Canada Trip Stats

We have been collecting some fun trip stats to share as we finish up our journey. This shorter post is dedicated to the Canada portion of our journey.

Number of nights: 34

Nights in a tent: 23

Nights on a ferry: 3

Provinces: BC, AB, SK, MB, ON

We have stayed in 9 Provincial Parks and 3 National Parks.

~7000 km driven

No major car problems, though a red squirrel stole something from under the hood. Insulation? Cabin filter? We can’t be sure. Watch out for red squirrels at Sleeping Giant Provincial Park! :)

Animals spotted in Canada:

Sand dollar, deer, slug, bear, raccoon, Richardson ground squirrel, dog tick, chipmunk, black fly, mosquito, bald eagle, sea otter, crabs, elk, big horn sheep, rabbits, crayfish, ravens, bison, leech, garter snake, red squirrel

We have had the pleasure of seeing friends 3 times! (Yes, we have friends. Sort of.)

Tom and Nicole graciously hosted us in Vancouver. We apologize for the bloody nose. We feel responsible. ;)
The Knights rendezvoused with us in Jasper. We blame you guys for making us homesick, but trust us, it’s a compliment!
Deb, John, and Noah were wonderful hosts in Thunder Bay. The girls appreciated the piano and we all appreciated the food, drink, and company!

Number of bug bites sustained....

After each averaging ~3 bites total in the USA, we are pleased to report that our family has sustained about 500 black fly, mosquito, tick, and horse fly bites. We will recover. And we should apologize to Canada for waiting until bug season to visit...

Items lost:

In Canada we have lost the lower half of Miriam’s pants and our favourite BBQ pan. Not great. We have replaced the pan and Miriam will have to replace her own pants. Lucy would like to add that we have lost the ‘state of non-itchiness.’

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Cloudland Canyon State Park

On Wednesday night we headed over to Forest Gully Farms where we stayed one night, in wonderful houses built in side hills. I don’t know much about The Hobbit, but I do know that the houses that we stayed in looked like Hobbit houses. There at Forest Gully Farms we met a very nice man who showed us around. We went to see some of there chickens, because we were told that we could hold them. After I had chased chickens around for awhile I caught a beautiful black one. Right now, after Forest Gully Farms we are staying at a wonderful campsite where there are wonderful hiking trails. Cloudland Canyon State Park is wonderful! So far we have been hiking every day. On the first day we started with a small hike but then it got bigger. Before we started heading back, because I was already really tired, my mom saw another waterfall that she wanted to see. To get there, you needed to go down, and to go down, you needed to take the stairs. So we went down the, approximately five hundred sta

Swimming with the Manatees

Today was one of the the best activities of the trip so far. One of the very first things that we planned for this trip was to go swimming with the manatees, an activity that was first discovered by Miriam as she looked through one of our research books. Everyone has been looking forward to it for a long time, even though we had to get up pretty early in the morning. And it was worth it. Mama’s alarm clock woke us at five-thirty , at which time we had to scramble into a bathing suit, grab our clothing, and go. Swimming with the manatees is best in the morning, which is why we had to leave early. We ate three hurried muffins in the car and arrived soon after. It was still pretty dark when we got to the building, so we just went in to wait for the manatee to start. Luckily, hot chocolate was provided. Soon, a woman guided us and several other people into a room to watch a movie about how to behave on our tour. (Don’t touch the manatees unless they come to you,

The Actual, Real Hobbit

After Mammoth Caves, we camped for two nights in Nashville before moving on to a place that for Miriam and I was secret. We made seveural guesses as to where we were going, but none of them were exact. The closest one was one of mine- I guessed that the place we were staying was underground. Based on my mom and dad’s reactions, I thought that I might be close, but I did not know the full extent of it at all. We arrived at a place that at first looked normal. Two friendly dogs named Jedi and Trooper ran up to greet us, so I spent the first several minutes of our visit trying to figure out if it was possible to pet two dogs at once. The answer to that question, by the way, is no. Then we saw where we would be staying. You might remember that on my last post, I mentioned that if you’re a fan of The Hobbit you’d better read this one. And that’s because where we were staying literally looked like a series of hobbit holes. The first hole was the most like a hobbit hole-

The Great Szerminski Adventure

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