Bears, canyons & casinos

 October 30/2014
We discovered Yellowstone Bear World quite by accident, but enjoyed it immensely. It is a drive thru nature park, not associated with Yellowstone, where you can get up close & personal with deer, white elk, bison,mountain goats, a moose, wolves, strange chickens & over 45 bears! Of course you are supposed to always keep your windows up as these are wild animals, we were reminded of this fact only twice! There was an low electric fence between the grizzlies & our car, but otherwise the animals were able to come right up to us - one bear tried to bite my bike tire a couple times!(bikes are on the bike rack, we aren't that crazy to do this on bikes) There was a petting zoo with a young deer with a taste for people's clothing which he happily tried to chew, my shirt included. You could bottle feed the bear cubs or just watch their antics. A pleasant morning out.

We stopped for a soak in Lava Hot Springs, a bit warm - 104-112F. We couldn't get over the speed limit in Idaho - 80MPH! We stopped for flu shots at Costco in Salt Lake City, which Robin grudgingly agreed to, then he proceeded to have quite an unpleasant reaction. Won't be getting one next year! He's fine, by the way.

The US is actually behind us in a few ways - they don't take Mastercard yet at Costco, they don't know what a "chip reader" is, but the gas is only $2.81/gallon  here in Arizona.

We found a great RV park with full hook-ups & WiFi for $15/night near Bryce Canyon, quite the improvement over Walmart parking lots. We spent 2 days hiking & touring in Bryce Canyon & Red Canyon, amazing scenery. I filled my 16G camera card there, obviously taking a lot of pictures! We woke to a frozen water hose the day we left & by afternoon when we arrived in Mesquite, Nevada it was 30C!

We stopped at Moqui Cave along the way, a huge natural cave turned museum.It was used as a bar & dance hall, then a teen party place & now "cleaned up" for tourists. Everything from old movie memorabilia (westerns filmed nearby) to dinosaur tracks to fluorescent rocks to Mormon history.

We spent 3 nights in Mesquite at the Casa Blanca Casino - great RV area under shade trees, we had a pomegranate hedge beside us! I blew $25 in the slots but it was a nice escape from the 30C temperature, we still aren't used to it.

We drove thru the Virgin River gorge, downhill for 11 miles with steep canyon walls, glad we won't be heading north that way. Some good hiking along the river & in the desert, saw signs to watch out for tortoises but none spotted. Bought myself a pair of good hiking boots, all set now!

Onward to Las Vegas - we got around on the local buses (yes we are still cheap), went up & down the Strip & to Freemont Street. Still the "strange sights" - everything from a contortionist to Michael Jackson to people zip-lining above the crowd to the balloon guy. Even stranger are the people who dress up (or forget to get dressed) to entice you to tip them for the "honor" of taking a photo with them - the KISS guy in the G-string & 6 inch heels, a woman with the "world's largest breasts", typical showgirls with the feathers, girls in short skirts with band-aids over their nipples (honestly all they had on) & girls with G-strings & body paint everywhere else. All this & it's not even Halloween!

We had to check out Ethel M's Chocolate Factory ( of course the free samples drew us in) but we were surprised at how much is done by hand. They had a huge table of nut brittle & they were hand packing Valentine chocolates. They also make M&M's, every color imaginable, even a birthday cake flavor. Overhead were planes headed for Vegas, an average of one every 2 minutes!

We haven't stuck it rich yet, not really trying, too "cost conscious". Our luck is with us, though. we noticed a screw in the car tire, not even low yet so we headed straight to Costco where they had us on our way in just over an hour & no cost!

We are now settled in an RV resort in Bullhead City, Arizona for a week - complete with pool, hot tub & gym. We are parked on the hill overlooking the Colorado River & the lights of Laughlin - casinos & buffets await! The weather is hot, 27-30C with not much cooling at night, but we are very happy to have no snow. We had a lovely visit with some friends from Penticton yesterday, hope to catch up with folks from Vegreville as well.

Still Lovin it!

Southward Bound 2014

We leave this year with mixed feelings: excited to be off on new adventures but sad to leave our family.
We left Oct. 14/2014 heading south down Hiway 36, a stress free route seeing horses ,cows, antelope & geese. We spent our first night in Hanna & got our first look at sugar beets & the Rogers sugar plant.

 Crossing the border was incident free, just confiscated my grapes as I could not prove country of origin. Beautiful fall colors, good hiway & we arrived at another Walmart "camping spot" in Butte, Montana. Butte was the site of a huge copper mine earning it the title "richest hill on earth" as 20 billion tons of copper were removed from several mines. The old part of the city, built on the hill is full of old brick homes & businesses, quite the sight.

