So, I'm in Calgary. Just a short drive away from the majestic Rockies. I'm so excited to see them up close. To stand in awe of their splendour and the power of the One who created them. It's been really cool over the past few days seeing the different facets of who God is in the circumstances surrounding our trip. There were a lot of obstacles that needed to be overcome before we could leave and God very clearly provided for our trip in different ways. Whitey (Kim's car) needed a new muffler and a new brake hose and God provided the funds to get those fixed.  Kim and I were both beside ourselves with excitement on Thursday morning when we were finally on the road!  Then, about an hour out of Thunder Bay, I found myself going 120km/h in a 90km/h zone coming down a hill.  Lucky for me, there was an OPP officer travelling in the opposite direction who seemed to have caught on to my driving faux pas.  He pulled a U-turn and followed me for what seemed like 10 minutes before pulling me over... then Kim couldn't find her insurance card and he was standing out in the freezing cold.  Not always the best thing for an officer's disposition/likeliness to extend grace...He ended up letting me off with a smaller fine than I deserved which was nice and I was careful not to speed for the rest of the trip! 

 Less than 2 hours outside of Thunder Bay, the already-noisy heater fan in Whitey started making a horrendous racket. When I asked Kim if it had ever sounded like that before, she broke eye contact and said, "ya, it's fine. Don't worry about it". After about 20 minutes at that decible, it became even louder. One thing you have to realize about Whitey's heater is that most of the knobs that control said heater are busted. You're lucky if you can turn it off ever. Needless to say, I was having a hard time focusing on the road given the noises coming from the dashboard. Finally we got to Upsala. We pulled in to the gas station and Kim went off in search of a mechanic who could give us some pointers. We also in our time in Upsala attempted to silence the heater fan by banging on it under the hood with my stainless steel water bottle. To no avail. Both of us were feeling a litte discouraged at this point and, had we been anyone else, probably would've had a good cry and returned to Thunder Bay. But we aren't anyone else. And both of us were determined to make it to Calgary even if it meant listening to that terrible sound for the next 24 hours. A small ways past Upsala, we pulled over on the side of the road. We both were going batty. It was like Chinese water torture without the water or the Chinese. We prayed for a while that the Lord would work out our little problem and went on again. I think both of us were thinking that as soon as I started the car again, the heater would be whirrring quietly and we'd have a peaceful drive...that's not exactly how the Lord chose to answer our prayer. Kim decided to try and turn off the heater. This is always a scary thing to do because you never know whether the faulty knob will allow you to turn it back on. But, the heater turned off and we enjoyed about 8 hours of worry-free, warm driving thanks to the sun.  In the late evening, it started getting pretty cold and the windows were starting to fog, so we decided to try turning the heater back on...it came on at a normal volume for a good chunk of time before turning into heat monster once more.  So, we spent the night turning the heater on and off, but the heater worked enough to get us here! :)  I had my first view of the foothills on Friday morning after a sleepless night, but I was still wriggling in my seat like a puppy who's just seen its favourite toy in the hands of a likely fetch partner.  I'm so excited to be on a real mountain! 

Now, we're just kind of taking it easy!  It's been so good to just be able to chill and not have to worry about any kind of responsibility!  I've gotten some really great reading and praying time in and had some new insight on life!  God is good!  :)  More to come on that insight later!