Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Day 19 THE OTHER ON THE MOVE

Today was the last day of our adventure, and we have seen
some interesting territory and met some great people. The
Canadian people were very friendly  and helpful but none
of our fancy gadgets would work on there side of the fence
and the Loonie &  Toonie  money was a pain in the you know
what!! We did buy a emergency phone plan that cost 30 bucks
and  1 Loonie a minute thats the same as 1 dollar here.
We were almost home today,coming down the Columbia river
gorge we almost lost The Other Woman, we had a tanker truck
pull out right in front of us if we wouldn't of had the tow car
brakes it would have been the end to the Other Woman and
anything that wasn't tied down was up front with us and then
as much as I hated to I had to ask my co-pilot whats that smell ?
So from now on we will  1 spend the kids inhertence  2  drink
the best booze first  and 3 enjoy what life of life

Monday, June 22, 2015

Day 18 THE OTHER WOMAN ON THE MOVE

Today we cranked out about 230 miles and if would have been
in a straight line maybe 200 or less. In one small town we made
5 - 90 degree turns to stay on our road but we sure got to see the
backyards of AMERICA all the fields of grain in different stages
of growth. The different ways they bail hay and our own little
air show watching the crop duster planes do there thing and
maybe a few extra twists and turns if you give them a wave.
The disturbing part of the trip is all the buildings in these small
towns that are closed and boarded up that once was jobs that
helped support these towns and there people that once helped
our country grow to what it once was !!!!!

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Day 17 THE OTHER WOMAN ON THE MOVE

We let the other woman rest another day while we went
to see our old  hot rod friends in Idaho.They had just
found this old Cad that was stuck away in a barn and
will be their next street rod. So Tom & myself spent
most of the day getting the old motor out and trail
fitting the new 500cu in motor in its place to make sure
the firewall didn't have to be cut before the car goes
to the metal shop for floor board repair and I think the
girls were trying to solve some world problems !!!
GREAT VISIT
In the morning we will head out towards Walla Walla
enjoy running these secondary roads and seeing the
back yards of  GOOD OLD AMERICA !!!!!!




Saturday, June 20, 2015

Day 16 THE OTHER WOMAN ON THE MOVE

Before we left Mont I took on a load of fuel 2.80 a gallon sure
beats 5+ in Canada and then they said go West Old Man and that
we did back in our home state Wash. at the Spokane Elks great
resting spot overlooking the city with ice cold BEER just a few
steps away, The day was early and there was lots of garage sale
signs if we don't need more junk, but it sure is fun and the kids
can't say we didn't leave them anything, and I call it Pay Back !!!
Finally got hooked up with our friends so will go visit for the day
and check his barn find 1942 Cad.coupe last licensed 1960 and he
will be the second owner WOW

Friday, June 19, 2015

Day 16 THE OTHER WOMAN ON THE MOVE

Tonight we are in Missoula, great drive down from Kalispell.
So the last couple of years one of our friends have been telling
us about the  Lolo steak house in Lolo, Now we are setting in
the bus wishing  we hadn't ordered such big steaks, very- very
GOOD, Will try and hook up with some old hot rod friends in
Idaho tomorrow .

Thursday, June 18, 2015

Day 15 THE OTHER WOMEN ON THE MOVE

We let the Other Woman rest today and took the toad and drove
up to West Glacier as far as we could go  which was Logan pass
which was about 30 miles in and the highest point on going to the
sun highway at 6,600 ft. So we might as well drove into the middle
of Seattle because some of those idiot drivers were up there, either
driving or on there dam bike !!!! Some of the lower campgrounds
were already full, I can't imagine what this place is like later in the
year when school is out ..This was a scenic drive and the Weeping
Wall was pretty cool, how the water has enough pressure to force
itself out of the cracks in the rock you could shower if the water was
a bit warmer !!!
Getting out of that zoo our next stop was Hungry Horse Damn
sorta off the beaten path, completed in 1953, with the loss of 7
lives,564 ft tall and  3,086,200 cu. yds of concrete and 6,800
acres of water surface with  4 new generators that will power
260,000 homes .
Next we went in search of a place called Glacier Distilling a little
red barn full of booze, and that it was and for 4 bucks you get 4
samples of your choise  off  their list and a tour of the operation

