A Rocky Path… June 29

It has been well over a month since I posted last – maybe the longest gap since I started this venture in March 2006.

A lot has happened in my life since May 24 but much of it seems pretty mundane. I am blessed by the gift of a life of peace even though at times there are upsetting events and rough patches in my relationships.

This is an overview of some of the things I have experienced in the past 5 weeks -- I may add some pictures in a few days. if I get that to the top of my list

We are now at home. We left Coquitlam mid- morning June 8th and arrived back home the afternoon of June 17 with overnight stops at Kelowna (Walmart), Lake Louise, Banff, Drumheller (Walmart), Regina (Walmart) crossing into the US at North Gate ND Wednesday evening.

We spent Wednesday p.m. visiting our friend Dave & Heather McMillan in Kennedy, Sask. It was great to visit with them and meet Dave’s parents—they are preparing a return trip to their “mission work” in Mexico and will be enroute now as they were flying out of Chicago (O’Hare) on the 28th.

The border crossing at North Gate was a unique experience -- - out in the middle of nowhere – on a flat road bordered by wheat or corn fields there are buildings -- for Canada Customs and Immigration northbound and the US one for us southbound. We pulled up and waited for a few minutes and a guy came out – asked a bunch of questions, took our passports and disappeared for well over 5 minutes. He then came back and came on board to look around – seemingly more to just see what it looked like that for any other reason, gave us back our passports and wished us a good day.

We spent Wednesday & Thursday nights at Walmarts – my “favorite” place - in Minot, ND and Bemidji , MN. Friday night we camped at the Wildwood campground off Highway 2 about half way between Duluth and Ashland, WI. We spent a couple of hours Saturday morning enjoying the “feel” of home walking the beach and a lakeside trail at Ashland, WI overlooking Lake Superior. Saturday night we spent a leisurely evening at a campground right on Highway 28 just east of Munising MI.

Overall we clocked 9000 km (or about 5500 miles) on the motor home and about another 2500 km (1500 miles) on the HHR -- I have been a walking commercial for the HHR – It gets the greatest gas mileage – it traveled over 11,500 km (7000 miles) on 2 tanks of gas (well maybe 3) !!!

Since we have arrived home we have been quite busy with yard work, cleaning up leaves, trimming out branches, cleaning gutters, planting flowers and working on the project that gives this post its title.

When it comes tour home and “garden” Linda is the visionary and architect and the “doer” when it come envisioning, designing, picking out, planting and maintaining the landscaping and flower gardens. I have been the “engineer” taking her conceptual designs and ideas and working out how to make them a reality --I am also the construction worker, landscape worker and carpenter doing the heavier and more mechanical aspects of the work (once I get past my initial response of ”You want to do what?? – That’s impossible!!”).

Sometimes it is a bit tense trying to translate her vision into something I can actually construct that when done is a close enough approximation to what she was visualizing. We also have debates over whether what she is describing (or at least what I’m hearing her describe) is really going to look OK. Now, I have experienced overtime that her vision – once I really understand it is going to look great but occasionally I have been able to make positive suggestions and I have experienced doing what (I thought) she wanted even though I felt it wasn’t going to work only to have her say that isn’t right we need to do it over—which as you can imagine can lead to some tense words.)

So we have come to understand that major projects we both need to be there all the time it is going on especially when the “aestethic design” is being shaped. And we need to talk about it before we started especially any irreversible steps.

The project we started a week ago Friday has been a major change in the appearance of our front yard and involved removing trees and shrubs that had been there when we moved in 29 years ago. So the past week has been a little rocky in our communications and in understanding one another and debating over what the end result was going to be. We bit the bullet on the first Friday and removed all the trees—we did do that fairly slowly—one at a time to confirm that the result was going to be livable for both of us but when we stopped we had removed all the shrubs and 2 larger cedar trees leaving a “naked” spot on the one end of the house.

By Thursday night we had removed roots, dug out a border with a plastic trim and transplanted several hostas into the empty space and the new vision wasbeginning to take place. There was also this “flagstone” path that Linda was seeing and I was having trouble seeing it the same way. It had been a source of serious debate all week as we worked on the “flower bed” portion of the project. Well yesterday (Friday) it could no longer be avoided – we had to deal with the path. Since the issue was one of “whether it would look right” to do it the way she was describing it, we agreed that the best thing was to just lay the stones out on top of the existing grass (such as it was) and see how it looked. First step was hauling flat stones from a pile that our neighbors had dumped along a path behind their house while excavating for an addition. Linda had seen these as we were walking by and had gotten permission to use them. This was no mean feat hauling a couple of dozen rocks some weighing upwards of 200 lbs. several hundred yards to our yard. We backed our little HHR down the path and manhandled (a couple of times by rolling them up a makeshift ramp because they were too heavy to lift) as many as we could into a load and brought them – it took a couple of hours and 4 trips but by noon we had the rocks here. By 5:00 p.m. we had a “rocky path” laid out that we both felt good about and were in agreement about how to finish it off—now there were a few “difficult” moments in that process – at one point Linda’s sister Arliss dropped by and had to “dip and dive” a bit to keep from being drawn into the “cross-fire” but all-in-all we seemed to come through it unscathed – it is wonderful what God can do in building strong relationships if we keep our focus on letting him be in control.

In addition to “being strengthened” by the rocky path, we have had several other things on our minds

My Dad was back in hospital for a day the Friday before we got home so I have been keeping in touch with him each day to be sure he is doing OK. Linda’s Mom has been going through some changes in her life that have been stressful and so Linda has been in touch with her almost every day.

I had a followup meeting on the training prposal I had been working on before I left and we have agreeeddto proceed with this course in the fall so I have a week or so of work to be doneover the summer toprepare for that.

My brother younger Rob retired from Algoma Steel after 35 years and is off on a 2 month “vacation” traveling to the West Coast to visit Marilyn’s family and to go on an Alaskan cruise.

We have had 2 nephews ( my sister’s son Nathan) and Linda’s sister’s son (Michael) who graduated from High school.

There have been several new babies born in the “extended” family of our church family.

Barb Hotchkiss had to have additional surgery June 21 to clean out and repair the incision from her February surgery soshe is still not back on her feet. Our friend Mike case had surgery on Thursday to have a tumor removed and he is in our prayers and thoughts right now.

Finally, Paul & Michelle Hillier arrived this week for Paul to take up his full-time role ministering with the church here.

One last thing – our son Christopher is a detective sergeant on the Aurora Illinois police force. He called this morning and also sent a link about this story of a major sweep he had been a part of that resulted in charges in 33 “cold case” gang related murders in Aurora some reaching back almost 2 decades. (click HERE for details)

So it seems “rocky paths” notwithstanding, our lives are full and God is good- I hope this is true for you as well.

Life with Will – May 24

I just learned that my Dad went into the hospital back home yesterday – it doesn’t appear to be serious but he is 90 so any problems are of concern. Please be praying for his recovery.

Our grandson Will is an independent, energetic and (in our view) very intelligent 3 and a half year old. We have spent time looking after him every day but 2 since we arrived here on May 5.

He is naturally apprehensive about having his parent away and being alone with us. However, we can be with him for 2 to 3 hours before he gets to concerned and that is usually the longest period we are alone.

This first picture was taken May 11 at the Coquitlam Town Centre Recreation area. That day we were with Sarah and had walked there (about 1km from their house). We were throwing a little football on the edge of the field and running back & forth on the track.

