Hey there again,
We are in Quebec City for another night at the KOA just outside the city. There are some other punk kids waiting for the computer here and are probably swearing at me in French, so I`m afraid I`ll have to be quick. We saw a bit of Montreal and a fair bit of Quebec City the last three days. It has been really nice. We visited the old areas of the city so they had a lot of cool shops and bistros and cafes. Fun. Tomorrow we are going down to the Maritimes, perhaps to PEI. We`ll see though. Tonight we were throwing a baseball around and some kids were watching us. Unfortunately, they only spoke French so we couldn`t really communicate at all, but we threw the ball a bit with them anyway. Good times. Games speak a universal language. I have some good postcards waiting to be mailed, so be on the look out for those in the next week. Until next time.

Hey everyone,

Quick post here. We are in Ottawa region, staying with Trevor and his family. We saw the capital yesterday and plan to see the National Art Gallery, the Canadian Gallery of Contemporary Photography and a few other things. The time here has been great, but boring also. There aren't any crazy stories to share yet, but I'm sure we'll get some soon. We're going to an Expos game tomorrow in Montreal which should be good. Otherwise, there is little else to report. I've got to go so I'll talk to you all later.

So James decided that he's comfortable taking his dad's Volkswagen Fox. It should be a pretty good car to take across the country. So that means that I carried around $1500 in cash for a day for nothing. I was ready to buy a car last night if need be but don't mind not doing so. I still think it would have been fun to cruise across the country in a loaded Jetta, but am happy to have a car that will be good on fuel too. There is still lots to do before going including buying some more film, a cooler, food... packing bags, the truck... doing laundry, getting email addresses and phone numbers.... etc. There is probably more that I'll remember when we get on the road, but we can pick things up along the way too.

I had lunch today at Oh Canada. It was pretty nice. I had the "Friendly Giant", aka, steak sandwich. It was tasty. Mmmmm, Alberta Beef. Now 99.99% BSE free.

Last night, I spent some time with a couple of old college buddies, Kevin and Dave. Dave was in town from Kelowna for a wedding (of some more college friends that I won't be able to go to) and stayed at our place last night. It was good to see him again and though I was never really close to him, it was nice talking with him. Kevin lives in town here with his young wife and 10 month old baby but I don't see a lot of him. I need to make more of an effort because Kevin and Amber ride bike a lot and I could use the exercise, and their kid is really cute and a lot of fun, for a 10 month old. I laughed so hard as we talked about college pranks and videos and all the funny stories from our year together at Rocky. It was theraputic and helped James and I get our minds off our looming responsibilities before our trip.

Tonight will be spent with old friend Michael. He is the one going to med school in Indiana. Hopefully we'll be able to meet up down there before he goes back to school and we have to come back to Calgary. Even if you're not there, I think we will drive through your town to see what it's like. We can drop off a postcard for you.

I've told a couple of people about this blog lately, as a way for them to check in on our adventures on the road. If this is your first time here, then welcome. I hope you find the stories here interesting. Also, feel free to email me and tell me what you think. Also, if you'd like a postcard from the Maritimes, send me your address and we'll try to get one to you.

Now I'm singing the theme to Hockey Night in Canada in my head. Perfect, just perfect.

Last night James and I looked at a pretty good Jetta that we think might get us across the country. We're going to look at another tonight and then probably decide between the two which one we think is most likely to pass a safety inspection. We've only seen one of them yet, but I'd say the decision will be a close one. We really can't wait any longer to buy something considering we want to leave in 3 days.

My manager and fellow content teammates are taking me out for lunch tomorrow. We're going to a restaurant called Oh Canada. I can't wait. I walk by this place every afternoon on my way to the train platform and have always wondered what it would be like. Judging by the menu, it should be great and even better that the company is paying! So, you've heard Canadians whistling the national anthem and you know the words, but if you really want to know what Canadians are all about, you should check the menu. My challenge to any Americans is to correctly identify all of the Canadian references in the menu. There are lots of them and they crack me up. Bonus question: Who owns the tickle trunk?

I've got a busy week coming at me here. This is my last few days of work at my internship job. That means that I have some last minute things to take care of before I leave for good. One is to get the new interns up to speed on everything I've been doing in the last year. I think that they have a pretty good idea of everything and that between the other employees, they could figure out anything that I haven't explicitly shared. The other thing I need to do at work is to get my final internship report done. This may give me some headaches and late nights this week. I have until the end of August to do it, but realistically, the only time I'll get to do it is before I depart.

Speaking of which, James and I are counting down the days until we leave for our "Great Canadian Road-Trip". We'll be leaving on Saturday and have almost a full month to drive through the rest of our country. We are heading east and will spend most of our time in parts of the Maritimes (especially PEI, Nova Scotia, maybe Newfoundland) and will also have a few days in Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto and Ottawa. We're going to drive thru Canada on the way out and most likely return through the States. We may stop in Terre Haute, IN on the way home also, to see my buddy's school, if he is back there before we come through. I've also heard good things about the custard at a certain ice cream / smoothie bar somewhere in Illinois. Perhaps we'll stop in on our way through to confirm the hype.

Before Saturday though, there is too much to do. Keep reading to find out about how preparation is going and hopefully, I'll get a chance to post some stories from the road.

