Times of Refreshing

“Times of Refreshing” would certainly work as a theme for our summer vacation. Elisha and I have both had opportunities to refresh our mind, spirit, bodies and most importantly, our relationships with friends and family. Elisha has visited with friends like Jules, and Natasha, while I have, at different times, reconnected with Dave Neufeld, Tim Neufeld, Shane Cooney, Dale Sawatsky, Al Thiessen, and of course the guys I ride and race with. It’s been great.

But, the capper has to be the week we just spent with some of the great friends we made while teaching at TCIS in Korea. Looking back at our 3 years in Korea leaves me amazed at how many rich relationships with amazing people we had. It was certainly a privileged time in our lives that I don’t think could ever be recaptured or recreated elsewhere. Nevertheless, we tried our best to relive some good memories and create new ones with the Steuernagels, Evans’s, and Loweens at a rented cabin near Park Rapids, Minnesota. It was an amazing collection of people who are spread around the globe. The Evans’s live in Gallup, NM, the Steuernagels live in Hong Kong and the Loween’s are still at TCIS in Korea. One of the nice things hearing all the latest about TCIS via the Loweens.

Left to Right: Jeff, Elliott, Robyn, Owen, Chris, Elisha, Jakob, Laura Jo, Marley, Zach, Zoe.

As part of the week’s fun, we decided to celebrate all of our birthdays at once and share gifts with each other.

Elliott doesn’t seem that impressed.

Zoe and Owen, on the other hand were pretty excited!

Jakob, as usual was into his own thing…

Book time was a popular activity with the kids.

The biggest thrill of the week had to be when Jakob went fishing for the first time…

and caught his FIRST FISH!!!

And wouldn’t you know it. Leave Jakob alone with a Twin’s fan like Mike Loween and before  long, he’s slugging homeruns George Bell style!

A trip to the U-Pick Berry farm was a highlight too.

A fun time was had by all.

In Other News…

• Park Rapids, MN, is a great place to vacation. There are lakes everywhere and the road riding is excellent. I thoroughly enjoyed the quiet roads, hilly terrain and smooth pavement. What a treat.
• Despite 2 nice days on Sat/Sun, the weather in Manitoba continues to be unseasonably cool, wet and windy. Daytime highs are still struggling to break 21C (71F)  booooo to that.
• I spent Sunday competing in the Provincial Road Race. It was 100km long and proved to be really tough. I was totally gassed by the finish line. Each 20km lap included 6km’s of hill climbing…mmmmmm, yummmy.  Having said that, I felt pretty good throughout, considering how little I’ve ridden this season.
• Canada is expensive. I ordered 2 large fries and a cheeseburger at McD’s and the total was over 7 dollars. ouch.

Long Awaited Riding Mountain Camping Trip is Over…Boo Hoo.

This is the Ranger station where Jakob could view the stuffed wildlife. It’s a vintage log structure dating from the ‘3o’s. Riding Mountain National Park oozes with a classic, campy 30’s ambiance. I even went to see a movie in North America’s largest log movie theatre! Cool.

We’ve been looking forward to our one week camping vacation for months. Now it’s over. As we packed up the trailer and left the campground today, I couldn’t help but feel a little melancholy. One more week of our highly anticipated summer vacation is over with nothing left but some memories. Too bad many of those memories include a biting, cold north wind, rain, and daily highs of 14-20C (57-68F for our yankee friends)  I never would have believed that the weather would be that cold in July!!!  But, what can you do except make the most of it? At least the cool weather made me feel less guilty for hanging out at the coffee shop watching the Tour de France! When we weren’t at the coffee shop we spent time at the playground, the museum full of stuffed wildlife, and taking afternoon naps.  Ahhhh, afternoon naps carry a lot less guilt too when the weather is nasty!  All in all, it was a good holiday.  But PLEASE, can we have some hot weather next time?

We’re working on Jakob’s “hockey hair”

Some of you may wonder how my long distance Reach the Beach mountain bike race went. If I could sum it up in one word, it’d be sandy. There were long stretches of sandy logging roads that sapped my legs and morale. At one point, while arduously struggling in some soft sand, I happened to look at my speedo (yeah, they made us ride in speedo’s because of the “Reach the Beach” theme…see the pic for the trophy for the winner)

kidding. I meant my other speedo – the kind that gives your speed…anyway, I was slogging through the sand and happened to notice that my speed was 7km/hr. That, in case you don’t know, is “grandma on a tricycle” slow. Anyway, on top of the sandy roads, there were hordes of bloodsucking horseflys swarming around me. Luckily spandex is an effective deterrent to their fearsome bites. not. So, where was I?  Ah yes, sand, biting flies, demoralizing speed…oh, did I mention the race was extended by 5 km for a total of 105km?  Excellent. My finishing time?  5 hrs, 14 minutes for 25th place.

Question is, would I do it again? I’d give that a 100%, definitive…maybe.

Here I am at the 60Km checkstop. At this point I must still be convinced that this is fun!

Jakob in Grandma’s potato patch.