Travel in North America
Jeannette, my wife, and I have always enjoyed travelling and seeing countries, and cultures, which differ from our own.
We have taken four holidays in North America, one in Canada and three in the USA, each time using rental cars for transport and hotels / motels for accomodation. Our choices of destination may seem somewhat unusual but we have tended to avoid what are normally regarded as the 'tourist areas' in an attempt to experience normal Canadian and American society.
The pins in the map below give some indication of the extent of our travels over these four holidays.
Some photographs of the places
Toronto, Ontario, Canada ~ The view from the CNN Tower (well it was 1985 !)
Toronto, Ontario, Canada ~ This hole in the ground became the SkyDome
Parliament Buildings, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Keystone, South Dakota, USA ~ No sign of Cary Grant !
Keystone, South Dakota, USA ~ Mid afternoon and our rental Blazer is the only vehicle in view.
Homestake Goldmine, Lead, South Dakota, USA ~ The oldest, largest and deepest gold mine in the Western Hemisphere until it was closed in 2002. It reached more than 8,000 feet below the town.
Crazy Horse Monument, Thunderhead Mountain, Black Hills, South Dakota, USA ~ Crazy Horse was an Oglala Lakota war chief who took part in the Battle of the Little Bighorn. This 1/34th scale model is by Korczak Ziolkowski who started the project in 1947. In 1939, the Souix Chief, Henry Standing Bear had written to him : 'My fellow chiefs and I would like the white man to know that the red man has great heroes too.'
Crazy Horse Monument, Thunderhead Mountain, Black Hills, South Dakota, USA ~ The face was completed and dedicated in 1998 and this is the stage it had reached in 2004. The head is 87 feet 6 inches high and the outstretched Arm is 263 feet long. If finished, it will be the world's largest sculpture.
The Badlands National Park, South Dakota, USA
Memphis, Tennessee, USA ~ We took a ride on the streetcar but we didn't go to Graceland !
Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA ~ The Lookout Mountain Incline Railway, a funicular railway which, with 72.7% grade, makes it the steepest passenger railway in the world.
