July 24-26, 2009

Friday morning we had our first hotel breakfast with hot eggs on this long journey. We stayed at the HI Express in Missoula, Montana and they always have good breakfasts. I'm gonna rant just a bit here as I complain about my weight and the surprise gain. The writing of this post is occurring on August 8 and before leaving on this trip I changed out some clothes from home. A pair of pants that fit very well before the Canada trip are now SNUG. I was so upset I stumbled and stammered over my words trying to spit out my horrible discovery to Bobby two days ago. While on the previous trip, I saw myself in pictures and thought, "Man, I look fat!" Then I started feeling fat. I ate pretty minimal amounts of food, especially in the evenings (except at Nowell's house) so I decided that I had to back off of the hotel breakfasts. Every hotel we stayed in, as nice as they might have been, lacked protein for breakfast. Finally on the third week, while in Idaho, I decided to bring my own peanut butter in and spread it on some toast. It still wasn't a great breakfast but at least I was eating some protein. There wasn't even any fruit in most places. Just...BREAD! Waffles, bread, danishes, muffins, juice and coffee. But even after changing my breakfasts I still had gained a considerable amount of weight and then two days ago it hit me...sitting! That's all I've done for the last six weeks. Oh, there's been some walking at Mount Rushmore, Sandy Creek, and the Lewis and Clark exhibit. But not enough to counter the hours of sitting in the van day after day. I have clothes to exercise in but only about once a week did we stay in a hotel with a fitness room. I don't feel safe walking or running outside the hotel. So I must just take advantage of the opportunities to exercise when I get them. That may mainly be at home. The problem with the last trip was that I was not home for six weeks and I confess this weight gain really caught me off guard. If we do something like this next year, I'm gonna be ready. The good news is, I can lose the weight and I will. Told you I was gonna rant.

So, back to Missoula and the hot eggs. We set out on Interstate 90 and then cut cross country on US 12 eastward to Interstate 15. We only made it as far as Conrad. We could have gotten closer to the Canadian border but Bobby wanted to stay in a Super 8 because he's racking up points and there were no more Super 8's north of Conrad. It was good to retire a little early for the evening. I got a couple of loads of laundry done and some kids in bed a little earlier than usual. It's also been our custom on this trip to schedule our border crossings to the north first thing in the morning so as to arrive there with a cleaner and more organized van and cheerful children.

Saturday morning we had our breakfast of bread and peanut butter and then headed north to cross the border one more time. The previous two crossings were done at Pembina, North Dakota but this time we crossed at Sweetgrass, Montana, a place Bobby had crossed before. However, there was something Bobby forgot about this crossing. We pulled up to the agent's window and answered the usual questions, "Where are you going? How long are you staying? What will you be doing? How many in the vehicle and their ages? Do you have any firearms or tobacco? What's in the trailer? Do you have cash in excess of ten thousand dollars? (To which Bobby always answered, "I wish.") But then the agent gave us instruction on where to park and for all of us to come inside. Oh great! I tried to act happy to be there because I didn't want the kids to worry about anything. But you can't help but feel somewhat criminal in a situation like that. When we walked into the building Bobby finally remembered this was routine for this particular border crossing. Bobby had remembered that Sweetgrass was where the band had been held for six hours one time but not until we walked into the building did he remember that it was routine for everyone to have to get out and come in.

MidSouth was held up here because the inspection agents found about fifteen posters on the bus. That doesn't sound like a big deal but when the guys had been questioned about everything on board and promised the agent that everything they had said was true, it didn't go over too well when the agent found some un-accounted for posters. When the guys said, "Oh we forgot about those," the agent sarcastically replied, "Uh huh! Alright, everyone inside." It took six hours for everything to be taken off the bus and the bus gone over with a fine-toothed comb. Fortunately the guys weren't singing that night so they didn't miss a concert. I know that if Bobby ever suggests we cross at Sweetgrass again, I'll be sure to remember why we don't want to cross there. We weren't held long either and were soon on our way again without any other inconveniences.

I have to admit that at one point, Grace screamed out once and that's usually something we scold her for and try to stifle while in public. However, this time I looked over at her and whispered, "Do it again!" I thought maybe if she pitched a fit they would move us ahead in line and hurry us right on outta there. That screaming she does sometimes will make your eyes cross.

We arrived at Maple Creek, Saskatchewan around 4:30 in the afternoon at supposedly the only motel in town. I sure don't want to offend anyone but I have to say the weekend was a bit rough mainly because of the motel. I think writing about it helps me see the humor in the whole experience and I can enjoy it now that I can look back at it. The building looked a bit primitive and when we walked into it late Saturday afternoon, the temperature inside was at least one hundred degrees. There was a small window air conditioning unit stuck up in the corner of the room and after we turned it on, it

began the uphill climb of trying to cool that room off. We unloaded and tried our best to freshen up before heading out to find the town park where Diamond Willow Cowboy Church had a semi trailer set up for a stage. The Anglican Church across the street from the park was celebrating their one hundredth year on this same evening so the two churches decided to combine their efforts and have a bigger event together rather than compete with each other.

