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We left Kelowna with lots of snow on the ground, as you can see from the picture of the "Chidham Bear" at the left, at 10am Saturday January 5th, headed south on Hwy 97 to Osoyos, and thru Customs. Mostly pleasant, though we had prepared well --- no meats, no citrus, and the dog food was US produced and unopened. Discovered that dog food was OK now, unlike other years, as long as it contained no lamb (ours had lots of beef) --- but we had 4 green onions confiscated. (Wonder who makes up these everchanging rules?) Down we drove with our truck and trailer through Washington, stopping overnight near Moses Lake. Then on we drove Sunday (Epiphany) through the TriCities area, over the Columbia River to Oregon and I-84 and turned east, which was a change for us. We had decided to stop at Ontario, Oregon, then head south on Hwy 95 to Winnamucka, Nevada, and then through Nevada to California. But it was not to be.

Woke up Monday morning to find 5 cm of snow on the ground and more falling. The weather report said 10 more cm on Tuesday, which would make Hwy 95 impossible. So we turned and drove back on I-84 heading for Portland, through the falling snow. Slow going, and not pleasant. Ran out of the snow at "Cabbage Hill" (thank God) and found Pendleton west to be just fine driving. Made Fairview-Portland RV Park as darkness fell, only to discover that our port slideout was not working. Tuesday morning drove to an RV repair shop to find that we needed new gears and motor for the slide. Would take 7 to 10 days to have them sent from back east --- unless we paid the extra $175 for 2 days delivery. We did. And by 2pm on Thursday we were on I-5 heading south --- $1030 poorer. Stopped at Eugene that night, at a pleasant RV park. Question - should we turn west out to the coast road (Hwy 101) or risk the Siskiyou Pass on I-5 into California? Mapped out the different possibilities, but when we got to Grant's Pass, the weather report said the Siskiyou pass was clear --- just carry chains. We charged ahead, and the pass was just fine, and so were we. Through northern California, and down to Redding where we stayed at Shasta RV Park, happy to be past the problem areas.

The next day, Saturday, we headed down Hwy 99, stopping at an RV Park (sort of) in Fresno. On Sunday we stopped at Tulare, St.John's Church (Fr.Rob Eaton) for the service, then on through Bakersfield, CA, and turned east again on Hwy 58, to Hwy 395 south, and stopped overnight at the Junction of 395 and I-15. Found a delightful store with large navel oranges and were they ever good. Got lost finding the RV park for that night, so enquired of a California Patrol who knew nothing about it; guess it should have sold donutss. Finally found it east of Hwy 395 instead of west, and bedded down. Next morning, travelled down the hills on I-15 to I-10, turned east again heading for Palm Springs and Indio. Traffic was heavy --- California drivers charge in and out of different lanes as if the devil was chasing them. We just drive in the far right lane at our standard speed of 90K (the limit for trucks and trailers) --- though the speed limit for cars is actually 110K and most cars are proceeding considerably faster. Drove past Palm Springs, then past Palm Desert, and turned at Indio (Hwy 86S), heading for Hwy 111, and an hour later pulled into Fountain of Youth RV Park.

As usual, we dry camped the first night, and were really taken with the sunset and view. Moved to site 82 on Rattlesnake next day, but put in an appeal for another site with a view. Two days later, site 157 on Quail Rd came up, and I grabbed it. Nice site, with view and patio, and close to the pools. We are very lucky. Praise God for this. You can see our RV with the "Chidham Bear" in front of it in the picture to the left.

Sunday we headed for All Saints' Brawley for their lovely 10am mass. No sermon because it was Annual Vestry Meeting, but it was OK. Good to be back and see again some of our friends. Fr.Carlos asked me to take the Ash Wed service while he did the same at his other point of the parish. More services planned he said. Fine with me. I am delighted to be useful. Shopping in Vons in Brawley afterwards, and diesel at $3.39 per gallon, probably the cheapest of the whole trip.

We had a group of people over for drinks at 3pm and on to the sunset on Tuesday afternoon. We have met a number of people from Kelowna, from Coquitlam, from Vancouver Island, from Alberta --- which is not surprising since about 60% of the people in the RV park are from Canada. We were delighted with the visit of Fr.Bill and Doreen Stadnyk and Jim and Ann Hyland, whom you can see in the picture to the left. We will be celebrating Canada Day on Feb 10th in the afternoon. And there is a big concert this Sat evening for which we have bought tickets. I am in the Lobster Pot (the warmest hot tub) almost every day, while Bev does exercises in the pool every day at 8am. This is certainly the life..........

