So I see that I didn't post anything about the last few days of our trip - we made it to Lawrence, Kansas (didn't manage to catch up with the Winchesters, though) and to the Mall of America in Minneapolis (Bloomington, actually - large, grand, repetitive and expensive, as can be expected). It was just lots of driving without many interesting stops - thank heavens that Jessica loves to read to us, it really made the time go by!

Kansas was the only state where we saw a sign on the way out - "Leaving Kansas, Come Back Soon" - which gave us a chance to say that trite, over-used line "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto"!

This was definitely the trip of a lifetime, but apparently it was only Phase One - look out, California, here we come in 2011!

Home Sweet Home!

Well, here we are, 11,605.5 km later, home - safe and sound! Mind you, we seriously thought about taking a wrong turn at Albuquerque and heading back to Louisiana - but we were nowhere near New Mexico so we just decided to come home. While it is good to be home where two out of three cats are really happy to see us (Hermes hasn't willingly shown his face yet), it is also "boring", as Jessica puts it! We have had so much fun over the last 3 weeks, and it is going to be hard to get back to normal life.

Civil War Trails...

We were on the road very early this morning in teen terms (mid-morning to the rest of us, 10:30 am). Our first stop was at Nathan B Forrest State Park in Tennessee. Gen. Forrest was a famous Confederate Civil War general whom Jordan had written a paper on for his American History class. Very interesting stuff if you are a Civil War buff, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Bedford_Forrest

Interesting, when we pulled into the parking lot, the trip odometer read 9,000.0 km exactly!

From there, we were headed to St. Louis, Missouri. Much to our surprise, the trip took us through a bit of Kentucky and also Illinois, before we hit our hotel here on the outskirts. Since none of us have anything interesting to say, that's all for today!

I'm going to Graceland, Graceland, in Memphis, Tennessee...

Or then again, maybe not. Man, I would have thought Elvis would have picked a less seedy area to live in! Actually, by the time we got to Graceland, things were closing up for the day, so we decided that we would rather press on than stay in Memphis. Having arrived there in the midst of rush hour traffice(I cannot for the life of me figure out how we manage to time our arrivals in these major centres so precisely), it didn't exactly endear itself to us. Apparently, Memphis is big enough to have 40 Burger Kings (or so the sign said)! So we carried on, and we have stopped in Brownsville, Tennessee for the night.

We were sorry to leave Louisiana, and really want to go back there sometime - it is definitely on our list of "do-overs"! The only negative I can think of would be the rain, every single night! Outside of that, New Orleans did not disappoint! Tomorrow, we continue homeward, with a stop at Nathan Bedford Forrest State Park.

Here lies Nicholas Cage/Camping with Gators

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM/GRANDMA!!

So, no post yesterday because we weren't up to much, just a bit of exploring and booking some tours. Today, however, we definitely made up for it! We started out by heading down to the French Quarter to catch a Cemetery/Voodoo tour which began at 10:00 a.m. We managed to get in quite the tour of the French Quarter, as well, because we got lost trying to find our starting point and got lost again trying to find the parkade where the van was. But we did get to our tour guide in time. Anna Ross Twichell (call me Anna Ross, "two words, not hyphenated - I am definitely a Southener") took us on a walking tour of the St. Louis Cemetery Part I (there are 3 parts), which included some very interesting things, such as the grave of Marie Laveau, the Queen of Voodoo, and the grave of Nicholas Cage - oh wait, he's not dead yet! It is his crypt, though, as he is a resident of New Orleans (apparently he lives in Ann Rice's house now, though he used to live in the most haunted house in New Orleans). Burial space is at a premium here, so you need to know well in advance where you will be buried, we did see a number of examples of individuals who have purchased their crypts and are still alive. Nicholas Cage's, however, was definitely one of the more ..... interesting ones. We took a walk from there to a Voodoo Priestess' temple, where we got to sit down and listen to her chat for a bit.

Then we had to hotfoot it down the bridge across Lake Pontchartrain over to Slidell, to catch our boat for a tour of the bayou - which means slow moving river. FYI, swamp literally means flooded forest. The alligators just didn't stop coming, we saw tons of them. We didn't get to see the male, though. One of the females came storming out to meet us with her back up out of the water, turns out she had babies that she was trying to protect. Gators appear to love hotdogs and marshmallows, as that is what our guide was feeding them. There were no mosquitoes at all, though there were lots of dragonflies (Taz does have the right idea - apparently they are the reason the bayou is clear of mosquitoes). It also did not have a bad smell at all, in fact it was odour neutral (another misconception about swamps). The tour operator took us for a run down the West Pearl River, where we saw a blue heron, lots of turtles sunning themselves, a tiny chameleon, and evidence of Hurricane Katrina....

