Williamsburg, VA

Nov. 3- 6 If you've been with us since the beginning, you know our grandson, Ian, named our motor coach, Gigantor. For the uninitiated, that's from the movie "Night at the Museum." The name stuck, though we call it Tor for short. Ian's been very anxious to take a trip and have a "sleepover" in Tor, so we planned a short trip to Williamsburg with Ian and his parents...my daughter, Kelly and her husband, Chip. It was a brillant November day, Ian had a couple of days off of school so we set off for a long weekend.

We were disappointed with the RV park when we arrived. The sites are not very nicely appointed, but the recreational ammenities, an indoor pool, nice miniature golf course and a game room, worked out very well for Ian. After a swim, we cooked BBQ ribs and the trimmings on the grill and spent the evening playing board games Ian brought along.

We really lucked out with the weather...perfect day for strolling through colonial Williamsburg. Arriving at the Visitors Center, we find the variations on ticket packages is rather mind-boggling. Recommend going to their website first and figuring out what you want...http://colonialwilliamsburg.com/.

We had a terrific day walking back through history and it was glorious weather for just hanging out! Everyone else headed back to Tor mid-afternoon and I did a little shopping. Found a number of cute little stores and a pretty interesting woman's shop. Pick up some hostess gifts for upcoming holiday parties and head back for Kelly's lasagna.

Scored another beautiful day and the three guys and I make a tee-time. We gave Ian clubs last summer and he has really taken to the game. The course is nicely kept and a good middle ground for the varying degrees of skills in our foursome. One really great thing is something I've never seen before...a set of junior tees on the front side. The staff is incredibly friendly and accommodating. We have a great time and Ian makes the full 18.

Shenandoah National Forest

The morning is brillant again. Take a walk and discover an area that's been staged for a photo shoot depicting new RV sites being built on property. They looked great...fully landscaped and complete with outdoor kitchens and furnishings. We look forward to coming back and checking it out.

We're taking the long way home via Skyline Drive through the Shenandoah National Forest. We encountered long lines of the leaf peepers at the entrance gate, but it moved rather quickly and the park rangers were in great form walking up and down the line with pleasant chatter.

The leaves were still not at full peak because of the lack of rain and warm weather, but it was still a treat. We stop at an overlook and fortunately begin talking to some bikers who warn us about a tunnel about 70 miles into the park. We're way too tall. Fortunately there are numerous exit points and we'll pick one to get out before that encounter.

Try to find a nice place to stop and have a picnic....not many choices. Think a lot of the nicer places are further ahead than we are going.

Keswick Country Club

Fortunately the day dawns beautiful, we have a 1 p.m. tee time. We head over about 11 to hit balls and have lunch. We sit on the Palmer Room terrace overlooking the course and have a terrific meal. Rick has an Asian Chicken Salad and I, an extraordinary tomato tart. We linger a bit, then head to the tee.

This is a private course so you need to make arrangements through your club or stay at the Keswick Hall. Staying at the Inn is a treat...do it if you can. Our favorite room is #1. Said to be the Laura Ashley room, where she stayed while decorating the inn. (It was formerly owned by her and her husband. Now it's an Orient Express Hotel.)

The course is pretty quiet since it's the end of October. This is a good resort course. Challenging enough, but pretty wide open to keep the pace of play up. Again we don't have a very stellar day, but the views are wonderful and the weather is glorious.

We head back to Gordonsville and decide to have dinner at the hotel. Very, very casual and unexpectedly, very crowded. The food is better than we had expected and the wait staff is charming.

After dinner we wander around the hotel and discover a huge game room, pools and a gym. Kids would enjoy it.

Shopping in Charlottesville

We spend the morning kind of lolling around. Splendid day. The view from our site is of a wonderful old manor house set on hundreds of rolling acres of vibrant foliage.

Set out again for Charlottesville and find a fabulous series of shops called XXXXXXXXXXX. There are a number of wonderful food purveyors and we pick up some unusual spices and fusion sauces I hadn't seen before. But I know in my heart, we won't be using them on this trip. With a car and in a rather happening kind of town, I know we will be eating out!

Rick drops me off at the Second Yard and takes off on some made-up errands. I spend the next 3 hours analyzing the merits of thousands of glorious fabrics. Make my selections, Rick picks me up and we head over to the pedestrian mall. It's a pleasant October evening so we sit outside and have drinks and a wonderful crab, gorgonzola nacho platter at XXXXXXX . We then go in to check out the restaurant and spy billard tables. For some inexplicable reason, we spent the next 2 hours playing pool, sharing a burger and having a very good time!

