Seattle Portland Black Hills, Winnipeg, Churchill - Winnipeg, Canada
Winnipeg, Canada
Gird your loins this is going to be a big one. From wine, to cities, and the wild west to polar bears. The end of RVing. The drive from Penticton was scenic passing through the south western Rocky Mountains to the Fraser Valley. A couple of mountain passes, a few with snow and then heavily wooded valleys. The end of the day could have ended a bit better we had trouble finding the RV park. After a fruitless stressful search through the small town where we thought the park was supposed to be, we hit the freeway again and managed to find an RV which had room for us, so all turned ok in the end. The next morning we hit the road early about 9.30 (early for us anyway). We managed to find the border crossing into the USA, only to join a 400 metre slow moving queue. When we finally reached the front they must have decided that it was morning tea time because every thing stopped for about 30 minutes. We eventually made it through, however we lost our potatoes apparently Canadian potatoes aren't allowed into the US without a visa. After the stress of the border crossing we headed straight to the first cafe we came across, a good coffee and we headed for the interstate highway. Four lanes full of traffic from semitrailers to pickups, sedans to RVs, all moving at 65 miles an hour, the difference was that they knew where they were going. We did find our RV park more out of good luck than good navigation and found that it had a small lake which happened to be stocked with rainbow trout. Just the panacea a stressed RV driver needed to calm his rattled nerves. I managed to catch our entree while Maria finished her book in the sun, managing to sit outside for only the 2nd time on the trip.l Seattle Another early start (9.30 again) then 2 blocks up to return the RV and a taxi into Seattle. We had found what looked like a reasonable hotel close to down town on the web while travelling in the RV. When we checked in we were very impressed with the accommodation. It was renovated recently and done in a 1950s retro style. Very comfortable and had a free wine happy hour between 5.30 and 7.00pm. Mick had redeemed himself after the poor choice of hotel in Anchorage. Lunch this day was at the Seattle equivalent of Doyle's in Sydney, Ivor's Seafood Restaurant. Maria had the chowder tasting lunch with 3 different soups. We then checked out Pike's Fish Market and then to the EMP Museum. The museum holds displays about Nirvana, Hendrix, horror movies and science fiction/fantasy movie memorabilia. After being told to leave as the museum was closing (a common event from now on), we went down the road to the Chalouly Glass blowing Gallery (better check the spelling on that one) where we were blown away (excuse the pun) by the display of glass art work. Next morning we walked down town to start the Seattle Underground Tour, a fun look at the history behind the establishment of Seattle and how they rebuilt the city after it burnt down in the 1800s. The tour took us through tunnels under the sidewalk which was the original level before the fire. They rebuilt the city at a higher level so the town was not flooded every time the tide came in. In the afternoon we went to the the Seattle Art Gallery and then The History of Flight Museum. After looking at the space shuttle ground training facility, the SR71 spy plane, the concord, airforce 1 Boeing 707, and various other exhibits, we were again asked to leave as the museum was closing. Portland On to Portland via bus the next day. Maria picked the hotel this time, The Staybridge Suites near the airport. A little out of town but with a very good shuttle service to the very efficient public transport light rail. They also had a free wine happy hour and free hot dogs to go with it. We did another walking town tour with a young bloke who works only for tips and has become fairly well known on the internet. The tour was fantastic, sort of a standup comedy history lesson. During the tour the guide mentioned the Portland History Society Museum was worth a visit so after lunch at one of the many microbreweries we went and checked it out. We learned a lot about the settlement of Oregon via the Oregon Trail and were again asked to leave as the museum was closing. Portland has very vibrant food cart industry. They are dotted all around the city in parking lots and serve virtually any style of food you can name. We dined out 3 times from the carts, and were very impressed with the food and the price. The day we arrived in Portland about 3 people said we should go and check out the Columbia River Gorge so we booked ourselves a tour on our last day. The tour took us out of town along the valley on the interstate about 60 miles then back, via the old highway. We stopped at about 5 waterfalls then at a scenic lookout which gave a fantastic panorama all along the Gorge that we had just travelled down. We didn't get kicked out of any museums today, however the guide had to hurry us along in the lookout building as he had another tour in the afternoon. Portland has famous rose and Japanese Gardens so after our gorge tour we went back into town and walked to and through them. The rose garden was not at its best as winter is rapidly approaching, however the Japanese Gardens were really worth the walk. The autumn colours spread among the evergreen manicured trees were spectacular. We were again asked to leave as the gardens were closing. Rapid City. During our Alaska Ferry journey we met a lovely South Dakota couple, Dennis and Kathy Thompson. They said that if we had time on our travels they would love to have us visit them at home near Rapid City in the Black Hills. We thoroughly enjoyed their company on the ferry journey so we took them up on their offer and flew from Portland to Rapid City. Dennis and Kathy picked us up at the airport about lunch time and took us for a drive through the Black Hills near their house, passing Mt Rushmore (which was closed this day due to the government shut down) , the unfinished Crazy Horse carving and some of the spectacular scenery that is their backyard. (State & National Parks). It had snowed heavily (3 feet of snow) the week before we arrived and they had been without power for 3 days. There was still plenty of snow around which only made it more beautiful. We saw deer, bison and prairie dogs and turkeys. Next morning we drove north through the Black Hills to the gold mining area and visited the Wild West town of Deadwood where Wild Bill Hickock was gunned down. For Mick it was like reliving his childhood, due to the reference to cowboy movies he had seen as a kid everywhere you looked. 