Hobbs Go Wild!

Day 13: Friday 25th June 2010: New Orleans (Miles to Date: 3267)

2010-07-14T07:21:00.000-07:00

By the time we had risen and left the hotel the weather was already hot and steamy and we knew we were in for another toasty day. It took us about 15 minutes to walk from our hotel, down Canal Street to the mighty Mississippi River. With more time we might have taken a paddle steamer ride down this most famous of rivers, but we were not destined to be Huck Finn or Tom Sawyer for the day, so instead we walked through the Woldernberg Park, which runs adjacent to these waters that had flowed so many miles across this vast country. In the Park we found a memorial to the Holocaust, at the centre of which was an amazing modern art sculpture by the artist Yaacov Agam. The sculpture is made up of a series of vertical, painted discrete panels which as you circle them give different images depicting themes or “memories” of the Holocaust. It was truly and amazing and powerful work of kinetic art. Across from Woldenberg Park is Decateur Street, another popular area for tourists, which by the time we arrived was just swinging into action. This street borders the French Quarter and has some splendid examples of New Orleans architecture along its route, including wonderful balconies bounded by ornate iron railings. This street is home to numerous gift shops, galleries and eateries. One place we were particularly keen to visit was the famous “Café du Monde”, situated in the French Market area of Decateur. For over a century this café has been serving patrons and vendors of the French Market with its signature offerings beignets (French doughnuts) and café au lait. Well, we just had to try it! The beignets are served covered in layer upon layer of icing sugar, which looks and tastes great, but it impossible to eat without making an absolute mess. Of course Jack and Emily managed to get covered in sugar, but half the fun was licking this sugar off of our fingers. We could have easily polished off several helping of these delicacies but settled for a single serving. Delicious! We continued our walk down Decateur and noticed a subtle sign for the National Park Service. We have loved visiting National Parks and Monuments so we were curious to see what was here in New Orleans. Passing down a narrow alley between the building we found the Park Service building and wandered inside. This unit of the Park Service is dedicated to the musical culture of New Orleans, and we were lucky enough to be able to listen to the back end of a stage performance of two of the Rangers who were playing songs, primarily with a Creole influence. It was wonderful to listen to this traditional music, which is quite hard to find being played along the tourist traps of Bourbon Street. The audience was mostly made up children who were on a summer camp with the Park Service, and it was clear some were not really that interested in the music. After the performance they were led away by a fearsome lady Ranger under the threat of having to hold her hand if they misbehaved! There was also a TV production team filming; they were making a documentary on the larger than life black Ranger, who was a native creole speaker and who had the most wonderful deep, booming voice. Being here also gave Jack and Emily another great opportunity to do the Junior Ranger programme, which they zoomed through and got sworn in. We finished our walk through the French Market and then diverted into the heart of the French Quarter. Away from the main tourist streets this area is quiet and peaceful, and for the first time we got the chance to appreciate the essence of this great city. Eventually we do find our way back to Bourbon Street, which is somewhat less frenetic than during the evening hours but it is still bustling. It was by now lunchtime and the satiating effects of the beignets had worn off so we needed to find somewhere to dine. During our ramblings over the last few days we had been told about a restaurant called “Hobnobbers”; the name alone was enough to draw us to this place. Finding this place was not too easy, being off the beaten track andit is best described as a “hole in the wall”; it required squeezing down a narrow passage to get to. It is one of these places which does not look too promising when you enter it, but it was full of people- which is always a good sign. We settle for some traditional creole foods, gumbo and shrimp poboys, which are very tasty indeed. The afternoon was hot and humid so we decided to head back to our nice air-conditioned hotel room for a siesta. In the evening we decided Jack and Emily could chill out at the hotel whilst Mark and Karen headed out for the night. We decided to go back down to Decateur Street to check out the night life there. As we walked down the street we noticed small groups of teenagers wearing identical shirts, and it turned out that these we a church group who were in town to perform some songs. They were setting up on the steps up to the park, but were not quite ready so we decided to return to the Café du Monde for some more beignets. By the time we were finished the group was ready and had started to perform. We started watching from the other side of the road as they performed “Fly Away” by Lenny Kravitz, when a man came over to where they stood and started encouraging them. The choir looked stunned, and when they had recovered their composure a big cheer went up and they all looked very excited, especially the girls. We did not know who this “person” was so we asked some other bystanders. It turned out to be Lenny Kravitz himself. We were not sure if this was prearranged or an amazing coincidence, but whatever the case it was fabulous experience for these kids. Lenny got more involved when he took over the drum kit to accompany the singers and was finally invited to join in the singing. It was fabulous and really set-up our night. The gospel group did not miss a beat and were clearly thrilled to have performed with Mr K ...he disappeared quietly into the crowd after his impromptu performance! What a nice guy! We spent the rest of the evening strolling the streets, eventually making our way up to Bourbon Street where we went into a few bars to listen to music and drink overly priced drinks. Never mind! Is was a near to a date as we'd had for a time and the kids had a great time watching TV and eating unhealthy foods!

DAY 347 Friday 22nd August 2008

2008-12-02T14:14:00.000-08:00

Ashland, Oregon (Miles to Date: 37336)

The rest our trip across country is a real rush as we want to get to Ashland in Oregon where are to finish our great adventure.

From Kansas we head up through Colorado, stopping just west of Denver. We then trek across Colorado into Utah – initially our plan was to stop in Salt Lake City. For one reason or another all roads for us seem to lead to Salt Lake, but we make good time in getting there and visit our favourite outdoor store, REI and grab some dinner. The decision is then to stay or head on and gain some more distance. We decide to make a run for it and head across the salt flats towards Wendover which is on the border between Utah and Nevada. The town actually straddles the border; the east side (in Utah) is relatively sedate but the part of the town in Nevada is a whole different kettle of fish, it is full of casinos. We had had some trouble in getting a room – in fact we had just about the last room in town. What we didn’t know was that it was the Bonneville Flats race week. People come from all over the country to race their cars and motorcycles across the salt flats. There are many categories of cars and bikes, ranging from standard production vehicles to custom classic cars. We had already some of these amazing vehicles parked at our hotel in Denver and now that we are actually in Wendover there is a stunning array of vehicles on display. Unfortunately we are in a hurry so we cannot get across to the races.

From Wendover we fly across to Winnemucca in Nevada and then head north into Oregon. We leave the main routes to travel on slower road through the Cascade Mountains passing through the towns of Lakeview and Klammath Falls en route. At Howard Prairie Lake we stop to retrieve our motor home which has been parked there for approaching 3 months. Amazingly we get it started up with few problems and travel through the mountains for the last few miles to Ashland.

Ashland is our final stop on our grand tour. We had visited Ashland previously on our way through Oregon and fell in love with the town. It is situated virtually on the border with California and is in a valley surrounded by beautiful mountains. The thing that drew us to Ashland was the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and we had a wonderful experience when we came to see “Midsummer Nights Dream”. We simply wanted more. So this is where we are going to plonk ourselves for the foreseeable future. This journey has been a wonderful experience for all of us, we have seen and learnt so much and met so many fantastic people on the way. Hopefully Jack and Emily will retain the memory of some of this trip for the rest of their lives as it has been a once in a lifetime experience. The travelling has been tiring and in many ways we are looking to establish ourselves at least for a while and get some stability back into our lives. On the other hand we are so sad to be ending our fabulous journey. Hopefully this is just an extended stop on our journey and that there is more exploring ahead for the Hobbs family.

DAY 344 Monday 18th August 2008

2008-12-02T14:08:00.001-08:00

Wichita, Kansas (Miles to Date: 35570)

We spend the night at St Robert, Missouri before heading down the small town of Mansfield, Missouri. This was another opportunity to continue on our quest to visit all the places that Laura Ingalls Wilder of Little House on the Prairie fame lived in throughout her life. In 1894, the hard-pressed Laura, her husband Almanzo and their young daughter Rose moved to Mansfield, using their savings to make a partial down payment on a piece of undeveloped property just outside of town. They named the place Rocky Ridge Farm. What began as about 40 acres (0.2 km2) of thickly-wooded stone-covered hillside with a windowless log cabin, over the next twenty years evolved into a 200-acre, relatively prosperous poultry, dairy, and fruit farm. The ramshackle log cabin was eventually replaced with an impressive and unique ten-room farmhouse and outbuildings.

Today the farm is a National Historic Site. We start off in the museum which is full of artefacts from Laura and Rose’s lives. There is so much to see including letters and diary excerpts that we just don’t have the time to do it justice. From the museum it is just a short walk to the farm house. It is a very modest building and is very much as it was the day Laura passed away in 1957, a few days after her 90^th birthday. The first room you enter is the bijoux kitchen; the most noticeable feature of which is the very low counter tops on base unit cupboards. These were custom made, as was the case in those time, and Laura being very petite had them made to suit her size. We pass through the parlour and into the bedroom in which both Laura and Almanzo passed away. The final room is lounge, which is the largest and most comfortable room in the house.

After the tour of this farm house we take a short drive across the farm to a stone built house. This was a gift from Rose to her parents and they did live in this house for several years, but they missed their old farm house and moved back there for the remainder of their lives. We were allowed to go into this more modern home, which was rather lovely with some great details. It is hard to fathom the motives behind Laura and Almanzo moving back to their old house.

It is now time to continue on our way. We have not finished with Laura Ingalls just yet. A hundred or so miles further west is the Kansas town of Independence. Here is the location of the original house on the prairie. The simple cabin has long since disappeared and it took many years of painstaking research to find its location. There is now a replica of the “Little House on the Prairie” based on the descriptions in Laura Ingalls Wilders’ books. It does not take too long to explore the single room structure, but our sense of achievement in having visited all the main sites that Laura had herself been to during her life far exceeded our excitement of visiting this place alone. To celebrate we bustled our way into downtown Independence, which is more than a one horse town …. more like three horses and found ourselves a wonderful road side store selling shaved ice. Having satisfied our exuberance with shaved ice we head off to our stop over in Wichita, Kansas.

DAY 343 Sunday 17th August 2008

2008-11-29T22:06:00.000-08:00

St. Louis, MO (Miles to Date: 35120)

We fly back into Newark Liberty International airport and after picking up our car (we needed to have a jump start again) we travelled to Ardsley to spend a few days with our friends the Lances. When we had visited in July a number of our friends were away on holiday so this gave us the chance to meet up with those we missed. We had a great time and it was a wonderful preparation for our trip back to Oregon. We had taken a relatively leisurely 10 day trip when coming to New York from Seattle taking a route across the northern States. The return journey was going to be a bit more of a slog covering 2800 miles in about 6 days, this time cutting across the centre of the country. So far we had done 49 States, the only State we had missed was Missouri so this was a chance to get our 50th and last.

After stopping over in Breezewood, Pennsylvania and St Robert, Missouri we arrived in the City of St Louis. We are so excited to have completed our collection of States. St Louis’ location is at confluence of two great rivers, the Missouri and Mississippi and because of this it became the centre of the exploration of the Western areas of the United States; hence it’s nickname the “Gateway City”. Its importance as hub of exploration the City grew at a rapid pace, in fact at the country entered the 20th Century St Louis was the 4th largest city in the Union. The settlement of St Louis, not surprisingly, was established by the French and did not come under the control of the United States until the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.

With our time limited we head for the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, a national park located on the downtown riverfront where the city was first founded in 1764. It commemorates the westward growth of the United States. Located below the vast Gateway Arch (we’ll talk about this a bit later on) is the Museum of Westward Expansion, which contains an extensive collection of artefacts. It tells the story of the thousands of people who lived in and settled the American West during the nineteenth century. We chose to start our visit to the Museum which allows us to meet up again with our friends, and explorers, Lewis and Clark. St Louis is where they started their great adventure to uncover the new lands acquired by the United States under the Louisiana Purchase. Our journey across the country had crossed their paths on more than one occasion. The Museum documents their exploits and those of the people who followed them and the Native American people who lived in those lands. To help us on our journey through the Museum there are interpreters who aid the bringing to life of the exhibits. After the Museum we go to one of the two theatres showing two very different movies. The first is an excellent depiction of the story of Lewis and Clark’s expeditionary journey and second tells the amazing story on the building of the Gateway Arch. Just watching the construction workers in the movie was enough to give you vertigo. After the movie it was our chance to experience the real thing, to go the top of the Arch. We had seen pictures of the Arch, but you cannot get a sense of the spectacle without a visit. It is truly impressive, and we agreed the most spectacular tower or building we had seen in all of our travels. To reach the top you have to take an amazing ride on an elevator-come-cable car that takes you up and around the curvature of the Arch to the very top. You climb into cosy capsules built for four; they are truly tiny so this is not for people with severe claustrophobia (Karen is a sufferer but managed to fight her fears). The journey is a few minutes long and takes you to the very apex of the Arch, it is somewhat disconcerting to know that all that is between you and the ground 350 feet below is a bit of steel. The Arch at the top is only a few feet wide. There are observation windows where you can look out across the Mississippi and towards the downtown area. The Gateway Arch is the centrepiece of the Park and is easily is the most recognisable structure in the city. It was designed by noted architect Eero Saarinen and completed on October 28, 1965. At 630 feet (192 m), it is the tallest man-made monument in the country. After a few minutes gazing out of the observation windows we climb back into the cable car and head back down to terra firma. We spent several very entertaining hours at the National Monument before setting off to our next stop over.

DAY 337 Monday 11st August 2008

2008-11-26T12:29:00.000-08:00

London (Miles to Date: 34270)

From Norwich our journey continues to Halstead, a small market town in North Essex, close to the town of Colchester. This is the last place that we lived before coming to the United States. We visit our old house, which is currently rented out, and our neighbour Marjorie who is now in her 80s but is unfortunately suffering from failing eye sight but her mind is still very sharp. It is a little strange to be back in town but it is great to see everyone again. We stay with our friends Gael and Ian Harvey and their children Helen and Heather. We have been so lucky, everyone we have stayed with have been the perfect hosts, and the Harvey’s are no different. They had even organised to throw a party whilst we were there. The party had a tropical island theme and Ian just loves throwing a party and it is probably fair to say he throws his whole weight behind them. When we arrived and Mark opened refrigerator to put in the beer we had bought to chill he was most surprised to see a piglet starring back at him. It wasn’t really starring as it was most definitely not of this mortal coil and had certainly ceased to be. Not wanting to break into spontaneous Monty Python but the scene was somewhat “Pythonesque”. To complete the imagery Ian had bought about ½ ton of sand to recreate a beach and a blue plastic backdrop sheet to represent the sea. We were lucky to have a break in the weather, the rain stayed away and it was quite pleasantly warm. All the guests threw themselves fully into spirit of the party wearing leis and Hawaiian shirts. Of course we drank too much, and in the morning a number of us were a little worst for wear.

From Halstead we travel east to Leighton Buzzard to stay with Mark’s parents for a few days before they head off on holiday. Before they left we went out to a local Thai restaurant for a most wonderful meal. Laura loves her food and loves oriental food so she was really in her element in the restaurant. Jack has started to be more adventurous with the more exotic foods and tried everything that was put in front of him and really loved it. It was really nice to spend sometime together as a family before we headed off in our different directions.

When Karen takes Laura back to Eastbourne, Mark decided to take Jack and Emily down into London. Like many place we have visited on this trip the children have visited before, but because they were so young it is difficult for them to remember anything about it. The aim was to pack as much site seeing in as possible. Unfortunately the weather was not very good once again. We took a train into London from Mark’s parent’s house and the caught the Underground to the Tower of London. When he was young Mark lived in this area just a block or two away from the Tower itself, he often used to play there and had some school friends whose fathers were Beefeaters and lived inside the Tower in the residential quarters. Jack and Emily were very impressed with the Tower and its next door neighbour the wonderfully ornate Tower Bridge. Dodging the showers we walked around the Tower along the embankment of the Thames to catch a tour boat down to the Houses of Parliament. Despite the rain we decided to sit on the open top of the boat – and not surprisingly we had plenty of room as most other people chose the cramped, covered interior. The journey west down the Thames takes us past several modern and ancient landmarks, under bridges and through time. The commentary along the way helps to put in place each landmark and its place in history – and although this is a short mile or two journey there is plenty to see on the way. We depart the boat by the Houses of Parliament in the shadow of Big Ben. Mark remembers in his youth this used to tower into the sky, nowadays it seems so much smaller. Guess this is a function of growing taller and travelling far and wide.

We decide to carry on walking and start travelling up Whitehall, which takes us past many Government buildings and Downing Street where the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer live. At the top of Whitehall is Trafalgar Square with its famous lions guarding the lofty column on which stands the statue of Britain’s most famous naval commander Admiral Lord Nelson. Also at the top of Whitehall is the barracks of the Life Guards, the senior regiment in the British Army and who along with the Blues and Royals Regiment makes up the illustrious Household Cavalry. Outside of the gateway to the barracks are two guard houses complete with two members of the Household Cavalry in full uniform and mounted. There is a long line of people waiting to have their photograph taken so we join to wait our turn along with all the other tourists. Jack thinks it is above him to pose for such a photograph but Emily has not such qualms and stands there patiently. At Trafalgar Square we turn down the road known as the Mall, passing underneath the imposing Admiralty Arch. This road leads passed all the Royal Palaces and at its far end is the statue of Queen Victoria and behind that Buckingham Palace. At this point we had been walking around for quite some time so were in need of finding a restroom. To one side of the Mall is St James Park, once the hunting grounds of the Royals but now demoted to common parkland and hopefully a place to find a toilet block. St James Park is busy on this Saturday despite the inclement weather, throngs of tourists huddle around the numerous cafes in the park in search of warmth and hot drinks. Through out our travels in recent months we had come across many expected things and none more so than finding a white pelican sitting on a park bench in St James Park. We have seen many pelicans in the wild but this was an out of context experience so we at first thought that this bird was fake, but no, it was a genuine live and kicking pelican. Warily Jack approached the pelican, after all they are very large birds, but it obviously was used to hum an company and managed to get right up next to it and even touch it. Totally amazing – but possibly not politically correct! Anyway we fired off a couple of photographs and moved on.

When we reach Buckingham Palace there is a lot of activity going on outside. When Mark and Karen last visited London a little over a year before it had been one of the Queen’s birthdays (she has an official birthday and real one) and the streets had been packed around the Palace. We were on a bit of a tight schedule that day so did bother hanging around to see the Royal party leave to go up to the parade grounds to be the guests of honour at the Trooping of the Colour. Apart from such occasions the area outside Buckingham Palace (except for the traffic around the Queen Victoria Memorial) is a place of relative calm. Today was different there were big crowds and a lot of police presence. We didn’t have too long to find out why because after a few minutes the gates of the Palace opened up and a band struck up inside. Two columns of guards’ band appeared and marched out into the streets and down the roads surrounding the Palace. We never did find out what the occasion was! After all this excitement was over we decided to set off home as we were cold, wet and tired from walking.

From Mark’s parents house we head down to Reading to meet up with our friends Paul and Jo Mackenzie and their not so new little daughter Rebecca. Mark used to work with Paul many moons ago. Paul and Jo had also invited some other friends Graeme and Sarah who we had not seen for ages. It was lovely to get together and because we hadn’t met for such a long time there was so much to catch up on. After a lovely afternoon just chatting we had to leave for High
Wycombe where we were staying with our friends the Elliots.

There is only a day before we travel back to the United States. It has been lovely to stay with the Elliots, they are lovely people and very welcoming. We have been able to relax before the next phase of our travelling. One nice thing we did was to visit Marlow and meet up with some friends who were the cohorts of Jack – Julia and Jane were mothers in the same ante-natal group as Karen. Their children are all grown up and it was nice to meet up again after many years. A wonderful end to our 6 week trip back to the UK!

DAY 326 Thursday 31st JULY 2008

2008-11-26T10:47:00.000-08:00

Norfolk (Miles to Date: 34060)

On Saturday during our stay in York we visit one of the newer attractions called DIG, a sister attraction to the Jorvik Viking Centre. The whole purpose of the DIG is to experience the science of archaeology, through a tour guided by an archaeologist. It is a quiet day and our family are the only people on this tour. The first stage of the tour is a briefing on archaeology, the tools used in digs and the history of digs that have been conducted around York. Next we move into the three areas where we can excavate with our newly acquired skills to look for artefacts. These areas cover three important periods in York’s history the Roman, Vikings and Medieval and Victorian periods. We dig site in turn and apply our knowledge to identify each.

