Glacier National Park - Days 3 & 4

I’ve sort of lost the desire to post in detail... so this is just a laundry list reminder for me of what we did.

Day 3 - morning horseback riding. First time for Mike, Alex, Ben. Mike on Bonanza, Alex on Blue Goose, Ben on Cletus (oldest horse in the park - only works morning rides a couple days/week), me on Teton - big, stout, super sweet horse. He goes so very very slow - can’t be last or he’ll lag too far behind.

Afternoon hiking around Apgar, Lakd McDonald, drive our to Polebridge for hike and huckleberry bear claws at Polebridge Mercantile. Hike around meadow at Polebridge entrance to park.

Day 4 - drove out to East Glacier. Running Eagle falls, two medicine lake hike and boat ride to two medicine falls. Crazy weather. Warm and sunny to extremely windy and cold, rain/sleet mix.

Glacier National Park - Day 2

Day two in Glacier National Park started off with a half day white water rafting trip. When Mike booked the trip, we opted to go with the most adventuresome ride available that would a comodate the boys’ ages. That meant class 2 and 3 rapids. Shall we just cut to the chase, or drag along to the inevitable conclusion you surely have reached? We’re in the back boat of a group of 4 boats. Alex and Ben volunteered to be the lead paddlers, so they got the seats right in the front of the boat. Mike and I directly behind them. We floated lazily Ali g for a few miles, got all the safety instructions... how to stay in the boat, what to do if you fall out of the boat, what to do if the boat flips, etc. The first little baby rapid elicited a lot of smiles from the boys. The first class 2 rapid gave us all out giant grins and everyone is having a ton of fun. The water is a very cool 53 degrees or so. We’re all getting
splashed, cruising right along. We’re in a series of rapids and the left side of the boat where Alex and I are sitting is in the business side of these waters. We’re coming up on a pretty good rapid, and about halfway through it I look to the left and realize that the left side of the boat is heading directly down the side of this big rock. Which means the right side of the boat is leaning a little higher. We’re all paddling like crazy and just that fast I see Alex go in the water and then i’m In right after him. Turns out the girl behind me also went in the water. So here’s my take on what happened next... I’m bouncing around for a second and when I feel that i’m Right side up I open my eyes. Everything is dark, I put my hands up and i’m Under the boat. Hmmm. Not exactly where I want yo be. Thankfully I disn’t Panic, felt along the bottom of the boat in a controlled manner until I felt one hand come to the edge. I reached up and found the safety rope on the side of the boat and grab on. Mike grabs hold of my life vest and starts to haul me up. Problem was, I was still mostly under the boat, I had come out backwards. I waved him off, took a second to get completely out from under the boat and then the guide and Mike hauled me in. My par is floating somewhere along the way. I knew Alex had gone in, but by the time I got pulled out he was sitting as if nothing happened. We floated along a bit, managed to collect 2 of the 3 oars that apparently went in and had a fun, uneventful rest of the journey. Alex was freezing, but the guide gave him a fleece jacket to wear and warm up a bit. It was only at the end that I realized the girl behind me also went in,

Now... this is what happened according to Ben, who was on the right side of the boat... We’re floating along, go through the rapid and he feels the boat is slightly higher in his side. He says he just saw the big white splash of the water then the boat settles and there are 3 people missing. Alex and the girl pop up immediately and are pulled in immediately. Then everyone looks around and realizes that I am still gone and they can’t see me anywhere. Apparently about the time everyone started to freak out is when I popped up and then they pulled me in. I asked what the guide was directing them to do/saying/doing/etc. They can’t remember, they just said it was a bit of chaos.

The aftermath? I have never seen Mike look so scared, I think he was shaken more than me. Ben was freaked out too, but as soon as I was in the boat he settled... a little. It wasn’t until we talked things through later that he really was able to put it out of his mind. Alex was a bit confused... he and the girl came right up and we’re immediately we’re back in the boat, why wasn’t I? I was fine, just took a mi Ute to catch my breath. Once we rescued my floating oar, I was right back to paddling again. I do have a pretty nasty bruise on my arm, another on my leg. The one on my leg is surely from being pulled back up. I’m not sure if I banged my arm on the big rock we went over or if it caught an oar, or the edge of my life eat, or what. But, at the end of the day, we are all fine. We had a blast and I would still definitely do it again,

As for the rest of the day? Not nearly so exciting, but still fun. There was a hike Mike wanted to do, so we got that in. Avalanche falls, or lake, or creek? Or all 3? Avalanche something anyway. The trail led to a beautiful water fall then up along the river then up into the trees and opened around a lake. It rained for most of the hike, but I think it just made things that much more beautiful. The tall trees acted like an umbrella for the moSt part.

We also hit the Alberta visitor center so Alex could get an Alberta roadmap for the second half of our trip. And I found some good huckleberry tea in a little gift shop. It was quite cool today - highs only in the mid 60s when it wasn’t raining. Dropped down to the mid 50s in the rain,

I’m not sure i’ll Ever want to leave this place. More adventures tomorrow.

Glacier National Park

What fun to finally visit the one park i’ve REALLY wanted to see! It is so beautiful up here. No words of mine could ever do it justice. One can’t help but feel utterly content and at peace in this place.

We had a very early start to the day. The main road through the park, Going To The Sun road, can get very busy. More to the point some of the stops along the road can fill up very fast. So we were out the door before 7 knowing that it would take us about an hour to get to Logan’s Pass, the high point on the drive. Logan’s Pass is one of those places that fills up fast, usually the parking lot is full not long past 8. So we drove straight there making note of things we wanted to stop and see on the way back. We get to the pass plenty early. There are many people there, but room for us still too. We had wanted to stop at the visitor center, primarily to pay the park entrance fee. The booth was unmanned when we passed through so early and the autopay station required a better cellular signal than we could get. Alas, the visitor center was not open yet. So we decided to hike on up to see the hidden lake. It was about 1.5 miles each way. The path continued on past the viewpoint down to the actual lake, but it was closed beyond the viewpoint because of bear activity. Bears up here can be big - as in grizzly bears. Anyway, we weren’t entirely properly clad today. The weather in West Glacier was supposed to get up to about 75, it was 50 when we left. So we wore shorts and t-shirts with some warmer long sleeve shirts/sweatshirts on top. We neglected to take into account the elevation change from down low to up in the pass. By the time we got up to the pass it was a whopping 43-45 degrees, and there were clouds, and a breeze, and a light rain from time to time. No matter, hiking will warm us up! That was sort of true on the way up, because that mile and a half was all up hill! By the time we got to the top though, the wind kicked up and we were all pretty cold. I gave Alex my sweatshirt and he practically ran back down the path! As we weren’t planning on leaving the park until the end of the day I stopped in the visitor center (now open) and bought myself a sweatshirt because I was FREEZING! I didn’t want to take my sweatshirt back from Alex, he needed it :).

