The Edge [of all] Journeys

Well, I’ve managed to do something to my back. I probably would never even mention it either except perhaps that it’s part of the story. An interesting part for sure, because it’s amazing how quickly everything we take for granted can come into stark relief against something that challenges it all. So, the normal and routine have become epic and painfully slow. Walking, sitting, lying down, standing up… bending over, wait no that’s actually impossible right now along with other things that I could do a few days ago. I can’t even do a single sit-up for crying outloud and I tried to run a little tonight, but that was totally not happening.

So far it hasn’t stopped me from tending to most of the normal chores, but they take way longer and I can’t help but wonder if I’m only aggravating the condition with my stubbornness. I guess a chiropractor is getting added to my itinerary for the week. Too bad my buddy Will isn’t around. Arg.

You know, the really annoying thing too is that it wasn’t some heroic injury saving a baby from a burning building or anything either. I’ve had a weak spot in my lower back for a few years after wiping out while performing a ridiculous stunt for my kids that involved a hill full of snow and a body board in Pennsylvania. And it flares up from time to time, but never incapacitating like this. I guess all the winter fun – like shoveling a 300 foot path for my family in a foot depth of snow (before we had the 4×4 shovel out 😉 ) and digging out snow forts with the kids really did a number on it. One of those things that doesn’t bite until the next day, but wow it bit hard. I guess I wasn’t practicing proper form. Arg.

Well, I’m sure there is a purpose and perhaps my Creator is just trying to get my attention about something. Well, I’m close to all ears, and trying to get there, and wondering what implications this is going to stir up that haven’t occurred to me yet. I really don’t have the time or energy for this, but I guess I have no choice but to slow down and recover. After all I have a house to build.

Finally finished another episode of Journeys…. yay – I’m almost only a year behind now. Arg.

Here’s a much abbreviated a snapshot of my adventurous past week from which I am thoroughly enjoying the reprieve of Sabbath.

We got back to the homestead-waiting-to-happen from an excellent time in Winnipeg on tues and in addition to all the fun stuff I’m working on for Clvr the following productivity ensued (in somewhat no particular order):

• emptied our black tank into the new 25 gal holding / tote tank on wheels we picked up in Winnipeg and drug that out into the pasture to dump into the sewage pit I dug with Bennah the week before. “And you shall have a place outside the camp, where you shall go out, and you shall have a sharp implement among your equipment, and when you sit down outside, you shall dig with it and turn and cover your excrement.” (Deu 23:13-14)
• covered the poop pit with a hood from an old red chevy truck so that animals in the pasture don’t fall in and break a leg or something. “And when a man opens a pit, or if a man digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls in it, the owner of the pit is to repay, he is to give silver to their owner, and the dead beast is his.” (Exo 21:34-35)
• took my two sons of thunder for a couple mile hike around the property (yes that’s the poop pit bottom left):

• started researching immigration / residency more thoroughly
• walked out and flagged what will become our roughly 1/4 mile driveway so that we can hire a loader to come out and knock the right trees down to make a path and build it up.
• several rides on the quad (ATV)
• Reayah made friends with the horse by devising a bribe that involved an apple
• i used a roll of white duct tape patching up our awning from driving through hail and wind damage
• filled up our 40 gal water tank again since the weekend was going to bring freezing temps and pointless hook up to the hose when that happens. temps were supposed to hover around 30 F / -2 C which would have been fine but it got much colder and the pipe from tank to pump froze anyway. thankful for a warm house to come hang out in with our cousins.
• lost power last night… and somehow “get propane” never made it from my mental list to my written list and we ran out a couple hours before the power died. fabulous. no heat and just in time for a freak blizzard and 20 F / -7 C. what an amateur move… just so happy to be here and distracted by everything going on that I didn’t really take much thought to the fact that it’s already almost 3 weeks since we filled one of the tanks. SO. gave myself a bit of an unintentional adventure in the middle of the blizzard night to hunt down other tanks on the property. even the tanks from our cousins’ camper were pretty much empty but their grill had a full, albeit smaller tank that should get us through tonight at least to where we can maybe make it into town tomorrow if the highway opens up (yep, currently closed).

• ok time to take the kids out into the blizzard for 5 minutes to get their crazies out and sap their energy for the rest of the evening where burgers and The Prince of Egypt are on the agenda.