Charlottesville, VA

We'd been home over a month and we wanted to take Gigantor out for another spin. We also wanted to go back to Charottesville and taking Tor seemed a good idea. We had stayed at Keswick Hall outside of town last May and got rained out of our round of golf and we wanted to use our rain check. There's also the the most fabulous discount designer fabric store in downtown Charlottesville and I wanted to reupholster our living room sofas that had gotten beyond shabby chic. And it's October and even though we have had a disarmingly warm fall, the foliage should be great.

We had reserved a spot at an RV and hotel resort called Shenandoah Crossing in Gordonsville. It's about a 20 minute drive into Charlottesville from there, so we reserved a car at Enterprise to get us back and forth to town.

We had stayed at another BlueGreen Resort in the Wisconsin Dells which was okay, but when we arrived at this one, we liked it much better even on first glance. It's centered around an equestrian facility, has a hotel, restaurant, golf course, cabins, townhouses, a small RV facility nestled in the woods and what looks like thousands of acres of forests and trails.

We get settled and head into town to The Second Yard on Market Street near the pedestrian mall. I'm in heaven...Rick sits and reads a book. I'm only doing reconnaissance this afternoon...tomorrow I will come back for the big shop.

Charlottesville, VA

Planning a trip to Charlottesville. Here's what we'll be doing.

Washington D.C. – Charlottesville, VA
Itinerary

Oct. 18 – Travel to Gordonsville – 95 miles

Shenandoah Crossing Resort
174 Horseshoe Circle
Gordonsvillle, VA
540-832-9400
http://www.bluegreenonline.com/

Oct. 21 – D.C. via Skyline Drive/Shenandoah National Park
www.nps.gov/shen/

Checking out Jellystone

Jellystone Park is adorable. Ian will love it..can’t wait to bring him. Heading back to DC and the real world.

Almost Home

Driving the Pennsylvania turnpike is pure agony….and that’s for me!...poor Rick! Decide we’re better off staying outside of town and arrive at our new place on Thursday morning instead of tonight. Need to pick up our cars, get parking permit for Tor, go to storage and pick up some necessities. Far more easily done in the morning. Settle on a place that we want to check out for a trip with Ian. There’s a chain called Yogi Bear Jellystone Park that we think he might like.

Closing in on Home

We have two days and over 900 miles to go to DC. Haul out early in the morning, stop a couple hours out and have breakfast. Drive almost 500 miles. Make it to Milan…Ohio that is. Quiet evening…reheat BBQ chicken and vegetables on grill…read…consider whether to drive into DC or wait one more day.

Wisconsin Dells

Minnesota state roads are in unconscionable disrepair. I feel like I’m riding in a stage coach. Wisconsin’s not far ahead. Hope it’s better. Cross the Mississippi into LaCrosse..a little better roads and quite lovely! Who knew?

We find the resort and are grateful to see a very nice layout…golf courses, pools, hot tubs, hotel and cottages. As usual, the RV facility isn’t as nice, but we get a good site with only trees and grass in front of us as our view. However, the RV gods seem to need to throw in another whammy! In multiple attempts to level Tor, all of a sudden nothing works. The slides won’t come out and the levels won’t budge. Inside of playing golf, Rick spends the next 3 hours trying to figure out the problem. Remember he is a rocket scientist and engineer…he’s still scratching his head, has read all the owner literature, tried everything and it won’t work. He calls the crack roadside service people (the same ones who decided to send Tor over the mountain in Wyoming) and as it is yet another Saturday (and a Labor Day weekend at that), they can’t find anyone to help. So, after tearing Tor apart, Rick finds another circuit breaker (totally hidden and undisclosed in the literature)…lo and behold, that’s the answer. Day one of our three day fun and relaxation stop down.

The next two days, we play golf, watch golf, take a walk, read, catch up on the news and generally have a good time.

Casino Stopover

August 29 – 31 – North Dakota looks like Kansas, as did Manitoba and Saskatchewan. I need to get to Oz. We are heading towards St. Paul, but discover if we drive just 50 miles out of our way to Welch, MN, there’s a huge casino/hotel complex with an attached RV park. Oz here we come!

The Emerald City isn’t as green as we’d hoped. Actually, more like asphalt. But there’s a big casino and what looks like a decent hotel. We check in for just one night.

We’re tired, don’t feel like cooking, change our clothes and walk over to the casino for dinner and games. We have a very mediocre dinner in what is supposed to be their best restaurant. No clothes, paper napkins and plastic glasses for the wine. We lose a little money and head back to sleep having already decided that we’d stay a couple more days because we are just tired of traveling every day.

