Sunday 26 August 2007
Bubble's sticker...
...is not stuck in properly because I want it for my Series IIA :) JU, will send you a proper pic of it in Alaska :)
Saturday 25 August 2007
A lesson in gearbox oils... and another change of plan!
Well, our trip to Land Rover Calgary didn't go quite as we'd hoped, but it wasn't all bad. The engine oil change was done no problem, but the gearbox oil...
I wanted it changed again as ever since we had it changed in Cape Cod, the gearchange has been a bit crunchy. I wasn't 100% satisfied that they'd put the correct oil in the box, so this time I made it completely clear that I wanted MTF94 oil. They came out having changed the oil and said they'd put 75/90 in as MTF94 isnt available in north America or Canada. Thanks to Dave Ashcroft at Ashcroft Transmissions, I knew that if MTF94 couldn't be found, then Dexron 3 would be ok to use, but EP75/90 or or EP80/90 should not be used. The technician at Land Rover had done his own investigations and found that Land Rover had released a technical bulletin about MTF94, but decided that the 75/90 would do the job as thats what they use here. I must admit, I do wonder how many gearboxes get changed here unneccessarily. We had a good old chit chat with the technician and I told him I wasn't happy with the oil he'd used as having seen the job card I realised that they had used the same oil as Cape Cod had used. So they agreed to put Dexron 3 in for us... and hey presto, smoother gear changes!
Anyway, while we were there we got talking to a chap called Rich, originally from York, who works there and is an avid Landy Fan. He organises off road jaunts into the Rockies for their customers and asked us if we'd like to tag along! Errrr... hello, is the pope even a smidgen catholic? Yes, we'd love to tag along thank you very much! So we are now back at the Travelodge as we need to be at Land Rover by 7:45am for our free breakfast :-)
I doubt that there will be any seriously strenuous off roading, after all most of the vehicles there will be shiny LR3's (Thats a Disco 3 to us), LR2's (Thats a Freelander) and Rangies, all very new, all very shiny, and probably all destined for a life of grocery store trips and school runs. But it will allow us to explore some tracks that we probably wouldn't find otherwise.
We'll report back as soon as we can with pics, but for now here's a couple from Glacier National Park.
A real life Glacier... although its getting smaller every year. They reckon in about 20-30 years time there will be none left here :-(
I apologise for this pic, Jen made me put it in... something to do with our good friend JU!
Nice weather we had!
I wanted it changed again as ever since we had it changed in Cape Cod, the gearchange has been a bit crunchy. I wasn't 100% satisfied that they'd put the correct oil in the box, so this time I made it completely clear that I wanted MTF94 oil. They came out having changed the oil and said they'd put 75/90 in as MTF94 isnt available in north America or Canada. Thanks to Dave Ashcroft at Ashcroft Transmissions, I knew that if MTF94 couldn't be found, then Dexron 3 would be ok to use, but EP75/90 or or EP80/90 should not be used. The technician at Land Rover had done his own investigations and found that Land Rover had released a technical bulletin about MTF94, but decided that the 75/90 would do the job as thats what they use here. I must admit, I do wonder how many gearboxes get changed here unneccessarily. We had a good old chit chat with the technician and I told him I wasn't happy with the oil he'd used as having seen the job card I realised that they had used the same oil as Cape Cod had used. So they agreed to put Dexron 3 in for us... and hey presto, smoother gear changes!
Anyway, while we were there we got talking to a chap called Rich, originally from York, who works there and is an avid Landy Fan. He organises off road jaunts into the Rockies for their customers and asked us if we'd like to tag along! Errrr... hello, is the pope even a smidgen catholic? Yes, we'd love to tag along thank you very much! So we are now back at the Travelodge as we need to be at Land Rover by 7:45am for our free breakfast :-)
I doubt that there will be any seriously strenuous off roading, after all most of the vehicles there will be shiny LR3's (Thats a Disco 3 to us), LR2's (Thats a Freelander) and Rangies, all very new, all very shiny, and probably all destined for a life of grocery store trips and school runs. But it will allow us to explore some tracks that we probably wouldn't find otherwise.
We'll report back as soon as we can with pics, but for now here's a couple from Glacier National Park.
A real life Glacier... although its getting smaller every year. They reckon in about 20-30 years time there will be none left here :-(
I apologise for this pic, Jen made me put it in... something to do with our good friend JU!
Nice weather we had!
...we may be gone some time...
Well, our relaxing is at an end, Calgary is a lovely city, huge gardens, a river and a good pub :) But we're off first thing in the morning to get Charlie's engine oil changed (again, we're racking up the miles!) and hopefully the gearbox oil if they decide they have the right fluid. Fingers crossed this'll ease the problems when the transmission is cold.
THEN we're off to Banff! We're going to get Dan's brakes changed around on his bike as his been over the handlebars twice already (hehe) and then we're planning to make best use of our new book: 'Backcountry biking in the Canadian Rockies' Wahoo! The book also mentions some off road 4x4 tracks, so fingers crossed Charlie'll be getting his wheels properly dirty... finally :)
However, we're not sure how many wifi spots we're going to find in the Rockies and there's a significant lack of KOA's (which is probably a good thing as we'd like to do some 'proper' back country camping) so if you don't hear from us for a while be safe in the knowledge we're just enjoying the Icefields Parkway and Banff and Jasper :) We'll update again with piccies and I'll try and get one of Dan as he parts with his bike... ;)
Jen
THEN we're off to Banff! We're going to get Dan's brakes changed around on his bike as his been over the handlebars twice already (hehe) and then we're planning to make best use of our new book: 'Backcountry biking in the Canadian Rockies' Wahoo! The book also mentions some off road 4x4 tracks, so fingers crossed Charlie'll be getting his wheels properly dirty... finally :)
However, we're not sure how many wifi spots we're going to find in the Rockies and there's a significant lack of KOA's (which is probably a good thing as we'd like to do some 'proper' back country camping) so if you don't hear from us for a while be safe in the knowledge we're just enjoying the Icefields Parkway and Banff and Jasper :) We'll update again with piccies and I'll try and get one of Dan as he parts with his bike... ;)
Jen
Friday 24 August 2007
A quick and boring update...
Hey there Blog-pickers!
We did Glacier National Park in North Montana today. It chucked it down all day :-( But the views were fantastic.
We then trucked on to Calgary, a good couple of hundred miles up the road. We have booked Charlie Camel in to have his gearbox oil changed again at Land Rover Calgary as lately it's been a bit of a bind to get third gear, especially when cold. So we have checked into a Travelodge for a couple of nights. This will be our first night in a proper bed for nearly a month!
+
+
=
go on, you know you want to! We'll let you know when we plan to be there ;-)
We did Glacier National Park in North Montana today. It chucked it down all day :-( But the views were fantastic.
We then trucked on to Calgary, a good couple of hundred miles up the road. We have booked Charlie Camel in to have his gearbox oil changed again at Land Rover Calgary as lately it's been a bit of a bind to get third gear, especially when cold. So we have checked into a Travelodge for a couple of nights. This will be our first night in a proper bed for nearly a month!
Andy & Jane...
+
+
=
go on, you know you want to! We'll let you know when we plan to be there ;-)
Tuesday 21 August 2007
Yellowstone: Sounds, sights and many, many Smells!
Wow. Wow.Wow.Wow.Wow.Wow.Wow.Wow.Wow.Wow.Wow.Wow.Wow.Wow.Wow. (You get the idea!)
If you have never been, I suggest you book your air ticket! Now! ...c'mon, stop reading this and do it!
We've just stopped at our first campsite with showers for four days in Montana, more importantly, our first campsite outside Yellowstone and we're both sad :( It is truely an amazing place.
We started our first day (Friday) early with 100 miles to go to get into Yellowstone, we thought we could knock them on the head quite easily and get to the campsite we'd chosenby lunch. Getting to Yellowstone wasn't a problem at all, we'd driven up the first bit of Rockies with only minor overheating problems (well, it was 90 something F and we're in a fully loaded 110!) and arrived at Yellowstone at about 11ish, it took us until 3pm to do the 50odd miles to the campsite! You really can't help it, there are so many places to stand and stare, walk and look and cycle and gawp! Still, we made it too the campsite and due to it nearing end of season there were still plenty of spaces. We completed our first day by driving some of the main loop road looking at the fantastic lake and view of the mountains and booking a western-style horse back ride for Monday afternoon. We also visited West Thumb Geyser Basin, our first foray into the bizarre world of Yellowstone, it is honestly like some prehistoric world. If you want an explaination as to how these form and you can even see them on a webcam visit: Old Faithful Webcam
We spent most the night looking at the stars and made the mistake of having a beer.. not usually a problem but the temparture had also fallen to a (bloomin freezing it felt like!) 4 degrees C and our bodies decided they didn't need the water they'd been retaining.. needless to say we spent most the night getting up and going to the loo - for the first night in proper Grizzly teritory this was terrfiying! (but we survived!)
Saturday started bright and early because we were both hyper active and raring to get out into the park proper. We're doing everything at each location in an order whereby 'if we were forced to leave tomorrow what would we have wanted to do?' so needless to say, we did the touristy thing and went to see Old Faithful and the other Geysers in the Geyser Basin... and pulled into the car park just as it was finishing! Oh well, there were plenty of tracks that lead to some smaller, bigger and prettier places so we did them first and promply got drenched in the thunder storm. We got back just in time to grab a seat for Old Faithfull to go up and watched it go with a huge thunderstorm in the background, the lightening really added to the effect. Most Excellent.
As it was raining and cold, we followed the true Shire Holiday tradition and went to get an ice cream :) We watched the storm from the terrace in the Yellowstone Lodge with a couple of rocking chairs all to ourselves and in true mountain style it blew over within about 30 minutes. We took a few walks up the Mountain (it's amazing how the number of tourists decreases when the sign say's it's a long way!) to the observation point and some more Geysers. By the time we got back to the car it was about 4pm... As you're not meant to hike or cycle after dark and the weather was somewhat changable we decided to do a few of the loop drives that are off the main loop road. We drove around Firehole Lake
and Firehole Canyon
Both stunning!
