Love!

56 years!

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown, while we have travelled westward and are found on the shore of Lake Wascana in the middle of the rain-soaked prairies. We are trying to follow the Three Rule—drive no more than 3 hours a day; arrive by 3pm; stay up to 3 days. On Sunday morning, we enjoyed a fine breakfast with the Knutsons and an uplifting assembly with the local congregation. Then, we resumed our journey west. This time, we were trying to drive at 90 km/h, to see how that worked out. We stopped in Brandon for coffee with Charlie and Bonnie, a nice time for sure. Then, we continued to Elkhorn to visit with Bill and Angie, that was also an encouraging time. We accepted their invitation to spend the night, and enjoyed a wonderful breakfast of oatmeal porridge prepared by Bill. They were off early to Brandon to commence the next phase of his treatments. We continued West, driving through my childhood haunts of Fairlight and Wawota and stopping in to see the new camp buildings at Clearview. We found where Bernard and Alicia were camping and enjoyed some wonderful coffee that Alicia had prepared and which matched her description! Then, we drove up to Kennedy where we visited with Ray and Ellen along with Heather and Sydney. And finally, we caught up with Dave and Heather out at their camp and enjoyed a good time of conversation, games, and supper. We retired to the RV for the night and woke in time to have a sumptuous breakfast. Fatefully, that was our last good decision of the day. Wendy was determined that the road to Regina passed through Weyburn. I explained that the path to Weyburn passed through Kisbey. We were both wrong! The road to Kisbey was blocked and led to many kilometres of orienteering, through the back roads, through the MUDDY back roads! Several U-turns later and a many mud holes later, we found another grid road heading down to Forget that allowed us to get to the highway and then onto Weyburn. We enjoyed lunch with Kresten and Star and their kids and a tour of their new house. Then, we were finally able to complete the trip to Regina. we have spent the rest of this week parked in Erin‘s parking lot and enjoying the comfort of her air-conditioned home. Taking into account the muddy roads and driving against prevailing winds, we found no particular difference in fuel usage, but we will keep experimenting! We had a few small projects here, but now we are ready to continue the trip toward Yellowknife. Wendy and I have each picked up a cold, so we were able to bark at each other for our 56th anniversary today! We haven’t decided exactly when we will head north yet, but the plan is for Monday. Otherwise, the world continues its troubled ways, the Orange War flares up from time to time, and the economic situation becomes more dire. The world of sports is profoundly focused on the World Cup, but I still have time to follow the Jays and the Riders both of whom won yesterday, but then the Jays got slaughtered today! 

Erica writes, "Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad! We enjoyed a week at the cabin—a place we rented on Emma Lake with our friends, Guido and Tina. It rained for most of the week, but we had some moments to get out on the boat and do some fishing. Of course, the best day was Saturday, our last day! It makes me wonder at the luxury of my youth where we spent most of the summer at a cabin. If we wanted to do that now, we would need another high paying job to pay for it. Economics has definitely changed in the last 35 years. Liam has been with us all week and we have had a few minutes here and there to discuss our house renovations. We had planned to finish up the kitchen this summer, but with Eric's and my new jobs taking us out of town and a few other expenses, we have decided to scale down our plans for this summer, and wait until next summer to finish the kitchen. This summer will be focused on finishing up the two bathrooms and a few other small projects. Eric is preaching this Sunday and all three of us are playing on the worship team. Then, Eric and I return to the north on Monday."

We arrived at Erin and Kristian's place on Tuesday. We all celebrated Canada Day on Wednesday, then they were back to work. I was able to get the downstairs sink working properly—it was plugged with something, but Wendy's Norwex descaler made overnight work of that.

Egg Chair/Trellis Area

Then, I turned to work on the back patio area. I got the flower boxes ready to go, and repaired the trellis. Erin bought new plants, and she planted those, and I laid out the irrigation system. Looks like she is set for another growing/harvesting season. She has already been picking peas, and I see some tomatoes and strawberries ripening. 

Travis and Joanna are managing their own store back in Thunder Bay. They also took care of sending me a package with my compression stockings that I had left behind. Thanks! I did notice leg issues while driving without it, even though we're not putting in long days following the Three Rule! They also take responsibility for tracking us down when we fail to update everyone on our daily activity. Hey, someone has to take responsibility! 

And that's enough for this week.