Since leaving our home in Prince Albert Saskatchewan on July 1, 2004, much has happened. We began our journey packed and prepared to tent our way around Canada and the perimeter of the USA. By late July we had passed through 7 provinces and reached the Atlantic coast. My wife Ina and I ran the Barrington Nova Scotia Marathon on July 25 on a sultry overcast day. We thoroughly enjoyed the Maritime provinces and were especially taken with the beauty of Prince Edward Island and Cape Breton Island. Lobster and seafood are to die for in these regions. The people are friendly and very hospitable. We moved on through the eastern US states on our way to Florida during mid August. Boston, NYC, and Washington DC were all stopovers for us. The size and pace of these places was something we were not at all accustomed to. Quite a culture shock. However, having said that, Boston's historic core, and the Ground Zero site of New York were well worth the visit. In Washington, we spent considerable time browsing the free Smithsonian museums, learning a great deal about art, science and aerospace. After a stopover at Murfreesboro TN, where we had an enjoyable visit with a relation of my wife, who had retired there, we carried on to Georgia, and camped in the sweltering heat of Stone Mountain Park near Atlanta. What a great place. We were most impressed with the free laser show against the backdrop of the mountain, in spite of the pro military theme that became more obvious as the production progressed. Next came Florida, and our family spent 4 glorious days in the historic city of St Augustine. By this time, we had discovered the discount coupon booklets that we found at tourist information offices and local restaurants. These valuable booklets contained great deals on hotels virtually everywhere in the south, and we continued to use them all the way across the country until we reached the Canadian border in mid October. This effectively meant that camping was no longer cost effective as a hotel room could be had for as little as $35 while camping was often $25- 35 per night. While in Florida, we anxiously watched the news for updates on the hurricanes threatening the region. Though it was a tense few days we were able to enjoy the huge swells created by the storm and had some most exciting days jumping in the 3 metre waves crashing on the shoreline. But, in the end we decided to leave just as Frances was about to reach landfall. The city was deserted and a large portion of the population had boarded up their shops and homes before heading to safer territory. Early one Saturday morning we packed our things and moved on to Gulf Shores Alabama. A week or so later a new hurricane threatened us here, so we left once more and drove to New Orleans, La. By this time Ivan had struck Gulf Shores and was moving back out to sea. Now ther was talk of a third hurricane aimed at the New Orleans area. Can this be for real! For the final time we drove off to avoid a hurricane. This time we found ourselves in Texas, along with numerous other refugees fleeing Florida and Alabama. By mid September the threat of further hurricanes had passed and we were safely able to maintain a planned itinerary. After stops in Houston, Albequerque, and Flagstaff, we stayed a week at the Grand Canyon. A couple of noteworthy points: near Albequerque we stopped at a place just west of the city called Acoma Sky City. This is a 1000 year old Pueblo Indian community perched high on a Mesa overlooking the valley below. Not to be missed. Also we visited the Meteor Crater on the east side of Flagstaff and it too was a worthwhile attraction. However, the Grand canyon was the best! We camped out for a couple of nights and toured around the area but the lure of hiking down into the canyon finally overcame us. We got a back country pass, bought some supplies and booked into the campsites along the Bright Angel Canyon route. It was amazing! It took us 2 half days of fairly strenuous hiking down the rugged trail before we reached Phantom Ranch, a veritible oasis in the canyon. We spent the night there at the campground then decided to do the hike back up in one day. The distance each way was close to 14 km and we felt we could do it in less than 6 hours. The key was to get up and be ready to hike by first light, and by so doing, avoid the intense heat in the depths of the canyon by midday. We were all up and ready to leave by 5:45 am and even at this early hour more than half of the campers had already risen and some had even begun the hike by miner's light mounted on their heads. we made it to the top in 4:45, well before our 6 hour goal, but not without difficulty. Our oldest son Jordan hit the wall at the midway point and struggled to complete the upward journey, which oddly enough seemed easier to me than hiking down. We were all proud of ourselves for successfully completing the hike and Iam sure it will be one of the highlights of our trip. After a fabulously satisfying shower for each of us we headed off to Las Vegas for three nights of hedonistic enticement. Then we made our way to the California coast and spent time in San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco where we took in the usual tourist activities of Seaworld, Disney, Universal, and Fisherman's Wharf. In SF, we also toured Alcatraz, which on this particular day had a former prisoner autographing copies of a book he had written about his life of crime. Ina bought one and had it signed. Though California was enjoyable we were experiencing theme park saturation and glad to move on to quieter pursuits. In northern California we ran the Humboldt Redwoods Marathon during a torrential rain and found the experience rewarding as well as very scenic. A couple of days later we crossed the border back home into Canada and felt a wonderful feeling of pride as we entered British Columbia. We spent the night with Mary Wong, an old friend of Ina's and the next day continued on to Kelowna, where we stayed at my daughter Vanessa and her boyfriend Blake's place for the next three nights. They treated us very well and it was so great to be able to feel settled again even if it was only for a few days. Our next stop was Calgary, where we stayed in a comfy hotel and visited with my sister Carla. we even got to see our hometown hockey team, the Raiders paly the Calgary Hitmen. The Raiders lost, the bums. Finally we reached Saskatchewan, and Ina's hometown of Shaunavon where we spent 4 night with her parents and had a relaxing time visiting with family. On November 1 we fly to Mexico.