Packed and all ready to go, we left in our TREK on Monday morning June 28^th and our first stop was Butler, PA. Our goal was to spend a day looking up family records and history to solve the puzzle of our ancestors. We found a little campground outside of Butler and analyzed our findings and planned our attack on the County Courthouse the next day.

After acquiring all the data we could find, we headed north to Erie. Our main purpose for going to Erie was to travel around the 8^th grade memories of John. We drove right down East 26th Street with no semi-trailers ahead or behind us. The trucks have all moved to I-90. The house at 1126 now has an enclosed front porch, so no one was out on the porch counting the cars going by like John used to do. His bedroom in the front would be a lot quieter now because, in 1956, the street was the main route (Route 20) from Cleveland to Buffalo. There was still a garden in the back and the garage was back there on the alley. We could not drive the RV down the alley because of the low hanging trees. I think this was the first time an RV cruised that section of Erie.

The restaurant-bar (Bill's) on the corner was still there as we circled the block. John's Mom worked there on weekends as a waitress for a few months. We drove east on 26th street and went under the railroad tracks to find the football field where John played on the City Champion team in 1952-3. The field is now a parking lot for a food store and the area is a strip mall. We drove up to 28th street and passed the corner where he was a street crossing guard after school. The school and church were in good condition, but there was an addition on the school sometime in the past 43 years. We then drove down to the Lake Erie lakefront, which has been totally changed. They have built a large city library and a Maritime museum. The museum includes the main building of the old Erie Power Plant that made electricity until the 60's. A huge small yacht harbor has also been built along with a new pier with a tall viewing tower. We then leisurely drove out on Presque Isle, which is still the same, except the walking path has now been paved and is full of bikers and roller bladers. And so ended memory lane as.

Wednesday morning, June 30^th, we went to the Erie Zoo. This is a quality zoo with lots of recent money donated to improve the yards and environments of the animals. The main zoo building housed the leopards, grivet monkeys, naked mole rats, and the lowland gorillas. The indoor cages were class 2, but very well done with murals of the native habitat on the walls of the cage. There were two leopard pups that were born in May. The mother had neglected the female pup, so she was separated from mom and brother, but they could see and smell each other. The Kiboka Outpost was a structure that simulated a research hut in Africa and contained educational displays. Around this area were the warthogs, zebras, cheetah, and rhinos. In the afternoon, we went to the Lake Erie museum which related the story of Oliver Hazard Perry's battle (We have met the enemy and they are ours) on Lake Erie in the War of 1812. The reconstructed ship, Niagara, is berthed there and sails every month. We headed west into Ohio and camped at Geneva-on-the-Lake. This town on Lake Erie is where Mom and Dad vacationed for a weekend when we lived in Erie. They left me in charge although the neighbors were looking over my shoulder.

Thursday, July 1, we drove into Cleveland and spent six hours at the Cleveland Metropolitan Zoo. What a zoo! This is the 7^th oldest zoo in the US, established in 1882. The Rainforest building opened in 1992 and features a simulated Borean rainforest. Animals, birds, and foliage were representative of the rainforest. Periodically, they simulate a thunder/lightening storm in the rainforest. The rainforest area takes about three hours to walk through.

There are seven orang utans in the rainforest, but they are not all on exhibit at the same time. Kyle, male, was born on Dec 7, 1996 to Kayla (10 yr) and Tiram (10 yr). Kayla is a very good mother and is always around when Kyle is swinging on the ropes or playing with the other orangs. The other orangs were 31 yr old Chiquita, 31 yr old Jonathan, his daughter Lena, and Alexandria. The orangs live in a large well-lighted domed area of the rainforest. Lots of ropes, trees, and ledges to climb upon. We chatted with a zoo worker assigned to the rainforest area to assist the visitors.

In the development of the rainforest exhibit, the designers recorded actual sounds to play in the environment giving the visitors a quality experience. Murals are used in the background of the animal environments to complete the simulation. The leaf cutter colony is exquisite and consists of a two layer exhibit, measuring about 10 feet wide by 6 feet high, with a view of the below ground fungus gardens (10x3) and the above ground foraging (10x3). Simulated trees and root structures provide the viewer with an understanding of how the ants move about the forest floor, cut leaves, and return them through a single portal to the below ground nest. The above ground view is well lighted and the below ground view is dimly lighted.

The wolf wilderness is also exquisite. The visitors walk into a rustic research building and look through one-way glass into the wolf environment. The natural setting includes a stream with a beaver home, rocks, trees, and den.

