Meity Road Trip Favorites

Meity Road Trip Favorites

The question we are most frequently asked is, “What have you liked best?” We all had a hard time keeping our “favorites” list small. The places we listed are not in any particular order. Here goes…

CG: Mt. Rushmore, Disney World, Kansas-family, Wisconsin-family, Washington, D.C., Maine coast, Statue of Liberty, Kennedy Space Center, seeing friends along the way, St. Louis Arch, flying with Mr. T., Niagara Falls, Focus on the Family, going back home.

RR: Disney World, Wisconsin-visiting family, Kansas-visiting family, St. Louis Arch, seeing friends, Mississippi River, Niagara Falls, Mt. Rushmore, St. Louis Arch, NASA Air Show especially the Blue Angels, Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., Pikes Peak, going back to CA.

K: Washington, D.C., Mt. Rushmore on the 4th of July, NASA Air Show at Kennedy Space Center, flying with Mr. T., Air force Academy, Statue of Liberty, seeing friends and family.

RJ: Carlsbad Caverns, Niagara Falls, Mt. Rushmore, Disney World, Seeing friends and family along the way, Washington, D.C., the NASA Air Show at Kennedy Space Center, Philadelphia, Focus on the Family Radio Show, going up in the St. Louis Arch, Statue of Liberty, seeing Regis and Kelly live in NYC (neat to see how they film and they were funny).

P: Carlsbad Caverns, Rocky Mountain National Park, Grand Teton NP, Civil War Museum, Maine Coast, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Disney World, Amish Country – Lancaster County, Colonial Williamsburg, visiting family and friends.

C (me): Carlsbad Caverns, Rocky Mountain National Park, Grand Teton NP, various historic sites along the way (Native Americans, Pioneers, Civil Rights, Civil and Rev. War sites, historic homes, Presidential Museums, etc.), Mt. Rushmore on the 4th of July, visiting family and friends along the way, New Hampshire, Niagara Falls, Philadelphia, Amish Country in PA, Plymouth Plantation where the Pilgrims settled, Washington, D.C., Williamsburg and the Historic Triangle, Disney World (enjoying it with my kids).

Merry Christmas!

The Meity Road Trip is over and Christmas is here. We are temporarily living in our motor home and going back and forth between my parent’s home and our home community. I thought this would be a very strange and perhaps disappointing Christmas. And while it is strange, it is much to my surprise the best Christmas I’ve had in a long time. We don’t have a tree, or Christmas lights, we haven’t hosted any parties, or even bought many gifts. Our kids have almost nothing on their wish lists and we wouldn’t have room for it if they did. It’s awesome. P reminded me that it’s the first Christmas in a long time that I haven’t said, “I hate Christmas.” (Forgive the harsh words – I’ve never been one to hide my feelings. And mind you, I don’t hate the holiday itself, in fact I love it, I just hate all the unnecessary stress and busyness that comes with it in our culture). We’ve had time to spend with people, time to help my elderly parents, time to volunteer at the Rescue Mission and time to really enjoy and appreciate the true meaning of Christmas. Who knew that such a weird living situation would be the means of helping us have a truly enjoyable Christmas season?! Happy birthday Jesus!
In honor of the celebration of Christ's birth, I've attached a video of RJ singing at our church "Away in a Manger" - hope you enjoy!

Welcome Home

After being with my folks for a day we headed back to our community for a couple days where the kids would attend their academic classes, we all would take care of various doctor appointments, and most importantly to us, see friends. Our first moments back in our community were so wonderfully welcoming, complete with cheers, signs and even jumping up and down!! You know, we don’t have a house yet but with wonderful friends who love us, we have a home. We are blessed beyond words!

Back to real life...

I drove up to our first stop in CA, my parents’ home, the home I grew up in, and it was like no time had passed. It’s all over and all just a memory…or was it really a dream? Perhaps my pictures will convince me it was real. Life is like that. Kinda weird, huh?

The best thing by far for our first evening back home was seeing my parents. We could hardly contain the girls; they were so excited as we got closer. I know my folks were just as delighted.

Shortly after our arrival at my parents’ home, we prepared to go out to eat with them. The following conversation ensued. “P, we need to get our car out [from their back yard area].” “It’s already out.” “No, that’s not ours; that’s my dad’s.” “That’s ours.” “But ours is silver, not tan.” “No, ours is tan…look...the inside light doesn’t work just like ours.” “Oh, [sigh], you’re right, that is ours.” …..O.K., what is with that? I can’t even remember what my car looks like. It’s not been THAT long! Pretty scary!

Once we figured out which one was our car, we drove it. Oh, wow, did you ever realize how fast a car can stop, how sharp it can turn, how squished it is? It’s been a long time since we drove a car. It felt so low to the ground, like our back side was dragging along the street! And, guess what? The driving lanes don’t seem so narrow, nor the road so uneven, and we don’t even have to think about whether we’ll fit in the parking lot or not! There are so many things we take for granted. :-)

“There’s no place like home!”

After traveling around the US with our 4 girls for nearly 7 months, I just want to shout our thanks and praise to God for a safe trip, good health and for giving us the opportunity for this trip in the first place!! I could never have planned or even imagined this trip in this way or timing, but God brought it together and worked out all the little details. It is good to be back and we look forward to seeing you all again!

I am reminded of the song that says, “How can I say thanks for all the things you have done for me?” This trip is so minuscule in comparison to the free gift of salvation through Christ, but it is no less a gift for which we feel overwhelmingly thankful. “Every good and perfect gift is from above.”

