Greetings from Duluth, MN rainy, cool 61 degrees.

Aggie and I didn't blog yesterday because we decided to take a day off. We left Int'l Falls, MN this morning and arrived in Duluth around noon. We called our cousin Marie and made arrangements to meet this evening for dinner. Aggie is doing laundry before we go to Hayward, WI to see her brother Ted.




Sunday we went to church in Portage La Prairie, MB and as you can see it was a beautiful church.

Later that day we reached the ultimate goal of our trip. This carnival made the trip worthwhile. They had giant dwarfs, stripless zebras and talking mutes. It doesn't get any better than that.

This is the border where we came back into the U.S. . It was great to be back in the states again and now we are even closer to home.

This is what we say as we came across the border. We stopped in for a few minutes just to run a few coins through the slots. We left a few bucks lighter in the old wallet and proceeded on to Int'l Falls,MN.

This is another great picture for my collection of giant animals, yes it's Smokey Bear. As you can see he had his eye on Aggie.

Greetings from Saskatoon, SA overcast 59 degrees

Birthday wishes go out to Andrew Bratland and Ashley Gorton who celebrated their birthdays yesterday and to Patrick McCutchin who celebrates his today.

Best wishes go out to Matthew McCutchin who goes to Boot Camp on Monday. Thanks for serving Matthew.

Last night we went to the horse race in Saskatoon. We had a lot of fun. I didn't win anything but Aggie won 3 out of 8 races.

Today we are off to Winnipeg and getting closer to home each day. That's all for now.

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Dateline Edmonton, AB over cast 62 degrees

Another beautiful day for traveling and 4 lane highway almost all the way. Pulled in Edmonton around 12:30 this afternoon. We had time to kill so we went to the second largest Mall in the country. 800 stores 110 acres and a hockey rink and a aquarium in the middle. They are building a new one on the other end of town with 330 acres of stores. I guess if you've seen one mega mall you've seen them all.

I included this picture because we had this on our breakfast table this morning and thought maybe Pete a Hobo's could buy these, at least one for our table. This has peanut butter, honey, cheese whiz, strawberry and grape. You just can't beat that. So, Cindy or Ba, if your reading our blogs see if you can't talk Pete into one of these before we get back. If you look real close at the name on the packages they're all made by Kraft, that should give some idea of what vendor to use.

We tried our luck this afternoon at the casino and this time we walked away with a little less cash then when we went in.

Nothing new to report

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Greetings from Grande Praire, Ab sunny 68 degrees

Aggie and I had another perfect day for traveling. We got an early start and soon got out of the hills and started driving in terrain similar to northern WI. We ended our days travel in Grande Prairie which is about the size of Oshkosh. Started to see beef cattle and crops in the fields. Our accommodation are great and just down the road is a gentleman's club, and I believe I spotted a gal who works with the gentleman on the front porch of the building. I tried to talk Aggie into having her picture with the girl but she said she wasn't interested. I just don't understand it, sometimes its hard to figure her out.

Today was a good day for animals, we saw a buck a doe and a black bear. We were unable to capture any pictures because the road we traveled was as busy as highway 151 back home so stopping for nature pictures wasn't a good idea. We were however fortunate enough to be able to add to my giant animal collection and needless to say I am ecstatic about that as you might realize. Below is the picture we captured and it is priceless.




This is the view we had for about half the trip and as you can see we still have the great Rocky Mountains peeking over the terrain.

We now have made it from British Columbia to the Providence of Alberta and it is a lot like WI.

This is me in front of my latest giant animal. As you can tell its a beaver and it is located in a town called Beaverlodge, image that. As the trip progresses Aggie and I laugh about all the giant animals and even the giant Mountie we have seen and she says we have more fun looking for giant anything.

Aggie and I wanted to go out for steak tonight so we decided to go to a Casino a few blocks from our hotel. We had a great steak and Aggie and I both won a little money and now I believe we have enough Canadian money to get us out of the country.

That's all for today.

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Greetings from Fort Nelson, BC sunny 61 degrees @ 8:55 P.M

Aggie and I drove from Muncho Lake this morning and had a great traveling day.

These are some of the views we encountered early in our trip from Muncho Lake. It was a little rainy to start and that gave us a unique view of the mountains with no sun.

Just a few miles down the road provided us with these two mountain goats that were in the middle of the road and walked up the hill at their speed.

About 2 hours into this morning trip we happened to see these two guys watching the traffic go by them as they looked on from a bank up from the road.

We decided since we were ahead of schedule to go to the Northwest Territory, and as we headed on up the road we saw a cow and a calf cross in front of us.