Felt really good to just sleep the next morning with no schedule. Spent the day cleaning inside and out and doing the laundry. Getting things back in order felt terrific. Head out to the grocery store in Red Wing, MN and find the Super WalMart is it. Was fine on the packaged goods things, but couldn’t get the tuna steaks I had been looking forward to. Bought tons of food, then decide to go to the Seafood Buffet. I have never seen so many people eat so much food! We settle for salads and king crab legs. Not bad! Lose more money.

Planned to play golf today, but just didn’t have the energy. Took a lovely morning walk to a tributary of the Mississippi River. There’s a nice marina associated with the casino also. Wish they had taken such care in their RV Park design. There are actually trees there and a terrific water view. Watched some migratory birds (we think cranes, but need to check Sibley’s) battle for lead positions on their road to somewhere.

Planning on going to the hotel pool and get some sun. Find out it is inside. So, Rick futzes with some mechanical Tor stuff, I take a chair, find some grass and some sun and settle down to read for a while.

For some bizarre reason we go back to the casino for more mediocre food and to lose more money. But I’ve found another destination we’ve got great hopes for….near the Wisconsin Dells. Have very fond memories of the Dells from my childhood. Christmas Mountain Village…golf courses, restaurants…we’ll see.

Hay!

I’ve had it with hay fields. That’s all there is…all day long. To relieve the tedium, we pull off at Moose Jaw where there is supposed to be a casino. We figure we’ll grab some lunch, play for an hour and get back on the road. We can’t find a place big enough for us to park…we get lunch for Tor and get back on the road.

More hay. We’re passing Regina (long “i”, called the Queen City). It rises out of the prairie with what looks like skyscrapers from the highway. We keep going. Trying to put a lot of miles behind us today as we work our way back to DC

We’ve been to Moose Jaw and now stop in Moosomin. If you’re really into the camping thing, the park we stop at is perfect. Its sites are very secluded in the woods. I haven’t liked when we’ve been packed in like sardines…this on the other hand is a bit too quiet…my imagination gets the best of me!

Haven’t been able to find a grocery store. Make do with what we can find in the refrigerator. Have a steak salad…tastes terrific after a very long day.

August 28 – We are bound and determined to make it back to the states today. Haven’t had the internet in 10 days and the cell phones are on some kind of international roaming which I’m sure is costing a bloody fortune!

More hay.

I’m really hating the hay now. We are only 20 miles outside of Winnipeg and there’s smoke all across the road. The traffic is stopped dead in its tracks. You just can’t see up ahead. An ambulance and police car go by. Dorkette (our GPS) says if we take an unpaved road to the right, we can skirt this. We check with the flagman who is holding the traffic. He says they are burning off the hay stubble and he thinks the fire caused an accident ahead. He says we can make it down the unpaved road. It’s at least 8 miles. We make it…find the Winnipeg bypass, and move along. Trying to make it to Fargo..not going to happen. Hopefully there is just something across the border.

We get busted at customs! They pulled us over and went through cabinets, the refrigerator and pantry. The guy actually opened every food container, everything thing that was wrapped in the freezer, pulled out the chorizio and quizzed us on what it was. He then found a leftover piece of salmon from a restaurant. He confiscated the lemon slices they had packed with it!!!!! I’m so glad our borders are so well protected!

We’re exhausted and just want to find somewhere to stop. We find Drayton, ND and low and behold a city park with RV hook-ups. We’re told there is a very good restaurant in town and set out to order take out from them. It is a cowboy bar and it’s still happy hour. We are in sweats and are overdressed. We have a drink..eavesdrop on some interesting conversations and head back to the park. There is no one there to pay for the site. Lenny from Winnipeg is parked near us and says someone usually comes around. He says if we give him the money, he will give it to the guy. We figure Lenny manages to stay for free by offering this service.

Canadian Kansas

We leave the glory of the Rockies heading west across the Canadian Prairies. I think we’re back in Kansas, Toto. It’s interesting for a very short time. We are in the middle of nowhere and stop at a RV park that advertises it has a coffee bar, hot tubs, a pool and a tiki bar. It is actually very nice…situated in a grove of trees. The tiki bar is adorable, though they don’t use it for anything…the hot tubs are inoperable…there is no pool…and the coffee bar is a pot of coffee in the office lobby. Seems the owners built this with great intentions, but perhaps didn’t have the traffic to make all the amenities feasible.

Anyway, we enjoyed the evening. Pulled out another purchase from Bass Pro…an injection needle for Cajun roasted garlic marinade. Have never tried this technique…shot thick boneless pork chops to cook on the grill…roasted potatoes, grilled asparagus and a watermelon/feta cheese salad rounded the meal out quite nicely. After a brief rain, it cleared and we took a walk and rather enjoyed all the surrounding hay fields.