We are totally exhausted, but all quite happy with the day. Tomorrow the trip home begins....with a few stops of interest along the way!

Today is Plantation Day!

From New Orleans through Baton Rouge to St. Francisville, via Plantation Row - DEFINITELY worth the trip! We stopped at Oak Alley Plantation (http://oakalleyplantation.com/), where Jacques and Celina Roman built the home of their dreams along the mighty Mississippi. All I can say is "Two parts bourbon, one part homemade mint syrup".....one more thing off my personal bucket list! Don't worry, Mom, I bought some mint syrup to treat you to a mint julep when we get home! Since the legal drinking age is 21, the kids were treated to Abitas Root Beer, made with pure Louisiana cane sugar - quite a delightful treat! Three hundred year old oak trees lined the walkway to the front entrance of the home, an absolutely amazing site!

After we checked into a hotel here in St. Francisville, we headed out to supper at Magnolia Cafe where we all tried something a bit different - Jordan and I went for various types of po' boys, and Jessica had a fried shrimp sandwich.

Then, off to The Myrtles (http://myrtlesplantation.com/index.html) for the Mystery Tour. Lots of interesting stories about hauntings and visitations at different times, especially one about Chloe visiting on Hallowe'en! No excitement for us, though we will want to wait until we check out our pictures because apparently the camera may pick up things not otherwise visible to the naked eye. Unfortunately, we were unable to take pictures of the interiors of either plantation home, so we will have to rely on our memories (I'm screwed).

Tomorrow, it is back to New Orleans for a couple of days, where we are planning on doing a few tours, a graveyard/voodoo tour and a swamp/bayou tour by boat - the next couple of days promise to be a lot of fun!

N'awleans

Well, here we are in Metairie, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans. We are in a lovely hotel, where I plan to stay for the rest of the day - I don't want to drive anywhere, I don't even want to move! It is very hot and humid here, but that was to be expected. Ironically, it has been so hot and humid for the last 2 weeks that we are used to it by now, and are ready to deal with the notorious Gulf weather (provided no tropical storms rear their ugly heads, lol). All I want to do is shower, rest and plan our next few days here in the Gulf area. Last night our cheap hotel room in Alabama didn't have a working shower, so today was a bit, ummmmm, icky......

We drove through a bit of Mississippi on our way here, and all I can think of to say is that southwestern Alabama and southeastern Mississippi roads consist primarily of bridges and causeways, with tiny stretches of actual highway in between. Then, the drive across Lake Pontchartrain was definitely amazing!

Comic aside for today- we have seen a lot of IHOP restaurants lately, or as Jordan calls them - the International House of Pancakes. He refuses to abbreviate it, because he says it sounds more like Steve Jobs' dance club or Steve Jobs' pet rabbit than a restaurant!

We weren't able to get a room at the Myrtles Plantation, mainly because there is only one room available (the Caretaker's Cottage) which would sleep more than 2 people. So, we are headed there for their 6:00 pm tour tomorrow evening, and we will just find somewhere in Baton Rouge to stay the night. Then, we will be headed back to New Orleans for a few days, to do some exploring of St Louis Cemetery, the French Quarter and Bourbon Street. We are totally pumped for this!

Down in the deep south!

Another day of driving in the sun and heat, but at least we are still talking to each other. Today, we drove clear through North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, and we have stopped for the night in Montgomery, Alabama - waaay down south!! Not a lot of excitement again today, although we are almost finished our second book of the trip - Jessica has been reading aloud to us as we drive (it's that, or listen to her IPod.......). For those who can't live without knowing, we are reading the Resident Evil books (like I said, it's that, or listen to her IPod, we have done both and well, you get the drift)! It has been a beautiful drive, though, Georgia and Alabama are absolutely spectacular. There is this particular vine we have noticed, though, which appears to have taken over down south. It grows on everything, even choking out trees. It does make for some pretty strange sights, that's for sure.

Navi did get back at me for complaining about her yesterday, though. Today, we wound up in downtown Atlanta in rush hour traffic! Unbelievable, 8 lanes EACH WAY, with traffic also using both shoulders, so effectively 10 lanes of traffic going our way, and the same number headed the other way - a literal wall of vehicles! There was a smog warning in downtown Atlanta today - go figure!

On the road again, just can't wait to be....

or not! Today we hit the road again for some serious driving. We headed south in Maryland along the Chesapeake Bay area down to Point Lookout State Park, reputed to be one of the most haunted spots in the U.S. Nothing much happening on a hot, humid Wednesday, though, even the ghosts were too hot to move! Turns out that Point Lookout is the site of a Civil War prison camp for confederate soldiers and Maryland citizens, which was overcrowded and poorly maintained, check it out here http://www.dnr.state.md.us/naturalresource/fall2001/ghosts.html . Then we went through Arlington, where we got a glimpse of the Pentagon, and of Arlington National Cemetery - oh my, what a sight, really makes you stop and think!

