Road Traveled

Beautiful-pics can't capture it!

the road we're traveling..

    Stayed at Dawson Creek in the Wal-Mart parking lot.  The next night we stayed at Toad River Lodge & RV Park.  This was a beautiful campground and had a beaver pond near by with busy beavers working.  We were able to sit and watch the beavers dive to the bottom to get big armfuls of mud and swim to the dam they were building and mud it in.  They were always busy!  Soon we heard commotion over on the other side of the lake and saw a big bull moose in the lake feeding.  He kept putting his whole head under and must've been eating underwater plants. He was there for a very long time.  It is always enjoyable to talk to other travelers, and our children really don't know a stranger.  (it's a good and bad thing...)  I've told them that Jesus sent His disciples out by two's and to always follow that example, & watch out for each other.

White Mountain Sheep & their babies

     We've been seeing lots of wildlife along side the road eating in the side ditch or resting there.  To date we have seen a fox, 5 deer, 20 black bears, 7 elk, 30 white mountain sheep, 5 beavers, 1 moose, 15 wild horses, and 70 or so buffalo.  Even been animals on the road.. white mountain sheep, & buffalo.  Talk about excited!!  We don't even have to stop for pictures..  just take it while we motor slowly by in our bus!
    Thursday we stopped at Liard River Hotsprings Provincial Park for a few hours.  We forgot the camera on our hike.  All of us enjoyed swimming in the hot springs!! The coolest area was as warm as bath water, then in the next area up it was as hot as a hot tub, then just kept getting hotter!  It was amazing!  I have never saw anything like it!  God's creation causes us to marvel and worship Him!  We didn't stay the night at the park, instead we drove farther and stayed along the road.

Allen's Lookout was the place.  There was a fire pit and picnic tables. It overlooked the river, we were very high up.  Hank got out his boots and proceeded down this mountain path towards the river, and had Nikita down there with him.

I think they got about 2/3rds the way down, when Hank decided to come back up to get the binoculars.  So over to the bus he goes and when he got back, he said a trucker, that was stopped there also, had talked to him out the window & motioned over towards the woods next to the road.  There was a black bear.  I very hastily told Hank to go fetch his sister from down the steep path and lo, she had already made it up.  We retreated into the bus to watch the black bear.  Hank climbed the ladder on the back of Gus and said he saw more bears.. looked like a mother with cubs. We had a fire going in the firepit, then a storm blew in and it rained..HARD!  By the look on Lacy & Hunter's face, we realized they had never seen rain like that before!!  In Washington where we live, it never (well almost) rains hard, more like an eastern sprinkle, is called rain.  Some decided it would be fun to stand in the rain...

Nikita & Brandy getting wet!

This morning before we left there, a big buffalo came out and crossed the road.  We had a hard day of driving today and stopped at Otter Falls Cutoff RV Park.
     We haven't ate out any.  We did buy 4 or 5 things at one of the first Wal-Mart's we stopped at.  Some of our meals have been, Sausage patties on tortillas, hotdogs & buns, salad, cornbread with fried burger & onions served with ketchup, salsa, & bbq sauce, beans & tortillas, rice & sausage dish, carrots,  hotdogs on tortillas  with sourkrat, spaghetti, fruit smoothies..... etc...  :)     

What We Left Behind At Toad River

What DID we leave behind at Toad River Lodge & RV Park???? 

Can you tell by this picture?

This Picture? 

Hunter BEFORE....

  

 Hunter AFTER

 My baby is a little boy!!

Hunter Lee Turner 

 Haircuts for all three..

 It was Hunter's idea.. after he saw Daddy getting one, he had to have one too!

“…Yes, I feel like traveling on…”

 a post by Nikita
  

shane did a great job & they had a pull thru long enough.. 61 ft total

Crossed into British Columbia, Canada and got on 97C at Westbank. Then took  8 over to Spences Bridge, a very petty drive along the Nicola River. From Spences Bridge we took 1 to the town Cache Creek. Spent the night at Brookside  Campsite campground. We dumped our tanks  & filled up with fresh water. Had a wonderful walk after supper. Saw a Beaver Pond/Dam & took a long walk back in the woods. Very enjoyable.

hiking the trails

up & down a few times..

look at me.. i can do it all by myself!!

 Then  took our first {HOT}  showers after leaving.  Also did our laundry.  Left at checkout time (11:00am) We also met some wonderful neighbors…(parked right beside us) Scott & Donna were going to Queznel, just like us. Then we took the road to Queznel. Parked in Wal-Mart parking-lot & quess who showed up, Scott & Donna! They said they saw us & couldn’t resist stopping by to say Hi.  They also brought their dog Little Bear a Schipperke means “little shepherd”. They are good at: herding  livestock, catching rats, &being watch dogs.