Michigan

We continued west and crossed the border into Michigan and stayed at Monroe just south of Detroit. On Friday, July 2, we drove into Dearborn and spent the day at the Greenfield Village, which Henry Ford built and dedicated in 1929. He brought many of the original homes of friends and famous people that he admired into the village. Homes and of course his own boyhood home were fully furnished with original or contemporary to the time furniture. Last August, we stopped for a day and only had time to do the automobile part of the exhibits. Friday evening we headed out to the home of our friends (we met on the Alaskan cruise) at Whitmore Lake just north of Ann Arbor. Marie and Russ hosted us for the July 4^th weekend. Marie's brothers and sister came from Indiana and Ohio to enjoy the weekend and celebrate young Kathryn's birthday (9 years old) on July 4. Friday evening, Russ, Marie, and Marie's 2 nieces (Anna 3 yrs and Kathryn), and we went to Chilis for dinner. Marie's brother and wife (Gary and Connie) were given a day to themselves, so they were off exploring the region, going to dinner and a show. Saturday’s weather started to warm up to 90 degrees and high humidity. Marie's youngest brother, Don, came up from Ohio, and the nine of us went out to dinner in Chelsea to an excellent restaurant where we had shrimp/lobster on angel hair pasta. Russ and Marie live on Strawberry Lake and have a pontoon boat. A sunset ride on the lake was relaxing.

On July 4^th we swam and enjoyed the company. Marie's, sister, good friend, and uncle and aunt joined us for a cookout. The Forth was also Kathryn's 9^th birthday, so Marie had a cake and ice cream. She thought the use of relighting candles would be a fun thing to have on Kate's cake. Kate didn't seem to be too thrilled with having to blow and blow. Well, Marie grabs a plastic cup filled with ice cubes and started to take the candles off the cake and put them in the cup. Well, of course, the candles relight and she quickly put the cup down on the counter and grabbed a porcelain cup where she dosed the rest of the candles. As she turned around to put them on the sink, there in the corner of the sink, just under the paper towels the plastic cup was in flames!! No harm done, but this could have been a big problem and one that you do not think about. How do you really know when the candles are OUT?

We enjoyed the fireworks provided by many of the lake front property owners. We went out on the pontoon boat for two hours swiveling our heads around to see all the fireworks. Gary had bought 2 Roman candles and 2 other box type fireworks, which we set off from the end of the dock. Lots of big boom booms!!

Monday morning, July 5^th, we left the gracious company of our friends and headed to Sault Ste. Marie the last city in the US on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Traffic was light and there were no trucks on the road. The Mighty Mac Bridge, or the Mackinac Bridge, located at Mackinaw is the largest single suspension span in the world. The bridge connects the main part of Michigan with the Upper Peninsula and is five mile long with four lanes and the winds whip across the bridge all the time. When we crossed, the winds were quite mild and there was no buffeting on the RV. An unfortunate camper, going the other way, had a problem when his awning started to deploy halfway across the bridge.

We arrived at the Soo Locks campground, which is right on the St. Mary's river just east of the locks. Lovely to just sit and watch the boats go by and gaze across to Sault Ste Marie, Ontario. A major storm blew through here last night we were told, water spouts, and heavy rain. Tonight we had wind and heavy rain again, but we were safe and sound. The weather forecasted severe rainstorms for the next day, but they did not show up.

Tuesday, July 6^th, we went into town to take the Soo Locks train tour. A little automotive train takes you on a tour of the town and across into Canada for a double decker bus tour of the Canadian city. Old Fort Brady, that guarded the locks, was turned into a lovely campus for the Lake Superior State University. The old brick buildings were refurbished and now make quite a good-looking campus. We watched several boats lock through on their way to either Lake Huron or Lake Superior. Tonight was dinner at the Antler's restaurant, two blocks down from our campground. The restaurant is known for good food and décor - lots of taxidermy, antlers, and other memorabilia. John had baby back ribs and I had beer battered white fish. The wind was really blowing this afternoon; you almost got blown away!

Wednesday, July 7^th, we headed west along the Upper Peninsula (UP). The acquisition of the UP was the reason for a fight in Congress over the Michigan/Ohio border. Michigan finally agreed to cede the Toledo area to Ohio and for this they got the UP and statehood. With the Mackinac Bridge built in 1957, the land is very accessible for camping, snowmobiling, fishing, etc. The main road, route 28 goes through beech, hemlock, maple, and birch forests. This was a big logging area and, in fact in the 1800's, most of the trees in the UP were logged. Only in the Michigan National Forests were native stands of trees preserved. The UP is between Lake Superior and Lake Michigan. Lake Superior is the largest of the Great Lakes and supposedly all the Great Lakes can fit within the lake’s shores and still have room left over. Along route 123, between Newberry and Paradise, we stopped at Tahquamenon Falls State Park to see the Upper Falls on the Tahquamenon River. The upper falls is 50 feet high and 200 feet wide and reputed to be the second largest falls east of the Mississippi. Part of route 28 is a scenic drive along Lake Superior between Munisinger and Negaunee. We stopped at Bessemer for the night. We had picked up some fresh white fish for dinner.

Minnesota

Thursday, July 8^th, we were up early and headed toward Duluth. Intending to go to the Lake Superior Zoo and view the city from the scenic drive, our plans were foiled because of the pouring rain. We opted not to do either, and continued on to Grand Rapids. Minnesota is known for giant statues - Paul Bunyon and the Jolly Green Giant at Blue Earth located on the Minnesota Iowa border - and for two mithical towns: Sinclair Lewis's Gopher Prairie and Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegon. The headwaters of the Mississippi are here in Minnesota at Lake Itasca 20 miles south of Bemidji. Bermidji has a large statue of Paul Bunyon and Babe (painted bright blue) at their lakeside park and Visitor's Center. Route 2 with little truck traffic is a 4-lane highway across the northern part of Minnesota and travels through an Indian reservation. Rain has continued all day and we decided to push on to Grand Forks North Dakota.

