Tales from Our Wandering Casa @our-wandering-casa - Tumblr Blog

We Are Home

And it feels good.

Staying for a few nights at the lovely Fifty Point Conservation Area campground. Enjoying some lovely evening walks around the area and along the shores of Lake Ontario with its views of Toronto on the other side.

Busily cleaning, packing and winterizing. Then Our Wandering Casa will get a much deserved break in storage until Spring.

The Fall will be spent getting settled back into a routine. Sure we’ll be asked, by friends, about our 84 day, 13,000km road trip to the Yukon & Alaska. Amazing how quickly our “Yukon Trek” will become a memory.

#2019yukontrek #fiftypointconservation

Migrating Monarchs enjoying the wild Amethyst Asters. #2019yukontrek #fiftypointconservation #ontariocanada (at Fifty Point Conservation Area) https://www.instagram.com/p/B24_joan8bn/?igshid=fz6u6dahpqws

#2019yukontrek #fiftypointconservation #ontariocanada

Headed Home

To Burlington, Ontario but first we spent a few days with our good friends Lori & Ron. They were up in Gaylord MI with their 5th wheel for a week of golfing. Spent the last few days with them, catching up and exploring the area.

Had a lovely afternoon exploring the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary and enjoying some local craft beer in Alpena Mi

Then onto Davison MI for four nights. It’s a park that is part of our Coast to Coast membership; has lots to offer & plenty of shopping near by.

Would love to head into Canada & home but our kids are still in our apartment. They have been there all summer while renovating the main floor of their home. So, can’t get, comfortably, back into our place until Sept 30th

#2019yukontrek #gaylordmi #alpenami #thunderbaynationalmarinesanctuary #austinbrothersbeerco

Been a wet summer in most places we traveled through. Spotted some cool looking mushrooms as a result.

#2019yukontrek #wetsummer #wildmushrooms

Ferry Adventure

We’ve taken many ferries with Our Casa, it’s always an adventure. This is the second one this trip and it is a special one. The historic steam powered, coal fired S.S. Badger across Lake Michigan. OK, maybe not the most environmentally friendly choice.

This ferry takes it all. Big commercial loads

Cars, motorcycles, bicycles and of course RVs of all sizes

As most ferry trips the loading, departing and then arriving, unloading are the most interesting.

Plus heading out of port & into the next.

This four hour, 100km crossing saved us between 600 & 800km of driving around Lake Michigan.

#2019yukontrek #ssbadger #manitowocwisconsin #ludingtonmichigan

Never Expected

To love Wisconsin so much. Our meandering from Menomonie to Spring Green was beautiful. The green rolling hills with the corn fields running up them, so pretty. During the last big ice age the glaciers left behind these mounds of shale and dolomite making these lovely hills in southern Wisconsin.

Needing a break from driving we settled in a very nice RV park along the Wisconsin River near Spring Green. The park advertised tubing & kayaking. Unfortunately the river was very high, so they had to close those activities earlier than usual.

The area is also known for its Frank Lloyd Wright trail. This influential American architect’s family was from this area. He himself spent many years in the area building his famous home Taliesin. As usual the Taliesin Preservation & Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation does a first class job maintaining these historic sites & providing first class tours.

Visitor Centre

Hillside Home School

Taliesin

From here we meandered north to Two Rivers/Manitowoc. Another lovely drive, made so much more pleasant when the sun is shining.

We have reservations on the S.S. Badger, an historic steam car ferry across Lake Michigan.

Lovely calm day to cross Lake Michigan on the S.S. Badger. Historic steam powered car ferry. #manitowocwisconsin #ludingtonmichigan #ssbadger (at S.S. Badger: Lake Michigan Carferry) https://www.instagram.com/p/B2nP5lWHbN_/?igshid=lto5095nsdju

#manitowocwisconsin #ludingtonmichigan #ssbadger

Rain and Cold

Our travel east across the Canadian Prairies certainly was not as pleasant as our trip west back in July. Since leaving Edmonton we’ve encountered a lot of rain and downright cold temperatures. Every night we’ve been using our space heater and mattress heater to keep warm. Turning on the furnace, to take the chill out of the Casa, also became a morning ritual. Shorts, t-shirts and sandals were replaced with jeans, fleece and shoes with socks.

We had hoped to spend a few days in Manitoba’s Riding Mountain NP. However, there was no use, the weather forecast would have kept us in Our Casa, not enjoying the park’s beauty with some hiking. So we just kept trudging on, hoping the next stop would have nice weather.

Thankfully, we did have some nice evenings for a walk.

Lloydminster AB

Saskatoon SK. at our favourite municipal campground Gordon Howe Park

East Grand Forks MN with its cool bicycle repair stands along the trails.

But every night we were woken with another deluge of rain.

Until we arrived in Spring Green WI where we had made up our minds to stay a few nights.

