Driving...

I've seen a lot of country in the past seven days. Today we passed through customs and into British Columbia. I was tired of seeing brown high-desert hills and was pleasantly surprised when the mountains stretched to the sky upon entering BC. We drove past aspen and pine trees as the road wound through valleys and beside several rivers.

However, prior to arriving at the border, the oil light came on in the U-Haul. After dealing with a U-Haul mechanic over the phone for 2 hours, we were back on the road. It only took us about 20 minutes to be cleared at the the Canadian customs security.

Now that we're on the highway to Alaska, we can track the trip with the Alaska Milepost Magazine. It gives information about every significant (and insignificant) mile on the way to this great state. In fact, it helped us find our hotel tonight before even entering town. We hoped to drive all the way to Prince George, but the time we spent fixing the U-Haul and going through customs prevented us from driving further. Our plan is to rise very early and still make it to our next planned destination--Fort Nelson. This will make Saturday a very long day.

While we drove, I saw some very interesting things along the way. As we drove through one small town, Jon saw a sign that said the local paramedics were on strike. Several of the highway signs amused me as their little cartoons warned us of animal crossings. Other random sights included roadhouses marked by miles while Canadians use the metric system.

Another point of attention during our trip is having both our visa cards get declined at a gas station. Apparently Bank of America is trying to protect us from stolen money, but this becomes very inconvenient and frustrating when we can't use our card and can't contact the bank due to non-existent cell signal.

Tomorrow brings another day of driving. I am thankful my mom was able to join our convoy. It's been nice spending time with her and having someone to talk to. Without her, this trip would be a lot harder.

God has taken care of us throughout this whole process and I trust he'll help us arrive safely next week. I feel blessed by his watchcare over us because I am highly imperfect and would have messed things up royally by now.

Sleep calls my name as I have been getting less and less of it. I left my camera in the car and can't post pictures tonight. They are coming soon, though.

Thank you for all your prayers.