On the road again...

 First things first.  Because we are in a public library and for a sake of time, the pictures are all going to be grouped together somewhat oddly.  I usually like putting them into certain sections that have to do with the written parts but it's just not working out today as well as I would like it.   **We just realized not all our pics loaded and some of our fine friends are missing but still loved!



Cool story #1...Caleb wanted to get a haircut one day at the BX barber shop.  This was odd because he never want to go the BX for a haircut.  Anyway, I tried to talk him out of it but he talked me into it.  He ended up having a great lady cut his hair and he ended up sharing our story.  She was very interested and asked man questions.  She ended shedding tears of joy while Caleb shared this story and some of the things that we have done.  On the way out, Caleb asked her if she had anything that we could pray for and she said, "Yes, for my family."  Then, Caleb asked if he could pray with her right then, she said, "Yes" and he did.  In the BX barber shop I squatted down and we three bowed our heads as Caleb prayed for her and her family.  It was great and we stopped in a few times after that, before leaving, for hugs and hellos.  We knew that when we got to Tucson that we were there for baseball.  Well, that came and went and Zachary was picked up for the All-Star team (I talked about that last blog post a bit) but we didn't leave right after baseball for a few different reasons.  I will lead into this with Tucson can get hot...and when you live in an RV, especially a superlite, the inside can get nearly as hot as the outside rather quickly.  Fortunately, we had a pool pass and a friend's house that we were watching so some days were spent elsewhere trying to stay a bit cooler.  We ended up getting a second air conditioning unit (portable) for the RV and it helped keep it much more bearable.  All in all, we are thankful for the opportunities that we had in Tucson; we did learn one thing though.  When we arrived, we prayed about places to be involved and people to live life with; a church and places to serve.  We did find that, but in the end, I feel that the Lord brought us to Tucson to allow us to have that church family again, the Bible study, the teaching opportunities, the kids went to a Vacation Bible School, and kids for our kids to hang with...I don't think it was so much for others but for us!  We had been missing that immensely and received more love than we knew what to do with! We have now left Tucson with full love tanks ready to move on into year two of traveling and serving.  We are on the road again.  We are in a library in Flagstaff, AZ doing some school, downloading some Kindle stuff, and updating the blog.  It was a great four months in Tucson but we were ready to see new things and have the opportunity to serve in different ways.  We said, "See ya later", to so many people.  We met a great group of folks while we were there and it was hard to say bye to a place that became our home.  We were able to serve at the Chapel on base and taught the youth and also led a Bible study for a few weeks while our friend was away.  We had ample opportunity to help people out that we met whether it was helping someone move, babysitting in a crisis, or any other of a multitude of things. A big part of Tucson was an amazing family who lived at the Fam Camp...our kids will miss hanging with their awesome kids and Kelly will miss her girl chats between yelling at kids! We had a great send-off from all of our friends and will miss them dearly.  We even had a great send off from our friends that ran the Fam Camp.  We were so blessed to have met so many awesome people. 

So cute...

Vacation Bible School and the kids loved it.  We even found a place to serve as a family.

VBS party.

Caleb found this very large, pinching beetle and decided to show it some love. 

Our end of baseball season.

Z and Coach Lupe...you have to know him to be able to put up with him...I mean love him. 

Z and Coach Matt.  He did a great job with the boys...class act.

Z as a happy chosen one for All Star ball.

Caleb helping to wax the camper.  Yes, it was hot...just plain hot. 

Kamryn and Emma Lynn...beautiful princesses. 

These are our Cubs loving friends.  It's okay everyone...we got along just fine.   A real blessing during our time in Tucson

Kamryn and Roxy.  Her favorite in the park. 

Mr. Scott brought a gift for Caleb...a box full of electronic parts and an old book on electrical work.  Caleb built a fan...

Kamryn and her bud.

A night out at the batting cages. 

