PRINCE GEORGE, BC. A very rainy day, with a few sunny moments interrupting the rain.  With all the talk about the Pacific Northwest being perpetually overcast and rainy, we saw virtually no rain, and had sunny skies, all the while we were in that part of the USA.  Once inside Canada, we are seeing the first serious rain of the whole trip.

We stopped for lunch at Williams Lake Visitor Center along Rt 97.  It is a giant log-cabin design three-story building, with gift shop, snack bar, museum, etc.  Main supporting posts are trees without the bark, roots and all, that have been painted.  If the weather had been nice, we would have walked out onto the balcony for the view, but views were runined today by the foul weather.  Betty bought yet another hooded shirt.  She has amassed quite a collection of shirts and coats.

It has been a challenge to adjust to the speed limits in metric.  Our RV GPS is supposed to translate everything into miles, and it does a good job sometimes, but it tends to fail at updating the speed limit as we move along where the limit changes constantly.  We are following Rt 97 most of the way, and it winds its way through one small town after another, with speed limits constantly changing.  The most common speed limit is 100 KPH (62 MPH).  There is a rare 110 KPH (68 MPH), but going through a town it can be 90, 80, 70, 60, 50, 40, then after passing through, it ramps back up.  The slow-downs generally occur as you drop down a long steep descent into a town, requiring a lot of braking.  The best part is the general courtesy and patience of the Canadian drivers.  The total opposite of California drivers.  Here there is no competition to force one's way past the next person.  If only the roads were a little straighter and more flat.  And fewer small towns would also help speed things up.  As it is, it takes a long time to go 50 miles. 

It is Going to be a Long Tour

CACHE CREEK, BC.  Entered Canada at a slow-moving border-crossing gate.  Was in line at least 45 minutes.  Only one lane was open.  Things suddenly started moving faster.  As we approached the gate, we noticed two of the motorhomes from our tour pulled over.  Both had been searched, and a pistol was found on one.  That person was returned to the USA and was unable to return for a day.  I believe they confiscated his firearm.  You would think he would know better.  I hear he will try to catch up to us later.

We traveled a long way on hilly, winding roads.  We made a stop to photo the Bridal Veil Falls and another stop at Hell's Gate Tram, which was over-priced and not very impressive compared to other trams we have ridden.

Stayed that night at a ranch that had no hookups for motorhomes, so we spent the night powered by batteries and inverter.  Went fine, and we got away early for the next leg of the journey.

Path Leading to Bridal Veil Falls

Bridal Veil Falls

View from Tram Leading to Hell's Gate

FERNDALE, WA (Day 2).  Today was more meetings to get us oriented and acquainted.  Later I found time to recheck all the tires' pressure on the motorhome and Jeep, updating our Tireminder device that will monitor the air pressure and temperature for each tire.  I emptied holding tanks and did other housekeeping matters.  Lastly I worked on photos for Three Rivers, Coarsegold, Redcrest, and Trinidad, California.  I added images to the past blog entry for Three Rivers.

Our Official Tour Photo

FERNDALE, WA.  Stopped to get fuel along the short distance from Lynden, taking less than an hour altogether to get here.  We are parked beside the wagonmasters in a very nice site with tall cedar bushes along the side. 

We attended an orientation meeting at 2 pm, and later were off to a very good supper provided by the tour.  The supper ironically was an Italian meal at a Greek restaurant.  Go figure.  Good food nevertheless.  We even brought back more of it in "doggy bags" for tomorrow night.

Tomorrow morning at 9:30 we have another meeting to review in detail the first day's itinerary (June 26th).  Then a social in the afternoon.  It seems like an interesting and friendly group on our tour.  25 RVs on this tour.

LYNDEN, WA (Day 2).  Drove to Bellingham again to attend Christ Church (PCA).  From the reviews we expected a formal service, and perhaps the early service is more formal, but the 11:15 am service was a sort of modified contemporary version.  The music was provided by a small group of musicians playing guitar, banjo, trumpet, trombone, violin (played like a fiddle), etc.  All done in good taste.  The music was mostly traditional hymns set to different musical arrangements.

The order of worship followed a liturgical format taken from The Worship Source Book of the Christian Reformed Church 2004.  All things otherwise were very informal.  Not a coat or tie in the room.  The pastor, Nate Walker, preached behind a pulpit, but wore only a long sleeve sport shirt and casual trousers.  The sermon, however, was surprisingly good, on the subject of the resurrection of the body, using I Cor 15:35-49 as text.  One of the best sermons on this subject that I have ever heard.  I actually took notes, as did Betty.  Nate is a graduate of Covenant Seminary.

After the sermon, The Apostles Creed was recited.  Some of the usual modernization of language was present, except it said "... descended into the grave" instead of "into hell."  Then the usual translation of The Lord's Prayer was recited.

At this point a hymn I had never heard was sung from music printed in the bulletin, which was a 26-page 5 1/2 X 8 1/2 inch booklet.  Again, producing the bulletin each week must be quite an undertaking.  This hymn was Eternal Weight of Glory by Wendell Kimbrough.  Perfect choice to follow that sermon, with many references to our current state vs our state to come on the day of resurrection.

