Kilometer 5182 - Yellowstone National Park

I spent the night in Billings Montana last night.  I was so tired by mid afternoon,  and then after I counted up the hours on my fingers that I had been driving, which was 10, I decided against trying to set up a tent and stayed at a motel instead. It had stopped raining for a while so I could have camped, but I was both physically and mentally exhausted at that point.  You will be thrilled to learn (as I was) that this motel was clean! Nary a hair in the tub to be seen. AND it was 30 bucks cheaper than the last one. A win-win situation. 

The motel also provided a Continental breakfast.  Not a great one, mind you, but there was coffee and toast so that was enough.  I had a great chat with an older couple from Wyoming.  It started out with her asking me if I was there to go to the hospital.  That confused me, but then she explained that there was a hospital right across the street,  apparently the best in the state and surrounding states, so most of the people staying in the motel were there for the hospital.  I explained where I was from,  although I could tell they had no idea where that was.  She was there to see a doctor in the morning and then they were picking up a truckload of potatoes and taking them back home to Wyoming to sell.  Apparently Billings has the best red potatoes also!

I headed off towards Yellowstone National Park,  through the Beartooth pass. It is supposedly beautiful through there, and it is all switchbacks up through the mountains.  But, and this may shock you, it was raining.  And very very foggy.  Every once in a while you could see a little bit but I know I missed some great scenery.  That was very disappointing.

Yellowstone is absolutely beautiful.  It remains very cloudy but the sun has peeked through a couple of times.  Have seen lots of buffalo and some sort of elk or something.  And I finally got out hiking! !! I bought a bear bell at Mountain Equipment Co-op in Winnipeg so I attached that to my pack and I brought my bear spray with me. Dad gave me the bear spray a few years ago and made me promise to take it hiking with me. He always emphasized the fact that it could be used for 2 legged animals also. I only went for 1 1/2 hours but it was nice to get out.  I am staying in Mammoth spring in the park and there are lots of hot springs all over, especially on the trail I went on. I have set up my tent and it is likely going to be a chilly night but I have lots of blankets and warm clothes.  I plan on going on down through the park tomorrow,  hopefully to see Old Faithful and then I will decide what and where I am going next.

Kilometer 4545 - On the road again

Had a great week in Regina.  The weather was amazing!  It was around 30 c every day we were there. Terry took vacation to spend time with us and we went exploring the city etc every day. I got up each morning and took their dog, Piper, for a walk, which I know many will find hard to believe. She was a good little walker and seemed to really enjoy it, although she forgot that after we got back to the house and barked ferociously at me every time she saw me .
Kara's flight back home was at 630 this morning so I decided it would be a good time for me to take off also. Something that most people back home don't know is that is the last time I will see her for a while.  She is flying back to NB today and then starting to drive back across Canada tomorrow morning, to Alberta to live. I found out a week before I left and just couldn't talk about it without crying,  so therefore just didn't tell too many people.  So I drove her to the airport this morning and had my cry and then hit the road at 530.

Much cooler today and quite cloudy. I drove west/south to Swift Current and then started down toward the US border.  I might have seen one car along the last stretch of highway.  As I neared the border I made sure I had my passport handy and then proceeded to the stop sign, stopped, and then moved forward to the gate. As I pulled up to the gate I heard yelling.  The border guard came out and yelled for me to stop. And I mean yelled. I was already stopped so I just sat there. Then he yelled for me to pull completely up to the gate. I complied.  "SHUT THE CAR OFF!!" OK.  "GIVE ME THE KEYS!!" Now I was getting concerned.  He yelled (pretty much the whole conversation was in yelling on his part) did you see the red light?  I said yes, and the stop sign which I stopped at. He said "What was written under the sign? " I said I didn't know. At any border crossing before I have always stopped at the sign,  they take a picture of your car/license plate and then you proceed.  Apparently not so here. Now, mind you,  I had been doing fairly well up to this point with the whole dropping Kara off at the airport thing and had been pretty pleased with myself that I hadn't cried continuously after leaving her. Now I was at a US border with no keys and a short man yelling at me, a lot. I lost it. He asked me if I had any fruit or vegetables and I managed to squeak out that I had an apple and 2 bananas.  Then he yelled at me to pop the hatchback.  I was trying to tell him it didn't pop but couldn't get the words out. He finally realized that I was in full blown tears and seemed to back off a bit. He asked me where my apple was and I managed to blubber out that I would need to leave the vehicle and find it because I didn't know.  He let me do that, told me to wait a second and the gate went up. He told me to pay more attention when he passed me back the keys, but I think he just wanted this emotional basket case out of there  . I pulled ahead so that I was in Montana,  then pulled over and had a big old cry  . Probably just needed to get that out of my system. 

