On February 18 5pm we departed Halifax, Nova Scotia after a long awaited Doctors' appointment which incidently, for those who have been following the action, turned out to be more than encouraging. To quote Dr, Wilke, after yet another exploration into my depths, "That is the smallest I have felt your prostate to be since I have known you". A delight for us both.
With that good news and an enthusiastic farewell from the Macdonalds of eastern passage we turned our wheels to the north and headed for Sackville or wherever we could get to on our first night.
As we approached Truro, about an hour out of Halifax, our headlights took a brief time out and were persuaded to come on only after some frantic reefing of the switch. Known to Ford owners as an "ECM failure" we took refuge in a warm motel to ponder our situation. Next morning at 7 AM with no replacement parts to be found we forged ahead and although we do now have a replacement part in the gear box have not had any further "ECM failures".

A great drive on a bright day along the Fundy escarpment in New Brunswick brought us into Calais Maine and an uneventful crossing into the US. We two and our puppy Ben made for the hills and encountered along the way a blast of cold and snow which we sought refuge from at SugarLoaf Ski Resort Close to the Quebec border. Here, amongst a host of spring break ski enthusiasts, we found us an electrical hook up for one tenth the cost of our motel and settled in for the fist night in our heated live in limo. The electric heat supplemented with our propane furnace was more than adequate to keep the temperature inside about 15C while the outside temps dipped to at least -15C. With a little blanket organization and 10 cans of spray foam insulation we could keep this little rig quite comfortable for winter travel.
Water facilities are another issue.

Not having had much practice as a navigator I failed to notice the direction we took after entering Quebec, miffed at the apparent disinterst by the Candaian customs agent that I could have had large quantities of undeclared american beer stashed in the wheel wells, and although we had some wonderful Salmon hollandaise eggs served in a quaint Auberge overlooking Lac-Megantic, we found ourselves about 100 Kilometers off the trail and so soon into the trip. Relinquishing my duties as navigator Carolyn found our way back to a snow free highway and we traveled quickly along the Quebec and Ontario Hwy 20 and 401 corridors at between 110 - 130 KPH, something I had never done in the Glennie, only to find ourselves in a wet and windy snowstorm and rerouting us to Cousin Maureen and Gary's house in Toronto.

After a much too short visit on Sunday with the McKewans', which included our usual laughs and reminiscents of our past including the antics of our family and friends, we forged through the slushy snow of the city and attempt to help Carolyn reach Guelph by 2pm for a conference she had planned to attend. Maureen and Garys' house has been both a refuge and hospice for many of her family over the years and was an important part of how Dad was able to get treatment in downtown Toronto during his medically difficult times. Thanks to you both and we hope to see you in the spring.

Good roads and clearing skys got us there and me beyond to London to visit Amy Brad and Hayley in their new house.
It was great to see my grandaughter with her Mom and Dad in their new digs, just getting started with their lives and with so much to look forward to in the years to come. In July Amy and Brad will have a new charge and fill up the spare room with more baby stuff. Good luck and my love and best wishes to you both. For sure you are doing the most rewarding and important of jobs by any measure by bringing happy and creative little people into this world to make it a better place for us all. Watching Hayley with her toys and her buddy Riley was a warm and special time for me. I look forward to seeing her again with a new brother or sister.
Grandma and Grandpa Johnson as well as Grandma Marjory were all over for a visit and all from time time take a turn looking after Hayley. There is no shortage of helpers here in London.
The words are begining to come. "BackPack", "Grandpa" "Whatsthat" "Daddy" and "Mommy" are the most frequent sounds heard but the long string of vowels that Hayley will sometimes let loose have yet to find their word order.
We were left in charge of little miss muffet for the whole day on Thursday and were sucessful with serving several delicious mushy bowls of basic nutrition and had some luck in the cleanup as well. Haven't done that for a while!
As per my usual time spent with Hayley I took many more great pictures and will ge tthem posted with link from this page as part of this project in the next few weeks. She is very reflective and spends a lot of quiet time examining the world around her, phones and dog dishes seem to have her attention at the moment.

Evident in the picture of Andy and Karen is the joy they share with one another.
We were treated to a gourmet dinner of Roasted red pepper soup and pasta sprinkled with lots of humour and chatter. They have worked very hard to create a warm and distinctive home for themselves and was envious of their cozy loft home in London. I had taken one of my Shore Art series photogtaphs and saw that it would fit well into an eclectic collection of home grown oil paintings and collections of black and white photography. We look forward to a visit from them this summer. I was so pleased to see Andy so content in his own place and with such a positive and joyous person as Karen. Good luck to you both.

We also were lucky enough to gather the Bruntz clan together for a evening of chuckles and a few rounds of Skip-Bo.
Nana Clay-O'Brien was in great form and catered a great irish stew for Grandaughter Sara, her partner Shawna, her Mom Diane, Carolyn and I. Isobel is living with her son Leith in Orono and is enjoying each day of her 86th yearby shuffling off to Bowmanville, or somewhere in the area, in her 10 year old Accent. Her committment to keep going and stay healthy is an inspiration.
Shawna and Sara are agents for Rogers communications and live in the West end of Toronto. Diane has work in downtown Toronto and spends most weekends , weather permitting, with her Mom in Orono.
I had not seen Danny or Sara for several years and enjoyed reminiscing on our time spent with Mom and Dad in Minden in the Haliburton Highlands. Those were fun times and I feel fortunate to have had such a great relationship with Mom Isobels' family and friends.