The last chapter of the book

Have you ever felt like you loved a book so much you didn’t want to finish it? And, when you get to the last chapter you have a sort of sinking feeling knowing that it's almost over? That’s how I’ve felt the last couple weeks of our trip. It’s been so good I don’t want to finish it. But, today when I saw the sign, “441 Miles to Los Angeles” excitement began to flood my heart. I haven’t seen anything about California in so long. We all started singing, “California, here I come, right back where we started from, where bowers of flowers bloom in the sun…” As we sang my excitement grew even more. Then we crossed the State line. Hoorah! Many shouts of joy could be heard in our motor home. Our tires were on California asphalt at last. As I write this, it won’t be long now until we see my parents. California, here we are!

Life in an RV

The girls did a video spoof we call, RV life: Four Girls and One Small Bathroom. Press "play" to view...

Rules for successful RV living

To give you all a better idea of some RV life survival techniques we’ve had, we have posted some of the “rules” we came up with over time…

No running in the motor home (where would you run to, anyway?)
We have a bathroom fan, use it if necessary (you know what I mean if you’ve ever lived in an RV!)
No singing in the MH unless we are all singing together
One person in the bathroom at a time, 2 if it’s an emergency
No changing clothes in the bathroom, we are all girls except Dad
While driving, only 2 people make their meals at a time (too squishy w/o the slide out)
If you wake up first, read a book quietly, and don’t start tickling your sister!
If someone is in a bad mood, they are outside alone (unless we are driving, of course)
If someone is in a bad mood and we are driving, it’s either the bathroom or the back bedroom for them!
Rotating “seating chart” for the “best seat” in the RV
Kid engineered rotating “sleeping chart” for the better beds
Mandatory outside time for kids as deemed appropriate by parents
Date nights (occasionally known as sanity breaks) for parents – absolutely required!
Oh, and most importantly, make sure the sewer hose is thoroughly attached when dumping the black tank!

A colorful sky

As we near the end of our trip, God gave us a lovely bonus. We just happened to stop at a State Park in NM to camp overnight. Turns out they were having a hot air balloon rally the next morning. We were able to watch them set up the balloons, inflate, and take off. One kind pilot even invited Rebecca help get the balloon upright and showed all the girls how the balloon works. He invited us to take a look inside too. It was very interesting to learn more about it, and a nice blessing as we near the end of our wonderful trip.

The unthinkable happened to the unsinkable

In Branson, MO we saw the Titanic Museum. The museum building is ½ the Titanic and ½ scale. Even at that, it’s huge. Inside they had full scale, exact replicas of the beautiful stair case, passenger rooms and a life boat along with many artifacts from both those who died and survived. We even heard live interviews from the last 2 living survivors. Hearing their stories and many others throughout the museum was heart wrenching! One passenger told her husband how uneasy she was about the trip. She said that only God could make something unsinkable, and if humankind was to boast such an accomplishment, it was a bad sign. Her husband responded, “It IS unsinkable!”

Snow!

We got into the campground late at night and planned on leaving first thing the next morning. It flurried during the day but stopped and wasn’t supposed to snow anymore for a couple days. We were surprised when we woke up to more snow! We had to alter our plans as the roads were sheets of ice. But the girls didn’t mind this one bit since they got to play in the snow!

“Meet Me in St. Louie”

…We felt that since we met our friends in St. Louis that was an appropriate song to sing, although we could barely remember any more than the 5 words of the title! And, there is no bigger icon of St. Louis than the Arch, which I HAD to see. I guess it’s like one would feel about seeing the Space Needle in Seattle or the Empire State Building in New York. Though, I will say this was more unique than going to the top of a tall building. Since the shape is after all an arch, going up the elevator was an experience to be remembered. It was definitely cool. We didn’t have a lot of time after that, but they gave us a tour of some St. Louis sites. One was the ever so famous frozen custard stand, Ted Drewe’s. We unanimously voted frozen custard superior to ice cream. Even though it was cold out, we enjoyed getting colder in order to eat our delicious frozen custard. :-)

Our time with our friends just flew by. Seemed like we blinked and it was over. We said our sad goodbyes. We quote the Apostle Paul when we say of our friends, we “have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.” (Eph 1:16)

Up, up and away!!

In the past several months, K has expressed a growing interest in aviation. Because of the kindness of our mission aviator friend, K and her sisters got to fly high in sky above St. Louis. This was a big event and took a lot of Mr. T’s time for which we are so grateful. He was so good to explain all the flight check list procedures and even let K fly solo (momentarily!)! They all agreed it was the thrill of their lives and K proclaimed that she definitely thought being a pilot was a good career option for her!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father. (James 1:17) Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift. (2 Cor. 9:15)

God gave us a special gift of being with dear friends this Thanksgiving. They just moved from CA to St. Louis in September to attend flight school in preparation for Mission aviation. When their training is complete they plan to join Mission Aviation Fellowship. For more about their exciting journey of faith, click here . This was their first Thanksgiving since moving, and we were far from our family so it was a special blessing for us to be together. Seeing them was another of many things we are thankful for this Thanksgiving.

“Now he belongs to the ages.”

We went to the Land of Lincoln visiting its capital, Springfield, the location of several Lincoln sites. We saw his home, the only home he ever owned, law office, Old State Capitol where he worked, his tomb, and his recently built (2005) presidential library and museum. The museum was top notch. I loved learning more about him and his family, his personality, his trials and triumphs. We think of him as a great success coming from a tiny one room log cabin to the White House. Yet, it was amazing to see just how many failures he had along the way. But he didn’t let that stop him. It was also striking to learn and experience just how much criticism he faced continuously, both on the road to the White House and in it. He was criticized by Northerners and Southerners, Republican and Democrat. Many blamed him for the war and all the lives lost on both sides. When I saw his tomb and its monument it struck me that he surely would be shocked to see how loved, admired and honored he has been in his death.