Stormy Weather - Day 8

Saturday, August 9th - Day 8 

Another great day. We hit 63.2 miles. It was cold for the first time since we’ve been in Canada. It POURED last night. There were tornado warnings and there was golf ball size hail. We lost power in the motor home (from the campground) twice. Took off walking (long walk today) and it looked like it could pour at any minute and the temp was in the low 60’s. Ww worried a little about what to do if it started raining as we were a distance from any shelter. Our Lord kept it OK and it finally started clearing up around noon. We did 28 miles walking, a new record! The main reason we’ve done so much walking is that it is very very windy and hard to bike. We did get 35.2 miles riding however.

Right now we are preparing dinner and our chief cook Tim Bradwell is cooking stir fry. Gosh, it sure smells great. On a side note, Tim is getting so excited watching us ride and walk that he is doing the same and keeping us on our toes. Nancy, you won’t know this guy when he gets home. (Note:  Tim’s words are “he is out of control Nancy”)

You’ve asked us to tell you where we are on our trek. It’s Saturday and we are in Battleford, Saskatchewan, tonight. A nice campground with FREE showers (and boy do we need them). We have centennial coins from the their recent celebration to show you, given to us by a supposed town official.

To clarify something from before, I talked about going down hill into a valley and being white knuckled which made me end up pressing so hard that I had no strength in my hands later. Several asked what I meant by that. Let me explain..my grip was so tight and gone by days end that when I tried to cut my finger nails last night using a fingernail clipper I couldn’t squeeze the clipper with my fore finger and thumb enough to cut the nail. Does that help?

NOTE: There is a sign posted here in Battleford that they need bus driver for the 14-15 season. $26.00 per hour. WOW! For those of you that do well with math that’s over $50,000 a year before benefits. Tim wanted to stay and apply but we talked him into continuing (you are welcome Nancy)!

Note 2:  Hwy 16 (where we travel most of the time) is a 4 lane freeway (very similar in usage to I-35 in the states) but there is a drive lane outside the main lanes where we ride. Unfortunately there are times when that extra 6’ is only gavel/sand and we can’t ride on it. In that case we make up our miles riding around in the town where we are staying. FYI.

Note 3: There are more Tim Hortons up here (which I’d never heard of before) than McDonalds or anything else. They are like a Mr Donut’s. We have been to several. Did I mention they have McDonald’s in every Walmart? 

God is still blessing us, this is certain. We do recognize the wisdom we’ve heard and read regarding 6 days of work and rest on the 7th day (the Sabbath). We may start “observing” that tomorrow. We’ve done over 25% of the trip at this point, but we’re not sure we can make another day (more or less 1300 miles) but we will keep doing it with the Lord as our driver.

~Chuck