Hope everybody had a great Canada Day. We spent our day visiting a wonderful small town on the Trans Canada Highway called Vermillion where we were greeted by the Deputy Mayor Ben Bosgra and the local newspaper reporter.

This was our kind of town, small, friendly and open to strangers. Ben welcomed us warmly to his town and the pride he held in his town was evident. Ben did his homework and had done some of his own research into spinal cord regeneration and shared it with us. We had a informative long chat and press interview for the local newspaper

Ben presented us with a huge fresh fruit tray that was beautifully done by Ben himself as he owned a catering business. We gratefully accepted his gift and cash donation tom our cause and thanked him for becoming a new messenger.

It is the warmth of a new found friendship and the reality of a stranger taking the time to talk with us as a friend that overwhelms us often on this Journey.

Thanks to ambassadors like Ben and the many Mayors before him along our route we are developing a strong Canadian Identity and realization of the caring, giving nature of all Canadians.

Talking with the reporter and Ben brought back fond memories of growing up back home as a boy and meeting and stopping to chat with friends and neighbours. It was fascinating to see that this tradition was still going strong in the west.

Ben please follow our Journey and work hard as a messenger because it is people like you and I that will make this miracle become a reality.

The day went quickly for us and we reminisced about home, our families and what Canada day meant to us.

We reflected on our Journey, where we were in Canada and how appropriate that we had visited a small town on the prairies. To us Canada is not about Big Cities but about all of these small caring communities who collectively work together to drive what we have all known to be Canada.

As I say good night I am sitting here thinking about how good Canada has been to me, about all I have taken in my life and about how little I have given back in return. With this thought I will go to bed only to rise tomorrow better focused and driven even harder to make this Journey a success so that I can start to give back to Canada for all that Canada has given to me.

Good night and tomorrow we will push on towards Saskatoon fueled by the wonderful people we are meeting on the road.

As a sub note to this post I would like to share another small story with you.

Charlie and I were tasked with driving 2 hours back to Vermillion today to meet with the Deputy Mayor and the press. We decided to disconnect the trailer from the Van to lesson the drag and make better time and burn half of the fuel.

As we drove along the highway we spotted a service garage that serviced Transport Tanker trucks that serviced the Oil and Gas wells in the area. When we pulled into the lot I went to the office which was locked so I went along the building to a side door, opened it and called to see if anyone was around. Remember this was a Holiday and not too many businesses were open. A man came out from behind a transport truck and I told him who I was and what we were doing and asked if we could park our trailer there for 3 hours. He said of course you can and then told us that his brother was a paraplegic and in a chair. I’ll leave you with this message and sometimes real life is stranger than words can describe. I know from our experiences we will never be the same again.

Goodnight