Fall

 

What a beautiful day. Temp in the mid 80's, a light breeze to make it not too hot in the sun and refreshing in the shade. This is a tree in the park we took Bailey to today. It just couldn't wait any longer to start changing colors.

I found a neat website called mooch.com that helps everyone with too many books in their library. You list the books you're willing to let other people mooch off you and you'd be willing to send to them. In return, you get to see, and mooch books that they list in their library. It doesn't cost anything, other than postage and there is a point system for books sent and received to prevent abuse of the system. I've managed to pass on several books from my past and am awaiting several new (to me) to arrive. Thanks to www.lifehacker.com for pointing me to the site.

RIP FD

We buried Fred today.

He and Diana are the oldest friends with have. No, I said that wrong, but you know what I mean. Fred was wounded during his stint in Viet Nam. Purple Heart worthy. He was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma about ten years ago. We thought we were going to loose him then, but an experimental treatment sent it into remission for several years.

Earlier this year he grew some abnormal lumps near the lymph nodes in his neck. They removed the bumps the day after the doctor saw them: Merkle Cell Carcinoma. The doctor had never seen a case Merkle Cell Carcinoma much less the two diseases together. He started Fred on an aggressive series of treatments: radiation sessions on his neck and lower face and chemo at the same time. The doctor wanted to hit it with both barrels. Fred was feeling poorly for a while there. He'd have to go in to get his blood checked three times a week, and depending on the results get an infusion of platlets or a transfusion of whole blood, and occationally both.

He managed to keep his wits about him most of the time and his sense of humor never failed him. P drove him to many of his doctor and hospital appointments. One time she made a left turn with a little less margin than usual regarding oncomming traffic and jokingly told Fred she wasn't worried because, it was his side [if there had been an accident, the oncomming car would have hit Freds side of the car]. Fred replied, Thats OK, I'm half dead already! and laughed.

Fred was responding to the treatment. The doctor was impressed with the progress he had made, it looked like the treatment was working. Fred started into the third round of chemo in late August. Early Saturday morning, August 26th we got the call from Diana, she had gotten up and found him in the bathroom, ice cold. He had passed away sometime during the night.

Late this morning there was a service in the Willamette National Cemetary complete with military honors: a three volly [gunfire] salute, the playing of taps in the distance and the presentation of a US flag to the widow in recognition of the service to and sacrifice for his country. It was a moving cermony, the first of its type I'd experienced.

Fred had the last word, though. Per his instructions as the service ended and everyone milled about talking, remembering and catching up, the Creedence Clearwater Revival song, Bad Moon Rising blared from the boombox that earlier played the somber Nearer My God To Thee and the Navy Hymn.

So, in his honor, we are raising our glasses and wishing him godspeed. Our thoughts go out to his widow, daughter, son-in-law and three grandchildren, and the rest of his extended family.

You will be missed, Fred, but never forgotten.

By the Numbers

It's been warm here lately. Not hot enough to stop everything like three weeks ago when we were tying all time records (108!) but warm enough to make any activity uncomfortable - low to mid 90's. There's talk of a cold front coming up from California that will cool things down some and bring the chance of thunderstorms. The rain will be welcome, but the lightening will undoubtably start more forest fires in central Oregon. My boss's parents had to evacuate their home last week when a fire got too close to their community. They were told to leave their houses unlocked so that firefighters wouldn't have to break into any of the houses if they had to fight the fire house to house. They said the evacuated neighberhoods were heavily patrolled. Sure hope so.

But those aren't the numbers I refered to in the title. As you know, I've been on an excercise and healthy, low fat, low sugar, high fiber, high fruit diet since the beginning of the year. I have managed to loose approximately 40 lbs and have the stamina to walk several miles nearly every night of the week. My weight has stabilized very close to what it was when I was in college, when I didn't care about what I ate or what I weighed.

