Glacier National Park

4 National Parks in 1 day!! Started in Banff, drove through Yoho, then explored the awe inspiring Giant Cedars in the world's only inland rainforest in Glacier National Park and Revelstoke National Park. Top it off with an incredible Christmas present from my Mom and Dad - a night at the incredibly situated Heather Mountain Lodge, looking over the Rogers Pass! A hot bath, after this many days in the trailer, would have been an amazing present even if it wasn't at the top of the world, but this view is amazing too!!

Yoho!! National Park

Apparently Yoho is a Cree word for amazement - we felt very high brow speaking Cree, and found ways to insert into most sentences today!

Another amazing day of seeing all sorts of famous bucket list type places - Takkakaw Falls (one of the highest waterfalls in our darn gorgeous nation), the Spiral Tunnels (arguably the most amazing fest of train engineering in our vast nation) and Emerald Lake (possibly the greenest lake in our gloriously colourful nation). The government should pay me - I'm like a walking public service announcement for Parks Canada!

I have to admit, we are starting to worry we are going to go a little numb to seeing inspiring sites. That's why we try to offset them with endless uninspiring gift shops...

Mountain Awe - Drove the Icefields Parkway today from Jasper down to Lake Louise to start the next leg of our trip

Family Time

With apologies for the weird blurry pictures, the only way I seem to get upload success is by taking pictures of my computer screen once I've offloaded them to the laptop. It gives a rough idea...

Also, re: the animal photos in the last post, Mom, I promise I never left my vehicle, they're all taken from the passenger seat!

Wildlife in Jasper (aka Holy Cow!!! Rob!!! Pull over! Pull over! Pull over!)

Jasper

I've fallen behind more quickly than I thought I would - and life without wifi for a week now is certainly an adjustment (so picture upload seems to be working only rarely) BUT Jasper is gorgeous. Hopefully you don't have to take my word for it and I get some pics up soon.

We've seen 4 different black bear, 1 wapiti (elk), 3 mule deer, prairie dogs, 2 baby eagles, and a gaggle of mountain goats (we think - they were in a car park !?! but we were going full speed in the other direction with 27 feet of "let's not stop on a dime" hitched to our bumper at the time). Camping rules clearly dictate that every child earns a cookie for each wildlife sighting (many exclusions and exceptions apply), so our primary diet since arriving in Jasper has been Oreo.

Happy Solstice

10:08 and there's a little pink in the sky over our Jasper campsite - happy solstice everybody, (1 day late, enh, we're finally relaxing into vacation mode)!

The West Ed

We've had  two wonderful days exploring the West Edmonton Mall (ok, not everything, but everything the pocketbook would allow!

We had a blast in the waterpark Wednesday, even riding a waterslide where you stood on a platform and then the floor dropped out from under your feet and you free fell until a loopde loop slowed you down. I'm assuming there's a little pee in that water. Brendan intelligently opted out of that one! In my defense, I didn't realize that was how it worked until I climbed into it. Minus 1 preplanning point.

Yesterday we did the aquarium, sea lion show (the star was named Quinte - memories of home!!), the amusement park and shopping (of course). Inexplicably, Captain Consumer (Harrison) was the only child who didn't find something to spend his precious Out West money on!  A very exciting day. Rob and I even survived the world's largest indoor triple loop roller coaster! It pulls the 3rd highest G's in the world, which would explain why I started to black out halfway through the second loop! All's well that ends well, but I'm giving g myself another -1 preplanning point for not knowing about the 3rd place G's  till I googled it this morning!

Flight to Calgary

Brendan and I had a great, uneventful flight to Calgary. I love Ottawa Airport, what a quiet, calm way to start our trip!  For his birthday, we celebrated with obscenely an large Booster Juice and Starbucks.

We've had a wonderful 2 days visiting with Aunts, Uncles and Cousins here in Calgary. We visited Heritage Park (like Upper Canada Village, in the 1920s, with a Midway, Steam Train and working motor cars!) yesterday, and are heading up to the West Edmonton Mall this morning!

