When we last left off in May, Joel, Steve and I had rented a massive RV and were setting off on our Canadian adventure. And I do mean massive - this thing was 34 feet long and I am honestly shocked that it doesn’t require a special license to drive!
We spent our first night in the RV camping in a Walmart parking lot - which is just as glamorous as it sounds. We wanted to save money and stock up on supplies for our trip while we figured out our plan. We quickly realised that we weren’t going to be able to drive this thing as far as we intended - which was down into the USA to visit a friend of mine who lives outside of Boston. We toyed with just touring around the Great Lakes in Canada, and Niagara Falls was already on our list. After the first night, we found and booked a spot in a campground near Wasaga Beach on Lake Huron.
The beach was cool but the campground was overgrown and not well kept - and cost $100 a night! Our whole goal with the RV was to save money on hotels…now it felt like we were spending just as much. Also, on our way into the campground we scratched up the side of the RV. So, while Joel sorted that out with the insurance and rental place, Steve and I checked out the beach - which turns out to be the largest freshwater beach in the world. The weather was great and I did enjoy swimming in the lake.
However, we did not enjoy the RV. It was bulky, cumbersome, and despite being rather luxurious for an RV, just not very comfortable. Turns out I hate camping in all of its forms - even the glamping ones! I was so upset at one point that Joel and Steve tried to cheer me up by getting me a “Happy Birthday” balloon (a reference to my current favorite Taylor Swift song!) It did cheer me up and was fun to carry around the rest of the trip.
We ended up deciding that we would rather turn in the RV and see if we could salvage the rest of our trip by just going to Niagara Falls. We didn’t even stay the second night we had paid for in the campground, we drove to the RV rental place and camped in their parking lot overnight so we could turn it in first thing Monday morning! Here we are relieved to be done with the thing.
So, once we got rid of the RV, we rented a car to get us from Toronto to Niagara Falls. On the way we stopped at a Bass Pro shop because Steve had been wanting to see one. It is quite the experience! The boys picked up some new clothes and we got some snacks before heading onto the falls.
We decided that since we had already made so many mistakes on this trip, we would make a few more and not follow a budget too closely in Niagara Falls. We wanted to do all the things and really enjoy it! We absolutely went all out and I took hundreds of photos. I don’t want to overwhelm this post just with Niagara Falls so I am going to write a separate post all about that portion of the trip. In the meantime, enjoy this photo of a rainbow at the falls!
We stayed in Niagara until Friday as the hotels got way more expensive on the weekend. By that point I was exhausted from being gone for 3 weeks so I was happy to book a hotel near the airport in Toronto and just chill. Steve went off on a solo adventure for a night while Joel and I enjoyed the hotel pool and hot tub and just hung out. We did get some incredible soul food one night from a restaurant called Honey. This was the best fried chicken I’ve ever had in my life!
On our last night we ordered some Beaver Tails on Uber Eats - a Canadian delicacy we didn’t want to leave the country without trying! They are slabs of fried dough (like a flat donut) topped with all sorts of goodies. We got one with poutine, and then two sweet ones - one with nutella and brownie bits and the other with cream cheese and biscoff bits. They were all delicious!
We flew out on the evening of Monday June 10th and arrived in London on the 11th. We finally got home around 3 in the afternoon and just crashed. And then I was back to work at 8:30 on Wednesday morning! I learned my lesson from this that 3 weeks of vacation actually is too long, and to always give myself a few days of re-entry when I return home. Getting back into the swing of things was rough. I’m still unburying myself from the mountain that is my inbox! I don’t have a picture for this so enjoy this Canadian souvenir we brought home of a gorgeous maple syrup bottle.
On Monday the 17th, I led my first CLT meeting as “acting superintendent” of the circuit! In honor of this, one member of the team brought a cake for everyone to enjoy. It is very British to have a meeting start with tea and cake!
On the 20th we celebrated the Summer Solstice by having a fire in our new Solo Stove. This was only our second time using this since we purchased it on Black Friday last year. We are absolutely in love! The design of the fire pit means that it is smokeless and my new phone was able to get incredible photos of the flames. We hope to use it a lot more this summer!
Way back sometime in April, we commissioned a custom house number from a local wood craftsman (who we met at a burger van.) Joel messaged with him over WhatsApp to design a piece that incorporated the Welsh Dragon. We ended up with this gorgeous piece of art that is hand-carved, hand-painted, and made from an old stair tread from an 1898 house. He works exclusively with reclaimed wood in order to be environmentally friendly. We are so excited to have this on the house and to leave it as a legacy when we eventually move on.
On Sunday the 23rd, we celebrated Penycaemawr’s 132nd anniversary as a chapel. The choir from Caldicot sang and I preached on the Ezekiel passage about God bringing dry bones to life - referencing the graveyard that surrounds the church.
Tuesday the 25th was the hottest day of the year so far and I talked Joel into going with me to the Clevedon Marine Lake to swim. He didn’t enjoy it very much but I had a blast! On the way home we stopped at Costco and I impulse purchased a blow-up kiddy pool to put in the back yard for days that I don’t feel like driving 45 minutes to the lake. That turned out to be a good purchase! I used it the very next day and absolutely love it. Now I can’t wait for it to get hot again so I can chill in my pool in the back garden.
Then on Friday the 28th I headed up to Leeds to spend an evening with Vince and Joan and then attend the start of the Methodist Conference on Saturday!
On the very last day in June, I was welcomed into Full Connexion with the Methodist Church in Britain. When a Methodist minister gets ordained, they are both ordained and welcome into full connection with the conference that is ordaining them. So I was ordained in 2015 and also entered into full connection with the Iowa Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. As of 30 June 2024, I am in Full Connexion with the Methodist Church in Britain, which means I am no longer United Methodist (although my ordination does not change.) That may sound confusing but it is a very big deal!
Vince and Joan were able to attend the service (Joel watched online) and we went out for lunch afterward. I didn’t get any pictures of us together but I do have one of this very delicious lunch!
June was a very full month that started in Canada and ended in Full Connexion and is one I won’t forget for a long time!
XOXO, Bethany