Category: Longform
You are viewing all posts from this category, beginning with the most recent.
Tie Your RV Down
As we got in the car to head over to the hot tub at the KOA in St. Mary’s Montana, I pointed to the rope tied to the rear view mirror of the RV and the picnic table. I said it looks like we tied the RV to the picnic table to keep it from blowing away! Ha, imagine a picnic table holding back a 32 foot Winnebago in a 25 mph wind!? But 20 - 25 mph winds are what you get in St. Marys, just east of the continental divide. We had a lot of wind all day yesterday and today as we drove from Banff to Glacier. This area is known for its wind and highway 22 even had signs with warning lights for RVs and trucks for days when the wind is gusting and dangerous! Thankfully it was not bad for us at the time we drove that stretch.
Now, we are in a KOA campground, a source of some discontent amongst the group. however it has a hot tub, pool, and laundry facilities. These are all good things after a week of traveling together. Plus they also rent cars that you can take on the road to the sun. This is good as our RV would never be allowed to attempt the journey. The roads are indeed very narrow, and the rocks overhang on one side and would definitely tear off parts of the RV!
This morning we got up and were on our way by about 8:00 on the “road to the sun”. The main problem was that the sun was not cooperating! When we got to Logan’s pass we could barely see in front of the car because we were right in the middle of the clouds. But, we kept on going and in the end we were rewarded, not with sunshine, but with “lord of the rings” mystical beauty. The above photo is from MacDonald’s Lodge. Although the national park is called glacier, it could more appropriately be called waterfall national park at this point!
After MacDonald’s Lodge we took the Avalanche Lake hike! Wow, was this pretty, even in the dripping rain the sites along the way and once we got to the lake were well worth the hike!
After the hike we headed back the other direction on the road to the sun and by this time the clouds had lifted enough for us to really enjoy the scenery!
Of course no trip to Glacier, in June, would be complete without photos of the giant snowdrifts-cum-glaciers that we humans plow out of the way for the tourists!
And finally, no trip to Glacier would be complete without a picture of Goose Island!
Taking a Break on a Rainy Afternoon
“A clean underwear!” came the shout from the bedroom of the RV. “Thanks Holly, you just provided me with the opening line for today’s blog.” After a morning of touring the sites on the road to Jasper, we are back in the RV, having lost our will to hike in the rain. In the gloom and rain of the day I would say that the Columbia Ice sheet and all of the surrounding glaciers was actually a little depressing. You just can’t help but see how much they have shrunk over the years, and we overheard people talking. “When I was here 20 years ago, this glacier came right up to the road.” Now the glacier in question is a good kilometer back from the road.
So, as we are taking this downtime to shower and cleanup a bit in preparation for our move south tomorrow, I’m taking a few minutes this afternoon to catch up a little. There is only so much you can write about all of this mountain beauty. On the other hand it seems as though just when we think we’ve seen the most beautiful site, something new comes along and surprises us. so I’m just going to include some pictures today with a minimum amount of commentary. I think they speak for themselves.
The photo at the top is from Bow Lake, right off the highway. But everything was so still it was crazy beautiful.
This one may trip you up a bit. It is a closeup of the mountain reflection, but the stones in the foreground are not a reflection. It looks kind of weird without the perspective of the real landscape!
This is Peyto Lake, just a short hike off the highway, it is well worth the stop!
Sunwapta Falls was another really short hike off the highway, with spectacular falls. The power of the water never ceases to amaze. I was messing around with shutter speeds to get the effect you see in this photo.
We hiked around Emerald lake, I think you can guess how it got its name. Emerald Lake is in Yoho national park in British Columbia. If I had written this post yesterday I would have titled it “Yoho, Yoho a Pirates Life for Me!”
Another beautiful waterfall, next to a spot you could easily drive by and dismiss. But well worth the stop.
Here’s another which gives you a better view of its bridge like qualities.
Wardrobe Malfunction at the Hot Springs
Happy Anniversary! Jane and I have been married 30 years today. People will say that is quite an accomplishment these days, I just can’t believe that 30 years have gone by so quickly. We have two amazing children that have grown into wonderful young adults. Yes, one of them is older than we were when we got married. We have had 30 years of incredible adventures, we have seen a pretty good fraction of the world, and are looking forward to seeing lots more of it. I’ve had a pretty great career doing what I love. I couldn’t have done any of it without Jane. Thanks honey!