Anyway, the view at the top... we caught a very brief view of hidden lake in a break in the clouds. It’s all beautiful, even if shrouded in clouds and mist. We did see a funky large whitish animal we couldn’t Quite make out. Turns out it was a big ol’ marmot. So that was cool. Mike checked about the entrance fee we still hadn’t paid, the rangers said just to take care of it at the end of the day on our way out (we did).

So now that we were a little warmer we headed on up the road a bit further. There were some waterfalls we wanted to see. It’s now nearly 11:00 and the park is getting busy. There was no parking in the one lot we needed so we headed on. Found another place a bit further up. There was a waterfall a short hike from our parking area, but we wanted to see some other ones as well. So, we hopped on the shuttle which took us back to the other full parking lot. Was a nice hike down to the waterfall. The water was so clear and such s pretty blue. It did not disappoint. From there we decided to head to yet another waterfall, it wasn’y Too far away. The weather was nice and cool and sunny. So now it’s time to head back to the shuttle and grab lunch. Only, the shuttles only run every 30-40 minutes. It was just a fluke we caught the one when we needed it. So we opted to skip the shuttle stop and continue hiking around the lake, down by s beach area, up to another waterfall and back to our car, all in the same 30-40 minutes we *probably* would have waited for the elusive shuttle. Picnic lunch time, as we had covered a full 10 miles in hiking already.

The rest of the day was continuing along the Going to the Sun road to the end and then back again. A little more hiking, a few more stops. Started to rain a bit before we got back to the cabin.

Grilled some dinner, relaxed for the rest of the evening. Everyone is exhausted.

Alex took a gazillion pictures today, it will be fun seeing them when we get home. It’s 9:15 at night and the sun hasn’t even begun to set yet. That’s still do strange! Time to call it a night. More adventures tomorrow.

Standpoint, ID to West Glacier, MY

The boys were up bright and early this morning. It seems either they are still on Austin time, or more likely, they just rise when the sun does. Thus far they are holding up quite well.

It was a beautiful day today, highs in the upper 70s. The sun was warm, but the breeze was cool. As I lay in bed typing this now, the window is open and it’s actually quite cool. We started our day with breakfast at a local diner in Sandpoint.  A local happened to tell us about the place and it was filled with locals when we got there. Yes, the food was good. It’s always nice to find those spots and not the ones the tourists flock to. After breakfast it was hat finding time. Mostly Mike needed one, his head is the only one truly endangered by the sun. But, Ben and I also forgot hats and Slex didn’t want to be left out. So... we found a shop and we all got hats and it all sort of felt slightly silly, but it was fun. The hats were quite welcome and handy throughout the rest of our day.

We left Sandpoint and headed towards our West Glacier destination. To break up the drive a bit we stopped at Kootenai Falls in Montana. The falls were beautiful. The highlight of that stop though was the suspension bridge high over the roaring Kootenai river. It was a nice little hike down to the bridge. Mike opted not to cross the high bouncing swaying bridge today. He stayed below whole the boys and I had our fun. No harness securely holding him up meant no walk across the bouncy bridge. This stop was something that Ike came across just last week. I’m glad he shared it with us and let us have our fun even though i’m Sure from the moment he saw it he had no intention of ever crossing it.

That was about it for the day. We continued on our way, stopped in Kalispell for groceries. Pickings for good are a bit slim around here. We’ve got a great little cabin for the next several days and apparently we are now fairly well provisioned.

I am looking forward to wandering around Glacier Nationsl Park tomorrow. The parks make me happy and this is one I have wanted to see for s very long time. Looks like we’re in for another beautiful day with temps in the low 70s.

Spokane to Sand Point, Idaho

All day long I had all of these thoughts about things to remember for this blog. Now that it’s time to post, I can’t remember them. So. The day. We are so much farther north than we are used to. The sun is up by 4:30 in the morning. We all took note of that and then fell back to sleep until a slightly more reasonable hour. We took a nice pre-breakfast walk around Spokane, explores the park and falls there. Saw some furry little animals that we are pretty sure were marmots. Found a nice little cafe for breakfast and enjoyed the cool morning air while dining outside. The boys showed their Texas roots by shivering all through breakfast. It was 65 degrees! After a quick stop to check out of the hotel we headed to a fun little tram ride to get a great view of the falls. That pretty much wrapped up our time in Spokane. There was a giant radio flyer wagon in the park. We have this amazing picture of the boys when they were small in our identical, but much smaller, wagon. Their faces in that picture are just full of the happiness only kids seem to have. Everything is magic. The boys were going to climb up into the giant wagon for some pictures, but it was not meant to be. Someone was sleeping in it . Anyway...

We hit the road after all of that and headed into Idaho - the 43rd state I have now visited. It was not a terribly long drive from Spokane, and being in the far northern and very skinny bit of Idaho, we continued to pick up this great feel good best of the 80s radio station. The music brought back many fun memories of middle school dances, early highschool years. In lieu of lunch we headed to Farragut State Park, the largest state park in Idaho. There are many things to do in the park, but a couple caught our attention today. Ben especially wanted to try the Tree2Tree ropes course. I left the do or pass decision up to Mike. He’s just terribly uncomfortable with heights and absolutely hates ladders. But, he didn’t want to keep us from doing it, and he decided to give it a go too. There’s lots of pre-course training involved and we learned all about the harnesses, click-ins, our zip line attachment, and all the fun obstacles we would encounter. We all breezes through the practice course 3 feet off the ground. The real deal was a bit more intimidating for some. Ben and Alex headed off with no hesitation. I let Mike go ahead of me so I could cheer him on and do he wouldn’t have to watch me, which makes him just as uncomfortable. I think the first ladder was the worst for him, but he got through it and did great. As for me, I have no issues with heights. Not gonna lie, even without that obstacle it was a bit breath-catching at times. We all pushed ourselves, we all exceeded our own expectations, and we all had a blast. And, we would all do it again in a heartbeat, especially the zip lines! Oh... and Ben is definitely the ropes champ, that boy is a climbing little monkey!

