We're home

No, I didn't get sucked up into the void where socks go when they don't come back from the laundry.  I simply lost my blogging mojo somewhere in California.  After awhile it just felt like too much water under the bridge to try to catch up, so I didn't.  Here's a quick recap of where we went after May 14


Redwoods National Forest:  Really big trees and very green.
Oregon Dunes:  Having a quad or dune buggy would have been fun, but walking up and running down was fun too.
Silverton Or: Near Salem.  Went there to pick up my new drop spindle from Jenkins woodworking.  Great spindle and they even gave Erin one, because she was interested.  Oregon botanical gardens were great as well.
Portland Or: Pike's market.  I almost got hit with a halibut.
Mt. St. Helens:  Wow, what destruction!  The scars are evident 31 years later.
Bellingham Washington: Ski to Sea Race.  Stayed with the Laird's, whom we had met at Koinonia farms.  First time while on the trip that we spent any amount of time in a single family dwelling not on wheels.
Pender Island, BC: to visit Ken, Doug's high school bestie.  Took the BC ferries across the straight, played in tide pools. 
Butchart gardens on Vancouver Island:  Beautiful
Carlton Wa: Drove across the Cascade mountains.  Did some hiking up into the snow line.  Hiking in the snow wearing shorts and a tank top is fun!
Okanogan Valley, BC: Gorgeous.  Would have liked to spend more time here.
Lake Louise, AB:  Fall Down Gorgeous!  Did some great hikes, saw lot's of wide life, including Grizzly bears.
Banff:  More touristy than Lake Louise.  Did some hiking/biking here.  While we had our bikes with us, we didn't use them as much as I thought we would.  I think the flat-lander in us was intimidated by the hills.  We should have done more trail riding, it was fun!
Drumheller, AB:  The Royal Tyrell Dinosaur museum was great.  Affordable and big!
Calgary AB:  Visited with cousins that I hadn't seen in at least 15 years!
Rosthern, SK: Doug's home stomping grounds.  Visited the place he grew up, explored to see what had changed, visited with old friends.
Altona Mb: We spent the last 5 weeks at my parents  We parked the trailer and moved into the house.  It was a nice transition.  We spent time at the old cabin, went camping (tent, not trailer), fishing, football game, lot's of family dinners and lot's of great time together.


We arrived home on the 24th of July and we're slowly getting re-acclimated to being in one spot.  Doug and I are both back to work, and the girls are back to school next week.  It's good to be home, but I do miss the adventure of the road.

Monterey Bay Aquarium, Jelly Belly Factory

We left the Yosemite area on much better roads than the way we arrived.  Let's just say the GPS doesn't always know best!  Once we got out of the mountains we entered farm country and the roses were simply gorgeous.  There were literally fences of roses.  Unfortunately we didn't stop to take any pictures.  We also began to encounter grape vines... lot's and lot's of grape vines.  We stopped at an RV park near San Juan Bautista.  The next morning we lazed around a bit and then headed to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  I had read on the website to expect to spend 2-3 hours.  They were wrong.  We arrived around 12 and stayed till they closed at 6.  It was the best aquarium I've ever been too.  The displays were so full that you could stare at them for a long time and still not see all the life that was in them.  They also had lot's of hands-on displays.  We even got to touch a bat ray.  We ended up going out for dinner as we were all to hungry to drive the 30 miles home and then cook a meal.

The next day we headed north.  Andrea had seen that the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield had free tours and was really interested in going.  So we indulged her and took a tour and got some free samples.  It was actually really enjoyable!  We ended up buying a bag of "belly flops" that we've been enjoying along the road.  We parked in Rohnert Park, about 30 miles north of San Francisco for the next 3 days.

Hoover Dam, Seqoia National Park and Yosemite

Upon leaving Zion we headed to Las Vegas.  Talk about a contrast!  Our primary purpose was to visit the Hoover Dam, but we opted to decrease our time pulling the trailer and parked at a park in the city.  This travel day happened to fall on my birthday and I really wanted a place with a hot tub, so my wish was granted!  I also wanted steak for dinner so we went out to a buffet at the casino/resort that we stayed at.  It was an exercise in gluttony.  So much food it felt wrong.  We enjoyed a nice swim and headed to the Hoover dam the next day.  Doug was the one who had the most interest in the dam, but we all ended up being glad we went.  The engineering was incredible!  The one thing we noticed though was the amount of trash laying about.   The national parks were so clean that this really contrasted in a negative way.