 We have so many memories from Tucson and our stay there.  Kamryn had a pool party that got rained out by monsoon rains.  Zachary did amazing things on the baseball field...not only in playing but with teaching and sharing the Gospel and being an example.  The kids found a wood pile with neighbors and built amazing forts.  Zachary earned enough money babysitting and housesitting to purchase his own camera.  We met people who taught us amazing things about astronomy and now have more knowledge and a new hobby in the skies.  Caleb found that frogs somehow live in the desert until monsoon season comes and then an amazing amount of frogs find their way to pockets of water.  Some of these things are the size of my open hand!   He also found a way to capture the eggs and birth a bunch of tadpoles under our camper.  That was a marvelous thing to watch, he even gave them "land" in his bug box and also switched out their water often.  Zachary also found a way to use a skin board in the middle of the desert; he surfed the rapids on Davis Monthan Air Force Base!  We had the chance to experience triple digit heat with single digit humidity.   The list goes on and on but I'll quit rambling about Tucson and what we did there now. 


Kamryn had her fifth birthday.  Now, this is significant for a number of reasons but, one of those reasons is that she was the first to have a birthday on this journey and now she is the first to have TWO birthdays on this journey.  Remember, this was only supposed to be a one year trip and we were going to find out where we wanted to live, serve at every opportunity while getting to know people, and spend time as a family.  Well, that one year point has obviously come and gone and we are on year two.  So, this is where you ask, "How much longer?"  Thank you for asking.  We have now talked about a 2-3 year plan from here but we don't know.  We will continue to pray about where to go, what to do, how to serve, and who to meet.  This has become life for us and the impact on our family is immense.  We are told that we also have a great impact on others so whey would we want to stop that?   We don't want to and will be heading further north soon to begin serving again with YWAM.  We had to have some work done to the RV before we left Tucson and found a great place to do that.  We chose to have our suspension lowered a bit to give us some more ground clearance in the rear.  We now have a new (to us) truck and it is a bit taller that the one we started this journey with so it made the front end higher of the RV which lowered the back end.  With our intentions of doing more dry camping this year, we had to get that clearance back.  While we were having this work done, they also found a crack in the frame of the RV.  Yes, I am sure you gasped just like I did when I heard about it.  But it was a great blessing that they found it.  Anyway, they fixed it for us and things are much better.  The new truck does a much better job towing and we are very happy with the set up.  There is one  other significant thing that I must throw in that happened before we left Tucson.

This is what we do on Father's Day...play dress up at Sears!  The other people that walked in and saw me didn't know what to think either!

Father's Day dinner at the house that we housesitting.  Fried crabs, shrimp, steak, potato, asparagus, rolls, buttered corn, fried okra, and more.  Absolutely marvelous!

Mmmm...good.

Gifts from Grandma and Grandpa.  Also a few more things that we could wear to our friends house who loved the Cubs. 

The boys are making dinner.

Kamryn's 5th birthday.  She got to eat cake for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Chuck E Cheese in Tucson playing games for Kamryn's birthday. 

A girl and her bowling bowl. 

Another family went in and helped us rent the pool for Kamryn's birthday.  She was able to go off of the diving board and slide...she has a blast until they had to call it off because of lightning. 

She had a blast.

A pool full of friends. 

This was an otherwise dry wash...until one of the monsoon rains...then the kids had some rapids!

Mud fight anyone?

Kamryn at one of her friend's birthday parties.  (Kamryn says, "Hi" Coach Fran and Coach Megan!)

A boy and his frog eggs.

Caleb and Ms. Veronica.  Quite an amazing experience in meeting her. 

Kamryn and her new bike. 

Zachary and Lake DM. 

The kids saying bye to Miss Ariel, one of the people who had to put up with us for so long.

Morning Bible time. 

Zachary and Mr. Tommy out for a ride.  So cool. 

Roxy's mommy and daddy.  Lloyd and I had many conversation about many different things...often. 

Of course since Z had one, Caleb came out also.

