Along the road to Alberta

Part one of the long drive is over for a few days. We left Traverse City and had a nice drive up to Mackinac Island area. Cherry trees were in bloom for much of the way. But it was starting to get windy. We planned on spending the next day going out to Mackinac Island and exploring around. But the next day was windy, cold, rainy, and promising to get worse during the day. So instead of going out to the island, we went across the bridge and spent the day exploring Mackinaw City. Went to a very interesting light house on Old Mackinac Point, and found Pasties for dinner. Kind of a meat pie with the pie crust wrapped around it. Miners used to take them in their lunch pails.

From Machinac to Superior, Wisconsin, and then from Superior,Wisconsin through Minnesota to Minot, North Dakota. Two very long driving days! There were two highlights, though.

Bemidji, Minnesota is the birthplace of Paul Bunyan. There is a statue of Paul and Babe to prove it. It is also the headwaters of the Mississippi, and since Paul made the Mississippi, Bemidji gets to claim him. Babe used to be mounted on wheels so they could take it all over Minnesota to parades. Cool, huh?

The second is the geographical center of North America in Rugby, North Dakota. Bet you didn't know that. Well, Glen and Ardyce do!

In Minot, we needed to get an oil change for the motorhome. Since it isn't something anyone can do, we had to find a truck place. We were there early, and were on the road by 10:00.

We arrived in Glasgow, Montana around 2:45, Mountain time, and were able to get the Jeep washed, laundry done, and walk down the road to a quilt shop! Pretty good day!

On Wednesday we drove to Shelby, Montana so we would be ready to cross into Canada today, Thursday. When we arrived, it was snowing and raining, and the owner of the campground promised us that it would be below freezing overnight. And we are going to Alaska? When we arrived at the camp ground it was nearly empty, but by early evening it was nearly full and most of the arrivals were headed out early the next morning for Alaska......imagine that!

But, before dark, the sky cleared, the wind calmed down, and we were ready to go in the morning. Again, crossing the border was a breeze. We must look very honest! We left a little late and most of the other rigs had already departed, since we didn't see any of them at the border we assume they all made across without trouble including the guy with all his guns and the family that thought they had to eat all their food before crossing. They were going to stay an extra day at the campgound to accomplish the task but the owner talked them out of it.

We are in Drumheller, Alberta Canada and are in a fairly new park down in the Badlands area. There are hills all around us, and we'll go to Dinosaur Provincial Park, and see the HooDoos and Dinosaur things for the next few days. After that we plan to go to Banff and then meet Don and Marilyn.

Hope all is well back East.

Jim and Sue