Lets take the shed for a drive

We had soooo much fun up at the cottage last week, I felt like a 6 year old when the digger and the dump truck arrived. We had wanted to move the wood shed from one side of the driveway to the other to make room for a new garage. The contractor (the one who had to stop and shoot the "lil buggers") assured us that he could move the whole shed, about 12' x 8' with the bucket of a digger. The whole process was accomplished in about 1.5 hrs and it was great fun to watch. I certainly had more fun than Gord who was more than a little apprehensive when our perfectly good shed was hanging perilously off the front of a digger. Ron did a great job and set it down exactly as we had planned with hardly a scratch on the building. 

(By the way, this blog is going to be more interesting... I know Steve, there is lots of room for improvement... but at least now I figured out to add pictures!)

Life in the country!

Gord and I have been enjoying some days up at the cottage in Ontario. The other day we were to have a contractor come by to talk about some work that we wanted done. As the work was outside we were a little unhappy when he was late as it was getting dark and we would not be able to see the project. Well I thought that I had heard every excuse in the book from contractors but this was a new one. He said he was late because when he went outside to get in the truck to come see us, a couple of porcupines were bothering the dogs so he had to go get his gun and shoot the "lil buggers" before he could come over to see us. Now often I end up being the one to shoot the contractor but I am not going to mess with this one!

Driving across the USA in 1929

One of the best parts of this trip has been listening to the stories and the memories that this has brought to mind for Mom Taylor. In 1929 when she was 9 and Uncle Jack was 12 they set off to drive with their parents all the way from Calgary to Toronto via Chicago in a pre-1929 Hupmobile. The car was a couple of years old when the family bought it but they were very proud of their modern vehicle. The drive was largely on gravel roads and on the way home they stopped in Chicago again and this time picked up an uncle and aunt, Earl and Eileen and brought them back with them to Calgary. That was six people and all their luggage in a not very large car! Mom remembers that on their return trip they had five flat tires in one day! They also had little ventilation but the windscreen lifted up to give them more air (can you imagine the dust!) It was a very hot summer so one day they had the windscreen open when they drove into a swarm of bees which filled the car. She said that it was a miracle that no one was hurt or even stung as they brought the car to a stop in such a hurry to empty out first themselves and then the unwanted travellers that they had picked up. Mom remembers doing the trip from Calgary to Chicago in five days. We covered much of the same route and we were amazed to imagine that little car doing all the mountain climbs and passes that we did and in such a short time.

God & the Highway

We were very interested to see that across the states there would often be a Wayside Chapel or Meditation Centre right in the state supported rest area. These would be a small building, usually shaped like a traditional church set apart from the rest area by a little way. We found it interesting that not only would these be tolerated by the state but actually supported by them. In Canada it is a different story! While we Canadians are usually know for being 'subtle' and the Americans as being 'brash' there was nothing subtle about what we saw on the roadside in Northern Ontario. From The Soo to the cottage I saw 7 highway texts, some of them were loving as in "Christ died for our sins" or "The gift of God is eternal life" or even "Jesus is the Way". I even agreed with "Make time for God while there is still time". But when we got into a huge sign that said "The Wages of Sin is DEATH" and a few miles later, "Prepare to meet thy God" I decided that I would have much preferred to see the subtle little Wayside Chapel!

Death on the Highway!

It was interesting to drive across the country and see how each state recorded fatalaties. In Montana a simple white cross was placed by the highway, sometimes alone or in one case three at once. In Wyoming the cross symbol had a heart over it but the meaning was the same. In South Dakota the message was a little more graphic, there was a black and white diamond with an X that said X marks the spot and in large letters "Why Die". In every case it really gave one cause to think and not a bad idea that our country might adopt instead of the varied and impromptu memorials that people erect. In Michigan it was a different story... while we think that these symbols were meant to deter one from going too fast in Michigan there were big signs that said "Kill a highway worker, $7500". I guess that over employment is a big problem in that state....
Fortunately we did not have any incidents unless you count the 3,786,429 bugs that we brought along for the ride to Ontario. The license plate is almost unreadable! We also saw at least a dozen fresh deer killed on our trip so we were very grateful that we had been kept safe with all our driving, especially our driving during evening hours.

We are here after 6700 kms!

Well, we had a glorious day for our last day of driving across the country. We set off from Sault Ste. Marie in glorious sunshine and drove across to Sudbury. I commented that it had been wonderful to have had Gord to do 98% of the driving as he is a careful and capable driver and I was never concerned for an instant. Mom sitting in the back said "tell me about it!! That was by far the hardest part of my marriage and Charles never could understand why I had a problem with his driving!" This part of the country is very unpopulated but it was a very pretty drive with lots of views of the lake. At Sudbury we decided not to take the quickest route but to drive down Georgian Bay to Parry Sound and then go across to Sunridge via the back road. We made it to the cottage by 4:30 in time for tea. It was a very strange sensation driving our Vancouver van into the cottage, sort of our two worlds colliding. When we sat on the deck having tea Gord said that for the first time he really felt retired and he was not too sure about it. It has been a wonderful drive and a real priveledge to share it with Mom Taylor. All three of us were very ready to arrive but each of us had enjoyed it immensely.