Next stop in the park was the Museum at the Brig. During WWII,  the park was a large snack training facility. A lot of interesting history in the museum. Our final stop was a view over the lake. 4th deepest lake in the US I think. The name escapes me st the moment, but i’ll Look it up later.

To round out our day we drove through the little town of Bay View on route to Sand Point. Sand Point is a cute little town. Right outside the hotel is a little beach area. The high in this area today was 80. There were many people swimming in the icy water. The boys and I put our feet in, it did feel amazing. The cool water is definitely inviting, but I still am not sure I would have gone all in! Who would have thought we would find a little beach in Idaho? We walked into town for dinner, was a lovely evening to eat outside again. It’s supposed to drop down to 50 tonight.

Tomorrow we head to Glacier National Park. This has been on my bucket list for awhile. Looks like the weather will be cool, the forecast has changed and cooled off a bit.

We’ve visited the Pacific Northwest several times now. Someday...

Austin to Spokane - July 13, 2019

Hey - it’s been a year! Vacation time again. This year our travels take us north, specifically Montana and Banff, with a few other places thrown in the mix as well. Today was a big travel day. We left Austin early this afternoon, had a nice long flight to Sacramento, hour layover, another hour plus flight to Spokane, WA. Was a short drive from the airport to our downtown hotel. Dinner at a lovely upscale place (gotta start off right!), and now a quiet evening. There were a few highlights of the day...

Alex is officially old enough to go through airport security sans adult. So that was fun for him. Well, until his groin area triggered the scanner. So, first time through and the poor kid has to have a groin area pat down. He survived 😝.

It has been awhile since i’ve flown. I was surprised that food now has to be scanned separately. I never suspected the unopened boxes of cheezits and granola bars could ever be dangerous.

The flights were largely uneventful, but the boys kept interrupting my nap to show me things out of the window I coildn’t See ;)

We are driving a Cadillac for the next two weeks. Yeah, I don’y Know why either, but it’s nice!

It’s a whole lot of fun traveling with kids that are maturing. It’s easy, it’s nice, it’s fun. This is a very cool age for the boys.

And finally, what a difference being able to hear has made. So much of the stress and tension I normally feel with traveling was just gone today. I had never imagined it was simply because I was trying so hard to hear and process and make sense of things I simply couldn’t grasp. Now that I can hear, everything is so much easier. I had contemplated leaving the hearing aids at home - it’s a fair amount of extra stuff to pack, there are activities that I will have to remember to leave them out for, i’d Be lying if I said I wasn’t still a bit self conscious about them. Anyway, it’s nice to be able to piece together a little more of what most other people get.

The next couple of weeks should be a lot of fun.

Edmond, OK to Home

Mike managed one last blog post, I should too. Kids are in bed, each in their own bed, in their own room, and all the happier for it.

We had planned to stop in Oklahoma City to see the state Capitol. It was pouring rain this morning, so we skipped that. Also thought we might stop in Fort Worth to see the stock yards, though the big attraction there is the moving of the cows twice a day, at 11:30 in the morning and 4 in the afternoon. We got to Fort Worth around 11:45, kept right on driving. Though we did stop at Bucees for gas, their world famous bathrooms, and snacks. Does Buc-ees count as a grand adventure? One more stop in Waco for lunch and we were home around 3:30.

We came home to 3 very happy pups. My incredibly sweet and awesome neighbor swept up all the dog hair, cleaned dog bedding, baked us cookies and left us food for breakfast!

We unloaded the car, somehow or other got everything unpacked and put away. Two loads of laundry have been done, will have to sort out the rest tomorrow. The list of things we have to do in the next few days is staggering. All I want to do is hit the road again. I’ve always thought that I could travel indefinitely. After 6 weeks, I know I could. It’s hard to be home. I’m not ready to face work and school and everything else.

Anyway, trip stats...

43 days
22 states
2 Canadian provinces
18 National Park Service sites
4 Canadian Park Service sites
7 days of no driving
Almost 200 miles on foot
16 tanks of gas
And 6406 miles on the road

The boys spent a large part of the afternoon with their friend down the street. The 3 are already planning lots of ways to kill the rest of these summer days. Fun to see them happy together again.  It also hammered home how much the boys grew and changed these past 6 weeks, in more ways than I can count. I hope they remember this summer and this trip as a very happy time.

Seems a bit unreal that we made it through, seems like forever since we left Home, feels like months since we got home.

Day 42: St. Louis to Edmond, OK

Today is officially the last day of week 6. And the day Mike originally planned to arrive home. I, however, did not want to drive 900 miles in one day. So, we broke it up. Just over 500 miles today, about 400 to go tomorrow. There’s really not much else to say about today. We spent the entire day in the car. Passed by such marvelous places as the vacuum cleaner museum in Missouri, it probably sucked anyway (groan... that was bad, I know). We also passed by the national shrine to the infant Jesus of Prague. Don’t ask, I have no clue. Whatever it was warranted at least 3 road signs though. Missouri is a really long state to drive through. And there is a whole lot of nothing there. We toiluched the corner of Kansas, a park in Baxter Springs to be exact, just so Mike could say he has now been to Kansas. And now we sit just north of Oklahoma City in Edmond, OK. It was a convenient place to stop. Found a nice park with lots of geese to walk around in for s but before dinner. And that’s that. Over 6000 miles now.

