Great Western Trip 1988 Part 2 - Santa Cruz to Ajax

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Sunday July 31st, 1988     DAY 22 

Note:  Campsites are marked with the tent icon:

 

We're at the Watsonville KOA camp almost twelve miles south of Santa Cruz.  This camp is stretched to the limits.  Our campsite is smaller than our hotel room.  We went to the San Francisco Zoo this morning and were quite impressed.  The primate section in particular is very good.

The zoo had an excellent children's section and a big carousel.   

We drove down the coastal highway with spectacular views.  We went to this camp as our second choice, the state park being full.

Monday August 1st, 1988  DAY 23

 

In the KOA at San Juan Bautista, southeast of Santa Cruz.  We've moved inland by necessity rather than by choice, since camping on the coast is impossible to find.  This is a better KOA than we were in last night:  roomy sites and we are on the outer rim and therefore have no one behind us.  We checked out a few state parks on the coast for camping, but to no avail.

We reached this site around lunch time, did some shopping and then drove down to the seashore.  We did some wading, but no swimming, though the water is not as cold as I thought it would be.

There were some hardy souls in swimming or rather surf jumping.  A few people were attempting to surf, but without much success.

Tomorrow, we plan to head south and explore the Monterey area.  Today we were at Sunset State Beach and it wasn't crowded at all. 

Anna's opening gambit with the neighbors tonight was:  "Hi, I'm your new neighbor and I've got a lot of questions for you."

Tuesday August 2nd, 1988  DAY 24

Camped at the same place, campsite 21 as a matter of fact.  We went into Monterey today, saw the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which is quite spectacular, and walked the waterfront.

 

The aquarium is sort of like the zoo of aquariums, a large scale attempt to to give marine life a natural habitat and at the same time give excellent viewing for visitors.

Towards suppertime, we found a nice little beach in town where we paddled about -- the water was still too cold for any but the hardiest swimmers.

I hadn't realized that Monterey Bay was such a haven for marine life.

Tomorrow we hope to get to Carmel.  There was a good looking used bookstore in Monterey.  I wouldn't mind browsing if we get a chance.

The highlight of the aquarium for me was probably the sea otter area.  They are marvelous to watch in the water, and their area was about two stories high, so they had lots of room for the aquabatics.  Anna seemed to find them more interesting than anything else, except perhaps the film on whales in the movies, which detailed how the Hollywood image of whales has changed from old Lionel Barrymore films to Star Trek IV.  There was a funny Disney cartoon about a whale who sang opera at the Met.

Anna made a friend at the camp playground and they played very well together.

Wednesday August 3rd, 1988   DAY 25

We drove into Carmel today where we walked the main street, looking in shops, having coffee, and watching for Clint Eastwood.  We went to the Carmel Beach which is excellent, with the highest surf we've encountered yet.

After Carmel, we drove down to Big Sur which is quite a hair-raising drive on a road cut out of the mountainside.  The point where we turned around to come back happened by pure accident to be the Henry Miller Memorial Library.  I walked up the driveway, read some press notices up on the wall and saw Emil White inside reading.  Bure there was no door that I could find.  In retrospect I think it must have been a sliding glass door.  There was no one else around, and since it was getting late in the day, I didn't knock or go in.  I didn't actually see any library.  But at least I'm glad to have strolled the area.  I don't think I would have had much to say to Emil anyway.

Just after seeing Carmel we did the scenic 17 mile Carmel drive around the coast area, among the mansions. 

Anna made quite good friends with a girl her age from near Palm Springs, who is also staying at the camp.

I think it an omen that our turning point was at the Henry Miller place.  I think reading the Tropic of Cancer was a turning point in my reading.  A good writer can transmute his experience into something magical and imperishable. 

Tomorrow we leave this campsite and head north.

 

Thursday August 4th, 1988  DAY 26 

We are camped at the Gualala Campground up the coast, a day's drive from San Francisco.  

 

 

Still haunted by Big Sur which shudders in the mind like a great, shaggy green giant on the verge of waking.

This campsite is surrounded by huge trees and lush jungle-like undergrowth.  The trees aren't redwoods, I believe, but some close relative.

Anna had to say goodbye to her good friend Amy today, but we have her address so that Anna can send her a post card.  

