Welcome to Canmore

3059 miles after leaving Vermont, we have arrived in Canmore, our winter home for the next 6 months. 10 days driving in some fairly interesting winds is the hardest I've worked in years but at least the weather stayed dry and above zero - I really didn't want to drive badger on snowy frozen roads. We managed to take the northern route across North Dakota and I now know why they call Montana "Big Sky" country - there is nothing else to look at. Actually some of the badlands areas were quite interesting with good layers and colours, but not really enough to compensate for the prairies which are just dull dull dull

I was worried about the border crossing as we had a lot invested in this one - apartment rent, lift pass, Churchill trip and flights home - and the options for a plan B to get out of the US quickly from northern Montana were quite limited, plus bringing the vehicles over for more than 6 months was on my mind, but the Canadians were their usual friendly, welcoming selves and we didn't even have to turn the motor off before they had enough info and stamped us in. If only the US were as sensible and pragmatic.

Badger is now stored away for the winter and we'll see if the tarpaulins actually stay put this year - at least if they do blow off we can get back to him and redo them, although if they do get free we would probably never see them again as they sail off over the prairies,

The apartment is the largest and most modern we've had to date, but with wooden floors and shiny leather furniture. I think the best description is slippery - I keep sliding off the sofa whilst trying to watch TV. We brought  a second carload of stuff back up yesterday so once that is unpacked we should be able to start to get into some routine, get used to sleeping at 1400m altitude and I need to get out on my bike a bit to remind the legs of what they are for in the couple of weeks before the mountains open....

Favourite place in the US?

We often get asked what is our favourite part of the US, and technically we should be answering "Caesar Creek, near Dayton, Ohio". Not an obvious answer, and whilst it's a nice enough state park and campground, it's nothing special. But it is close to the us air force museum so this is our third visit in 3 years, this time as a rest day from Badger's drivers seat as we head back west.

And as it's been 28c today and sunny, and it's still daylight as it's a lot further west than Vermont were having what may be this summer"s  last steak on the charcoal BBQ and evening sat out drinking wine and eating cheese.....

Time for plan D.....or is it 1(a)?

We've pretty much come to the end of our summer touring so its time to pack up and prepare for winter in Canada. Given that we were advised by US border and customs in April that we need to go home or somewhere else before we are allowed back into the US, we have decided to come home for 3 1/2 months after Canmore, and will then come back to the US for the solar eclipse. We've booked flights arriving in the UK on April 27th, and returning to Calgary on August 10th in time to get down to Oregon for the eclipse on the 21st. Consequently we've been looking at what to do with Badger for 10 months and came up with 4 options:

• A......sell him privately - he's been advertised on-line for the past 6 weeks and whilst we've had a couple of semi-serious viewers we've not sealed a deal, so....
• B..... leave him with a dealer on consignment to sell over here on the east coast. Spoke with a couple of dealers over the summer who would have been willing to take him at this time of year, but we would have lost a lot in the process. Plus they were based down the I-95 which is currently under water from hurricane Matthew, so timing is against us, even if there are probably a lot of people down there right now who could do with a self contained home that can jack itself up.....
• C..... Put him in storage on the east coast south of the snow belt and pick him up again after the eclipse and just take the car to Canmore - possible but would have meant a week each way in motels, and would have also been affected by Matthew, or
• D.....take him west now and put him in storage over there so we can pick him up before the eclipse

so we have decided on the latter. Actually, we had initially planned to spend 4 periods in the US including next summer in the west around the eclipse, so this is not that far removed from our original plan. We also pushed the pace a bit this summer so we got to see everything we wanted to over this side, including the Canadian Atlantic provinces. We would have revisited Washington DC for a few more days if we had headed back south, but we chose to stay in Vermont to see the colours change and glad we did, so we can do DC again as a fly through another time.

We've found somewhere to store Badger near Calgary airport so we can access him if needs be over the winter so even though its going to be cold it should be OK as long as we winterise the plumbing and tarp him up to keep the snow off. We start heading west on Saturday and should be in Montana by the 24th so can have a couple of days there before crossing the border and moving into the Canmore apartment.

So, next summer we can fly back into Calgary to pick him up, visit Drumheller for a couple of days set up as we skipped it on our first Canada visit (rather than doing a long day trip from Canmore), head down through Glacier National Park  which we skipped this spring, and then on to see Pris and Bill in Oregon for the eclipse. Then we can put him up for sale again on the west coast as we head down slowly through northern California revisiting a few favourites at a different time of year (Crater Lake, Yosemite) and spend the late autumn and early winter doing the snowbird thing in the south west. If we manage to sell up in time we can head to Hawaii before our 6 months runs out, if not once we get to February we will leave him on consignment in snowbird territory while we head on to Mexico and central America, and do Hawaii on another fly-through.

Not sure where we will be living for our time back in the UK - our Mycenae Road property will still be let out, and our Blackpool tenants have shown no sign of wanting to leave, so we will probably have to rent somewhere ourselves - we've one possibility in play but won't know for sure until much closer to the time. but hopefully this trip we'll have time to make it to see friends in Europe who we didn't get a chance to see last trip, and more time to revisit everyone else....

