Author Archives: sunandsandtravelers

Ichetucknee Springs in north Florida

Our amazing journey is over, a grand total of 8300 miles traveled in the RV and countless more in the Jeep, while out exploring our environs.    We celebrated our return to Florida by visiting one of the pristine springs located throughout Florida.   Located in north Florida, Ichetucknee Springs is a first magnitude spring, which means that 63 million gallons of  chilly 72 F water flow out of the spring every day.   A three hour leisurely tube ride down the river is a very popular summer activity and although we didn’t do it this time, we’ve done it in the past and hope to do it again sometime. Continue reading →

The Theodore Roosevelt NP

As we begin our trek eastward we want to travel on a different route than the one we traveled when we went west. In our quest to escape the crowds and major highways we thought we would travel on Hwy 2, which runs parallel to the Canadian border, all the way from Montana to Minnesota. A very helpful couple who live in Montana and are originally from Minnesota strongly advised us to change our plans.  Apparently the oil boom towns of the massive Bakken Oil Field are in the northern part of N. Dakota along Hwy 2. We heeded their advise and chose wisely, as others also told us of the crime and chaos in that area, which it is much like the gold rushes of the late 1800’s with no housing, astronomical prices, horrible traffic, etc. Continue reading →

The border crossing at Chief Mountain

We made our border crossing at the very small, frontier-like outpost of Chief Mountain between Waterton NP and Glacier NP. There were only 1 RV and 1 car in front of us and no one behind us, and we were asked a total of 2 questions. What a breeze. Continue reading →

We left the Rocky Mountains and decided to go to Drumheller, Alberta, the home of a major Canadian tourist attraction, the Royal Tyrrell Museum. The museum, located 84 miles northeast of Calgary, AB  in the Canadian badlands, is a center of palaeontological research and is noted for its collection of more than 130,000 fossils. The first dinasaur fossils were discovered here in 1884 by geologists searching for coal seams and since then fossils continue to be found. The collection continues to grow and now contains at least 40 mounted dinosaur skeletons. It was a great museum and I’m glad we made the little detour out there. Continue reading →

Wow, talk about having a bad day! .

We arrived at Lake Louise in Banff National Park on a Thursday before one of the busiest long weekends of the summer, BC Day, on Monday Aug. 4^th. Even though we arrived by 11am all the campgrounds with hook-ups or in the most popular areas were already taken. We were anticipating this and decided to try a first come/first serve campground on the Bow Valley Parkway called Johnston Canyon, suggested by Pam and Rob’s friend Tracy. We got lucky and got the last site available for a unit our size for 4 nights. It was dry camping at its best and ideally situated between Banff and Lake Louise. Continue reading →

Nikkei Internment Centre in New Denver

We spent the night in the very small town of New Denver, again an old mining town that in it’s prime had hopes of becoming bigger than its namesake in the south, Denver Colorado. New Denver has great historical significance now as the site of the Nikkei Internment Memorial Centre. Click here for more info on the story of the forceable internment of 22,000 Japanese Canadians during WWII. Continue reading →

Wonderful coffee shops and eclectic art shops are gems waiting to be discovered

After leaving the beautiful Kettle Valley we began to head into a region known as the Kootenay Rockies. This is the southeastern corner of BC where the jagged peaks of the Rockies rise in parallel with those of the Purcell, Selkirk and Monashee ranges. In between these mountains lie valleys, lakes and mighty rivers, including the Kootenay and the Columbia River, which originates here in BC. Continue reading →

Gastown in downtown Vancouver

What a wonderful few weeks we’ve had visiting with my family and friends and enjoying a small bit of what the area outside of Vancouver has to offer.   We were lucky enough once again to be able to camp in the best campgrounds available;  the yards of family.   They must feel they can never get away from us!   Lucky for us but not so good for the front lawn of my cousin which may never lose the big dents from Trixie’s wheels.   Continue reading →

Boarding the ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria

It has been forever since my last post but no worries, we haven’t dropped off the face of the earth due to a major calamity, we’ve just been very, very busy.  This is the visiting phase of our journey and the reason we set out on this trip to begin with.  After leaving the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State, we boarded a ferry from Port Angeles to downtown Victoria, BC.  The weather was spectacular and snow-capped mountains were visible in every direction.   The border crossing upon arrival in Victoria was a breeze and before we knew it we were driving past the Parliament Buildings and the Empress Hotel on our way north to Nanaimo to visit my father. Continue reading →

Mt Olympus and the Olympic Range

Wow,  4000 miles of driving and we have finally made it to the northwestern tip of the lower 48.    Only by leaving from Key West instead of Orlando could the trip have been longer.    We’ve spent the last 4 nights at a campground just outside Olympic NP and it has been fabulous.  The weather has cleared and we’ve thoroughly enjoyed exploring this wild and rugged area.   Continue reading →