Road Trip

Oh the changes that have gone on over here... God knew that my heart holds things too close at times. Things that it shouldn't. That is why he gave me a husband that is constantly changing things up around here.

During the this past winter, Kev and I had done some deep thinking, lots of praying and with (my) heavy heart made some life changing decisions.

Last year we were blessed with a truck to pull our 5th Wheel. We went from a two car family to a three car family. It was wonderful. No more phone calls to ask to use the truck for a weekend venture, we could just up and go. But now we had insurance, gas, vehicle repairs, registration, for all three vehicles. Were we being good stewards of the money God had blessed us with?

Now I will be honest here. I was dragging my feet. Even though I knew the answer to that question, I didn't want to face it. Why? Because it meant selling my beloved van. I LOVE that van. I am not one of those Mom's who has to drive the latest and greatest. My 13 yr old van was perfect for me. It had all I needed to carry my beautiful family around. I had driven a suburban and.... hated. every. minute. of it. My van, is was a part of me, the breath I breathed. Hence the reason I needed to give it up. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. I want my heart to be on greater things than a vehicle that I drive. God, Husband, Children... in that order.

So 3 weeks ago, I had to say goodbye to my van. As it was driving away, I cried...and cried. Kevin hugged me, he didn't laugh or tell me I was being ridiculous. Thats when I started driving the truck. Lovingly named "Whitey Tighty" for it's color and the fact that it was kind of tight with all of us in it. BUT, it did what we needed it to do. It held our whole family and could pull the 5th wheel.

The first time I drove it alone with the kids, I had a conversation with them about how we weren't going to complain about the lack of space. It was more for my benefit than theirs. I got home and told Kevin that our boys had grown since the last time we traveled in the truck, that it was difficult to get the kids in and out of it and very bouncy. All said without a complaining tone of voice, and then I said, "if I had tried driving the truck alone with the kids before we sold the van, I would not have agreed to sell the van." I didn't say it to say "I told you so", for neither of us realized how much growth the boys did over the winter, but I said it as wow, this is an adjustment, but one that I am willing to work with... for a time. And then when it came to filling up the gas tank we figured out that we were only getting 6 mpg, now the move to find a truck more fitting for our family started in full force.

Bye-bye computer, Kevin now occupied his waking hours trying to find the best truck for the best deal. Most of the trucks that seemed to fit the bill were located in AZ or TX. Yikes! That is a long way for a truck.

Then when we least expected it to happen, a beautiful blue/grey truck was posted on ebay. All the reports checked out, it was relatively close to MI and the numbers were right where we needed them to be.

We finally got word at 3pm on Friday that the truck was ours. We packed and were out the door to drop the kids off at Ama & PopPop's house by 4:40pm.

Road trip here we come.

Normally when we travel, I have maps, and routes ready to go. This time there was no time. GPS was what we were counting on to get us there.

We exited Grand Rapids and started our journey. Soon after leaving the rain and wind started. We rounded to bottom of the lake and the wind picked up even more. We decided to stop at the first Oasis to pick up a coupon book for hotels. Inside was a group of young people who were tumbling to really loud music. We stopped and watched for a few minutes. It was fun to see. The tricks they were doing were amazing. But we had to press on, our truck was waiting.

Driving through the heavy mist and whipping wind was difficult at times. It was dark, pavement was wet, it was really hard to see, but we continued to drive. At one point we saw all kinds of red blinking lights, but you couldn't tell what they were. It was too dark and rainy, then I saw a blade whip by as the red light blinked. It was a windmill. There were hundreds of them on both sides of the highway.

At one point we stopped at a rest area praying there would be a map there. I felt completely naked without one. There was 1 lonely map sitting there. I grabbed it and ran back to the truck and then the heavens opened up and we saw an amazing light display between the huge raindrops.

At 11:30 we decided to find a hotel.... they were all booked but one... a Motel 6. Just for the record I will not be spending the night in a Motel 6 again. I am not going to go into the details about that hotel, lets just say neither of us got a good nights sleep and we were both VERY glad to be on the road again the next morning.

Getting back on the road the GPS had us going a different way than I would have chosen, but I only had a map for Illinois, not the destination state, so we trusted to GPS and ended up taking back roads. This would not have been the preferred way to travel, but we saw places that we have never seen before. We crossed the Mississippi River just south of where Mark Twain grew-up. The bridge we were on was old and was a little creepy, but it was so cool! I kept kicking myself for not taking my camera. I left it sitting on the counter... the tragedy!

Have you figured out what State we traveled too? Missouri!

I will not bore you with the "love at first sight" stuff. Or how it felt the first time we drove my new truck but lets just say this new mode of transportation is perfect.

You will now hear my diesel truck coming down the road before ever seeing me, I am now taller than most passenger vehicles, my children all fit very comfortably in the back seat with room to spare, I have heated seats, 6 disc cd changer loaded with the kids music, and a smile on my face.

Oh and on the way back from Missouri, we stayed in a wonderful hotel, there was no rain and I got to satisfy my hearts love for history at the Route 66 Museum (Thanks to my wonderful husband who gave into his wife's constant hints to make a quick stop).

Now if I could just settle on a name for my new rig....

Blessings!!