Wed, August 31, 2011

Well, we are home!!! Time to get our land legs working again. After all the eating and sitting, we have some work to do!!! ;-(

It was a good day today. Our 'new bus' arrived yesterday morning so the past two days of travel have been very pleasant on the bus for everyone temperature wise. Once our driver figured out the clutch system which left us stopped dead in traffic in Regina yesterday morning, we felt confident we had our problems licked....LOL

Yesterday  being at the Saskatchewan capital was enlightening learning how they argue and vote -just like the British- and what their feelings are for the Queen and the British gov't.  We got to sit in the gallery over the legislature seats but they were not in session at the time. We met the leader of the minority New Democratic Party. One of our ladies fell while coming down one of the many stair cases we walked but fortunately, she only scraped her ankle. We had our group picture taken there on the teps of the capital.

Our stop at the Club Regent Casino Hotel last night was a learning experience for us. We have never been to a casino to gamble so walked around trying to figure out what the attraction is for so many people. We decided if we were to play we wouldn't even have a clue as to whether we won or lost playing those machines. There were some from the bus who did play. The casino had a deal where you could sign up for $10 worth of 'free' money to play with but you had to put for $5 of your own money first for the free money card to be activated. Casinos are not out to lose any money. We were astonished at how much money passed hands as we stood and watched.  We had a buffet supper there last night and then a buffet breakfast there this morning before we left for Minnesota.

We stopped at the duty free shop right before we hit the MN/Canadian border and did some shopping. We were detained at the border for about 45 minutes. We were all asked to get off the bus. We each went forward singly to talk with a Canadian Border Patrol person, presented our passport and then excused. Some one went through the bus also while we were all inside. We witnessed a young couple with a small child go through the process of signing up for a green card.

There were several opportunities as we traveled to talk with people from other countries. We visited with a young mother with three children from Hungary on the train. She was a little taken aback when the Canadian Border Patrol boarded the train at one point and asked us each some questions. Bill asked this  spanish speaker officer if they actually ever found anyone sneaking into the country this way by train. He said he had found 162 already this year.

 We enjoyed visiting with a couple and their two teen agers tourning Canada from Germany as we walked around Lake Louise.  There was another fellow from Hungary we had a chat with as well.

For lunch today we stopped at the Golden Coral in Fargo just as we did on our first day going to Minot.
We watched the movie "Overboard". We listened to a little of the Twins/White Sox game and then finally more polka music. The Wendinger Travel company owner also has a polka band and has many CDs for sale so during the course of the trip, we listened to a lot of polka music.

We arrived back to Burnsville Center around 7:30, Sarah and the girls picked us up when Sam's football game was over and took us back to their  place where we got our car. We stopped for supper on the way home and got home around 10 pm.

Final mileage tabulation for Bill and me the past nine days is 4,761! We visited two states: ND and MT; five Canadian Provinces: Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia. We enjoyed the beautiful scenery of  Glacier National Park, Kootenay National Park, Banff National Pari and Jasper National Park. We thought about our most impressive moments on the trip and we both decided it was visiting the Columbian Icefield and seeing the glaciers.  There are 25 glaciers left in this area and by 2020, if the conditions stay the same, the rest will be gone by 2020.

Driving the Going to the Sun Road and crossing Logan's Pass was a close second.  The fact that roads were built just for tourists to see this mountain beauty is quite impressive. They were working on repairs to this road as we traveled the windy curves...

Thanks for reading along each day of our travels. Thanks to those of you who responded with comments. I have to 278 pics  and several short movies to sort through and will publish an album on iPhoto when I finish that.

Tues, Aug 30

We're now at the Club Regent Casino Hotel. Bill is checking sports scores while I blog and then we're going to the buffet. We may walk through the casino to see what there is to see. There is a walk through acquairium that's suppose to be pretty good so we'll do that.

We had a long sit today 470 miles. Will be around 500 tomorrow. We watched two movies: Sole Surfer and Music from the Heart both of which were very good.