Well, it is St.Valentine's Day today, Feb 14th, and Bev is sick in bed --- probably with a version of the cold that I had last weekend. We had planned on driving to Palm Desert today to have a romantic Valentine Lunch at a nice restaurant along with Rod and Jan Ainsworth (who spend the winter in Palm Desert) but it has been put off for a week. Yesterday we drove to Brawley to pick up the new trailer tire, purchased some groceries at Vons, and then attend Stations of the Cross at All Saints. Bev turned sick while at the store, and so I turned around and brought her back to the trailer. put her to bed, and gave her a soup and ice cream supper. (The first for healing and the second for amusement.)

Oh, you ask --- a new trailer tire? Well let me tell you the tale. On our journey down here I found that one tire on each side of the trailer had to be refilled every couple of days, and one went quite soft while in the RV Park. With the help of a neighbour, Roy, we removed the offending tire, and Firestone Store in Brawley found a leak in the side wall which meant it had to be junked. I replaced it with the new spare, and ordered a new trailer tire. The second tire on the other side developed a slow leak, which I found after dunking the tire in water --- I pulled out the nail, and pouf, the air streamed out. So the port side wheel became the recipient of the new tire (actually made in China, so I am crossing my fingers; but I should have crossed them better because the Chinese tire lasted 2000K and had to be junked), and the patched tire becomes the spare. All complicated I suppose, but we now have 4 good tires on the trailer, and things are looking better.

It was a beautiful sunny hot day, temp about 26C. The sunsets have been great, when we saw them, and we would sit outside at the picnic table, with a glass of wine and some friends, watching the sun sink below the horizon. Of course, the sunset often conflicted with Bev's water volleyball tournament --- she is becoming quite good at this, and meeting new friends. Too energetic for me --- I prefer the Lobster Pot and the Steam Room. Good chatting with people there too.

Bev was a participant in the FOY Parade Day, walking with the "Water Exercise" group, and carrying a sign. She was wearing her bathing suite under the wrap. You can see a picture of her doing so to the left. Diane is on the other end of the sign; she is also a water volleyball player. Above to the right, you can see a picture of the winning float and mariachi band (sp?). Do you like the donkey "pulling" the golf cart?

At All Saints, I have taken the Ash Wed service, and will be doing part the Evangelism Training on several Friday evenings. I am also scheduled to do the Sunday mass on March 9th (while the priest is attending a Kairos in one of the prisons), and to take the Maundy Thursday mass and the Good Friday service. So I am very blessed to be here. My presence is relieving the priest (Fr.Carlos is in the picture to the left) so he can take services at the other part of his parish at the same time. He is happy, I am happy, and the people say they are happy.

Bev reminds me that she walks Sean almost every day in the desert, watching out for coyotes and rattlesnakes, of course. It is pleasant, she says, with the desert having patches of brush then gravel, then yellow flowers (after the rain). Cactus will be coming out soon in bloom. Morning doves coo. Eagles watch for mice. And sometimes the wind blows like it has been released from hell. At night, we can hear the coyotes howl and then bark when they catch some poor critter. Perhaps a rabbit or ground hog, perhaps a pussy cat that strayed from the RV Park.

Every day I am online checking out NWnet, adding to the Diocesan Info, and the News section, and helping Arcticnet stay on --- it was off a day or so ago, much to Deb's concern, and I discovered how to fix it from 2000 kilometres away. (Proud of myself, I was.) Unfortunately, Arcticnet is off again --- Heather has gone over to restart it too many times, and Charles will up there on March 1st to work on it. Can't understand how 2 Servers, only 3 inches apart, can be so different --- NWnet is rock solid, while Arcticnet is not. I am more and more convinced that it is the fault of the AVG Antivirus program occasionally freezing, and causing the FirstClass system running Arcticnet to stop. Hope Charles can liberate Arcticnet.

Noted today that St.John's Shaughnessy has voted to leave the Diocese and come under the Archbishop of the Southern Cone. Rumoured that St.Matthew's, Good Shepherd, and St.Luke's will do the same makes me sad. I understand their reasoning and frustrations --- but still believe that unity is more important. I believe if we all can stay together, we can work out the problems. I know the "liberal gay agenda" is demanding and aggressive --- but remaining together means we don't have to give into their victory. Together is better --- for now and for the future. Well that's my 2 cents worth, if anyone cares.

Last week we drove again to Palm Desert, this time to shop and then visit Rod and Jan Ainsworth, former parishioners at St.John's Port Moody. Together we went to "Mimi's" a delightful place for lunch. It was our delayed Valentine Lunch for Bev --- she had been sick on Feb 14th. Good having a visit with the Ainsworth's, and seeing their condo. On Sunday March 2nd, we will all go to St.Margaret's Episcopal Church in Palm Desert together. Bishop James Mathes will be there, and there should be over 1000 people in attendance.