"I had a ball... at the testicle festival!"
Mmmmm, who'd have thought that eating another being's manhood could be so tasty! So let me describe them a bit. If they had been whole, they would have been about the size of a large walnut. As it was, though, they were sliced into pieces about a quarter to half inch thick. The ones that we had came as an appetizer and were cooked in a corn meal beer batter. They didn't actually have that much flavour so they came with a tangy dipping sauce. The meat itself is kind of how I imagined it to be. It was exquisitly fine grained, but had something of a rubbery texture to it also. Perhaps it could pass as a kind of seafood. (Appropriate considering the sea men it provided a home for. I'm sorry, but that's just too funny) Overall, I would say it was a good experience and I'm glad now to say I've had prairie oysters. I recommend them to all with strong stomachs seeking a true western experience. Of course, if you would choose to never come within ten feet of the things, I also understand. There's no shame in that.

I'm going with some friends down to Buzzards (a cowboy cuisine restaurant) for the testicle festival. They are serving prairie oysters during the stampede and since none of us have ever had them, we're going to go give them a try. Mmmmm. So repulsive, and yet intriguing. I'll let you know how it goes.

For those not in the know (ie, Americans, not that any read this anyway...) this week is the latter half of the Calgary Stampede and Exhibition. It is a large cowboy festival if you will. Think county fair with more tourists than locals and more ranchers with cows than farmers with big potatoes. What's funny about the event is that you would know it was happening even if you knew nothing about it just by how everyone in the city dresses during the ten day event. Everyone, especially downtown, is wearing their blue jeans, cowboy/cowgirl shirts, cowboy hats and boots. People in this city have these articles of clothing stashed away in the back of their closet that they only bring out once a year during July. It's crazy. Too much spirit for my liking.

I saw a guy on the train this morning that I've seen on my train before. I like his sense of style and I think we'd get along but I've never said hello. This morning he had on his cowboy duds, complete with plastic sheriff badge, fake gun, bandana around the neck, and of course, the kids cowboy had, hanging from his neck by a string. It cracked me up and I wanted to laugh at him and tell him how great he looked, but didn't have the guts.

Probably the best part of the week, is that everyone has free stampede breakfasts of pancakes and sausages and eggs. We had one at my office building yesterday morning which we great. But, large grocery stores will block off their whole parking lot and have them also. The line up for pancakes at these ones is incredible. It will snake around the edge of the parking lot, back through the middle and out on to the street. You must have to wait at least an hour or two to get your scoop of scrambled eggs, two sausages and two pancakes, but people stand there and wait anyway. It's amazing. There are so many like it around the city that I've heard you could eat at these for at least three or four meals a day for the full ten days the stampede goes on.

It's quiet in the office this afternoon because many of my coworkers are out at the Cuff and Billy, drinking it up and partying it stampede style. (American beer while listening to country music) I think I'll go home early today. It will be my reward for not participating in this redneck gong show.

So I was reading something about Cornerstone and a person was complaining / making mention of the fact, that everyone who writes reviews and tells stories about their time at Cornerstone focuses entirely on the people they met and time they spent around their tents, rather than the shows they saw. I can entirely understand now why they would say that because it was much the same for us. My brother and I, and Stephen to a lesser degree had the unique experience of seeing many bands for the first time. There was maybe only two bands we had ever seen before so it was an exciting time for us. If I was still 5 years old, I would have wet myself many times over. It turned out though, that the wet crotch was just sweat but it was still a good time. I was thoroughly impressed by many of the talented bands and now have a new grown respect for many of the musicians. I will continue to support them by buying albums because I can see what a great job they are doing bringing the world beautiful, inspiring, creative and redemptive music. I would also say that those words could be applied to a broad spectrum of bands also including anything from mewithoutyou and Norma Jean, to Joy Electric, Dennison Witmer, Ester Drang and Pedro. I was inspired by it all.

So other than the music, the festival was fabulous because of the great people that came to the festival. Christ was a common source for most to all at the festival and for that reason it seemed like a big family gathering. We hung out with 25 000 brothers and sisters we had never met and it was just like coming home to a place where you are accepted, loved, challenged and invited back again next time. It was great. We only really met about 10 or 20 of those thousands but those few people taught me a lot. The youth group super neighbors from Springfield, Missouri and our adopted mom from Texas taught me the value of hospitality and generosity. Young Katie inspired me with her boldness and reminded me the benefit of kind and unexpectedly encouraging words and also of the damage that harsh words can make. Her father Bob taught me how to be honest about what you're struggling with and that even a terrible event can have evidence of God's grace and faithfulness, though it is rarely easy to see. Our friends from Iowa, Campbell, Dave, Philip and Colton taught me about the joy and enthusiasm of youth and also the hilariousness of a well timed joke, even a rude one. Lastly, our good neighbors, Lisa and Felicity taught me about the incredible worth of investing in friendships with the people around you. They inspire me to make the effort to meet new people and also to make some phone calls to those whom I have left aside through the years.

So it was a great time and we all hope to go back again. Good times and good memories. I guess this post got kind of sappy and lame, but I just said it like it was. Thank you. End transmission. Good night.

So we just got back from Cornerstone this afternoon after another 28 hour drive. My butt will be sore for a day or so as I recover. It was a great time and I'll probably post more details here later. I've got to do some personal journaling first to document the trip for myself.