The numbers I refer to come from an annual health screening the company offers. They check your blood pressure, pulse and cholesterol levels. They ask about your life style: smoking, drinking, exercise, amount of sleep, stress reduction and the like. I will get a pamphlet in a couple of weeks with general analysis and places to go to find out more about questions I might have. My appointment was at 3:30 in the afternoon and I had to fast for 8 hours before the cholesterol test. I hadn't eaten since breakfest. Normally I'd have had breakfest, lunch and a couple of snacks by then. I was a little light headed. So, the numbers:

total cholesterol 167
less than 200 is desirable
HDL cholesterol 72
greater than 60 is desirable (this is the "good" one)
cardiac risk ratio 2.3
3.2-3.9 is desirable, higher is considered more of a risk
LDL cholesterol --
less than 100 is good (mine didn't even register)
triglycerides <45
less than 150 is optimal
glucose 89
60 - 110 is considered normal

It sure is nice to get confirmation that you've made some good decisions. Incentive to keep it up.



I just had to brag.....


In other news, Tyfini got her drivers license last Friday. She was in an accident Sunday night. Everyone is ok, it wasn't her fault, but Tabs car will be in the shop for a while. This is what being a parent is all about.......

HOT

We tied the record at 108 degrees here yesterday. It was 96 in the living room upstairs at 10 o'clock last night. Phew! It's a balmy 82 here in the computer room right now, 8 am. And that may be as cool as it going to get today. The weatherman says it's going to hit 102 this afternoon. I don't know.... I pretty much can't tell the difference once it gets over 100. And on top of the heat, the power went out for a while in the middle of the night. We don't have air conditioning, just a lot of fans, including a ceiling fan in our bedroom. The ceiling fan stopped. We started sweating just lying in bed. I don't know how long the power was out, but I do remember the fan starting back up. Ahhhhhh drying that sweat and cooling me down, some... Well, its time to take Bailey for a short walk. It's Saturday. He doesn't let me out of his sight until we take the walk. Have to do it now, it's not going to get any cooler today than it is now.

Home Again

We made it. Home, once again. 8,452 miles. Time to unpack, clean up, catch up and get ready for the regular routine.

More to follow.....

Birth place of Dwight D Eisenhower

Monday evening. I've been having problems with very slow and unreliable internet connections. And expensive internet connections too. I will add photos when I get home or we stop somewhere that has a truly high speed internet connection.
We are in Abilene Kansas, birthplace of Dwight D Eisenhower and location of his Presidential Library. Never having seen a presidential library, we will check it out in the morning.

After Wilgus State Park we made it to the Foxwoods Casino in eastern Connecticut. Had a good time, and actually won a few bucks playing poker with a bunch of guys with from Boston and Providence. Took a while to tune my ear to the eastern seaboard accents. Very interesting listening to the way they talked. We thought about staying over another day because Atlantic City was shut down. And that was exactly why they didn't have any rooms available for Thursday. It was just as well. We played a little more in the morning and headed for Cleveland. We drove across Connecticut, New York and half way across Pennsylvania before we stopped for the evening in Bloomsberg PA. Got a room in a nice little motel called The Inn at Turkey Hill.

Friday we drove to the outskirts of Cleveland and hit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame first thing Saturday morning. Some really cool stuff there. Its right on the water front. The building was designed by I M Pai. Very futuristic, glass and chrome, lot of angles with has six floors. The basement has the bulk of the collection and the floors get smaller as you go up. The top two floors are for whatever special exhibition is going on. We caught one of the last days of the Bob Dylan exhibit. Lots of memorabilia from his early life and early career. They had a bunch of sound booths to listen to his music while reading about it's significance in its time and even today. We spent about four hours there and could have just as easily spent another four hours.

We proceeded to Speedway Indiana, just outside Indianapolis. Sunday morning we visited the raceway museum and took a lap around the raceway itself in a tour van. They have a number of cars that participated in the races over the years. The raceway will be 100 in 2009. Look for a big celebration that year. The collection includes the STP turbine powered car that lead the race the whole way until a gearbox failure knocked it out of the race with 4 laps to go. I vividly remember listening to that race when I was a kid in Milwaukee. They also have some Nascar and Formula 1 cars represented in the collection. The Formula 1 cars can go 0 to 60 in 3 seconds! I have been following Formula 1 racing for a couple of years now. It was great to be able to see a couple of cars up close. We missed the US Grand Prix by a week. (Michael Schumacher won in a Ferrari, if you were wondering...)

