Trips to the South Pacific are not a common occurrence in our lives and we made a point of seeing and doing as much as we could in our 6 weeks. Cycling and culture, hiking the steep topography, oceans and lakes were our focus. Fiji was our respite from all the activities before tackling the …
We had a bit of back and forth with Daniel over WhatsApp while we were at dinner tonight and I told him that we’ve had the one and only stupidly calamitous day of our entire trip today. Everything is great. We are alive and well and safe and happy to be coming home tomorrow. As …
Christchurch was a surprise. We had been in Christchurch twice before on this trip; once when we landed from the North Island and on our way from Invercargill to Nelson. Our first time through we stayed in one of the middle sections of town so that we could get out early in the morning. Our …
Our time in New Zealand is winding down and I think we felt it on the drive up to Nelson. We made our second quick pas through Christchurch in our figure eight tour of the south island and hit the road early for the 400 km trip up north. The Drive In Canada, you’d say …
We have stayed in a variety of lodgings along the way, from a top-notch corner suite in Wellington to the only available motel in Invercargill. In Dunedin, we stayed in a converted old mansion. We had four rooms with a quiet bedroom at the back end of the apartment. Tall ceilings, sash hung windows, an …
Since finishing the cycling trip, we have been working our way north towards Nelson. This means a lot of driving for Ken. He has adapted very well, but it does require a lot of attention. I find providing navigation services in inner cities and on small country roads, where there is no cell service, challenging, …
Picking up from our last post, here are our experiences with the Otago Rail Trail for days 3 and 4 Day 3 – Ken Day 3 was by far the prettiest day. Although cool, the sky was crystal blue all day. Our first stop was a kilometer down the line from where we stayed at …
As you know, we are passionate cyclists, and cycling was one of the first thing we built into this trip, and, three weeks into our trip we finally arrived at the big moment. The Otago Rail Trail is a 152-kilometer-long abandoned gold mining railway. Beginning (or ending, depending on the way your ride the trail) …
The flight from Wellington to Christchurch, was quick and unexciting. A short wait at the gate after a quick Uber to the Wellington Airport, Up, Down and we were there. Our new ride, a Toyota Corolla, is smaller than the Yaris, and not a hybrid, but it works just fine. Lake Tekapo After a snooze …
Harbour Views Our current hotel is central to all our activities. We are in a corner suite on the 8th floor with wonderful views of the harbour and are a stone’s throw from Queen’s Wharf. Nothing we wanted was farther than a 15-minute walk from the door. Wellington is known to be a windy city. …
We’ve done planes, a car, a ferry and bikes. It was time for a train. The train takes about the same amount of time to get to Wellington as driving. In fact, we often saw the same transport truck at several points where the highway and rail line ran side by side. Flying would have …
Russell After Cape Reinga, it was time to explore the Paihia area. The closest and most obvious destination was Russell, the “hell-hole of the Pacific”. Apparently, Russell came by that name honestly. Before Captain Cook arrived in 1769, the small beach area, across the harbour from Paihia, was a thriving Māori settlement called Kororāreka. In …
It has been a couple of days since we posted and some of our activities now seem to have been from ages ago! I will endeavor to cover what has been happening. Zorb New Zealand is the home of the Zorb Ball. Nope, we didn’t participate. We observed. I hadn’t realized that in ’tame’ Zorbing, …
We are staying in Tauranga, at the moment. Just before we left, Daniel told us that he had done leg day at the gym and was feeling it. We felt it today. We started out hiking at Kaiate Falls after breakfast. It’s a short hike, only two kms, but it’s a steep trail, often necessitating …
“Swing wide on right; for left stay tight” has been my mantra since we picked up the car. So far, it has been working. We haven’t had any concerns with driving on the left side of the road. After picking up our car, a Toyota Yaris cross-over, at the rental shop about 10 blocks from …
We headed south, not north. That will come later. Ken picked up a hybrid Yaris Crossover for the next part of our journey. It is a bigger model than any Yaris you would see in Canada and suits our needs quite well. The first part of the drive was on a major highway but we …
Read more “Cattle, Maggots, Gravel Roads and Water – Phyllis”
18 hours. Or, the better part of a day. That’s what it takes to get to summer. Day 1 – Ken The trip from Calgary through Vancouver was (thankfully) uneventful. No weather delays, no baggage issues, no fuss, no muss, no bother. A SIM card at the airport and we were able to grab a …
Before I get to our little trip to France, there are a couple of places we omitted from our last post. More On St. John’s Memorial University is a prominent feature in St. John’s and one of Michael’s brothers-in-law left Grande Prairie and came to NFLD for his degree. Knowing this, we had to relay …