This morning we went through the parliament building in REgina...got to go eat...

Monday, August 29

We are in Regina for the evening. We had a long traveling day. We always make a stop every 2 hours. We ate lunch at the Mall in Medicine Hat. Our afternoon break was at Swift Current. Saw a Review of the Canadian Rockies DVD and then watched Patch Adams DVD. Saw lots of oil pumps, cows, bales of hay, pot ash processing plants, wheat combing (5 combines in a row and large semi trucks) and barley also being combined. We had a great tour of Moose Jaw and all the murals painted on buildings depicting their history. They like the US and Al Capone liked Moose Jaw. Art Linkletter comes from Moose Jaw and our guide had stories about that.

Bill has finished reading two books and today was reading Concordia Theological Review!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tomorrow we get off of mountain time.

We are getting a new bus tomorrow. Another bus arrived from Riley Travel in Murdock to relieve us of our dual temperature bus - one side warm, other side cold. Have had to have the top vents open to travel today. It's been extra warm weather on this whole trip- really beautiful. Tomorrow too will be 86.

Tomorrow is Winnipeg. We will tour the grounds of the capital for one thing. Another longer travel day. Can really tell we are back closer to the midwest as it is more humid and we have clouds in the sky.Loved that clear blue sky and fresh air!!!!!!!!!

Couple more days....

Sunday, Aug 28

Oh, what a WONDERFUL day!! Two surprises I will share with you as I blog...We left Canmore at 8 this morning and drove to the city of Banff on the scenic highway 1A. I'm going to miss these mountains ;-(   We drove up to the Gondola terminal. Our choices were to either ride the gondola up Sulfur Mountain or shop in downtown Banff BUT it's Sunday and the shops don't open up very early. So it was the the gondola or the gift shops at the gondola terminal. I had made up my mind ahead of time that I wasn't going to do the gondola thing BUT after I got there, I decided it didn't look so bad. If I could do the tram up the St Louis Arch, I could do this (although I had grandsons along that I had to impress in St Louis). So that was surprise number ONE. I did it!!! ;-) Actually Bill and I even walked further up to the Cosmic Ray Observatory after we landed on the upper gondola terminal. ACTUALLY, I was afraid Bill would rock the gondola as we traveled up the mountain - he just likes trying things - so I was concerned a bit but the bus driver had told him to behave himself (they're getting to know him) so I thought there was a chance we'd have a smooth ride after all.

From there we headed downtown Banff to drive through the main street - what a tourist place that is. Everything perfect in every way and spendy!!!

Surprise number TWO was that the Wendinger Travel daughter pulled out her Catholic Missal and said we're going to have a Polka Mass on board as we travel to Lake Louise. Shiela had given Bill 'the book' just an hour before this and asked if he wanted to participate!!!!!!!!!! So he accepted the offer - Bill's first ecumenical service with the catholics!!!!!!!!!!!! He led the liturgy - we sang the polka songs with a tape. He read the scripture and then preached a sermon. The service concluded with prayers, the Lord Prayer, benediction and more singing. We sang along with Amazing Grace and God Bless America as extras at the end. Boy, that's an experience with the mountains on both sides singing "From the Mountains etc.".  Bill received many good comments, "Why did you retire?" "You're not done!" and one guy said, "we'll make a Catholic out of you" to which Bill replied "OUCH"... There are  lots of people of the catholic persuasion on this bus... So now we are looked upon a little differently, as before we were just plain Bill and Connie!!! Funny, huh?