After the racing museum we proceeded to St Louis and arrived in time to check out the Gateway Arch. They have a tram (little cars, kind of like pods, that hold 5 people each) that goes up to the top of the Arch. There is a viewing area with windows that overlook the city on one side and the Mississippi and East St Louis (Illinois) on the other side. We headed out of town to find more reasonable accommodations for the evening and discovered that there is a Harrahs Casino and Hotel in the outskirts of St Louis. We managed to get a room there. It was pretty crowded. I guess we shouldn't have been surprised at that, this is prime vacation time afterall.... So we had a nice meal and tried some games of chance. P seemed to do ok but the people I played cards with must have seen me coming. It wasn't a good evening for me. We were going to check out the Budweiser Clysdales but you have to make a reservation first. It isn't something you can just drop in and see. So, we turned the car west and here we are in Kansas. We had a nice storm pass by in the last hour. Only a little bit of thunder and lightening. We have been very lucky so far, weather wise, this vacation, in all the places we've been. I think this is the third time the rain has caught us in the 17 days we've been on the road. Lets hope it stays that way.

Tomorrow we hope to be in Denver or beyond. We've been away from home for a long time. Getting to sleep in our own bed is sounding better and better to us.

Beyond Pennsylvania

Made it to Cleveland and will check out the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame first thing tomorrow. We're really looking forward to this.

We left Montreal Wednesday morning and went even further east so we could could head south going down the boarder between New Hampshire and Vermont. We went this way so we could stop at the Wilgus State Park. Had to get some pictures of that. When I told the park ranger I was a Wilgus, he gave us some information about the Wilgus who donated the land, just off the highway, as a place for travelers for travelers to rest and recouperate. A nice park!
















We proceeded to Foxwooods Casino in easter Connecticut. The place is HUGE! We were lucky in getting a room, considering that the casinos in Atlantic City were closed down. After dinner I played some poker. I managed to walk away with a few of the other players chips. P had fun playing the slots and some of the other table games. the next morning we played some more before heading out. Unfortunately, the results weren't the same. We headed west through Connecticut, across New York and on to Bloomsberg, PA. We get a room at The Inn at Turkey Hill. A nice place! I'll have some pictures tomorrow, hopefully.

More of the Montreal Festivities

We made our way into Ottawa on Sunday, the day after Canada Day. Couldn't come all this way and not check out the capitol of Canada. The government buildings have a lot of character. the rest of the buildings in the surrounding area tend to be newer, in age as well as architectural style. It kind of work. It is an impressive area. One block away has been converted into a pedestrian mall with kiosks and vending stands in the middle of what was the street at one time. All kinds of people walking about. Left over from the Canada Day celebration the previous day? Or just coming in after, like us, to see the clean up afterwards. We stopped at Tim Hortons (kind of like a cross between a Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts with bagels and sandwichs. We got a window seat and watched the people walking by. Quite a show.

It only took a couple of hours to get to Chateau des Caribiou (H & B's house in Beaconsfield, outside Montreal). We were greeted by H, Mark A and the dogs, Bonnie and Clyde, part Australian sheepdog and "who done it?" We spent the afternoon catching up, enjoying the treats and drinks on the patio next to their pool. J, Mark B & S, Alex and the twins, M & J drifted in over the rest of the afternoon. Bo even called to say he wished they were here too and add some of his energy to the gathering. H had brats simmering all afternoon. It didn't take long on the grill for an excellent dinner.

We went to the Montreal Jazz Festival that evening. They closed off five or six blocks in downtown Montreal with a main stage at one end and smaller stages at the side streets. We scoped out the scene, took in some jazz by the Phantom Power Combo Deluxe. A horn player backed up by a bass, drums and keyboards. Nice. We caught the act on the main stage too: Spectacle Suprise, and Australian group with a heavy latin influence. A good live show that ended some time after midnight.

Monday we checked out an antique shop and some of the waterfront area on one of the islands that make up this area. Old buildings, very close together, narrow streets lots of foot traffic on the sidewalks. a nice feel, kind of artsy. But I couldn't help thinking what it would look like under several snow storms in the middle of January.

The twins demonstrated thier guitar licks, they both play electric guitar. Harvey play his piano for a while. Jason arrived in early afternoon. He's been with Mesa Airline for a little over a year now, based in Orlando. He loves what hes doing.

The whole crew went to dinner at a small resteraunt called Yoyos. Excellent food. I had some deer, P had one of the specials of the day, halibut with a mint sauce. H had sweetmeats. But then thats just the kind of guy he is. Afterwards we went to a Christopher O'Riley Plays Radiohead concert. Some of had heard of Christopher O'Riley as a classical pianist. I'd heard of Radiohead, but none of us were familiar with their music. The concert was in a small chapel in "Chapelle historique du Bon-Pasteur". An excellent concert. We got seats in the third, fourth and fifth rows and were able to see his hands as he played. Impressive.