When we got back into the city we decided to take a drive down the miracle mile.  I can now say "been there, done that" and I never need to go back again.  After seeing the rolling billboards for the naked girl shows we decided fairly quickly that it was time to go home.

We did a long driving day the next day and made our way to Three Rivers, Ca.  This was just a few miles from the entrance to Sequoia National Park.  We made our way to the groves of the giant Sequoia's the next day.  Wow, they're huge!  There was still quite a bit of snow at the higher elevations so a lot of the trails were still closed.  We did do a nice hike along a closed road to Moro Rock. 

Yosemite was next on our places to see.  We stayed at a nice campground that was about 25 miles from the park.  We couldn't get reservations in the park.  We surprised to find that the hikes/visitors center etc were another 25 miles into the park.  The 50 miles were along curving mountainous roads.  The drive took 1.5 hours.  When we finally got to the park we were astounded by the waterfalls.  The snow melt has enlarged the rivers and falls phenomenally.   Bridalveil falls, Yosemite falls were huge and beautiful!  We wandered around the first day and did a few short hikes.  We also saw a film featuring climber Ron Kauk and had a chance to talk with him after the movie.

The next day we did a strenuous hike up Vernal and Nevada falls.  We walked the Mist trail alongside Vernal falls and got soaked!  The total hike was about 7.5 miles, with about 2000 feet of elevation change.  It was challenging but fun.

Canyon Impressions

In an effort to catch up in the blogging world and prevent repetition I'm going to discuss all the canyoning we've done in one long post.  These canyons include 1.  Grand Canyon 2. Monument Valley 3. Natural Bridges 4. Canyonlands 5. Arches 6. Bryce and 7. Zion.  All of these are either national parks or national monuments.

After leaving Hopi Mission School we headed West, to the Grand Canyon.  We almost decided to skip Grand Canyon seeing as how it really wasn't on our way anywhere, and after all, it must be hyped up, right?  Wrong!!! It's called the Grand Canyon for a reason.  It was truly breathtaking in it's immensity.  The geology was fascinating and the views panoramic.  We stayed 3 nights.  We did one long hike, down to Skeleton point.  It was 6 miles round-trip, with a total elevation change of 2000 feet.  We were tired by the time we got back to the rim! The girls both said they'd do it again though. 

From the Grand Canyon we made our way North East towards Moab and Arches National Park.  On the way there we drove through monument valley.  Talk about an alien looking environment!  You'd have a flat plain, then bloob, there's a pedestal of stone.  We didn't get any pictures but I'd like to drive through again.  We spent a couple of nights at Bluff, Utah and day tripped to Natural Bridges National Monument.  We did a relatively short hike down into the canyon to find these big bridges carved out of limestone.  This hike had some ladders and steep areas which the girls loved.

Arches National Park is one of the front-runners in my list of favorites so far.  The limestone is layered on top on an unstable salt layer (the Paradox layer) that has allowed the limestone to tilt and fracture into fins.  These fins erode and form into arches.  We did a ranger-led tour through an area called the Fiery Furnace which was really cool!  This is definitely a place I'd like to come back to.

Next on the list was Bryce National Park.  We'd heard lot's of great things about Bryce and were looking forward to our visit.  The rock formations are called Hoodoo's and there are a lot of them.  The weather while were there was cold!  Sub freezing temps at night.  The first day was 50ish when we started a short hike, and 40's when we were done, as well as being very windy.  The next day was better.  We did a 6 mile hike in the hoodoos, including a 1400 ft elevation change.  It was good, but we found that the hike was not particularly exciting.  The scenery became predictable.  But I'm still glad we went.

Zion Nation Park was the last stop in Utah.  I loved Zion!  We were able to get reservations in the park with hookups.  It was really nice to be in the park and not have to commute in.  The downside was that the campground was infested with tent caterpillars  which freaked Erin out.  We did a great hike called Angels landing.  The last half mile was up a narrow, steep trail.  At times you had to use the chains provided to help you up.  The narrowest part of the trail was about 6 feet to the 1200 foot drop on either side.   The girls did great!  We did a couple of short hikes the next day since all of us had sore legs!

To see pictures check out my flickr page!

Happy Easter

Christ is Risen.... He is risen indeed!