We started today at Moraine Lake, its smaller than Lake Louise, and when you walk up to the waters edge you might think, meh, not as blue as Louise either. But if you climb up the rocks near the waters edge you don’t have to go very far before you realize its just a matter of perspective. Of course climbing the rocks was part of the fun, but once we got to the top we realized there was a much easier way to get there! After absorbing the view for a while we made our way down (the easy way) and did a short walk along the lake shore. The sun started to come out, so we made our way back up and you can see how different the colors are in the sunlight!
From Moraine Lake we headed down the Bow River Parkway towards Banff. Supposedly the wildlife is more plentiful along the parkway that the four lane freeway. There are so many places you could stop and hike or stop and view the scenery that we really had to pick and choose. Our main stop on the way down was at Johnston Canyon. We hiked our way up to the lower falls and were rewarded with some really great views. I’m always amazed at the power of these streams and waterfalls. You can really appreciate the power of water over the centuries as you see how this deep narrow canyon was formed by the water.
By now it was lunch time and we headed for downtown Banff. Our first goal was for lunch, with a strong subgoal of finding a place where we could watch the USA versus Argentina soccer match later. We found ourselves at Park Distillery. They had the Euro on TV, but unfortunately they did not get FS1. Apparently with Canada not part of the Copa FS1 is not a priority in Banff, as this became a real theme as we went from place to place. First everyone assured us they got soccer, but when I clarified that we wanted the Copa America tournament, not the Euro things went downhill. After receiving multiple assurances that the Bear Street tavern did indeed get the Copa, we decided we were safe and could be about our business.
Our next stop of the day was the Banff Hot Springs. I will admit this seemed a bit cheesy to me, but after a few days of hiking who can resist a nice hot soak. You can rent everything you need at the Banff Hot Springs, including historical bathing suits. Holly should have done this as she forgot a critical part of her top back in the RV. Leaving her with a slightly thin top. Despite my reservations, and the fact the Hot Springs really were nothing more than a a big swimming pool full of hot mineral water the soak felt great, and we all got an extra shower! The quote of the day, was in the car on the way to the Banff Hotel when Holly was having further wardrobe problems and was heard to say “I can’t find them!”
After a short tour of the Banff Hotel, we headed back downtown for some shopping and wandering around town. Basically wasting time until the game started. At 6:30 we headed over to the Bear Street Tavern to take up our seats and wait for the game to start, only to be told that it would be an hour and a half wait for a table with no guarantee of seeing a TV. Horrors! Fine then, off we go to the Pump and Tap tavern. Described by the hostess of the Park Distillery as “a dive bar”. But being that it was an English pub they did get the game. In fact the owner had purchased a package just this week to ensure that they would get the Copa. No credit cards accepted, no table service, but lots of TVs and some decent beer. They had a very short menu with a number of deep fried options.
Just before halftime we got a text from Bear Street that our table was available. Brian went to investigate. Site lines to the TV? Copa available? As it turned out there was a view of the TV, but they did not have the package that allowed them to see the Copa. We were at the only place in town that carried the game. As time wore on, more and more USA fans filed in to watch the game. Then Messi kicked that wondrous free kick to put Argentina up 2 - 0 and all we could do was be impressed at how good the guy is. Right after halftime Argentina went up 3 - 0 and our stomachs said we should find some good food, so we made our table available to more diehard USA fans and headed down the street to the Coyote Cafe.
We didn’t arrive back at the RV until after 9:30 which meant that it was a 12 hour day of touring and enjoying the sites around Banff.
We are older than we think
Sitting in our campsite in Banff, my feet are up, I have a Gin & Tonic next to me, the campfire is started, the sun is still high in the sky, it’s 18:00. My iPhone tells me that I have taken 35,196 steps and gone 14.6 miles today! I believe the G&T is well earned. We are thinking of ordering pizza from Temple Pizza at the Fairmont hotel on Lake Louise because NOBODY WANTS TO GET OUT OF THEIR CHAIR!!
The first thing to say, is that today is totally a gift! The forecast was calling for rain but today was absolutely beautiful! Sunny and nice all day long. We had a perfect view of the mountains and everything else around Lake Louise today.
The day started out cool, with temps down to 35 overnight. Its OK, as Willard has a furnace to keep us nice and comfortable. But we all totally overdressed for the hike today, as I think it got well above the advertised high of 67 degrees. We thought this was our warmup hike of only 10K round trip. So Brian and I said we would ride our bikes up the road to Lake Louise. According to our best information it was only supposed to be 200 meters of elevation over 4 kilometers of distance. A slope of only 1/20. Someone Lied! it was 4k of straight up hill, lets just say we were warmed up by the time we got to the lake!