Tuesday, when we finally got around to motivating ourselves, we aren't as young as we used to be, we met the rest of the gang at the Chateau des Caribiou and proceeded to downtown Montreal for some lunch and browsing through the shops. H took P and I through The Basicila of Notre Dame - Montreal. Absolutely amazing. Very impressive.






A Fine Meal











Rock N Roll!

Montreal Jazz Festival

Beer, food, music. How can you go wrong?
















This requires more beer!













The Out of towners








Trouble? Who? US????











Can we get a drink over Here????

More BUGS!

 
 
 
 
  
And this is what was waiting for us when we went out to the car! Had to get a towel and try to wipe them off before opening the door. They don't want to move. Exhausted after a night of cavoreting I suppose... 

Bugs

 

This is what we saw when we opened the curtains this morning. I'd killed a couple that had made there way into the room last night. 

North Bay

It rained pretty hard when we left Marathon. Even a little hail thrown in. It rained very very hard as we drove east with some lightning and thunder thrown in. It took a couple of hours but we managed to drive out from under it. We stopped in Sault Sainte Marie last night. We took a trip over the International Bridge this morning and cruised through the American Sault Saint Marie. There was a ship in the lock, headed up river. Massive vehicle up close. From there we crossed back over into Canada and made our way to North Bay. We're going to Ottawa tomorrow. We're going to see if we can catch some of the Canada Day celebration.

Maybe not. There aren't any hotel rooms available in Ottawa. Going to have to wing it. We have reservations in Montreal starting on Sunday. Just have to figure out where to stay Saturday night.

Lake Superior

 


The picture doesn't do it justice..... 

The Museums

 

Need I say more? 

Smokey the Bear & Friend

 

International Falls, Minnesota 

View from the Buffalo Jump

 


This is the view to the east from the Buffalo Jump. Quite the view. 

Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump

 

This is the spot. 

Marathon, Ontario

We are in the bustling burg of Marathon, Ontario this morning. We've been following the upper edge of Lake Superior. Some wonderful views along the way. We even had to slow down because of a black bear crossing the highway. Kind of startling to come around a cornor and see a bear crossing the street. He must have been use to it, he didn't even look back at us, just headed off into the brush.

We spent most of the day driving. Nothing much to report today. Have to look at the map to see where we might end up this evening and what sorts of things there are to see along the way.

Lots of Bugs

Lots of Bugs
Originally uploaded by docdroid.

Driving through Idaho and Montana we ran into lots of bugs. It sounded like heavy rain hitting the car.

bugicide

bugicide
Originally uploaded by docdroid.

This is what we saw the next morning. Took a lot of elbow grease to clean!

International Falls

Lot of traveling, not a lot of time to blog. Here are some of the places we've visited over the last couple of days. More detail to follow....

Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump - Designated a World Heritage Site by the UN. Very interesting, all the detail that went into a sucessful hunt. And what they had to do to process the kill after to help them survive the lean winter months.

MooseJaw The Chicago Connection The end of the Soo Line railroad
Stopped at a Motel that had wireless internet connection, except for some reason we couldn't pick up the signal.

To Winnipeg. Drove through town and decided to move on. Stopped at a little motel along the highway. It was only later that we woke to the sound of trains passing on the other side of the highway.

Here we are in International Falls Minnesota. It turns out there are no falls here. They were covered up when they created Rainy Lake back in 1905. So, the second thing to see is the KOOCHICHING COUNTY HISTORICAL MUSEUM and BRONKO NAGURSKI MUSEUM. I learned about Bronko as a youngster. Living in Milwaukee Wisconsin, learning about the history of the Green Bay Packer was part of daily life, just like eating. Bronko Nagurski was retired by then and living in International Falls. One of the NFL greats. A very very tough guy. The weather report on the local weather station used to report on the temperatures in International Falls. Always seem like the coldest spot in the country in the winter.

Having trouble with the pictures. I was able to post a bunch on Flickr Click on the bolded Flicker and it should take you to them.

We're headed for Saulte Saint Marie today. Driving around Lake Superior. Should be some beautiful sights. With luck, I should be able to post somemore tonight.