On May 12, they came out to the campground

We went for a walk and a picnic in the Tynehead Regional Park. The pictures shows Will & Grandpa playing throwing rocks into the water,

Will pretending to be a swordsman and

Will & Sarah hiding in an cedar stump

Sunday May 13, Kevin took us to the Vancouver Science Centre (Telus World of Science) and Will had a great time exploring the various exhibits. They have a membership and make frequent visit there so a lot of our time was having Will act as tour guide showing us the various things of interest to him. He spent a long time playing with the water table - making dams and changing the direction of the water flow

May 15 was a beautiful sunny day and we went with Sarah to the White Pines beach in Belcarra (north of Port Moody) –met up with Bianca and Christian – he is close to Will’s age. Unfortunately, my batteries died so I didn’t get may pictures. (also note that for some reason, on May 10, the date on my camera reset back to January 1 2002 so all these pictures have the wrong date – add 9 to get the correct day in May. I just noticed it and fixed it this morning)


On May 19, we took a day trip with the BBB to Queen Elizabeth Park

and the Bloedel Conservatory.

It was rainy with sunny breaks – but we were able to spend acouple of hours outside with only a couple of drizzly period – we had raincoats and umbrellas so it was fine.

Linda & I first visited this location in 1979 (28 years ago) on May 21 to attend the wedding reception for my brother Rob and his wife Marilyn-- it was held in the Season’s restaurant

Many of their wedding photos were taken in the little quarry garden.

We stopped at the Rocky Point park in Port Moody on the way home and had supper together in the BBB.

It was good that we did this on Saturday because that it poured rain all that night and most of the day on Sunday.

Monday however was a relatively nice day and we took Will for a long walk to the Coquitlam centre. While there he started playing with another boy who was there with his parents – I was talking to the father and discovered he worked for the same company (Thompson-Carswell) as my brother Lawrence – although he didn’t know him – he is a salesman here in BC and Lawrence is in the IT area working in Toronto.

Well I’m going to close off now. We are heading to Harrison Hot Springs for an overnight trip with Kevin, Sarah and Will to-morrow.

I do have a few “challenges” such as a water leak in the HHR that showed up on theweekend during the rain storm—which has killed the heater motor and some other things that are “testing” us but I’ll deal with those later.

God Bless
Charlie

Mountains, Ocean and (mostly) blue skies (May 5 – May 18)

Two weeks – where has the time gone. We pulled into the Tynehead Campground in Surrey mid-afternoon May 5.

We had been on the road 10 days traveling over 5000 km (3000 miles) after leaving Aurora on April 25, ( over 5000 km (3000 miles) from Sault Ste. Marie) – not the most direct route – which is just a tad over 3500 km (2200 miles)

Our route west had us driving in the mountains a lot more than any other trip we have made since we were in mountains most of the 1000 plus miles from Salt Lake City (and several hundred miles before that)—that’s what happens when you drive diagonally – northwest through the mountains - lots of good scenery – reminded us of the awesomeness of God’s creation.

We see mountains every day as we drive back & forth to Kevin's place (unless it is really foggy - which has been rare). We are very close to the Burrard inlet and Stanley Park (on the Pacific Ocean) and have been severalplaces were we could look out over the ocean . We have been experiencing cool but often sunny weather so this has become a daily reminder -- of something we can easily take for granted when we are in the "rut" of daily living at our homes.

Of course, we are also reminded of the downside of the natural forces when we hear of the tornadoes and damaging storms that have been occurring over the past few weeks. Our prayers are with those whose lives are turned upside down because of these storms. Every time I hear about something like this I remember our friends in Pascagoula and the first hand knowledge we gained last year of the impact these storms (Katrina in that case) has on people's lives.

While I certainly don't claim to understand why these things happen to some and not other and why "the rain falls on the just and the unjust" -- I am convicted that God is there and he is able to work good in tragedy and trials -- whether these massive highly visible storms or just the samll day today things that happen that can wear us down and discourage us. The question is always the same -- will we look to God for comfort and help and trust in his promises or will we believe this is proof that he isn't there or doesn't care.

Something to think about -- well back to what's been going on with us. (and what have we been doing that has kept me from writing in my blog?)

As we came north across the border on May 5th, I discovered that I had not brought the information about the campground where I had made a tentative reservation. I knew it was in Surrey just off Highway 1 near the Port Mann bridge. Our BC camping book didn’t have a listing for anything that met that description. I tried unsuccessfully to pick up a wireless signal so I could find it on the INTERNET. Since I had a general idea were it was located I decided to see if we could find it by watching for signs. As we came up Highway 15 we saw a sign for a campground – which turned out to be Tynehead. After we checked in I did an INTERNET search and found the reference to Dogwood campgrounds which I then remembered was the one I had been talking to—however – we were in a good location so we just called and cancelled at Dogwood.

The neat thing- some might say luck – we prefer to give credit to God’s providence – is that Tynehead seems to be a better location. We are just across the road from Tynehead regional park where we have gone hiking several times and - from our drive by visit to check out Dogwood – we ended up in smaller and probably quieter campground. So sometimes it pays not to be organized.

We are 2 minutes from Highway 1 and (depending on traffic) 15 to 20 minute drive to Kevin’s. It always takes 5 minutes longer to go there in the daytime – because traffic is always heavy at the bridge - but coming backing the evening we usually just sail through.

After we arrived we went to visit Kevin, Sarah & Will. It was really neat to have Will recognize me after 16 months. He had seen Linda last fall and he went to her as if she had neverleft. It was a great time catching up withwhat was happening with Kevin & Sarah and playing with Will.

Sunday we attended services at South Burnaby. We saw Irene & Shirley Wood (My sister-in-law Marilyn’s mother and sister) – more “almost relatives” (click HERE for my definition of this term) and visited with several others we have come to know from earlier times that we have been here. I really like the preaching style of Kirk Rauch the minister at South Burnaby. It is down to earth but insightful and challenges one to grow in their relationship with Jesus. He has been doing a series on Hebrews –with the general theme “God speaks—it is really important to hear what he says about Jesus - and to underscore that importance -- there are ”bad things” that happen if we fail to listen—BUT most importantly there are good things for us if we do listen. His analysis of Hebrews is that this is a repeating cycle throughout this collection of writings.

We have been at Kevin & Sarah’s everyday except one since we arrived. It seems the days fly by. By the time we get up and do our daily routines it has been time to head over. We have dinner with them and by the time we get back in the evening and spend a little time relaxing – TV or reading -- it is time for bed and the cycle repeats.

I have been getting about an hour a day on the “computer” and that seems to be enough to keep up with email and chip away at the backlog- but not enough to do much journaling. I did have to spend several hours updating and issuing the course outline for the statistics course for engineers that I have been working on with one of the math profs at Algoma U. I am also able to do a little bit of webmail work at Kevin’s when Will is napping or watching his videos. – mostly that has been dealing with my AlgomaU email

The weather has been cool but sunny – last week we had 3 days with temperatures in the low 20’s (70F) so we have gotten some tan—and had to use sun screen frequently. We have been to several parks at the Burrard inlet and spent one afternoon with Sarah & Will at White Pines beach. Will was wading but the water was pretty cold. We had our first taste of rain this last Friday (18th) but it was in the evening. It rained more yesterday and is raining steadily this morning (Sunday) as I write -- just in time for the long weekend.