As we are finishing our DIG tour we receive a call from our friends Lorraine and Kevin who we are meeting up with and spending the next day or so with. After sitting and having our pack-up sandwiches at the York Minster we go for a walk around the town. With different agendas, Laura, Karen and Lorraine go for a mooch around the shops whilst the boys plus Emily go to take a ride on the York Eye, a 175 foot Ferris wheel which has been turning on its axis since 2006 at its location by National Train Museum. We have to go through the train museum which is a wonderful place to visit but unfortunately today we only have the opportunity to glance at a few of the magnificent engines and carriages on display. One favourite of Mark’s is the Mallard, this train was in service during the 1930s and was capable of speeds in excess of 100 mph – which is very impressive. The bright blue colour scheme of the Mallard which now lives in the Railway Museum makes it stand out like a beacon amongst the primarily black paintwork of the other locomotives. There is also a Japanese bullet train on display and we could not resist the temptation of looking inside for a few minutes. The passenger accommodation on these trains is more like being in an aircraft rather than a train. We quickly move outside to the York Eye and the queues are non-existent so we more or less can jump into our capsule at will. The weather today is quite warm but inside the capsule it is baking hot. The wheel rises into the air very slowly and we are teased by the increasingly splendid views that are unveiled before our eyes. The Eye provides amazing views across the City of York and the surrounding countryside. The ride is actually good value as we circle four times, but the sauna like conditions make us all feel a bit uncomfortable.

After our ride around the Eye the divided parties meet up to return back to the Youth Hostel. In the evening we return back to the City and the grounds of York Minster where there is an outdoor production of Shakespeare’s “All’s Well That Ends Well”. It is a simple production and the audience is pretty small. We pull up a spare park bench and drink our beer – all very civilised. The play is very enjoyable. Jack and Emily sit right at the front on the grass so they are almost in the play and at the very end they do get to participate – to Mark and Karen’s delight they loved it.

Our last morning in York is very relaxed. We say goodbye to Kevin and Lorraine and head back into the City for a last farewell before starting our journey southwards. We still have one attraction left on our City pass – a boat tour down the River Ouze which cuts its way through York. It is a fine morning once again so it is a very relaxing to be tootling up and down a river on a quiet Sunday morning. The only interruption is the voice of our tour guide blaring over the Tannoy system, but the information parted is interesting so we forgave them.

Sadly we leave York on to our next stopover is Waltham, near to Grimsby where we will be staying with our friends the Moores. En route we stop at Leconfield, a small village which was once the home of an Air Force Base. Karen’s father was stationed here when he died in an accident and is now buried in the grave yard at the Church of Saint Catherine. It is quite a few years since we last visited as a family and as always it is an emotional experience – especially for Karen. After a few minutes of quiet contemplation we leave to continue our journey to Waltham.

After spending 2 nights in Waltham we head continue our journey south this time to the historic city of Norwich. This ancient cathedral city has reputedly 52 churches and 365 pubs within the city walls (which are only visible as ruins in a few places). We lived here for a couple years and this is where Emily was born. The plan is to stay here for a few days with our friends the Hogaths in the village of Hainford just a few miles north of the City. This is a great chance to catch up with old friends and visit some of the places we love and that Jack and Emily cannot remember as they were very young when we lived there. We spend some time wondering around Norwich itself and visiting the Cathedral, which is a magical place. We also go out to the coast to visit some of our favourite seaside places – including Sheringham and Cromer.

DAY 320 Friday 25th JULY 2008

2008-11-25T10:03:00.000-08:00

York, Yorkshire (Miles to Date: 33820)

Having collected Laura from Eastbourne on the South Coast we travel North again up to the ancient city of York up in the North East of England. This walled city is has a long and colourful history, and there is plenty here to keep us occupied for quite a number of days. We have bought a City Pass that gets us into many of the City attractions. Once we have registered at the Youth Hostel where we are staying we take a walk into the City and find ourselves by the stunning York Minster. York Minster is a Gothic cathedral in York, England and is the second largest of its kind in Northern Europe (largest is the Cologne Cathedral). It is the seat of the Archbishop of York. The building work started in 1220 and was completed in the 1470s. The inside of the Minster is as stunning the outside, and the stain glass windows are a sight to behold especially the famous Rose Window which sits in the South transept commemorating the union of the houses of York and Lancaster around 1500 and the five sisters of the North transept. When we arrive the Minster is being prepared for an evening service so we quickly tour the galleries and choir stalls before taking the self guided tour of the central tower. Climbing the 275 steps to the top of the central tower is an exhilarating experience and on the way we pass the Minster's medieval pinnacles and gargoyles and see over its rooftops. At the top there are the most amazing view of the city's ancient streets. This is the highest point in the city and you can see far over the surrounding countryside, from the White Horse at Kilburn to the Yorkshire Wolds.

For our second day we head back into town. After walking around a bit we head down the Jorvik Viking Centre. Jorvik is the name the Vikings gave to York, who ruled the city and its environs some 1000 years ago. The centre is built actually below a shopping mall and is built around ruins of a Viking village that was uncovered during an excavation prior to building the shops. Mark and Karen had visited the Jorvik Viking Centre many moons ago but it has been significantly refurbished since then. The tour starts in a little theatre set up as a time machine that flies you back in time 1000 years. When reaching our time period destination we leave our time machine and climb into our personal carriages which carry amongst the reconstructed Viking village. We are taken through the various houses and are treated to sights and smells of Viking life – including the outhouse… phew!! At the end of the ride we climb out of carriage and enter the museum area where there are displays of the artefacts found at the dig site and some Centre staff who run demonstrations of some of the craft skills of the Vikings. This is one of the best places to visit in York.

From the Jorvik it is only a short walk to the Castle Hill area. Dominating this area is a keep known as Clifford’s Tower which is high-up on a hill overlooking the river and town below. As one of the most important cities in England, and an important base for holding and administering the north, York was the site for two of the castles William the Conqueror built in the years immediately following his conquest. The principal castle was begun in 1068, and was constructed of wood. This were destroyed during a local rebellion the following year, but was rebuilt by the Normans. In 1190 the wooden keep was again burned down, during a siege by citizens of the Jewish community which had taken refuge there. This was one instance of a continent-wide persecution stimulated in part by the emotionally-charged and propagandised environment of the Crusades. In the latter half of the thirteenth century, the keep was rebuilt in stone and later became known as Clifford's Tower after Roger de Clifford, who was hanged there in 1322. We climbed the stairs up to the battlements which gives fine views back across the city towards the Minster.

Across the street from Clifford’s Tower is the Castle Museum. We stop briefly to have an ice cream – for the first time on our trip back to the UK we are actually warm!! Anyway we are pestered by some Canadian geese. We get concerned when we see an opaque line hanging from the beak of one of the geese, and think it might be fishing line. Emily runs into the museum to get them to call the local RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals). Whilst away we actually determine what we thought was a nylon strand was actually saliva – the goose was probably drooling over our ice creams. Anyway Emily was embarrassed over our mistake and took a little coaxing to get her back into the museum.

York Castle Museum is one of Britain's leading museums of everyday life. It shows how people used to live by displaying thousands of household objects and by recreating rooms, shops, streets - and even prison cells. It is best known for its recreated Victorian street, Kirkgate, which combines real shop fittings and stock with modern sound and light effects, to evoke an atmosphere of Victorian Britain. The museum has also recreated some room settings including a Victorian parlour, an 1850s Moorland cottage, Jacobean and Georgian dining rooms, a 1940s kitchen and a 1950s front room. There are also displays of household goods, like washing machines, wringers and stoves from generations ago, which sent Karen and Mark back down memory lane. Jack and Emily were left wondering what was going on! The Sixties gallery is a new exhibit The Sixties, which opened in Spring 2008, explores the music, fashion and everyday life of this exciting decade. The museum's had originally been used as a prison buildings, and this time in it history has been recreated so we can see what conditions were like back in the 18th century The prison’s most famous former prisoner - highwayman Dick Turpin, who was hanged in 1739 for horse stealing.

To finish the day we head for a less cultural experience the York Dungeon. This is not really a dungeon, but is a tourist attraction that looks to scare the pants off you. The tour is a 90 minute passage through the less pleasant sagas (the historical accuracy is questionable) in York’s past. Jack and Emily went in with trepidation and were on tenterhooks for the first 15 or 20 minutes – it was quite scary. The Great Plague show is set in 1551 with a recreation of medieval York streets and culminates with a performance from an actor playing a plague doctor. There is also a recreation of a York pub the Golden Fleece Inn where visitors are told ghost stories. Other shows include the Judgement of Sinners where visitors are accused of various crimes and the Torture Chamber where visitors are shown demonstrations of torture devices. During the tour actors playing plague doctors, innkeepers, viking cohorts of Eric Bloodaxe, judges, torturers and Dick Turpin's executioner tell visitors gruesome stories. We had low expectations of the York Dungeon, and whilst it was a surreal experience we enjoyed it greatly.

DAY 318 Sunday 20th JULY 2008

2008-11-24T12:44:00.000-08:00

Eastbourne, East Sussex (Miles to Date: 33600)

Warwick Castle sits on a cliff overlooking a bend in the River Avon. Warwick Castle, and like Kenilworth Castle, was built by William the Conqueror in 1068. It was used as a fortification until the early 17th century, when Sir Fulke Greville converted it to a country house. It was owned by the Greville family, who became earls of Warwick in 1759, until 1978.

From 1088, the castle traditionally belonged to the Earl of Warwick, and it served as a symbol of his power. The castle was taken in 1153 by Henry of Anjou, later Henry II, when the Countess of Warwick was tricked into handing over the castle. It was again briefly lost in 1264, following a surprise attack during the Second Barons' War. It has been used to hold prisoners, including some from the Battle of Poitiers in the 14th century. Under the ownership of Richard Neville – also known as "Warwick the Kingmaker" – Warwick Castle was used in the 15th century to imprison the English king, Edward IV. Warwick Castle has been compared with Windsor Castle in terms of scale, cost, and status.

Visiting the castle at a weekend in July is somewhat fraught as there are crowds of tourists from all over the world. On the plus side there are a whole host of different activities scheduled for the day. Before we set about exploring the castle itself there is a demonstration set in the grounds for a giant Trebuchet. This is a medieval siege weapon that was used to fire various projectile at or into the castles or fortifications that were under siege. The projectiles themselves varied from rocks and Greek fire to decaying corpses of people of animals (intended to spread fear and disease – yuk!) The Warwick Trebuchet is the largest in the world at 18m (60 feet high) and weighs 220 tonnes, and fires the projectiles 25m (80 feet) into the air and out to 300m (1000 feet). A huge beast! The Trebuchet is based on a counter-balance weight, which has to be primed, which basically means using a large man-powered wheel to winch in the weight. It takes a few minutes to do the priming and in the mean time we are entertained by a commentator who tells us about the history of trebuchet as a weapon in the middle ages to and what was going on with the preparations. Finally all was set and we waited with baited breadth – and then we had the obligatory count – then the release. The counter weight releases against the tension of the winch and the trebuchets arm springs forward, almost in slow motion and the projectile is released from the bucket and flies out 1000 feet before thudding into the ground. Very impressive and all conceived and built (this particular trebuchet is only few years old) over 700 years ago.

With the excitement of the trebuchet behind us we climb the hill up to the castle. Unlike the ruins of Kenilworth Castle this castle has been well preserved, primarily due to the fact that this was used as residence for many years. As well as preserving the exterior elements of the castle the interiors are wonderful and full of artefacts across the centuries. We pass through the Great Hall which is the largest room in the castle. Here there are countless pikes, sword, daggers and other medieval weapons creatively displayed as sinister wall designs. Jack and Emily are particularly taken by the knight in armour mounted on an equally armoured horse that stands in the middle of the Great Hall. One of the more interesting exhibits is a statue of the face of the Oliver Cromwell, the leaders of the Parliamentarians in the English Civil War. The statue was cast from the death mask, which was commonly done in those days, of Cromwell so it a true impression of the man's visage.

The journey continues through the castle to Chapel and then into the State Rooms. These rooms have been restored and their stories are further embellished by tableaux of wax mannequins (Warwick Castle is owned by Madam Tussauds’) showing the nobility and famous politicians (such as Winston Churchill) who have graced Warwick with their presence throughout the years. As with all Madam Tussaud's wax impressions the detail is amazing, making the figures almost come alive. The decorations of the rooms are stunning, many of them are the originals items of these State rooms.

Always a great favourite of the children is the dungeon, and we were not disappointed. The steps down are step and uneven and this entrance is not for those with claustrophobia but at the bottom awaits instruments of torture and holes 6 ft deep and a 3 ft wide where prisoners were incarcerated for months if not years (shiver!). Not wanting to get trapped down here we quickly retreat to the surface and into the The Kingmaker attraction which recreates the mid fifteenth century world of

Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, Kingmaker. This covers the period of the Wars of the Roses, which were a prolonged struggle, starting in the early 1450s and ending at the battle of Bosworth in 1485, for supremacy between the Houses of York and Lancaster. During this time, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick from 1449 - 1471 became known as 'The Kingmaker'. Neville's family connections made him a Yorkist. The exhibits use a combination of actors and animated wax figures to show the common people in preparation for the battles and the family links between the Houses of York and Lancaster. Some of the scenes are dimly illuminated so it could be a bit frightening for young children

We felt relieved to get back outside at the end of the Kingmaker exhibit and we were just in time to catch a demonstration of the medieval fighting arts in the main courtyard. Jack just loves this sort of thing ever since he read the Lord of the Rings and was fascinated by the weapons and their effectiveness and killing power – it is a boy thing! As the show drew to a close we made a dash to the stairs that lead to the battlements. Here a trail leads you along curtain walls of the castle from where the archers and crossbow men would defend their Lord and Country. The children just love to pretend being soldiers defending the castles, looking out through the narrow slit windows and imagining the enemy approached far below. The curtain walls lead to the two main 14^th Century towers of the castle, the12 sided Guy’s Tower standing at 128ft tall and the clover shaped Caesar’s Tower at 144 feet. Both require climbing uneven spiral stone staircases, both Karen and Mark are out of breath by the time they get to the top but the views across the medieval town of Warwick and the surrounding countryside are spectacular in the extreme. Luckily the journey down is less tiring but still made difficult by the tricky staircases.

To finish our day before heading south we sit down on the lawn by river to watch a good old Medieval jousting tournament. As is always the case there are two sides, one made up of the good knights who are chivalrous and proud (a.k.a boring) and the bad knights who cheat and fight dirty (a.k.a. good fun). The routine is very much like watching a wrestling match with “Carry On” humour thrown in for good measure. It is good wholesome family viewing. Perhaps there is a case for an X rated version for the hardcore jousters out there. Anyways ,after charging up and down, being knocked off their horses and beating each other with swords and maces the outcome is ……. surprise, surprise a draw! Never mind they all lived to fight another day.

Our day in Warwick is done and we head South towards Eastbourne on the South Coast to pick Laura up from college. We plan to stay overnight in Eastbourne but drive to pickup Laura from Brighton, it also our chance to attend her year end college celebration when they give out certificates to all the students for their achievements throughout the year. Being a College for children with special educational needs this is an important opportunity to recognise what they have been working on throughout the year. Laura gets several certificates and like the rest of the students she is so proud of herself, and we are proud of her! The finale of the celebration is a concert given by a number of the students – which turns out to be a real hoot, we have not laughed so much for a long time. One of our favourite acts is a group of young people who perform “Final Countdown”. They mumble their way through the lyrics but soon as they get to the chorus and the words “Final Countdown” they bounce excitedly around the stage and the words ring out as clear as a bell. It is hilarious.

Whilst staying in Eastbourne we take a short drive along the coast to the seaside town of Brighton. This lively University town is the San Francisco of Britain, not because it has a red bridge but is a major centre for the gay community. It is also where Laura goes to college. We have come here to meet Karen’s cousins Simon and Lynne Truelove and their son Callum. As we are by the sea we decided to join in with another great British tradition and have fish and chip suppers along the seafront. There are, as you might expect ,a large number of “chippies” to chose from but we chose that other great British institution- Harry Ramsdens. The food was great, the beer wonderful and it set our constitutions to survival mode which made it possible for us to brave a visit to the beach.

DAY 315 Sunday 20th JULY 2008

2008-11-24T09:02:00.000-08:00

Kenilworth,Warwickshire (Miles to Date: 33400)

From the Peak District we head south again to stop with Karen’s aunt Barbara in Solihull near Birmingham. We decided to have a day out in the local area. Our first stop is Coventry, which for Mark is another trip down memory lane as he had spent three years there when at the University of Warwick. The centre of Coventry is modern, well relatively. Unfortunately many of the buildings are characterless, dating back to the 1960s when architects seemed to have a love affair with concrete and angular designs. Large sections of the old city of Coventry were decimated, including the Cathedral, by the Luftwaffe during the blitz of World War II. The Old Cathedral, officially known as St Michaels Church, was built in the 14^th Century and remained a church until the creation of the diocese of Coventry in 1918. Luckily some the old building survived the bombing and the ruins of the old Cathedral have been turned in to a memorial. Next to these ruins has been built a new Cathedral, which unlike most of the surrounding buildings is a wonderful example of modern design. We spend sometime wondering around the roofless ruins of old St Michaels before Mark, Jack and Emily decide to climb the tight spiral staircase to the top of the tower. It is180 steps in all to the top and it is not an easy climb! From the top there are stunning views across Coventry, and the grim 60's architecture does seem a lot better when viewed from this angle.

We quickly decided there was not much else to spend time doing around Coventry so we hop back into the car and take the short journey down to Kenilworth, a small town dating back to before the time of the Doomsday Book (a survey commissioned by William the Conqueror in the year 1085 A.D). The town is full of quaint houses, many dating back centuries, with thatch roofs. The whole place is quintessentially British and of course one has to celebrate this essential British-ness in traditional way – a visit to a tea room. Oddly enough Karen and Mark are not your traditional English tea drinkers, preferring coffee. But when in Rome!! We spend some time savouring our tea and enjoying the sensations and sights of our surroundings

Leaving the tea room we take a stroll around the older part of the village. Mark and Karen (Jack and Emily less so) are most excited by the sight of a traditional bright red telephone box and post box standing proudly alongside each other like two sentries guarding the town. When Karen and Mark were growing up these were common sights but sadly nowadays these are mostly relegated to being decorations in bars and restaurant or sitting rather bizarrely in someone’s garden as an out of place ornament. Perhaps we should start a campaign to recapture some of these traditional emblems of the British and return them to their natural settings. We need to maintain the symbol-diversity of our cultural heritage. The British people must rise and go to those pubs and peoples gardens and get back our post boxes and telephones boxes. This could be a whole topic to start a blog on.

We take a short walk down to the grounds of Kenilworth Castle.This is one of England’s most spectacular castle ruins. Kenilworth is most famously associated with Robert Dudley and Queen Elizabeth I. Elizabeth kept Dudley’s last letter to her in a casket by her bed until she died. The castle was founded by Geoffrey de Clinton, Henry I's treasurer, who began the massive Norman keep at the core of the castle in the 1120s. Over the years Kenilworth Castle was strengthened, so much so it withstood an epic siege in 1266, when rebellious barons held out against Henry III's siege engines for six months, succumbing only to starvation. The castle operated as a fortress through the English Civil War (1642 – 1651) but after that fell into decline. Today the ruins are a reminder of the castle’s glorious past, and many of the structures still stand but are incomplete.
We planned to visit Warwick Castle the following day so restricted our tour to walking around the outside of the castle walls. Although Jack and Emily lived in the UK for the first few years of their lives and had visited castles before they could not remember them so this was almost a new experience.

DAY 312 Thursday 17th JULY 2008

2008-11-22T10:12:00.000-08:00

Hartington, Peak District (Miles to Date: 33300)

Whilst we are used to transatlantic travel it never gets to be easy, especially the overnight flights. We arrive at Heathrow in the early hours of the morning (about 7.00am) and it is the usual zoo in Terminal 3, and it is a over an hour after landing before we pass through baggage claim, immigration and depart the terminal building. The fun is not yet over as we have to pick up our rental car, which is another bus ride and then we have a long wait whilst we sort out the rental. By the time we finally hit the road it is almost 2 hours after landing and the children are absolutely exhausted.

The next stage of our tour takes us up to Leighton Buzzard to spend a couple of days with Mark’s parents and then on to Belton-In-Rutland to stay with Karen’s old friend Angela. We also stop in Stafford to see Karen’s sister Mandy, her partner Des and nephew Charlie. These have been quite relaxing days which are most welcome after our recent travels.