I can't believe it's almost the end of April!  Our travel time has flown so quickly.  We've see and done so many things that I've always dreamed of.  I am so grateful for the opportunity to spend this time "away".  I'm beginning to find myself turning my thoughts back towards home at times, thinking about how nice it will be to be in our house, with the space, and then I remind myself to cherish this time, being in this space, with the people I love, without the other distractions the "regular" life has to offer.  I've been thinking about how to reintegrate, how to balance life after we get home.  Thankfully I have a few more months to ponder these questions.

I've been struggling with talking about our experience at Hopi Mission School.  I want to be able to say it was great, but if I'm honest, it wasn't.  We were forewarned that the staff at HMS was severely over-extended and they wouldn't "be able to hold your hands".  Now, we're not the kind of family that needs hand-holding.  We're ready and willing to work when pointed to a task, and we can entertain ourselves.  That being said, if it wouldn't have been for the other volunteers and the family we met at church we would have had no interaction with other people.  There was essential no interaction with the staff at HMS beyond work assignments and that was disappointing. 

The work we were given to do was also unpleasant and unrewarding.  We shoveled out a burnt out building, scraped and reglazed windows, and did a little bit of painting.  It felt like we didn't accomplish much, even though we worked full work weeks.  The girls did get to interact a bit with the school kids at recess, but even there they didn't feel engaged with the kids.  The weather was at times very unpleasant (sand/snow storms.  The area is very isolated and felt desolate. 

 Bullheads (we called them Buttheads)  Very painful if you step on them.  I took one round around the trailer with my flip flops.

The upside was that we met Jim and Rox Miller and family at church on Sunday.  They have 5 children, 3 of which were in the play age for the girls.  They connected and enjoyed spending time together.  We went on a hike to Coal Mine Canyon one day.  It's a smallish canyon, with a seam of coal running through it.  We enjoyed scrambling around the canyon.  Andrea had an encounter with a snake that she will tell you about on her blog http://adventuresofafrukitty.blogspot.com/ 

It's been a while

I didn't realize that it has been almost a month.  A fair bit has transpired since we left Yuma.  Upon our departure we headed to Phoenix.  We parked the trailer at the SOOP site, right beside Peter and Rheta Mae Wiebe's home.  Peter was an interim President of H.C.  so it was nice to have a contact.   We were invited to a community movie night across the street which Doug and the girls took advantage of.  I stayed home and did laundry and got some needed quiet time.  The next day we connected with John Murray.  He took us hiking, toured us around Phoenix and accompanied us to the Organ Stop Pizza Restaurant.  The pizza was good, the Wurlitzer organ was entertaining. 

The next day we headed to Sedona.  We spent the next day scrambling around the red rocks of Sedona.   We hiked up Cathedral Rock.  We also hiked to Devils Bridge.  We calculated that we hiked about 8 miles that day.  Erin decided to try hiking in her flip flops on the second hike.  It was fairly obvious after the first mile that flip flops were not a good choice.  Natural consequences are the best teachers.  We decided at that point that all of the females in the family needed some good hiking boots.  It was a tiring but fun day! After Sedona we were off to Hopi Mission School.

Yuma

We arrived at Yuma and met up with Mom and Dad on the way into our campsite.  The girls were so excited to see them, as were Doug and I.  We initially planned on staying a week, but ended up staying 11 days.  We did a number of day trips. and also spent lots of time just hanging out as a family.  We spent time at an orange orchard and picked a bunch of grapefruits and oranges.... so good!  It was lots of fun! 

We also went on a hike to Palm Canyon.  It is the home of the only Palm Trees native to Arizona.   It was  a half mile hike over some fairly rugged terrain.  I was thrilled that Mom not only attempted the hike, but successfully completed it too and fro.  Yuma weather definitely treats mom well.  Doug, Dad and Erin hiked up the canyon to the trees.  There was some climbing involved and Erin loved it!  Andrea and I stayed behind and kept mom company and took some fun pictures.   Check out flickr for the most recent pictures. 

Andrea and mom worked on a messenger bag together.  Andrea pieced the flap and with help, sewed the bag.  It turned out really well.

Castle Dome is a local landmark and part of a chain of mountains in the area.  Apparently there is a trail up the mountain that we'd love to have climbed, but were uncertain of where the trail head was.  Apparently it's a fairly rigorous hike, but I think we could have handled it.  Instead we went to the castle dome ghost town.  The area we were in was home to over 300 silver and lead mines.  The old cabins and other buildings from the area were gathered and fixed up.  It was a great way of seeing how life was 100 years ago.  We also climbed one of the foot hills and enjoyed seeing the desert from an elevation.