Today's drive was up the coast (sometimes too close for comfort) and uses any excuse to twist and turn and climb any available mountain, through a series of switchbacks.  It was hard driving, but the spectacular coastal scenery was well worth the trouble, and we are in no hurry.  No one could make time on this road.

We had a splendid dinner at a restaurant in the town of Gualala.  This restaurant was right at the mouth of the river that runs through the campground.  We had a table with a view of the river mouth and the Pacific Ocean.  Anna behaved very well through dinner.  Chris had shrimp and I had sea food linguini with spinach noodles...delicious!  A bottle of fine white California wine.

Tomorrow we plan to continue meandering up the coast on Highway 1.

Friday August 5th, 1988  DAY 27

Camped at Westport, just north of Fort Bragg on the north California coast.

We had a good, leisurely day.  In the morning we visited the historic Port Arena lighthouse which Anna seemed to enjoy a lot  She walked up all 145 steps of the spiral staircase to the top.   There is a lighthouse in Pete's Dragon, which is one of her favorite movie/stories.

 

 

In the afternoon, we took the Skunk Train in Fort Bragg east through the redwoods to Northspur and back.  

It was a good trip, perhaps over long for Anna, but she seemed to enjoy her first ride on a real train.  There was an open observation flat car which was fun to ride on.

There was a long tunnel that was ultimate darkness -- a darkness denser than the most moonless, starless night.

Tonight we are camped on the shore and were able to let Bonnie go for a dip.  Her high pitched bark of excitement seemed to attract some seals in towards land.  We saw their heads bobbing in the surf.

We had a seafood feast for dinner:  fresh scallops and white California wine.

Saturday August 6th, 1988  DAY 28

We are camped at the KOA in Eureka, California.

This morning, we began driving through the heart of giant redwood country.  We visited the "tree house" which was a largish room in the hollow trunk of a redwood.  For some reason I thought it would be above ground level, but it wasn't. 

We drove down the Avenue of Giants, had brunch at the Miranda Cafe in Miranda and ended up here in the afternoon where we proceeded to clean EVERYTHING.  I did the trunk while Chris did the laundry and the dishes.  Tomorrow morning I take an overdue shower.

Shortly after our clean-up was completed, an elderly lady from the trailer across the road came over to introduce her little black chihuahua to Bonnie.  The contrast in sizes was more than a little amusing.  The lady informed me that her husband had cancer and was in the local hospital for an operation with little home for long term recovery.  She said she was the daughter of a five star general and had lived all over the world including Toronto.  She said she was living at Pearl Harbor during the attack and was whisked away because of her father's rank.  She said she had a good education and was both a registered nurse and a doctor.  She said she loved her husband but had married to get away from her father who was divorced from her mother when she was quite young.  She brought over some tinned, smoked salmon that she said she had done herself and she also brought over some toy trucks for Anna.

She said that somehow it was God's will that she approach us.  She said she wanted to leave Anna a trust fund of over one and a half million dollars so that she could receive the best education possible, and not necessarily at a religious institution.  She wanted to be Anna's adopted grandmother.

Not to appear totally incredulous we gave her our address so that her lawyer could contact us.  She said she had inherited 250 million and that her husband had won 25 million in the California State Lottery.  She said she had had brain cancer herself but had survived thanks to her faith in God.

She came over to visit us enough times to be rated a nuisance.  But we tried to be polite and not rude.  Hopefully she won't be back tonight.  It is possible she will see me here and come over to talk, but I hope not.

Tomorrow we plan to continue our amble up the coast.

As far as this lady is concerned, it is difficult to know what to believe.  At first, I thought it was probably true that she was an intelligent, educated woman who had been somewhat mentally incapacitated by brain surgery, but after more of her visits, I began to doubt it.

We were a bit fearful when Anna went over to visit her in her trailer and didn't let that visit exceed a few minutes.  I had visions of the five star general's  gun collection or worse.

Sunday August 7th, 1988  DAY 29

We are camped at Humbug Mountain State Park on the Oregon coast just south  of Port Oxford.  We are within walking distance of the coast.

 

Photo from the Humbug State Park website

 

 

Very  long kelp skipping rope!

