The Great Szerminski Adventure

What an unforgettable 13 weeks we’ve had visiting the USA. We spent the last couple of days thinking about the highlights and making lists of our favourite things. It’s wonderful to be returning to Canada, but also sad that our trip is getting closer and closer to the end. There are some common stereotypes about Canadians being polite and Americans being rude and obnoxious. We have no evidence of this. We admit that our sample size isn’t that big, and that it may not be representative of the general population (not everyone hangs out in national and state parks, for example). So, here are some things we have noticed about Americans. First, they are more open in their friendliness than Canadians. People all across the country were happy to strike up a conversation, offer advice, or just share a smile. Maybe it’s part of campground culture? It wasn’t only in campgrounds, though. Everywhere we went, people were kind and helpful. The places we visited were clean and well cared for.

May 23, 2019    The next morning we packed up our wet tent and drove to Seaquest State Park in Castle Rock, Washington. The park is nowhere near the sea.    The first day we had an early fire with wet wood that Amy lovingly cajoled into burning. The next morning we headed to the Silver Lake Visitor Center for Mt St Helens just across the highway (we drove, but there is a tunnel you can walk through from our campground) which is run by Washington State Parks. There was a brief video and some pretty cool interactive exhibits. The video taught me that Mt St Helens started to rumble with frequent earthquakes on Mar 20, 1980 and it wasn’t until May 18th that it erupted. I’d later learn that 53 of the 57 people that died were outside of the evacuation zone the government had set up. So clearly no one was anticipating the eruption to be as immense as it was. The blast zone levelled everything with 500 MPH (800 km/h) force.    We then drove (about 1h) to the Johnston Ridge Observato

Our last two nights in the USA are being spent in Seattle. That means we really only have one day to visit the city, but I’m not worried about that because I plan to come back one day and spend more time here someday. When planning the trip I thought I’d book us a hotel because we spent the last 12 nights in Oregon and Washington camping. Instead I found a bed and breakfast, and it easily ranks in the top 3 places we have stayed on the trip so far (in direct competition with the hobbit houses and the Earthship)! There are so many things to like about the Chelsea Station Inn . It is in a quiet part of Seattle, and it is a 4-plex. We are occupying one of the ground floor units, which has a spacious living room, a dining room, a small kitchen, a bedroom, and 1.5 baths. In addition, we have laundry machines, access to barbecues and a beautiful patio, snacks and drinks (including grownup choices!), and hot breakfast delivered to the room each morning. We are very much at home here, and o

Kentucky: Mammoth Cave is indeed the mother of all caves. Crazy to learn that 100 years ago pre-national-parkhood businessman vying for tourists destroyed during the night each other’s 1000 years old stalagmites and stalactites. Tennessee: At Grand Ole Opry Kelsea Ballerini sang I MISS ME MORE and that’s how country music loving Tennesseans that might travel feel about their state. Also there be Hobbit houses! Georgia: Can a place with cloudy canyons and covered with Spanish Moss be described as anything other than mystical? Only if you live to tell of a few freezing and wet nights in a tent while there. Thank God for cousins’ wine to warm you afterwards. Florida: Space shuttle Atlantis hanging from the ceiling at _______ degrees. Swimming in the ocean with manatees and without manatees, but not with alligators because they are not snuggleable.  Louisiana: An entire wedding danced down the centre of our narrow street with band blaring — Wonderful and honestly not sure if thi

On one of the wet days in Oregon last week I was thinking about ways we could celebrate the end of our time in the USA. There is a big end-of USA family post on the way, but I wanted to have some fun with this on my own. The idea of writing a little something about each state came to mind, and I settled on writing a Haiku for each state. Take each with a grain of salt...it certainly wasn’t possible to capture everything about each place but I did my best to choose things that I loved (or didn’t love) or that made me smile. KY Just a single night,  then we hiked in limestone caves. No bourbon this time. TN After the Opry  we gathered eggs for breakfast. Two kinds of ‘country.’ GA Cold cloudy canyons  and mossy forest coastline  both invite us back. FL Land so flat and low. Impressive beasts surround us  and so do trailers. LA Outside our hotel,  wedding party in the street  dancing to The Saints. TX Pumpjacks everywhere but we

We’ve been on the road for a long time now. The weather, though cold at times, has been very cooperative. Way back in March we dealt with a couple of cold rainy days in Cloudland Canyon in Georgia, and since then we’ve had a little gentle rain in a couple of places. Now that we are heading up the Oregon coast in springtime, we are getting a taste of wet weather. Our first morning at Humbug Mountain we woke to the sound of rain on the tent. The rain didn’t let up, and we stayed in the tent longer than usual before Rick got up to make us some coffee and hot chocolate. After we ate, we hid in the tent reading for hours as the rain continued. It let up briefly in the afternoon, and we spent a couple of hours at the beach looking for rocks and sea glass and checking out the crabs. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of crabs hiding in the crevices between rocks on the beach. The girls and I poked at them gently with sticks to see if they would run away or try to grab the stick, a

May 11, 2019 Part 2    This morning we drove out to the Fern Canyon part of Prairie Creek State Park off of Davidson Road. This took about 35 minutes and involved driving over a stream. Many non-AWD vehicles did not attempt, abandoning their vehicles and proceeding on foot. It was good not to be in the low-riding Civic.    The hike along Fern Canyon was the single most incredible hike I’ve ever been on. The green colours were stunning. We cross-crossed the river, jumping from log to log or rock to rock many times. Eventually my shoes were soaked (due to age they have entry ports on the sides, aka rips) and I just walked the river directly. Eventually we reached a wooden staircase and decided that rather than climb up and leave the trail that way we’d retrace our footsteps and get to experience Fern Canyon a second time. Later in the parking lot a group of young men told me that they have a tradition of hiking to the steps and back just like we did.    We then walked over to th