Hey where have you guys been? Laurie, Pastor A, etc. Just checked it out this morning, daryl (with a BIG "D") from Fredrickton, N.B. is about equal distance from me down here in W. Texas, as Victoria BC is. But I think that Victoria probably has a little more tourest interest, eh? Besides my 2 kids being rather flatlanders out here on the Southern Great Plains, of Texas. Rather have fun riding the ferry's in Puget Sound and between Vancouver Island and the Mainland, in BC. Although there's one ferry ride I'd like to take someday. Between Sidney NS, and St. Johns. NF....any of you guys ever do that one?

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J. R. from TEXAS. United States of AMERICA!!! (and a friend of the beautiful Canadian W.)

You're sure welcome to that ride. I get seasick in a bathtub.

Hmmmm Gary, I assume that your a shower man?

Actually I have gotten seasick once. Was in the middle of Lake Heron....beautiful day, but with rough seas. That was when I was 19 and sailing on a great lakes Iron Ore Freighter as a deck hand. Went through a couple of good storms on The Lakes....and it never bothered me. Except for that one day....one of the experienced hands showed me, that to sit in the center of the deck (up front by the crew quarters) you get the least effects.

The other trip I've dreamed about for ages is taking the overnight ferry from the tip of Vancouver Island to Prince Rupurt BC, and/or going on up to Alaska on the Inside Passage----then returning via the Alcan highway.

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J. R. from TEXAS. United States of AMERICA!!! (and a friend of the beautiful Canadian W.)

I like boats, they just don't like me.

Last time I went in one was with my brother in law, he got mad, said I was feeding the fish and they wouldn't bite his hook.

You're right, i'm a shower man, figure taking a bath is like trying to get clean in a mud puddle.

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Is what you're living for worth Christ dying for?

Gerry B.

True, but there's nothing like sitting down in a very hot tub, soaking for hours and reading a good history book. Besides my bathtub room has excellent acoustics. Great place to practice my Mario Lanza imitations Then I can always rinse off the mud, with the shower

I have a sister who lived in Maine for a number of years. She moved there as part of the great "mother earth" movement of the 70's. They were quite proud that they didn't need running water . Had an old fashioned hand water pump in their kitchen....and to take baths, they'd heat their water on a huge old wood stove, and a big tin tub! After a couple of short visits (minus THAT sort of bath!) ....I stayed at a local motel Guess that's how it was for my BC born father-in-law, when he was growing. Frankly I couldn't see the need of returning to "mother earth" that deeply. After about 15 years, that sister finally gave it up and returned to a more normal life style

J.R.

I take the ferry from Toronto to the Toronto Islands. That's as close to the water as I want to get.

When I was younger I would fearlessly "jump the waves" in Acapulco and Florida. Two things have stopped me now--my eyesight deteriorating (I don't like to wear glasses in the water) and the publicity I saw for the movie "Jaws."

At least during the 7 years I spent in Manitoba and Saskatchewan there was no fear of a naval attack from North Dakota.

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"He Restoreth My Soul"

Pastor Andrew

Well actually Pastor Andrew, you should have been more scared for your chicken's that you put down there as an early warning system. The North Dakota Conference Youth Campground, when I was a kid about 9 or 10, was on a small lake, I believe called Lake Minniwaska and it bordered on southern Manatoba. If we really wanted to, we could have sent a couple of PT boats to invade you from there. (But we didn't want any CHICKENFEATHERS floating all over the lake). It was there that I saw those oddly pastel painted houses....that I'd heard of (as a little kid) that you Canadians were so fond of (gggg) What struck me, was the different shades of pastel on the different sides.....does that serve some weather function? I next saw colored houses of that varity out in the sticks, alongside the road between Sussex Junction and Munction in NB.

Now I'm not saying that our culture down here doesn't have a few wierdosities either. For some reason, the local Mexican population is dirth about parking their cars on the street. If you drive down a street here. You spot a car in the driveway (in front of the one car garage that's been converted into an extra bedroom....and the 2nd car is parked diagianally across the lawn in front of the house. 10-1 it's a mexican house AND the driving around with 15 kids in the back of a Pick-up!!!! They finally made a law against that....but I've not heard of it being enforced.

No Texan's don't have rifles and shotguns in the back window's of all their Pick-up's. That's an image left over from the movie "Easy Rider" (we keep the hardware under or behind the seat)

But don't be too hard on us Texans. We're a diverse lot. 30% of my neighbors are Mexicans. Our Sheriff is Mexican. One out of 4 of our county commissionars is Mexican. Both my childrens school principals are/were Mexican. In fact in during my son's Jr. High. The Mexican Principal of an 800 student, brand new super equiped school, was the finest educator I've ever met, bar none. Named after a former president of our Texas Tech University here, and former Secretary of Education for the United States..who happened to be of Mexican heritage.

But yo'all watch out while fording the St. Laurence River to those islands. (Hopefully you'll have your chicken squawkers lining the siderails to give you fair warning.) Next year, we're thinking about invading you...and plan on a sneak attack across the Saint Laurence, by commendeering the ferrys. (have to keep those chickens on their toes)

Hey, best story I've heard about fording rivers. There was a POW camp during WWII out in the desert near Tempe/Phoenix AZ. This is where they placed some hard core Nazi U-Boat Commanders. Seems that these guys planed an excape.....dug a tunnel. 52 of them excaped, well 3 of the POW's planed to "Float" down the Gela River. They'd planed their route, from a highway map they'd discovered in the glovebox of a dump truck, they'd used on a work detail. They were going to "float" down the Gela River to to Mexico. Even constructed an elaberate collapsable boat. The only problem with their long laid plans (took them more then 6 months to construct their "Fuzzball Tunnel". Was that the Gela river only flows, perhaps twice a year, ....when AZ gets some rain! otherwise it's just a dry wash Anyway, they all got caught...the last guy, walked with-out any elaberate excape plans, just hid during the day...and made it to with-in 8 miles of the border before he was picked up.

Reminds me, of a German Flier who was in a POW camp NW of Toronto before the U.S. Got into WWII. He was a good escape artist...being that it appears that it was a pretty laid back POW camp. His best escape, he got around Toronto and Hamilton via RR. Got as far as the RR Bridge going over near Niagra Falls. The train even got halfway across to the U.S. Border, where he felt he could be free and go to a German Counselate. Except some guy (must have been an Onterio Chicken spotted his legs hanging down below the bottom of the RR car. They backed the train back into Canada and caught him, ha ha. (both above are true stories)

CHICKENFEATHERS!

J.R.

One of the little-known stories of WWII was that the Germans came down Hudson and James Bay and actually sent some of their men towards Sudbury, Ontario. A brother of a lady I baptized got a big bruise on his head when one of the "small group" of soldiers wacked him during a fight. It's weird to think that there was actual hand-to-hand combat in central Ontario during WWII!

The Niagara region has many stories about people trying to escape to freedom by crossing the border. One man took the Spanish cable car ride over the gorge and took a daring jump to supposed freedom while the car was at the end of its rope. The man was surprized when he found out that the ride did go across the gorge--but only to a different part of Canada!

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"He Restoreth My Soul"

Pastor Andrew

We have a Colnell that is very interested in chickens.
Be careful, if he makes it up there, you may lose a lot of your defenses.

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Is what you're living for worth Christ dying for?

Gerry B.

If you are referring to Colonel Sanders, he's dead!