Cue John, Paul, George and Ringo OR "o/` o/` Back in the US, Back in the US, Back in the USSA o/` o/`"

We are spending the night in the Walmart Parking Lot in Burton, Michigan about 6 miles east of Flint.  We left Toronto this morning at about 10 AM and it took 2:45 PM and that includes going through the border at Sarnia, ON/Port Huron, MI.  It went pretty quickly.  He didn't have us prove we didn't have any guns like the Canadian Border Guard did going into Canada.  Tomorrow we will arrive at Shults-Lewis and set up for the Sojourn that we start there on Tuesday, September 2nd.

I thought I'd share with you my thoughts on the PaleoCyber era we just spent in Canada.  We've been to many RV parks in America over the last 6 years of RVing.  When we first started it was pretty rare to find a park that had WiFi.  Today, it's commonplace.  In fact, we haven't stayed at a park in the US in the last 3 years that did NOT have WiFi.  I must conclude then that Canadian RV parks are 3-5 years behind the curve in their WiFi offering.  We stayed in 6 RV parks in Ontario and Quebec provinces.  Except for 1 park in Kingston, ON, they were all in or near  VERY large cities - Toronto, Montreal and Quebec City.  There were only 2 parks that had complimentary WiFi.  Another park you had to pay $4 for a WiFi connection that (I swear) must have been over a 300 baud modem.  Given what is available in Canada for IN-HOME use (as good as anything in the US), it's hard to accept the absolutely abysmal quality and/or total lack of WiFi in Canadian RV parks.  Which probably is based upon my next point.

Canadians are CRAZY about camping - Class A, Class C, Pop-up Trailers, Towables (we didn't see many 5th wheels) and just staying in tents.  All of the RV parks were extremely full of all of the above modes of "Camping."  Because of this high occupancy rate, I think that RV parks know they can skimp on offering services like WiFi to try to boost their "client pool."  WiFi or no WiFi, they are going to be virtually full every night. So, why spend the extra money for something (WiFi) that can't increase your bottom line since you are virtually full WITHOUT having to offer it.

Even Saint Ambroise which isn't a very large city had a VERY large RV park and a large RV dealership in town.  We saw more RV dealers in Canada than you can shake a stick at.

I thought I'd share some more pictures with you that Irene and I took on our Sojourn to Saint Ambroise, Saguenay, Quebec Province.  The first group here shows the old steel roofing after the ladies painted it to look "rustic"

Below are some pictures of the work we got done on the sojourn (besides the painting the 3 ladies did).

The red steel siding on the front of the building now is the old roof that was taken off of the area where the new steel roof is now installed.  The two pictures at the bottom of the 5 above pics show the "verge rafters" that we built.  You can also see the TyVek weather seal.  That is where the white roofing the ladies painted will be installed.  It's white because white reflects light which will help melt the snow and keep it from building up on the roof.  If you look at the main part of the building near the top of the 2nd and 3rd pictures, you can see some of the old roofing that is yet to be removed.

Below are some pictures of the scenery in Saguenay.  It is very beautiful country.  This is one of the greatest benefits of Sojourning and RVing.  We get to go places and see what God has put THERE and no where else in the whole world.

Finally, no matter how much we always enjoy traveling to South Africa, Namibia, Mexico, Romania, Malta, Albania and Canada - it's always wonderful to walk up to that US Customs and Immigration Service person and now that in just a couple of minutes you will be back in the USA .... and we are!

Frenchies in Our Rear View Mirror

We left Saguenay yesterday morning in caravan with Bob and Sue Hughes and Ron and Lineta Grimes about 11:30.  The Hughes and us both came down to Quebec City and stayed at the KOA there.  It was a pretty nice campground.  We played Euchre last night.  The guys won 2 out of 3.  I'm not much on card games - well any kind of game really - except Scrabble.  The kinds of games I like are played outside or in gymnasiums.  But the fellowship around them is great so that's why I play.

Today we are on to Montreal (The Royal Mountain).  It's only about 2 1/2 hours away we will stay there for the night at the Montreal Alloutte KOA.  Tomorrow night we will be in Kingston, Ontario back in the English speaking section of Canada.

Our trip to Saguenay and the work there went fantastically well.  We had a hard working team and accomplished a great deal.  We moved the project down the road quite a bit.

I'll get pictures in our next post which I'll write from Montreal this evening.

