O our God! We thank You and praise Your glorious name! 1 Chronicles 29:13

The last few days has found us flying along drinking in one incredible experience after another.

We’ve had a few disappointments: we ate lunch at Tehachapi. Tehachapi is one of the 7 wonders of the railroad world. It’s a place in the mountains where the tracks run in a circle and the train crosses over its self. We sat in the 88* sunshine for 2 hours and saw not one of the “36 trains daily” that had been promised. 

It felt good to be out of the van for a little. But somehow the desolate tracks didn’t quite fulfill the desire to see Tehachapi. 

Look closely-can you see Farren?

And then, somehow our trusty phone gps took us to the Sequoia National Forest instead of the National Park. And due to some communication errors, it was several miles of twisting beside a very full reservoir before the mistake was realized. It took a little bit to regain my sense of adventure after I realized my mistake. 

But soon we arrived at Sequoia in the gorgeous evening light, plus a breathtaking sunset minus the millions of tourists. Win Win. The girls hiked Moro Rock and Deb got some beautiful pictures.

The air cooled off to 57* and we drove with the windows down. The passengers in the back snuggled under blankets and I had a pretty good idea how cold they were when they started singing Christmas carols. I felt like I was alive again-we were at less than half the degrees from the day before.

As I watched the last light fade out of the sky, my heart was full of Praise to the One who makes all things good. Who takes even our disappointing days and turns them into something gorgeous.

Those feelings followed me through Yosemite, Golden Gate Bridge, the Redwoods and clear out of California.

Another Farren Foto ☺️

My soul cries out in awesome wonder, viewing countless stars- only God can number: how many million miles, up to the nearest star. I feel so very small, how can I see so far?

Almighty God, How great thou art! You have no ending, You have no start! I know by faith You’re real, for Your love I daily feel, Almighty God-I believe in You!

See you down the trail,

Kendra 

P.S

Bonus pics: Is it a mean trick to make somebody hold a pose until a wave washes in and gets them? 🤔 Perhaps. But the photo footage is priceless 🙈

I’m not sure what the #1 challenge in a trip like this is. But I’m pretty sure that rating somewhere in the top 10 is the fact that when you are traveling for a solid month-you are constantly on the move. And that can be rather exhausting. 

Every morning the same process occurs- jam all your clothes back into your unruly suitcase and watch the town disappear in the rear view. 

This is also among the top 10 favorite things of a western excursion. The ground that you can cover is incredible-if you just keep moving! 

So with that prelude- we rolled into the Montose/Delta, CO a bit travel worn. And we put down stakes for 2 whole nights! It felt really good to just be.

We are so thankful for Deb’s Kennell connection 😉 Ervin, Rose and family showed us another very memorable time! We got in on a birthday party supper. *I love the various expressions on this pic

Deborah, who is struggling with a dog deficiency, got a bit of help 🙂

 

We organized Farren and just relaxed. And for some relaxing means drinking coffee on the couch 🙋🏻 but for others:

Another highlight from our fun day was when our sweet Geigley friends took us fourwheeling through the adobe hills that border their property. I wish you could’ve heard the girls exclaim over this ☺️

It was rather dusty. If you look closely you should see 3 ATVs , each proceeding a cloud of dust, at the bottom of the hills.

 

Heidi graciously provided supper for us, and we watched the evening sky in the Black Canyon. Such a beautiful evening!

Then, with the dawning of a new day, our itinerary demanded that we continue west. So we had a big day yesterday crossing both Bryce and Zion off the list. 

There was a pretty major forest fire going on nearby, one of the roads was closed, the smoke turned the sun BRIGHT pink and everything looked yellow. We were glad to move on.

Zion was as impressive as ever. It’s mind boggling how big everything is out here. 

The girls have a little game going where they attempt to hold their breathe thru every tunnel. The tunnel that curves thru the inside of the rock mountain sure whipped them 🙂 of course 1.2 miles at 25 mph is a significant amount of time. ☺️

And this friendly fellow was clearly the spokesman for the group, he posed beside the road for us while the rest of the herd kept inhaling bushes in the background. 🙂

So we journey on, with hearts full of happiness and memories of delicious home-cooked food not as far in the distant past. 

Bless you, dear people in the Western Rockies of beautiful Colorado for sharing with us!

See you down the trail,

Kendra 

Bonus Pic:

Farren the Ford’s Favorite Foto 🙂 notice the smoke in the sky

We are doing fine in Colorado!! This is the land where adventures never cease 🙂 And the variety is a rather impressive line up:

Mesa Verde

Our first national park 🙂 the cliff dwellers are a mystery. I didn’t know that they lived on top the Mesa most of their settlements existence, only moving below the cliff in the last 100 years (1190s) before migrating south in 1300. I tried to imagine scaling those cliffs to work in the flat fields above the dwellings. Wow! 

Another interesting note-because of the danger of falling rocks, the Spruce Treehouse Dwellings (pictured) are no longer accessible. 

Silverton Durango Narrow Gauge Railway

We enjoyed the fresh Rocky Mountain air with a side of cinders as we chugged along the Animas River.

 

The rainbow in the released steam was brilliant.