We took the obligatory, but still totally beautiful, pictures at the the Chateau and then we headed out for our hike to the Tea House in the Six Glaciers Plain. Six is definitely and overstatement, and if anyone thinks that global warming is a “hoax” they are idiots. If you think global warming is a hoax, I’m sorry if I’ve offended you, but science is not a matter of opinion. Science is based on observation and analysis and the evidence shows that the glaciers are MUCH SMALLER than they were 100 years ago. Why would glaciers be smaller? Higher average temperatures.
Anyway, the hike was still beautiful, and Brian even managed to see a chunk of glacier break off and fall off the cliff. The rest of us heard it, but by then it was too late!
data-cycle-fx=scrollHorz
data-cycle-auto-height=container
data-cycle-caption="#adv-custom-caption"
data-cycle-caption-template="Slide {{slideNum}}: {{cycleTitle}}">
Arrival in Banff
It was difficult to get out of bed this morning. The rain was making rainy sounds on the roof and there was a chill in the air. Windows were cracked open an it was only in the 40’s outside. Someone had to get up and start the coffee. Also, it seemed like a great time to try the heater. I’m not sure it had been used before as it had that new furnace smell to it as it warmed up our little home. This got everyone out of bed and eating breakfast. It is Father’s day today. I’ve had electronic wishes from both Kaia and Josh.
Even in the rain our departure was pretty easy. Unplug, retract, and go. It was rainy and windy as we left the campsite, the rain ended pretty quickly but the wind hounded us all the way past Calgary. We had quite the experience of refueling at the Costco gas station! We pulled off Highway 1 expecting an easy (and cheap) experience only to find the lines 6 cars deep. Thankfully there was a nice guy directing traffic who got us over to the line for the end pump. It could have been a real disaster trying to make the turn out of the station if we didn’t have the extra room. We are finding that we are limited to $150 worth of gas which seems to be about half a tank!! We can go from 1/4 to 3/4 on a $150 charge.
Outside of Calgary we left the plains of Alberta and climbed into the beautiful Canadian Rockies! We are really getting the hang of setting up camp. Less than five minutes today. We’ll have to move our campsite by about 30 feet tomorrow as we are camped next to the site we have reserved for the next few days. After a quick lunch in the RV we decided to take a bike ride to the Village for some ice and then hike along the Bow River. As you can see the scenery is pretty nice!
The Worlds Largest Buffalo
This morning we left the Pratt’s at 8:00, right on schedule. I took my first shift in the cockpit. This thing drives pretty nicely except when the wind gets gusty. Then you feel like you are constantly overcorrecting one way or the other. As we buzzed along I94 through North Dakota, we realized that we were not really in the spirit of things. No large balls of twine, no giant ears of corn! Of course, there’s an app for that! “Road Trippers” to the rescue! In no time at all we learned that Jamestown had the worlds largest buffalo monument. After a quick stop at Cenex to top off our tank (38 gallons for about half a tank), we ended up on a really bad gravel road that brought us into the frontier village from the wrong direction. Oh well, we got there.
Now we are headed towards Bizmark for lunch and maybe a glimpse of the worlds largest Holstein! Wait, how much giant bovine statuary can we see in one day?! We shall see… the Holstein is reportedly some 40 feet tall and 50 feet long.
Picking up the story a bit later, we have crossed the border into Canada! A relatively painless and friendly process. When the border guard asked if we would be staying in Canada long term, we told her it depended on the outcome of the election. She smiled and said she was hearing that a lot. Its 4:30 now, and we have another hour to go before we get to Weyburn for the night. We are not making quite as fast progress as we thought but its been a pretty easy day except for the gusty winds. I’ve taken my second shift driving, and it was definitely much better heading into the wind than having it directly across this big beast.
There is not much scenery yet, just a lot of wide open spaces and oil wells. At one point we saw big big numbers on the side of the hills outlined in stone. I suspected it was UFO markings – the infamous “area 15”, Brian thought they were targets for bombing practice from the Air Force base. Holly looked it up on Google and learned that it was a local high school tradition to spell out their graduation year in rock on one of the local hills.