Saturday, we went to an airshow at the local Marine base.  The flying was cool.  Doug had never been to an airshow, so he particularly enjoyed the day. The girls also spent a bunch of time in the pool and enjoyed it.

Carlsbad and beyond

Carlsbad Caverns can be summed up in the words we heard from Andrea and Erin: "Wow, this is so cool!  This is awesome! Can we do that trail again?  I'm not done yet! "  I'd heard that the geology in the caverns was great, but I was blown away.  The size of the caverns is immense and the decorations are grand and mind boggling.  It gives just a little perspective regarding how short human life spans are relative to other natural processes.  A stalactite the size of my pinkie nail was 75years old, and there were columns many many times larger .  It's a place I'd like to go back to.  I'd actually plan ahead and reserve some of the the other ranger-guided hikes that we couldn't do in our limited time.  (once again, pictures are on flickr)

After we left Carlsbad we headed to Alamogordo, NM to White Sands National Monument.  We were surprised when we discovered that there were real mountains to cross.  At an elevation of 8600 feet we saw a few snow remnants.  The truck handled the inclines easily, which was reassuring.  We left the mountain range and camped at their feet for the night.  We spent the later half of the afternoon at White Sands National Monument where the girls enjoyed "Walrusing" down the sand dunes.

We left Alamogordo and headed towards Tucson, where we stopped at Saguaro National Monument.  We went on an eight mile bike ride, non of which was flat.  The girls enjoyed the down-hills, the up-hills weren't as popular.  The Saguaro cactus is very cool.  Unfortunately we left our camera behind, but we saw some cacti that were most likely about 150 years old.  Andrea got to experience cacti cling-ons that deeply embedded themselves in her shoes.  By the time we got back to the RV we were all very hot and very thirsty, so we headed out in search of ice cream.  (the ice cream was also used as a motivator on the half-mile, 6 degree climb at the half way point of our ride).

We spent the next night at the John Wayne Rv Park near Mariposa, Az.  Other than the sent of feedlot cattle it was a nice park.  We then made the short drive to Yuma.

Recent Treks

We knew that when we left Koinonia that we would be heading in a westerly direction, with Yuma Az being our ultimate destination for this leg of our trip.  We made the decision to head to Birmingham, Al. to visit the Civil Rights Museum.  The Civil Rights Museum documented the time line of the civil rights movement from it's beginnings to the end of the Civil Rights Movement.  In Erin and Andrea's words "it was brutal".  The Museum did a very good job of illustrating the injustices and brutality that characterizes the civil rights movement.  It was particularly moving for Erin as one of her good friends is African American.  I asked her to imagine how it would have been for her friend.  She made the astute statement that "We probably couldn't even be friends.  It's so unfair that just because of the color of her skin she'd be treated differently.  She can't control that!" It was a good learning experience. 

We spent the rest of the day taking care of routine stuff, like haircuts and a much needed chiropractic appointment for myself.  We also visited the Sloss blast furnace (see Doug's blog http://finelineroadtest.blogspot.com/) for details of that. 

We then continued West and spent the weekend at the Triple Creek RV and music camp.  We were greeted by a friendly group of musicians, who invited us to their potluck and jam session.  Doug pulled out his guitar and Erin and I did some singing.  We ended up staying for the full weekend as the next day was raining and we didn't want to traverse the three miles of very muddy road to get to the highway.  It was a fun weekend.

San Antonio was our next stop.  We met us with Erin Herschberger and she showed us the sights.  We went to The Alamo.  I was somewhat disappointed, mostly because of how many people were there.  Much of the historic mission has been lost to the city of San Antonio.  We went to some of the other historic missions in the area and really enjoyed seeing them.  Taco Haven provided us with a great meal and we really enjoyed our visit with Erin. 

(I'm having trouble adding photos for some reason.  If you want to see them check them out on flickrhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/60375761@N00/  They're all friends and family so if you want to see them and you're not one of my friends/family on flickr you'll have to send me a request to approve you)

Reflecting on Koinonia

I’ve been thinking about what I want to say about our two weeks at Koinonia Partners for a while.  It’s difficult to put into words what our/my experience was like.  On one hand it was a typical service experience.  We did some work, some exploring and got to know some great people.  On the other hand we were introduced to a way of living Christianity that I have not experienced before.  The faith of most of the people we encountered was so present, so real, that it is literally a part of every breath.  That’s not to say that they don’t get frustrated and irritated at life’s daily challenges, they do.  But in the same breath as frustration there is forgiveness, irritation is remedied with grace, anger with prayer and joy is celebrated with praise.