So, in Montana now and heading towards Yellowstone park eventually.  Not sure how far I will get today. And it's raining.  Surprise.  Will add some pictures from early this morning in Saskatchewan and a couple of Montana so far. Will need to publish blog on WiFi so hopefully will find some each day.

Kilometer 4023 - Regina!

The rain continued half the night and was still dripping from the trees when I woke at 530 this morning.  Haven't quite adjusted to the time change so figured I might as well get up and get breakfast ready and take down camp. The tent was soaking wet. I had thought of spending a night in Manitoba on the way to Regina but this kind of made my mind up for me. I got some coffee and oatmeal into me and was on the road about 730.

I decided to play a new game this morning.  It was called "How far can Shelley drive with the gas light on?" I knew I was close to the Manitoba border and was sure there would be lots of gas stations around.  Again, I was wrong.  Seems to be a recurring theme. At first I wasn't worried,  but then I got down to one bar and all there was around me was highway and fog. I searched on the GPS and found one about 20 km just inside Manitoba.  Finally,  with a sigh of relief and just as the last bar disappeared,  I saw the gas station.  I pulled up to the pump,  got out, and that is when I noticed the closed sign. I was in deep doo doo. As I stood there, a man walked up the road and towards me. I explained my plight and he said "Oh I think it opens in 10 minutes". Phew. So I stood and had a great conversation with the guy. He was from Winnipeg and was very interested in my trip and gave me some tips . He highly suggested a lake just around the corner to go see, which I did after finally fueling up. I am sure it was lovely.  All I saw was fog.

I drove through Winnipeg.  From the road I could see the brand new Human Rights museum that just opened a couple of days ago.  Beautiful building.  I made my stop at Mountain Equipment Co-op and then hit the road again. The clouds seem to hang so low on the prairies.  It feels sometimes like you could reach right up and touch them. After a while the clouds cleared and the sky was deep blue from one side of the horizon to the other. I stopped a few times for pictures and for gas again but otherwise went right on to Regina.  Kristie had perogies and meatloaf and cheesecake waiting for me. So great to see all three of them again,  and Kristie's parents,  Rodger and Myrna,  were here also so we all had supper together.

Mom and Kara get here on Tuesday, flying in just before noon.  I probably won't be blogging much while I am here - will save that mostly for the road. I will add some pictures from the day below.

Kilometer 3192

So about that motel I stayed in last night. One cannot be too picky driving this route through Ontario.  The towns are extremely small. I would see a sign for what I thought would be a large area and then literally blink a couple of times and I would be on the other side of it. Looking ahead on the map earlier in the day I saw Terrace Bay and thought that sounded like a nice place big area to stay in. I was wrong.  By the time I got there it was dark and I drove for a minute and realized I had passed through.  So I backtracked and looked at the 2 motels I had to pick from. Neither looked stellar.  But I was afraid I might not find anything for quite some time and it was pouring rain by now. One, the Red Dog Inn, had a sign saying "recent renovations", so thinking that may be the lesser of two evils,  I pulled in and ran in through the rain.
The lady behind the counter was on the phone.  Clearly a personal call. She looked up when I came in and then kept talking.  And talking.  And talking.  Finally I cleared my throat and stared her down. She looks at me and says " Want a room, Hon? ". Grrr. I nodded and said " yeah" with an inflection of voice that I hope said "duh" and she told whoever was on the line that she guessed she had to go. I registered and drove in front of my door and went in. I know that I have stayed in foreign countries and that I haven't always had the best accommodations,  but I expect a certain amount of cleanliness when I am in my own country.  I did not find it here. The room had that stale smell. OK.  I can live with that. Then I went in the bathroom.  All I wanted was a good shower and a dry place to sleep. I looked in the tub. Hair in the bottom of it. There isn't much more about a tub that grosses me out more than someone else's hair in it, unless it's family or friends.  OK.  I wiped it out with some toilet paper. Then I looked up. I was wrong.  Someone's used soap in the corner of the tub grosses me out more. More toilet paper. Disposal. I considered leaving at this point but as I said, choices are limited ( although this morning I saw several places up the road about 20 minutes that looked from the outside to be nicer....but I digress). I got some pizza from the pizza Hut express that was right in the motel (you can have a pizza Hut express but can't have courteous staff and hairless, used soap - less bathrooms? ) and soon went to sleep for the night.
In the morning I got breakfast at the motel (thankfully hair-less) and was on the road before 7 am. That is one of the good things about not tenting - you can pack up much quicker and be on the road.  I am sure Terrace Bay was pretty.  I never saw it. The fog was so thick I could barely see 5 feet in front of me and the rain continued. The radio still was doing its aimless search through all the stations,  finding nothing to stop on. I have a cd in the player but I had been hesitant to put it on. It's one of Dad singing,  a selection of songs that he recorded himself in his living room with a cassette player.  He had been hoping to record a cd sometime in the future.  Mom had it done over onto cd format at Danny Crain's place.  The quality is not the greatest because of the home recording but it is just Dad and his guitar.  The overcast gloomy morning had me there already so I punched the cd button and skewed my vision a little more with tears along with the fog. I sang along when I could and wished that I could be Dad's back-up singer just one more time.

