Forever Free

So…you haven’t heard from me for a while because we have been in remote - wifi cannot be found for miles - places this past week!  Not been the best week to say the least.  We left Colorado last Tuesday after meeting with my cousin Nic Dial.  Great to catch up with him and have one final goodbye to CO.  From there we headed east on I-70 through FLAT FLAT eastern Colorado and western Kansas.  Not a real exciting drive, but it was OK because driving through the mountains in Harvi to get back to Denver was enough excitement for one day for all of us!!

We stopped in Russell, Kansas late in the evening at a place just off the interstate that looked like it had seen better days.  The big attraction surrounding it was an “oil well museum” which in reality looked like a bunch of old rusty oil rig pieces strewn about with tall grass all around - ha!  Needless to say we did not do any exploring of the “museum.”  The mosquitos (does that word have an “e”??) were quite thick and the reality of the US heatwave really hit us.  The cool Colorado mornings and evenings suddenly were like a special paradise we missed desperately…

Wednesday we headed out of Kansas to Missouri.  We had schedule a couple of nights at some campgrounds there hoping to see some nice trails and maybe do a river float.  Well we found out very quickly the Missouri State Park system does not believe in keeping their trails maintained and that ticks should be their state “insect” (if that is what ticks are considered).  Dirk and I ventured off on a two mile hike (Lexi being much wiser than us opted out) with Binx when we reached our first destination (Knob Noster state park…we should have known from the name what we were getting into!) and found ourselves on a muddy overgrown trail that seemed to be seven miles instead of two.  The heat was overwhelming to all us - especially Binx with his thick fur coat.  Never was I so happy to see the end of the trail when we finally made our way to the end.  But that was only the beginning of the fun.  I soon found out that the woods had given us all a gift…a nice covering of all types of TICKS - YUCKKKK!  As I was lying on the vinyl floor in our RV recovering from the sauna walk I began to pick some of the mud from my legs and realized all those dark specs were not mud but instead disgusting blood sucking ticks that had already dived suckers first into my legs…seems these ticks were very thirsty and did not wait to find their way to my head!  Mortified, Lexi was beside herself as she pictured herself being covered by these blood thirsty pests as she slept that night since both Binx and I were lying near her pullout bed.  About and hour later and what seemed like a million ticks later, we felt like we had picked ourselves clean from the attack.  Needless to say, I did not wander off of the roads the next morning when I walked Binx. 

From there we headed to Meramac State Park hoping for a better experience only to find a pretty similar situation.  We did try to take a river float but found after riding (really mostly pushing) our bikes up a very large hill that we missed the last launch time by 30 minutes.  By this time we decided rolling into Indiana a day early looked pretty darn good so we loaded up and headed east…glad to leave the State of Missouri goodbye!!

We arrived at the Tucker’s last night around 10:30 pm glad to be in familiar territory and surrounded by smiling family faces.  Even Binx seemed to sense he was “home” once we arrived!  We will be hanging out here for a week.  Dirk and I will be sharing our story briefly tomorrow at a church nearby.  We look forward to seeing family and celebrating our Nation’s birthday with a big firework show next weekend. 

In the middle of all this crazy heat insect ridden week, I reread the book “The Shack”…if you haven’t had a chance to read this book I would recommend it.  So many interesting and deep lessons to learn.  God certainly used it again to speak to my heart in many ways. 

Will update again soon…until then love to all!
Sherry

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Sorry for the delay in updates.  This altitude has been wearing me out!  I have not had the energy to sit down at the end of the day to prepare an update.  First off, hope everyone is having a wonderful Father’s Day.  We celebrated the day with Dirk by taking him to church and then out to lunch in Estes Park.  After lunch we all raced go karts and Lexi crossed the finish line in first place!  Later in the day he and I took a beautiful hike in the Rocky Mountain National Park.  All in all, I think Dirk has enjoyed his day. 

To catch up from the last update.  We enjoyed our time at the Garden of the Gods…each in our own way.  At first Dirk was very disappointed to find out he could not play spiderman and climb the big red rocks in the main park of the park, but being Dirk he found a way to get some rock climbing in and had Lexi climb with him.  Once we hiked away from the monitored section of the park, he and Lexi started scrambling up any rocks that looked interesting to them.  It was very hot the longer we hiked which was not to Lexi’s liking much!  Over all it was a good day. 