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Day 14 THE OTHER WOMAN ON THE MOVE

Yesterday I forgot to mention while in Shelby Mt we had stopped
at the towns 2 museums which were above the average little town
museum but they had got the hole city involved in building a
veterans memorial that overlooks the town and it was first class !!!!
Tonight we are in Kallispell were able to get the windshield fixed
and got one of last spots at the Elks non members are allowed in but
pay a higher price which is unusual unless you are a guest of a
member.
In the morning we will checkout Glacier proper

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Day 13 THE OTHER WOMAN ON THE MOVE

BACK IN THE GOOD OLD U S A !!!!! The trip out of Calgary this
morning went good .Heavy traffic, but the drivers don't seem to be
aggressive, use that little lever on the left side of the steering column
and don't drive like someone with a death wise try to beat a 43,000
pound bus !! Only had one thing left that I want to see and that was
the Lethbridge Trestle, the worlds largest trestle, over a mile long
and 314 high---12,436 tons of steel, 328, 000 rivets and 7,600
gallons of paint and get this built in 1909 and is the trestle of all
trestles to see!!!
The boarder crossing went well 3rd in line right on thru the guy in
front of us wasn't so lucky, and a high end rodeo tractor with fancy
trailer that passed us like his tail was on fire a few miles back,
We are still having problems with the Direct TV and a rock chip
that is starting to crack on my windshield .

Monday, June 15, 2015

DAY 12 THE OTHER WOMAN ON THE MOVE

Calgary the city of streets ...some without names, but we did damn good getting around.
Our first stop was Heritage Park, now this park has something for everyone; our first
stop was Gasoline Alley.  The largest collection of old style gas pumps I have ever
seen plus a great selection of old cars.
From there we hopped the steam train and rode to the other side of the park to their
train museum/shop/roundtable. One of the old railcars that was very interesting was
an executive car made in 1931, was one of only 2 left and was unrestored and in great
condition.  The 2 park steam engines were 2-6-4's with a bigger steam engine in their
repair shop that appeared to be a bigger 4-6-6-4 which is way to big for their layout
but was getting restored; plus other railroad stuff. Next I had to check out the grain
elevator with the sound of an old hit and miss motor chugging away in the distance.
That turned out to be a 25 HP Fairbanks and Morris that run all the conveyor belts
and wagon dump for the grain elevator just like the old days. The man at the station
was an old wheat farmer, so I got a lesson on wheat farming. The #1, 2, and 3 grades
and then feed grade, about moisture in the grain before and after the harvest and
how 4 hours can make a big difference in harvesting the grain and what and how
your grain is graded and that equals money in the end for you.
With only a couple hours left in the day and close to an air museum, I felt a
magnetic pull just like my co-pilot has for casinos. The museum was small...
maybe 20 planes but a huge collection of just engines....radio, inline and V type
from 20 HP to 850 HP, 2 unstationary-the engine and prop turn together.  The
rest was solid mount and just the propellor turns like we know today.

Sunday, June 14, 2015

DAY 11 THE OTHER WOMAN ON THE MOVE

Today with Lake Louise in our sights at 56 miles, we headed out of Golden with a good
pull to the top of what they are calling Ten Mile Hill and at the top of that hill was about
15 miles of narrow back to back curves carved in the bluff. At least 1000 ft down to the
river on my co-pilots side and the same on the uphill side.  After a few miles of that, I
caught up with a group of mini-winnies going about 20 mph.  Had to follow that group
a good 8 miles before I had a chance to pass the whole damn bunch on a passing hill
with an unknown amount of cars behind me.....the rest of the drive was good road.
So as we head into Lake Louise following the signs, we cross a narrow bridge and on
the other side in all their glory in small print the sign reads Not recommended for
large RVs,  so not knowing what was ahead we unhooked.  Now having to back out
with cars honking trying to get around me as I force them to back up as I backed across
this narrow bridge to get turned around.  Then we had to find a place to park with the
real buses.
After we drove up in the car, we would have been fine going up in the bus as they had
a damn parking lot up there for Buses.
OK-Lake Louise- the glacier backdrop helps make to Lake....other than that Spirit Lake
has it beat hands down and they are both just a memory.
We are in Calgary tonite in another one of those BIG RIG FRIENDLY campgrounds
more suited for a VW bus and piss poor WI FI at a big price  because they are
convenient.
Will see how things go in Calgary tomorrow.  Pretty busy town with lots of traffic and
lots of crazy road signs.

