FIRST LEG OF THE YOUTH CAMPERS JOURNEY TO CANADA

This from Sarah Jep:

Hi,

Well… we didn’t start out quite as early as we wanted to this morning, but it wasn’t the kids’ faults.  They were all there, bright eyed and packed and fed.  We had to strap on our special “box” onto the top of our van for luggage.  It’s a very special box made out of plywood with a pointy nose for better aerodynamics constructed by my not so construction adept brother.  Wendy and Griselda helped me load the foodstuff while Seth and Garth helped Thomas load the box. 

We were supposed to meet Melody Reed at the highway, but they drove on in and met us by the tabernacle.  Melody has a car load of folks – Andrew Tasson, Elizabeth Porter, Ashley Johnson, and Adrielle Fouse.  We have walkie talkies so we can discuss stops and such things. 

So, we pulled out of our driveway around 7:30 am with a very excited bunch of kids.  Having Bethany and Kevin in our group has really mixed things up a bit.  They are not “bad”, by any means, just FULL of life and energy!  The back row of girls regaled us for awhile by singing their favorite country songs in their chipmunk’s voices. 

We looked over the roster for camp, and we figured that the ratio of boys to girls is 1:1.4  J  The boys liked that; the girls not so much.

So… we stopped at Tok for gas and bathrooms and again at a place right before the border for gas and bathrooms even though I forbade the bathroom stopping!  At the border, everything went very smoothly!  The woman went through our paper work quickly and let us go.  This same woman didn’t want us stopping at the border building to use the restrooms so we went into Border City for that.  We stopped at a Fas Gas place but they would only let those who bought something use the restrooms.  That weeded out who really needed to use the restrooms. 

Then we traveled for awhile until people started complaining of hunger pains.  And, we did exactly what we did last time.  We got to Burwash Landing and started getting frantic to stop and eat.  Finally we pulled over at rest stop that sports the pull-out itself and bathrooms.  I laid out a huge plastic bag and we started making sandwiches.  We barely finished eating before it started raining on us.

If we had waited just a few more minutes to eat, we could’ve pulled over at a couple of different nice picnic pull outs near Kluane Lake having bathrooms and picnic tables.  So, I’m writing this so we can hopefully remember this if we ever do this again! 

We stopped again in Haines Jct mostly because the car traveling with us needed more gas – we still had plenty.  Now we are approachingWhitehorse. 

In Whitehorse, John and Betsy Troyer have offered to feed us a spaghetti supper and to put us up in their church/hospitality house.  We hope to swim at the nearby hot springs afterwards. 

I’ll write more later.  Sarah

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SOUNDS LIKE EVERYBODY IS OK AND SURVIVING THE LONG CAR/VAN HOURS...

thanks SARA AND TOM...GOD BLESS YOU ALL AND YOUR AWESOME LOAD...WE MISS YOU ALREADY (well...just a teensey bit... haha!!

The farm is empty w/o you and seems full of older foggies and little kids and mothers...

It has been raining non stop and one wonders how the hunting parties are doing. Pat tried his cell phone on us y'day but only got that the team got there...and then the connection crackled out...hope they get some sunny days PLEASE LORD! so they can get some elusive moose...to fill our freezers....

more another day...