This morning we departed early with a last gift of a little wallet holding four dollars from the old lady.  She said that she was going to be met at the camp by relatives, which was heartening, since it must be hard to be on your own when your husband is critically ill in hospital in a strange town.  She also can drive, so she can get to the hospital to see him.

We went to the Sequoia Park and Zoo in Eureka in the morning.  It has a splendid playground for children, with a tree house and slides built into an old redwood.

From the Sequoia Park Facebook Page

As well, it has a drinking fountain shaped like a lion with a gaping mouth, a train-like play apparatus with wheels made from those giant wooden wire spools -- very inventive.

   

There were also animal swings that kids Anna's age can get going themselves.

We met a young Scots couple there with their two year old.  The wife was in the navy.  She monitors Soviet submarines off the coast.  They just moved to Eureka from the East Coast.  The husband is a plumber looking for work.  They have an apartment with a backyard in Fortuna.

The zoo was small but well set up.  Unfortunately, the petting zoo was not open until later in the day.  Anna bought a polar bear nose mask at the gift shop.

We arrived in this campsite in the afternoon, early enough to get a site with electricity, the last one available.

We had great panoramas of the Oregon coast in the dirve up and in the late afternoon we got a chance to walk into one of these panoramas near our campsite.

The sky was clear but the wind was blowing strong, driving the ocean up into a high surf that crashed wildly on the desolate beach with not a soul in swimming or even wading.  Bonnie was the only one to brave a swim and even she found the surf quite daunting.  She did less wave biting than usual.

Had a good spaghetti dinner at our campsite.

I caught a small garter snake near the shore and let Anna hold it.  She was desperate to keep it as a pet, but I convinced her that its parents would be worried about it.

 Monday August 8th, 1988  DAY 30

Camped at Carl G. Washburne State Park on the coast north of Florence, Oregon.

 This morning we went to the Safari Park which has a petting zoo with many voracious deer and goats.  

 

We drove on up the coast into the sand dunes and arrived here in late afternoon.  We set up camp then walked the half mile out to the coast.  The sea raged, the wind whipped the sand into a frenzy and there wasn't a soul in sight for miles.

Picture from the Washburne State Park Website

  Before the sand dunes there was a warren of bushes where you could go to find shelter from the wind and sand.
 

Hobbit Trail at Washburne Sate Park - Zach Urness / Statesman Journal

I was imagining these bushes mobbed with huddled beach goers.

Tonight we had the salmon for dinner that the old lady in Eureka gave us and it was first class.  We had a feast.

It was very windy at our campsite when we arrived, but it has died down considerably, so that I am able to sit outside in comfort.  It doesn't feel as cold as last night.  I am sleeping in the tent tonight by myself since I need some relief from the claustrophobia of the upper bunk in the van.  Chris won't even sleep up there at all.  Anna sleeps up there occasionally.

Tuesday August 9th, 1988  DAY 31

Same place.  The wind is light, the wind sock refuses to rise, and just did to prove me wrong!

But it is not windy at the moment compared to how it often is here.

This morning we went to the Sea Lion Caves just south of here.

You can see the sea lions first from a lookout point.  They are down there lounging on the beach, snorting, coughing and growling -- and the sight reminded me strongly of some public beaches down in California.  

You then take an elevator down about 200 feet into a cave where the sea lions live.  It is a spectacular sight to see them down in that great, hollow, echoing cavern with the surf crashing in and flashes of the sun.  The website gives you a splendid...

                              720° View of the Sea Lion Cave

 The  Sea Lion Cave is well set up with some sea lion displays, but no excessive commercialization.  Because of the bars you watch them through, it came out later that Anna thought they were in jail!

From there we drove north and did a nature trail along part of the coast and saw a surf geyser that was quite impressive:

We did some shopping in craft stores after that, first eating a hearty lunch in a restaurant.  On the way back here we stopped at another lighthouse, but this one was closed to the public.

This evening, Anna found some kids to play with at the giant sandbox here in the campground, but got somewhat overexcited.

The wind provided us with a great game over in the meadow before supper.  We had a small plastic bag and let the wind catch it.  Then Anna and I would run after and try to get it.

Wednesday August 10th, 1988   DAY 32

Camped at Nehalem Bay State Park on the Oregon coast.

We are closer to the ocean tonight but the wind is not as strong.  Our campsite looks out on the playground across the road, which a good place for Anna watching.

