Hi Hans, my wife and I have indeed been AWOL, touring the Canadian west over the past 6 weeks, but back home today. We did Banff, Jasper, Prince George, Bella Coola, took the car ferry to Vancouver Island stopping at a few remote settlements and then drove to Tofino on the extreme west coast for a few days, and finished with Waterton Lakes National Park in the southern Alberta Rockies. My wife stopped counting my "wows!" at 34, and that was early on in the trip! What a beautiful country we live in. Thought about visiting Yellowknife but it was just too far. I did hear on CBC Radio that NASA named a part of Mars "Yellowknife" because the rocks are the same age as our own Yellowknife, a few billion years old. Maybe that is why we had a visit from a UFO, still in Clan Lake I understand from Baires!

I have had wi fi occasionally but we were camping mainly, we only had rain a couple of times which was great because the spring in BC was very wet and the rivers were still high.

Drove 3400 k in 3 days coming home, and we just arrived home this evening. My head is spinning but I will check over the latest posts before I make any comments. I am sticking with my prediction that the FS will be issued when gold takes off in its usual seasonal pattern, which I expect to take hold in September (not making any bets though).

Best to all, Ike