Onwards to Ennis, Montana, our base for exploring the area. This time a full service RV park, much appreciated as the temp. was -5 in the morning. We drove to nearby Virginia City & Nevada City, two old "almost" ghost towns from the gold & silver mining days of the late 1800's. More old building, wood this time & of course more pictures.

The highlight of this area, of course, is Yellowstone National Park. We headed out at sun-up & spent the day in awe of the beauty of the place. This is definitely a "bucket list" destination!
We toured the Old Faithful & Norris Geyser basins (caught 2 eruptions of Old Faithful) and the Mammoth Hotsprings & terraces. Each unique & amazing - geysers, hot springs, mudpots & fumaroles. Colorful, noisy (bubbling, hissing, gurgling), & sometimes smelly. We restrained ourselves & only took 300 pictures! We also saw wildlife - bison, elk, antelope & Canada geese. There were more tourists than we expected, but better I'm sure than summertime. We stayed so long that we had to drive back to the RV in the dark, breaking one of our "rules" but it was worth every minute!

We are off to Idaho today, meandering along the way & always enjoying life.
Still Living the Dream!

Alaskan Cruise Adventure

Our Alaskan cruise adventure was a great one, we are no longer cruise virgins!
We sailed from Vancouver with Holland America on the Zuiderdam - 1916 guests & 823 crew, a "mid-sized" ship. Eleven passenger decks, eight bars, five places to eat, an art gallery, a movie theater, shops, etc!

Overall a good time - our cabin was sufficiently spacious - a king bed, lots of closets, a mini fridge, plus a full bathroom with tub/shower & a cute little balcony. We ate in the buffet for most breakfasts & lunches, so many choices & great food. Dinners were in the dining room with full menus, sitting with different folks each time. Lots of variety & tried several new foods. We even went to Afternoon Tea one day. Entertainment was varied, from a hilarious comedian to a "dated" ventriloquist to singers & dancers in a large production. We didn't love the fact they there was always an "opportunity" to spend more money on the ship - jewelry, art, souvenirs, spa, etc. We did check out one art auction, truly just for the free champagne, didn't splurge on anything. We worried about Robin getting seasick, he was fine, I felt woozy in the head on a couple of days - we actually had to hang on while in the shower one morning & people walking in the corridors that day looked like staggering drunks! Generally you knew that there was motion but it wasn't an issue.

We cruised thru the Inside Passage both directions, quite close to shore, looked in vain for wildlife, did see beautiful scenery.

Our first port was Juneau, Alaska where we went gold panning at a creek - lots of fun & yes we brought home over a dozen flakes each. Our best shore excursion was a float plane trip over 5 glaciers, amazing views, so blue & vast! Everyone had a window seat, maybe 10 people with commentary over headphones. Another first for us.

Next stop was Skagway, an old gold mining town on the trip north to Dawson City. We took a bus up & over the White Pass, where miners carried (on their backs) a full years worth of supplies, 2000 lbs. over the pass taking many, many trips. Amazing stories. We traveled from Alaska, thru BC & into the Yukon where we stopped for a barbecue, checked out a museum that included a full size wooly mammoth & met sled dog puppies. For the trip back down we boarded the White Pass & Yukon train, riding in restored coaches, pulled by vintage Diesel engines. We stood on the platform between the cars taking photos & enjoying the spectacular scenery!

We then spent a full day cruising around Glacier Bay National park watching huge chunks of ice crash into the sea, listening to the rumbling & cracking & being amazed by the waves they created. Being that close to glaciers was fabulous!

We were lucky to sea a variety of ocean creatures - many humpback whales, orcas, sea otters, seals & bald eagles. Between our camera & the iPad we have hundreds of pictures & video.
Our last port was Ketchikan, we wandered around in the pouring rain, checking out the shops & Creek Street - built on stilts over a river, once home to the red light district.

We celebrated Robin's birthday on board, complete with cake & a song from the waiters in ?? Indonesian.

We met some wonderful people on board the ship, enjoyed being pampered & will definitely book another cruise in the future.
Our trip driving to Vancouver was great as we stopped to visit with old friends in Penticton & snuck a peak thru the fence at our old house ( the rhubarb was 4 ft tall).
Our trip home along Hiway 3 was very scenic, but a bit slow as it's very windy. Once we turned east it was another case of " the horse to the barn" & we were home in 2 days. Good to be back, busy gardening & still getting settled as we seem to not have been home much since we moved!
Still living the dream, thinking about our next adventure.