Tuesday, July 8, 2008

58 degrees when we woke up…it won’t be this cool again in Kansas until October!  If only there was a way to bottle up this cool weather and bring it with us.

 

We got on the road at 8:15 Topeka time and began the final push home.  It was a beautiful day, but the miles seemed to roll by very slowly.  We passed through Casper and had some Burger King at Cheyenne and entered the very wide state of Nebraska. 

 

Chris drove a large portion today, and did a great job.  The traffic on Highway 80 was pretty heavy, and Chris found an 18-wheeler that he followed for nearly 300 miles, drafting off him for the best gas mileage of the trip!

 

By this time of the trip, everyone was very anxious to get home.  We had cell phone coverage, so we made some calls home. Travis is the Youth Minister at our church, and he had been staying at our house while we were gone, so we called him to warn him we were heading his direction (just in case he needed to do any last minute cleaning).

 

Supper was Wendy’s, and it feels like all we have done the last several days is sit and eat fast food.  YUM! 

 

Lincoln is a frustrating city to get through, because you have to drive through city streets even though you are supposedly on interstate.  We pulled into Lincoln a little after 9, hoping we could make it home around midnight.

 

Many have asked us what portion of the trip was the roughest driving, and I would have to say it was the last 30 miles from Holton to Topeka.  Tuesday night it had rained, and the fog was thick!

 

We pulled into our driveway at 12:15; overjoyed with the realization we would be sleeping in our own beds.

 

Total Mileage:  8, 530 miles.  That computes to about 170 hours of driving at various speeds.  In other words, we spent over 4 work weeks just driving!

 

Mileage for the day: 970

Temperature high: 80’s

Camping fee: $0

Price for gasoline: $3.95/gallon

 

Final Word:  We thank God for an amazing adventure.  He was with us every mile of our journey, and we pray we will never forget all the amazing things His Son created for us to enjoy.

Monday, July 7, 2008

 

We had Chris’ favorite breakfast—cereal and then packed up to get back on the road.  Taking I-90 east, we had lunch at Pizza Hut’s buffet in Missoula, ID.  This was a big driving day so we just drove and drove and drove. 

 

We had a flat tire on the passenger’s side of the camper outside of Bozeman, MT so we stopped to change the tire.  The really amazing thing about this is that the flat occurred at a break in the road construction.  There were many miles of road construction so there was only one lane of traffic going east.   In the middle of this construction there was a break where it went back to two lanes again and that is where we broke down.  Then the construction began again so the road went back to one lane. Thank you God for letting us breakdown where we could pull over to a shoulder!!!  Tim and Chris are getting fast at changing a tire so in no time at all we were back on the road.

 

We stayed the night with Tim’s cousin Randy in Buffalo, WY.  It was a pretty short night as we didn’t get to Randy’s until 10:00pm and we want to drive all the way home tomorrow so we need to get on the road very early.  We lost an hour today when we changed time zones and we will lose another one tomorrow.  Randy and his family have the gift of hospitality and we were blessed to get to stay with them.

Sunday, July 6, 2008

 

After our usual breakfast of cereal, we headed down the road to see if we could find a church or if we should just have our own service in the car.  We didn’t find a church until 11:15 so we decided to just have our own church in the vehicle as we drove through the Cascade Mountains.  What a beautiful setting for spending some time with God and his Word.  Chris did the reading for today.

 

All along the side of the road were large raspberry bushes with very large berries so we stopped at a roadside turnout and picked some.  The berries were so big and red and juicy but not sweet or good tasting.  We had some that were bright red, some that were dark red, some that were orangish-red so it seems we would have found the ripe ones in that much selection but none of them tasted very good.  We tried several with many being so bitter tasting that we spit them out.  How could they look so good and taste so bad???

 

The Cascade Mountains are in a wetland, maybe even a rain forest so the ground is lush green with lots of trees, bushes and flowers.  There are many waterfalls that we could see from the road along the highway.  The river and lakes are a blue-greenish color (more green than Alaska’s blue-green colored waters) with a little milky look to them probably from the glaciers around Washington.  As soon as we left Cascade National Park the scenery changed; more like desert.  What a contrast.  There were not as many mountains and the mountains were not as tall.  There was not as much water and the lush green was gone.

