now my mind is free to walk the streets we used to walk so quietly

time flies.

as you all may have guessed or heard, i made it to halifax! i'm here! i have a place to live and a job and a new room mate. i kept monica, of course. don't worry, we're still friends. but we had a third girl move in to be able to afford this place we found. plus she's nice and cute and needed a place to live.

i have been working on the pictures thing. in fact, i designed a nice page for them, prepped them, uploaded them... they should be ready for your viewing pleasure. but for some reason they hate me and won't work. i can't figure it out. and i'm too stubborn and angry to give up and post them some other way. so those of you that are still patiently checking this page and waiting for something interesting will have to wait longer. but i thank you for your interest. it is appreciated. and hopefully, someday, it will be rewarded.

my mom's coming to visit me! i'm a little excited about that. i've been telling everyone. all the ladies i work with are giving me tips as to what we can do while she's here. she'll be here on sunday. i'll play tourist with her and get some pictures of the city to add to the list of pictures i'm going to post here one day. in the possibly distant future.

so apartment... it is technically called a flat here (makes me feel a little european). not all apartments are, just those that are parts of a house. we have the top floor of a cute blue and yellow house with a nice view of the ocean and the bridge to dartmouth. it's big and open with lots of windows. i'm actually a little surprised by how great of a place we found. hardwood throughout, laundry in the building, only two other suites, landlord is very nice, and we can have the dog. we're slowly accumulating crappy old furniture. it's fun starting over. i do miss having nice things tho. i'll just have to find new ones.

and job... one thing you notice immediately here is that wages are drastically lower and the cost of living is actually higher. i wasn't worried about the wages at first because you assume the costs would be lower as well, but because there are two universities here and it's expensive to have things shipped here, it's quite the opposite. graphic design does not pay particularly well - but i am still looking. in the meantime, i have a job at a cheque processing office and i rather like it. i work with a bunch of middle aged women who are a hoot. you heard me, a hoot. i'm being trained by henry and marty. those are both women. good times. the work itself is even kind of interesting, at least for now.

i'm at the library and the computer is telling me time is up, so i'm off. sorry this took me so long. i really wanted to have the pictures done. but i'll fight with it some more.

you can't build fences around life

it has been too long! so much has happened. i will try to recap efficiently...

montreal is my newest love. i am completely smitten. i would have stayed but i do still really want to see halifax. but if i don't love halifax i will go back. it was too wonderful to stay away. i don't even know if i can explain why i love it so. it's beautiful and interesting and exciting. you can bring your own wine to restaurants, buy fresh cheese at an open air market after sampling the local beers, listen to a U2 cover band at an irish pub... i can't even remember everything we did. but i think of the city and i glow with happiness.

a big part of that would be thanks to gerald and heidi, our wonderful hosts and tour guides. i can't thank them enough. we would have been completely lost without them.

trois rivieres was a unique experience. we visited mike kiloso and met the family he lives with. they are all from the congo, so they spoke swahili with each other, french with monica, and little bits of english with me. then they fed us traditional african food. that was an experience all its own. i'm glad to have done it, but i don't know that i would do it again.

quebec city was beautiful. we spent the day wandering in old quebec and enjoying every view. ooo and i bought some amazing boots that i am in love with. they were regular $210... i got them for $40! a woo hoo. they don't have a name yet, but they may soon. they're that cute.

now we are on the east coast. in gaspe, specifically. the gaspe peninsula is the most breathtakingly beautiful place i have seen since bc. the weather has been miserable again but it's probably for the best since ava would overheat on the hills if it was the least bit warm.

that will have to do for now since my computer is going to die on me at any moment. pictures to come... eventually!

this is the sound of the days burning the light of our nights

today we made it to ottawa. strangely enough, monica thoroughly enjoyed it and i was not overly impressed. that's not completely true. i enjoyed it, but i wouldn't want to live here, while monica would. we felt the same but opposite about winnipeg and ottawa.

did that make any sense?

yesterday we would have made it to ottawa but i put ava in the ditch. i was backing up and took the corner too wide. i'm not even entirely sure how it happened, i just know how ill i felt when i realized it had. we walked to the gas station down the street and, thankfully, the caa tow truck was right there. there was no damage to the van and we only lost about an hour. and i think monica has forgiven me.