Sarah had a list of “fix it” jobs she was hoping I could work on – so it was good that I had brought my tool box. So I have fixed a deadbolt lock assembly that wasn’t working properly, repaired a drawer hanger to keep the drawer from falling out of the cupboard, replaced the burner on the BBQ and several other small jobs. There are a couple of bigger jobs that I’m still trying to work out how to do them – with limited money and limited tools- we’ll see what happens in the remaining 2 weeks.

Linda has been doing some gardening planting some annuals she bought for Sarah for Mother’s day. I also spent an afternoon mowing grass and generally cleaning up in the yard.

The main variations in “routine” are that we have several days gone for a walk at Tynehead before going over to Coquitlam and the other variation is which park we go to with Will. We have been watching him for a couple of hours in the afternoon when Sarah goes to work to allow Kevin to spend more time at school working on his thesis materials. He is at a tough point in this process and is somewhat discouraged at his lack of progress – Hopefully he will get all the approvals for his method sand be able to get into the data collection phase soon.

Well it’s now Wednesday (23rd) so I’ll close this off and get it posted. More later.

Blowing in the wind (May 3-4)

Posted May 6 from Surrey BC (Note I've added pictures to last 2 posts)

Wednesday afternoon driving on I-80 west of Salt Lake we were driving on a ribbon of highway which cut through miles and miles of white salt beds. For us it looked like fields of snow. As we drove every once in a while the wind would blow the salt across the road – again looking like drifting snow and a couple of times it was almost a “white-out”.

Thursday morning as we drove I-80 it was quite cold and there was fresh snow along the road. It was so cold that I had to stop and turn on the regular “car” heater (That’s another story but the heater control for the BBB is now located under the hood not inside on the dash- I had turned it off in Cheyenne so we could use the air conditioning). When we were driving into Wells Nevada (where we turned north on US93 to go to Twin Falls Idaho) we were in a blizzard (real snow this time) for a few minutes.

Fortunately it didn’t last long. Later that day on I-84 in Idaho we saw signs that said Caution –Blowing dust -- although we didn’t actually experience it. We though – now we’ve seen it all – salt, snow and dust – all blowing in the wind creating road hazards.

It was a long day driving with a lot of up and down. The trip along the snake river canyon in Idaho was quite scenic but I did get weary of lugging the car up the side of the canyon only to drop back down to the river and start over again.

We covered slightly over 350 miles (570 km) and did WALMART camping in Ontario Oregon. Ontario folks in Ontario doesn’t seem so strange except we were a long way from our Ontario.

We stopped at the Oregon Welcome centre just east of Ontario and as I was getting out the lady in a motor home that parked beside us was looking at the licence plate and asked “Are you from Ontario?” -- When I said “Yes” she asked where – I said Sault Ste. Marie -- with some tentativeness because mostly people don’t know where that is. She said ”Wow- we are from North Bay” —(which is about 5 hours east of Sault Ste Marie on the same highway). They had flown to Calgary, rented the motor home and were making a circle coming over to Seattle, up to Vancouver Island and back to Calgary through the Rockies.

Friday the mountains and the winds continued. The descent into the Yakima River valley – 6 miles of 6% grade was quite dramatic and 20 miles or so of flat driving across the valley was a welcome reprieve from the mountains - beautiful as they are -- and for once there didn’t seem to be either a cross-wind or head-wind.

The head winds were terrible for the first hour or so after we got onto I-90 heading in to Seattle. We also had another fuse blow on the brake lights. We had come up a very long steep grade on I-90 and I had left the 4 ways on too long I guess because when I pulled into arrest area a little later I noticed that they weren’t working. I guess I’ll have to put in a 20 amp fuse since the 15 amp obviously isn’t heavy enough to handle the extra load from the tow car.

While we were in Salt Lake I had realized (well duh!!) that we would be going by Seatlle where my nephew Evan lives. He was recently married (wedding was in Victoria the same weekend we left home) and last time we had seen him was at his mother’s 65th birthday party in the Sault - in 2004. We had talked briefly on the phone when we flew through Seattle in 2005. Anyhow, I didn’t have any contact information so I had emailed his sister Megan and gotten his email address, sent him and email and gotten his phone number. So we called him and were able to arrange to meet Evan & Angie last evening. It was another long day – we were on the road at 8:30 (Pacific) and arrived Lynnwood (north Seattle) Walmart (just off I-5 just north of the I-405 intersection) at 7:15 after covering around 470 miles (750 km).

Evan lives about 5 minutes away so he picked us up rather than us having to unhitch the HHR and find our way to his house. We spent the rest of the evening visiting over a very good dinner and it was 11 (Pacific) when we got back to the BBB – which was midnight or 1am or 2 am by our internal clocks – depending on which of the time zones we’ve crossed we are acclimatized to – I think I’m pretty well operating on Central time — since I woke up ready to get up at 4:00 am.(Although I managed to get back to sleep some and didn’t actually get up until 6:00).

Tahnkfully we completed our outbound trip on Saturday and arrived at our campground in Surrey around noon and spent the afternoon greeting Will, Kevin & Sarah – more on that later.

God Bless

Charlie

Salty Life (May 1 -2)

Posted May 4th from Baker City Idaho

We spent 2 days in Salt Lake City and certainly the presence of the “Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints” is a dominant part of that city. I’ll describe more of the specifics later but the “Mormon” experience caused me to think about several things.

One was I found myself thinking “the tours in Temple Square may be free in the sense of no money but there is a real cost – that of listening to a lot of talk about their beliefs”. I also found the idea of latter day revelations to be difficult to believe and had to remind myself that whether I believed or not didn’t give me the right to be derogatory and disrespectful – which is an important message for everyone in dealing with those who think and believe differently than we do.

One the other hand, I found much that I could support and agree with – the emphasis on Jesus as our Savior, the emphasis on the church as his redeemed body, the emphasis on family values (the early approval of polygamy notwithstanding), the emphasis on hard work and economic independence and self-sufficiency (that they believe comes as a blessing to those who serve Jesus) – these are things that any Christian should be able to align with.

The one final thought tied back to the sermon we heard in Cheyenne on Sunday morning from Ray Ward. The lesson was from John --when the Roman soldiers came to arrest Jesus and Peter took out his sword to fight them. Jesus told Peter to “put away his sword”. The point was that Christians are not called to “fight for Jesus” but rather to follow him and proclaim his wonderful love. Jesus has already won the fight by his death for all. Now there is lots of language about being soldiers for Christ but that is about our personal battle against Satan and his forces – not a battle against other people. The point of the lesson (in part) was that we too often as Christians used his word to “fight against” and “beat down” other people to try to force them to conform to our way of thinking. We would be better to live our lives following Jesus – relating to and loving people the way he did and let him fight the battle and claim the victory – as he has already done.

The reason I relate this to the Mormon “experience” is 2-fold –

1) their dedication to their understanding of what Jesus wants from them is a good example of the power of “salt, leaven and light” BUT

2) their passion for “proselytizing” seems a bit strong and gives a sense that they are treating people who believe differently as the “enemy” – It made me wonder if we as Christians convey that attitude to non-Christians. Can we follow Jesus and let him fight the battle – or do we need to take out our swords and cut down the “enemy” who doesn’t believe as we do?

