Last Year's Road Trip

So I promised I would write about our trip from last year. I've posted a few pictures of our trip from last year when referencing places such as Montana (one of my favourite states). So we began our trip last year by driving to Edmonton (of course) and heading straight south on the Deer Foot Trail (#2) that runs north south through Alberta and right to Milk River, Alberta which is at the crossing into Montana.

Evidence of our very last Timmies for the next six days until we arrived in Michigan where, thank the heavens, Tim Horton's gods live.

Welcome to Montana, ya'll! Er, they don't really say ya'll. I just threw that in there. I'm sorry I HAVE to put more Montana pics up. It's just in me, I can't stop it...

I firmly believe that the angel of God that assisted in making Montana was an artist. It always looks like a painting!

Way to go RB! Who doesn't like a man who can start a fire, I'd like to know! Something sext about it, primal...animalistic...er.. moving on.
So I realized I skipped a whole part of our trip--Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Wyoming...but that deserves a post on its own. So I will show you the borders of our trip. They were cool none the less! The green agricultural lands leaving Wyoming and heading back into Montana gearing up to head east.
I realize this is a Wyoming welcome sign, but we passed it on the other side of the road leaving Wyoming. When we left out the east entrance/exit of Yellowstone NP, there was no Welcome to Wyoming sign. It was our goal to get welcome signs for every state, so we stopped the car and cheated a little. So this was actually a 'come again!' sign to us. Yeehaw! We sure will! Second fav state!
You just can't beat scenes like this, even when you're driving! Well, RB was driving so I got to gawk!

This is what we saw for the next day and a half. Road, heat coming off the road, dried grass, hay, wheat, and telephone poles. And the occasional rest stop. I loved it! It's so American!

I have a friend back in Newfoundland, CM, who did a similar road trip to this a year or few back and said one of the points of stoppage was Wibaux, Montana which is the last exit before crossing into North Dakota. It's a small-town-America town and he said he stopped into a bar and when he walked in everyone just stopped and stared. Obviously they weren't used to strangers. It was a biker bar. He was scared. He tipped his hat and left if I remember correctly. I believe it was a Saturday that we came through and most places were closed. In fact the "downtown core" consisted mostly of little shops closed for the summer? Strange. People who walked the street waved. It was all very charming. There's my shameless plug for Wibaux. They had the best people at the gas station just off the exit. Very friendly and helpful!
Welcome to North Dakota--home of--wait for it---FARGO! doncha know...
Our overnight stay in North Dakota had us staying at Theodore Roosevelt National Park just over the border. This was in the town of Medora, ND which is the 'host town' of TRNP. Rob was having fun playing with nighttime camera settings while I talked on the calling card to mum and my sister Jennifer.
Quite the quaint little town. Has an excellent restaurant in one of the hotels (I can't remember the name) but had excellent steak! Well why wouldn't North Dakota bring the beef, I'd like to know!
We saw wildlife...
And sunrises...

And great panoramas!

And Fargo! We didn't stop. By Fargo we were pretty much dead set on driving as much as we could and stopping only for gas. We pretty much lived on Rockstar (we picked up a cheap $24 flat of 24 from the Costco in Montana--Tax free state! Did I mention how much I LOVE Montana??!)

We'll call this 'drunk in Minnesota'
Rolling green hills! I imagine this is what Ireland could look like if they received any sunshine! ;)
We stopped for the night in St. Cloud. Anyone a Trisha Yearwood fan?? I thought so!
I'll leave this entry with a flag. This is already picture-heavy so I will continue with part II later. Enjoy! I love America!

Tell me! What do you love most about America, and what says "America" to you. Say it with pictures if you can!

And the thunder rolls...

Various parts of Canada are known for having/seeing sever storm action, whether wind, waves, snow, sleet, rain, hail, thunder or lightning. Or, in some places, you can get all of the above! Unfortunately, I was raised in the one area of Canada (I swear!) that hardly sees a lick of any of the above. Yes, we get rain. Lots of it. Rarely though in storm-form and regardless of how many raindrops on British Columbian has seen in his or her lifetime, the one day it happens to be falling in buckets, we are still fascinated.

When I was in high school I took Geography and that was the first time I learned about severe weather. Well, I think perhaps the movie Twister was my first experience with hard-core weather, but learning about it and studying about it got me hooked. And perhaps because I was raised in an area where not many thunderstorms ever hit, nevermind hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards etc, I was all the more fascinated. In fact, at one point I wanted to be a storm chaser. And somewhere along the line I thought (in my many moments that I changed my mind career-wise) that I might become a meteorologist. Weather fascinated me. It still does! I think the two channels I watched most as a child were the History channel and the Weather Network! I remember as a child and even as a teenager...heck, let's be honest here, as an adult, every winter when living in BC, come wintertime I would be checking the weather network like crazy every day for any signs of snow coming our way. And this was not because I wanted a snow day. It wasn't because I particularly cared for snow angels or snowmen either. It was simply because I wanted to see flakes floating from the sky, preferably in blizzard form with lots and lots of wind.