Sunday started with us finding a new camspite as we also wanted to investigate the north of the park. We went for a cycle upto Lone Star Geyser. We couldn't cycle quickly as there was a worry due to the rounding a corner and finding some wildlife but this meant we could enjoy the ride and play in the splashy puddles! Again, we arrived just after the Geyser had finished (what is it with us?) but as this had a wait of abou 3 hours we decided not to hang around and cycled back instead.
We left the north of the park and found a campground at Slough Creek... this was no accident. It happened to be in the Lamar Valley, home to Yellowstones largest Wolf Pack. COOOOOOOOOL! Although it is summer and as all the books say, it's very, very rare to spot a Wolf in the summer - that's why none of the Wolf watching tours were running :( It was also a fantastic campground, one you drive up 3 miles of gravel track that would be at home at 7Sisters to the middle of nowhere and post your money in a little box in the middle of a Valley in the Rockies. Stunning :) We completed our day by deciding to drive out to Yellowstone's own Grand Canyon.. we were quite happily driving down the Lamar Valley road when I caught a glimpse of brownish red out the corner of my eye. Dan simulated ABS in Charlie (lucky no-one was beind us!) and that was it, we'd spotted our first Wolf! Way bigger than a coyote with small ears and a large face, long legs and about 6ft from tail to nose, it was definatly a Wolf :) We rushed to the nearest gift shop so I could confirm it wasn't a Coyote (I knew how much I wanted to see a Wolf and didn't want my mind to play tricks on me) and I was still convinced it was a Wolf. We admired the Grand Canyon and Dan found a Ospray nest from our outlook and visited Tower Fall, again stunning scenery:
Nest
On the way back we went to the Mud Volcano Area, this looks like a cross between Richard's Hottub and a Shire LRC Playday! I know most of you would have loved to drive through it, but the acidity levels of pH1-2 (about the same as a car battery) would have disposed of the Landies quicker than Guy Shepard driving carefully ;) Hehe. Only joking Guy. Here's where I wish we had smell-o-blog as the place smelt wrong, very wrong! Imagine some egg mayonnaise that's been left for a week or two and you'd be getting close. Certainly a place to have to visit to experience but here's a pic anyway:
Then headed back to Lamar Valley, I wanted to drive the length of it before returning to the campsite as I knew the Wolves we most likley to be out between 6pm and 9pm on a Summers evening, we drove approx 2 miles past the campsite, very close to where we'd seen the Wolf eariler only to find several cars parked up on thhe side of the road. We pulled in an asked an old Texan couple what they'd spotted - the Druid Wolf Pack, all walking up the hillside in a line! WOWOWOWOWOWOWOW! It was fantastic, the guy reckoned he'd counted about 22, I'm not sure it was that many but thanks to the nice old lady who lent me her binoculars I got a good look - a mainly black Wolf pack with a couple of grays and an almost pure white one taking up the rear. They stopped on the hillside before finally continuing on - this has made my mind up that I'm a: Buying some binoculars and b: returning to Yellowstone in the winter for their Wolf Watching tour. We were amazingly lucky to see what we did. It took me ages to get to sleep that night! I think I annoyed Dan with my excitment! :)
Monday:
We awoke to perfect peace and quiet in our seculded campsite and packed up before heading out to join our Hose riding tour. We had a bit of time to kill so visited the Petrified Tree (or angry bush as Dan calls it). We also saw a Coyote on the way which allowed me to confirm the Wolf we saw yesterday close up was definatly a Wolf :) Extra cool.
Arriving at the Coral (oo, very Western!) we were asigned two horses, Dan had Russel (lol!) a Stawberry Roan Gelding and I had Crow a coloured Mare. I'll pass over to Dan now for his first horse riding experice:
Mounting the beast! The less said about that the better!
The first hour of the trek was fantastic, I really enjoyed it. We were able to get out into areas of the park that we woundn't have seen any other way, and all without using any energy at all... thats my kinda trek ;-) But as time went on, I could feel this ache all down the inside of my legs. Muscles that I never knew existed were telling me that I either shouldn't be doing this, or that I perhaps need a tad more exercise. I must admit that when we came over the crest of the hill and I saw the entrance to the coral I was infinately relieved as I was by this time in some agony! Getting off the horse was nearly a disaster, but I managed to stop myself landing arse-first in a big muddy puddle. Then I tried walking. OUCH! The pain lasted for a couple of hours, but no lasting damage was done, which is a good thing, 'cos I'm now looking forward to having another go... after doing some inner thigh exercises!
Athough it was a brief relationship, I grew quite fond of Russell and his quirks. In some ways he was a lot like me, had a mind of his own and kept falling asleep! I'll miss him.
Wildlife pics:
Bison (don't mess with these):
Millions and millions of chipmunks:
Ravens:
And now it's time for some gratuitous Camel Pics:
Coyote:
Elk:
As it is, we're now in Montana and by the end of tomorrow we should be on the boarder of Glacier National Park. Life is Good.
Thanks again for the messages, Farter, they are getting through loud and clear and we did get to Devils Tower, I just forgot to write about it! Thanks for the message Becky, hope all's well with you and Mike :) JU, yes, I know, Dan agrees, there's still time ;)
Next lot of postcards should be hitting the post in the next couple of days. I'll pubish this now and try and put the pics in before the laptop runs out of juice, but if they're not here now they will be tomorrow. Missing you all, Jenx
P.S. I am the firestarter...
If you have never been, I suggest you book your air ticket! Now! ...c'mon, stop reading this and do it!
We've just stopped at our first campsite with showers for four days in Montana, more importantly, our first campsite outside Yellowstone and we're both sad :( It is truely an amazing place.
We started our first day (Friday) early with 100 miles to go to get into Yellowstone, we thought we could knock them on the head quite easily and get to the campsite we'd chosenby lunch. Getting to Yellowstone wasn't a problem at all, we'd driven up the first bit of Rockies with only minor overheating problems (well, it was 90 something F and we're in a fully loaded 110!) and arrived at Yellowstone at about 11ish, it took us until 3pm to do the 50odd miles to the campsite! You really can't help it, there are so many places to stand and stare, walk and look and cycle and gawp! Still, we made it too the campsite and due to it nearing end of season there were still plenty of spaces. We completed our first day by driving some of the main loop road looking at the fantastic lake and view of the mountains and booking a western-style horse back ride for Monday afternoon. We also visited West Thumb Geyser Basin, our first foray into the bizarre world of Yellowstone, it is honestly like some prehistoric world. If you want an explaination as to how these form and you can even see them on a webcam visit: Old Faithful Webcam
We spent most the night looking at the stars and made the mistake of having a beer.. not usually a problem but the temparture had also fallen to a (bloomin freezing it felt like!) 4 degrees C and our bodies decided they didn't need the water they'd been retaining.. needless to say we spent most the night getting up and going to the loo - for the first night in proper Grizzly teritory this was terrfiying! (but we survived!)
Saturday started bright and early because we were both hyper active and raring to get out into the park proper. We're doing everything at each location in an order whereby 'if we were forced to leave tomorrow what would we have wanted to do?' so needless to say, we did the touristy thing and went to see Old Faithful and the other Geysers in the Geyser Basin... and pulled into the car park just as it was finishing! Oh well, there were plenty of tracks that lead to some smaller, bigger and prettier places so we did them first and promply got drenched in the thunder storm. We got back just in time to grab a seat for Old Faithfull to go up and watched it go with a huge thunderstorm in the background, the lightening really added to the effect. Most Excellent.
As it was raining and cold, we followed the true Shire Holiday tradition and went to get an ice cream :) We watched the storm from the terrace in the Yellowstone Lodge with a couple of rocking chairs all to ourselves and in true mountain style it blew over within about 30 minutes. We took a few walks up the Mountain (it's amazing how the number of tourists decreases when the sign say's it's a long way!) to the observation point and some more Geysers. By the time we got back to the car it was about 4pm... As you're not meant to hike or cycle after dark and the weather was somewhat changable we decided to do a few of the loop drives that are off the main loop road. We drove around Firehole Lake
and Firehole Canyon
Both stunning!
Sunday started with us finding a new camspite as we also wanted to investigate the north of the park. We went for a cycle upto Lone Star Geyser. We couldn't cycle quickly as there was a worry due to the rounding a corner and finding some wildlife but this meant we could enjoy the ride and play in the splashy puddles! Again, we arrived just after the Geyser had finished (what is it with us?) but as this had a wait of abou 3 hours we decided not to hang around and cycled back instead.