Saturday, June 13, 2015

DAY 10 THE OTHER WOMAN ON THE MOVE

Well....this morning we finished clawing our way to the top of Rogers Pass
in the middle of Northern Glacier Park headed to Golden with the Jakes on
full and brakes smoking down we came.
As we got down in this valley, maybe a mile wide, we crossed the mighty
Columbia River where it has carved many new channels over the years,
created lake like areas but then found a new exit. Then in Golden the kicking
horse river joins in and makes that mighty Columbia even mightier.
So while in Golden, we visited a Gray Wolf sanctuary. Saw about 7 still
shedding winter coats.  The males being the bigger weighing in at about 110 lbs
and females about 80 lbs.  The guide was very informative.
From there we had to check out one of the longest Free Standing pedestrian
bridges weighing in at 200 tons with over 84000 board feet of lumber and
built in 24 days with 100 volunteers and donated materials. It crosses the
Kicking Horse River that divides the town of Golden.
Another attraction in the area that stood out was the worlds largest boat paddle.
Certified by Guinness World Records...scaled up 13 times to over 60 ft, perfect
for a 78 ft Giant.   What some people do to waste their time.
Let's say you want to go skiing on Kicking Horse Mountain...1 lift ticket will
cost you $86.95.  Diesel fuel is over 5 bucks a gallon with lots of high end
motorhomes on the road and they don't seem to want to wave to an old converted
bus!!!!!! 
I think we both have had and seen enough of Canada & British Columbia....none
shit works .....phones, gas cards, computers ....all the metric and money.   I hope
we have enough fuel to make the  BORDER!!!!!!

Friday, June 12, 2015

DAY 9 THE OTHER WOMAN ON THE MOVE

Got an early start today for us that is, crawled our way up Can1E to Revelstoke.
There are 3 valleys that Revelstoke sorta sets in the middle of with each one
dumping it's share of H2O into what we know as the Columbia River with
lakes and ponds everywhere you go plus the mighty Revelstoke Dam.
The RR and recreation and tourist like us seem to keep the town alive and
doing quite well.  They have a very nice RR museum plus a history museum
downtown plus a ski resort about 5 miles out of town. The airport with at least
2 Lear jets and some nice lower class prop planes sitting out to see.
Drove up to Northern part of Glacier....still snow not much open.

Thursday, June 11, 2015

Day 8 THE OTHER WOMAN ON THE MOVE

The drive up to Kamloops went good, couple of the hills made that
Cat work. So we got here early enough to take in some of the local
sites ,good little museum with stuff from 1860's gold rush and the
building of the town and people that played a roll in its development.
The hertiage R/R was closed but I looked through the fence and of
coarse we got the scenic tour by missing a couple of turns, glad we
we were in the car. In downtown every where you park cost money
if not a change machine you call this phone # and give them your
licence plate # did not want to get our car impounded up here, the
grand finally was at Safeway where their carts are locked up and you
have to put in 25 cents to use the damn things !!!!!
Will see what kind of problems we have getting diesel in the morning
as out Cheveron card won't work at the pumps



