Monday, July 31, 2006

The First Leg...On Our Way!


Saturday, July 29, 2006

Well, the first leg of the journey began Thursday evening but we didn’t get very far. About 5 miles out of Mountain Home we had a tire blow out and we sat on the side of the highway waiting as our insurance company tried to sort it all out. They couldn’t find our policy (one of the last things you ever want to hear). Thankfully they said they would call around and get someone out but they would want to be paid up front. No problem…just get us off the side of the road with semi’s seeming to be trying to get as close as possible. They said it might take as long as 2 hours to get someone out. They called us back a few minutes later to tell us that there was someone close and that he was on his way. The blown tire had a few of its metal guts hanging out and when the tire blew, I forgot to mention, it scared us silly (o.k. sillier.) The tow truck came really quickly, jacked it up, took the tire off, and checked the spare which turned out to look almost exactly like the one that had blown. Metal guts and all. It had a cover on it and the really bad part was hidden from view. So neither would hold air and I’m not sure that his rig was outfitted to tow us. He said with the dual tires on the back that we could limp in to Mountain Home. 5 miles of freeway and 5 into Les Schwab Tire store. The driver followed behind us as we drove from 5-15 miles per hour he yellow lights flashing. When it was all over we asked the driver what we owed him (The insurance said it was $65 to fix the tire and $35 to come out.) and he said whatever we thought was right. He didn’t fix the tire but he did get us safely in. We tried to give him some but he wouldn’t take it saying he didn’t do anything. Nice guy…and a blessing. We were beat so we camped in the parking lot of Les Schwab. If you are thinking of going camping, let me advise you Les Schwab is not your best choice. Trains, it’s very close to trains. We like trains but not hourly all night, sounding almost close enough to touch. Classic rock music (think Steve Miller, the Eagles etc.) playing all night long. I’m not really sure from where. Maybe Mt. Home has it own sound track. It’s not good. “Freebird” gets old. So cross Les off your camping list. In the morning we had coffee at a local gas station and waited for Les to open. In the end we got new tires all around and the piece of mind knowing that they are fresh and we have a spare. We were still beat but felt better after they were fixed and we headed to Craters of the Moon. (http://www.nps.gov/crmo/ ). We have been before but it was about 9-10 years ago, I think. We had fun walking the trails and looking at caves. (Pictures soon.) From there we drove to Arco, ID and are spending the night in an RV Park called the Landing Zone. ( http://www.geocities.com/landingzone_2000/ ) It was pretty nice, large trees and shade. It was fairly cool after our plugged in air conditioned nap. We are going to stay on highway 20 and head into Idaho Falls tomorrow. We will update you then. God Bless. m


Sunday, July 30, 2006 pt 1

On the way to Idaho Falls a few items started to blow off the roof of the motor home. Thankfully everyone had already ridden our tail and then screamed around us so no one was killed. Paige climbed the ladder onto the roof because I’m afraid of heights and heavier so she lowered boxes down using a bungee cord. Most everything on the roof was light so we didn’t have much trouble. We even laughed about it as we were getting them inside the RV. VERY CROWDED inside but it is sorted now. We went into Idaho Falls bought a TV at Wal*mart and some more food and headed continued on toward Jackson Hole, WY. We called ahead to an RV Park called the Virginian about a mile out of Jackson city center. We parked and Paige and I walked into the town had some pizza for dinner and wandered around. We saw the Mangy Moose store, The Million Dollar Cowboy Bar, The Antler Arches and various other gift shops etc. It was very nice. We came home and watched an episode of the TV show Lost and went to bed. This morning we got rid of some more stuff and rearranged it so it isn’t so crowded. The dogs are having a blast.

Sunday, July 30, 2006 pt 2 and into July 31st, 2006

We drove from Jackson Hole to Yellowstone. On the way we drove past the Grand Tetons.
http://www.nps.gov/grte/ Wow they were something else. At Yellowstone http://www.nps.gov/yell/ we saw Old Faithful, springs, waterfalls and various other geysers. On the way to our campground / park we saw a huge bison in the road. Pretty cool. He looked mad at the people in the car in the other lane like he might ram it. The dogs started barking and I hit the gas so he wouldn’t go for us. We are having problems finding a place to stay for the night. We are heading out of the park toward Cody, Wyoming. Currently the road is blocked by a herd of bison. We are far enough back that we can only see them from a distance. It was cool too the bison were right next to the car I think we got some great pictures. Yellowstone Lake is pretty large and there are waves crashing on the shore like the sea. We drove into Cody, WY and decided to just stay the night at the Wal*mart parking lot with a bunch of other, much more expensive RV’s. There had been Hells Angels rally this weekend in Cody and there were a few in the lot as well. We went to sleep and the wind really picked up. We were all parked so the wind was hitting broadside and making it impossible to sleep. About midnight we moved the rig so we were with the wind. In the end we moved to the far side so we were protected by the building and were able to sleep. In the morning we had breakfast and headed to Sheridan, WY. http://www.sheridanwyoming.org/index.php We were sure impressed at the variety of scenery we have seen so far. Simply amazing.

