J - The maid of the mist

We spent the day at Niagara falls.

J - Wisconsin

I was wearing a motorcycle helmet while helping cover my Uncle Daves car when this hail came down 1 minute after we arrived in Hudson. I felt a little bit silly though my cousin John was just running around in short dashes as if that would somehow confuse the hail.


Two days later we arrived in Monroe Wisonsin, Ahh the land of cheese. Wisconsin is pretty great. Rolling hills covered in corn and cows. In the evening fireflys come out and light up the fields. We have been yukking it up with the rellies, eating limburger cheese sandwiches and drinking beer. It's 11pm and I can still smell the limburger on my fingers from lunch. Tomorrow we are going to scream through to Detroit (Day-twaagh) and then to Toronto. The interstate is eating my rear tire for breakfast and travel is wearing away my entheusiasm slowly. We are going to the East which we vowed never to do. There is fun to be had but there is a lot of sitting still to endure in order to get there. Still, there's lots to see and do, we have friends all over the place, New Foundland, climbing in the shawangunks, New York. The traveling is different this time, planning 5 days ahead, and staying in cities instead of idly wandering in the national forest and parks. But we are getting lots of free food!

M - the dreaded crossing

4 days across the prairies were more eventful than I would have preferred.
First we left in constant rain in the hope that it would ease as we went east
(it didn't) and only got 200 miles to Medicine Hat where we went to Tim Horton's
for dinner as we were semi hypothermic. A Medicine Hat local
with a thick British accent told us where to find the town campsite, where we
went straight to bed and spent the next 3 hours huddled to warm up!

The next two days were better, we just ran into one shower which wasn't much, I
think it was also going east and we caught it up and rode through to the other side.

Yesterday we started in a little town in eastern North Dakota, and planned to
ride the whole way across Minnesota to Hudson. Various messing around in the
morning including filling up the oil in my bike, and then going to a town to buy
more oil as Josh's was also low. Riding at 75 mph for 3 days uses up oil. Just 4
miles down the road we turned off to take a wee diversion to see the tallest
structure in the world, a huge radio tower. Stopped at a stop sign, Josh
noticed some clouds of smoke, no big deal, he figured it was coming from my
bike... but then I rode off and the smoke stayed with him... then he must have
looked down and oh dear. It turns out we had topped up his oil and then neither
of us had replaced the filler cap, and there was oil EVERYWHERE! All down
Josh's right hand leg, boot, the bike, his rear brake, and all over the rear
wheel. Quite scary as we had been doing 70 on the interstate just moments earlier.

We wiped most of it off with toilet paper and used dirt and sand to try and dry
the tire, then limped the 4 miles back to the town... can't think of the name
just now. We found a friendly mechanic who had a pressure washer, though sadly
it turned out to be broken and as much use as a garden hose, but he did have
some great degreaser soap which worked a charm, we managed to get Josh and his
bike roadworthy again.

After all that we were still 300 miles from Hudson, so a quick lunch at Burger
King (it's about 4pm by this time) and we slugged it out, through Fargo, onto
the I-94, the whole way across Minnesota and then as we were going through
Minneapolis, and thunderstorm was brewing... I knew we we close, and I was
praying hard that we could just get off the Interstate before the inevitable big
heavy rain drops began to fall. Crazy spaghetti junctions and trucks and
changing lanes later we finally got out of St Paul and crossed the bridge over
the river and the state line, I knew we were going to take the first exit, right
into Hudson. As we drove though town it was getting very dark, I was trying to
read the street signs though my visor, and the storm warning siren was going off
sounding a lot like the fire siren in Wainui. Thankfully Hudson isn't a big
place and we made it to Dave's house, he ran around the back and opened the
garage, we pulled in as the first rain drops fell - whew! It only rained for
about 1 minute, then it turned into hail, which went from pea size to marbles,
and almost to golf balls - now we were running around trying to find something
to put over Dave's car!

