What a beautiful day!!!!!

I decided to take a detour to travel through Banff and the Canadian Rockies. At Banff I took a gondola to the top of one of the mountains. Beautiful scenery, and a family of mountain goats at the top. Driving through the mountains, at every turn I exclaimed to Skittles, "Look at that!! It's beautiful!!! Of course, she paid me no mind since she was in her normal seat under the couch, but I don't want you to think I was talking to myself. And animals - I saw so many I stopped pulling over to take pictures - big-horned sheep, mountain goats, moose, and a bear. What a day! I am so grateful I have this opportunity!!

Today I'm going to a hot springs. I never thought of these as something I wanted to do until Linda and I went to the Blue Lagoon in Iceland. I hope today's is half as nice. BTW, Linda, I found a new vacation trip for us - 6 day trip by horseback. Get your bedroll ready!

Out of the Country

I crossed the border today. The flooding is also in Canada. A number of campgrounds are flooded out. I found one near Regina, SK, which is open, but has huge puddles, depressions. And it's raining. I got stuck in a town today with lots of roads closed (under water), and couldn't find my way out. I was leaving because all the campgrounds close by were closed. I have seen some houses and businesses under water.

In the morning, I checked on the internet for Canada's specs on diesel gas, since I wanted to be sure I was buying low sulphur diesel, and then went to a nearby gas station to be sure they had it, and to get some Canadian money. When I left in my Focus, I drove down this road with huge muddy ruts. When I came back, I drove down a better road and through the drive-through site beside me, now empty, and made a turn on the grass. I thought driving on the grass would be safe, but NO. The grass was so full of water that I got stuck. A nice fellow beside me pushed me free. I left huge ruts in the grass. I've included a picture to the back of my site. The owner had a good attitude, saying, "It could be much worse".

Go west, old woman!!!

I've been on the road for a week now. I've been doing a lot of driving, and think I'm more than halfway to where I meet my caravan to travel to Alaska. I'm going by or near a number of places I visited, worked in, and/or lived in - Cleveland where I had 2 cars stolen, Chicago where I had a concussion and amnesia, South Dakota where we'd serve a cowboy's horse before we'd serve him. In South Dakota I went on my first and only cattle drive. I am now in Jamestown, North Dakota, home of the biggest buffalo in the world.

I spent an extra day in Westfield, NY on Lake Erie. I visited Erie, Lake Chataqua, a museum, art gallery and winery. I took the cat Skittles for a walk, pull, tug, carry, run, and then put up my feet and enjoyed the wine I bought. I also spent an extra day in the parking lot of a Peterbilt truck service area. I wish I had taken a picture of my RV in the middle of all those BIG RIGS. Peterbilt was the 10th place I called to get an oil change for my RV. They said they'd fit me in when they could. They worked 3 shifts. They charged me an arm and an ankle, and happened to put a hole in my fuse line too. I realized that when I started smelling diesel a day and a half later. I got that taken care of today by a really nice Dodge dealership in Fargo. So, I think I'm ready to cross the border.

I have been driving through very pretty country, through Wisconsin, Minnesota (pronounced with a Swedish accent) and North Dakota. They have had quite a bit of flooding. I've seen barriers built up on the sides of the road to keep the water off it, telephone poles and many trees in the water, and 1 farm sitting in the water - the house, the barn and the road into the property. Mother Nature can really be a bitch.