Hangin at our place

Amie & Jon, Elijah and Grace were here at the same time as Scott and we spent alot of time just hanging out. It was good medicine. I am looking forward to spending time on the road with my kids. They have promised to come and join me for bits of time. My Mom and Dad too. Of course Paul is coming for the whole month of June. Which is so exciting to be able to share the experience together. I am secretly (not a secret any more) hoping and praying that he will be able to join me for a longer time... but a dreamer knows that dreams are only dreams.

Mom gave Paul a book ages ago by J.Edwin Orr called "Can God." I began to read it today and was most encouraged. He was a tramp for God too. He biked, walked, and travelled over 10,000 miles on the supply of God for meals, bed, clothing and a monthly allowance for the widowed mother he was responsible to support.

After reading is account of need and a prayer of faith, Paul & I prayed the same prayer as he - to provide our need (Orr's was his mother's allowance, ours is to sell our home) by the next day at 11 am. So we wait on God. If this is a prayer of a selfish demanding child I ask for forgiveness, but rather I believe it is a prayer of faith. I will tell you tomorrow which kind of prayer it was.

Also reading this book. What a wonderfully detailed account of the physical feats of these men. I am kept busy reading, not bored in the least. These three started for San Francisco on January 30, 1906 on a bet that they could reach San Francisco and return to their home town in 366 days. They had to start off with no money in their pockets and return with $200 each. If successful they would receive the $600 each placed in a bank account on the day they left. These are mighty sums in those days when 25 cents equaled five dollars today.

There are many good tips for my time ahead and I am much encouraged by their willingness to just step out and do. There were no technical shoes, not even good outer wear (they were given wool toques and leather leggins by stores in their home town of North Sydney, Cape Breton) to brave the -35 degree storms on the way through the maritimes, Maine and to Montreal. The book mentions Vankleek Hill twice and there is even some betrayal and underhanded business!

Of all the pedestrians I have researched I have always found they were at some disadvantage to me. Take for instance Kyle Pickering and Bobby McDowell who walked through the winter and walked from Vancouver to Newfoundland: so they walked in the cold and 3 xs farther than I will. Their website is just plain beautiful and even entertaining (check out the videos). www.walkcanada.com

Then there is Ole Olson and Helen Viel who left Tuktoyaktuk on the Arctic Ocean on 30 March, 2000 bound for St. John's, Newfoundland by way of the Pacific coast, in the longest sanctioned volkssport event ever. They made it - three weeks ahead of their schedule, finishing on Tuesday, November 13, 2000. I couldn't find their ages, but from the photo you can see they are older than I am and they set themselves a much higher goal - touching three oceans!!! Way to go you two!

You might also want to read about Dave Kunst who walked around the WORLD! His brother, John joined him, and later another brother Peter walked for a year with him. They left on June 20, 1970, Dave completed the trek on October 1974. Sadly, John was killed by bandits in Afghanistan. The newspapers had mistakenly written that the brothers were "collecting" money for Unicef. The bandits thought their mule and cart was carrying a load full of money collected. By playing dead, Dave was able to escape the same fate. There is alot of information on his site: http://home.earthlink.net/~earthwalker1/

So as you can see I am not doing anything extremely wild - moderately wild? Perhaps.