RV'n 4 Jesus: Travels from Virginia to Beautiful Wyoming

After our whirlwind baseball week in Virginia, we planned to head on to Wyoming. Again, plans were changed. As I said in our last post, Daddy needed a steroid shot in his back to help with his chronic pain. Since they couldn't get him in while we were home, the new plan was for him to ride back home to Ocala with Garrison and Connor. Mom and I would head to Dayton, Ohio, to Wright Patterson Air Force Base and wait for him there. So, off we all went our separate directions - Dad and boys to Ocala - Mom and I to Ohio.

This is where you would see the
pic of us with Brenda & Jerry
but we forgot to take it!

I will say it again, WOW what a beautiful country we have. The ride from Virginia to Ohio was just beautiful. Our first night we stopped right outside of South Charleston, WV, at a Wal-Mart of course. While there, we were excited we were able to visit with some of Mom & Dad's old neighbors and lifelong friends, Jerry and Brenda Brown.
They met us at Wally and we went to one of their favorite Mexican restaurants. So yes, we were loving that! It was great to see them again! Did I mention that they were our neighbors over 30 years ago? I was just in 2nd/3rd grade when we lived in South Charleston so I really don't remember much, but it was great catching up hearing all about them as we shared about us. The last time we were with them was about 20 years ago. I just love how you can just pick right back up with people that you have known like you have never been apart. Lots of laughing and lots of stories, lots of life was talked about. We were filling each other in on the lives of all the kids, grand kids and even great grand kids. As I sat there listening to Momma and Brenda & Jerry talk, I just really thought to myself how important it is to cherish friendships, new and old. You never know where life is going to take you. Prayerfully they will be as sweet as they were in days of old. I thank God for friendships like that.

We were off early the next morning heading to the AFB, all smooth sailing, beautiful scenery and frequent stops along the way. All was well until we arrived at the base and went to unhook the car from the RV. BATTERY WAS DEAD! YIKES! There was an empty parking lot right there, so I maneuvered the RV/car to where we could just unhook it and it could sit in a parking spot until we figured out the details of our next step. We got all checked in and settled, then we spoke with the host to find out how to go about getting a jump and or having roadside assistance to get on base to tow us to a shop. She asked where did we drop the car. "In that empty parking lot?" ....well that was the "blast zone" for training...HAHAHA we got a great laugh out of that one, no wonder it was empty...LOL

Well, God had already gone before us as He always does and had it all worked out. The gentleman that was parked in the slip right closest to the car had jumper cables and was a mechanic so we were all set. His name was Zack and only a couple years older than my Zack. He was just so helpful to a couple of women traveling alone. I love how God always goes before us and in His sovereignty directs our steps. Zack gets us all taken care of, found a fuse that needed to be replaced and he just so happened to have one in his toolbox he allowed us to borrow until we got to the store. SO, after an hour, we were all set and squared away. The only problem now was...why did it drain the battery as we traveled? Apparently, the switch that was installed for us to tow was no longer working, so now what? No worries...the host that was gracious enough to help us, also towed an HHR and showed us exactly which fuse to pull so it wouldn't drain the battery...Again...THANK YOU GOD FOR YOUR PROVISIONS!

Now we were there, we just had to wait the 4 days for Dad to fly into Columbus. Mom, Ali and I filled our days with site seeing, grocery shopping and food prep and Ali's favorite, her long walks to the end of the runway to the lake to go swimming. The planes were absolutely ginormous, (Daddy said they were C5's) loud but so graceful, I could have sat there for hours watching them do "touch and go" which is exactly what it sounds like...they took off, did a circle, came back, landed and then would take back off to do it all over again. Evidently this is how they practice their landing and take offs - either way it is really awesome to watch, even Ali was watching after her swim time.

Daddy finally flew in and we were off directly from picking him up, making our way to Wyoming. Again with God and His plans, Fort Dodge, Iowa was right in our path to get to Wyoming. Fort Dodge is where Caleb Seiler, one of the young men from our faith family back home had just gone to start his freshman year playing football. We wanted to stop in and bring some Salt Springs lovin's to him. Iowa is a long way from home, so it was really great to be able to stop by and love on him for a bit. With his football practice schedule, we weren't about to visit much, but we were able to attend church with him and deliver all of the hugs from back home. It was a short visit, but it was a very sweet visit.

While we were in Fort Dodge we were able to rest up from the long travel days and get ready for the last of the long stretch to Wyoming.

Again, this beautiful country we call home. I am just so thankful that I am able to do this with my parents and to be able to see the great USA. I will however say, I am pretty much over seeing corn fields....hundreds of miles of corn. We would get excited to see every once in a while a different crop such as soy beans or hay. BUT, it is all beautiful, the different shades of green, or when you are up above the crop and see the wind blowing through it, almost looked like waves of water...or should we say...Amber waves of grain?!?! LOL couldn't resist. Either way, I can assure you, I've seen enough corn fields to last me a lifetime.

As we journeyed into Wyoming the land began to change. From corn fields to fields and fields of hay and then to miles and miles of cattle ranges. I will say one thing, the cattle that is out here are much much much bigger than the ones back home, they are just massive. The landscape turned from open flat lands to rolling hills to rocky and mountainous. Momma does a lot of reading and loves the era of the old west, wagon trains, etc. She kept saying, I can just see them in their wagon trains going across the land and can you imagine living back then and crossing this land. It was like we were waiting to see the Indians on top of one of those mountains watching us cross the prairie lands. It was really cool driving through. We opted to take Hwy 20 from Nebraska to Wyoming. It was a straight shot and we avoided the interstate. What we didn't' realize was how less traveled that road was. It was wonderful. There were times we drove miles before seeing another vehicle on the road ahead of us or before us. There were just miles of prairie land all around us. I will highly suggest, if you do come this way....TAKE HWY 20 - it is sooo worth it! It was like we were traveling the roads between farms, cattle ranches and extremely small towns.

During one of the stretches where we couldn't see any vehicles I said to Mom "look, all around us - nothing - we are the only ones out here - completely isolated - it was so cool, just us the land and God" - I loved it! Then, just up over the next hill was a man with a backpack, WALKING, yes WALKING! NOW he knew what it felt like to be all alone. There were no towns for miles and here was this guy hiking along the road. I can only imagine how cool that must have felt out there. I wanted to stop and just chat it up with him, but we didn't. Would have been pretty cool to do that though.

We finally arrived after a few nights on the road at our favorite, best priced camping stops at Wally (a.k.a. Wal-Mart). We pulled into Glengo, Wyoming on the 9th of August. Glengo is a small community about an hour away from Casper, Wy. We are here helping Circle G Cowboy Church, but I will save all of that for our next post!

Talk to you again soon!

Serving Him for His glory!
Kristi
Bob & Carol
Galatians 6:9-10