Another Journal Entry (also the name of our most overplayed CD on the trip so far)

Ok, so what have we been up to?

Saturday, August 5th--
WE FINISHED PACKING THE TRAILER! For some reason, I thought it was going to be easier to pack and harder (emotionally) to move away from our friends. It turned out to be the opposite (not to say that I didn't cry about leaving though). It was a job and a half packing everything we owned to move half way across the nation, and we both were disgusted by the amount of stuff that comfortably fit into our 446 square foot home. Saturday evening, I went to a friend's bridal shower and Brian went to my parent's house and hung out with my brothers. At the end of our evening, we enjoyed spending time with the Young's in their hot tub and then spent the night at their house as all our stuff was finally packed :) If any of you (dear readers) get a chance to stay with the Young's, it is an experience you don't want to miss. There are not mints, but chocolates on the pillows, and underneath the bottom sheet on their guest room bed is a down feather thing that makes the bed so cozy like a nest. And who doesn't like relaxing in a hot tub?

Sunday, August 5th--
Went to church, enjoyed lunch with the Flickinger's, watered our flower garden one last time and went up to Camp Brotherhood for the Jr. Camp Fiesta kick-off dinner :)

Monday, August 6th--
D-Day. Or "get up and leave day". Or more like "get-woken-up-and-eat-breakfast-with-all-
your-friends-who-came-to-pray-for-you-and-see-you-off-as-you-leave-on-a-2000+-mile-
trip-day". Yes, we had told Robert and Mae "We'd like to leave between 7 and 8 AM" but the night before, we had stayed up, um.... kind of late enjoying their company, so we decided it was more important to sleep enough than to leave "on time". But 6:00 am Monday morning came, and so did Jessica, Alane, Julia, Tristan, Wayne, Cindy and Jenica. Mae and Robert had invited them all to have breakfast with us before we left. At 6:30 am when we still had not emerged from our guest room, Jessica came in and woke us up and Mae took pictures :) After a nice breakfast (which I was too excited to eat very much of) everyone prayed for us and sent us off. Who else do you know that gets too excited (about sitting in a car 24+ hours) to eat her favorite breakfast? We received several cards and gifts and we made ourselves wait until we got to I-90 to open/read them. We left at about 8:20 am and drove through Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming and finally into Colorado.
Our car did a great job for hauling a trailer. On some of the hills (okay, mountains) we went about 40 mph, and the rest of the highway driving, we never pushed over 60mph. We listened to dramatized Chronicles of Narnia, Adventures in Odyssey, and some music.

Tuesday, August 7th-- Mae and Robert loaded us up with lots of good food, so we didn't even want to stop for food until early Tuesday morning when we stopped at a Wendy's in Wyoming for breakfast (and enjoyed the sunrise).
We arrived at Grandma Richardson's farm in Wiggins CO at 10:20-something am (Pacific Time) 11:20-something am our time (26 hours driving time). After lunch with Grandma and a "short" nap (ended up to be almost 6 hours long) we enjoyed spending time with Brian's grandma and getting to know her better.

Wednesday, August 8th-- Spent the day with Grandma R. Brian and I went into town and got the oil changed in our car and sent some postcards and hung out in the grocery store (enjoying their air conditioner) while waiting for the car to get finished. When we got back to the farm, Grandma sent Brian out to the mower shed to check out a snake she found to see if it was a bull snake or a rattle snake.
I guess that the 2 kinds of snakes look the same except for the rattle (or lack thereof on a bull snake). Since it was a bull snake, Grandma said to let it live (so it could eat the mice). Anyway, we minded our own business and mowed the lawn.
The snake was still there when Brian put the mower away and Grandma put some water out for it. Some people have barn cats to eat mice. Other people have shed snakes. I really enjoyed getting to know Brian's grandma better and hearing fun stories about her eloping and her jobs and how the farm got started. That evening, Brian and I watched the sunset from on top of the silo and it was gorgeous. The pictures honestly don't do it justice. Colorado isn't called "colorful" for no reason.


Thursday, August 9th-- Now is when I should explain that losing a night of sleep really messed us up for figuring out what day it was. Brian's grandma asked me if I had any laundry I wanted to wash, and I said that I didn't have very much to wash, and would wait until Thursday to wash it. And then she had to inform me that it was Thursday. Everyday feels like Saturday right now :) When I got up, Brian and Grandma were rather distracted by a stray horse in the yard.
I was able to get close enough to it to figure out that it was a boy horse (stallion?), tame and take note of significant markings. Eventually (after calling several people who had no idea who owned the horse) 2 boys rode in on horses and tried to capture their stray horse. It took them a while, but they seemed to know what they were doing and they were fun to watch. After lunch, we drove about 3 hours down to Colorado Springs. We drove several miles on dirt roads and past acres and acres and acres of gorgeous yellow sunflowers :) After unsuccessfully taking pictures through the window, Brian pulled the car over and took some good pictures.


Something else about Colorado. There are these little things called "goat heads" (aka. thorny goatheads, prickers, tack burrs etc...) So I went to go stand next to a sunflower (get a good perspective shot ya know) and started feeling sharp little poky things all down on the sides of my feet. I think they should also be called attack burrs. Anyway, Brian (wearing his shoes rescued me and carried me the 3 feet I had walked out of the goatheads and back onto the dirt where girls wearing flip flops belong) and I could pick/scrape the rest of the sharp little buggers out of my flip flops without acquiring anymore every time I set my foot down. That was my adventure of the day :) We had dinner with Grandma Nelson and then went over to Laura and Steven's house (Brian's sister and brother-in-law) and had a blast on the trampoline with Stephanie (4) and Jennifer (2), relaxed in their hot tub and stayed up really late talking with Laura.

Friday, August 10th-- This morning we cleaned out the gutters at Grandma Nelson's house. They weren't that dirty, so it didn't take us very long, but it was a fun project to work on together.
We bought an air filter for the car and installed it and then headed over to Laura's and helped her with a "home improvement" project. Brian and Laura cut a huge hole in the bathroom ceiling to get rid of some black mold and I read Amelia Bedelia and a lot of other stories to Stephanie and Jennifer to keep them occupied (and I like Amelia Bedelia and reading stories).
The girls went to Steven's parents house for the night and we went out to dinner with Laura and Steven and came back home and watched a movie.

Saturday, August 11th-- Which brings us up today. We are planning on visiting Focus on the Family with Laura, maybe doing some shopping. After we sleep.


This is our schedule (Lord Willing) for the rest of our travel time.

Sunday, August 12th-- Go to church with Laura's family, drive back to Wiggins in the afternoon and spend the night at Grandma R's.

Monday, August 13th-- Hook up the trailer and drive to Salina, Kansas (app. 6 hours). Spend the night with Brian's Aunt Linda

Tuesday, August 14th-- Drive to Roach Missouri! (app. 5 hours)