Columbia Icefields

The Columbia Icefields is one of the major destinations we’ve included. And today’s the day. We take the Icefields Parkway for about two hours north through landscape that you’re absolutely convinced cannot be real. It’s a bit of a scary drive in Gigantor, but Rick has really honed his driving skills and does a yeoman’s job.

It’s cold, about 45 degrees and starting to rain as we arrive at the base of the Athabascar Glacier visitor’s center. The exhibits inside are interesting. Our intention is to take the snow bus up onto the glacier where you can walk on the ice. We have a nice buffet lunch overlooking the glacier waiting for the rain to halt.

It’s pouring now. We figure it’s about 25 degrees up on the glacier and while we are layered for all we’re worth, we just know it’s going to be miserable up there and take a pass. The ride back to Lake Louise is stunning and doesn’t seem as frightening the second time.

Lake Louise

It’s time to load up with groceries again. We drive Tor through the Banff "refreshing area" to a Safeway. While it feels vaguely familiar, it is odd that at 9 a.m., many of the delivery trucks have yet to arrive…many shelves are bare. What is there is enormously expensive. Milk is over $6 a gallon. Spend close to $100 and don’t have all that much to show for it. But we are now stocked with lots of fresh fruit and vegetables.

We head up to Lake Louise about an hour away. Another famous Fairmont we can’t get reservations at, but we will have lunch! We pull into another National Park…this time the Rockies are not only snow-capped, but we have our own glacier to look at.

The village of Lake Louise consists of only a very nice visitor’s center and a strip mall. We venture up to the lake via cab. We are warned that a 40 foot motor home should not make the climb. You simply cannot prepare yourself for this view. I do believe it is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. I can only come up with five of the great wonders of the world…if I had the internet available I could look it up…if this is not one of them, someone has made a vast error.

I find it difficult to describe it without being sophomoric. The soaring pines meet the brilliant blue waters without a shore line. The mountains are spotted with pale blue glaciers and the caps are covered in snow. We learn that the glaciers are blue because they contain no air bubbles. We learn the water is so dazzling because it picks up “rock flour”, a sort of silt, as it pours down the mountain. We’re not sure that these two theories are compatible, but I’ll look it up when I can.

There’s a guy dressed in a leiderhosen-like outfit playing an alpine horn…and quite badly at that. But he adds to the ambience.

We enter the Fairmont, again quite smartly dressed, and are told that only hotel guests will be seated for lunch in the dining room overlooking the lake due to the great numbers of people. Rick presses them…we are seated at a window table. I’m very grateful. Terrific lunch, but not nearly as intriguing as the one in Banff. But this view wins hands down. After lunch we walk to where the water meets the land and just stare for a very long time.

Back at the village, we pick up fresh croissants for breakfast (not bad at $1.79 each) and some wine and beer. Truly outrageous prices. $20 buys a very mediocre bottle of wine. Did find a local sauvignion blanc that I had had for lunch in Banff …still tastes good…wasn’t just the view.

Way back In Columbia, MO, we stopped at a place called Bass Pro…kind of a LL Bean on steroids for the outdoorsman. Bought a couple of interesting food things that I thought would be good for simple dinners. Pulled out a gumbo mix, sautéed some chicken and chorizo…thought I had some leftover shrimp, but we must have finished it off…added some leftover Spanish rice and couscous…it was terrific and made enough for reruns.

Oh, Canada

As we head out of Spokane, we decide to do a major grocery shopping as we are not sure what we will be encountering as we head to Canada. Rick and I have been having a debate for 3 weeks on what identification is needed for crossing the border. He’s convinced we need passports or birth certificates. I’m confident they have relaxed those requirements because of application backlogs. There is some concern because as we left on this trip, I discovered my passport had expired. We reach the border and we’ll find out! We stop and go into talk to someone. We pose the question…a driver’s license will do…I high-five the border guard and we cross into Canada.

It’s drizzly and cloudy, but that cannot mar the stunning scenery. We had been through much land scorched by fires and lack of rainfall…this landscape is a solid mass of forest, mountains and stunningly beautiful lakes. As much trouble as we have had on this trip, I still think this is an awesome way to travel.

We take our chances on another Fairmont Hot Springs Resort RV Park . This time we are gratefully surprised....while crowded, it is surrounded by the Canadian Rockies, has a relatively nice hotel and hot springs pools. Best of all, it also has two 18 hole courses. We arrive late in the afternoon, make a terrific Mexican dinner and the margaritas convince us we need to stay here for a couple of extra days.

