2002 cross-country trip

Map of the route, Week One, as plotted by MS Streets & Trips 2002

	Day 1: Montreal. How to cram 1 tent, 2 sleeping bags, 2 mattresses, 2 backpacks, an equipment pack, 2 coats, some shoes, and assorted useful stuff into a '99 Miata trunk.
	Day 1: Montreal. Nora and Leo - the 2nd Great X-Country Trip begins.
	Day 2: Ney's Lunch. This is what a deer looks like after it's rolled under a Miata at speed. YUCK!
	Day 3: The Ontario-Manitoba border.
	Day 4: Winnipeg. The front plastic panel under the engine, cracked with deer hair stuck in it...
	Day 4: Winnipeg. Deer hair was caught in every nook and cranny under the car, but there was no functional damage, so we continued.
	Day 4: The Manitoba-Saskatchewan border. Unfortunately the season had been soo dry that the rolling golden fields of Canadian wheat - weren't.
	Day 5: Drumheller. The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology is fascinating. Makes dinosaurs come alive.
	Day 5: Drumheller. Camped at a private campground where the gates shut at 23:00 and we had to weedle our way back to the tent.
	Day 6: Drumheller. We returned to the Royal Tyrrell Museum the next day because it needed more time to be fully appreciated.
	Day 6: Drumheller. The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology has the remains of dinosaurs posed against an artistic recreation.
	Day 6: Drumheller. A mammoth copes with a sabretooth cat at The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology.
	Day 6: Drumheller. A dinosaur at The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology.
	Day 6: Drumheller. A stegosaurus at The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology, one of my favourite dinosaurs.
	Day 6: Calgary. We reached Gordon Choate and his BRG. He generously lent us a real bed to sleep in that night.
	Day 6: Calgary. Gordon Choate's BRG.
	Day 7: Bow River Falls. Nora and Leo, taken by a cooperative Japanese tourist.
	Day 7: Lake Louise. The usual image taken looking towards the mountains. Unbelievable colour of blue-green water.
	Day 7: Lake Louise. Nora and Leo, taken by another cooperative Japanese tourist.
	Day 7: Moraine Lake. An impossible colour of clear blue, with a handy log jam to stand on.
	Day 7: Mountains. Tall pointed ones with snowy peaks.

Map of the route, Week Two, as plotted by MS Streets & Trips 2002

	Day 8: Craigellachie BC. Site of the Last Spike on the CPR, joining Canada together with a rail line.
	Day 9: Cache Creek BC. Contrast in height! It takes all vehicles to make a world.
	Day 9: BC. Scenery.
	Day 9: Maple Ridge BC. We arrived at Jim's place towards evening, and spent two nights with Jim, Bonnie and family. The laundry got done again and we toured the TRIUMF facility at UBC.
	Day 10: Maple Ridge BC. Bob Schnider and "Tango". Time was a bit rushed so we had coffee in a local White Spot near our friend's house in Maple Ridge.
	Day 11: Maple Ridge BC. Time was still rushed and Laura was working so another late night coffee was arranged, and we got to meet the famous Laura and ...
	Day 11: Maple Ridge BC. ..."Tweedy" the sunburst yellow with the awesome stereo system. Looked like the starship Enterprise!
	Day 11: BC. We took several ferries connecting pieces of highway north on the BC coast.
	Day 12: Victoria BC. The Royal BC Museum, another big museum with interesting displays, this one being Hitler's armour-plated car. We were killing time until the Coho ferry's sailing time.
	Day 12: Victoria BC. We'd missed the first ferry as it was already full so we had to wait for the 15:00 sailing. Nora sleeping in the line, waiting.
	Day 12: WA. Nice camp in WA, near the Ship Channel, with holly trees. Even the slugs are giant-sized; this guy was creeping around near the tent.
	Day 13: Bremerton WA. The famous submersible vehicle "Trieste". This was the third incarnation of various pieces of previous Triestes on display at the Naval Museum.
	Day 13: Bremerton WA. The Naval Museum in Bremerton had an amazing display of undersea vehicles, diving equipment and the ultimate in torpedo expertise. Leo beside the hatch of "Sea Lab".
	Day 14: Oregon. Leo got a little too close to a set of dunes and the Rollerskate got well stuck in the sand. We tried the floormats for traction but it was the helping push by a bystander that got us unstuck.
	Day 14: Long Beach. Towards evening a fog settled on the coast and we roamed up and down Long Beach, which really is long, looking for dinner.
	Day 14: Long Beach. Our camp site at the KOA near Long Beach.

