Leg 7 (Final) Rob and Cheryl’s NARVO

(June 11th -19^th, 2016), Banff, Alberta to Port Perry, Ontario (3116/9447 miles)

Day 58 (June11th) – Focusing on the Bucket list

We left Banff around 9am making our fond farewells with Dave and Delia. They were staying on in the Banff area for a few days before heading to Calgary and Saskatoon to meet family and friends. We had really enjoyed each other’s company over the last month or so and it was going to be a bit of an adjustment to being just the two of us again.

We were planning a long day’s drive which included some beautiful scenery. Unfortunately everything was shrouded in rain and mist, so we just had to make a decision to enjoy the fact that we knew it would have been beautiful. The route we had chosen took us more or less directly south, back into British Columbia. 

We had had some hard bargaining about whether to go slightly south west from there into Idaho or go directly south into Montana. I insisted that Idaho needed to be part of our route as we are on a quest to visit all 50 of the USA states and if we left out little ole Idaho this time, who knows when/if we might ever make it back there. The counter view point from Cheryl was that we were going backwards, which was true, just to be able to say that we had visited Idaho – also true. Cheryl does most of the navigating so generally calls the shots in these discussions. However this time, as the driver, I pulled rank and insisted that Idaho was part of the plan. As it turned out we found a very friendly USA border guard, crossing into Idaho and we spent all of an hour or so, driving east before we were into Montana and Yellowstone NP was in our cross hairs. Visited Idaho – check. Been there done that.

The weather had gradually improved during the course of the day and we finally called it quits for the day when we pulled into a Walmart parking lot in Missoula, Montana, where we joined a small RV colony, about 15 RVs, who like us were cadging a free night’s accommodation. To be fair, we do always do our groceries there when we stop, and I suspect others do too.

Day 59 (June 12^th) – Yiaaa! – Yellowstone in sight

We had found what looked like a good church in Deer Lodge, about an hour’s drive en route, so we pulled in there with fifteen minutes to spare and were greeted warmly by the husband and wife pastor team. It turns out we had stumbled on a pre father’s day pot luck lunch and we were invited to join them which we were glad to do. We sat with a youngish couple with four kids who are all being home schooled. It was interesting to get their perspective as they are not at all happy with public school authorities being given such a free hand in influencing their kid’s values – quite topical I thought in light of the latest “improvements” to our own Ontario system.

Well-fed we set out after lunch and pulled into the Rocky Mountain RV Park in Gardiner, immediately outside of the northern gate of Yellowstone NP around 5pm with the weather steaming hot and robust sunshine. We took a walk around the town, which was styled as a cowboy/cum shake you loose of your spare change kind of place. $15 (US) for a burger I thought was a bit steep. We found a very helpful Information Center where the young lady was able to orient us as to the ins and outs of Yellowstone, which we found helpful.

The RV park was comfortable, but very tight to our neighbors. I met our neighbor on the one side. I was reading my book while he was hooking up his sewerage and water lines – that’s how close we were to each other. We got chatting - Larry is about our age in an RV similar to ours. He was travelling with his young adult son and daughter and two of their friends. It must have been pretty cozy I reckon. Larry is recently divorced, now living in his RV full time in Atlanta area with his son and is reluctantly dropping off his daughter to work at Yellowstone over the summer. After the summer his daughter may be coming to live with him and son/brother in Larry’s RV. It didn’t sound like a good situation, but Larry was the nicest guy. Sometimes people are living very sad lives.

Day 60 and 61 (June 13th and 14^th) – What happened to my Planet?

We joined a long line up of vehicles entering Yellowstone. Even though it is not yet the summer season, YNP is extremely busy. How they cope with the flood of people in the summer I don’t know. Many of the other NPs force one to park one’s vehicle in a central location and then they shuttle you around for free which is slightly laborious but does wonders for road congestion issues.

We spent two days driving around YNP.  On numerous occasions we thought it couldn’t get any more amazing, but up to the day we left we were still being astounded by what we were seeing. YNP is unlike anything we have ever experienced. It is a massive park, most of which sits atop a “Caldera” or volcano which is still very active. What this means is that the whole place is literally sitting atop a witches brew of geothermal activity, namely “Mud Pots, Geysers, Fumaroles and Hot springs”  YNP has over 10,000 of these features, more than the combined total found elsewhere on the planet.  The place is alive with steaming, bubbling and spouting activity and there are dire warnings everywhere about being so foolish as to step off the boardwalks. In fact very recently an individual ignored the warnings, went off the path and his body was literally dissolved in an acidic stew – with that cheerful thought in mind, we stayed on the path.

