Read this first

I just posted a bunch of pictures - so you may only see pictures, with no text at the bottom saying where we've been. To see the whole month of September, click on the "September 2005" link in the Archives section on the right-hand-side. Then you should see everything.

Washington

The Lincoln Memorial, and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington D.C.

Scenes of domestic bliss - Elizabeth doing her school work, Jake, Em and Jonathan hanging out in the bushouse, and Jonathans first climb up stairs - three steps at the local playground.

Manhattan, and the Statue of Liberty

Jakey

Jakey on a narrow pier on Cape Cod

For Grandma

I was talking with my Mom on the phone when we drove onto Cape Cod - Mom, this is the bridge we were going over, and the roundabout on the other side.

Bliz and clam

Stick 'em up!

Emmy the cowgirl...

Clammy? Must be the humidity

Sat 17th: Hung out at the campsite in CT. The kids went swimming in the afternoon. Elizabeth found a clam (we think – shellfish identification was never my strongest subject…). We thought it couldn’t possibly be alive, but we came out Sunday morning to find it crawling out of its shell, trying to find water. So Bliz made a little habitat for it in a tub, with some sand and water, and there it lived, crawled around, opened and closed, dug, and whatever else clams do, until we left Tuesday, when she returned it to the lake. How it ever got there, we do not know…

Sun 18th: More fun with shellfish – if I’d have known they were this much fun, I’d have played with them sooner! Went to Cape Cod, ended up at Woods Hole, absolutely not where I was intending, but that to me is one of the joys of traveling. Anyway, it’s a lovely place. We took a turn around the harbor, and Elizabeth spotted a magnificent scallop sitting there, waiting for adventure. So I lowered her into the water (there was a ~4 foot wall), and she grabbed said scallop out and laid it on a handy stone. The scallop sat for a moment and then gave a hearty clap, much to everyone’s amusement. Then it did it again, and obviously noticed that, since the stone was sloping toward the water, each clap was moving it slightly back toward the precipice, and freedom. They’re not renowned, perhaps, as giants of intellect, but this one sure cottoned on fast. Suddenly it launched into a furious snapping spree, each snap taking it closer and closer to the edge. Amid shrieks, variously, of “stop it!” and “don’t touch it, it’ll take your finger off!” it itself stopped, an inch from the edge. We rescued it for further interrogation, but it decided to play it cool. But with such a will to live, how could we deny it its freedom? So back in the harbor it went.
Later we went to another harbor just up the road, and once again had a wonderful time spotting shoals of fish and crabs.

Mon 19th: Fresh from our trip to Cape Cod, Monday we went to the Statue of Liberty. We drove down, across the George Washington Bridge, and parked up on the NJ side. You embark the ferry from the old railroad station that used to take immigrants, fresh from Ellis Island, off to their new homes. It’s right across the water from Manhattan, the view is excellent. First stop was Ellis Island, where we saw how the immigrants were brought in and processed. The doctors often had only 6 seconds per person to assess their health. Next, the boat took us around the Statue of Liberty, then back. On the way home we went through the Holland Tunnel, and took a quick tour around Manhattan. We went past the WTC site, along Broadway and 5th Avenue a ways, and saw Central Park. I guess what amazed me most was that the traffic was never bad at all, the whole time we were in and around NYC. We resolved to return, when we have maybe 4 fewer kids in tow.

Tues 20th: Packed up and went towards D.C., got just shy and parked for the night at a rest stop.

Wed. 21st: Carried on to the campsite, parked up and hung out. Lael went to the “biggest outlet mall I’ve ever seen”, I homeschoooled 3 kids and looked after a baby in a 300 sq ft travel trailer. You don’t do a trip like this for the rest & relaxation…

Thu 22nd: Took a drive around Washington, saw all the main sights around the mall. Parked right on the mall and saw the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial. Went home, and Lael cooked about the best fajitas I’ve ever had. Must be missing them…

A few statistics: 98 days on the road. Just over 12,000 miles traveled so far. Roughly 800 gallons of diesel consumed. 19 states visited.

She hasn't changed a bit

Everywhere we go, meeting old friends, everyone tells Lael that she "hasn't changed a bit". We finally worked out why - it's so obvious that I'm going bald that she really stands out in contrast...

In... the... Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia

Sun 4th: Went to church in Logan again. Had communion and foot washing in the afternoon, and had the great blessing of washing Jakey’s feet, and him washing mine. Jonathan officially crawled properly today for the first time.

Mon 5th: Packed up, said farewell to the Leonard’s and headed south. Got to Beckley that evening and spent the night in a Wal-Mart parking lot.

Tues 6th: Proceeded on, arrived at Tim and Connie Arrowood’s house in Johnson City TN. Turned out to be Tim’s birthday, so we made use of the stack of greeting cards that we had brought with us.

Wed 7th: Went over to Tim’s shop, visit www.freeheatmachine.com for details. Business is booming, it was really neat to see the operation and see how they’ve made a successful business.

Fri 9th: Went to see the Coffey’s in Riner VA. Had a bonfire - started with a couple gallons of gasoline, it went up in spectacular style. The 40-foot-long gasoline "wick" burned for maybe 30 minutes, we just couldn't put it out. Finally realised we're not in New Mexico any more.