The rest of the day was spent driving south, as we are now headed to New Orleans, via Atlanta - somewhere soon I will be sipping that mint julep on the porch - hopefully without gagging! It is hot, hot, hot - and incredibly humid. We are in Danville, Virginia tonight, right on the border of North Carolina. The temperature at 10:00 is 27, with a humidex of 37 - yes, at 10:00 at night! I have discovered that my beloved Navi the GPS has lead us a bit astray today. Because we had it set to avoid toll highway, it re-routed us to the west side of the state to the next major highway, somewhat out of our way. She also, at one point, routed us through the town instead of keeping us on the bypass. As a result, she has lost her preferred spot on our dash...actually, the glue gave way today, and the stand kept falling over on the dash, so we have had to move it. Tomorrow will be another day of driving, but I think we will suck it up and pay the toll - save a few miles!

Another day in the centre of the (U.S.) Universe...

Tuesday, August 10th - UNBELIEVABLE SERVICE! We showed up at 9:00 this morning to get the van repaired, and we were out of there in no time at all! As luck would have it, the replacement door did not need painting as it was the original colour, and Vincent now looks good as new - well, as good as it did before it tried to take on a pole!

That left us most of the day to spend touring the Smithsonian. Finding parking once again was a bit of a challenge, but we did find a 2-hour spot on the street. We started in the National Museum of Air and Space, saw some fabulous stuff there. We moved from there to the National Museum of Natural History, where we could have gotten lost for days. We had to go back & move the van before our meter ran out (note, they must be pretty prompt on checking the parking, as I saw more than one vehicle with that "boot"). We found another spot only a block from the Natural History museum, & headed back there. The Smithsonian is actually a series of museums that are located along both sides of the National Mall, there is more than enough to keep people occupied for several weeks, so I do regret that we didn't have enough time to spend there. But, we did manage to enjoy ourselves quite a bit where we were, and got some fabulous shots!

We also got to spend an hour in rush hour traffic, sigh....I will never complain about Winnipeg rush hour again!

The National Mall is NOT for shopping!

Monday. August 9^th – Well, it seems a bit strange doing these posts the next day, because things do change quickly! We weren’t able to take the van in yesterday for the new rear door, however, due to the timing of things. By the time we managed to get things sorted out with MPI, we arranged to get the the van in first thing on Tuesday morning. Net result, we will be delaying our departure from Washington by one day. We are, however, going to change hotels, looking for something with internet and in a slightly better area. Not that we had any problems where we were, more that the location affected our level of comfort.

We had to veg out in our hotel for a good part of the day, while things were being sorted, and the nice lady from MPI was muttering something about “liability” and statements when we get back from our holidays, but all in all, they handled our claim quite quickly. From there, we went to 5 Guys Burgers & Fries, which has quite the reputation here in the Bay area (& elsewhere in the US). I thought it was rather expensive for burgers & fries, but then I discovered that each order was large enough to feed 5 guys (so that’s where the name comes from)! Then, we headed down to the National Mall and actually managed to find parking – right beside the Albert Einstein Monument. From there, the sights were coming fast and furious. The Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the National World War II Memorial finished in 2004, the Vietnam Memorial, the Reflecting Pool.....so much to see! We had a wonderful evening walk, and I am really glad that we didn't do this earlier in the day when the temperature was in the 90's! Driving around downtown Washington in the dark was a bit of a challenge, but we made it back to our hotel in one piece!

Waiting on the President...

Sunday, August 8 – Hmm, not a very exciting day for us at all. We discovered that there is no such thing as available parking in downtown Washington, we drove around for nearly an hour trying to find a spot. It didn’t help that we got stuck in traffic for over ½ hour because of some stupid motorcade – oh wait, that vehicle - it looks familiar, I remember hearing about how much it cost.....that stupid motorcade just happened to belong to the president of the United States. Okay, so the picture doesn't actually do the motorcade justice, but by the time we realized what was going on AND by the time Jessica pulled out her camera, that was all we could get!

Found a Starbucks with free wi-fi so that we could post our blog, and check up on things on facebook. Jessica was quite pleased that her story has been accepted into the contest on deviantART & is being posted to the group gallery, which is only available to selected stories! We are excited to see how she will do in the contest, so we’ll be making our way to Starbucks daily until we can find a hotel with internet. Tomorrow morning, we take the van for repairs (hopefully), and are planning on bussing it to downtown (Jordan is not impressed with the idea at all, but he did find it frustrating that we spent an hour today driving by all those wonderful museums, which is enough to get him considering riding a bus (that, and having no vehicle for hours). So, we shall see what we can do about that tomorrow morning.

