35. Home sweet home

Weeee did it!!! After traveling 21000km we are home sweet home 🏡 thank you all for joining us on this EPIC adventure ❤️we enjoyed having you along 🇺🇸🇨🇦❤️🏡

 

  

31. 32. 33. St. Louis, Muncie, Syracuse

31. 32. 33. St. Louis, Muncie and Syracuse Photo Album

Today  the  plan was to drive to St. Louis making our way east..... towards home. So we had a really relaxing breakie at the campsite near the lake which was quite a beautiful lake. The drive took about 5 hours to go to St, Louis. As we arrived in the city of St. Louis we remarked how quiet the downtown area was ....and how cleannnn it was.


 It was unfortunate we would not be able to stay very long it seemed like a very interesting city...next time i guess!!! So we found parking near the Gateway Arch and proceeded to the visitor's center. I had no idea this was a National Monument....so I quickly reached for my National Parks Passport book and went to stamp the appropriate page at visitor's center. As per usual we went to watch the movie explaining the 5 w's of the arch.


this is the video we saw...                                     part 1

part 2

After watching the video we bought a ticket to take the tram up the south arch. The north arch was out of commission as they were performing some construction near it.  The tram (orb like ) was so small it was hard to believe we would sit in there with 3 other adults.  It took 4 minutes to ascend to the top and 3:30 to descend. There are 8 orbs in total 40 people can go up at once. Anyway once we got to the top , we were 630 feet high above the city and the Mississippi River. We took  photos from tiny slits and stayed for about 15 minutes. 

it was really interesting seeing the city from above. We saw the old courthouse and Busch Stadium
where the Cardinals play.  I would recommend the $10 fee to go to the top... well worth it.











So we had to rush out of there because Peter had reconnected with a Dorval friend who now lives in Muncie Indiana with is wife, Yoko and their beautiful and extremely talented daughter Maya. She's a violinist. Ray and Yoko are both professors at Ball State University, piano and voice respectively. Ray's parents were also visiting from Mexico.  It was a fabulous evening. Yoko and Ray were wonderful hosts and Maya was a very delightful teenager.

 I learned so much that night because this was a very musical family. Ray's dad, Michael was a cellist

for the MSO and his mom, Janet had perfect pitch. So it's was no wonder Maya is so gifted , she also has perfect pitch and plays the violin like a child prodigy. Her violin is sooo expensive as it it a restored violin well over 100 years old ..

We enjoyed a delicious salmon supper and then chatted in the living room as the men were reminiscing about their childhood....we were enjoying ourselves immensely and left around 1:30 in the morning...needless to say we stayed in a hotel that night!!!






The following day we decided to make it all the way to Syracuse New York.....we could see the finish line so we didn't mind putting in longer driving days. It took us about a 10 hour drive but so worth it because we would only be 5 hours from home!!! We stayed at Green Lake State Park.  It was very nice as well. I was getting very excited to go home!!!

love always

Mary and Peter

29. & 30. Denver, Colorado and Wilson Lake State Park, Kansas

Denver Colorado and Lake Wilson, Kansas Photos

Today we headed  towards Denver Colorado. This was the end of our fabulous canyon experience which was by far the highlight of our trip. We headed east on the highway 70 .....we noticed the landscape change before  our eyes .... it went from Canyon views to Rocky Mountains views.....and from red Cliffs to lush green hills. The drive was going smoothly until I decided I needed the  rest stop in the town of Eagle Colorado. As we pulled in off the highway a young lady was directing traffic, she asked us "are you here just for the rest stop or will you be going to do the free white water raft thing?"  I thought to myself wow free rafting .... so I quickly responded "white water rafting"  of course. Was it possible that we were going to go rafting for free,? So we parked the car and went towards the table to sign up. I as to why  they were offering free rafting? The town of Eagle wanted to promote rafting in the area. Bonusssss !!!!

