A Good Samaritan

What a wonderful place, full of wonderful people. Mark and I enjoyed 3 days in the quaint little town of Niagara-on-the-Lake. This is a town that is full of the theatrical and surrounded by vineyards.

Irish Harp Pub

Peter, our new friend

On our first night we didn't get much sleep as the heat and humidity kept us up. The next day we found a great little coffee shop, Balzac's....great coffee! We were parked in the street just outside the coffee shop and a man came up to us and started talking to us about Olive. This is how we met Peter, from Holland, and our Good Samaritan. He said as the nights were so hot would Mark and I like to stay in his apartment above the coffee shop....we can shower, get a good nights sleep and even do our laundry.


 What a blessing he was to us and such a kind and compassionate man. It makes one realize that you just have to unplug from CNN to find out that there are actually some great people in this world. We got to spend three evenings with Peter, talking about life, love and freedom from stuff! We greatly appreciated all he did. One night we got to enjoy some Irish music at the "Irish Harp" pub. Great little spot....yummy fish and chips. Thank you Peter....we will think of you often.....we will think of you fondly.

Olive Gets a Tow

Al hooking up Olive

I have to back up a bit to share this story and to ask everyone to pray for Al and Linda. We spent one night in Owen Sound and the next day Olive wouldn't start....we didn't worry as we had faith that God would take care of us as He has done every step of the way.

Well this is where it gets interesting. Our tow truck driver shows up and takes good care of our girl. As we are driving over to the mechanic, Al begins to share what is going on in his life. Last year he and his wife Linda lost their 9 year old daughter when she died of a misdiagnosed Strep infection. They spent days taking her back and forth to the hospital but they kept sending them home saying she just had chickpox. Well it turned out to be much more serious and that Saturday they took her back to the hospital and she died a few hours later. Al is a warm jovial fellow but you can see the pain behind his smile. They are struggling to keep their marriage together and also are involved in a heated lawsuit. We asked if we could pray for him and his wife, he said they weren't christian but that would be very nice. We gave him a hug and said goodbye. So if you could keep them in your prayers I know the Lord will touch their lives.

Mike ( Georgian Bay Motors) and our Hero (to his right) took a look at Olive and had her in and out in 10 minutes. Just a loose wire....no charge! Thank you Lord and how amazing You are to use us to bring some words of comfort to a man in need. Praise to you.

The Thundering Falls

Niagara originates from the Neutral Indian name "Ongniaahra" meaning "Thunder of Waters". This is a sight that shouldn't be missed. We hung out at the local KOA...not bad but not as good as the KOA in Sault St. Marie! The temperatures were hot and humid and we were thankful for the outdoor swimming pools.

35,000,000 gallons of water PER MINUTE

Maid of the Mist...heading up to the Falls

We took a drive over to Niagara Falls as I had never seen them before. Mark had been there a few times but something he had never done was to go on the "Maid of the Mist". We decided to go for it and got our tickets....it was really spectacular to see the falls from so close, the water crashing all around you....what a memory! As we got off...soaking wet....we thought they might find a more appropriate name for this excursion...perhaps, "Maid of the Drenched" would be more appropriate. Off to Niagara-on-the-Lake.Post Options

Sauble Beach

Olive on the Beach

Miles of Sandy Beach

Brandon and Luke's Family...great group!

On the shores of Lake Huron lies Sauble beach.... Amazing! Beautiful sandy beaches and clear water. We loved hanging out for three days. Olive was looking hot on the beach and drew a crowd.... God is so smart. We also met a wonderful family from "The New Nashville" aka Branson, MO. Brandon Bliss and his family were visiting his good friend Luke and his family. Brandon and his wife are worship ministers at Tri-Lakes Christian Church.

So while we were hangin at Sauble Beach we were looking for a place to park for the night to sleep. Hey a large church parking lot looked inviting. So we get settled and off to sleep.....around 12:00am we get a knock on the Olive's window, from a man in a golf cart?! Where the heck did he come from...we figured it was the camp ground next door. He bellows out " You can't park here!" Ok we politely say....getting ourselves organized to head back to the grocery parking lot...which is fine with it. Again he yells out "Get a move on!" "Yes... we say we are going". We talked about this later and thought how SAD! that you can park at Walmart....they welcome you with open arms as they know you will spend money in their store. But church parking lots are off limits....something is wrong with this picture. Off to Niagara Falls!

Checkers "King Me"

Serious concentration here!

So on our last day at the KOA is Sault St. Marie. Mark challenged me to a checkers game. Hmmm memories of my brother Barry kicking my butt.... flooded my mind, but hey it's just a game right. Well the game started off fairly even and then the years of beatings or more the strategies behind the beatings came to me and 3 Kings later...I won...I know, it was a great day! Hey thanks Bro' it all paid off in the end: )

View from the front of the ferry

We packed up and said goodbye to Bill and Joan and thanked them for their wonderful hospitality! Mark did a new business card design for them and they offered us two free nights at their KOA...any time...it's a beautiful day at KOA! So off to the ferry at South Baymouth on Manitoulin island. Weather was great and it is hard to believe that this is Lake Huron and not the ocean.

View from the side

Look at all that fresh water. We landed in Tobemory and headed to Owen Sound where Mark grew up. Hangin at the Frog Ponds coffee house...nice spot....working now : ) Later!

Rolling Hills and Majestic plains

A view from our window

After leaving lake Louise we headed off to Calgary...the Rockies were beautiful.

