Milestones

Saturday, April 27^th began our 2013 “Great Adventure.”  In our first blog of this year’s travels I hope to bring all of our readers up to date as we head out again for a summer of unknown adventures.

Leaving Arizona early Saturday morning, traveling west on I-10 toward California we marveled at the beauty of springtime in the desert. For anyone who has never experienced it, April and May are the best months to be in the Arizona desert. It puts on a marvelous show.

Palo Verde trees abound in the Arizona desert, and in spring they are festooned with a burst of yellow flowers.  They are found throughout the washes and open areas of the desert and in some spots they turn an arid landscape into an orchard of bright golden vegetation as far as the eye can see.

For much of the year, the Ocotillo appears as an upright mass of dead looking gray wood covered with nasty thorns - not too appealing. But come late April, it bursts out with bright green leaves and flags of colorful red flowers. 

 

I can’t take credit for this picture. I got it off an internet site of desert plants. We were driving and couldn’t stop for any shots of my own. But trust me, the many plants we saw were just as gorgeous.

The ocotillo reminds me of some people whose lives seem wasted, dried up and just plain mean – yet given adequate spring rain and the right conditions (love and care by a gracious Provider) they have the ability to be something beautiful.

This is a picture of one of our favorite desert plants – the stately Saguaros don their little spring bonnets of stunning white flowers and hold multiple bouquets of more. They look like they’re decked out for the Easter parade.

By the end of day one of our trip we made it to Mojave, CA – 426 miles and almost 9 hours from Arizona.  Jim (who does all the driving) did an awesome job. That’s about 126 miles further than he would prefer to drive in a day, and nearly 2 hours longer than either of us prefers to be on the road. For those of you who do not pull a 30 foot trailer behind you, these miles and times don’t seem like much. But when you’re driving a big truck towing a heavy trailer, it’s all work at all times. However, we chose to get that far in order to complete our trip in 4 days, giving us a couple of days to visit our daughter and her family before heading on north of Seattle to our first project location. Besides, it got us past the smog filled San Bernardino/Riverside area. I’m still amazed at how smoggy that area has become since I was a kid in high school there. I’m not sure how the inhabitants of the towns all the way from Coachella to San Bernardino can breathe. After just a few hours on the road, my eyes were burning and my head ached from the pollution. The high desert of Mojave was clear and the weather was mild with temperatures in the low 90’s.

Day two was another 400+ miles and 8 ½ hours straight north on Interstate 5, through the Sacramento valley – past lots of California farmland. It’s always an interesting drive, lots to see. But the interstate road system in California is suffering years of neglect and most of the drive was like traveling on an old washboard country road – more bumps and ruts than smooth spots. Our second stop was in Williams, CA at a small RV park well away from the noise of the interstate.  Again, the weather was clear and warm. Our dog Zoe was glad to be done with the “shake, rattle and roll” of the trip. She took a much needed break while Jim set the fifth wheel up.

Day three – We left Williams before 8am and by noon……WA-HOO! We made it over the Siskiyou Mountain range from California into Oregon!! Our next stop would be in Sutherlin, Oregon by 2 or 3:00 that afternoon. The weather in Oregon was only 53 degrees and raining…..but we didn’t care…..our truck just managed to pull our 30 foot fully loaded fifth-wheel trailer (probably 11,000 pounds) up and over a pass that is 4310’ in elevation (the highest elevation on Interstate 5). We had prayed over the truck before leaving Williams and asked God to go before us and be behind us. He is truly faithful!

In spite of the mountain drive on this part of the trip of I-5 in California, it is still one of our favorites on this stretch of I-5 though California. There are many beautiful views of Lake Shasta, about 10 miles north of the town of Redding. This shot was just one of dozens to be seen as we crossed over the lake.

(A bit of trivia: Shasta Lake is an artificial lake created by the construction of Shasta Dam across the Sacramento River in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. It has a  capacity of 4,552,000 acre·ft  of water at full pool, and has a surface area of 30,000 acres making it the state's largest reservoir, and its third-largest body of water after Lake Tahoe and the Salton Sea.)

A few miles past the lake, this view of Castle Crags state park greeted us –

(More trivia: Soaring above the upper Sacramento River Valley are the sky-scraping spires of granite called the Castle Crags. From the lofty ramparts, hikers can look down on forested slopes and up at magnificent snow-covered Mt. Shasta. The Castle Crags were formed in much the same manner as nearby Mt. Shasta and the other peaks of the Cascade Range—by volcanic activity some 200 million years ago. For the last million years, the Crags have been subjected to the forces of wind, rain, ice and even some small glaciers, which have shaped the granite into its distinctive shapes.)