Oshkosh by gosh!

We started off today in Oshkosh and as the hotel was the nicest that we had had, we took our time over a leisurely breakfast. We did not get on the road until about 9:30 and then went straight up the freeway to Green Bay. Mom was feeling the need to shop (honestly... it really wasn't me this time... I only bought some socks!) so we took a little delay before we started up the Michigan Peninsula. It was freeway pretty much until Marchette when we turned off the main road and followed the shores of Lake Michigan all the way to the farthermost spot to St. Ignace. The whole area is a resort that has frankly seen better days. There were many cottages on the lake, some had obviously been developed into lovely year round homes but many were little more than shacks. The interesting part was the HUGE number of motels, probably from the 50's and 60's with little cabins that were either for sale or left abandoned. There were dozens of them and at one time it must have been a very popular resort area that somehow is no longer popular. The lake is vast but lovely but although it was another beautiful day there was a sort of hopeless desolation about the place. A traditional treat in the area is a pasty, that Mom remembers from trips past so we had to try one. They are very much like the traditional Cornish pasty that we would get in the SW of England. Mostly it is a lot of pastry filled with potato and if you are lucky, as Gord was, you might even find a piece of beef. If the pasty was responsible for the popularity of the place then we can see why it might have lost its appeal.

When we reached to end of the peninsula we had a good view of the amazing bridge over the juction of Lake Superior and Huron to the tip of the other Michigan peninsula and the town of Mackinaw. We had to take the bridge, it was worth every penny of the $3.00 fare each way as it is over 7 kms long, quite an experience. The town of Mackinaw is lovely, if a little touristy but if you are in the mood for pasties, smoked fish and fudge then this is the place to come.

We returned back over the bridge and went on to the American side of Sault St. Marie. We went straight down to look at the Soo locks which were very interesting but empty so we went across the street for a great taste of local fare, a whole lot more interesting than the pasty. We had dinner in a little restaurant that dates back to the 40's and is famous for its fish (Lake Superior whitefish) and chips. The fish was wonderful and so fresh. Just before the bill arrived Gord and I saw that a freighter was just arriving at the lock so made a dash out of the restaurant to watch its progress... (how is that for an imaginative way to leave Mom paying for dinner?!) It was really interesting and we were amazed to actually see the freighter rise up out of the water as we watched. Shortly after the freighter arrived a tug came into the lock closest to us (there are four locks in all) and the whole process of bringing in the boat, locking the gates, filling the lock, and releasing the other gates only took 10 minutes. It was so interesting to watch and best of all it prompted the reminiscences from Mom about how she had come through the locks on the Noronic. We are staying on the American side of the Sault and tomorrow we will head back to the cottage.

The Noronic

(The following story is for Taylor family members as it might not interest others!)

In the summer of 1934, when Mom Taylor was 14, she, Auntie Mayme and Gram all took the train from Calgary to Port Arthur and Fort William, twin cities that almagamated to become the present day Thunder Bay. From there they boarded a cruise ship called The Noronic. This was one of the cruise ships that used to sail the Great Lakes. They took three days to sail from Lake Superior, through the locks at Sault St. Marie to the Southern part of Lake Huron to Sarnia. As today the cruise ship was a luxurious way to travel. In Sarnia they took the train to Chicago and went to the World's Fair that was held in Chicago that year. Mom says that on the way to Chicago they went to a big family reunion and missionary conference in Guelph. Auntie Mayme was not yet married at that time and she was on one of her "off" periods with Uncle Albert. While at the conference Auntie Mayme went out with a man called Jack Mountain who was the local undertaker and barber in Milton. Auntie Mayme was not impressed with the fellow but he obviously did not feel the same way. A couple of weeks after they returned a postcard arrived in the mail that Mom and Uncle Jack decided that they should check out. On it Jack Mountain had written, "Jesus says I am for you." Upon seeing these words Auntie Mayme responded, "Funny, He didn't tell me that!"

Sometime in the late 40's when Mom was living in Toronto, the Noronic was in the the harbour when one night it caught fire and many people lost their lives. Dad was a doctor in Toronto in those days and all the hospitals were busy treating the injured from the cruise ship. Since then there have not been any cruise ships on the Great Lakes.

Blog Frustration!!

Monday, September 14th

Aaaggghhhhhhhh! I wrote for two hours in the car today and I have just wiped out all my hard work when I went to post it. I guess I still have so much to learn about this tech stuff. I will try to go back and recreate them later but for now I am too disheartened and will carry on with today's adventures.

