I know, I'm a slacker

I am writing you from a top secret location.  Let's just say it's a mere miles from where I started this great road trip way back in April.  Yup.  I'm home.  Here's what happened between my last post and now.

[Thanks to a 90 km/hr speed limit in Jasper, Banff, and Kootenay National Parks, I stretched a half tank of gas (about 6.5 gallons) nearly 300 miles!]

[Glacier National Park's Lake McDonald]

I crossed the border back into the US just west of Glacier National Park.  I spent a glorious night at a lovely private campground outside of the park.  It was the first night in a long time when I didn't have to wear wool long underwear to bed.  What a treat.  The next day, I drove through the park and took a nice hike toward Huckleberry Mt... until I came across some fresh bear scat (about 5 miles in) and turned around before reaching the end of the trail.

[From the Huckleberry Mt trail]

[Before the hike and the close encounter with bear scat.]

I drove out of Glacier NP and headed for Billings, MT where I was to spend the night.  About 50 miles from Billings, I started to see and hear raindrops on my windshield,so I turned on my wipers.... but I couldn't get the wipers to wipe off the raindrops.  And then I realized that the little specks on my windshield were actually little, tiny bugs.  Ewww.  My bumper had about a quarter of an inch of bugs on it by the time I pulled into Billings.  Yucky!

After Billings, I raced towards Rapid City, South Dakota and the warm, generous company of my friend Mary Beth and her lovely beau.  I took in TWO (yes, two) country music shows and enjoyed the generally chill atmosphere of this cow town.

[In the Black Hills of South Dakota]

From Rapid City, I made the long and boring drive across South Dakota and into Minnesota, where I was greeted with open arms by Per and Melissa.  Per loves me.  I love him back.



[Isn't he just lovely?]



Oh yeah.  There's Per's mommy, Melissa.  She's pretty great too.  We went to a Twin's game and sat in the 12th row.  That was pretty fabulous.

Lake Louise and beyond

I haven't been to Lake Louise and Banff since I was 10 years old or so.  Spending part of Canada Day there was pretty neat (minus the hail near Lake Louise which made A LOT of noise on my little tent).

[Misty glaciers]

[Lake Louise]

[The electric fence around the campground near Lake Louise.  I had a very amusing evening with some Russian-Canadians who wanted to talk about English soccer....]

[Outside the town of Banff where I stopped at McDonald's to use their WiFi (did you know that almost every McD's has WiFi?).  The place was packed and some folks had the NERVE to ask the manager to turn off coverage of the Duke and Duchess's visit to Canada in favor of cartoons.  How RUDE.  As a non-customer, I didn't feel I could protest.  Thankfully the manager said he couldn't turn the channel....]

Prarie Dawn sang it best.

They're the people who you meet when you're driving down the street.  The people that you meet each day.

I'm back in Prince George, British Columbia.

I had a magnificent two day journey from Whitehorse on the Cassiar and Yellowhead Highways.  I saw two bears-- one was chasing (unsuccessfully) a young man who had gotten out of his car to take a photo and the other lumbered into the middle of the road and then stood there and glared at my little car menacingly.  Did I manage a picture even though I was a mere 10 feet away?  No.  Here's my pathetic attempt:

I camped at Kinaskan Provincial Park.  The scenery was gorgeous but the mosquitoes were the worst I have ever experienced.  I couldn't even take the time to get out my camera and take a photo of the place.  I set up my tent, ate a banana in the closed car, and then got into my (mosquito-free!) sleeping bag!

Kinaskan Provincial Park from the road

More gorgeousness...

I drove east on the Yellowhead highway (Rte 16) for much of yesterday.  And I managed to run into someone I know!!!  John and Kathryn are cycle touring from Prince Rupert to Winnepeg.  I watched my Canadian friend, Philippe, and John build the bikes for this adventure, so I when I saw those distinctive machines on the side of the road in Houston, BC, I had to stop and say hello.