Wow.... how lucky were we that we were going to have a free lunch and some rafting to boot.... in addition, we were lucky enough to sign up for the last time slot available. So we picked out of life jacket and her helmet and proceeded towards the river. Originally I thought this was the Colorado River but in fact it was the Eagle River which is a tributary of the Colorado River. The rafting guy told us of these were class III rapids. this was gonna funnnnn!!!! As we were hanging around the lunch area we are heard one of the

guides say that he was missing two people for the 1:30 time slot so I quickly responded we can come. So off we went to a free time slot. I had packed the go Pro which I've scarcely used on the trip so I decided to actually take it out and hang it on my neck and videotape and take pictures of this rafting experience. Johnny a tour guy from New Zealand was awesome ....he was funny and made the rafting experience super super fun albeit a short 20 minute rafting ride .....but it was definitely a lot of fun. As we came off the boat we hopped onto a bus and were taken back to the rest area..... just in time for our second time slot at 2 o'clock . This time I made sure to sit right up front so I can get a good view of the river for taking pictures and video taping with the goPro. Once again we had a terrific terrific time and it was all for free so this was a bonus for us and I made our day. Who knew that the need to go for a pee turned out to be a fun rafting afternoon. We had another two hours to go before we got to Denver so we decided to quickly head back to the highway and make away. Up until this point  all of our campsites were booked .....this was the first time we were going to try to find something along the way. This proved to more difficult than we thought because  campsites were expensive. So we decided to go for an airbnb.....phewww!!!

The next morning we drove east again.....this time towards Lake Wilson in Kansas. At this point, our main focus is to drive 5-7 hours a day and camp . Peter found a very pretty campsite right on Lake Wilson. We ate  then went by the went by the water to watch the sunset!!! We started to reminisce about our journey and concluded how lucky and grateful we are to have seen such beauty. Tomorrow we head over to St. Louis!!!

love ya and miss ya.

Mary and Peter..

28. Arches National Park, Utah

Arches and Canyonlands  National Parks Photo Album

The plan today was to sleep in as long as possible, eat breakfast and then head to Arches National
Park. The steady pace of sightseeing, hiking and driving has taken its toll lately and we've been feeling a little worn out. It's hard to slow down when there's so much to see! A good shower before bed and a good night's sleep had us feeling more positive and ready for a good day.














On the way to Arches we saw Canyonlands National Park. so we thought we'd finish our first afternoon in Moab at Canyonlands and the next day would be reserved for Arches.
As usual we visited the visitor's center watched the video on the geological history of the park then decided to drive to the view points as per usual. I hate to say this but I did caughtmyself saying " meh.....I've seen better"  ...which is true....but completely unfair to this park. Perhaps we were getting jaded at the parks...perhaps we were getting a little tired....nonetheless, this park should been pretty good too....the views were also very spectacular....but when you sandwich it between Bryce and Arches......it didn't stand a chance.....so i'm gonna apologize to Canyonlands National Park and say that it was worth the trip.





 Arches National Park is five miles north of Moab and is renowned for it's 2000+ rock arch formations. We drove in to the deepest part of the park and started to explore. We hiked into a few of the view points, rock climbed and met more wonderful people (from France.)

Delicate Arch

This park is similar to Sequoia and Zion in that you drive to the viewpoints in a huge park , although Arches doesn't have a shuttle service.  We hiked to several arches and rock hopped..... but the heat was intense..so kept our hikes short and drank a lot of water.... I really don't think we drank enough water cuz we were fading...fast...!!! So we took our time....and finished the park later than we expected, around 5:30 ish) .....oh well.....

windows arch

we wanted to go biking as well but we put the kibosh on that ...there was no way we had any energy to bike in that heat....it was well over 100 Fahrenheit!!! ....Instead we decided to go back to camp ...do some laundry....update blog....and ....oh yeah ...I also cut peter's hair too....he feels like a new man...