We did some shopping today in Salishan and I bought three books:

1.  Shakespeare Alive! by Joseph Papp and Elizabeth Kirkland

2.  Pathfinder by James Fenimore Cooper

3.  The Mind's New Science by Howard Gardner

I bought these books in a store called Allegory Books and Gifts which is a store after my own heart.  I'd been wanting to round out my Natty Bumppo collection for some time.

We bought a landscape abstract for the living room and some golf glasses for my dad.  Anna also got a book.

 

We had an excellent lunch there with some Chablis to wash it down.

Anna had a good play in the playground here and we all went down to the ocean before supper.  Bonnie had her usual tussle with the waves.
 

 Thursday August 11th, 1988   DAY 33

Camped a little further up the coast, loath to begin saying farewell to the Pacific.   We are at the mouth of the mighty Columbia River tonight at Fort Stevens State Park.

We rested up this afternoon, reading and napping.  In the late afternoon, we went to see the reconstruction of Fort Clatsop, the westward terminus of the Lewis and Clarke Expedition.

It was a well done reconstruction and even Anna found it interesting, since it was designed to be climbed all over.  I am inspired to read more about the Lewis and Clarke Expedition.

This evening we had a dinner of mini scallops, noodles and beans.  After supper, Anna and I went off through the woods behind our tent, following the sound of children's voices, and found a full fledged kids playground.  Anna played here until a little bull dog (being dragged about the playground and half tortured by a little girl) finally drove us out.  I should have told the girl to get the dog off the playground, but Anna was so hysterical I thought it best to just leave as she wished.

Friday August 12th, 1988  DAY 34

Omitted yesterday morning's "one damn thing after another" interlude.  At a gas stop we found that Bonnie had quite discretely pooped on the floor of the van.  We drove a little further up the coast to a desolate stretch of beach.

I let Bonnie go when still in the dunes, before a full view of the beach (since she was covered in poop from sitting in it) only to find that a group of horses and riders were trooping by.  I have never run so fast across sand (and running in sand always has that nightmarish sense of going nowhere) yelling, "Bonnie!" as loud as I could.  

Fortunately this horse group had a dog with them which distracted Bonnie just long enough for me to catch up with her.  We sent her into the surf for a bath and scrubbed out the van.  What a mess!

Tonight we are camped for the first of three nights at the Port Angeles KOA in Washington State, just outside of town.

We stopped for lunch in the rainforest, but wouldn't you know it, the sun was shining brightly and there was no rain in sight.  We walked a short nature trail of huge, moss covered trees.  It was worth the 18 mile detour.

We rolled into here around supper time, had a few beers and went back into town to a pizza and pasta joint we had spotted on the way in.  The pasta was homemade and we had a good feed.

Saturday August 13th, 1988  DAY 35

Camped at the same site.  This morning we went to visit the Olympia Game Farm which was quite good.  More grizzlies than I've ever seen in one place.  The size of the large ones is positively alarming.  It must be terrifying to come across one in the wild.

Picture from the Olympia Game Farm website

In the afternoon we drove over to the town of Port Townsend which is renowned for its Victorian houses.

Picture from the Port Townsend website

We browsed around downtown for quite a while, unfortunately I found the used book stores (of which there are several) too late to take proper advantage of them I resisted buying Foster Damon`s Blake Dictionary for $25.  I bought:

1.  The House on the Strand - Daphne du Maurier

2.  Poetry and Repression - Harold Bloom

3.  The Shape of Chaos - David Hesla 

The last is a study of Beckett which I recall being recommended by Vivian Mercier as a good examination of Beckett`s work from the standpoint of the history of ideas.

We ate at a good restaurant on the way home and Anna behaved very well.

Sunday August 14th, 1988  DAY 36

Camped at the same site.  This morning we drove over to the Olympic Hot Springs and relaxed in the hundred degree water.  Anna was not too impressed.  She said she didn`t like the smell.

Robert Ashworth from Bellingham, WA., USA - Olympic Hot Spring

We had lunch there then drove up to Hurricane Ridge which was spectacular. 

Dllu, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

There were many deer up there, so tame you could almost touch them.  Anna did a good job climbing up the steep nature trails, then decided she had to poop and was accommodated behind a clump of trees.