Day 41: St. Louis, MO

Shall I impress you with my knowledge of inverted weighted catenary arches? Sounds like a fancy thing, it’s not. A catenary arch is simply an arch made by a chain that is freely hanging from two suspended ends. Inverted, we’ll, you know that one, upside down. Weighted... that’s pretty easy too, thicker on the ends tapering in towards the middle. See, told ya it wasn’t that impressive! What is impressive is that this thing was built in the 60’s with a 1/64th of an inch engineering tolerance so that the two legs would meet at the top. The capsule that you ride in to get to the top is called s team actually, straight from the 60’s, feels space-age-y; it’s tiny and sways as it goes up the arch. The windows at the top are only 7” tall x 27” wide. There are 16 on each side. They look tiny from the ground, even tinier up close. Bigger windows would not withstand the massive amount of force necessary to keep the legs apart while inserting the keystone. But, despite the tiny size, on a clear day like today the view is incredible, you can see more nearly 30 miles. The best part??? Because you are standing at the top of an arch that also happens to be an inverted triangle st the top, when you look down, you can see straight down. It’s definitely wild! So yeah, the arch is super cool.

It’s a bit debatable as to whether or not it was a good decision to build it where it stands. To do so, they had to raze the entire historic waterfront district of St. Louis. The closest you come to a historic building is the St. Louis basilica, the oldest Roman Catholic Church in the States. A building has stood on that site continuously since the 1700s. The current church was built in the 1809s I think. Also, part of the old courthouse stands inside the impressive dome structure you see from the outside. This area is rich in history - westward expansion, civil war, etc. You just don’t see remaining signs of that history outside of museums.

We took the arch tour nice and early this morning. Smartly we bought tickets in afvance, otherwise we probably would have been out of luck for a ride to the top. We browsed the very interesting museum, the kids actually got one last junior ranger badge here. This park just became the 60th National Park in Feb., and the new museum and such just opened Zjuly 1. Previously it was a national historic site. After the arch we visited the beautiful old basilica, then the old courthouse. Finally we wandered over to city garden - a little park full of sculptures and fountains and such. All of this before lunch.

Our timing was a little off, after lunch we had some time to kill before our steamboat ride up the Mississippi. Not enough time for one of the museums in the area, so we wandered around the park by the arch for a bit. The sun was pretty hot, made for a toasty boat ride, but it was fun. Timing again was a little off after the boat ride. If museums weren’t closed, they closed within the hour. No time for that today. So more park exploring, cold drinks, just chilling outside in the beautiful weather. The high today was only about 85.

Found s great bbq spot for dinner... one of those “open until sold out” places. Like really good, fantastic St. Louis bbq. And tgat’s the day.

Brown Car got another zero mile day today. She deserved the rest as we’llbe Putting some pretty serious miles on her in the next couple of days. This was the last planned adventure. But, who knows what tomorrow will bring?

Day 40: Mammoth Cave to St. Louis

Forty days is a long time to be gone. We started the day in Kentucky, doing a second cave tour this morning. Today’s tour was the “Domes and Dripstones” tour. The literature about the tour rated it as moderate, stated there were about 500 steps total, with an initial descent down 270 of those steps, and the tour was 3/4 mike in length, 2 hours in duration. As we are preparing to board the bus for the short ride to the cave entrance the park ranger goes over these stats again and mentions that some of the path is quite narrow, and the stairs are somewhat “steep”. She also said that we’d be passing by areas of great depth so those with a fear of heights should avoid looking down. This was followed by the standard health warnings for cave tours. It all would have sounded a bit ominous and overwhelming had we not taken a moderately rated cave tour with several hundred steps yesterday.  This tour was definitely a bit different. The entrance was through a metal door in the side of a hill. It looked for all the world like the entrance to a subterranean work shed or something. The steps started immediately. They were steep and narrow and twisty and straight down. You had to duck and bend and twist and turn to get around the rocks jutting into the extremely narrow path. There were some people on the tour that i’m Sure we’re extremely uncomfortable with how tight a fit this staircase was. If you were claustrophobic or afraid of heights, this was NOT the place for you. But, oh my goodness, the cave was amazing. This was the “domes” part of the tour. Justvterrific souring heights and depths and tight little domed spaces. Alex and I loved it, Ben and Mike were not so comfortable here. This staircase led down to more open rooms of the cave like we saw yesterday then on to a wetter part of the cave and the beautiful Dripstones formations. We opted to take the extra 98 steps to a lower room to see even more of the formations. My only beef about the tour was o felt we spent too much time in the two break rooms listening to the ranger talk and we were hurried through the sites really really fast, with virtually no time to look. Time could have been managed better. There was a large group of teenage Korean boys that didn’t speak much English. Their guide stayed at the head of the entire tour group and left the boys at the back. The ranger was forever getting after the boys for not following the rules, their guide didn’t seem to care much about explained ngvthings in a language they could understand. There was also a family with2 very young children - the baby under 2 for sure. Poor kid wanted nothing to do with the confines of the tour, screamed for half of the tour but eventually fell asleep. Felt really bad for the parents, they looked a little worse for wear by the end.

Then it was on to St. Louis. We hit some rain about 100 miles out, made fora hairy drive. But the weather cleared by the time we got here. Our hotel is right across the street from the arch. We have a very early morning ticket time for the arch ride. Anxious to see the inside of it. It’s quite an amazing structure from the outside. It seems so tall. I mean, it IS tall, but because of the way it’s build, where it’s built, and it’s surroundings it seems even taller than it is. It’s 630 feet tall and 630 feet wide at the base. Largest man made arch in the world, largest man made monument.

Day 39: Mammoth Cave

Mammoth Cave is the largest known cave in the world. 412 miles of the cave have been mapped so far. It is estimated that there may be more than 600 miles of the cave yet to be discovered! If you take every guided tour available you can explore approximately 10 miles of the cave. We took one tour this morning, saw 2 miles of the cave. We have another tour scheduled for tomorrow, we’ll see another 2 miles of the cave. Today’s tour was the historic tour. The park ranger guide gave what I assume was a lovely talk throughout the tour. Unfortunately I heard exactly none of it. He was not speaking particularly loud, it was a large group, sound bounces around a bit in the cave, it was dark and I could not see his face, the tinnitus in my ears is quite loud all the time. In short, my hearing deficiency got the better of me today. I can almost always fake my way through and figure out most things, but not today. Today it was frustrating :( But, the upside is that the cave was really neat to look at even if I missed the history.