The next leg of our journey took us to Port Perry to visit and for for Carolyn to meet for the first time the Ayotte family. As usual upon arrival Don and Cathy met us at the door but this time with all the girls in tow. Candace, Amber and Everloure spent time with Brad, Hayley, Amy, Carolyn and I bringing us all up to date on thheir scholastic adventures. Candace is working towards a Nurse Practicioner degree, Amber is finishing her Arts degree at Brock University in St.. Catherines Ontario and Amber is looking to enter the Nursing program at Durham College in Oshawa. All were their usual bubbly selves and our evening stretched well into the morning.
Assisting in allowing us to remain conscious were several bottles of Ruby Rouge.
Cathy put a huge spread on the table of Turkey and Ham and all 10 of us made a major dent in the potential for sandwiches the next week including a huge care package we were still eating in Florida a week later.
Don still works as a heavy equipment representative for the Ontario region and Cathy has achieved high marks as a remax real estate representative in the Durham region. We are hoping to see either the Girls or their parents or both sometime in the summer months for a holiday. Great visit guys, look forward to seeing you in Nova Scotia.

Travel news from Ontario into Ohio and down to Florida Caverns State Park

We left Port Perry on a bright and sunny Sunday and travelled through Toronto without incident. Carolyns' first atttempt at lane dancing in Toronto traffic was met with success and we arrived at the US border around 3 pm (noticing, but ignoring a smalll dab of anti-freeze upon the pavement) To make good on our rights as true Canadian consumers we stowed our dark Ale and malt scotch in the bowels of the Glennie. Once again the authorities assumed us to be a modest trrorist risk and welcomed us into NYState with a smile and a bow. Amazing how the information we receive aout our security on the airwaves is always more exagerated than here on the ground. The weather was fine and we scurried accross the New York Turnpike without delay and we found our destination of Edinborough, Pennsylvania where Carolyn delivered several lectures on the following Monday to the students of the Social Work program of Edinburough University. With a number of assorted Scottish themed gifts (dog dish and pincushion) we set out in a modest snowstorm. My hope was to split the 2 snow storms which were bearing down on the Ohio valley and end up in Kentucky where the sun was bound to be shining. As evening descended we were bandied about with both a fierce NW wind and convoys of transports sending us into the the protection of a gas station somewhere near Lebanon Ohio. At about 11:30 at night and knowing we could not fight the elements any further we crawled into our thermal bags, set the furnace on low and hoped we would not turn into ice cubes. Morning found us without the furnace and in very cold truck. The accessory power supply had run down and the temperature was on its' way to below Zero when we kicked the Glennie into gear and hit the pavements once again. Warmed up and bolstered with the thought of getting into warmer climes later that day we trucked along for a couple of hours and without any thought to why, I pulled into a rest center only to notice my rad smoking and puffing. It turns out that the little trickle I noticed at the border had turned into a shower spray by Cincinnati. The streams of emerald green coolant were poking out of a number of spots on my old radiator and required a cautious crawl along the interstate to get to a garage. We got the part ordered and retired to a cozy motel to watch the storm on the weather network, thinking about you all in Ontario and Nova Scotia bracing for another dump of the white stuff. Only Heather in Arviet on the shores of Hudson Bay would think this to be "Kids Stuff". Next day after a very efficient installation, on time and on the money ($350 that had originally been earmarked as discretionary funds (drinking and eating discretely), for a brand new radiator and new coolant we were once again on the road. We have been on the road (and visiting family) for 14 days and have travelled 4400 kilometers to date and Alabama gave us our first taste of the warm weather we were in search of. The truck has performed well and is getting about 12 miles to the gallon. That, considering our highway speeds of 65 to 70 mph. You have to keep up with the trucks or they will blow you off the road. We have taken the secondary road system from central Kentucky and have enjoyed the landscapes and admired the small town culture throughout the lower south, making our trip a bit longer but more memorable. Gas prices are about $2 a gallon and food and refreshment have increased in the 4 years since I was last here. There appears to be a lot of large home construction in all states but there are still lots of desparate looking shacks along the back highways and there appears more of gap between those who have and those who have not. In America the state helps those who help themselves and heaven help those who can't. After one last free night in a public park we happened upon the first of many Florida State parks we are registered for, Florida Caverns. More about the Caverns and the journey to Manattee Springs in the next issue. This page updated and posted - March 8, 2005

Travel dates from February 18 - April 12, 2005 Move your mouse slowly over each photograph to get more info on each pic.

Hi everyone, I have sent the URL of this page http://billobrien.com/travel05/index.html to about 50 of our friends, thinking that there may be enough interest in our travel activity to keep you coming back to check us out. If you wish to participate in a dialogue of our travels please go to the link below and ask questions, pose ideas, talk to other friends or just to read what is there. You will never have to give me your credit card number, promise. This is a better method of group discussion than email, so give it a try and post a message. Remember everyone who has this page link will have access to the discussion and will see what you write so give it your best! I will be updating this page and contributing to the discussion board whenever I can. There are a number wireless connections in truck stops and RV centers so it is getting easier to connect but I may have some dry spells so stay tuned for more updates from our travels. We have yet to inflate our Kayak! Discussion at SoapBox01 - open to family, friends and all others.

Nova Scotia to Florida Nova Scotia, Ontario, Pennsylvania to Georgia Florida - Panhandle State Caverns, St. Georges Island and Ocklockonee River Florida -Central Manatee Springs, Homossa Springs, St.Augustine Georgia...or wherever we end up.