The Sunshine State

If I said the last few days of our trip have surpassed our highest expectations, I would be understating matters. You know, when God works little details and timings out so perfectly, you feel like He's giving you a gift tied with a silver bow and all you can do is just say, "Thank you, we don't deserve this."

On Wednesday the 26th, we drove to Panama City, Florida, with the idea of giving our kids a taste of the tropical, warm-water & white beach experience. One of Elizabeth's dreams was to swim with dolphins in the wild and we'd heard from friends that this was the area to attempt that. We found a great state park at the end of Panama City Beach called St. Andrews and set up camp. The next day we rented a pontoon boat and took it out into the lagoon to a place called Shell Island. It's kind of a peninsula between the Gulf and the lagoon so we got to play and snorkel on both sides. All of our kids got into snorkelling! The water is so warm and this amazing turquoise blue. I don't think the pictures do it justice.

On the way back from Shell Island, we encountered some dolphins. When we got close, they'd come up to our boat (I think looking for a handout which we didn't have) and some of us would jump in the water to try to get close to them. The last time, Mike and Elizabeth succeeded in getting one to interact! It was fun to watch and such a highlight experience for them. Mike got to touch it and Elizabeth was right there. They said it's a lot bigger than you'd think when you're right next to it. We all got a bit sunburnned, but it was worth it.

The next day, heading to the east side of Florida, we detoured to a large plantation just across the border in Georgia called Pebble Hill. It's open to the public as a museum and it was incredible to walk the grounds and marvel at the opulence of that era.

We got to the Kennedy Space Center about 8pm. I'll attach here some of Elizabeth's journaling of the event...

"How can I even find words for this?!! It's simply amazing! We actually got to see the space shuttle Discovery lanuch from Cape Canaveral last night at 11:59. Wow! God is so incredible! After being delayed twice, Discovery took off with no problems on a perfectly cloudless night. From the beginning of our trip and all the way up until Alabama, we hadn't even thought there would be any chance we would be able to see a launch. Well, it happened."

We all were amazed how bright and powerful and loud the experience was. Definitely something to try to see in person. Next stop...Georgia and South Carolina.

The South

It's my turn to write a blogpost, giving Anne a little break.What a good time we're having! And Steve and I felt so honored to celebrate our 40th anniversary with Anne's parents in Baton Rouge, LA on Sunday. Her mom made a party of it - thank you Loralea. That was right after enjoying a warm southern welcome and wonderful old time hymn singing at their Baptist church.

Monday we drove the three hours (seemed so quick!) to Mobile, Alabama where we found a pretty state park right on Mobile Bay - complete with alligators (among the reeds), humidity, tiny ants, red, green, and blue dragonflies, and some very large (3 - 4 inch) black locusts. Luke fished for catfish or "reds" alongside some good ol' boys, with no luck - but it was fun anyway.

We all enjoyed a good southern welcome at the country home of Anne's sister-in-law Emily's parents Lisa and Jimmy...good food, lots of listening to stories, a bonfire, s'mores, fireworks - good people. Elizabeth is enjoying spending time with their 16-year-old, Scarlett. This evening Steve and I are relaxing at the campsite while the family is at Josh and Emily's for a barbecue and swim.

Tomorrow we're off to Panama City, Florida. We're keeping an eye on the news about the scheduled launch of the Space Shuttle from Kennedy Space Center - we may just try to dash over there to see or hear that. (It's a long dash, but who knows, maybe we'll time it just right.)

The Lone Star State

Late Friday night we pulled into San Antonio after 18 hrs. on the road and found a Walmart parking lot for the night. Yay for Walmart parking lots! But we found that sleeping in the motorhome in San Antonio in the summer is a hot prospect. We ran the air conditioning for part of the night, but still we all had a hard time sleeping well. We're getting to practice having good attitudes when things get a little hard on the trip :). Our kids are pretty wimpy when it comes to heat with humidity...Mike and I aren't the cheeriest in it either.

We survived the night and went into the city the next morning to see the Alamo. We had listened to a radio drama the day before on the Battle of the Alamo so we were really anticipating touring it. Inside, Davey Crockett's rifle, Old Betsy, is on display along with Jim Bowie's knife. The past still lingers heavily within those walls and it is a fitting tribute to the courage of those brave Texans.

After the Alamo, we walked across the street and down to the Riverwalk...a most delightful respite in the over-100 heat. We wished we could have stayed for live music and dinner in one of the cafes by the water, but maybe another lifetime.

In our quest to experience the different flavors of the country, we decided for this area we wanted to sample some authentic Texas BBQ. Going off a tip from some good friends, we found a Rudy's BBQ to indulge our taste buds. Absolutely delicious! Just ask Elizabeth who polished off 9 baby back ribs.

Ok, just in case you were wondering...Texas is a REALLY big state. After lunch, we continued our trek east and at milepost 880 (yes, that's the number of miles we drove across Texas on I-10) we crossed into Louisanna and made it to Baton Rouge by 10pm Saturday night. Anne's parents had graciously checked us all into a hotel and we had a very good night's sleep thanks to a dip in the pool and AC. Planning to spend the next few days here and in Mobile, Alabama, hanging out with family. Thank you, God, for the many safe miles so far.

Grand Canyon

We awakened Wednesday morning to a bull elk wandering through our camp site! Fun way to start the day. All of us were anxious to see the canyon, so we hastily grabbed a cup of coffee and a quick snack and drove the short drive to the rim. The morning light silhouetted the varied layers and crevices and shone brightly off other parts making the colors glow. This is an awe-inspiring place. A testimony to the marvelous work of God, as a placard on one of the old lookout buildings truly proclaims.