The hamburgers at the Grand Imperial Hotel in downtown Silverton were delicious and huge! Can I just say how much I love Silverton? It’s such a neat town nestled between such huge mountains. Gorgeous!

Wolf Creek Pass

I love this view! And CW McCalls famous “Wolf Creek Pass” trucking song doesn’t hurt this experience either… We eased down the other side and were thankful we didn’t have to deal with a run away truckload of chickens…:)

Great Sand Dunes National Park

We had planned to visit these Tuesday, but Monday morning we spotted them from the main road and thought if we were that close-we’d check it off the list. Note to self: being able to see something in the distance here is not the same as at home.

We flew into the park, dashed barefoot across the COLD stream and jumped in the sand in front of these impressive formations. I mailed the postcard that boasted how many acres are in the dunes without writing down the figure-but I think it said over 30,000. Wow

We ran back for Farren, and spent the next miles squashing mosquitoes and liberally applying anti itch cream. Persistent creatures.

And we looked neither to the left nor the right, because we had a train to catch.

Pikes Peak and the Cog Railway

The Cog was a welcome change from the cinders from the day before. We rolled up the steep summit at 10 mph and returned 8 mph. It was steep enough that the change in our 2 car train was equivalent to a 3 story building!

The view from the 14,115 ft elevation was the clearest I’ve seen. It wasn’t difficult to see 200 miles to the fields of Kansas. 

Considering our earlier experience with “America the Beautiful” (the singing road in Tejaras, NM) We noted with interest that the view from the Peak inspired the penning of those beautiful words.

New Horizons Ministry, Cañon City

We spent the night in Cañon City, and were given a tour of the different faces of the ministry. We met a nanny and her 3 month old, toured the “behind the scenes” organized sorting of donations at the thrift store, and favorite part- “subbing”. This beauty took us up on Skyline Drive, where we enjoyed a birds eye view of the city while watching the sunset. Thank you Audrey, for giving us such a memorable experience!  Blessings to you as you continue to serve!

This last week went so well, but we faced some questions with reports of a critically sick relative of one of “my girls”. There were several mornings I woke up to early morning texts and thought “this is the report that will make us decide if we are rushing home for a funeral.” We gave our itinerary, again, to the Great Physican, and felt His Peace in the beautiful evening sky on the most critical day. 

With hearts filled with Praise, we rejoice with each report of progress being made. We continue westward.

To be continued…

See you down the trail, 

Kendra

Bonus pics:

Found this along Main Street in Cañon.

Farren Foto: Garden of the Gods

Balance Rock, Garden of the Gods

Bright and early Monday morning found virtuous mothers all over the Valley rolling out of bed and shedding a tear or two as they assisted their daughters in loading luggage into Farren the Ford… and we were off.

First stop was in Kentucky at the Ark Encounter. We were so impressed by the size of the structure. The amount of research that went into the exhibit is unfathomable. The age old story of a man and his 3 sons working for 100 years-by faith-to preserve life during the great flood came alive in a new way. 

I loved how they brought the parallel between the ark providing life for Noah, his family, and the animals to Christ’s death providing eternal life for all of us who make the choice to enter thru the Door. 

But what struck me the hardest was the world map with little red dots representing places where the population was less than 2% Christian. Africa had lots of red. India- solid red. This didn’t surprise me. But then I looked at North America-and saw WAY too much dots. Even in Northern Virginia. And the Truth is so easily accessible. 

“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

So with more awareness of the need to present Christ to our neighbors-we headed on.

Next stop:

Gateway Arch- because of major construction at the bottom of the Arch- I had trouble finding parking, so Deb acted as tour guide, while I stayed with the van. I love her pic from the bird’s eye view. 🙂

Another highlight: 

The Steamboat Arabia Musuem amazes me. In 1856 the heavily loaded steamer sank on the Missouri River.

In the late 1980s, a father and his 2 sons discovered her location. The river had sealed the vessel with silt, and had changed its course leaving the treasure buried in a corn field. 

So there is a complete general store on display. And 28 years later, they still have 60 tons of merchandise to clean and restore!

Be sure and notice the buttons in the front of the clothing section there-the Arabia had 3 million buttons on board when she sank-and they had cleaned all of them! 

Another fun fact: there were pickles, oysters, sardines, fruit preserves, butter, champagne, etc found on board and they tasted everything. 150 year old butter-I’m sure that was delicious 🙈

P.S this story has Deborah so inspired, she’s ready to excavate in cornfields along Dry River-so if any of you have land to donate-I’m sure she’d be willing to split the profits with you 😝

By our second night-we made it to Buhler, where we stayed in the Grand Staff Bed and Breakfast and thoroughly enjoyed our hostess. The next day found us exploring the town and imagining what it was like to drive your horse and wagon to town in the late 1800s. Even Farren got caught up in the spirit of our imaginings and parked at the last hitching rack in town. Enjoy this Farren Foto:

So we have a great start on our adventure. And even though we are over halfway, we are by no means halfway done:)

Following Noah’s example, we have began our voyage, as we hope to end it. And may it be said of me “and by faith Kendra…”

See you down the trail,

Kendra