We left Sioux Falls this morning around 8:30 and hit I-90 almost right away. (I didn't really pay attention to the scenery because I was too busy texting!!!!) We drove right across the bottom of Minnesota today and I won't really be sorry to see the back of this part of the state. There is nothing here at all but flat fields of corn, corn and more corn with the occasional soybean field thrown in for good measure. After three hours of steady highway driving we all felt that we had had enough of the main road and we went south at Albert Lea into Iowa and down into the country. This was a vast improvement and we really enjoyed the back roads. The farms are all very well maintained, all the farmhouses and barns are painted white and there is a huge Scandanavian influence here. Every little hamlet has a lutheran church or care home or cemetry. Thanks to our handy little GPS we went to the town of Omage for our lunch. It claims to be the City of Maples. While the town was really pretty and the plentiful maples are just beginning to turn beautiful colours, the term "city" may be a bit of an exageration! From here we drove across country towards the Mississippi. About 30 miles from the Wisconsin border the very flat land changed and we were now coming into lovely rolling hill country. We still passed miles and miles of corn and soybean but here the farmers looked like they were into something quite amazing that Gord termed "farm art." Instead of every field just being filled with one crop, the farmers had planted the crops in beautiful swaths of colour. It is hard to describe and I will try to add a photo but it was if they had taken a giant paintbrush and painted swirling bands of crops, corn (golden brown and green), alfalfa (very dk. green) soybean (green and yellow). We talked to a fellow who told us that the crops followed the contours of the hills because the corn and the soybean were bad for soil erosion and the alfalfa and sometimes bands of grass stabilized the soil and made erosion less of an issue. It was quite extraordinary and very beautiful. We reached the Mississippi at Lansing and what a river! It was over four kms wide here in various sections of river, islands etc. We made the "mistake" of stopping to talk to a fellow who told us that he was the minister at the Church of Christ in the town. Sorry, but by the time we got away we were all glad that we did not have to sit through his Sunday sermons. He was quite passionate about his town and he told us what to do and where to go. We thought that we had escaped but when we did a u-turn to get back on our route, there he was standing in the middle of the road to flag us down and give us more details! (Did you know that his second cousin's wife's aunt was one of Al Capone's secretaries?)

we finally managed to extricate ourselves from him and made our way to Viroqua to check out the hospital. Fifty one years ago Grandpa Oliver (Mom T's dad) had a heart attack near here and Gram drove him to this hospital where he stayed for about 6 weeks before he was brought back to a hospital in Calgary where he died a short time later. Mom had flown down to be with them both and remembers the extreme kindness of the people in the town and wanted to come back to visit. The hospital was changed beyond recognition but when she looked in the phone book she found the names and numbers of the two young twin doctors who had treated her dad still listed there. She was so pleased to be able to come back to visit the place that held so many memories, 51 years later! It was getting late so we made a bee line for Oshkosh for the night and was only steered slightly wrong by our GPS took us to a little family restaurant that was up for sale and the owners had not bothered to inform "Karen" our Australian guide. So back to subway yet again.

Saturday, September 12th

We Started off today in Guillette,  Wyoming and drove south in cloudy skies towards Mt. Rushmore. Eastern Wyoming is the garbage dump of the US. Honestly, almost every back yard is littered with scrap metal of all kinds: cars, trucks, farm implements etc. If I was a scrap metal dealer I would come here and make my fortune. We passed through a town called Upton which labeled itself as the best town on earth. Well, if that is the case then I am really sorry for the rest of us because the 654 residents who live here are in a very sorry state indeed. We started to encounter very low cloud as we climbed the black hills on the way to Mt Rushmore. When we arrived at the summit we could not see a thing...literally! The monument was right in front of us and we could not see 50 feet beyond the edge. We went down into the visitor centre and watched a fascinating film about the creating of the monument. It was started in 1927 and took 14 years to complete and was supervised by the sculptor  Borghnum  who oversaw a total of 400 workers over the years it took to complete. Ninety percent of the "carving" was done by dynamite, which is staggering when you look at the complexity of the faces. The four faces are 

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, and they are over 60 feet high. Anyway when we got out of the theatre there was still think cloud but we could now see the bottom of the cliff. A kindly mountain goat came by to amuse us for a few minutes while we waited and then the wind blew just enough that we got a full glimpse of the four of them for 20 seconds before the clouds came back! We went inside to have a bowl of soup and sure enough the wind blew again and we enjoyed a wonderful view of 'the boys' while we had our lunch. It really is quite a magnificient feat and really worth seeing.

We set off after lunch for the longest,  (and probably most boring) part of our trip. From Rapid City to Sioux Falls we drove right across the state of South Dakota, about 585 kilometers and the highlight was a bend in the road around the 300 KM mark, just one bend mind you! I have never seen such a straight road in my life. We had to brea the trip with a couple of stops. For about 100 kms we had been seeing signs to the Wall Drug store in Wall, SD. Amongst other things they offered free coffee and donuts to couples on their honeymoon (Gord said just one look in our eyes and they would be handing over the mugs of coffee), free coffee and donuts to veterans but for the rest of us we had to pay 5cents for a mug of coffee. Anyway after 100kms of advertising we had to stop. Mom Taylor says she remembers stopping in here many years ago. 

Well apparently in 1936 when the Husteads bought the little drug store and there were only 367 residents in the town the business was quite slow. They saw how many travellers were going by in the hot dusty weather and they started by offering free ice water to travellers and well the rest is history,,, the drug store now takes up a full city block and it sells the most amazing rubbish you ever saw. You should take a look at their website...