It only a short drive from Stafford to Youlgreave, in the splendid peak district. We are staying in the Youth Hostel in the centre of the small village of Youlgreave. Surrounded by glorious countryside, the ancient village of Youlgreave winds its way carefully along a narrow limestone shelf, between two of the area’s loveliest valleys. Bradford Dale to the south drops sharply down with pretty little cottages and their gardens clinging to the side of the valley; a little further away to the north on the other side of the hill is Lathkill Dale, considered by some to be Derbyshire’s finest dale. The long, narrow village street runs for about one and a half miles along almost the only level ground available; the footpath being lost altogether by the church, where pedestrians, who do not want to run the risk of getting run over, walk through the churchyard. As with most small villages there is a fine selection of pubs to choose from and of course we have to sample each.

The weather is wet and chilly, which is not that unusual but we had hoped for better. Most people come to the Peak District to visit the great outdoors so it is a little disappointing to have inclement weather. Fortunately not too far from Youlgreave is the old industrial city of Rotherham, once the centre of the steel making industry but now many of these mills lay dormant and the city is somewhat depressed. Taking advantage of the situation one of these vast half mile long steel mills has been turned into a hands-on science centre. Magna Science Adventure Centre has four pavilions cleverly suspended in the surroundings of the dark interior of the steel mill and as you move from pavilion to pavilion you pass amongst the eerie skeletal remains of the mill. The four pavilions pay tribute to the four elements; air, earth, water and fire. The Air Pavilion, resembling a giant zeppelin, is suspended 45 feet up in the rafters of the building. The first exhibit is a large fan that slowly ramps up and down, and at full power it gives you a real sense of being in a gale. There are air cannons to make patterns, examples of man’s early attempts at flight, a gyroscopic chair and exhibit on the air in our own bodies. The Water Pavilion is a wonderfully lit giant steel wave like structure and houses a selection of interactive games and challenges that exploring nature of water. There are water cannons and flowing water channels to build ducts and dams in. As you might expect with all this water around it is hard to stay dry. The Earth Pavilion, appropriately in the bowels of the building ,is filled with hands-on games and attractions, The centre piece of this pavilion are a set of real-life earth movers complete with buckets in which you pick up quarried materials and drop them into hoppers in a race against time. The Fire Pavilion is a perfect place to dry off after the water pavilion. At the core of the pavilion is a five-metre fire tornado that periodically leaps up from the floor. You can make cables glow red hot, paint heat patterns with your hands and race with an electromagnetic crane, feel the flow of heat and watch crystals as they melt. In addition to the pavilions, 'the Big Melt' is undoubtedly one of Magna's most breathtaking features. Heard and seen from almost every part of the building, the show is set around the original Arc furnace, unused since the days of Sheffield's booming steel industry.

After a couple of nights at Youlgreave we move a few miles to the Youth Hostel at Hartington. This is another quaint Peak District village and has special significance to us as this is the place where Karen and Mark met some 13 years ago, whilst both staying at the Youth Hostel. The hostel is a magnificent manor house standing in its own grounds and dating back to 1611. The main buildings’ common rooms have oak panel walls, stove fires and squishy sofas and there is an award winning restaurant. We are booked into a family room which has two bunk beds, which is simple but comfortable. We are still having horrible weather, and have to go into Buxton to the charity shops to buy some extra clothes for warmth. Nearby to Hartington is another place close to Karen and Mark’s heart (this is where they first kissed) is Dove Dale, a three mile stretch of the river Dove between Thorpe and Milldale. Our trail starts at the famous stepping stones near Thorpe and winds its way up the river through glades of tree and past rocky outcrops. The river is relatively calm this time of year but there are rapids and some areas where it widens and opens into deep still pools. On a hot day one might be tempted to swim or wade, but today is definitely not one of those days. It is not as rainy as it had been for most of our time in the Peak District, but it was switching between sunshine and drizzle. Despite the so-so weather it is still a magical place to be.

DAY 303 Tuesday 8th JULY 2008

2008-11-20T20:06:00.000-08:00

New York, NY (Miles to Date: 33000)

The final leg of our cross country trip takes us down through Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and finally New York. We do fit one overnight stop in Pennsylvania. This was very much heads down and go, but we did pull off when we saw signs for the BWP baseball bat factory at Brookville, PA. It was quite late in the day and we found ourselves to be the only people in the car park. Still they could not have been friendlier and were only too pleased to show yet another group of people around their factory. BWP (we believe this to stand for “Built With Pride”) is a bit of a “Mom & Pop” business but provides bats to a number of Major League Baseball players. The wood is taken from local trees, apparently Pennsylvania is the capital of hardwood in the US and is bought to the factory in rough hewn billets. The factory processes are relatively simple; the billets are turned to give the basic bat shape. The bats are weighed and categorized and then they are painted. Simple eh!

Our few days in New York is really intended for us to catch-up with friends. Our good friend Sandi-Lieb Geiger kindly puts us up in her house, although Jack and Emily get invited to stay with some friends. Yes alone time for parents!!! When you have been 24/7 with your children for nearly a year, however much you love your children, such moments are warmly relished. The trip usefully coincides with Independence Day, and we once again go down to Dobbs Ferry to enjoy the firework. Unfortunately the elements don’t play ball this year so we get somewhat moist whilst watching the fireworks. Another major agenda item is to visit Ocean ( a golden retriever as opposed to the sea!) When we lived in Ardsley we did a lot of work with the Guiding Eyes for the Blind Association, which initially included socialising puppies for 2 or 3 days at a time and latterly having adult brood dogs living with us. In our last 2 years in Ardsley we had 3 brood dogs; Quasia, Trish and Ocean. Ocean was our last dog and when she lived us she had 10 puppies, which we had back to live us when they were a few days old for 3 weeks before going back on the Guiding Eyes programmes.

When we left on our tour Ocean went to live with our friends the Murrays. A few weeks prior to returning to Ardsley we discovered Ocean was pregnant again, and as it turned out her puppies (another brood of 10) were delivered a week before our arrival. We just had to make the trip up the Guiding Eyes breeding kennels in Patterson, NY. Ocean was so pleased to see us and such a proud mummy. The pups were cute, but had yet to open their eyes and were really too small to pick up unfortunately. It was lovely just to see them and their wonderful mummy.

Our time in New York rushed by and it was soon time to depart for England. The flight was in the early evening so we had a morning to fill so we decided to visit the Liberty Science Center in New Jersey. We used to be member of the LSC but it had closed for our last year there and had been completely rebuilt. It was great before but now it is brilliant! There are 11 exhibition areas on 3 floors, all hands on. There are wonderful exhibits such as the Science of Survival, exploring options for a more sustainable lifestyle, Eat and Be Eaten looking at survival strategies from nature and Energy Quest looking at fossil fuels and alternative energies.

In the Infection Connection exhibit, you can explore interactions between humans and microbes to learn about emerging diseases and see how science develops tools and technologies to prevent and treat infections. There was show which showed how operations are performed. Emily was called up to act as a scrub nurse. Luckily the patient was not a person but a poor, suffering banana! Another fun activity is that you can go into a very impressive looking laboratory area, where you get all gowned up and even conduct experiments.

Our final stop is Skyscraper which explores the towering achievements of modern civilization. There are large (two stories high), scale reconstructions of the tallest buildings in the world, some of which are still in construction. There are also some hands-on experiments to show construction methods and the effects of the environment on these humongous structures. For the daredevils there is the opportunity to follow, literally, in the footsteps of those brave construction workers with a great head for heights. Suspended in the air, some twenty feet up, are a set of i-beams which you can take a tour around. For safety sake you are harnessed so should you slip the only thing you will suffer from is embarrassment as you dangle high above the ground flapping like a turkey on a bungey rope. Jack, Emily and Karen are all brave enough to try whilst Mark, using the excuse of taking pictures, stands below and watches.

DAY 296 Tuesday 1st JULY 2008

2008-11-18T09:25:00.000-08:00

Mackinaw (Mackinac) Island (Miles to Date: 31815)

From our exploits on the trail of the Ingalls family we moved through to Minneapolis for a stop over. We have breakfast at our favourite breakfast eatery, Al's Diner, before heading north east through Minnesota and Wisconsin. Our destination is Mackinac (pronounced Mackinaw) Island in Northern Michigan.

The route takes up towards the Great Lakes. One of our other missions, apart from visiting every State, has been to paddle in all the Great Lakes. So far we had managed to do this in Lakes Eire, Ontario and Michigan, leaving us with Superior and Huron to be conquered. This would be our opportunity to complete our collection. The first stop was Lake Superior, the largest of the Great Lakes and the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area ( it is 350 miles long and 160 miles wide) and is the world's third-largest freshwater lake by volume. The point at which we meet Superior is as it narrows to the channel connecting to the Great Lakes of Huron and Michigan. Time to discard those shoes and wade into those cool waters! The day is drawing to a close so we quickly collect our belongings and head back to the car and head for our hotel in Mackinaw City.

Today we were heading from the mainland of Mackinaw City to Mackinac Island by ferry. As no cars are allowed on the island we had to park our car up for the day. In the car park we spotted a most unusual van, decorated in garish colours promoting XXXChurch.com, the #1 Christian Porn Site. Investigating this further it turns out that XXXchurch.com is a Christian anti-pornography website that aims to help those who struggle with pornography, and deliberately employs a provocative image to attract people to its website and hopefully to get them to hears its' messages. The people running this group are young Christians- not the old, stuffy types you might expect. Interesting!!

So from pornography to geography! Mackinac Island covers around 3.8 square miles and is located in Lake Huron, at the eastern end of the Straits of Mackinac, between the Michigan's Upper and Lower Peninsulas. The island was home to a Native American settlement before European exploration began in the 17th century. It served a strategic position amidst the commerce of the Great Lakes fur trade. This led to the establishment of Fort Mackinac on the island by the British during the American Revolutionary War. It was the scene of two battles during the War of 1812.

In the late 19th century the Island became a popular tourist attraction and summer colony. Much of the island has undergone extensive historical preservation and restoration; as a result, the entire island is listed as a National Historic Landmark. It is well known for its numerous cultural events; its wide variety of architectural styles, including the famous Victorian Grand Hotel; and its ban on almost all motor vehicles. More than 80 percent of the island is preserved as Mackinac Island State Park.

The ferry journey only takes about 20 minutes to reach the harbour area of the Island. The summer months are busy times here on Mackinac, the ferries are full and the dock is busy with bustling porters taking bags from the boats to the awaiting horse drawn carriages. The only ways of getting around truly are by horse, bicycle or foot. Fantastic! The buildings in the town have been restored to their former Victorian splendour so the place is quaint beyond belief and made all the more glorious by the warm summer sun. Whilst people actually do live here the place is also a historic landmark and a number of the residences have been turned over to being museum pieces. We buy a ticket that gets us into the houses and to the fort. After exploring the town we climb the steep hill to Fort Mackinac, which provides a splendid view point (and defensive position) across the harbour and Mackinac Straits. The ownership of the fort changed a couple of times between the British and American through the late 18^th^th centuries. Today it is a museum and has been beautifully restored with oodles of fabulous exhibits. Being the holiday season there is plenty of activities being offered by the Park Service. In the main parade ground we get to see a court martial and there are lessons on marching and playing in the regimental band, which Jack and Emily get to join in.

We spend a good 2 hours visiting the Fort before heading back down the hill to town for a well deserved ice cream and the obligatory paddle in Lake Huron. All too soon it is time for our ferry ride back to mainland. Mackinac Island is a magical place and well worth the visit – but it is not a place you would pass on the way to anywhere particular so you have to make the effort to get there!

DAY 294 Sunday 29th JUNE 2008

2008-11-17T21:23:00.000-08:00

Minneapolis- St Paul, Minnesota (Miles to Date: 31245)

From our overnight stop in Rapid City we continue our way relentlessly East along Interstate 90. We pull off of I-90 into the small town of Mitchell, South Dakota. Mitchell is home of the world famous Corn Palace. The Corn Palace is decorated with several colours of dried corn and grains creating murals. The theme of the murals is changed annually. The building itself is used for several purposes including as an arena for basketball games and other community events. The Corn Palace festival takes place in August as part of the harvest celebration and 400,000 people visit annually to see the decorations. Unfortunately we are month or so too early. The decorations on the outside of the building are lovely but the inside is somewhat disappointing. We had expected something quaint but it is really a very functional community centre.

Never mind our real destination of the day is some 50 miles North, and the small town of De Smet. As some of you have been regularly following our blog will know we have been on a bit of a mission following the movements of the Ingalls Wilder family, of the Little House on the Prairie books fame. The Ingalls family were some of the first settlers to come to De Smet arriving by wagon from Walnut Grove in 1879! A number of the family saw their final years here, including Charles (Pa), Caroline (Ma) and Mary. There is of course a museum as well as some restored buildings to visit, including the house the Ingalls originally lived and the family home where they finally settled. Of course we had to tour all of these and the reconstructed school house which would have been very like the one Laura, Mary and Carrie would have been schooled in. The houses were very simple, as might be expected, and our guides for the tours we very adept at telling the stories of the Ingalls and putting their lives into the social context of the times. Through our journey some of the most poignant experiences for us have been visiting the final resting places of the likes of Elvis Presley and Martin Luther King. These times put things into perspective and the fact that we are all mortal. Our final destination in De Smet is the small community grave yard where a number of the Ingalls family are buried. Their graves are simple, with modest grave markers. A few quiet minutes of contemplation is observed before we head off to Worthington, Minnesota, where we are staying the night.

From Worthington it is a short drive to Walnut Grove and our continued quest to visit as many of the Ingalls Wilder sites as possible. The name of Walnut Grove is synonymous with the Little House TV series, although the Ingalls only lived there on two occasions for a total of four years. A short distance from Walnut Grove is the dugout house where they lived in by Plum Creek, but the main place of interest is the museum in down town Walnut Grove, which as a location could be easily missed. The museum's collections are housed in a series of interesting buildings, including an 1898 depot, a chapel, an onion-domed house, dugout display, little red schoolhouse, early settler home, and a covered wagon display. Also on display are memorabilia from visits by the leading stars from the "Little House on the Prairie" TV series. Every year in July there is a pageant including live performances of stories by “Laura” depicting her life and the characters living in Walnut Grove at the time.

DAY 292 Friday 27th JUNE 2008

2008-11-17T11:19:00.000-08:00

Rapid City, South Dakota (Miles to Date: 30655)

We depart early from our hotel in Livingston, Montana along Interstate 94, the on to Interstate 90 at Billings. After some 3 hours we pass signs for the Battle of the Little Bighorn, National Monument. This was not a planned stop but we had made good progress on the way so we decided to pull off and see what was going on. Another chance for Jack and Emily to do a Junior Ranger programme!

This is a national monument with museum exhibits, an interpretive centre, and ranger-led programs that commemorates the site of the Indian victory over Custer's 7th Cavalry which was one of the last armed efforts of the Northern Plains Indians to preserve their ancestral way of life. Here in the valley of the Little Bighorn River on June 25 and 26, 1876, more than 260 US Army soldiers and attached personnel met defeat and death at the hands of several thousand Lakota and Cheyenne warriors. Among the dead were Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and every member of his immediate command.

Although the Indians won this battle, they lost the war against the white man's efforts to end their independent plains culture.

We were lucky enough to arrive in time for the Ranger led presentation on the battle. Apart from the memorial and markers in the fields there is little here to distinguish this hillside from any other in the surrounding country. Fortunately for us the Ranger was an excellent raconteur and bought the story to life. The events leading to this battle began when the Civil War ended when settlers encroached on the Indian hunting grounds or the terms of former treaties. The Indians resisted. In 1868, at Fort Laramie, Wyoming, representatives of the Lakota, Cheyenne and other tribes of the Great Plains signed a treaty with the U.S. government. Just six years later, in 1874, gold was discovered in the Black Hills, the heart of the new Indian reservation. News of the strike spread quickly, and soon thousands of fortune seekers moved in on the region in violation of the Fort Laramie Treaty. The Army tried to keep them out, but to no avail. The peace agreement in 1868 was dishonored when the Lakota and Cheyenne, in growing defiance, began to leave the reservation. In December 1875, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs ordered them to return before January 31, 1876, or thereafter be regarded as hostiles to be "treated accordingly by the military force." When the Indians did not comply, the Army was called in to enforce the order.

The Indians moved west toward the Little Bighorn. In June the 7th Cavalry, numbering about 600 men, located the Indian camp on June 25. Custer, probably underestimating the fighting power of the Indian forces, believed it safe to divide his regiment into three battalions. In the ensuing battle, the 7th Cavalry lost the five companies that were under Custer, about 210 men. The Indian losses were no more than 100 men killed. The tribes and families scattered, some going south, some north. Most of them returned to the reservations and surrendered in the next few years.

It is quite an eerie feeling to walk across a battlefield, knowing many men lost their lives possibly on the spot where you are now standing. Jack and Emily have not been exposed to the Western genre but Mark in particular is well versed and the experience for him is all the more moving. At the summit of the hill of Custer’s last stand is a monument to the 7^th Cavalry, listing the names of the fallen. Just a short walk is another monument; this time for the Native American, which in someway is much more poignant with quotations from participants in the battle and scenes depicted in wrought iron statues.

We spent longer than expected at the Big Horn so we had to make a dash as Mark had planned a visit, this time to America’s first National Monument, the Devils Tower in Wyoming. This tower of rock rises 1267 feet straight up from the Belle Fourche river. Most of the landscape surrounding Devils Tower is composed of sedimentary rocks. About 65 million years ago, during the Tertiary period, the Rocky Mountains and the Black Hills were uplifted. Molten magma rose through the crust, intruding into the already existing sedimentary rock layers. Geologists agree that Devils Tower was formed by the intrusion of igneous material. What they cannot agree upon is how, exactly, that process took place. As the lava cooled columns formed. As the rock continued to cool, the vertical columns shrank horizontally in volume and cracks began to occur at 120 degree angles, forming the 6-sided columns, which gives us the “grooved” appearance of today’s Devil’s Tower.

Arapaho, Crow, Cheyenne, Kiowa, Lakota, and Shoshone had cultural and geographical ties to the monolith before European and early American immigrants reached Wyoming. Today it is visited by over 400,000 people annually and is a popular spot for technical climbers to try out their skills. Some people may recognise this edifice as it was used extensively in Steven Spielberg’s film “Close Encounter of the Third Kind”, as the location where Richard Dreyfuss and others were summoned to by the alien visitors. Karen had believed the rock tower in the film to computer generated and was amazed to find it was real!

Unless you are a skilled climber getting to the top is not easy so instead we settled for a more sedate mile long self-guided tour around the base and the chance to listen to a Park Ranger explain the geology, geography and cultural history of the Tower. It was then time to move along to our next stop over; Rapid City, South Dakota.

DAY 291 Thursday 26th JUNE 2008

2008-11-17T09:59:00.000-08:00

Missoula , Montana (Miles to Date: 29975)

Our final morning in Seattle is spent at the Pacific Science Center, which is again in the complex around the Space Needle! The building is vast and houses a rambling collection of exhibits covering many aspects of science including dinosaurs, a tropical butterfly house and insect village, a model of Puget Sound, animal exhibits, an area showing you how 3D movies and images are made and several technology exhibits. As with most good science museums nowadays the exhibits are largely interactive. Unfortunately our visit coincided with the school vacations so there were hundreds of children on summer camp visits to the museum all dressed in their often brightly coloured camp t-shirts, resulting is some long waits to get on to some of the more interesting exhibits. As well as the inside exhibits, when the weather is fine (as it was on this day), there were some fun things to do in the court yard outside the main buildings. The one that caught Jack and Emily’s eyes was the High Rail Bicycle ride, where you get to ride upon a counter weighted bicycle around a circular track 15ft in the air. Once they were on it we struggled to get them off. Even Karen was tempted into taking a ride on it.

After spending the morning at the Pacific Science Center it is time to start our long journey back across the country to New York. Rather than just hacking across we have some fun stops planned. Our first night out of Seattle was spent at Moses Lake. From here we slogged our way to tonight’s stop over in Missoula, Montana … 500 miles done only another 2500 to go!!

DAY 289 Tuesday 24th JUNE 2008

2008-11-16T21:31:00.001-08:00

Seattle, Washington (Miles to Date: 29450)

Today promised to be a busy day so we headed off early back into downtown Seattle trying to beat the rush hour traffic. Luckily they have high occupancy vehicle express lanes on the freeway so we got in without too much trouble. Seattle does have a reputation for being one of the wettest cities in the US, but its average of 36 inches of rain ranks it at only number 44th. The Hoh Rainforest we visited a couple of days earlier actually receives 145 inches of rain annually. The problem is that the rain comes down over a longer period, often as a slow drizzle, deposited by low lying clouds that seem to hang around for ever. Luckily we have been blessed with fine weather for our time here, in fact Mark has visited Seattle several times and says more often than not when he has been there the weather has been okay.