How quickly things can change...

Saturday, August 7^th - Well, after breakfast, we headed into Washington and drove by the J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building. The line-up at the International Spy Museum was huge, and it hadn’t even opened up yet. We got a chance to drive through the National Mall area and get a glimpse of the Washington Monument and the White House, and then decided to head someplace to find a motel room for a couple of days. Well, after checking out a few hotels that somehow just didn’t appeal – might have been because of the neighbourhood or the people we saw walking out of them – we decided to head closer to Andrews AFB, having the impression that it might be safer to be where the military and their families might be found. Well, we found a hotel sure enough, but we are also finding out what it would be like to live in Washington. Years ago, I wanted to travel to places in such a way that I would see them as the inhabitants see them. Well, now’s my chance. I am now able to find out just how to deal with things as if I lived here....sigh. I pulled in to the parking lot of a hotel to check out the rooms, and backed into a gate pole, you know, one of those arms that hides upright and then drops mysteriously when you least expect it because you don’t even know that it is there. It was a bit unreal, as the kids and I realized that the back window was completely shattered. I went in to talk to them, and everyone was quite helpful – and equally as surprised as I was. I saw that we could get internet access, so I booked and paid for the room for 3 nights, only to discover that their internet was down. On the other hand, once I was able to get in touch with MPI, I was able to get information on how to deal with a claim down here. Then, I called CAA/AAA & was referred to an approved repair shop close to our hotel. So we trekked down there, where they gave us a repair estimate and put some collision wrap on the back window. Unfortunately, the MPI out-of-province office doesn’t work on weekends, and I can’t get my claim processed until Monday morning – this is Saturday afternoon. So here we are, sitting in D.C. with a vehicle with no back window, in a hotel with no internet.

From the Pacific to the Atlantic

Friday, August 6^th - Okay, so I always get things backwards! Today, we walked across the sand into the Atlantic Ocean, and I can quite proudly say that I have taken my kids from the Pacific to the Atlantic. It was nice to cool off, too, it has been quite hot the last few days. I would have loved to stay longer to play in the sand or even go for a swim, but we only had one quarter to put into the parking meter, so we didn’t have long to enjoy the beautiful beach. We did manage to trap a lot of the sand and bring it back with us, though (not surprising, lol).

We actually started the day by sleeping in and missing out on the continental breakfast offered at our hotel, sigh. So we gave up on breakfast and headed in to Philadelphia to go to the Mutter Museum. It is a museum of medical anomalies, so there were some weird and disturbing sights to be seen. That is the place where the Siamese twins, Chang and Eng, were autopsied after their deaths. It was definitely.....interesting....check it out for yourself here

Philadelphia was crowded and hot and humid, and we had LOTS of trouble finding parking until we stumbled across a spot on the street only a block from the museum. Navi was having difficulty doing her job for some reason, so we decided not to pressure her into taking us to the Museum of Natural Art, just so that I could run up the stairs like Rocky (let’s face it, I would never have made it up anyway)! We got lots of pictures of the city, as there were some really impressive buildings, and the traffic and road system was quite impressive – worth singing about, according to Bruce Springsteen. We decided to head out of town and re-group, so we stopped for lunch in Malvern, PA. From there, we headed to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, to check out the ocean, which took much longer than expected (well, of course, had I realized that this was Friday afternoon, I would have expected all that traffic). After that lovely scenic drive, we stopped for the night in historic Centreville. One thing about historic spots, there are few hotels, none of which are cheap, and few amenities (ie. no internet, much to the chagrin of all of us). So tonight, we are just sitting here reading stories, and I will just post this tomorrow when we get in to our hotel. We are headed to Washington, where we will be staying for a few days – Smithsonian Institution, Washington Monument, and Lincoln Memorial....so many things to see!

Quick update - Jordan and I were treated to a fireworks display out the back door of the hotel last night (Jessica was awol). We could hear this noise that sounded like thunder but didn't stop, so Jordan went exploring and asked someone what was going on (yes, actual social interaction), which is how he found out which door we needed to head out of to see the display. It was quite spectacular, rivalling anything I have seen in Winnipeg. I, personally, think it was in celebration of my passing my FA1 course, but the kids are sure there must be some other reason.......

Coal Country

Today was spent almost entirely in Pennsylvania, quite a bit different from yesterday! We left New York State, headed for the ghost town of Centralia. On our way there, we stopped in Hamburg, PA at the Cabela's store. It is apparently the largest store in the chain. The dead animals on display do give rise to a sick sense of curiousity...the elephant was apparently killed by Dick Cabela himself. Jordan found himself a new duffel bag, and Jessica found Jacob. I found myself with an empty wallet! We spent quite a bit of time there, much more than I thought we would.

