Our Long Journey West

We took three days to travel out west last week. It was definitely a long haul, but we enjoyed watching the scenery change as we went. The boys did well in the car...better than I had anticipated. I think at times they did better than I did! We left Knoxville around 4:30 am on Monday and traveled about 14 hours to Omaha, NE. We were able to stay in a mission apartment in a church that night. They have it set up like a motel room and it was right next to the nursery, so the kids got to play to their heart's content. When we left, Jonathan said he liked that church because it had a motel in it!

Tuesday we drove to Billings, MT. It was about a 12 hour trip. On the way we were going within 30 miles of Mt. Rushmore, so we decided it would be crazy to not go see it. That was alot of fun! It was very cold and there was about 6 inches of snow on the ground, but we bundled up the best we could. The boys were excited to see "the mountain with the faces on it." Especially since they remembered that Curious George had visited there once! We don't usually get a picture with all of us in it, but a nice man saw us taking turns getting pictures and volunteered to get us all.




Wednesday we had about 8 more hours to get to Spokane, WA. This was by far the most mountainous stretch, and somehow I ended up driving the last 3 hour leg which was all curves and up and down. As we were going through one of those mountain passes close to the ID/MT state line, I came around a curve and there were two large rocks right in my path. I swerved but managed to hit one, and knocked our already loose muffler off. Thankfully, Jeremy was able to attach enough to continue on, and nothing else was damaged!! Praise the Lord!! When we arrived in Washington, the church here graciously helped us get it repaired, and they took care of the entire cost. The mechanic said we scraped another part that was very expensive, but did not damage it. I know it could have been worse, and I'm so thankful the Lord was watching out for us. The church here has been so good to us. They are one of the most giving churches I have ever seen. We have enjoyed our time here.