Mother nature is tough.

Got to my old home town of Lewistown at 3am Wednesday headed to the mountains near White Sulfur Springs On Thursday Arrived at base camp around 5 in the evening. Flivver pulled the Boler fine through the mountains. I had to stop and adjust the carbeurator because of the major altittude change, I got lucky and adjusted the right direction and the truck did fine the rest of the trip. Our next Blog will be on Monday when we return from the mountains. I saw two coyotes kill a fawn this morning only a 100 or less meters up a mountain from me . I was out for a walk with Taxi this morning around 6 Mountain Time (literally) The Mother tried to fight off the two Coyotes for about 5 minutes. Then she noticed me and spooked away and so did the coyotes, but they didn't go far and returned to the kill in a minute or so. It was absolutely amazing. The doe fought valiantly for its offspring but the coyotes kept circling back to the already dead fawn. I was amazed to see such an event other than on a wildlife show.

Pics coming on Monday. Hope all is going well for everybody..........Shawn

Chosen route at the Montana

I have opted for the high-road. At Glendive we will head toward Circle then to Jordan and Lewistown and Finally White Sulphur. Now some people will think this a bad idea, but it really means we see everybody In Billings, MilesCity, on our way back through to Valley City before the 15th of July. This saves a lot of time on getting to our camping trip in the mountains. Rusty, Renee,Brian and families have made a point of planning this Camping trip to coinside with our trip.....That means a lot. See all ya Southern Montana folks on the flip side of the weekend.
Shawn and Patrick

Capital of North Dakota?.......Anybody.

Patrick is driving with the capital of North Dakota in our sights. Taxi is snoozing as usual and we probably won't see her stir until the truck changes engine tones and she feels us slowing down. The speakers are doing battle with the swirling winds and truck noises, but with the volume turned up the group Great Big Sea are putting up a good fight.

The badlands are just over the horizon, but amazing enough the crops and pastures look pretty good around this area. First cuttings are in Round Bale form. I am sure southern Ontario wold like to be this green. The crops really look good here.

I had forgotten how bad cattle trucks can smell !!!

Jamestown North Dakota.

A little hot and muggy in Jamestown ND. We have made good time this morning after starting out in the Minnesota fog at 5 Mountain time this morning. We had breakfast in Fargo North Dakota with my uncle Harold from my mother's side of the family. I was very happy to get a little time with him on such short notice since it was a surprise visit. We will return around the 15th for a little reunion near Vally City ND where my mom and her siblings grew up.

Wasted about 45 minutes around Duluth because I didn't take the turn Patrick said to take. The detour was pretty cool though since we traveled on the lower level of a combination train auto bridge while a loaded train thundered along just above us. Next Blog in Montana.... Stay tuned
Shawn

Michigan, Wisconsin to Minnesota

Taxi Helping as usual













We found the Drowning sign funny at an obvious point at Niagra falls.

















Proof that Ontarians drink Nova Scotia beer. When I found these under the truck while checking things over in Southern Ontario.











This guy was lifting weights while flagging. He'll look like arnold by the end of Summer.








Most of the day was uneventful driving . We are in Superior Wisconsin and head to Minnesota shortly. We stopped at a Mcdonald's because they have a good hotspot. We will cross Minnesota on the 210 this evening barring any unforseen issues and be in N.D tomorrow or so.

The truck is running well.

We stop spreading our drips accross the country today when we fixed the valve cover.

Gotta get back on the road. Good stories coming soon..... Shawn

Michigan

So we got to celebrate Canada day in Canada. Witch is good because this is our first Canada day as Canadian citizens, and if we would have spent that in the states Steven Harper would not have been impressed. After driving all morning, we made it from Niagra to the border crossing in Sarnia. We waited a while on the bridge over Lake Huron to clear customs and eventually were back on our journey. Later that day we got our real Canada Day present.... a shower at a truck stop, living in your own filth for four days really makes you appreciate the luxury of running hot water. After we were all cleaned up we drove until late that night and camped at a rest stop. We were up bright and early this morning to get a move on, and put some miles down... in hopes of making it to Montana for July 4th. But somewhere between now and then we've got to change our valve cover gasket so we stop leaving lots of nice oil drips at gas stations. Right now were somewhere in Michigan driving on the 2 west... soon to be in Wisconsin, next stop is to find a hotspot and get some gasket goo so we can fix our leak.

