Thursday, August 2, 2007

The Petro and the Park

Dallas was the hardest city to drive through! The signs are horrible and we missed the roads we wanted several times because of it. Then because of how the off-ramps just merge in with the road on the side of the freeway, we couldn't get back to the other side of the freeway to go the other direction, so we just had to come up with different ways to get places. It was such a pain! The good news is that we were able to see our friends Joan and Chad, but we were unfortunately unable to see Joyce and Stu as well.

From Ft. Worth we headed north to Springfield, MO, and are continuing on from there to Jackson, MI. We spent the night last night in Effingham, Illinois, which was in the southern part of Josh’s mission, although he didn’t ever serve in that city. We stayed at the Petro truck stop. They had an actual restaurant there instead of the usual Arby’s or Subway. They had a fabulous breakfast buffet with unlimited French toast and bacon. There was a lot of other stuff too, but that is what I ate the most of. Their showers actually had doors on them too which was an improvement over the other places. The shower rooms are private and have locked doors, but the shower itself is usually open to the room. This one was much more conducive to the whole family showering in one room.

Yesterday we stopped to eat lunch at Robertson State Park in Illinois. It was about a million degrees outside! In reality it was only 102ish, but with the humidity, it might as well have been a million. Note the sweaty little boy. It was a fun place for Mitch to ride his bike and Lizzy to play in her walker. They even had a little playground to play on. Lizzy found the picnic benches particularly appetizing. I went to clean our picnic stuff up, and Mitch was playing on the playground, and I told him that we would honk the horn when we were ready to go. A few minutes later, I saw him walking back from the playground, and I continued cleaning up and talking to Josh. All of the sudden, I about jumped out of my skin when the semi horn honked. Mitchell had decided it was time to go and honked the horn to let us know! It was really funny!















Lizzy and Mitchell really seem to like each other. She loves to just stare at him and will readily give him big smiles. He loves to hold her and help take care of her, and is a really good big brother. Here is a picture of her staring at him while he sings her a song.

Monday, July 30, 2007

Lost Mitchell, crazy drivers, and weird signs

This morning we had a little fright. After we got done showering at the truckstop, we were going to go back out to the truck, but Josh wanted to look at something else in the store. So I motioned with my head for Mitchell to follow us over there, and walked with Josh. A minute later I realized Mitch wasn't by us. This is unfortunately not very uncommon. Although we repeatedly tell him that he needs to stay right by us and why, he still gets distracted by everything he sees, and often stops to look at something. So we began looking through the store for him. We looked through all the aisles and didn't see him, and I started to get a little worried. So we checked the Subway reataurant that is attached to the store, and the restrooms and the shower area. No Mitchell. So I went outside and looked around the building and where the cars are. Still no Mitchell. I came back in and had the whole store looking for him and paged him overhead. Josh went out to the truck to look for him. By this time I was mildly panicked. Finally Josh came back in and had Mitchell with him. He had gone out to the truck looking for us. Needless to say we have had a long talk about what to do and what not to do when he can't find us. I sure hope that never happens again!

Most of the people on the roads go within ten miles of the speed limit, but this is not the case in Atlanta. We were going 70 mph in a 55 mph zone and 9 out of 10 cars were flying past us like we were standing still! We never once saw a cop anywhere on that road, and we almost made it out of the state without seeing one, but then we ended up seeing one at the side of the road where there was an upside-down car crunched in the trees.


From Atlanta, we headed west again. We are taking some Keebler "baked goods" to Fort Worth, TX. We have driven in and out of rainstorms all day today, but they are becoming less frequent. Now we are in Texas (our 15th state), about 73 miles to Ft. Worth. We are planning to go see our friends Joan and Chad while we're there. Maybe if we are there long enough tomorrow, we will be able to see Joyce also.


As we were going Louisiana there were a lot of billboards advertising casinos, and at the bottom of every sign it said, "Gambling problem? Call 1-800-###-####". I thought that was so funny to have on the casino billboard!


As we drove into Texas we saw the weirdest speed limit signs. They had a lower speed for nighttime driving!

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Visiting Cameron

Greetings from Conley Georgia. Today I, Josh, the driver of the family had a slow day and am getting a chance to write the blog for once. If you think anywhere in my ramblings , and proper lack of punctuation that I have been in Georgia to long you are mistaken I have always wrote this way. Well Friday evening we arrived in Hebron Kentucky where Cameron (Tania's brother) lives. There we enjoyed a fabulous dinner with salmon potatoes and cantaloupe. Before dinner I decided to give Lizzy a bath this is what it looked like.


Now that you have stopped laughing and are ready to read again. After dinner I tried to take a shower but ended up taking a bath something about the whole 10% rule. Meaning I needed to be at least 10% smarter than the shower, as you can tell I wasn't. We enjoyed a good nights sleep thanks to a nice comfortable bed, but mostly because elizabeth liked the crib and slept pretty good. In the morning we had breakfast, that is everyone else had breakfast, and I, being the breakfast lover that I am had a piece of toast and some watermelon. Than we loaded up the truck and made our way out of the very narrow roads and corners of the subdivision, and only had to run over one curb. From there we got on the freeway and headed south for Conley GA . Along the way we went through a bunch of towns none of us had ever been through. Such as Lexington KY, Knoxville TN, Atlanta GA, and Conley where we still are today. I dropped the trailer at a lot here and I am still waiting to know what or where to go next.

Going through St. Louis


Everyone in Idaho and Utah has been praying for rain to put out the wild fires. I think they need to specify a little more that it is needed there, because It has been raining a lot here lately. It started thursday and has been on and off since than. Some times bad enough that people pull to the side of the road because they can't see. So the driving, is sometimes interesting.


Mitchell and Elizabeth seem to enjoy things as far as I can tell. Mitchell has a bunch of learning toys and books. He is getting really good at reading Tania works with him a lot, I think by next year when he should start Kindergarten he will be ready to start second grade. Mitchell likes it when I let him do things that I do like starting the truck or releasing and applying the parking brakes. He likes that he has his own bed that is kind of his own space, because he sits some of his toys on the top bunk shelf and always puts them back there. Elizabeth we think is starting to teethe. Occasionally she will start crying and won't settle down very easy and she loves to chew on stuff. She is getting very good at eating. Yesterday we had milkshakes at Arby's, and she learned how to suck it through the straw, she acted like she would have drank the whole thing.


I still think that Tania is crazy for wanting to go on the truck with me for weeks at a time. I'm sure you would all agree. I can't believe we have already been doing this a week. I feel like I am getting the hang of things. It took me a little while to get used to the qualcomm but I am used to it now. I hope things go as good or better for us as they have been. Well we will keep you updated on all the new and exciting places to come.