i hope.

sat and stared at the parliament buildings today. they're big and old. we didn't go in. i figured inside would be about as interesting as outside. but we did go to the national art gallery and that was nice. saw some van gogh's, monet's, degas', and such. one mondrian i was pretty thrilled with and the greiner pictured here. it was the one painting that made me stop and smile.

we also went to the museum of civilization. i think i'm a little museum'ed out. i'm excited to wander the streets of old montreal and eat fattening food... world famous poutine and smoked meat here i come.

nobody owns anything and everyone is free

so, um, wow. we went to cirque du soleil today, and it was ubertastic. scrumtrulescent. i sat and gaped in open-mouthed amazement, occasionally realizing that i was shrieking with delight. there were contortionists, acrobats, trapezists, jugglers, unicyclers... i can't even begin to describe how wonderful it was. here's a link to the cirque du soleil site, and select kooza under shows: http://www.cirquedusoleil.com. it might give you an idea of its fantastic-ness.

yesterday we went to the stratford festival and saw an ideal husband by oscar wilde. it was great fun. i was surprised by how many famous quotes i recognized. it made me want to see the importance of being earnest.

later we went to some brother's house to watch a movie, and instead of watching clever and witty comedy, we watched transformers. mind-numbing transformers. but it was fun. we got to hang out with some very cool people, including a guy who knew gio and michelle in oliver many years ago.

oo and today after the circus we went to 'the clothing show'. it was an exhibition of vintage and original clothes and accessories. i could have spent bazoodles of dollars, but i didn't have that. i bought a hat instead. and walked away filled with inspiration for things i probably will never make. much cheaper than this coat that i will dream of for the next year.

turn my face to the wall

so this weekend is pretty much amazing. we've spent the past couple days working our way south through ontario. ava is aligned and driving very well. yesterday we went to erin, which was even more exciting than i hoped. it's a gorgeous little town with four leaf clovers plastered all over. their slogan is 'experience the charm.' so accurate.

today we went to bethel, which was wonderful, of course. we got our directions online but they were misleading so we were late. we managed to keep it together, but of course we were both freaking out inside. after we'd gone in circles for a few minutes and confirmed that we were horribly lost, i phoned bethel and told the guy in reception what was going on. of course, as soon as i explained where we were, monica spotted the watchtower sign. so we made it. we missed the first prayer but we got the food. which was fettuccine alfredo with lots of vegetables on the side and coconut sherbet for dessert.

we saw karen markus, and jean funk, but that was about it. the whole place felt kind of empty during the tour. we had sixteen people in our group, with people from ottawa, winnipeg, hamilton, kentucky... and somewhere else i can't remember. the picture is of two adorable boys on our tour from the place i can't remember with our tour guide, who claimed to be mario lemieux's nephew.

when we first checked in for the tour the brother at the desk asked where we were from, so we told him bc. he got all excited and says, 'are you the girls driving across canada in the van?' we were a little confused but we couldn't deny it, so then he jumps up and comes around the desk. at first i thought he was going to give us a hug but instead he introduces us to the other people waiting in the lobby and tells us to tell them the story of when we broke down. it was strange.

turns out he's room mates with a guy whose mom is friends with one of the sisters who had us stay in the past week, and the story just got passed along. we felt like celebrities.

this weekend continues to get better, with stratford tomorrow, cirque du soleil sunday, and shopping downtown toronto monday.

it's only lies that i'm living

this morning i am in sault sainte marie. we were here for the weekend, catching the circuit assembly again. the reeds are serving here now so we couldn't pass up the opportunity to see them. br reed's talks are as good as ever and we even got to talk with them for a few minutes, which was wonderful.

it's strange to go to an assembly where you don't really know a single person. saturday people were a little wary of the random girls sleeping in the parking lot but on sunday it seemed like everyone knew who we were - the vw girls on their way east. one sister invited us over for dinner and showers. i have never appreciated showering as much as i do these days. turns out her and her husband went to the international convention in mexico city with phil peters in 2003. it was very strange to see pictures of phil in their album.

