Of Rockslides and Oceans

We spent the day in Vancouver yesterday exploring Stanley Park. We were struck with awe at the devastation of the forest in the park. So many downed trees from some past wind storms. The hollow tree, famous for tourist photo ops, is in bad shape, held up by some wood pylons and closed to the public. Our trip to Paradise Valley in Squamish fell victim to natural disaster as well. A rock slide on the sea-to-sky highway has closed the only route there for at least 5 days.



We finally reached ocean number two and we celebrated by mingling water from the Atlantic with the Pacific. It was a good moment for us as we achieved our ocean to ocean goal. 2 oceans in one trip, nearly 9,000 km, what a heady thing. And we're feeling it a bit too, pretty road weary. But we had an incredible sleep at the Westin Bayshore, what a hotel! Our view is right onto the ocean and Stanley Park, almost too good to believe.

We had a 20 minute radio interview yesterday on CKNW 980 Talk Radio in Vancouver. That was awesome and our website saw a lot of hits after that. Our next scheduled interview is CityTV in Calgary on Wednesday August 6th. We hope you'll check us out if you are in the Calgary area!






The Festival of Lights happened last night, and we got to see fireworks reflected in the glass of the downtown highrises. Quite the sight.

We are getting ready for a day on Granville Island and are certain to hit the Vancouver Aquarium. What a city this is! Ocean, Mountain, and Metropolitan decadence all in one place. Pretty cool.

We've arrived in Vancouver!

Here we are, 8,600 kms later, and we've arrived in Vancouver! It is raining here today, but only mildly, and we're excited to begin checking things out here. Tomorrow we are going to deposit some Atlantic water into the Pacific to celebrate our successful journey of two oceans. And we have a spot on the Vancouver Talk Radio program, CKNW 970am, tomorrow at 11:30am.

We spent the last few days in Banff, campiing at Tunnel Mountain. What a wonderful place Banff is! We dropped Lesley off downtown so she could have lunch/coffee/time to herself. The kids and I toured around and got some great footage of lots of critters.

Before that we finished a great stay in the Badlands. As you can see from the pictures, the Stettler Train Ride was a hoot.



Driving yesterday between Banff and Vancouver we all felt pretty tired. We've all had moments where we wondered what we were doing, but usually at different times. Yesterday we had the "moment of doubt" all at the same time, which was a bummer. But once we arrived in Vancouver that all melted away. So good to have reached the other ocean!


We stayed with friends last night and will do so again tonight. Warm beds, hot showers, no tent to pack up, what a treat!

The Peg & The Bone Lands

Hard to believe that we have driven over 7,500 kms to date. We are currently in the badlands in Alberta. This is the longest we've stayed in one place, 3 days, and I could stay for weeks. We toured the Royal Tyrell Museum yesterday, a must if you pass through these parts, and then spent some hours hiking in the badlands. I think they should rename them the "good lands" or the "bone lands" because they are a treasure. We found some petrified wood and fossilized oysters. Amazing to think how much history this land holds.

We are camping at the "Hoodoos Campground", a fairly new campground and if you are in the Drumheller area make sure to stay here. Lots of room between sites, and the nicest grounds manager I've met on the trip. The kids like it here, and my twin-brother and sister-in-law were here with us, a real added bonus. Nice for the kids to have other people to play with than mom and dad. I'm sure they love us, but come on, 5 weeks is a long time.




We had a fantastic stay in Winnipeg. Destination Winnipeg was kind enough to put us up at The Inn at The Forks, a wonderful hotel. We used their bathroom sink to do some dishes! You'd be amazed what you'll do to keep things clean on the road for as long as we are.

Winnipeg, also known as "The Peg", really surprised us with how gorgeous the downtown is. The Forks area in particular is just incredible. The kids loved the Childrens Museum, and we loved everything else. A great city, so friendly.

While in The Peg we did an interview on CityTV Breakfast Television. That was very, very cool. Arwyn behaved herself and I think Lucas really enjoyed the "behind the scenes" stuff like seeing the cameras and meeting the hosts. We're trying to get on Calary BT and Vancouver BT as well. We'll keep you posted.



Today we are off to Stettler to enjoy the afternoon on a Steam Train. I love historical stuff and can't wait to see the ol' Steam engine.

Everybody has maintained their sanity so far, which is a miracle considering the time spent in close quarters. I think it's because we've seen so many things, met such wonderful people. Travel is a great way to expand your view of the world, 7,500 KMS into this wonderful trip and we're loving every click more than the last.

Mosquitos the size of cars

After a couple of days in Northern Ontario, we finally have some wireless internet access! What a whirlwind it's been. We've been on the road for just over a week, have traveled over 4,700km, and are taking turns having showers at the hotel. You have no idea how good a shower feels until you've slept in your car for 2 nights wondering if bears are going to come through the rag-top to have a go at your cooler (which you are sleeping next to). Good times.

We had the most fantastic time in New Brunswick. The absolute highlight was the day we spent on Glacier Lake on the most Western tip of New Brunswick. We spent the day canoeing with Eve and Guy, two of the most wonderful people you could ever meet. Eve is a doctor but spends a lot of his spare time showing people the wonders of glacier lake. He is an excellent guide with a quick wit and a kind heart. We learned a lot on the water that day, like the day he saw an eagle fly-fishing (you'll have to email for that great story).