And the Beat Goes On

The work continues here in Sainte Ambroise, Saguenay, Quebec.  We continue to make some process in the work.  This past Thursday it rained so we switched our work day to Friday and took Thursday as our day off.  Friday we got a LOT done.  We got black felt paper put down on the long "shed roof" on one side of the building and the steeper of the two sections of the gambrel roof on that same side.  Then we also got the final metal roof on the shed section of that side of the building.  Here's a video that shows.

Today Bob and Sue Hughes (two of the other Sojourners here) took us out to lunch.  We went to "Mike's" which is a Pizza & Chicken restaurant here.  Chicken is HUGE in Quebec Province - both in popularity and in actual size.  You go to Mike's or Scores or even Costco and the chickens here are just plain big!  After that we had to do some shopping.  I had to get a new toner cartridge for our laser jet printer so I looked for an office supply store: Staples came up as being in town.  COOL.  So we drove to where it is. NO STAPLES.  There was however a "Bureau en Gros."  It was Red and White on the outside just like "Staples."  So we took a chance and stopped there.  Sure enough "Staples" in Quebec is called "Bureau en Gros."   It's just like the KFC here being called PFK - "Poulet Frit Kentucky."  Apparently, the law in Quebec is that all business signs MUST be in French.  Not even Trademark signs are exempt.  How positively Elitist - or to use a fine French word - Gauche!

We also had to find some leather work gloves.  I went to 2 places - A Hardware Store in St. Ambroise and a store that is the Quebec equivalent of Home Depot - NO (Zero, Nada, Zilch, Negative Bupkiss) leather gloves.  We were told by a store clerk to check at "Canadian Tire."  It ends up being much more than just a Tire Store.  It is Canada's largest Auto Parts store but even more than that.  The one we went to had a Garden Supply store and a housewares area also.  It is truly a bizarre retail amalgamation.  But I guess it works here.  Oh, they DO sell tires too ...... I guess (though I never saw them).

Coming back to the rig from shopping today we stopped and got some pictures of the beautiful Saguenay River in the downtown area.  Here's a pic and a short video.

We have 2 more work days here.  We will leave Wednesday on our way back to Indiana.  We are taking our time: Quebec City KOA night 1; Montreal KOA - night 2; Kingston - night 3.  Then we are visiting Mary, Brad and Amelie for 3 days before we arrive at Shults-Lewis for our next Sojourn.

All six of us sojourners are playing Yahtzee right now.  WAY, too little intellect and WAY too much luck to be a game I really like, so this is all about fellowship.  Till Later!

A Veritable Potpourri (That's French Lingo for a whole lotta different stuff at the same time)

We are still in Saguenay and will be until the 20th of August.  We are working on l'Eglise du Christ au Saguenay, Québec Province in Canada.  The building has been a real "work in progress."  They are converting an old barn that was then a truck repair shop (complete with an pit to work under the truck engines) into a church building. Part of what we have worked on is repainting the OLD metal siding to be reused on the exterior.  Then we have also been working on a facade that they are installing on the front of the building.

Here's a couple of videos of the painting that the 3 sojourner ladies did at the first part of last week.

The Red Metal Sheets will be on the Front of the Building.

The Gray Metal Sheets have to be painted still (this week's work)

The Brown painted Sheets are for the sides of the building.

We've also worked on the fascias of the building.  Here's a video showing that:

On the Facade we have been building a "Verge Rafter" for the back side of the facade and getting roofing felt on the roof of the facade. We got 1/2 of it installed on Thursday.  We will install the rest in the morning Lord willing.  Here's a picture of the facade with the scaffolding installed so we can work on it.  That's me at the top.  I've always been a monkey when it comes to climbing.  Now, I'm a geriatric monkey!  But I felt so young scaling the upward heights.  Unfortunately, the next day all my joints were telling me "Don't write a check your body can't cash!"  But I got back up there.  As those that have been following this blog forever know, we had to replace the roof on the house we just sold about 16 months months ago - I was on that roofing project too.  Plus, I've replaced numerous other shed roofs and installed 2 other house roofs also.  Still on the roof of the facade is a 12/12 pitch (45º angle) so we were safety harnesses when working on it.

I also wanted to take the opportunity to update you on the house we are having built for us in Retama Village in Mission, Texas.  We hope to close on it the 22nd of September.  We got some updated pictures from Carol Kerr on Friday so I thought I'd include them on this post also.

