Winter Furlough Epic -- Part 7!

Hey! David and Andrew -- I'll bet you thought I forgot to post about you guys! Not a chance!!!!

These guys were in our youth group ever-so-long ago. They were two of the first three missionaries who came down to visit us here almost 3 years ago. David, Andrew and Tyler were sand-shoveling, brick-hauling machines. (Just so you know, we've never worked any team as hard as we worked you guys...especially in July!!!) Should I show pictures? Nah. Well...maybe just one or two.

Here are the 3 amigos putting together a small building in Alomito for the second time. The first time they put it together as a "temporary shed". That night the village was hit by a small tropical storm, and the building was flattened. The second time they put the building up, they made it a little sturdier. Temporary is fine, but 24 hours is a little too temporary -- even around here! It's still standing, and now it's being used as our friend Miguel's house.

That was almost three years ago. My, how time flies! Look at how little Andrew and Evie were!!! Tyler is now married and has a beautiful daughter. David and Andrew are both getting married this summer and are planning on honeymooning down here...right??? ;^)

Well, that was an interesting jaunt down memory lane. We did get to spend a little time visiting -- although not nearly enough -- and then we turned left on I5 and headed south again.

In route to California, we stopped in Roseburg just long enough for Sarah to take her drivers' test. She passed with flying colors. Neither Doug nor I could remember how many questions you were allowed to miss and still pass. It has, afterall, been a few years! We had told Sarah that she was allowed to miss a couple, so she said that when she missed a second question, she began to worry a bit. Apparently, she asked the guy later and he told her she could miss up to 7 (or something like that). Well, no matter! She has her learner's permit now!!!

We were now homeward bound. Driving north a couple of weeks earlier, I took this great photo of Mt. Shasta.

Driving south...we didn't see much mountain. In fact, there were some strectches of highway where we didn't see much of anything! We were one of the last cars to get over the Siskiyus before they closed the pass. Thank you, Lord! We met up with some folks traveling from Seattle a couple of days later who had been stuck in Yreka. They said it took them 9 hours to drive from Yreka to Sacramento once the pass was opened (that's normally about a 5 hour trip).

We arrived in Chico in time to visit CC Chico Saturday night -- which everyone was very happy about. Doug and the Jr. High youth leader took some time that afternoon to load up an old air hockey and pool table that they were donating to our ministry. Wa-HOO! [Side note: I don't know how much that air-hockey table was used in the youth room, but I think it's possible that it's being used more here! The kids from Boca love to come over and play air-hockey! It's trans-lingual!!!]

We shared at Chico Family Church on Sunday morning. We let the kids share from their hearts (which can be a scary thing -- you never know what kids are going to say!), showed some pictures of our ministry here and gave a bag of giant marshmallows to the kids in children's church. If you've never had a giant marshmallow, you're missing out. You'll just have to come down here and try one! I've never seen them in the States!

Then it was on to Sacramento to return our house on wheels. That RV was SUCH a blessing!!! We still miss it!

After the near-miss we had over the pass in Oregon, we thought it best to check the road reports to make sure the Grapevine was open. Everything looked good, so away we went!!!

Storm clouds were rolling in, though. As we neared Bakersfield we saw this:

The sign says, "I 5 closed 123 miles ahead due to snow. Use alternate route." Well, at least they gave advance warning!!! So we detoured through Kramer Junction. Kramer Junction has exactly one stoplight. This is the line waiting to turn right.

We thought our wait was bad, but it was nothing compared to the trucks waiting to turn left!
This leg of the trip wasn't as comfy as the first leg. We were a bit spoiled by the RV and being able to spread out, but we got cozy and made the best of it!

But we finally made it back to Grandma's house, fixed another little "fixit thing" that was giving her trouble, and then we piled back into the van for our last leg in the States -- bound for Tucson.

Well, our furlough epic is nearly finished, and we haven't had any serious "issues" -- aside from a couple of hours of pretty tense driving over a snowy pass and a significant detour around LA, which worked out fine, since we were heading to Riverside anyway. When you travel as many hours and as many miles with as much weight as we usually do, you just know that once in a while "things happen".

Thank you, Lord, for the angel driving the Harley who flagged us down just outside of Indio, California, to tell us that we had smoke coming off our trailer tire.
It was bad, but it would have been really bad if we hadn't stopped when we did.

Doug and Andrew strolled over to admire the various dune buggies until the wheel shop opened. During the course of the next 6 hours, Doug rebuilt the wheel bearings and got us back on the road. It wasn't a really easy fix and the man at the bearing store actually said, "Well, that's what you get when you use any old thing to make a trailer. Better to just use things for what they're intended." Well, I could argue that. That little-red-trailer-that-used-to-be-an-almond-sprayer has traveled many long, heavy miles over the past 20 years. I think it was entitled to new bearings once in its life!

So we did eventually make it to Tucson -- really late at night. We made pbj's and collapsed. Not until morning did we realize what a beautiful place we had landed in!