Photos won't attach, sorry!

Ready to fly

I have repacked for the final time, I hope!

Brendan and I are ready to fly - out west here we come! - Happy birthday Brendan, this should be a memorable one!!

Sunset on the prairies

Welcome to Saskatchewan

Wide open spaces!

Park hopping

The Provincial and National park list tally is already at 6 for Heidi and Harrison and Rob, after yesterday's stop at Riding mountain NP in Manitoba. A less eventful day for them today as they celebrate Father's Day by driving across the prairies to Swift Current Saskatchewan. Rob's highlight - Starbucks in Regina, the twins highlight - first prairie dog!!

Riding Mountain National Park

Our week in Lonsdale

It's been a great week in Lonsdale, just Brendan and I hanging out. He has tried very hard to talk to me, to fill the otherwise deafening silence in our house. Monday night we went to the National Air Force Museum in Trenton and visited the WWII Bombers and Cessnas and visited the local truck stop. Tuesday we got out all his model train layout stuff and took over the basement. Wednesday was a very exciting day; I was vibrating with pride as Brendan was surprised at a school assembly with the Township award for literacy for a student from each school who demonstrates a passion for reading! I took him out for dinner to celebrate, and to spend his prize Chapters gift card. Cause when it's just the 2 of us, you can just go do that. No plan, no nothing! Thursday night we cleaned up the house for Danielle and got ready for Brendan's track meet today, where he was representing his school in Standing Broad Jump! A very exciting week. We have officially departed now, and are heading up on the VIA train (Brendan's first since he was itty bitty) to Ottawa to celebrate Brendan's birthday at my brother's before flying to Calgary to meet the rest of the gang on Monday! See you there! 

Manitoba!

A message from Rob at 11:51am: Manitoba!! Got tires this morning, went super smooth. Life is good!!

It sounds like he's back on track after a stressful day yesterday which ended with staying an unplanned campground closer to Kenora, and then a mysterious rapid wearing out of the trailer tires. Places he does not want a flat tire; 1. Northern Ontario 2. Saskatchewan 3. Anywhere in between!

Manitoba!

A message from Rob at 11:51am: Manitoba!! Got tires this morning, went super smooth. Life is good!!

It sounds like he's back on track comma after a stressful day yesterday which ended with staying an unplanned Campground closer to Kenora, and then a mysterious rapid wearing out of the trailer tires. Places he does not want a flat tire; 1. Northern Ontario 2. Saskatchewan 3. Anywhere in between!

Another 500 km, another gorgeous Ontario waterfall

Small miscommunication apparently and Rob and family are staying at Rushing River Provincial Park, instead of Sioux Narrows! It still looks beautiful!

Kakabeka Falls, passing through Thunder Bay now!

Overcoming adversity

After the heart breaking discovery that his extension cord was non functional, did our hero Rob give up on his morning coffee? Did he let a little thing like an electrical post buried 30 feet in the woods get in his way? Of course not. Like any good Canadian, he overcame adversity, he hiked down to the ranger station, borrowed a spare extension cord from the kindly ranger, and laboriously set up a Tassimo station in the middle of the Northern Ontario woods. So he could enjoy his morning coffee. Because coffee matters, gosh darn it. 

He said it was delicious.

Sleeping Giant Provincial Park

The Giant, sleeping on its side. Kind of like     Tefiti in the Moana movie, except with blackflies.

Another rock formation called The Lion (apparently it's a long story).

A deer on the side of the road, on the walk to the playground. Totally uninterested in humans.

Driving to Sleeping Giant

Another full days drive up to Sleeping Giant Provincial Park, just east of Thunder Bay - a huge item on Rob's life list.

