Plans are being made!

Well, finally we have news to report. On September 1 Mike went to Indianapolis to look at a jet powered car. After spending a couple of days with the owner of the car (Paul Stedner: http://www.indyboysinc.com/ ) Mike made a decision, and we are now the proud owners of the Armageddon 3/4 scale jet powered funny car.

Our plan is to campaign the car in different types of events from Monster Truck events, to circle tracks, to airshows. We will travel the U.S. (and maybe even some of Canada and Europe) putting on thrill shows for the crowds. This fits in with our original plan to travel extensively while keeping busy and having fun. We hope to find a place in Mexico where we will spend our off time, and we also need to find some shop space in the U.S. where we can base our operation and work on the car. It's all very exciting!

Welcome Home

Well, we are back in Edmonton. Wouldn't you know that the only bad weather (except for winds) that we encountered was on entering Canada!

Customs agent was more interested in whether we had had any repairs done on our vehicles in the U.S. than anything else. Guess you have to pay GST and duty on repair work! When entering the U.S., border agents come out to your vehicle and talk to you politely, and welcome you to USA. On entering Canada, fat agent sits in booth and is barely polite.

Things we have noticed along the way:

1. Americans seem polite, quick to talk to strangers, and generally helpfull;
2. American truckers have better road manners than Canadian truckers;
3. A lot of people in US seem to be nervous about Obama health plans;
4. Despite recession, people in both countries are still spending plenty on entertainment;
5. Cost of living in US cities we visited is lower than in Canada (a lot lower).

Now we will start planning our next trip, and settling on our business ideas. Will also see how difficult it is to settle back into living in one place with Miranda.

The Return

Last night we stayed at the Walmart in Pocatello, Idaho. Not much to report except that the parking lot was very small for a Walmart, and we had to squeeze ourselves in. We did buy a cheap microwave, and a nice toaster/ convection oven, so now Marlene can cook a full repetoir of recipes again!

We arrived in Great Falls, Montana a couple of hours ago. This Walmart has a huge parking lot, and there are a lot of RV's here tonight. Marlene cooked minestrone soup, lasagna, garlic toast, and salad.

Expect to hit the border tomorrow morning, and be back in Edmonton Friday a.m.

Yesterday was our last day on the salt here at Bonneville. We watched the action on the courses from about the 2 mile marker of the long course, and had a great view. There were quite a few 300+ mph runs.

Ben seemed to get a lot of attention, which he liked of course, including having his picture taken, being coddled, petted, and OOOHHH'd over! Since Ben has now been to Speed Week, he is officially a "salty dog".

We walked through the pits one last time, and bought some tee shirts. Many of the competitors have left, if they have set a new record, or realized that they weren't going to this year. They'll head home and work on improving their cars for next year.

We are also heading for home today. We hope to be back in Edmonton on Friday afternoon. Hope we have no more mechanical trouble. Yesterday our convection microwave oven quit working, and our batteries are not taking a charge properly. One of the things we've decided is that before we hit the road in October for the winter, we will install 5 new batteries, and a solar panel. We are going to replace the convection/ microwave with a separate convection oven and microwave setup, so if one dies the other will still work.

If service is available, we'll log on from Idaho next. Stay tuned...