Day Two: Rick has fallen and he can’t get up. His skateboarding career has come to a skidding halt, after trying to skate down a ramp and falling hard on his side. He got back up and the only sign of injury we could see was his bloody elbow. Soon he wasn’t feeling very well, we decided we should get him to a hospital as his breathing became shallow as it gave him serious pain to breathe deep and also to raise his right arm above his shoulder level. After three hours in the little town of Marathon, we were on our way again with an injured, but diagnosed and drugged leader. Rick ended up with a couple broken ribs and a few probably cracked. His driving days for this trip are now over and he has moved to the car. Now it is myself and Sarah driving the car and Amanda and Adam taking over the van. Interestingly enough, we were able to reflect on His grace and all the things He has provided for us. He took away the opportunity to have the Winnebago, which was good because Rick was the only one who could drive it. We were merely minutes away from the nearest hospital, He blessed us with a couple people who have first aid and the hospital was rather quiet so he got in quickly. He even kept us moderately on track with scheduling and kept Rick from hitting his head off the cement. The injuries were not that bad in comparison to what they could’ve been and we were very thankful. We arrived in Thunder Bay VERY late but on track with our schedule, not a day behind.
Day Three:
Today has been a long day, we slept on a hard cement floor, in the basement of Farrand Street Bible Chapel. They were very kind and left us tonnes of food, unfortunately we got there very late from Marathon. Sarah took the first drive in the rain and drove for around 5.5 hours straight before we traded off, just before the border of Ontario and Manitoba in the town of Kenora. One thing I noticed about driving in Manitoba, aside from how flat it is, is that it doesn’t have near as many road signs and helpful things like that to help you find your way – it’s more of an, OH that was my turn... type deal, haha. We’ve also decided that it is exactly like the picture on their license plates – road, wheat, trees. All this in a very flat kind of way... I drove for a little more than 6 hours today on this wonderfully flat road, though there is the odd turn in the road you generally go pretty straight too. Eventually we found Fairford and got to see Dorothee in her natural habitat, the sheep farm. It was awesome, we got there at 8pm and they had dinner ready to go and had waited to eat so that they could eat with us. Their table can sit like, 20 people, it was incredibly long, and the food was amazing. We then went on a walk and got to play with sheep! There was a baby sheep next to the deck that was an orphan and sick but very sweet. We went into the stable where there were 10-15 of newly born infants (be them triplets or left behind) and got to help feed them. I think we were all pretty excited. They also had 6 ducks, haha. We went into the chicken coop and got to see them all put to bed. We also played with Frank, the orphan cow, a sweet but timid animal. The rest was great, sleeping in a room with just the KLBC girls and me on Dort’s bed, I got a pretty good sleep and was out when my head hit the pillow.
Day Four:
Stopped in Insinger, it is a tiny little ghost town where literally no one lives. It was strange, we stopped for bathrooms and food to find no one. The whole town is gone. We found two men, renovators of a house around the corner and they said that no one was there, some people moved away for bigger towns and others died but it’s been abandoned for around 5 or 6 years and the buildings looked it too, aside from one or two places everything looked either burned or broken, dead – just plain dead. Funny enough we went to a little place called Sheol and the lady who worked there said she was from Insinger, it was all we could do not to laugh hysterically, but she quickly told us that she lives in the country and suddenly the world made sense.
We stopped in North Battleford, which is an hour out of the camp we’re staying in (not in Hobbema) in Neilburg Saskatchewan, very close to the border. It’s cool because it means every night we stayed in a different province (except that the first two nights were in ON but we won’t talk about that.
Day Five:
Everything went well until we got stranded just 235km outside of Fort McMurray when the van died. Smoke billowed out of the hood and it took practically all of our water to cool it down. We broke down about 4pm and I called CAA which was actually good, because I got us a free tow to Fort Mac, and someone to follow in and not get lost. We waited for three hours for the tow truck and when it came, it was glorious. Yet, the Lord still showed us that He is with us, allowing us to be found and the tow to be free and just in range (as it is only free up to 300km). It seems since we didn’t take the Winnebago, God has given the group some major bonding time, when there’s nothing else to do but hang out. Amanda learned a little djembe which was fun too. We arrive in fort mac around 9pm, at pizza and got settled into the purple palace, and it is purple. Sweet accommodations though!
Day Six:
Today was the first day in the Dug Out and very fun. I was surprised with how beautiful the place was and was definitely picturing the whole town differently however it was very sweet and I think we’ll have fun. I got readdicted to Rock Band and Sarah is now too and we played with kids all late afternoon/early evening. I played ping-pong with a cool kid named Noah and am really just trying to figure out what to do when I’m there. It’s just like I don’t know what is expected of me at all and anytime I try to figure out it just frustrates me.
We saw the 7/11 lot too, the lot next to it is smaller than I expected but it’ll be cool when we can build the stage.