'Dances with wolves' was filmed around here, gives an idea of the prairie countryside and Black Hills'. Kevin Costner owns a saloon in town which had a lot of his movie memorabilia. The drive then took us through Deadwood, Lead and Spearfish Canyon then back to Rapid City. Monday morning brought back the bad weather with intermittent showers alternating between snow and rain. Dennis and Kathy took us to Rapid City because Mick wanted to see Cabelas, an out door hunting, fishing and camping store. Think of a shop the size of Bunnings but full of outdoor stuff instead of hardware. We then went into Rapid City down town to an store which specialised in native handcraft and art, then on to another museum. The museum documented the geology and social history of the Black Hills area including the story of white and Native American conflicts in the area, of which there were many ( Wounded Knee, Little Big Horn to name a few). It was the last place to be settled in the US & sadly the site of the last Indian battles. The next day the weather had improved a bit and Dennis and Kathy took us out to the Bad Lands. Despite the weather not being fantastic, the Bad Lands were spectacular, very rugged, very remote, a hostile beautiful place. We would have liked to do a bit of walking to better experience the area but the weather was pretty average and the ground very muddy. On the way back towards Rapid City we called in at a small town called Wall. It is perched on a bluff on the edge of the Bad Lands and is famous for one thing, a store named Wall Drug. This place has to be seen to be believed. It is a mixture of kitsch tourist gift shop, art gallery specialising in cowboy western style art, cafe, sideshow alley and western clothing shop, by the way they also sell pharmaceuticals. The shop nearly takes up the length of one side of the main street and is a favourite stop for tourist busses. The South Dakota government opened up the national monument at Mt Rushmore today so on the way back we stopped in tho get a proper look at it. Some of the interpretive stuff and the walking trails were still not open but we were able to get to the normal vantage point and get the usual tourist type photos. We have to thank Kathy and Dennis for their superb hospitality and for their tour guiding in what has really been a highlight of our trip. We knew very little about South Dakota before we visited and we will be eternally grateful for the wonderful time we had in what is a beautiful part of the world. Winnipeg The flight from Rapid City to Winnipeg was delayed as the aircraft was too heavy to take off on a shortened runway caused by works. They called for volunteers to remain in Rapid City and offered $300 worth of travel vouchers to anyone who would stay. All this took time which unfortunately we, as it turned out, we did not have. We missed our connection in Chicago to Winnipeg. We had to take a much later flight which got us to Winnipeg at 1030. We had told the hostel we would be arriving at 8.00, so we were unsure whether they would hold our room or whether we would be able to get into the hostel. After the 3rd attempt we finally raised someone at the hostel and confirmed that we did have a bed and that we would be able to get in. The next day we walked into down town Winnipeg, which is larger than we expected, and did a self guided walking tour of the down town area. Along the way we visited the Fork market area for lunch, the Hudson Bay Department store and various cultural buildings eg ballet theatre. We also visited one part of the Manitoba Museum, the area we saw was the history of settlement in Manitoba. It was laid out like a time line maze starting from prehistoric times up to present day. Extremely interesting, but as we are getting used to we were asked to leave as the museum was closing for the day. Churchill Up early for our 5.30 taxi ride to the airport for our flight to Churchill. We were in a chartered 1960s vintage Convair 540 for the 2 hour flight, plenty of leg room compared to some modern day aircraft but the heating at 20,000 ft left bait to be desired. Particularly on the way home when condensation on the inside of the hull froze right next to Mick's leg. It took 30 minutes for his toes to get back to body temperature. But back to the adventure. We arrived in Churchill late morning and had a quick orientation tour of the small town. We were then left to explore the town as we liked with the warning not to wander out of the main part of town due to the possibility of running into a polar bear. We heeded this advice. The Eskimo museum was fascinating. All sorts of carvings done from rock, whale bone, walrus ivory and caribou antlers. Unfortunately we didn't have time to visit the Parks Interpretive Centre as we were booked on a tour to a local dog musher's kennels. We learned all about dog mushing in an entertaining, funny talk by the kennel owner and then taken on a 1 mile ride in a wheeled cart pulled by his dogs through the area around the kennels. Unfortunately not enough snow to have the sled ride Maria was hoping for. Next morning we were picked up for our Tundra Buggy ride on the tundra to se if we could find any polar bears. We had high hopes as we had talked to people in the tavern the night before and they had seen 6 bears, including a mother and cub. The Tundra Buggy is a large bus on a very tall suspension, about 8 feet of the ground. It was a cold day but nice and warm in the buggy due to a gas fire in the back. That is until you spot a bear and everyone opens the windows to take photos. We weren't as lucky as the people on the previous day as we only found 3 bears, an arctic fox, an arctic hare and some ptarmigans. Two of the bears we found did find put on quite a good show, with some friendly sparing and wrestling. One bear just laid in a pile of seaweed for the whole time, only lifting it's head twice when the buggy arrived and when we left.