This is our planned on-road route. Starting out in Jersey and going west to Moab, UT for a week of off road fun in the desert. Heading northwest to Seattle then over the border to Vancouver. Into the Canadian Rockies in Jasper and Banff, then continuing east above the Great…
And the packing begins… the truck maintenance is (nearly) done, we’ve finally finished shopping for everything we need. This is starting to feel real, and it’s hard to think about anything else.
This happened in the last 2 weeks. Rebuilt all 4 calipers, new OEM pads, new hand brake shoes, new OEM master cylinder, new OEM water pump (old one was indeed toast), new OEM alternator, all new OEM belts/hoses, replaced distributor o-ring, new plugs/cap/rotor/wires/air filter, PCV valve/grommet, oil change and filter…
Hi everyone, As most of you know – pretty much because it’s all I’ve talked about for the last month – Jon and I are about to embark on a crazy 6800 mile road trip across the US and Canada. Jon actually left yesterday, as he is going to Moab,…
But it’s an actual thing… https://munchies.vice.com/en_us/article/the-history-of-butter-sculpture-is-strange-indeed Totally cool in a really, really weird sort of way.
For the last year or so I was planning to get back to Moab, Utah to join my fellow Land Cruiser compatriots for their yearly southwest event. I’ve driven round trip from our home in Jersey to Moab in 2011 and again in 2012, both times with my old 1991…
Peace out New Jersey, see you in a couple of weeks!
Five states in one day is a lot. I started the day in New Jersey, spent about an hour in Illinois, then landed in Utah and had a happy reunion with Jon. I was quite surprised to find it was 83 degrees in Salt Lake. From there, we had a…
Lots more driving today. We left Baker City early this morning and set out for Mount Rainier. Going north through Oregon was even more beautiful than the day before, but once we hit Washington we landed back in farm country again. At least this time we got to look at…
Today we played tourist in Seattle. We started the day at the Museum of Pop, or MoPOP. The museum is sort of divided into two parts – we visited the ‘music’ section first. As soon as you walk in, we found this incredible sculpture: Then we visited the Jimi Hendrix…
We left Seattle early this morning. We originally thought we would take a ferry out to the San Juan Islands and do some hiking, but the scheduling proved too challenging. Instead we decided to go east, and try some hiking in the Northern Cascades. We took a beautiful scenic drive…
Today was an Adventure. With a capital A. We started the day at Stanley Park, which is pretty awesome. We explored the park both on foot and driving, because it’s just enormous – bigger than Central Park. Definitely the best part was the totem poles: After that we went back…
We need to interrupt this blog with a brief rant. Jon and I are of the firm opinion that road signs should be unambiguous. Ever since we set out on this road trip we have been seeing signs that we can’t figure out. The best one so far was in…
Jasper is awesome. I mean, we knew all along that this was likely to be the high point of the trip, and we’ve seen the pictures. But being here and surrounded by all the enormous, beautiful mountains and lakes is really something special. We were pretty bummed when it rained…
You know, very often things are over-hyped and nowhere near as good as their reputations. Today proved the exception to that rule by far. The Icefields Parkway more than delivered on everything we heard about it. We left Jasper in yet another rain storm. I’m pretty sure we missed some…
Banff is beautiful. I can totally understand why it has the reputation it has. It was really nice out today, and we were surrounded by all these big, awesome mountains, so we thought it would a good day for a hike. We ended up climbing Sulphur Mountain – 3.5 miles,…
Well, today has been weird. Although we did sort of expect it to be. We left Banff after breakfast, and after about an hour of driving east, the Rockies just…. stop. It’s bizarre, there’s really no foothills or anything; one minute you’re staring at beautiful snow covered peaks and the…
Not the most exciting of days. We did visit the Western Development Museum before we left Moosejaw this morning. Which wasn’t quite what it sounded like – it actually had an incredible collection of old cars, airplanes and railway bits: Before we left Moosejaw, we did take one more detour…
Well, we finally got out of farm country today. But before we did, we passed the longitudinal center of Canada, in the middle of the most giant field ever. It was kind of cool to think about it. About an hour after leaving Winnipeg, we hit the lakes. I don’t…
Today was kind of full of unexpected things. We left Thunder Bay in more weather, this time a combination of rain and freezing rain. We drove out to Sleeping Giant Provincial Park, which is supposed to be one of Canada’s natural wonders – it’s this really long peninsula that sticks…
We started out after breakfast and decided to visit the Soo Locks before we left Sault Ste. Marie. These were a real game changer back when they were built in the 1800’s – they connect the 4 lower Great Lakes to Lake Superior, and from there all of western Canada….
Ottawa is a really nice city, we both wished we’d had more time there – we will definitely go back for a long weekend. After breakfast we took a fun walk around a farmer’s market. On the way out of the city, I did get a great photo of the…
We really had an awesome time. Yes, there were definitely some boring bits, but we saw so many weird and wonderful things we could never have seen any other way. I don’t know that I’d do it again, but it was a fabulous two weeks. The biggest down side was…
So many miles, so many wonderful sights, so many laughs. I couldn’t imagine doing this sort of excursion with anyone else. My wife is the single best partner and co-pilot anyone could ever ask for. She drove for hours on end while I rested, she is an ace navigator, and…