We took a leisurely drive through the Poconos Mountains into Pennsylvania coal country. It was really interesting driving down the main street of a town named Ashford. The street is a VERY VERY long hill, and the homes and buildings are older. They are all joined together for the entire block, and their foundations are at quite a steep angle, as you can see in the picture (yup, figured out how to upload a picture, but it appears to be limited in placement and number - oh well). We made it to Centralia, but as far as ghost towns go, it was a bit disappointing. All of the abandoned houses and buildings have been torn down, so there were no ruins to explore. We went looking for the portion of highway that was closed due to cracks from the coal fire, which we almost found thanks to Jessica's sharp eyes. I say almost because she wasn't able to get all the way down to the spot where you can apparently see the smoke rising from the road, because we were rather precariously parked on a curve just below the top of a hill - do the words "sitting duck" have any relevance here?

We turned tail and headed for Philadelphia but, having experienced rush hour in Rhode Island, I had NO desire to find out if it was any worse in Philly. So we pulled off early for the night, taking a nice hotel room in Reading, PA (anyone for Monopoly??).

[P.S. For those of you who are curious, Jacob is the cutest Husky stuffy I have ever seen!]

Just how many states was that?

Today was another busy day, lots to do and see and drive through. We started off by driving out of Maine, through New Hampshire and in to Massachusetts. Our first stop was in Salem, which was really quite interesting (but quite commercialized, kind of like Banff). The area has a fascinating history, with a graveyard that contained one of the original Mayflower settlers. It also has a storied marine history, apparently, involving pirates and the like, and some incredibly old buildings. Navi took us on a tour through the city, where we got a chance to see some really neat historic houses that are still in use today. We did have a few issues with her, though, as she did route us through a few somewhat questionable neighbourhoods!

For some reason that I don't quite remember, we decided to skip Boston - too much to do there and not enough time to do it. So, we left Massachusets and drove to Rhode Island, where we stopped in Providence to see H. P. Lovecraft's grave in Swan Point Cemetery (if you don't know who H. P. Lovecraft is, I recommend googling him). What a beautiful but convoluted graveyard! Even with a map that led us specifically to the gravesite, we got lost! We did find his grave, though, along with that of his wife and his parents. We left a silver key on his grave, which relates to one of his stories. There were a surprising amount of trinkets and flowers on his grave, including one with cyrillic letters, translated to "From Russia with love". We were clearly not the first to make this pilgrimage! From Rhode Island (by the way, I survived rush hour in Rhode Island - kind of has a nice ring to it), we drove through Connecticut and have stopped for the night in Newburgh, New York, with 4009.4 km (2491.3 mi) under our collective belts.

Our next destination is Centralia, Pennsylvania. a ghost town with a population of 7, apparently. There is a coal fire burning in the mine under the town, which has been burning since 1962 and has made the town uninhabitable. Then we will be headed to Philadelphia, with a tour planned for an interesting if somewhat unusual museum - more on that tomorrow, though!

Another day, another ?? miles...

Well, today was another wonderful day! We really enjoyed our stay in Quebec, and I absolutely fell in love with Quebec City - I am going to retire there and become an artisan-in-residence, living a bohemian lifestyle (much to the displeasure of my children)! We toured a church built in 1688, incredibly interesting! I can't say enough about the look and ambiance of the city, with an eclectic blend of the old and new. Beautiful and fascinating - with a parking lot that accepts debit and charges by the minute....interesting use of technology.

Every now and then, we come across a situation that just screams BLOG! There we are, sitting in a traffic jam in Quebec with my window open when I hear this voice saying "You folks sure are a long way from home." There was this truck driver beside me, turns out he was from St. Boniface, and he was looking to return there because he said that the constant traffic jams and construction delays were driving him crazy - he had put in for a transfer with the company he works with. Yes, the traffic jam was long enough and moved slowly enough for us to carry on this conversation!

We have again crossed into the United States, and again I was treated to a smirk by the US border guard when I admitted to working for CRA (he said he wasn't mad at me, he lives in the States)! We drove through to Bangor, an absolutely beautiful drive with rolling hills and tree-lined roads. While there, Stephen took the kids on a tour of the city while Tabitha and I had tea - NOT!! But we did eat at a Pizza Hut where surely, once in his life, he must have eaten at, or at least passed by or something like that, lol! The Maine Turnpike was an interesting drive, very fast-moving, and no doubt a gentle introduction to turnpikes - limited access/egress, lots of traffic and lots of impatient drivers. You can be guaranteed that I will be avoiding the major rush hours around centres such as Philadelphia and Washington, I cannot imagine what a traffic jam would be like in those cities! Right now, we are holed up in a Sam-and-Dean type hotel room in Brunswick, Maine - I have no clue exactly where that is, but that is where we are!

Montreal in the rain...

