Sunday, November 24, 2013

On Our Way

Two days into our trip across Canada and my dad and I have left British Columbia, passed through Alberta and are now on our way through Saskatchewan.  Except for a few sketchy sections of highway along the way we've had great roads and haven't seen any accidents (except for a truck that slid into a ditch).  Thank you, Lord, for clear roads and a healthy car so far!

As we got closer to Jasper, Mt. Robson came into view and took our breath away.  You can't even see the top of it in the clouds!


This one, below, looked like something out of a magical world.


This is called the "point and run" pose.


We saw several flocks of small birds eating off the highway at one point, and one flock wasn't quite quick enough to get out of the way.  We must have had about 8 or 9 of them hit our windshield and we noticed this unfortunate guy later.


We were trying to find the town of Jasper and instead found ourselves on this road.  No, we didn't obey the sign.  We live life on the edge, and "the edge" in this case happened to be a dead-end CN Railroad yard. Better excitement next time, maybe.


It was pretty comical to see a whole herd of big-horned sheep refusing to get off the highway.  Semi's were honking their horns and vehicles were driving all around them and they wouldn't budge.



We made a stop in Olds, Alberta, to visit a good friend of mine (and her family) who I went to High School with in Papua New Guinea.  


And then came the prairies.  Beautiful in their own way.



Here's dad trying to prove how warm it was this afternoon.  
 

We'd planned on spending the night in Regina, but apparently it's impossible to find a hotel the same weekend as the Grey Cup.  Had we any knowledge of sports whatsoever we may have been tipped off about this a whole lot earlier than this morning.  So, we change our plans!  What fun would this trip be if we can't make a few memories along the way, right?

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Farewell, Wanderlust


Winter has finally come to Quesnel, and I spent the first few days of it loving being able to bundle up in the cooler temperatures and enjoy the snow which I hadn’t seen in three years.  Then one morning I spent 20 minutes trying to warm up my car and scrape the ice off the windows, at which point I wasn’t too thrilled about winter anymore.  My South Pacific blood may take a while to get used to this. 

With the onslaught of winter, it doesn’t seem like the best time to take a road trip, but come Friday morning my brave VW Jetta, myself and my dad will start our five day journey across the country.  Destination: Durham, Ontario.   


In January I’ll be starting my new job at the New Tribes Mission home office, and driving there this week will allow me to get my car (and as many belongings as I can fit) there as well as spend a couple of weeks looking for a house/apartment to rent.  I'm thankful for the chance to then fly home to BC for the holidays, and on December 31st I'll fly back to Ontario to settle in. 

January will mark a full year that I’ve been in constant moving/packing/travelling mode (on top of the normal moving/packing/travelling of missionary life), and the wanderlust that I’ve felt for most of my life has begun to wane.  I’m ready to put my suitcases and boxes away for a while and am looking forward to what's ahead in Ontario.  

So, for now I say goodbye to wanderlust…but maybe we’ll meet again someday.