We have tried to compare YNP to some of the other National Parks we have visited, but there really is no basis for comparison. At times we felt like we were on a different planet. YNP doesn’t fit the conventional concept of outdoor beauty, but It really is a “must see” place.

Day 62 (June -15^th) – Off to see the Fab Four

We left early as we had a long way to drive to reach Mount Rushmore in South Dakota to see the carving of four of the USA President’s each picked for their own particular contribution to the Union.

The drive through Wyoming and into S. Dakota was very diverse, but always interesting and beautiful. As a rule of thumb we choose to skip the interstate highways, unless we are just looking to make distance, so we generally pick the scenic byways. Cheryl, our navigator mapped out or route and off we went. All was well until we found ourselves heading into a very steep uphill pass. I have never seen such steep grades. At times the RV was down to first gear, just to keep moving. Adding to Cher’s discomfort was the fact that I was compelled every now and then to stop and take photos of what we were seeing. Let’s just say that the navigator had us going on the I90 freeway for most of the rest of the day after that.

We found a steal of a campsite at Oreville National Forest campsite at $20 per night not far from Mount Rushmore and checked in there with the host around 7pm before heading over to Mount Rushmore for the Lighting Ceremony. 

The place is like a shrine to American Freedom and Patriotism and all of that good stuff and they have done a good job of it. We thoroughly enjoyed the intro program run by the Warden and a stirring Intro movie. Everything ended with the national anthem and the lighting up of the faces of the Fab Four. It was very impressive and we dragged ourselves back to our very dark campsite in the National Forest for a good night’s rest after a very long day.

Day 63 (June 16^th) – Give an Engineer a Challenge ……

We were up bright eyed and bushy tailed as we had two components of sightseeing to fit in today. We started back at Mount Rushmore and hired the audio tour to take us around. The vision and implementation of this marvel of artistry and engineering is quite something. They basically started with the side of a granite mountain.  90% the sculpting was done with dynamite. The explosives guys got so good at it, by the time they finished they could blast to within 4 inches of where they needed the ultimate cut to be. They used 6 foot models of each president and then transposed that by a factor of one to twelve onto the face of the mountain. It is all a bit mind blowing and a tribute to good ole fashioned American “ let’s just get it done” mindset. I’m not so sure they can still pull off those kinds of stunts these days. They’re too busy trying to pick between two of the worst presidential candidates one could imagine.

We left Mount Rushmore late morning and headed over to the South Dakota Badlands, National Park about an hour and a half east. We knew it was predicted to be a hot day, but when we arrived our thermometer was telling us it was 42 degrees Celsius. It’s a cheap thermometer, but it was definitely stinking hot. 

With that kind of heat our enthusiasm level was low and so we settled for a drive through the park to see, but not walk, all the main highlights. It was impressive, but perhaps the heat sucked our enthusiasm to a low ebb as we were glad to be heading out of there around 5pm.

We had the choice of driving on, or heading for an RV park with a pool and where we could switch on our aircon. We were soon settled down in the Sleepy Hollow RV Park in the mighty city of Wall and I went for a swim in the pool which felt like I was floating in a hot bath. It felt good though and we ended our day with a BBQ and catching up on a bit of news on TV. As we neared the end of our trip it was good to begin to start catching up with the doings of the real world again.

People along the Way – we didn’t actually meet them, but we enjoyed reading the story of one of Wall’s main attractions. We had noticed some very distinctive billboard ads on the way in from the Badlands, advertising “Wall Drug”. The things they were advertising had little to do with a drug store and we were curious. We enquired at the RV park and they laughed. It turns out Wall Drug is a local icon with a nice story attached.  A young couple starting out life arrived in Wall in 1931 when drought was everywhere. They bought the local drug store and waited and prayed for business to arrive – for five years. Unfortunately no one had any reason to stop in Wall, and they didn’t. Dorothy and Ted used to listen to the cars going roaring by on the road to Rapid City. Finally Dorothy had the brainwave that they should advertise “free iced cold water” in the store. Before husband Ted had finished putting up the signs on all the main roads people were starting to arrive. Business was brisk. They closed late that first night, the next year they hired 8 “girls” to help and the rest is history. They now own a whole city block, with every imaginable touristy gimmicky little shop one can imagine. They still serve free iced water and they serve up to 20,000 people on a good summer day. We were sorry that we had arrived too late and left too early to enjoy Wall Drug. Mental note – add Wall Drug onto my bucket list for a future visit.