As Bobby set up and Grace, who had already eaten stayed in the cool van, the other three children and I went across the street to the Anglican Church's tent where they had burgers and stuff. Just in case you're wondering what I ate, I'll tell you. I had a hamburger patty without the bread, mustard, slaw with vinegar dressing and a bottle of water. See? I'm telling you I didn't eat that poorly on this trip. My problem is I sat way too much. Have you ever heard of "secretary's spread?" Well...how 'bout "road trip spread?"

The town folks brought their lawn chairs and sat at the opposite end of the yard from the stage. Of course we didn't have lawn chairs so I stood behind the trailer/stage which was enclosed except for one side, with steps coming down the back side of it. Fortunately, the monitors were great so I could hear our children sing very well from where I stood at the bottom of the steps on the back side of the stage. UNfortunately, Faith, who's trying to hear that third part has started singing like she's tone deaf half the time. Every now and then she harmonizes but much of the time it sounds like she lacks talent and her wavy singing caught Landis and Hope off guard and they began to giggle. They giggle/sang their way through their song and when they were finished and as Bobby approached them and took his guitar back from Landis he said, "That was awful!" The audience didn't hear him but the kids did and I knew it was going to break Hope's heart. Sure enough, I watched her face as she walked down the steps and her weak smile faded with each step down until at the last step she broke into tears, grabbed my waist and sobbed saying, "I sang TERRIBLE! (boo hoo)" I laughed and assured her it was Faith that sang terrible. Bobby is usually very good about telling the kids he's proud of them and I don't think that one negative comment will scar the kids for life or anything. It made me laugh, but I'm kinda weird.

Our room was still stifling when we got back to it between 9:00 and 10:00, but we got ready for bed and just tried to lay very still without blankets. As the kids complained, Bobby and I told them this is how it used to be every summer night for us as kids. Between the heat, the hard mattress and Grace deciding she didn't want to sleep, we did not get a good night's rest but thankfully by dawn the room had cooled considerably. We ate breakfast at the motel restaurant and then sought out Maple Creek Assembly of God where we met a wonderful pastor and his wife, Hans and Janet Martens. Pastor Hans is originally from Denmark and used to call himself an athiest. His greatest joy in his youth was pursuing theological arguments with Christians. He walked into Maple Creek Assembly one Sunday and just sat and listened with doubt and skeptism. Little did he know that he would not only believe in and live for the Almighty God, Creator of the Universe one day but that he would actually shepherd that very congregation. He and Janet are passionate Christians and now his greatest joy is seeing people come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. He gave an altar call the morning we were there and two or three made some life-changing decisions that morning following the service. Praise the Lord!

Not as importantly, but still something to praise the Lord about was that our room was still very cool when we returned after church. We decided to snack just a little for lunch, lay down for naps and then eat a meal before we sang that evening. Before the morning service, Janet told me that the city was threatening to turn the water off so she suggested I might want to make sure all the children have used the bathroom, etc. By the time church was dismissed, indeed, the water had been turned off. What I was surprised about was that the water was turned off to the entire town of Maple Creek! So we had no water in our motel room and when we walked into the motel restaurant we expected to be told they were closed but they weren't. I asked them how they were able to stay open and the waitress told me they were using bottled water for all of their H2O needs.

Well, Sunday evening, the 26th had arrived. Our last concert in Canada for this tour. We drove south of Maple Creek to Cypress Hills Inter provincial Park (like our State Parks). It was "Inter" because half of the park was in Saskatchewan and the other half in Alberta. The setting was absolutely beautiful and considerably cooler in the huge cypress trees. The pastor from Saturday nights' cowboy church, Ross Pollock, scheduled Bobby to sing in the park's amphitheatre. Heritage Road sang in the same spot a couple of years earlier so Bobby knew how to handle the steep climb and narrow path that led up to the stage. We had a great turnout of campers with lots of children and it was rather moving when Bobby called all the little boys up to sit on the stage while he sang "Little Man." Then he turned it around to total nonsense when he called all the children up at one point to sing, "If You're Happy and You Know It" and added the verse, "....let a burp!" Why I didn't think to get it on video, I'll never know. Sorry ' bout that. Ross and his wife, Claire, along with another family joined us for ice cream on the campground before we left. Only in Saskatchewan will you find folks willing to stand in near darkness, in sub-sixty-five temperatures, beating away the giant mosquitoes just to eat some ice cream. I took Grace to the van because I couldn't beat the mosquitoes off of her and myself at the same time (yes, we did have on repellant) and in my haste to try to get Grace up the ramp, into the van and the doors shut again before I attracted all the mosquitoes in the park, I nearly cut my little finger off in that folding ramp. I screamed silently for a few seconds and then looked at my finger to see if it was still attached. It had broken the skin but it was still attached. I fed Grace in the dark van with only a few of the little guys buzzing in my ears.

Bobby had said if the water wasn't turned back on when we got back to the motel room, we'd go ahead and leave town. It was on and we had a much better rest the second night because the room had cooled off and stayed that way but I rose early on Monday morning, showered, dressed and even started loading the van before anyone else got up. I was READY to GO!