We had supper at Skipper`s Chowder House then went across the street to McDonalds where Anna had a play in the playground and some chicken mcnuggets while we drank coffee and walked Bonnie.

Tomorrow we drive hard across the state of Washington.

Monday August 15th, 1988   DAY 37

Camped at the KOA in Vantage, 25 miles east of Ellensburg, Washington.

 This was a hard driving day, and we passed the 6,000 mile mark.  We were going to stay in a motel tonight, but forsook the plan in favor of a convenient KOA.  The only thing wrong is that there is a very strong wind blowing through this area and it shows no signs of fading.  If anything, it is worse now than when we arrived.  It sways the whole van and has blown away at least three tents.  I know of only two tents that are still standing, and both are low, circular dome tents.  We have watched a few groups come in and try in vain to pitch their tents.  There is no way.  The traffic around Seattle was a royal pain.

Anna met the Hamburglar at the Olympia McDonalds and was so thrilled she forgot to play in the playground.

This is not the sort of place one would like to be marooned.  Chris bought a newspaper, set it down on the picnic table under a gallon of wine and they both blew away!  Fortunately the wine bottle didn`t break.  The newspaper disappeared without a trace.

 

Tuesday August 16th, 1988  DAY 38

We are camped on a hill side overlooking Lake Flathead (named for the Flathead Indians) and the the town of Polson in Montana. 

When we rolled in, we thought we were headed for the same windy desolation as last night, but the air is still and the view is quite beautiful.  There is a small mountain range beyond the lake.  This is a new state of the art KOA camp with Hilton quality showers and washrooms.  Unfortunately, neither the pool nor the playground has been completed.

This was a hard driving day, but the driving went quite smoothly.  Anna was watching the Coke man filling the machine at a rest site and he gave her an orange pop on the house.  This thrilled her no end.

Here at the KOA she was able to go inside one of the "Kamping Kabins" which hold a double bed and a two kid bunk.

There is a small airstrip at the bottom of the hill, between the camp and the town.  A few planes took off and landed over the course of the evening. 

But the hit of the evening was the aerobatics of a remote controlled model airplane.  We watched it through the binoculars while getting supper ready.  The model was about four or five feet long and took off and landed on the airstrip.  I was amazed at the altitude it reached.

Tomorrow we drive into and around Glacier National Park.

Anna made friends with a university aged girl from Edmonton, camping here with her parents.  She said that Anna reminded her of herself at that age and even looked like her pictures.  This friendship was fortuitous since Anna was at loose ends with no playground or pool or other kids.  There are not too many people staying here tonight, probably because the park is so new.

Wednesday August 17th, 1988   DAY 39

Camped at the KOA just south of Babb, Montana on the eastern border of Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park. 

 

We cross the border tomorrow and it will be good to be home in Canada.

Been seeing more wildlife lately.  The day before yesterday, I saw a young coyote standing by the roadside.  This evening Anna and I went for a stroll along the lakeshore here and saw a family of ducks, two herons and two beavers as well as numerous tiny frogs.

We drove through the park today on some spectacular mountain roads, and walked up over the timberline.

There seems to be less of that macabre touch we noticed the last time we were in Montana, namely the small, hand size white crosses standing on poles by the roadside marking the sites of traffic fatalities.  We saw a cluster at a railroad overpass and a few old ones her and there, but not the number we saw when we drove through northern Montana on the way back from Alaska.

It was fairly windy when we got to this campsite, but the wind died right down around supper time.  But the yellow jacket hornets made it too unpleasant to eat out of doors.  I'm surprised Bonnie didn't get a mouthful, considering the number that were buzzing around her food dish.

This KOA looks like one that got overextended then shrank in size.  There are some abandoned buildings by the lake, and the playground is in a swamp.

Thursday August 18th, 1988  DAY 40

Camped in Waterton Park in good old Canada.  

It's good to be home again.  We got here about lunch time and spent our time strolling about the town and relaxing.  It was very windy when we arrived, but the wind died down enough to set up the tent.  Hopefully it will not blow down in the night.  

We went to the local pool this afternoon and had an enjoyable swim -- though stepping out of the heated pool into the chill wind was bracing to say the least.

Chris phoned her Mum this evening and all is well at their end.