We got to the KOA and are considering staying 2 nights and taking a day trio us to Little Big Horn http://www.nps.gov/libi/ (where Custer met his Maker.) I have always been interested in Custer and this is the closest I have ever been. The next day we plan to head to Devils Tower http://www.nps.gov/deto/ but we haven’t really hammered out exactly what is next. We’ll keep you posted. We’ll update nightly if we have WiFi internet access. Check out the pictures @ http://community.webshots.com/user/MKAdams66

Earlier in the blog I was talking about a message we heard at the Pursuit church. It has even greater relevance now as our journey has begun. The Pastor Paul talked about the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and it really reminded us what we are doing and why. So bear with me and read the story of Shad, Mesh and Abed from the Contemporary English version:

King Nebuchadnezzar ordered a gold statue to be built ninety feet high and nine feet wide. He had it set up in Dura Valley near the city of Babylon, and he commanded his governors,advisors, treasurers, judges, and his other officials to come from everywhere in his kingdom to the dedication of the statue. So all of them came and stood in front of it. Then an official stood up and announced: People of every nation and race, now listen to the king's command! Trumpets, flutes, harps, and all other kinds of musical instruments will soon start playing. When you hear the music, you must bow down and worship the statue that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. Anyone who refuses will at once be thrown into a flaming furnace. As soon as the people heard the music, they bowed down and worshiped the gold statue that the king had set up. Some Babylonians used this as a chance to accuse the Jews to King Nebuchadnezzar. They said,"Your Majesty, we hope you live forever! You commanded everyone to bow down and worship the gold statue when the music played. And you said that anyone who did not bow down and worship it would be thrown into a flaming furnace. Sir, you appointed three men to high positions in Babylon Province, but they have disobeyed you. Those Jews, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, refuse to worship your gods and the statue you have set up." King Nebuchadnezzar was furious. So he sent for the three young men and said, "I hear that you refuse to worship my gods and the gold statue I have set up. Now I am going to give you one more chance. If you bow down and worship the statue when you hear the music, everything will be all right. But if you don't, you will at once be thrown into a flaming furnace. No god can save you from me." The three men replied, "Your Majesty, we don't need to defend ourselves. The God we worship can save us from you and your flaming furnace. But even if he doesn't, we still won't worship your gods and the gold statue you have set up."

As we (Paige and I) travel (now on the road and in life in general.) life will become tricky at times but we know that God can save us from trials and troubles. Even if He doesn’t we will follow and trust Him.

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Not Quite Yet...

Well we had fixed all the little things that came up on the house inspection. We had packed and were almost set to go. Late Wednesday we found out that we would not be closing on Thursday. The Lender blah blah. The Buyer blah blah. There was nothing we could do … so we went camping. We loaded the fridge and the boyz (that’s Gar and Loki, our mutz.) and took off for a campground called 10 Mile about 50 miles away. It’s about ten miles above Idaho City. It was a great trial run and it gave us a good idea how this is all going to work. We learned a lot about the motor home. We took notes and made lists of the things we would need (spatulas, dog tie-outs, hookups … oh my!) The campground was nice. HOT, with the occasional cool breeze, but the flies were terrible. We’d stay outside as long as we could stand it and then retreat back into the RV. We read our travel books, the Recreation Vehicles for Dummies, played Scrabble, Backgammon, walked the dogs, napped and watched the portable DVD player until the battery died. When it’s hot we found we would rather be where there are places to plug the motor home in to. We slept great, ate well and all in all was a nice trip. We can’t wait to get on the road East. Any day now – Just waiting, God’s timing – not ours. Til next time, Take care and God Bless!

We went to church this weekend at The Pursuit. (http://www.thepursuit.org/)
We heard a message titled: “Your Spiritual Risk Tolerance”. It really helped us remember why we are doing all of this. We aren’t just moving to NC because we can buy a house, not because we can go to the beach, not because there will be so much to do there but because it will allow us to be the people God made us to be. That is truly what we want. To be where God is. He is here too but we think He wants us there. Below is a link to the message from the Pursuit. I hope you’ll consider listening to it.

http://www.thepursuit.org/sermons.taf?_function=sermon&uid=189&_UserReference=42C9284F46EB1F06CA45C2A174D144C7707B

We are having our final walkthrough today and signing the papers. We have to be out on Friday :) but we will most likely leave Thursday evening. We’ll keep you posted.

Sunday, July 09, 2006

Warning! Incredibly Harmful Virus!



If you receive an e-mail with a subject line of "Badtimes," delete it immediately WITHOUT reading it. This is the most dangerous e-mail virus yet.


It will re-write your hard drive. Not only that, but it will scramble any disks that are even close to your computer.

It will recalibrate your refrigerator's coolness setting so all your ice cream melts and milk curdles.