Well, a lot of excitement today. We left North Bay this morning, glad to see the last of the town - not sure why, but none of us liked it very much. We made it to Deep River and pulled into Tim's for an iced capp when ....... what is that WEIRD noise that my steering is making? Well, that would be the sound it makes when the power steering fluid is pouring out. Turns out there was a hole in the hose which ended up costing us about $380 and 3 hours of sitting in an auto repair shop. Am I complaining - NOT A CHANCE! If it had to happen, I am truly glad that it happened here in Canada and that it wasn't some major component on my engine and that we didn't have to wait overnight and that there was a place just 1/2 block from where the problem occurred, which was open on the holiday Monday. They were really nice, too, loved the guard dog, Ruger, a boxer. As Jordan put it, he was the friendliest guard dog ever - but I wouldn't want to meet him under different circumstances!

We made it to Ottawa this afternoon, drove by the home of the Ottawa Senators, saw the Parliament buildings and the Supreme Court building (always wanted to see it but never wanted to argue in it, lol). Trying to find a gas station in downtown Ottawa was a bit of a challenge for Navi and us, but we did manage just fine! From there, we went on to Montreal - just a drive-by was all we had in mind. Unfortunately, it was pouring rain and incredibly hard to see the lanes - totally disconcerting trying to drive an unfamiliar, extremely busy route in those conditions. Navi did a fabulous job guiding us through some VERY confusing connections, and we did make it onto the Ile de Montreal for a whirlwind tour.

Right now, I am sitting in a hotel in Berthierville (where Gilles Villeneuve was raised, for any Formula One aficionados out there), Quebec, glad that I forced Jessica to take French Immersion classes! We have done our family bonding for the day, and are all sitting on our separate laptops in our separate worlds, Jessica is on facebook, Jordan is watching an episode of "Deadliest Warrior", and I am - well, you figure it out! Oh, I stand corrected - Jordan is surfing graveyards in Providence, Rhode Island, so we can find out which one H. P. Lovecraft is buried in - Swan Point Cemetery, here we come! Tomorrow, we are back in to the US, and I am really glad that payday is coming soon!

Mists and Mysteries

Before I move on to today, I thought I would add a bit more about yesterday's very long drive, I didn't have much time this morning! It was really interesting after dark, there was quite a mist in the low-lying areas. It was bordering on the Silent Hill effect at times....very eerie!!

Well, today was an interesting day, we decided to sleep in and make it an easy day after yesterday. And then, we hadn't even left the hotel when we decided to do a 100-mile detour to The Mystery Spot. It was interesting, some very creative of optical illusions - you can find more information here - http://www.mysteryspotstignace.com/ It also took us by the Straits of Makinac & the Makinac bridge, which was an impressive sight!

Then, coming across into Canada in Sault Ste Marie was quite neat, you have to cross a toll bridge (oh, someone was thinking about a guaranteed way to raise funds) to get to the border crossing. And what a fantastic bridge! I am really glad we were headed back into Canada, though, because the lane heading into the States was very long and moving very, very slowly! I am also quite surprised at the state of our TransCanada highway here in Ontario, it is mostly a two-lane, with unpaved shoulders.....even the state highways were in better condition...sigh!

Almost lost Jessica at some random gas station here, there was a really cute guy helping us - took her forever to make her way back to the van ;-) We are in North Bay for the night, and not terribly impressed with the Super 8 that we are in - a very new building, but the light broke off in my hand when I moved it (I didn't do anything, honest)! Oh well, it is just one night, and we will spend most of it on the laptops, lol! Tomorrow we will be making our way to Ottawa and the Parliament buildings, then we will see how far we can make it from there!

All in all, the first 2 days have gone well, we have a ton of pictures (not as many today because my camera batteries died & we didn't get a chance to replace them right away). We are looking forward to our sightseeing beginning in earnest now, we will be busy every day. From Ottawa, we are heading by Montreal to Quebec City, and from there, it will be almost nonstop - Bangor, Providence, Salem, Boston, Philadelphia, Centralia......and a chance for us to dip our toes in the Atlantic Ocean. We have been to the Pacific, although according to the kids that one doesn't count because they were too young to remember it (but I think I have the pictures to prove it somewhere)!

Good morning!

Well, yesterday was a long day (very long...), but we had a lot of fun! We ended up leaving later than I had planned, mainly because SOME IDIOT forgot to run the portable dishwasher the night before, so that there would be no dirty dishes to stink up the place in our absence! We ended up sitting around for a bit waiting for it to finish the wash cycle so we could turn off the water! But we did get on the road, and so far, the trip has been worth it - I have discovered that Jessica LOVES taking pictures and Jordan is a real trooper - not one complaint about having his 6'2" crammed into the back seat for hours!