I was in Thunder bay by 9 am and stopped at the Terry Fox memorial site.  What a great Canadian.  I felt privileged to be able to be near the spot where he ended his amazing journey. I took a couple of pictures and then hit the road again.  My plan was to reach Kenora where I was hoping to finally get some hiking done. Weather had conspired against me so far, but it was calling for clearing in the afternoon so I plugged onwards.  The rain played chicken with the windshield wipers.  I would put them on a regular speed and it would slow down and they would start to screech.  So I would put them on intermittent.  It would downpour.  We played this game, the rain and I, for what seemed like hours.  Oh the fun we had! We giggled and laughed.....

Meanwhile,  Gary Sinise kept me company,  reading to me for a while.  Then I sang songs from my I pod selections.  I sang both parts of " If I had a million dollars" by the Barenaked Ladies,  which did occur to me was likely wrong....you probably need to pick one part and stick with it. I was pleased to discover I could still sing all the fast part of Enid. I did all the hand gestures that Kara and I made up when she was little to Holly Cole's song " Everything I got belongs to you" (I am sure she would be thrilled to show any of you that ask ☺). Again,  I was a little bored.  The landscape is changing for sure. Getting into more scrub tree sections. And I could hear the "out west" inflection of the voices already here in Kenora.  They would say I have a back East inflection likely,  but we Easterners know the truth.

Time slipped back another hour somewhere along my travels today so now I am 2 hours behind home. Got to Kenora, set up camp at a lovely campground and then set off to find a hiking trail. And guess what? It started to rain.  So I am in my tent WITH WiFi,  if you can imagine,  and after finishing this I do believe I will watch some Netflix. Not as cold, so far, as the other night so all should be good.  Very close to the Manitoba border here so will be hitting the 'Peg tomorrow and Mountain Equipment Co-op. 

Kilometer 2459

So continuing on from this morning....traveling went slower again today than I had hoped thanks to the 2 lane highway and low speed limits.  I had hoped to make it to Thunder Bay tonight, but alas, I have stopped about 200kms short of there. There was some nice scenery in places and the vibrant leaves kept me interested somewhat, but in places it was rather boring I have to say. I did see Lake Superior today for the first time (pictures below) . In fact,  Ontario has a lot of lakes. So many,  it would appear,  that they got tired of naming them. Today I drove past "Mom Lake" and then minutes later I drove past " Dad Lake". Yesterday I drove past "Lake 2" . I kid you not. Lake 2? Really?  Call it George.  Call it mud. Call it nuclear waste. Anything but "Lake 2". T'was a pretty little lake but who is going to care?
Stopped in Wawa for gas today (speaking of names of things....petawawa. ..wawa...I am not sure what a wawa is but it seems popular). The pumps were the old type in front of a trading post.  I was ready to pump the gas when a young guy came running over to pump it for me. Wow. As I was recovering from that shock I noticed that I was being stared at by a massive Canada goose and a moose.  I think I had entered some alternate dimension.  I paid for the gas, took a couple of pictures for posterity sake and got out of there .
I am a big cbc fan and had visions of being able to get a myriad of cbc 1 and 2 choices while traveling through Ontario.  This is not the case. If I am lucky enough to find one it is usually only with me for approximately 30 minutes and then never to be found again.  Obviously I am spoiled by the choice of cbc channels in new Brunswick.  Several times today I lost the channel I was listening to and hit the seek button on the radio, to only have it search endlessly,  the numbers flying round and round and never stopping on anything . This is how far away I was from everything.  Thankfully Gary Sinise kept me company for a large part of the day with John Steinbeck s book. The rest of the time I sang along with Holly Cole and various other people and dreamed of the day they would ask me to be their back up singers. I was a little bored.
It's pouring rain and I have stopped at a motel for the night.  More about that loveliness tomorrow.