North Dakota

Lots of construction was going on in downtown Grand Forks, then the light dawned on us that this was the town/city that was devastated by the Red River flood of 1997. We stopped here at a truck stop and were able to send email finally. Being in the boonies, Juno doesn't have the local numbers, so this was a long distance call to the only phone number in ND for Juno…at the cost of $.48/min and this only took a minute to burst the email up and back. We camped tonight at the FamCamp at Grand Forks Air Force Base. We decided that, since we were here on base, this would be a treat to go to the Officers Club. Here they were having Family night with hot dogs and hamburgers!! So we went to the Enlisted Club for steak night! We opted for steak. At the campground, there were lots of prairie dogs running around. We think they are so cute at the zoo, but I am sure out here in ND they are a nuisance. The evening cleared up to a bright blue sky…let's hope the trend continues tomorrow.

Friday, July 9^th, the day was overcast and drizzly. The winds were very gusty and as we had a problem with our awning…the wind caught the edge and the awning started to unroll. We slowed down and pulled off the road, but figured we couldn't fix the problem for the wind was blowing heavily right at the awning. We drove slowly about a quarter of a mile and found a barn on the side of the road to provide a windbreak so we could get the awning rolled back up and secured. The incident reminded us of an RV we saw crossing the Mackinac Bridge with an unrolling awning being whipped by the wind. We, fortunately, were able to stop and asses the problem, whereas the camper on the bridge had to keep driving.

We headed toward Devil's Lake that is a huge natural lake in ND and the home of the Spirit Lake Sioux Indians. The water level of the lake has risen steadily since the 1970s. The level of 1437 feet above sea level is the highest reached since 1996. Because the lake has no outlet, the water just keeps getting deeper. Apparently, there are efforts underway by the state to deal with the problem of the lake consuming land at a rapid rate. The legend of the lake says that the Sioux and Chippewa's battled and when the Sioux returned home across the water a storm broke out with a wild fury and raged all night. In the morning only pieces of broken boats were found - no warriors. Thus, the Indians have avoided going out on this lake from then on. The Indians referred to the lake as "Spirit Lake is bad" meaning the water was unfit to drink. The white man's translation resulted in the word "Devil" for bad, thus becoming Devil's Lake. As we drove south from Route 2 toward Fort Totten, the roads were very close to the lake; in fact the water was lapping at the road and in one place water was splashing over the road. The weather turned nicer and the dark clouds gave way to blue sky.

South of town of Devil's Lake is the historic Fort Totten, built in 1867 as a military fort and named in honor of Brevet Major General Joseph Gilbert Totten, chief engineer of the US Army. This is one of the best-preserved military posts in the Trans-Mississippi West. After 1891, the post became a US Indian Industrial Boarding School until 1959 when the property was taken over by the governments as an historic site. There is no indication of a wall around the 17 buildings that contain a wide assortment of memorabilia and antiques.

Driving back to route 2, we stopped at Rugby, the geographical center of North America. We had to stop and take a picture with the RV setting beside the monument. Minot, the next town, about 60 miles further west, is the home of the Roosevelt Park Zoo. This was a nice small zoo that is focused on just a few animals. Environments are large and interesting for the animals. They have zebras, one giraffe, male and female lions, 2 snow leopards, spider monkeys, and a lovely grey wolf display. We continued on south to get to Lake Sakakawea and camped in the State Park on the south shores with a site right overlooking the lake. We made this our stop for two days to explore the area.

The Lewis and Clark Interpretative Center in Washburn opened in June 1997 and the facility tells the story of the winter of 1804-5 when Lewis & Clark camped on the shores of the Missouri River and where they were joined by Sakakawea. There is a dispute as to what woman actually guided them - Sakakawea or Sacagawea. Sakakawea is Hidasa for Bird Woman and the other is Boulder Woman. Wyoming claims Sacagawa and North Dakota claims Sakakawea. There is even a dispute as to when she died. One record says she died in 1812 and another says she lived till 1874. Sakakawea was a Shoshone Indian born at the Knife River Indian Village. She was taken captive by a Hidatsa war party that attacked the Shoshone at Three Forks, Montana where they were hunting buffalo. Some historians have estimated that she was 12 when she was captured in 1800 and taken to the Hidatsa village. There, a Frenchman named Toussaint Charbonneau, a trader, purchased her. Lewis & Clark hired him as a guide and he brought Sakakawea with him. She wasn't a guide, but proved to be invaluable to the Corps of Discovery in pointing out landmarks that lead them through the headwaters of the Missouri and in surviving in the wilderness. Charbonneau and Sakakawea joined the Corps at Fort Mandan in the winter of 1804 and Sakakawea gave birth to a son, Jean Bapiste or Pomp as Clark called him.