Well – end of sermon and back to the journey of the “HHR’s” (healthy happy rovers)

The Cherry Hills orchard campground in Kaysville just of I-15 is about 15 miles north of Salt Lake City. It is a beautiful spot overlooking the Salt Lake basin with snow capped mountains as a backdrop. It was listed in our AAA camping guide but the real reason we picked it was because Phil Bullock recommended it from a time they had camped here. To get to it we took I-84 and came around and back down from the north. It would have been about the same distance to continue in on I-80 and come up I-15 but we were close to rush hour and our experience on Tuesday confirmed that it would have been a serious traffic jam if we had done that.

Anyhow, as I mentioned at the end of my last post, we packed a lunch and headed to downtown SLC on Tuesday to visit the Mormon Temple square. This certainly was a time when it was great to have the HHR in tow since we would have been hard pressed to find a place to park the BBB in downtown SLC.

Linda writes in her journal that we “went to Mormon location. Heard all about Joseph Smith-(how he had) a vision (and was) made a modern day prophet (and was given) the book of Mormon. Interesting story -saw a movie showing how the Mormons were chased out of Illinois & Missouri and then brought to Utah by Brigham Young. They irrigated barren land and made a beautiful valley”

Of the Temple square Linda writes “Beautiful buildings and flowers. (Several) “free” tours (but) had to listen to a lot about being a Mormon”

(The guides were mostly young people who came to SLC for an18 month mission service and their job was to testify about their faith. If you were mostly interested in the history of the Mormons or the architecture of the buildings, it would be better to go on your own and read the information that was posted -- however, some places you could only get to by taking a tour).

There is a interesting display in the North visitor's center -- in a dome there is a mural depicting the universe with a statue of Jesus in the center -- illustrating his position as central to the creation.

Linda continues “Heard the Tabernacle organ for ½ hour – enjoyed all but first piece” (which was a loud “hard” sounding composition)

The organ had an tremendous range – from the sound of a bell tinkling to the one more like a bass drum or tuba . The acoustics in the Tabernacle were amazing – you could literally hear a pin drop from 150 feet away.

We arrived in SLC around 10 a.m. and left around 5:30 p.m. and toured most of the buildings on Temple square that are open to the public. It was a beautiful day – nice breezes and a dry 89F (30C).

The roof top at the 21000 seat conference center provides a dramatic view of the city. (Our guide took this picture of us on the roof)

The “Beehive house” which was Brigham Young’s residence and early church offices was interesting but they rushed us through – which frustrated Linda because she wanted to stop and look at the furnishings and the decorating. The main purpose of the tour was to emphasize the importance of family “sealing” to Mormons and the young ladies couldn’t answer many questions about the historical aspects of the actual building and furnishings.

There was also a special series on Mormons on TV which Linda watched for both evenings.

Linda continues (May 2nd). “Got up this am and went to Antelope Island. Saw antelope and prong horn deer, quail and coyote but no bison” (The island has one of the largest free roaming herds of bison in the US – around 500 – it is culled each year to prevent it from overgrowing the available grazing land)

At the Garr ranch – part of the ranch house is one of the oldest original buildings in the state of Utah – over 150 years old, Linda writes “saw three (great-horned) owlets in their nest just about ready to fly and saw the father owl sitting way up in a tree”

We were going to hike up one of the trails 1.2 miles (2km) to “Dooley’s peak” but we got up about 200 yards and decided it was too steep – since we didn’t have our hiking boots and Linda doesn’t do well on steep climbs (nor do I for that matter). So we stopped and had our snack, took some pictures and went back to the car.

Linda continues “went down and walked on the beach of Great Salt Lake. Very salty – only brine shrimp & flies live in it. Walked in water (up to knees – it was a beautiful day around 80F (25C)) & might have gone swimming They say you just float”

(We had left our swim suits in the car because we thought it would be too cold – but really didn’t seem to be any worse than Lake Superior in early July – but it was a long walk to the car so we decided our wading would have to do).

We (mostly me) had decided that since we were so close we would take the “long way” to Idaho and drive west on I-80 to Nevada so we could see the Salt Flats. We had arranged for a late checkout from the campground and we arrived back at 2:30, hooked up the car, took showers and began the final preps for leaving.

I need to go back a little bit. Our auxiliary braking system (Brake Buddy) has a transmitter that is supposed to light up a receiver in the motor home when the brakes are activated. It had worked originally but when we tested in Cheyenne it didn’t light up – so when we arrived in SLC I thought I would just be sure that the reason it wasn’t working was because it was in the “shadow” of the motor home so I took the receiver and plugged it into the auxiliary power outlet in the car (where I have had the rear view camera plugged in and it had been working earlier that day) – and discovered that the fuse had blown. (I still haven’t figured out why -- I just got a replacement fuse last night so I’ll experiment with it maybe to-day) -- Anyhow – this was electrical problem #1.

Tuesday night – just after Linda finished watching the Mormon special our 12V TV in the bedroom died. Again, I haven’t figured out what is wrong with it but I think maybe the power supply gave up. Electrical problem # 2.

This brings us back to Wednesday afternoon. During the final preps for leaving we were checking the lights to be sure the connection to the car was working and discovered that the brake lights weren’t working (on the motorhome). I also discovered that the 4 way flashers wouldn’t work and concluded the 2 things were tied together. I thought maybe the heavy usage on Monday climbing those long steep hills had fried the flasher (remember I mentioned that in my last post).

I asked and found that there was an RV service center about a mile away so we finished the rest of our preps and drove there (using parking light switch to simulate braking). When I got there the guy said they were really backed up and would not be able to look at it until the next day. But he also said that he didn’t think a flasher failure would cause those symptoms – had I checked the fuse? So I went and checked the fuse and sure enough it was blown. Electrical problem #3 – all of which happened in or near SLC – go figure!!

It seems really weird that we had three electrical failures almost simultaneously in completely unrelated components (or circuits). My rationale for the brake light –hazard light fuse blowing was that with the extra load from the tow car and high usage it had overheated and blown just as we were coming in to SLC – I know the hazards were working up to 10 minutes before we stopped.

Anyhow, they have been working fine since I replaced the fuse (I used my spare and the guy at the RV place gave me 2 more so I’m OK if it happens again).

We were on the road by 4 and drove to West Wendover Nevada arriving around 7 with a short stop at the scenic overlook of the Bonneville flats. (The picture shows me standing in a "puddle"of saltwater along the edge of the salt flats - it does look like snow & ice!!!)

There is one flat straight as an arrow 35 mile section of highway across the flats heading into the Utah-Nevada line – incredible and interesting driving because we had high cross-winds for the whole stretch.

We parked overnight in a Casino parking lot – high winds and thunderstorm overnight.

Well that’s it for now - I have some pictures and I’ll update these posts at some point to include a few of them. (Done May 5)

God Bless
Charlie & Linda

Almost relatives (April 29-30)

Posted from West Wendover Nevada (I-80) - Thursday morning May 3 (Updated with pictures May 5)

Sunday morning I had located the Cheyenne Church of Christ using their website. They are meeting in a school auditorium because their building was in the flight path for the airport and the airport had bought it as part of an expansion plan. MAPQUEST is great for getting directions and we were able to find the location with no problems.