Day 64 (June 17^th) – The Dakotas - Big Sky Country.

We got up and left early. We had a long way to go and breakfast could wait until we had nailed a couple of hours of driving. The interstate was bumpy and there was an endless amount of roadworks which was tense driving and slow. Finally we decided to head north, which we had to do later in the day anyway and catch the next interstate east up inside North Dakota. This happened to suit me just fine as if we hadn’t done that we would have missed North Dakota altogether which didn’t fit my plans of visiting all 50 of the States.

As we headed north we entered what is called the National Grasslands. It was wall to wall lush, bright green grassland and flat as far as the eye could see – not a tree in sight. The novelty soon wore off as the road continued north, but it certainly made an eye catching first impression.

We stopped in Pierre, State Capital of South Dakota and enjoyed breakfast in their downtown park overlooking the river. I bumped into a young guy in the parking lot who was taking a break from riding an old looking motorbike with a side car attached. I asked him how old his bike was and he said “brand new”. It turns out it is a Russian bike, a bit of a collector’s item, with relatively few being imported into the USA every year – a new bike designed to look old it seems, or maybe the Russians haven’t “borrowed” any up to date designs recently.  This was its maiden voyage and he was driving her from Denver to Maryland to hang out with a buddy for a few months. I had spotted him in Wall earlier in the day and was amazed to meet up with him hundreds of kilometres later.

We made it into North Dakota which seemed to my inexperienced eye to be a bit more developed. It became a bit more treed as we headed north and we even encountered the occasional hill. As we turned east on the I94 the farmland became more cultivated. We finally stopped around 7pm in a truck stop a few miles short of the Minnesota State line.  There’s nothing much pretty about truck stops other than their price – I like free, but oh my goodness to the tired and weary they offer a good night’s rest and that’s what we got. The Dakotas – been there, done that. Check.

Day 65 (June 18^th) – Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan – Moving fast now

Once again another early start. We are getting slicker and slicker at just getting up and going. A quick stop at the Minnesota Visitor’s centre for maps and we were on our way.

We drove a long way that day. The weather was steaming hot, and we were suffering without running our aircon as we had discovered that running it all day really impacts the fuel consumption negatively. We aimed for Duluth on the eastern edge of Minnesota and the very westernmost point on Lake Superior. The nice young girl at the gas station outside of town told us that downtown Duluth was worth a visit, so we decided to make it our lunch time stop. What she had neglected to mention was that this was Duluth’s biggest day of the year, their massive marathon, which involved shutting off every approach to the beach across miles and miles of waterfront, nor was there a parking spot anywhere to be found. After navigating through a plethora of diversions and exhausted looking mainly walkers by then, we just gave up and headed over the State line to Wisconsin where we stopped for lunch at a Rest Centre.

It was over lunch that we realised that there was a quicker way home than we had planned. When we took a closer look at the map we realised that we could save about 100 miles by rather turning north to enter Canada at Sault Ste. Marie and then hot footing it home on the Transcanada Highway.

This involved a more or less immediate course correction which fortunately we were not too far along to make. We drove through numerous pretty villages and towns as we passed through Wisconsin’s North Shore and entered Michigan where we finally dragged ourselves into Marquette Michigan on the shores of Lake Superior. Walmart was to be our abode for the night, but we decided to check out the waterfront before we bedded down for the night. As it turned out the waterfront was very pretty and we ended up eating dinner at a nice Mexican restaurant overlooking a gorgeous evening over looking the lake.  

Walmart, as usual offered a good deal, including a pretty good overnight security service. We were woken at 1.30am with the security guy telling us we had left the headlights on in the RV. This was not good news. When I tried to start the RV it wouldn’t turn over. Fortunately our “house” battery acts as a secondary starter battery so we did have a backup and in the morning we were good to go. Whew.