At the Interpretative Center, there was an exhibit of the paintings of Karl Bodmer , a Swiss, who came to the US with Prince Maximilian, a German from Wied, in 1833-34 to see the real west. Maximilian described the Indian cultures and Bodmer painted them. Many famous Indian and landscape pictures allow us to recall the experiences they had. George Catalan, an American, also painted and interpreted the west, but Bodmer overshadowed him. Bodmer's entire collection consists of nearly 400 sketches, paintings, and engravings.

The Interpretative Center also displayed the draft copy of President Jefferson's letter of instructions to Meriwether Lewis. Jefferson was very explicit in what he wanted the Corps of Discovery to do. This was to be a peaceful encounter with the natives and to document all the animals, plants, and people that they encountered. These notes were to be guarded with their lives for the documentation of their discoveries were recognized by Jefferson to be the most important result of the journey.

Sitting on Saturday evening at our campsite overlooking Lake Sakakawea, sun shining on the bluffs opposite us and the beautiful blue waters crossed occasionally by boats, is very relaxing and beautiful. We highly recommend North Dakota as a place to visit. Lake Sakakawea is a man made lake resulting from the 2.5-mile long dam across the Missouri River. The Lake is the third biggest lake in the US and the fifth largest dam. All around the lake are numerous campgrounds, picnic areas, and boating facilities. This was Saturday night and the campground was full as the campers celebrated Christmas in July at the marina with all the boats in the boat parade decorated for the Christmas Holidays.

North Dakota is truly a beautiful state and we knew little of the history of the state. Famous people, who have connections here, are Teddy Roosevelt, who got his beginnings in conservation here, Sitting Bull, Custer, Lewis & Clark, Sakakawea, Roger Maris, and Lawrence Welk. Both North and South Dakota entered the US at the same time as the 39^th and 40^th state and, because President Harrison shuffled the papers, we do not know which state was first. Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site is located between Washburn and our campsite in the town of Stanton. This is the only National Park that chronicles the Indian culture. The Mandan Indians lived in earthlodges in the summer and built temporary lodges along the protected riverbank in the winter.

Sunday, July 11^th, we left Lake Sakakawea and head to Theodore Roosevelt National Park (TRNP) on the Montana North Dakota border. There are two units to the park, a north and a south unit. We went to the south unit, whose entrance is located on I-94 at Medora. There is a 36-mile scenic loop road with interpretive signs that explain the park's historical and natural phenomena. Our first stop was at Prairie Dog Town where there was a herd of buffalo, and, of course, lots of prairie dogs. Prairie dogs and buffalo are generally found together. The prairie dogs dig the holes and put the loose dirt on the surface, the buffalo use this loose dirt to roll around in to clean themselves. Roosevelt came here in 1883 and loved the area so much, he bought the Maltese Cross Ranch. That winter both his mother and wife died, but he continued to return to the badlands area. He was a great hunter, who had the trophies of the animals all over his home, yet he was a conservationist, who strove to increase the national parks, national monuments, wildlife refuges, and established the Forest Service in 1906.

In the town of Medora, we visited the Chateau de Mores that was the former 25-room home of the Marquis de Mores. The Marquis and his New York wife, Medora, came from Paris to this part of the country. He had a vision to create a business of meatpacking and sending the finished product to eastern markets. He founded a new town, since named after his wife, and the railroad was already here and would be his lifeline to shipping. He built the meat packing plant in June 1883. Cold storage facilities were added across the country in 1884. The smokestack was finished in June 1885 and supposedly cost $25,000 and the plant could handle up to 150 beefs a day. He bought cattle, created the Northern Pacific Refrigerator Car Company, owned the icehouse and had retail stores in several eastern cities. His icehouses along the Northern Pacific Railway kept beef shipments cold. He also shipped salmon from west to east coast markets and moved milk products along with is beef. However, he was a man before his time with refrigeration. His dreams ended in failure three years later due to the public's taste for corn-fed beef that were driven and trained from Texas to the slaughtering houses of Chicago, Philadelphia and New York.

We camped tonight at the National Park campground. Medora has lots of activities for the tourist and lots of motel beds. Back in 1947, the town fathers built an amphitheater in the hillside and started putting on entertainment for the tourists. Now, this complex hosts a big two-hour musical relating the pride the locals have in North Dakota, Teddy Roosevelt, and Medora. The amphitheater can sit 2,800 people!! Prior to the show you can have dinner at the Pitchfork Fondu. This is an 8-oz ribeye that is impaled on a pitchfork and dropped into hot oil and cooked for about three minutes. DELICIOUS!! The steak was so tender that the meat could be cut with a plastic knife! Tonight, they fed 500 people and on weekends they usually feed 700-900 people!!