It’s a mostly dry cave, and just huge, hence the name. There were some extremely narrow twisty passages and a LOT of areas where we had to crouch down considerably. And a giant staircase at the end called the tower, 270 steps up. We also walked over one pit 105 feet deep and another called the bottomless pit. At the end we came to a dome that was a couple of hundred feet high. Tomorrow we tour a different part of the cave, presumably with more moisture as we are seeing things such as the frozen Niagara Falls feature, and the tour is called “Domes and Dripstones”.

After the cave tour the kids turned in their junior ranger books. Probably the last one for Alex, maybe Ben too. Had a quick lunch at a little cafe in the park and set out for some hikes.

The first hike was to the overlook to an entrance to a cave that houses an endangered species of bat. We continued on, saw an overlook for the Green River (longest river in Kentucky), and continued looping through the woods for awhile back to the visitor center.

Next we went to a place called Cedar Sink. It’s s big giant sinkhole. The path wound down into the sinkhole a bit, then back out. It was pretty wild, very primordial.

One last small walk to the entrance of Sand Cave. Floyd Collins was hiking in the cave and on his way outkicked a rock that fell and trapped his leg. This was back in the 30s. The rescue attempt gained national coverage. He ultimately perished in the cave but it was his death that brought the Mammoth Cave area to peoples attention and it was made a National Park a year or so later.

Back to the hotel after that for some showers. It wasn’t particularly hot today, mid 80s and all of our hiking was through the woods, but the humidity was ridiculous and we were all a sweaty disgusting mess. The cave temp is in the mid 50s, so cool, but humid down there too.

Anyway, being able to shower and relax for a bit before dinner is nice and i’m Ok that we opted not to camp here.

In a short while we’re heading back into the park. There is a pond that is supposedly full of frogs that sing at dusk and bats that circle around it. The park ranger yesterday highly recommended s dusk time stroll around the pond. We’ll grab dinner afterwards.

Tomorrow we have one more cave tour in the morning then we head for St. Louis.

Day 38: Dayton, OH to Cave City, KY

Yay, it’s my birthday! Was kind of fun to wake up in the city where I was born. Of course, I have spent many birthdays there, we were always there for vacation in the summer. It seems that even as an adult I am rarely home on my birthday. Guess it’s a good time of year to travel!

Anyway, we went back to the Huffman Prairie airfield to look around properly today. Saw the first airplane hangar, the storage barn the Wright brothers built, saw the catapult the built to launch the planes. There were stones marking the area where the first flight school stood. Yes, it’s just a field in the middle of nowhere, but it’s still neat to see.

The plan was tohead straight to Mammoth Cave, see what we had time for this afternoon.  We contemplated stopping by Fort Knox, we were passing right by it, decided there probably wadn’t Really much point in that. We did continue with our presidential history bit of the trip though. We stopped just outside of Hodgenville, KY to see Lincoln’s birthplace. There is a cabin enshrined on the site. For many years it was thought that that particular cabin was the lig Cave Lincoln was born in. However, in 2004 they were able to date it better to the 1849s, so after Lincoln’s birth. However, it’s representative of the cabins of that time  do it remains as theLincoln cabin. Sinking Springwas the name of the farm.

We had a little time to explore the visitor center and some of the hiking trails in Mammoth Cave National Park today. We hiked down to the River Styx. As we neared the entrance to the Cave it felt like someone was blasting the AC on high. We could walk down the steps a short way to see the Cave entrance. Tomorrow we have a cave tour booked in the morning, more hiking in the afternoon.

Surprisingly, we found a decent Mexican place for dinner. We have intentionally avoided all Mexican food up to this point on the trip. Carlos O’Kelkts in Stafford does not count as Mexican food - sorry Mom!

To wind up our day, Alex was able to use his telescope again. We’ve been gone long enough that we get a second full moon and are again in a good place to view it.

We have surpassed the 5000 mile mark - by a couple hundred miles actually. We crossed back into the central time zone today so we’re back on Texas time. We somehow miraculously managed to pack the car with all the extra things we picked up in Vandalia, including the guitar. And, I can still see out the back window when i’m Driving. We were supposed to camp here in Mammoth Cave, but a few days ago the weather looked iffy so we got a hotel instead. Of course the weather cleared and camping would probably have been just fine. It’s pretty humid though, and pretty warm during the day. I figured once we left Canada I would not be cold again until November/December. Looks like I was wrong, happily! The temp in the cave tomorrow is in the mid-50s. It’s a 2 hour tourin that cool cave, i’m Guessing i’ll Beolenty cold, and I look forward to that. As for tonight, time to wrap this up and get to bed. We have an early start to the day tomorrow.

Day 37: Dayton, OH

The only way I can keep track of the days anymore is by looking at the number on the previous blog post!  I’m trying hard not to think about the end of the trip, because I don’t want it to end. It’s fun bouncing from place to place. We’ve packed and unpacked the car so many tomes now, we’ve got that down to a science. We’ve managed to accumulate very little for the 6 weeks, limiting souvenirs to magnets and postcards and just a couple of t-shirts for the boys. We did get a few things from family members, and those blankets from our very cold nights in Shenandoah. The biggest accumulation came from this stop in Vandalia though. We are taking Home a guitar. My aunt bought it long ago, doesn’t play it anymore and wanted to pass it onto the boys. Ben, especially, is thrilled. I think i’ve Found room in the car for it. Tomorrow will tell for sure.

Anyway, enough of that, on to todsy’s Adventures.   Today was all about aviation history. We added yet another National Park site to our list - the National Aviation Heritage Site. It’s actually a compilation of 8 different places in the area significant to the early years of s Latino. We visited 4 of those sights today. The Wright brothers are from Dayton and built the first airplane here. The first airport is here in Dayton, the Wright Flier III is here, and much more. We went to Carillon Park, toured the fascinating museum on Dayton history, including it’s part in aviation. Part of the museum is dedicated to NCR - National Cash Register. There was a really cool display of cash registers and the developing history and technology of NCR, from their first registers to ATMs to self check out technology. Dayton played an interesting roll in the development of the atomic bomb, they build decoding machines in Dayton. Dayton is the birthplace of so many everyday little things we take for granted. There’s a lot of cool history in this tiny little town.