Fort Macleod

We proceeded north to Glacer Nation Park. There was a lot of road work going on most of the way there. At times we were driving on temporary roads made of gravel. We stopped for lunch at this view point over looking Flathead Lake.

 

Shortly after that we became part of a convoy of vehicles behind a pilot car going over a streach that had just been resurfaced. That slowed us down as we went around the lake.

 

 

Glacier National Park was next. We took the Road to the Sun route across the mountains. We timed our vacation just right because the Road to the Sun is closed most of the time because of ice and snow. It opened completely on Friday, 23 June. This is a two lane road that winds through the park. Past the mountain lakes and up the mountains to Lassen Pass and over 6000 ft. That road was mighty narrow at times! But is was worth it. Spactacular views!

 

Missoula Montana?

We made it out of town yesterday, finally, shortly before 11. Lots of last minute details to attend to. We hope we didn't forget anything that is absolutely necessary. We ended up taking both back seats out of the Rav4 for the extra room for everything. We don't have a kitchen sink, but it seems like we have everything else... Once we get on the road we made good progress. Up the Gorge to Boardman. It was a beautiful day for traveling, brigtht and sunny, nice view of the river most of the way. The river getting progressively higher and higher as we passed each dam. Each of the three dams was spilling water, hopefully enough for the fish to fight their way upstream to spawn. We turned right to Umatilla and onto Pasco. Another right heading toward Spokane. Lot of farm country. Miles and miles of fields being plowed. Not sure what crop is grown there, I'm use to fields of wheat and corn this time of year. Anyway, we hit Spokane right at 5:00 and Friday rush hour traffic. Wasn't too bad, never having to stop completely. Spokane is right at the state line. It didn't take but maybe an hour or so to drive across Idaho. We started to hit some hills and mountain passes there. Trees, lot of trees in that part of Idaho. Green! A welcome change to the brown fields and rolling hills with sage brush in eastern Washington. We stopped for dinner somewhere around St Regis and were pleasently supprised to find that Montana is one of the few states that doesn't have sales tax yet. On the way to Missoula, an engine warning light came on. Its the one that actually looks like and engine. The owners manual said that basically, something is wrong, take it to a dealer to have it checked. Great! Just what we need on the first day of a driving vacation. The car still seemed to run fine, so on we went. Like we had much choice but to continue and hope it wasn't something serious. We got to Missoula, found a hotel and checked in sometime after 10 (Mountain Time, one hour later than Pacific Time) This morning we found the only Toyota dealer in Missoula and took the car in. Normally they only do oil changes on Saturday, but they found somebody to plug the diagnostic module into the car and run the tests. He noted some error codes and went off to find out what the problem was. It seems that there are a couple of sensors before and after the catalyst part of the emission control system. It seems that the information they were sending to the car's computer wasn't what was expected. So it turned on the warning light. It's ok to drive. It just might be letting out a bit more than it's suppose to in the exhaust system. What a relief. Considering what could have happened.... We thanked the mechanic profusely and were on our way. North to Glacier National Park and on to Canada.

It's late. I will post more in the morning. But first. I have to show these pictures of our winshield. Going through Idaho and especially through Montana we drove through clouds of bugs. Huge bugs. Lots of Bugs. Bugs committing suicide on our windshield.
 

At times it sounded like heavy rain hitting the car. This is what it looked like in the light of morning

 

It took a bit of elbow grease to clean that off!

The excitement is palpable

It just isn't that often you get to use a word like "palpable", you have to exercise every opportunity.

palpable \PAL-puh-buhl\, adjective:
1. Capable of being touched and felt; perceptible by the touch; as, a palpable form.
2. Easily perceptible; plain; distinct; obvious; readily perceived and detected; gross; as, palpable imposture; palpable absurdity; palpable errors.

Only a day and a wake-up until our vacation starts. Three weeks worth. It has been almost 20 years since I've taken that much time off all in one streach, other than being unemployed, that is. Last time it was a trip to London, Paris and Washington DC. The capitols of three of the worlds most powerful countries. Quite a contrast. Old world vs new world. But that was then, this time, we are going on the grand tour. Up into Canada, turn right and drive until we hit Montreal. Visit with the family then head south to Atlantic City,take another right and drive across mid America. Lots to see along the way: America's Biggest _______ (whatever....)