We left the north of the park and found a campground at Slough Creek... this was no accident. It happened to be in the Lamar Valley, home to Yellowstones largest Wolf Pack. COOOOOOOOOL! Although it is summer and as all the books say, it's very, very rare to spot a Wolf in the summer - that's why none of the Wolf watching tours were running :( It was also a fantastic campground, one you drive up 3 miles of gravel track that would be at home at 7Sisters to the middle of nowhere and post your money in a little box in the middle of a Valley in the Rockies. Stunning :) We completed our day by deciding to drive out to Yellowstone's own Grand Canyon.. we were quite happily driving down the Lamar Valley road when I caught a glimpse of brownish red out the corner of my eye. Dan simulated ABS in Charlie (lucky no-one was beind us!) and that was it, we'd spotted our first Wolf! Way bigger than a coyote with small ears and a large face, long legs and about 6ft from tail to nose, it was definatly a Wolf :) We rushed to the nearest gift shop so I could confirm it wasn't a Coyote (I knew how much I wanted to see a Wolf and didn't want my mind to play tricks on me) and I was still convinced it was a Wolf. We admired the Grand Canyon and Dan found a Ospray nest from our outlook and visited Tower Fall, again stunning scenery:
Nest
On the way back we went to the Mud Volcano Area, this looks like a cross between Richard's Hottub and a Shire LRC Playday! I know most of you would have loved to drive through it, but the acidity levels of pH1-2 (about the same as a car battery) would have disposed of the Landies quicker than Guy Shepard driving carefully ;) Hehe. Only joking Guy. Here's where I wish we had smell-o-blog as the place smelt wrong, very wrong! Imagine some egg mayonnaise that's been left for a week or two and you'd be getting close. Certainly a place to have to visit to experience but here's a pic anyway:
Then headed back to Lamar Valley, I wanted to drive the length of it before returning to the campsite as I knew the Wolves we most likley to be out between 6pm and 9pm on a Summers evening, we drove approx 2 miles past the campsite, very close to where we'd seen the Wolf eariler only to find several cars parked up on thhe side of the road. We pulled in an asked an old Texan couple what they'd spotted - the Druid Wolf Pack, all walking up the hillside in a line! WOWOWOWOWOWOWOW! It was fantastic, the guy reckoned he'd counted about 22, I'm not sure it was that many but thanks to the nice old lady who lent me her binoculars I got a good look - a mainly black Wolf pack with a couple of grays and an almost pure white one taking up the rear. They stopped on the hillside before finally continuing on - this has made my mind up that I'm a: Buying some binoculars and b: returning to Yellowstone in the winter for their Wolf Watching tour. We were amazingly lucky to see what we did. It took me ages to get to sleep that night! I think I annoyed Dan with my excitment! :)
Monday:
We awoke to perfect peace and quiet in our seculded campsite and packed up before heading out to join our Hose riding tour. We had a bit of time to kill so visited the Petrified Tree (or angry bush as Dan calls it). We also saw a Coyote on the way which allowed me to confirm the Wolf we saw yesterday close up was definatly a Wolf :) Extra cool.
Arriving at the Coral (oo, very Western!) we were asigned two horses, Dan had Russel (lol!) a Stawberry Roan Gelding and I had Crow a coloured Mare. I'll pass over to Dan now for his first horse riding experice:
Mounting the beast! The less said about that the better!
The first hour of the trek was fantastic, I really enjoyed it. We were able to get out into areas of the park that we woundn't have seen any other way, and all without using any energy at all... thats my kinda trek ;-) But as time went on, I could feel this ache all down the inside of my legs. Muscles that I never knew existed were telling me that I either shouldn't be doing this, or that I perhaps need a tad more exercise. I must admit that when we came over the crest of the hill and I saw the entrance to the coral I was infinately relieved as I was by this time in some agony! Getting off the horse was nearly a disaster, but I managed to stop myself landing arse-first in a big muddy puddle. Then I tried walking. OUCH! The pain lasted for a couple of hours, but no lasting damage was done, which is a good thing, 'cos I'm now looking forward to having another go... after doing some inner thigh exercises!
Athough it was a brief relationship, I grew quite fond of Russell and his quirks. In some ways he was a lot like me, had a mind of his own and kept falling asleep! I'll miss him.
Wildlife pics:
Bison (don't mess with these):
Millions and millions of chipmunks:
Ravens:
And now it's time for some gratuitous Camel Pics:
Coyote:
Elk:
As it is, we're now in Montana and by the end of tomorrow we should be on the boarder of Glacier National Park. Life is Good.
Thanks again for the messages, Farter, they are getting through loud and clear and we did get to Devils Tower, I just forgot to write about it! Thanks for the message Becky, hope all's well with you and Mike :) JU, yes, I know, Dan agrees, there's still time ;)
Next lot of postcards should be hitting the post in the next couple of days. I'll pubish this now and try and put the pics in before the laptop runs out of juice, but if they're not here now they will be tomorrow. Missing you all, Jenx
P.S. I am the firestarter...
Bear Necessities
Warning: Parents and immediate family members may not want to read this bit!
Don’t worry folks, we are still alive after 4 days in Yellowstone, thanks to Jens research into being prepared for Bear Country!
We stopped off at the first Ranger Station we came to as we entered the park (which also just happened to be the oldest Ranger Station in the country… another amazing fact brought to you by Yours Truly!) and asked the oldest Ranger in the country what we needed to do to prevent being eaten by bears. His first question to us was “Are you ready to meet a Grizzly face to face?”. I laughed at this point and said “You’re ‘avin a laugh guv!”. He just looked at me. Jen gave a more sensible response and the conversation continued. At the end, the Ranger said “You folks are the best prepared people I’ve ever met.” The reason for this is that we’d done a fair bit of reading up. Bears have an amazing sense of smell so even the tiniest scent can attract them. We therefore invested in some ziplok bags and airtight boxes to put all our smelly stuff in… and I mean all. Food, bug sprays, shampoos, jens girly stuff… literally anything that had a smell. Unfortunately they don’t do ziplok bags in “Dan” size, so we just had to risk it!
We also bought some bear spray, essentially pepper spray adapted by a bloke who just about survived a grizzly attack. The idea of this is that if a bear does charge you, you squirt this stuff in its face when it’s about 15-20feet away from you. That means that if it charges, you have approximately 1.5seconds to react, to get the canister in your hand, remove the safety catch and squirt! Kinda scary!
The Ranger also had a nice ‘paw print’ cast from a grizzly (HUGE… each claw is about 4” - 6" long) and some real life stories that left us both quaking, so we followed the rules to the letter! The basic rules in bear country seem to be:
Anything with an odour should be locked in a air tight container or zip lock bag and either left in a vehicle or hung from a tree at least 14foot in the air (although black bears can climb!)
When walking (or in our case cycling) keep talking and making a lot of noise, bears will only (usually) attack when surprised, so let them know you’re there! This is actually really hard to do, talking is easy, but when you have to you immediately run out of things to say!
Never leave anything that you cook with out in your camp.
If you’re going out on the trails don’t wear cosmetics or deodorant or even wash with scented soap.
Don’t take the clothes you’ve cooked in into your tent, change and put them in an air tight bag.
If you see a bear back away slowly talking calmly but assertively to it (!), don’t look it in the eye and don’t turn and run. If the bear is going to charge it will put it’s head down, ears back and snarl, at this point you should still be backing away calmly talking (lol!) when it charges get your bear spray out and aim at it’s face, this should make it back away. A charge may also become a “bluff”, where it vears off at the last second, probably because the smell that you have generated from your pants is too much for its sensitive smell! If it doesn’t and it decides to eat you, apparently you’re not meant to scream as it makes you sound like a wounded animal which makes it want to eat you some more!! As a last resort you should apparently fight back… if you have any limbs left! Ok. I’ll remember that!
Needless to say, we had no problems followed the rules and walked away smiling. We didn’t even see a trace of one (apart from some HUGE claw marks in a tree) so the rule that they’ll hear you coming and go away must be true, but we’ll be sure to keep following the rules as we head up to Alaska… although I’m more worried about the mosies… apparently they’re the worst in the world! Still, good training for Ladoga.
Don’t worry folks, we are still alive after 4 days in Yellowstone, thanks to Jens research into being prepared for Bear Country!
We stopped off at the first Ranger Station we came to as we entered the park (which also just happened to be the oldest Ranger Station in the country… another amazing fact brought to you by Yours Truly!) and asked the oldest Ranger in the country what we needed to do to prevent being eaten by bears. His first question to us was “Are you ready to meet a Grizzly face to face?”. I laughed at this point and said “You’re ‘avin a laugh guv!”. He just looked at me. Jen gave a more sensible response and the conversation continued. At the end, the Ranger said “You folks are the best prepared people I’ve ever met.” The reason for this is that we’d done a fair bit of reading up. Bears have an amazing sense of smell so even the tiniest scent can attract them. We therefore invested in some ziplok bags and airtight boxes to put all our smelly stuff in… and I mean all. Food, bug sprays, shampoos, jens girly stuff… literally anything that had a smell. Unfortunately they don’t do ziplok bags in “Dan” size, so we just had to risk it!
We also bought some bear spray, essentially pepper spray adapted by a bloke who just about survived a grizzly attack. The idea of this is that if a bear does charge you, you squirt this stuff in its face when it’s about 15-20feet away from you. That means that if it charges, you have approximately 1.5seconds to react, to get the canister in your hand, remove the safety catch and squirt! Kinda scary!
The Ranger also had a nice ‘paw print’ cast from a grizzly (HUGE… each claw is about 4” - 6" long) and some real life stories that left us both quaking, so we followed the rules to the letter! The basic rules in bear country seem to be:
Anything with an odour should be locked in a air tight container or zip lock bag and either left in a vehicle or hung from a tree at least 14foot in the air (although black bears can climb!)
When walking (or in our case cycling) keep talking and making a lot of noise, bears will only (usually) attack when surprised, so let them know you’re there! This is actually really hard to do, talking is easy, but when you have to you immediately run out of things to say!
Never leave anything that you cook with out in your camp.
If you’re going out on the trails don’t wear cosmetics or deodorant or even wash with scented soap.
Don’t take the clothes you’ve cooked in into your tent, change and put them in an air tight bag.
If you see a bear back away slowly talking calmly but assertively to it (!), don’t look it in the eye and don’t turn and run. If the bear is going to charge it will put it’s head down, ears back and snarl, at this point you should still be backing away calmly talking (lol!) when it charges get your bear spray out and aim at it’s face, this should make it back away. A charge may also become a “bluff”, where it vears off at the last second, probably because the smell that you have generated from your pants is too much for its sensitive smell! If it doesn’t and it decides to eat you, apparently you’re not meant to scream as it makes you sound like a wounded animal which makes it want to eat you some more!! As a last resort you should apparently fight back… if you have any limbs left! Ok. I’ll remember that!