Day 66 (June 19^th) – Last Lap

Up early again. We were aiming high this day. 600 miles would take us home. Could we do it? I didn’t relish the thought of that much driving, but like a tired old nag I scented the home stable and I was invigorated to do it. We settled down trying to finish the 15 DVD story book we had been listening to since Day 1.

We breezed through Canadian Customs at Sault Ste Marie. Pleasant, cheerful and welcoming. Those good ole Canadians – makes the heart glad just to think about it. I found the driving most of the way to Sudbury a bit hard going as it was one lane only each way and bumpy at times. Tough when you get behind a slow coach who’s going nowhere on a relaxed Sunday.

We had heard good things about Grundy Lake Provincial Park just north of Parry Sound. We also needed to dump our tanks before getting home, so we decided to stop there for lunch and check them out and get our tanks cleaned out. We had lunch with our own personal view of the lake, watching a group of youngsters jumping off a high rock into the lake below.

Whilst there we decided to have one last photo of our almost ten week trip. We asked a guy, who was holding a large impressive camera to do the honors. He impressed us with his diligence as he took us from three different angles. His accent told us he was not Canadian born. I asked him where they were visiting from. His reply surprised me – “USSR” he says. He has lived in Toronto for 10 years. Something wasn’t adding up – the USSR collapsed 25 years ago.  I asked him which part of the USSR he was from and he said “close to the Ukrainian border”. I asked him which side of the border and he rather reluctantly indicated the Ukrainian side. I asked him if he is happy in Canada and he was rather ambivalent. Perhaps he is yearning for the good ole days of the Soviet Empire in which Mother Russia ruled supreme and finds Canada a bit too mild for his tastes.

We stopped off at Walmart in Orillia and did our grocery shopping for when we got home as we had left our fridge and cupboards bare. We got home at about 8pm and it was good to be back. After a quick unpack of our groceries, we showered and headed for bed. The big unpack and cleanup of the RV would take another two days – that could wait. We were tired after all that driving on a hot day.

Our epic adventure was over, but surprisingly we were ready to be home. We fell into a deep sleep. Only 5 of 50 USA states left to visit for the first time. North American RV Odyssey – been there, done that. Check. 

Leg 6 Rob and Cheryl’s NARVO

(June 3^rd to 10^th, 2016), Tofino, BC to Banff, Alberta (1025/6331 miles)

Day 50 to 51 (June 3^rd- - 4^th) Tofino to Vancouver – Good Grief, its Goats on the Roof

Day 50 - We left Tofino at 6am as we had a 10.40 am ferry to catch at Nanaimo to take us off the Island back to the mainland. We had a number of finely tuned steps to make it back to Dave and Brenda’s. As it turned out, the road was dry, the sun shining and we saw the Tofino road in a whole new light. We know that BC is the home of Eco friendliness in Canada, but we got a whole new perspective in the little town of Coombs where one of the local restaurants had a flat topped roof complete with goats grazing on the grasses and shrubs growing on it.

We made it to Nanaimo with an hour to spare – time for us to call our newly made friends from the Alaska cruise, Martin and Kathleen Gray, who had invited us for a pre ferry cup of coffee. They picked us up and took us to their beautiful home which sits atop a hill with an almost 360 degree view of oceans, islands, forest, mountains and the boats coming in and out of the harbour. They have been retired in Nanaimo, from Waterloo Ontario, for 11 years and love the life in Nanaimo – it’s not hard to see why. Mind you I’m a dedicated Ontarian – I love the view of brick boxes, as far as the eye can see and proximity to the nuclear power plant and can’t imagine wanting to retire anywhere else. Too many tree huggers and roof climbing goats in BC for my liking – give me brick and concrete any day

We managed to successfully navigate on and off the ferry, catch the connecting shuttle bus to Vancouver, then overhead train and then bus again to be picked up by Dave Killick, close to their home in Surrey. Dave and I went and collected my Beautiful Baby from Gary’s Auto and RV Service where she had been pining for us. The weather was glorious and we ended the day with a lovely BBQ with Brenda’s sister Gloria and husband Rob, who are ex Rhodesians, so we had lots to chat about.

Day 51 – We went to church with Dave and Brenda, then it was home for a quick early lunch, before we said our fond farewells. It had been great re-connecting with Brenda and Dave and they had been very gracious hosts, giving us a chance to do a flying catch up on laundry and a quick wifi fix along with ferrying us around doing our various errands. 

