Saturday, June 19, 2010

Traveling Across the Country

For the past few days Joanie and I have been traveling across the country. We left Pasadena on Wednesday and, as of today (Saturday), we are in North Platte Nebraska. We debated how to do this trip and finally decided to put our son Joel's address into the GPS and follow the trail, stopping when we wanted to and seeing whatever came to mind. So far, it has been a lovely trip.
We stopped at Hoover Dam and were amazed by the enormity of the structure and the engineering marvel that it is. We bypassed Las Vegas amazed by the enormity of the casinos and the marketing marvel that it is. We stopped at Mesquite, NV to spend the night and went to eat a cheap meal at the casino. I put $5 into the $10 million slot (hey, I'm on a role, why not?) and won $30 on the first spin. It paid for the room. I quit after one role. Take that, casino!
We drove from Mesquite to Grand Junction, Co. and spent the night. The scenery through Utah and into Colorado must be some of the most beautiful in all the world. The same is true from Grand Junction to the Denver area. Such colors, majesty, and the Colorado River. It was breathtaking.
Tomorrow, we will go to church. There is no Church of God in North Platte, so we looked through the hotel directory and looked up the websites of several churches. We think we will go to the First Presbyterian Church and visit them tomorrow. It should be interesting. We will let you know how it goes.
We will arrive at Joel and Shafali's on Monday and spend a few days with them and our two grandsons. If there is any better way to spend a few days, I can't think of it.
Before signing off, Joanie and I would like to thank those who were part of our community at Fuller. They were incredibly supportive, celebrative of our victories, and gave us a wonderful sendoff. They will be missed. We have made life long friends among them and are confident that our paths will continue to cross in the future.