Needless to say, we had no problems followed the rules and walked away smiling. We didn’t even see a trace of one (apart from some HUGE claw marks in a tree) so the rule that they’ll hear you coming and go away must be true, but we’ll be sure to keep following the rules as we head up to Alaska… although I’m more worried about the mosies… apparently they’re the worst in the world! Still, good training for Ladoga.
Thursday 16 August 2007
Big rocks 'n' big heads
Did some more of the Badlands today. We had planned to bike it, the shortest route being 17miles long, but when we got up it was just soooo hot, we worked up a sweat just gettin our breaky ready! So instead we drove the "loop". It made my day as we finally got to drive some dirt tracks :-) And we saw some Prarie Dogs.
The Badlands are a fantastic place, the colours vivid, the landscape... errr... spikey! We took a drive up to Sheep Mountain, an unvisited uncommercialised gravel track thats a dead end. As hoped, it was deserted, not a soul in sight.
We then headed off in search of some big ugly blokes on the side or a mountain... Yep, Mt Rushmore. A word of advise if you ever come out here... take route 16A, Iron Horse mountain road. The views are stunning and the drive almost like something you'd find in the Alps. And there is the most wicked bridge things going on :-)
Also, unless you are particularly interested in the history of the place (most of which is avaialble in books like the Rough Guides anyway), don't bother with the visitors centre. You can get the views of the mountian from the road just as clearly and save yourself $8 :-)
We are now at yet another KOA campsite, just down the road from Mt Rushmore and are just off to the bar for a bite to eat and a beer or 6. In the morning we are heading to Yellowstone so don't expect to hear much from us over the next week or so 'cos we'll be going "wow!" a lot in some pretty remote places... or at least thats the plan!
The Badlands are a fantastic place, the colours vivid, the landscape... errr... spikey! We took a drive up to Sheep Mountain, an unvisited uncommercialised gravel track thats a dead end. As hoped, it was deserted, not a soul in sight.
We then headed off in search of some big ugly blokes on the side or a mountain... Yep, Mt Rushmore. A word of advise if you ever come out here... take route 16A, Iron Horse mountain road. The views are stunning and the drive almost like something you'd find in the Alps. And there is the most wicked bridge things going on :-)
Also, unless you are particularly interested in the history of the place (most of which is avaialble in books like the Rough Guides anyway), don't bother with the visitors centre. You can get the views of the mountian from the road just as clearly and save yourself $8 :-)
We are now at yet another KOA campsite, just down the road from Mt Rushmore and are just off to the bar for a bite to eat and a beer or 6. In the morning we are heading to Yellowstone so don't expect to hear much from us over the next week or so 'cos we'll be going "wow!" a lot in some pretty remote places... or at least thats the plan!
Wednesday 15 August 2007
Badlands, bad (?) Charlie!
Well, yesterday we had another big day of driving planed to get from Soiux Falls over to Yellowstone, but I guess Charlie had got a bit bored of it and by lunchtime had decided he wanted a rest. He communicated his intentions by getting a bit warm and leaving a nice puddle of water underneath the engine when we stopped at a rest area. Lifting the bonnet it was obvious this was coming from the P-gasket. Yay. After checking the water level (he hadn't lost too much) and that we had a new water pump gasket and P gasket in the back of the truck we decided to push on carefully to the next campsite and finish early so we could allow the engine to call down and replace said gaskets. We found a KOA in the Badlands, which wasn't a bad place to stop anyway! And went for a swim whilst the engine cooled down. I think Dan was a bit worried about working on the engine in the middle of nowhere (as we had realised there was no Landy dealers in the next 3 states) as he was doing his usual 'I'll just do this' and 'this is really important that I do this first' ... so I decided to do it myself :) That soon got him looking over my shoulder! :) After a couple of comments to 'make sure I put the bolts back on the things I've taken off' and 'be careful because that might be hot' we discovered three of the bolts were loose, so we decided to have a go and just tightening them (why take apart things you might not have to) and put everything back together. The test run to the 'shop' (in a town called Interior, population of 67, 5 miles up the road) went well, so fingers crossed that'll be problem solved.
We had planned to go out at night to see the stars, but as we ate dinner a HUGE storm rolled in. Lightening every couple of seconds and a sky full of cloud put pay to that idea, but it wasn't too bad as there was a fantastic view from the rooftent :) We'd also planned to go on a 23 mile bike ride loop thing this morning (before it reached 100F +), but it's 8am and I'm sitting here typing and already sweating buckets! Maybe it's not such a good idea.
A few pics from our journey through the Badlands yesterday:
For those of you that don't read all the comments my Step-Dad Ron had this to add to the Stat's section: 'Some further stats for you, your journey today is the equivelant of Southampton to Aberdeen, 195 trips to the Jolly Sailor (I like this one! - Jen), or,if your poison is Guiness or Grolsch, Dublin to Amsterdam!! :-)'. Thanks Ron :)x
Just so I remember, so far people have guessed we have been from:
Australia
Germany
Canada
New Zeland
Charlie Camel has been called:
A Jeep (predicatable I guess)
A 'Unit'
A Rig
A Toyota (?!)
...and yes, someone asked if we had 'driven here from England'... Dan said "Yes, the bit under the water was fun"... the bemused american chap didn't laugh. Oh dear.
We had planned to go out at night to see the stars, but as we ate dinner a HUGE storm rolled in. Lightening every couple of seconds and a sky full of cloud put pay to that idea, but it wasn't too bad as there was a fantastic view from the rooftent :) We'd also planned to go on a 23 mile bike ride loop thing this morning (before it reached 100F +), but it's 8am and I'm sitting here typing and already sweating buckets! Maybe it's not such a good idea.
A few pics from our journey through the Badlands yesterday:
For those of you that don't read all the comments my Step-Dad Ron had this to add to the Stat's section: 'Some further stats for you, your journey today is the equivelant of Southampton to Aberdeen, 195 trips to the Jolly Sailor (I like this one! - Jen), or,if your poison is Guiness or Grolsch, Dublin to Amsterdam!! :-)'. Thanks Ron :)x
Just so I remember, so far people have guessed we have been from:
Australia
Germany
Canada
New Zeland
Charlie Camel has been called:
A Jeep (predicatable I guess)
A 'Unit'
A Rig
A Toyota (?!)
...and yes, someone asked if we had 'driven here from England'... Dan said "Yes, the bit under the water was fun"... the bemused american chap didn't laugh. Oh dear.
Tuesday 14 August 2007
Wish you were here?
Well now you can be with our fully interactive blog.
a. Sit on your washing machine or tumble drier (this will simulate the diesel engine and mud terrain tyres)
b. Stare at this picture for 5 hours:
c. Should you get bored, you may stare at this picture:
d. Stop for lunch and stare at this picture of the Mississippi (admittedly this was quite nice) for 20minutes:
e. Repeat stages ‘a’, ‘b’ and ‘c’ for another 5 hours and 30 minutes.
f. Try to find a flight path to sleep under, preferably close to a motorway.
Special note: You may occasionally dance in your seat to music on the radio, but only if you can find a companion to give you a humiliating look whilst you do it.
…and you too have now experienced a day in the life of Dan and Jen’s Travel’s Across America.
Admittedly it wasn’t the most exciting day ever, we started off in corn fields and pulled up 10 and a half hours later in ..well, they can only be described as corn fields! Still, we made good progressing knocking another 585 miles on the head and everyone had warned us this part of the trip would be the most tedious. Hopefully one more day of it tomorrow and we should intersperse that with the Badlands, the first of our National Parks and the Mount Rushmore Monument. With any luck the day after we’ll be knocking on the metaphorical door of Yellowstone… NOW I’M GETTING EXCITED! :)
P.S. Nige (you should have mentioned Toronto! We've read your blog too you know..) and JU, this should mean more good piccies as well :) Rich, thanks for the news update. Mum - yup, it's a spare wheel! Glad to know the DLander and Max are famous, someone buy me a copy and I'll settle up on my return, don't want to miss it!
a. Sit on your washing machine or tumble drier (this will simulate the diesel engine and mud terrain tyres)
b. Stare at this picture for 5 hours:
c. Should you get bored, you may stare at this picture:
d. Stop for lunch and stare at this picture of the Mississippi (admittedly this was quite nice) for 20minutes:
e. Repeat stages ‘a’, ‘b’ and ‘c’ for another 5 hours and 30 minutes.
f. Try to find a flight path to sleep under, preferably close to a motorway.
Special note: You may occasionally dance in your seat to music on the radio, but only if you can find a companion to give you a humiliating look whilst you do it.
…and you too have now experienced a day in the life of Dan and Jen’s Travel’s Across America.
Admittedly it wasn’t the most exciting day ever, we started off in corn fields and pulled up 10 and a half hours later in ..well, they can only be described as corn fields! Still, we made good progressing knocking another 585 miles on the head and everyone had warned us this part of the trip would be the most tedious. Hopefully one more day of it tomorrow and we should intersperse that with the Badlands, the first of our National Parks and the Mount Rushmore Monument. With any luck the day after we’ll be knocking on the metaphorical door of Yellowstone… NOW I’M GETTING EXCITED! :)
P.S. Nige (you should have mentioned Toronto! We've read your blog too you know..) and JU, this should mean more good piccies as well :) Rich, thanks for the news update. Mum - yup, it's a spare wheel! Glad to know the DLander and Max are famous, someone buy me a copy and I'll settle up on my return, don't want to miss it!
