#NWFBWA Day 8, 9, 10

Howdy there, from Monument, CO. I feel like I should say something a tad more "granola"...but I don't know what that greeting would be.

I can't believe that we are on day ten of our trip, and tomorrow, Jasmine flies home to Florida. Our trip, since the last blog, has been full of driving, heat, and not too much sleep.

Day 8: Waking up in CA was kind of surreal. One reason being that I had not done so in like five years, and to be in the company of the Potts brought me great joy. Another reason being that we had traveled from Florida to California...and there was still more to go. We all got a shower in before left since we would not shower for a few days. Annalisa, Lauren. Jena, and I picked up In-N-Out and went to meet Jasmine and Ciarra at the Ventura Pier. After lunch and goodbyes, the girls and I left Ventura, and the cool ocean breeze, for a day of driving through the mountains..and heat. My mom said that we would be driving through some of Death Valley, and I am positive that we did, but my eyes were on the road, and my body was looking forward to sleeping. When we were about four hours from the Grand Canyon, our intended sleeping point, we spontaneously decided to take a detour and go to Las Vegas. Away we went, and speaking for all of us, we enjoyed it. We walked the streets, filled with people(on a Monday), and then hopped back in the car to head to the Canyon. The whole time in Vegas I felt like I was watching an Oceans movie. It was a cool experience, but not one I would need to do again.

One of my favorite things about Vegas: this fountain show. #toocool

Day 9: The beginning of our day was spent on the road driving, and after I gave the driver's seat to Jasmine in the wee hours, I was out until we reached the Canyon. We spent only a couple hours at the Grand Canyon. When we arrived we noticed that one of our tires had a small leak, so we took it to the Canyon Village garage to be patched. Our original plan was to hike down into the canyon on a trail, but we ended up just sitting on the South Rim and enjoying the sights for an hour or so. We ate lunch in the town just south of the GC and then started on our way towards Colorado. One thing I do not enjoy about being near places of high interest is the price of goods, whether it be Starbucks drinks, or a string of cheese at the general store...it's ridiculous! We drove up through Arizona on 160, aka the Navajo Rez. There are so many beautiful land formations along this way. I was so thrilled to have the free entertainment for the long drive. As we left Arizona we stopped at the Four Corners Monument...something I have always wanted to see. Not only did I get to stand in four states at once, I got to eat some fry bread. Fry bread for sure gets anyone's native blood flowing more. Heading out to continue our trek, counted 36 deer, and at 4am, made it up the side of a mountain to a beautiful overlook of Colorado Springs, CO, to get a little shut eye.

Four corners...

Day 10: We woke up this morning probably feeling the most worn out that we had yet on our trip. We pushed on though, traveled down the mountain, and made it into a grocery store bathroom to a little freshening up. There is something about a new change of clothes that makes me feel brand new, especially after being in a car for over 24 hours. The plan for today was to meet up with Jasmine's grandpa and see Denver. We had a wonderful time eating lunch, visiting, and seeing sites with him for most of the day. He sure was a mighty fine tour guide. Our original plans for sleeping tonight fell through with the storm clouds coming in, and now the girls are snug(and snoring) in our bed at the Caulkins' house. On a last minutes notice, this family had a wonderful dinner made, and has been great company, with a soft place to lay our heads tonight. We got to shower a few days before we had thought! Yippee!

In the morning, Mrs. Caulkins and Annalisa will take Jasmine to the airport to fly home. Ciarra, Annalisa, and I will head out of here, after breakfast, to eventually see Mt. Rushmore tomorrow afternoon. After that, our next "destination" is Kansas City, for our last night of this trip.

It is crazy to think that we have seen 11 states in the last 10 days, and that includes the three days we spent in Phoenix. We have five more states to see, making a total of 16. Wow.

We are in good health, though Jasmine and I fought that sore throat thing last night, and prayerfully it will stay as such for the rest of our trip.

Thanks for keeping up with us!

 Charli

#NWFBWA, Day 4, 5, 6, 7

  I think our trip has taken us all the way to day 7 now. Sorry if you were waiting to know exactly what we have been doing...I know there are those biting at the bit.

  Since I updated last...