Hot Springs to Banff

August 20 - 22 The morning dawns pretty gray and cloudy, but we take a long walk, cross a beautiful stream with cascading waterfalls and feel pretty good about just staying put for a few days. The sun comes out and for the first time…we cook breakfast outside. Bacon, eggs and hash browns cooked on the grill, gazing at the Canadian Rockies is a definite keeper in the memory bank. It sprinkles most of the day, but it’s a great time to catch up on housekeeping. I tackle the inside, Rick washes the outside and we take turns running to the on-site laundromat.

We find out our roving internet does not work in Canada because we have failed to get the international plan. They tell us we must sign up for two years. Sorry, it will take us at least another week to answer your e-mails! Our cell phones do work, but we seem to be on some roaming network. Sure we can look forward to a huge cell phone bill.

The next day dawns beautifully and the hotel shuttle takes us to play the Mountainside Course. Very well maintained and utterly gorgeous. Not particularly difficult, but our excuse for lackluster scores is it’s too hard to concentrate with the jaw-dropping views! We go to dinner at the hotel and while the menu looks enticing, the chef is very heavy-handed with seasonings and chooses very odd accompaniments that don’t blend with the entrees very well. Spend the remainder of the evening watching the sunset over the mountains. A faint rainbow appears. This is good stuff!

We’ve been trying to “take the waters” and vow to do it in the morning before we head off to Banff. Wake up ready to go….it’s 33 degrees. Decide to skip it. Head out towards Banff.

The sky is brilliant …then we have our first encounter with Canadian petrol…about $4.50 a gallon for regular…we have a 100 gallon tank…do the math! We have also found out that since our exchange rate is now so similar…about 95 cents, the Canadians have decided to round up to equal American dollars…add 5% to all purchases!

We’re on the road to Banff and stop at a Visitor’s Center to get an idea of what kind of roads we’ll encounter through the mountains. We find out you must go through Banff National Park..which sounds great…and you must buy a park pass for everyday you are in any national park. Every possible destination is within the confines of either the massive Banff or Jasper Parks. Add $17.83 a day. At Yellowstone we bought a year’s pass, good for any of our parks for $80.

The drive through the park to Banff is totally unbelievable. Priceless, as they say. While quite harrowing, the splendor outweighs the fears of cascading over a cliff. We find a pull-off overlooking a gorge with a fast running stream. Make a sandwich. Watching that scenery, nothing has ever tasted so good.

We were supposed to stay at the Fairmont. But given our multiple Tor “spa” days, we were no longer able to get reservations. I am totally bummed . For the first time we stay in a national park facility…no private parks seem to exist here. It’s very primitive. They supply electricity and that’s it. We’re pretty self-sufficient so we can last for days with the water and propane gas we carry. While the facilities are a bit lacking, the views make up for it…we have cocktails staring at the Rockies.

Banff

I’m bound and determined to at least have lunch at the Fairmont. We dress chicly, but with multiple layers… It’s very crisp out…33 degrees when we awoke…but the sky is sparklingly clear. We call a cab and go to town to shop and dine. Banff is charming, though now a bit of a mess. They are “refreshing”, a lovely word for tearing up the main street to repair pipes! The “Georgetown Project” could have perhaps used better verbage! We find a lot of little treasures and walk up to the hotel for lunch.

It is grand. They are serving lunch on the terrace overlooking aquamarine water and a golf course. The Rockies soar all around. We order drinks and just stare at the beauty of it all. I couldn’t possibly resist the truffles and morel macaroni and cheese! It is served with a half grilled gruyere sandwich on rosemary bread and what they are billing as homemade ketchup, which turns out to be akin to a tomato soup. It’s a totally indulgent lunch and we loved every minute of it.

We head back to Tor and appreciate the surroundings all over again. It didn’t seem so bad that we couldn’t stay at the Fairmont…we kind of get the best of both worlds.

Though I’ve always loved to sit the garden and watch our resident animal population, I’ve never been into bird watching. Just saw three huge black and white birds hopping through the woods. Pull out the Sibley’s and identify them as magpies. Rather interesting…our mode of entertainment is definitely shifting.

The Wedding

August 14 - 18 – There is no big sky right now in Wyoming…wild fires dot the state and the smoke travels forever..clouds the view and burns the eyes. Driving through Coeur d’Alene, we drive through the RV park we were supposed to stay at…website looked beautiful, gorgeous lake and beach. Well, the gorgeous lake and beach were there, but they failed to shoot the corroded factory you were forced to look at if you looked at the water. I know there is a market for “high road” parks…if they are out there, we are not yet finding them.

