there is a drought in canada, which is why i did not see much snow on my journey the last few weeks, though we did travel north. the trip was spontaneous - a gift of frequent flyer miles and a friend who needed to drive back to new york in a truck with gianormous tires. if i've been out of touch, this is why.

i did not see moose, despite the repeated warnings of signs and locals. though there were plenty of elk, deer, caribou, and even reindeer! manitoba offered many dead rabbits, none sacrificed under our wheels. and after hundreds of miles of alberta beef, cute and moo-ing, i am a vegetarian again. we never saw any chickens. this only makes me feel worse. i apologize for laughing at your veet.

i've never really seen the rockies up close, let alone driven through them. the canadian rockies are especially interesting because after they formed a glacier ran through and gave them all very sharp pointy edges, more so than in our own uncle sam rockies. and the land above lake superior is my favorite. lots of layered rock, red clay, green green trees of spring, and blue blue lakes of less toxins. being from northern illinois it makes sense that i prefer this to mountains. the land of the friday night fish fry always has and always will be home.

there is a map at www.klever.org/canada.gif with our route. canada is very very big and it's important to note that less than one person per square mile lived along 90% of our route - thats thousands of miles x1.6 kilometers of NO PEOPLE. holy freak-i-ness.

other things happened: canyons, a walk on a real glacier, waterfalls, "seldom seen" and "faraway" roads (which were in fact seldom seen and faraway), geese & loons, fights about the radio and remote controls, signs in french, lost passports, too much fried meat, god aweful "chinese & canadian" cuisine, people who were more scared of us than us of them, and so on.

to everyone who covered for me while i was away, thank you. i needed this. i expect things only to get better and better still.

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