Map of the route, Week Three, as plotted by MS Streets & Trips 2002

	Day 16: Klamath Falls OR. This is the famous Gordon Ross, artiste extraordinaire of "Miatatoons" fame. He generously offered us a real bed for the night and the use of his clothes washer, which was heartily appreciated, as were the blueberry pancakes JoAnne made for breakfastand the chance to maul Molly the dawg. The midges, however, had to be removed with soap and water.
	Day 17: CA. A view from the coast highway.
	Day 18: Marin Headlands CA. A tunnel leading under the highway to the NIKE missile silo.
	Day 18: Marin Headland CA. The tour guide to the NIKE missile silo was obviously a man of good taste. This is his ride, parked behind the main display building.
	Day 18: Marin Headland CA. The NIKE missile silo, designed to protect the free world as a last ultimate choice of weapon, after all else has been tried.
	Day 18: Marin Headland CA. NIKE missile silo. The elevator and the drop-down doors were all functioning as was the primitive computer used to track positions.
	Day 18: San Francisco CA. USS Pampanito, a WW II sub is anchored at Fisherman's Wharf so we visited it. These are the torpedo tubes. There was a lot more room aboard than I had realized; perhaps some equipment had been removed to facilitate movement of visitors.
	Day 20: Yosemite CA. Bear warnings. This was at Porcupine Flats where the amenities were one pit toilet. The cold water would have been available but it was contaminated and turned off. This was one night it rained but the tent stayed surprisingly dry.
	Day 20: Bodie CA. Really eerie ghost town, maintained carefully in its dilapidated ca. 1910 condition. The last person moved out in 1941. This is the assayer's office.
	Day 20: Bodie CA. The undertaker's workshop. Everything was covered with dust.
	Day 20: Mono Lake CA. This is a boulder of solid black volcanic glass AKA obsidian. Doesn't look much like the fellow with the blue striped Miata...
	Day 21: June Lake CA. Pine Creek Campground, where this red Miata was being towed behind the enormous trailer. Its owner's husband told her road trips longer than 10 hours were not possible in a Miata. HA! I say
	Day 21: June Lake CA. This is to protect its nose from thrown up pebbles. There was a nice lake at June Lake so we went swimming.
	Day 21: Death Valley CA. The thermometer before it rose some more.
	Day 21: Death Valley CA. As the Rollerskate's temperature gauge actually moved up from the normal 12-o'clock position, we opened the windows and turned on the heat...
	Day 21: Death Valley CA. And the temperature continued rising...
	Day 21: Death Valley CA. The sign indicating rock bottom, sea level.

Map of the route, Week Four, as plotted by MS Streets & Trips 2002

	Day 22: NV. Lunch. The cafe had a small herd of pet bison.
	Day 23: Shoshone ID. Mammoth Cave.
	Day 23: Shoshone ID. Idaho was surprisingly volcanic, with lava tubes everywhere. The Mammoth and the Ice Caves are portions of the tubes.
	Day 23: Shoshone ID. Shoshone Ice Caves. Due to a unique arrangement of air currents and the insulating prowess of lava rock, there's 16 feet of solid ice in these "caves" AKA lava tubes. Even on a hot sunny day, the caves are cool enough to require a jacket (unless you're a tough Canadian )
	Day 24: ID. Kathy's Miata "Emmy" somewhat dusty.
	Day 24: ID. Kathy's Miata "Emmy" after the California Duster had been applied.
	Day 24: Idaho City ID. Breakfast with Bruce and Kathy.
	Day 24: Route 21, ID. Rollerskate and Emmy.
	Day 24: ID. Kathy and "Emmy".
	Day 24: Craters of the Moon ID. Very strange place. The last eruption of these shield volcanoes was 2000 years ago and they do it about every 2000 years. Hey Idaho! Duck! This is a cinder cone where the ash is so sterile that vegetation still hasn't grown back yet.
	Day 26: Yellowstone WY. Old Faithful. It was working on a 90-minute schedule so we watched it go off twice. Everywhere you looked, the landscape was steaming.
	Day 27: Yellowstone WY. Bison. A herd was browsing near the road so everyone had pulled over to watch them.
	Day 27: Yellowstone WY. Terraces. This was another rather wet day so we saw them in the rain. Originally they had been much more spectacular judging by the dry terraces surrounding the active ones.
	Day 28: MT-WY. Beartooth Highway. Route 212 leading out of Yellowstone Park's north-east corner. Really wild ride with hairpin bends and an altitude of about 10,000 feet, weaving along the MT-WY border. We crossed it so often I lost count.
	Day 28: Cody WY. Buffalo Bill Historical Center. An amalgamation of five museums, we were interested in three of them, the BBHM, the Cody Firearms Museum and the Plains Indians Museum.

Map of the route, Week Five, as plotted by MS Streets & Trips 2002

	Day 29: KOA Cody WY. Our camp amid the bikers.
	Day 29: Little Big Horn MT. Little Big Horn Battle Site, where Sitting Bull won the day. I'd never realized how much acreage over which the battle raged. It seems to have been a long drawn-out thing along a ridge, culminating in the last small group on the hill.
	Day 29: Little Big Horn MT. Where Custer's body was found. He was reburied with other officers at West Point.
	Day 30: Devil's Tower WY. This was an addition to our route. There's climbers on those sides...
	Day 30: Devil's Tower WY. and there were bikers EVERYWHERE. Some of the bikes were really impressive.
	Day 31: Mt. Rushmore SD. We visited the enormous sculpture carved into the Black Hills, and arranged for the third oil change at Value Imports in Rapid City.
	Day 31: Near Mt. Rushmore SD. We also visited the privately-financed counterpoint to Mt. Rushmore, the developing statue of Crazy Horse. Explosion visible in centre.
	Day 31: Near Mt. Rushmore SD. The statue of Crazy Horse seems to be popular among the bikers also.
	Day 31: Another unscheduled point of interest, Badlands National Park, SD. Truly weird landscapes.
	Day 31: Life in the desert.
	Day 31: Dry, dry, dry mud and colourful strata.
	Day 31: Impressive sunset over the Badlands.
	Day 32: Crossing the Missouri. Leo and the snakes. We never saw one but their threat was everywhere.
	Day 33: Into Illinois,
	Day 33: Into Indiana and
	Day 33: Into Ohio, our longest distance in one day, over 1000km.
	Day 34: KOA camp in Ohio
	Day 34: Crossing into Ontario, just after the 1000 Island Bridge.
	Day 34: 18:30 We're BACK. Then we took off immediately for the Gaspe. 400 miles away...
	Day 34: After removing these hitchhiking kamikaze bugs.
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