Thursday, July 03, 2008
Canada: Day 1
I took Monday off
of work to pack and run any last minute errands. The bus wasn’t scheduled to depart until 8 p.m. so I was glad to have the extra time to prepare. Before meeting up with Leandra I took a little detour to my old elementary playground. I wanted to walk down memory lane and also desired to start my trip off in a playful way since I was headed for vacation…had to set the mood ya know. The funny thing is the playground doesn’t look anything like the one I grew up on. They’ve replaced all the playground equipment. But I had fun swinging and walking the balance beams anyway.I took a walk by my old house too. The tree I planted in the front yard has grown so much…it’s hard to believe how huge it’s gotten. I love visiting it and thinking about how my Dad and I planted it from a tiny seed…and there it stands tall and strong. Amazing.
After my little walk down memory lane I met up with Leandra and
then we headed over to LightRider Ministries to load up on the bus and head out. LightRider Ministries is a not-for-profit organization that provides retreats on wheels. One of my favorite things on this journey was the fact that every day we had devotions as a group. There were a total of 35 of us on the bus. The first thing we did as we left Upland was pray and have devotions. Each day someone shared their testimony (sometimes more than one person) and it was always such an encouragement to hear how God has been at work in each other’s lives.Since it was over 3,500 miles roundtrip and a 42 hour drive one way, we had no time to stop at hotels along the way. So, you guessed it, we slept right there on the bus. We had three drivers that rotated sleeping and driving. I’m not sure if I got a wink of sleep the first night on the bus. As a matter of fact, I’m not sure anyone did. While it was quiet, we were all struggling to get some shut eye
in. It sure is an interesting sensation to fall asleep in a moving vehicle of that size with a window on my left and at my feet. I was assigned the bunk on the second deck above a table at the front where the wind shield was located. There were four of us sleeping there…it was about the size of a king size bed except not quite as long. We decided to put our feet toward the windshield in case there was a wreck in hopes of landing on our feet rather than being knocked unconscious. Not sure how much of a difference it would have made, but thankfully we didn’t have to find out. It was fun to pop my head up in the middle of the night and look out the windshield…it was like I was surfing on my back. Weird. One night we hit some really big bumps along the way and I found myself bouncing to the point of my whole body being suspended in the air. Now that was fun!Jamie at 7:39 PM
