Hi all,  We spent one night in Jamestown, North Dakota at the Frontier Village Campground.  The day was lovely, but it is definitely fall, as the evenings and nights are getting quite cool now.  In the morning we walked around.   

The Iverson homestead!  Who knew!

They had a whole town from frontier times including a stagecoach, a saloon, a general store, a print shop, a blacksmith shop, and the list goes on.  They also had a herd of real buffalo, that included an albino buffalo! 

Now that is a Buffalo!  the largest Buffalo in the world. 

 This picture shows the albino buffalo, standing behind a smaller one.  He was always behind something.  Hiding, I guess.

 

 

On our Anniversary!  34 years together.  We celebrated in Minot North Dakota, at the Olive Garden.  Had a lovely dinner there. 

 

We are now in Regina, getting caught up with friends and family here.  The weather has been quite good until today.  It's raining, but we will be visiting people, so it doesn't matter!  We will be here another couple of days, then head west again.

We've crossed our earlier trail!

Hi all,  For the first time in our trip, we have crossed the route we took east and have stopped again in St. Cloud, Minn. so I can have another visit with my dear friend Val!  We had a lovely visit Thursday evening and most of Friday.  Sadly we separate again, but will make more effort to see each other again in the future.

So to go back a few days, we stopped in Forest City, Iowa, to see Winnebago Industries.  This is where our motorhome, and many, many more are made.  Their operations cover 600 acres of land.  They will take you on a tour of the facility for free, so that is why we came here.  Very interesting tour.  They have one building called Big Bertha that is 8 acres under one roof.  It is a string of assembly lines.  The interesting thing is that they are not just making one product at a time.  The assembly line has one class C followed by a large Class A, followed by a van type (Via or Era), rarely two similar units in a row.  Yet all the different parts somehow seem to arrive at the right time for each unit.

The best building for me was the one where they made all the upholstery, bedding, curtains etc.  Boy, did they have some great machines for cutting, and sewing all those things.  I especially liked the zipper machine.  Anyone can sew on a zipper in 5 seconds with that thing.  Wow.

 They make everything that goes into the motor home from scratch, except for appliances right there. 
The company was founded in the 60's in a town of 2500 people, with a few forward thinking individuals that were worried about the families in the town because there were no jobs for there growing children, so they were all leaving. They got together and decided to build a factory.  At first they were partners with a company in California that made motor homes, then they went out on their own.  The company now has 2500 or so employees in a town of 5000 people!

 

They let you camp for free in the visitors centre parking lot, and supply power and internet.  Not beautiful surroundings, but handy to get the morning tour without having to drive.

 

We are heading north now, and will be heading back to Canada soon.  May not have internet for a couple of days, if I do, I will keep you updated.

 

By for now.

 

Indiana Wants Me

The Appalachian Mountains

Hi, we are on our trek home now, and are not making long stops as often.  I think I mentioned before that we have discovered that we are NOT gypsies, and are a little weary of constant sightseeing and being tourists.  It is time to go home and live normally for a while.  So, we drove quite quickly through some areas. This is the Appalachian Mountains on the road between Maryland and Pennsylvania through West Virginia.  Quite pretty areas, will be even nicer in a couple of weeks when the leaves change color.  The mixed forest is very dense, I don't know how the explorers found their way (of course, they traveled mostly by river).  The mountains are quite rugged, but completely tree covered.  The highest pass on our route  was about 2,600 ft. and the highest mountains are about 4,000 feet.

More farmland in Pennsylvania.  It is well known for Amish farms.

This is the Ohio River as we crossed over to to the state of Ohio.

The great plains start quite quickly after the Appalachians.  Ohio had some hilly areas, as does Indiana, but it is mostly  flat farmland now, with some dense bushy areas.  There are some stands of very stately old trees as well.  It is harvest time.  Many have not done the harvest yet, but a lot of the crops look ready.

 

We are camped just south of Indianapolis, Indiana.  We are spending 2 nights here, and today we went shopping at Camping World.  Kind of like Lee Valley for RVers.  Tomorrow we head out again.  Our plan is to drive for 2 days, then spend 2 nights in the same place.  It seems to work well.

So, that's it for now.  We will be seeing family and friends in Saskatchewan soon. 

Washington D C

Hi all,  We have been in Wasington for 5 days now.  We have not seen everything, as that would take a long time. The Smithsonian is a collection of Museums that take up much of the National Mall, which is the area between the Washington  Monument and the Capital Building.  It is something like 40 museums in total.  Many are huge.  We have been in 3 major museums,  The Air and Space Museum, The National Museum of Natural History, and the National Museum of American History.  All have taken a full day to see.  You could do it faster if you skimed through. 

The Wright Brothers Flyer, The Air and Space Museum

 



The Lunar Lander, an exact replica of what is now on the moon, left behind by the first men to walk there.

You could go into the cockpit of a 747.  They also had the capsules from space missions of Apollo, Gemini , and Mercury.  Boy, they were close quarters!  They had part of the original  US Skylab that you could go inside of.  You could also go into a flight similator, but we decided against that.  Chris and his claustrophobia and I'm just someone who doesn't like flying upside down. 

One of the Sculptures from Easter Island.  National Museum of Natural History

A real mounted Elephant, in the Natural History Museum

A butterfly attached to Chris' Butt.  I guess he still has it!  Lol

This was a butterfly display, they were all flying around and attaching themselves to people or the flowers in the display.  It was lovely.  They were from all over the world.

The Hope Diamond.  it is a blue diamond from India, 45.52 carats. 