One for all you Stat's Fans:
I didn’t want to waste my time in the passenger seat today, so worked out some ‘interesting’ stats for you all: (correct as of 13th August)
1. Miles travelled: 3377
2. Average per day: 225
3. Most in one day: 585
4. Mp(American)g: 19, not bad for a fully loaded Camel!
5. Average price per gallon: $2.95
6. Total spent on fuel: $524 (£249)
7. Breakages: 1 – drivers seatbelt, due to mud ingress!
8. Number of states & Canadian Provinces travelled through: 18
9. Number of ‘Cheesecake Factories’ visited: 1 (must try harder)
10. Number of ‘Ben and Jerry’s’ pints consumed: 1 (must try harder)
11. Number of times I’ve done the workout I promised I’d do at least 3 times a week: …er.. twice But 9 and 10 should be taken into account for extra brownie points
12. Number of miles on bikes: 40.5 (will improve as we get to national parks, crossing interstates doesn’t do much for biking)
13. Number of times we’ve fallen off bikes: Dan: 2 Jen: 2
14. Number of photographs taken: 892
15. Most number of wheels spotted on a truck: 50
16. Latest Realisation: MOT’s are really a very good thing.
1. Miles travelled: 3377
2. Average per day: 225
3. Most in one day: 585
4. Mp(American)g: 19, not bad for a fully loaded Camel!
5. Average price per gallon: $2.95
6. Total spent on fuel: $524 (£249)
7. Breakages: 1 – drivers seatbelt, due to mud ingress!
8. Number of states & Canadian Provinces travelled through: 18
9. Number of ‘Cheesecake Factories’ visited: 1 (must try harder)
10. Number of ‘Ben and Jerry’s’ pints consumed: 1 (must try harder)
11. Number of times I’ve done the workout I promised I’d do at least 3 times a week: …er.. twice But 9 and 10 should be taken into account for extra brownie points
12. Number of miles on bikes: 40.5 (will improve as we get to national parks, crossing interstates doesn’t do much for biking)
13. Number of times we’ve fallen off bikes: Dan: 2 Jen: 2
14. Number of photographs taken: 892
15. Most number of wheels spotted on a truck: 50
16. Latest Realisation: MOT’s are really a very good thing.
Monday 13 August 2007
Things to remember and just for Nige
As it's 7:50am here and we're all packed up ready for a day of full-on driving across the Dakota's and Dan's eating Weetabix (sp?!) I thought I'd take the opportunity to write down a few things I found amusing and want to remember, especially as I've started to forget things already!
* Satalitte Dishes outside RV's and the RV that was towing a Hummer H1! (obviously the sensible run about car)
* Excellent mpg advertised on a Honda .... (26)
* Loads and Loads and Loads of Scooby's! :)
* The fact you don't need anything more than a normal car license to drive an RV. Even if it's the size of a coach!
* The massive disparity between the rich and poor, the amount of homeless here is scary. One side of the street = deralict, the other very rich.
* You can by a 5 bed, 3 bath and 3 garage home in 1/2 an acre for $290,000 (£145,000).
* ..however, the avergage house price in Manhatten is $1.5 million... most 1 bed flats go for $1million.
* The state of the Highways! (you'd love all you EBC people, it's c*ap!) We changed lanes only to find the right hand lane 3" below the level of the one next to it.
* Getting waves from lots of Jeep owners and a little SIII almost coming off the road in the effort to wave and beep at us! lol!
* Truck with the most wheels so far: 32
Oh, and also wanted to put in a pic of Charlie Camel for Nige as he was complaining about the lack of Charlie pics! This is one from the Salt-Flats on Cape Ann, hopefully we'll start getting more pics as we get West, more off-roading, more rough Camping = more opportunities to take Charlie Camel pics! :)
P.S. Was there a Shire event yesterday? Only guessing on the amount of missed calls on Dan's phone! :) Missing you all and the Landy-ing.
* Satalitte Dishes outside RV's and the RV that was towing a Hummer H1! (obviously the sensible run about car)
* Excellent mpg advertised on a Honda .... (26)
* Loads and Loads and Loads of Scooby's! :)
* The fact you don't need anything more than a normal car license to drive an RV. Even if it's the size of a coach!
* The massive disparity between the rich and poor, the amount of homeless here is scary. One side of the street = deralict, the other very rich.
* You can by a 5 bed, 3 bath and 3 garage home in 1/2 an acre for $290,000 (£145,000).
* ..however, the avergage house price in Manhatten is $1.5 million... most 1 bed flats go for $1million.
* The state of the Highways! (you'd love all you EBC people, it's c*ap!) We changed lanes only to find the right hand lane 3" below the level of the one next to it.
* Getting waves from lots of Jeep owners and a little SIII almost coming off the road in the effort to wave and beep at us! lol!
* Truck with the most wheels so far: 32
Oh, and also wanted to put in a pic of Charlie Camel for Nige as he was complaining about the lack of Charlie pics! This is one from the Salt-Flats on Cape Ann, hopefully we'll start getting more pics as we get West, more off-roading, more rough Camping = more opportunities to take Charlie Camel pics! :)
P.S. Was there a Shire event yesterday? Only guessing on the amount of missed calls on Dan's phone! :) Missing you all and the Landy-ing.
Plans are afoot...
But not the original plans... we are changing our route. Having sat down over a beer and a pot of ice cream tonight we have decided that from here we are going to head accross South Dakota instead and into the Badlands, then to Yellowstone for a few days. We were originally going to head up through the Canadian Great Plains, but the guide books starts with the following joke... Why do Canadians cross the Prairies at night? Because the view's better! YOIKS! We reckon this will help us get back a few of the days we lost at the beginning of the trip. Fingers crossed!
Sweet Home Chicago...
After the noise of the KOA Railroad campsite, we decided to check out the Illinois Beach State Park, just north of Chicago. We'd decided to drive up there and to take a drive through "the Windy City"... and that we did. Michigan Avenue runs straight through the centre of town. It looked like a really nice place too, a less busy version of New York. All along the promenade there were things going on, including stages being set up, probably fro the weekends entertainment. We have added it to our list of places to vist again one day.
Anyway, Illinois Beach State Park. Sounds nice. But this has to be the worst state park we have stayed in. If you are ever planning to camp outside Chicago, don't go here! I particularly liked the notice on the beach that said "Beware of the Asbestos" and the startling views of the power station!!
We were allocated an alcohol free pitch... where the logic of having alcohol free pitches stems from, I'll never know as the pitches behind us definately didn't have this restriction. As we went to bed, the Army started playing soldiers a couple of miles down the road, there was explosions, gunfire and all sorts of other wierd noises. Hey ho, all good fun. Then at about 2am a major storm whipped its way through the camp site. Pretty much anybody who was in a tent packed up and went home! We braved it tho and survived :-) This morning we had a quick look around and there were a few trees down, so it had obviously been a pretty big storm.
Anyway, today we'd decided to have a day off as we've been on the road for 2 weeks now. We went to Six Flags :-) What a crackin day! Now, those of you that know me well will remember that some time ago I nearly lost the will to live as I had all of a sudden become scared of roller coasters... well, never fear.... I am cured :-) I seem to have passed it on to Jen tho, who after second coaster nearly honked :-( However we have planned some serious roller coaster therapy as we bought VIP membership to Six Flags, which allows us free entry to all the parks in the USA :-)
So after a few more gentle rides we decided to check out Hurricane Bay, the water park... WOW :-) What a completely cool place. By the time we'd knackered ourselves out it was gone 6pm. A truely awesome day, but we now need another day off to recover from the excitement.
We are staying at another KOA site tonight. As we pulled in we thought "ahhhhh... nice and quiet". A lovely site it is, but unfortunately it's right next door to a live music heavy rock club. Normally I'd be right up for a bit of headbangin', but tonight I'm knackered, so I think I may go over there in a mo and give all those roudy bikers a bit of what-for, don't ya know!
Anyway, Illinois Beach State Park. Sounds nice. But this has to be the worst state park we have stayed in. If you are ever planning to camp outside Chicago, don't go here! I particularly liked the notice on the beach that said "Beware of the Asbestos" and the startling views of the power station!!
We were allocated an alcohol free pitch... where the logic of having alcohol free pitches stems from, I'll never know as the pitches behind us definately didn't have this restriction. As we went to bed, the Army started playing soldiers a couple of miles down the road, there was explosions, gunfire and all sorts of other wierd noises. Hey ho, all good fun. Then at about 2am a major storm whipped its way through the camp site. Pretty much anybody who was in a tent packed up and went home! We braved it tho and survived :-) This morning we had a quick look around and there were a few trees down, so it had obviously been a pretty big storm.
Anyway, today we'd decided to have a day off as we've been on the road for 2 weeks now. We went to Six Flags :-) What a crackin day! Now, those of you that know me well will remember that some time ago I nearly lost the will to live as I had all of a sudden become scared of roller coasters... well, never fear.... I am cured :-) I seem to have passed it on to Jen tho, who after second coaster nearly honked :-( However we have planned some serious roller coaster therapy as we bought VIP membership to Six Flags, which allows us free entry to all the parks in the USA :-)
So after a few more gentle rides we decided to check out Hurricane Bay, the water park... WOW :-) What a completely cool place. By the time we'd knackered ourselves out it was gone 6pm. A truely awesome day, but we now need another day off to recover from the excitement.
We are staying at another KOA site tonight. As we pulled in we thought "ahhhhh... nice and quiet". A lovely site it is, but unfortunately it's right next door to a live music heavy rock club. Normally I'd be right up for a bit of headbangin', but tonight I'm knackered, so I think I may go over there in a mo and give all those roudy bikers a bit of what-for, don't ya know!
Saturday 11 August 2007
Rock'n'Roll, It'll poison your mind kids!
After Niagara we continued west and headed for Toledo and the Cedar Point State Park at the far end of Lake Erie. We decided to detour along the way and check out the Cleveland Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, on the recommendation of a fellow camper. We checked it out in the ever faithful Rough Guide and it sounded promising. Cleveland hasn’t had much of an influence on Rock and Roll, so it seemed a bit odd to have what is advertised as probably the finest collection of memorabilia in the USA. Apparently the phrase “Rock and Roll” was first used here by the DJ Alan Freed… well that’s just grrrreat pop-pickers!