When we went in we spoke to one lady who was originally from North Dakota who had relatives in Saskatchewan and British Columbia. Then one of the elders saw us and came over to say hello. When we told him we were from Ontario he said “Do you know anyone in Beamsville?” – I said “Sure – maybe you know my brother-in-law Art Ford?” – He said “Sure do – our daughter is married to their son”. Our response was surprised delight – “Oh, you are Jeri’s father”. Jeri is married to my nephew Craig Ford. I have mentioned Craig & Jeri before. They with their daughter Hannah are missionaries in Papua New Guinea (click HERE).

This made Phil and Ruth Bulloch “almost relatives” – my term for people that you have absolutely no earthly relationship with either by blood or “in-law” but who you share close relatives with. (The best example of this of course are the parents of your daughter-in-law or son-in-law – you share a grandchild but there (often) is no other connection.)

I had forgotten that Jeri was from Cheyenne although I had remarked to Linda as we came into Cheyenne that I thought her parents lived “somewhere around here”. As my memory got refreshed I recalled that the wedding had been in Cheyenne but unfortunately we had not been able to make it so we had never met Phil & Ruth before.

We had a great visit with them over lunch at Primo’s (Primos All-You-Can-Eat-Pizza, Corner Of Dell Range & Prairie) - a neat “cafeteria-style” pizzeria –where we learned about something we had never seen before – dessert pizza!!

Our lunch with Phil & Ruth along with their son Phillip and his wife and daughter (almost the same age as Hannah) and 2 foster daughters was a great visit . We were able to share our common bond as Christians as well as our common connection with the Ford’s. (I was really kicking myself because Phil had driven us to the restaurant since our car was “in tow” and we didn’t want to drive the whole rig around Cheyenne -- as a result my camera was in the BBB and I couldn’t get a picture)

Phil works in the funeral business and is an elder at the Cheyenne church. They have been foster parents for a number of years – in fact they are off to Washington next week as sponsored by the state of Wyoming as “delegates” to a national convention. Ruth is also working on a nursing diploma so they have full lives. We hope that God will continue to bless them and their family. It is possible that we might see Ruth this summer since Craig & Jeri are home on furlough and Jeri is expected to give birth to their second child while they are in Canada around the same time as Craig’s brother Trevor’s wedding in July.

One other fascinating thing about this visit was Monday afternoon when we arrived in Salt Lake I received this email from my brother-in-law Art (Craig’s Dad) “We received the word from PNG that you visited with the Bullocks in Cheyenne.” So in this day of the INTERNET news can travel around the world in the “blink of an eye”.

After lunch we were back on the road again. It was a long gradual uphill climb as we drove west. We crossed the highest point in Wyoming near Laramie (8650 feet) (actually highest point on the entire cross continental I-80 route) .

At the rest area there we learned that it is referred to as the “summit” and there is a historical marker describing the construction of the original “Lincoln highway” as a private endeavor to provide a continuous road from New York to San Francisco.

There is also a large marker with a bust of Abe Lincoln on top.

We had a demonstration of physics about 2 miles before we reached the summit. We were driving along when we heard a loud bang. – like a balloon bursting. I was concerned that it might have been a tire blowing out although there was no indication of any problem so we pulled over and checked. Everything looked fine so we went on. As we were driving I got to wondering if it had to do with the low pressure at this altitude and something in one of the storage bins might have ruptured.

So when we got to the rest area I checked everything in the bins but could find anything even though several plastic containers of water and washer fluid were bulged there didn’t seem to have been any signs of an “explosion” Linda discovered that several tubes of stuff in the bathroom were “oozing” materials – especially when she took the lids off but again nothing that would explain a “bang”. The next day as I was coming in from gassing up Linda said “I found it”. We had a bag of Doritos chips in a cupboard just behind the drivers seat and the bag was blown open at the top seam.

So the moral of the story is eat your chips before you start up the mountain!!! (I guess this is a science experiment for Hunter or Camdyn to see how reducing pressure outside a sealer container can cause it to explode.)

After the “summit” experience, we continued across the continental divide near Rawlins and on in to Rock Springs. We did a WALMART night there. (The picture of the sign was taken somewhere near Rawlins and the second one was in Green River)

As we pulled in to the WALMART at Rock Springs we were out walking around looking for a suitable “camping” spot and came across a couple from Ohio who were pulling a 5th wheel. They told us that they had blown a tire on their (double axle) trailer. The force of the “explosion” and maybe the debris from the tire had broken out the wheel well and made a hole right into the trailer. They had been able to get the spare on and had come in to get duct tape to try to close off the worst of the hole. Made me wonder what would happen if I ever blew one of our rear duals – I don’t even want to think about what would happen if I blew a front tire. I will try to keep a close watch on them to reduce that possibility.)

Monday morning Linda saw a “Corral West” cowboy clothing store and went shopping for a (very nice) shirt and vest . I was able to pick up INTERNET from a Quality Inn across the way and did that for a while as she shopped). We then drove on to Salt Lake City. I had thought we were through most of the mountains and it hadn’t really amounted to much but as we got towards the Utah border we started hitting very long relatively steep climbs that slowed me down to below 60 kph (35 mph). I used my 4 way blinkers a lot of the time as we climbed and occasionally forgot to shut them off (this is relevant later)

As we came into UTAH we were in “real” mountains – snow capped – much like going through the Rockies in BC. (The picture is at a rest stop just as we entered Utah -- one of the most beautiful locations we saw on the entire route)

We also got to see prairie dogs several places as we stopped and I got this picture at the Utah rest stop

Well I’ll close off this post with the text of an email I sent to family & friends Tuesday morning (May 1).

“We pulled into SLC yesterday around suppertime. We are in a very nice campground just off I-15 about 10 miles north - old apple orchard overlooking the city.We are headed downtown to check out the sights for the day -- more later.”

God Bless
Charlie

On the Road Again - Westward bound (April 25-28)

Tuesday morning Chris & I went out and picked up the rest of the materials we needed to finish (stage 1) of the basement project. I also picked up a plug for my hot water heater and got that installed and the hot water tank filled and ready to go.

We put up some drywall and I finished off a small bit of framing that remained. I would have liked to have finished all the drywall to the point it was ready to “tape & mud” but a lot of what remained was fitting small pieces around doorways and I ran out of time.

Also during the morning, Linda called her Mom and talked to her in the hospital. She was feeling pretty good but Linda wanted to give her the rest of the day to be sure. Her sister Arliss called at 6 and told us that she (Linda’s Mom) had been released from hospital at noon and was now at home.

Chris’ neighbors were away and we had been parking the HHR in their driveway. Since it was threatening rain and we wanted to leave early Wednesday morning Linda came up with the idea of hooking up the car and pulling the motorhome ahead across the neighbor’s driveway (so we wouldn’t be blocking Chris & Tammye’s driveway). It was a good thing we did that because it poured rain overnight and I would have gotten soaked if I’d waited until morning.

We said our goodbye’s to Camdyn, Hunter & Tammye Tuesday evening.

Chris had a special SRT (SWAT) team demonstration Wednesday and was leaving at 6:30 – we were up at 6:00; had breakfast and once we had said good bye to him I did the last minute stuff – unplugging and final set-up for towing and we were on the road at 6:45 Central time.

We followed US30 west from Aurora – and after a couple of missed turns (with the difficulty of finding a “40 acre field” to turn around in since we can’t back up) we were westward bound. We crossed the Mississippi into Clinton Iowa at 9:45 and crossed the Missouri into Nebraska at Blair at 6:45 p.m. After overshooting and having to backtrack several miles (due to the fact that the camp book said “west of Ames” and the Fenton Lakes campground was EAST of Ames (Nebraska- not IOWA).