Parked

I wish I could convey the immense import behind the (humanly) unplanned, colossal culmination of crossing the border back into Canada on April 11th upon completing our family mission to visit all 4 corners of the United States exactly 2 years to the day after we originally departed Virginia on April 11th 2009.

Wow.

YHWH our Father in the heavens has without fail secured our path on every mile of this amazing Journey. For the last several weeks – despite continual rains on the west coast and some more dicey weather in parts – we have had sunny weather every single departure day. We’ve hit some weather on the road, but always way milder than forecasted. And the Provisions along the way have been even more specific and personal than just the weather on every given day.

Today we drove northward up through beautiful BC. Jasper tomorrow perhaps. Eastward to Manitoba. A new season begins, and with it many uncertainties and questions that we know will find doors opening in their time.

Wow.

2 years. I am feeling inordinately sentimental at the moment. Or maybe it’s just too warm here in the 24-hr Denny’s with wifi that I walked to from the Wal-Mart next door here in Quesnel (“Que-nel” for all you tourists) BC.

Joy was a baby when we left. This is the only life she knows and has no context for what life in a “house” is like. Now she thinks she’s 4. And it’s hard to prove she’s not. Jaiden barely had a vocabulary, but his laugh is the same. Zach still jumps off of everything despite our futile efforts to extend the life of our trailer interior, but he has started school and grown up in so many other ways during this time. Reayah and Bennah have blossomed in numerous areas. They’ve mastered bike-riding, scrambled up scree cliffs, built forts throughout the continent… I better not start lest I spend the rest of the night listing.  It’s hard to imagine them 2 years ago.

I almost can’t remember what normal used to be. This is normal now, and it will keep changing, just the way I like it. I feel like we are discovering a life story that was written for us from the beginning of time. Rather than muting our free-will it intensifies it. All of our decisions – especially the second-guessed or uncertain or even less than ideal ones – are met with plot twists that keep the story interesting. It is a wonderful epic treasure hunt where the hidden prizes and rewards are things that haven’t even occurred to our searching imaginations: new relationships, breathtaking geographies, self-discovery, family bonding to a degree that’s hard even for us to realize and appreciate consciously much less express to others, memories whose imagery fades but which pull our spiritual roots deeper and deeper, anticipation, letting go, learning… to keep moving.

Life is moving. Whether across the continent physically or in your own personal development, perspective, and spiritual universe. Growth. Why do we crave new things? How can we be quenched?

Life is a quest for the elusive infinite.

Journey is a verb too after all.

I should have known we were in for an awesome and eventful trip when it took us 2 hours to dig and push and back our truck and trailer out of the mud hole that had formed over the several rainy days that led up to our departure. We were finally able to back out through a meticulous method that involved rotating 4 large scrap pieces of plywood, mulch, and 4 lo.

We had an amazing few weeks parked at friends southeast of Fresno, CA. Thanks again for everything! It was an incredible blessing to get to know you and participate in the fellowship there. We so enjoyed the area and the kids were right at home with enough country to receive their energy.

There was a beautiful break in the weather on the day we had decided to leave. It was warm and sunny despite days of rain before and days of rain forecasted for after. Even so it was 6pm by the time we finally pulled away, and it looked like we’d be driving for days in the rain. It was mostly cloudy for the next few days, and we did drive through some rain, but for the most part everywhere we went it had either  stopped raining or waited to start until we were settled for the night. Roads were clear and traffic was mild.

This was a really busy business week with lots of work and phone conferences and such, but it worked out perfectly every time. One morning we found a mall for Renee and the kids to stay occupied while I hopped on the internet at Starbucks in Barnes & Noble to do my calls and emails. Another morning there happened to be a Starbucks across the street from the Wal-Mart we parked at for the night, which let me get on some other scheduled calls. The children were amazing through it all. In fact, I think this was by far the best 4-day stretch of travelling where all of us stayed more or less in the Shalom Zone. Maybe it helped that all the kids were at various stages of being sick which blunted their normal energy levels.

We had been praying that the rig would make it without too much trouble through the mountains of northern California on I-5. We didn’t know how bad the climbs would be, but have had issues with the turbo in the past so it was an unknown. Everything mechanical functioned beautifully.