The clear weather makes this a perfect day for going to the top of the Space Needle, and not wanting to chance the weather we decided to make this our first activity for the day. Doing this midweek and so early has another advantage; there are no queues of people to negotiate. The journey to observation deck, which is 500 feet above the ground takes less than a minute. When the tower was built in 1962 it was the tallest building east of the Mississippi. The views across the city towards the surrounding mountains are stunning. Just one floor below where we are is the revolving SkyCity Restaurant. As with all visits to the top of tower and observation decks of tall buildings there is not too much to do, so after taking in the 360o views and taking a few photographs we take the elevator back down to terra firma and the safety of the gift store. It is not long before we have satisfied our need for retail therapy . The Space Needle is not the tallest tower we have summited but it does have special feeling about it.

The Space Needle is the centre piece of the Seattle Center a collection of buildings mostly dating back to the time of the world fair. One of the newer constructions in the complex is the home of the Science Fiction Museum / Hall of Fame and the Experience Music Project. The radical design of the building was conceived by Frank Gehry, and resembles many of his firm's other works in its sheet-metal construction, such as Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Walt Disney Concert Hall and Gehry Tower. Not everyone loves this building (we actually did) and it has come under a lot of criticism. New York Times architecture critic Herbert Muschamp described it as "something that crawled out of the sea, rolled over, and died”. Forbes magazine called it one of the world's 10 ugliest buildings. Others describe it as a "blob" or call it "The Hemorrhoids".

We decided to do the Science Fiction Museum first of all. The museum attempts to follow the development of science fiction in the written and visual form from the earliest materials from the likes of Jules Verne to the modern day works like Star Trek and the X files. Potentially a topic like science fiction presents an unlimited scope to make interactive and entertaining exhibits, but sadly the whole thing fell well below our expectations. Many of the displays were static pieces with memorabilia from shows like Star Trek, Lost in Space and Star Wars which, whilst bringing back fond nostalgic memories, soon got tedious especially for Jack and Emily who were born long after many of these shows left the big or little screen. There were some fun things like clips from some of the shows, which more often than not left us wanting to see what happened next. Not sure whether budget constrained the development of the exhibits but certainly it seems they need to employ more creativity for the future.

Sharing the building is another museum called the Experience Music Project, which takes its name from the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Hendrix was a native of Seattle and is paid homage to, along with other rock ‘n’ roll icons, in the central "Sky Church" room using a 40-foot high by 70-foot wide video screen. As you enter the main foyer, known as the “Guitar Gallery” there is a sculpture on mainly guitars rising at least two stories, which in itself would be a fascinating feature but a large number of these guitars have electro-mechanical solenoids attached so they can actually be played. At frequent intervals the whole structure breaks into song. This is less of a museum than an interactive music experience. Yes, there are some exhibits which pay tribute to the rock ‘n’ roll stars future and past through videos, memorabilia and photographs, but there are many other fun things to do. The Sound Lab is an interactive play area with several stations where you can learn to play a electric guitar or electronic drums, or play around with samplers and mixing consoles. These stations are fitted out with multimedia systems to help even the tone deaf, all fingers and thumbs guy through the basic steps of the instruments and electronic tools. There are also a number of sound proof rooms for you to use equipped with guitars, drum kits and keyboards where you can simply jam away to your heart’s content. The Jam studio is equipped like the sound proof rooms but there is recording equipment so you can capture your music for posterity. Another fun exhibit is On Stage. Here you can pretend to be a rock star even if you've never played an instrument! On Stage transports you to the centre stage of a large arena, complete with smoke, hot lights and screaming fans. We had a great time murdering the Troggs’ “Wild Thing”, with Mark on guitar, Jack on drums and Emily on keyboards. The whole thing is recorded so you can watch yourselves being complete fools and if you are real masochist you can buy a copy to take home. This was a much more pleasurable experience than the Science Fiction museum.

As if we had not had our fill of fun for the day we headed off to the Woodland Park Zoo. If not aficionados on zoos we certainly have sampled many and this was definitely up there with the best. We love the big apes. Mark in particular has a thing about the orangutans. The enclosures for the gorillas and the orangutans were fantastic, as was the vast enclosure for the grizzly bears. We had such a wonderful time, but our favourite part of our time at the zoo was our visit to the Willawong Station. This is a walk-through bird feeding experience focused on the world of the Australian parrot, where there are 100 free flying small birds. We resisted buying the food sticks as it was the end of the day and the birds did not seem very hungry. Having said that this did not stop some pestering the visitors! There was one particular cockatiel who took a fancy to almost everyone who happened to come into the enclosure. Jack in particular got the treatment, and this bird seemed to find interesting things up his nose. We have never laughed so much. Unfortunately we had left it quite late in the day so we ended up being pushed for time so it turned out to be a bit of rush to get around the whole zoo.

Our day is not yet done and on our way back home we stopped off at the REI flagship store (an outdoor goods retailer). Jack loves this store; he is such a keen Boy Scout and adores camping out. This is a huge place and it takes us simply ages to explore, our fervour is only dented by the desire to eat. But before we can go Jack and Emily simply had to climb the Pinnacle, which at 65 feet, is one of the tallest free standing climbing walls in the world. Jack makes a brave attempt but his body shape and size are not well suited to being a climber. Emily, who usually does not feel comfortable with heights, was actually coaxed to made it a good way to the top. She was so proud of herself.

We had really worked up an appetite with all this activity so it was time to eat. Mark when he is hungry can get very ugly!

After stuffing ourselves at Sweet Tomatos we head back to prepare ourselves for the cross country journey that lays ahead of us.

DAY 288 Monday 23rd JUNE 2008

2008-11-16T17:40:00.000-08:00

Kent, Washington (Miles to Date: 29470)

We have moved from the Olympic Peninsula to the city of Kent, just south of Seattle. With only two days before we have to start our journey across the country we decided to buy a City Pass ticket to get us into all the main attractions in Seattle, which then puts us on a mission to see everything.

Our first stop is the Seattle aquarium which is down on the waterfront in a converted wharf building. Not the largest aquarium we have visited but the quality of the exhibits are great. There was the usual touch-tank with sea creatures found in local tide pools such as sea anemones, star fish and sea cucumbers. As usual Jack and Emily leap in there, without hesitation, to touch as many of the inhabitants of the tank as possible. Also in this area is the giant octopus who is very shy on this occasion. Many local fish are on display, including the poisonous Lion Fish. The best exhibit as far as we were concerned was the very cute sea otters, three of whom were serenely swimming on their backs in their pool.

From the aquarium it is a short walk to the jetty where the tour boats leave for a 1 hour trip along the water front of Seattle and the dock area. Seattle has a compact downtown area with some interesting buildings, and the backdrop of the Cascade Mountains makes the scene all the more dramatic. Luckily the day is clear and we can see the ever impressive 14,000 glacier capped peak of Mount Rainier 60 miles in the distance. Heading north along the water front we reach Seattle’s best known landmark, the Space Needle. This highly distinctive tower was designed by Edward E Carlson for the 1962 World Fair in Seattle. Tomorrow our plan is to take a ride to the top!

DAY 287 Sunday 22nd JUNE 2008

2008-11-16T07:54:00.000-08:00

Olympic National Park, Washington (Miles to Date: 29350)

We woke today to a cloudy and misty morning. Our plan was to take Route 101, following the coast around the peninsula to the western side of the Olympic range. This is one of the wettest places in the United States (which is not usually the place to consider visiting on a cloudy misty morning) and the home to one of the world’s few temperate rain forests. As luck would have it as we closed in on destination the Hoh Rain Forest the clouds broke up and we were greeted by lovely warm sunshine, most unusual in these parts. Our first stop off was the National Park visitor centre. We were amused by a sign posted by the Park Rangers warning that some visitors who had approached the local Elk had been charged – Mark’s only thought was how much had they been charged, has the world gone mad, even the Elk had gone commercial!!! Anyway, amusement over and time for serious tourism!! We were a little too early for one of the Ranger tours so we took ourselves onto one of the self-guided tours along the trails. The sun was by now streaming through the canopy illuminating the iridescent greens of the forest. One of the most amazing features of this rainforest is the thick, trailing mosses hanging off of the limbs and trunks of the densely packed trees! Our path takes us down to the river which carved the valleys to which the forest clings. Truly magical!

Returning to the starting point of the trail we arrive back near to our car and just in time for a spot of lunch before the Ranger led tour. This tour takes us on different trail through the forests. We were introduced to the common trees of the forest including the Sitka Spruce, Douglas fir, Western hemlock, Western red cedar, the black cottonwood, red alder and big leaf and vine maples. The Ranger explained the distinguishing features of each tree and by the end of the tour we could easily identify each species. The forest is dominated by the coniferous trees, particularly the Douglas Fir and Hemlocks and the Cottonwoods in the riparian areas by the creek and rivers. There are some exceptions where the deciduous trees have gained a significant foothold and have been able to maintain their territory gain. One magical example of this is a grove of big leaf maples, which have a high canopy of translucent leaves, allowing dappled sunlight down to the forest floor. At the same time the almost constant damp atmosphere of the rain forest had allowed the lichens and mosses to grow rampantly across the tree limbs, which then hang down like fine lace shrouds from the trees. This sanctuary has a spiritual quality which even the most agnostic of visitors must surely appreciate.

The weather remained remarkably good throughout our trip to the rainforest; rain free days are such a rarity in these parts. We decided to chance our luck with a visit to the rugged coastline of the Olympic peninsula, and travelled a few miles further south to Ruby Beach. On this part of the coast the trees descend down to the cliffs that look out across the great Pacific Ocean. As these cliffs are battered and eroded by the pounding of winter storms complete trees drop into the ocean and are washed away. These trees eventually, stripped of foliage and bark, end up washed up on the beaches as smooth, and often contorted driftwood sculptures. Ruby Beach provides a glorious backdrop to the power of nature, as along it’s shores are strewn huge trunks of trees, often piled up by the action of waves. We spend some time walking amongst the driftwood, which inspires Jack and Emily to turn into modern day Robinson Crusoes and build shelters from the wood on the beach. This allows Karen and Mark to have some alone time and enjoy the sounds and smells of the place. After and hour or so the children have to be dragged from their ever so important endeavours so we can make our way back home to Port Angeles.

DAY 286 Saturday 21st JUNE 2008

2008-11-16T07:37:00.000-08:00

Port Angeles, Washington (Miles to Date: 29350)

As we were departing our lovely railroad car at the Aurora Express B&B, Mark went in to see Mike and Sue to settle our account. Their house is a small A frame affair and the living area is like a taxidermists storage room, full of stuffed hunting trophies. What caught Mark’s attention most was a huge adult polar bear standing over 10 feet tall on it’s hind legs. At the base of the bear by its feet is a picture of Sue’s face, completly battered and bruised with the caption " I fought the bear and the bear lost!". Obviously curious ,Mark asked the meaning (he can be somewhat slow!). Sue had been working in a restaurant in Barrow, on the north coast of Alaska, and had gone out one morning to put some rubbish into a dumpster (or “skip” for those British people reading this!). Unfortunately her visit coincided with the visit of a hungry polar bear who probably decided she looked tastier than the scraps of food she was dumping and proceeded to attack her! Luckily for Sue a colleague was at hand, and even luckier he had a rifle and proceeded to kill the polar bear (this is the sad part of the story). The damage to Sue’s face and body were horrific -she still has a hole in her skull as a constant reminder of her near death experience, but she has more or less fully recovered and as a trophy of her great escape the remains of that same bear are now there for all to see in her living room. Great story ...and a reminder to be careful when throwing out the rubbish! Of course Mark had to share this story and ushered in Karen, Jack and Emily to see the bear and hear the tale. Sue was kind enough to oblige with an encore, and as an epilogue to her performance she rather grimly allowed Jack and Emily to push their fingers into the hole in her scalp.

From Fairbanks we had the long tedious ride back to Anchorage where we were catching our flights back to Seattle the next day. Mark had booked us in for one more night in Anchorage at the delightfully named Donna’s Bed & Breakfast. To date we had had wonderful experiences at the B&Bs we had stayed at across the country. All that was about to change! It did not look good from the start as we pulled up outside the modern, but looking like it needed a fix-up, house. We were greeted by our hostess Donna ;her acerbic monotones immediately causing us to picture the residence as some modern, suburban version of the Adams Family residence. The blurb on the website had warned those allergic to cats that there were some on the property but they were kept away from the guest rooms. What it didn’t say was that you entered the house through the living room where the cats happily lazed around on the furniture and that you had to pass these to take the stairs down to where the guest rooms were. Luckily none of us have issues with animal allergies but we felt sorry on the behalf of other unsuspecting visitors. As we were shown to our characterless room in the basement we were told to be quiet as her husband was asleep as he worked nights. We decided to stay despite many reservations but had to get out the place for the evening and return just to sleep. On the way out we were presented with a piece of paper with the details of the next mornings “luxury” continental breakfast – which basically comprised of two choices of cereal and French toast (and you had to say whether you wanted 1 or 2 slices). We had to make our selections before leaving for dinner.Karen was heard to mutter "The last time I had to fill one of these in I was in a NHS hospital!" Not surprisingly next morning we had exactly what we ordered – nothing more nothing less, but we did get to see the cats eating their breakfasts which looked more appetising than our offerings....served on top of the breakfast counter!

The flight back to the lower 48 was uneventful and after picking up our car and eating at our favourite Seattle restaurant Zoopas, we took a ferry across the Olympic peninsula and arrived late at our campsite in Port Angeles. We planned to camp here for a few days but because of our late arrive we slept in a sleeping cabin for the night.

We rose today with plans to explore the area. First of all we intended setting up our campsite. We had bought two tents, one for grown-ups and one for Jack and Emily. Unfortunately when we got the tents out is turned out that one set of poles was missing! This tent had been used by Jack and Emily when we stayed at the Gorge at George for the Rush concert and somehow between there and here had gone missing. As responsible, mature adults we try not to operate a blame culture in the Hobbs household but it was clearly Jack’s fault! Anyway rather than spending the morning exploring the fabulous Olympic mountains we explored for tents in Wal-Mart. Luckily we found an inexpensive and spacious tent, which turned out to be much better than the one we planned to stay in – so Jack was forgiven. The tent was nice and easy to put up so in no time at all we had set-up camp.

There was not much time left in the day so we thought we would take a drive up into the National Park, to a view point and visitors centre at Hurricane Ridge. Now we left the warm, calm surrounds of our campsite at the base of the mountains neighbouring the sea and climbed the several thousand feet to the top of the mountains. Arriving at Hurricane Ridge we discover how aptly it is named as the wind is blowing, if not a hurricane then certainly a gale. It is also very chilly. From the Park visitors centre there are spectacular views across green pastures to the snow tipped mountains beyond. We are joined by a number of very tame deer, who are more likely there for the lush grass than to enjoy the view. A short trip along a trail over the crest of a hill gives us a view across to Puget Sound and Vancouver, Canada in the distance. Up here are the remnants of the winter with several patches remaining deep into June. The cool wind soon blows us into the visitor centre to watch a short movie on the geology and ecology of the Olympic Mountain region, after which we make a dash for the car and make our way back down the calm and relatively balmy haven of our campsite.

DAY 283 Wednesday 18th JUNE 2008

2008-10-21T18:19:00.000-07:00

Fairbanks, Alaska (Miles to Date: 29000

For our second night in Fairbanks Mark had arranged for us to stay at the Aurora Express Bed & Breakfast (www.fairbanksalaskabedandbreakfast.com/trains.html). The accommodation here is made up of old train carriages from the Alaskan Railway system. Four blue and yellow carriages were owned by the National Park Service but they didn’t have the funds to do anything with them. Two were sent to a transportation museum and two were bought by Mike and Sue Wilson of Fairbanks, who got a real bargain when they bought the two old style Alaska Railroad cars for only $1 each - if you don't count the transportation bill. It cost them more than $20,000 to move the two railroad cars to Fairbanks, where they already owned a caboose. Mike and Sue have carefully restored the carriages, a number of which have been themed and named to suit their characters; such as the “Immaculate Conception” and the “Bordello”. Our carriage, the “National Emblem”, a 1956 Pullman private sleeper car was significantly more sedate. We had possession of the whole 85 feet of carriage, including 4 private sleeping compartments. The original features of the Pullman car had been kept pretty much intact, which we thought was more interesting than sleeping in a bordello!!! The other fantastic thing about the Aurora Express B&B is the breakfasts which are served up canteen style at 8:00am on the dot in the dedicated dining car. The food was hot and very, very tasty.

Today our first port of call was the impressive looking Museum of the North, based at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. The museum is housed in a wonderfully modern edifice on a hill overlooking the City of Fairbanks. The main exhibition area is the Gallery of Alaska, which is divided into five regional galleries representing the major ecological regions of Alaska. Each gallery highlights the distinct natural and cultural history of these regions. The displays gave a wonderful insight in to the history of the Alaskan territory – both good and bad (including a moving tale of the forced evacuation and internment of Aleut Americans during World War II). In addition to the human stories of Alaska there were exhibits covering the ecology of this vast and diverse State. One of our favourite galleries contained many pieces of Native Alaskan art, both historical and present as well as exhibits of art work from local artists, including a highly ornate outhouse. Outhouses are still common place in the Alaska as the frigid temperatures and the hard, permafrost ground make plumbing a challenge. In fact outhouses are revered and often decorated, there is even a book celebrating the Alaskan outhouse and an annual outhouse race held through the streets of Anchorage. Something about the cold temperatures and constant winter darkness does affect the mind!!

After a morning of cultural overload we decided that we needed to follow this with a simpler form of entertainment. Our next stop was only a short drive away – the aptly named Large Animal Research Station. The main reason for coming here was to see muskoxen. These delightful creatures are more closely related to sheep and goats than to oxen, but are in their own genus, Ovibos. The muskox we found to be a lot smaller than we had expected, even with the thick coats that protect them from the harsh winter weather. Muskox wool, or qiviut (an Inuit word), is highly prized for its softness, length, and insulative value. The Alaskan muskox story is a little-known conservation success, with the muskox reclaiming some of the ranges it inhabited over a century ago. Muskoxen disappeared from their last remaining strongholds in northern Alaska during the late 1800's. Hunting by humans contributed to their decline. In 1930, the U.S. Congress provided funds to ship 34 muskoxen from Greenland to Alaska. From the first herd established on Nunivak Island, 71 animals were transplanted to the Seward Peninsula, during 1970 and 1981. So far, people have not hunted the reintroduced muskoxen, allowing them to increase at a rate of 15-20% annually. In April of 1992 the Alaska Department of Fish & Game, Bureau of Land Management, and National Park Service jointly conducted an aerial survey and found 706 muskox on the Seward Peninsula. Our visit coincided with the end of the breeding season and we were very lucky to see some of the calves born in the spring

As well as muskox the Research Station also studies caribou. These large, sub-arctic dwelling deer are still numerous in the interior and north of Alaska. One of the great sights of the animal kingdom is the vast migration herds, numbering 150,000 to 200,000 caribou, that follow a 400 mile route along Alaska’s Porcupine river every year from their winter feeding grounds in the south to the north Alaskan coastal plain where they calve. Along the migration route the caribou pass through the tundra of the Alaskan interior, where we heard they are molested by swarms of bugs, including mosquitoes and warble flies. The mosquitoes are simply after their blood, but the numbers of these insects are so high the poor caribou can loose pints of blood in a single day. More horrific are the warble flies, which lay their eggs in the skin of the caribou. The larvae hatch and eat their way out of the skin before the metamorphosis process into adulthood, causing a great amount of irritation to the animal. In some case the warble flies lay their eggs inside the nasal cavity – this can cause a great deal of distress (not surprisingly) to the caribou.

The day continues to go down hill culturally speaking as we round it off with a trip to the town of North Pole, Alaska, where the locals claim the “Spirit of Christmas lives year around”. If you hadn’t read this before visiting then the candy cane shaped lamp posts would have probably given the game away. The town itself is pretty much non-descript but our reason for the visit was to visit Santa Claus’ House. This is the place where you can get letters posted from Santa Claus, post-marked North Pole – cool eh! Sadly Santa Claus’ House is a store rather than a house (but there are reindeer parked out back) but sure enough Santa and Mrs Claus are faithfully on duty for photo-opportunities and to make mobile phone calls back to little Johnny down in Tampa Bay, Florida. After some coercion we did manage to get a reluctant Jack and Emily to pose with Santa whilst we did a video message for Laura back in England. Luckily as we’re travelling light we did not have the opportunity to spend money on seasonal tchatchke.