Impromptu Provincial Parks Visited - 1 (Rainbow Falls)
Moose Spotted - 1
Bears Spotted - 1
Foxes Hiding Under Truck - 1
Extension Cords Working - 0

A day full of unexpected adventures - they did a hike to the Rainbow Falls, saw a bunch of wildlife on the drive, then surprised a fox under the truck in the campsite after coming back from an exploratory bike ride! The extension cord suddenly decided to stop working however, rendering it a non electric camping experience. Can't win em all.

Rainbow Falls

Lake Superior Provincial Park

A day to recover and explore the rocky Lake Superior shoreline.

Highlight of the trip so far - gorgeous rocks and trees.

Lowlight - $ 1.48 a litre for diesel. Ugh. Rob's first fill up for the trip cost over $200. Is it too late to change our minds about this whole crazy driving across Canada idea?

Lake Superior Provincial Park

The Great Western Road Trip

And they're off!

It's finally here; after 15 months of planning, the great "Out West" Road Trip has begun!

Blaze has gone to Port Stanley to spend the next 2 months at a fully accessible arctic air conditioned "spa" for elderly pets (run by my parents - thank you!).

Rob and the twins and Bob and Gail have headed off across Canada with the truck and travel trailer for the first leg of the adventure. (Thank you to Mike and Tara for letting us all use Barrie this weekend as a wonderful launching point for this epic undertaking!)

Brendan and I are hanging back for an extra week of income and education here at home and then will take the train up to Ottawa and fly out to Calgary to meet the rest of the family (Thank you John and Betty for shuttling us around Ottawa and hosting us!)

Then our wonderful friend Danielle will move in to care for the house and lawn and we'll be foot loose and fancy free. I hope!

We have 60 days of exploring, camping, hiking and biking planned and an itinerary that will take us up to the West Edmonton Mall, Jasper, Lake Louise, Yoho, Revelstoke, The Kootenays, Banff for Canada Day, Canmore, Drumheller for the dinosaurs, Calgary for the Stampede, Waterton National Park, Glacier National Park, Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons, Bighorn Mountains, Mount Rushmore, the Badlands and Chicago. I'm exhausted just thinking about it. But I'm glad it's started, and I'm going to try to update when I can. I'm notoriously awkward with technology and when I tried to maintain this blog on our Grand Canyon trip the photos and the wifi conspired to make me want to throw the computer out the window, so no promises I'll be able to make it all work. But fingers crossed, I'll give it a try!

Here's to life on the road!

Make plans, but don't plan on your plans

Just to mess with my carefully, some would say obsessively planned Moment by moment itinerary for the next 60 days, poor Heidi fell and trashed her knee so thoroughly that it required 4 stitches on Thursday night.

I was a calm, cool, exclusively concerned mother in the ER, until the ER doc casually mentioned the stitches would have to be removed in 7 to 10 days. I don't have room in the itinerary for stitch removal in Saskatchewan (where she will be in 7 to 10 days!!!). Ugh. I hate having to adapt.

In happier news, she is healing like a champ and making us very proud of what a tough cookie she is!

Home away from home

The trailer is packed (except for last minute laundry and the kettle) and I have officially spiralled into a previously unknown level of packing and planning hyperanxiety.

Last night I opened the bathroom cabinet that I had spent two hours obsessively organizing the night before and felt like I had been cast in Sleeping With The Enemy (you know, the movie where Julia Roberts knows the creepy over-controlling husband has found her because all her pantry items are lined up straight). The problem is I'm both Julia Roberts AND the creepy over controlling husband!

Rob and the twins and the trailer leave tomorrow. After that I will have no choice but to relax. I hope. Brendon and I will remain at home for another week of school and work and then fly out to Calgary to meet the Cross Canada drivers.

The countdown clock on my phone says 21 hours till departure, ahhhh!

Home Sweet Home - the picture

So, in classic tech dinosaur form I couldn't attach pictures to the last post, so here is a picture of our home away from home for the next 60 days. Cozy! 27 feet of family bliss and perfect working components, knock on wood, ha!