Greetings from Calgary

Calgary appears to be a rather unimpressive city perched on the borders of the Rockies. It does boast a viewing tower much like Toronto, but that's about it. Fortunately they do have internet access in the public library. (We're yet to see a normal librarian- whether it be a sellotaped eye or unfeasibly large breasts for a man, they know how to (in)breed them out here).
Yesterday we checked out Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta and witnessed.. not a lot. Boasting an unparalleled collection of dinosaur bones we managed to see all of one. Potentially. We think it was a leg bone of some variety though it could've been a rock.
Anyway, the highlight for us was cooking our chicken, rice and asparagus (yes respective mothers, we are eating well!) on the banks of a big river as the sun set. Basking in the unusually warm weather our conversation was interrupted by the sound of dogs barking. About 2 minutes later we realised that the dogs barking were in fact wild wolves howling! Stress-ye-not, they were a comfortable distance away but I wasn't about to start doing wolf impressions in case one came over to eat my leg, or worse still hump it. (It's mating season here apparently!)
Our next stop is Banff for three nights and then Jasper for a further six nights. Apprently the views in the Rockies are amazing and there are some incredible walks- we're hoping that the snow hasn't got too deep yet. After that we're aiming for Vancouver, when we will have officially driven across the entire country! Watch this space.

New Photos Posted

Apparently it's a little harder than you might think to find internet access here, and even harder to put our new pics on. There are wifi hotspots everywhere but no public computers! (This might be a good excuse to buy a cheap laptop!) Anyway, we've just crossed the border into Canada again and are en route to Dinosaur Provincial Park. This time went better than last time when our salami, two apples and a banana were confiscated by an overzealous borderguard. (He did, however, manage to leave us with a bunch of bananas and the rest of the apples- clearly a thorough chap!) The pictures can be found here, and the updated itinerary here.

PS As of this morning we've done 3,375 miles at an average of 47.7mph!!

Niagara Falls (463 miles down...)

OK- so now a proper account of our journey to Toronto. Cunning fox that I am, we managed to pick up a cheap rental car from National from Newark Airport (300 quid cheaper than New York!) Having handed over our 'rental voucher' and been directed to the 'parking lot' we fell into some good luck... Hearing the magic words 'we aint got no economy vehicles left- you can have fullsize' we were close to tears! That's a full 4 levels higher than we bargained for. Our new best friend has cruise control as well as air conditioning and massive amounts of legroom! Unfortunately we're averaging 22 miles to the gallon but, heck, we're doin' it in style!

Having just about worked out driving on the right and the lack of clutch, we hot footed it to Niagara Falls. En route we booked ourselves into the classy establishment that is the "Swiss Cottage Motel" just outside town advertising free breakfast (a mini-donut and a coffee, but what do you expect for $40 for the night?!)

After around 8 hours of driving and 463 miles under us, we pulled in to Niagara at about 10pm just missing the daily firework display over the falls. We headed down to the front to catch a glimpse of the falls at night- very, very impressive! Check out the photos page for our pics. The falls were incredibly loud and you could hear them a mile away- the light show really completed the scene.

On our way back from the falls we had a slight incident with the Canadian border...! Unfortunately I misinterpreted Em's driving instructions and ended up on a one-way bridge to Canada! Lacking passports and sufficient funds we decided it was probably not a good idea to attempt entering Canada just yet, so I had a chat to a guard on the US side. Apparently this happens frequently and he assured me the spikes in the road preventing us from going the wrong way wouldn't harm the tyres too much! So we successfully negotiated a cross roads the wrong way- luckily the other cars were on red!

The next day we intentionally entered Canada(!) and spent the day takinng around 3 million phtoos of the falls. We even took a trip on the 'Maid of the Mist V' into the heart of the horseshoe falls on the Canadian side. I heartily recommend this trip, the feeling of power you get is second to none. That afternoon we experienced probably the lowest budget IMAX film in the world. It also boasts being the "most watched IMAX film in Canada"- not exactly surprising given there's probably only one IMAX cinema in the entire country!

The Boys in Action

Em and I have successfully negotiated the US roads, officious Canadian border guards and near death to arrive with family Spencer in Toronto. Here's Tris and Ollie looking mean with Fingal the dog! More to follow soon!

Leavin' for Buffalo

Tomorrow we're due to leave New York and start our road trip in earnest. New York has been quite an experience- it's no surprise everyone we know staying here doesn't want to leave! Hoping that the rest of America is not as expensive as NY- our budget will have to come under serious scrutiny if it is! (I blame today's shoe shopping spree...) A big thanks to Jules for today's lunch- the Yanks sure know how to make a mean strawberry milkshake!
Anyway, we hit interstate 81 tomorrow and put some serious miles on the clock as we head towards Buffalo. See our itinerary for more information.