When we did find the location the road to the campground was NOT well marked and we had some close calls making wrong turns into areas were we had a real challenge avoiding dead-ends and finding a place to turn around). However, we finally got into the campsite and set up about 8:15. Long day but we covered close to 500 miles (800 km) much of it in driving rain.

Nice campground but as usual we found one close to train tracks and obviously a main line since Linda said there were trains blowing their whistles all night long) although I didn’t hear more than a couple of them-

Thursday morning we continued west. Mid-afternoon we had stopped in a rest area just west of North Platte after getting on I-80 at Kearney. While stopped, we both concluded at around the same time that I had gotten into my “let’s see how far we can go today” mode. Linda was looking at the tour books and saying “we’ll likely never come this way again – why aren’t we stopping to look around”. We had not talked about what we wanted to do and it was my idea to make a big push to get to Salt Lake City in 3 day. Anyhow, I won’t say that there weren’t a few “words” said but we realized that it was time to take a break and have some down-time so we startedlooking for somewhere to stop.

We found a nice campground north of Ogallala (Oga – la – la) and took the rest of Thursday and all day Friday to rest and do some sightseeing. Ogallala was the end of the cattle trails in the 1870’s and had a pretty wild reputation.

We saw their “Boot Hill” and an old mansion that was built in the 1880’a. Actually it wasn’t open for the season yet but we stopped to look around the grounds and one of the volunteers was there doing some work and let us in. Linda really enjoys looking around these old places. We also went to this little town called Keystone that boasts a little church built almost1000 years ago that is very unique. It was built jointly by Catholic and Protestant groups and feature pews with reversible pews (the backs are hinged and can be flipped over) so the Catholics could face the Catholic altar at one end and the Protestants could face the pulpit at the other end.

To-day (Saturday) we drove into Cheyenne and we are camped at the Terry Bison Ranch just off I-25 and just north of Colorado border. We plan to attend church services here in the morning and likely do a WALMART night tomorrow night before heading over the mountains on Monday. To-day we climbed about 2500 feet in a little under 100 miles but all just gradual climbs –no serious hills

God Bless

Charlie & Linda

Days 4-7: A whole week “in port”. (**with pictures**)

Time flies. This post covers through Monday April 23 (Posted April 26 from Ogallala NE) (Revised to add pictures on April 28)

Sunday was a quiet relaxing day. We went with Chris, Tammye and the kids to services the Community Christian centre in Naperville. A very good lesson on how Jesus treated the situation with the woman who was brought to him because of being caught in the act of adultery. The theme was “What do you expect?” – and how Jesus responded to people in ways they didn’t expect. Her accusers were faced with “writing in the sand” and an unexpected statement “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone”. The woman expected condemnation and humiliation but Jesus gave the unexpected response. “If others haven’t condemned you, neither will I – Go and sin no more” (Have you ever noticed that he was the only one there that met his standard of no sin = first stone” but he choose not to cast it).

Sunday night Chris decided he wanted to install the bathroom stuff so we put in the vanity and the toilet, which met his objective of having a functioning “powder room” before we left.
(Actually this means there is one for each of them - since there is already a powder room on the first floor and 2 full bathrooms upstairs –main bath and “ensuite”.) – but I remember with a growing family you can never have too many bathrooms!!! (and it certainly is a little more private than the old “3 holer” shack out back that we had when I was growing up before indoor plumbing. (Yes Virginia - I am that old!!))

Monday we finished up some of the work in the basement but we ran out of material mid-morning and Chris decided that he needed some down time. He had worked a double the previous Monday and then had long days working with us in the mornings and working his regular 4-12 shift so he decided to crash for the afternoon.

So I packed up my tools and did other things to get ready to pull out Tuesday morning.

Monday evening Hunter had a flag football game which I went to watch. If you’ll pardon a grandfather’s pride – he was awesome. (He's the one in the blue shirt standing upright in the middle of the picture)

He ran for a touchdown on the first play and ran the extra point on another play. His team won 21-0 – although at this stage – it was their first game—there is a lot of luck involved since it is more like chaos on the field than any semblance of organized plays.

However, Monday evening Linda received a call that her mother had gone into the hospital Sunday night with chest chains. While it didn’t seem critical Linda was concerned enough that we decided to hold off for another day and remain in Aurora for Tuesday. More about that next post.

Going back and filling in the rest of our our week in Aurora.

Thursday was grandparent’s day at Hunter & Camdyn’s school. We were excited about that when we found out we would be here. It didn’t quite turn out the way we had imagined. For one thing it was only Grades 3,4, & 5 – which included Hunter’s class –but not Camdyn’s apparently the younger classes had their grandparent’s day earlier in the year.

We met Hunter on the way to the cafeteria and had lunch with him (and his classmates). There was only one other grandmother there for his class. We did get to see Camdyn for a couple of minutes as we were leaving the cafeteria she was there having her lunch. After lunch we went to Hunter’s “indoor recess” and watched him play aboard game with his friends. It was good to see him with his friends but we also had thought there might be more interaction with him and that he might have had some of his school projects to show off. However, I guess the main thing was that he knows his grandparents wanted to be there and to be a part of his day.

Thursday night I went with Hunter to his flag football practice. We were there early and Hunter and I raced the length of the football field (and he won!) – 9 year old vs. 62 year old out-of-shape grandpa wasn’t a real contest!!)

Hunter’s birthday is in February (10th) and Camdyn’s is in May (3rd). Last year we were here just after Hunter’s birthday and then back in April just before Camdyn’s so we had started a “tradition” of taking them out to eat for their birthdays. Friday night we took Camdyn to “Steak & Shake” and then to ToysRUs to get her a present - - as an early birthday celebration.

Last night (Saturday) it was Hunter’s turn – we had sent him a book and some money for his birthday so we didn’t have the shopping part to do. He wanted to go to “Chili’s” so we had Southwestern fare. He really likes the rib.

Anyhow – getting to continue the birthday meal tradition for this second year has been the highlight of our visit so far.

It has been fairly nice – sunny during the day – although it was near or below freezing until Thursday night. Yesterday was a great day – over 80 F (28C) and sunny all day. I decided it was likely safe to put water on board so we now are “officially” camping. (although I discovered something that I had forgotten – last fall the plastic drain plug on the hot water tank had broken off when I was removing it so I have to find a replacement before I can fill it and we can be fully self-sufficient with a shower on board.

Chris works 4 to 12 shift so we have been spending sometime with him in the mornings. It has been nice to sit on the deck in the sunshine and visit with him & Tammye over coffee. We have also continued to plug away at the basement project. All the drywall is installed on the bathroom walls (inside & out) and on the rest of the area we framed at Christmas. Chris & Linda started the mudding and taping on Thursday and we are hoping to have the wall behind the vanity and toilet ready for a coat of primer to-morrow morning so we can install the vanity and the toilet before we leave. I put the door on yesterday (Friday).

Saturday we did a little more on the project although I took some timein the afternoon to play catch with Hunter.

I was able to get my INTERNET connection working once in a while and note the following

My friend John Dobbs posts a YouTube tribute (click HERE) to the victims of the Virginia Tech tragedy.

