the journey thus far…

We departed our lovely (former) home in Santee on Thursday, July 15, around 2pm and headed to the Santee Landfill to see if we were within our weight limit (with everything but the kitchen sink squeezed into the RV we were definitely worried). Hallelujah! We were fine! By that point we were really hungry since we’d spent the entire morning packing, so we headed to find some food. Haha! Easier said than done when you’re a 40’ RV towing a car! While we were roaming around Santee looking for a fast food parking lot that could accommodate us, Deron noticed that the brake light indicator for the Honda was lit up even when he didn’t have the brakes on – so we headed to the RV repair shop on Prospect, and parked in the center turn lane so he could run in and ask for advice. Once that was handled, we ended up at the outskirts of Parkway Plaza so that I could give the dogs one last potty break on the grass while Deron got us some food. I was cracking up thinking of how far we’d made it on our big journey – to Parkway Plaza!! Finally at 3:30 we headed for Lake Morena – which, by the way, had notified us that they had no potable water, bleh – so it turned out to be a great thing that we were hauling a bunch of bottled water with us!

Lake Morena was hot, as expected, but we had a fun time setting up camp for the first time and exploring the area. We have a sweet setup outside the RV with comfy chairs, grill, firepit and a mat, and we’re continually tweaking it to make it even more ideal. (But unfortunately it’s often too grossly hot outside right now to use it.)

While at Lake Morena, we had a great visit with Chris and Windy Robertson (Brynn’s former foster parents) when they came up Friday afternoon to visit and say goodbye to Brynn. Since they’re much more experienced at the RV life, it was nice to pick their brains! On Saturday, my sister-in-law Katherine came up with all my nieces and nephews, and we had a fun evening of “fishing” (LOL), family dinner, and a short walk to the local malt shop for dessert. It was a really nice farewell time with the family – just sad that Rob couldn’t make it.

On Monday we headed out on a LONG drive to Prescott, AZ, where we’re currently residing. (See note about long drives in the Current Learning Curve section.) Our campground here is really pretty – it’s called Point of Rocks because… rocks. Lots of rocks.

On Tuesday Laura Christensen (who recently relocated here) and her son Rylan brought us lunch from a yummy hamburger drive-through, and on Wednesday the whole family came to our place for dinner. It’s been really nice hanging out here where we have local friends as we try to get acclimated. The Christensens have graciously allowed us to have lots of stuff shipped to their address as we are constantly discovering things we forgot or didn’t know we needed. We’ve shared several meals, and we’ll be joining them next week on a day trip to Jerome, a “haunted” town near Sedona. Deron and I will also hopefully make it to the Grand Canyon before we leave, as neither of us have ever been there.

By Tuesday afternoon we had realized that checking out on Thursday was not going to work – we needed to stay put for a bit so that we could nail down our plans. Thankfully this campground is quite accommodating and extended our stay through July 29^th. In the meantime we’ve been reserving campsites between here and Livingston, TX, which is where our (temporary) “home” address will be. (BTW, if you need our address for any reason, shoot me a text and I’ll give it to you.)

praise & prayer

As most of you know, we laid this idea of the #nomadlife before the Lord and asked Him to lead us – and He poured out so much more than we expected!

The verse that speaks to us right now is Ephesians 3:20-21 “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory.”

Our prayer is that wherever we are, we would live in such a way that His glory is LOUD in us.

If you would like to join us in prayer – our most pressing current need/desire is that we can develop a kind of routine for the daily stuff (groceries, laundry, dog walking, RV maintenance, etc.) so that it becomes background, and we can focus more on the journey.

---