So now we can say that we are finished our canyon visits and heading eastward towards our beautiful  home....i'm startng to get excited ...I miss my family and friends...and DJANGOOOOOO











This park offered some extraordinary views of rock

formations which we enjoyed tremendously...we definitely recommend this to ya'll.......and NOW we are officially heading Home....Denver.....then Kansas....Indianna...who knows which route we'll take....thank you all for joining us on our EPIC JOURNEY..... we had a blast....

love always
Mary and Peter

27. Bryce Canyon National Park

 Bryce Canyon National Park Photo Album


We left early from our campsite hoping to get to Bryce Canyon early because campsites are first come first served. On the way in we passed through Red Canyon and once again started to get excited about what we were about to see. We arrived at Bryce Canyon, found a campsite and had breakfast. Then it was off to the visitors center to watch the introduction movie, (this has become our routine as it explains what you're about to see from a geological and historical perspective.) We took the shuttle out to Bryce point and were blown away by the beauty of the amphitheater. Each shuttle stop had a different perspective and something new to see, it's amazing that the destructive forces of erosion and rust can create such beauty. When we got to Sunset Point we participated in a ranger walk as he explained about the geology and the native legends that are associated with the rock formations

The day before we met Jenna and Austin at the river walk,  sweet young couple from Atlanta Georgia, and they had warned us that Bryce canyon was going to be beautiful. I thought to myself how can anything be more beautiful than the Grand Canyon? And we had already seen the beauty of Zion so what could Bryce possibly offer. But as predicted when we got off the bus and  went towards the  lookout point at 8100 feet we were completely blown away at jaw-dropping.....out of this world..... straight out of JR Tolkien's fantasy world..... beauty!!!!

amphitheater at sunset

 we were standing in front of the "amphitheater" and were at a loss for words....it was sooooo different from the other parks....so we immediately took tons of photos...stood there in silence for a while and i began to cry .....AGAIN!!! I am such a sap for this natural beauty!! As Peter mentioned above...we went to all the lookout points on day 1. We camped inside the park...so we decided that the next day we woudl hike with the hoodoos...a 5km round trip hike down in the canyon...so we had a delicious supper...hung out in the hammock for a while then called it a night!!!

amphitheater during the day

I called this one Bart Simpson

:

hikin the hoodoos

The next morning we got an early start because we didn't want to hike in the heat....we were on the trail by  9:30 and began our decent on a switch back trail called the"Queen's Garden" ...we took our camelbak filled with water and off we went...the trail was well maintained and not sooo steep to begin with....along the way we saw gorgeous hoodoos, spirals and canyon walls. After visiting the Queen's court ( rock formations resembling the queen!! ( between me and you, the queen's head eroded because it didn't resemble the queen anymore!!!) we decided to continue our hike by hopping onto the Navajo Trail...the end of the hike was difficult as we had to switch back and forth , a la Lombard street in san fran , to get back to the top....all in all it was an amazing hike ...not tooo difficult to walk and enjoyed the sensory overload the canyon had to offer us....a must for ya'll...



This park experience ranks up there with grand canyon, sequoia and yosemite......we are sooo lukcy and blessed!!!

tomorrow Moab!!

love always
Mary and Peter

view from below

splendor everywhere..

25. Las Vegas and Hoover Dam, Nevada

Las Vegas and Hoover Dam, Nevada

For this leg of our adventure we slept in a motel in Bakersfield California. The room was really nice, it was clean and very modern. The next morning we woke up and realized we had a flat tire so the first thing  we needed to do was get that fixed. Luckily we found the garage really close to the hotel and they fixed the tire for $15!!!! Our drive to Vegas was four hours long and we finally got to the Stratosphere Hotel which, is a casino hotel on the end of the famous Las Vegas strip. We had no idea we were in Las Vegas on Memorial Day long weekend.....arghhhhhh......we actually picked  the busiest weekend of the year to be in Las Vegas so we were very lucky to actually find a room at the Stratosphere Hotel.


The first thing that struck me was that there was ablsoutley NO secutriy checks anywhere...this made me slightly nervous to say the least....I also noticed the heavy smell of  cigarettes smoke from the patrons at the casino and  the loud casino bells ringing at the slot machines.  Our room was on the  20th floor room 102..... so the we decided to check out the pool on the rooftop. It was very impressive and interesting to say the least ....it felt like a rave party with a lot of young adults  Chilling by the  swimming pool... we felt a little out of place. we met some nice ladies from France,,, so we spoke to them for a while then went to the famous strip. We decided to take the monorail.... so we bought a ticket took it to the MGM Grand Hotel.