It will demagnetize the strips on all your credit cards, reprogram your ATM access code, mess up the tracking on your VCR and use subspace field harmonics to scratch any CDs you try to play.

It will give your ex-boy/girlfriend your new phone number.

It will mix antifreeze into your fish tank. It will drink all your beer and leave its dirty socks on the coffee table when there's company coming over.

It will hide your car keys when you are late for work and interfere with your car radio so that you hear only static while stuck in traffic. Badtimes will make you fall in love with a hardened criminal.

It will give you nightmares about circus midgets.

It will replace your shampoo with Nair and your Nair with Rogaine.

Badtimes will give you Dutch Elm disease.

It will leave the toilet seat up and leave the hairdryer plugged in dangerously close to a full bathtub it will not only remove the forbidden tags from your mattresses and pillows, and refill your skim milk with whole.

It is insidious and subtle. It is dangerous and terrifying to behold. It is also a rather interesting shade of mauve. These are just a few signs. Be very, very afraid.

This Is How It Happened pt 2



We just happen to have a real estate agent in out Tuesday night Bible study, so of course we had her come over and tell us what she thought. She gave us some tips and pointers, and gave us a good date to list the house. The date was like 3 weeks away!!! Yikes! We hustled and had a yard sale, made a ton of money (sold too much stuff, like stuff we were still using) got busy remodeling the master bath. Tuesday night Bible study came and we had a painting party, for those of you who have never been to our house, we had some bold colors...master bedroom was "cookie monster blue" - just to give you and idea. So we bought beige and everyone helped paint (did I mention we have vaulted ceilings?) Anyway, painting got done, master bathroom got done, house got listed, not quite in the original time frame, but it went to market on June 16th. Then we waited, no bites on the 17th, no bites on the 18th, but then come Monday the 19th...our Blessing came (that is literally her last name!! It gave us goose bumps.) She was the second person to see it, and 4 days later the offer.

We purchased a used motor home, Mike's dad Gary found for us, and my dad financed until we get the house money at close. It’s a 1988 Coachman Catalina- 25', sleeps 4 and some dogs. Great condition, but needed some interior updating. Wait until you see the pictures! :) It's going to be great! We gave notice at work, have the motor home, are packing boxes, the end is in sight. We know how much space we have for storage, and so now know how much stuff we can take, and what either has to stay or ship, decided against pulling a trailer due to safety and gas. Our first stop will be headed out of Idaho at Craters of the Moon, then on to Yellowstone and Jackson Hole. Don't know when we'll be back this way so need to see it now. From there, it will be down through Wyoming and into Nebraska to visit Aunt Polly in Red Cloud for a few days. We saw Rushmore last year, so it's not on the tour. Looking at the KOA directory, Iowa has some interesting landscape, so from Red Cloud, up through Omaha and East into Iowa. From there, not sure yet-anybody have any suggestions? We'll look online at points of interest, and the KOA directory is proving to be helpful. We've never had a vacation where we didn't have a return to work date, so this open ended trip will be fun. If we see a sign for the World's Largest Toothpick 21 miles, we can go! And we will keep y'all posted. Bye for now. -p

Friday, July 07, 2006

This Is How It Happened pt 1

When you get the urge to sell everything and move - it's probably GOD, especially when it's to move to hurricane country. We started thinking about moving a couple years ago, but we were thinking Ecuador!! That didn't pan out, so we waited, and waited, and waited. We then talked to someone from Kentucky and found out how cheap housing was, so we got on line and looked for ourselves. Found a cute little place on a lake for like $39, 000.00, which led us to look closer to water. Started looking online in North Carolina, and found places were equally as cheap. Mike then got on line and started searching for churches, we have been going to a Calvary Chapel, because they have a Wednesday night service, and he found North Carolina had many. He then listened to a couple of sermons via the web, which led us to the destination of Kernersville, North Carolina. We got out the map, and looked some more online at properties, and prayed...a lot! We decided to make the leap, and started planning, all the while asking in prayer if this was what GOD wanted for us. Things just kept coming together, so we kept moving forward. -p

The links to the right of the Blog are ours. They link to the Official NC page, A Winston-Salem Newspaper, Cities we are looking into and the church. -m

Thursday, July 06, 2006

BLOG Defined...


For everyone who asked, here is the definition of Blog:

Blog is short for weblog (web log). A weblog is a journal (or newsletter) that is frequently updated and intended for general public consumption...An online diary; a personal chronological log of thoughts published on a Web page. -m

Monday, July 03, 2006

Well here we go…

This blog is being created as a journal-from-the-road. The plan is to update this blog on each leg of our journey to NC and possibly beyond. We will try to post frequently as we travel so when we are incommunicado (out of cell phone range.) the family won’t be worried. As we gear up to take off I thought we would try and get everyone up to speed on how and why this all happened.

Hey, make sure you visit and bookmark our WebShots photo page. (
http://community.webshots.com/user/MKAdams66) I’ll let you know when I update the photos. Feel free to leave comments on the Blog -m







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