Day 5: Santa Cruz- Golden Gate Bridge- Half Moon Bay – Sebastapol
• Lounging in RV
• Russell biking into town with 3 loads of laundry in reusable bags strapped to the baby seat with his computer backpack and coffee to go cup in the water bottle holder, just like a local Santa Cruzian!
• Mauricio videoing and photographing the boys
• Sarah took us to Kelly’s French Bistro – cool vibe!
• Being able to exit the RV and use Meg and Chris’ old house to go potty, hot bath, have a picnic dinner on the floor, and bake fresh scones!
• Buying some new pottery
• Finding notebooks for Rohan and I for 75%off!
• Seeing cool roadside pumpkin farms
• Driving through Half Moon Bay
• Getting skunked out of Petaluma (we found out they just laid cow maneur)
• Rohan getting to drive in his ‘special drive’ spot looking out the window and pointing everything out in sight – the look of joy on his little face.
• Last minute visit to Sebastapol- where we parked in Patty and Tom’s driveway and played in their living room until 11pm!
Day 6: Sebastapol- Santa Rosa- Healdsburg- Trinidad- Prairie Creek Campground
• Hot shower
• Tom gave us a tour of the homing pigeon operation (bathing, breeding, staging, and flying!)
• Rohan loved “Tom and Patty” and left with movies, stickers, stamps, and a wooden pigeon egg!
• We got to ride in our special drive spots – Rohan up in his bedroom (cab over) peering outside on his belly, Royce and I in the back bed to nurse. We all fell asleep – Rohan with his egg in hand and Royce snuggling in my arms, so special!
• Drove through Santa Rosa
• Healdsburg – Bear Republic Pub, good brews, food and quaint town.
• Drove through Trinidad late – population is 311! What?
• Too cheap to pay $35 camp fee at 11pm to park at Patrick’s Point and leave in am – so we kept driving N on the 101 – trying to find a safe place to park for free until we ran into Prairie Creek Campground amongst the Redwood forest which was out ultimate destination for the next day! Because we got in after midnight paid 1 night fee.
• Challenge – making time when we are not doing pastor visits or workshops part of our PEACE trip, We are not praying or planning.
Day 7: Prairie Creek – Redwood Forest
• Wake to a chilly morning
• Busted a move to town (Orick) to get cell service for a client session
• Waited for deer to cross
• Worked for 2.5 hours while parked on the side of the road in town
• Russell came back to RV to announce Grants Pass was confirmed! Amen!
• I was just praying – again getting discouraged and God threw a big nugget! Thank you! I needed that.
• State Park beach – Beautiful!!!- Royce crawled around and played until his feet were cold, mouth full of sand and heart content and made his way right into my arms and fell asleep in the sun. Rohan and Papa combed the beach for stones, drift wood, and crab shells. We ate lunch.
• Saw deer in meadow – which there is Elk viewing but we didn’t see any
• Back at camp – Papa made a fire and I took Rohan on his trike by the creek
• Cooked dinner on fire
• Rohan missed his nap and was uncontrollable – ugh. More our fault but hard to handle.
• Put kids to bed and enjoyed our special Hot Cocoa (from Chocolatier), talked, prayed, planned and got back on PEACE track!
Day 8: Prairie Creek – Kalamath River – Cresent City – Jedediah Smith State Park
• Snuggling with Royce in am
• Interpretive hike through the Redwoods…ahhh nature
• Finding a Monarch caterpillar – haven’t seen one since childhood.
• Ro’s quotes, “I want to see Meg, Chris, Lily at Aunt Nancy and Uncle Jacks. Chris has to do workshops. Lily is talking to Shasta. I am a good reader (reading signs on hike). My legs hurt (biking up hill), work- hops, work- hops – I am not saying it. Work-shops, yes, that’s right. He knows when he is not pronouncing something correctly. Look at her long legs (it was a girl in a book on her hands and knees nose to nose with a dog and the page cut off at her chest. He saw her arms were her legs, because the rest of her body was not pictured. He is a leg man – I couldn’t stop cracking up trying to get him to see her position and they were her arms. He even pointed out her “hammy’s” (which of course were her triceps) and her feet (hands) in the grass. Oh he and I laughed.
• Drive through Redwood forest
• Kalamath River Scenic Overlook – where the river meets the ocean, Breathtaking view. There is an area where whales stay and do not migrate, we saw some blows. Stayed for 2 hours, ate lunch while boys napped and met people from all over the world. Namely a German couple married 40 years who when asked gave us the relationship advice to “stick it out, stay committed. Young people give up on everything to easy. When you are angry or things aren’t working out – it is like a wound that HEALS!”
• Cresent City – fishing beach town. Very small. Visited light house.
• I drove RV for first time – not too shabby!
• Got a river spot at Jedediah Smith campground! When pulling u at 6pm, “Bones” told us you need to be here by 3 to get those!
• Praying together, connecting with nature/God in hike, realized being in RV with family has been more peaceful than anticipated
• Got ahold of Nick – we are all good to stay at their Retreat next week!
• Went on a river walk – beautiful sunny day.
• Peanut butter M&M’s by campfire with Kate Minor singing “Better is One Day”
• Challenges- have not blogged, sent updates, Russell having BPO’s and no internet service, Rohan and Royce a but frustrating at the 8pm hour – we are trying to get dinner cooked when they should’ve eaten at the 6 o’clock hour – but we wanted to take advantage of sunlight.