Arriving at Lake Louise, we took a walk half way around the lake - so beautiful. We could have canoed if we'd have chosen. We had a luncheon buffet at the Chateau Lake Louise ($50. a plate so WE DID enjoy it even if we didn't exactly know what we were eating) LOL

Then we left Banff National Park and said good bye to the Canadian Rockies on our drive to Calgary. Our hosts put in the movie "Cool Running" - the story of the Jamacan Bobsled team in the 1988 Calgary Olympics - very good. Our first stop was then at the Olympic grounds in Calgary.  We were to have a step on guide through down town and around Calgary but our  hosts got a phone call that he had a family emergency and couldn't make it. Shiela was hoping it wasn't because the weather was so great and beautiful that he wanted to be out with his family. No one was able to step in for him so...Shiela did the tour herself and did a good job.

The Riley bus still has problems with the AC but we are bearing with it and it's really not bad. Our poor driver is trying so hard to make things work for all of us and we appreciate him.

We are in the Country Inn and Suites in Calgary tonight. Tomorrow we leave Calgary traveling through Alberta and Saskatchewan on Canadian Highway #1. Late in the afternoon we will stop at Moose Jaw, Saskachewan and get a step on guide for a tour of the 1900 gangsters. We'll stay in Regina overnight.

We are loving the trip - learning a lot and appreciating so much this beautiful country that the Lord has made... time to go to our room and rest for the evening.

Saturday, Aug 27

After breakfast today (wonderful big breakfast)..in Canmore, we took to the scenic highways again viewing the beautiful water falls in the Jasper area, the Athabasca Falls. We spent some time in Jasper finding ourselves another wonderful street side restaurant "Something Else Family Restaurant" where we had a great home made pizza and beer. The afternoon we drove to the Athabastian Ice Field and took a snocoach up to the Athabastian Glacier. That was a great experience walking on the glacier. How awesome. It was a wonderful warm and sunny day again today. We are told we are very fortunate as this doesn't happen often. We saw lots of wildlife today: bear, elk, moose calf, and wild turkey... Took a walk tonight - don't get to do that too often with mountains on both sides of you....  All for tonight...

Friday, Aug 26

WOW...what a beautiful day!  After breakfast in Fernie, we headed for Kimberley and enjoyed the beautiful bvalleys of British Columbia along the way. Our first stop was at the Bavarian City Mining Railway, where we experienced riding on an actual mining train into a mine.  YUP...even claustrophobic me!  We had a great tour by an old timer - we learned a lot.  From there we went into Kimberley and ate lunch at a German Gasthaus outside in the warm sunshine. We had weiner schnitzel, pan fried potatoes, red cabbage and Krombacher Beer...Doesn't get better. Bill even found himself some apple strudel with vanilla custard and cinnamon sugar on top for dessert. Walked down the German streets and listened to street music. Watched the big clock in the city center yodel on the hour and then an accordian player sang and yodeled for us in the middle of the cobblestone street. He entertained us by doing hat dances and we even did a little dancing the street. Just fun.  After traveling northward, we went across the continental divide into Banff National Park. What gorgeous scenery. We stayed night at the Ramada Inn in Canmore. No glitches today and always an icecream stop...