Tonight I walked over to the local movie theatre and saw the movie Big Business with Lily Tomlin and Bette Midler -- a kind of updated version of the Comedy of Errors or Plotinus if you want to go back that far.  It was funny through until the last quarter or so when it seemed to blur to an end.  I guess there is no way to completely unravel such a plot in a reasonable length of time.  Some of it was poor and slurred, but I laughed a good deal.

We plan to rest up a few days here before the long, hard drive home.

There were deer wandering though the camp when we arrived and later in the afternoon a big horned mountain sheep came through.  

Picture from the Waterton Park website

 

Bonnie studiously ignored the last mentioned until it was far enough away to be harmless, then she barked at it.

 Friday August 19th, 1988   DAY 41

Rested up today in the same place.  We did laundry and shopping in preparation for the trip home.

Anna was almost in hilarity heaven this afternoon as Ernie and Bert played soccer with an orange on the picnic table.

 

Even the lady from the campsite next door was cracking up.  It is satisfying to think one hasn't entirely lost one's sense of humor.

This evening we phoned my parents and found out that all was well there and that our house was still in one piece.

I went to the movies again tonight and saw John Cleese in A Fish Called Wanda.  It was bawdy and wacko, but good.  The theater had the reels in the wrong order but managed to correct their mistake after a five minute delay.

On the way back to the campsite I heard someone yelling that the ram had come into their tent.  That is the very dignified mountain sheep with the imposing antlers that struts about the camp getting handouts.

Tomorrow we start the hard drive home.

Saturday August 20th, 1988   DAY 42

Camped at Moosejaw at the private Prairie Oasis camp.  

 

They have indoor pools and an indoor waterslide here.  I went down the slide but couldn't coax Anna down.  We drove hard all day.  I am outside and it is starting to rain.

Now I am inside.  The tent blew down so I must sleep in the awkward, claustrophobic upper bunk in the van, but it is better than out in the elements.

You could write a great absurdist play about camping.  We were going to stay in a motel, but it was all booked up.  Tomorrow, we hope to make Winnipeg.  Saskatchewan seems to go on forever.  On the map it looks so thin.

The wind died down enough after supper that I decided to pitch the tent, but it came back with a vengence.  We are having a hard time adjusting to Canadian gasoline prices.  We seem to be spending half our time in gas stations.

Sunday August 21st, 1988  DAY 43

Camped out in a Journey's End Motel room in Winnipeg.  

 

We drove hard all day through raging wind and rain (at least towards the end of the day).

We reached here, rested up a bit and then went out to eat at a famed Mennonite restaurant, D'8 Schtove:

The fare was excellent.  I had a dish that was sort of flattened out perogies and Chris had chicken balls.  Their caesar salad was nothing to write home about.  After this meal, we went across the street to McDonalds as we had compromised with Anna.  The Macdonalds was unique in that it had a real caboose attached to it that was used as a party room.

Anna could look in this room, as there was no party in progress.  Now she has a rosy idea of what is inside a train caboose.

We got back to the motel around 9pm, watched a little TV including the National Sunday Report.

Bonnie is very restless, probably since she is now so used to sleeping out of doors.

Tomorrow we hope to reach Thunder Bay.  The end of the prairies will not be mourned!

 Monday, August 22, 1988  DAY 44

 

Didn't get too far today.  Just outside Dryden, the van began to jerk and finally stalled right out.  Fortunately, it started again and we hobbled into the nearest garage.  They thought it might be the gas filter, so we had that changed.  We left, but didn't even get a mile before the same stalling occurred.  We hobbled back to the garage and they replaced the fuel pump.  The van seems to be working like a charm now.  But after stopping at the McDonalds next door for Anna, we couldn't resist the Journey's End Motel in Dryden.  The weather was grey and rainy and didn't inspire us to camp.

We relaxed here and then went out to a pizza house and had a good pizza dinner.  We plan to get to Thunder Bay tomorrow, get a camping spot and see the fort.

The van has run like a charm and we can hardly blame it for needing some service after 6,000 miles.  Hopefully it will get us home now.

There was a burned out gas station restaurant next to the garage where our van was repaired.  Anna and I walked over to look at it.  As it turned out, according to the wife of the owner of the garage, the owners of the burned out restaurant had been charged and convicted of arson.