WOWWWWW this was Las Vegas.....so We wanted to catch a show....but all the shows i wanted to watch were sold out so we kept walking down the strip. I found to be very commercial and it was jam packed with people ...afterall this was Vegas.... ... so we proceeded to walk down the strip and of course we saw the fountains at  the Bellagio.... we did the New York ,New York .....we saw Caesars Palace Casino Hotel....the Venetian...etc.



Well we walked and walked and walked all the way back to our hotel...my feet were killing me cuz i had sandals on....anyway our hotel was still buzzing with action...so we went to our room and called it night!!

The next day we took a tour to the Hoover Dam....after doing all our homework we decided a tour was just as expensive than if we went by car. So we got picked up at our hotel and off we went to the dam. Please watch the video below to get a history of the dam...it's very very very impressive. The video explains everything...


History of Hoover Dam Video



So we got dropped off and had 2 hours to take a tour of the power plant below in the dam and to check out the dam up top ....we were blown away with the engineering marvel which stood before us....it was majestic to say the least.... a must see as some consider it to be the 8th wonder of the world!!

On our way back the dam  we got off at Fremont Street.....which kinda reminded me of a poor man's Vegas strip. This place was also hopping...there were a lot of punk rockers walking around and the usual debauchery stuff.....so we watched a band play for a while then took an uber to the hotel....wow what a day!!!!  We enjoed our stay in vegas though next time we'll catch a show or tow for sure....tomorrow ....Zion!!!


Love always

Mary and Peter.

26. Zion National Park, Utah

Zion Means a place for sanctuary by early Mormon Pioneers

Video on History of Zion   little history lesson on Zion....it's very impressive.

Zion Photo Album



Hello everyone


well it's official....we are officially heading east....only 2 weeks left of this epic trip and we were super excited to visit Zion National Park in Utah! So we got an early start and left our hotel in vegas around 8 am. We drove for 4 hours and arrived at the park on the busiest day of the year since it  was Memorial Day ( 55,000 visitors that day  record number for the park).... during the peak time of day.....Once again there was absolutely no parking so we had to park in the town before the park called Springdale. So we grabbed a free shuttle bus straight to the visitor's center. Zion Park is super well organized....absolutely no cars are allowed to go to the trail heads and lookouts. So the line up for he shuttle was extremely  long.

Upon arrival to this place it immediately reminded us of the grand canyon and sedona landscapes. So our plan was to go to he museum and watch the orientation video. This is imperative because it give you a heads up about the history of the park.  The pan for the rest of the day was to do short hikes and to go to a few lookouts. But I can tell you that some of the most spectacular scenery was past the village eastward towards our campsite. As you can see in the photo album we couldn't stop taking photos. There was a section of rock formation that reminds me of the pastry Lobster tail ( my Italian  friends will know what i'm referring to) ...so i climbed up the rocks and stood in awe again at the scenery before me. Yes Annaick...i did it again.!!! This place is sooo special I can see why the Mormons called this a place for sanctuary.

We had heard about the Narrows Hike so we thought we'd go as far as we wanted and then turn back ....we picked up some walking sticks left behind by other hikers and set off. ..good thing we did because the currents is soooo fast at some crossings that you need to anchor yourself with the stick or else you'd lose your balance and off you went.....the stick were also useful to check ahead of your

next step  because the river bed is fulled with rumbling ..tumbling rocks and uneven terrain...so it was challenging in that respect ..but there were no elevation changes....cuz we were on the canyon floor....how cool is that!!!....now the beauty of a canyon is that there's always another bend.....so that was our motto...let's see what's around the next bend etc......until we made it to the narrows....it was by far the coolest....most humbling...most beautiful hike  hike i have ever done....the pictures say it all....a must do !!!