I had checked roads and chain restrictions a couple days before and everything looked clear, but the night before we got there a major storm blew in just north of Redding and dropped a bunch of snow and triggered not only a chain requirement but check point as well. And there was another storm system blowing in that night that was going to drop more ice and snow in the mountains we had to cross. We had a narrow window.

But we didn’t have chains. Seeing the signs we stopped in Redding and started looking. I had called around a few weeks earlier looking for some before because we might have needed them to go see the sequoias (we didn’t) but no one had our size. So, it was a small miracle when we found a Wal-Mart near by in Redding that had some even though they had been selling them all day. Thus acquired, we went along our merry way only to run into a 6-mile long line waiting to go through the check-point.

There was a sign that said cars left lane trucks and trailers right lane. So, we sweated it out a bit with the commercial trucks while other cars flew past us on the left. After an hour went by and we had only covered 2 miles it was closing in on 5pm and we had several hours of crossing mountains and it was going to get dark and dangerous. I decided that trucks and trailers meant commercial vehicles and broke out of the mold onto the left lane. We cruised on past the 3-4 mile long, unbroken line of semis with their cargo, and got to the check-point where everything was down to 1 lane anyway. It was really an inefficient and poorly and handled operation.

With that we were on our way and into some interesting driving. We hit some rain, but the roads were ok. We got over the worst of the I-5 CA mountains and tucked in for the night at about 3000 ft. I pulled almost an all-nighter working, and when I went to bed at 5am it had started snowing massive beautiful flakes in torrents. Interesting.

We got going about noon, and it was still snowing even though it had warmed up to the high 30s. Roads were slushy. We knew this was a big travel day. We had over 300 miles to go including the steepest and highest parts of I-5 and most of Oregon to drive across. It was a pretty intense day but YHWH protected us as we cautiously tackled the mountains through southern OR at times in heavy snow (though the roads were staying fairly clear). When we crossed the highest point along I-5 which runs the whole length of the west coast from Seattle to San Diego we were elated. Downhill was tougher in a lot ways, so I kept it slow.

We even found a Chipotle – a family favorite that we miss in areas which don’t have them – as we got close to Portland. We pulled into our reserved site about 9pm… tired, but extremely thankful. We’re having a lo-key weekend, catching up on rest and, now that Sabbath has ended, a bit of chores and work. We’re looking forward to spending some time with family in Portland and are glad we could be here to attend my Granny’s memorial service on Friday as we head further north shortly after that.

Having written all this it feels like I’ve just captured the emotionless details of our travels somewhat like an historian might have written about the ancient Greeks. But I wish I could convey to you the sublime experience of living through so many little miracles every day – all the things we need along the road whether we’ve planned for them or not – Father YHWH provides in perfect timing. It was painfully hard to get moving again after being at our friends for 6 weeks, and while I’m thankful to be parked again for a short bit, nothing compares to the wilderness of the journey.

Gratefulness:
1. appreciative of benefits received b : expressing gratitude <grateful thanks
2. affording pleasure or contentment :pleasing

An old friend of mine started a photo project a few years back. For 365 days, she took a Polaroid of one thing this was grateful for that day. There are many wonderful moments in my day where I can stop and be grateful for it. But, most of the time, it passes by, undocumented and then it is quickly forgotten. Documenting your gratefulness is a great exercise to not only remember all the blessings and gifts in your life (for we tend to remember the negative more than the positive), it trains you to recognize more of the good around you and you start to see even more things and moments to be grateful for.

The earthquake in Japan is another reminder of how volatile our life is. I am grateful for YHWH who gives me my every breath. Every moment is from Him. He decides when my time is done.

I have set a goal to write down one thing I am grateful for every day. This may seem easy, but it’s really a disciple to notice them and to remember to write the moments down. I have missed many days already. Even though I noticed a moment and was grateful, forgeting to write it down or thinking I could write it later, I totally forgot what those moments were. I started almost a month ago, but will share with you a few of my gratefulness moments:

• I am grateful for my slippers and my hot cup of tea with milk and honey, on this chilly morning.
• Joy’s belly laugh during daddy tickles.
• Tonight, while I was taking out our garbage, I noticed the clear night sky with a total unobstructed view of the stars. It was comforting and spectacular.
• Running around with my kids, playing tag outside in the sunshine.
• Resting on the bed with Sky and listening to the giggles and shouts coming from the table where Andrew and the boys are playing an animated game of UNO.
• A bag full of freshly picked oranges from an orchard next door to us.
• Our new tad pole pets, Speed, Spot, Swimmer, Swimmer Jr, Tommy, Gus, Squirt, and Astro Boy
• A long uninterrupted breakfast date: mocha, omelet, pancakes and a very handsome man.
• Drinking my tea and watching the kids play outside from my window

Have a grateful day!