Koinonia is Greek for community.  Koinonia Partners was founded in 1942 by Clarence Jordan, the son of a white plantation owner, in Sumter County Georgia.  Sumter County was as segregated as any place could be in the 1940’s.   Clarence had a vision of a shared community where everyone, regardless of race, was welcome.  He invited his neighbors, poor black share-cropper families to join him at his table, to work with him (not for him) on the Koinonia farm.  For this, he and all of the Koinonia community was ostracized and persecuted by the Klu-Klux-Klan, as well as other local white businesses.   In order to help the farm survive Clarence began a mail-order business selling pecans.  His moto was “Shipping the nuts out of Georgia”.  The farm and community survived through the civil rights movement and subsequent retaliations by the local community.

In the 1970’s the Fullers joined the Koinonia community.  Linda and Millard Fuller gave away their millions and entered into the community.  Millard had a vision of showing Gods love in the building of homes.  He saw the need of his neighbors, living in shacks, for a solid decent home, and so Koinonia built the first houses of what was later to become Habitat for Humanity.   The first villages are still present and in use.  The Fullers ended up moving Habitat into Americus, Ga, but remained supporters of Koinonia.  Millard is buried on the Koinonia grounds, his hammer hanging from a tree near his gravesite. 

The 1990’s where tough for Koinonia, trying to survive without a clear vision of who they were.  They tried a number of different models of community, none of which worked well.  In 2007 Bren came in as the director and together the community has redefined their vision of who they are. "We are Christians called to live together in intentional community sharing a life of prayer, work, study, service and fellowship. We seek to embody peacemaking, sustainability, and radical sharing. While honoring people of all backgrounds and faiths, we strive to demonstrate the way of Jesus as an alternative to materialism, militarism and racism".  We were treated as family and immediately made welcome at their table.  We enjoyed a daily morning chapel during the weekdays.  Weekday lunches were eaten communally, as well as suppers on tue-thur.  At 10, 3 and 8 the bell would ring encouraging all to stop and pray for a moment, to be centered once again.  Sunday evenings saw a time of worship together.  This time included the opportunity to name those people and events that people were grateful for. 

I spent my work time in a few different projects.  The first week I spent mornings in the library.  The library had a new roof put on recently and was in disarray.  I dusted and reshelved books.  Andrea, with the help of another guest, Delinda, got the children’s books dusted and reorganized.  We also spent lots of time in the gardens, weeding and prepping beds for planting.  Doug was integral in putting up a steel building (check out his blog for the details on that).  Erin helped in the kitchen as well as the garden.  I also had the opportunity to utilize a commercial oven that baked 18 loaves of bread as well as 7 dozen rolls at one time and it was only half full!   

Leaving was bittersweet.  We are/were ready to move on to the next part of the trip, which is heading towards Arizona to see my parents.  The other part of me will really miss Koinonia and wonder whether my path will lead me back and in what manner.

Update

So it's been a little while since I've last updated here.  Let's see if I can remember what's happened.  We left the everglades and headed to Florida City for a night.  The resort had a heated pool, which the girls were thrilled to play in for the afternoon.  We caught up on laundry, restocked the fridge and planned our next steps. 

We decided to head West, across the northern boundary of Everglades National Park.  We spent a night at Collier-Seminal State Park.  The park was actually full, but we were allowed to boondock overnight.  Being without electricity reinforced the fact that we needed a generator if we were to spend more than a few hours on battery.  So the next day we headed toward Naples, purchased a generator and tried to spend the afternoon on Marcos Island.  We discovered that RV's are not allowed to park anywhere on Marcos Island, so we were ultimately denied the chance to spend the afternoon on the beach.  The girls were very disappointed.  We soothed our disappointment with doughnuts and a scathing letter to the Collier county parks department.  We moved on to Palmetto Florida.  We stayed at Fiesta Grove RV resort, where there were orange trees on every campsite.  We filled our fruit bowl... so good!  We spent the next afternoon at Anna Maria Island beach and had a great time even if it was a little cool.