Most days are sunny and warm now, with temp about 25C to 28C, with the desert flowers blooming in yellow, purple and white. Quite pretty, as you can see to the left. We are thriving though I am still troubled with lower back pain, which takes some of the joy out of getting around. But most days I am in the Lobster Pot and the Waterfall pool --- yesterday I spend some time in the Steam Room, not long you understand, but it might do some good. Bev still enjoys playing water volleyball about 3 times a week. She participated in the Can/Am games last Saturday, and did very well; Canada was tied with USA up to the very last game, and then in a last minute, lost to USA team. It was very exciting, and we will flatten them next time.

Sunday March 2nd (day after St.David of Wales) found us driving back to Palm Desert, this time to St.Margaret's Episcopal Church. Probably build 40 years ago, holds about 1500 when the gallery is full, but probably only 1000 people in attendance when we were there. They weren't all there to chat with us, but rather to listen to the Bishop, the Rt. Rev'd James Mathes, who celebrated and preached. There was a choir of 40 singers, plus a magnificent organ (Walter would have been impressed), plus harp and violin, and soloists. The music for the mass was the Requiem by Franck, just wonderful. Sermon wasn't bad either. We sat just behind Fr.Clark Trafton, formerly an OHC monk, and his "partner" Louis. We chatted quite a bit after the service.

While we were enjoying our day, Charles travelled to Kelowna to work on Arcticnet. It is working again, and he installed a program called LogMeIn, which allows me to access the Server directly over the internet from wherever I am. Hopefully this means I will never again have to bother Heather, and ask her to go to out home and restart Arcticnet. She has been very good about this, but I am unhappy at asking her to do it so often. Now, with Charles' help, all should be better. Keep your fingers crossed.

Early in March, there was a fire in the desert. Some kids thought it was fun to burn some of the desert bushes (which because they are dry, burn rapidly) but were thankfully caught. The fire department from Bombay Beach responded, and had it out in about 2 hours. Lots of black smoke from the burning "creosote bushes", and lots of flames burning brightly as the fire jumped from bush to bush to bush. You don't think there is too much to burn in this desert, but when it gets going, it grows big quickly. It was perhsps 2 kilometres away from the RV Park. I took the accompanying picture while sitting on the top of our trailer watching the fire. But most of the time we sat at our picnic bench and watched. The pumper truck was there spraying water on the fire, and that finally put it out.

On March 5th, we drove north to the Joshua Tree State Park. It was larger than we thought. ; we spent much of the day driving from one end to the other of the Park. Still we saw some wonderful desert wild flowers, and many Joshua trees. We came back on Tuesday March 11th (the ticket that we purchased was a 7 day ticket), and entered via the north west end of the Park. There was more Joshua trees, and more superb rocks.

Ron was fascinated by the rock formations. It was a long drive, about 250 miles, and at the price of diesel of $4.19 per gallon, it makes the cost of travel worrisome.But it was nice to see the rest of the Park and the Joshua trees. They are a form of cactus, but have a trunk and branches. You can see that in the pictures to the left.Of course, because of that, I had to take a picture of Bev with a Joshua tree. If you look carefully, you can see the big whitish flowers at the end of the branches. Quite unique form of cactus. The different flowers were nice too; the bits of rain we had a month ago has certainly brought out the flowers. Though it is sunny today, it is also a bit cool; and showers are predicted for tomorrow. Highly unlikely, but we will see.

We invited Rod and Jan Ainsworth down for a visit, and they came at noon on Thursday March 13th. We had a delightful time, starting with a little lunch that Bev made --- grilled scallops wrapped in bacon, grilled chicken topped salad, fruit with ice cream and cookie, all washed down with some wine. Delightful! Rod and I tackled the Lobster Hot tub, followed by the pool, and there is a picture of that too --- please no comments, rude or otherwise --- any distortion is caused by the camera, naturally. It was a fine sunny hot day, as it is most days. Temp now is in the 30Cs every day.

Tomorrow is Palm Sunday and we have less than 10 days left before we leave. Our plan is to drive to Rincon West in Tucson, AZ, and stay there for 4 days, visiting Fr.Jack and Joan Tench. Then we will head for home. To keep within the bounds of our Medical Insurance we should be home by April 3rd. Bonnie is to have an operation on her back on the 7th and Bev wants to be with her then. Bev also has a Nurses Lunch on the 14th. So either we find a place to stay in Vancouver until the morning of the 15th, or we go home, and then I drive Bev down on the 7th and back on the 15th. Someone has to look after Sean, so that means I will need to stay home in Kelowna with him, or find an RV Park in Vancouver to stay at from the 3rd to the 15th. We'll work it out. Tomorrow, we wave our Palms --- though God manages that around here everytime the breeze blows. Nothing but Palm trees around Fountain of Youth RV Park.

Holy Week is almost here, and Fr.Carlos Garcia has asked me to take the Maundy Thursday mass (with washing of feet and stripping of the Altar), and the Good Friday service. Both will be at 6:30 pm. And while I am doing these services, he will be doing the same at his other church "Santa Rosa" in the parish, on the other side of the Salton Sea --- in Spanish of course. It will be great to share with others the Love of Jesus as we remember how He died and rose again for us.

