June 14 - Home

Arrived in Burlington the afternoon of June 14 after dropping Dave at his cousin's place in Mississauga.  Final leg from Blind River was around 7 hours.  Kind of nice to spot the CN tower crossing the top of the city and to turn off at Appleby Line into Millcroft and home. My trip lasted 40 days, covered 15,237 km, one province and 17 states.

Here are the important stats. Spent 32 days with three great friends, Bill, Warren and Dave. Each segment had its own highlights, and perhaps my friends may see them differently.

For me, crossing the Apache Trail with Bill ranks pretty high. (Bill had told me that he had only gone one direction on the Apache Trail and really wanted to go the other way - which happened to be up.)  That little journey on May 17 became the warm up for a few other great drives.

I think that being able to enter the Tioga Pass into Yosemite (some years the road would not have been cleared of snow)  on May 28 was my highlight with Warren.  This day holds the record for most photos (371 on my camera and not sure how many Warren ended up with).  Yosemite was sensational.

Although Dave and I hit a few great spots (Yellowstone/Mount

Rushmore), we thought the highlight of our 12 days was the two days driving/golfing in Montana on June 6 & 7.  This has to be the one of the most sensational states in the US.  As Bev said in one of her comments  "People holiday in Montana and never return".

It was great to see my old friend Garry (and June) in Phoenix, for a few days. A really comfortable stay, great food, golf and lots of nostalgic conversation. At Seattle, also had a chance to catch up with old Ottawa friends, Mike Delaney and Mike Gormley.  Good time in Seattle. 

Final thoughts are about Americans.  We  Canadians sometimes find it easy to be negative about "Americans", but  individually, they are great.  Over 40 days, we met nothing but nice people in our travels.  Other travellers who were just plain friendly or people who served us with enthusiasm.  They are still trying to get over the 2008 financial set back and it is rare to talk with anyone in the US who was not affected in some way.  It was amazing how many people we met who had two jobs. The two common themes that seem to come up in all conversations were job security and health care. In many ways they are much like us and I have nothing but good things to say about our friends to the south.

Final Map

So folks, thanks for following my blog and for the many comments (published) and private Emails which you sent.  My goal was to chronicle the trip and try to keep the blog interesting to read. I think I met the first goal and I hope that my poor writing (and spelling) didn't scare away too many of you during these past 40 days.  It's been nice to share our journey  with you.  Time to sign off  ..  Bob