Sat 10th: Moved along to Elkton VA, went to Bro. Ron Spencer’s for church in the evening. Marvelous service, great sermon. The view from their church is spectacular, it’s right in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.

Sun 11th: Went again to Bro. Ron’s for church, again a fantastic service, so good I even felt the need to jump the pew at one point.

Mon 12th: Checked out the real-estate situation in the area, slightly expensive, but not too bad.

Tues 13th: Went on a hike with Jake and Em, enjoyed looking at a beehive maybe a mile from our start point, right up until a bee came and stung Jake right on the arm. It was a long walk back… He was fine next day.

Wed 14th: Departed for Connecticut. Stopped in Reading PA in the evening and had dinner with Renee and Abel, most enjoyable.

Thu 15th: Continued on to CT, stayed at the same park as last time (scene of the memorable Elizabeth-swimming-to-the-middle-of-the-lake incident. Got a beautiful spot right by the lake (our first real good view at an RV park – it pays to go out-of-season…)
Fri 16th: Another memorable Jonathan day – the day he first pulled himself to standing. Next: learning to fall gracefully...

View from Marietta OH over the Ohio River to Williamstown WV, at dusk, shortly before the large caramel Moolatte at Dairy Queen on Saturday night.

Elizabeth and Jessica (lives next door to the Leonards) had a tea party on Saturday lunchtime, with sandwiches, cookies and hot tea. Elizabeth had a wonderful day helping in the kitchen.

Sister Connie made everyone an individual, from scratch pizza for dinner Friday night. Absolutely delicious, mine even had a pepperoni smiley face!

Emily, Bliz and Jake with their new dolls. Yup, Jake got one too. And yes, he plays with it. And yes, that's OK.

Lael and Jennifer pose in their wedding duds after the wedding. Jonathan completes the happy scene

Mon 22nd: Went down to the beach near Clinton, CT. Beautiful sandy beach, we made castles, buried each other and paddled in the water. Then we decided to return to Ohio for Ben Erickson’s wedding on Saturday, so we drove through NY City on I-278. What a ride. 25mph turns, no shoulder, 8 foot wide lanes, blind corners, roadwork, accidents, backups, poor signs, closed roads, every traffic hazard was freely available. The best bit was when we had a bunch of guys wave us down as we were approaching the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge. We stopped in the middle of the freeway, cars rushing past, yet they then didn’t come to tell us what was wrong. So we carried on over the bridge, to meet the cops… turned out that propane is not allowed on that bridge. We managed to trade our “out-of-state-tourist” card in for a pardon.

Tues 23^rd: Continued across to Lima, parked at Yeshai and Jennifer’s house

Sat 27^th: The wedding of Ben Erickson and Alma Horst. Jenny Leonard unfortunately couldn’t make it, as she was at her Grandma’s house. Apart from that, it was a fantastic day. The wedding took place at the Horst residence, a nursery about 30 mins. east of Lima. With the pond as the backdrop, and flowers all around, the congregation of a couple hundred or so was honored to witness a truly beautiful wedding. Te reception was held in the main greenhouse, with wonderful fresh local produce, witty and moving speeches, and tasty cake. The rainstorm, when it came, was spectacularly heavy, but everything was brought in just in time. The bride and groom departed for South Africa, and the congregation was left with the distinct feeling that, unlike many couples who say “I do” nowadays, these two really meant it.

Sun 28^th: Went over to Bible Believers and had church, with a little lunch in between at Bro. Isaiah’s house. Powerful preaching, wonderful worship, and a wooden spoon handily provided at the back for those who forgot theirs.

Tues 30^th: Sat out the remains of Hurricane Katrina, merely a heavy rain for maybe 24 hours, but still enough to cause our roof to leak a little.

Wed 31^st: Headed down to Logan for evening service, Bro. Snodgrass preached about the best sermon of the trip so far. Proceeded on after service to WV to stay with the Leonards. Many thanks to Bro. Earl for teaching me how to back up the bushouse, because parking was a doozy, between two buildings, snaking around a basketball hoop…

Thu 1^st: Visited the Lee Middleton doll factory, saw how the dolls are made (to get the eyeballs in, they blow the head up with compressed air and pop them in, then release the pressure. Most entertaining.) Managed to escape with only $110 damage in the gift shop, but three very happy children.

Fri 2^nd: Visited the Fenton glass factory, watched the hand-made glasswork being made. Jake decided he wants to work in a glass factory when he grows up. Dad would probably prefer him not to (very hot…). The glasswork was amazing, how they get the shapes from a red-hot piece of glass, and control the properties through the temperature just by watching the color of the hot glass. Managed to escape with $2 damage, but four very happy children (Jonathan’s first taste of candy…)

Sat 3^rd: Polished the truck (it needed it, we’ve done about 10,500 miles), went down to Marietta OH waterfront and ate ice-cream at dusk, very pretty along the Ohio River. We discovered that Jakey has amazing talent at remembering where things are, he beat everyone hands-down several times at the game where you have to pair up two identical cards by turning two over, and if they match you take them, and if they don’t you flip them back over.