Let the Adventure Begin!

We are in Chehalis! The sun is shining, the sky is blue and it is so quiet. We are enjoying this beautiful day the Lord has made.

What a great day we had yesterday. We woke up early. I think we were a little excited and anxious to start the day. We did the final preparations getting the motor home ready to leave. Before we pulled out of Birch Bay we had a time of prayer. Thanking the Lord for this adventure we are starting, for the jobs we both will be starting and that we had gotten every thing done on our "to do" lists. We took the suburban over to Marquez and Nicole's and then went to the church.

What a great service and a tremendous send-off. Ron's sister, Judy, surprised us by coming to church to see us off. One of the songs we sang "They Will Know We Are Christian's By Our Love" was such a great song to send us off ~ we know that our love for the Lord shines through us and we are so excited to see how the Lord will use us as we work and travel with the carnival. One of the questions Charles asked during the sermon was "Are you BOLD in your walk with the Lord?" One of our prayers is for us to be bold in relationship with the Lord as we work, travel and meet new people. Thanks for the reminder Charles to be bold as we walk with Jesus. At the end of the service we were blessed with a generous love gift from the congregation. All we can say is Thank You! And we will definitely miss being a part of our Northwood Family. After the service we had cake and coffee and received lots of hugs. Thank You Northwood Family for loving and caring for us. We know that we will be surrounded by your prayers and thoughts as we travel and work the next six months.

After the service we went to Subway for lunch with Patrick & Patricia Alesse, Glenn & Marla Tuski and James Knight. It was fun to be together one last time and get those last hugs.

We then got on the road. First stop was at Costco in Bellingham to get gas and some groceries. We finally left Bellingham around 2:30. We then stopped at Winco in Marysville to get the more groceries. We left Marysville about 3:45. We drove through Everett and Seattle with no problems and very little traffic. We had our first hiccup with the motor home when we were stopped in traffic in Tacoma. The motor home just died. I sent up one of my arrow prayers "Oh Lord, please start the motor home" and God answered my prayer. It started right up ~ Ron has no clue why it died in traffic. We arrived at the Chehalis Thousand Trails Campground about 7:30 p.m.

The 2nd hiccup happened when we tried to climb the hill from the check-in gate to get up to where the campsites were. Remember our trip to Montana and how the motor home didn't like to climb the mountain passes - well, the motor home wasn't going up this hill either. Ron tried not once, not twice but three times to get the motor home up this hill (it is pretty steep) but it was not to be. We coasted back down the hill and finally talked to the ranger on duty. After a lengthy discussion it was decided we would just camp in the flat parking lot by the lodge for the night. There was an electrical box available for us to use. So that is what we did. After we got level and the electrical hooked up we made dinner. We had hot dogs and Zataran Dirty Rice - it was pretty tasty but a little spicy to my liking. After dinner we reflected about the good day we had, how the Lord protected us in the middle of a traffic stop and we had a safe place to spend the night.

This morning we woke up and got going about 9:30 a.m. the first thing we did was unhook the electrical and went up the hill to find a campsite. Yes, that's right, we made it up no problem! Ron just shook his head and said he doesn't understand why sometimes it will go up steep hills and other times it just doesn't. Who knows if we will ever know the answer to that question. Anyway, we found a great campsite at the top of the hill. We have great internet service up here. There are about ten other rigs up here. We are enjoying the quiet and solitude of the area. Today is a day of rest and relaxation for us. We thought we needed a day of rest and transition before we head off to Kelso tomorrow afternoon.

I just want to add a BIG thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers for us the last few months. We have felt and know God is with us and has opened the doors for us to start this new adventure. Thank you for traveling this road with us and we look forward to having you along with us on this journey. Many of you have asked us our itinerary ~ as soon as we have it we will pass it on.

That's all for today, now it is time to get back to some relaxin'. Alice