A day of extremes.....

Day 6 of our travels and we find ourselves in the rocky mountains of Montana.

Montana seems to be anything but consistent.

She's got wide open prairies, dry rocky hills and soaring snow covered mountains.

Montana is definitely a wild state with little cluster cities separated by many miles.

Her scenery is beautiful at times and monotonous at others.

Madison got some gorgeous shots again!

I'm so excited to see how great of a photographer she becomes!



We've stopped for the night once again in Montana.
We are in Missoula now...just three hours from our friend's house in Spokane, Washington where we will spend the next couple of days.
We decided to drive just four hours today so we can let the snow storm that is coming blow over. We hit lots of snowy spots and some ice through the mountains, so I'm not up for braving that again when we can stop and enjoy one more night in the hot tub!!
Thanks again for coming along with us on our trip!!
I'll have more to blog from Spokane and then we'll head to Marysville, WA on Sunday!!

Look,Mom! Faces on the mountain!!!!

Sorry I left you all hanging last night!

We stopped in Billings Montana but the hotel's internet access crashed and I couldn't get on to blog.

We started the day out with a visit to Mount Rushmore. It was so neat to see in person what I had only read about in history books.

Most of the attractions in the little town of Keystone, SD that accompany Mt. Rushmore were closed until the end of April, but we made the best of the day and explored the trails around the mountain, stopping for photo ops of course.

Hwy 212...................

Where the deer and the antelope play.....and nothing else!

We crossed into Wyoming on lonely Hwy 212 and before we knew it, we were through it and into Montana.

Would you look at this? I mean seriously look at it.

Can you imagine living here?

Every once in a while, we'd see a mail box on this road ( hwy 212 ) and a dirt driveway leading off to the left or right and then far off in the distance we'd see a house. The kids and I would spend the next few miles talking about what it must be like to live in this kind of solitude.

I suppose the peace would be alluring. It would definitely take a few weeks to detox from our dependence on entertainment, but I imagine that after the shock of no shopping at the mall or pizza delivery, we might actually enjoy this kind of lifestyle. But then again, I really like people and I love interacting with them and meeting new personalities, so I'm not sure I'm cut out for the kind of loneliness that I assume goes along with living so far away from civilization.

Madison took all of the scenery photos. I especially love this one!

7 hours in South Dakota

We began the morning in Fairmont, Minnesota with a little silliness before a loooooooooong trip across rural South Dakota. We were warned that the trip would be boring because of the miles and miles and miles of nothing but fields with a few (very few) sparsely populated little clusters of farms.
But the lady who warned us of this, doesn't know my son Michael. To him, she had just issued a challenge. She might just have well said, " I dare you to make this trip fun and exciting!"


Armed with his usual wit and charm, I was lucky to have Michael ride shot gun today. No way were we going to be bored.



But just in case, I had to amp up a bit before beginning the drive.
The bright eyed strawberry blonde lady at starbucks was especially chipper this morning. She practically reached out and hugged me through the drive through window when she was talking about how gorgeous the day was.
"There's more on the way!!" she said, her eyes twitching with excitement as her broad smile spread across her face.
Being a sun lover myself, I can totally understand her quivering joy over the season's first warm rays.
And it was a beautiful day...just gorgeous!
It got up to about 82 according to the gage on my van.



Ah, South Dakota.....you thought you had us with your barren fields and your wide skies that stretched so far it appeared as if we might actually fall off the end of the earth.
But, I had my secret weapon......the one person who can truely make a game out of road kill and have us all wanting to be no where else but where we were. Michael has such a gift for humor.
Here's a conversation we had during or drive.....
Michael: "If I were from outer space, I would hate it here."
Me: "Why?"
Michael: "Because it's not my home."

Is it just me, or is that a total off the wall thing to say? I think I laughed for 13 miles over that! Coulda been the triple shot of espresso too though.

Here's another:
We had been talking about poems when Michael asked me if I wanted to know what his favorite poem was. Thinking that he was about to recite Robert Frost or Ralph Waldo Emerson, I said, "Yes, please tell me your favorite poem."
Here is my son's favorite poem.....
"There's too many kids in this tub.
There's too many kids to scrub.
I just wiped a behind
I'm sure wasn't mine
There's too many kids in this tub."
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Well, what can you say after that?


