Home!

On our way to Yellowstone park we stopped in Cody, Monatna where they were having a rodeo that night. We stopped for a bit to watch some cowboys have a shoot out before continuing on to Yellowstone park. The drive through the park was beautiful, the scenery was trees, mountains, lakes and fields full of bison. We visited the geyser, Old Faithful, and watched it erupt outside of the old hotel. After Yellowstone was a long drive through Montana until we arrived at Silverwood Theme Park in Idaho.

Silverwood is a park full of rides, games and shopping. For some reason we decided that the first thing we would do is ride the most intense rollar coaster in the park. Mind you, we had been cruising along in the van at 55mph for a month and a half so we were pretty shaken after. We spent most of the day there on the rides and then drove to Ritzville, Washington. It was a long night since we unknowingly parked near a train track on which a train would go rumbling and whistling by every hour. The next night spent in Port Angeles was much better.

This afternoon we caught the ferry to Victoria where, much to our relief, had a very easy border crossing. We were so estatic to be back in Canada and back on the island that we went for a stroll through downtown and caught an IMAX. On our way back home now, stuck in rush hour traffic...

Overall, we can both say our trip across Canada was amazing, the States a little less so but still a good experience with some great memories. Now it's time to give the van a break and enjoy the summer at home. Thanks for reading!

USA

Okay, it's been a while since I've posted and this will probably be one of the last posts since we've decided to cut the trip short and go home early. Currently we are in Wyoming on our way to the Yellowstone Park. Since my last post we have made a few stops. The first one was in Cleveland, Ohio where we visited the actual house used in the Christmas Story movie. Very cool.

Christmas Story House

Our next big stop was in Wisconsin, my new favourite state, where we visited a little cheese cellar and bought some delicious cheese! In the small building a tiny section was dedicated to selling cheese and the rest was filled with cheese making equipment where workers were busy cleaning after a long day of cheese making.

Widmer's Cheese Cellar

Nom nom nom

Just down the street we stopped at a little chocolate shop filled with homemade chocolates and lots of other locally made sweets, wines, jams, etc. We spent a good while here chatting with one very enthusiastic employee listing many many places we can stop on our way home. We also chatted with the chocolate maker who had been completely blind since he was two and has been very successful  in his chocolate making and baking. Eventually, we left and started driving further west towards Minnesota. Once here, we had a little visit with Keith, another car guy that Mike knows then we were on our way again. We slowed down for a minute in South Dakota to take a photo of the Corn Palace, below.

Corn Palace

Yesterday we continued the drive through South Dakota making a stop at the Pioneer Auto Museum. An older guys collection of everything old, some very neat things here. Here's a sample of the hundreds of photos Mike took...

Really!?

 Next we stopped at the famous Wall Drug in Wall. It's a huge drug store turned tourist destination selling all sorts of tourist gifts, books, clothes, jewelery, candy and drugs of course. There's also a restaurant, ice cream stand and homemade donuts. We probably spent a couple of hours here and didn't even see the outdoor half of it due to the weather. By the way, up until today we had been experiencing terrible weather, mainly thunder showers. Here's a photo from our drive today:

Bonus section!

Uneducated person of the day: "Canada is north of here?!"

Odd sighting: Camel grazing in Wisconsin backyard

State law: Illegal to sell alcohol on Sundays in Indiana and not after 9pm in neighbor state

Stupid sign of the day:

"Please make sure children are not left unattended in vehicles."

Do people honestly forget their children in their cars!?!?

USA

Not much has happened since we arrived in the States, just driving, sleeping and eating. The weather was crap for the first few days and everyone we've encountered has been unnecessarily rude. We rejoice in cheap gas and cheap booze. Oh, and Krispy Kreme.

