Again, long time no Wifi!
We met our new tour guide in New Jersey... luckily, our old tour guide dropped us off at the hotel, which was just outside Giants old and new Stadiums! We picked up 4 more passengers too, since we lost a couple in NY. First stop, Niagra.
We got to Niagra and our proximity to Canada was very humurous... literally across a river! We stayed at a campsite on one of the Great Lakes (the name escapes me) but you could see Toronto across the lake! We slept there for the night, freezing cold, and got up the next day for Niagra Falls. We headed down to the falls in the morning to catch the first Maid of the Mist boat. We picked up our souvenier ponchos (free!) and climbed aboard. We first decided that we might get a bit wet when we saw the state of the boat already... but what's a bit of water!? We cruised off towards the falls and before we knew it, we were soaked! The falls are colossal, its amazing to withold that much water and the power that that much water creates. I later learned that Niagra Falls is the greatest source of renewable energy in the world!
Later we set off towared Sandusky, Ohio. There's not much to do here.
Chicago next. We got there, checked in to our Hostel and then headed out for Dinner. We had Deep Dish Pizza... Oh My God! Now, think of the kind of "Deep" pizzas we get here? All crust, right? Not here... It was HUGE! Imagine the thickness of a quiche and you're nearly there. The crust isn't that thick, its almost all filling! Anyway, enough about Pizza... we went out later that night in search of Blues music but they all had a cover charge on the door of about $8-$10 so we decided not to.
The next day we went sight seeing. We went up the Sears tower, which is the third tallest building in the world, and saw most of the city from there, then we travelled to Millenium Park to see a sculpture which can only be described as a massive, reflective Bean. The surface of the bean is completely mirrored so you can always see yourself and it makes for some great photographs. It reflects the skyline too and is really quite remarkable! We went for a look round some shops and in the Evening went to a Whitesox Baseball game. Everything was typical, like you see in the Films, with the national anthem and fireworks at the start and the music and the vendors shouting "HOTDOGS!"... the game itself was boring but you had to love the atmosphere!
The next day we set off for Sioux falls and then to Cody, Wyoming. These were both very uneventful. It seems that the start of the North side is a lot of driving to get West where all the interesting stuff happens. We were supposed to see a Rodeo in Cody, but it was too cold! The other thing about this end of the World is that it's the Miswest; Cowboys and Indians, Hunters, Guns and Left Wing Politics! We stayed in a Ranch on of the nights and there were Turkeys, Deer and even a Mooses head mounted on the Walls. These people loved their guns and loved killing things which was rather unnerving! The night in the Ranch was fun but I was glad to get out of there! At some point in these few days, we attempted to see Mt Rushmore. Our luck with the weather had not been so good and this particular day, it was so foggy, you couldn't even see it! Not even faintly!
We arrived in Yellowstone for the first two day stop in a while. National Parks tend to have worse facilities that normal, so there were no showers at the camp and we had to Bear Proof everything (Bear Proofing means locking all food, cosmetics and toiletries in the trailer or the Van at night!). On our first day in Yellowstone we hiked up a Mountain to get a good view of Lake Yellowstone. Half way up, we encountered snow! There was snow on the ground (in some places it went up to your thigh!) and it was snowing while we walked! It made the whole forrest look incredibly beautiful and picturescue! We got to the top and the view was stunning. The rest of the day we were vanned around by Andy, the tour guide, and he showed us a lot of the cool spots like "Old Faithful", one of the biggest geysers in the park and to "paint pots", smaller geothermal spots that had claylike liquid in them that just bubbled away.
The next day I did another hike, this time without Jen as she pulled a muscle in her leg, and we hiked around a sulpher lake, through some sulpher hotpots and to a place called Artists Points, a huge waterfall at the start of a canyon. Then we went to some other bits in the north side of the park. To shower that evening, we decided to sneak into a Hotel and use their communal showers! Take it to the Man!
The next day we headed for Glacier NP, a park dedicated to... yes you guessed it... Glaciers! We did more hiking here, some of it quite gnarley (we hiked across sheer faces that used to have footpaths but were now covered in snow and one slip would lead to a long fall!). We then hiked across a Glacier to a Frozen lake!
The next day we were crossing the boarder... into CANADA! We were taken into a room, had to strip off and... ONLY KIDDING! The Canadians were very nice, actually! and they do all say "eh?" at the end of every sentence, it's not a myth! Our first stop (and where I still am this very moment) was Banff NP. Banff is lovely, its a National Park, Canada's first and contains, amongst other things, Lake Louise. It also has a town, unlike most other Nationa Parks, and is very nice! Tomorrow, we hike the afformentioned lake and then on to Golden... wherever that is.
Nice talking to you, eh?
Take care, eh?
bye now!... eh?
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