The reservations we have at the Cheney, WA park also looked great on their website. It was situated on a beautiful lake with gorgeous mountain cliffs. Also had a very cute restaurant on site. Only problem is they built permanent cabins right on the lake and RV spaces don’t get the view. Also it’s in the middle of nowhere, with no cell phone reception. With wedding activities beginning, we have to be reachable. We check out in the morning, take Tor into another spa and check into the Hilton. We stayed there for four nights as more and more problems are discovered with Tor…the tow guys bill keeps mounting.

We finally get to meet Matt’s fiancée, Rachelle. And then, her very large extended family. They graciously invite us to dinner…lost count at about 30! Wedding goes off as planned with very few hiccups.

Not an Excellent Adventure

August 11 –13 Heading out of Megan and Tod’s, Rick notices a drip coming out of Gigantor. He determines it’s power steering fluid and can’t be driven. After filling it a couple of times, it is just a sieve! Very long story, kind of short, hours later the insurance company determines it cannot approve a mechanic coming in from Jackson Hole (30 miles) but must be towed over the mountains to Idaho Falls. First tow truck comes and determines he cannot make it up “Seel Mountain” and Rick should drive it down! So he does! The tower then decides he cannot tow it at all and we leave Tor by the side of the road to spend the night. The second tower arrives the next morning. We rent a car and head off to Yellowstone.

We have a fabulous time…see Old Faithful go off twice…see an elk and extraordinary scenery. Arrive Idaho Falls about 5pm…tower arrives about 6. The good news is they got there….the bad news is they did more damage than the $2,000 tow cost! They dropped Tor! I spent a lifetime in Idaho Falls that day. We sleep in Tor in the parking lot at the RV repair shop. Next morning they work rather grudgingly for 5 hours…get it going, but now we have an appointment in Spokane for the rest. Tor is 3 weeks old and looks like an embattled veteran.

Coeur d’Alene will have to wait. Our detour has put us far behind schedule. Maybe stop on the way back. Must get to Cheney for the Rick’s son’s wedding festivities and get Tor to the “spa”. Stop for the evening along the way in Wyoming. Park is supposed to be next to Fairmont Hot Springs Resort and Hotel…definitely a different Fairmont. Another scraggy field with hook-ups…cute playground with teepees and the mountains. Here, however, the mountains are encased in smoke from wildfires. They amazingly have USA Today and I get my first glimpse of a newspaper since Boulder.

Jackson Hole

August 8-11 - Rise before dawn and catch a stunning sunrise over the mountains…no lake. Out of here…heading to Jackson Hole to visit Megan and Tod Seel..friends of mine for over 30 years. It’s wonderful to be able to slip easily into old friends. Wonderful time…amazing scenery… got caught in a buffalo jam…they just wanted to cross the road and no one seemed willing to tell them not to! Shopping in Jackson (great gifts coming, kids!). Tod taught us to fly fish and while no fish was ever in danger, what a fun day it was.

On to Boulder

August 2-7 –Arrive in Boulder for a nice long visit with Rick’s Dad; and brother Jim, sister-in-law, Linda and kids. It’s Linda’s birthday and the festivities continue for the next few days. Have a wonderful time, mostly just visiting. The most dramatic part is getting Tor in their driveway. Nephew Jason saves the day by guiding Rick in. Getting out was quite a show…Jason was at work..Rick was on his own!

We drive to Lander, WY and arrive at a godforsaken RV park whose website showed a beautiful lake view with a setting sun in the mountains. There are mountains…and the sun does set. But the lake is only visible if you stand on Tor maybe with a 20 foot ladder on top. This is Rick trying to get a cell phone connection!

Finally the High Road?

Hopefully the High Road starts here. We stop at Castle Rock outside Boulder to play golf. I had the good fortune of making reservations on the phone at the RV Park with a man named Ian. He offers to make a tee time for us and calls back to confirm our reservation and golf plans. What we didn’t know until we arrived is that Ian Steyne happened to be a very elegant, extremely successful businessman who, through an odd series of circumstances, found himself the owner of an RV Park. He settles us in a site with a view of the mountains and takes us to Bear Dance Golf course making sure he introduces us to the developer and others who can make sure we have a terrific time. We have a lovely lunch on the terrace and head to the range.

Always wanted to play in the altitude. Didn’t seem to make as much distance difference as I had thought. It’s a beautiful, well-maintained course nestled in the mountains. Darkness and Rick’s wracked up knee send us in after 14 holes. After the traditional gin and tonic on the terrace, our new, best friend, Ian, picks us up to go back to Tor.