We have been opening lots of Care Packages. They all have wonderful surprises  awaiting some VERY anxious children!  I’ve been reading a book called A Song for Your Honor. A very touching story.

wal-marts are always busy..am i supposed to be going to bed??

Switching from seat to seat, bed to bed =  Lots of Love & an Opportunity to share with siblings!! A great way to connect with your family! 

I had this wonderful verse come to me last night. I’d like to share,

Matthew 11:28-30 says: 28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my Yoke upon you , and learn of me: for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest for your souls. 30 For my Yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

AND you thought fuel prices were high in usa....:) 

Canada, to me, doesn’t seem like a foreign country. They speak  French & English. But they do not have miles or gallons.  Ie.. Our speed limit signs say something like 60MPH. Well, in  Canada  they say 100km & our fuel prices say 3.14 & theirs say 103.9  Very interesting!! 

Posted by: Nikita

John 15:5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

huge sand 'box'   

they were able to use their creativity & each one had a house or 'secret garden'..

this is the life!!

Brandy jumping rope.. all the girls love it!  

Post of Pictures..

WHAT are we doing all day??? :) Just a few pictures...

Brandy loves to read to the girls. 

Nikita reading.. a favorite thing to do!

Hank watching the road

Hunter watching the big trucks..

..with his nose pressed against the glass!! 

The awesome driver!! 

Here we are.. eating breakfast!

Say cheese!!  

Favorite thing to do.. run run run!

Yay!  we made it to the border and beyond..

Gus the Bus and the Turner Family 

After talking to a couple truckers last night that had traveled the Alaskan Highway before, we decided it'd be a good idea to get a spare tire for Gus.  Shane was talking to Rodney Hubbard this morning & he found us one at Ellensburg Tire & agreed to meet us at the truck stop at Ellensburg.  The tire place just happened to have the right size tire, mounted & balanced on the rim at a very reasonable price.  Shane & Rodney loaded it in the suburban.  Thanks Rodney for snapping some pictures for us!

   

Gus the Bus & Sub the Suburban (61 ft all together) Here we come!                                                                          

On the road again, we took 97 to Alt 97 to Omak, WA where Gus stopped for the night at the Wal-Mart. It was a beautiful drive along the Columbia River.  Had a couple steep grades where we were going 25-30 MPH.  It is quite a learning experience for Shane to drive the bus and he is doing an awesome job!  Tomorrow we will cross into Canada, Lord willing.
     When we finished lunch, we had another care package opening and what a highlight!  Yay! Coloring & reading for a while till nap time.  Almost all of the children took a nap at the same time, and woke all about the same time also.  They were ready to play play-doh.  And what fun!
     At supper time, Shane had all the children out in the parking lot, with yet another care pack... sidewalk chalk and a 4 square ball!  What a neat idea!  They loved it & was a great diversion.  Hot dogs & salad for supper.  Looks like we'll get to bed quite a bit earlier tonight.  Shane & I were talking, this has been a dream of ours for a few years, to travel with our family and we feel so blessed by God to be able to experience this.

It had this beautiful picture on the back of it when we bought it.. we hope to see somewhere like it!

 I had hoped to post more pics tonight, but the battery is almost to die...
    Tonight for devotions we had Numbers 22.  The story of Balaam.. vs 38 stood out to me.  Help me, Lord, to be so one with the Father that I only say what God tells me.

Let The Adventure Begin

     Today our family climbed into "Gus" and set out for the Last Frontier, the Land of the Midnight Sun...Alaska!!  Gus the bus, is a 38 foot  charter bus that is converted into a fully functioning RV.  We have been packing for the past week...our Bibles,  clothes, food, school books, bow & arrow's, fishing poles, diapers, gospel tracts, and some care packages from some sweet families, for the children to open.  Our plans are to travel the Alaskan Highway through British Columbia, Canada to Wasilla, Alaska.  We are going to see David & Holly Long and to explore Alaska some too.

This is when we bought it a year ago.