Only one more furlough post to go!!! Then we'll be caught up and you won't have to see anymore traveling photos...for 6 months!!!

Winter Furlough: Extreme North

I don't remember Oregon being so cold. To be totally honest, my feet were cold from about the time we crossed into Tuscon until we returned to Riverside the second time. I think you'd call that "acclimated". I am extremely acclimated to the weather in Mexico!

Our friends, the Powells, who came down here to stay while we traveled north ran around in shorts and t-shirts the whole time they were here. Our family, on the other hand, had already pulled out our winter clothing! I joked about bundling up in my thick wool socks and heavy sweatshirt when the thermometer plummeted to 75 degrees, but it's not far from the truth! The average daily temperature year round is about 85 and in the summer it's closer to 110. An ocean breeze added to a 70 degree day can make the "tropically acclimated" person shiver.

So, we packed up all two of our warm sweaters and headed to Oregon in February. Well, some may debate the wisdom, but it was still fun!

We did get to see some snow (see the Snow Post) and when we got to Aunt Debbie and Uncle Mark's, we saw more!

We girls took a morning out to go to Greater Gresham Baptist Church for the ladies' Bible study. Great time! I had been praying about what to share and really wasn't getting any answers from God, and then Doug suggested letting Sarah share. What a fantastic idea! Can I say that I was more than a little bit proud as I watched this young woman share her heart with the ladies in the study? God is certainly growing her up well!!!

Debbie had had "plans" for lots of fun things for our family to do during our time there...until New Year's Eve when she broke her leg skiing down Mt. Hood. Ouch!

So, we didn't go many places, but we certainly had a great time visiting! Uncle Harold took us to a really neat restaurant. I haven't had Thai food since college, and I don't think I've ever been to a Thai restaurant. I have to give this place two thumbs way up! Typhoon of Portland -- yummy! Here's our crew enjoying the atmosphere...

Just so you know, taking the kids to a "nice" restaurant is something that just doesn't happen often for us. Any of you who have more than 3 kids will understand why! It's a little cost-prohibitive! So when we got to this place, it was pretty exciting for everyone! Thankfully, the food didn't disappoint!

We got together with the cousins, too. These pictures speak for themselves...

We spent one evening at some dear friends' house. Ryan and Candice, who blogs over at Flame in the Darkness, and invited us over for supper and fellowship.

But lest you think that all the kids did was watch movies and play video games, I've gotta share these photos...

Before

After

Didn't they do great? And they hardly complained! ;^)

We celebrated Evie's 10th birthday while we were in Portland. You can click here to see photos of the party.

All too soon, it was time to head home. We had found ourselves beginning to adjust to the cold, wet weather -- although the wind we could do without!

So, we packed up our home on wheels and headed back down to Winston.

Tune in next time when you'll hear Sarah say, "You said I could only miss 2!"

Winter Furlough -- The Saga Continues

Well, here's the latest installment in the Furlough Novela!

Our snow trip!

We promised the kids that at some point in our journey, we would be able to play in the snow. Never mind that the warmest article of clothing that any of us had was a fleece scarf! We would do it, and it would be worth it!

We did, and it was!!!

It "just so happened" (if you believe in coincidence, which we don't) that the Douglas County Homeschoolers' Group was hosting a tubing expedition at Diamond Lake the week that we were in town. Very cool! We borrowed snow clothes from just about every family in church (not really, but it felt like it!) so everyone would be toasty. What a fantastic time!

We homeschoolers basically had the mountain to ourselves and were able to slide down the hill as many times as we wanted during the course of the day. Did I mention that it was fantastic?

I took a little under 300 photos, and only about 15 of them were garbage, so it was really hard to choose just the right ones for this post. If any of you readers happen to have been on this trip and would like to see the other 2oo+ pictures. I got good shots of a lot of the people there -- not just our crew. The pics are hosted at Photobucket.com.

Alright, here are the photos...

One thing I didn't get a picture of: Andrew and I were preparing to be towed up the hill. We were lying across the tube and holding tight to the rope. I realized that our gloves were about to be caught in the rope, so at the last moment -- just as the girl running the lift said, "GO!" -- I let go to move my hands down a bit. Apparently, Andrew let go at exactly the same moment. Suddenly we found ourselves plopped unceremoniously on our bellies, watching our tube bump merrily away up the hill. We were both laughing so hard we could hardly get up! Our friend Patrick said that it looked like one of those tricks where the magician pulls the tablecloth out from under the table setting. I'm sure that contributed to the collection of aches I had the next morning, but it was worth it!

When our fun in the snow was over and everyone was sufficiently cold and tired, we headed home to Winston. We stayed in the Roseburg area through Sunday- and on Monday we headed north to see Aunt Debbie, Uncle Mark and the rest of the family -- those who were available and not snowed-in, that is! Like I said, we weren't able to see everyone, but it was great to see those we did!!!

Next post: The Northernmost Point