Drifting

I drifted away from writing the things that were happening during the sabbatical as we returned to Edmonton in July.  It was a time when things slowed down.   Truth be told I found the few weeks around the city both restful and restless.  We continued to ride, spent a week at Jasper and I went tot he Okanagan for a visit with Morgan over a weekend.  But, for much of the rest of the time I wondered what to do with myself.  Arnie benefitted from longer walks around Beaumaris Lake.  There were always some chores to attend to around the house, with Sandy's father who moved into Hardesty Care Home at the beginning of July (getting him settled there was a task in itself for everyone involved.)  I went to the church Wednesdays to assist with the food bank deliveries on the weeks I was in the city.  Still, there were restless times.  Times I wondered, "What to do?"  Now as September comes closer I wonder if I shouldn't have worked on planning worship a little more; not that I needed to as the service Sunday is complete....and I'll work on others quickly once back in the office.

We're still in Newfoundland.  Exploring St. John's and vicinity for a few days before flying home on Wednesday.  The trip has been amazing.  We've seen some beautiful and wild places.  After landing on August 7th we drove south around the tip of the Avalon peninsula.  We stopped in Bay Bulls for breakfast and hopped onto a whale watching tour.  Out on the water we drifted beside a pair of humpback whales sleeping in the water.  The tour continued along Gull Island in the Witless Bay ecological reserve  - puffins, terns, gulls, murrs and more crammed into the cliffs.  It was a great way to begin the journey.

Around the tip of the peninsula we were surprised by the changing landscape.  The barrens created by salt water, sea breezes (more gale force than gentle), rocky soil...We could just as easily been driving across the heights of a mountain range in BC above the tree line.  It was beautiful.  Exotic like no other place we've seen.  Along the road communities dotted the shoreline.  They stretched for what seemed like miles.  We'd come to a sign welcoming us, telling us where we were then continue along the road passing homes where there was space for a building between rocky outcrops and marshy bog interrupted by glimpses of the atlantic ocean meeting rocky shore.

For two days we drove.  First to Placentia, then to Twillingate, and finally to Deer Lake.  Some of the time driving for what seemed like endless miles of forest inland along the TransCanada.  Some of the time following rural highways along the coast through community after community after community.  None of them large.  Few stores, gas stations, banks.  Each would have a post office.  Most, a church or two.  Occasionally, a school.  I wondered where was more isolated - the coast of BC where I began my ministry in Bella Coola; or this coast where there seemed to be fewer people than across the Chilcotin Plateau.

Placentia was nice, pretty.  Twillingate was beautiful in it's own way.  We tasted wines made from blueberry, partridge berry, bakeapple, cranberry at Auk Island Winery.  We visited the craft brewery for a snack.  We ate cod, cod cheeks, cod tongues, salmon, scallops, mussels - all freshly caught and prepared.  We visited with locals and others who'd come from away sharing stories and dreams of the journeys ahead.

In Deer Lake we wondered why the place existed.  The best restaurant in town was the truck stop on the highway.  We met and gathered with the group we'd be riding up the Northern Pennisula with - the Viking Trail.  We dropped off the rental car and traded it for bicycles once more.  And the adventure continued...

(More to come)