DAY 282 Tuesday 17th JUNE 2008

2008-10-20T20:16:00.000-07:00

Fairbanks, Alaska (Miles to Date: 28920)

Before setting off on the next stage of our tour we decided to pay one more visitor to the Visitors Centre in Denali NP. We wanted to attend a talk on the geology and rock structures of Denali, given by one of the volunteers staying in the park campground. It turns out that parts of Alaska were once connected to other parts of the United States as far away as the Dakotas. There are some who think that one day California will break off and collide with Alaska –now that will have a big impact on that Californian real estate!!. Our minds geologically saturated we depart a damp and dreary Denali and continue our journey north towards Fairbanks. As we leave the high peaks of the Alaska range and move deeper into the Interior the mountains are replaced by rolling hills. Fairbanks is the largest city in Alaska’s interior and the 2nd largest in the State after Anchorage, and was originally founded in 1901 as a trading centre. In 1902 gold was discovered in the area which resulted in an explosion in the population. Today Fairbanks has evolved from a gold rush town into a modern city – albeit somewhat sleepy.

Our first night in Fairbanks was spent in the Townsite Gardens B & B close to downtown. The owner Kazumi and her daughter, who Emily befriended, made us most welcome and the family suite was very comfortable.

Today we decided to explore Fairbanks a bit more. Our first stop of the day was the Fairbanks Ice Museum, which is somewhat homespun but great fun. We are treated to a demonstration of ice carving using a combination of hand and electrical tools. After an amazingly short time the artist produces an ice fish statue. This museum used to be a cinema and they have retained the seating, but around the sides and the front of the theatre they have built glass panelled rooms. In these rooms, which are refrigerated, are the most fantastic ice sculptures of walruses, bears, Inuit Eskimos, musical instruments and many other creations. Going into these rooms was marvellous but rather chilly. The finale of our visit is a film about the World Ice Art Championships (http://www.icealaska.com/index.html) which take place in Fairbanks every March. Teams of carvers from all around the world brave the cold March weather and using local ice hewn from frozen lakes (Fairbanks apparently has the best quality ice in the world) to create wonderful creations, some reaching two storeys high.

After experiencing the Ice Museum we headed north out of Fairbanks towards the artic circle to the El Dorado Gold Mine. We hop aboard a narrow-gauge train to start our two-hour tour of the Gold Mine to learn all about how 100,000 gold rushers fought the permafrost in their quest to get rich.

The tour begins as you board the train and travel to a historic, working gold mine that looks as it would have when gold fever first swept across America. Our conductor Earl Hughes plays songs from days gone by and spins yarns about early Alaska as we travel below ground to a permafrost tunnel and meet a gold miner. Further on we pass by several exhibits of prospector’s cabins and mining equipment.

Our final stop is a working gold camp where the real fun begins. We meet local miners Dexter and Yukon Yonda have been operating small mines for more than 25 years, who teach us all about modern mining techniques. We then get to try our hand at gold panning, with success guaranteed. It is a short walk to the gift shop where we get our samples weighed. We decided to collect together our hard worked for gold dust and put into a necklace charm to give the Jack and Emily’s grandmother as a gift. The best thing about the end of this tour is the complimentary coffee and fresh-baked cookies.

Our day is not yet done and we head back to Fairbanks where we stopped at Pioneer Park. Here a number of historic buildings have been relocated from all around Fairbanks and the surrounds, and set out in a series of quaint streets which are now set aside as shops. There is even a paddle steamer which is a dry docked museum. Our main reason for stopping here was to visit an attraction called 40 Below. The significance of 40 below (which is where the Celsius and Fahrenheit scales converge) is that this is the chilly temperature reached in central Alaska in the winter time. The exhibit is quite modest basically a shack with a large freezer unit at the rear. They provided us with warm parka jackets and gloves, a jug of hot water and set us off into the freezer. The first thing we do is throw the hot water into the air where it explosively evaporates is a fraction of a second, saving us from a scalding. The thermometer in the room reads -40 degrees, but there is heat exchanger fan blowing cold air in so with the wind chill it is probably much colder. The room is sparsely decorated with only a large thrown like chair and table carved out of ice, in which is a banana some nails and a block of wood. The banana is frozen, so much so you can take it and use it to knock nails into the wood. Even with the warm clothes provided it is too cold to hang around so we take some pictures and head out into the balmy 60 degree weather outside. At $5 per person to get in it is a little pricey but well worth it to get a feel of the Alaskan interior’s winter.

DAY 280 Sunday 15th JUNE 2008

2008-07-06T22:07:00.000-07:00

Denali National Park, Alaska (Miles to Date: 28800)

Our stay in Anchorage is short – mercifully as I think on our first pass through we did as much as we had wanted to, bar one or two attraction. We are now heading north into the Alaskan interior, through the mighty Alaskan range. It is this range that separates the wet but relatively mild south from the drier but colder north. This range is home to the mighty Mount McKinley, which is known to native Athabaskan’s as Denali meaning the "The Great One" and is the highest mountain peak in North America, at a height of approximately 20,320 feet (6,194 m). Mount McKinley has a larger bulk and rise than Mount Everest. Even though the summit of Everest is about 9,000 feet (2,700 m) higher as measured from sea level, its base sits on the Tibetan Plateau at about 17,000 feet (5,200 m), giving it a real vertical rise of a little more than 12,000 feet (3,700 m). The base of Mount McKinley is roughly a 2,000-foot plateau, giving it an actual rise of 18,000 feet (5,500 m).

The vagaries of the Alaskan weather means that Mount McKinley is often not visible due to cloud cover and as we left Anchorage the rain and low clouds look set in for the day. Perhaps we were not destined to see this icon of Alaska. Fortunately the drive up to Denali National Park (where Mount McKinley is the centre piece) is quite long so we pray for a break in the weather. As we pass closer to the park we see a whole load of car pulled in on the side of the road so being curious folks we pulled over too. Much to our delight on the side of the road was a black bear quite happily munching on some plants – we tentatively got out to take some photos. These animals can be aggressive but there were a large number of us and they are not known to attack groups and would be more likely to run off. So we snapped a few shots and moved on. As luck would have it almost at this point in time the cloud cover started to break-up and 20 minutes later the skies were relatively clear and we came across an ideal vantage point to see Mount McKinley, and we were so pleased that in the distance but prominent amongst all its neighbours stood the snow capped peaks of McKinley. We were so lucky – so much so that we stood for quite some time soaking it all in. Yet as always we still had a distance to go.

For two nights we are based in the Denali Lodge cabins. Although one might expect these to be quaint log cabins we would describe them more a the potting shed gentlemen of a certain age back home might have use to escape the prying eyes and sharp tongues of their spouses. Anyway we don’t plan to spend much time in them. The day is still warm and sunny – and these long days give you plenty of time to pack stuff in – so we headed off into the National Park to check out what programmes we being run the next day. Once this was completed we decided to drive 11 miles into the park – essentially as far as private vehicles are allowed to go. You can venture much deeper into the park but you have to take a tour bus – we decided to settle for a hike. Mum and dad wanted a gentle saunter down along the river – but Jack and Emil wanted to scale the hill so on this occasion the children had their choice. As we climbed higher we soon realised that it was much steeper than we had anticipated and very rugged terrain. Karen decided that she wanted to stop so Mark, Jack and Emily continued on alone. Not much further on Mark’s lack of fitness gave out so he stopped and let Emily and Jack press on thinking it was not much further to the top. When he lost sight of them and they didn’t return 10 minutes later he got worried and continued to the top and then could find them. Unbeknownst to him they had come down a different route and so he set off down yet another route. It was about 45 minutes later when we all managed to hook up again – with everyone angry with each other (this is how the concern was expressed). Mark had been worried about Jack and Emily, Karen about Mark etc etc. Having said all that it was a wonderful walk and the views across the tundra to the distant mountains was spectacular. We all slept well that night.

Today we were delighted with our choice to do the walk the previous day as it turned out to be a grotty day – wet and cold. So we decided to head for the Murie Science and Learning Center, named after Adolph Murie naturalist, author, and wildlife biologist who pioneered field research on wolves, bears, and other mammals and birds in Artic and sub-Arctic Alaska. This Centre is a collaboration between the National Park Service and other institutions, carrying on many areas of research into the geography, wildlife biology and the ecology of Denali and the wider reaches of the Alaskan wilderness. We spend a half an hour studying the wonderful exhibits on show before heading off to hear what turns out to be a fantastic talk by one of the researchers from the Centre on the glaciers in Denali National Park.

After this illuminating presentation we head back to the Park’s main Visitor Centre so Jack and Emily can extend their collection of Junior Ranger badges. This also gave us an opportunity to explore the exhibits. The weather was if anything getting worst outside, but being hardy souls we braved the conditions outside to join one of the Park Rangers on a short trail around the Visitor Centre. We simply love these Ranger programmes, and best of all today we were the only four people on the walk – our own personal Ranger. As always it was great to learn about the history and ecology of the area. We also discovered our Ranger was only here for the summer months in winter he led dog mushing tours into Denali park – often camping out there in temperatures around minus 30 or 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

One last planned activity for the day was to visit the sled dog kennels in the Park. Denali is the only National to have its own dog teams, which are used in the winter months to manage the park. The Park is open all year round and even in the frigid winters people want to enter the park to explore the wilderness. The kennels provide much better conditions for the dogs than we saw at the Seavey kennels in Seward. The dogs were extremely sociable and loved the attention and to be petted. Of course we were only too happy to do this. As well as the chance to walk around the kennels one of the Rangers gave a presentation on the history of the Denali dog sled teams and the roles they continue to play in managing the park to this date. As no motorised vehicles are allowed into the wilderness areas this is the only means of transport through the long winter months.

DAY 278 Friday 13th JUNE 2008

2008-07-06T11:51:00.000-07:00

Anchorage, Alaska (Miles to Date: 28500)

Yesterday was our last day on the Kenai Peninsula and at last the sun poked out its much missed head from the cloudy skies. So we decided this would be good time to go and explore a place we had wanted to visit all week – the romantically named Exit Glacier. The glacier is actually a National Monument and as we approached the Visitor Centre on the entry road there are markers on the roadside with dates going back into last century. The markers show where the front face of this glacier was in that year. Exit Glacier is as it’s name suggests is exiting – retreating back up to the Harding Ice Field from whence it came, waiting for the next appearance of global cooling before starting its next march forward. The retreat is inextricable and scarily rapid – we’re just glad to be here to see Exit before it exits.

As always we go the Visitor Centre first to get the lay of the land and to check out the Junior Ranger programme. Emily as ever is enthusiastic to earn her badge, Jack more reticent – sees himself above being a “Junior” Ranger – but as always we bully him into it and as always he is happy to get the badge. We get into a bit of a debate why glaciers emit a cool blue light and the Ranger is a little miffed when we question his theories so we decided to allow him to wallow in his clouded delusion and take one of the trails.

Our route wiggles through the trees and brush and brings us to the cold, fast flowing river that is entirely the creation of water melting from the great glacier. The river is narrow in comparison to the flood plain which is covered with smooth, pebble like stones from a time when then river was much larger or indeed in a different place. We leave the trail to cross the river plane – after leaping over couple of tiny tributaries we are able to walk right to the face of Exit Glacier. Here you touch the glacier, observe the crystalline structure and hear the sounds of the glacier; cracking and creaking under the pressure of millions of tons of ice and waters melting into numerous streams that eventually congregate and join to form the river below. We are all stunned by this experience. From the glacier face we take another trail which brings us to side of the glacier where we can see the tortured structure of this frozen river – deep crevasses starting at the glaciers top surface and dropping down tens of feet. The sun light penetrates the outer shell of the glacier and is reflected back giving the glacier its steely blue ice colour. This is almost a spiritual experience.

Sadly it is time to leave Exit Glacier – we could stayed all day but it was also time to leave Seward and head back to Anchorage for one night. It is still a lovely day and the views are spectacular and we make a few stops for photos on the way back – including a few more moose shots. Never have to many of those – at least as far as Emily is concerned. Tonight we are stopping at the South Bluff B&B with the Goodmans. It is wonderful from the moment we meet their Burmese Mountain Dog to the stunning room and even more stunning view out onto the Sound. Even better for Jack and Emily there are children and garden toys to play with – they are so happy. Staying in a motor home makes you appreciate the luxury of space and comfortable beds – and our bed is totally sumptuous so we get a wonderful, much needed night of sleep. In the morning we are greeted with a splendid breakfast of fruit and delicious blueberry scones. Ten out of ten

DAY 276 Wednesday 11th JUNE 2008

2008-07-06T10:18:00.000-07:00

Seward, Alaska (Miles to Date: 28350)

After spending Tuesday all at sea we decided to focus our last few days in Steward on terra firma. Since arriving in Alaska and Emily finding out about the existence of kennels for dog sledding huskies that were open to the public we had been pressurised into visiting one of these establishments. Luckily enough one such place existed close to Seward. Despite this being summer and the snow being long gone this tour also promised us a sled ride – how could we turn down this opportunity. So on Wednesday off we set to the “Iditaride” Dog Sled tour.

Dog sledding is a big winter sport here in Alaska and the blue riband event of the sledding world is the Iditarod, the largest sporting event in Alaska (which is not saying too much). The official website of this annual event best describes it:

“A race over 1,150 miles of the most extreme and beautiful terrain known to man: across mountain ranges, frozen rivers, dense forests, desolate tundra and windswept coastline”

Today the event starts in Anchorage before heading off into the vast Alaskan interior and finally ends up in the remote North Western coastal town of Nome. Amazingly the current fastest winning time record was set in 2002 by Martin Buser with a time of 8 days, 22 hours, 46 minutes, and 2 seconds. Wow!

The race is named after the town of Iditarod, which was an Athabaskan village before becoming the centre of the Inland Empire's Iditarod Mining District in 1910, and then turning into a ghost town at the end of the local gold rush. The name Iditarod may be derived from the Athabaskan haiditarod, meaning "far distant place". The event in part is a tribute to the 1925 serum run to Nome, also known as the "Great Race of Mercy." A diphtheria epidemic threatened Nome, especially the Inuit children who had no immunity to the "white man's disease," and the nearest quantity of antitoxin was in Anchorage. Since the two available planes were both dismantled and had never been flown in the winter, Governor Scott Bone approved a safer route. The 20-pound (9 kg) cylinder of serum was sent by train 298 miles (480 km) from the southern port of Seward to Nenana, where it was passed just before midnight on January 27 to the first of twenty mushers and more than 100 dogs who relayed the package 674 miles (1,085 km) from Nenana to Nome. The dogs ran in relays, with no dog running over 100 miles (160 km).

Anyway back to our tour! The kennels is operated by the Seavey family and multi-generation dog mushing industry. In 2004 Mitch Seavey won the Iditarod and continues to participate along with his three sons. Our first stop on the tour is to see the dogs. They have some 90 huskies at this particular kennels, they are all chained to a stake just far enough apart from them not to reach each other. Their only shelter is a small plastic kennel which they can barely fit into. Karen and Emily are pretty shocked by these conditions, especially when you realise these dogs live out here even through the harsh Alaskan winters. We are told the dogs are friendly, although the sight of us has got them all of a quiver as they know our arrival means some will be going out on a run. These dogs do not like most people’s vision of a husky. They are skinny, wiry dogs of various shapes, colours and sizes; bred for racing. We are told the husky is a mutt – a mixture of dogs aimed at breeding the perfect sled pulling beast. After the initial shock of all this we go over and start petting and fussing some of the dogs and they are indeed friendly. Next up is the sled ride. Eight of us climb aboard what can best be described as a metal framed cart – with wheels instead of runners. We sit and watch as the handlers untie 14 of the dogs and hitch them to harnesses on the front of our cart. The back of the cart is tied to a large post to stop us being pulled away before our musher is ready. Our young guide/ musher unties the cart and after a couple of simple instructions off we head. The tour is around 20 minutes long but is punctuated by stops so the dogs don’t overheat – this balmy weather is too hot for these guys they prefer minus 40. Along route we get told about the basics of mushing. All too soon we are back.

Next stop on our tour is the breeding kennels where they have a litter of small puppies and some a few weeks older. We are introduced to Danny Seavey – one of Mitch Seavey’s sons. Emily is in her element as we are allowed to pick up and cuddle the smaller pups and go into the kennel and frolic with the older ones. Also here are a couple of Melamute’s. These dogs look more like the traditional image of huskies, hairy rounded faces, powerful features – real beasts of burden. Apparently these dogs are strong and great for pulling big loads but are too slow for racing. Our final stop is a lean to building where we are shown a video about dog sledding and our young musher friend shows us some of the essential equipment used in racing; from the sleds to clothing to food. This is a hands on demonstration so Jack and Emily are willing volunteers to dress up in clothing to preserve life at frigid temperatures at minus 40 and lower.

Despite being saddened but the apparent harsh conditions in which the dogs are kept (we are assured this is the norm) we had a wonderful time and learnt a lot about a sport about which we had no idea.

DAY 275 Tuesday 10th JUNE 2008

2008-07-06T08:27:00.000-07:00

Seward, Alaska (Miles to Date: 28330)

Another Alaskan summer’s day – cold with a low dank mist covering the mountains. Today is an early start, and we wearily raise ourselves from our slumber, grab a quick breakfast from the provision we bought at the local store and hit the road. The plan is to take 9 ½ boat trip from Seward up the Northwestern Fjord some 70 odd miles down the coast. The overcast weather puts some doubt in our mind on this endeavour but we have already bought the tickets so we committed to doing this.

At around 9:00am our boat glides out onto the calm waters of Resurrection Bay, a deep water bay cut by glaciers. The bay is surrounded by steep mountains (so we believe as they are not visible today) which butt up right against these frigid waters. As we pull away we have our first wildlife sighting, a very cute sea otter contentedly floating on his back as we cruise past him. These wonderful and endangered creatures were nearly hunted into extinction but fortunately are now protected, but fishing and other man-made influences to their environment still put these otters at risk.

We leave our otter friend behind and travel further down the bay. Our captain for the day is handsome (this is Karen’s opinion not Marks!!) and dry-witted uses his eagle eyes to keep an eye out for any more wildlife. Occasionally the radio sputters into life and tour boat captains further up the bay radio in potential spottings. After one such call we head towards the shore. Here we find a pod of Orca (Killer Whales) serenely swimming and hunting in the bay for King Salmon. Almost immediately as we pull to a juvenile Orca breaches (jumps clear of the water) and crashes back down. We all see this except Karen – who always seems to miss these. Truly wonderful! Our captain explains more about the Orcas and how they can be identified individually by their markings and how the pod can be identified by their calls. Unfortunately we cannot hang around too long as there is much more to see so off we head further up the bay towards to the Bay of Alaska and the open ocean.

As we get closer to the open seas two things happen – the wave action gets more pronounced and secondly we start to see whales. These are not Orcas this time (which are actually not whales) but hump back whales. Back in March we had down a whale tour in Hawaii to observe the humpback whales that visit to breed in the warm waters of the pacific during the winter months before returning north to their feeding grounds. We wonder whether if any of these humpback we see now were the same individuals we saw thousands of miles south of here – a romantic but unlikely prospect. It is difficult to say how many humpbacks we saw during this trip but it was probably between 15 and 20 – most were distant sightings but we were treated to one or two visits by these 40 foot long magnificent mammals much closer, perhaps 75 to 100 feet from our boat.

Jack and Emily were enjoying the ride. Jack was determined to demonstrate his man hood by staying outside on the bow of the boat for the whole trip. Despite this technically being summer in Alaska it was a raw day and he got absolutely frozen, but was determined to take this adventure head on and spent about 90% of the journey outside. Although we had to thaw him out at the end of the day. Emily, who sensibly like her parents, spent more time inside only venturing out to see sights before returning to the warm, spent most of her time befriending everyone on the boat. She stuck up a relationship with two ladies travelling with one of their grandchildren. At the end of the tour these ladies said how wonderful Emily was and we think they would have happily adopted her. It is amazing how much better behaved our children are with other adults!

Eventually we pass through the rougher open waters of the Bay of Alaska, around the Kenai Peninsula into the calm waters of the Northwestern Fjord. Our main purpose of coming here is to see glaciers. On a clear day glaciers can be seen high up in the valley and circs of the mountains – but today we have come to look at tidewater glaciers. These glaciers are descending from the vast Harding Ice Field high up the mountains, drawn by gravity these rivers of ice cut their way through to the edge of the sea where they crumble into the icy waters. There are three of four tidewater glaciers in this Fjord but the one we have come to see closer up is the Northwestern Glacier. As we approach the glacier the captain has to drop the boat speed as there are huge blocks of ice floating in the water which have fallen from the glacier. We spot grey specs on top of numerous of these floating ice raft, as we draw closer we see that these are actually harbour seals happily resting on their own frozen craft. The captain stops the boat for 15 minutes which gives us time to stare in awe at the magnificent glacier, which even on this cloudy day shimmers a cold blue a few hundred feet from us. This was the real goal this tour for us. 90% of the glaciers in Alaska are retreating at the planet warms and we wanted to see this marvel of nature whilst we still could. Every so often ice would break from the face of the glacier, an phenomenon known as “Carving” and crash into the sea sending us water high into the air. Sadly we all too soon had to leave and return back to Seward.

