Pics from Essex

Back in Canada - Essex, Ontario

We arrived back in Canada through the Port Huron/Sarnia border crossing on July 1 - very patriotic of us to return home on our nations birthday!  We pulled into Grandma's house in Essex around 10:30 pm and got Grandma out of bed where she was talking on the phone with my mother, so mom found out that we arrived safe and sound.

We have been here a couple of days and have enjoyed visiting with Grandma, Uncle John and Aunt Aileen and my childhood friend, Kim and her family.  As a matter of fact, we have just returned from Kim's house now (quite late) as we tend to talk and talk!  She made us a very yummy lasagne.  I wanted to eat more, but was too full.

The weather is hot and humid, as usual, but not as bad as last time we were here.  We brought them some rain from BC, which, unlike British Columbians, they really appreciated.  I guess it hadn't rained here for a long time....until we arrive of course!  We had thunder and lightning all day today, but we didn't have any RV leaks!!! yeah!

Tomorrow, Grandma and Grandpa Wuerch are coming out from Windsor for a visit and then we are off to Uncle John and Aunt Aileen's house for supper.  Hopefully Amber will be able to make it in from Windsor for supper too.

Well, should go to bed...it is 2:37 am....another early night! :)

From BC to Minnesota

Hopefully I can get this blog posted!!!! We have been having some technical difficulties.  Yes, we left on Friday and yes, late.  The first time we left it was 12:30 pm.  We got as far as Mt. Lehman and realized that we had forgotten the privacy cover for the front window of the RV, so back we went.  We left the second time at 2:30pm.  The Neufelds were gracious and waited supper for us.  We had such a wonderful visit with the Neufelds.  The teens entertained us with music - Ben played the fiddle, Matt played the guitar, Sarah played the piano and Zach played the accordian.  This was his first time playing an accordian and with a little practice, he caught on to it quite well.  The children swam in the rain, but didn't seem to mind.

On Sunday, we all (including the Neufelds) headed to historic O'Keefe Ranch near Vernon, BC.  That was so much fun and we didn't want to say good bye, but we parted ways around supper time.  We pulled into Osoyoos and had a lovely gourmet dinner of bbq'd hotdogs. :)

On Monday, we headed to Oroville and crossed the border into Washington.  We stopped at the Grand Coulee Dam and enjoyed the sights and some lunch.

We drove through Gracier National Park and stopped for some huckleberry pie and icecream in a little place called Hungry Horse, Montana.

Montana is a very windy place!  We camped in Cut Bank, Montana and the RV was rocking all night long!

Tonight we are in a KOA campground near Duluth, Minnesota.

I've discovered that it takes a long time for pics to upload on this blog, so most of our pics will be on facebook.

Well, gotta go the kids are back from the pool and I can't hear myself think anymore....my peace and quiet time is over....hopefully blog at you soon.

As you can see from the pic above, the children are counting down the days until we leave. This is the white board in the diningroom.  What....a white board in the diningroom???? Yep that's right...we homeschool...no Martha Stewart here! 

As the white board indicates, tomorrow is the big day.  We hope to be done everything and pulling out around 11am.  We told the Neufelds we would be at their house (in Salmon Arm) for supper.  Thankfully, the Neufelds have known us long enough to know to make supper late, as the James's are always late....we run on Dave time!

As the Neufelds only have dial-up service, I probably won't post anything new until we have gotten to the States...hopefully Sunday....but remember, we are always late! :)

Please pray for us for safe travels.  Take care and God bless.

The James Gang Rides Again!!!

Well, we are doing it again....that's right....the James Gang are heading out on another cross-country RV adventure!!!!  We are planning on going through the US for much of our trip this time for a change of scenery and to hopefully save some money in gas. We invite you to follow along with us.  We won't be doing as much sightseeing this time as our goal is to get to Nova Scotia as fast as possible to be able to look at as many properties as we can before we have to head back to BC.  That's right...we are thinking about buying a home and moving to Nova Scotia.  Stay tuned......the adventure starts Friday.

Manitoba - Sask - Alberta - to BC!

Since our last post we have driven from Oak Lake, Manitoba through Regina, Moose Jaw (where we had to stop and see the 10 metre high moose - see pic) and to Swift Current, where we spent the night. The following morning we drove to Didsbury, Alberta to see our friends the Pearsons. We had a lovely visit and the children had great fun running and playing and of course, playing Wii. Thank you Pearsons for your hospitality, it was very nice to see you all again.

We left the Pearson's today and are currently in a Revelstoke campground. It is the same campground we started our trip with, so it is fitting that we end our trip here. We were going to make one more stop, but unfortunately, we have to be getting back home. (Sorry we will miss you, The Other James Gang - for now anyway) We will be getting home around 7 or 8 tomorrow night. I think everyone is looking forward to it. We all need a vacation from our vacation!

The pics below: Nate with his suckie taped to his forehead. Why you might ask....well the children got tired of him losing it and them trying to find it, so they solved the problem. Unfortunately, he couldn't quite get it in his mouth. Oh well, nice try. The next pic is of the big moose in Moose Jaw, SK and then the children standing in a wheat field, showing off the beautiful landscape of SK. Next is David and I, Tammy and Sean Coyle and Laurie and Damien Pearson at the Pearsons the first night we got there and then all the Pearson and James children on the front steps and finally, the Pearson children waving good bye to us today. Oh, I forgot Nathan watching trains in Field, BC today on our way to Revelstoke. He loves trains during the day, but not at night! He will cry when he hears the horn blow at night...every time, several times a night!!!!!

I think I will write a final post when we get home, so for now I will sign off and see all our BC friends and family very soon. For those outside of BC, we really enjoyed seeing you all again. Thank you all for your hospitality and we hope to see you again soon.

Just Keep Driving, Just Keep Driving....

Well, we don't have very much to report...well nothing too exciting. We left Sault Ste Marie and drove to Schreiber, ON which is about 2 hours before Thunder Bay. We were hoping to get to Thunder Bay, but we ran into a little RV problem. We thought that the transmission was acting a little funny, so we stopped in White River, ON at a Husky and talked to the mechanic there. After some checking and some deliberation we decided to go on to Marathon and see how it was acting. We took the number of the 24 hour towing co. and headed out. The RV acted just fine so we continued to Schreiber. It was getting late so we found a campground and had supper and went to sleep. The next morning we went into the Ford dealership in Schreiber and Dave talked to the mechanic there who came out and checked the trany fluid and short story, all seemed fine and we continued on our journey.

After Schreiber we drove to Dryden, ON. Not much to report, just driving and sleeping at the campground. There is a pic of Kate and Becca playing at the playground at the campground in Dryden. (Side note: Dryden is the home town of Chris Pronger, for all the hockey fans out there, and we camped next to a fellow who once coached him)

Anyway, today we drove to Oak Lake, Manitoba. What....you never heard of it? We hadn't either, but it is a lovely little town with a very nice campground. It is about 2 hours from the Manitoba/Sask. border. Tomorrow we hope to at least get to Swift Current, Sask. and then on to Didsbury, Alberta to see the Pearson Family the following day. (See you Tues. Laurie and Damien! - if plans change we'll let you know)

In one of the pics below, you will see a guy on a motorcycle. I don't know if you can see it very well, but he has his dog on the back of his bike. The dog was wearing a bandana and a little skull cap helmut. It was very cute. There is also a pic of Landon and Becca on the ferry and Nathan, bored with the scenery, so he has picked up a book to read....he's very gifted!!! :)

Well good night all. TTYS