 

The sky looks like home. It is blue with high light fluffy clouds.  In Canada, Alaska and the coast of Washington, the sky has low clouds.  Sometimes we could see blue sky somewhere but we didn’t have any days where there were no clouds.  In this part of Washington, the sky is blue with a few clouds like many days at home.  The kids say that it smells more like home.  I think they aren’t smelling the fishy smell anymore.

 

We stopped at Winthrop, Washington for a picnic lunch and to check out the town.  It is an old western town with many of the old building turned into western and souvenir shops.  There was a glass blower making a hummingbird feeder so we stopped to watch.  It is amazing how the glass looks when it is got enough to melt and it doesn’t take very long before it cools to be hard again.  Chris found a treasure he couldn’t live without; some special cowboy boots.  I think he has been looking for these since he was about three but at last he has found them.  The lady at the store said all of her family members have their own pair of these cowboy boots and they love them.  Way to go Chris.  He has a good eye for treasures.  We also found an outdoor ice cream shop with homemade ice cream in many flavors so what could we do but support them and get a treat.  I had pumpkin ice cream; Tim had chocolate, coconut, almond; Aleesha had peanut butter chocolate and Sarah had homemade chocolate; Chris didn’t want any ice cream.  I can’t imagine passing up ice cream.

 

At one point in our driving today, we got pretty warm.  The thermometer in the car said the temperature was 91.  We are not ready for the 90+ degree heat.  Thankfully today, we drove out of the heat in just a few minutes and returned to the 80 degree temps but we know the heat will be upon us again soon.

 

We left Winthrop and headed south and east on highway 2 to Okanogan where we took highway 97 south to 174 east and on to the Grand Coulee Dam where we stopped for a visit. Built during Roosevelt’s administration, it is the largest dam in North America. There are enough hydroelectric generators in the dam to power all of Seattle and Portland.  They used as much concrete in building the dam, as it would take to make a 4-foot wide sidewalk around the world twice.  Quite impressive.  There is a laser light show at dark each evening but we couldn’t stay there that long.  Singing “On the road again, just can’t wait to get on the road again” we left the Grand Coulee Dam going south to get highway 2 east to Spokane where we got on highway I-90 east.  We had supper just east of Spokane at our choice of Subway or Panda Express. 

 

Just before we stopped for the night, we crossed the border into Idaho.  We stayed the night at Post Falls, ID at the SunTree RV Park.  They had a swimming pool with pretty cold water but Sarah didn’t mind and Tim and Deaune joined her.  The teenagers weren’t tough enough for the frigid water temperatures. ;-)  Actually Deaune wasn’t either but she tried.  We showered and went to bed knowing that tomorrow we have a lot of driving to do.  It is nice to have beautiful weather and temperatures cool enough that covers feel nice one more night because we know we will be driving into the summer heat very soon.

Saturday, July 5, 2008

 

Today we went on a boat ride so we could go to see whales close up.  This boat holds 40 people max so it is much smaller than the Alaskan Marine Ferry that we had been on yesterday.  This boat had three levels; the top one is an observation deck half open, half covered with a canopy.  The second level is where the captain (driver) and his dog have the front area roped off from the passengers.  There is also a snack bar, dining room, sitting room and two bathrooms called heads.  The bottom level is where the motors are located.  There are also 5-6 staterooms, which are really small bedrooms and a bathroom.  The trip was to last from 10am to 4pm so we took lunch with us to eat during the trip.

 

Our boat ride took us from Bellingham southwest to the San Juan Islands, Orca Islands, past Victoria Island where we got to see bald eagles, a bald eagle nest, boulder seals and their pups, sea lions, minke whales, puffins, sea gulls, and terns (the last three were similar to ducks; they could fly and swim).  We were guaranteed to see Orca whales but they had moved to a new location several hours farther than a day trip so we returned to shore with the promise that we could use our tickets to go free on a different day which doesn’t do Kansans very much good when we only have one day in Bellingham.  Oh well, we did have great time and get to see some marine animals close up even 20+ foot minke whales. 

 

We got off the boat at 5:30 and went to Wal-Mart to pack up the camper and get down the road.  We had supper at McDonald’s and shared a ½ gallon of Edy’s chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream from Wal-Mart.  It was delicious. 

