June 12: On the Way to Mile Zero (Updated)

Last night we stayed at a Walmart parking lot in Whitecourt, Alberta. We left the lot about 9 am Mountain Time and did some errands prior to leaving town.

I was able to participate by phone with my women's Bible study at Elim for a while until I was out of cell range. It was wonderful to hear everyone's voices again after the few weeks we've been away from study. We are starting a new study on grace in Colossians and Philemon.

It started out a bit cloudy with a temperature of 55 degrees but turned into a wonderfully sunny day in the 60's.

When we pulled over to have a little lunch, I came across a beautiful moth (Papilio multicaudatus Kirby). It was in the driveway and I placed a napkin for it to crawl upon and the moved to the grass. I pray that it survived!

The scenery from the wayside that we stopped in was wonderful. You can see for miles and miles!

Then we entered into Grande Prairie, Alberta. We had planned on only a quick stop for gas and a check on our coach battery that doesn't seem to hold a charge. It turned into a real mix-up. Costco in Canada will not accept our credit card, the two places we went to did not have a way to check the battery, etc. We ended up at Canadian Tire were Duane discovered that our coach battery was losing charge under load--so, a new battery to fix that problem. We finally did what we came into Grande Prairie to accomplish and were on our way.

We ran through and did not stop at Beavertown, but here is the beaver!

After such a difficult and frustrating time, and because it was already 2:30p, we opted to stop relatively soon and get to mile zero tomorrow morning.

We are now at the Hythe Municipal Campground for the night. We have electricity and showers, so we are good for $25 (Canadian). The campground manager stopped by and said that next year they hope to have water and sewer at each site. That is quite an investment for a small town. The only problem we will have going over to the showers is the mosquitos! There seems to be an overabundance of them!

They city created the bathrooms and showers inside a caboose. We did a quick supper and shower, then settled for the night.

Animals:

• Deer
• Elk (however, they were in an enclosure. Still magnificent animals!)

Onward to mile zero in the morning!

Drove: 224 miles