Quick morning post

Yes, it was a chilly night but I made it through!  ☺I was in my sleeping bag by 830 and was planning on reading for a little while,  however it was a little too cold to keep my hands outside of the sleeping bag. So I put on my headphones and listened to a book instead.  Pat, my nurse manager, had suggested a book by John Steinbeck, called "Travels with Charley", a true story of a big road trip he did across the United States with his dog Charley. It is a great book,  narrated by Gary Sinise.  The first day of travel, though,  I had to switch to music at one point as I was in need of a coffee and Gary's voice was putting me to sleep.  Anyway,  was great to be snuggled up in my down sleeping bag and have a bed time story read to me by Gary. 
Thankfully I packed fleece sheets to bring with me also, so I wrapped the fitted one around me in the sleeping bag and then put the other one over top of me. There is little room in the sleeping bag as it is, because of the mermaid shape of it, so with the fleece sheet in there too I was rendered somewhat immobile.  But except for my nose,  which I kept ducking inside the bag, I was pretty comfy. Now getting out of the bag this morning was a slightly uncomfortable experience because it was very cold.  The bathroom was a three minute walk and I definitely did the pep step. There was a shower there but the bathrooms weren't heated so the thought of stripping down in around temperatures of 2-3 c made my decision for me. I also wimped out of cooking breakfast and am typing this at the local McDonald's with hot coffee and free WiFi. 
I will be leaving Elliott lake this morning and continue to head west. Am seriously considering a hotel for the night, if only to have a nice hot shower. John Steinbeck did that while he was traveling in his truck,  only he went in and had a bath and then slept in his truck.  I don't think I will follow his lead and set up the tent in the hotel parking lot if I decide to go the cushy route tonight.
Ps. McDonald's in Elliott lake is obviously the meeting place for seniors in the morning.  This place is packed and I am the only one under the age of 60 and definitely the only one poking away on a keyboard!

Kilometer 1505

It's mid-day on my second day of traveling, and I am just outside of Sudbury at present.  Stopped at a picnic site for lunch.  I must say, both Quebec and Ontario do roadside stops nicely.  It's not something you see in New Brunswick very often. Something Ontario doesn't do well, in my estimation so far, is highways.  After I left Ottawa yesterday I also left behind divided highways,  with slower speeds of course which I am told are enforced with diligence.  On top of that I don't think I have driven further than 40 km without running into some sort of construction zone so the going is much slower now. However,  I decided last night that I had put in a third of the kilometers it takes to reach Regina in one day and I have several days before I actually planned to be there, so I can afford to go a bit slower.
The colouring of the leaves is much more advanced here in Ontario than back home. Although there is still quite a bit of green,  the vibrant reds, oranges and yellows are happy to shine through.  It makes for pretty driving. Am heading further westward to find a campground for the night.

Kilometer 1214

A loooong day of driving!  Left this morning at 0600 and after meeting Kara for breakfast I started out. Travelling was good except driving through downtown Ottawa in 5 o'clock traffic WITH construction, I have discovered, is not a fun way to spend time. No problems with it but it went slower than I had hoped. I am now in Petawawa for the night at my friend Belinda's house, which is nice as it is raining right now. Tomorrow is calling for nice weather but cool so the tenting will be put to test then. Haven't decided how far I will go tomorrow yet however it definitely won't be a long day like today.  Will figure out some hiking plans and work around that.

1. Countdown is on...Kilometer 0

So...in 5 days I will be hitting the road.  I have planned for some time now, and the route, although not set in stone, is plotted.  Wednesday morning I will start out bright and early and head West to Regina, and then come back East through the United States.  My time frame is loose, although I am thinking that it will take me approximately 5 days to get out to Regina.  I will spend a few days visiting with my brother, Terry, and his wife, Kristie, and their son, Rylan.  Mom and Kara will fly out while I am there and visit also.  Then, my plan is to head South through Montana and into Wyoming to Yellowstone, and then gradually head back East to home.  I have decided to try to capture the trip in this blog.  I can't promise it will be exciting, and not as ambitious as climbing to base camp on Everest, but it will be captured, nonetheless, if for no other reason than for me to look back on and remember this time. My main objectives of the trip, besides visiting with my brother and family, are to see as much country as possible, both in Canada and the US, and to do some hiking along the way.  My plan is to camp for the most part, weather permitting, and to do it all on the cheap as much as possible. I will try to add pictures when possible.  Road trip, here I come!