The next day we headed across Florida to Titusvill on the Atlantic side.  We conspired with our friends, the Spotts, to surprise the kids with a visit.  We met at Canaveral National Seashore.   It was cold and windy, but the surprise was worth it.  We spent the day together, including a meal at the trailer. 

From Titusville we went up to St. Augustine, the only city to be continuously inhabited since 1572.  We visited the Castillo de San Marco, an old fort.  It was cool to see and hear people passionate about history tell the story of the Castillo.  It inspired Andrea to be more excited about her Kansas History assignments. 

We left St. Augustine and spent a night at Eagles Roost Rv campground.  The spanish moss on the trees was incredible! 

We are now at Koinonia Partners near Americus Georgia.  It's a cool place and worthy of a post of it's own.

The Everglades

If you have an opportunity to go to the Everglades take it!  What an amazing place!  When we drove into the park towards our campground I said to Doug "I need someone to help me interpret what I'm seeing.  It doesn't look like anything but grass."  It is grass.  Sawgrass.  Miles upon miles of sawgrass, sitting in a few inches of water as it flows from south central Florida to the Florida bay.  The area is called a river of grass because it literally is a river of grass.  The highest elevation the park is 4 feet above sea level.  The water flows so slowly that it's almost imperceptible.  This slow moving water is the home to thousand of migratory birds, alligators (lot's of alligators), crocodiles, mosquitoes (not so bad in Feb, but terrible in summer), some deer, panthers, bobcats and snakes. 

The park provides lots of ranger-lead activities that help you understand what you're seeing.  My favorite was a slough slog.  We entered into the sawgrass and stepped into a few inches of water and more inches of mud.  There is a layer of nutritive algae, called periphyton, that is on the top of the water.  The saw grass is named aptly, as it has very sharp "teeth" along the edge.  These teeth gather dew and funnel it down to the center of the plant which is how it survives the dry season when there is no water.  We worked our way into a cyprus dome.   The water is deeper here.  The cyprus loose their needles in the dry season to protect them.  As they decompose they acidify the water, which then erodes the limestone bedrock.  The deeper the water, the better the trees grow.  Very cool.

There is one area of the park that has a preponderance of  wildlife.  Here are a few pictures of my favorites

Anhinga.  Spears fish with it's beak.  AKA the snake bird because of it's long sinewy neck

  the tri-colored Heron

 The wood stork

 The little blue heron

 alligators

 silly birds

 the green heron

Also very prevalent were ibis, great blue herons, great white herons and snowy egrets as well as many that I didn't identify.

We're working our way North towards Americus Ga, where we have tentatively set up another service assignment.  Hopefully the weather on the main land will have warmed up a bit by the time we get there.

Next steps

Well, our time at Camp Ithiel is coming to an end.  It's been a great experience.  We've gotten to know some wonderful people, learned more about the Brethern church and did a bit of work.  I'd highly recommend anyone considering doing some service to consider coming here.
We're going to Universal Studios tomorrow for a day of touristing.  I'm expecting it to be good, if not somewhat painful in the budget.  We did have the opportunity to go to Animal Kingdom and Epcot for a quarter of the price because of the generosity of some of the other volunteers here.  One couple works for Disney as needed and they had three comp tickets which they gave to us.  It was a good day.
We're going to head down to the Everglades National Park on Tuesday and plan on spending three days or so there.  I've no idea if we'll have internet access there or not.  We were planning on spending some time in the Keys, but are having trouble finding affordable RV sites, so we just may do some day trips instead.  After that we'll start heading north and west.  Our next service site is yet to be determined.  We'll see what Arloa comes up with.

Camp Ithiel

We landed at Camp on Sunday evening, after a leisurely drive.  On the drive we stopped in at a couple of springs along the Suwannee river.  Apparently Manatee enter these springs in winter to enjoy the consistent 72 degree temperatures.  The springs are low this year due to drought conditions this fall, so they are not as populated with manatee as usual.  We think we may had spotted a few snouts poke out of the water, but that's it.  There's a possibility we may join in with a homeschooling fieldtrip to swim with some manatees next week. 