Around mid day we hit the road to go and collect Dave and Delia for the next leg of our RV trip. We were on the way to the Canadian Rockies and all the promise that holds. Our target stop off was the Walmart parking lot in Kamloops, about half way to Jasper. Dave and Delia had been dying to spend an overnight sleeping in a Walmart parking lot, so they could check it off of their bucket list. We had a lovely drive through some gorgeous scenery and pulled into the parking lot around 6pm, where we were dismayed to find the only Walmart that we’ve ever found that bans RV’s from parking overnight. Kamloops was experiencing a record high temperature that day, so it didn’t take much persuading to find Pine Grove RV park further up the road where we could plug in and turn on our air conditioning. We found a lovely spot nestled amongst the pine trees and settled down for the night to the raucous chug chugging of the numerous trains that ran alongside our campsite for way too much of the night. The trains were a significant component of our stay which the owner had neglected to mention when we called.

Day 52 to 56 (June 5^th to 10^th) – Jasper and Banff National Parks, Alberta – Canada’s Crowning Glory














Day 52 – We left our campsite in relaxed fashion en route to Jasper in the National Park and took a leisurely drive, stopping often to get the requisite photos. The campsite at Jasper National Park is the largest we have ever come across – covering about 700 – 800 campsites. We had noticed along the way that the concentration of RVs was going up everywhere we travelled. Well it turns out they were all en route to our Jasper campsite and they all decided to arrive at the same time as us, so we had a bit of a wait to get checked in. Our camping spot was large and on it’s own was about the size of the whole RV park we’d stayed at in Seattle where they had crammed in perhaps fifty RVs into a comparable space, one of the reasons why we love National and State/Provinical  Parks.  We were happy and settled down to have our dinner and enjoy the rest of the lovely long evening.

That evening Cheryl and Delia went off in search of the campsite showers and returned after about an hour, having met up with a herd of elk en route and also with a tall tale that there is only one shower block for the whole campsite and it was about a 30 minute walk away. Of course I made fun of their exaggeration, and obviously weak map reading skills and made a note that I would ride my bike down there in the morning for a shower and be back before they even realised I’d gone. Next morning I set off and made the first of a number of mistakes by forgetting to take the map of the park. I’d seen the map once and of course was confident it would be clear where to find the showers. Let’s just end this story by saying that I returned from my shower after about an hour, hot sweaty and dishevelled having ridden around the campsite about three times trying to find the way back to our site.  From then on we all drove our rental car down to the showers together and took emergency supplies of water and snacks just in case. 

Day 53 – We set our sights on exploring the Maligne Valley and soon were up and at em, all bright eyed and bushy tailed. 

We have discovered that Jasper has the busiest train station and longest trains in the whole of Canada. After dodging competing trains in town we finally made it out onto the road on the other side of town and our first stop was the Maligne Canyon. We spent a couple of hours following this down by foot, stopping often to take in the awe inspiring views as the trickle at the top turned into a torrent by the bottom. At the bottom we had the choice of walking back up or hitching a ride to the top to fetch the car. Fortunately I found an Israeli couple, Jan and Eli who took pity on me when I explained to them how badly I didn’t feel like walking back up that hill. They dropped me off at our car and before long we were all back on the road.

Our next stop was to view a large cluster of cars, the surest way to find wild animals. Lo and behold we had another real live bear siting, along with a whole herd of not so rare tourists, clambering out of their cars to get closer to the bear for the really good “take it back to the family and friends” photos. Hesitantly we joined them, rationalising that we only had to run faster than the photographer closest to the bear, so we should be safe. It was exciting seeing this bear close up in his natural habitat. From his point, as long as we didn’t interrupt his pursuit of roadside dandelions, he seemed totally disinterested in us. This was the first of five good black bear sightings we had in two days and it was lovely to see these lovely lumbering animals close and in full view.

After a late picnic lunch, our final destination for the day was Maligne lake, which was truly spectacular. The combination of turquoise water along with the surrounding snow-capped mountains was very impressive. After a cup of tea and our fill of the view we hit the road for home, dinner and an early night.

Day 54 – Today’s agenda was to visit the Edith Cavell Mountain and lookout and the Athabasca Falls. The drive up the mountain was steep and windy and we were glad to be driving a 15 foot rental car not a 35 foot RV.

