17 September, Hershey, PA

We are beaconing !!!

On the road again!!! We are on the last leg and month of our 6 month journey. We left at 0950 yesterday and headed the short 70 miles to Hershey, PA to attend the Pleasureway RV get together at the show. We have 47 Pleasureways here at the RV park and a lot of fun. We were greeted with rain as we got to the RV show, but it did not dampen our spirits, knowing that we need it badly.

We leave here on Monday, headed north to visit family and friends in New England and to attend the Coast Guard Tug reunion in Rockland the last weekend in September. From there, we will be heading north to Bar Harbor, ME to visit friends, from there home and to take in the fall foliage en route. Stay tuned for hopefully some great photos of fall coverage.

Brief Interlude

Once we left Gales camp we made a long, fast trip back into the states and towards home.  We arrived home without incident and because we had turned the water and gas  off and the house was as hot as an oven we opted to spend the first night with Sarah and her family. We got to her house before the boys were out of school. Sarah drove us first to Jake's school where she got him out of class @ 10 minutes early. When he first came down the hall he didn't see us and asked Sarah why she had come to get him. He then saw Garry and I. He got the most quizzical look on his face and said "Nana??" He couldn't believe we were actually standing there. Then he got the biggest grin and gave us both long hugs and scolded me for being gone too long. Then it was off to pick up Brandan where the same scenario was repeated.
I was so happy to see them. Jake has grown 3 inches I think.  We spent the night there and then got to our house the next morning. It was weird being in so much space again. We couldn't remember where some of the light switches were or how the coffee maker worked. I am trying to overlook thge weed infested, dead garden and lawn.  We off loaded a lot of stuff from the camper as we don't think we will need it for the next leg of our trip.  We had the boys over for a sleep over on Saturday night. Monday we started working on all the items we had on our list - oil change fror the camper, banking issues, registration for ALL our vehicles, etc. We then headed down to see my step mom in Virginia for a few days, We just got back today and the day after tomorrow we leave again for the last planned month of this adventure. 
Our first stop will be in Hershey, PA where we are meeting up with 30+ owners of other PleasureWays for a rally that also coincides with the Hershey RV show. Then on to Massachusetts to see Michael, Karen and the our other 2 grandsons.
We will update this as we go.

Home - Briefly

Gales camp on the lake.

Camp cabin

We had a wonderful and restful time at Gales. It had been 26 years since I had last been to the family camp. I was so pleased that it hadn't been changed much at all. Garry and I felt like WE were at camp albeit an adult one. No counselors blowing whistles at 6 AM! Peace and quiet and darkness at night! Wonderful. I don't know what it is but when Gale and I are together it is like we are indeed 5 years old again. Such laughter and carrying on and this time Garry got dragged into the middle of it all.

Gales' mother was there also. She looks great for 96!

We look GREAT for our age !!! (Which shall remain unspecified!)

I could live on that porch!

"Mom" Siegfried with her girls.



After we left gales we decided to push towards home. We had planned to do some sightseeing but after experiencing the prices in Canada the thought of having a few days at home sounded like a better idea. As it was also the beginning of Labor Day w/e we really pushed. We crossed the border for the 10th and last time at Thousand Islands. We did stop at their Observation Tower and I got some nice pictures.

Arrived home Friday afternoon and went over to Sarah's. We  hadn't turn on the A/C and the house was HOT and we didn't have any  food in the house so we are spending the night with them. Sarah took us to pick up the boys at their schools. Both of them came out of their classrooms and when they saw us they questioned "Nana??" It was as thought they were shocked that I was actually standing there after being away for so long. They both were tugging on me at once wanting to show me different things. I was exhausted when we finally got them into bed that night.

We are now back in the house. We have been away long enough that we can't remember som ethings like where is a certain light switch or the fact that we now have access to a dishwasher.  We are slowly doing much needed yard work. My gardens are a disaster and our lawn is nonexistence as there hasn't been any rain and the temps have been in the 90's - 100 this summer. We are cutting everything back and preparing for the winter.  I haven't even begun to clean the house yet.

We are leaving again for a month on the n15th of September. We still have a Pleasure-Way reunion to attend; a long visit with Michael, Karen and those grandsons; a Coast Guard Tug Reunion in Rockland, Me for Garry and a visit in bar Harbor with some friends. We are hoping to see a nice fall up in Maine. We should be back here again the iddle of October. The end of our trip in the camper. We hit 14,161 miles when we hit our driveway on Friday.

Ontario, Canada - August 29

We are Beaconing again in Canada. Check out where we are!!!


This part of our trip has been very uninteresting and boring. FLAT and lots of wind. We crossed into Minnesota and were able to see Lake Superior. Very blue. We crossed over the Mississippi River again and again found a casino with electric to stay overnight at. This time I lost $ 2.00. I should have gone for dessert again. We were so glad to have electric because it has gotten very hot and we were glad to be plugged in with A/C.
Saturday we pushed on another 350+ miles. We did see 5 Turkeys on the side of the road.  Wildlife again. Lots of lakes and every time we pass one I am still looking for Moose or Bears. At 8:26 AM we crossed into Michigan.  At 2:45 PM we hit 13,000 miles. At 4:15 we crossed the border into Canada again at Sault Sant Marie. Then we went to get gas and it was $ 4.16 / gal as opposed to the $ 2.80/gal  we paid the day before in Wisconsin.  We spent last night in a Community Park in Bruce Mines. Pretty rinky dink and the showers were gross so we didn't even use them.