 

We left Bellingham, Washington and went south on I-5 a few miles to highway 20, which is supposed to be a beautiful drive through Washington Cascade Mountains and through a little historic western town called Winthrop.

 

We camped for the night at Concrete, Washington at a campground that had showers.  It was a campground between the highway and the river.  There was just one bathroom for the whole campground and it had both the toilet and shower in it so we started taking turns.  Those who weren’t showering played dominoes.  Feeling nice and clean, we went to bed.

 

Mileage for the day: 200?

Temperature high: 70’s

Camping fee: $34.00

Price for gasoline: $4.42/gal

Friday, July 4th, 2008

 

We arrived in Bellingham at 8:00 and drove off, waving to Michael, the Chief Purser who was so nice to us.  We had misplaced some of our papers early on, and without them, it makes it difficult to get off and back on the boat.  He always joked w/us and we really enjoyed his humor and kindness.

 

Once off the boat, we drove around and found an IHOP and had breakfast.  This was a real treat after several “microwave days”.  I (tim) even had coffee.  YUM!!

 

We drove around awhile, checking out the town.  It was a cloudy day, but the town was very colorful with lots of flowers.  It is a beautiful city, with many different parts that add to it’s charm.  There is the port section of the city, an old part of the city called Fairhaven that would comparable to our Potwin section of town, mountains, and even an area just outside of town that is farmland, just as flat and productive as our river bottoms.

 

After driving around a bit, we discovered we would not be able to find any campsites since it is a holiday, so we did what any creative camper w/do…we found a Walmart and  set up camp!  We were not alone; it was like a little gypsy city, with 13 other units set up.  Walmart allows campers to stay in their parking lots, which is good for everyone.

We went for a hike in the afternoon and looked at a fish hatchery.  Then we took a drive out on Old Fairhaven Highway (Hiway 11) which was very scenic, overlooking the bay, then out onto farmlands.  On the map it showed we would only go 10 miles out of town, but in reality we ended up 25 miles outside of town…kind of a “twilight zone” moment.

 

We killed some time later in the afternoon by stopping at a mall, then a Barnes and Noble before heading to the harbor to watch a fireworks display.  We had a supper of  peanut butter sandwiches and chips then took our blankets and waited for the show.  We  got a good spot and waited…and waited…it finally began at 10:30 and while it was pretty cool, it didn’t compare to the fireworks show our friend Marty F. puts on every 4^th of July in Topeka.

 

 

 

 

Thursday, July 3^rd, 2008

 

This was a quiet day, so there is not much to write about.  We never docked at any ports, so we sailed all day. 

 

The kids slept in (we will be well rested by the time we get to Bellingham tomorrow morning).  During the night we passed through some incredibly narrow areas, and the ship tossed a little, yet we slept right through it.  Chris was sleeping on the floor, and ended up several feet from where he started.

 

Deaune and I got up to watch for wildlife, and didn’t see a whole lot.  After lunch we saw some porpoises and possibly some small killer whales, but overall it was an uneventful viewing day (but Sarah did see the Bee Movie, if that counts).

 

Deaune and Aleesha played a lot of card games sitting on the floor of our cabin, and Deaune is feeling like an old lady, her legs go to sleep and then she can't stand up.

 

We made another famous microwave supper, this one being chicken enchiladas.  We have just about perfected this way of cooking.  We are not the only ones doing this, and it sure looks better than the cafeteria food (though tonight I did splurge and everyone had a pop).

 

Our evening was spent on the back of the ship watching the sunset.  We are in much more populated areas now, and have left Alaska and are now in British Columbia.  It makes us a little sad to leave Alaska.  It is such a distant place from Kansas; only God knows if we will ever revisit this incredible and wild land.

 

We wrapped up our evening doing the mundane things that counterbalance the fun:  we did laundry and began packing our stuff for our early morning departure.  At 8:00 we are supposed to drive off the boat. 

 

We are looking forward to seeing Bellingham.  It is supposedly a beautiful city, and none of us have been to Washington.  Our plans for the day are not firm, but since it will be the 4^th, we may spend the day here and enjoy the fireworks.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

During the night we slept thru stops at Petersburg and Wrangell.  I hope we don’t do the same thing when we dock at Bellingham on Friday!  Fog surrounded us when we awoke, but it soon burned off and the day was beautiful; in the 70’s and a light breeze.