Wednesday, June 10, 2015

DAY 7 THE OTHER WOMAN ON THE MOVE

The Sumus crossing went pretty well,about a 5 minute wait and we
had to throw away our frozen chicken they didn,t like that ?????
Now its been 30 years since we have been up here and all the signs
had American & Metric numbers and our metric is not good at best.
All this fancy GPS's- phones-and computer blog's don't want to work
unless you pay extra bucks and I am to cheap, will try to go back 30
years and do it the hard way.
So I had picked out BIG RIG FRIENDLY campgrounds along the
way but didn't goggle earth them and the first one got us good. To
put it nicely it really IRKS me when they say big rig friendly and you
can't hardly get a damn VW bus in. Had to unhook just to get out but
they didn't get my money ,just went to choise 2 up the street
So Hope is a busy little town with the Othello tunnels where part of
Rambo was filmed and the rest in HOPE. We walked out the old R/R
grade to see the tunnels also known as Chapman gorge in the move.
The river narrows down to about 30' by the 3 tunnels and I could hear
it a quarter mile away. Would really be something to see during spring
run off. We also had to check Kawkawa lake about the size of what
Sprite Lake use to be.
Had a hard time getting linked to this campground service ,so if this
doesn't send : send us a smoke signal straight up noon

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

DAY 6 THE OTHER WOMAN ON THE MOVE

Today we went to Boeings largest assembly plant and the future
of flight museum, what a place. Each body section being assembled
before they are connected together to create a airplane. They build
a triple 7 every 3 months for only 369,000,000:00 $$$$$$$$$ and
if you ordered  1  today it would be 2020 before you could take
delevery!!!
We are at the Swinomish Indian casino tonight and will try our
luck at crossing the boarder in the morning perhaps it will be as
good as my co-pilots at the casino tonight !!!
So there probably won't be any BLOG while we are in Canada but
will have something when back in the USA

Monday, June 8, 2015

DAY 5 THE OTHER WOMAN ON THE MOVE

Today we started at the Lakewood Elks and was a good
place to repair a fan control switch I damaged while
working on that jake solnoid I replaced on the road also
was able to get a spare.
Left Lakewood about 10:30 breezed thru Seattle WOW
got to exit 197 and the freeway was a parking lot, we
needed 205 finally got to the casino about 1:30.
The S. bound was open so went to the Paul Allen war
bird museum a fine collection of some of the greatest
prop driven planes different countries had including a
Russian witch plane flow only by a Russian women only
squadron.
Oh about the volley ball games Sunday the girls had one
hand tied behind their back!!!!!

DAY 4 THE OTHER WOMAN ON THE MOVE

So I could make up some B.S story why I didn't do a
blog yesterday but the fact is I fell asleep and I just
didn,t feel like it after us old bus guys beat this team
of college girls 2out of 3 at volley ball !!! I think they
thought it would be slaughter. The youngest guy on our
team was 64 and up.

Saturday, June 6, 2015

DAY 3 THE OTHER WOMAN 0N THE MOVE

Today the guys left the girls at camp with there O Meal while
we went to a real {breakfast ] then off to Lemays Car museum
in Tacoma, good variety of cars !! From there up to one of the
guys hosting the bus  rally own car collection. By that time  it was
time to head back to camp for happy hour and more food !!
This has been a enjoyable rally with a great group of people and
looking forward to the next one.
From the Bonneylake rally we will head to Lakewood Elks for
the nite and then thru that damn Seattle

Friday, June 5, 2015

DAY 2 THE OTHER WOMAN ON THE MOVE

We are going to let the other woman rest a few days so she
can recoup from her trematic ordeal on the way up.
So today 29 couples car pooled about 45 miles thru  the big
city of Bonney lake out to Northwest Trek wildlife park,
27 arrived, others lost and presumed missing. For as warm
as the day was alot of animals out and about !!!! Saturdays
plan GUYS to the LEMAYS car museum girls some farmers
market and something else NO CASINO'S

Thursday, June 4, 2015

THE OTHER WOMAN ON THE MOVE

This can't be right am I dreaming, we got out of town on time and
its not raining but thats all about to change !!! 20 minutes up I-5
my co-pilot hasn't started listing the things we forgot because I was
in such a hurry to get to some damn bus rally. Then it happened the
bus started losing power , big clouds of blue and white smoke lost
site of any cars behind us, glad there wasn't alot of traffic it might of
been bad. OK no big holes in the block, [thats good]long story short
a broken jake solnoid spring,and not the easy one to get to, 10 years
ago it was I guess. Simple part,big price, replace both while it was
apart ,on the road again couch 25 at the rally with 29 total !!!!
 Very friend group !!
.