There were Mummies, and a great bone exhibit, also a genome exhibit, which was well done.  Also fossils and the story of how life evolved from the sea to Dinasaurs, to the sea again and finally man. 

Then today we were in the National Museum of American History. 

 The first Apple Computer, 1980-

Kermit!

They had the First Lady's Inaugaral Ball dresses through the ages, including Michelle Obama's dress, Archie Bunkers Chair, Bob Dylans leather jacket

It went back though time in all different aspects of American culture, from travel included a covered wagon up to a modern car and semi truck, a steam train up to a modern subway, a sailboat to a container ship, on and on.  They had the beginning of highways and a exhibit on Route 66. 

The other thing we did today was go to the Canadian Embassy!  When do you get to go to your country's Embassy? 

 Bill Reids, Black Canoe

Anyway, we went in, said we were Canadian and would like to see our Embassy, but we were told there is a display area, but it was closed until Sept. 15th, so they wouldn't let us in.  We were quite disappointed!  But we saw Bill Reid's Black Canoe, which was worth the visit.  If you think it looks familiar, there is a copy of it, a jade green one, in the international section of the Airport in Vancouver. 

So that's it.  We got home at a reasonable hour, made dinner and are ready to head out tomorrow.

So til next time.  so long.  We are going to be heading west - for the first time in many months!

Goodbye New York, Hello Washington DC

Our last day in New York, we decided to check the car battery!  Oops, deader than a doornail!  Enter AAA,  Yeah for BCAA!  We called them and they were there within an hour and installed a new battery.  The old one had a bad cell, so couldn't be charged up.  It has been going, we have been pulling the car along with the ignition partly on for over 9000 kms.  So not easy on batteries.  So we had lunch in the RV and headed into town again.

We visited the Empire State Building, went to the observatory that you see in "An Affair to Remember", "Sleepless in Seatle", "Breakfast at Tiffanies", King Kong, and the list goes on.  It was almost a religious experience! lol.  We rented a little audio guide and it was well worth it.  When you look one direction, the audio guide tells you what you are looking at and gives a little story or two.

 There it is from the street.  It was built in 1931, in the depressions years.  It was the tallest building for over 40 years, until the World Trade Center was built.  It also had a plane hit it once, in the 1950's, by mistake.  A few people were killed, but the building is a stong as ever.  To New Yorkers it stands for stability.  It is still the tallest building around its area.  The new world trade center is taller, but it is far enough away that your view is not obstructed by anything all the way around.

 

The lobby, A pretty classy place.

 

Then I went to Macy's.  The biggest one is here.  It's 10 stories, I think.  I only got to 5.  My feet gave out again.  So we went for dinner at a nice Pub and home. 

 

New York was a great experience.  I don't know how anything gets done in such a crowded, crazy place.  The traffic; you would never catch me trying to drive here.  Pedestrians ignore street lights.  I don't know how more aren't killed.  Also, with that crowd, when you are out and about for 12 hours a day, the biggest issue is finding a public washroom!  lol.  We found that Starbucks usually had one, so you just had to buy a coffee and wait in line for 1/2 hour.  No problem.

 

 

So, then we left our campsite in New Jersey and headed to Washington D C.  The challenge of driving around here is not what you think.  The traffic is crazy, but also, there are so many toll roads!  It is very challenging to get anywhere with out breaking the bank!  We were lucky and only paid about $17.  We heard from one couple in Nova Scotia that had driven this way that paid over $200 on Turnpikes.  So those of you that have been complaining about the toll on the Port Mann, consider yourselves lucky!

 



So, Washington!  What a culture shock!  Here, there are many people as well, but everything is so organized and sedate by comparison.  We again took a Hop On Hop Off bus tour.  The guide was talking to some folks at 6;30, the end of the tour, about where to get off.  He said "If you want downtown, get off here, but nothing is happening now."  Ha ha.

We are staying at a campsite called Cherry Hill, about an hour out of town, by bus and subway, but very convenient.  The bus stops right at the campsite. and takes you steps from the subway.  So easy to get around. 

 Very nice subway, fairly clean and fast trains

 Union Station and Columbus Circle

 The Capital Building

 

 Washington Monument, under repair from an Earthquake 2 years ago.

Martin Luther King, This statue, but also a large wall of granite with many of his famous quotes on it.

This is just one example.  It is well done, because it is not the man's face that is significant, but what he said and did.

 

 Thomas Jefferson, he is standing, looking at the White House.  I figure he's saying, hey that's my house!

F D R, a fabulous memorial to him, it is huge, goes on and on. All stone and water, with many of his famous words engraved on the stone.  Same idea as M. L. King, its words and deeds that are immortalized.

 

The Second World War Memorial is so huge, our pictures don't even show it well.  Very well done.

Vietnam War Memorial

 

 

 Korean War Memorial, a black granite wall behind the soldiers has faces etched in it that are actual faces of soldiers

 

 

 Abraham Lincoln.  Fabulous monument, with the Gettysburg Address and his first Inaugaral Speech engraved on the inside of the temple. 

This is his view, to the Washington Monument and the Capital building behind. 

 

 

 

I got to say it.  The United States know how to honour their people.  Acres and acres of monuments, you can hardly walk far enough to see them all.  Quite something to see.

 

So, we were on the go for another 10 hour day.  In New York they were 12 and 13 hour days.  So we am pooped and we are taking a day off today.  Once I am finished blogging, I am going to do laundry and read my book.  It is 33 degrees today, humidex 41, supposed to be even warmer tomorrow.  Glad we have air conditoning.  We are also getting an oil change done on the RV.  The guy just came and will do it here, so we don't have to drive to a place.  Very convenient.