we're off to blind river, where another couple kindly offered to do the alignment on the van. it's wonderful how willing people are to help out in any way they can. then tonight we should get almost to sudbury, tomorrow to warren, then down to guelph by thursday, with lunch at bethel on friday!! i'm so excited for that.

the other night we were looking at the map, figuring out where we have left to go, and something clicked over in my mind. we're over halfway. we're in the last half of the trip. it's going to end soon. and as excited as i am to be discover halifax, i am very sad that this is going to be over. we probably have three weeks left, which is lots of time, but it feels different now. we don't get to be on the road forever. the end is in sight. i don't like that feeling.

though as it gets colder i probably won't mind so much.

one day i'll be sand on a beach by the sea

winnipeg was beautiful. i really enjoyed it. but apparently i'm enjoying everything. so for those of you who think i'm too happy on this trip, here are a couple of complaints:

the wind: ava is a lightweight and the wind can be very pushy. it makes driving very stressful when the wind is strong, as it was for most of the prairies. when we're driving into it, we can't get over 80km. if it's behind us, that's the best because then we might hit 105. but if it's to either side, that's the absolute worst. i have to crank the wheel right into it to stay straight on the road. which gets scary as the wind shifts, or semis pass, and we're veering all over the place.

my bed: i can't even really complain about this. i genuinely enjoy my loft. it's not the most comfortable, but it makes for a good story. i have a military-style cot that folds out in the pop-top area. the first night i slept in it i thought i was going to fall through but since then i have duct taped it extensively and now it's sturdy, if nothing else. this picture doesn't do it justice. i'll have to get one of the cot before my bed is made. then you'll understand.

i'm sorry. that wasn't much complaining at all. and i can't even think of anything i could complain about if i was so inclined. this is one of my dream trips and virtually everything about it is wonderful. i fall in love with nearly every place we stay and every congregation we visit. i love our ridiculously slow pace - we're just crawling out of our camp spot when most of the rv'ers are pulling in for the night. we go hours out of our way to find lavinia or mcmunn simply because we want a picture with the town sign.

what i most love is when we show up at a meeting, how the brothers and sisters make us feel so welcome and really go out of their way to help us. if we're staying in town we have to stay with someone from the congregation, and we always get fed so well by at least one sister in the hall. for instance, tonight we are in dryden, on. the tiny congregation here has us staying in a cabin at a resort run by witnesses. we got to visit with the ones that live around here in the kitchen cabin over rhubarb pie and hot chocolate this evening after the meeting. in the morning a sister is making us pancakes and we're supposed to make it to another sister's for lunch on our way out of town. and if we're not staying in the area, people offer us names and numbers of people they know further along our road in case we need anything.

some nights it's really cold. that's not pleasant. and i hate when i wake up in the middle of the night and i have to go outside to find a bathroom, sometimes even walking to the nearest all night gas station. but really, even that's kinda funny.

sorry guys. i'm keeping my rose coloured glasses. i'm happiest on the road. i'm sure once i get to halifax and settle into 'real' life again i'll have plenty of complaints. and then none of you will want to hear them.

with a whisper and a hush the fields revealed themselves to me

we made it to winnipeg. it's weird to think that if we hadn't changed the plan this would be the end of the road for us. our fun has only begun. we're camping in the kingdom hall parking lot again here. it's the cheapest and safest choice, i think.

winnipeg is neat. lots of history. that just means we saw big old buildings as we drove in to town. we also drove through a hood. it was scary. i thought we might get shot. apparently poverty is a big problem here.

i don't have a whole lot to say yet. we haven't done a whole lot. we're going to explore the city now. hopefully after we find somewhere for me to brush my teeth.

i'm the coffee not the sleep

this has to be a quick one. i'm sitting at a table in a brother and sister's kitchen on a farm in southern saskatchewan. we just finished an amazing lunch which included some of the fresh corn, watermelon and cantaloupe that they grow themselves. the best ever. i could be convinced to live here if i could eat like this all the time.

we were in moose jaw the other day and now we're making our way through the big muddy badlands. it's our outlaw trail. we toured the tunnels under moose jaw where al capone used to hide and now we're trying to find the caves that butch cassidy and the sundance kid used.