Thursday eve, Aug 25

We are beginning to feel like whatever could go wrong on this trip...WILL!  ;) It is the third day of not being on schedule but we are all weathering it pretty well. Weather continues to be warm and beautiful. Could not order it any better.*** We left West Glacier this morning by a 'new bus' because our bus was back in Minot being fixed. We went to Lake McDonald where we boarded the historic red coaches for a guided tour of the  Going to the Sun Road.  WOW! That was an incredible ride  'up the hill'. Glad Bill was on the outside for the most part. They told us not to lean against the door though as it has been known to èpopè open when hitting a bump! The scenery was incredible up to Logan Pass where we crossed the continental divide. The views were breath taking. We cuddled together with a blanket in the back seat as we drove as the air was crisp!*** From there we were transported to St Maryès Lake where we enjoyed an hour cruise to the mouth of the Lake where we saw hanging cliffs and glaciers as they came into view.  After the cruise we had lunch at St Maryès Lodge-got to be 2 p.m. before we got lunch and then our food took forever to come. Had to try some huckleberry icecream as they have been bragging about their huckleberries now being in season. We then reunited with (our) motor coach and driver for a trip into Canada.  ***Our escort wanted to take us through a remote border crossing into Alberta and remote it was - windy narrow road up up up, cows on the road at  many a turn - from a distance we thought maybe they were moose or bear but no such luck. Weère just glad we got no beef steak through our windshield.  The Canadian authorities detained us quite some time and had us all fill out paper work instead of  looking at our passports!! They made us turn off the bus motor and no one was to get off. Some in the bus got a little hot. Then when we began again the AC no longer worked on the bus so drove a ways into Canada and stopped on a street corner of a little town to do some telephoning to get some suggestions. It was getting later and places were closing etc. - no bathrooms, etc. :-)  Finally all the vents were able to be opened and we pulled the window screens down and went on. Our destination was to drive through Frank Slide Catastrophie Rockslide of 1903. That was pretty amazing to see all those bolders that slid down the mountain and covered a highway and a town.***Moving on we meandered through and cross the Crows Nest Pass into British Columbia.  That was a very scenic drive all along. Our overnight stay tonight is in Ferne, a resort ski town. Weère staying at teh Park Place Lodge.As we drove into town they seemed to have sort of a power outage as some stop lights were out and the door to our hotel could not be opened!!! We again arrived very much later than we were suppose to and again tomorrow we are to have luggage out by 6:30 and gone by 7.We are headed to Kimberly to take a ride on a mining train at the Kimberly Mine. We will spend the afternoon roaming the quaint German town.  Well, Bill and I are off to find ourselves some supper. Bill, have fun at the fair. Youèll  probably run into Howie Krienke. He LOVES the state fair. Jan, we havenèt seen a lot of flowers yet but our hotel tonight looks like a German chalet with flowers hanging from the windows and around Lake McDonald Lodge this morning, they were beautiful in pots all around the lodge. All for today!

Thursday, august 25

Good morning!  Bus leaves in 10 so thought I'd fill in a few more comments while I wait for our ride to Lake McDonald where we catch our "red coach" that will take us up the Go to the Sun Road.  There are 44 on our bus from MN, WI, MI and TX. Our travel company is Wendinger Travel from New Ulm, a real family affair. An uncle Dave drove us to Minot on Tue. Our escort is son in law, Michael, his two children ages 13 and 10. Michael's wif, Sheila,  is a Wendinger and she will be joining us today too.  *** news is that our Riley bus that we are suppose to have today needs AC work so we'll have a sub bus and driver for the first part of our day. We had a Theiland bus on Tues.*** weather is warm 95 and 89 so far but the humidity is very low so is very comfortable. ***The people on the bus are very friendly and we've made many acquaintances already. There is another Bill and Connie on the bus too which causes a little confusion at times. ***We arrived in the Park last night as the sun was setting behind the Rocky mountains - that was a camera moment. Beautiful scenery as it grew dusk...well, I'm off...we'll see what the computer situation is tonight....

Wednesday, Aug24

Didn't have a computer at our hotel in Minot last night. We had a good trip across North Dakota that far. I guess the biggest impression left on all of us is the water damage all the way along and then especially in Minot where the earthen walls are still in place downtown.*** This morning we were to leave at 7:30 for Stanley, ND where we were going to catch Amtrak to Whitefish, MT. The train station in Minot was all gutted due to the flood so there was no boarding there. However, before we left Minot, we received word that the train that we were going to be taking to Whitefish was about 3 hours late so we all got off the bus and went back into the motel until 9. We then did leave for Stanley but had to wait another good hour before the train did arrive in Stanley.  Impressing us today to this point was all the vertical oil drilling that is going on in this area. As we traveled by train then we got to also go through Williston to check on our oil investment in the Williston Basin!! ***We enjoyed the train ride immensely -lots of room - good food. We sat in the observation car for a lot of the trip to catch good views of the gorges and high train track tressels we crossed. Farming is a challenge in Montana: dry farming, strip farming, cattle ranching. We enjoyed the mountains in the background as we watched combines in the wheat fields all along the way. They also grow alfalfa and canola. Very little corn any where along. Saw many antelope and a bison. ***Unfortunately because our train was so late (due to wet unstable track across North Dakota) it was getting dark by the time we entered the east glacier park.  Tomorrow we get to Lake McDonald and the Go to the Sun Road and a cruise beside a lovely supper at a very nice resort we are told.  Since it is now quarter past midnight, I'm turning in. That luggage call is at 6:45 again tomorrow morning so will be another early day... Blessings to you all...