This is a picture of the guest bathroom with the tub (covered so it isn't dinged up during construction) and the Sink base (on the left) and an overhead cabinet .

This is a picture of the Laundry Room showing the 

cabinet above the dryer.

This is the sink cabinet in the Master Bathroom.  It's only 1/2 of it.  There are 2 sinks and a 2nd Medicine Cabinet on the left that aren't in the picture.

This the the master bathroom tiled shower.  You can see the smallest portion of the seat near the right edge about 1/3 up the picture.  The light on the rear wall is from those glass blocks in the exterior wall on the right.

The picture above is the future home of the master bathroom toilet.  That is a linen closet on the left of it and an overhead cabinet above where it will be (hence OVERhead!)

The picture above shows the breakfast bar counter.  Also the lower counter is over the dishwasher and the kitchen sink will be dropped into it also (the holes for all the sinks haven't been cut out yet - The stone is MUCH less likely to break if they aren't)

The picture above is the cabinetry surrounding the ovens - the space below is for the regular electric oven and the one above is for the Microwave oven.

So, that's it.  We had Friday off and Ron and Lineta Grimes from Graysville, TN who are on the sojourn also and Irene and I drove out to Tadoussac and had lunch and then drove back and went to the Walmart in Saguenay.

Yesterday the Ladies - Sue Hughes, Lineta, Irene and Jean Grenier's  (the local preacher) wife, Anna - all had a beading party so Irene could get some bracelets made for sale at the Annual Day at Shults-Lewis in September.  We guys took a drive around "the lake" that isn't too far from here.  It was about 150 miles around it.  

Today were services.  I'll talk about what I've had the opportunity to teach while I've been here in the next blog posting.

God bless you all.

o/`o/` The Long and Winding Road o/`o/` OR Adventures near Saguenay

As you may remember from our last post, Irene and I took Friday "off" trying to just stay home and relax.  So, having done that, Saturday was a time to get out and take a look around.  The first video below tries to show you where our route took us:

No matter where we go in the Trekker we know one fact for certain,  there is beauty and awesomeness in what is in THAT location and nowhere else in the world.  The area of Quebec province around the Saguenay River is in the midst of the Laurentian (or Laurentide) Mountains which are (essentially) the Southernmost portion of the Appalachian Mountains IN Canada (they continue up through Newfoundland).  The Appalachian mountains are made up of many different sections:  The Smokey or Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina and Virginia;  The Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia and Pennsylvania.  The Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania; the Catskills and Adirondack Mountains of New York; the Green Mountains of Vermont and the White Mountains of New Hampshire.  Well, the section in Quebec Province of Canada are referred to as the Laurentian (Laurentide) Mountains.

Here is a video of a lovely small lake we saw Saturday.  The video doesn't do justice to the actual view (and never can).

Much to our surprise we saw a covered bridge on our trek.  It was just off the road as it now is laid out.  One wonders though if at one point this wasn't the route of the original road.  The video below is our driving across the bridge.

On the north shore of the Saguenay River where it empties into the Saint Lawrence (Saint Laurent - French) is the tiny town of Tadoussac.  It is largely a tourist based economy in town.  Where the Saguenay River empties into the Saint Lawrence is a favored breeding ground for beluga whales (NO, we didn't see any).  So, tourists in the area stream to this small town.

Irene and I stopped for lunch there.  The picture below shows the name of the restaurant we ate at.

Since we are in Quebec, E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G is in French.  In the the rest of Canada, virtually every sign is in both English and French because they are both official languages in Canada.  However, in Quebec Province very little is in English and it seems to be purposeful.  Here's the menu we had to order from:

In every country I've ever done mission work in the adults can barely speak English in.  It is the younger generation that has watched TV with the show in subtitled in the native language and listened to American Music in English and desired to learn English.  That's what has been the case in Malta, Romania, Albania, Mexico, South Africa and Namibia.  Here in Quebec Province though that is NOT the case.  Even the young don't know English.  When you want to order a coffee at the local Tim Horton's, you'd better be able to muddle your way through in French.  MAYBE the barista will be able to find another of the staff that knows enough English to help you.  At Tadoussac it was the same way.  Our initial waitress realized we weren't "parlaying" "en Francais" so she disappeared and soon another waitress, Lydia, came to serve us.  She is a college student majoring in Business Administration hoping to one day have her own tourist oriented business in Tadoussac (it is her hometown).  She was kind enough to take our picture:

