Driving Through the USA

So we drove through the USA to Mexico in a 15 passenger van and the ugliest trailer in the world which the kids promptly named "acne".

We left Saskatoon on the 10th at 6 am and then wasted a whole 40 minutes trying to find a gas station proceeded to fill the trailer tires with air. When we finally found a gas station with air, Conrad filled the wrong tires and we ended up driving for 3 or 5 hours with out the air anyhow.

The group was interesting. A lot of kids were from VCA, they were all Mennonite, and about half were also from the Bergthaler church, and , of course, two of them were my second cousins (which I just discovered while on the trip). It wasn't long before everyone had redeveloped thier mennonite accent to a perfection that only a Hague coffee shop could produce.

We had some good times of worship as we drove as well as some rousing renditions of "She thinks my tractor's sexy" and many other other meaningful country love songs.

Well, I'm sure you can assume from what I've already mentioned that this group was fun, but also probably leaning to the more conservative side of life expieriences.

So, consequently, that is what makes our major tourist stops so funny.

The first place we stopped was Salt Lake City Utah and we "last minute" decided to check out the Mormon Tabernacle. But we weren't members, so instead we had a grand tour of the convention center accross the street. So that was a big eye opener for all of the kids because we sure learned a lot about Mormonism.

Then the next major place we stayed was Vegas. So we took the van down the strip (minus acne) and we expierienced extreme American consumer/entertainment culture. The kids were also quite wide eyed. The fountain at the Belagio was cool as well as the pirate show at the Pirate casino. I also saw David Chihulily's chandeliers at the Bellagio and that excited me. The thing that excited the kids the most was that as soon as we entered Vegas we saw a SUV that had been set on fire. Apparently that was top entertainment.

The next major place we stopped was on Sunday morning we went to Saddleback church. So...funny enough Doug Fields spoke and he spoke about Sex.

So before we even arrived in Mexico we expierienced Cults, Gambling and Bright Lights, and a good old talk about Sex.

Good Times. And I even drove the van with the trailer. I felt quite proud of myself that I did that!