Tuesday Day 4 and Wednesday Day 5

I'm not sure if I even know what day it is anymore! We got in to Bangkok at 11:25 PM last night. We slept at the TK Palace Motel for a few hours. We flew to Chiang Mai this morning.We arrived here at 10:30 AM. We went to the GTO Centre and then had lunch. After lunch I was in a meeting until supper time. Dallas did real well today until at Supper he started getting really sleepy.I had him drinking Pepsi to keep his caffine levels up but he fell asleep at the restaurant. We got back to the GTO centre and I carried him in to bed. He should sleep until breakfast at 7:00 tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow we will be looking at possible facilities for IGo. It should be an interesting day.

Here is a picture from the airport in Bangkok and our breakfast at TK Palace this morning.

Monday Day 3

We left Chicago at 11:00 AM Monday and, after a 13 hour flight, we arrived in Tokyo at 2:00 PM Tuesday. Dallas was quite fascinated with how the International Date Line works. He didn't sleep at all on the flight. He did get two days school work done, since we lost a day by crossing the Date Line. When we were about 30 mintues from landing he was ready to go to sleep. I kept him awake by playing hangman until we landed. He made it to the gate for the Bangkok flight and then immediately went to sleep. We have a three hour wait, so he should get a good nap before we leave. We have a 7 hour flight from here to Bangkok. We arrive there at 11:25 PM Tuesday night.

The pictures show how to pass 13 hours of boredom interpersed with a little school work and some hangman games. This is also what one exhausted boy looks like in Japan!

Sunday Day 2

Today ww went from Winnipeg to Chicago. It was extremely windy in Winnipeg and there were Thunderstorms. Our flight was late taking off and late getting into Chicago. Then somehow they got our luggage outside of a secure zone and had to scan it all before they put it on the baggage carousel. We waited an hour for our luggage. Here is an idea for you if you ever get bored waiting for your luggage to show up. You can do this an simulate the Daytona or Indianapolis 500 around the baggage carousel area. It is best to keep checking around you for oncoming travel or pedestrians.

The Journey Begins

Today Saturday May 27 Bethanie, Dallas and I drove from Sioux Lookout to Winnipeg. Here is a picture of Dallas and Bethanie at the border between Ontario and Manitoba. We had a good time travelling together. Dallas did some homework and we played hangman and Dallas'own version of Bible Pictionary. The 15th picture he drew was the hardest level, he said. He almost had to tell us, but then we guessed that it was King Ahab the day that he wasn't dressed in his royal robes and an archer shot him and he died.

Anyway, Bethanie goes to the airport on the 5:15 shuttle tomorrow morning and Dallas and I go on the 10:15 shuttle.

Time Travel

I am getting more and more eager for a glorified body. No, contrary to your first thought, this is not due to the normal aging process and my aches and pains. It is because I want the ability to travel outside of the constraints of time. Think of it, we could go from one place to another without the passing of hours and hours of time.

We travelled from Sioux Lookout to Virginia for a wedding. Then we went to Pennsylvania for the weekend. Then we went to New York for Jennifer's graduation from Columbia Univesity. Now we are going back to Pennsylvania for another weekend there and then back to Sioux Lookout. After 4 days in Sioux Lookout, Dallas and I are leaving for Thailand.

The prospect of 22 hours in an light weight metal cyclinder with over 400 seats, otherwise known as a jet, hurtling through the atmosphere, half way around the globe increases my interest in time travel.

Our little car that could now has over 400,000 kilometers on it. If I averaged 100 kilometers an hour, which I didn't, then that means that I have spent 4,000 hours in that car. One year has 8760 hours. So in the last eight years I have spent approximately one half of a year of my life in that car. It boogles the mind. one-sixteenth of my life in the past eight years has been sitting in a seat simply trying to get from one place to another. In addition, I have travelled in airplanes, our Explorer, rickshaws, motorbike taxis, tap-taps, buses, canoes, bicycles, and I have even been know to walk occastionally!

I definitely want a glorified body. I want one that can go where it needs to be without hours and hours of travel.

The Little Car That Could

We have driven Ford Escorts since 1981. I don't know what we are going to do when our current one quits, since they don't make Escorts anymore. We got our first Escort station wagon in 1981. It ran for a long time and was a good car, for the most part. It died with engine failure in January 1987 while we were on our way to my father's funeral.

Our church helped us purchase a replacement. It was a 1987 Ford Escort station wagon. We wrote thank you letters to our church for their assistance. Jennifer was six years old at the time, but had been very well trained in regards to which brand of automobile is the best. In her note of thanks to the church, she wrote that she was so, so, so, so, so, so, glad that it wasn't a chevy! The 1987 model went on to end its life as a dune buggy around Beaver Lake.

The next Escort was a 1992 Escort station wagon. It met its end in front of Wal-Mart on a winter afternoon.

The current model is a 1998 Ford Escort station wagon. It has been the best of the lot by far. Last month when I had it in for service at the Ford dealer here in Sioux Lookout, they took pictures of the car and the odometer and sent them in to Ford Motor Company. We had 399,500 kilometers on it at the time. It still doesn't use any oil and just keeps running.

Yesterday I sanded down the bottom six inches of the body and painted it with some spray can paint. It doesn't match. Somebody looked at it and asked if the patched paint will always be darker. Ah...yes it will. So it looks tacky. But,it won't rust until the paint falls off again next Spring.

This car may die next week or next year. Nobody knows. However, in the mean time I am still so, so, so ,so, so glad that it isn't a chevy.

Same, Same, but Different

Have you ever noticed that sometimes things that seem to be so different actually have some similarities?

Last evening we attended the Ruth Anne Beardy Memorial. We ate supper with four First Nations people. They got to talking about Pennsylvania. One of the men said that he was in Allentown, Pennsylvania one time. He had some free time and asked them how far it would be to Philadelphia. They told him it was about 30 miles and would take him about an hour to drive there. He decided that he would never get closer so he should go to Philadelphia. He said he drove and drove and everything looked like city. He was wondering how he would know when he was in Philadelphia. Finally he stopped at a gas station. There was an older African American gentleman there manning the station. He asked him how far he had to go to get to Philadelphia. The old man looked at him and replied, "You're standing in it!". He decided he had seen Philadelphia and went back to Allentown.

Then they starting asking about the Amish and the one man said he had watched the movie The Witness and would like to see the Amish. There was general agreement that it would be neat to see the Amish. One of the ladies had been there in Lancaster.

I told them that similar to the tourist attractions around Native people and reservations in the States, much of what is pitched to the tourists as Amish is really geared to the tourist trade.

The one man said, "So it would be like when you tell somebody that you are a status Indian there are a hundred questions that follow that statement". One of the ladies said, "It must be hard for the Amish people, and make them feel weird to have all those people coming to look at them."

They talked then about the Hopi Reservation and how they have restrictions on pictures and tourists attending some ceremonies.

I thought it was interesting that people like the First Nations people and the Amish could empathize with each other in being seen as a marketable tourist commodity rather than as people. So, maybe it is true that some things are very different but still very much the same.

Snow in May

I saw a sign the other day that said, "May is God's way of apologizing for February". Well, after having snow in May he may have to try June as a way of apologizing for February.

The snow looks nice, but it is the wrong time of the year. One of our friends told us their child got up and looked out the window and said, "but we haven't even had Summer yet!".

The only redeeming value I can see in it is that it does give us legitimate grounds for feeling sorry for ourselves.