Read more “St. Pierre (but not Miquelon) – Phyllis – June 18”
Brigus Brigus gets a special mention in the blog for two reasons. First, I was attracted to it because Rock Solid Builds is the least slick show on HGTV and the videography and characterization make the town look real. I’m not a fan of the two designers on the show but the rest of the …
Twillingate We are moving eastward and yes; it is still raining. Driving on wet, pot holed roads is getting rather challenging for Greg but he keeps talking about how he loves the amount of traffic on the roads. There is none, really. We have seen a few buses but it’s not often that there is …
Read more “Moving Eastward, It’s Still Raining! June 10 – Phyllis”
As you can likely tell from my previous posts, Newfoundland is an incredible place. Gros Morne, with all its geological formations, is stunning. It is interesting to hear the stories of the people. And, the kitchen party and screech were very fun. If you look at the pictures posted on the first page of the …
Newfoundland has natural beauty; waterfalls, peat bogs, foreboding seas, and lots of scenic vistas. And, it also has a cultural beauty found in few other places. Natural Beauty We have hit a couple of quite warm days such as the day we went to the Western Brook Pond. There have also been days like yesterday …
Newfoundland. Canada at the edge, or should I say the other edge. Although we have spent all sorts of time in British Columbia, the western edge of Canada, this is our first time on The Rock. My initial impression is that Newfoundland is an amalgam of many things we have seen before; small town Canada, …
If someone asked you to name a cave, what would be the first cave that comes to mind? Likely, it would be Mammoth Cave – perhaps the most famous cave system in the world. Our three cave tours in Arizona left us wanting more. Coming out of Nashville with our ears filled with country music, …
We stopped in Nashville because it was on the way to the Mammoth Caves in Kentucky. So, when in Rome: Straight up, this was all about being a tourist. We walked along the strip, all four blocks of it; had a drink in Alan Jackson’s Honky Tonk; sat on a roof top terrace in the …
Part of the fun of our trip is being outdoors. Particularly when the weather cooperates. Up until late yesterday, the weather has been quite nice, so we have been spending a lot of our time outdoors. Hiking From our campground just outside of Johnson City, TN, there are a number of hikes in the Bald …
After a week of High winds, cool temperatures, and rain, the weather has finally turned. We are finally outside again. Cycling We are just outside of Johnson City, Tennessee. Like the area around Asheville, NC, forested mountains prevail. And with them, old mining railways scratch the landscape. Lucky of us, some of these have been …
What if money were no object? Where would you live? What kind of house would you have? George Vanderbilt had those dilemmas. In 1888, at age 26, George Vanderbilt, the grandson of famed shipping magnate and industrialist Cornelius Vanderbilt first visited Asheville, North Carolina. Captivated by the area’s natural beauty, he purchased 125,000 acres to …
Read more “Biltmore – The Vanderbilt House – Ken and Phyllis”
First, Art It’s not often that we spend most of a day focusing on the arts, but Asheville is the place to do it. Folk arts have become one of my favourite subject areas. The Folk Art Centre near the Swananoa entrance to the Blue Ridge Parkway takes both an historical look at the arts …
Read more “Asheville and the Blue Ridge Mountains – Phyllis”
Yes, I know it is supposed to be “you’re back”, but I have been waiting decades to use that joke, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. If you don’t like it, sue me! 😊 Yes, we are back on the road. We left Calgary very early on April 24. Fortunately, our friend Bruce volunteered …
Ah, North Carolina. It is the final stop before we come home for a short visit. Leaving Myrtle Beach, we had a nice drive to Charlotte along secondary highways. Fortunately, most of the highways are twinned and it is much like driving Highway 2 between Calgary and Edmonton. The best part is that there are …
Read more “Charlotte and Raleigh North Carolina – Ken / Phyllis”
After almost 10 weeks on the road, there are a lot of thoughts that have not made it into blog posts. In no particular order:
Who would have thought there could be too many beaches? As were walking the last day the thought came to both of us: another long, wide, flat beach: another long wooden pier: another damp, blustery day. Our thoughts were more generous when it wasn’t grey or rainy. They are beautiful beaches. My first impression of …
We made it to Savannah! And it has been worthwhile. We found that we liked this city more than New Orleans. It is cleaner, quieter and its historical areas were in better shape. This is partially because Savannah has not been as hard hit by weather events. It also wasn’t burnt during the War of …
