Day 7
Church on vacation
One of my favorite things about traveling, is going to church. We have made it a point in our marriage to always go to church regardless of where we are. We are members of The Church if Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We look up where the local congregation meets and visit. We call those congregations wards (or branches if they are smaller.) It is so comforting to have the same sacrament ordinances done and the same priesthood authority presiding anywhere in the world. I love the Spirit that is felt in any LDS sacrament meeting.
We’ve been in some wards where people haven’t introduced themselves, but most of the time we have been approached and welcomed. I subscribe to the philosophy that I should also say hi to people, even if I’m the newcomer. I have rarely had anyone rebuff my attempts at friendliness. More often they are welcoming back without any reservation, or there is relief that I made the first overture. The bonus, almost every time, I make a new friend! 😊
O Canada!
This ward was friendly. With the 5 of us in the congregation, there was almost 50 people there. I pointed out to my kiddos that this was probably how our ward family will be in Mauritius. Also, it was the day after Canada Day. So, they sang “O Canada” as their opening sacrament hymn. They had printed and taped it inside the back of their hymnals. I have never sung the entire “O Canada” song - it is really beautiful. They were so full of pride for their country and you really felt that in the song. I know how I feel when I sing “The Star Spangled Banner.” It was a very cool moment to sing with this small group of Canadians and honor their pride in their country. I was touched.
Bison, Bluey, and Kindness
We met several wonderful individuals in this ward. One person raises buffalo. I mean, how cool! He has a herd of 60 buffalo. Apparently, it’s not as many as the guy up the road from him who has hundreds of them. Holy cow. Or rather, holy buffalo.
This ward had sister missionaries assigned to serve there. One of the sisters had just transferred in. She is from Australia. So nice. We met her after and Mackenzie loved that she was from the same place as her favorite show, Bluey! 😂
Another couple was so nice to my kids. They gave them a bag of candy (unopened 🙂) to share. The older two kiddos were given some Canadian coins, and a small bag of toys was given to Mackenzie. “Something new for the drive” they said. There is more good than not in this world.
Fort Nelson
We hit the road and headed up to Fort Nelson. It was a short drive, only about 5 hours. When we got there and went to check in to our hotel, we found out the entire city was experiencing a power outage. The ENTIRE city! So crazy! They were handing out flashlights to everyone at the hotel. It had a slight horror film vibe. 😂 Not having power wasn’t a big deal until we realized that also meant no pumping gas. We were stuck until power came back on. Supposedly it was coming back on by 8pm.
It did come back on around 6:30pm. My dad took the car and headed out to the gas station. The power went back out right about the time he got there (it was about 7 minutes down the road.) He decided to wait until 8pm to see if it would come back on so that he could quickly get it if it went back out quickly again. After about an hour of sitting there, a gentleman came by telling people (there were several cars that had the same idea as my dad) that there was gas about 3 miles up the road.
This gas station was located just outside a native reservation and it was run by the local tribe. Their backup generators were working well and they were able to pump gas. They only took cash though. And, we didn’t have any loonies or toonies (Canada money). So my dad paid in US dollars (which meant more money spent than it actually was.) We didn’t care. We were grateful to be able to get gas. We found out later that the reason the entire city was cut off from power was because the wildfires in British Columbia had burned the main power lines that connected the city to the power grid. They had been living off of faulty backup power for that amount of time. CRAZY!!! It was amazing how cheerful everyone was there. I really hope they are able to get the situation resolved quickly.
Phase 10
Another fun moment in Fort Nelson was seeing our new friends Dawn and Dave (from Dawson Creek) again. They had stopped at the same town for the night. I was checking us in to the “horror movie” hotel so I missed them, but my dad talked to them. They journaled about us like I blogged about them. That was fun to hear! I wish them happy trails!
We spent the evening playing Phase 10 and Slap Jack. I like not having tons of technology. I’m thinking some major changes are in order for our family. More card games, less TV. 😊 The kids are not super thrilled about this. Haha! They’ll adjust. We’re happy to have one more day down and be that much closer to Alaska!
Selfie's
Mackenzie entertained herself for a bit by playing with my phone. She's at that age where she LOVES to take selfies. I had to include a few of them.
Scenery
We started seeing more bears today. Like I said in an earlier post, I am a complete sucker for beautiful scenery! This drive is jsut stunning.
Horror Hotel
Mackenzie and Skyler began playing with some of the filters on my phone. These are a few of the pictures they took. Really added to the horror hotel vibe. 😂