Friends Along The Way

Stephen and Kylie were off to work on Friday morning and Ron and I packed up all of our things.  It had been a great three weeks for us but it was time to start travelling home.

Life has been interesting for us.  In our 40 years of marriage, we have lived in 9 different cities/towns/villages through 3 provinces.  Along our journey, we have met and kept special friends.  We may not see them often but we are able to keep in contact through texts, messenger, video chats and once in awhile a visit.  Our trip to Stephen and Kylie’s included visiting friends along the way.  Now, we are taking a different way back to Alberta and we are doing it again.

As we were driving to Prince George, we met Kim at a coffee shop.  

She was coming from Prince George, where she lives, to visit her mom which was along the same road that we were travelling on.  Who is Kim?  The connection starts out before we ever did.  Ron’s mom and Kim’s mom were best friends.  Even though they lived provinces apart over the years, they had sent cards, letters and eventually emails to each other to keep in contact.  Then, we were all little kids together in church.  Kim’s grandmother babysat Ron for a short while.  We went through youth together and then even ended up at Bible college at the same time.  Kim moved out west about 37 years ago and that was the last time we saw her, until Friday.  We chatted about people from the past, caught up on where we all have been, discussed our families and talked about retirement plans.  It was an interesting visit and we made plans to be in contact the next time we come to Kitimat.

After a night in Prince George, we drove to the Salmon Arm area and arrived at Bruce and Lynne’s.  We had met when we all lived in Swift Current.  They have come to visit us in Pincher Creek and even in Deschambault Lake.  Lynne is the most ambitious and energetic person I think I know.  She pointed out her window at a huge mountain and told me that she has hiked it a few times.  She had over 30,000 steps the day before and by last night she had another 20,000. I got my 10,000!  

Bruce and Lynne are inspirational to us.  After Bruce living all of his life in Swift Current, and Lynne, her married life, they moved out of province to a place where they wanted to retire.  They have made a new home with different activities and made lots of friends since they have been here the past year and a half.  It makes our next move sound easy.

When we arrived, we started out slow, enjoying their patio.  We had a tour of the house and a delicious pizza and then that was enough sitting for Lynne.  Off we went to their little golf course.  Ron, Bruce and Lynne golfed and I was the caddy.

After the game, Lynne walked us through a path for us to see the area and then back home.  I still needed steps and so Bruce and Ron were happy to watch the hockey game while Lynne and I went for a walk.  Off we went through trails that led us to beautiful views and dark (and I mean, dark) woods.  We thankfully survived.

We had a nice visit when we got back to the house and thencrawled into bed at midnight (about 3 hours past my bedtime.)

I hear some chatting this morning so I should get up.  I didn’t want to get up too early or Lynne would have probably wanted to hike the mountain before church. 🤪