Minor rant and updates

Okay firstly a minor rant I need to get off my chest.

Lots of places I have stayed have offered "Continental Breakfast" I have yet to come across a single one that I would actually consider a continental breakfast at least by European standards, a couple of bagels and tea/coffee does not equal a continental breakfast.

Well enough ranting, what else have I been up to lately.

Well I'm currently sitting in Wellfleet which is on Cape Cod, Had a lovely time at the drive in last night http://www.wellfleetdrivein.com/ if you are ever on Cape Cod make sure you go and visit, it is one of the few left in existence (Okay that sounded a bit too like an advertisement, but I'm biased as I worked there for an excellent summer 13 or 14 years ago)

I also made a stop at the Dayton hamvention for a few days (geek heaven) www.hamvention.org

I have uploaded a few more photos to picasa https://picasaweb.google.com/104859470393475914260/MarksWalkAbout?authuser=0&feat=directlink

I have done a quick count of what states I have visited so far and this is the basic list (roughly in order)
California
Oregon
Washington
British Columbia (Canada)
Yukon (Canada)
Alaska
Alberta (Canada)
Saskatchewan (Canada)
Montana
North Dakota
South Dakota
Minnesota
Iowa
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Illinois
Indiana
Michigan
Ohio
West Virgina
Pennsylvania
New York
Vermont
New Hampshire
Maine
New Brunswick (Canada)
Nova Scotia (Canada)
Massachusetts

So 22 US states and 6 Canadian Provinces/Territories, so not quite have way on seeing visiting all 50 US states (not necessarily part of this trip, actually the number is higher as I have visited 7 others on previous trips.

So what is the plan for the coming few weeks.
Today is driving to Providence Rhode Island, then on to Philadelphia for a day then Washington DC for a couple of days to see the sights and visit some of the museums there. Then on to Raleigh North Carolina to catch up with a few of my ex-colleagues, then down to Florida. Of course likes lots of  other parts of this trip I'm not likely to take the direct routes so I can try to take in some extra spots.

Okay well I think that is a good summary of my adventures over the last week or so.

10000 km done

I could start by apologising for the lack of updates but I think I have started most posts with a similar comment :)

I had hoped to get some more photos uploaded but the computer in the hotel I'm using does not seem to be cooperating.

So what have I been up to since leaving the trail?

Basically driving and lots of it.

I have now covered four US states and three Canadian provinces, California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, British Columbia, Yukon and Alberta.
I have to say the drive over the Alaska highway was spectacular but I should probably have waited a few weeks longer as a lot of the attractions and even motels are not yet open for the season.

Some of the highlights along the way included Fairbanks, the Liard hot springs and all the animals along the way some of which included Grizzly bears, black bears (including cubs), Caribou, Moose, rain dear, elk,duck, geese and lots of different birds including some birds of prey, some of the small birds seem to like playing chicken with the car by seeing how close they can get to hitting it before veering off.

Other interesting points along the way included Crater lake (again not really open for another few weeks), unfortunately there was only one open road up to the lake with snow drifts of 10+ feet still in places.

I'll attempt to get photos posted in the next few days but please don't hold your breath :)

So what are my plans from here?
Well the next few weeks basically shape up like this.
From Edmonton I will head to Dayton Ohio to attend the Dayton Hamvention next weekend (4 days to cover 3000km) with some likely detours to take in some extra states along the way, basically there are places where I;m maybe 100Km from another state I haven't been in before so it would be a shame not to make a small detour :)
After Dayton I intend to wind my way towards Maine to take in the North West corner of my trip.
After that it will be down to Boston and along the east coast.

Well that is all for now.

Plan B is in operation

Firstly apologies for the lack of updates lately but I have had limited access.

So what had been going on with me.
Well firstly the issues I had been having seem to have been confirmed as being related to altitude, my symptoms cleared up very quickly once I returned down to San Diego but returned just as fast everytime I returned to altitude.
So I have decided to abandon the hike as I had planned it, if I had stayed on the trail I would have been heading into higher altitudes fairly quickly also I did not feel comfortable considering heading into the desert sections if I was not feeling 100% 

So what are my plans now, well I have rented a car for the next two months and I am heading out on an epic road trip instead, at a minimum I plan to visit the four corners of the US (Washington state, Maine, the Florida keys and back to San Diego) with a possible side trip up to Alaska (if I do I will basically go up far enough to be able to say I was there before turning back)  also along the way I want to visit as many different states as possible.
So any friends and ex colleagues on the east coast you may see me in the coming weeks.

So what else have I been up to in the last weeks.
Well I had a few days in San Diego so one thing I did was visit sea world which was a fun day out.
I also rented a car and tried out a little trail angeling, I provided some lifts from paradise valley cafe up to idyllwild, I also collected a few other hikers and provided them a lift back down to the kickoff which I was attending anyway.
Kickoff was interesting, I was good to meet some of the other hikers, but to be honest at the same time was a little sad for me, I'm quite happy with my decision to come off the trail but seeing a few presentations which included videos made me a little disappointed at the same time.
I couldn't actually camp up at the kickoff as I was starting to feel bad from the altitude (I did stay one night but that was enough)

Well after kickoff I dropped the same hikers back to where I had collected them, then back down to San Diego to swap out the rental car with the new one for the two months.

My plan was to get through California as fast as possible (I plan to spend some more time on my way back) that took a day and a half on its own, so I'm now in Oregon, I visited Crater Lake park today, unfortunately a lot of the roads there are still closed due to snow (12 foot plus in places)

Tomorrow I will probably see some.more of Oregon and head into Washington.