 Tuesday August 23, 1988   DAY 49

Camped at the KOA in Thunder Bay.  The road down here affords an excellent view of the Sleeping Giant.

Wikipedia:  Sleeping Giant Provincial Park, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada Author D. Gordon E. Robertson

When I exclaimed this on the way in, Anna inquired anxiously whether it was a friendly giant.

Chris felt pretty wrecked today, after two consecutive nights of poor motel sleep.  It is good to get back into the out of doors!

We did little today but drive here and rest up.  We hope to roll in Friday night and everyone will be glad to be home, even though it was been a great trip.

It will be interesting to tally up the number of nights we have KOA'd on this trip.

We almost ended up in a KOA "Kamping Kabin" tonight, since it was raining heavily when we rolled in here.  But by the time I had inquired about changing our site to a kabin, the sky had cleared and the sun was shining.  It reminded me of our last trip north of Lake Superior when we were staying in a provincial park on the coast and awoke to find the whole camp socked in by mist and cloud.  It looked like it was going to be a leaden day and we thought of hanging around our campsite all day.  A good thing we didn't.  A mile or so down the road there was clear blue sky!

My hat is home.  I bought it at an Ojibwa craft store on the north shore of Lake Superior.  

Tomorrow we plan to spend a few hours at the Fort William restoration then continue the long drive home.

Wednesday August 24th, 1988   DAY 46

 Camped at Neys Provincal Park on the north shore of Lake Superior about four hours from Thunder Bay.  I can hear the surf of Superior roaring behind me.

 

Picture from the Neys Provincal Park website

 We went into the wonderful Fort William Reconstruction this morning after an hour of wandering around Thunder Bay, more lost than one would believe is possible in a small city.

Picture Attribution: Cyberodin at Wikipedia

 

Watch the Hinge of an Empire documentary at the Fort William website.

We enjoyed the fort and Anna went on the kids tour, giving Chris and I an hour and a half to roam by ourselves.

The rest of the day was spent driving here.  Once here, we had a pleasant stroll on the beach and Bonnie went wave chasing.

Tomorrow we should get to the other side of Sault St Marie and be a day from home.  We hope to roll into our driveway sometime Friday evening.

The weather is still on our side.  It rained intermittently during the drive, but cleared when we reached here.  There was a shower last night after I had gone into the tent, and that pattern might repeat itself.  

Everybody but me seemed to sleep better last night than in the motels.  I slept about the same.  But it was good to get outside again.  The motel room felt confining after the open spaces we have been used to.

Thursday August 25th, 1988  DAY 47

Full moon rising.  After raining most of the day, the sky cleared and the wind fell when we arrived here at the KOA just west of Elliot Lake.

 

This is another overscaled KOA with about half the sites sinking slowly back into the wilderness.

We drove all day and had lunch at a roadside cafe.  When we got here, we rested up, cooked supper and had a stroll down to the river.  

Everyone will be glad to be home, though it might take time to adjust to the indoor life again. 

We drove through Lake Superior Provincial Park today and had a number of superb lake panoramas, bleak in rain and mist or shot with beams of rain soaked sun.

From the Lake Superior Provincial Park website

We passed the Ojibwa craft store where I bought my hat, as well as the town that advertised itself as the coldest spot in the country.

Friday August 26th, 1988   DAY 48

 

Home.  We rolled in in late afternoon.  The house is as we left it, with all the trees and plants enlarged and filled out as if by magic or by time.

The drive home was long but smooth.  Still wound up and feeling like I should be following the camping routine.

Can safely say now that it is over that it was a great trip with few hitches.   Anna is still in interactive storytelling mode.  As I was putting in the requested Pete's Dragon video tape, she piped up, "Remember I'm in this one!"  which is what she would say on the highway, when she wanted the upcoming story told in interactive mode.

Chris phoned her Mum and Gill phoned Chris a short time later and all is well on that side of the family.  We're going over to my parents on Sunday to see how things are there.

Anna's friend Catlin from next door dropped over shortly after we got home.  She seemed to think we would be gone much longer.

As we rolled into Ajax, the odometer went over the 9,000 mile mark, i.e. we drove about 9,000 miles on this trip.

It will be hard to stand still for a while!