Neva challenges Christians to “keep on keeping on” and to “walk the talk” each day in all they do rather than giving up and thinking they’ve done enough – it’s time for some one else to do the work. (click HERE)

God Bless

Charlie & Linda

The HHRs and the BBB – Cruise 2007: Day 1-3 (April 16-18)

I’m actually playing catch-up. I’ll try to write a bit each day – actually this is Wednesday and we are parked on the street outside Chris’ house. I don’t have my usual “free” wireless Internet here this time. I’ll have to take my computer inside and see if I can pick up something there or else I’ll have to plug into Chris’ Internet but I don’t know when I’ll have time to do that so I may end up posting a bunch all at once.

Anyhow we are on the road again – actually we’ve finished Leg 1 – Sault Ste. Marie to Chicago. 800 km. (500 miles) in 12.5 hours – limited to 100 kph (or 60 mph) because of the tow car (the Chevrolet HHR). We plan to be here until next Tuesday (24th). At this point we have nospecific plans for our trip west to Vancouver. (I forgot to take a picture when we pulled out from the Sault so I'm using this one from April 25 taken just before we left heading west from Aurora)

Monday morning we were up early (6:30) doing last minute preparations. We got to Christies around 8:15. I started setting up the hitch myself and it turned out to be fairly straightforward (self-explanatory notes on the various pieces. We needed an adaptor for the wiring harness and Christie’s technician wired that in. He then checked what I had done showed me some details and we were off. It was still a little nerve-wracking to just take off with the HHR in tow – we were glad for the camera but it turned out that it stopped working once we were moving (what I discovered later is that the camera (wireless signal) is in the “shadow” of the BBB (Big beautiful beast or our motor home) and it needs something to “bounce” the signal from in order for the receiver to pick it up – As we drove it would fade in and out -- particularly it would come in view if we had a transport come up behind and pass – or if there was wire fence or along bridges where there were barriers along the edge. Overall it was comforting to have that happen since it confirmed that the car was still following along.

Speaking of the HHR – Linda and I were talking about it as we drove and she came up with “Happy Healthy Rover”, which I thought applied to us more than the car. For the car the Hitch Hiking Rider seems more appropriate. So we’ve decided that it’s the HHR’s and the BBB on the road. HHRs = Healthy Happy Rovers – us and the HHR (the car)

Tuesday Chris took the day off and we started working on the basement again (Click HERE and scroll down for the start of that story). Chris had put up some of the drywall and he is anxious to get the bathroom functioning. The first thing we needed to do was add a closet to the end. It took most of the day to get the materials and work out the framing but it got done. Wednesday (18th) we did a little more framing and finished putting up the drywall in the bathroom. It has been good to be here – seeing the kids and visiting with Chris and Tammye –and working with Chris on the basement project. I don’t like the taping and mudding part of drywall and Chris wants to g ive it a try so I’m giving him what little advice I can and letting him go at it.

I am using the INTERNET and email to keep up with things at home. The HOUNDS lost the 7th game Monday night after coming back from a 3-0 deficit to tie 3-3. Barb Hotchkiss had more surgery on Tuesday to clean out the incision. Hopefully that’s the last of it. Erin Hallam was back in isolation again. Our prayers are with them. We also learned on Sunday that Ross Hall has to have a series of tests on his heart this week. He has ongoing problems but he was concerned at the need for these in depth tests.

Well I’m going to close off on this post and start another for the second half of the week.

God Bless
Charlie

The BBB is ready to launch (at last)

Well another 2 weeks have flown by. Thanks to Dee, Neva, Lisa and Bobby for coming by and commenting on my last post. Lisa -- we don't have Better Business Bureau soI hadn't thought how BBB could be confused with that. -- we have Chamber of Commerce CofC which could be equally confusing as an abbreviation for someofus with a restorationmovementbackground.

We just got our “BBB” out of the garage late this afternoon (Friday). and it is already partially packed thanks to Linda’s preparations (she had stuff piled all over the dining roomand bedroom). We expect to finish most of it tomorrow. We had hoped to be leaving for our trip on Sunday but that is no longer feasible. We have to go to Christie campers Monday morning to finish the “dinghy” hookup but, if we are all packed, we may leave directly from there.- we’ll see what God has in mind.

We have had winter again for the past week – snow and freezing temperatures and it appears another storm is coming in sothat could affect our travel as well. Good thing the people who are ”housesitting” for us are flexible in their plans.

This post is (more or less) an update on the things I mentioned in my last post.

Prayer requests –Erin Hallam remains in hospital and her status fluctuates from day-to-day.
Also Barb Hotchkiss –who had surgery in February - is still struggling with getting the incision healed up— today she called Linda and said that it has gotten worse again and they may have to completely re-open the incision. Finally please pray for our safety in traveling (and that the “beast” runs smoothly with no problems)

I continue to be tied up with my projects and haven’t had time to take any “virtual” trips. I hope that once we are on the road I will get a chance to catch up on what’s going on in “blogland”.

Update on the projects:
Job #1: My teaching: I gave the final exam yesterday. I have an assignment, a seminar and the final to grade and then I will have that wrapped up. Hopefully by next weekend. Top priority once we are on the road. I hope I can squeeze this in while we are at Chris’. The course development effort has been more or less on hold although I did have a meeting with the other instructor today. We have until the end of May to finalize the proposal so that shouldn’t be a problem – the wonders of email will allow me to participate while traveling. .

Job #2: The “dinghy” set-up: Getting our new HHR rigged for towing hasbeen delayed because we needed the both the "BBB" - the tow-er and the HHR (the tow- ee ) inorder to do that (no nickname for HHR yet – at least to match the HHR label – Linda has taken to calling it the “little beastie” so that may stick). As I mentioned – we have to take it and the BBB to Christie’s Monday to hook it up (and get trained on how to do it). I also have to set up the Brake Buddy. Maybe I’ll try that tomorrow.

Job #3; Preacher Evaluation: We completed our evaluation and finalized an offer to the Hillier’s – and they have accepted – starting July 1 – so this job is DONE!!! (of course when he gets here there will be lots of work to get things organized but that’s after our ”cruise”. Linda and I were pleasantly surprised and very honored last Sunday when the congregation presented us with an eagle “statuette” with the words “they shall mount up as wings of eagles” (Isaiah 40:31) written on it. This was in recognition for the work we had done in supporting the search committee.

Job #4 Preparing to launch the “BBB”. The repairs turned out to take way longer (and cost alotmore!!) than I had thought. They just finished the exhaust manifolds yesterday. In the meantime, the mechanic discovered that the lower ball joints were not the right ones and they had to be replaced. Now anyone who has followed our adventures for a while may remember the incident with the broken ball joint in San Antonio last spring (Click HERE). I now suspect that was the result of having the wrong part installed because I know that the people who replaced it in San Antonio just looked at it and replaced it with the same one that they removed. The mechanic at the garage here noticed there was play in the wheels and,upon checking he found out that the “bolt” part of the joint was too small. It took they a while to track down the correct part so that was the last thing that got done today. I don’t know if the wrong ones came from the factory or whether the previous owners had them replaced and someone put in the wrong parts – but I will be having a conversation with the dealer who sold me the vehicle. At least it is running quietly and smoothly now.

So I’m pretty well through the crunch of the last 6 weeks and hope to be back doing some “virtual” tours while we are on our “land cruise” over the next 2 months.