Sammy, doggy extraordinaire, is in the trailer.  Sometimes he gets out and pulls.  John, Sammy, the trailer, the gear and the bike weigh more than 400 lbs!!

I met another cool cycle tourist in Whitehorse.  Wim is a Dutch man who is just starting a Pan-American tour.  Check out his website (with google translation feature, phewf.)

Whitehorse, part two

I'm back in Whitehorse.  The weather is beautiful.  There is so much to do and so many hours of daylight to do it!

A leisurely paddle on the Yukon River.

Lola, a dog with high standards, does not like to sit on the bottom of the canoe.

Alberta honey

I keep meaning to recount a funny story from my trip up the Alaska Canada highway.  I was in Watson Lake which is a town about 600 miles up the Alcan.  The population is around 1500 residents.  It has considerably cheaper gas than other places on the highway, so I decided to stop and fill up my tank while the getting was good.

I parked at a pump at the main gas station in town and was greeted by a very friendly and very intoxicated local.  "Good morning," he slurred loudly and smiled.  I scooted to the door of the gas station before he could intercept me.  I pre-paid for my gas and then walked out of the store and back towards the direction of my car and gas pump.  The aforementioned drunk local stood between the bumper of my car and the bumper of the conversion van filling up at the next pump.  I was blocked.

"What do we have here?" he asked me.  And then turned his head in slow motion towards my car.  "Oh boy!  An Alberta honey!"  I was totally confused and really just thinking about how I could distract him, get to my car and fill up my tank.  A tribal police officer had apparently been watching the scene unfold and made his way over to my car.  "That's not an Alberta license plate, Carl.  That's a Massachusetts plate.  From the States.  And leave this woman alone, would ya?"  Carl let out one more plaintive attempt to gain my affection "Wanna take me to Massachusetts with you?"

I filled up my tank and scurried back onto the highway, unsure of exactly what had taken place.... until I saw a red and blue Province of Alberta plate on a pickup a couple of miles down the road and thought to myself "that looks an awful lot like a Massachusetts license plate to me."

You can call me Alberta Honey from now on....

Summer Solstice in the land of the midnight sun

I left Sitka via ferry on Monday afternoon.  It was honestly a little hard to function without Emily and Caroline-- especially Emily who started to do this really cute and bossy finger wagging thing at me when I stepped out of line.  The four hour ferry ride was beautiful and I saw a pod of Orka floating lazily in the shallows.

I spent Monday night and Tuesday morning in Juneau.  Let's just say that I am now an expert on Juneau's public transportation system.  I own the two city bus lines.  I even own the Express Line.  That's me-- expert world traveler.

The ferry from Juneau to Haines left on Tuesday afternoon.  That was Tuesday June 21st.  The summer solstice.  The longest day of the year.  And it turned into the best solstice of my life (so far).  We saw more marine life than I have ever seen-- 4 or 5 humpback whales, more Orka, porpoises galore.  The forest ranger, whose job it is to ride the ferry and teach about the wildlife on the Alaska Marine Highway, said it was the best day in years.

I didn't get any pictures of wildlife (why must I always put my camera away??), but here are some shots of the amazing scenery.

[To quote Imogen: not mad or sad, just serious.]

[Photographing safety equipment, in honor of Kate.]

[Stunning]

[I swear the matchy-matchy orange was not intentional]

[I'm waiting to see if my offer on this house has been accepted]

[Nearing midnight on the Haines Highway outside of Haines Junction, Canada]

I forgot...

I forgot to post pictures of the ferry rides from Haines to Juneau and then Juneau to Sitka.

So, here it goes (with a few cuties as an added bonus):

Supervising departure.  More passengers joined me later.

Brrr... but beautiful!

Haines to Juneau leg.

Juneau's Mendenhall Glacier

Nearing Sitka: general gloriousness

Awfully cute welcome wagon, don't you think?