Having lots of friends and relatives in Eastern Canada and the U.S., many in some pretty remote places, and the luxury of being retired, and a dog who wouldn't understand being thrown in a kennel for 6 weeks like he was Saddam Hussein, and having not made the rounds in a number of years (quite a number for some folks,) and having an aversion to airline security screeners who might not understand my sarcasms, we decided to drive.  Yes, drive!  Hey, when they build a bridge to Europe, I may drive there too. We acquired a pickup truck and camper, and waited for NASA to give the OK to fly my 737 airplane on it's last flight.  This is the story of the trip in pictures.  Some of you may get a taste for what it's like where Dot comes from.

 Having finished with decommissioning my #1 737 on Monday, we spent three hectic days throwing  a ton of stuff in the camper, and departed Hansville at the crack of dawn on Friday, September 26, 2003.

 One of my favorite states, Montana is BIG!  Three days driving across.

The weather was great - temperature in the 80's.  The truck acting up, until on Sept 30, after the first few of many Chevy dealers, we conked out in Upper, Michigan - home of the Yooopers - they're tough.  And to prove it, that night, we got 6 inches of snow and the temperature went to 20 degrees, with a howling wind to match.  So there we were, alternator gone, battery dead, camper water frozen and the pipes broken (read that - no more water for the rest of the trip!)  We limped into a Chevy dealer at L'Anse with a little ingenuity and a lot of help, on snow covered roads (Hey, this is September!), got a new alternator, and headed out.  By Marquette, we'd have a major structural failure of a camper tiedown, and lost all our water, so limped into Escanaba, Michigan for another day in the shop after a cold snowy overnight outside their garage.  After 3 days in lousy,  cold, windy Upper Michigan, we got to Sault Ste. Marie.  The next day, we drove 500 miles to Ottawa and the MacNeill's.  Oh yeah, the other side camper tie-down failed on that crummy piece of road they call the Trans-Canada - 500 miles of 2 lane potholes with no shoulders, 500 railroad crossings, and not a rest stop or pullout the whole way.  Wonder what those Canadians DO with their sky high gas taxes?  They sure don't use it on highways - but then I shouldn't have asked; it's not my country!

 

Well, we're still smiling in Ottawa........at the MacNeill's - Bill and Georgette.
  Decided to fix the camper myself this time.

And -- On to Montreal, we went.

 Hangar 5 at Dorval, where I worked for 4 years 1968-1972
  Nordair long gone, Canadian too.

 Dot's sister Viola                                                 Dot's brother Charles and wife Berthe.                                                                                                                                   
 That dog seems to get in a lot of  these pictures, that little ham!

  On to Sherbrooke, Quebec, and Stella and Bob.

 It was nice to be mooching off friends and relatives and avoiding those campgrounds and Flying J truck stops!  ("Number 635, your shower is ready")

                                       
Across the mighty St. Lawrence into Quebec City                        Dot's brother Louis-Philippe and wife Carmel

                                                                                                                    - Chiba, you ham!

                           

Riviere du Loup - Martine Cormier                                   Moncton, N.B. - Cousins Jacqueline and Rachel & friend Carinne

  Confederation Bridge

Jean Rashed - our host in Charlottetown and
Helen Cox - Dot's boss at Maritime Central Airways

                    Helen McInnis and Paula Cody (MCA co-worker)

                                  
                                        Lorna St. Jules - Dot's Montreal roommate

  Twins - Sisters Mary and Anne
 91 years young - at their convent in Charlottetown

And then.....on to the Magdalen Islands, Dot's ancestral homeplace.  Never heard of it?  A quick geography lesson for you Yanks (and others.)

Located in the middle of the Gulf of St. Lawrence between PEI, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland.  Part of Quebec and French speaking, except for Entry Island.

                
  Magdalen Islands                                                                                                Magdalen Islands from  the Space Shuttle


       

The ship to the Magdalen Islands                                      ....... I had to back on board!


     

After five hours, it was Land Ho!                                As Entry Island came into view

     

With sister Martha                                              Brother Armand, Sister Marie-Anna, and nephew Jean

 Chiba on guard!

Turnaround point on our grand odyssey - 5000 miles and 5 time zones from Hansville.  Which just proves what you can do if you turn left at the end of your driveway and keep hitting those filling stations!

 Heading West at Bay of Fundy National Park in New Brunswick.
  Tides that day were 42 feet!

    
At Dad's house in New Rochelle....Homeward Bound                90 years young!

 At the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio.


We spent  two days there to participate in the celebration of the Wright Bros. Centennial of the First Flight.

On this airplane, Air Force One, Lynden Johnson was sworn in as President.  Through this door was carried the casket of John F. Kennedy.  Dallas, November 22, 1963.

From Dayton, it was on to Cincinnatti; Lexington, Kentucky; and then to Louisville, where I was born - in Norton's Infirmary - in 1944.  The Infirmary, it turns out, was torn down about 50 years ago, and replaced with what is now a giant medical center in downtown Louisville.  Our old house at 209 York Street was still there, however, virtually unchanged in 60 years.  Fort Knox is where I spent my first few years - my Dad was in the Army.

 

The new Norton Hospital                               Where I was born, almost 60 years ago!

   
                       Where I spent my first years


      Gateway Arch, St. Louis   

                         
                       Chevy dealer in Sioux City, Iowa; 8th dealer visit on the trip - 3 more to go!

Wednesday morning, October 29th, we started out in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.  We went there to visit Pauline and Orville Corey near Rapid City, our former neighbors in Snohomish.  Also, for years my travel log had been stuck at 49 states.  I'd flown over it numerous times, but I'd never been to South Dakota.  And of course, there was good old I-90.  Once I turned onto the westbound on-ramp, I could throw away my road maps, and keep going till we hit Seattle.  Which is what we did!  A severe high plains blizzard was forecast to begin that night, with heavy snow, high winds, and below zero cold threatening to shut down all travel for a week.  Not at all pleased with the prospect of spending a week in the camper under those conditions, we headed west hoping to beat the storm.  And we did -- pretty much --  truckin' west through South Dakota, across Wyoming, and then Montana.  We had a few hours of scary snow and wind, driving between Billings and Bozeman, Montana, but then broke into better weather to the west.  By the time I got to Missoula, I could smell home, and by Spokane, there was no stopping.  "Get-home-itis" had taken over.  With a 4 hour snooze at a truck stop near Billings, we drove straight through - from Sioux Falls to Snohomish, 1765 miles in 38 hours!

 Friday morning, October 31st.

                                                                 Home at last on the farm.  

 (That's 15,806.452 km for you folks north of the border.)

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