Many of the trailers and motor homes have left the RV park --- perhaps about 50% of them --- and headed home. We plan to be here until Easter, and then on Easter Monday we will head to Tucson AZ to meet Fr.Jack and Joan Tench at Rincon West RV Park. We will have 4 days with them, and then turn for home. We may go via San Diego if we can get an opportunity to sell our FirstClass System, but if not, we will head home to Kelowna. From there, we will park the trailer beside our home, unpack and get settled. Since Bonnie is having an operation on her back on April 7th, I will drive Bev down to Vancouver to be with her, and then return to Vancouver to pick her up on the 14th after her meeting with her nurses. The option is to stay at an RV park outside of Vancouver, because we have our Wheaten Terrier "Sean" with us, and that makes it hard to find a home where we are welcome with a dog. So we either spend an extra $400 on an RV Park for 10 days, or an extra $200 on diesel fuel. In any case, it will be nice to be "on the road again".

It is Holy Saturday, March 22, and we are getting ready to drive to Tucson on Monday. This week I have written and delivered 2 sermons, and taken the services onMaundy Thursday and Good Friday, and was surprised that I felt tired after each one. Maybe its the driving back and forth that does it, or maybe it's the few people who were there, or maybe it is the lack of any acknowledgement. Who knows? In any case, if you want to read them, go to my usual website ( www.nwnet.org ) then Click on Selected Sermons on the Link bar, then go to the List of Sermons on the bottom left, and Click on the Sermon you want to read. They're both there.

Just before 8am, we left Fountain of Youth RV Park on Easter Monday, March 24th, and headed for Tucson. We made a stop at the Flea Market at Yuma, only to find them closed on Monday. Filled up with diesel, we carried on to RimCon West in south Tucson to stay with Fr.Jack and Joan Tench, who were staying in a park model for a month, and who invited us for supper. We are parked in the "dog owners area" in a corner of the park --- here every trailer has a dog, and "walkees" means dogs of every size and owners pass by our windows every minute. Tuesday we visited the lovely Desert Museum, and I renewed our annual pass. The four of us enjoyed some of the park, and then sat for a pleasant lunch together. Wednesday we all went to San Xavier del Bac for their 8:30am mass, met at Denny's for breakfast, and then parted, so Bev could visit Wal-Mart and I could visit Beaudry RV to replace a broken door handle. We looked at the new automatic satellite finder and TV aerial (King-Dome) that would take all the work out of finding the TV satellite --- $699.00 is a lot, and maybe they will come down in price a year from now. Fr.Jack and Joan came to our trailer for supper, and Bev cooked a pork tenderloin for supper (14 minutes in our grill). My back is still giving me a lot of pain, especially at morning or night. (During the day, if I am walking it is better, but I need to sit regularly.) Thursday we headed south to Tubac (close to the Mexican border) to explore the "ancient" shops, and have lunch (green chili stew and a beer). A delightful drive and pleasant day.

Friday morning we finally turn for home since we want to be across the border before April 3rd. Bev wants to go back to the Yuma Flea Market, so we will take I-8 west, and turn north along Hwy 86 past Indio. At least we will see the west side of the Salton Sea for the first time. And it looked more agricultural than the east side, though the RV Park was not as nice. Still we journeyed north past Indio, and all the windmills creating electricity at Desert Palms, towards Los Angeles. Nice driving, and more cars. We turned north again on I-215, then I-15, then Hwy 395, and up to over 4000 ft. When we started near the Salton Sea we were at 250 feet below sea level. Now there was desert with Joshua Trees and Cholla cactus. Dry and hot. We turned west on Hwy 58 and finally reached Bakersfield. High winds, hot temps, but a lovely stop for oranges, the best we have had.

We drove north, sidestepping Los Angeles, and on to Mountain Gate RV Park just north of Redding. After a quiet night, we headed through the Siskyou Pass and on through the mountains of Oregon, stopping at Portland. There the slide mechanism got worse, and we needed to call for a mechanic from Olinger RV Repairs to get the slide to pull in. Once it was working and in, we headed off through Washington and across the border, and on to Bonnie's home in Port Moody. There we are now, having a visit with Bonnie and family, and Charles too. Sean had to be placed in a kennel for 4 days; Dad got a beard trim, Mom had her hair done (looks really great!), and the trailer was taken to Travelhome RV for major repairs to the slide. After replacing the slide motor in Portland for over $1000, we now will have another plus $1000 bill --- perhaps a lot more. Ouch. We will stay here until Sunday, and after Church, head back to Kelowna and home at last. A trip of 3 months, from January 5th to April 5th. Thanks be to God.