As usual the scenery was wonderful, but we were wrestling with intermittent clouds and sunshine, so photo stops also involved waiting for the sun to come out. Progress was leisurely.

When we arrived at the top we were greeted by spectacular views of the Angel and Cavell Glaciers both of which fell down eventually into a large multi coloured pond at the foot of the mountain. We spent a couple of hours viewing the spectacle from a number of vantage points and were rewarded a number of times with the sound of parts of the glacier breaking off and then tumbling down sheer cliff faces. The sound of the falling ice was like a jet going over, which is what we had initially thought it was. We had a picnic lunch close to the car park where a cheeky Clarke’s Nutcracker took a shine to the food in Delia’s hands and kept dive bombing her to see what he could grab. He had a large black beak, so we were inclined to take his advances seriously as he could have done some real damage if he’d chosen to.


After the Edith Cavell Mountain anything else was going to be an anticlimax. We headed for the Athabasca Falls and found it to be equally impressive in it’s own way. The Athabasca river rises from the Athabasca Glacier 100 kilometres south of where we were. It is hard to fathom that such a large river could all be coming from one slow melting glacier. We left for our campsite satisfied that we had done Jasper justice.

Delia had been threatening to actually ride one of the four bikes that we have lugged around N. America for the last 8 weeks, but had never actually got around to it. Realising our time together was limited we gave her a nudge and the next thing she was off zooming around the campsite, with Dave in hot pursuit. She had not ridden a bike for about 30 years, so she felt quite pleased with herself. “Been there done that” – check. Another bucket list item eats the dust.

Day 55 (June 9^th) – This was our day for driving to Banff via the Icefields Parkway, which is claimed in some of the literature to be “the most beautiful drive in North America”. Our first objective was to get to the Columbia Icefield which is the birthing place of rivers which head to the Atlantic, Arctic and Pacific Oceans.

When we got there we went to the Visitors Centre to get oriented including another excellent National Parks Board movie which gave us some much needed background. The Visitors Centre had some astounding views of the Athabasca Glacier amongst others. 

After a quick cup of coffee we headed outside to face the cold and do a shortish walk up to the foot of the glacier, when we had togged up in all of our winter gear. Once there we had a really good feel for its sheer size, and how hostile the environment is on it. People walk on the glacier and occasionally some fall down the massive crevasses, some of which are hidden by snow bridges. Even if they can be pulled out, hypothermia will often have killed them. We decided not to do the walk on the glacier, which other groups were doing and were satisfied to add to the collection of Inutshuks which others had left behind to indicate they had braved the view of the glacier like us intrepid travellers.

From there, as we continued south, we passed through some glorious scenery, culminating in the view over Peyto Lake. 

The colour of the lake is so stunningly surreal that it is hard to capture it’s beauty in words. We could hardly bring ourselves to leave when time was up but move on we must – onward and upward to Banff.

We arrived in Banff and were amazed at how much busier and more developed it is than it’s closest cousin in Jasper. The streets were alive with tourists, buses and cars. We got checked into our National Parks campsite by around 6pm and sat outside and enjoyed another long evening with a lovely dinner which Cher had somehow managed to keep squirreled away in our freezer all the way from home for 8 weeks.

Day 56 (June 10^th) – this is to be our last day together as tomorrow we start heading for home and Dave and Delia take their own route via Calgary and Saskatoon and New England. Dave and Delia took us for breakfast at Toulouloo’s where we all pigged out on waffles, eggs benedict etc and have taken all day to recover our appetites.

Unfortunately the weather was awful and we had no option, but to take a “rain day”. Cher and I did some laundry in town while Dave and Delia checked out Banff’s best bargains. We then went for some window shopping at the Banff Springs Hotel and checked out how the other half live. We are now back in the RV, with Dave and Delia beginning to pack up their suitcases and none of us are looking forward to the prospect of saying goodbye tomorrow. It has been a fun time to spend together and we have built some great additional shared memories onto our 35 year friendship.

So tomorrow it will be back to Cheryl and I for the 3000 mile journey home. We still have lots to see, but our time is short now, so we will be moving on at quite a clip to get through it all. One more Leg left of our NARVO…join us for the rest of the trip as we make our way home over the next couple of weeks.