Ian takes Rick to a local businessman’s breakfast at 6 the next morning. The speaker is the preacher that has logged 37,000 miles on foot dragging an 8 foot cross! Very interesting, I’m told. Ian has huge plans for his RV park and surrounding acreage. He’s coming to DC in October…planning on having dinner. We look forward to a continuing friendship

The Nightmare in Kansas

I didn’t think anything would be worse than that place in Terre Haute. Oakley, KS wins hands down! It is nothing but a patch of prairie with water, electric and sewer hook-ups. Across the street is the home of the “world’s largest prairie dog”. We pass on that one. I do find the cow migration back to the barn at dusk interesting. A bad storm rolls in. But that is quite okay because we're locking ourselves in tonight anyway! We are out of here at dawn.

Casino Stop

Heading through Kansas we need to find something fun to do. Found an Indian reservation casino, Prairie Band, (formerly owned by Harrah’s) with an RV park attached. Park lacks landscaping, but the casino is great. Security guards drive us back and forth at a moment’s notice. I’m up a bit on the slots…break for dinner…big mistake to go back! Rick blows through a bunch at the roulette and craps tables…decides to try the slots, and he has more fun. Of course, we end the night down, but a great evening!

Down Memory Lane

July 29th and 30th – We head out for Columbia, MO for a trip down memory lane to my college campus. We pull into a relatively pleasant RV park near the fair grounds. Having a drink outside when we see a truck dragging a beat-up wreck of a car….then another…and another…and another….It turns out there’s a demolition derby that night….grill steaks, close up Tor, pull out in a DVD and settle in for a good night’s rest….wrong!

It’s not the crashing cars that keeps us awake all night. It’s a mockingbird with a full repertoire perched on the telephone pole. We locate the ear plugs. Next morning, that bird is still at it and has added an accompanying gymnastic routine which we actually caught on film. As far as we can tell this bird did not stop for 48 hours!

Had a car delivered from Enterprise and headed to the University of Missouri campus. It was stunningly beautiful. The Journalism school was under renovation, so couldn’t go in. But went to the newspaper office where I worked..new and gorgeous…the Commons book store and stocked up some new t-shirts…wandered all over campus, then visited my sorority house…glad to say it looked fabulous. Then went to the TV station where I worked. Beautiful new lobby and fancy production facilities we didn’t have, but my studio had barely changed! New anchor desk but that’s about all. Went to dinner at the restaurant where visiting parents always took their kids. Still quite nice, but food did'nt hold up to my memory of it.

The mockingbird continues its antics. Find the earplugs.

Getting Settled

July 28 and 29th - Columbus has one of the biggest malls I’ve ever seen. We need food and to figure out how to stabilize everything we’ve loaded into this beast. We rent a car…Enterprise is a wonderful invention since they bring the car to you…important when you’re not all that comfortable maneuvering through town.

We end up spending the entire day racing from store to store . Find the Weber BBQ grill we’ve been looking for and terrific looking baskets to stow packaged food at Sears. Bed and Bath and the Great Indoors have containers to temporarily ease things from rolling around…still trying to find an attractive and effective way to hold dishes and glasses. Will probably end up designing something that Rick can build for the next trip. Dinner out since we have a car.

Next morning, major shopping excursion at a Kroger’s….great store…very big for a city girl! Stop to pick up some wine and beer…major necessities, return car and head for Terre Haute, IN.
Uneventful drive…the surprise occurs when we need a place to stop for the night. One of Kelly’s friends has been kidding me about KOAs since we bought this thing. I said no way would we be doing that….never say never! It had 4 stars, so how bad could it be? It felt like the Twilight Zone! While there were several very nice RVs there, it was dotted with what looked like permanent residents in wrecks and many dogs! I am no longer trusting this star system. That's why we're starting our own rating system. We closed ourselves in, made a taco salad, put in a DVD and spent a pleasant evening.

Heading Out ...Finally

So much clothes, gear and stuff had to be stored, we didn’t take off until 1pm. Scary getting Tor out of Georgetown. We are prepared for mishaps and misadventures, really only concerned about being safe. I’m a wreck sitting in the co-pilots’ seat….a maniac cuts us off on the Beltway..we serve, cabinets open, one wine glass down….

With winding, hilly roads and other questionable drivers. Rick’s driving skills are getting honed….this was a challenging inauguration. Only drove about 120 miles. Though scary driving, extremely beautiful, rolling hills in Maryland… stopped in Flintstone near the Cumberland Gap. There’s a beautiful state park with a golf course, though we were too big to stay there. Stayed at a mediocre park, but it turns out it doesn’t matter. Tor is so comfortable, just open up the slides, close the draperies and chill. Hadn’t done a big grocery shopping, no stores around and we only had the food we emptied out of the house. Had a half jar of pasta sauce, linguine, fresh parm and breadsticks…worked rather well. Met a nice couple from Orlando…retired pilot…gave us some good clues.