Lloyd came over and asked what I was doing.  He moved right in and told me to get out of the way...work completed.  Thanks Lloyd. 

Kamryn got to sit up on her knees and have her ride. 

Caleb got to let his tadpole go when they had legs.  He kept them for about a week. 

 Really cool story #2...keep in mind that we are parked in the middle of a national forest in Arizona.  We are dry camping or boondocking  (no hook-ups...we only have the water we brought with us and are running off of batteries) in a remote location.  Our first morning at breakfast, Zachary says a prayer to bless our meal and for our day and says something along the lines of, "...please let us meet someone today to share with...".  In my head, I thought, "Dude, we're in the middle of the woods!" but he prayed his prayer as he felt led and we had breakfast.  Later in the day, we went to a lake and did a bit of fishing where I got to play hero when a ladies hat blew in the water.  I rushed to the rescue, used a paddle to stretch and get her hat.  In my best John Wayne voice I said, "Here you go ma'am", (how many just did that in a John Wayne voice???) and gave her soaked hat back.    She spoke her appreciation and we went about our way.  A bit later we ended up talking more and sharing a lunch space which then led to a full day (which we thought was going to be a couple of hours) of kids playing and adults sharing stories.  We invited them back to the RV for dinner and they followed us in to the depths of the forest.  There were many jokes there about leading them into the forest for dinner but we won't go there now.  They stayed for a few hours and we cooked over the fire and had a great dinner.  The kids ran around throwing rocks, sticks and dirt and even took a hike and brought back a skull and some other bones they found.  They headed out that evening and we made plans to se them again the next day.  We were going to meet them at a place near Sedona AZ but there was a warning due to high levels of bacteria in the water so we went ahead and went to their timeshare in Sedona and played in the pool for hours and had dinner.  Then, we headed back towards Flagstaff over the mountain.  We had a really great time and plan to look them up when we get near Ventura, California so we can meet again (and she told us we could bring our dirty laundry!). So, after Zachary praying his prayer, I am quickly reminded that even in the depths of the woods, God can do great things and He showed us these great people!             Side note...on the way home from Sedona to Flagstaff, we stopped at a turnout at about 8,000 feet on the mountain highway where it was darker than dark.  Zachary and I got out and looked at the sky and saw the most amazing site that I have ever seen in my life.  It was indescribable...there were more visible stars than I knew existed.  There were so many stars, I couldn't even identify the constellations that we knew.  That in itself blew my mind because we study the sky often.  The Milky Way was so bright that it looked like a cloud of smoke through the night sky and we plainly saw numerous satellites.  I can't describe it in words and we couldn't get a picture but believe me when I tell you that you should try to see the same at least once in your lifetime 

We are enjoying the dry camping experience again after being hooked up for a while.  We were going to stay two days but we have already been here for four and still have a few days left.  Within one hour of being set up in the woods here, two people had already shot guns and two more dug 8-10 in deep holes outside (and used them appropriately) so they didn't have to use the toilet inside.   Also, we really have to conserve water when we dry camp.  The kids lined up a few days ago and got a washing out of a bucket!  They actually looked forward to the experience until they turned their heads upside down to be dunked in the cold water to wash their hair.  They did great though and then cuddled up next to the fire.  We  also greatly missed cooking with the cast iron over the fire.  We even found a new (to us)skillet when we got here.  We burned it, scraped it, oiled it, and burned it again and it's ready for use!  That's our second one we have found on this journey.  We can make some marvelous meals over the fire.  Last night we had homemade chicken fried steak and fried potatoes over the fire.  Tonight is crab cakes and corn chowder...all from scratch and very yummy! We love to cook!  We also found out that it was time to replenish our house batteries so we purchased two 6 volts.  We had talked about doing this for quite a while and whether we wanted 6 volt or 12 volt again but decided to hold off on the investment.  Problem arose when after using in the Guadelupe mountains, they would not hold a charge very long.  So, we decided it was time.  We also found a generator for a great deal and got it.  We have been against it for the last year because we wanted to be able to ofsett/absorb the cost with free forest camping but we couldn't pass this deal up.  We really don't plan on using it much though.  If we do, then we just have to purchase more oil and fuel.  Anyway, we are pleased up to this point with the new batteries and changes to the RV and are enjoying our time off the grid.  