We had a full-on steak dinner on "were wolf island" and that is where we met Guy, who looks like a woodsman from the books of history. He is also the town blacksmith and gave all of us the most amazing dinner-triangles. We'll always remember Guy, what a guy! One of the kindest yet burliest folks you'll ever have the honour to meet (and we hope you do!).




We were really sad to have to leave New Brunswick. It's not a place we ever took the time to explore before, but after this trip we won't make that mistake again. Such friendly people, such wonderful landscapes. Wow.



Northern Ontario has been mixed for us. The trip has been a bit of a push, likely trying to get in too many kilometers in too short a time. Timmons rubbed us the wrong way, Wawa corrected it with some great people, and Thunder Bay has been take-it-or-leave-it. Again, some of this is simply us pushing too hard and not having planned enough activities. If we had time to take a bush plane and go fishing I'm sure we'd love it. Or if a single moose had met us on the road to say hello. Or if the mosquitos weren't so mind-numbingly plentiful. But at this point, tired as I am, I'm just looking forward to Winnipeg. Which happens tomorrow! Better catch some zzzzzzzzzzsss.

Nova Scotia Complete, New Brunswick Here We Come!

Not too much time as we're about to tour New Brunswick for the day, but wanted to update you on our trip through Nova Scotia.

Peggy's Cove was awesome, as always. We tend to do a lot of hiking and rock scrambling there. Once you get away from the lighthouse there are zero tourists so you feel completely alone with the sea. Awesome! And Lesley got to save somebody who fell down on the rocks near the lighthouse which was cool.

Then the rain came, and came hard. We couldn't go whale watching in Lunenburg because of it. But our stay in Digby was awesome! I love the Mountain Gap Inn, great way to journey into the past. Seems to be a theme as we've just spent the night at the Fairmont Algonquin.



Ferry ride from Digby to St. John was waaaaayyyy cool. Driving into the belly of the beast was neat, and they have the most amazing kids program there. Also got to meet the Captain and Lucas got to steer the ferry. And we lived!



We're off to Kingsbrae gardens and a full day in New Brunswick. Woo Hoo!

Made it to Halifax

Well, we're finally in Halifax after 2 days of driving. On Friday we left at 9am and drove pretty much through the whole night. We covered 1,500 km on our first day. It really, really hurt by 3am. The kids were so awesome about the whole thing!



After sleeping in the Jeep for 3 hours at a gas station just inside the New Brunswick border we drove to Magnetic Hill. It is the oddest of all places. For some reason when you put your car in neutral it seems to roll up hill. Pretty cool, but not $20 cool or what ever they charge. I remember going there as a kid for free. There was nothing there. But now there is a whole theme park! Strange. But at least it's giving some kids summer jobs.

And finally we arrived in Nova Scotia! We were giddy, likely from lack of sleep, but getting to the border really made the whole trip feel worth it. It's our start, our place to begin this crazy journey.



We've spent a great evening with family, a lovely bar-b-que and walk by the ocean. My family here on the coast is awesome, so we love to see them when we can. We're on a schedule so we can't see as much of them as we'd like, but better than nothing.

How good can a shower feel? I'll tell you, like heaven! Sleeping on the side of the road and driving 2,000 km really makes you feel like of grody. And we did some laundry here too. Yippee! We're clean and so are our duds!

Tomorrow we get up early and head into Halifax. A lovely day on the Harbour Hopper, Theodore Tugboat, and an evening at the Westin hotel. We can hardly wait.

An episode should be out early next week. Stay tuned and thanks for watching!

24 Hours To Go

I'm having my first cup of coffee and very excited about the fact that in less than a day we begin our journey. I can hardly believe it.

Yesterday I spent quite a bit of my day at Rose City Chrysler . They were kind enough to sponsor our trip by making sure our girl (the Jeep) had a new pair of shoes for her big walk-about. A shiny set of BF Goodrich MTs all around. I bought the Jeep there a couple of years ago and they've done nothing but exceed my expectations again and again. Yesterday the Dealer principal, Nick Sebastian, even had the lads give the Jeep a full cleaning and polish, just wanted her to look good for the start of our trip.

We had a few more papers cover our story. And we're trying to get CHCH news to cover our launch tomorrow, but nothing back from them yet.

Today we pack the Jeep. Tomorrow we begin our adventure. Don't forget to check in often at http://www.havefunoutthere.ca
as well be posting new episodes every couple of days.

Halifax, Vancouver, and every stop in between, here we come!

Rose City Chrysler joins as a Lead Sponsor

Yesterday I got a call from the owner of Rose City Chrysler (http://www.rosecitychrysler.com)and they are supplying our Jeep with a brand-new set of shoes: A set of BF Goodrich MT radials, which will come in handy in our 12,000 kilometer journey.

We also got a call from CHCH news, and we'll be doing a morning show segment with them on the day we leave on our journey, Friday, July 11th. Hard to believe that date is less than a week away. Wow.

We've tested the Sony BlueTooth wireless microphone and it is unbelievable. We couldn't be happier with the 5.1 surround sound (you can also select it as center channel only which is what I've used it for most).

Articles came out in the Welland Tribune and the Port Colborne Leader, talking about our home-grown show. Since then we've had people stopping us on the street to let us know how cool they think this journey is. Travel inspires people, we knew that, it inspired us after all. But we didn't know just how much it would inspire others, enough to stop us and tell us how much they want to follow the show. Wow. One person shaking your hand, smiling all the while, telling you that they are going to watch every episode, well that is what it is all about, why we've put the effort in that we have.

I'm in Orlando Florida right now and all I can think about is getting home so we can get this show on the road.