This was followed by communion.  This was different.  The fencing of the table was addressed to ones who visit the church and show interest but have not made a profession of faith, so prayers are in the bulletin for them to use to come to faith.  I have never seen this before.  Then row-by-row we walked to the front of the room where the pastor held a half-loaf of bread and asked our name.  We then pulled a piece of bread as he said, [your name] "this is the body of Christ."  An elder next to him held out a tray of cups, the outer ring of which were real wine while the inner ones were grape juice.  He said simply, "this is the blood of Christ" as we selected a cup.  We ate the bread and drank the cup as others moved in behind us, a rather hurried affair.  Then, as we turned to go back to our row of seats, we noticed to our left a large urn into which people were casually tossing the empty glasses.  This reminded me of the rather clumsy service we had attended in Redmond, WA in 2014.  I found out later from the pastor that he had interned at that church.  The informality is disturbing to me.  Yes, I know the history of how the early church had communion as part of a larger meal of fellowship among believers, but this manner of participation, which we now observe as part of a worship service, distracts from the serious purpose of the sacrament, makes the person an individual participant by himself instead of partaking of the elements together in communion, which it is all about.  And it almost seems disrespectful to the Subject of the feast with so much interruption, walking around and seeing others chatting informally all along the way.

Then the bulletin has a section, AND SENDING US TO LOVE THE WORLD.  The "Sending Song" turns out to be the Gloria Patri.  So much focus on informality and loving the world that I was surprised to see the song to be about giving glory to God.  It would be helpful to put more of that into the worship service, since it is He that we worship.

The bulletin ends with a plea to come visit the church at least seven times to get to know them better.  It is entitled, "What story do you tell?"  So much focus on what we have to say.  Redemption is all about what God has to say to us, if we listen.

LYNDEN, WA.  We drove about 1 1/2 hours to the KOA here.  Was likely a great place years ago, but it is dated now.  Not much else available this close to the Canadian border.  We do have full hookups and 50 amps of power.  Drove to nearby Bellingham to go grocery shopping, stop by the drug store for toiletry items, and the auto parts store to get a new headlight bulb for the motorhome.  A full day even though the motorhome drive was short.

ANACORTES, WA (Day 2).  Drove early to the docks this morning to take the ferry to the San Juan Islands.  Cool but pleasant weather, and a very gentle voyage.  The ferries are handled with great care to make the crossings very pleasant.

We stopped first at Lopez Island while some passengers disembarked, then continued to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island, the largest and most populated island in the chain.  The people on San Juan Island are very happy and friendly everywhere we went, even at 8:00 am, which is when we disembarked there.  There are many retirees living there, including a lady who rode with us on the voyage.  There seems to be no rushing there.  Today there was very little traffic on a very pleasant day.  Low humidity, which they say is the rule.  Very little snow or rain, and pleasant winters.  That came as a surprise to us.

We traveled most of the island, focusing on finding orcas to photograph, since we saw none on the voyage.  The lady who rode with us, who lives there, said that the "resident" orcas had mostly left the island seeking their favorite food, chinook salmon, which have disappeared from the island.  Sounds to me like they are no longer "resident."  The orcas that the whale watcher boats chase are "transient" orcas that eat seals and other fish.

We finally went to Lime Kiln Point State Park, where these "transient" orcas tend to migrate off the coast.  We watched the whale-watcher boats filled with tourists hoping to see orcas.  They roamed together, several at a time, boats of different sizes and shapes, and we saw no orcas around them.  Finally we saw some far behind where the boats were looking.  Later a mother and her young orca appeared off the coast in near us, still far away but close enough for a mediocre photo or two.  So, we did see orcas, but not off the ferry as we had thought at first.

Two places we saw were the National Historical Parks for the English and the American Camps occupied by opposing forces when possession of the island was in dispute during the 19th century.  You can read more about it in the history of the "Pig War" of 1859.  The greatest irony of it all to me was that the final arbitrator that ruled in favor of American ownership of the island was Kaiser Wilhelm I of Germany, whose grandson, Kaiser Wilhelm II, later fought both of us in World War I.

Driving the island was a joy, much like two years ago when we drove around Teddy Roosevelt National Park with the windows down photographing bison in beautiful weather.  Today we had fewer examples of wildlife to photograph, but the weather, pleasant surroundings, friendly people, and lack of crowds made it enjoyable.  A long but very nice day.

We are back in the motorhome getting ready to shower and get to bed early to prepare for our short drive to Bellingham for the weekend.  May have to drive a bit on I-5, so we are praying for a better experience this time.

Approaching Harbor in the San Juan Islands

One of the Ferries Working the Islands

Our Ferry Departing San Juan Island After Our Arrival

Downtown Area of San Juan Island

Betty Photographing the Coast

Lighthouse at Lime Kiln Point

Orcas Off Lime Kiln Point

Old San Juan Lighthouse with Bald Eagle Perched on Top