Here we are crossing the Missouri river. It was so sudden and so beautiful. We stopped for lunch just on the other side of this river. I had a South Dakota buffalo burger!

Here we are driving on highway 90 west......this is pretty much what we saw for 7 hours!

Here are the details of the road kill game that put a fun spin on the boring landscape.....

Michael counted cows on his side and I counted cows on my side. Each time one of us saw road kill, the other player's cows were dead. As soon as one of us thought we were winning, we'd spot a pheasant or deer and the game would flip. Michael actually got up to over 1,000 cows at one point before I finally found a jack rabbit to call.

We stopped at "Wall Drug" in Wall, SD. If you have ever driven on 95 toward South Carolina, you understand the signs that line the interstate for miles letting you know of the tourist trap ahead. This is the same thing...only with cowboys instead of Pedro.

We had some homemade ice cream which was worth the stop.

We finished the day in Rapid City, SD. We are staying at the Marriot which is connected to Watiki Indoor Water Park Resort. It was the perfect end to a loooooooooooong drive through the wild wild west!

Tomorow we'll go see MT. Rushmore and then make our way into Montana!

It is supposed to be another gorgeous day.

I want to give a very special thank you to each and every one of you who are reading this blog and who have left such sweet comments.

I have read and cherished every one of them and I wish I had time to sit down and write each of you a heart felt response because you deserve it, but for now, please accept my public thanks!!!

I'll see ya in Montana!

Postcards from God.....

Penelope and God got us through Chicago without any problems at all.

This is one of a growing number of big cities that I have white knuckled my way through.

Despite my worry over this one, driving through Chicago was nothing like driving through New York. So while I would like to say it was a piece of cake, I'm not going to go that far.

Let's just say it was a moon pie.....yup! Chicago was a moon pie.

After the excitement of Chicago, we passed into Wisconsin and into completely different terrain.

I had alot of time to just relax and look around and was struck by the many ways God was romancing me.

From the patchwork hills and sparkling little streams to the neatly arranged little farmhouses with fields of grazing cows and horses, I was being given a visual gift by a God who knows what delights me. Little white churches with tall steeples, big red barns behind white picket fences, three small calves scampering behind lazy momma cows put smiles on my face.

We crossed the Mississippi River and made our way into Minnesota.

Minnesota greated us with a beautiful scenic drive and then took us through many rural miles of fields ready for planting.

God was sending me little post cards to enjoy along the way.

It took alot of will power for me to not pull over and photograph each scene. For the first hour or two I fretted over losing all of these picture perfect opportunities, but then I realized that He was teaching me that this gift was mine to enjoy just for that very moment and was not meant for me to control with my lens. I'm not sure that you can understand the impact of that unless you are a photographer. God wanted me to just rest in his gift. That's it. No work on my part.

God was whistpering, "I love you" and "Look how special you are to me" with what he was putting before my eyes. That is what he wanted me to get from it...not a perfect print to frame on my wall.

He knows exactly what I like to see and I felt like each blessing of nature was a gift from Him during the long trip through what could also be described as extreemly uneventful scenery.

He also knows exactly what you like to see and what delights your eyes. I want to encourage you to look for his postcards to you today. In what ways is He telling you how much He loves you?

Road Trip Day 2!!

We started the day out with a trip to see the falls.

We all were amazed by how beautiful they were! Most of the attractions wont be open for another few weeks, but we were able to walk the trails and get some good photos of the falls.

It is killing me to put these photos on my blog without editing them first, but I don't have access to my editing software on this trip. All of these are straight out of the camera. I will pick a few to enhance when we get settled.

I'm so glad we decided to add a few hours on to our trip and make the drive to Niagara. It was totally worth it just to say we have been here.

This is Canada behind David and Madison. The kids thought it was so cool that they could see another country from where we stood. When we get to Washington, we'll get passports and visit Canada in person.

After the falls, we hit Denny's for brunch and got on the road.