We visited the replica of the Wright brothers bicycle shop. They were extraordinary men. Unbelievable the things they accomplished. Orville Wright was the first person to fly on a heavier than air motorized airplane, and he lived long enough to watch Chuck Yeager break the sound barrier. Crazy.

We went to the first airport, the field where the Wright brothers built their planes and learned to fly and then taught others to fly.

Andcwe speny the afternoon at the Air Force Museum for one of the most spectacular collections of airplanes anywhere. Not just any planes but planes with very historical value. We could have spent many more hours here.

We ended the day with dinner with my Aint Jane and Aint Susan. They are my mom’s older and younger sisters respectively. We had a great evening, had a little celebratory birthday ice cream afterwards. When we parted ways I drove around the neighborhood where my parents lived when I was born, where my grandparents lived, where my aunt lives now. It’s been a dozen years since I was here last, so many things different, some the same. Somehow it orher I found the Park we used to play at, the shopping center where my aunt had a needlework shop for years, right across the street from the airport.

It was another good day. Tomorrow we head to Mammoth Cave Kentucky. Looking forward to another couple of days in a park. Each day now brings us closer and closer to TX.

Day 36: Niagara Falls to Vandalia, OH

Today was the start of week 6. I can’t believe we are near the end. Not much to report today. Mostly we drove, over 400 miles from Niagara Falls to Vandalia, OH. Why Vandalia? Well... it’s s good stopping place on route to Mammoth Cave, my 2 aunts lice here, and it’s where I was born. There also happens to be a lot of aviation history here... Wright brothers. I’ll leave that subject until tomorrow.

Sothe weather was rainy in Niagara Falls this morning. Looked like it was supposed to rain a bit there today, guess we timed out visit right to be there yesterday!!!  No issues getting through customs and back into the US.

I do miss Canada though. Lots of differences. I suspect i’ll Be making lots of croissants and crepes when we get back to TX!

Ben helped navigate for a bit today. He did a great job, didn’t miss a trick.

We stopped in Columbus to visit the Capitol tonight. All the trips to this area as a kid and we never visited the Capitol building. We went to Columbus plenty. Guess it was just one of those things, you never do the stuff in your own backyard because it’s always there. Anyway, it’s s best building. Originally two buildings, they are now connected by an atrium. Sounds like it was covered over to keep the pigeons from pooping on heads as people passed between buildings. This is one of the few state capitols without an exterior dome. There is an interior dome surrounded by a cupola. It’s s neat building. Feels very sparse compared to some of the other Capitol buildings we have seen. Beautiful grounds, neat monuments. A worthwhile stop for the day.

We met my Aunt Hane for dinner at Marion’s - a Vandalia/Dayton favorite pizza spot. My aunt and my mom both worked there in their younger days. Marion’s has hosted many famous actors and such over the years and the walls are plastered with the old photos. We had fun finding my aunt in a couple of the pictures, showing the boys a blast from the past. Didn’t get a chance to thoroughly check all the pictures, but couldn’t find my mom in the one’s we did see. It’s entirely possible she’s on the wall at one of the other locations.

Ended the evening with my aunt with some ice cream at a local favorite place of hers.

Then it was back to the hotel. Just pulled the last load (hopefully) of laundry out of the dryer. We should be set on clothes until we get home next weekend. We are closer to 5000 miles now than4000, we still have 7 days to go. Our walking miles are near 150 for the past 5 weeks. Will be interesting to tally it all up at the end.

That’s my story for tonight.

Day 35: Niagara Falls

we saw lots of water today. Lots and lots and lots of water. All of it crashing a couple hundred feet to the rocks below. The falls themselves are quite beautiful and gun to watch. Ben said he wished we could open the windows in the hotel room and hear the water at night.

We got an early start. Walked over to the American side first thing this morning, got tickets for the Maid of the Mist boat ride and got on the actual boat without having to wait in line at all. That was pretty great. The boat ride was a ton of fun. When we got off we started to head up the path beside the falls for that beautiful close up view. Along with several hundred other people. It was sloppy and slippery and wet and muddy and stupid crowded. Mike decided to bail, Ben went with him. Alex wanted to press on so I took him to the top amidst all the chaos and we got completely thoroughly soaked and it was great :) In just the 45 minutes it took for us to do the boat ride and take the walk, the lines got crazy long. Instead of 45 minutes that boat ride would have been the only thing we did all day.

We stayed over on the American side for awhile longer, checking out Goat Island (the island between the falls) and getting all the good views of the water we could. Was nice to walk around in a state park, even if it was with thousands of other people, as opposed to the Vegasy nonsense on the Canadian side. We did eventually head back yo Canada. Had to wait for a good 30 minutes or so in line to get through customs.

After lunch we walked down to the Canadian Falls overlook on the Canadian side. It’s pretty fun, you are right there at the edge of the falls. Tried to get tickets for the behind the falls tour but the next available tour wasn’t until 6, a decidedly inconvenient time. So we came back to the room, went for a dip in the pool and gathered ourselves together for an evening out. When everyone got good and bored we went up the Hershey store to waste some time, bought the boys a little chocolate. Then it was on to dinner. We ate st a fairly nice steakhouse. The food was decent. The entertainment was... odd? Somewhere between drinks and dinner our waiter picked up the microphone and started belting out a heartfelt, though badly offkey” rendition of Inxhained Melody while strolling through the restaurant. I’m, ok. Awhile later some female waitress started singing “I will always love you.” She was better than the waiter, but still. It was all just random.

After dinner it was back to the falls to catch the light show. No fireworks tonight, apparently it was too windy. It actually was very windy.

So there we are. That wraps up week 5. I didn’t think we’d make it this far into the trip before some catastrophe struck. Now it seems we will make it to the end, no problem. I’m very sad that we have only one week left. Would like to be doing this indefinitely.

Brown Car got another zero mileage day today. That’s the last rest she’ll have until we’re back in TX. Tomorrow we start week 6.