The trip started off innocuously enough, with a 20 minute wait at the border crossing into the US. While we were sitting there, a woman wearing a CBSA uniform & and carrying a foil-covered tray walked past us to towards the US border office. As we watched, she handed the tray of goodies over to one of her American counterparts, chatted a few moments, and headed back to the Canadian border office. Talk about cross-border friendship - sharing goodies! No problems crossing the border after that - but the US border guards did smirk when they heard that I worked for CRA! Hmm, my first attempt to upload a picture here failed miserably...I'll have to try next time...

A quick stop at the Walmart in Thief River Falls got us some lunch and goodies for the road (thanks for the suggestion, Pat, we all had lots of fun wondering around in the store and Jordan was quite impressed with the selection of books)! Back on the road again, we were absolutely blown away by the first sight of Duluth - yes, Duluth! We ended up detouring there for a couple of hours, checking out the funky waterfront and the multi-level interstate construction - vague childhood memories here, maybe I've been here before? If so, I guess the kids are right, they always tell me that holidays they took when they were too young to remember don't count! Well, this one sure will, lol!

Oh, and we absolutely LOVE Navi, she is more than a pretty toy! She has taken us safely all this way, including down to the harbour and through all of that construction in Duluth. She helped us find a Subway for supper, and just about everything else you can think of!

We didn't quite make it to the Sault, but we are currently in Newberry, Michigan - we drove for hours last night trying to find a hotel (OKAY, DAD, YOU WERE RIGHT) - who knew there would be a runner's convention, 5 local festivals & reunions for ALL of the high schools in the upper peninsula going on this weekend. But find a room we did, and before I could say "these beds are hard as a rock", I woke up with the sun shining in my eyes!

Back on the road again in a couple of minutes, destination - Ottawa (if they let us back in to Canada, that is)!

YEEHAW!!

Well, this is it - FINALLY time to get going! The van is mostly packed and ready to go, all fueled up. We just have to toss in our suitcases, the cooler and a few last minute items and we will be off.

I am so excited that I cannot sleep - not a good thing when the plan is to drive for about 15 hours tomorrow (oops, today, I mean). Our goal is to make it to Sault Ste Marie, which is apparently about 800 miles (1286 km for those of you not born under the old imperial system), and is about a 15-hour drive (not counting time spent at the border or in Thief River Falls stocking up on goodies for the trip). Needless to say, it will be a long day, and that long day starts pretty soon. We are planning on staying at a hotel tomorrow night, but not too sure where. Sometimes, I drive my poor parents a bit crazy. They are always well-organized travellers, with hotels booked and waiting for them. I am much more of a wanderer, I mean we do have a destination in mind and will do our best to get there, but I won't beat myself up if we don't quite make it all the way (I'll leave that for the kids to do)! So because of that, I don't want to book a hotel room, I would rather take my chances (worst case scenario, we pitch the tent in pitch darkness...could be worse, right)?

Now that the trip will begin in earnest, I will be able to post pictures of interesting things we see along the road (no roadkill, though). Jessica wants to take pictures of every signpost for every state and city we go through - thank heavens for digital cameras!

But enough from me for tonight, time to catch what sleep I can! First stop - Tim's (gonna NEED coffee in the morning)!

One more day to go!

Only one more day of work and packing, and we are on the road! I am definitely excited now, I don't know how I am going to get any work done tomorrow......I have no doubt that the day will drag by, only because I so don't want to be there! Oh well, suck it up, buttercup!

Vincent the van is all serviced and ready to go, & has a new girlfriend, Navi the GPS. What a neat little toy - it even comes with some type of traffic information system, it will make it so much easier navigating the strange places we are headed. It also has bluetooth capabilities, which means that it will work for handsfree operation of my cell phone - very handy, since I don't know which areas (if any) have the same type of traffic law prohibiting cell phone use while driving! So, between Navi (a name which may bring back memories to those of you who are familiar with the Legend of Zelda-Ocarina of Time), the 185-page TripTiks from CAA and the 15+ maps, we will certainly know where we are going! The only question is, how long will it take us to get lost??