A reposting of the fourth/fifth/sixth day's blog

This is getting to be easier to work with so by vacation time, I should have it down and won't have to spend a lot of time trying to figure it out.

Friday was delightful - except for the Packer pre-game that took everyone's attention after our great fish fry together. Six of the eight 'kids' in Bill's family hoopin' and hollarin' at the old TV!!!

Bill's sister, Eileen and I had sat all afternoon on the deck eating fruit, yogurt, cheese and crackers using Great Grandma Kiekhaefer's good dishes.  The wine was pretty good out the beautiful wine glasses too. We also walked through Leo's gardens and of course, i had to bring a couple of new things home with me to plant in my perennial garden.

For supper we all gathered at bob's back at Wayside and ordered in the fish from DeGriefs and had a good time talking about the 'old days' as we so often do now when we're together.  The football game and more visiting concluded the evening.

Saturday was very interesting - and something none of us expected. We had a visitor from Gaithersburg, Maryland. It was Pat (nee) Krenzke (don't remember her married name). She and her husband had come to visit "the WI relatives" only most of us had never met her before. She had no idea there were 6 of her cousins gathered together for such a visit.

 She is the 40 yr old daughter of Martin Krenzke, brother of Dick and Ted Krenzke.  Martin's family has always lived in Maryland. Martin designed submarine hulls for the gov't (top secret clearance job). Daughter Pat and husband also work for defense contractors - her husband also classified top secret. Her dad even worked with Jacques Cousteau so she had fascinating stories. She was very entertaining being quite the comedian.   She also mentioned that Dick is battling diabetes.   We wound up our visit with her in the Zion Wayside cemetery visiting the graves of her Natzke and Krenzke relatives.

The afternoon was spent at the original Kiekhaefer family farm where the Kiekhaefer reunion was hosted. The home is owned now by a family that has remodeled it and made it quite the show place. It looks like a B & B. The farm is also now state of the art. We were all very impressed. There were 86 of us who gathered together for chicken booya, good stories, a little history, tours, introductions, pictures, singing and visiting. The huge trees in the front lawn provided wonderful shade from the afternoon sun and refreshing breezes as we sat under them in our lawn chairs.

Saturday eve was yet time for more visiting back at Bob's until the midnight hour.

Worship this morning at 8. Dan and Barb stopped by to visit with us a little yet as we packed up and then made the trip back to Minnesota.  Had to leave the car the drive way for a time when we got home to air out the 'cow' smell and flies from our van. Lots to do yet before we can leave for Sarah's tomorrow and our Canadian Rockies trip on Tues. A good night's sleep is definitely in order!

Pre-Vacation blog-number three...

We had a lovely drive to Wayside, Wi  yesterday. I picked Bill up 1:45 from St Mary's Hosp when he finished his volunteering. We had supper (I'm a farm girl) in Watoma at a Culvers - what else?  We arrived at brother Bob and Flo's house about 7:30. We visited until 11 interrupted by telephone calls from brother Royal and brother Dan and sister Eileen all wondering what the schedule is for today!