One sure thing about driving across the Us/Canada in a land rover is you sure tend to attract and see some interesting people, whether it’s a construction worker lifting weights, or a couple of bikers traveling across the states.

Patrick

Lost Wrenches and Broken Parts

Fixin' and adjusting Bearings.

This was the smoky light converter box. Now replaced with a shiny new one from Wal-Mart.

The wrench that didn't that didn't let go. I found this wrench after 8 hours of rumbling along on the road.

Still hangin' in there.

Buddy

The steering adjustment is a story in itself. We stopped along the interstate at a rest area yesterday and I decided to see if I could tighten up the steering box. Well after removing the inner wheel well(made from aluminum flashing) I was able to get at a quite rusty adjusting nut. While I was working at getting the nut loose another "nut" pulled up along side and asked if we needed help. I said not really we just needed to make an adjustment. I guess he didn't believe me cause he sat there in his car for awhile then he started to pull off so I said thanks and he goes oh I'm not leaving. He just pulled up one parking spot and hopped out opened his trunk and got out some coveralls and a black pair of shoes. at this point I'm thinking WTF is this guy up to. I asked if he was a mechanic since he had coveralls. ( I didn't have coveralls just greasy clothes.) He said no and changed to his black shoes and asked me to excuse the black shoes. Then he put on some safety glasses and came over to help, which I still didn't need. Patrick was in the background trying not to laugh to loud. Buddy asked if I needed a wrench held or anything and I replied politely "not at the moment." I went to the back of the Rover to find another wrench and managed to spill the kit of tools we have. Patrick got mad and cussed me out. ( in a friendly way of course) The guy follows me back to the front of Flivver and scrunches down beside me when I crawl back underneath. Patrick is still laughing his ass off. Buddy then says..."so what your saying is you really aren't broke down?" "No I am really just making a few fine tune adjustments," I said. Well I guess I'll go then says buddy. I said thanks again and he said don't thank me thank Jesus. Then our hero drove off into the sun.

Canada Day

The next morning at DAP Springfield Vermont.

The border (according to patrick.....between those two flags is no mans land.)





Well we have went back to Canada since the last post. We made it in to DAP (Landrover parts place in Springfield Vermont) around midnight. We parked and crashed for the night in there lot. It was nice to sleep amongst all of the old Rovers. Earlier I had ordered parts so we found them in the morning on the forklift seat. I replaced the inner bearing that was bad and tried to replace the outer but it was the wrong size. (so much for that) Oh well the bad one was fixed and the rest were all greased up back on. I adjusted the back ones as well. Several times during the day actually as I went a little to snug at first and didn't like the amount of heat build-up.
We left early from Sprinfield and had a nice drive in Vermont then Massachusetts because we missed a turn to Albany NY then back to Albany and along the toll Interstate 90......$15.50 later we were in Buffalo and headed for the Niagra Falls. We crossed the border and were parked about mile from the falls in a RV lot.(where we stayed the night.) We took a nice walk with Taxi along the Falls. It was unbelivable how many people were around the Falls still at midnight. Spot Lights of different colors lit up the falls, it was pretty spetacular.

After a quick rest we were back at it early this morning. We drove back by the falls then out and South along the 3 in Southern Ontario. The exhaust vibrated apart in Dunnville so we re attached that quickly and adjusted the steering a bit more. Stopped again just before London Ontario. Going to attach the exhaust a little better and give taxi some ball chasing time.

The next time I post we will hopefully be in Michigan. The truck is running well. Hope to find a shower and laundry tonight to get freshened up after the last 4 days.

Happy Canada Day everyone!!!! Shawn, Patrick and Taxi