Day 34: Ottawa to Niagara Falls

Well... Brown Car got a good workout today. It was a bit of a drive from Ottawa to Niagara Falls, somewhere around 375 miles. That should have taken us about 5 1/2 hours not including a lunch stop. We drove for 8 hours. Yeah, traffic kind of blew today. and driving in Canada is definitely a bit different than driving in the states. These Canadians take the passing lane seriously and will ride your butt like there’s no tomorrow if you aren’t going at least 15-20km over the speed limits mit in that all important left lane. Lots of zooming about, in and out of traffic, constant lane switching. Makes for a bit more of a tedious drive. We got to drive all the way around Lake Ontario today. It’s a REALLY big lake. Contact let’s with white caps and probably tides and glimpses of it looking like the ocean because you couldn’t see any shores.

But... we did finally make it to Niagara Falls. We are staying in the Canadian side this time. When Mike and I came here nearly 21 years ago we stayed on the American side and just walked across to the Canadian side for a bit. If you aren’t aware, the American side is a state park, the Canadian side is, well, the exact opposite. Casinos and lights and all things HUGE and IN YOUR FACE and LOUD and AAAAAAAHHHHHH! So, why exactly are we staying on this side? Actually, better access to food and places to stay. It’s so busy we can just park Brown Car in the hotel lot for the duration of our stay here and walk everywhere, including across up the American side. If we stayed across the river we would have to drive to the park. The town cover ther is a bit more industrial, not as many amenities.

Funny thing is though, this Canadian side feels so much like the worst parts of America (Vegas...) Everything screams loud obnoxious AMERICANS. It’s particularly noticeable since we just spent the last 8 days in Canada loving absolutely all of it, enjoying the peace and calm, even in big, busy Montreal. So, Canada, we’ll forgive you this one loud part of your beautiful country. You do, afterall, have the bigger more impressive Horeshoe Falls on your side.

And, most importantly we’re here to see the falls and ride the Maid in the Mist and walk down to the hurricane bridge overlook. Looking forward to being mildly freaked out by the shear awesome power of all thatvwater tomorrow.

I forgot to mention... Alex was the navigator for the first half of our drive today. Mike is teaching the boys all of his great skills in that role. Ben will take his turn up front in a couple of days.

Day 33: Ottawa

Oh my goodness, my feetsies are about to fall off! It wasn’t even the highest meal king mileage day we’ve had this trip. Probably more the 13 hours that we were out and essentially standing the entire day. Oh, and it was really hot. Weather forecasting has been so off for so much of this trip. Was supposed to be sunny in the low 89s today. They got the sunny part right, but it was in the mid 90s. Pretty big difference. Anyway...

The light show at Parliament last night was pretty spectacular. It was a 30 minute overview of Canadian history. Lots of cool projections on the face of parliament, extremely well done. It ended with the Canadian national anthem and the flag projected on parliament. Very patriotic, uplifting, etc.

Found breakfast at a nice little place this morning, then headed over to parliament to get tour tickets. They start handing out tickets at 9, we got in line at 9:05, the line was already a full city block long. We weren’t sure we’d get tickets at all. It also became clear pretty quickly that the line was moving rather slowly and we wouldn’t be able to get tour tickets and watch the changing of the guard. So I sent mike and the boys to watch the ceremony and I waited in line. Got your tickets, made it back for a front row seat to watch the majority of the guard ceremony. A win for everyone.

We had some time before the parliament tour so we walked over to the Canadian mint to check that out. Right on time for that tour. They have a solid gold brick that weighs 28 pounds and is worth $650,000. The boys lifted it up for the obligatory photo op. The guard was none too pleased when Mike asked Ben how fast he could run. In fact she looked downright pissed. Did I mention that the gold brick was bolted to a steel shaft? Anyway, the mint was super cool. They don’t make circulation currency here, that is done in Winnipeg. This mint makes building coins for investments, collectors coins, and medals. Really fascinating process.

The parliament tour was really interesting. Though it took forever to get through security and get started. Made for a very late lunch. That was totally random. It’s late, i’m Tired.... the library in Parliament was easily the most beautiful library I have ever seen. All of parliament is a really beautiful building that will begin major renovations in January and be closed for 10+ years. Lucky we got in to see it today.

After that late lunch we crossed the bridge into Gatineau in the Québec province. There was a park we were going to visit. Turns out there was a massive mosaic flower sculpture exhibit. We almost passed it by, decided to check it out after all. Very glad we did. The lady at the exit said it took over 5.5 million flower plants to make the sculptures. Absolutely fantastic. Again, every sculpture tied to some part of Canada and it’s history.

Thursday’s happen to be free museum days from 5-8. That’s pretty cool. We took advantage of it by visiting a huge Canadian history museum in Gatineau. Again, fantastic museum. Learned a lot. Could have spent many more hours there.

Back across the bridge and to the area we are staying for a late dinner.

We could spend so much more time here. Ottawa is a really interesting city. As with the rest of our Canadian adventures it feels like we just got our toes wet here and it’s time to move on.

Tomorrow we head to Niagara Falls. Staying in the Canadian side, will have to walk to the US to catch the boat ride. We will be back on US soil for good on Sunday.

We also had to cancel our camping plans in Mammoth Cave - very high chance of rain when we are there. So close to the end of the trip, it’s a shame to do that. Would hate to take Home wet camping gear though and there’s won’t be any opportunity to dry things out after we leave there. Just 10 days left of the trip.

Day 32: Montreal to Ottawa

we started fairly early this morning, that tends to happen when the sun comes up so early. There is so much to do in Montreal it was hard to say goodbye to the city. Instead of heading straight for Ottawa, we opted to take in the botanical gardens and insectorium in Ottawa. It was an absolutely perfect day to spend out doors. The temps never got out of the 70s, the sky was crystal clear and there was no humidity. I love the city of Austin but this trip has hammered home how cruddy the weather is there sometimes (summer, half of spring, most of fall...) Anyway, the gardens were beautiful. There was a magnificent greenhouse, and a very cool garden on medicinal plants. The insectorium housed an impressive collection of a wide variety of insects, both live and preserved.  It was all very well done.