Majestic Mountains

Lunch just outside of Calgary

We hung out for the day and although it is a great city it is a city so we headed for a quieter setting....Drumheller! Why you might ask? Well to see the dinosaur bones at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of course.

Drumheller is a small town, dry land but warm people. We had a great chat with the locals...who Olive pulled in.

The Tyrell Museum was full of wonderful artifacts and some darn large bones....did you know some of their teeth are the size of bananas. That's some huge chompers!

Elephant of steroids.

James and Mark

After spending one night in Saskatoon and 3 days in Regina....donating blood and not to the Red Cross. They grow big mosquitoes out here! We headed down in the US  (side note here...we had to donate some fruits and veggies to the US border guards and I think they were hungry and wanted to make sandwiches) and Montana where we were blessed with some wonderful Montana hospitality. James was the first person we met in this beautiful state and after swapping Westy stories and James buying our gas (made me well-up...he was so nice. Will grab that flax next time James : ) We headed to North Dakota....Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and back into Canada at Sault St. Marie.

 So here we are in Sault St. Marie KOA campsite...beautiful spot, great hospitality and so very clean! Olive made the trek and we know the prayers of friends and family have kept us safe along our way.
Thank-you. This is a vast and spectacular country and our most used word has been "WOW". God is great....if you get a chance to do this some day...Just do it!  Your experience will be full of special memories of wonderful people in a beautiful country.

Lake Lousie

 What can I say? What a magical place. It was very late when we made it up to Lake Louise. We found a closed gas station and called it a night behind the station along with another camper. Early in the morning, as I am getting accustomed to waking early, I decided to walk up to the lake. A four mile hike. But as the sun was peaking through the light clouds that had formed at the mountain tops and the rays broke through illuminating everything in the soft light of morning, I thought, "I can't keep this to myself." So I turned around and hiked it back to the bus to wake someone up! Tracey had to see this. As we crossed the bridge heading up to the lake a few minutes later, we were in awe. The waters of the Bow River raging down the mountain was an amazing aqua-marine. Crisp and cold escaping the mountain tops and rushing downhill in a journey that would take it 623 miles, through Banff, Calgary and stretching across the prairie.

Lake Louise this morning was quiet. Not too many others up this early in the morning. A few paddlers out on the lake in their canoes, saying good morning to such a majestic view, along with us. The waters appear milky blue/white with the snow melt that floods this little lake. At times the waters change to an emerald green and in the winter it is a wonderland. The snowy peaks surround the lake and seem to hold it in their hands. We loved this place. You would too.

Canada Day Celebrations

Making our way from Kelowna into the Rockies, we had driven as far as Golden. Olive making the trip like a trouper. While once in Golden we had decided to call it a day. So prepping everything, (which simply means pulling the curtains and doing a wash up), we settled in for a good night sleep. Well, honestly, I forgot it was Canada Day. Funny. The firecrackers going off gave it away. Being parked at the Golden Husky Station may not be the best place to call it a night when your sitting there with the curtains drawn and kids are in the parking lot with firecrackers. What goes through your head is - "Who is going to think it's funny to toss a noise maker under a vehicle while people are sleeping inside?" I wasn't going to find out. Figured the best thing to do would be make the drive up to Lake Louise. It turned out to be a great idea. We caught a wonderful fireworks show at a campground along the drive. We just pulled over and enjoyed our Canada Day celebrations. Hope you had a great time too, this holiday weekend.

The Sweet taste of Success

Somewhere out there, there is a 'sweet' hippie loving person who decided one night to tie sugar candies from our door handles while we slept. We didn't notice until we had got ourselves ready for the day and went around to hop in our seats.

The Last Spike

As we left Kelowna and ventured into the Rockies, we had to stop to check out the last spike. What is that you ask? Well, apparently as the group from the east met up with the group from the west, the track got connected here. In case you missed it... Tracey is pointing it out, and both of us just being silly. There was this familiar old looking fellow in the photo too... perhaps a distant relative of mine.

World Day of Prayer

Hundreds crowded the downtown park in the City of Kelowna, where music filled the air and people danced and sang to many different bands, all afternoon. At the end of the afternoon several people led in prayer for the city and the valley. It was a pretty cool time and a wonderful afternoon for it.

Heading through the Rockies

Today we begin our journey. It does not really feel like we have started yet, being in Kelowna. It still feels like home, with our family so close and the weather so much like Nanaimo.

We will head into some real mountains now and test the endurance of our little Green Bus. Lake Louise seems like a good place to stay and perhaps we'll make it that far today and rest up. Once we are there we'll take photos.

We will be looking up some special folks when we get into Calgary and just 'be' where God wants us to be. It has been amazing so far, seeing all that He has developed ahead of us to walk into. We thank God for the great people we have met in Kelowna and pray for them often. Randy, Joshua chapter one is for you man. There are some wild and exciting victories ahead for you and, wow, what a testimony it will be. Trisha and Jamie, God Bless in all you do and set your hands to. Keep singing and rockin til He cracks the sky for you. Len and MaryAnn, you guys got it all started. There was a reason we met. When I reflect on all God has done in the time we have been together, what comes to mind is Esther and the months of preparation before she was presented to the King. This is preparation. All of us are called to be faithful in what we have to prove ourselves faithful for what He has prepared for us. Great things are ahead for the church, while the world recoils in the things they put their trust in. That's it for now. Ciao