Good Bye Mary Ellen

   I took Mary to the airport early this morning. Her flight home went smoothly, connecting in Dallas. I'll miss her company on my trip back.

   After I dropped Mary off, I drove south to pick up the ferry to Victoria on Vancouver Island. I've always liked ferries and this was a nice 90 minute ride. I'm guessing there weren't many Pa plates on the car decks.

   In town I had lunch at the harbor and toured the Maritime Museum. I was tired and decided to spend the night and head north up the island on Monday.

   I always thought the coasts would be more interesting than mid continent so I'll take an extra 2 days and see more of the Pacific before turning east for home.

  

Leaving Whistler

   It was a great week with our old shipmates. Forty years later we could feel again what made these people such dear friends.

   We took a last walk through Whistler Village after breakfast then headed south again on Rt 99 to Vancouver. Mary has an early flight on Sunday so we'll be having an early wakeup.

   On the trip south I got a good look at some of the road signs. Kinda like in Ireland where the town names are shown both in English and Gaelic, signs here are posted in English and Native American.

   The Gaelic names look very hard to pronounce but the Native Anerican names are impossible. Not only are there letters in their names but punctuation marks seem to mean something. One name even had the number 7 in the middle of unpronounceable letters. 

   Early to bed for us, enjoy your Sunday!

Mountain Golf

  After the rafting and gondola adventures we settled in for a couple of days golfing. We played two courses in the village, Whistler and the Fairmont Chateau courses. Both were hilly and had great mountain views. 

   Course wildlife include some black and brown bears; the course rangers kept eyes out while we played and only had to warn us once. They standby with airhorns and more to keep them away from the golfers. Luckily we never crossed paths. 

   The shipmates have taken turns hosting everyone for dinners; we had Wednesday night and shared with Trudy and Al Taylor. We hosted at the Dublin Inn, a pub that was built in Ireland and shipped piece by piece to Whistler. It was a fun night and Mary found out the manager Evan was from a small town in Donegal Ireland that she knows well.

   Next week I can come off of the all beer  diet I seem to be on for now.  

Exploring Whistler

   We slept in a bit on Sunday morning after our 1:00 am night before. After unpacking we took a walk in the village before the rest of our group arrived. Whistler was the sight for the mountain sports for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. There were crowds of people and the village is thriving long after the games were over.

   We met everyone on Sunday night for dinner and drinks. Activities for Monday included white water rafting complete with wet suits for the very cold Green River. I'm glad I didn't bring my camera or glasses as we got bumped around and very wet. Mary did well staying in the boat for the whole trip.

   Tuesday we all took the ski lifts to 6,000 ft on Whistler Mountain. From there was a peak to peak gondola ride to Blackcomb Mountain, a mile and a half long span. We then took another lift up to 7,200 ft where we walked through snow to have lunch at the top. The views were wonderful with snow capped peaks covering the whole horizon. On the way down we passed right over a black bear eating the local greenery.

   The day was great and we came home to do some food shopping before heading out for a group dinner.

Arrived !

   I woke up Saturday morning and wasn't in a hurry, with only 200 miles to Whistler it looked like an easy drive. I wasn't sure why the car GPS said 4.5 hours for such a short distance.

   The road from Kamloops to Whistler starts out on the smooth TCH then turns south on the very scenic BC Rt. 99, a much narrower road up through mountains. Some of the bridges were single lanes made of wood.

   Scenery was so good I had to make stops for pictures, the road was all up and down, sometimes turning completely around as it climbed up and over from sea level to 5,000 ft and back down.

   I made it to Whistler in a little over 5 hours and met Rob's daughter Leslie who checked us in at the lodge condo. I left around 7:00 pm to pickup Mary at Vancouver airport. The road is called the Sea to Sky Highway was was another really pretty ride. Mary raved about it on the way back north, and it was even dark. It was a late finish, getting finally settled at 1:00 am.

    

British Columbia

   I drove about 500 miles on Friday but it seemed like a lot more. I stopped at Lake Louise for lunch and a walk around. The clouds were high enough so visibility was good; the lake is about 6,000 ft up in the mountains and the water was even bluer than the picture.

   I was a little nervous about crossing the Rockies but it was no problem, the TCH road was in great shape. I drove a bit on the slow and cautious side, there were lots of curvy spots and again great scenery.

   I crossed into British Columbia and changed time zones again; the mountains got gradually smaller and covered with pines instead if snow. I broke for the night in Kamloops, about  4 hours left to Whistler. I'll be happy to see Mary tonight, she gets into Vancouver about 9:30. It'll be great to spend a week somewhere else than behind the steering wheel.

Banff

  I woke up this morning, peeked outside and it was clear. So I had a quick breakfast and went for a walkabout to take some pictures. It was great to see the mountains instead of just low clouds.