The gardens were right across the street from the Olympic stadium. There were signs of the games throughout town, including an Olympic museum celebrating all the times Canada has hosted the games. We did not visit any of the museums, stadiums, buildings. Time was a factor, other things were of more interest to us. However, the one tall building that is part of the stadium was erected to lean at s 45 degree angle. It was pretty neat to look at from across the street. For a very steep price we could have gone to the top. Alas, time said we needed to head on our way.

It was not a terribly long drive to Ottawa, easier than the last drive. We switched from Quebec and French first, English second to Ontario with Rnglish first, French second. Funny thing is, we are so close to the border between provinces, we will walk across the bridge back into French speaking Quebec tomorrow.

I wasn’t sure what to make of Ottawa on first sight. It’s very different from Quebec and Montreal. Not so European. After walking around a bit tonight though, it seems like a pretty neat place. I am looking forward to exploring tomorrow. We are sitting on the lawn in front of parliament waiting for a light show to start. The show showcases the history of Canada. It’s only a summer thing, should be cool.

Day 31: Montreal

oh my goodness, I think we definitely covered a good chunk of Montreal today! Once again we woke to rain. Fortunately, the weatherman got it wrong today, sort of. We definitely got the called for thunderstorms overnight, but it mostly stopped raining by 7:30 or 8 this morning.

Our first stop of the day was St. Viatures bagel shop. Montreal angels are a thing and this place is the one to go to. It requires freeing Brown Car from the parking lot and venturing out for a little Canadian city driving. Small streets, lots of cars, all the street signs in French. But, thanks to trusty ol’google, we got along just fine. Though there was a little adventure in parking. The bagel place was a couple of miles away so traffic thinned in that area and it seemed that parking was more readily available. Haha, yeah, not so much. Pretty much every single parking space has it’s own set of rules. I’d like to be making that up, but i’m Not. It only took a couple of turns around the block to find a spot. We fed the meter plenty, good thing too as it seemed police were out in force enforcing parking this morning. Anyway, parked, we got bagels. The place is open 24/7. It’s a crazy assembly line of bagels going in and coming out of the oven and giant bins by the register of the offerings. Cash only, fortunately I had a few Canadian bucks on me and we were bagel bound. The “all-in” was my favorite - montreal’s Version of the everything bagel.

After bagels we drove to the nearby Jean-Talon farmer’s market. Every kind of fresh produce you can imagine, beautiful flowers, fresh herbs. Great market. I wanted to eat everything in site!

Next stop was Mont Royal. Since we had the car, there was no need to walk the 350 steps up. Very nice view of Montreal from the top. There is a cross in the park. The story goes that Cartier was so pleased with god when his new city didn’t flood that he carried a cross up the mountain to show his thanks to god. The originsl cross has been replaced. With a giant monstrosity of metal that lights up. Anyhow...

We then cruised over to the little lake onMont Royal. That’s when we got rained on. Short shower though. And it actually did some good, it was horribly humid prior to the rain shower. The clouds were the only thing keeping it bearable. After the rain, the clouds and humidity blew off and it was a nice, though a bit warm, afternoon.

One more stop with Brown Car was the St. Joseph Oratory. It’s a bit late for me to figure out the proper French spelling. Ot’s A massive cathedral on a big hill. Everything about it seemed imposing. Most Catholic Churches are beautiful and grand and full of gold. This one was hard and big and it felt more like the church was trying it’s mightiest to instill the fear of god in all who entered. The organ is among the 10 most famous organs in the world. It was also huge and imposing. And incredibly cool to see.

We took Brown Car back to the hotel and trekked on down to the old port. Smoked meat sandwiches are a thing, so we had to give it a go. The meat was great, sandwich could have used a bit less mustard though.

Next we toured the Notre Dame Basilica.  This is exactly the thing you think of when you think of a massive cathedral. Beautiful, peaceful, serene, even in light of the very many tourists that were present. In short, the opposite of St. Joseph’s. The massive organ, bigger than St. Joseph’s by 1200 pipes, was beautiful too.

Next it was onto the museum on the point down by the water. Again, the proper French name isn’t happening tonight. Very cool museum about the history of Montreal, with focus on the archeological sites there. In fact, most of the museum is under ground as you walk over the ruins of the old city. You actually emerge from the museum in another building on the other side of the street.

We cooled our jets for awhile walking around the old port and eventually wound our way back up to the Rue Jacques Cartier for dinner. Same place as last night. That was not our intent, but a lot of the restaurants in that area were either too upscale or not very good. Hardin Nelson has great food, nice outdoor seating, and isn’t too much for tired tourists at the end of a long day. About a mile walk back to the hotel and we are calling it a night.

We’ve been gone over a month now.

Day 30: Quebec to Montreal

Today is officially the last day of the month since we left. Crazy. We had to start our day in Quebec with crepes, of course! Walked around the fortifications one last time and set off for Montreal. Today was the first Quebec morning without rain. While it was beautiful, it definitely promised to be hot.

We drove out to Montmorency Falls on our way out of town. Technically it was not on the way, but not too far out either. When mike and I were last in Quebec, Montmorency Falls was frozen solid. Was nice to see it again today. There is a staircase that winds down the side of a cliff opposite the falls. The stairs lead to a viewing platform at the bottom where you get to stand in the spray from the falls. We started out down the stairs and weren’t sure we’d go all the way down. Every step down is one you have to take back up. It’s a looooooong way down. 487 steps to be precise. Of course we ended up at the bottom. It was worth it and the trek back up wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. We skipped walking the bridge over the falls and opted to hit the road to Montreal instead.

It wasn’t a terribly long drive, just about 3 hours, but man, today that felt like torture. The road was very flat and straight, not much scenery either.

Got to Montreal, found the tourist office for some maps and information. We set out for the old port tonight. Pretty hot here - mid 90s today. It was a rather long walk to the old port, but interesting. The city feels so BIG compared to old Quebec and every other place we’ve been on this trip. Mike got us a hotel sort of centrally located, we’re kind of in the business district. The walk back from the old port after dinner wasn’t too bad. The city is mostly flat, just a few hills. Interesting mix of old buildings right up against new gigantic skyscrapers.

It’s supposed to rain tomorrow morning, but clear up in the afternoons not sure what we’ll do yet. Still hard to believe we are in week 5 of this trip!