July 4th shindig

Zachary and our heart warrior friend.  He also asked us if we would have another one...

Kelly and Alyssa...one of "the girls"

Big Caleb (and Alyssa of course).  When we first got here, every time we would call for our Caleb, this Caleb would answer; quite amusing at times.  They then became Big Caleb and Little Caleb. 

Fireworks anyone?  Thanks to Jamie going and getting his torch!  Who needs a small lighting device when you have a torch?  He saved the night!

Everyone hanging out.

Us and our Cubs loving friends.  They love the Cubs and he's a pilot!  I only keep mentioning it because they are such great friends and amazing people.  We had some very marvelous talks.  The Lord had to be involved to allow that! 

The Cloninger kids and the Willis kids.  These kids were like a posse in the Fam Camp!

We couldn't have had better RV neighbors. 

The rest of the Fam Camp office who put up with us...except for Mrs. Lora.  (She is batman!) 

This was our send off crew.  Such an amazing group of folks. 

This is our yard in Flagstaff in the Coconino Forest.  Also, a pic of our new (to us) truck. 

This place really was a mess when we got here so mommy and Kamryn cleaned it up for us.  Leave it cleaner than we found it is a motto for us!

Caleb digging a hold 8-10 inches in the ground...can you guess why?

Yes...he's ready and showed his sister how to follow suit also.  She dug her own hole though.  They both followed the rules!

A bit of shooting anyone?

Now that is a dandelion!

Getting a little fishing in at a lake. 

Mommy out on the paddleboard with Kamryn. 

This is the family that we met at the lake.  They all took the canoe out for a bit. 

Mr. Bill and Kamryn towing the younger boys behind his canoe. 

Out in the Kayak.

Awesome picture!

They came back for dinner and everyone played in the dirt for a while.

This is some of what they found on their hike. 

Hanging out.

They were dirty that night and absolutely needed a bath...problem was that they didn't fit IN the bucket. 

After the bath warm up. 

Beautiful scenery near Sedona AZ

We went to their hotel the next in Sedona and hung out for the day. 

"Eating out" in Sedona. Our friends "ate out" with us too!

This is called Snoopy Rock.  Do you see him?  He's laying on top of his doghouse. 

The kids!

The adults...obviously.  We had a great time and can't wait to drive through Ventura, CA. 

Daddy and Z making dinner. 

So, you ask where are we going next?  We have a pseudo-planned route to have left Tucson and head north through Flagstaff to dry camp (where the temp is about 30 degrees cooler than Tucson) then on to more dry camping in Bryce Canyon.  (We will be making up for lost time with our Jr. Ranger badges and look forward to that.)  Then onto Grand Tetons, Cody Wyoming, onto see some friends that we camp hosted with in Houston, and then to a YWAM stop to work on a cowboy ranch for a week or two.  After that, on to Glacier National  and then we have talked about going into Alberta and Mainland British Columbia and then to Vancouver Island.  After that, heading down through Washington, Oregon, and driving the Pacific Coast Highway and coming all the way down to Chino, California to see some family that are there and friends we met a while back (Hi Andrea and Bob!).  Then to San Diego where everyone tells us that we are going to love!  Along the way we have about three or four YWAM bases set up so far to serve and will otherwise see what the Lord has in store for us.  I also would love to try and throw in a military hop to Hawaii and check on doing a YWAM base there while storing the RV at a military base for a short while but we will have to see.  We have learned that planning is necessary but we remain very flexible because our ways are our ways and our ways are not His ways. 


Until next time...