It's getting down to the final preparations. One more load of laundry before we can pack the socks and underware. Three weeks is a lot of clothes. I've been filling the ipod with music and audiobooks. We have the electric cooler for the car, to keep the liquids and snacks cool and fresh. It's hard to remember everything... camera, binoculars, laptop, books, magazines, asprin and assorted pills and medications, maps, umbrellas, jackets and sweatshirts. We even have a couple of collapsable chairs just in case we need somewhere else to sit. Q-tips, dental floss, nail clippers. All that good stuff that you have at home but want with you on the road if you need it. So much to remember. So much not to forget.

Good Friends

A nice day, today. A bit overcast this morning for my walk with Bailey. Not too hot, not too cold. Here is a nice rose we saw along the way.

  

The color is a bit washed out. I have to figure out how to fix that in the pictures I take with my camera phone. That or else start taking the regular camera with me. This was the best of the lot of the flowers we saw. Most are a bit past peak bloom now, starting to wilt and droop.

We took Max, the local lightrail, downtown with some old friends this afternoon. Our destination: Hubers for a light snack and libations. Max dropped us off a block from Waterfront Park. There was some sort of festival going on, lots of people, food vendors and live, loud music. We didn't find out until later it was the Get Your Pride On, a celebration of "diverse" life styles. We headed to Hubers to relax and visit. Fred is under going chemo and radiation therapy to combat a recently diagnosed aggressive cancer. He had several lumps removed from the lymph node area under his chin a couple of weeks ago. Several more started to grow but it appears the radiation has beaten them back, for the time being. This is the second strike for Fred. He has been fighting lymphoma for years with some success but this latest is a new cancer. Fred has been losing weight because, as the doctor says, the cancer is eating him up. He has a dietitian working with him to try to maximize the number of calories he eats. He doesn't have the best of appetites now so when he does eat they want him to pack it on. As you might imagine, his spirit is willing but the flesh is weak, literally. He's got a bum leg because of a knee wound that knocked him out of the Vietnam war. He relies on his cane now, more than ever. And he's been carrying it around for years. It hasn't always seemed like was needed in the past. In the end, a good time was had by all. There were lots of interesting characters from the Pride celebration to observe on the ride home. It is simply amazing all the different ways humans can (and do!) express themselves.

Next week at this time we will be on our way to points east! It's time to do some serious packing and planning. Making lists of things to take, things NOT to forget. We have a small electric cooler that plugs into one of three cigarette lighter outlets in the Rav4. We will have cold drinks and healthy snacks along the way. This is really getting exciting. We are still working on the route to Montreal. More homework with the road atlas!

Beauty in the (backyard) wilderness

  

Flew the Coop

  

This is the guy thats been living in the rafters under out our deck. He chose today to try out his wings, or else is parents "gently encouraged" him to leave the nest. He found his way to the base of an overturned wheel barrow just out side our computer room. We watched his mom feed him berrys a couple of time before we went out and took pictures. He froze when we approached, just like he was still in the nest: If I don't move maybe they won't notice I'm here....


  

A Walk in the Park

Sunday was a very nice spring day. A bit sunny, a bit windy. Warm in the sun, cool in the shade, the breeze refreshing. We took Bailey for a walk at Dawson Creek Park. It's part of a high tech industrial area. A park with walkways, several ponds and a stream connecting them. All man made, several of the ponds have fountains in them. Ducks and geese abound as do the signs that they are NOT to be fed.

  
Several trees that form a canopy for a small bridge over the stream

  

The stream from the bridge and below, Bailey slacking his thirst, or reloading to make his mark on more of the park

  

  

I took all of these pictures with my camera phone. I'm not quite sure why the color is hosed. I need to explore the photo manipulation tools available to see what can be done. It's pretty neat to be able to whip a camera out of my pocket and snap pictures when you come across something interesting. Get a lot more pictures. Don't have to talk as much that way, just show them the pictures.

We are making our plans to drive to Montreal later this month. ROAD TRIP! We got a 1G memory chip for our regular camera so we won't run out of room. We've been buying extra batteries too. This is going to be fun! Our next door neighbor told us not to miss the Head Smashed In Buffalo Head Interpretive Center outside Fort MacLeod Alberta. How can you go wrong with a name like that? Going to take lots of pictures....