Rained, left awning out….big mistake. Not canted properly. In the middle of the night, we were jerry rigging a mechanism to push gallons of water out of a nearly buckled awning….took a pole we can’t figure out what it’s use is, the top of a cooler and kept pushing until we could roll the awning in. The best part about today is the incredible sense of freedom. While obligations still exist and will not be ignored, they are at arms length. Feels good.

Do. Or do not.

After a very stressful experience with the movers and house closing, we decided we really needed to launch our adventure immediately. We wanted to sleep in Gigantor. But it was late and we were too tired to hit the road. Tor was parked on the campus at Visitation Prep School. So we decided to skip the Georgetown hotel thing. We picked up burgers from the Daily Grill, opened a bottle of wine and slept in the parking lot! A great way to start an adventure and great fun!

DC to Lake Louise Itinerary

July 25 - September 6, 2007

July 25 - Travel 123 miles
Flintstone, MD
Hidden Springs Campground
814-767-9676
http://www.hiddenspringscampground.com/

July 26- Travel 295 miles
Columbus, OH

26-27- Cross Creek Camping Resort
800-988-2267 740-988-2267
http://www.alumcreek.com/

July 28 - Travel 252 miles
Terre Haute, IN
Terre Haute KOA Kampground
800-KOA- 4179
http://www.terrehautekoa.com/

July 29 - Travel 285 miles
Columbia, MO

29-31 - Cottonwoods RV Park
5170 Oakland Gravel Rd.
573-474-2747
http://www.cottonwoodsrv.com/

July 31 - Drive 212 miles
Mayetta, KS
Prarie Band Casino and Resort
877-2rvpark
http://www.pbpgaming.com/

Aug.1 - Travel 306 miles
Oakley. KS
High Plains Camping
462 US Hwy 83
888-446-3507
http://www.highplainscamping.com/

Aug. 2 - Travel 230 miles
Castle Rock, CO
Castle Rock RV Park and Campground
800-387-9396 303-681-3169
http://www.castlerockrvpark.com/

Aug. 3 - Travel 59 miles to Boulder

3-6 - Boulder

Aug. 7 - Travel 359 miles
Lander, WY
Twin Pines RV Park and Campground
800-986-4008
http://www.twinpinesrvpark.com/

Aug 8 - Travel 129 miles
Jackson Hole/Moran, WY

8-12 - Moran

Aug. 12 - Travel 122 miles
Idaho Falls, ID

Aug. 13 - Travel 529 miles
Cheny, WA

Aug 14 - Travel XXX miles
Cheny, WA
Klink's Williams Lake Resort
509-235-2391
www.klinksresort.com

15-19 - Hilton Garden Inn
9015 W SR Hwy. 2
Spokane WA
509-244-5866
www.hiltongardeninn.com

Aug. 19 - Travel 271 miles
Fairmont Hot Springs, British Columbia (BC)

19-22 - Fairmont Hot Springs Resort
250-345-6311
www.fairmonthotspringsrv.com

Aug. 22 - Travel 106 miles
Banff, Alberta (AB)

22-24 - Banff National Park Tunnel Mountain
403-762-1550

Aug. 24 - Travel 36 miles
Lake Louise, Alberta (AB)

24-26 - Banff National Park/Lake Louise
403-522-3833

Aug. 26 - Travel 356 miles
Maple Creek, Saskatchewan
Eagle Valley Park Campground
306-662-2788
www.eaglevalleyparkpark.ca

Aug. 27 - Travel 372 miles
Moosomin, Saskatchewan
Fieldstone Campground and RV Resort
800-511-2677 306-435-2677
www.fieldstonecampground.ca

Aug 28 - Travel 313 miles
Drayton, ND

Aug.29 - Travel 409 miles
Red Wing, MN

Aug 29-Sept.1 - Treasure Island Resort and Casino
800-222-7077


Sept. 1 -Travel 202 miles
Wisconsin Dells, WI
Sept 1- 4 Christmas Mountain Village
S944 Christmas Mountain Rd.
Wisconsin Dells, WI 53965
608-253-1000




Sept. 4 - Travel 488 miles
Milan, OH

Sept. 5 - Travel 339 miles
Williamsport, MD
Jellystone Park
16519 Lappans Road
800-421-7116 301-223-7117


Sept. 6 - Travel 71 miles
Washington, DC

And more hot springs photos

Hotsprings photos

First few