The Drive

Well I started my journey to California Friday around 4pm. The intention was to leave a little earlier but in true Liz fashion it ended up being a little later! I packed up what seemed like lots of clothes, some personal knick-knacks and some food and headed out! I made a stop at the largest Cross in the western Hemisphere! And kept driving! It is amazing how the scenery changes and kinda doesn't change! I drove to Albequerque, New Mexico! (just FYI, I spent about 5 minutes trying to figure out if I spelled that right, so if I did, my bad!) I stayed in an Econolodge just off the highway! That ended up not being the best hotel I have ever been in! The carpet on the floor had several stains or bleach spots or something! There was wall paper coming off the wall and you could just tell it wasn't in the best shape! Not to mention there was a small black bug on one of the pillows! Yeah! good times! The next morning I found several more critters on the floor! So don't stop at that one if you are going that direction!

I started out the next morning around 10:30am. Just a few minutes into my drive, I noticed a sign that said Petroglyph National Monument! Well it has been a while since I was in a history class so I had forgotted what a Petroglyph was! So, hmm, that sounded interesting to me! So I took that exit and found my way to this monument! Come to find out, petroglyphs are basically pictures drawn on rocks by the early indians! These are thought to be drawn by the early Pueblo Indians. So just imagine, small hills of these big black rocks! And some of these rocks have little pictures drawn on them. So of them were like little stick people, some were faces, some were just circles or squares but all cool nonetheless! While I was there, I ran into a little old man named Yunz! I think that is how you might spell it! He was on his way from Michigan to the Grand Canyon! He was traveling by himself and was taking some pictures of the petroglyphs! So I jumped back in the car and started back on the road! I drove until I made it to Barstow, California! Barstow was a neat little place. Well, not really little but where I stopped was just a cool atmosphere! It is a big train depot spot or at least alot of trains go through becasue the McDonald's was set in train cars. It was probably one of the coolest McDonald's ever!

So on Sunday morning from my hotel room, I video conferenced with the kiddoes during their Sunday School hour! Now just in case you don't know California is two hours behind Oklahoma. So it was 9:30am in Oklahoma and 7:30am in California! After I packed up that morning, I headed out with Berkeley being my next stop! I arrived in Berkeley around 5pm! As I was driving through Berkeley, I just kept getting more and more excited to meet Alvin and to begin this new adventure! I can't thank you all enough for allowing me this great opportunity!

I have had several of you say you are thinking about me and praying for me! Well it was definitely noticed on the drive! I passed many cars having problems on the side of the road! Every time I prayed for their safety and help but I thanked God for protecting me and not letting me have any problems! So THANK YOU for all your prayers! They helped!

Just some other random thougths about the trip here! I saw a mini van that looked like a giant collage literally! I really think they cut pictures and words out of magazines and mod podged them on the side of the van! Not only that but on the top of the van was a big George Washington head! Not sure what it was all about but definitely an interesting site! I saw a spot where there were about 7 or 8 multi-colored cars sticking out of the ground. They all had the front of the car stuck in the ground! It was on the east bound side of the highway so I could stop and find out what that was all about but I guess that leaves me something to do on the way home in December!

I think probably the neatest thing was watching the landscape change! We think Oklahoma is flat and treeless, there are other places a lot less treey (is that a word?) than Oklahoma! You go through areas where the hills are rocky, then the hills are sandy, then the hills have trees and grass, then there are no hills! There are places where there are beautiful mesas and plateaus and beside them are pointed mountains! It just makes you think about why are these flat on top and those right next to it pointed! It just astounds me to think of the great and awesome creation our God put together for us to marvel at! I going to make another blog about my thougths on how the land is kinda like our life journey! so for now that is it...oh what you want to know more about Alvin? Well that is going to be another blog as well! So much to say...I figured I would break it up for you!

Love you!

Blessed Adventurer,

Liz