Given our past experiences with cities we were a bit hesitant about going, but for once the signs were good and there was parking pretty much right outside, so things were looking good. The Museum is a bit pricey at $20 per head… and you are not allowed to take cameras in… something to do with rock stars not wanting people to copy their instrument designs. It wasn’t too bad a place, (in fact I can think of several people reading this that would have had to take advantage of the 2 day pass, there was some fascinating stuff, like Madonna is actually tiny (judging by her outfits and Mick Jagger is really tall! – Jen) but the recurring theme is that rock stars get famous, have a drink or drug problem, then either die or come to some amazing realization that they are not invincible and go on to write politically influencd music and get in trouble with various African governments! Ok… maybe it’s not quite that simple!
So we then left Cleveland, a city that seems to be basking in the delights of economic development, unlike Buffalo that we drove through a few days ago which was a bit of a hole.
We arrived at Cedar Point State Park at about 6pm to find that it was chockablock... Shame as it looked like a really nice place, so off we went to find the nearest KOA (aka Butlins) some 20 miles up the road. We checked in and immediately went for a swim in the outdoor pool as it was a bloomin warm evening. The pool was small, but much cleaner than the scanky swamp at the Holiday Inn in Baltimore. Of all the unlikely places, we also found a Series I landy… It’s a beauty and Jen being Jen, she had to buy it.
Downside to this campsite… it was right next door to a railroad crossing and, I reckon American trains only have 2 controls, one to make the train move, the other to blow the horns… which they did consistently through the night (Jen reckons it was worse than my snoring!).
It’s 300 miles to Chicago, we have no cigarettes, the sun is shining and we’re wearing sunglasses!! (for the uneducated amongst you, thats a take off from a classic Blues Brothers saying ;-) ) … so we need to get a move on. We hoped to get a hotel and spend the night there, maybe check out a Jazz/Blues bar, but everything is very expensive unless you stay at one of the hotels at O’Hare airport. But we can’t find any information about how easy it is to get Downtown, so we’re just gonna drive though and have a look before heading out the other side to the next campsite.
Given our past experiences with cities we were a bit hesitant about going, but for once the signs were good and there was parking pretty much right outside, so things were looking good. The Museum is a bit pricey at $20 per head… and you are not allowed to take cameras in… something to do with rock stars not wanting people to copy their instrument designs. It wasn’t too bad a place, (in fact I can think of several people reading this that would have had to take advantage of the 2 day pass, there was some fascinating stuff, like Madonna is actually tiny (judging by her outfits and Mick Jagger is really tall! – Jen) but the recurring theme is that rock stars get famous, have a drink or drug problem, then either die or come to some amazing realization that they are not invincible and go on to write politically influencd music and get in trouble with various African governments! Ok… maybe it’s not quite that simple!
So we then left Cleveland, a city that seems to be basking in the delights of economic development, unlike Buffalo that we drove through a few days ago which was a bit of a hole.
We arrived at Cedar Point State Park at about 6pm to find that it was chockablock... Shame as it looked like a really nice place, so off we went to find the nearest KOA (aka Butlins) some 20 miles up the road. We checked in and immediately went for a swim in the outdoor pool as it was a bloomin warm evening. The pool was small, but much cleaner than the scanky swamp at the Holiday Inn in Baltimore. Of all the unlikely places, we also found a Series I landy… It’s a beauty and Jen being Jen, she had to buy it.
Downside to this campsite… it was right next door to a railroad crossing and, I reckon American trains only have 2 controls, one to make the train move, the other to blow the horns… which they did consistently through the night (Jen reckons it was worse than my snoring!).
It’s 300 miles to Chicago, we have no cigarettes, the sun is shining and we’re wearing sunglasses!! (for the uneducated amongst you, thats a take off from a classic Blues Brothers saying ;-) ) … so we need to get a move on. We hoped to get a hotel and spend the night there, maybe check out a Jazz/Blues bar, but everything is very expensive unless you stay at one of the hotels at O’Hare airport. But we can’t find any information about how easy it is to get Downtown, so we’re just gonna drive though and have a look before heading out the other side to the next campsite.
Friday 10 August 2007
I love it when a plan doesn't come together...
Mm. Well that didn’t work! We made fantastic time heading to Toronto until we hit the half way mark… then a tractor trailer decided to fall over on the interstate blocking the whole thing ahead of us. In two hours we completed about 8km and decided that there was no way we were making it to Toronto for the evening, even if we were lucky we would have been pushing it to make it there for 9pm. The prospect of spending money on a hotel for a couple of hours in the evening didn’t really appeal, the only one we could find with a Charlie-sized car park was just over £100 a night, so with a sigh we decided to head to a campsite instead. As it turned out we got to drive down some of those amazing roads that just go on and on and on and …you get the idea, into the horizon and ended up at a campsite beside a river again. We had a peaceful night playing frizbee (aren’t we cultured!) and made plans to head into Toronto in the morning.
We got up bright and early and followed the interstate down to the edge of Lake Ontario. Toronto is a pretty amazing place, you think you’re in it and then you feel like you’re in the Countryside… then you think your in it again… then Countryside – in reality it’s the large parks and open spaces they’ve designed into the city. Combined with the glimpses of the Lake really seem to take away that suffocating city feeling. We didn’t really get a chance to stop (we are still aiming to make up time) but we saw the HUGE tower which I believe is the tallest free standing structure and I must say, it is pretty big. We were clear of Toronto by mid afternoon, so decided to push onto Niagara, it’s only about a 90minute drive around the edge of the lake… I’ve been thinking about this next bit for a while… how can I adequately describe Niagara to those that haven’t been? Well. It’s Big. Very Big. (those A’s at GCSE’s were fully deserved don’t you think?!).
Seriously, it’s not the biggest in the world, but it is pretty amazing. We approached from the Canadian side, the famed horseshoe falls being on their side of the river and I really annoyed Dan by going ‘Oooo! Look!’ ‘Wow, that’s amazing’ ‘Nooooooooo WAY (in my best American accent)’ as he was attempting to negotiate the traffic. We parked pretty easily in the Canadian state park and the best thing about the falls is both the American and Canadian sides are protected along the edge, so at least the hotels and tacky shops are kept back to a semi-respectable distance. I’m never going to be able to describe what they were like and as they say, a picture speaks a thousand words so:
'Disco Rob' @ Niagara:
We also went on the Maid-of-the-Mist tour in a boat to the bottom of the falls. Wow! Lol! Basically, you’re taken to the bottom past the American Falls being given a commentary about the more interesting aspects of the history and they they ‘park’ right in the middle of the horseshoe! Now, the boats pretty busy and we were on the top deck (it would have been rude not too!) with nothing to hold on too… Simon our sea-faring friend may have been right at home but that boat doesn’t half get buffeted! Still, it’s more than worth it and again, will have to go down as one of the most amazing experiences of my life. When you’re in the spray (which reaches up about 170m from the surface) looking up at the 52m high horseshoe it feels like the suns gone out and it’s *proper* raining, needless to say we both came out drenched but grinning like loons. It was the perfect solution to the 33 degree temps that day. Here are some pics from the boat, they may be rubbish but it’s a hard situation to take a photo in!
When we’d had our fill of making ‘Oo’ noises at the waterfall we decided to head off and find a campsite. We crossed back into America with no problems, the Customs & Immigration guy was quite fascinated by what we were up to, but let us in so that’s fine. The campsite we found was about 12m from the falls and a ‘KOA’ campsite, we’d seen quite a few of these already and decided we should check it out as it was already 6pm. It turns out they are a network of family campsites in America and Canada… think Butlins on a Campsite with yellow t-shirts instead of red coats! lol! Actually, that’s a bit unfair, it’s not that bad, but you get the idea. They worked out cheaper than the other private sites we’d stayed at and for $16 we joined up getting us a 10% discount each time we use a site. We’d both prefer to use the State Parks where possible, but it’s not always, so this will offer a cheap, clean, safe and modern alternative (and most have wireless internet ;) ).
The guy at the sign in desk was well up with his local knowledge as you would expect and told us about the free fireworks at the falls every Wednesday night… Me and free fireworks are a good combination! So we had a hasty dinner and headed back to the American side this time to see the show. The American side means you don’t get that picture postcard view of the horseshoe, but you can get very close to the edge of the American Falls. We watched the show from between the American Falls and the ‘Bridal Veil’ Falls, with the lights on the falls it was a whole alternative experience, and I’d certainly recommend going back at night if you ever visit. One more pic, I like this one:
We got up bright and early and followed the interstate down to the edge of Lake Ontario. Toronto is a pretty amazing place, you think you’re in it and then you feel like you’re in the Countryside… then you think your in it again… then Countryside – in reality it’s the large parks and open spaces they’ve designed into the city. Combined with the glimpses of the Lake really seem to take away that suffocating city feeling. We didn’t really get a chance to stop (we are still aiming to make up time) but we saw the HUGE tower which I believe is the tallest free standing structure and I must say, it is pretty big. We were clear of Toronto by mid afternoon, so decided to push onto Niagara, it’s only about a 90minute drive around the edge of the lake… I’ve been thinking about this next bit for a while… how can I adequately describe Niagara to those that haven’t been? Well. It’s Big. Very Big. (those A’s at GCSE’s were fully deserved don’t you think?!).