      Oh the excitement!!  We had planned to leave today, Friday, June 15th, just didn't know what time we would pull out.  Wal-Mart will let you park in their parking lot overnight, so we plan on staying there some and hitting a campground every 2-3 nights to fill up water & use the dump station.  Shane said we might just make it to Wal-Mart in Yakima and stay there the first night..
      This morning I slept in due to many late nights lately, then continued to find things to keep packing in the bus. Shane worked on packing the storage containers on the outside.  Steadily we worked on and on... 11:30 Dave & Carla Kuns brought us lunch (& more goodies to pack), and Steve & Jana Crist came, then Mary Long & Wilson came, all to bid us God-speed on our adventure.  Thanks ladies for all you helped with!!  We pulled out our driveway at 4:15pm.  Headed into Toppenish, Hank & I in the suburban and Shane & the rest in the bus.  Stopped at Ideal Lumber to fill up the propane tanks and to get something for the water tank so it wouldn't leak.  Headed on to Yakamart to fill up on diesel and gas. (Gus has diesel moter, and gas generator)  Then we hooked up the tow package on the suburban.  By the time we got to Yakima it was 7:00.  We decided to go ahead & stop.  Make sure everything is working properly.  This is the first time we have every stayed in Gus.  Did I mention excitement???  So we get stopped and the water pump won't work.. It has worked in the past, so Shane took all the storage out from under our bed and worked & worked and finally figured out it is the switch!
       I got the supper.. very interesting!!  We had MRE's which are Meals Ready to Eat.  Our neighbor, Jerry, gave us some of these meals.  It is what the military use.  All you need is 1 1/2 Tablespoons of water and it has a heat pack that heats up the food and everything.  Awesomely enough, we had company, and my brain was just fried from getting ready to go that I couldn't hardly figure out what I was doing with these MRE's.  Was trying to read the instructions and  just was taking me a long time...  Praising God for friends that visit, even when we're camping in Yakima Wal-Mart parking lot!! Yay!  Daniel & Rebecca Smith and their family came over to see us.  They are getting ready to take off and live in a 5th wheel for the summer and maybe longer.  So we shared excitement!

will have to upload pics from the last few days.. this was 1 yr ago

Finally got everyone down for bed and Shane & Hank went in to the store to get a switch for the water pump and a few other things.  It's now midnight and they just now arrived back at Gus.  Should've known they'd get stopped talking to fellow campers. Yay for truckers tips. And now, let's see if I can sleep this close to the freeway? Interestingly enough, between our bus and the freeway, there is this creek or swamp hole.. so we are hearing crickets chirping, frogs croaking or ribbitting, and cars & trucks racing by to who know's where.  My prayer is that I will remember to 'Seek ye first, the kingdom of God'.  

Sweeping in Thailand

Trees line the streets in the "moo-baan"(neighborhood) in which we lived.  There are 2 men (one with a crippled foot) that sweep the streets with brooms.  Everyday they are somewhere in the moo-bann.  Hank started out by riding his bike (borrowed from Martin) by the sweepers.  On the first day they said some words to him in Thai.  He repeated them to Martin later to see what they said to him.  It was "red snail"!!  That day he'd had on a red shirt.  We all laughed at that!  A few days later, he went riding his bike by them again.  Soon he was back at the house getting our broom.  Hank rode to where they were sweeping and got off his bike and helped them.  The next day only one man (with the bad foot) was sweeping, so Hank used their other broom.

The sweepers both had motorbikes with side carts and one of them had another cart tied on behind.  After Hank had been helping sweep for a little, he rode his bike over to the carts and lined up with  the cart. "Uncle Une" (as Hank found out their names)  laughed and came over and tied the cart to the back of his bike.  Hank was loving it!   This was the process for the next 4 days while the other man was not around.  

Hank & Uncle Moo

Uncle Une & Hank

 Hank would go every morning for a few hours and sometimes later in the day also, depending on what all we were doing.  Then "Uncle Moo" was back and Uncle Une was gone.  Hank helped Uncle Moo for about 4 days also.  He continued to help them sweep, riding around the moo-bann till he found them.  Once  while they were sweeping by a house, a man came out that spoke some English, and talked to Hank.  He wanted to give Hank a gift for helping sweep, so this man brought a fresh coconut that he'd just chopped down off his coconut tree.  Hank brought it to the house for us to do something with.  Another day, Hank was sweeping off a ladies driveway, with the Uncles, and she came out and spoke a little English, and brought Hank some chocolates as a gift for helping.  Yummy!  Some of us got to taste those. The next to last day that Hank helped, Uncle Moo brought him a gift of sugared bread & orange juice.  Hank had a very enjoyable time helping Uncle Moo & Uncle Une sweep, but never mastered the Thai languange, so wasn't able to carry on conversation with them in words.  However, I think he communicated relationship to them well, by his example. He said they used hand motions to "talk" to each other.  What a blessing it is to have a willing hard worker.  He really likes to work & I am excited to watch him grow into a young man.  God gave us a precious gift almost 13 yrs ago!