Two years after leaving her family behind, Missie LaHaye (Erin Cottrell) and her husband Willie (Logan Bartholomew) are heading West again.
This time, they’re bound for Tettsford Junction, where Willie plans to finally establish his own cattle ranch.
While Missie works at turning a ramshackle house into a home, Willie heads to town to hire a ranch crew.
He winds up with a former preacher named Henry Kline, an older man with a crippled hand named Scottie, a newcomer to the West in Fyn Anders and a cook known simply as Cookie.
Back home, after an initial fright, Missie learns her Shoshone neighbors are as welcoming as can be and finds plenty of youngsters to teach how to read.
Those neighbors include Miriam “Red Hawk” McClain, who immediately recognizes that Missie’s with child.
That a secret she’s been keeping from Willie because he’s so busy starting the ranch.
But not everyone living in Tettsford Junction has good intentions. Missie’s also befriended Jeff Huff, a young boy who’s older brother has fallen in with a pair of bandits.
And when those men learn that Willie’s been paying his hands with money buried somewhere on the ranch, no one at the LaHaye homestead will be safe.
Erin Cottrell as Missie LaHaye, rejoicing over the beauty of her new home in Love’s Long Journey (2005)
Logan Bartholomew as Willie LaHaye spots three gunmen and wonder if they’ll bring trouble in Love’s Long Journey (2005)
Review:
The third film in the Love series takes place two years after “Love’s Enduring Promise” (2004).
The religious message is more heavy-handed than in either of the first two films. And this is as freshley scrubbed as you’ll ever find the West.
Why handsome Willie LaHaye can work a whole day driving cattle and return to the cabin looking just as darn purty as when he left. The guy must not even sweat.
Get past that, and this is a heart-warming film. Give much of the credit to Erin Cottrell in the role of Missie LaHaye, because she’s far more endearing and believable in the role than January Jones was in the aforementioned film.
Kudos also go to Irene Bedard playing her neighbor, a Shoshone woman named Miriam. One of the films best scene’s features Missie cowering behind a table, shotgun at the ready as she spies an Indian approaching her new home.
When she realizes there’s no threat, Missie leaps to her feet, raises her hand and says “how.” Miriam’s befuddled reaction is priceless.
Cottrell would go on to appear in four more “Love” films, beginning with “Love’s Abiding Joy” (2006). The films are based on the books of Janette Oke.
Irene Bedard as Mariam ‘Red Hawk’ McCalin, Missie’s neighbor, offering assistance in Love’s Long Journey (2005)
Gil Birmingham as Sharp Claw, Mariam’s daughter, scolding the joke-playing young Shoshone men in Love’s Long Journey (2005)
Directed by:
Michael Landon Jr.
Cast:
Erin Cottrell … Missie LaHaye
Logan Bartholomew … Willie LaHaye
Frank McRae … Cookie
Irene Bedard … Miriam “Red Hawk” McClain
Gil Birmingham … Sharp Claw
W. Morgan Sheppard … Scottie
James Tupper … Henry Kline
Johann Urb … Fyn Anders
Jeff Kober … Pacey
Richard Lee Jackson … Sonny Huff
Graham Phillips … Jeff Huff
Stephen Bridgewater … Mr. Taylorsen
Diane Salinger … Diane Louise Salinger
John Savage … Trent
Dale Midkiff … Clark Davis
Runtime: 88 min.
Graham Phillips as Jeff Huff, young brother of Sonny, getting to know the LaHayes in Love’s Long Journey (2005)
Richard Lee Jackson as Sonny Huff, a young man who falls in with bandits in Love’s Long Journey (2005)
Memorable lines:
Land agent: “Many come. Not many last.”
Willie LaHaye: “We’ll last.”
Missie LaHaye: “With hard work. And a lot of prayer.”
Missie LaHaye, spotting Indians: “Lord, give this horse wings to fly.”
Trent: “I got the watch because mine broke. It’s a practical thing. I need to know the time to steal.”
James Tupper as Henry Kline, a former pastor Willie hires to help out n the ranch in Love’s Long Journey (2005)
W. Morgan Sheppard as Scottie, one of the cowboys Willie hires to work on the ranch in Love’s Long Journey (2005)
Scottie: “If believin’ the way they does, makes them the was they is, it bides lookin’ into sometime.”
Willie LaHaye: “Please, you can see she’s expecting.”
Trent: “So am I. I’m expecting to come back here with more money than I left with.”
Trent: “Let’s make me rich today.”
Logan Bartholomew as Willie LaHaye and Erin Cottrell as Missie LaHaye, headed West again in Love’s Long Journey (2005)
Johann Urb as Fyn Anders, trying to convince WIllie LaHaye to hire him in Love’s Long Journey (2005)
Frank McRae as Cookie, the aging cowpoke Willie hires to cook on his ranch in Love’s Long Journey (2005)
John Savage as Trent and Jeff Kober as Pacey, local trouble makers in Love’s Long Journey (2005)
Erin Cottrell as Missie Davis, ready to defend her cabin as a rider approaches in Love’s Long Journey (2005)
Logan Bartholomew as Willie LaHaye, prepared to defend his ranch in Love’s Long Journey (2005)
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