 

We docked at Ketchikan, and spent 5 hours there.  Even though our vehicle is on board, we can’t use it so we got off the boat and looked for a city bus to take us the 2 miles to the city center.  The line for the bus was long, and we decided to hike it.  We went through primarily dock areas and businesses that were fishing related, and the smells were at times quite interesting.

 

We passed a Safeway and a Godfather’s Pizza on the way, so we felt at home.  As we were walking into town and looking over the dock, we saw hundreds of jellyfish and starfish.  But much to our dismay, Spongebob Squarepants was nowhere to be seen.  Even more disappointing was an absence of salmon.  It has been a cool spring and summer, so they are a month behind in their spawning run.

 

Ketchikan is a town of 7,500 and is heavily influenced by both native and Russian cultures.  We saw numerous totem poles, and they each tell a story.  We took a walking tour of the city and saw an Episcopalian Church that was the oldest building in the city, an old “red light” district, had some delicious caramel corn, then decided it was time for lunch.  We found a Subway then did some more looking around.  Deaune and Sarah found some ripe blueberries while we were walking, as well as some of the biggest raspberries we had ever seen – as big as your thumb!  They were delicious.

 

There were 4 large cruise ships in dock, and they were HUGE!  I can’t even begin to guess how many people they can hold, but they are at least 3 to 4 football fields long and who knows how many stories high.  Amazing! 

 

The city is built on pilings, or stilts, because the terrain is so steep, and some of their streets are made of wooden planks on pilings because of the tide.

 

We hoofed it back to our ship, which seemed quite small now.  We figured that we walked at least 6 miles on this little outing, and our feet were sore!

 

We have internet on board, even when we are not in port, so our kids got online to check their facebook and catch up on the latest with life back home.

 

Supper was microwaved again, and we played cards and ate popcorn until the kids went to watch a movie (such a rough life at sea; this sure beats driving!  Any way we can do this all the way back to Kansas?  I haven’t seen many boats this size in our rivers, but let’s try it!)

 

It was another unbelievable sunset this evening.  At one point, the sun was setting over a lighthouse…very nice!

 

We were going to stay up this evening and look for whales and porpoise, but a fog rolled in so we just caught up on blogging and hanging out.

 

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

 

Awoke to fair skies.  Tim and Deaune got up and had a bowl of cereal, and the kids slept in.  We went to the front of the boat to see what we could see.  There was a man with the National Park service who spoke occasionally about where we were and other interesting details. 

 

We went through Narrows Strait on our way to Sitka.  We were there for about 2.5 hours because we entered and were able to depart at a point when the tide was neither going in or out – they said the current is tricky if you try to maneuver in at any other time.

 

We got off and went for a hike.  It was in a rain forest, and was very beautiful…lot’s of moss and large, leafy foliage.  We expected trolls or dwarves to appear at any moment.  It was quite pleasant with temperatures probably around 70.

 

We got back on the boat and fixed fajitas for supper.  The cafeteria has a microwave, and a number of passengers bring food on with them.  Our fajitas smelled better than anything they were serving!

 

The sunset this evening was so great that Deaune and Chris about wore out their cameras taking pictures of it.  It changed appearance numerous times, and sunsets up here last much longer than in Kansas.  Being around the mountains up until now, we had not seen many beautiful sunsets since leaving Kansas.

 

Late in the evening we were all hanging out in the cabin when we spotted a whale…then another!  We saw a couple more, none real close, but well enough to see them come up, spout, and raise their tails before they went under.  What an amazing way to end our day!  This was also the first night in a long time that it actually got dark.

 

We said our “thank you” to God for another great day, and asked Him again to bless and watch over our family and friends back in Topeka and especially our church family.  We miss them very much and they are always in our thoughts and prayers. 

 

Any time you are away from home for very long, you gain a whole new appreciation for your family and friends.  And it never fails, while you are gone, good things happen as well as things that are heartbreaking.  But God is faithful, and he has His family, the church, that pours out His love and healing in amazing ways.  We are so blessed to be a part of a tremendous church, full of imperfect yet very forgiven and redeemed folk who are living life with one another in the daily grind and pleasing God in the process.  What a joy it is to live life out among folks who love God and love people….sorry for the preaching, but it is what I do!