Seriously, it’s not the biggest in the world, but it is pretty amazing. We approached from the Canadian side, the famed horseshoe falls being on their side of the river and I really annoyed Dan by going ‘Oooo! Look!’ ‘Wow, that’s amazing’ ‘Nooooooooo WAY (in my best American accent)’ as he was attempting to negotiate the traffic. We parked pretty easily in the Canadian state park and the best thing about the falls is both the American and Canadian sides are protected along the edge, so at least the hotels and tacky shops are kept back to a semi-respectable distance. I’m never going to be able to describe what they were like and as they say, a picture speaks a thousand words so:
'Disco Rob' @ Niagara:
We also went on the Maid-of-the-Mist tour in a boat to the bottom of the falls. Wow! Lol! Basically, you’re taken to the bottom past the American Falls being given a commentary about the more interesting aspects of the history and they they ‘park’ right in the middle of the horseshoe! Now, the boats pretty busy and we were on the top deck (it would have been rude not too!) with nothing to hold on too… Simon our sea-faring friend may have been right at home but that boat doesn’t half get buffeted! Still, it’s more than worth it and again, will have to go down as one of the most amazing experiences of my life. When you’re in the spray (which reaches up about 170m from the surface) looking up at the 52m high horseshoe it feels like the suns gone out and it’s *proper* raining, needless to say we both came out drenched but grinning like loons. It was the perfect solution to the 33 degree temps that day. Here are some pics from the boat, they may be rubbish but it’s a hard situation to take a photo in!
When we’d had our fill of making ‘Oo’ noises at the waterfall we decided to head off and find a campsite. We crossed back into America with no problems, the Customs & Immigration guy was quite fascinated by what we were up to, but let us in so that’s fine. The campsite we found was about 12m from the falls and a ‘KOA’ campsite, we’d seen quite a few of these already and decided we should check it out as it was already 6pm. It turns out they are a network of family campsites in America and Canada… think Butlins on a Campsite with yellow t-shirts instead of red coats! lol! Actually, that’s a bit unfair, it’s not that bad, but you get the idea. They worked out cheaper than the other private sites we’d stayed at and for $16 we joined up getting us a 10% discount each time we use a site. We’d both prefer to use the State Parks where possible, but it’s not always, so this will offer a cheap, clean, safe and modern alternative (and most have wireless internet ;) ).
The guy at the sign in desk was well up with his local knowledge as you would expect and told us about the free fireworks at the falls every Wednesday night… Me and free fireworks are a good combination! So we had a hasty dinner and headed back to the American side this time to see the show. The American side means you don’t get that picture postcard view of the horseshoe, but you can get very close to the edge of the American Falls. We watched the show from between the American Falls and the ‘Bridal Veil’ Falls, with the lights on the falls it was a whole alternative experience, and I’d certainly recommend going back at night if you ever visit. One more pic, I like this one:
Monday 6 August 2007
We finally made it... BEN & JERRYS!
Well, today’s the day that Jen has spent her whole life waiting for… It’s BEN & JERRY’s Day!
We awoke this morning to rain… and lots of it. The campsite was awash and our lovely view of the lake was somewhat obscured by mist. But hey, it was still a view nonetheless.
We finally managed to get packed up as the rain died off for 10 mins and headed off to B&J’s just up the road… It rained some more. We arrived and were directed to park by the raincoat clad employees right outside the “Flavour Graveyard”. This is where all the flavours that don’t sell too well go when they stop making them… quite touching!
We legged it to the factory and got our tickets fro the tour… a whole $3 each (about £1.50). It’s only a half hour tour but its worth it as you get some free ice cream of a flavour they haven’t released yet at the end. You get to see all the stages in aking the ice cream from a room above the factory floor. The tour also gives you some of the history of B&J’s… did you know, for instance, that Ben & Jerry decided to make ice cream because the ice cream machine was cheaper than a Pretzel maker and they learnt how to do it through a $5 correspondence course! They aren’t really business minded blokes at all. Anyway at the end of the tour we had cinnabon flavour ice cream
We then went to the souvenir shop and Jen spent our entire holiday budget of a load of bits’n’bobs! Actually some of it is quite cool so I’m not complaining.
We then made tracks and headed to Canada. Jen was really worried about us getting into Canada with the Camel, me, I just played it cool ;-) As it happened the border crossing was a doddle although they chappy did have to make a phone call to check up about a UK registered car. We whooped and cheered our way past the people who were being searched (attracting a lot of unnecessary attention to ourselves) and made our merry way into Canada. This place really messes with your mind! There are still all the American things all over the place, big trucks, stupidly huge pick up trucks, clap board houses with porches and rocking chair, but… everything is in French… and the landscape even looks a bit like Northern France… but you know its not!
We’re starting to notice the week that we lost waiting for the Camel already, so we’ve decided we need to make up some of that lost time. We are just outside Montreal at the mo, and rather than going back to spend a day there we are going to peg it down to Toronto instead and try to get a Motel/B&B near town so we can have a wander round tomorrow evening. At least that’s the plan! By Wednesday we hope to be at Niagara Falls.
We awoke this morning to rain… and lots of it. The campsite was awash and our lovely view of the lake was somewhat obscured by mist. But hey, it was still a view nonetheless.
We finally managed to get packed up as the rain died off for 10 mins and headed off to B&J’s just up the road… It rained some more. We arrived and were directed to park by the raincoat clad employees right outside the “Flavour Graveyard”. This is where all the flavours that don’t sell too well go when they stop making them… quite touching!
We legged it to the factory and got our tickets fro the tour… a whole $3 each (about £1.50). It’s only a half hour tour but its worth it as you get some free ice cream of a flavour they haven’t released yet at the end. You get to see all the stages in aking the ice cream from a room above the factory floor. The tour also gives you some of the history of B&J’s… did you know, for instance, that Ben & Jerry decided to make ice cream because the ice cream machine was cheaper than a Pretzel maker and they learnt how to do it through a $5 correspondence course! They aren’t really business minded blokes at all. Anyway at the end of the tour we had cinnabon flavour ice cream
We then went to the souvenir shop and Jen spent our entire holiday budget of a load of bits’n’bobs! Actually some of it is quite cool so I’m not complaining.
We then made tracks and headed to Canada. Jen was really worried about us getting into Canada with the Camel, me, I just played it cool ;-) As it happened the border crossing was a doddle although they chappy did have to make a phone call to check up about a UK registered car. We whooped and cheered our way past the people who were being searched (attracting a lot of unnecessary attention to ourselves) and made our merry way into Canada. This place really messes with your mind! There are still all the American things all over the place, big trucks, stupidly huge pick up trucks, clap board houses with porches and rocking chair, but… everything is in French… and the landscape even looks a bit like Northern France… but you know its not!
We’re starting to notice the week that we lost waiting for the Camel already, so we’ve decided we need to make up some of that lost time. We are just outside Montreal at the mo, and rather than going back to spend a day there we are going to peg it down to Toronto instead and try to get a Motel/B&B near town so we can have a wander round tomorrow evening. At least that’s the plan! By Wednesday we hope to be at Niagara Falls.
Sunday 5 August 2007
Mountain Bike Mayhem
Today we got up really early… about 8:30am which is mighty impressive. Our plan today was to be on the road by 9. Hahaaaaa! About 10:30 we rolled out of the campsite.
We headed out to Attitash. This, we had been assured, had some more interesting biking trails. What a place. During the winter months it is a ski resort. When the snow melts they use the ski lifts to transport bikes and riders to the top of the slopes so they can get their fix of adrenaline. We asked at the bike shop and were told that the routes were all either hard-intermediate, extreme, or double or triple X-treme! YOIKS! So after all the ‘mountain bike’ trails we’d been on that turned out to be paved roads, off we went thinking that the hard-intermediate would be a good level for us. HA! Within the first 2 minutes of riding I’d gone over the handlebars and Jen had managed to graze her leg. This was more like it! We’d been told that it was possible to get to the bottom of the route we chose in around 15 mins! We did it in about 40…. LOL… And I went over the handlebars again. It’s worth noting here as you all think that we took ages, a lot of the intermediate routes could only be accessed by riding through XX sections, I love American planning!
I decided to have another go and this time managed to get all the way to the bottom without falling off, but I REALLY need to get the brakes swapped over, cos they are all american and back to front at the mo.
We then had a go on the sled things… a bit like bobsleigh, but with wheels… very cool.
After a massive pizza over the road at Matty B's, we headed north west and checked into the Little River state park campsite in Vermont… Another cheap and cheerful with good amenities and a magnificent view from the rooftent. The reason for being here is that we are about 2 miles from the Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream factory near Montpelier. I don’t know what Jen is gonna do with herself once we’ve been there, it’s all she’s been lookin forward to!
As the night drew in the stars came out… WOW… it’s a lovely clear night and you can see more stars than you could ever hope to see at home. Steve’s telescope would have been handy, but eyesight is good enough… within 5 minutes I had spotted a load of satellites going over.
We headed out to Attitash. This, we had been assured, had some more interesting biking trails. What a place. During the winter months it is a ski resort. When the snow melts they use the ski lifts to transport bikes and riders to the top of the slopes so they can get their fix of adrenaline. We asked at the bike shop and were told that the routes were all either hard-intermediate, extreme, or double or triple X-treme! YOIKS! So after all the ‘mountain bike’ trails we’d been on that turned out to be paved roads, off we went thinking that the hard-intermediate would be a good level for us. HA! Within the first 2 minutes of riding I’d gone over the handlebars and Jen had managed to graze her leg. This was more like it! We’d been told that it was possible to get to the bottom of the route we chose in around 15 mins! We did it in about 40…. LOL… And I went over the handlebars again. It’s worth noting here as you all think that we took ages, a lot of the intermediate routes could only be accessed by riding through XX sections, I love American planning!
I decided to have another go and this time managed to get all the way to the bottom without falling off, but I REALLY need to get the brakes swapped over, cos they are all american and back to front at the mo.
We then had a go on the sled things… a bit like bobsleigh, but with wheels… very cool.
After a massive pizza over the road at Matty B's, we headed north west and checked into the Little River state park campsite in Vermont… Another cheap and cheerful with good amenities and a magnificent view from the rooftent. The reason for being here is that we are about 2 miles from the Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream factory near Montpelier. I don’t know what Jen is gonna do with herself once we’ve been there, it’s all she’s been lookin forward to!