The trip back was thankfully uneventful. The route was a little different taking in some of the small, uninhabited rock like islands more remote from the mainland. Here are the habitats of the endangered Stellar Sealion communities and sea bird breeding grounds. The cliff walls of these islands are teaming with birds; horned and tufted puffins, auklets and the penguin-like murres. Finally we pull back into dock after a wonderful day at sea (despite the weather)

DAY 274 Monday 9th JUNE 2008

2008-07-06T07:19:00.000-07:00

Seward, Alaska (Miles to Date: 28320)

Today we left Anchorage and travelled south towards the Kenai Peninsula. One thing we have learned so far is the unpredictability of the Alaskan weather – today is one of the better days with partially clear skies. Sorry to continue on about the weather but it is a big thing here up in Alaska. In the southern coastal areas, south of the gigantic peaks of the Alaska Range of mountains, the weather is relatively temperate ( it is still cold by most people’s reckoning in the winter) and they get a lot of rain (and snow in the winter – the road side snow markers are about 12 feet high!!). No need to worry about snow today though! Our route takes us down the Seward Highway along a tidal estuary known as the Turnagain Arm. The views are amazing with steep, snow covered mountains of the Chugach Range on either side of the estuary and visible far into the distance. Absolutely stunning! About 40 miles south of Anchorage we pull over in a road side Visitor’s Centre to get our bearing and realise we are only a mile or two from the Alaskan Wildlife Conversation Center (at Mile Marker 79 on the Seward Highway). Of course with an animal mad girl with us stopping was compulsory. In fact it was great fun, with elk, musk oxen, caribou, brown & black bears and or course moose on display. The highlights for us were the brown bears and the moose.

The three brown bears were in a playful mood and when we reached them they were happily frolicking in the pond – despite their mock ferocious attacks its was plain to see they were simply enjoying each others company. We got some great shots as they splashed around for some 15 minutes or so. After that they disappeared into the undergrowth in their enclosure (which to be fair was large – not always making it easy to spot the animals). This would have been enough for us but by the main building of the Center were three very tame moose. Now Emily is a huge fan of moose, but had yet to get close enough to touch one – but these moose unlike their wild cousins were very amiable and sidled up to the fence where we were able to pet them and touch their antlers (commonly referred to as “paddles”). Some of the visitors, who claimed to be locals, were feeding these moose bananas and allowed Emily to have a try. Normally we would not approved of this as they obviously were not supposed to be doing this, but Emily does love her moose and may never get a chance again to feed one, so we turned a blind eye. We were all now very happy!!

A short distance from Wildlife Conservation Center is a turnoff from the Seward Highway which squeezes down a pass through the mountains to the port town of Whittier on Prince William Sound. We didn’t plan to go all this way but wanted to visit the Begich, Boggs Visitor Center at Portage Lake. From here you get a great view across Portage Lake, which has been created by the melting waters of Portage Glacier, which is no longer visible from the Visitors Centre and requires a boat trip out onto the lake which we didn’t have time for today. Portage is also the site of the 1964 earthquake, which had a moment magnitude of 9.2 and was an 8.4 on the Richter scale. It was the most powerful recorded earthquake in U.S. and North American history, and the third most powerful ever measured by seismograph. 131 people died mostly in the tsunami waves which were created by the earthquake. There are some great exhibits in the Visitor Centre, covering the story of the glaciers in the area, impact of people on global warming, the earthquake and the wildlife in the valley. Life is pretty tough here, especially in the winters – although milder than interior Alaska they get feet and feet of snow here.

After Portage Lake we continue south to the town of Seward, where we will be staying for the next few days. We are staying in a small log cabin owned by Joe Allen.. The first person we meet is Joe’s son, TJ. Our quaint log cabin in the woods was small – a one room one bathroom affair with a queen bed and pull out sofa bed. TJ is desperate for company so immediately starts to tempt Jack and Emily to come and play in the woods – he shows them his bow and then his knife. This immediately gets their attention and ours – but a reassuring word from Joe means we relent our concerns and off they go to play, although when Joe tells us of the bears and moose sighted in the woods this does nothing to further allay our fears.

DAY 273 SUNDAY 8th JUNE 2008

2008-06-21T15:23:00.000-07:00

Anchorage, Alaska (Miles to Date: 28160)

A cold wet morning here in Anchorage – such a contrast to the bright warm sunshine of yesterday. Never ones to be discouraged by the weather we decided to head off into town. Anchorage is not what we expected; it is a modern city with a number of high rise buildings. We had visions of something more rustic but alas it is very much like many other small cities throughout the USA. Arriving at 11:00am on a Sunday morning is not necessarily the ideal time to see Anchorage at its best, as it is at this time only just coming to life (although the pulse is still weak!). Our plan for today was to visit a hands-on science discovery centre (the only one in Alaska!!) in downtown Anchorage called the Imaginarium. A great place for a cold, wet day! As we said Anchorage was slow to wake up on this Sunday morning, and this was true of the Imaginarium as well. So to kill some time before opening we headed into a number of the many gift shops in downtown.

As the clock struck noon we head to the Imaginarium. Inside the exhibits cover the range of sciences from biology, physics and cosmology; and they are very hands on. Jack and Emily particularly liked the bubble making, especially the giant bubbles you can stand inside. The older Hoblets headed inside the darkened room where there is a slide show running of photographs of nebula and other astronomical marvels shot by the Hubble Space Telescope. The effects of the darkened room, warm temperatures, stunning photographs and serene music were very soporific – and if we hadn’t had the grace to get up and look around some more the room would have resounded with the rasping tones of adults snoring. Luckily there was a presentation on some of the reptiles on exhibit in the Imaginarium, so when the lights came up we were rudely woken.

We spent two hours in the Imaginarium, which the children enjoyed very much. By the time we left the weather had significantly improved, in fact it was turning out to be a very pleasant afternoon. When we returned to the Bed & Breakfast Jack and Emily were immediately drawn by the magnetic attraction of the lake. Chris our host kindly let them use the pedalo (paddle boat), so off they set complete with fishing rods, to try their luck further out. After several minutes they managed to work out how to steer the boat and guide it towards a spot where they are told the fishing is good. Despite reaching a potentially more bountiful spot their efforts are not rewarded and somehow one of the rods is dropped into the water. In the ensuing melee Jack somehow manages to fall into the lake, luckily it is not very deep or infested with alligators or snakes, but it is very cold. After a rescue by Chris and his father-in-law, Larry, Jack makes it to shore his teeth chattering – nothing wounded except his pride. So after this escapade we get Jack and Emily to bed and join Chris, Larry and Mary (Caroline’s mum) for a quite chat on the end of the dock and to drink some of the local beer – Moose’s Tooth IPA (very delicious!!).

DAY 272 SATURDAY 7th JUNE 2008

2008-06-21T15:22:00.000-07:00

Anchorage, Alaska (Miles to Date: 28130)

The weather has changed for the worst. Mind you we never expected this to be a beach type holiday. It is both cold and damp today – but we had come to Alaska prepared so we layered up and set off to the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage. Luckily we get some complementary passes so we get in relatively cheaply – but even if we had to pay the full price it was well worth the expense. There is an indoor exhibit area, theatre and cinema but we decided to join a quick stop tour of the outdoor exhibits – which celebrates the native Alaskan cultures; the Athabascan of interior and southcentral Alaska, the Yup'ik and Cup'ik Eskimo of southwest Alaska, the Inupiaq and St. Lawrence Island Yupik of northwest to northern Alaska, the Aleut and Alutiiq from Prince William Sound to the end of the Aleutian Island chain, and the Eyak, Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian of southeast Alaska. For each culture there is reproduction of a typical dwelling house and inside a guide to tell stories of the particular native people and introduce their way of living using everyday objects.

The first house we visit is that of the Eyak who live in the southeast area of Alaska which has a milder and wetter climate – these people lived in large building constructed from the cedar tree. Another distinctive feature of these people was their large totem poles (similar to those we had seen in the museum in Ottawa, Canada manufactured by the native people on the West Coast of Canada). As we moved to the other areas the house designs were radically different. The other native Alaskans built their houses to survive the cold winter months of Alaska. The houses were generally subterranean with small entrances to protect the inhabitants from the cold and snow, but also unwanted visitors such as raiding tribes and polar bears in the far north. The tour was really good but a little to much of the whistle stop variety – we planned to go back around at our own speed later to talk to the interpretive guides in each dwelling (for one reason or another we never got around to this).

After the tour we headed back inside (to warm up as much as anything else). On the stage in the Visitor Centre were a group of teenage Native Alaskans demonstrating some of the typical games played by the Native people. The derivation of these games had originally been to hone the skills and strengths of the people throughout the long dark winters, but had nowadays turned into competitive sports. There is even an world championship in these Alaskan sports. To you and I these sports are quite unusual – the ones demonstrated involved hitting a suspended ball with various parts of the anatomy (mainly the feet and hands) by balance and leaping. Other sports included carrying weights by your ears or carrying four men hanging from your neck as far as possible. Most strange – but when you understand the explanation of each you can see where they come from in terms of testing the skills and refining the strength of the native folk.

Following the sports activities a native dance group made up of family from the Yu’pik region. The dances are somewhat reminiscent of the Hula we saw in Hawaii in as much that is primarily done by standing in one position – no leaping around the stage – but has none of the allure or sexuality of the Hula. In fact the movements are quite stilted. The accompaniment is provided by simple hand held drums and voice, which somewhat limits the tonal qualities of the music. Like Hula and many oriental dances the movements are used to depict stories of bravery, love and other great deeds. The dancers looked like they were having a fabulous time, especially the oldest lady of the group who was really into her music. After the main show there was a chance to get up and dance, Emily was up for this so while she volunteered Mark and Jack went into watch a film on life in the wilderness (which involved lots of killing and slaughtering of animals and fish). When Mark and Jack returned the audience participation had moved onto playing of the drums and Jack was much keener on joining this than the dancing.

By the time we had finished all of this we were tired and decided to return to the B&B for a bit of an afternoon siesta. On the way back we got to see our first moose in Alaska which was happily feeding close to the edge of the highway.

DAY 271 FRIDAY 6th JUNE 2008

2008-06-08T10:22:00.000-07:00

Anchorage, Alaska (Miles to Date: 28100)

From George, WA we drove 500 miles south back to Ashland, OR. It was far from an unpleasant trip through the Cascade Mountains. The reason for coming back to Ashland, is to gear ourselves up for our trip to Alaska and then flying back the UK, via New York.

It was quite nice to spend a few days in Ashland catching our breath after a few weeks of covering a lot of country.

From Ashland we headed up the middle of Oregon, stopping briefly in Portland for lunch. We chose to go to Fuller’s Coffee Shop in downtown Portland for lunch. As is often the case in this part of the country it was raining, and also unusually cold so it was wonderful to find a place selling simple hot food. Emily, the fussiest of us when it comes to eating chose a burger, but the rest of us had a hot beef sandwich with mashed potato covered in steaming gravy. Just what the doctor ordered. Good old Road Food wins again!

Eventually arrived in Seattle yesterday for our overnight stop before flying to Anchorage, Alaska today.

We arrived in mid afternoon at our Bed & Breakfast, the Anchorage Lakeside Jewel, which will be home for the next three nights. Our hosts are Caroline and Chris a very nice young couple. Our suite is called "The Top of the World", and its first floor situation provides a fantastic view of the garden which runs down the lake. It is a lovely evening and of course Jack and Emily are magnetically attracted to the lake - so we all end up spending some hours down their enjoying the long summer's evening. Chris lends Jack and Emily some fishing rods - but despite numerous castings into the lake, with plenty of small fish joyously leaping from the water celebrating the arrival of summer, their fishing endeavour ends fruitless (or fishless). It is around 10.00am before we get them into bed and it is still like the middle of the afternoon ... the sun does not set until around 11:40pm and it really never gets dark throughout the night. The blinds in room are not very efficient so it is very difficult to get to sleep - especially the over-stimulated children. We do allow Jack to get up and sit out on our balcony just to prove he can read his book up here in Alaska at midnight.

DAY 264 SATURDAY 31st MAY 2008

2008-06-08T09:26:00.001-07:00

George, Washington (Miles to Date: 27100)

The above heading is not reference to a former President but an actual place here in Washington State, approximately halfway between the cities of Spokane and Seattle (about 150 miles away from each).

We sadly had to leave our new friends at Dog Bark Park, but we took away our little dog Walter to always remind us of the wonderful time we had had there. From Cottonwood we headed North-West, passing by Lewiston and Clarkston and climbing high on the plains. If the prairies of Idaho had reminded us of the Yorkshire Dales back in England the plains of Washington State along a large part of the route were more reminiscent of the Yorkshire Moors with the sagebrush mimicking the moor’s heather. We had set-off in pouring rain but as we passed through Washington the clouds parted and the sun came out, and it miraculously turned into a glorious day. Luckily we reached our first night’s stop at Sun Crest Resort, in Moses Lake early afternoon. It turned out to be one of the nicer campgrounds we have stayed at, with a fantastic pool which Jack and Emily really enjoyed.

From the relative comfort of Sun Crest we travelled some 30 miles further along Interstate 90 to George. This place is literally in the middle of nowhere – surrounded by agricultural farm land and vineyards, but its value is its central location from Spokane and Seattle. So here they have constructed the most wonderful outdoor concert venue high on the ravine cliffs overlooking the mighty Columbia River. We had come here as a treat for Mark’s birthday, having bought him tickets to see the veteran rock band Rush. He had last seen them he reckons when he was 21 or so – so they we now firmly in the category of “aging rockers”. We are now parked in a field with no electrical or water hook-up with a bunch of other people intent on partying – so needless to say it is a bit noisy. The first night we suffered, but the second night when the band were playing we decided to relocate further into the site to escape some of the noise of our neighbours! Staying here for two days also allowed us some time to do some much needed domestic work around the motor home in preparation for abandoning it in Ashland, Oregon and making our way to the UK via Alaska.

The Rush concert was wonderful. We had only bought 2 tickets so Mark and Jack were the lucky two to get to go to the concert. It went on for around 2 ½ hours showing that even old rockers in their 50s are able to party and play hard. These shows were an extension of their 2007 Snakes and Arrows offering, their latest album. As well as doing quite a few songs from this album they also threw in a large number of the old classic songs. As always one of the highlights of the evening was a long and characteristically rampageous drum solo by the ever melancholic Neil Peart. His partners in crimes the shrill Geddy Lee and guitar strummer, Alex Lifeson, belied their passage of time.

It was surprising to even Mark how well attended the concert was considering where we're located – we estimated about 15,000 people were there. As for the venue we were hugely impressed. The event organisation was wonderful, there were so many security guards and staff that it made us feel incredibly safe. Yet the most amazing part is the concert venues natural amphitheatre setting and the fabulous scenic views across the Columbia Gorge. All in all a fantastic experience.

DAY 261 WEDNESDAY 28th MAY 2008

2008-06-07T19:48:00.000-07:00

Cottonwood, Idaho (Miles to Date: 26800)

Today was Mark’s 45th birthday so we decided to go out for day. About 50 miles north of Cottonwood are the twin towns of Lewiston (in Idaho) and Clarkstown (in Washington) – obviously the designation of their names coming from Mssrs. Lewis and Clark. Along the way we decided to stop at the Nez Perce National Historical Park at Spalding. This area was originally known as Lapwai by the Nez Perce, but was renamed Spalding after the Reverand Henry Spalding a missionary who came amongst the Nez Perce to convert them to Christianity. The Nez Perce were given this name, meaning in French being “pierced nose”, by early French fur trappers visiting the area – although they never had the tradition of piercing their noses! The name they give themselves in the Nee-Me-Poo. The Nez Perce were one of several Native American Tribes to be visited by Lewis and Clark, and their Corps of Discovery.

The Visitors’ Centre at Spalding is run by the National Parks Service, and as a consequence is wonderful. We initially visit the small museum showing the everyday artefacts of the Nez Perce; from toys played with by children to ceremonial head pieces. Thisphoto is of a fantastic wooden statue of a Nez Perce horse in ceremonial kit, recognition of the significance of horses to this Nation. The Nez Perce in fact were one of the few Nations to selectively breed horses, and they indeed created the strain known as Appaloosa. Today there are several school parties visiting the Visitor Centre so one of the Rangers puts on an interactive demonstration on building a Tee Pee. We slip in the back so Jack and Emily can join in – although Jack unusually is somewhat reluctant, feeling he is out of place in someone else’s show! Emily as usual has no qualms. After the demonstration has finished we go back inside the Visitor Centre and head for the theatre where they show a wonderful film covering the history of Nez Perce people from their early days, to meeting with Lewis and Clark, the battles of Chief Joseph through to the modern day. A proud people, the Nez Perce have suffered throughout the last hundred and fifty years, like all other Tribes, with their lands being taken for gold mining and homesteading.

We had a wonderful time here, but the storm clouds were gathering so we cut short out visit to the outside exhibits; some historical buildings from the time when Spalding was established nearly 170 years ago. Instead we head off to the cities of Lewiston and Clarkston on the Idaho / Washington border; at the confluence of Snake and Clearwater Rivers. As a special birthday treat we go the food court at Costco for a pizza, diet coke and Very Berry sundae – us Hoblets know how to celebrate!!!For Karen's birthday we went to Cusco...for Mark's we do Costco! Being quite late in the day and there didn’t seem a whole lot more to these cities so we hit the trail back to Cottonwood. On our return we were delighted to find that Frances has baked and left in our room what turned out to be the most amazing rhubarb and custard pie, Additionally Karen, Jack and Emily had baked a chocolate cake for Mark’s birthday so we were in serious danger of overdosing on sugar. Never mind it was too good to leave. We survived the eat-a-thon, but it did leave Jack feeling sick, and to consequently pay homage to the toilet bowl!!

DAY 260 TUESDAY 27th MAY 2008

2008-06-06T23:45:00.000-07:00

Cottonwood, Idaho (Miles to Date: 26700)

Yesterday on the next leg of our tour we retraced our route back through the mountains and around Flathead Lake and down to Missoula. En route we stop at a fantastic little store that sells about 40 different styles of liquorice (we had already partaken on our upward journey to Glacier) which acted as an appetiser for lunch. We returned to Cracker Barrel in Missoula – which again we had stopped at on the outward bound journey. It was back in Florida when we first discovered Cracker Barrel, with their offering of simple southern food and great breakfasts. Whilst we love to try out new places – sometimes on a long journey familiarity and consistency is just what is needed.

From Missoula we head east on Highway 12. Here we pick up the trail again of those intrepid explorers who opened up the route West, Lewis and Clark. The last time we had run into these characters was back in North Dakota when we visited Fort Mandan near Washburn. The trail we are now following is their difficult crossing through the Bitterroot Mountains. From Missoula we climb through some wonderful scenery up to the summit at Lolo Pass where we transition from Montana to Idaho, and down into the valley below. Here we meet up with the fast flowing Lochsa River as it crashes through the valley across seemingly endless rapids. The next 50 miles or so down this valley to Kooskia is some of the most wonderful scenery we have experienced in the whole of our trip, an alpine wonderland with mile after mile of pristine forested mountains. We stop a couple of times to watch some brave kayaks and white water rafters fight their way over some extremely turbulent rapids – secretly we’d love to have a go at doing this!!! Someway down the pass the Lochsa joins the Clearwater River, becoming significantly wider and less torrid. Eventually we reach Kooskia, where we begin to climb again up to the Weippe Prairie. Here the landscape changes to gently rolling farm land, it reminds us somewhat of the Yorkshire Dales or Sussex downs back in England.

Finally we reach our destination, Dog Park Park, in the tiny town of Cottonwood, Idaho. We meet the owners, Dennis and Frances, who are the most charming hosts and their lovely golden retriever Walter who Emily falls immediately in love with. This is the most unusual B&B, as it only has one accommodation, a two storey high Beagle. It has two rooms, one in the body and a second is a loft room which you climb up a ladder to in the Beagle’s head. Of course Jack and Emily loved it. We spent ages chatting to Dennis and Frances before going across the Beagle, and settling into our comfortable quarters for the next 3 nights.