Day 4: We all woke up before 7am, showered, ate the continental breakfast, and got on the road to travel to our next spot. We needed to arrive in Tempe, AZ, where my family lives, that night, but we had a whole day to fill. So, being so close to the border, and all of us having a little adventure in our blood, we hopped the border and ate tacos in Mexico. The tacos were good...and cheap. I feel sometimes as if I am taking advantage of people when the prices are lower than I pay day-to-day in my own life. I didn't lose sleep over it though. After our tacos, we headed back to the border, and Annalisa handed me all four passports we had stashed. When I tried to hand them to the border patrol guy...I only had three. I had misplaced Ciarra's passport. Oh my. We ended up enjoying conversation with the Officer Sprinkle, who was kind enough to let us back into the USA with some other forms of ID. We DID find Ciarra's passport, and we safely made it to Tempe that night.
I just saw my mom on vacation in March, but it was better than ever, and my brother flew in that night as well. The purpose of arriving in Tempe the night before Angela's graduation was so that we could hike Camelback Mountain with my brother in the morning before my sister's graduation. We decided at the last minute to try it at night, and due to construction going on the trail we intended to hike we did not...nor did we do it on any of our other days in Phoenix. Oops.

Day 5: Our day started with finding Annalisa a new phone, since hers would not charge. Instead of hiking Camelback on this day, we headed to Hole in the Rock, a rock formation in Papago Park. One of the things this area is not short of is outdoor activities. Hole in the Rock offers a great view of some of the valley that Tempe and Phoenix lay in. The rest of Friday was filled with dinner, graduation, and more fun. It is so fun to be on this trip with three girls that will love on my family, and honor my sister...even through a very drawn out graduation ceremony.

Day 6: We started this day with brunch at Dennys with Asa, served by none other than my wonderful sister, Angela. After, we took Asa to the airport to fly home and went to visit my mom at Sojourner Center, where she works. Again, it has been a blast seeing my friends honor my family and supporting them, though they just have met. After seeing my mom, we stopped by the Baiz Market, a Mediterranean store and restaurant that I have favorited in this area. Packing this day, we made stops at the Phoenix Art Museum and laid in the soft grass on our stroll through Old Town Scottsdale before heading to Dobbins Lookout at South Mountain to watch the sun fall from the sky. Phoenix holds a place in my heart in many ways and sunsets are definitely one of them. My mom had dinner ready for us on our arrival home, and let us do laundry and hang out before heading to bed. What a gem she is!

Day 7: TODAY! We woke up this morning, said our farewells and "Happy Mothers Day" to the moms in my life and set out on our way to California. It was HOT driving down I-10 today, but the scenery made it slightly tolerable. We drove by canyons, mountains, and wind-turbines, and made one major planned stop...at the Salton Sea. Laughter has been aplenty on this trip, but this stop was sure something to laugh about. Driving down from the interstate, the Salton Sea looked wonderful from afar. It wasn't until we stopped, got out, and walked to the "beach" that we discovered the nastiness that was the Salton Sea. We planned to swim in this "sea", but soon discovered that it was a big pool of brown, murky water surrounded by dried barnacle and dead fish bones. The smell and sight of the water we walked to had us very disgusted and running to rinse our barnacle-filled sandals with the hopefully fresh water in the beach bathroom showers. To top the experience off, we hopped back into the Highlander, only to find flies...everywhere. Sick! We left quickly, laughing about how we spent five dollars to park for five minutes, and sped off to continue toward the Pacific Coast.
We arrived in the LA area at about 5, heading first to Hollywood Blvd, where we walked and saw some very interesting people. We then headed north on the Pacific Coast Highway, enjoying the sun falling as we drove. Tonight, Anna and I are in the home of the Potts family, whom I have known since elementary school in Bolivar. It is such a blessing to spend time with such dear friends. We had fish tacos from Snapper Jack's for dinner, and also were greeted with a large bowl of homemade guacamole(the best I have had, thanks Felix!). Jasmine and Ciarra are with Ciarra's cousin, just south of here. This is one of the last nights, for awhile, that we have a planned home to sleep in. The rest will be camping until we get to Kansas City, the night before we head to Branson to end the trip.

These feet have traveled East to West.
L2R: Charli, Ciarra, Jasmine, Annalisa

We are all in good health, and have been pumping ourselves with water and Vitamin-C to keep well while on the road.

Thanks for keeping up with us! I am sure each of us cannot wait to elaborate on, and tell you many more stories that I cannot tell adequately on the blog.

Please pray for us as we head out tomorrow headed back East towards Missouri. Please pray for my right knee as we continue on. With previous injuries, and life since, I have been having trouble with it locking up and adding some pretty bad unwanted pain.

 We will be hiking some on the rim of the Grand Canyon on Tuesday morning, so we will make it there tomorrow night to sleep. Hopefully I can update you in a couple days with the next leg of our travel.