As the night drew in the stars came out… WOW… it’s a lovely clear night and you can see more stars than you could ever hope to see at home. Steve’s telescope would have been handy, but eyesight is good enough… within 5 minutes I had spotted a load of satellites going over.
Saturday 4 August 2007
Wow... I'm touched.. There have been so many emails and comments from people, kinda make ya go all squiffy! So in answer to some of the many comments:
Blippie... It did rain here too...once! ;-) But apparently we are in for a big storm tonight.
Margery... Smarty pants... the brakes on my bike are hydraulic. At the moment I have no idea how to bleed bike brakes, it's probably the same principal as Landy brake, but at the mo they work... if I mess with them, well, who knows!
Dave, my bikin buddy!... Yeah, got a new bikin jacket, some padded shorts and all sorts... its so cheap over here.
Dad...Did you shut the windows when you left? ;-)
Mum... Yep, Jen is here with me, she's live and kickin! She very rarely lets me take pics of her :-( But heres one, taken tonight at the camp site in New Hampshite, in a town called Conway. We splashed out tonight and got an expensive camp pitch with our own access to the river and everything!
There also seems to be an abundence of exceedingly large camper vans here... I mean, check this puppy out...
I mean, this just ain't camping, is it. That thing has gotta have its own zip code (post code to you lot!) and more square footage than my entire house!
Heavy day of biking tomorrow (hopefully), thanks for the comments, keep 'em coming.
Nighty night ;-)
Blippie... It did rain here too...once! ;-) But apparently we are in for a big storm tonight.
Margery... Smarty pants... the brakes on my bike are hydraulic. At the moment I have no idea how to bleed bike brakes, it's probably the same principal as Landy brake, but at the mo they work... if I mess with them, well, who knows!
Dave, my bikin buddy!... Yeah, got a new bikin jacket, some padded shorts and all sorts... its so cheap over here.
Dad...Did you shut the windows when you left? ;-)
Mum... Yep, Jen is here with me, she's live and kickin! She very rarely lets me take pics of her :-( But heres one, taken tonight at the camp site in New Hampshite, in a town called Conway. We splashed out tonight and got an expensive camp pitch with our own access to the river and everything!
There also seems to be an abundence of exceedingly large camper vans here... I mean, check this puppy out...
I mean, this just ain't camping, is it. That thing has gotta have its own zip code (post code to you lot!) and more square footage than my entire house!
Heavy day of biking tomorrow (hopefully), thanks for the comments, keep 'em coming.
Nighty night ;-)
Hersey's Shocker!
I couldn't believe it! I found some Cadbury's Dairy Milk!!! ...but no. It was made by Hersey's! What mean and evil fate was that?! Luckily, I checked the back after a bad encounter with some Rolo's. I am sad, but my waistline is not ;) :D
From 'old' to New Hampshire...
Well, it's been a busy few days!
As rightly deserved though, the first paragraph of this blog will be dedicated to 'Stumpy'. I can do that as I've got the laptop. Hahahaa. Stumpy is a most excellent (in true Bill 'n Ted style) mountain bike that I happened to have purchased with all my hard earnt overtime money :) For those who know about these things and to bore those who don't here are a few facts: He's an M5 Alloy Hardtail, Fox F90 Front shocks (with lockout), Avid SD-5R cantilever brakes (will upgrade this having tried Dan's), SRAM X-9 rear derailleur and X-7 Gear levers ...and now Dan's nagging me for getting geeky, so here's a link: My bike
And a piccie from Cape Ann :) (yes, I know the saddles horrible and I've already changed the peddles as I'm too much of a wimp to ride with clips!)
We left Cape Cod on ...er.. I've no idea as I'm on holiday! A few days ago anyway, and headed up the coast a little to north of Boston. We'd heard the Whale watching was fantasic in this area of the world, so decided to spend a couple of nights in Gloucester (isn't it just enough to make you feel at home :) ) next to Manchester (on-sea lol). We had a couple of jobs to do on Charlie Camel, namely checking all the oils and changing the rear brake pads as we'd forgotten to do them before we left home. We could combine this with the Whale Watching and not have to rush off to find a site afterwards. As it was we found a lovely site on Cape Ann with our own little wooded area adn campfire facilites - toasted Marshmallows all 'round :)
The Whale watching was, quite simply, amazing :) We weren't expecting to see an awful lot as we thought it was probably quite hard to find them, but the trip consited of (from memory..) 9 Humpbacks, 3 Fins (the 2nd biggest animal in the world) and 4 Minke's. Wow. The first lot we saw we pulled in close and it was a Humpback 'tail slapping', apparenlty the marine experts are still unsure why they do this, but in this case it looked like communication as there was another doing the same thing about 300m away and another even further in the distance. Later on, we saw these four together which is apparently also unusal! The trip consisted of tail slapping, water spurts, feeding and waving! lol! That's something I don't think we'll ever forget.
Tail Slapping:
For a little perspective!:
Feeding:
Today we rose bright and early (nothing to do with the quarrying and explosives going on down the road... and headed for New Hampshire and Maine. Maine is somewhere I'd always wanted to go as due to my sick facination for easy-reading horror I wanted to visit some of the sites from the Steven King books! (yeah, I know, but it's my holiday!) Ogunquit proved the closest and from one of my favourite books - The Stand (as I know some of you reading this will know) the 'home' of Fran Goldsmith and Harold Lauder. The Rough Guide also said it was a beautiful town with a 3 mile sand spit for a beach... and it certainly was :) Typical New England boarded houses, temps of 98 degrees white sand and crystal water, it was a hard afternoon ;) :)
After that we were itching for some of the true Land Rover type holiday stuff, so I now find myself writing this blog in the White Mountains of New Hampshire (and hoping there is not a big black bear behind me...). We spent this afternoon stocking up and tomorrow we'll be heading off into the National Park for a few days of 'proper' camping, trail finding and Mountain biking. If we don't get eaten by bears hopefully I'll be updating this in a few days! ;) :)
A quick thanks to everyone who's sent comments, it's great to hear from you all :) And for your info Mum, ok, it wasn't 98p in the Nike shop, but I still got 3x pair of trousers for less than £20! :) And for everyone to whom I promised postcards, they are written (in some cases like JW's there's several!) I just can't find a post office :( Will send asap.
Jen
As rightly deserved though, the first paragraph of this blog will be dedicated to 'Stumpy'. I can do that as I've got the laptop. Hahahaa. Stumpy is a most excellent (in true Bill 'n Ted style) mountain bike that I happened to have purchased with all my hard earnt overtime money :) For those who know about these things and to bore those who don't here are a few facts: He's an M5 Alloy Hardtail, Fox F90 Front shocks (with lockout), Avid SD-5R cantilever brakes (will upgrade this having tried Dan's), SRAM X-9 rear derailleur and X-7 Gear levers ...and now Dan's nagging me for getting geeky, so here's a link: My bike
And a piccie from Cape Ann :) (yes, I know the saddles horrible and I've already changed the peddles as I'm too much of a wimp to ride with clips!)
We left Cape Cod on ...er.. I've no idea as I'm on holiday! A few days ago anyway, and headed up the coast a little to north of Boston. We'd heard the Whale watching was fantasic in this area of the world, so decided to spend a couple of nights in Gloucester (isn't it just enough to make you feel at home :) ) next to Manchester (on-sea lol). We had a couple of jobs to do on Charlie Camel, namely checking all the oils and changing the rear brake pads as we'd forgotten to do them before we left home. We could combine this with the Whale Watching and not have to rush off to find a site afterwards. As it was we found a lovely site on Cape Ann with our own little wooded area adn campfire facilites - toasted Marshmallows all 'round :)
The Whale watching was, quite simply, amazing :) We weren't expecting to see an awful lot as we thought it was probably quite hard to find them, but the trip consited of (from memory..) 9 Humpbacks, 3 Fins (the 2nd biggest animal in the world) and 4 Minke's. Wow. The first lot we saw we pulled in close and it was a Humpback 'tail slapping', apparenlty the marine experts are still unsure why they do this, but in this case it looked like communication as there was another doing the same thing about 300m away and another even further in the distance. Later on, we saw these four together which is apparently also unusal! The trip consisted of tail slapping, water spurts, feeding and waving! lol! That's something I don't think we'll ever forget.
Tail Slapping:
For a little perspective!:
Feeding:
Today we rose bright and early (nothing to do with the quarrying and explosives going on down the road... and headed for New Hampshire and Maine. Maine is somewhere I'd always wanted to go as due to my sick facination for easy-reading horror I wanted to visit some of the sites from the Steven King books! (yeah, I know, but it's my holiday!) Ogunquit proved the closest and from one of my favourite books - The Stand (as I know some of you reading this will know) the 'home' of Fran Goldsmith and Harold Lauder. The Rough Guide also said it was a beautiful town with a 3 mile sand spit for a beach... and it certainly was :) Typical New England boarded houses, temps of 98 degrees white sand and crystal water, it was a hard afternoon ;) :)
After that we were itching for some of the true Land Rover type holiday stuff, so I now find myself writing this blog in the White Mountains of New Hampshire (and hoping there is not a big black bear behind me...). We spent this afternoon stocking up and tomorrow we'll be heading off into the National Park for a few days of 'proper' camping, trail finding and Mountain biking. If we don't get eaten by bears hopefully I'll be updating this in a few days! ;) :)
A quick thanks to everyone who's sent comments, it's great to hear from you all :) And for your info Mum, ok, it wasn't 98p in the Nike shop, but I still got 3x pair of trousers for less than £20! :) And for everyone to whom I promised postcards, they are written (in some cases like JW's there's several!) I just can't find a post office :( Will send asap.
Jen
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