We put Toga to bed and left the boatyard on Sunday, October 18 heading east. We decided to take the long way home and head to Winnipeg (i.e. “Winterpeg”) and then head south to visit Minnesota, where my Dad now lives and Amy goes to law school at the U of M (Go fighting Mondales!).  We had a lovely drive across Canada Highway 1, the Banff area was particularly beautiful.  We noticed that there were some signs of winter – snow in the mountains, etc.  The title for this blog post comes from the signs we saw all along the way, everything was closed down! Campgrounds, Visitor’s Centers, etc.  Canada was getting ready for snow.

We crossed back into the United States in North Dakota and headed to the Twin Cities.  We had a really nice visit with my Dad and his fiancee, Mary, and, of course, our darling daughter, Amy.  We also got to visit some of my other relatives and an apple orchard! It was an all around good time.  We headed east from the Twin Cities and visited Mount Rushmore, staying a day ahead of snow forecasts, and the monument was very impressive.  The next day we visited Yellowstone, which has been a lifelong dream of mine – I was not disappointed.  I loved it!  Still, we were a day ahead of a predicted snow storm. We kept wondering if we had snow chains somewhere in our car.  Luckily, we didn’t need them.

After Yellowstone it was a race home, stopping in San Luis Obispo to visit our wonderful son, Jacob.  It was a fun 2-week long road trip, but we are glad to be back home in Redondo Beach for the winter.  I hope to see as many of you as possible while we are home.  Thanks for following along on our adventures!