i never expected saskatchewan to be pretty but it really is. there are boring parts but there are also beautiful valleys and rolling hills.

o dear. time to go. lunch is over and we're going to roll ourselves into the van. hopefully we get close to the manitoba border tonight. tomorrow we'd like to see the international peace garden, then winnipeg on friday. i'm working on getting pictures ready to post on here. hopefully not too long. or, more likely, i won't get it done until i'm settled somewhere.

you cocked your head to shoot me down

we made it to saskatchewan! it feels like the trip has finally begun, even though i have been on the road for over a month already. we're in prince albert, staying with dear friends, the norgaards. it's giving us a chance to eat real, homecooked food, wash some of our clothes, and do a couple minor repairs on ava.

i have to say, though, so far we haven't had to go very long without those things. i hope this wonderful treatment continues. we don't really know very many people from here on out. last night we met some people from the russian group in toronto and they kindly offered us a place to stay. hopefully we get to go to a russian meeting while we're there too. the language and culture has fascinated me for years.

Stage Two: Nelson and the Wedding or Love is Alive and Well in the Kootenays:

My awesome little red-headed Britta was getting married. So strange. But great, as it turns out. We spent the week putting together all the little details and hanging out with some fantastic people. Including Ryan, of course, as he was the groom-to-be. And many others, some whose emails I either lost or never got. (Chantelle, Tanys, Amanda, Brad, Mike - if you’re out there, you should get a hold of me). There was much laughter and frivolity along with a little panic and frustration. It all came together in the end. The wedding was gorgeous. Very classy. It seemed like everyone had a blast.

Ryan and Britta generously let me stay at their place when they went on their honeymoon. The plan was to hang out in Nelson until Monica showed up with Ava and Savanna. Unfortunately, her departure kept getting delayed due to circumstances beyond her control. Not that I minded staying in Nelson for as long as it took. I would have been content to live there. I think it’s my favourite place at the moment. (If you’re ever there you must go to Full Circle for breakfast. I could eat there everyday.)

It was nice too because I got to spend time with my parents and Steve, which I hadn’t really done before I left PG. One night John and Karen (Britta’s parents) took me and my mom and dad out in their sailboat for some late night dessert and stargazing. We watched the meteor shower and drank hot chocolate. Does it get better than that? I say, not so much.

Stage One: Prince George to Nelson or Letting the Rage Subside

My journey began on a Tuesday morning when I drove the Hulk, my little Firefly, out of Prince George. I enjoyed a quiet solo drive through the Okanagan and into the Kootenay’s. I was feeling a little haggard because I had spent the previous week or so packing all my worldly possessions and saying goodbye to friends and family so I really needed that time to unwind and breathe.

For the most part the trip was pleasantly uneventful. At one point I stopped for gas and topped up the oil. As I drove out of that town (somewhere between Kamloops and Penticton) I got caught in a stream of traffic. Someone in the line was spewing blue smoke. I wondered who it could be and why they didn’t get off the road. But as the traffic dispersed, I realized it was me. I couldn’t figure out why the Hulk would suddenly begin burning oil so I pulled into the next rest stop. I went around to the front and there was oil all over the hood. I swear I put the oil cap back on after filling and it popped out as I started driving. So there was oil all over the engine. All over. It was awful. But at least it could still run.

To some extent at least. The hills nearly killed the Firefly but we made it to Nelson eventually. Where I found my little bride-to-be and we had a wonderful visit before going to sleep.

driving with mittens and lap blankets

we ended up spending five days in high level. it was wonderful. not exactly my favourite place ever but the people were overwhelmingly hospitable. they gave us a key to the hall so we could use the bathroom and the internet when we needed it. we felt very special. though it almost felt wrong to do our dishes in the kh bathroom. almost.

a brother who is a mechanic from grande prairie diagnosed ava over the phone and put the new distributor points in for us thursday morning. took him all of five minutes. so that afternoon we headed up to yellowknife. we were so unbelievably cold driving. it was rainy and gross. we layered every warm piece of clothing we had. unfortunately for me, that wasn't much. but once we crossed the river on the ferry, it started to warm up. we actually ended up building a fire and having wine and banana boats at our campsite.