Charli

#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

 

...that they may be life-giving

"...and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel,  for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak."
  -Paul, Ephesians 6:19-20 ESV 

 This verse hit home when I read it today in a book, on emotions, I am studying with friends. I have read it over and over, since then, in many different translations, to try and decide how I should directly apply it to my life. I think the question to me is this, what life am I giving or not giving with the words that come out of my mouth, in the places that the Lord has put me? 
 I have found myself recently wrestling with myself at work when I am short with a coworker, or even with a customer(the one I am there to serve)! The words, tone, praise, direction, and replies coming out of my mouth should be loving, caring, and compassionate. Who knows what life I am hindering from springing forth when I have a snappy reply to a half awake customer who I am paid to service. Who cares if they forgot to tell me that they didn't want whipped cream on their mocha after I had sent it to be made. It is such an easy fix, as well as others, that I find myself hung up on as I continue to interact with the customer, in sometimes an un-like-me manner recently. I have the JOY of the Lord and I am not letting it shine! 
 I have applied so many of the examples and questions in this book to my barista job, since that is where the Lord has me, interacting the most of the general public. It is so easy to be "life-giving" in our friend relationships, and when you don't it is something that can be corrected later in the time after time that you see them. But in my job I may never see each customer again, and I want them to see a light and a joy that IS mysterious and stems from the only truly life-giving Gospel of the One who can save their soul. 

 Please pray that I am joyfully serving those that the Lord has given me to serve, in and out of my daily job. I am the Gospel to these people. I have a hefty job. We have a hefty job as christians. Good thing we do not do it of our own accord! 

What kind of life are you giving with the words that you speak?

-Charli

Homecoming=Over-stimulation

  I attended my first "function" this evening since I have come back to the city. I have spent the last four days in my house, with the kids I nanny, and have only gone to do things by myself. I considered it my "resting time" after kamp. Tonight though, some girls from our church got together for a girl's night! Girl's nights are always a fun thing, involving food, games, and chatting with the people I want to most intentionally know. Thankfully, God has not placed me in a bubble where girls night includes atypical "girly" things, like spa treatments, cucumber eyes, and other sorts of pampering. If you know me, I don't really know how to pamper myself, and would rather just chat and play games. All of this to say, tonight was an interesting night for sure!

 In explanation....
I feel like most people would put a check next to the box that includes words like loud, outgoing, outspoken, and funny(in the "she doesn't really think about the things she says" kind-of way.), if they were asked to describe me by choosing words from a given list. I am these things...usually. I really crave those small group settings though, and one-on-one time where I get to know people and hear their heart. I love these times! I want people to know me, and I want to know them! I want our friendship to be used for His glory! By no way am I saying that in large group settings intentional conversations cannot happen, bringing him glory...but I am trying to say that I feel like I cannot have the conversations I want to have, comfortably, in group settings where my mind is wondering, "what is he laughing about?!", "what are they doing?", and all of the other things my mind bounces to. <<largest run-on ever

 In more explanation...
Most people here in the city I have not seen, or talked to in three months! These people were part of my daily life in the spring. I knew how they were doing on a deeper than surface level. If that wasn't the case, I was getting to know them and they were someone that I hung out with regularly. Then summer...three months!

 Even more...
A handful of these girls were at the girls night tonight. I was really excited to be seeing them! I walked into my friends home who was hosting, and my mind started hurting in no less than three minutes. I didn't know what to do. There were so many things that I wanted to talk to each girl about! I wanted to sit in the corner with each of them and pry their minds on the three months of their lives I had missed. I began to feel very overwhelmed. I wanted to ask each girl a different question. I wanted to give each of them my attention. I wanted to act like the bubbly person I am, but sometimes think that my kamp person and home person are different. Kamp=krazy! Home=less-er krazy! I wanted to do this and that. I really didn't know how to feel, how to act, or what to say. I am feeling my mind go crazy even now, just thinking about this evening.

 It turned out to be a very pleasant evening, obviously, filled with food, a game that I did not like(and not just because I was bad), and a Chiefs game. It was a fun girls night. I am thankful for the girls. I just have come to think about how this small setting made my mind go crazy, and tomorrow I am actually going to church for the first time. Oh my! I love my church. I love the people that make up the church body at The Cause. I just am nervous for...I will see so many people, the ones I have not seen in three months. I want to catch up. There are just so many places to start, and talk about, and figure out, and learn. I want to answer the question that begins every conversation, "HOW WAS KAMP?"...but where do I start, and how much do they really want to hear?!

 My mind has been at ease since I arrived at home, making lists of what I can do to make sure I am being intentional with every friendship that I am needing to catch up on. Pray that I follow through with these things! Please?! My life is back in full swing this week, with school, Starbucks, church, nannying, and my other various commitments. I want the Lord's hand to be leading each step I am taking, and sometimes think I try to take control when I think everything has to be done at once.

 I am so excited for what the Lord has after returning home from kamp. I can't see all that He has planned, nor should I need to, but am expectant, and excited for this year. He has blessed me immensely. I miss kamp life, but am grateful for what KC has to offer.

What situations over stimulate your mind?!