GodBless
Charlie

Staying at home for real

My last post (15 days ago) I extolled the wonders of being able to take a (virtual) trip while at home. Since then I’ve been confined (more or less) to living at home here in the real world.

A quick update on the weather. Most of the snow has gone. Linda spent yesterday afternoon in her “garden” raking leaves and general cleanup. We actually have some spring blossoms poking up and she heard her first robin. Spring is here –although we’ll likely get a few nasty days yet.

I also want to make a prayer request for Erin Hallam. Erin is the daughter of Verna Ray who is a dear Christian lady in our congregation. Erin has leukemia and is currently hospitalized with pneumonia. The prognosis is uncertain --

I have at least 4 major commitments on the go and that has kept me from having any time to wander around the INTERNET. I have been “lurking” on my Berean list browsing through the daily digests of activity but not participating. I haven’t visited any of my blogging friends. Sorry about that folks (of course most everyone has probably given up on coming by looking for me)

Job #1: My teaching (the course title is Understanding and using Information Technology in business) at Algoma University takes about 15 hours per week with class prep, assignments, tests etc. In addition I have been working with a couple of other people on a proposal for an a course on applying statistical analysis for improving industrial process and this has required a couple of meetings and some proposal writing.

Job #2: Getting a new car and getting it rigged as a tow vehicle that we can haul behind the “BBB” (they are referred to as dinghies or toads by RVer’s). We picked up the HHR 2 weeks ago (I guess I’ll have to have Linda give her own spin to those initials – they mean Heritage High Roof because it is based on a 1948 Chevrolet panel truck body – What about it folks anybody want to suggest a name for the HHR?? ) Yesterday we got it back from Christie campers with the towing hitch having been installed on the front end. After a bit of research I concluded we needed an auxiliary braking system for as well and was fortunate enough to get a “Brake Buddy” on sale through Sicard’s (the RV dealer where we bought the “BBB” -used – three years ago.) So aside from some minor details - that job is now complete. It is an expensive proposition but I hope in the long run it will be worthwhile. It will certainly give us more freedom to take in sights while we are traveling

Job #3; Preacher Evaluation (these jobs are listed in the order they have come up and don’t reflect importance or priority). Actually this has been an ongoing job since last fall but it really heated up in March. For 4 weekends in a row we have had someone “trying out” for the preaching role at Pinehill. In addition to organizing the “logistics”, coordinating the interview and evaluation process, Linda & I have hosted 2 of the couples in our home. So all that has taken a fair bit of time.

The weekend of March 11-12 we had Kevin & Nancy Cleary in our home for the weekend. Kevin is currently attending the East Tennessee Scholl of Bible & Missions in Knoxville.

From March 16 to March 26 we had Paul & Michelle Hillier in our home. Paul spoke & taught both Sundays (March 18 and March 25) as well as visiting with people during the week and teaching Wednesday night. Paul is a graduate of the Sunset’s International School of preaching (Edmonton) and is currently working (at a “secular” job) in Red Deer Alberta

This weekend we have Jon Knutson (he is being hosted by Barb King) from Bramalea . Jon is a recent graduate of Rochester Christian College in Michigan.

Ever heard of the phrase driving your car until the wheels fall off? On Sunday March 18 we had an incident that made me recall something that happened last year. A year ago today (March 31) we were in San Antonio Texas visiting the Alamo and taking a tour of the Riverwalk district – mentally recuperating from the scare we had when our we had a mechanical failure in the motorhome suspension that left us stranded in the middle of an intersection for 5 hours (Click HERE and scroll down for details).

The reminder came as we were driving Paul & Michelle to the church building on Sunday morning (March 18). I had been experiencing some type of slight “shimmy” in the front end of our old car, had checked (not closely enough it turned out) and not seen anything visible. As we were driving along the “shimmy”got worse and then we heard a bang and the front end started shimmying terribly –Fortunately it was at slow speed on City Street and there was a place to pull of the street into a parking lot. We got our and discovered that there was only one nut holding on by a thread that was keeping the front wheel on. (The bang was the one wheel bolt that was still tight breaking off. We found it and another nut a couple of car lengths back from where we stopped. The other 2 nuts were nowhere to be found.). I don’t know why they came loose or how long it had been happening but I think this may be why we seemed to being prevented from taking the car when we went to Kingston in February – God does work in mysterious ways!!

Job #4 Preparing to " launch" the “BBB”. We are planning a trip to BC leaving sometime in April and returning in June. This generates a very long list of things to be done, ranging from getting the BBB out of storage and getting a few repairs and general checkupto arranging out of province medical and cellphone coverage. -- we took the BBB to TMS truck service centre last Tuesday and it is still there waiting for some parts—main thing was repairing exhaust leaks through the “manifolds”. Linda has started organizing clothes. Still a long list and too little time!!

Well I need to wrap this up and get on with my work - I’m including a few miscellaneaous things that I did come across before I got “ grounded”

March 14 & 15 Notes on my virtual tour to Texas, North Carolina and other places unlknown

I visited “outnumbered – the story of lisa and her guys” – a new blog to me –I got there by a link on Bobby Cohoon’s post – Lisa provides a newsy overview of the life of a Christian mother with 3 young sons. Not sure where she lives but it is warm enough that the bulbs are poking up in her flower garden. Linda is dreaming of that day here but it will be a while –even with a 2 melting days and water running all over yesterday it will likely be a month before all the snow is gone—and we’ll be away when the garden is first ready for working.

Neva asks –What would you do if …. You knew the world would end in one week?
In a similar vein Bobby Cohoon uses the fact that North Carolina has been having tornado drills to suggest the need for “A Jesus drill”

Finally, I had an email from Rayburn (March 30) (he is the brother of Roger our former preacher) telling me about he decision to leave his position as the regional coordinator for Youth for Christ in Southern Ontario. In his letter had some quotes that I found very interesting and I’m passing on. I had known Rayburn almost allhis lifesince he is my cousin (2nd or1st once removed depending on how you do it) but had only really gotten toknow him after along conversation at his Mom & Dad’s 50th Anniversary in November (click HERE and scroll down)

Quotes by Andre Gide, a French novelist who lived from 1869-1951 and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1947.

Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better.

Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it.

It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.

Rayburn was particularly taken by this quote:
One doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.

He felt that this quote along with the following 2 stories from he Bible were leading him to seek a new direction his life’s work.

Genesis (chapter 12) talks of Abraham being called by God to leave his country, his people, and his father’s household, and then it says “and go to the land I will show you.” In the book of Hebrews in the New Testament it says this about Abraham’s response to God: “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.” (Heb. 11:8)

The other story is in the New Testament, and it’s that famous account of Jesus walking on the water. In Matthew’s record he includes this experience between Peter and Jesus:
Peter – “Lord, if it’s you, tell me to come to you on the water.”
Jesus – “Come ahead.”

Rayburn concludes “I’m struck by these stories as they present us with two ordinary guys who decided to follow the prompting of God within them to step out into the unknown and follow to a place that they hadn’t been before.”

It seems to me that this is the calling that God places in front of each of us. We can ask each day to be kept safe in the security of the known –but eventually life will overtake us and we will be forced to face the unknown or we can start each day with the prayer of Isaiah – which was the theme of Paul Hillier’s lesson’s when he was here “Lord Here am I –Send me”

God Bless
Charlie