Monday we headed north to Canada. We got our liquor supply in the RV down to just a couple ounces hoping that this was the trigger that caused us to be searched when we went into Canada at Niagara Falls last September. We got to the border, Port Qungre, and we were the only vehicle going through. Very friendly, the customs agent asked us many questions and then asked us to open the door so he could come in. Well, he did a cursory search, opening drawers, making us put the bed down, etc., lasting about 15 minutes. Shortly, we were on a Canadian road that was quite rough for about 20 miles. We were headed to Moose Jaw for the night. Moose Jaw got its name either from the fact that the Indians saw that the point in the river was the shape of a Moose Jaw, OR a pioneer repaired the wheel of his wagon with a Moose Jaw. The drive took us until 5 PM to get to the campground at Moose Jaw, which we found to be very crowded. We were in overflow and by the end of the evening the overflow (no electric, no water, no sewage, no site!) was overflowing! On Tuesday morning, we headed west on the Canadian Highway #1 toward Medicine Hat and Brooks. Medicine Hat has the largest teepee in the world. The teepee is just a metal structure of the teepee poles that is 22 stories high and was built in Calgary for the World's Fair and then moved to Medicine Hat. We were headed to visit the Dinosaur Provincial Park that is a UN World Heritage Site just north of Brooks. This site is where they have discovered a huge deposit of dinosaur and other ancient creature bones. Anthropologists believe this was the western edge of a giant Inland Sea and erosion eventually brought the dinosaur bones to the surface of a replica of the Badlands in the US. After getting our campsite in Brooks, we drove to the dinosaur site and stood at the ridgeline of what really looked like "Badlands", you could see with binoculars in the distance a team of people excavating a site they had found. The Royal Tyrrell Paleontology field station is located here and with a lab and a small museum. The main museum, which is supposed to be fantastic, is two hours north of here at Drumheller. Apparently, politics played a major role in locating the museum off the beaten track at Drumheller and not at the park or in Brooks. Unfortunately, Drumheller is out of our way and we won't get there. On the way back to the campsite in Brooks, we stopped at the Brooks aqueduct that was built in 1880's to irrigate the province. This is a huge, very long cement structure that is raised above the ground about three stories and, when the channel met a railroad line, there was an inverted siphon. They found that the cement didn't provide an adequate flow and the cement actually inhibited the water more than they expected, so in the 1980's an earthen aqueduct was constructed to provide irrigation to the area. The old cement aqueduct, several miles long, is now a historic site.

Wednesday, July 14, we are headed to Calgary and the Stampede! We arrived at the McMahon football stadium and friends, we had met in New Orleans, helped us park with our Creative World tour group about noon. Rain soon started, so we donned our rain parkas, got out our warm clothes, and headed downtown on the C-train. The subway type train stops one block from where we were camped and will be our transportation to the stampede. For $1.60 CN we got a one way ride on the train, but the rally has discount tickets for $1.35. We spent about four hours in the Glenbow museum in downtown Calgary that features native Americans, life in Canada, and other special exhibits. This evening we went out to dinner, i.e. across the street from the stadium, with Don and Donna, who we had met on the barge trip in March. They work for Creative World Travel and were parking the newcomers before they took off to lead another group to Alaska.

Thursday, July 15^th we had the morning on our own because the rest of the rally was still arriving. There was also another group that had been together since the 1^st of July and that group is doing all of Alberta on a trip called the Northwest Exposure. We stayed around the RV this morning with the rain. The entire group had a city tour at 1 PM, and then at 5 we had dinner at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology. The cooking school put on our dinner in their dining room. This apparently is the best cooking school in Canada and they graduate about 50 students per term this is a one-year course. The dining rooms is set formally with all the glassware and correct silverware. Our menu was smoked salmon on lettuce leaves with dill sauce; greens salads with raspberry vinaigrette; fresh baked bread made by the bakery in the building; marinated boned chicken breast, ribs, twice baked potato (standing on end with a diagonal cut where the potato was stuffed), baby asparagus; for dessert a bing cherry\whipped cream\filo dough tart, fresh vanilla ice cream on a wafer made of poppy seeds and sesame seeds. DELICIOUS meal. The waiters and waitresses are all beginner cooks. After dinner, we had a tour of the kitchen and these cooks are so proud of their school for they have some of the best chiefs in Canada as teachers. The school only costs them $4,000 CN ($2,666 US) compared to the US costs of $28,000! The Cottonwood Country band played through dinner and dancing after dinner.

Friday, July 16^th, we woke up to a beautiful blue-sky day. Last night was downright cold and we needed the furnace and the comforter on. At 7:45 AM, we boarded the bus for the short ride downtown to the Calgary Tower for a great view of the city and breakfast. The dining room revolved, while we were eating our pancakes, sausage, and eggs. After breakfast, we had our choice of going to Heritage Park, a Williamsburg type park, or the Calgary Zoo. Of course we opted for the Calgary Canada Zoo. We spent five hours there and that included a personal tour of the orang utans and gorillas by their keeper. The zoo has a colony of 6 gorillas, which included 2 juvenile males about 3 years old, 2 producing females, a silverback male and a one-year-old male. There are only 2 orang utans at the zoo. An 18 year old male (Chewy for short) that came from the San Francisco zoo a year or so ago and a 40 year old female, Red, who has had 11 offspring. At first, the two orangs were chummy, but then Chewy must have frightened her and she has backed off and remains by herself. Chewy was hand-reared and identifies more with humans than with other orangs. Rose, the keeper took us out back to feed peanuts to both the orangs and the gorillas. The outside environments were very stimulating for both animals. The zoo also has a beautiful environment for their four wolves and they were very active running around and coming close to the people behind the fence to drink at the stream. The zoo also has a unique prehistoric portion of the park, where they have recreated the Badlands and have at least twenty prehistoric animals in various settings. The kids really like this park. We did too.

