#NWFBWA, Day 3

  Today, was a long day of driving...lots of it. When I initially looked at the GPS, it said 13 hours PLUS! My, My, My. Yesterday, or maybe the day before, we had talked about me driving most of the trip, because I love driving, and as Jeanne pointed out last night, I get bored when not behind the wheel. After being up 'til 12 last night, and my alarm going off at 5:15, I was still tired as we began to drive. Jasmine and Annalisa ended up driving for about four hours, and then I got back behind the wheel.

  We drove through west Texas today....exciting. The closer we came to the desert, the more beautiful it became. For awhile, it was a game of counting oil pumps in my head. As we came further west, and closer to the border, I was hoping we could see a Mexican in a bush, waiting for his freedom ticket...no luck. We stopped to pump gas, and met Ernie and Juan, men with stories, and advice.

Chico's tacos...kinda like taquitos with soup. ;)

  We stopped for dinner in El Paso at Chico's Tacos...the one listed on top in a food blog we read. On top...yes, my favorite...no, I still lean towards a fresh fish taco on the beach in FL, or in CA, like I can look forward to soon. After leaving El Paso, we drove through my first Border Patrol station...no, not into Mexico, just on I-10W. We passed, and it was non-climactic, as we had hoped to be able to write elaborately about it in our travel journal.

  One thing we did get to write about was our encounter with a Border Patrol officer about 30 minutes later...Jesse.We had pulled off the highway onto a dirt road so that I could find my geocache for the state of New Mexico, and we all needed to use the facilities...which were right next to the car on this stop. After I came back from finding my cache, I took my turn and as I was finishing Jasmine said there was a car approaching. Ciarra and I quickly hopped into the car, and I pulled forward to unclog the narrow way. It was when red and blue lights flashed that we realized who it was...Border Patrol. I pulled up to the truck of the officer, Jesse, and he asked if we were lost. I began to explain that I was geocaching, and in my description, which most people usually do not understand, I asked him if I could show him. He accepted my offer. I pulled back to the cache, got out, showed him where the cache was, and probably looked and sounded really ridiculous trying to do so. We ended up talking to him for a few minutes, explaining our trip, before we continued on our way...with another fun story for our journal.

  Ciarra has done an incredible job being the scribe for our trip thus far, and has even been drawing parts that need that special touch. I can't wait to look back at it as we end our trip in eleven days.

  Tonight, we are SO BLESSED, and sleeping in soft hotel beds, thanks to Jasmine's dad, in Wilcox, AZ. We will continue tomorrow to Tempe, and will spend three nights in the home of my mother, celebrating her school graduation, as well as Angela's, my sister. She is the reason this whole trip even came about, and I cannot wait to celebrate her school achievements and spend time in one of my favorite places, with my family.

  Please pray for our continued safety, and for relationships to be grown, with the love of Christ. Thanks for thinking of us!

Good Night.

  Charli

#NWFBWA, Day 1 & 2

 

Leaving Niceville, Monday morning...

So if I haven't had the pleasure of enlightening you on my life, as of late, or you are not socially connected online to keep up, I am currently sitting in Round Rock, TX(No, I did not move), ending day 2 of a 14 day road trip that I am taking with three friends.

  It sunk in as I woke at 4:30a this morning, that this trip is actually happening, but the two months to think before it happened were not really productive...until I landed in Florida on the 1st of May. What originally started as a trip to be taken with my friend Annalisa and I, has turned into a trip with Annalisa, Jasmine, and Ciarra...all three girls I met at Kanakuk. What started as a trip from FL to AZ, for my sister's graduation, and then to kamp...with some hiking mixed in, has become a trip traveling through 16 different states, still including my sister's graduation, and still ending at kamp.

  Here is a map of our general route and of our tentative stops. Already, we have traveled on different roads, and stopped in different places. On my first night in Florida before this trip, we sat down to talk through most of the trip, but still left some days and stops up for flexibility, fun, and any fit adventure. I will be posting pictures on my Instagram and Twitter along the way, using this blog, and those outlets, to hopefully keep my Facebook from being clogged with too many pictures.

 Thus far it has been fun, on Day 1, we ended up leaving Niceville almost four hours later than planned, in a vehicle twice the size of the one we planned to take. I began driving, and will drive for most of the trip, across FL, AL, MS, LA, and TX, until we arrived last night in the Big Thicket National Preserve, where we hung our hammocks and crawled into sleep. Personally, I had an awful time getting to sleep, trying to avoid being extremely hot when covering my whole self with my sleeping bag, and being eaten by bugs when I did not.

  This morning, Day 2, I awoke after probably four hours of total sleep, at 4:30am. I spent time in the Word and fidgeted on my phone before falling asleep for another hour, in the car mind you. We finally got around at about 8am and headed to Austin, where we ventured down South Congress, and Jasmine got to visit with a college roommate who is from this area. We are staying tonight at the home of Larry and Jeanne Stehr, two longtime mentors and friends of mine, who moved to TX within this past year. They made dinner, medicated Annalisa, who is not feeling too well, and let us disrupt their normalcy for a night.

  Tomorrow morning we will rise, eat a World Famous Round Rock Donut, and head west for a full day of driving across TX. Please continue praying for our safety, energy, and well-being. I will update my blog again somewhere along the way. We do have a trip journal going with all of our adventures and hand-drawn pictures that we will be able to look back on for a laugh in the future.


  Charli