Last Friday my Dad and I pulled out of Colorado Springs about 5:30 a.m. and started our cross-country trek. No, we didn’t get lost and start going west. I wanted to visit Santa Fe, New Mexico before I headed east.
Our first stop was at Trader Joe’s and then at the square in Santa Fe. This was also our lunch stop, and I found a fun Mexican restaurant called The Shed. If you’re ever in Santa Fe you have to check out this place. They have incredible guacamole!
After Santa Fe we drove another 4 hours to Amarillo, Texas. First stop, Cadillac Ranch. Yep, 10 Cadillacs buried in the ground nose-first. This is the kind of stop road trips are all about! You can take spray paint and leave your mark on these Cadillacs, but we just stopped for a few minutes. You may remember this place from a couple years ago when I went with Andrea Taylor-Thomas and the Abernathy family.
We stopped for the day in Amarillo and spent the night at a hotel. That night was hard for me. I cried a lot because more reality hit as I was actually leaving Colorado and not simply going on vacation. And I was tired and hungry when we arrived at the hotel, so that influenced my emotions as well. *smile*
The next morning we made a needed Starbucks stop (thanks Trace) and then drove toward Oklahoma City. Our lunch stop was at the memorial site of the Oklahoma City bombing. This memorial site is beautiful. There are two gates that give the times of the event, a reflective pool, a field of empty chairs crafted from bronze, glass and stone which represent the individual deaths, and trees everywhere, including a huge survivor tree.
After Oklahoma City we made a quick stop in Tulsa, Oklahoma to visit Caleb and Becca David. They are a part of Big World Ventures, the missions organization Brio magazine uses for their annual missions trips. Through the years I’ve grown in my friendship with them and now they call me “Frish” because of a name tag mistake during one of our trips. They adopted their daughter Sakari from Ethiopia and I got to meet her for the first time. We had a lot of fun! Sakari is so smart. She knows how to take cell phone pictures of herself. Too cute!
Our last stop of that day was hanging out with Joe and Andrea Thomas in Joplin, Missouri. The first time I met Andrea she was the Brio Girl and I was in my first year as Brio’s assistant editor. Our friendship has grown through the years and now she’s beginning a new season of her life with her husband in Joplin. I’m excited to see what God will do through this amazing couple. Unfortunately I forgot to take pics of our time there. My dad and I weren’t too peppy once we got to Joplin. We were very thankful for the dinner and relaxing evening Joe and Andrea gave us! What a blessing.
On Sunday we finished the drive and made it to Charlestown, Indiana by 5:30 p.m. I praise God for the safety of the drive, the fun friends I got to see and especially for the gas prices. We saw prices as low as $2.29. Can you believe that?! What an amazing weekend to be traveling across the country!
Thank you all for your prayers! On Monday I’ll announce what the next 4 months will look like and how I’ll need your prayers. Until then, have a wonderful weekend! (I’m having an indoor campout with my nephew. hee hee!)