We returned to the campground for a Creative World chicken dinner then off for the evening to the Stampede grounds for the chuckwagon races. The Stampede is the largest rodeo in the world started in 1912 and they do it up big. The grandstands can sit about 30,000 people. In addition, the grounds around the grandstand has agricultural exhibits with cows, bulls, llamas, pigs, and sheep; Nashville Concert tent for country singers, Coca-Cola stage, Indian Village, and other outdoor events. Lots of food places, indoor exhibits, and rides everything that you can imagine at a very large fairground. The Creative World Travel Rally that we are with has 50-yard line front row seats for the chuckwagon races and two rodeos. The chuckwagon races have four sets of four chuckwagons racing. The chuckwagon has a driver and three outriders. There are four horses pulling the wagon with the speedier horses in the lead and the stronger horses next to the wagon. There are two items, tent poles and stove that must be placed in the wagon as the race begins and the outriders do this. There are two barrels and the wagon's wheel has to be behind the second barrel. As the gun sounds, the outriders holding their horses, throw the tent poles and stove into the back of the wagon and the wagon bolts forward and must go around the first barrel and back around the second barrel in a figure 8 and head toward the race track. Meanwhile, the outriders must try to get on their horse as they go around the first barrel. Some cowboys don't get on their horse or are thrown from their horse in the frantic attempt to catch up with the chuckwagon. All four wagons head down the track and complete 3/4 of a mile. When they cross the finish line, their outriders must be within a specific distance of their team's wagon. This is a timed race and for every foul, like a knocked over barrel, or an outrider that doesn't cross the line, or an item not placed in the wagon, the team is penalized from 1-5 seconds. In the first race, one of the horses pulling on the chuckwagon was so hyper that they couldn't calm him down - he reared up and flipped - and that wagon was out of the race. Sadly, last week there was an accident with the chuckwagons and a driver was killed and another injured. After the races, a terrific two hour stage show culminated with fireworks. The Young Canadians were the singers and dancers along with a comedian, jugglers, and acrobats. The fireworks were spectacular and all ended about 11:30 PM. Great day!

Saturday, July 19^th we slept until 9 and then were on our own at the Stampede grounds for the day, which included the rodeo at 1:30 in the afternoon. We got down to the stampede grounds about 10 AM and walked around to see everything. We had the same seats for the rodeo that started at 1:30 with cow milking (photo). Twenty milk cows run out onto the field with twenty cowboys on horseback and two assistants per team foot chasing after them. The object is to rope the cow, jump off your horse, hold the cow while your partner milks the cow and runs up to the desk to hand in the milk. This is a timed race, but there has to be a specific amount of milk in the container. The next event was bareback bronco riding. You must stay on the horse eight seconds to qualify and your only hold onto the horse is a heavy line around a neck collar. The broncos come out of the gate trying to throw the cowboy. They get up to 50 points for the style of the horse and 50 for the style of the rider. The cowboys look like rag dolls flopping their legs around. They wear loose chaps and the chaps fly as the legs move. As the head of the horse goes down, the legs of the cowboys fly upward.

Bull dogging is next. The small steer with horns is placed in a chute and the riders are in a paddock beside the chute. The cowboy has to give the steer a 10 second lead and thus can't break out of the paddock early or he is penalized 10 seconds. As the steer runs forward, the cowboy rides up, jumps off his horse and lands at the left side of the steer, grabs his horns, or sometimes his nose and flops the steer to the ground. When the steer's rear end hits the ground, the work is done. Four to five seconds is average for the cowboy! During the week, these races are repeated and the cowboy accumulates a score and the winning cowboy gets a prize. Then on the last day of the rodeo, there is a $50,000 prize for the top guy in each category and for overall. Second place gets nothing! The next race is the women's barrel racing. There are three barrels on the course and the horse and rider come into the stadium, chooses either the left or right barrel and must go around the first two barrels in a figure 8, then around the 3^rd barrel and head for the finish line. This is a timed race and, if the horse or rider knock over a barrel, there is a 5-second penalty. Times were around 17 seconds.

Next were the bucking horses with saddles. Here the cowboy has a saddle to sit on and a rope to hold onto while the horse tries to throw him off. Again the scoring is 50 points for the horses' style and 50 for the cowboy. Calf roping is also a timed event. The calf runs out of the chute and the cowboy chases after him, rope in his teeth, ropes him the horse backs up and tightens the line, while the cowboy runs over to the calf, throws the calf to the ground and ties three feet with two wraps and a half hitch. The cowboy remounts, loosens the rope to see if the calf wiggles his feet free which will result in a penalty. Winning times were 7-9 seconds. The last event is the bucking bull event. We heard the announcement that Cowtown raises the bulls and this is Cowtown, New Jersey near Millville!! The cowboy's only hold is on a rope placed around the bull front end and they come out of the cage with the bull trying to throw off the rider. The cowboy must remain on the bull for 8 seconds to qualify, then is given a score. The score depends on the style of the cowboy - hips and shoulders have to be in line with the bull's and he gyrates. Out of the ten bulls only a couple qualify. What an afternoon!!! After the rodeo, we walked around the stampede grounds then headed to the Corral where the magic show was presented at 7 PM. The Magic World of Illusion had five acts - Murray Hatfield, Ed Alonzo, Julianna Chen, Nicholas Night, and Greg Frewin. Great illusions!

