WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DAY MAKES

Taking a break from our California trip.
This week hasn't been too bad. 
Work on Monday.
Snow day on Tuesday.
Work on Wednesday, but no students.
And then today.
Discouraging news is so hard to bear sometimes.
It puts a damper on everything.
It's hard to know what God is doing.
It's hard to not be depressed.
Sometimes I just want to curl up and cry.
But that wouldn't change anything.
Can't go into details.
Please pray.

CALIFORNIA, HERE WE COME! - Part II

Day 2:  Tue, Dec 28, 2010

5:30 AM – Rise & shine!

6:20 AM – Hit the road after a quick drive through at McDonald’s.  This Days Inn didn’t have a continental breakfast and we didn’t want to do Denny’s again.  The burritos from McDonald’s weren’t too great either.  L

Ben insisted on starting our drive today.  It was dark and 31 degrees.

7:05 AM – We crossed into Texas.  Looks like it's just floating out there, doesn't it?

Some Texas scenery:

A gorgeous sunrise.

A huge cross.

Our own county.

Ben's still driving.

9:38 AM – We crossed into New Mexico.  We have decided NM has the best welcome sign by far.  It is a very pretty state.  We saw some seemingly endless trains traveling across the wide open spaces.  And the mountains began to make an appearance.

10:00 AM – Pit stop in Glen Rio, NM for gas (2.89/gal), potty and a snack.  Interesting restrooms.  Time to break out the sunglasses as we continued our travels.  Still chilly, but not cold. 

We found Jesus in New Mexico at the pit stop.

We wanted to get the odometer at 999.9, but obviously missed.

1:11 PM – Another pit stop for gas (2.89/gal) in Albuquerque, NM.  Only 306 miles to go until we get to Flagstaff, AZ.  Ben became obsessed with taking pictures of trains.

3:05 PM – We finally made it to the Arizona state line.  Ben wanted his picture taken by the sign because Arizona is his birth state.  We couldn’t pull off on the shoulder of the interstate, because there were “no parking” signs.  So, once again, we turned around, drove 8 miles down the interstate and back into NM, to come back to Arizona.  Only this time we exited to the welcome center, went potty (of course) and took Ben’s picture by the sign.  J

Definitely see a change in the terrain now.  Lots of mountains.  As we approached Flagstaff we could see snow-capped mountains.   As we got closer we realized the snow wasn’t just capping the mountains; it was down lower.  How funny!  We leave snowy Iowa, lose the snow in Kansas, and find snow again in Arizona!

5:04 PM – We arrived in Flagstaff, AZ.  Put more gas in the car and grabbed some fries from McDonald’s.  We have both decided we like McDonald’s fries the best, even tho they probably aren’t the best for us.  All the while I have been reading articles in a magazine about losing weight and trying to motivate myself.  So to justify the fries, I drank water with them.  J

We had really hoped we would get to Flagstaff earlier because we would have made a side trip to the Grand Canyon.  Ben doesn’t remember much of it because he was so young when we went before moving to Iowa.   It would have also been nice to go to Sedona and some of the other places we know and love in Arizona.  Perhaps another time.

A gorgeous sunset!

On the way from Flagstaff to Phoenix, I called our friends Grady & Marcia Willard to see if we could spend the night at their house.  It was so good to hear Grady’s voice and he told us to absolutely come.  Marcia wasn’t home from work yet and Grady was feeling a little ornery, so he didn’t tell her we were coming.  When we arrived at their door it was fun to see the look on her face.   I think the last time we saw them was in 2004 when our families vacationed together in Florida after their son, Wesley, and our Heidi graduated from high school.  Wow!  Too long! 

Anyway, we arrived at their door around 8:00 … after trying to find the Blimpies that our GPS was directing us to.  She kind of failed us on this one.  It took almost 30 minutes to find it. 

Ben and I brought our salads to the house and ate while we all caught up on our lives together.  It’s great to have friends you can re-connect with at anytime, no matter how little you see each other.  But it’s not great that we don’t get to see each other more often.  We talked about how we (Grady, Marcia, Mike & I) should do a trip together sometime.  That would be so fun!

Our dear friends, Grady & Marcia Willard.

Today we played the license plate game.  We saw plates from 28 states:  IN, CA, AZ, TX, MA, WI, NM, IA, MN, MO, MT, FL, KS, AL, MI WA, NY, VA, KY, IL, NE, NV, NC, CO, TN, ID, ME, & OR.  Plus 2 bonuses:  Quebec & Ontario.  Wonder if we’ll find the other 22 tomorrow?
 

CALIFORNIA, HERE WE COME! - Part I

It's been 2 weeks since Ben and I embarked on our adventure to California. 

Day 1:  Mon, Dec 27, 2010

We left Steamboat Rock at 7:00 AM with starting mileage at 114,820 on the odometer.  The weather was light snow and foggy and cold.  It was a relatively uneventful day.  I started out driving, then Ben drove some, and then I finished out the day. 

9:32 AM – We left Iowa and entered Missouri.
We gassed up the car in Kearney, MO.  Gas is only 2.79/gallon.  I do believe Missouri has the cheapest gas in the nation.  We also got some lunch at Burger King.

11:20 AM – We suddenly realized there wasn’t any snow on the ground.  How different things looked.  Stark and bare, with no white blanket.

11:34 AM – We arrived in the state of Kansas.

11:55 AM – We got on the Kansas Turnpike.  Yikes!  How much will this cost us?  10.75!!  Apparently when the GPS asked if we wanted to avoid toll roads, Ben answered no when he should have answered yes we want to avoid them.  His mind comprehended it as saying do you want to take toll roads?  To which he answered no, we don’t want to take toll roads.  Whatever!  It sounds like a me and Janet mistake.  J

3:00 PM – We made it to Oklahoma.

3:15 PM – We made it to Oklahoma … again.  We had been taking pictures of each state’s welcome sign, but missed Oklahoma’s.  So we turned around and came back.  What we got really wasn’t their welcome sign, but we didn’t see anything else.  That was strange.

3:24 PM – Stopped in Braman, OK for gas.  It was 2.89/gallon here.

7:45 PM – Stopped in Elk City, OK for the night.  The original plan was to stop in Oklahoma City, but Ben convinced me we should try to get to Amarillo, TX.  After awhile I convinced myself that that was a stupid idea.  We wouldn’t have gotten there until 9:00 or after and then still have to find a motel and eat.  So we checked in at a Days Inn and ate at the Denny’s that was attached to the motel.  Ben had the nachos which he said were gross (definitely didn’t look like the picture on the menu).  I played it safe and had breakfast which wasn’t too bad.  Note to self:  Do not stay at Days Inns.  This one was okay, but older and just not as nice as I would have liked, but the price was right.

Our first day of driving we logged 774.2 miles.