Mon June 30, 2008

This is Ila writing tonight but I know I will recruit other help as well. We left Teslin this am and heading on the way which will eventually lead us to home. But we have a lot of miles to travel to get there. We are, tonight, in Dease Lake BC. I am guessing we have traveled a total of somewhere around 7500 miles. Linda has had the van serviced two times so far. Today's travel was a combination of road types. We had blacktop, holes, big rocks (kind of like some they dumped on Iowa's gravel roads this spring), loose gravel (some fresh and some pretty well packed). To say the least, the roads are interesting and one has to take care and watch closely. I likened a part of today to being better than Africa roads and some reading this will know what I mean. Difference is there is no driving off the road because then you would either be in water or bushes. Road shoulders are non existent. We praise the Lord we have stayed safe. We did see our first accident yesterday. It appeared pretty severe in that an SUV had done a roll over and was laying on its top. We could not stop because law enforcement were there and also an ambulance but we heard farther down the road that no one was killed so we have prayed for those involved even though we don't know their actual condition.

Today was actually a lot of driving for Linda and a lot of riding for Phyllis and Ila. But again I will reiterate, we are safe. Our motel room was definitely an answer to prayer. Along this particular stretch of road, motels are scarce. We came into Dease Lake and both (2) motels had "no vacancy" signs posted. But we decided to stop at one and ask if they could recommend how far down the road we would have to travel to find other accomodations and/or call ahead for us since our cell phones do not work in Canada. It just so happened the man had one room he had not rented out because one of the pipes on the sink had broken and it was not usable. BUT, he has let us have the room at a discount as long as we do not use the sink. So we have to wash our hands in the tub. I told him -- I grew up with NO running water so washing my hands in the tub is certainly not a problem.

We did see some animals today. First off we came across a LARGE moose that had a huge set of antlers. But we did not manage to get a picture because just as we got stopped, the moose decided to vamoose. There were about five vehicles stopped and I guess it thought that was too many. Then we came upon a small black bear. It didn't look very old and was actually pretty close to the roadway. We did manage to get some pictures but the bear wandered off into the bushes too. The last animal(s) we found were a group of mountain goats that were right beside the road. We stopped but a couple of semis passed us in an area of loose gravel and that pretty much sent the group scattering. We did get a few pictures of a couple of them that didn't leave the scene.

Our choices for food here are a nice, very expensive restaurant or a pub, which our motel manager said served good food. BUT, being the godly women we are, we didn't go to the pub and probably should have because there was nothing on the menu at Mama Z's under $10 and the buffet was $21.95. I wasn't really hungry and neither was Phyllis and when Linda asked for a baked potato, you would have thought she ask for "gold." So we all had a salad, which they took from the buffet and we ended up paying a variety of prices for it. Stupid huh?! I think we will all be glad to see the US border of the lower 48 states. Those of you who have been on WW out of the country will smile when you read this because you will all remember the cheering that goes on in the airplane when we set down on US soil.

Well, I have managed to fill a lot of space with probably a lot of nothing but hope you enjoy reading. Linda is anxiously awaiting a new grandchild in Kansas City. Jodi went into the hospital this morning and they were starting her labor but when Linda talked with her at 9:30 pm (your time), the baby had not arrived yet. Obviously we do have internet tonight for which we are thankful and Linda was able to send the motel phone number to Melinda and Melinda had Jodi call. So we are hoping to hear of a new baby by morning.