Wow! I never thought that Rt 299 or the Bear Tooth Pass from Dan’s and my trip out west in 1999 would ever be topped, but I do believe that the last two days have topped all other roads I’ve ever driven. Heidi and I started out from Washington on Lord’s Day with five others and headed out towards the Blue Ridge Parkway. Four of us are on bikes while Heidi, Melita and Candace are in the car … and boy, are we thankful for the car. Lord’s Day was beautiful and we made it down to Buena Vista. Setting up camp was fine, and because most of us were up that day at six or seven, we turned in early. By three o’clock in the morning, it started pouring … and I mean pouring. Mats’ $40 tent that Melita and Candace were in, was only worth that – $40. It was about as effective as a garbage bag. With soaking wet sleeping bags and clothes, they finally headed for the car at 05:00. By the time we got up at 09:00, the sun was out again. Yesterday should have been a good day, but 60 miles down the road in Roanoke, we stopped to throw everything in the dryer at a laundromat. Reg’s bike took this time to decide to quit (fixed by evening) and we ended up camping last night on Roanoke mountain. It was a wonderful night to cook over the fire and we sang and read and played Rook till 23:00. Guess what? Sometime around 03:00 in the morning, the heavens opened … It poured like I have not seen it pour in a long time. It was still raining when we finally packed up at noon today, and we headed out on the road in full rain gear. About two hours down the road, the skies cleared and the roads dried and we encountered the best roads I have ever rode on. Wow! The scenery? Wow! Definitely enough to make one smile. And so here I sit at the Council’s … tired, and ready to hit the bed. But with roads like this, methinks the smiles are still going to plastered on.

One day late here, but we were down in Nova Scotia at the Stellarton conference and I can beg off on the fact that yesterday was a holiday. We couldn’t have asked for more perfect conference weather with hot sunny days every day. Monday was beautiful for the picnic and I even got a deep tan (if not a burn). The meetings were excellant and I especially enjoyed the first reading meeting on Genesis 22 which took up the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Of course, it is always good to be home in Nova Scotia, if only for a short and hectic three day weekend. The visits were short and the time was shorter, but at least I was able to be there once more. This is the first year that I didn’t go out with the YP, but I got to stay home instead and with Mark & Lindsay and Ted & Julie there, this was neat instead. I also got to have a cake with 27 candles on it … wonder why that was. Smile.

I guess after a two-week absence, I should keep the world up to date with our roamings. Heidi and I spent six days down in California, two in San Diego, two in Oceanside and two up in Los Angeles. Although I can’t say the weather was particularily warm, it was sunny every day and we were able to enjoy the beach a little on a couple of the days. The rest of the time, we cruised around in our yellow Mustang convertible and took in the sights. One of the good things about California in May is that there are no tourists. We didn’t realize it, but Lord’s Day was all-day meetings there in La Mesa so we got to meet many of the locals and then go out with the “young people marrieds” that night. Thanks to US Air we lost our luggage on the way back to Boston on Thursday, but it showed up on our doorstep the following day. Friday and Saturday were composed of a quick drive up to Ottawa, dropping off my car and returning on my motorbike to Boston. Smile!