Sunday, July 18^th was our last day at the rodeo. We again had tickets for the finals of the rodeo events - cow milking, bareback broncs, bull dogging, barrel racing, bucking horses (winner won by 1/2 point), calf roping (8.2 seconds) and bucking bulls. The best ten cowboys from the two weeks of competition were eligible to be in the events today. They were putting everything on the line for the $50,000 prize. They would take chances for there is no second place. Thus, there were penalties for knocking the barrels down, or for leaving the starting box too soon. The ten cowboys competed for the top four positions who would then compete for the $50,000 prize. In many cases, there were less than a second separating the winner from the second place person. The bucking bulls event had ten cowboys and only two cowboys qualified for the final event. When those two competed, neither one of them remained on the bull for eight seconds and they had to rerun the match. Finally, one guy stayed on and he won the $50,000. The winners today, in addition to the money, received beautiful bronze sculptures representing their event. Today, was predicted to be rainy, but the weather turned into a beautiful afternoon. Over the last 18 years, there has not been rain on the final day of the Stampede. They did have quite a bit of rain last Wed and Thurs and the grounds were very muddy, but the show goes on. We returned to the campground for a beef dinner and good-byes for we leave tomorrow morning.

Monday, July 19^th we drove south through the prairie and stopped at Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump. This is a UNESCO World Heritage Site for the area is representative of the Indian hunts for buffalo prior to the horses. The Indians would take weeks to prepare for the hunt and would funnel the buffalo into channels, which would lead to a cliff. One day a small boy left the Indian village below the cliff to watch the buffalo hunt. He stood underneath a cliff much like standing underneath a waterfall. The buffalo started falling over the cliff and the hunt was so good that the buffalo piled up and crushed the boy. When the Indians were processing the buffalo they found the boy with his skull smashed in. We proceeded on to Waterton National Park (photo) which is adjoined to the US's Glacier National Park. Both parks are managed together as a Peace Park. The scenery is beautiful because the mountains rise dramatically out of the prairie. Our campsite is at Waterton Townsite, which is right on the Upper Lake Waterton. Beautiful peaks surround us with the sun glowing on them. We decided to stay here two nights. On Tuesday, we drove up to Cameron Lake to see the beautiful views and to Red Rock Canyon. We also did a little bit of hiking to see Blakiston Falls.

Wednesday, July 21^st we left Waterton and crossed the border into the good ol' USA. Just a couple of questions by the customs agent and off we went. Glacier National Park adjoins Waterton and both parks are jointly managed as much as international cooperation can do. Our first stop at Glacier National Park was on the east side to Many Glacier about 14 miles off the main road from St. Mary's. There is a pretty wooden lodge built overlooking the lake. Backtracking out of the park and into the entrance at St. Mary. We got a campsite and then investigated getting a tour that drives up the "Going-to-the-Sun" road but found they all left by 9:30 am, so instead of staying on this side (east) we decided to drive around the park to the west side and get the tour from there. Luckily, our campsite transferred to Fish Creek campsite at West Glacier. The famous and beautiful road, "Going-to-the-Sun", restricts vehicles longer than 21 feet and wider than 8 feet. Rightly so, for if the narrow road doesn't get you, the overhanging rock will clobber your roof! After a two hour drive, we arrived at West Glacier and Apgar Visitor Center and found our campsite at Fish Creek. We had made a reservation for the "Going-to-the-Sun" tour for Thursday morning at 10:30. Sixteen people and the driver ride an old "jammer" touring car. The car had an open roof so you were really able to enjoy the scenery. We had gorgeous weather for the tour, beautiful blue sky for great photos of the mountains. The road is not a switchback road, but follows an easy upgrade along ridges. There are only two switchbacks on the entire 56-mile road. The road extends from Apgar to St. Mary going through Logan Pass at the Continental Divide. Beautiful vistas…spectacular mountain scenery with lakes (photo), waterfalls, snowbeds, and glaciers. We lunched at Rising Sun, ten miles west of St. Mary, then turned around to see the scenery with the afternoon sun. We returned about 4 pm, sat on the beach of McDonald Lake to enjoy the view. Dinner at the campsite and the ranger program on "scat" was a funny family program teaching about scat, footprints, how to know when there was a bear in the area and avoid them.

Friday morning was a late rising and we pulled out of the campsite about 10 heading for Sandpoint Idaho. We stopped at Kalispell to tour the Charles Conrad mansion. As teenagers, Charles and his brother William left the Front Royal WV area after the Civil War, to find work in the west. They found a job at Fort Bonner with IG Barber, a mercantile company. They became partners and eventually owned the business then sold out. Meanwhile, with his accumulated wealth, Charles built a 23-room mansion that was designed by the same architect that designed the McDonald Lake Lodge, West Glacier. The Lodge had a great central room that extended two floors and the stairway formed an arch where there were two built in couches. Most of the furnishings are original and are priceless antiques. The house was built in 1897 and in 1977 the daughter, Alicia, gave the property to the state. The house is on the national historic structures listing.