Since we have two vehicles, we split the kids up so that three ride with me and one rides with David. Madison rode with David first, Zach rode with him today and tomorrow is Michael's turn. So far it's worked out well this way and changes things up a bit to help combat boredom. Not that my kids really understand road trip boredom at all!

In my day, we counted cows or played the ABC game, but my kids are forced to play playstation or watch a dvd.

Poor things.

The kid that has to ride with David though, does get a nice taste of what traveling was like before technology. David's vehicle isn't wired for entertainment, so the passenger has to actually engage in real conversation or opt to sleep the miles away.

We traveled in four states today. New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana.

I am leading the pack for the first time. Usually I follow David while he navigates, but since we got a Garmin, I'm the lead car.

It's freaking me out just a bit. I'm usually very comfortable following, but even with the Garmin, I'm so nervous that I'm going to get us lost.

We affectionately call our Garmin "Penelope" because of her gentle english voice. So far she's been a life saver, but I think she's had it with me!

Everytime I make a wrong turn (and believe it or not, there have been many), she says, "recalculating". Either I am losing it or her voice has a definite ring of frustration which becomes more and more apparent each time she has to correct me!

I'm just waiting for her to say, "Pull over, place your car in park, take your keys out of the ignition and throw them out of the window. You are not qualified to drive this vehicle any longer!"

You know, I was thinking about Penelope and God today and how much they are alike. Both of them know where I am in the big picture. Both of them know exactly how to get me to my destination. Both of them let me chose whether or not I am going to follow their directions and both of them put me back on the right path when I take a wrong turn.

I'm trusting Penelope to tell me turn by turn where to go just like I'm trusting God to guide me step by step in my life. Penelope only tells me one turn at a time just like God reveals His plan on his own time table, not all at once.

This reminds me of one of Bren's memory verses.

"Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path."

I once heard it explained that a lamp on your feet would light up one step at a time.

That's all I need....light for the next step.

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I'm going to soak in the hot tub for a bit and then it's off to bed for the Cleary's so we can hit the road again tomorrow. We'll go through Chicago first and then on to Wisconsin and I think Minnesota.

Remember to keep us in your prayers....there's snow in the forecast!!!

We are free to move about the country.....

Hello out there!!!

We made it to Niagara Falls late Friday night just as the thunder and lightening rolled in.

It's beautiful this morning, so we are going to go out and see what we can see before we hit the road again bound for Chicago or as close as we can get.

I'll have time to blog more this evening and include some photos!!

Pray for us as we travel through what looks like some pretty varied weather!

See you tonight!!

It's that time again.......

Time to make the final preparations before the packers come in the morning.

Time to make sure we have everything we'll need set aside to take with us on our journey across the United States.

Time for goodbye's........

Madison's friend Jesse held a surprise going away party for Michael and Madison tonight at her house. Madison had no clue and was completely shocked when she walked into Jesse's house and 30 kids screamed "surprise"!!

It was so heart warming to watch all of these kids give such words of affirmation and encouragement to Madison and Michael.
I learned what I already knew tonight....I have great kids!
They touch alot of people wherever we are stationed and they keep their hearts open to friendship even when they know it will be broken when we transfer.
That's a tough thing that I don't think I have mastered myself.
It's hard to let people in and get close when you know from day one that it is so temporary.
I'm so thankful that my kids have learned to bloom where they are planted and to make a difference in the lives of those around them no matter how temporary their time together might be.





Goodbye's are always so tough, but making friends all over the nation is pretty awesome!
In this day and age keeping in touch is so much easier than having to put pen to paper and rely on snail mail. With myspace, facebook, e-mail and free cell phone minutes, my kids have it so much better than I did when it comes to keeping up with far away friends.

Sigh.....

It's late...really late.

I guess I better get some sleep so I can wake up early enough to get in another hour or two of dusting and last minute packing before the crew gets here tomorrow and the whirlwind starts!!

My goal is to blog every night of our trip,

so if you want to ride across America with us,

check in nightly beginning April 11th.

I promise to do my best to make you feel like you rode in the van with us!!

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