In my early years of University, I was determined no matter what to major in Geography. Well, except for the time I wanted to be a nurse, and a doctor, and a psychologist. Then that wouldn't have worked, but most of the time it was Geography. In fact the first Geography course I ever took was with Steve Marsh at the University of the Fraser Valley. It was Geography 101: Weather & Climate. An interesting tid-bit about that course, is that my mum took it with me! At the time she was finishing up an Associate of Arts Degree and needed a lab science and waited until I could take one with her. In all honesty she just needed me help. ha!

Eventually I took Geography 201: Climatology and failed miserably. Well, I didn't fail, but a C+ was a failure to me. I was simply not good at the mathematical calculations required to understand weather. What?!? You mean I need MATH to understand weather? What crock is this? The wind moves, the funnels form, cold fronts meet warm fronts and they mate and birth a tornado, why do I need math to know this? COME ON! Ahem.

And here ladies and gentlmen ends my quest to become a meteorologist. I think I'll stick with teaching. However, my love of all things frontal didn't seem to change and so I still frequented NOAA doing my own tornado watch, even though there wasn't a chance in all the heavens that one would land in my backyard. If I was smart I wouldn't want one to. In grade 12 I went on an international student excursion. Really it was a conference for geeky smart kids, in Whitewater, Wisconsin. Oooo YES! They get tornados! I was really excited. I didn't really care about economics unless GDP was going to produce a fascinating funnel cloud for me. And after praying to the economic gods, I got my wish. The siren went and everyone was huddled in the cement basements of the university of Wisconsin, Whitewater, watching CNN and following the tornado warnings. Everyone except me. No, I was outside, camera in hand waiting like Juliet waited for Romeo (minus all the blowing leafy bits and dirt getting in both eyes and mouth). The wind picked up so fast right along with my heart rate. Somewhere in the cacophonic mess of sirens and swirling leaves I heard my chaperones screaming at me to get inside and don't be crazy...Crazy Canadians, what they never seen a bloody upturned building before? crazy Canadians never seen a tornado in their life...

I eventually wandered downstairs. The action outside was much more to my liking but I was locked in the cement dungeon, left to only hear about the details from some news anchor. The tornado ended up touching outside of town so I wouldn't have seen it anyway, but still! aw Ma!

Anyway. I have been living for 2.5 months up here in good old Yukon and in my 2.5 months I have witnessed/heard a multitude of thunderstorms to tickle my fancy for the next year. Last night in particular was a bad one. We actually had two: one in the evening and one in the night (around 12:30am-1:00am). I happened to still be awake for round 2 and I quickly decided that whoever pissed God off will have me to deal with if I don't get any sleep around here...the thunder rolled overhead like someone was bowling. If God had a dog that was it's most fiercest growl and the lightning and thunder sounded like snapping wires which frequently startled me just as I was about to nod off. Don't get me wrong though, I sleepily enjoyed every minute of it.

Other great stormy areas I have been to include Edmonton, Alberta where I have actually seen bolts of lightning strike the sky. That was the coolest. When it comes to rain and snow and hail and wind, nothing beats the coast of Newfoundland! My first month there we had two power outages, six-hundred feet of snow and winds that were around 118km/hr (and NOT hurricane weather). The wind would whip at my house I feared the roof would come off it was that fierce. Again, I loved every second of it.

To conclude: If storms were a lover I'd marry it.

Here are a few photos of storms I have captured, which are few but I love them nonetheless.

This was in Montana last summer.

This was off the Alaska Highway between Whitehorse and Haines Junction, Yukon.

What are the best storms you've seen? Comment below, I wanna know!

We're driving through Nebraska, Rob and I, this summer and I'm hoping we see some funnel action!

Beautiful Montana

Beautiful Montana, originally uploaded by dawn_adams.

Just a few of the reasons Rob and I will be visiting Big Sky Country again in August this year! Absolutely one of the most beautiful and peaceful places on earth.

Travels

Once again, this summer Rob and I are heading across the US on a trip to Ontario for one more year of my schooling (keep fingers crossed!), and we're pretty excited. There is something about the US that intrigues me and keeps me coming back. Each state has its own charm, its own beauty and mystery that captivates you even if you're simply 'driving through'.

In last years episode, we drove from Vancouver to Edmonton and then Edmonton down into Montana. The furthest south we hit was Jackson, Wyoming simply because I wanted to say I've been to Jackson Hole! The highlight of this trip was certainly Yellowstone National Park See image below.

Yellowstone Lake

En route Ontario we pretty much stuck to the northern states, that bordered Canada such as North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. We even took the high road and went north from Wisconsin and took the northern peninsula of Michigan and crossed into Canada at Port Huron.

This year, however, will be different. The first part of our journey will remain the same. We will head north up to Edmonton (where my BFF and her husband and kiddies live) for a few days. After this we'll head straight south through southern Alberta and into Montana. Our first stop will be Butte, Montana. Instead of heading southeast then and onto Yellowstone, we will continue our journey south into Idaho, and Utah. We will then head east from there into Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and then up into Michigan and cross into Canada via Detroit.

I for one am looking forward to our trip to Colorado. It has been a dream of mine to visit. Everytime I dream of Colorado I can hear John Denver singing Rocky Mountain High. Well you don't need to dream folks, just click below to hear! BONUS: Listen to a live version of Steve Earle's Colorado Girl as performed on David Letterman only a few weeks ago!

MySpace Music Playlist at MixPod.com