We continue on US route 2 through northern Montana and Idaho. This has turned out to be a great road. Many areas are four lanes, but more importantly the route is a very scenic road traveling the rural country areas.

We stopped at Sandpoint for the night. This is a lovely town on the shores of Lake Pend Oreille (pronounced pond-duh-ray). Our campsite was at the City Beach, which is a small area of ground sticking out into the lake, and bordered by the railroad track. Yes, the railroads are alive and well! Many trains passed by and we could have reached out and shaken hands with the engineer. The campsite was associated with a motel and a nice restaurant. We had dinner at the restaurant overlooking the water…lovely. Carolyn had fresh hallibut and John had prime rib…delicious. We wanted to put the kayak in the next morning, but the weather didn't cooperate…overcast and predicted to rain. So we left and headed toward the great state of Washington on Saturday morning. Following route 2 to the border, we picked up route 20, which will take us through the Northern Cascade Mountains. We stopped for the night at a Pine Point Resort on Lake Curlew about ten miles north of Republic. Our RV overlooks the lake…beautiful setting. We have found some beautiful spots along route 2 in the northern states…North Dakota, Montana, Idaho and Washington. Lots of lakes created by the glaciers are unexpected but lovely.

We left Pine Point Resort on Sunday morning and stopped just a few miles down the road at Republic. The Stonerose Fosil Interpretative Center is located on an ancient fossil bed. They have a small museum, but more importantly they offer the opportunity to go fossil hunting! Adventurous people can rent the hammer and chisel for $2 and break apart rocks looking for fossils. We spent two hours chipping away at rocks and found three nice fossils of ancient redwood pines. You get to keep three fossils you find, but the Center has the option to keep any of what you find. This was fun! We drove on to Winthrop, an old western town. Everything is built in the western motif, but this is a real tourist town. We stopped at the local museum to see their eclectic collection.

Monday, July 26^th is the most beautiful section of the North Cascades Highway as the highway climbs up to 5,477 feet at Washington Pass around Liberty Bell mountain. We had a cloudless day, of course, and had the morning sun at our backs as we drove through this magnificent scenery. The Seattle Light Company has several dams along the river creating Ross Lake, Diablo Lake and Gorge Lake. We had a two-hour tour of the power operations.

Well we arrived in Seattle on Tuesday, July 27^th, at Dick and Christine's dragging the beautiful blue sky behind us for Susan's wedding this coming weekend. We had cloudy weather here on Thurs and Fri, but when we woke on Saturday morning the weather was GORGEOUS!! Not a cloud in the sky all day. The wedding was at 4, outdoors at Whidbey Island. Sean's (her husband to be) parents have built a large log home up on the hillside overlooking the bay for the tables for dinner, then the pickleball court was for dancing. They had a pasta bar for dinner with six different pastas, salad, bread, & fruit. They had wine and beer. A beautiful 4 tier wedding cake with 1 tier of chocolate and two tiers of white, and of course the traditional top layer to be saved for the first anniversary. Dick performed the ceremony with only a couple of "choke" points. Dick’s emotion didn't help when Susan also got choked up during her vows and both of them had to pause and get themselves able to talk again. They made a handsome couple! The flowers were multi colored nosegays and the bridesmaid's dresses were an aqua. They had a DJ for the dancing...he played lots of big band music and music that we really enjoy. We left the island and caught the 10:30 pm ferry back home, for Dick had to be at church the next day. Dick has one more week to go until his retirement.

During the week, on Tuesday, we went to a Seattle Mariners baseball game in their brand new stadium. This stadium has a roof, but the roof is called a "lid" because of the open sides. The lid retraction process takes about seven minutes and we were sitting in our seats when they retracted the lid. The day was rainy, but by evening the rain stopped over the field, but we could see the lightening in the distance. Dick had gotten great seats just behind homeplate. The game was a winner for the Mariners!

Wednesday evening we met Barbara, Lars and Anna for dinner over in the Redmond area. On Thursday, we all went to visit with Norm and Nancy, whom we met on our barge trip this past winter. They have a lovely home on the lake on a steep hillside. Saturday evening was the big picnic and retirement program for Dick at the church. Many people spoke of Dick's leadership in the community and the church. He will be sorely missed for he has been with the church and surrounding community for 30 years. As a minister he must leave the church for he can't be around to "interfere" with the new minister or selection process. Consequently, Dick and Christine planned a fabulous trip to England, Scotland, Ireland and Paris for 6 weeks leaving one week after his retirement. Sunday was Dick's last service and a powerful sermon on "Do Love!". Again the congregation celebrated his ministry and there were many damp eyes as they were saying their good-byes.

The kids all came to church for Dick's last service so we were able to visit with the entire family Sunday afternoon. Tom had been away since his sister's wedding, so we hadn't seen much of him.

Had a grand visit in Seattle and on Monday August 9^th we headed south along the Washington Oregon coasts on our way back home. See the Trip Home - August 1999