2020

As if the Geological Center of the United States, Deadwood, Sturgiss, Spearfish Canyon and Mt. Rushmore weren't enough, we discovered that South Dakota has so much more to offer. Too much to explore on this trip. But we did add in a few more stops. From Mt. Rushmore it is less than a half-hour drive to get to Crazy Horse Memorial . Like Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse is a carving in the side of a mountain, mostly created from strategically placed dynamite blasts. Korczak Ziolkowski, one of the men who worked on Mt. Rushmore, was approached by Chief Henry Standing Bear and the Lakota people to create a monument to one of their own heroes. Ziolkowski agreed with one stipulation: that he would never take any government funding--his own way of protesting the unfair treatment of our government on native people. Ziolkowski turned down multiple million-dollar offerings from the government in his lifetime. It is for this reason that the monument remains a work-in-progress to this day. The ...

I was very much looking forward to our trip to Wyoming. Between my junior and senior years in college I spent the summer at Yellowstone National Park in the northwest corner of the state. It was by far the most foundational summer of my life. My parents probably thought I'd "gone prodigal" (to steal a phrase from Greg Laurie) because I wasn't much interested in hearing from home. But it was the first time I'd ever been immersed in a culture so different from the one I had grown up in. And I couldn't get enough of it. When you are surrounded by people who have always been where you have been and have grown up the way you have grown up, no one thinks to ask who you are. They assume they know. They assume you are just like them. And you can start to assume you are too. But these people I spent the summer with were people from every state and multiple countries and a variety of backgrounds and they all wanted to know: who are you? what do you like? ...

If you’ve ever looked at a U.S. map, you know that we had to drive through Nevada to get to California from Utah , but we were on a mission for the first time in weeks: to get to our oldest granddaughter’s graduation. (You know Trinitie already. She was on Leg 1 of this journey with us, giving a thumbs-up while Randy changed our flat tire.) So we blazed through Nevada in one day, only stopping for a good night’s rest (perhaps the best of the entire trip so far!) alongside the beautiful Walker Lake, (which appears to be free to campers all along its perimeter... yay!). It was such an honor to see Trinitie walk with her class, receive her handshake and diploma, and toss her mortar-board into the air. It brought back a flood of memories of my own high school graduation day, 20 years ago (20 years!). I remember my dad handing me my diploma (not too many people get to experience that huge honor!), my valedictorian speech (it had something to do with snowflakes--I got the ide...

Our travels are starting to get confusing, even to us. How did we ever come up with this crazy plan? We partially blame (and definitely thank!) Randy's mom. When she died in November , she left her motor home to Randy and his brothers in her will. As we thought about leaving Mexico and how to honor Mom, it just felt right to go out on the open road. So, on leg 1 of this journey, we stopped in Pie Town, New Mexico, to fill the motor home with the belongings we would want to take with us (including Mom's ashes) for the RV portion of our journey. And now, a month later, we were heading back to Pie Town. We flew Allegiant Airlines from Stockton to Phoenix because it was several hundred dollars cheaper than anything else we could find. We know Allegiant has been in the news lately for safety concerns, but we've flown them several times, and put our granddaughters on their flights as well, and have always had positive experiences. (Incidentally, our flights from Ohio to...

Mercy Multipied. I'd never heard of this ministry before, but this week it's shown up in two different places. Coincidence? Or an invitation to learn about a new organization? Since I'm in full-on giving mode, I obviously saw this as the latter. So what have I learned about Mercy Multiplied? Mercy Multiplied is based in Nashville, Tennessee, and is celebrating its 35th year of operation in 2018. It's mission statement is this: Mercy Multiplied is a nonprofit Christian organization dedicated to helping young women break free from life-controlling behaviors and situations, including eating disorders, self-harm, drug and alcohol addictions, unplanned pregnancy, depression, sexual abuse, and sex trafficking. Mercy Multiplied has a 6-month residential program which is free for participants. Eligible women are aged 13-28. The program offers a holistic approach, seeking to heal body, mind, and spirit. They also offer outreach programs and resources to help families wh...

We took the kids camping for a week. 22 kids. 19 adults. 6 days. 5 nights. It was unlike any other camping trip I’ve ever been on. Were there bugs? Tons. Tarantulas as big as my fist? Yep. Was the air fresh and the freedom to be outside all day exactly what my spirit was craving? Without a doubt. Were the showers filthy and the water cold? Absolutely. Did we question whether the swimming hole was sanitary enough to allow our children to jump in, mouths wide open like children do? You got it. And did we still allow them to jump in anyway? It wouldn’t be camping if we didn’t. But then there were a whole lot of unexpected moments. Our cook brought a huge speaker system, and blasted dance music around the clock. You couldn't even hear the chirping of the locusts or the howling of the coyotes. The camp was situated on a working farm, so every day the buses brought in a load of farm workers with their 5-gallon buckets for a day of picking chili pe...