Relaxing on the banks of the St John river, NB

Made it into New Brunswick and snagged a great campsite along the ST John river about 100 miles east of Fredericton. We are going to spend a week camped here to avoid the crowds of long weekend campers invading the more well known tourist areas. Today Anne and I went to Kings Landing Historical Town, It was really neat. It had everyone dressed up in authentic clothes and acting like it was the 1880's . We toured all the recreated houses and shops and checked out all the old history of the place. We have made a local friend , his name is Ron and has live here many years, he is 82. I showed him how to hook up his TV antenna and he paid me in carrots fresh from his garden, we also got a night free camping because I fixed the broken WIFI, so I'm doing well here bartering my services! Meeting many people from BC here, when they see the licence plate they come over for a chat. Last night in this small campground of 12 sites there were 3 other bc'ers , one from Penticton, one from Comox and one from Campbell River. Other things we plan to do are see the biggest axe in the world, tour a potato chip factory and check out the longest covered bridge, Cheers for now ! Ray

Whale watching on the St Lawrence Seaway

Took a nice 3 hour boat cruise today to find whales in the St Lawrence. Was a great day for it sunny and mild and calm waters, boat was great and we saw a bunch of whales. There were a pile of Minke and Fin whales swimming in pods sometimes of 7 or 8 no belugas seen though, they were shy today.uploaded a short video and some pix, check it out.
Across the road from our campground is Santas House, Noel Au Chateau, it's pretty strange to see in July, I'll upload some pix of it. also the other night they had a Santa parade with elfs, Mrs. Santa , etc throughout the campground just like it was Xmas , very strange. it,s something they do here every year for the children.

Gonna relax tonight and head to New Brunswick tomorrow , Atlantic time here we come!

Quebec!

Well we made it across ontario and are into Quebec, yay! Ontario was so hot and humid with bugs that want all your blood, yuck, we drove from Michigan all the way to near Ottawa but got stuck in a little town 50 miles east called Renfrew because the tranny on the big blue ford went into limp mode, basically the computer sensed a problem and put it into a mode of self protection. Only problem was to get the trouble code so it could be troubleshot. It was Saturday and no shops were open, had to wait till monday. I found a way to get the codes using a ohm meter and I pulled code 14 and 62 which meant RPM ssensor and converter slippage, not wanting to drive it and make it worse I waited,,,......

While waitiing a massive thunderstorm hit, with small tornados and took out all the power in the area for 2 days, got the truck towed and to the local ford shop that had the old code reader and a decent mechanic that found it was only the RPM sensor but because of the power outage no computers were working so part ordering was delayed. Decent little shop though, they gave us a free loaner and I got the truck repaired for 100 bucks parts and 120 labour.

Finally we were back on the road just as the hottest day on record was coming, around 110 degrees with the humidex so I told Anne lets drive at night and out run the heat. We left at 8 pm and drove through Ottawa and headed toward Montreal, stopped for gas and food at one side of the city and cruised through it at Midnight still was 80 degrees out.
Found a nice little truck stop near Trois Riverie and crashed for 4 hours. Back up at 5 am and drove straight to Quebec City and got a nice site close to the city and away from the heat in the east.


Quebec City is really cool, we did a walking tour and learn the history of the place, much of it dates back to the 16th century, felt like I was in europe, now we are 150 miles east of there in a little town called Riverie du Loupe.
It is very french here, I know very little french, the west of canada is totally english speaking, so its really interesting.
The town is right on the St Lawrence river and tommorrow we have a boat cruise booked to go whale watching, we have that in Victoria but here they have beluga whales and it will be neat to get out on the river.

Thats the update, having a great time, I highly recommend this no working stuff,

Oh and the stinking beagles got a bath too!

 we are on the shore of Lake Superior, travelled yesterday over to Munising, Michigan still on the shore of Superior. Now crossed 3 times zones! Going on a boat cruise tonight to view the Picture Rocks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pictured_Rocks_National_Lakeshore

Crossing over at Sault Ste Marie then heading to visit Ottawa and Quebec before we make it to the Maritimes for the rest of the summer.


Trip Map:
http://www.travellerspoint.com/member_map.cfm?user=Raytronx
Trip photos,blog and videos:

https://picasaweb.google.com/electrontv
http://blog.amckinnell.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/Raytronx

Travel Map

Currently in Bayfield, Nothern Wisconsin on the shore of Lake Superior, still hot and muggy 92 degree today, thank god for the fifth wheels AC. added a travel map showing the stops see in signature. 90 degrees was a lot more tolerable in Montana where it was dry
Trip Map:
http://www.travellerspoint.com/member_map.cfm?user=Raytronx
Trip photos,blog and videos:

https://picasaweb.google.com/electrontv
http://blog.amckinnell.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/Raytronx

New Pix

Got some new pix up.

Badlands was really cool looking and we made a trip to America's number 1 roadside attraction Wall Drug
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_Drug
, very over the top cheezy but fun anyway. 

 We left Badlands national park this am and headed east on I90 expecting to get maybe as far a Minnesota State but 90 degree weather and a heavy head wind caused us to get too hot. Had to run at about 50mph and keep the revs up so the truck didn't over heat and also turned off the AC. But the old beagle oscar started getting too hot so we pulled off at a little town called Kennebec, South dakota to spend the night and hit the road early before the heat.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=kennebec&hl=en&sll=43.325178,-99.558105&sspn=4.874461,14.128418&z=14

Happy 4th of july

Happy 4th everyone, currently in a campground near Hot Springs , South Dakota. It's right at the south end of the Black Hills. This is a very cool area so we have been here a week and checked out all the sights, Devils Tower, Mount Rushmore, Custer State park, Wind Cave National Park. Seen tons of wildlife like bison and pronghorn antelope. Great scenic drives in the Black hills I can see why all the bikers come to the Sturgis Rally.
Heading over to the Badlands next for a few days they east.

Got lots of pix and vid clips to process and upload but there is to much to see and do now so will have to wait for a rainy day. Just wanted to pop in and say hey, Happy 4th from a canuck.

Blown Tire

Left Glacier today and overnighting at a try truck stop in Great Falls, Montana. Had a bit of excitement on the road as one of my back dually tires decided to let out all it's air in a rapid fashion, it was like gee what's that weird noise, being a dually I didn't relize it was a blowout at first. luckily I was able to find a spot to pull over quickly and throw on the spare. The bizarre cause was one of my own decorative metal lug nut covers was the culprit, ack! Stuck right in-between the tires it cut into one.

Anyway Im sure it will be an upcoming blog post for Anne as she had fun snapping pix of me changing the tire.

Cheers Ray

Trip underway

trip is underway! So far we headed across Washington state and stayed at a campground on the snake river and explored the palouse hills then drove up to Glacier National park. so far the rig is handling great, only problem was had to stop near the top of a pass in Idaho because the heat was getting high but other than that it tows great. Internet access has been spotty so far but some pics so far here,

https://picasaweb.google.com/electrontv/PalouseAndGlacier

headed down to the Badlands in South Dakota next,