Leaf peepers

That's what we've been doing over the last 3 weeks and the foliage has been magnificent. We have done many of the scenic by-ways (and a number that aren't on the list) as this year has been one of the best on record for fall colours. Most of the photos were taken through the car window or sunroof and I have had great difficulty in choosing which photos to publish so here are a few:

Six states in three weeks

We've covered some distance over the last few weeks and packed in quite a lot of sightseeing.

First stop - Boston, Massachusetts. The city is very compact and easy to get around on foot.

We took a guided walking tour of the Freedom Trail, a 2.5mile/4km walk covering 16 locations that are significant to the country's history. We started our journey at Boston Common, up to the Massachusetts State House, past the Park Street Church to Granary Burying Ground (where revolutionaries Samuel Adams, John Hancock and Paul Revere are buried) to name just a few. At the site of the Boston Massacre, we learned how 5 (yes, five - the guide said they like to exaggerate here) people were killed by British troops in 1770, and the propaganda that fueled the animosity towards the British authorities.

We also learnt more about the Boston Tea Party, which happened largely as a result of "Taxation without representation" and the colonists believed they were being taxed unfairly by Britain to pay for the war with France and India.  340 chests of British East India Company tea, weighing of 92,000 pounds and aboard 3 ships, were smashed open and dumped into Boston Harbour on the evening of December 16, 1773. It was worth in excess of £9,600, which is approx. $2m today. No-one was hurt and nothing was stolen or looted from the ships. The protest was a very costly blow to the British. As a result, a number of Acts were passed and the American colonists responded with protests and resistance which ultimately led to the American Revolution which began on April 19th 1775.

On the way back from Boston, we stopped at Plymouth where the Pilgrims first stepped ashore in December, 1620. The Mayflower II is a replica of the original and Plymouth Rock was three times larger than the one we now see below.

We also had a wonderful sunset on the way back

Next stop - Nantucket, a small island off Cape Cod. The buildings are clad in clapboard or unpainted cedar-shingles, with many surrounded by manicured hedges. The town of Nantucket has many cobblestoned streets and is very quaint. We took a bus tour narrated by a local and it was very interesting. Famous visitors and residents include Joe Biden (Vice President), Bill and Hilary Clinton, Tommy Hilfiger's ex wife (she got the house), Sharon Stone, Bill Gates and many other 'names'

We saw another glorious sunset from the ferry on our return to the mainland

Another day trip, this time to Martha's Vineyard. This island is larger than Nantucket and is just south of Cape Cod. It's also known as 'Hollywood East' although celebrities come here to enjoy the atmosphere and not to be seen. Many of the country's most affluent families enjoy a century-old tradition of spending their summers here. We bought a bus pass and had a lovely day touring the island on our own. We also had the best Haddock and chips that we've eaten in a long time, from the Vinehaven fish market.

Gay Head Cliffs and lighthouse at the western end of the island

Another day, another trip, this time to Salem, Gloucester and Rockport,

Salem was first settled in 1626 and is considered one of the most significant seaports in Puritan American history. It is also seen as the birthplace of the US National Guard. In 1637, the first muster was held on Salem Common and was the the first time militia had drilled for the common defense of a community.

It is most famous for its witch trials held in 1692, where nearly 200 people in the area were accused of witchcraft and 20 were tried and executed.  

From Salem, we followed the scenic by-way to Manchester-by-the-sea, Gloucester and Rockport, lovely seaside towns. 

From Massachusetts we headed west though Rhode Island to Connecticut. We based ourselves just outside New Haven so we could visit Long Island in the car.

On the way, we called in at Flushing Meadows, Queens. This was the site of the 1939/1940 New York's World's Fair and also hosted the 1964/1965 NY World's Fair. A number of movies have been filmed here, including Men In Black II .

We also got a great view of New York from one of the bridges.

On to Coney Island, well known as a site of amusement parks and a beach resort, all of which were quite empty as we visited during the week and all the kids were back at school.

From here, we continued to Fire Island, a thin barrier island of the southern shore of Long Island. It has protected beaches and the 19th century Fire Island Lighthouse on the western tip.

We decided to take the ferry back to the mainland and passed many vineyards en-route. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to visit any of them. 

The ferry back, MV Cape Henlopen, was previously known as USS LST-510, a tank landing ship that delivered here cargo and disembarked her troops on Omaha Beach, Normandy on D-Day, 5th June 1944.  

Then we started our journey north and spent a few days in Henniker, New Hampshire. From here we visited White Mountain National Forest and Mount Washington. We drove the 8 mile trail up the mountain to the summit, where the highest wind ever observed by man was recorded at 231 miles per hour.  The summit stage office is still chained to the ground. The last half mile was in the clouds and by the time we got to the top (elevation 6,288ft), the ground was frozen, and so was I

The views on the way down were magnificent

Now we're up in Burlington, Vermont (on Lake Champlain)

We've slowed the pace now while we wait and watch the colours change. A visit to Ben and Jerry's ice cream factory, a few creameries for the local cheeses (still more to visit), the local farmers market and a brewery - I could get used to this :-)