Enjoyed a beautiful fall afternoon in Wisconsin exploring Frank Lloyd Wright’s amazing Taliesin site as well as the Hillside Home School. #springgreenwi #franklloydwright #taliesin #hillsidehomeschool (at Taliesin Preservation) https://www.instagram.com/p/B2hthIVnCiN/?igshid=27ethpbypiv4

#springgreenwi #franklloydwright #taliesin #hillsidehomeschool

The Roads We’ve Driven

And they have been many. Our “Milepost” guide warned us about the various road conditions and what to be prepared for. As it turned out the dust was the worst of it. No flat tires, no rock chips; actually found the roads in good shape.

Not the case in Saskatchewan where we encountered the crappiest road conditions yet. The Yellowhead Highway 16 between Yorkton SK and Minnedosa SK was the worst. Disappointing as this is deemed a Trans Canada route. Not only were we battling rain and construction, the road in general was sh*%t. Got a good rock chip in the windshield.

Bought a repair kit.

Now we need some warm sunny weather so we can fix it.

#franklloydwright #taliesin #springgreenwi (at Spring Green, Wisconsin) https://www.instagram.com/p/B2cWnCTntlo/?igshid=oz0r1rg2nq62

#franklloydwright #taliesin #springgreenwi

A Short Break

Well, sort of. Before we start the long drive back to Ontario thought we’d hangout in Edmonton. This was our hometown until 2003 when we moved East. Still have lots of friends and family here, including my elderly (90s) parents.

For 10 days we stayed in a lovely campground with close access to everything. Did lots of visiting and running errands for my folks.

We also took the opportunity to give Our Casa a good clean along with some minor repairs. The Alaska Highway left everything covered in dust. Again our poor little tow car bore the brunt.

Took one day to wander our old neighbourhood, some things have changed over the years, others have not.

Still love Edmonton, I fly back often to see my folks.

Finally sunshine. Been cold & wet since Edmonton, 2,500km back. Hopefully it stays around. #springgreenwi #wisconsinriversideresort (at Wisconsin Riverside Resort) https://www.instagram.com/p/B2aHFm7ngRw/?igshid=60y5r481d00v

#springgreenwi #wisconsinriversideresort

Trying to get ahead of this rain and cold. Been in it for the last 3 days. Hopefully better in Manitoba & then south in North Dakota. #yorktonsaskatchewan #headinghome #yellowheadhighway16 (at Yorkton, Saskatchewan) https://www.instagram.com/p/B2PL4TcHSrv/?igshid=g7fn3l2ksqnf

#yorktonsaskatchewan #headinghome #yellowheadhighway16

Heading Back East

Hard to believe we’ve been on the road since July 8th (8 weeks), the time has passed so quickly.

Our 4 weeks along the Alaskan Highway were amazing and forever etched as one of my favourite parts of North America. How do you measure such an experience, our pictures look great but never truly capture the beauty & feel of the area.

During those 4 weeks we traveled 3,300 kilometres staying in 15 campgrounds as we travelled:

Dawson Creek BC - Fort Nelson BC - Liard Hot Springs BC - Watson Lake YK - Teslin YK - Carcross YK - Skagway AK - Haines AK - Haines Junction YK - Whitehorse YK - Teslin YK - Watson Lake YK - Muncho Lake BC - Fort Nelson BC - Pink Mountain BC - Dawson Creek BC

For those who are interested most campgrounds had power (30 amp), water and a sani-dump. Over the 4 weeks our average cost was $47CAD per night, including taxes.

Our Casa, a 2011 40ft Georgetown with its Ford V10 took the roads and mountain climbs in stride. We made sure we topped up the fuel tank when available, never let it get below half. Over those kilometres we burned 1,321.314 litres of regular gasoline. Our average cost per litre was $1.39CAD.

RVing or camping is definitely the way to see this part of the country. Accommodation and restaurants are few. We did enjoy some awesome cinnamon buns in Tetsa River BC, which we highly recommend.

Otherwise our dining out was minimal, enjoyed cooking outside surrounded by the spectacular scenery far more.

The “2019 Milepost” was our constant guide & bible. A definite “must have” if you’re planning to make this trip. Cellphone or wifi is very spotty or nonexistent, so don’t think you can rely on it. Actually, it was quite refreshing to be unplugged from technology for a time. We used 2-way radios to keep in contact with the Denhams.

Wildlife Abounds

As we followed our trek along with our “Milepost” there was often notations cautioning to watch for moose, elk, bear etc...

True to these cautions we saw wildlife of all types, shapes and sizes. Not always being quick with the camera we did not get pictures of many but I did keep a list:

Red Fox - 2

Coyote

Porcupine. - 2

Black Bear - 4

Grizzly Bear

Mule Deer - many

Elk - many

Caribou - 4

Bison - many

Sandhill Cranes - 2

Ravens - many

Eagles- many & different sort

Trumpeter Swan

Here are some pictures of a few we did manage to catch or the animal was gracious enough to stay around long enough.

If we still lived in Edmonton this would be our view from our Saskatchewan Drive condo. Do miss it sometimes. #edmontonalberta #oldstrathcona (at Old Strathcona) https://www.instagram.com/p/B2C3Ze0nbeL/?igshid=1oyrh3opgfbwj

#edmontonalberta #oldstrathcona

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