I'll just finish off the quick trip summary that I had started last night, I think I left us in Philadelphia. From there, it is off to Washington, where we will be spending a few days visiting the Smithsonian Museum. I suspect that it won't be enough time, but we will do as much as we can. From Washington, we are heading down to New Orleans, via Mobile, Alabama. While in New Orleans, I am planning on checking out the French Quarter and Bourbon Street, and apparently we will be going to St Louis Cemetery..... From there we are headed to Baton Rouge and St Francisville, the home of the Myrtles Plantation, one of the most haunted homes in America (http://www.myrtlesplantation.com/). Once we have managed to scare ourselves silly, we will be ready for a change of pace - Memphis and Graceland! From there, we will be going to Nathan Bedford Forrest State Park...for those of you that aren't familiar with Mr. Forrest, he was a brilliant general during the Civil War (Jordan wrote a paper on him, so we might as well check out the park since we will be on his home turf). We thought about going to Nashville, but I just can't imagine why we would even want to go near that city - none of us can tolerate the majority of country music! So we will be making our way to Lawrence, Kansas, the home of Sam & Dean Winchester. Of course, if you have never seen the tv show Supernatural, that will have absolutely no meaning for you! From there, it is the final leg of the trip, with a stop in Minneapolis to check out the Mall of the Americas, and one final drive home...whew, I am tired just thinking about it! So, lots of miles, lots of sights to see, and lots of fun. I know a few people who are trying to sneak into the back of the van tomorrow night, those wannabe stowaways!

Two days - now I'm starting to panic/get excited....

Well, another day finished, only 2 more days of work to go! In that time, though, I have to pick up our passports, get some US$, pick up my van, do some laundry and so on and so on and so on.....oh well, c'est la vie, a woman's work is never done!

We did manage to get alot of things sorted through today, though, and we did get the basement better organized. Hmmm, I'm wondering if leaving for 3 weeks holidays only 4 weeks after moving is such a good idea - well, of course it was! All that unpacking will still be here when we get back, and there will be lots of time to get unpacked when we are back.

So, now, a little bit about our trip and why I think it might be worth blogging about. The kids decided that they wanted to go on a bit of a road trip this summer, & picked New Orleans as our ultimate destination. From there, it has evolved quite substantially! The rather ambitious trip starts out with us heading to Ottawa to see Parliament Hill - only because the kids want to go to Washington & I feel that as Canadians they really should see our parliament buildings before checking out the White House. Then, we'll go through Montreal and Quebec City, and down to Bangor, Maine. Why Bangor, you ask? Well, it is the home of Stephen King, who would have to be the most popular author in this house! Not that he'll be inviting us in for tea anytime soon, but we will be on the lookout for the wrought iron bat gates! From there, it is on to Salem, to check out the museums on the witch trials, then through Boston, New York & Philadelphia, with a stop in Centralia, PA - apparently a modern day ghost town. We plan on visiting the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia - check out the website at http://www.collphyphil.org/MUTTER.ASP for more info! Yes, we will be going to New Orleans, we are just taking a bit of a detour on the way there!

While I would love to provide further details about our trip, it is way past my bedtime! My plan is to keep this blog going when I have internet access - definitely not when we are camping, lol - oh, that reminds me, I have to get more detail on the available campgrounds along our route - so much to do, so little time. Well, now that I have gone full circle, I think it must be time to pack it in for tonight!

Three more days.....

Until we leave on our grand tour - still lots to do, but whatever doesn't get done won't get done, lol! A lot of planning has gone into the route we will be taking - thank heavens for CAA online "TripTiks", they look like they will really help to get us where we are going. Right now, I am busy printing out the 185 pages of our planned trip - yup, lots of driving, 9,653.7 km (5.998.7 mi)!

The next couple of days will be spent getting our camping gear packed up for the trip. I have 2 tents, and 2 sets of tent poles - I need to figure out which ones go with which tent, which just might make things somewhat easier when it comes time to pitch the tent. Apparently, Jessica has built some pretty good playlists, and she is working on a reading list. Whenever we travel, we listen to music (yes, loudly) or read aloud - she loves to read! Jordan loves to listen in, unless, of course, I happen to be singing along to the music. Then, he tends to cover his ears and try to shrink so that no one will see him (hard to do when you are 6'2")!

That's it for tonight, I do still have to work this week, and tomorrow Vincent goes for his new eyes - which translates into my taking my van (aka Vincent) to get the windshield replaced (new eyes). This unusual travelling family tends to name our possessions.....don't ask!

The countdown begins.....

We (myself and my two teenage children) are going on a road trip for our summer vacation - and quite a road trip it is! It is a bit random, really, with our path being determined by a conglomeration of places/things that we want to see. We have all contributed ideas for places we want to go or things we want to do, so it promises to be totally fascinating! We have 3 weeks to do the trip, and a lifetime worth of things to do in those 3 weeks! And what am I doing instead of getting ready for the trip? Why, I am staying up late to get this blog created, of course - I mean, let's get our priorities straight, here! There is quite the thunderstorm happening right now which is keeping me awake, so I might as well do something constructive, lol!

The countdown begins tonight - 4 more sleeps and we will be on the road! There is a lot to do between now and then, so - who needs sleep?? Ready or not, we will be on the road on Saturday morning, bright and early. Okay, the sun will be bright, and the hour will be early, enough said! What's left to do? Everything - again, enough said! On that note, time for one of those sleeps (elusive though they may be)!