We had a delightful morning viewing the canyon, visiting with a ranger, enjoying ice cream, and shopping at the different shops. Several of these also act as museums of sorts and in the short time we were there we learned some interesting things about Native Americans and the early growth of tourism at the canyon.

At this point we split up from Steve and Loie -- they headed towards Albuquerque to get a jump on the big travel day on Friday, and we headed down to Phoenix to see my sister, Susan, and family. We had a very nice evening with them, cooled off in their pool and enjoyed a delicious dinner and conversation. On the way to their house, we had to take a short detour to indulge in our favorite burger joint -- In-n-Out!!

Started out again very early this morning with the hopes of making San Antonio. The computer is estimating it to be about 1,008 miles away. This is probably the longest leg of our trip.

We Left Our Hearts...in San Francisco

Long before the rooster crowed, we pulled out from Gresham, OR with the hope of reaching San Francisco by late afternoon on Monday. The kids were sleepily excited and giddy as we tucked ourselves into the motorhome and Ben prayed for our safe travels.

We drove through the verdant Willamette Valley and up & down through the Siskiyou Mountains. Oregon is so beautiful! Mt. Shasta in northern CA is also stunning and near the lake we pulled off for Mike to catch a nap. The kids and I stretched our legs and did a short but steep hike down to one of the lake’s fingers to stick our toes in the cool water. Definitely driving towards the heat!

We made great time and pulled into Mike’s brother’s around 4:30. They live in Mill Valley in Marin County and we could see right away why people pay big bucks to live in that area. The seminary is on top of a hill and the views of the bay are amazing, as we discovered taking a walk around campus later that evening. Mom & Dad Mathews had left the day before and arrived just before us -- it’s so fun to be all together! Josh and Stacy had been saving up some very special news til we arrived – Hallel will be a big sister come next March!

On Tuesday we did a hike to Tennessee Beach and stuck our toes into the Pacific. Looking forward to doing the same in the Atlantic in a couple weeks! We ate yummy burritos from Grilli’s outside in the Mill Valley square. The weather is perfect here.

Later we drove to the Golden Gate Bridge and got out for the picture and to enjoy the views of the city across the bay and also Alcatraz. A thick marine fog hid half the bridge and gave it a surreal effect. We didn’t have time to take in Fisherman’s Wharf, but we did drive through the city (hair-raising adventure in the motorhome). We ended up in Hayward and had a wonderful dinner with Uncle Bob & Aunt Joanie & kids and grandkids. It was good to see them again and catch up.

Crashed for a few brief hours sleep, and then Dad & Mike were up, hooking up the trailer (and trying to fix some bum taillights) and we were off heading towards the Grand Canyon. Along the way, we drove through some very productive CA farmland.

Very hot going through the Mojave desert and this stretch seems to be taking forever. We chose to extend the day a bit by taking a slight detour through the tip of Nevada to be able to add it to our "states visited" list. Hopped onto historic Route 66 a couple times. Finally pulled into Grand Canyon around 9:30pm. Tired and thankful for the safe drive.

Leaving Home

Our departure day was set for Tuesday, August 11, 2009. But it was not set in stone -- we knew ourselves well enough that we left it flexible as to when we'd actually pull out. The first leg of our journey was to be a camping trip with old friends and we didn't want to miss days of that, but what a job getting out of the house! Our to-do lists were HUGE. There were a thousand things, it seemed, to prepare for being gone for 2 months. Snowbirds must get used to this, but for us it was overwhelming. We accumulated all the things to be packed into the just-cleaned garage (wow - we actually got it cleaned!), and then worked hard on getting the house in shape. I honestly didn't think we'd make it out on Tuesday.


But at 8:05pm, we said goodbye to our house sitter, threw the last things into the motorhome, and rolled out. As we bounced down the road and our house faded from view, we began to realize just how long the way home was going to be. We were heading south and would be coming back from the north. The 11,000 mile loop had begun!


Our first 5 days were spent at Mayfield Lake, camping in atypical weather for Washington in August -- rainy (downpouring at times) and cold. But we still had a great time fellowshipping with friends and watching the kids play.
They managed to enjoy most of the camp activities, including lots of biking, occasional swimming, card games, and mafia by firelight, despite the chilly temps. We were just thankful one family had packed a mammoth blue tarp that the guys rigged up as our group shelter.

Today we are in Oregon at Mike's parents doing laundry and getting ready to leave early Monday morning for San Francisco. This seems like it will be the first real leg of our journey and the excitement is mounting!

Preparations

It almost seems unreal...after 9 years of dreaming and planning we are one week away from our "big trip". Our epic journey around the states with our family. We truly are humbled and thankful that God has opened the doors for us to live this dream with our children.

This photo is of Luke displaying a 7-year-old's way of telling time. At the point this picture was taken we still had a month before D-day. But those days have quickly slipped by filled with appointments, organizing, cleaning, finding a house sitter, organizing some more, cleaning some more, doing the outside painting that can only be done in the summer here in WA, hanging out with family & friends (who we will miss tremendously while we're gone), trying to remember all we normally have to take care of during 2 months...yes, the days have flown by.

So, ready or not, we'll be heading out in a week. Our first stop is actually only about 80 miles from here at Ike Kinswa State Park on Mayfield Lake. We have camped each summer with old friends for too many years to count and just couldn't miss it. We'll spend a few nights and then head down to the Portland area. There we'll be joined by Mike's parents who we are delighted to have join us for some, if not all, of the trip.

Our tentative itinerary includes about 40 states and roughly 11,000 miles. You're welcome to join us virtually as we attempt to blog our journey (we're newbies at this, so please bear with us). Well, gotta run...panic is setting in...only 7 more days.