Yes you heard right, I said Northwest Territories. Aggie said it would be a shame if we missed an opportunity to say we were in a Providence we didn't plan on going, but just think we can get another magnet for our map. I guess when you put it that way how can I argue with that logic. It's only another 180 miles up highway 77 in the wrong direction for a magnet.

We also saw a fawn on the way, I am sure mom was not too far away.

On our way up to the Northwest Territory we were stopped by a construction crew replacing the planks that were bad on the bridge that goes over the Fort Nelson river. The flag person said to us that our wait should be no longer than an hour. Yes I said an hour. Can you imagine what would happen in Dane County if you told someone that they would have to sit in a line for an hour waiting for a few planks to be replaced? Everyone just sat in their vehicles with no cell phone service and no radio stations to listen to for an hour and no one honked or yelled. We had time to take a short walk down to the river while we waited.

And when it was time to go there were only 9 vehicles behind us. We crossed after the work truck on the bridge backed off and allowed us to pass.

One thing we noticed about Canada is almost every worker is in a union and they have a tax similar to the VAT Tax that our President and Nancy and Harry want us to pay. I guess that is why we had to pay $80.00 for an oil change and our breakfast usually runs around $30.00 for the two of us. I hope Pete at Hobo's don't here about this otherwise he might think he can start his own VAT Tax. Only he could call it a HOBO TAX. Then Ba and Cindy would join a union and then everything would go to heck, what a mess.

Tomorrow its off to Grande Prairie, Alberta and continuing in the direction of home.

That's all for now,

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Greetings from Muncho Lake, BC overcast 40 degrees.

Aggie and I drove to Watson Lake, BC and found the town interesting but had no suitable place to stay over night. We decided to continue on our trip and drove a little further and now are at Muncho Lake, BC at the Northern Rockies Lodge. We saw some very interesting sites along the way and was worth the extra driving. Below I have included some snap shots of our trip.

Happy birthday to Hailey Schmitz and happy anniversary to Ted and Linda.




At Whitehorse I sure surprised to see a giant Mountie along the road, that sure will go good with my collection of the giant cow and crane.

I was able to get the mud washed off the car and it now looks a little better. Had to buy new windshield wipers. The mud and rain take a toll on them.

This is the only auto repair shop in Watson Lake. I am no mechanic but I think I would try to fix it myself first.

This is the famous sign post forest in Watson Lake. It all started when the military was building the road and the soldiers were home sick and started putting signs up from their home town. As of today there are 69,000 signs posted from all over the world.

Aggie and I saw a lot of buffalo on the way, the first two we saw were fighting next to the road.

Then we saw a bear lying next to the road getting warm off the blacktop.

We even saw a buffalo taking a dump.

and buffalo lying along the road bedded down for the night.

And as we all know if you see that many buffalo you will always have a fair amount of this.

This is what the Indian Chief would send me out to look for when I was little and had been captured by the Indians. This was definitely a good sign.

That's all for this morning

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Dateline Whitehorse, YT Partly Sunny 44 degrees



Birthday wishes to Kenny Larsen Jr. today.



We traveled from Dawson City, YR to Whitehorse, YT today and again we went without cell or Internet service until last night. It was a great day to travel with a little rain then sun and then a little rain.



We Left Tok, AK and headed for Dawson City, YT by way of Chicken, AK. What a trip, we hit dirt roads from Chicken 60 miles to the Canadian border, then we had gravel roads most of the way to Dawson City with a few patches of blacktop. Below are some pictures of our trip the last two days.







This was the dirt road we traveled. It had just rained so there wasn't any dust just mud.

This was what the car looked like after arriving at Dawson City.

While at Dawson there was a casino across the street from our hotel and so we stopped in to run a few quarters through the slot machines. It was called "Diamond Tooth Gerties".

Here is Aggie losing her $20.00 she gambled, it took 10 minutes and she was broke. On the other had I had a good machine and took out $100.00.

Here is Aggie performing as a show girl because she may have gambled more than $20.00.

Here is the drive to Dawson City that took us to the "top of the world highway"

Here is the local fix-it shop in Chicken, AK. It is only open as needed.

The gas station we stopped at was the only building in Chicken with in door plumbing.

Here is Chicken, AK

Here are a few vehicles that couldn't make any further.

Thats all for today

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Greetings from Fairbanks, sunny,61



We had a great trip from Wasilla to Fairbanks. We also checked into a hotel with great Internet access so I was able to download some of our pictures over the last two days.

Aggie found a new friend at Tim's house, his name is Sparky.

The mountains going to Fairbanks were great, but bad weather did not allow us to see Mt McKinley.

This was what it looked like coming down the hill into Fairbanks.












Sometimes you just have to pull over and let the traffic go by.

This is a memorial at Homer, AK

This is the marina at Homer and contains thousands of small water craft.