Hot Springs

680 miles

13 hours on the road

I’m writing this sitting in a wooden Adirondack chair in a little lodge nestled in the Canadian Rockies. I have no idea when I’m going to be able to get internet, maybe tomorrow.

Yesterday with Scott was really great. It was so nice to be off the road for a day and stretch out my legs on some hiking trails. It was fun to be able to see him in his element too. After hearing about fire fighting it was really fun to get to see the base, and the rappel towers and the helicopters.

I started driving this morning around 6 this morning. And honestly, the drive from Hinton up north was rather boring (sorry Scott). It was miles after miles of thin trees. But then every once in a while I’d come around the corner and then out of no where would appear the Canadian Rockies, only for a minute, and then the road would dive back into the woods. The road itself was pretty quiet and isolated today. Not many cars on the road just yet. Today did mark the begining of the driving on the Alaska Highway. Sooo cool!

More interesting it was what happened after I got done driving for the day. I decided to stay at the Lodge at the Liard Hot Springs for the day, which is about half way from Hinton to Haines. So tonight I’m in British Columbia.

After I checked in I hopped across the road and jumped into the Hot Springs in the park. They are close to 125 degrees and after so many days of driving it was very nice to just be able to sit and soak and relax for a bit. While I was at the hot springs I met a couple of people who were driving 80 dogs north to Juneau do to dog sled tours. Also, I met two guys from Utah that were driving north to be tour guides at McKinley.

Back at the Lodge two people I had met at the hot springs (Jenny and Joe) invited me to have dinner with them. Jenny is from Southern California and Joe is from British Columbia, they are up here on their anniversary. They are the sweetest couple, in their mid 50s and also Christians. We talked a lot about ministry and traveling and relationships.

I think the best part of the day was that in all the trees I got to do some heavy thinking. I was walking out to the hot springs tonight and feeling really anxious about the summer and the driving still to come and generally about things unknown. When I got into the hot springs something in the water turned the silver ring that I wear on my finger into a gold and then blueish color. It reminded me of something I had been listening to on the drive earlier that day. I was listening to the Alchemist on CD and it talked about how all things evolve. The wise man in the book said that one of the worst things we can do is ignore the fact that all things need to evolve and change over time. That to become stagnant is to ignore the reality that life is ever changing. I have been wearing that silver ring on my finger for almost 10 years, and while it is bent and scratched, it has always looked the same. But today it changed, and now it’s this beautiful color of blue.