Before we left San Diego I snuck in a helicopter ride (actually the same morning we had to check out of the campground by noon) to shoot video for stock. Hopefully the adventure will more than pay for itself (it better 🙂 ).

Beautiful San Diego was our home for a month. Among other things, we made it to the southwest corner of CA and walked up to the border with Mexico on the beach, we played in the tidal pools at La Jolla and saw the seals and sea lions, we went to a vineyard / winery about an hour north and enjoyed tasting the wines, we played in the ocean in January and February at several different beaches, we enjoyed having a Trader Joe’s close by again, we had cook-outs with dear friends parked right behind us, we made new friends at the campground who routinely gave us fresh tangelos from their family’s tree, we went for an hour (1-way) ride on the 3-level Coastal Train along the coast up to Ocean City, CA had lunch way out at a restaurant on a massive pier and rode back during sunset, we went for walks around Mission Bay where the campground was, and many other adventures besides – all the while enjoying summer in winter.

This is our parking spot about 30 minutes south of Fresno, CA with a beautiful view to the Sierras. We’re staying on the farm of friends of friends and are so blessed to be able to make new friendships and have another taste of community in a place previously foreign to us.

We had an adventurous trip north that included lots of heavy pulling through mountains and an episode of overheating that forced us to pull over. We even lost our pyro gauge and I wasn’t sure if we were going to be able to continue at one point. But we all prayed about it and I realized there really was no option but to throw our trust completely on YHWH and keep going. As soon as the family finished praying, and I came to resolve in my heart and spirit (I was outside under the hood), the pyro gauge came back to life and we pressed on without any other setbacks.

And then there was Bakersfield! Wow. Enough words cannot be found to describe the Bakersfield miracle. We set out from San Diego with directions in hand and campground recommendations from our tangelo friends who travel between their home in Washington state and San Diego every year for the seasons. Our original plan was to head up along the coast and end up in LA and maybe Malibu to connect with friends of friends there. That door closed for a variety of reasons which ended up pushing us through a more easterly route. YHWH confirmed it was the right direction for us as we pulled into a campground in Bakersfield, CA that had been recommended by our tangelo friends. It was around 7:30pm and the office was closed, but I had called ahead and our site number (112) was waiting for us on the door. We pulled into our site after several attempts (it was quite slanted on one side and leveling a camper is everything), the kids exploded out of the truck crying shrieks of banshee freedom, and I began to set up. Enter stage right: very familiar looking gentlemen. Queue the line: “Hey, didn’t we meet you guys in New Mexico?” Turns our we had not only arrived at the same campground, but had been assigned a site immediately next to dear friends we had made at a campground in New Mexico a month and a half earlier. They travel full-time too and homeschool their 5 boys who instant friends with our kids, and we only overlapped in NM for 1 night. They went northwest to Arizona and we went west to California. We weren’t event going to stay in San Diego for a month but were supposed to go to LA and instead ended up in Bakersfield. They were only supposed to be in Bakersfield for a few days (weeks before we arrived), but ended up stuck there for weeks to work out insurance, plates, and a new van after theirs was crushed by a semi (thankfully no one was hurt). And here we wind up weeks later, without staying in touch, parked next to each other at the same campground. I would call it a freak coincidental act of fate except that I have seen YHWH do things like this throughout my entire life.

Bennah and Reayah made it into their blog post about the amazing encounter, and I wish I had pictures of the whole crowd playing in Bakersfield to post here! Here’s Patsy’s post (scroll down to the entry “It’s All About Perspective”):
http://www.kirace.com/index.php?page=blog&bid=1
And here’s Marty’s post about the accident:
http://www.kidologytogo.com/2011/02/a-grateful-heart-is-a-thankful-heart/

Kidology is the children’s pastor ministry they are involved with during their travels. Amazing! All honor to YHWH!