the drive from fort providence to yellowknife is very interesting. it's only after the river that the landscape really starts to change. the trees begin to shrink bit by bit until they only come up a few feet. and there is pink granite everywhere. it's still very flat and slightly barren looking but intriguing. i loved that in some parts the road has been paved with local rock and so they are bright pink too. i have pictures and i'll put them up when i get a chance.

we got into yellowknife in the afternoon on friday. the population there is apparently about twenty thousand. they have a walmart but no starbucks. the old part of the town is all built up on a hill on the shore of great slave lake. the town has a lot of character. i enjoyed it much more than i expected to. and the people are fun. i mean, who would move to yellowknife? they have to have an adventurous spirit, if nothing else.

i really enjoyed the assembly. i won't reveal much here because pg has their's next weekend, but i will say that i found it very direct. perhaps that was just the brothers up here. it was great though. there was about 160 there, with three baptized. and on sunday probably half of the people went to a brother and sister's for dinner. very fun. the circuit and district overseer were there with their wives (the attics and the charlands). we also met a brother who very kindly offered to try to get us in to bethel for a night. we'll see how successful he is.

right now we're in hay river. this is our overnight point on our way back south. tomorrow we'll stay in high level again, then somewhere on lesser slave lake, through edmonton and on to prince albert by friday, hopefully. unless we break down again. *eek*

the back lane came alive, half moon whispered 'go'

to my small but patient audience:

sorry about the delay. you should all know i'm a procrastinator. i have no other excuse. but i have been working on getting this updated. i'm skipping ahead to an amazing experience we had, but then i will go back and catch you guys up on what's been going on so far.

we spent this past saturday night in the kingdom hall parking lot in high level, alberta. we got in quite late and figured that was the best way to get to the meeting in the morning. which we did. and met every witness in high level, it felt like. it's a congregation of about forty and they are very friendly. the couple that lives in the hall, the dillons, had us over for lunch. (coincidentally, turns out they are related to my red-headed britta). then we packed up and headed out of town on our way to hay river, nwt, at about three.

we got about an hour down the road - that would be a whopping 60km in the van - when the van completely lost power and monica pulled over to the side of the road. we couldn't get her started again. she was turning over but just not starting. we had a full tank of gas. so we pulled out the manuals and started diagnosing the problem. we did some tests, including pulling off the hose to the fuel pump and making sure it was working. that was fun. sprayed gas in monica's face. we were still baffled after an hour. we took a break for dinner and to collect our wits, at which point we prayed for help and enjoyed an egg salad sandwich.

we played with the engine for another hour, then we gave up and tried calling ama. unfortunately we were out of cell range. we were starting to think we could camp there on the side of the road until the people from high level came by on their way to their assembly. that would only be a week. (ack.)

just at that moment a car pulled over and two guys got out to see if they could help. one of them said he'd worked with cars quite a bit so he offered to take a look. we showed them what we had done and he started playing with some of the wires. they mentioned they were on their way home to calgary from toronto by way of hay river. we were laughing about the detour we were both making and we asked what they had been doing in toronto. they said they just took a course there. a little later in the conversation i asked the one guy what kind of course they had taken, and he says, it's called a ministerial training school. i nearly died. mine and monica's eyes bugged out of our heads and we laughed hysterically. none of us could believe it. when i think about it now it's crazy that they even stopped at all because we were just sitting in the van at that point. we didn't even have the hazards on because they don't work. God really takes care of his servants, hey? even lowly little us.

so the rest of the story is that we think the coil is dead and we had the van towed back to high level. we're back camping in the kingdom hall parking lot awaiting the part. it should get here tomorrow morning from edmonton. craziness hey!? turns out these guys, phil and vin, are from the mandarin congregation in calgary. i've probably seen, if not met, them before. we were joking that this was a sign that they were going to be sent to pg to help the mandarin group get started. vin did mention that russel reed had told him that one of the places in canada that needs help with chinese is pg. neat, hey?

anyway, we're doing great. the congregation here is taking excellent care of us. and hopefully we'll be in hay river for the meeting tomorrow night. if the van doesn't get fixed tomorrow we're thinking we might stick around here and see if we can go to the assembly in yellowknife. we'll see how things go.