But today we had a tail wind and made it to Huntsville, Ontario. Tomorrow we are meeting with another friend of mine who I have known since kindergarden at the age of 5. I haven't seen Gale in 6 - 7 years and the last time I was at her family's camp  was 26 years ago. We are only about 30 miles away so we will be there mid morning tomorrow. We plan on staying until Friday when we will head back down to the states.  We also look forward to NOT driving  for 4 days. Hopefully we will have some photos to share  shortly.

Grand Fork, N.D.

We left the Rockies and  visited Calgary and  the 1988 Olympic Winter Park.

Carol rode the chair lift to the top and Garry went with Gail in her motorhome as they  drove to the top. Carol decided to go to the top of the High Ski Jump and look at the view.

We also got a close up look at the bobsled and luge slide. After a birthday dinner at a Great Japanese resturant for Gail's 65th BD, we headed to a casino to spend the night. In the morning, we left Gail and  headed across the plains of Alberta and headed up to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. We spent the night at The Dakota Dodge Falls Casino outside of town that had free parking with electric hookup. What a deal. I didn't put any money in the slots here but we did go have a dessert and coffee.  I think I came out ahead this time. We then had a very long day of driving but crossed over the Canada/US border about 7:30 that night. 10 miles down the road we had cell signals again. We spent yesterday (Aug 26) crossing N.D. Flat land, many gas pipelines and cows. 

We did make a quick stop in Rugby, N.D. which is the geographical center of North America. (U.S., Canada and Mexico) Seemed like an odd thing but  there it is.
When we stopped for gas  it was $ 2.64 per gallon. Last night we were at the Air Force Base family Camp outside of Grand Forks. Our wonderful NPS Golden Age pass got us a full hook up for $6.00. My wallet is feeling much happier now.

August 23- Canmore, Alberta, Canada

BEACONING IS WORKING AGAIN!

We have departed Baniff after a three day stay in this beautiful city nestled between two mountains that actually rise straight up from downtown.  We made a visit to the Banff Springs Fairmont hotel and used our Presidents Club card to access the internet. We  hiked to the HooDoos, which is what they call irregularly shaped spires made from the sandstone of the mountains.   We ended up with some rain yesterday which not only   cleared out a lot of the smoke from the B.C. fires ( Good News) but  it also created a Hail storm in calgary where we were headed to. (Bad News) The rain kept us from some of the activities we had planned but we enjoyed the day of liesure after our hour and half walk to the HooDoo's.

We are now in Calgary where we spent the afternoon touring the site of the 1988 Olympic Village. We got up close and personal to the Bobsled/ Luge tracks and the Ski Jumps. WOW! This is our last night with my friend gail. She is heading South tomorrow and we are heading NorthEast towards Sakatoon.

We will update this with pictures when we can get them downloaded.

Jasper - August 16

August 16 - We spent the day touring Jasper. The fires in British Columbia have sent smoke drifting this way so there is a haze everywhere and it is difficult to see the mountains. We drove out to maligne canyon. Gorgeous narrow, deep canyon with a river and waterfalls. 

River in the gorge

Rainbow in the mist from the Waterfall

We saw bighorn sheep on the road and stopped to get a picture with them. Fun. There are many lakes in this area. they have the most beautiful Turquoise color.

Mother and her kid.

Up close to Sheep.

We stopped at a gift shop out at Medicine Lake. I looked up at the clock and realized that Alberta was an hour later than our clocks were set for. We hadn't realized when we crossed the border that we needed to move watches ahead. Yikes. we had been an hour behind for 2 days! we also were suppose to be at the Visitor Center in Jasper at 4 in the hopes that my friend Gail would have made it to Jasper so that we could meet up with her. It has been difficult communicating because of lavk of cell phones and difficulty finding internet. ( Thus the lack of blog updates too) It was now actually 3:30 not 2:30 as we thought and we hurried back to town.

As in the old days we had been leaving notes for Gail at both the Visitor Center and at whatever campground we were going into at night so she could find us. When i checked back at the Visitor Center my note was Gone! Hooray she is here. We drove out to the Campground and were so happy to finally see her.

We spent that night at Whistlers CG and after dinner a small herd of Elk munched and strolled their way right past our camp sites. What a great way for Gail to start her trip with us.

One of many Elk we saw.

Salmon dinner  at the campground.

The next day  (Aug 17) we got a leisurely start and drove out to exploe and walk around some lakes.  We athen drove out to the Jasper lake Lodge. VERY posh. We had thought to get a cup of coffee there but as it was way past lunch time we decided to order lunch. What a mistake. Garry and I both ordered a bowl of soup. When served the waitress put a very shallow bowl in front of us - Garry had 2 noodles, a couple of bites of chicken, a speck of onion and some spices. I was given a shallow bowl with 1 totrilla chip, a couple pieces of corn and 2 bites of chicken. WHAT???????????????????????? I said to the waitress that I thought we were getting soup. She then poured the broth into Garry's bowl and the Chowder liquid into mine. What an odd way to present it especially as it didn't consisit of much when all was said and done. Good soup but we each only had about 10 spoonfuls and the bill came to $ 25.00. Welcome to the Fairmont Jasper Lodge.

Interestingly enough during all of this my friend Gail ( she did a lot of business traveling with IBM) has quietly asked about internet access. She comes back to the table with applications for us to join The Presidents Club at the Fairmont. No cost and we can get WIFI at any of the Fairmonts. So while we can't afford to eat here we can get WIFI free. WoHoo.  We hadn't brought our computer along so we will go on line another day.

We drove out to our campsite at Pocohontas. We grilled out using Gail's small grill, played cards until 11:00 and crashed.