Road Trip DAYS 2&3

Day 2: Bozeman (Montana) – Spearfish (South Dakota)

We drove about 470 miles today and made it to Spearfish, where we were instantly surrounded by leather-clad, bandana-wearing bikers (as that huge biker gathering was going on in Sturgis). Judah was quite fascinated with all the Harley Davidsons. The drive went well, although Judah did get pretty impatient toward the end. But we finally made it to the hotel and all got some wonderful rest during the night!

 

Day 3: Spearfish (South Dakota) – Missouri Valley (Iowa)

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to us!!! Who would have thought that we would spend our 7 year wedding anniversary stuck in a car for 9 hours? But hey, we did it gladly and were just amazed at how God has led us these past 7 years as we thought back on every year since our wedding in 2006. Because it was our longest day of driving (about 600 miles) and our anniversary, we decided that we are going to make this day of our road trip a FUN day with some sightseeing! Our brother Heath suggested that we’d find a trucker to watch Judah and make it a date night, but after some consideration we thought that probably wouldn’t be the best parenting decision.

–       First stop: MT. RUSHMORE! After some reluctance to add more driving hours to our already packed schedule, we did decide to get an early start and take the 1-hour detour to go see Mt. Rushmore. It was quite an impressive sight and made all of us feel a little more American :). Noah the Nissan suffered a little because it was a fairly steep uphill drive (considering he’s loaded up with several hundred pounds of cargo), but he recovered well.

 

–       Second stop: SIOUX CITY!  We planned on stopping here for several hours before our last leg of the drive, so we went to the Great Plains Zoo! Definitely a highlight of the trip! Judah had so much fun and got so excited over all the animals. The giraffes and rhinos were favorites! It was a small zoo and super empty because it was almost closing time, which made it just a perfect hangout place for our little family after a long day in the car.

 

Side note: I’ve never been so THANKFUL that our little boy loves movies!!! What a lifesaver our DVD player has been!

It’s quite surreal that, God willing, we’ll be at our final destination tomorrow. Please continue to pray for safe travels, good car naps for Judah (he’s been having a harder time sleeping in the car), and the peace of God to rule in our hearts!

Road Trip DAY 1

Day 1: Spokane – Bozeman

The first leg of our trip went GREAT! We drove about 400 miles in about 6 1/2 hours and surprisingly enough only took one long break for lunch, in which Judah ran around the gift shop in St.Regis, pointing at everything he could see yelling “Was DAS??” (= his semi-bilingual version of “What’s that?”) . Judah did better than I could ever have hoped for — he took 2 naps, watched more than his share of Veggie Tales and Benjamin Bluemchen (German cartoon), was fascinated with his new Sesame Street stickers, had lots of fun snacks, and was just super content! Thank the LORD :)!

The car drove wonderfully, my pregnant self didn’t feel too uncomfortable, and our caffeine-loaded driver didn’t even get sleepy 🙂

John and I also had fun thinking of all the road trip advice we’ve gotten from people:

– “You better take some toilet paper in the car… you never know when you need it!” H.A.

– “Don’t stop for ice cream in small towns! I’ve heard of an old couple who poisoned people and took their money.” K.R.

– “Take the scenic route and ENJOY!” D.J.

– “Have fun! But not too much. We want you to miss us a lot.” R.A.

– “Don’t take any hitchhikers!” G.K. (no hitchhiker would have ANY room in our van!)

– “If you see someone who needs help on the side of the road, just roll down your window a tiny bit and ask if they want you to call the police. You never know if it’s a trap!” G.K. 

And just for grins and giggles, we collected Montana town names that made us feel a little better about moving to a city called Roach:

– Smokejumper

– Butte

– Phosphate

– Anaconda

– Trident (which came first, the town or the gum?!?)

Right now, we’re at a hotel in Bozeman (which Judah enjoyed very much; see picture below), John and Judah are asleep in bed, and I’m ready to get some good rest as well — THANK YOU for your continued prayers!!!

A nude Judah having too much fun with the kleenex box 🙂

Nissan’s Quest

And what a quest it will be…

– 4 days

– 26 hours of driving

– 1786 miles

– 7 states

– 1 active toddler boy, 1 very pregnant woman, and 1 caffeine-loaded driver

Missouri, here we come! After weeks of packing, one crazy day of loading up our van (which we named “Noah the Nissan” as it’s our own version of the ark, having to carry a little bit of everything), and a wonderful send-off dinner, we are set and ready to leave Saturday morning! The miracle is that everything actually fit into the car 🙂

If you’re interested in our route and what that looks like on a big U.S. map, here it is:

Road Trip to Missouri

Thanks for all the support and prayers; we feel so veeeeeeeeeery loved and blessed!!! We will miss all of you!!!

Check for updates on our road trip in the next couple of days 🙂

Ready for adventure!!!