• Russell doing work every day, taking on so many new BPO’s, not trusting God, not taking time to write Children’s book.
Day 9: Jedediah Smith – Cresent City (October 7, 2010)
• Woke and drove into Cresent City to get internet access for Russell
• Boys and I played at park and took a walk. Royce loved swinging. Rohan picked me a flower and learned what a light house was.
• Rohan fell getting up into cab over while driving – I walked away thinking he is fine, he does it all the time, not realizing we are driving and of course it was right at the time Russell pushed the gas to go and he fell and slammed his head on the floor! Scary! But he was fine. We made sure to wake him that night of sleep.
• Enjoyed camp spot with a river view
• We played at the river beach as a family
• Russell caught 2 little baby frogs for Rohan in his bucket
• I read and wrote at the river’s edge – when the kids napped.
What a beautiful day. I am sitting shoes off in a comfy camp chair enjoying one of those, “I could be behind a cubicle with fluorescent lighting getting mad at customers, but I am here” moments. Not that if I weren’t here that is where I would be, but some people are, ormuch worse! I am grateful to be here. I have all of my senses engaged and in tune with nature. The river is flowing over rocks, what a soothing sound to me. Stellar Jay Birds are chirping, a muffled cell phone talker can be heard off in the distance (oh, wait that is my husband), the partly cloudy-partly sunny sky shimmering on the water, ½ grasshopper, ½ butterflies are launching themselves and flying a few feet (have you seen these creatures? I know there is a scientific name for them but they look like ordinary grasshoppers until they jump and spread their butterfly like wings and fly. Neat.)There are oversized bright yellow buttercups. I am surrounded by Redwood trees – oh the things they have seen/heard over the centuries. Plants and grasses blow in the soft and pretty warm wind. The air smells crisp and fresh. Much like a Southern Cali smog. (side note to explain my facetiousness: One time while driving to LA, Russell noticed a wildfire off in the distance and he began to check his cell phone for a news update. Nothing. That’s because it was smog!). That is what we choose to breath. My car just failed the smog test. I don’t even know what that means. It was my first test. I am guessing it was putting out too many pollutants.
The warm sun is hugging my face(not necessarily kissing my face, just a gentle hug).
It is a beautiful day. And no I didn’t forget the dear taste buds in explaining all of my senses. I just licked some con queso dip from my lip and found a surprise piece of chewed carrot from my inner cheek crevasse. As I said, I am engaged
The kids are napping.
So far, the trip is going great. Both Russell and I had expectations that weren’t met the first week. I envisioned lots of family hikes in highly traveled National Parks; Just us four, meeting friendly strangers who are so eager to hear about our journey. We have been on a few secluded short hikes. Strangers we meet give us a cordial, “Oh.” When sharing our ‘inspirational’ trip.
I pictured Russell and I playing cards, working on kids books, reading and laughing together at night in the RV after the kids go to sleep.
We have kept the kids up so late they don’t know which end is up – they are not peaceful. But we finally are enjoying some QT when they go down. But if there is internet access it is work.
I figured I would be blogging at least every other day- building interest and inspiration. I haven’t updated the blog at all or the facebook fan page since we left.
We are at day 9 and haven’t even touched a church sidewalk. However we did confirm 4 meetings. The ministry does not equal time giving workshops or that would be 6 hours for the month long trip! The ministry equals Rhythm of Love as a family: meeting goals, vision, praying, reading, sharing and connecting with strangers, family and friends, sitting with pastors, praying for churches, conducting the workshops and planting seeds. Sometimes I feel guilty for so much family time and sometimes I wish we didn’t have any work to do and could just hang. And most of the time I am asking God to use us to fulfill His purpose and be helpful in this journey.
Since everything is scheduled in the last half of the trip – it will fly by. I hope to take the time out each day at naps or night to reflect. It doesn’t really feel shocking that we are really on this trip. It doesn’t feel like ahhh, this is the feeling of joy, family adventure and purpose I have been dreaming of – it feels like we are grateful to be doing this but we are supposed to be doing this!
Day 10: Jedediah Smith – Gold Beach – Harris Beach
Smiles and Trials:
• Royce peeing on the bed – having to take everything off – sheets, bed cover, etc
• Playing at river with Russell and Rohan - catching lil baby frogs and bringing them to the corral that they built. Rohan then let them go back into the river one by one.
• Rohan getting muddy – biking and helping Papa pack up in his Dragon rain coat and boots.
• Russell talking out loud to himself through emptying the black and grey water! Job well done Papa! I wasn’t nice in offering a chocolate brownie cliff bar in the process
• Me falling on my butt while riding and Rohan saying “be careful” from then on
• Um…Russell stopping at the bank coincidentally right next to a Dairy Queen! I got me a large mud pie blizzard! It did last 3 days
• Randomly running into Tu Tu Tun (www.tututun.com) Resort. I just read about this place in Sunset magazine! I marched right in and asked the reservationist if I could ask an outrageous question. “Could we park our RV in the parking lot for a small fee and use their restaurant and grounds?” “No, I am sorry.” Jocelyn was very nice and we talked a while but they don’t even allow kids under 10! It was that nice!
• Russell talking to Gary Tobin about fishing
• Russell praying for Dave – the gas station attendant – his grandpa just died.
• Doing a 20 mi loop around Gold beach and heading right back down to Harris beach to camp.
• Harris beach was very pretty on the ocean.
• Took a hike around grounds
No comments:
Post a Comment