   Banff is about 5,000 ft in altitude but the surrounding mountains are about 10,000 ft.

   The town with all it's hotels is booked for the weekend so I'll take off towards Whistler and stop for an early dinner at Lake Louise about 50 miles up the road.

   I'll do my first fill up of Canadian diesel and the pump says $1.32 … now some quick mental math converting Canadian dollars per liter to US dollars per gallon. Geez I just ran out of fingers.

Glacier National Park and Banff, Alberta

   I traveled fewer than 500 miles today but I got to see a bit of mountain scenery.  The drive from Havre to Glacier was about 160 miles and pretty easy. The mountains in the park can be seen from 50 miles away and they looked very different from my last visit in Sept 2011. This time they were snow covered.

   When I entered the park the ranger told me the park was open but the only road through was still closed from winter. Crews have been clearing snow from the "Going to the Sun" road for weeks but it'll not open till the end of June. There was even a foot of snow that fell last night.

   Since I couldn't make it through the park to Whitefish MN , I decided to detour north on Rt 89 to the border. I crossed at a sleepy border crossing with no wait, and found myself on Alberta Rt-2 on the way to Calgary. It was a huge city once I got close enough to see. I thought about spending the night there but I decided to jump on the Trans Canadian Highway (TCH) toward Banff, about 85 miles further.

   The clouds were all above the mountain tops in the Banff National Park and there were steep cliffs towering over every side of the road. The last time I was nearby I couldn't see anything but low clouds, now without the cloud cover I understand why people rave on about the Canadian Rockies.

   I got a room for the night in Banff but the hotel is full for the weekend so I'll have to find somewhere else to stay on Friday night. Two more days until I pickup Mary at the Vancouver airport to meet my shipmates in Whistler.

Fargo to Havre, Montana

   I got off the road late last night, so I waited until this morning (Thursday) to post…

   I got some road advice from a nice fellow, Alex the Applebee's waiter in Fargo. I decided to leave the freeway so I drove north along the Red River to Grand Forks, ND. Here I turned west on US-2 where it is an 800 mile straight shot to Glacier National Park in western Montana.

   The road was great, was 70 mph most of the way and I got to see the countryside a little closer up. It was farmland, cow and horse pastures and prairie with occasional small towns. I stopped for a quick pic in a place calling itself the geographic center of North America, lucky for me the monument wasn't even crowded for my photo opportunity.

   I drove through Minot, (pronounced like My Knot) where I was looking out for an ICBM base guarding our northern border. I didn't see any sign of it, but I guess that's the way it's supposed to be. After Minot I began to see some of the oilfield activity that made North Dakota a bigger oil producer than Alaska. By the time I got to Williston in western Dakota it was like Chicago city traffic only with huge trucks instead of cars.

   Crossing into Montana I had passed some bad storms to my south (thanks Becky and Bruce for the heads up). US-2 ran parallel to the intercontinental railroad and Missouri River that Lewis and Clark explored. The road is about 60 miles south of the Canadian border and all was quiet again until I stopped for the night in Havre, Montana. No relation to Brett Favre from what I hear.

   Today is Glacier National Park, 160 miles ahead. Have a great day  !

Chicago to Fargo

   My plan for the day changed pretty quick when I got stuck in downtown Chicago traffic. I had the idea of a scenic drive up the western shore of Lake Michigan, but after 2 hours and not even making it to Milwaukee I knew I would waste the whole day if I tried to make it up to Green Bay. I gave up and headed northwest through Wisconsin toward Minneapolis.

   There weren't any good pictures again today with 675 miles of highway covered. There was a lonely country crossroad near Milwaukee where the sign said 76th St. Since there was nothing in sight nearby it made me wonder where the other 75 streets were.

   There are county roads in Wisconsin that have letters instead of numbers; I was on a Highway "C" and "UU". I passed a Highway  "X" and wondered if it went maybe to Rozwell.

   I stopped for lunch next to a cheese souvenir shop then made it across Minnesota to Fargo ND to spend the night. I crossed the Red River into North Dakota around 9:00 pm and the sun was still shining.

Underway

   I got up a bit early today to start out on a positive note; Mary's breakfast was the perfect send off. Toby came out to wish me a good trip too.

   I took the Pa Turnpike to the west end and merged into I-80 W in Ohio. Traffic and the roads were better than I expected and I managed to make it all the way to Chicago by dinnertime. No surprise there wasn't any scenery to admire from today so I don't have any along the road pictures to share.

   Dinner tonight was at a Fridays and included a local lager called Goose Island Honker Ale.

   Tomorrow I'll drive north along Lake Michigan toward Green Bay. From there I'll veer west through Minnesota and see if I can make it to North Dakota.