Today we left our Beagle and went out to explore the area a bit. After a relaxing start to the day it is around lunchtime before we head out so we decided to stay local. Also the weather is once again inclement. Just down the road from Cottonwood is the Wolf Education Research Center (WERC) in the small town of Winchester. The Visitor Center is small with a few exhibits on the wolf packs they have on site. Idaho as a state is not pro-wolf but this land on which the Research Center sits is on the Nez Pierce Indian Reservation – who have a cultural linkage to the wolf and therefore wish to promote the development of wolf packs in the wild. According to the staff at the WERC there are several hundred wild grey wolves in Idaho – despite the hostility of the Governor and other politicians. The original pack of wolves were raised by a couple called Jim and Jamie Dutcher who lived with them in a the wild setting of the Sawtooth Mountains for six years, making a number of documentaries about living with wolves. After the end of the project the wolves were passed into the care of the WERC, but unfortunately many have passed away and only two remain. The last two remaining wolves live in 20 acre enclosure on the WERC site. More recently the WERC were given 7 wolves from another pack, from a private individual who had developed a pack but no longer wished to continue looking after them. This pack is kept in a separate enclosure. So after perusing the Visitor Center we headed out to the viewing areas of both the Sawtooth and the newer pack but unfortunately the wolves were playing hard to get and we disappointingly we did not see a wolf. We did though get to talk to one of the staff on the education side of the WERC and he gave us loads of new information about the nature of the grey wolf.

The weather still was still playing up so we headed back to Dog Bark Park. During our stay here we spent a lot of time talking to Dennis and Francis. Running the B&B is only a small part of what they do and indeed is an effective marketing tool for their main business which is making and selling carvings of dogs. They make a huge range of dog carvings, which are hewn mainly from Ponderosa Pine but carved with a mixture of band saw and chain saws. We decided we wanted a golden retriever and Dennis kindly allowed us into his workshop to see it being born. After a few short minutes the deed was done and we had the newest addition to the Hoblets family, whom we named Walter after their golden retriever. He now sits on the dash of our motor home whenever we park up.It made us all miss "our" Golden ,Ocean, who is now having puppies again and being cared for by our friends in Ardsley!Her previous litter of ten pups are all leading blind people or are engaged in the breeding programme for Guiding Eyes for the Blind.

DAY 259 SUNDAY 25th MAY 2008

2008-06-06T00:06:00.000-07:00

Glacier National Park, Montana (Miles to Date: 26350)

From Butte we headed north up towards Glacier National Park which lies close to the border with Canada. Following the US 93 north from Missoula we pass by some of the most wonderful scenery – still evident despite the weather. It is a very English thing to do to complain about the weather – with the weather we get in the Mother country this is more than justified – as is the complaint about this day. The US 93 circles west of the rather impressive Flathead Lake (the largest natural lake in the Western United States with 160 miles of shoreline) through the Flathead Indian reservation. This pristine lake is made all the more spectacular by the backdrop of snow tipped mountains and rolling foothills.

Our layover for the couple of days we are spending in the Glacier area is the Kampground of America site in West Glacier (you’ll notice we stop at a lot of KOAs!) It is an unusually pretty site which is reasonably full as this in Memorial Day weekend. We later find out that the numbers have been bumped up by a large group of people from a church, who seem somewhat embarrassed to talk about their beliefs so we guess they are on the radical side of the religious spectrum! Indeed they pray for forgiveness after hearing another campers' Billy Joel CD!Anyway apart from hogging the play area with their hoards of offspring they keep largely to themselves. Jack and Emily managed to avoid being dragged off into a religious cult and instead hooked up with a 9 year old boy called Ryan. His Mum , Cindy, Is the cause of the downfall.....if the music is too loud.....

Today we decided to head on into the National Park to find out what was open and what was closed. This far north and as this altitude things are just starting to thaw out but the main road through the park -the “Going-to-the-Sun” road is still closed due to snow. From the Rangers at the Visitor Centre in Apgar Village we find that if we drive up to where the Going-to-the-Sun road is closed, at a place called Avalanche there is a nice walk up to Avalanche Lake. So off we set. The weather starts to break almost as we hit the road and wind our way around Lake MacDonald, which is extremely calm and acts like a mirror reflecting the adjacent mountains in balmy waters. Time to breakout the cameras. By the time we reach Avalanche after stopping briefly along the way to take pictures, the sun is out and it is nicer day than had been forecast. So fuelled by the sun's unexpected appearance we head off up the trail 2 miles to Avalanche Lake. The trail initially follows a fast flowing river, swollen by the snow melt, before climbing high into the forest. The climb to the Lake is quite steep, going up some 1000 plus feet in 2 miles, and is made all the more difficult by the boggy ground underfoot. Well, boggy is a bit of an under statement – swampy might b e more accurate. In fact the trail in many place is the easiest route for the streams created by melting snow to flow down the mountainside – so the trail often resembled a stream rather than a path. Nearer the top of the trail the snow had not completely melted so we had to scramble our way across. But the view at the top is worth the effort. Avalanche Lake is in a bowl valley, cut by the vigorous action of glaciers. The sides of this bowl rise steeply thousands of feet upwards from the lake side. From this vantage point we can also see Mountain Goats balancing precariously on the sides of the cliffs high above us. So after a few minutes to catch our breath we head back down, a gravity assisted return always seems much easier. A hike like this on such a glorious day really boosts the feel- good batteries and by the time we reach the base we are fully charged – only one thing left to do, find an ice cream shop.

DAY 257 FRIDAY 23rd MAY 2008

2008-06-05T22:37:00.000-07:00

Butte, Montana (Miles to Date: 26100)

Yesterday was our transfer day from Wyoming to Montana. When we woke in the morning it had snowed another 2 or 3 inches of snow overnight. Unfortunately this had collected in the awnings covering the slide-out sections of our motor home. The problem was this snow was about 10 feet in the air so was tough to reach. Karen was sent out on an emergency mission and returned some 10 minutes later with a borrowed ladder. 20 minutes later we are ready to go and head off north to Montana. As we travel towards the north entrance of the Park we once again see parked up cars on the side of the road and a Ranger moving vehicles on. Immediately we see why everyone has stopped because some 50 feet to the side of the road in front of us is a grizzly bear – the closest we had yet got to a bear (not sure we’d want to be much closer!!).

Moving on we say goodbye to Yellowstone and pass into Montana, and after a few hours we arrive at our stop over campsite, Butte KOA (Kampground of America).

Butte is built around a mountain, once known as America’s most valuable mountain. This community was created as a result of the discovery of the precious materials, in particular copper. The emergence and wide use of electrical power caused a huge surge in the demand for copper, resulting in the meteoric growth in this town and in the wealth of certain of its inhabitants. The mountain is a mile high and the mine system is reputedly a mile deep. Today the mines are exhausted and the town is past it’s hey day – and reminded us somewhat of some of the old mining communities in Cornwall and Wales. As is always the case once those resource are done what happens to the town? For the most part Butte looks run-down and dismal, which is not helped by the dour weather for the time we have spent here. To try and make the most of their assets the city has decided to illuminate the head frames of the mines dotted across the mountain – which actually did cut quite a dash but not exactly enough to draw in the crowds.

Originally we only planned to spend on night here before moving up to Glacier National Park, but the weather is so gloomy and wet we decided to hang around another day and see what Butte had to offer. At least there is a semblance of a town here where as we were not sure what we’d find up near Glacier.

Anyway today we decided to go and visit the World Mining Museum. The museum is located on the old, disused Orphan Girl Mine from which the minerals zinc and silver were mined until its closure in 1956. This mine is over 3000 feet deep but has filled up like most of the local mines with water to a few tens of feet from the surface. Although this is called the World Mining Museum it is really about the mines in the Butte area and ,in particular, this mine. Some of the original mine’s buildings and structures still exist (including the Head frame and hoist house) as well as a reconstruction of a 1890s mining town called Hells Roaring Gulch, complete with 2 churches, a school house, a bank, a saloon and an undertakers. Unfortunately as well as being wet it is extremely cold so we don’t hang around outside amongst the exhibits for too long. I am not sure we’d have made good miners this being said. Up here in Montana the winter temperatures can reach down to -20 oF (-30 oC) and conversely the underground temperatures can be 100 oF. Mark had to leave to make some phone calls so the rest of the crew went on a tour that went down to the underground exhibits – with a guide who had worked the mines in the past. It was a great experience to hear the stories of mining life and how the equipment operated from a person who have lived through this.

To end the day, as it was still damp and gloomy, we headed off to the local cinema to watch the latest Indiana Jones movie – Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. What a blast – we simply loved it.

DAY 255 WEDNESDAY 21st MAY 2008

2008-06-05T19:06:00.000-07:00

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming (Miles to Date: 25900)

Much of Yellowstone Park is at around 8000 feet in elevation, resulting in long, hard winters. You might hope that in the latter days of May one might be safe from the ravages of winter – no such luck. Even as we raise ourselves from our slumbers we are greeted by snow falling – not to be deterred from our Yellowstone experience we head off back towards to the Old Faithful Inn, buoyed by the thought of a hot buffet breakfast. Fighting the elements we get to our culinary destination, which really sets us up for the day. After breakfast we decide to go and revisit our friend Old Faithful. Standing there in the cold, with the snow falling, waiting for the old girl (if you could sex a geyser this one would in our opinion be of the gentle sex) to go up was a surreal experience. Strangely enough we are not the only people crazy enough to be standing there, and we get chatting to a young Californian couple. The inclement weather brings out the war spirit of the crowd and we offer each other the moral support to get us through this waiting period. Unfortunately whilst Old Faithful goes up every 90 minutes or so there is a range of times between eruptions and on this particular occasion we are the very end of the spread of these times – so we wait wondering what was going on, had the weather frozen the tap shut!!! Needless to say Old Faithful ultimately does not let us down and up she went, her jet looking like some giant subterranean whale’s spout. The mist and snow make visibility poor so the spectacle is somewhat disappointing – and as soon as it is over we head back to the Inn to warm up and pick up some souvenirs.

We decided to take a different route back to Fishing Village, via Canyon Village. As we transverse the road to Canyon Village we come across a number of cars parked on the side of the road with people outside. This is a good sign of wildlife close to the road – so we hurriedly pull over to see what is going on. As we wait we see through the snow, which is falling thickly now, two wolves calmly walking down the road. These shy creatures are typically hard to get to close to and we are amazed when they pass no more than 10 feet from where we parked. Of course we snap away as they come by.

So excitedly we leave our wolves and head off to Canyon Village. Here we park up and go to the Visitor Centre, a two storey building dedicated to the geology of Yellowstone. There are exhibits of the volcanic nature of Yellowstone – it is one of the largest volcanoes in world. Volcanic eruptions have occurred several times in the past, and the last eruption was some 600,000 years ago, creating a 35 mile caldera, and throwing dust high into the atmosphere and covering much of the United States with dust. Yellowstone is still an active volcanic area and another eruption could occur anytime. Other exhibits show the impact of seismic activity, which goes hand-in-hand with volcanoes. This Visitor Centre is a great place to spend some time, especially on a wet or snowy day like this.

We retreat back to our motor home, with the snow still falling heavily. Next to us is another motor home with an English couple, Sean and Jackie from Gloucester. Over our stay we had got to know them and agreed to get together for a few drinks on our last night in Yellowstone. Leaving Jack and Emily together, which is a risky business, after about half an hour of threats we go next door. It turns out to be a bit of a drinking and chat session covering a wide range of topics, after a few hours and slightly worst for wear we return to our motor home and collapse into bed. The children were fine! They were closer to us next door then they were when in their bedrooms in New York!

DAY 254 TUESDAY 20th MAY 2008

2008-06-05T18:18:00.000-07:00

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming (Miles to Date: 25775)

We woke to another pleasant morning up at 8000 feet – a bit chilly but at least the sun was shining. Mark has some phone calls to make around lunch time so we decided to head up to a thermal area called Mud Volcano first thing. Before heading out we go to our favourite bear spotting area, and our success rate is maintained as en route we get to see a large black bear working it’s way beside the lake and into the surrounding woods. The area here is very active and the air is filled with the acrid smell of sulphur. There is an short, but interesting board walk through the Mud Volcano area which goes past a number of thermal features. The first feature is called Dragon Mouths Spring, which is hot spring which puffs out steam – hence it’s name. The next feature is the one that gives the area it’s name, Mud Volcano. This is now a bubbling mud pot, but 70 years ago was an explosive volcano of mud, erupting many times a minutes throwing boiling mud tens of feet into the air. Today sadly it is much calmer. We spend a pleasant hour mooching around the various features, which is made all the better as we are here earlier enough to avoid the throngs of tourists transported here in tour buses (mind you it is much quieter here than in the summer months).

In the afternoon the weather has started to close in a bit so after Mark has made his calls we head off to one our favourite areas in Yellowstone, the West Thumb area down on the banks of Yellowstone Lake. Here the thermal features are very different from Mud Volcano, they are relatively calm super heated pools. Whilst they look inviting falling into these would mean instantaneous death! Having said that they are perfectly clear and you can see to the bottom of many, sometimes as far down as 90 feet. The edges of the pools, where it is slightly cooler, are highlighted in yellows, oranges and browns by the ever present thermophiles. The steaming pools are in stark contrast to the lake which is still covered by ice – it is not too cold here, in the mid-60s but the ice remains a stubborn adornment on the chilly lake. We gently amble around the various pools. Our only annoyance in one mother who has ignored the signs about staying on the boardwalks and has her daughter stepping on to the surrounding ground for a photograph. The reason for the boardwalks is not only to protect the fauna in the area, but the ground is a thin crust and a person’s weight can easily break it causing you to drop down into a potential pool of super hot water below!

Not yet done with the day we drive 40 miles north to see the most famous thermal feature in Yellowstone, the Old Faithful geyser. We had been to see Old Faithful last year but in July when there were huge crowds. Today the numbers were more modest, but there is still a healthy number of people out to watch. For the last 75 years Old Faithful has been delighting visitors, originally throwing steam and boiling hot water 150 feet every 90 minutes or so – making it the most reliable of the geysers in the Park. It used to go up every hour but years of earthquakes have re-arranged the plumbing extending the eruption times out. One of these days Old Faithful will sadly be quiet for ever – so those who haven’t seen it get there quick!!!

The weather is somewhat grey today but it does not seem to deter people waiting for Old Faithful to go up. So not wanting to be party poopers we settle down for the show. Whilst the National Park Service is telling everyone that the geysers of Yellowstone (which two thirds of the world’s total) are totally natural – we suspect there is a little man underground with a big lever. With travel comes cynicism!! What ever the case we are all delighted when Old Faithful starts to bubble steam and water before going into its all so impressive full eruption. After a few minutes everything starts to quieten down and the hot jets start to recede and eventually calmness returns to the geyser.

Our geyser fetish satisfied, we head off to the wonderful Old Faithful Inn, once the largest log cabin in the world. On a cold, wet day (although today is pleasant) it is a haven of warmth and comfort. The main lobby is truly amazing. It is centred around a spectacular free standing, four sided stone fire place, the stack of which rises five stories up through the roof of the Inn. The stair cases wind there way up into the sky, joining together a number of mezzanine floors and platforms, some what resembling a rustic Hogwarts. We love this place – it has a real special feeling.

DAY 252 SUNDAY 18th MAY 2008

2008-05-30T12:32:00.000-07:00

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming (Miles to Date: 25625)

Today we left Jackson and headed North to Yellowstone National Park. On the way we travel through some magnificent scenery, with the backdrop of Teton range. We pull off to take some pictures and are lucky enough to see some otters swimming in the river and an osprey gracefully riding the thermals above our heads before swooping into water to collect its prey.

As we move north and rise in altitude the snow thickens around us, some places on the side of the road where it has been banked by snow ploughs it is five or six feet deep. A true winter wonderland, even at the end of May! Deep into Yellowstone we come across the vast expanse of Yellowstone Lake which is still covered by a layer of ice – which is rather surreal as we stand looking across it to the far off mountains in 70 degree temperatures and wearing T-shirts. Our campsite is at Fishing Bridge only a short distance from the lake. As we enter the site we are greeted by signs warning that we are in a area frequented by bears and that tents and soft sided trailers are not permitted. We quickly set-up camp and leave to find bears, the best chance we are told is off to east. On our journey we see a coyote strolling calmly along the roadside, we pull over to take a photograph. We have seen coyotes before but this is the closest we have got yet. As we watch this wonderful creature he seems in no hurry to get off, nonchalantly looking at us for a few brief moments before calmly moving onwards. If we could we would have picked him up and taken him home ... but I am sure the Park Rangers would have something to say about this.

Further down the road we pull into a pull-off in an open area where there are several other people all waiting for a sighting of some bears. Karen and Emily soon engage some of these amateur naturalists as we all patiently wait. People come and go, and one of the families befriended by Karen passes by and tells us just around the headland there is a mother and two cubs – so off we go. When we get there we find a large collection of people with binoculars, telescopes and cameras with huge lenses peering into the woods, which evidently means were are in the right place. One very kind lady with her telescope trained on the bears allows us to look through at the bears hiding away behind some trees – it is our first sighting of grizzly bears and we are very excited. We hang around as the watching crowd swells and the sun goes down beyond the horizon –even though the bears are not co-operating too much. A real comradery builds amongst us observers, our bond only broken by several bison who come amongst us – these can be unpredictable creatures so we keep them at a respectable distance, although at one point Mark has to make a dash to the car as one frisky beast makes towards him. Sadly we have to part with our new made friends and go back to our motorhome.

DAY 253 MONDAY 19th MAY 2008

2008-05-30T07:32:00.000-07:00

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming (Miles to Date: 25625)

Today we rose to a glorious sunny day in Yellowstone and we decided to head up to the north end of the park to visit Mammoth Hot Springs, one of the main thermal features in the Park. It is quite a ride from where we are staying to Mammoth – some 50 plus miles – but the scenery and wild life sighting makes it all worthwhile. The snow is piled high at the side of the roads, often several feet deep, but as we approach Mammoth at the north end of the Park the elevation is lower so by the time we get there the snow has all but disappeared.

The Mammoth area is one of the most developed areas of the Yellowstone, as well as the hotel and shops there are a several other buildings that are closely associated with the history of the Park. These are the barracks built for the troops who were installed here when Yellowstone was made the country’s first National Park, with a mission of protecting the Park’s wildlife and resources in the face of determined poachers (who to be fair had traditionally exploited the areas resources!). Anyway the troops are long gone and the buildings are now used by the Park Service as administration buildings, including the Visitor Centre.

The main attraction here is the hot springs. They have been rising up out of the ground from time immemorial. Unlike other areas of Yellowstone these springs are not laced with sulphur so there is no smell, but they do contain deposits of calcite which have been laid down over the millennia to form tiered terraces tens of feet high over the side of the mountain. These terraces are spectacular, and are at various stages of evolution. The springs in this area are forever changing. Some stop after many years of terrace building whilst others start up overnight. Where springs have dried up the terraces start to under go a transformation, initially turning a dazzling white (reminiscent of the Taj Mahal) and then in time a duller grey colour. These “skeletons” of old springs are exposed to the elements and without the renewing power of a flowing spring they are eroded by the weathering extremes of Yellowstone, are turned to dust and return to the earth from whence they came. In contrast to these dead springs there are the active hot springs! Here the steaming waters continue to build new terraces. The colour of these terraces are stained with yellows, browns and oranges marking the presence of tiny micro-organisms called Thermophiles, which thrive in these steaming spring waters.

From the bottom of the mountain there are walkways that wind their way up past the springs old and new. The newer, active springs are the most interesting with their flowing waters glinting in the sunlight and clear blue pools, but the architecture of the older terraces are still pleasing to the eye. As we get about half way up we bump into the English couple we met a few days earlier at Jenny Lake in the Tetons. If that was not coincidence enough a few steps further on we meet two young ladies whom Emily and Jack had befriended on the campsite we stayed at in Glendale, Utah when visiting Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks. These two, originating from Michigan, are on an adventure, camping out the back of a car on a six week tour of the West, having finished school. Since we had left them 2 weeks earlier they had trekked up the West Coast through Oregon up to Seattle and then across to Yellowstone. It was an amazing coincidence for us to be here in the same spot at the same time – such events as these, which seem to happen with relative frequency in one’s lifetime can turn you into a believer of Fatalism if you are not careful. Anyway after exchanging pleasantries – or in Emily’s case flying leaps and hugs – we move on. At the top of the walkway – which is quite a steep climb, which is challenging at this altitude we reach Canary Spring which is the most active and splendid of the springs in the Mammoth area. This spring is flowing at a tremendous rate and cascades downwards hundreds of feet, it is truly beautiful and worth the climb (for the less adventurous there is a car park near the summit). We stay and admire this for a few minutes until the peace is broken by the arrival of a tour bus of Japanese tourists.

