Sarnia, Ontario -- My hometown

Arrived in Sarnia, ON on Sept. 24th. We crossed over on the Blue Water Bridge from Port Huron. ((Website of City -- http://www.sarnia.ca/ )) The line-up was short and we were only at customs for about two minutes. We were in Sarnia for a family reunion. I hadn’t been back there since 1994. We stayed over in a mobile home park where a good friend lives now. We were best of buds when I lived there as a young person. We were given a spot next to the maintenance shed, and one couldn’t have asked for a better spot. That afternoon we drove down to the St.Clair River, under the Blue Water Bridge and had a burger and fries from Albert’s Rolling Lunch wagon. Still in operation, only managed by younger members of his family. Still just as good though. We sat and reminisced about the “Good Ole Days” with my wife listening & taking it all in. Many good laughs. Lake Huron empties into the St. Clair River and flows on to Lake Ontario and Lake Erie & eventually to the St. Lawrence River and the Atlantic Ocean. We stayed a week in Sarnia, as we didn’t have the family reunion until Saturday, September 29th. My sister came from southern California with her son, my wife & I from Kamloops, British Columbia, Oldest brother lives just east of London, ON in a town called Thamesford, and another brother from Brantford. We were all at my youngest brothers place in Sarnia for the reunion. On Sunday in the afternoon we all seemed to gather “under the bridge” and had fresh made French fries. Watched several lake freighters cruise down the river along with several pleasure boats and sailing boats. Monday was a lazy day and my brother took us on a tour in the car down the coastline on old HWY 40. We travelled thru Corruna, Courtright, and Sombra stopping there for lunch and wound our way back thru Charlemont, Brigden, Bradshaw and back to Sarnia. We got up on Tuesday morn and said goodbye to Bruce and Carol and travelled to Thamesford where we stayed until the morning of the 6th. Pictures can be viewed at http://community.webshots.com/user/ramit56 "Sarnia, ON" album

Rapid City, SD

This is the former Firehall in Rapid City. It is now a restaurant and we had lunch here. Very good food!








As we were staying just outside Rapid City, we decided to spend one day in the city as tourists. We had seen several of the bronze statues of former presidents on differents corners in the city so decided to investigate. We started our tour at the "Presidents Information Center" that is on the corner of 7th & Main Street. This center provides a pamphlet on the location of each of the Presidents Statues and information about each President. It also provides information on the artist & sculpturer of these statues. The pamphlet describes how each artist portrays the President they are sculpting. 27 Presidents are now in place. Each year 4 more are dedicated. The Saturday we were leaving, 4 more were being placed on corners. We were able to get a picture of Franklin Pierce, one of the 4 being dedicated this year. The society has selected 4 artists to sculpt one president per year until all are done. They started with two from the present and two from the past of Presidents. So George H.W. Bush & Ronald Reagan were two from the present while George Washington & John Adams were the two from the past. Clinton & Bush will be portrayed after all others are done. We took pictures of each and were were really impressed with the statues. Pictures can be viewed at http://community.webshots.com/user/ramit56 "Presidents of the United States" album



View down one of the alleys behind stores. The walls were done with murals and some good art was evident. Also all the power/electric lines were in the alley thus leaving the streets clean.

Mt. Rushmore & Crazy Horse

We arrived at Rushmore Shadows RV Resort on Sept. 12th in the early morn. Set up and then went into Rapid City. Did a little shopping an returned back to the park. I should say we are using our Coast to Coast membership here so cost is minimum. Sites are okay, but not a lot of room between units. The unit that was parked beside us last night with there awning out, had about 6 inches before it touched our coach.

On Thursday we left the park with a packed lunch. First stop was at the Borglum museum and interpretive centre. I would recommend a stop here and do the tour before proceeding to Mt. Rushmore. It was most informative and his sculptures and paintings were awesome. He died 6 months before the completion of the mountain and his son Lincoln completed his work. After a visit to Mt. Rushmore we continued on and went next to Crazy Horse. This is a work in progress & totally financed by private and public donations. No government money has been spent on this project. We felt that the $20.00 entrance fee was a bit steep! The interpretive center was very impressive & I felt that this must be where all the money is spent. I am sure and this is only my opinion but, our great grandchildren will not see the finished project! Good venture & a lifelong project for many families to come. On our trip we spotted mountain goat and antelope. Tomorrow we are going to spend the day in Rapid City. On a lot of street corners they have have previous Presidents figures from history as bronze statues.

View pictures at http://community.webshots.com/user/ramit56 under the Mt. Rushmore & Crazy Horse heading.

Trip East from Kamloops - Left Sept.4th

It has been a long time since I last posted. We left Kamloops on Sept 4th and headed for the US border. We traveled on the Coquihala hwy from Kamloops to Merritt, meeting friends Brian & Bev there for coffee at the local White Spot. Then continued across Hwy 97C to Summerland and down Hwy 97 to Oliver, BC where we spent the night in the local Super Valu lot along with another RV. We left early the next morning and after crossing the border at Osoyoos, BC we travelled until arriving at Helena, MT. we arrived fairly late about 9PM, MT. Along the way we had an incident with the motorhome windshield acquiring a large rock? hitting the windshield about 20 miles west of Missoula, MT. The mark is about 9 inches in diameter and the outside layer has pieces missing. That was a shock! We spent the two nights at friends home, Vern & Donna, parking in the yard complete with electricity & water(not required). We had a wonderful time with them as they were looking to buy some property, so looked at the property and discussed its value and where we would be parked when we next returned...... From there we proceeded on to Livingston, MT. We spent the night at Osen's RV Park there. We visited with friends Lynn & Joan there. We had seen Joan several times as she had come to Kamloops to visit, but Lynn was never able to come because of work commitments. They were neighbours of ours 27 years ago, so it was really nice to be able to see & visit with them. The next morning (Sep. 8th) we left & drove to Yellowstone National Park. We had reservations there at Fishing Bridge RV campground. Full hookups. The camphost I had corresponded with thru a newsgroup that I read on a steady basis. I was only able to secure one night thru reservations, but Bob the camphost was able to secure us an additional 2 days. Wonderful. He & his wife Mary are great people. At Yellowstone (YNP) we spent the next two days touring around the park. What sights to see. We saw elk at Mammoth Lodge -- several eating the grass & big daddy watching his harem. A young buck was trying to enter but bid daddy made sure he was never able to succeed. We saw thousands ( & I mean thousands) of Buffalo throughout our park travels. They are one large animal! We went to "Old Faithful" and watched her perform. Super!!! After there we continued on and on the last night there we went to Lake Butte Lookout and saw a good sunset. We toured several of the park stores & gift centers. I must say that we were presently surprised at how reasonable the prices were. No expensive surprises. Even the food that was available at the food cafeterias was reasonable. We left there on the morning of the 11th after saying goodbye to Bob & Mary. We drove to Gillette, WY that night arriving fairly early in the afternoon. After asking the Wal-Mart personnel if we could park there, the answer was yes. We stayed there for the evening of course shopping at the store and leaving some cash! You can view some of the pictures taken here under the "Yellowstone National Park" heading.
http://community.webshots.com/user/ramit56