Another highlight from Bakersfield was the not-quite-lukewarm-hot-tube-date. Renee and I had Bennah and Reayah watch the kids after bed time and managed a quick dip in the hot tub. We had Sky in the car seat and rocked him to sleep beside the water. The only thing was the water… it wasn’t even as hot as I’d make my own bath water. I ended up having to jump into the freezing pool and back just to get it to feel “hot” – even if only for a few seconds. But the night was beautiful and it was nice to have a moment of quality hangout time with my wife. That’s probably the first time Renee has ever shivered in a hot tub. Not kidding.

And here we are planting potatoes on the farm where we’re staying! Fun fun fun!

This was going to be a 10-photo post, but I ended up having to write a lot more than I had originally planned… the hour drags on… and I’ll have to make this part 1. More to come!

We’ve been near Deming, New Mexico for the last couple nights – paused for Sabbath – and tomorrow we continue westward towards California. Yesterday we took a drive around the area to explore the local parks. Such a fascinating place with the dry, arid landscape mostly flat but the occasional massive rock formations leaping into the sky and the interesting pueblo construction in most of the dwellings.

We drove up into a national park called spring canyon and arriving around 3pm were a little miffed that yet again the gate would be closing – this time at 4pm. We paid our $5 entry fee anyway and set out to see what kind of adventure we could cram into an hour. Bennah, Reayah and I managed to scramble several hundred feet up rocks and scree and cactus to an incredible view while Renee and the little ones tried to fly kites.

I still haven’t gotten the report on how that went because as we were slipping and sliding back down as safely and yet quickly as possible I became aware of two things. First:  in pushing to get to the top I had underestimated the time we’d need to get back down and we weren’t going to make it by 4pm. Second: there was another vehicle still there too and I had heard the echo of someone yelling earlier. It hadn’t sounded distressed, but it had ben from far away and I began to wonder.

Enough of the way back down to trust my two oldest in making it the rest of the way on their own I cut across the rocks and angled down to intercept the driver of the other vehicle who had slowly started up the canyon trail below.

It was 4pm. His friend from Texas had not returned and he wasnt in the kind of shape to go up in the canyon to look for him. I coordinated with Renee, got his phone number, and headed up the trail as fast as I could.

Some running, some walking, some climbing and scrambling later – probably a mile or so – I had been praying and thinking about 127 Days and periodically calling out “hello!?” – oh and there was no kidding this little skunk just a couple feet away that I didn’t notice until I was passing it and was thrilled I didn’t get spayed – finally comes this response from above me to one of my calls: “praise the Lord?” To which I responded: “praise the LORD! Are you ok?”

Turns out the gentleman was just enjoying creation without a care in the world and no idea that the gate was supposed to have been closed 40 minutes ago. He appologized for the trouble but I told him it was no trouble at all – I was glad he was alright.

He had been way out there even high up, and said he’d had a vision in a whirlwind. I asked him to describe it. He said:

“There are so many trees fallen down… People that need someone to lift them up and replant them… And there are so many with thorns in them…”

We arrived in Colorado about a month ago. We were here about the same time last year, braving many cold nights, frozen water tanks and kids with cabin fever. This year, the weather has been delightfully warm and so sunny. The kids have been able to play outside every day and so far have not been cooped up in our cozy 350 square foot home. We are enjoying our stay here a lot. However, we have noticed a change in our kids, mainly our oldest ones. When we left Canada this time, they had a very hard time saying good-bye. We spent a wonderful time with family and friends and had grown close to a very special family and it was very hard to leave them and embrace the road again. Seeing new places and traveling seems to be getting old for the kids and me as well. It’s been almost two years and it seems like time for a change again. Hopefully we will always travel, since we would like to be able to visit all the dear friends we have grown close to all over North America. But, we are now ready to settle somewhere. Have our own garden again. Have a place for the kids to run around and jump and play and just be loud. Dance around and sing at the top of their lungs. They do that to some extent in the trailer but they can’t run or jump, or it would fall apart.

Our trailer is falling apart. Travel trailers were build with vacationing families or retired couples in mind who use it only a couple times a year. They are not really built for full time travelers with 6 small children. The blinds are bent, couch is broken, one of the dinette benches comes away from the wall when the slide-out come in, and the trim is falling off. But it still works well and keeps us very warm when it’s cold, and cool when it hot.

Today it’s 76 degrees! Andrew is in his parent’s house on a business call and I’m planning to take the kids for a walk to the library or just into town.