hotel!!!
The following day we decided to make it all the way to Syracuse New York.....we could see the finish line so we didn't mind putting in longer driving days. It took us about a 10 hour drive but so worth it because we would only be 5 hours from home!!! We stayed at Green Lake State Park. It was very nice as well. I was getting very excited to go home!!!
love always
Mary and Peter