Camp Ithiel is a Church of the Brethren camp.  It has a summer camp program that runs May-July.  In the winter it hosts many different rental groups.  When we arrived there were 120 college students on the Cornell University rowing team staying in dorms.  We provided two meals for them.  The volunteers do the majority of the cooking and cleaning in the winter season as there is only one full time staff person.  There is one other part time cook (as near as I can figure out the dynamics).  The rowers left on Wednesday, so we've spent a good portion of Wednesday and today cleaning the dorms.  Doug has also done a few other fix-it projects.  There are 7 other couples here, all older.  The family of the cook lives on the campus and they have 3 kids, ages 13, 11, and 8.  They've connected with our kids and are having a blast playing together.

Homeschooling is going ok.  We're still trying to figure out a good routine and determine what amount of work is reasonable.  I'm looking in to some different writing resources to complement what we're doing with the resources sent by the school. 

The weather has been lovely.  Mid to low 70's during the day, 50's at night.  There's been little need for heating in the trailer since we've arrived.  It looks like the weekend will be a busy one at the camp, and then some downtime during the week.  We're looking into going to Disney (good grief the tickets are expensive!) as well as some other day trips. 

A few pictures

On the way out

 The bent bicycle rim, after the loose end of the ratchet strap was wrapped around the drive shaft.

 At a park, on the way to New Orleans.  Bright, and sunny, but a balmy 40 degrees and windy.

 On the white sand beach at Destin Florida.  Note the toque, sweatshirt and barelegs/feet!

 Same beach, running on the sand bar.  Andrea decided fairly quickly that she really didn't want to swim after all.  Water temp was 51 degrees, air temp about 45, plus wind.

 Sunset on the beach

 For lunch we had grilled shrimp and salad.  For supper we had grilled red snapper.  Yummy

We'll be arriving at our first service assignment tomorrow.  Not sure if we'll have wifi at the campsite or not.  It'll be interesting to see what work they have for us.

Weird cousins in the wilderness

One of my goals during this trip is to do a daily devotional with the family.  This is something that I've wanted to do for a long time, but have never taken the time to create the time to do it.  Now there's no excuse.  The devotional today was talking about John, Jesus' weird cousin, living in the wilderness.  The devotional talks about leaving the safety of our known existence and leaving them for the unknown of the wilderness.  It feels like we've done just that... left our known existence for the unknown one of this one  We don't know what it's going to bring, what we're going to have to learn about ourselves or others.  We figured that we're the weird cousins heading off to the wilderness to see where we end up.  May God use us in however (s)he sees fit, scary as that thought may be.

Ok enough of the Deep Thoughts...here's how the last couple of days have gone.  We made it to Grand Prairie, Tx (burb of Dallas) on Saturday evening.  We had a moment of excitement on the drive when there was a sudden loud smack against the back window of the cab.  When we looked we noticed that Doug's rear back tire was completely dented.   We realized the the loose end of the ratchet strap around the bikes worked its way between the cab and the bed of the truck, got caught in the drive shaft and yanked the strap rapidly into the tire, then tore it off.  We were grateful the tire was there to take the brunt of the force, otherwise it may have shattered the back window and possible Andrea's head! 

Upon arrival in Grand Prairie we called some friends who live in the area and they came over with the smore supplies we didn't have.  It was quite cool, with wintery weather moving in.  We opted not to hook up the water as we didn't want to freeze the water pipes.  We joined our friends after breakfast for Mass at St. Josephs Catholic Church on Sunday morning.  This was a new experience for our girls.  I became somewhat emotional as I sat in the sanctuary, realizing that this trip was actually happening.  After church we went ice skating, lunch, shopping, then back to the trailer for fondue supper, provided by our friends.  While not directly related our girls refer to their kids as their cousins and they had a great time together.  We left this morning after a leisurely breakfast and traveled to Sulpher, La where we're parked for the night.  We'll figure out where we're going to go tomorrow.

I was going to add some pictures but the wifi here is too slow.  Maybe next time.

Packed, Mostly

Well, I think we're ready to go.  There are a few last minute things to do tomorrow morning, like washing the sheets we're sleeping on tonight, loading the bicycles after the trailer is hitched and adding a few odds and ends.  I'm pleasantly surprised that there are still a few empty spaces in the trailer.  Maybe I'll end up throwing in my Bosch mixer.  The girls have had a bit of an emotional day.  I think it's finally hitting them that this trip is for real.  They really are going to be away from the house, school and friends for half a year.  There have been a few tears and some strong emotions, but that's okay.  I'm ready to get going.  I'll post a picture in the morning of our departure.

Until then, here's something just for fun

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob6TTU1knUM