Then, a few minutes more down the road we passed right by Mt. Shasta –

Although not as magnificent as Mt. Rainier in Washington State, it is non-the-less a breathtaking sight seen along the drive. (Still more trivia: Mt. Shasta is at the southern end of the Cascade Range and part of the Cascade Volcanoes - also known as the Cascade Volcanic Arc. These volcanoes extend from southwestern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California, a distance of well over 700 miles. At 14,179 feet, it is the second highest peak in the Cascades and the fifth highest in California. Mount Shasta is not connected to any nearby mountain and dominates the northern California landscape. It rises abruptly and stands nearly 10,000 feet above the surrounding terrain.On a clear winter day snowy Mount Shasta can be seen from the floor of the valley 140 miles south.)

Day four from Sutherlin, Oregon to our daughter’s house in Tacoma, Washington was an easy 312 miles. We arrived by 2:00 in the afternoon. The weather was fantastic – a little cold to begin with (or perhaps our old bones had become acclimatized to the warmer Arizona weather) and clear and sunny.

Washington weather gets a bad rap for “always” raining. Although I won’t down play the wet weather, (that’s why the state is so green!) when the sun is out and the sky is clear, you are dazzled by the views.

This is a shot from Meleea’s front porch overlooking Commencement Bay.

And this is their view of magnificent Mt. Rainier.

 

Friday, May 3^rd – After a relaxing 3 day visit with our daughter and her family, we headed 90 miles north to our May project location, Warm Beach Christian Camp in Stanwood, Washington. To learn more about their ministries, check out their web site at  www.warmbeach.com

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Let me end this first blog update with some closing thoughts – about MILESTONES - defined as “signposts”, “markers”, “highlights”, “high points”, “targets”, “objectives”, “goals”, “achievements”, “records”, “aims”, “ambitions”……and my favorite: “purposes”)

In the four years we have been traveling around on our “Great Adventure”, I have learned that one of my responsibilities as the “passenger/navigator” is to keep an eye on the milepost markers and other highway signs along the way. This allows us to know how far we are from towns and services (in case of a breakdown or emergency) and it gauges the progress of the trip – knowing how far we have traveled and how much farther we must go.

When we closed our blog last September, we had arrived back in Arizona not only with a fifth-wheel full of our belongings, but a whole lot of debt for vehicle repairs incurred along the way. As we ended that trip, we were not sure if it would be financially feasible to head out again this summer.  But God graciously allowed us to do this again….truly one of the biggest milestones for us this winter.

Let me share five of our personal milestones of the last seven months this past winter. The last one will enlighten you on how we managed to get back out on the road for this season.

1)    In early December, Erica our oldest grandchild (our son’s oldest) was married. This is the first of the twelve grandchildren to wed, and it made us realize how quickly time passes. It seems only yesterday we greeted this sweet little one into this life – but actually that was 20 years ago. 

 Erica (top middle) with her siblings: Jacob, Isaac, Caleb, Rebecca and Nathan.  This was taken 9 years ago when there were only 6 of them. (Today they number 10!) Nathan, bottom right is now 12 years old.

   

 Erica, the beautiful bride and our new grandson, Wesley

 

·     This milepost marker reads: Time passes quickly. Cherish each moment you can in the life of each person that is dear to you.

2)    Christmas of 2012 looked to be the first Christmas we wouldn’t get to spend with our daughter, Meleea and her girls, Skyler and Scotti – Truly a milestone that would be on the other side of the defined “highlight” of one’s life. Granted, we were all together at the first of December for Erica’s wedding…..but somehow, Christmas family time has always been a special time for me. After our kids were grown and married with families of their own, we had always managed to get together with Meleea and her family for holidays because we lived in the same town.  It was a bit spottier with Eric and his family – but we had managed recently to all get together for Christmas before we left Washington in 2009. Eric and his family came up by train (NOTE-Amtrack is still in shock over that one!) Then again in 2011 we made a surprise visit to their house at Christmas time.  As Christmas 2012 approached, neither Meleea nor I were too happy with the prospect of Christmas apart, but I was determined to pass this milestone with resolve. After facing the unexpected expenses of vehicle repairs and then adding on the cost to fly to the Sacramento area for the wedding, we knew there was no extra money to make a trip to Washington for the holidays. However, Scott (our wonderful son-in-law) came to the rescue. Out of a generous heart, he not only deprived himself of his wife and daughters for the holiday week, he managed to surprise them on Christmas day with tickets to Phoenix scheduled for a flight leaving that afternoon. You have never seen three women pack in such short notice! But he pulled it off and they arrived at our house Christmas night and spent the remainder of the week with us. WHAT A JOY!

            Scotti Jean, Meleea and Skyler on our after Christmas drive to Saguaro Lake

Skyler and her “Poppy” on the Dolly Steamboat ride on Saguaro Lake

·    This milestone says: Be amazed and be grateful for the gifts you may be given that are beyond your imagination.

3)    In February Jim turned 70. For many of our friends this is a milestone they have long since passed. For others, it seems like a long distant one.  Jim viewed it as “just another day” and just kept on being Jim. For those of you that know him, he shuns fanfare and has the great gift of taking each day as it comes. He made me promise that I wouldn’t make a big deal out of it, so I didn’t plan any party or celebration. In fact, on his birthday….in true Jim style…..he was up on the roof doing some house repairs.