love always
mary and peter

23. & 24. Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks, California

Yosemite National Park Photo Album

Sequoia National Park Photo Album

Tunnel View

Alas, we committed our first faux pas of our trip!!!  welllll we were having sooo much fun at Maggie and Max's that we forgot to leave on Tuesday morning...instead we were merrily going along visiting Alcatraz..happy go lucky ....until we checked my iPhone calendar that said we should have checked in at Yosemite.......dohhhhhhh ......oh well so 2 nights at Yosemite quickly turned into 1 night. So we knew we had to make the most of it ....we drove quickly to the park and arrived around 1 o'clock...prime time for it to be a complete and absolute ZOO. It was absolutely impossible trying to park the van in the village ....so we had to circle around and around...until we decided to park about 2 km away from the village and biked in. That's when viewing of all the glorious landscape began. We biked to the bottom Yosemite Falls and were flabbergasted at the intensity of the water coming down the rock face....and it was freezing....so we got a little wet and moved along. Then we drove over to El Capitan, Tunnel View, then up , up , up to Glacier Point, 7000 feet high.....wow the view was spectacular....it momentarily took our breath away!!! how can rocks be so beautiful ?...why do I go gaga over nature wonders like this?  I've seen the most special place so far in the Grand Canyon, yet I am reduced to tears every time I see such a vision. Maybe it's the history behind these million year old rocks and how they came to be in its present form that  moves me so much. Various emotions dance through my body as I sit there soaking it all in.....  trying to sear these memories into my brain. I just can get enough...between Yosemite and Seqouia Parks I have been so overwhelmed with an abundance of such beauty.  Finally I got myself together and headed down the mountain and went to Bridalveil Falls. By now it was getting dark...we decided to have supper in the park down in the village near a river and called it a night. The drive back to the campsite was intense as it was pitch dark and witch back and forth over the mountain range. yikes!!!

Sequoia National Park was our destination the next day.  Once again we had to drive switchbacking (see red line on the map) on the edge of the mountain up towards the national park. We took the Kings Canyon entrance but didn't have time to stop at the canyon as we wanted to visit all of Sequoia Park. Interesting fact...unlike the grand canyon which was formed buy flowing water such as the Colorado River, giving the canyon the v shape....the King's Canyon was formed by glaciers  thereby giving it a u shape basin!!











So we finally arrived at the visitor's center and were told to visit 3 main areas since we only had 1 day. General Grant tree, General Sherman Tree and the Giant Forest.

General Sherman Tree

Imagine our surprise at the sheer size of these beautiful trees...unless you have a reference point, it's hard to fathom their size and their age as some are over 1000 years old. We learned how these giants grew so fast,,,basically the seeds, which look like an oat seed, grow straight up as fast as they can to the sky for about 600 years...then continue to go in width after that....cool fact!!! So  we drove off to find General Grant,,,yes he was a beaut....took some quick pics and set off to find the biggest tree on earth (not in height but in width) General Sherman

General Grant Tree

 The parking for Sherman was about 1 km away from the tree and it was a   downhill walk getting to Sherman...which meant a vigorous hike up hill after we visit Sherman. We were greeted by so many other giant Sequoias along the way...just as beautiful as sherman. Along the path we saw a cross section of a giant sequoia tree trunk  and it was absolutely massive, see photo album .  Well, just as I was leaning against the tree I heard a lady call my name.....what ???? how was it possible that  I knew someone here !!! well it's a small world after all ...I met a former parent Judy Smith....wow ....after chatting and catching up for a while we took some photos and said goodbye. We continued to walk along and finally stood face to face with General Sherman.....as I stood there all 5 ft of me ... I was in awe....felt so small in front of this very old tree since Cleopatra was queen of Egypt while some of these trees were saplings, since some estimates of the ages of these tress run about 1800 to 2700 year of age. How do you wrap your head around that??? so I cried ....AGAIN!!

We stayed for a while then drove off to see the Giant Forest.  The forest was so beautiful as the giants were near a meadow....so the contrast of the lush green against the orange red sequoias was spectacular. The walk was pleasant as we meandered through the forest on a boardwalk. We left the park rather late and we still had a 2 1/2 hours to our hotel in Bakersfield. Tomorrow.....Vegas !!!

love always
Mary and Peter