Xanthos — At the Temporary House — Early July

Construction at the new home is going well... Xanthos Industries is doing better than expected... Maybe it's time for a vacation.

Who to take with me though... Lis and Anna are tied up with College, Tiffany is tied up with Xanthos Industries — though Kat would probably be free, Amy might be interested, though she may prefer to stick with Tif, Angie will probably want to go, as will her mom, and I haven't known Mei long enough to guess at her choice.

Later that night, I discussed the idea with the kittens.

I was close to being right about who would be joining me. Lis, Anna, and Tif decided to stay, while the rest (five kittens) would be joining me.

"Okay. That decided, I've got some ideas for the trip, but I'm open to suggestions," I said.

Ideas and counter ideas flew all over the place until I had a good idea of what my kittens were interested in. A little later that evening, I worked up a rough seven-thousand-mile-plus itinerary.

A few days later, the six of us were packed into my Fleetwood Eagle and on the road.

The first stop was Six-Flags in Georgia where the younger kittens and I enjoyed some time on the roller coasters. We also spent some time touring the shows they offered there.

After that, we stopped in Branson, Missouri and caught some of the country shows. While I really enjoyed Ray Stevens' Theater, Kat and Angie didn't seem to care for his sense of humor. (Go figure.)

Three days at Boulder Lake allowed us to relax before continuing our trip. We spent some time canoeing on the lake and making love under the stars.

The sulfurous wonder known as Yellowstone (or Jellystone for those Yogi Bear fans) allowed us to wander the natural geysers and steam pools.

From there, we headed further north into Glacier National Park and on into Canada. While many of the areas we had already been through were very nice, Glacier and Banff (Glacier's Canadian Counterpart) have to be seen to be believed. I'll try to describe it, but I don't know how well I can.

Glacier is a tremendously mountainous area. As its name suggests, the entire area was carved by glaciers repeatedly moving through the area. What was left was an extremely beautiful, rugged area.

In one area, we were traveling along the side of a mountain range, about halfway up the mountain. All along the right side of the road were waterfalls being fed by the melting snow that was still at the top of the range. To the left... you may have seen a large poster of a lake in Banff. The poster just doesn't do the reality justice. About a thousand feet or so below the road is an unbelievably deep, rich blue lake. The closest I could come is cobalt blue paint spread over a white or silver background. Since the lake was formed purely by the ice-runoff coming from the mountains that surrounded it on all sides, I had serious doubt that the water was more than a half-degree above freezing.

That entire area completely awed everyone in the Eagle. Even Mei, who had traveled all over the US on her vacations, was suitably impressed at what nature hath wrought.