We began this trip from our home on Tuesday about 2 pm with Charissa driving – ‘Let’s get her some highway practice’ we thought.  That is, until we hit a construction area in a major downpour!  She did well, going slowly on through until we found a safe place to pull over – Charissa would want me to mention, though, that we were actually one of many cars that found the rain to0 hard to drive through and pulled over.  You would have laughed to see us maneuver in the very full van to swap people around inside (no one wanted to get out and get soaked!) to get Eric into the driver’s seat!  Little Rock, Arkansas through Missouri to Effingham, Illinois – our first travel day ended at a hotel just a block or so away from the cross in the picture.  This was our farthest goal we had considered for the day, so we ended very satisfied with our progress.  Especially with construction and weather issues – we continued to drive in and out of downpours all day!  This weather, though, also led to one of the most amazing rainbow sightings – what a treat!

Cross
Effingham, Illinois – “The Cross at the Crossroads” 198 feet tall and 113 feet wide, forged out of over 180 tons of steel!

The second day we drove through the rest of Illinois, a small section of Indiana, and arrived in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  We felt like we timed things well on this day, too, planning about an hour or so to unpack at our hotel before our first meeting but oops!  We forgot to account for the time change!  We noticed this just as we checked in, leading to a rapid unloading of the van, quick change, and only 15 min. late for our dinner!  This was just one more illustration of a conversation that Eric and I had on the drive – it seems a shame that now that the girls are easier to travel with (able to adjust to things like this better than when they were small) it is harder to get away to travel (working around their schedules now as well as our own).

So begins our latest road trip.  On Saturday, we will be moving down to southern Michigan (Brighton & Canton areas), then a week later on to Louisville, KY. We don’t know how many more years we will be able to do trips like this with all five of us together, so it adds to the preciousness of the trips we are able to take!  Please pray with us – for safety, health, energy, and especially for great connections with friends, supporters, and churches in these areas.