We crossed into the mountain time zone just before we got to Weyburn, Saskatchewan for the night, which meant that we were right on schedule for happy hour. I like this RV style of camping, it took us less than 10 minutes to level up, connect the electricity and the water. We rolled out the canopy and set up our soccer chairs poured drinks, and by 5:15 we were relaxing and enjoying our campsite.
For dinner we took the bikes into town, and ended up at Boston Pizza. Jane and Holly both ordered a Bloody Caesar (like a Bloody Mary but Canadian). The waitress offered “fishbowl size” little did we know that they would actually be served in a fish bowl!
We are on the road this morning having successfully navigated the dumping station! More on that later.
Packing up and Heading Out
Mobile blogging! Her is my view as I write this post.
Where to start? We awoke this morning and split our preparatory duties. The women went to Costco, the men took Tucker back home and picked up the rest of the knutson’s belongings. By 1:00 we had two SUVs FULL Of stuff to put in our 32 foot Winnebago, henceforth known as Willard.
We arrived at Rent and Travel just before 2:00, our appointed time to take possession of Willard. After about 30 minutes (only) of introduction and education (which we recorded for later reference) we began the 90 minute process of moving in. Food, lawn games, photography equipment, adult beverages, hiking gear, clothing, bedding, adult beverages, grilling equipment. All the comforts of home for the next 15 days and 2,800 miles. It was hot sweaty work, but we are all packed up and on the road. Jane, of course, is taking the first shift of driving this giant beast. Brian is riding shotgun and Holly and I are trying out RV travel in the back. I’m sitting at the kitchen table writing as we go. I just saw the sign that says Morehead 198 that is our destination for the evening.
We’ll be parking at the home of our friends Dave and Carol Pratt tonight. Dave just texted us that he was going to get some beer and put some ribs on the grill to slow cook for us. We should be in Morehead by around 7:30 for our practice night of leveling, setting up, and trying things out without a lot of neighboring campers watching us mess around.
Prelude to a Recreational Vehicle
In preparation for our big RV adventure Brian, Holly, Jane and I all attended the Minnesota United FC match tonight. The match was played against Sporting KC as part of the open tournament, similar to the FA cup in England. We arrived early to check out the food trucks and the atmosphere around the stadium that the regulars refer to as the Nessi (National Sports Center NSC, get it?).
As we were enjoying our Bahn Mi sandwiches and a nice Summit EPA a dude dressed as a blue dinosaur/shark with a megaphone came to stand beside us. He proceeded to start heckling the Sporting KC keeper and his coach, as they were going through their pregame drills. We thought it was a bit odd that he sounded pretty normal when he was chatting with other people (obviously he’s a regular at the games) but his heckling voice had a definite Scottish brogue to it. As the Sporting KC players were taking their shots on goal we noticed that the last of the shots were all going over the bar and getting increasingly close to this guy (and us). The final shot was right on target as it hit him right in the megaphone. Later we learned that he was sort of a mascot called Nessi. Apparently the Loch Ness monster must look like a blue dino. It all makes sense now, even the Scottish accent.
The first half of the game was a bit boring to be honest. The ref seemed content to let pretty much everything go with nothing but a stern talking to, the Loons had no shots on goal, no corners and no points.
Things picked up a lot in the second half, including the referees use of the yellow card. There should have been a red as on of the KC players attacked a MUFC player from behind. Then KC scored first on a very dubious handball in the box. I hate it when a player goes down and they call a handball on that player when the ball hits the arm on the ground. Sacrifice your face and let yourself fall on your nose so you don’t get a handball. Benny Fielhaber took the PK and made it 1 - nil for KC. Suddenly the game came to life. The Loons definitely started to get more of the ball and went on the attack much more often. KC seemed to get more and more aggressive with their tackles as the guys in green let them play while punishing the Minnesotans for even the most minor of infractions. Eventually their evil ways caught up with them and Minnesota was awarded a PK for a really vicious tackle in the box. 1-1, game on.
Regular time ended in a draw so we went to overtime. KC seemed to find another gear and I had the sense that it was only a matter of time until they scored and put the game away. Which they did only to have the goal ruled out for offsides. A few minutes later they came back and scored again. Minnesota tried desperately to get back in it, but never really got a shot on target to level things out.
Biking with Blaise
Blaise Schaeffer, my former student for all of 3 weeks, is on a cross country bike journey. He was riding right past my lake house on Bone Lake, and so I got to participate in his adventure for 40 miles! It was awesome.