After another fabulous day we head back down south towards the Fishing Bridge Campground. As we get close Mark decides to go back down the road to where we had seen the bears the previous day. As we approach the area we see lots of cars on the side of the road with people out, pointing cameras and spotting scopes up to the hillside. We hurriedly park our car and join them. Our reward is to see a female grizzly with two cubs 2 or 3 hundred yards away climbing a hillside – whereas the day before we had needed a spotting scope to see them today they could easily be seen by the naked eye. What a joy! Last time we came to Yellowstone we saw no bears – in 2 days we had seen several. Happy now we go back to our campsite.

DAY 251 SATURDAY 17h MAY 2008

2008-05-24T18:21:00.000-07:00

Jackson, Wyoming (Miles to Date: 25425)

This morning we returned back to Jackson as during our visit yesterday we found out about an event called Elkfest held around the Town Square. The main focus of Elkfest is an auction for elk antlers collected by the local Boy Scouts from the National Elk refuge a few miles down the road from Jackson. These collected antlers are auctioned off with 80% of the proceeds going back to the Elk refuge and 20% going to the Scouts. It is a big event with dealers and collectors coming from miles around to participate in the auction. As well as the auction there are activities organised by the Scouts taking place in the Town Square gardens and traders selling a wide range of antlers and similar artefacts. This is a big event in Jackson.

We arrived in Jackson about 7:00am and Karen manages to hook Jack up with one of the Scout Master’s organising the event so Jack is then invited to help in the auction beginning at 10:00am. That gives us time to visit our breakfast / lunch place – Jedediah's House of Sourdough – where we greedily tuck into a full stack of their sour jacks (sourdough pancakes) loaded with blackberries. Fuelled by this gluttonous intake we return to the Town Square to check out the Scouting games – all of which seemed to be about hitting or pulling people around, and the stalls set up by local environmental groups. At 10:00 am the auction started and Jack’s role was to help the other attending Scouts to hold up the antlers being auctioned off. This was a great honour and we were very grateful for the local Scoutmasters for allowing Jack to join in.

After an hour we had to drag Jack away as we wanted to go down to Teton National Park. The Tetons are a spectacular range of mountains that leap out of the plains, the tallest of the peaks being the Grand Teton (from the French meaning “Large Teat”) at 13,770 feet. Last July we went to the Jenny Lake Visitor Center and climbed up a trail where we were lucky enough to get close to a moose or two, so we decided to head back there. Unfortunately this year the snow is thick on the ground so we simply have to sit and admire these magnificent snow -covered craggy peaks from afar. We do get to chat to a few nice people; a older retired couple from the Cheshire in the UK – the man being the ex- director of research for AstraZeneca and another couple from the UK, who are with their son who has been studying at the University of Montana State and his friend, a fellow student from Japan. We walk around for a few minutes and talk to the Ranger on duty who recommends we go to the new Visitor Center at Moose Junction.

When we get to the Visitor Center we find it to be a modern, expansive building – it’s size making it more impersonal than others we have seen. Having said that the exhibits are of high quality and the film depicting the Teton National Park is wonderful. Jack and Emily spend sometime doing the Junior Ranger Programme and earning their badges before we head back to Jackson.

DAY 250 FRIDAY 16th MAY 2008

2008-05-23T13:45:00.000-07:00

Jackson, Wyoming (Miles to Date: 25400)

From Moab we travelled North West to Salt Lake City, Utah. The only reason for coming here was to get some issues fixed on our motor home so all the time was spent rushing from one place to another. Luckily almost all of our immediate problems were resolved so we were able to push off pretty much on schedule.

Our next destination was Jackson, Wyoming, deep in the Rocky Mountains. The general area is known as Jackson Hole – and is well known for its ski resorts – which is not why we are here at this time, although there is still plenty of snow around up in the mountains. We are staying at the Kampground of America (KOA) site a few miles south of the town, which has a perfect location next to the Snake River, which is very turbulent this time of year from the snow melt. Unfortunately the site itself is pretty scabby- from the pitches themselves to the poor washrooms – never mind we’re only here for a few days!!!

Today we decided to take it fairly easy and went into Jackson itself to look around the shops. We had visited here last year and enjoyed the town a lot – hence our return. The old part of the town has a real western feel to it, with covered wood sidewalks and western style frontage to the shops. It is based around a small town square with a garden at it’s heart, the entrance on each corner ordained with tall arches made from the horns of elk. This is an exclusive resort town with plenty of expensive shops geared to the tourist trade, which is the mainstay of the local economy. We enjoy looking through these shops although a lack of money …. and more importantly space makes us refrain from buying anything.

Whilst walking the streets we usually have to stop and talk to every owner of a dog. This is Emily’s real passion. Today we got talking to a man who had got his dog from a rescue centre just a few yards from where we standing and he said they welcomed visitors. Well that was enough encouragement for us to set-off and find the place. The Animal Adoption Center in Jackson is a wonderful place – even as we enter the shop at the front of the Center we are greeted by a very friendly long haired ginger cat called Pedro, whom we fall in love with. Luckily we are not in a position to take any pets otherwise he’d have been coming with us. Out back of the shop is the area where the dogs and cats are kept, it is a wonderful environment and the staff are warm and friendly and make us very welcome. We meet all the dogs, including Jock a Black Lab and Buster who was an interesting mix of Basset Hound and German Shepard (the physical logistics here are hard to imagine). Jack fell in love with Buster and also a fantastically gentle three legged black cat called Guy Noir. This was great fun for all of us, especially Jack and Emily who have missed having a dog around since we left on this trip. So we all went home happy!

DAY 245 SUNDAY 11th MAY 2008

2008-05-23T12:44:00.000-07:00

Canyonlands National Park, Moab, Utah (Miles to Date: 25000)

Happy mothers day! As a treat for Karen we decided to head off to Canyonlands National Park, not by the normal paved route but on the off road track across the park itself. We decided not to take our own Jeep, which after 160,000 miles of service we did not believe was up to the task and we still needed her to get us around afterwards. So we hired a modified Jeep Wrangler, in a olive green colour which got it dubbed the name Shrek.
Taking the road West out of Moab we turned after a couple of miles down the Potash Road – which surprisingly goes to a potash factory. This paved road follows the mighty Colorado River for 7 or 8 miles until it reaches a potash factory, from this point on the road becomes a track. For the most part the road is fairly smooth -with the occasional bump. We climb higher to where the potash evaporation pools dot the landscape, the chemicals in the water making them appear a vivid azure blue in the sunlight. This is a very dry and arid landscape but it’s starkness offers it own beauty – as we leave the potash pools behind we are in a valley with the sandstone cliffs surrounding us -some 1000 feet or so above where we are. The track takes us right to the edge of the Colorado River Canyon. Far below us the river, swollen by the melting snow, flows rapidly through the canyon it has carved over many millennia. We are a bit wary of the cliff edges, the fall here is several hundred feet – but the views are spectacular. Moving on we reach and ox-bow turn in the river which then leaves us to go South West whilst we follow a shelf road around the upper canyon wall. Eventually we reach the end of the canyon and from here the only way is up. This is the scary bit – these series of switchbacks, known as the Shafer Switchbacks (the trail is known as the Shafer Trail), wind their way up 1000 feet or more on the outside of the sheer cliffs of the canyon. The road here is very, very hairy, filled with large rocks and is only about 8 to 10 feet across. This is not a route for those who suffer from vertigo as you get to look down several hundred feet to the valley floor. The worst thing here is that this road is two-way and unfortunately there are quite a few people who have the crazy idea of driving the opposite way to us. Luckily there are a few wider spots in the road but even at these points one or other vehicle teeters on the edge of the cliff with huge drops. Finally, finally we reach the top of the Mesa and let out a big sigh of relief. To calm our nerves we go to the Canyonlands National Park, Island in the Sky Visitor Center. Ranger Karen gives us a presentation on how some of the animals and plants survive in the high desert environment.

With our nerve wracking climb up the Shafer Switchbacks already a distant memory we set off again, this time taking a different trail back to Moab. On this trail the main attraction is a set of natural bridges. To get down to these bridges there are some large boulders to navigate, but in our modified Jeep we decided to take route one over the top. Having been on the Pink Jeep tour in Sedona we had some confidence in what these off road vehicles could do – so we went for it. At the bridges we pull short of a several hundred feet drop – Jack, Emily and Karen, who are considerably braver than Mark, take a walk across these natural bridges.

From the natural bridges we head back toward Moab. We then decided to take a detour from the path down another track to the canyon floor. The trail is rough, climbing over large boulders, following a dried up river bed and up sand dunes. At one point we get stuck in an area where we have to try and climb out up a sand bank – after several minutes of panic about being stuck in an area miles from nowhere with no passing traffic eventually we make it out and get back on our trail to Moab! The final challenge is another trail following a shelf down the side of a cliff – but after the Shafer Trail this is no problem. We get back on to the paved road and head back the few miles to Moab, stopping at a massive sand bank we had seen the previous day. Jack and Emily had really wanted to climb up this sand bank and roll down – this proved to be harder than they expected so after catching their breath at the top they came down with a mixture of running and rolling.Bear Grylls is Jack's hero...and he makes it look so easy! (The photo does not show it well but the slope is around 45 degrees!)

DAY 244 SATURDAY 10th MAY 2008

2008-05-23T07:26:00.000-07:00

Arches National Park, Moab, Utah (Miles to Date: 24950)

We are stationed here in the small town of Moab for a few days. Moab has become a tourist town based on it’s proximity to the Colorado River and several National Parks. People come here for activity holidays like white water rafting, mountain biking, climbing, hiking and off road motoring – hence it is quite a young persons place with plenty of outdoor clothing, cycle and jeep hire stores and of course bars. It also has a brewery – which does some pretty good beers – which has a restaurant and bar attached so you can conveniently sample their wares. The place we tried out in town is a bar come restaurant called Eddie McStiffs, which you could imagine gets lively at certain times of year. We called in between lunch and dinner so it was quiet which suited us as we just wanted to try the local micro-beers.

Our main reason for coming here of course was not to drink beer – although this was very pleasurable, but was to visit the National Parks. Today we decided to go out to Arches National Park just a few short miles from Moab. Here the full forces of nature have taken their full toll on the Navajo sandstone, creating a number of large, spectacular arches in the rock. Being Saturday it is very busy but we decided to call into the excellent Visitors Centre to begin with where they have some wonderful displays and orientation film, which was produced by National Geographic so it is of course well done. The park is essentially make up of one long road with a few little side roads, and from this road you can access the main feature arches easily. We decided to drive right to the end of the park and park up, from here this is a relatively 2 mile round walk to the longest arch in the park, Landscape Arch, which is a few hundred feet across but it only about six feet thick in places. It is a wonderful site to behold. The only thing which really spoils our enjoyment is a young, chunky lady who is hiking with a couple of friends who has here iPod playing through speakers as she is walking along. Personally we find this such an ignorant thing to be doing – has she not heard of ear phones!!! And why when some where like this would you want to listen to music anyway! Fortunately we managed to lose her and carry on our peaceful walk. On the way back from Landscape Arch we take a couple of detour paths to visit two more arches; Tunnel Arch and Palm Tree Arch (not quite sure how it got this name). The latter is interesting in as much that you can get underneath the arch and it provides a wonderful frame to the mountains and hills in the background.

We now head back down the main road towards the Park entrance. A side road takes you down to the access points for Delicate Arch, the signature arch of the National Park and the State symbol of Utah. There are two options here you can take a 4 mile round hike with strenuous uphill sections or the more genteel walk to a view point below the arch. Being pushed for time we decided on the latter, but this still involved a fairly steep climb on to some rocks. The arch at this point is some half mile away across a canyon with steep cliff walls on either side – although the arch is large it seemed small at this distance and in hindsight we wished we had a little more time and had taken the longer walk up to Delicate Arch.

Still we still had one more place we wished to see before darkness set in and that is the Double Arch, a name that speaks for itself. Again this involves a short detour from the main road (no more than 2 miles). The arch is an easy walk from the car park, not too many big hills involved here. Double arch is a huge structure formed supposedly by the action of water falls – although in this arid environment it is difficult to imagine waterfalls with the carving power to sculpt these magnificent creations. It is possible with a bit of a scramble up the rocks to climb up to a point underneath the arches. Looking up from this vantage point is an awe inspiring site, although for Jack and Emily the climbing up rocks seems to be the more exciting element of the exercise. With evening approaching the moon is faintly appearing in the sky above and is perfectly framed in one of the arches. Unfortunately none of have the photographic skills to capture this effectively.

Arches National Park is definitely a place worth visiting – but remember to be prepared to do a bit of walking as the best arches are not visible from the road.

DAY 242 THURSDAY 8th MAY 2008

2008-05-18T07:43:00.000-07:00

Mesa Verde National Park (Miles to Date: 24750)

Yesterday we took the short drive from Monument Valley across the State Border into Colorado. En route we decided to cross through the area known as the “Four Corners”. This is well known to most people here in the US as it is the only point where four States meet; Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico. As you might expect it is easy to get confused as to which one you are in at anyone time around here. To mark this spot, there is a monument, which sits on Native American Indian land. As with all such landmarks on Native American Indian territory there are traders selling a host of crafts, both traditional and not so traditional. Whist you can get prissy about the despoiling of landmarks life is hard for these people so we can fully understand why this is allowed to happen – especially after what has been taken from them in the past. Having said all this the monument itself is not very exciting and after a picture or two all is done and we actually spend more time looking at the craft work which is actually very good quality. From the Four Corners we swiftly move on to our stop over point for the night Cortez, Colorado.

The reason for selecting Cortez is it’s proximity to Mesa Verde National Park. This National Park is home to the largest and best preserved dwellings of the pre-historic peoples of the United States, the Ancestral Puebloans. When we set off from Cortez this morning it was a cold and damp day, and as we rose up on to the Mesa Verde the weather got bleaker as we entered into the cloud base and colder. By the time we got to the Far View Visitors Center it was down right cold and miserable. Not to be deterred we bought our tickets for the tour of the largest preserved ruin, the Cliff Palace and set off across the mesa top. Luckily the weather took a turn for the better and the time we got there the clouds had started to break up and the sun was shining.

The tour itself is wonderful. They do say that it is a strenuous tour, and that is surely the truth as you have to descend down the steep cliff a few hundred feet to get there and then go up some ladders to reach the ruin. The situation of these dwellings underneath the ledges of the sandstone cliffs is amazing. Winters are cold and the summers hot so it is easy to see why these places were chosen, but there accessibility is problematic especially for what essentially were a stone-age people. All the materials required to build these complex building structures had to be carried down from the top of the mesa. Our Ranger guide gives us a fascinating tour, explaining the history of these Puebloan people and how their society operated. Whilst these Puebloan people disappeared from these locations some 900 years ago, their descendants still live further south in New Mexico and Arizona. Many traditions have remained preserved and the tribal storytellers have continued to pass on stories of the Ancestors down through the generations. We are spell bound by the complexity of the building structures and how they have cleverly used the contours of the rock formations in their architecture. As they say what comes down must go up – and the route back to the mesa top is no less strenuous than the way down.

A short drive from the Cliff Palace is the Chapin Mesa Archeological Museum. This is a wonderful museum that has a series of dioramas that depict the development of the Ancestral people from basket makers living in pit dwellings through to the pottery makers of the cliff dwellings. In addition there is a fabulous display of artefacts of these people. To help put this into context there is also a short film about the Puebloan people and the history of the National Park. By the time we have worked our way through the museum the sun is now fully out and it has warmed up considerably. Not far from the museum is another ruin, Spruce Tree House. This is the best preserved dwelling in the Park. The walk is down (and up) a fairly steep pathway but the journey is well worth it. Spruce Tree House is not as large as the Cliff Palace but the buildings are in better condition. There is also a reconstructed “Kiva”, a circular under-ground building used for ceremonial purposes. We are allowed to climb down into the Kiva via a rickety old ladder in the roof. Surprisingly it is not too claustrophobic down inside. The climb back up to the museum is quite steep, and as it is now considerably warmer we feel that we have earned the right to an ice cream – so on the way back out of the park we stop again at the Far View Visitors Center, this time at the restaurant. We happily eat our ice creams whilst gazing out of the window across the vast mesa top below us and into the valleys beyond – bliss!!

Again the day has gone past all too soon and we descend from Mesa Verde to the car park where our motor home awaits. We quickly hitch up and set off for our next destination, Moab, Utah.

DAY 240 TUESDAY 6th MAY 2008

2008-05-16T10:50:00.000-07:00

Monument Valley (Miles to Date: 24550)

Last night we arrived late at Gouldings RV park on the border of Monument Valley, and were escorted to our spot by a very surly security guard. Mark has wanted to come here ever since we planned this grand tour. Monument Valley’s instantly recognisable buttes, mesa and wide open vistas has become the quintessential landscape of the Western movie, ever since John Ford made "Stagecoach" with a very young John Wayne. After this Ford,and other film makers, made numerous Western films in and around the valley including such classics as “Fort Apache”, “The Searchers” and more recently "Back to the Future". For Mark, having being bought up on a diet of John Wayne movies, this was somewhat of a pilgrimage.

It was extremely apt that we were staying on the Goulding’s RV park. Harry Goulding had moved to Monument with his new wife Leone—he called her “Mike” because, when he wrote her love letters before they were married, he had difficulty spelling her name. They set-up a trading post and began their long relationship with the local Navajo. Then the Great Depression hit and forced a lot of Goulding’s suppliers out of business. He heard that film director John Ford was looking for a location for a new Western movie,....probably Flagstaff, so taking his last $60 Goulding set off to Hollywood with "Mike"to regale John Ford about the suitability of Monument Valley for his new film. Miraculously,(he only had to take out his sleeping bag and threaten to sleep outside the Director's door until he was able to see him), he got a meeting with Ford, and 10 days later they were on set in Monument Valley making the film “Stagecoach”. The rest is history!

Monument Valley is located on the Utah / Arizona State borders and is set in the Navajo land. Whilst there is a loop road that goes around the valley, it is a dirt track and we decided not to risk our old lady of a Jeep on it. Instead we booked ourselves on a 3 ½ hour tour. Our chariot was an open backed 4 wheel drive truck; we were sitting in the back of the truck bed on some very uncomfortable seats. As we were boarding the skies looked very threatening and there were even a couple of claps of thunder. Undeterred we head for our first stop, a Hogan, along with our fellow travellers, two grandparents and their grandchild from the Netherlands, a German couple and two couples from the US. The Hogan is the traditional dwelling of the Navajo Indians, they are round buildings with a wooden frame structure and covered in mud. This works in the dry deserts of Arizona but would not be suitable for damper climates like the Northwest of the USA or the UK. Waiting inside the Hogan was a Navajo lady who was demonstrating weaving and other crafts, which we watch for several minutes. She demonstrates the traditional method of tying the Navajo ladies long hair in bun on a young lady from New York with greasy hair!Not Emily...just a very embarrassed young woman who got roped in! It is then time for the main event, a tour of Monument Valley. It’s one of those all so familiar places, with its' buttes, mesas and open plains. We soon leave the paved highway and head onto the loop around the valley, stopping frequently for photo opportunities. Luckily the weather has brightened up and the sun pokes out its head; the combination of sun and dark clouds sets up some dramatic scenes for the camera. One of our favourite places is called John Ford Lookout, which is up high on the rocks with a classic view down into the valley. A local Navajo kindly rides on horse onto an outcrop which gives us yet another photo opportunity.

Shortly after this our driver takes us off the loop road into areas where special permission is required to visit. Here we are up in the spectacular canyons of the backcountry. Amongst these canyons are wonderfully sculptured arches carved out of the Navajo sandstone by the rain, ice and wind, ruins of buildings constructed hundreds of years ago by the Anasazi and examples of rock art. Jack and Emily particularly like the huge sand dunes which they enthusiastically climb and roll and run down. The route is not as well trodden as the main loop road so there are more bumps, which just adds to the experience. As the truck is open to the elements we are soon coated with a fine layer of sand and dust. Finally the weather begins to co-operate and we are treated to the wonderful spectacle of the Monument Valley’s back country illuminated by the soft early evening sun.

As with all good things our tour came to an end and we returned to the Goulding’s campsite. Several evenings during the week they show John Wayne movies – and tonight it was the classic film “The Searchers”, where Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) and Martin Pawley (Jeffrey Hunter) spend years hunting down the Comanche Chief Chief Cicatrice (Scar) who killed their family and abducted Edwards’ neice. As with many such westerns the plot was questionable and the several scenes were politically incorrect, but it was a good old story and it was wonderful to see many of the areas of Monument Valley we had visited earlier today.The children are now addicts too!