 As I metioned, Tadoussac is on the north bank of the Saguenay River.  Just 1/2 mile across the mouth of the river is its southern bank, BUT, how to get here?  There isn't a bridge.  AHHH, a Ferry!  Yep, they have a ferry.  A FREE Ferry.  I've never been on or heard of a Ferry that you didn't have to pay to ride, but this one is.  Here's a (poor) video showing part of our ride:

And another of the end of the passage:

As we came back into Saguenay we had dinner at the Aki Sushi House.  We love sushi.  This one had about 6 rooms made up like Tea Houses.  We got to sit in one of those.  Comfortable AFTER you are sitting in them but a form of Oriental torture to get to that position.  Get down on your knees on a hard wooden bench and TRY to get your legs under a table that is TOO low and TOO close to get under.  So you pretzel yourself until you "git 'er dun!"  The sushi was excellent though.  Definitely worth the torture.

Sir, If you'll not be needing me, I'll close down for awhile!

If you follow this blog regularly you know that Irene and I have had a busy year.  As I noted in another post - We have been meeting ourselves coming AND going.

We arrived here in Saguenay-Saint Ambroise on Thursday afternoon about 1:30 in the afternoon and got set up.  Then we drove to Alma to see if there was a Walmart there.  Sure enough, there was.  We also had to get the Ford Flex washed.  It gets FILTHY being towed behind the Trekker.  After checking out Alma we came back and took the Greniers to dinner.  We talked with them about what we could do in the area.  They mentioned driving over to the Saint Lawrence River where the Saguenay river empties into it - La Baie (the Bay) is the French word for it.

We woke up this morning and decided since we've been so busy being pushed to" get here" and "do this" by "that date" or by "this time" that we'd just blow it all off for one day.  So, we made it our aim for the day to not even have to leave the Trekker PERIOD for one single day.

We began the day by not getting up until about 8:30.  Then we had breakfast and a 3 game Scrabble face off.  Irene won 2 of the 3 games.  One of which was a skunk.   I'll explain our scrabble rules and scoring for you:

1.  You get 1 lookup per turn - FREE.  We've found some interesting words on some of our lookups through the years.

2.  Scoring:

1-49 Point win - You BEAT the other player

50-74 Point win - You THUMPED the other player

75-99 Point win - You put a HEAVY DUTY THUMPING on the other person

100-149 Point win - You SKUNKED the other person

150-174 Point win - You put a SKUNK and a THUMP on the other person

175-199 Point win - a HEAVY DUTY SKUNK and a THUMP on the other person

200-249 Point win - a DOUBLE SKUNK

250-274 Point win - a DOUBLE SKUNK and a THUMP

Got it?

TEST QUESTIONS:

What is a 282 point win called?

What is a 302 point win called? (This has only ever happened one time)

While we were playing Irene was also doing the laundry.  After those 3 games we had lunch.  After lunch I watched the NFL channel for a while and then at 2:00 we watched the 100th "Dirty Jobs" show with Mike Rowe.  It was a 2 hour special.  It's funny that this show was recorded in 2006 and the show hasn't been "LIVE" on the air since September of 2012, but they've left the "promos" in the programs asking you to send in suggestions for the "Dirtiest Jobs" so they can do them. 

While I was watching that I was also doing our finances with Quicken Premier 2014.  Quicken makes it all pretty easy.

After that we had another 3 game Scrabble set while we ate dinner - Pizza.   I won this 3 game set.  One of them I won by 245 points.  QUICK, use the chart above and figure out what "kind" of win this was.  At 7:00 PM "Criminal Minds" started its "Marathon" on A&E.  I don't know what "Criminal Minds" has to do with Arts OR Entertainment but I sure am glad it's on.  It probably my favorite show.  Abhorrent behavior amazes me.  I took a "Abnormal Psychology" class as a Freshman in College in 1971 at Central Washington State College and I was "HOOKED."


The answer to the 3 Scrabble scoring questions will be in the next post IF I REMEMBER!!

P.S. - Mrs. Grenier came over to the Trekker just as Criminal Minds was beginning and asked us to go for a walk - I said "NO, but Irene might go with you!"  Irene did - so SHE had to leave the Trekker today! LOL TOO BAD, SOOOO SAD. She said it was a lovely walk and came home with some Red Raspberries.