Well, we pulled across the border into Canada in the wee hours of Friday morning with zero problem.  (we are finding that ten children in a tour bus causes a stir with the border patrol....I thought they'd seen it all!)  We pulled over to get "checked out" and I watched as a couple of officer's literally unloaded vehicles down to the floor mats and checked through everything.  I was thinking "man, that could take awhile on this thing."  But the officer that checked us seemed to think we were legitimate. :-)

Renfrew was great fun.  Over the weekend there were about three to four thousand people.  We got to hang out with Michael Cleveland's band a little more and discovered that two of their band members (Jesse Brock and Jesse Baker) live near us.  Hopefully if we get Nick Piccininni down to visit (the banjo player for the Abrams brothers) then we can pull in a professional jam session.  That would be fun!  This is to Michael Cleveland and Flamekeeper, and I'll add Audie Blaylock and Redline as well:  It pays for professionals to be friendly, approachable people...Ones that don't let their heads get big.  You guys are great!

Canadian people are SO MUCH FUN!!!  they were bursting with energy.  We certainly felt very warmly welcomed plus some!

Mr. Bob Johnston and his people do an awesome job with the festival.  Very well organized, cleaned, and packed out.  All the things bands like to hear and see.  Thank you to all of you guys who made our stay incredibly wonderful!

It only rained (I should say "poured") on Saturday morning, and then cleared up by the time the evening set was underway.  Otherwise the weather was perfect.

This morning we played at a Pentacostal Church gathering in Renfrew, Canada where we were SO BLESSED once again!  Great people, great time.  Thank you all!  Especially for lunch.  We were not feeling like cooking!  You guys were such a blessing!

Oh, I've got to tell you about crossing back into the USA.  This was funny...  We thought  (based on what people told us) that it was going to be a bad ordeal coming back into the states.  Well, we made it through all the security cameras and when we pulled up to the window the lady was super friendly.  She asked how many were on board, and Papa said something about "twelve at last count".  Well, she gaped and asked how many were children and papa was like "well, it's me, my wife, and our ten kids...one on the way if that counts."  The lady laughed like it was some kind of joke.  Then she was like "are they all brothers and sisters?"  When the answer confirmed that we are she was like "oh my, this keeps getting better.  Open the door."  Then she came around and before she came on board she opened the window to the booth on our other side and was like "hey listen, this guy's got ten kids!"  When she saw our shoe hanger on the door where at least fifteen of our shoe pairs get stored she laughed and was like "oh my gosh, look at all these shoes!  Just look at these shoes!"  Then she just went through the passports and we had to tell her what we were doing and so forth, and when she heard we were a singing group she was like "let's hear some!"  So the boys sang her an accapella number.  She just got the greatest kick out of it.  Then she asked real quick if we purchased anything in Canada and when we all started laughing and talking about the "bags of milk" we must have sounded pretty convincing!  It was too funny!  Anyway, we were only there for probably ten minutes before she waved us through.  Wow!

Now we're sitting at the church we play at tonight.  It was funny because we were driving through Waterville trying to figure out where we were supposed to be, and when we found the place we thought we were supposed to be we stopped and Papa got out to ask if there was supposed to be a concert there tonight... :)  Talk about an impression.  Well, GPS did a good job at last!  I need to go help set up because we're a little behind the schedule.

One more thing, WE'RE SICK!!!  At least God has good timing, right?  At the end of the tour... :-)

Down the road, all ya'll,

Elisabeth for the clan