 

      However, he did take time later to celebrate in his birthday tee shirt -a gift from Meleea. (Only you Country music fans can understand the shirt.)

If you are allowed the privilege to reach any senior age milestone, don’t approach it as “nearing the end”. Each year that God allows you to stay on this earth you should be ever mindful of this milestone:  Each new day is the first day of the rest of your life. Enjoy it! 

4)    Early one morning in February, our street experienced a unique happening. An 80 year old Sun City man had, for unknown reasons, tried to drive himself to the local hospital during a “medical emergency”. Alone in his car, he passed the hospital, which is about three miles from our home. Reaching speeds of well over 100 mph he sped down our street, careening into fences, yards, houses and vehicles of five of our neighbors. He left a one block path of destruction on the opposite side of the street and came out uninjured. We slept through the whole incident, only to wake to a street full of local news crews and police vehicles. It was a day to remember in the life of a normally quiet retirement community.

This is the last house on this path of destruction where his car came to rest into the side of the neighbor’s van – flipping it completely around and totaling it. He had hit the wall of the house prior to this and cracked the inside drywall, ripped out the fence in front of the window and broke furniture inside. Prior to that he knocked down the corner stop sign, knocked down a car port and damaged the two cars parked under it, then proceeded on to decimate fences, walls, plants and trees before coming to rest against the van.

For a time, the whole neighborhood was in shock at the amount of damage sustained. However in retrospect, those of us on the opposite side of the street realized just how fortunate we were to be spared, and how fortunate each of the occupants of the five homes he ran into were to have only sustained property damage and not personal injury. And ultimately, how fortunate he was to come out of the ordeal alive. It took a few weeks to get all the damage repaired (our neighbor got a new car out of it) and now our street is back to “normal” and everybody is going on about their daily business. I think the lesson we learned here is, in our life danger is always near. Sometimes you’re not aware how close you came to it, but other times it is abundantly clear that somehow you were protected from things that could have been much worse. Yet, we can’t live our lives in fear of this ever present danger. 

So, I think this milepost tells us: Don’t fear life – you’ll miss too much by hiding from what “might be” instead of accepting and dealing with “what is.” 

5)    Our final milestone transpired when both of us realized we needed to go back to work. In order to continue to go on our “Great Adventures”, we knew we had to get the debt paid off and get some money in the bank. We weren’t sure if that would mean staying home a full year and working a full time job or what. At our ages, we weren’t even sure, after being retired for almost four years and not having particularly sought-after skills, that we would even be able to find employment.  And quite honestly, going back to work was not our hearts’ passion. Being retired and not having to punch a clock had become a wonderful way of life. But with very little effort, Jim got a part time temporary job at a local RV dealership using his acquired skills as an Rver to welcome potential customers and answer their questions about all the ins and outs of the RV lifestyle. He wasn’t actually “selling” the RVs on this consignment lot. He was, as he likes to say, their “Wal-Mart Greeter.”  I too went to work as a receptionist for a local H&R Block tax office. These opportunities not only gave us the extra money we needed, but were only seasonal and ended before our current travel began again. And as a bonus, we met some very nice people (both co-workers and customers) and we had some great and funny experiences we could share with each other at the end of our work day. (One example of these stories is of the young man who came into the tax office, concerned that he had filed incorrectly with IRS. He was under the impression that IRS had listed him as “head of household” when he was actually a single man with a girlfriend and very basic income. His remark to the tax preparer was, “How can I be ‘head of household’? I don’t own a house?") Sharing these stories at the end of a long work day made our tasks a little lighter – and even though we missed out on some enjoyment of the sunny winter weather of Arizona, the 4 months of work ended and we had two weeks to get packed to go on the next “Great Adventure” with no debt and a few bucks in the bank.

      

      So, what’s our final milestone lesson? Do what needs to be done and do it with all you heart, mind and soul – without complaining. God will see you through it. In the process, He may even bless you with new friends and experiences – and even a few funny stories you can share.

I’m sure there are many more mile markers we encountered in the last seven months that have sifted out of my old brain….but for now let me just impart a truth to you: The road of everyone’s lives brings its own unique milestones. Some (as the definitions enumerate) are “highlights”. Others seem more like “low lights” or bumps in the road, or huge pot holes, or at worst, major head-on collisions. However, I firmly believe that each “signpost” in your life, either positive or negative is there for a purpose.

Proverbs 19:21 (NIV) tells us - Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails.

   

In closing you can probably surmise that we love our travels. We are looking forward to getting together with many old friends, meeting new friends and having lots of new adventures this summer. But we also look forward to being back with our friends in Arizona this fall. We pray that each one of you has a marvelous summer, full of your own unique adventures.

  

                  Thank you all for your prayers when we are on the road.

Here we are with six of our group of “Great Eight” Arizona companions – Roger & Esther, Art & Jeneane and Darrell & Darlene. (Jim and Sandy – you owe us a picture!)

Next month, we look forward to sharing pictures and stories about the project and people at Warm Beach Christian Camp.