Yukon 7/24

Fort Nelson 7/23

Well at least I know I am on the right road now.

Today's drive wasn't as beautiful as some, mostly forest from Grand Prairie Alberta to Fort Nelson British Columbia. Somewhat eventful though with a cracked windshield from one of the many trucks sharing the road with us. Also almost hit a small surprised coyote who looked like it was seeing the road for the first time. This area is really remote forest as far as the eye can see and pretty hilly. I had the crack repaired and I doubt it will be the last time I have this problem.
 

Jasper and beyond 7/22

Ok it was a late twilight yesterday so I never got to my blog, the sun didn't set until 10:00 which is hard to get used to. Drinks on the patio lasted way to long. We spent the night in Jasper Alberta after driving up one of the most spectacular valleys stopping at Lake Louise along with the Athabasca Falls. Got too see some wild life mountain sheep, a small grizzly, a black bear, elk, and lots of pika.

The Parks were very crowded but this was the most beautiful traffic jam I've ever been in.

I liked Jasper better than Banff it just seem more down to earth less touristy but both parks were amazing.

Today we left the mountains to keep heading north but not before we took a quick detour to Pyramid and Patricia Lakes.

And on we went.

The car was running pretty rough the last couple days before had the fuel filter changed and it's running great again

 

 

Banff 7/20

As interesting as traveling across the Canadian plains was it is great to reach the Rockies 

We drove up through the Rocky Mountain trench west of the continenta divide. We started in the plains town of Lethbridge Alberta drove west bypassing the typical route through Calgary and then north the next valley over. The back east to Banff 

One of the most interesting things we saw was a couple bridges for wildlife to move over the main highway safety. I have heard if these but nice to see them for real. Something for the US to use to expand habitat. 

Banff is beautiful but the town itself is an over crowded tourist destination I am ready to leave already. Looking forward to the park and Jasper.
 By the way l'm going to give the thumbs down on our hotel the Banff International Hotel Beth,spend more money on this than any other place and it's been the worst hotel yet

 
 

 

Lethbridge Alberta

Ok we streaked across Saskatchewan today to Lethbridge, Alberta with some quick detours. Good visuals in this giant sky country 

Grand or fun

Here we are

 
 

 

 

Manitoba 7/18

First Day with Beth as my passenger. Had a great drive across Manitoba by the rapeseed and flaxseed fields beautiful purples and yellows, stopped in Portag

e de Prairie to check out a small prairie town and a good example of a oxbow lake. To our surprise we found white pelicans swimming around, I guess they winter in Canada from Florida. We finished our day driving by arriving in Regina Saskatchewan and had a great dinner at La Bodega. This is where I love the Internet you can find good restaurants when you're a stranger in town.

 

 

Canada July 17

I left Grand Forks in the morning and headed north. I reached the border within an hour, the border patrol was very nice but after questioning me about possible weapons I asked about my taser. He promptly confiscated it. 

So off I went into hopefully a safe Canada and met up with cousin Beth in Winnipeg. She had us booked into the Fort Garry hotel for my second stay there. We stopped in at the Winnipeg Art Gallery where Oviloo Tunnillie, an Inuit artist, had an amazing exhibit of a women story in stone. 

 

 

Minnesota to North Dakota 7/16

I left Minneapolis early Saturday morning and took secondary roads north until I reach the headwaters of the Mississippi.

Kind of funny at this point. 

 

Fun traveling story, at one point I had noticed I had received a number of texts so I pulled over and turned on my flashers, well a few minutes later someone was knocking on my window and I looked up to see a Minnesota state cop. He asked if I had a problem and I said I had just pulled over to answer some texts, he smiled, reached in my car and shook my hand and thanked me for pulling over, I think I made his day.

 

Minneapolis

No pictures from Minneapolis yet, but I see why people rave about this part of the country even with it's crappy cold winters.I had a very good comprehensive tour with my transplanted home town friend. It was so good to catch back up after twenty some years, at the same time, seeing a new place through the eyes of a local but with similar sensibilities that I grew up with.

The main reason I came to Minneapolis was to see some old family friends and it has been a ton of fun catching back up with Susan and Richard Prince and their partners haven't seen them in 20 some years. 

Another thing is I'm finding the trees and other greenery changing considerably since the Appalachians. The gradual change is why I like driving.

 

aztalan

Very cool native mounds in south eastern Wisconsin 
 The sign is the states official story but I've been told that they basically got it all wrong, since I can't remember the proper story we will have start there.

 

 

 

Kenosha

Had a real nice sail yesterday out on Lake Michigan on the Neewin a 26 ft Contessa with captain Anne

 

trump in Chicago

I have heard that there's going to be demonstrations in front of the Trump tower today in Chicago I find it strange that they were going to protest a man that is nothing but a citizen just vote against the idiot. Support black lives matter that is more important right now.

 

the trip

 

My starting place is in our home Raleigh. I left Saturday for the start of my trip. I plan to meander my way from Raleigh to Prudhoe Bay Alaska with various friends and family. This being the most northern spot in North America I can make it to in my 2004 TDI VW Jetta. From there I'm going to turn south and head all the way to Tierra del Fuego. This is been a dream trip of mine for the last 25 years when I met a couple doing this on motorcycles. The original dream was to do it on my own motorcycle but reality has stepped in a bit and I'm going to do it in the car. 

My first day I left Raleigh and headed for Knoxville with Jo as my first passenger. We stopped for lunch in Boone at Vidalia where Jo had a killer tomato pie. We wound our way into Tennessee on back roads where we were amazed to pass tons of downed and damaged trees from a strong storm the night before. We arrive early afternoon into Knoxville and had a chance to walk around the old section of the city and had a great time people watching and finding grand old buildings and good public art.

 Day 2; Left Knoxville into the hills of Kentucky on a pretty drive to the Makers Mark Distillery we had fun tasting and wandering around the beautiful grounds of the Samuel's family. We tried to make it to Jim Beam's Distillery in time for a tour there but we were a little late so we moved on to Louisville for a late lunch at the Holy Grale where Jo had the best fresh green bean salad and I had shiitake sliders with some beers from their interesting  draught beer list. We finally stopped for the night in Columbus Indiana which turned out to be a very cool little town.

 , 

Day three and four Chicago staying in the Warwick and enjoying the great second city.
 
Kenosha, went sailing on the Neewin a Contessa 26 in Lake Michigan good wind and Captain Anne showed us how it's done on fresh water 

 
 

Knoxville

 First night in Knoxville, bar hopping with Jo on Gay Street  

 

Great breakfast place
 

Boone for lunch

Lunch at Vidalia in Boone 
 

heading out

OK leaving Raleigh today just another 35,000 miles and two continents  await. 

 

leaving tomorrow

I think it's all going to fit?
 

the journey

Just a couple weeks away, starting to pack things up and getting the last check up at Apex Tuning. 

My starting place Oak Island NC
 

Actually my real starting place is in our home Raleigh. I'll be leaving Saturday for the start of my trip. I plan to meander my way from Raleigh to Prudhoe Bay Alaska with various friends and family. This being the most northern spot in North America I can make it to in my 2004 TDI VW Jetta. From there I'm going to turn south and head all the way to Tierra del Fuego. This is been a dream trip of mine for the last 25 years when I met a couple doing this on motorcycles. The original dream was to do it on a motorcycle but reality ihas stepped in a bit and I'm going to do it in the car.