USA Border

We crossed over the border from New Brunswick to Maine yesterday afternoon. We both expected our van to be searched but did not expect what actually happened...they did want to search our van so we went inside to a huge room where there was about 6 border patrol people standing around (no other people crossing through at this time) and directed us to talk to one of them who took my purse and Mike's wallet and our phones, asked us a few basic border crossing questions ("where are you going?" "why?" "are you married?" "how do you know each other?" "how much money do you have?") We stood there for a few minutes while he checked our passports then he asked me to sit down. He asked Mike all sorts of questions about his previous border crossings then asked him to sit down. We waited while he pulled everything out of my purse, wallet and Mike's wallet, pausing to ask us why we both have a policy number written down (our travel insurance) and asking us what every single key on our key chains were for. Meanwhile, 4 other people are searching the van. Next, him and another guy asked Mike to stand in a square (If he didn't stand in the square "it would be painful") then had him pull out his pockets to show he didn't have anything in them or in his pants which took about 5 minutes. He asked me to get up next, jokingly asking if my pants even had pockets (I was in yoga pants) which I showed him did indeed have pockets, he laughed, asked me to turn around so he could see if I had back pockets then sent me back to sit down. By this point we were a bit anxious but I was thinking it wouldn't be much longer until we could go as about an hour had already passed. But no, he wanted the pass codes to both our phones now. We thought that if we had a pass code that they would not be allowed to search our phones so I questioned him about it which he replied "We have the authority to search any personal belongings" so we gave him the pass codes...he proceeded to search through all our text messages and photos. He saw a text from the bank on my phone with the balance of my chequing account which was a smaller amount then what I had declared I had so I told him the rest was in another account. He then asked Mike questions about who various people he had texted were and about the subjects of the texts. He talked to him for a while about why he couldn't get a lay off from his job and why he doesn't have another job lined up and read texts about other people getting lay offs a couple weeks after Mike had left so that was an issue...a while later he made me sign into my bank account to show him how much money I had. He also asked for the blog address and looked at it. (If your reading this border patrol man, you suck!) By this point we were very frustrated as that man searched through all our personal stuff on our phones and the other border patrol people stood around joking and laughing. We felt like garbage. What a huge invasion of our privacy! We are two nice normal people with nothing to hide who are on a vacation, was that not clear!?!? Anyways, there was a million other stupid questions he asked us about random stuff and finally he let us through...that was after two hours. And I honestly feel like they just did that for fun, they picked us out and scrutinized everything about us just for kicks. Anyone else whose vehicle they searched wasn't there for longer then 10 minutes before they were let through. After this trip I will absolutely not be in any rush to return to this country after the way they treated us. Never in my life have I felt more violated of my privacy. And for no apparent reason.

Fundy Bay

This morning we drove down through the scenic Fundy Bay area. We made a stop at Hopewell Rocks where we had to pay $9 each to walk down to the beach and see the "flowerpot rocks." I brought my camera but forgot to replace my memory card when I last took it out...luckily Mike brought the other camera. So here we are standing on the ocean floor as when the tide comes in it would be well over our heads...

Next, we drove to Cape Enrage. We decided not to pay the $5 each to be able to walk over to the light house so just parked outside and took a couple of photos.

We continued the drive with a stop at a little bakery in Alma for their "famous" sticky buns then on to St. John. We are in St. John for the night and will be going through the border tomorrow.

Moncton, New Brunswick

After doing some shopping in Halifax (unfortunately our planned visit didn't work out) we spent the night in Truro, Nova Scotia again. Monday afternoon we drove back to Moncton and stopped again at John and Cheryl's where we had chili for dinner then met a few other car people so Mike could admire another old car for a while. We had a nice visit and then spent the night in town. Today we are doing Fundy Bay and St. John.

Back in Nova Scotia

We caught the 11:45pm ferry from Newfoundland on Thursday night. This ferry was a bit bigger with a casino and movie room, and I forgot to mention before that there are also rooms with beds and showers that you can stay in for an extra fee. We figured we would be okay sleeping in a chair though which went alright, Mike slept most of the night but I found it difficult with all the snoring around me...We were on the ferry for around a total of 12 hours this time, almost twice as long as the ride there! Back in Sydney, Nova Scotia we got breakfast and showers then drove to Truro for the night.

Saturday we drove down to Lockeport, a small town along the south coast of Nova Scotia. This is where my ancestors lived from the 1700s to The 1990s. We were able to walk around most of the town in a short time, along the way seeing the beautiful sandy beaches, historical homes from the 1800s and also walked along the first provincially registered street in Nova Scotia.

Next, we drove to Shelburne which is about 30 minutes west of Lockeport. This is another town where my ancestors are from and here we found the names of two family members on a fisherman's monument. Shelburne was bigger then Lockeport but also held onto its historical roots with old houses and buildings lining the streets and lots of signs and information about the towns history. We spent the night here, went for another walk around town in the morning, then started driving back to Halifax. On the way we drove through another nearby town, Liverpool, where more of my family was from.

We're still on the way to Halifax where we will be visiting one of Mike's coworkers. It's a beautiful day with not a cloud in the sky!