I suppose it was inevitable that we would have some sort of major problem along the way. When you are planning a 15,000 km trip, you know something is going to go haywire. We had the vehicle serviced in Calgary getting it ready for the trip, so we thought things were ready to go. Nevertheless, …
The Emerald Coast of Florida (near Pensacola) is one big beach town as the whole coast is basically white sand beach. So, for this part of our trip, we have been hanging out at the beach. The skies have been clear and blue, the sand dazzling white and the temperature a very pleasant 25C. Our …
These have been the busiest days, yet. There are only two cities on this trip that we actually wanted to see. NOLA is one, Savannah is the other. It has been a whirlwind of city tours, cycling and plantations. Our city tour covered all of the aspects one would expect: French Quarter, Garden District, grave …
Down a few hours of flat backroads, causeways, steep bridges, refineries, gas & oil storage facilities, and little towns with no services, we found another addition of HGTV’s Beach Front Bargain Hunt. The area really looks like that. The barrier islands are full of colourful houses on stilts. The TV shows angle their cameras well …
Wind After 5 days here, my overall remembrance of the Corpus Christie area will be wind. While we have found warm weather, the wind has been constant. The day we drove in from Uvalde, the wind was at our back for most of the trip. Then, we turned North on Mustang Island where we are …
Big Bend is massive; it is over 1,250 mi² of Chihuahua desert in South West Texas. There are three main visitor’s areas. The Chisos Basin at the top of the Chisos Mountains, Rio Grande Village at the south east boarder with Mexico and the Santa Elena Canyon at the south west corner of the park. Hiking …
WOW!!! That’s all. What else could I say? Okay We hiked into the caverns. Its easier than taking the elevator down and hiking out. Those that only ride the elevator and walk through the Big Room are wasting their time. It’s a 2 km walk into the big room on dimly lit, meticulously prepared, cemented …
On our blog we have been showing you pictures and described some of the interesting activities we have had over the past month. While that has been fun, there is another side to RV living, I’ll call it simply “trailer life”. Trailer Life, as I have termed it, are the activities that happen at the …
They came, and then they left, and no one knows why. A group of Mogollon people (mountain people) who lived in what is now eastern Arizona, New Mexico, Chihuahua and part of Texas moved into caves just north of modern day Silver City in about 1276. The canyon they chose was rich in plant and …
It seems kind of strange to say but over the past couple of days we have spent quite a bit of time underground. No, we haven’t become trolls, but we have found some very interesting caves and mines. A couple of posts ago, we told you about the Colossal Caves just outside of Tucson. Near …
We live in forested mountains, visit beautiful lakes and rivers and drive to the ocean. The views we know are beautiful, so it takes a bit to truly appreciate a cactus plain. We have taken a couple of strolls through the cactus ‘forest” adjacent to the campground. There is a back drop of smaller mountains, …
Read more “Desert Walks, Urban Cycling And Louis L’Amour – Phyllis”
With the weather getting nicer, we have been outside more. The RV Park we are in abuts Tucson Mountain Park, a 20,000-acre park on the west side of Tucson. The park was established in 1929 and is one of the largest natural resource areas owned and managed by a local government in the US and …
Today we finally were able to get on the bikes. It was Phyllis’s first real ride with her e-bike. As Phyllis has mentioned, Tuscon has a cycling trail called “The Loop”. The beauty of the trail is that there are many places to get on and off the trail, many with parking. Starting on the …
The reason we have an small RV is so that we can have heat and a bed off the ground. We like going to the provincial and national camp grounds and are quite accepting of no-service sites. When we do have access to power, it is a luxury. The places we camp tend to have …
Southern Utah and Northern Arizona have been less than ideal. Skies have been grey and the wind has howled. Snow and cold weather have permeated the desert. Yet, we have been able to see some of the things we set out to. Our trip through Monument Valley was filled with spectacular colour. The bright red …
That’s our little RV between the two rather large units. I’ll concede that those folks are generally not travelling around the continent, but it does give some perspective on how Ken and I will be living until September, or so. Ken estimated our square footage to be 182 Sq Ft. We are tight, but warm, …
I have been thinking about weather. We delayed our departure by a couple of days because the weather systems in California have been influencing the weather all along the Rocky Mountains and into Utah. Thankfully we didn’t run into anything really bad on the drive, just a bit of blowing snow in southern Idaho. St. …
After a fairly steep learning curve, we are almost ready to give you content.