Now we are trying to figure out where to go next and when.
vague plan is Monroe, then Toronto, then either to Ottawa, Montreal and the
Maritimes or to Shawangunks for climbing first... not sure yet.

So I rode the whole way across North Dakota and no black and white cows - not a
single one! Guess what they are farming now? Corn. Plenty of ethanol
propaganda billboards sprouting up in the fields as well.

I'll see if I can get a good photo of Josh's right boot, now a decidedly different colour to the left one, due to having absorbed a quart of engine oil. He'll be washing his own socks from now on.

M - Off again

Well it is raining and pouring here in Calgary, but we are going to take the plunge and get out into it. I never knew Calgary could be so wet, it has rained every day for a week.

We are starting the long haul east, beginning on the Trans Canada Highway, then dropping down into the USA on our way to Wisconsin.

Wish us luck in the wet!

M - Around about and back to Calgary

We have been very busy since the last post. Sorry about the lack of blogging, but now I am going to make up for i with a bunch of photos...

When I wrote last we were heading off towards Vancouver. Our hostel was pretty central on Granville St, so we were able to go out and walk around the town and stop for some terrible nachos and a beer or two. In the morning we walked down to Granville Island which not really an island at all, but is a 'park' organised by the federal government. There is a big market place, lots of art stores and general colourful businesses. Even a brewery.



Sadly I didn't actually buy any fruit. No sure why not now, would have been a good idea!


Although it isn't surrounded by water, there was some water between us and Granville Island, and we crossed it on this super cute ferry boat. We are sure they are powered by a few energentic mice hidden under the floorboards.


Quite the bike collection on the big ferry as we crossed over to Vanouver Island. Waiting for the boat we met Richard, a Caniwi (both Canadian and NZ) who invited us to come and stay at his house on Lake Horne. Thanks again to Richard and Jane! The house was halfway though renovations, and the weather was lovely, so we slept out in the gazebo.


Richard and Jane have only solar power, and a composting toilet outside, so it was a bit like being at a darker more rustic Taheke. In the morning we took a shower up on the roof. No photos of that though sorry.

Despite it being the weekend we decided to be brave and head to the west coast. We were warned that it would be very busy. It turned out no to be very busy at all. The first night we stayed in Ucluelet (You - clue - let), a nice wee fishing village which remains slightly off the beated path. Fresh fish cooked over a ceder drift wood fire was very nice. Then we headed up the coast hoping to sneak into the 'full' campground at Green Point in the national park. When we got there, it turned out only two of the 30 walk in campsites were in use, so we had 28 possible sites to choose from! So much for all the crowds and having to book two days ahead. Tofino was very nice, and a launching point for all kinds of tours that are not really in our budget.


When in rome... I decided to join the thousands of logs washed up all along the west coast of Vancouver Island.



Man have we seen some great slugs! This guy was my favorite so far, he is about 5 inches long, thicker than your finger.

We passed through Victoria in the rain, so stopped only for a quick look, then another ferry across to Port Angelus, Washington. We tried going to Olympic National Park, but we were to late for the visitors centre, and the campground we were considering was closed. Instead we headed along the coast to Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge for a clifftop campsite above the sea. Exciting to be back in the USA, especially as the beer is so much cheaper, but I didn't like the Wasabi chips very much.

We passed though North Cacased National Park which I thought was especailly beatiful, and then dashed across Washington, all the way to Spokane where we stayed with Dwyllis, my mother's cousin. Dwyllis and her husband Del gave us a great tour of the city, especially interesting as we have been watching Public Television from Spokane all winter and knew a little bit about the place already from that.


We then had an interesting ride across Idaho and into Montana ending up at the same campsite that we stayed in at Easter on our Rockclimbing trip. A good run of over 200 miles considering we didn't leave until 3pm. Then finally up to the Canadian border, stopping for lunch in Sparwood at the World's Largest Truck. Josh had to inspect the bouldering possibilities.


And now we are in Calgary again. While we were gone they have had a snowstorm and torrential downpours which flooded the city. I think I am glad to have missed all that!