Packed and ready

   Packing is different when there's a whole car's worth of space. When I'm living out of one suitcase for a week or two, I know what to bring. This trip will have summertime driving, mountain golf, hiking and rafting all followed by a couple of nice restautants afterward for dinner. I decided to use my Conectiv black hole bag that my work-friend George gave me. 

    I leave in the morning after a very fun Fathers Day weekend; the first day of driving will probably be the least interesting. I'll head for Chicago and see how far I get on the busy roads. The days after will be better driving through Wisconsin, Minnesota and North Dakota. 

   My car is well equipped with entertainment: satellite and internet radio, iPod, podcasts, and an audio book. Lots to choose from. I'll have my cell phone if anyone wants to chat or text.

   I'll try to post daily to my travel blog but I still haven't figured out how to do comments; you may have to join Google+ to send comments. It might be easier to just email or text if you care to, so feel free which ever is easiest. 

   I'll miss my family and friends for the weeks that I'm away, but it'll be an adventure. Have a good week …

Reunion Trip

 

  I got a call from the past a couple of months ago. Rob Panowicz, my roommate aboard my first ship USS Sumter said he was organizing a reunion of the wardroom. He and Kevin Cummings were making calls to see who was available to come for a week in Whistler, BC Canada . 

   Rob and his wife Linda are graciously hosting us at the ski resort outside of Vancouver for the week of June 22nd.  Most of the 13 guys and their wives can come and it'll be the first time I'll see most of them since I left the Sumter in June of 1971. This was a special group of guys and I really enjoyed working and living with them all when I was first in the navy.

   I have some open weeks in my busy golf schedule so I decided to use this opportunity to drive cross country, something I really will enjoy. I am planning my route now and Mary will fly to and from Vancouver to meet me for the week.

Mary was close with the wives too and it'll be so interesting to hear stories about how we've spent our lives since we last saw one another.

   I'm on a 6 day schedule for my trip west but I have more time for the return and I'll try to see Canada for the drive home.

  The last few days I've been planning my route and digging old travel books out of the basement. Next week I'll look for old pictures and repack. It's getting close now and I'm excited. I'm planning on shoving off on Monday June 16.

   More along the way …

Amsterdam, last day

   Today we made our way to the Rijks Museum by trolley. We took the Number 9, but it wasn't the line that got the closest, so we had a bit of a walk. It was a nice day and it was pretty around the outer canal rings so we enjoyed the walking just the same.

   We had lunch in the museum restaurant before we looked at the collection. The Dutch Masters were there as well as a couple of Van Gogh's and I really liked a carved statue called "Two Mothers".

   We had dinner at a canal side Dutch restaurant and our meals were the best we had in the city.

   We leave for the airport at 10:00 tomorrow and the whole trip has been great. Ted and Theresa are great traveling companions, having them with us made our trip especially nice.

Amsterdam - Day 2

   Sunday evening we found an Argentine restaurant on a narrow street. The place has a very small kitchen but served good steaks. The Latin music seemed a little strange to me, but we all enjoyed the meal. The night was cool and comfortable as we walked back to our hotel.

   Blog notes …

This was my first trip doing the travel blog using just my I-phone. The old way was to shoot my pics, copy them to my laptop, upload the pics I want to the blog and add the narrative.

The new process works using the Google Blogger app on my phone. I take my blog pics with my phone camera and app lets me upload pics and add a narrative just as easy as sending a text message with a picture attached. 

I was worried the pictures wouldn't look as good as my regular camera but I've been happy with them. I haven't figured out how to view and post any comments I may have gotten, but I'll use my laptop next week and upload any when I get home.

One more day left in Amsterdam but in less than 3 weeks I'll start my Canada trek to meet my old shipmates in Whistler, B. C. I hope to post during my cross country drive.

Thanks for following along with me.

   

Amsterdam Weekend

   When we booked our  Amsterdam hotel a few months ago we felt good about getting a place close to where the ship docked. It is also close to the Central Train Station and Dam Square and on a spring weekend the streets are really busy. Amsterdam seems to be party central with thousands of young people roaming the narrow streets. 

   We made an easy ship to shore transfer, dropped off our bags at our hotel and went off to explore the city. We came back in the afternoon to check in; the rooms were small but with a comfortable bed. 

   For dinner we walked passed the Ann Frank House and found a quiet pub with good food and a friendly house cat named Antonio. We walked home through the crowds but without trouble, once we got better at dodging the bikes and motor bikes that seem to come from everywhere.

   Sunday morning was a much more pleasant walk to breakfast and afterward we hopped a tour bus to the Van Gogh museum. The lines were long to get in but moved along reasonably well and we loved the museum. 

   We still have Sunday night and Monday in the city before our flights home on Tuesday. We're having a great time but are missing everyone at home too.