Blaise started the day in North Branch Minnesota, and texted me when he got to Balsam Lake WI, I texted him back that I would meet him at Jonzy’s Market and we would go from there. The plan was to ride to Cumberland where we would be picked up by his mom Deb. But she was running a bit behind schedule so rather than hang around the Cumberland quick trip for an hour we extended our ride to Haugen Wisconsin. You’ll probably have to look that one up on a map. That made it a 41 mile ride for me and about 80 for Blaise.
It was a great chance to ride and talk to Blaise about everything he’s seen and done on this trip. You should check out his blog to get an idea: blaise2s.com. He told me about many of the amazing hosts he has had along the way due to the Warm Showers network. Warm Showers is an online community of cyclists and hosts who are willing to have people like Blaise stay in their home overnight while they are on a long distance cycle adventure. Great idea!
The Bucket Dive
The Bucket Dive
According to our dive logs it’s been 13 years since we did our last dive. So, when we decided to make a last minute trip to the Caribbean for Spring Break this year we decided that one of our activities should be a refresher dive to get current. This turned out to be a great decision. We thought that doing the refresher early in the cruise would be good, since it would allow us the flexibility of doing a second dive later on. The bonus was that the Bucket Regatta was happening in St. Bart’s so the dive turned into a dive plus several hours in a Zodiac “chasing the race” Wow!!
We arrived at the pier at 9:30 and we were greeted by a French woman, Isabelle. She was busy unpacking tanks and BV’s etc, but was very friendly. We asked if we needed to do any paperwork, assuming the standard waivers etc. “No, we are French” she said as if that was all the explanation we needed. We were joined by a dozen other French speaking people, all much younger than us. When did this happen? We used to be the younger ones on these adventures! It was totally unclear which of them were assistants, and which of them were other guests like us. After getting everyone organized, Emmanuel, the Captain, told us that we would be diving with Elizabeth. “Who is Elizabeth?” I asked. “She is the blonde Woman, my wife. my wife” he said with a grin. The refresher turned out to be just the perfect amount of review. It’s just like riding a bike Isabelle told us. She was right. After a few minutes we were enjoying the freedom of exploring the reef.
Under water we saw, a couple of Barracuda, a sea turtle napping in a little alcove, a bunch of HUGE lobster, and a couple of grouchy eels. We also saw the usual assortment of Tangs and Wrasse, Parrotfish and Lionfish. After a slow start, my ears started to clear a bit easier and I made it down 60 feet. A very good dive. A day later, as I write this I’m still waiting for my inner ears to clear, which is a problem I had 13 years ago. It’s not painful, just a bit unpleasant to hear the world a bit muffled.
With the diving done, the next part of our adventure was just getting started. As usual, I guess I hadn’t really been paying attention, but the bonus part of our dive was that we were now going to “chase the race.” We knew that there was a huge regatta happing on St. Bart’s, but to follow the sailboats in our Zodiac was a real experience. First, the beauty of these huge boats is just amazing. With the sun gleaming off the huge white sails they were really spectacular. It was shocking to watch them fly past us completely silently, listing 30 degrees or more with their sails full of wind. As you can see these were not small inexpensive sailboats either, these were big luxury boats!
In addition to the excitement of chasing the boats, and it is really interesting how close we got to several of them, 30 - 60 feet probably. Close enough to greet the crew! But the swells today made for a pretty fun boat ride. Its always a little weird when you are in the boat look up at the tops of the waves! Emmanuel was clearly having fun driving and getting us airborn. Isabelle kept giving him the kind of stern look that says, “maybe you want to slow down a bit?” But he didn’t seem to notice, and we didn’t really mind.
In total we made a complete circle of the island, and when we made our turn to go with the wind, and “surf the waves” for a smooth ride home we were also rewarded with the site of one of the big ships letting out its spinnaker! Up it went, and then Boom! the sail filled with the wind that would propel it toward the finish line. You just can’t believe how big those sails are until you are right there when they go up.
Soon after that we were back at the pier and unloading our gear. Sunburned and very tired from a day in the sun and water. We had to hike the long way back around the bay to get to our pickup with the ships tender, and we realized then how intense the sun was. We just missed the tender as we came within site, but 15 minutes later they were back and without waiting an extra minute we were on our way back to the SeaDream I.
Somehow we managed to stay awake until dinner time at 7:30, and we chose to eat outside. Jane had Lobster and I had a really delicious Veal Saltimbocca. We were joined by our new friends from Florida and had a very nice dinner. We are definitely enjoying our time here on the SeaDream.