We're up by 6 a.m. (this is farm country, you know). Had our breakfast and then Bill, brother Dan, brother Bob and wife Flo are off to the Brown Country Fair in Green Bay because two of Bob's grandchildren are showing cattle at the fair today. (I think Bill is excited to go to check the scene out and see if he can find any old girlfriends. LOL)

I'm off too. I'm going to sister in law, Eileen's home in Oneida (north of Green Bay). Her husband, Leo Bordeleau, owns Rose Hill Gardens so I will roam around his beautiful gardens and dream of what my perennial garden might look like next year. Eileen teaches Kindergarten at Pilgrim Lutheran. We are use to getting together this time of year and discussing our school plans while we shop at "The School House" near THEE STADIUM.  We are planning a fruit, wine, cheese and cracker lunch in the screened in porch overlooking Rose Hill Gardens!! (who needs old girl friends at the fair? HA)

When the rest of the family arrives later in the day, we will go for our Friday night fish fry and celebrate brother Dave's birthday!

Ahhhh...as Bill proclaimed as we traveled out of Rochester yesterday afternoon, "Isn't it great to be on vacation?"  You'd think retired people wouldn't have that mind set since every day is a vacation...
Blessings...

and now for the second post...

Okay, so the emergency numbers and our itinerary have been emailed to our children. The neighbors have been given instructions on what to water (with a plate of freshly baked choc chip cookies). I've looked up the average temps for the places we are going to so we will know how warmly to dress - when the itinerary says we'll ride on a snocoach to walk on a glacier, I take it that will NOT be a shorts day! We have stopped the newspaper and the mail.

I even have a map of our trip all printed out by Mapquest so I know how many hours and miles of travel we have ahead of us each day - that's so I'm ready for the mileage contest that is sure to follow at the end of our trip!  LOL

Today I bought a Tide stain remover pen so now we're ready for anything they throw at us!!!

Bill has our passports already in the suitcase so we'll not forget them.

It's interesting that Monday, Aug 22 is Sarah and Larry's 19th wedding anniversary. For their honey moon, guess where they went camping? Right...the Canadian Rockies! So we will be following in their steps 19 years later to the day !!!!

Today we travel to Wayside, WI  for the weekend. We will be attending the Kiekhaefer reunion on Sat. That's Bill's mom's side of the family. The best part is WE GET TO GO TO DeGrief's in Wayside for the  FRIDAY NIGHT FISH FRY! It's also Bill's brother, Dave's 67th birthday!

Sunday we'll be back in Rochester to wash clothes, repack and then Monday, be on our way north!!
Till next time - thanks for the suggestion (& comment), Pastor Otte - this is going to be FUN!!! ;-)

To begin with...

This is a new venture for me - a blog! Who'd have thought? But encouraged by my pastor, who promised to comment, I'll give it a try! Guess I'm seldom at a loss for words so this shouldn't be difficult! LOL

We're leaving on a bus tour through Wendinger Travel out of New Ulm on Tues, Aug 23. Our designation is The Canadian Rockies!  The bus begins to pick up travelors at Shakopee that morning at 6:45. We are staying Mon. night with our daughter and family in Rosemount. They will take us to the Burnsville Shopping Center parking lot by 7 a.m.  From there, there are pickups in Stillwater and Fridley. In all there will be 47 passengers on our Bus #1. Yup, that's right! There will be a Bus #2 but it will not leave until the following day.

This trip will be a "poor man's" Alaska trip! Bill would really like to go to Alaska but the price is a little beyond our reach right now so we thought this would be the next best thing. That way we could save a little money for a trip to Florida when the baseball season's spring training comes around.

We've taken a Theilen bus tour out of New Ulm before. I was listening to KNUJ one day and they advertised an 8 day Fantasy Baseball trip to New York City and Cooperstown. That was back in 2002.
KNUJ sponsored it. Their sports jock, Tom Wheeler, was our bus escort and Jay Buckley Baseball Tours out of LaCrosse, WI, worked out the itinerary. We were hooked! We had a great time!  We have been on four baseball tours with Jay Buckley and in 26 baseball parks since then. No baseball parks on this trip to the Canadian Rockies.

So sit back and we'll take you along on our travels - if I can figure out how to access this site again!!!