We headed out of Colorado Springs on Friday and drove north to Estes Park.  The campground we are in here is more commercialized (few trees and close sites) but very clean and very close to Rocky Mountain National Park.  The first day we arrived, Dirk noticed there was a book store nearby so he and I went to explore.  The owners were kind enough to let us set a book signing for the next day from 3-5 pm.  When we got back to the campground we started to grill our dinner and soon a lady stopped who was riding by on her bike.  She saw the sign on the side of Harvi and wanted ask about it.  She shared her son passed away 17 years ago from neuroblastoma when he was six.  Dirk and I talked with them (her husband joined her) about their experience and they bought a book.  I have found it is the same any time we meet another parent that has walked through this journey - and instant connection and understanding occurs.  After they left I could not help to think about the length of time they have faced without their son and their comments of how you can never know when a trigger will happen or a bad day will arrive…it just happens and it NEVER goes away. 

We decided to drive through RMNP the next morning before the book signing.  Lexi was not happy with us when she found we were going to be driving up a mountain again - at least it was not in Harvi…we rented a car so we could explore the park in an easier mode of transportion. 

We did not make it all the way through the park because our time was short, but what we saw was certainly amazing.  We could not believe how many bike riders there were riding the same road. We even saw one bike rider get pulled over for illegal passing of a car!!  Never have I seen a bicyclist get a ticket! 

The book signing was a lot of fun.  The book store was small, but business was brisk.  I found that roaming around and asking people that were browsing what type of books they read was a good way to start a conversation and tell them about my book.  I could usually tell by the scared wide-eyed look on some of the faces that these were not people who were going to buy the book, but there were nine that were interested and most of those I had a really nice conversation with.  The last group Dirk and I shared our story with was a family from Boca Raton, FL and were Messianic Jews.  We had a great time sharing our faith with them and them with us and in the end the lady said a beautiful prayer with me.  It was such a great time!  I truly believe each and every person I had the opportunity to meet was sent into that bookstore for a specific purpose.  God’s presence was everywhere…I certainly could feel it surrounding me. 

This feeling continued when last night Dirk and I attended a church service at the Rocky Mountain Church nearby.  The message was all about stepping out of our comfort zones and living a life with a purpose centered on God.  It felt like a direct message to our hearts.  We had an opportunity to share our story with the pastor after the service and shared a book with him.  He was overwhelmed because his current wife (the first passed away in 1995) had endured the death of one of her children to AML leukemia 14 years ago.  He was anxious to share it with her.  I could not believe that in two days, we had met two families in this small town that had been impacted by childhood cancer.  Way too many…but the story is all the same.  Every child was precious, courageous and very special and every child is profoundly missed no matter how long it has been.

We had a chance to meet the pastor’s wife today when we took Lexi back to the church for their morning service.  It is clear we have made some connections here that are more than just the kind that will be forgotten in a few months.  This area is so filled with the amazing creation that God has made, He seems to be present everywhere I look.  Whether it is in the majestic mountains that surround the town, the special people that have been placed in our path, the amazing elk, deer and other wildlife we have seen or in the beautiful rainbows and flowers that seem to surround us…He is here!

We plan to hang out here one more day and then begin the journey toward Indiana.  Lexi is very excited about leaving the mountains behind and spending time with family.  Dirk and I will be sorry to leave the beauty behind, but we too, look forward to seeing our friends and family in Indiana.  The next time I update, we will probably be on the road.  Hopefully we will find locations with wifi…until then, keep your eyes open to God’s presence around you. 

Much love,

Sherry

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Hello from Colorado Springs!

We have been having some fun the last couple of days.  As we were driving to our next campground on Tuesday, we came upon a white water rafting company and decided to pull in to check it out.  Within 30 minutes we were in wetsuits (the water temp was 50 degrees!) climbing in a raft learning how to negotiate the rapids of the Arkansas River!!  After listening to our guide’s explanation of everything that could go wrong, I was a bit intimidated, but it turned out to be great fun!   We even saw some big horn sheep standing high up on the mountainous rocks that surrounded us the entire route.  I took lots of pictures on a waterproof camera, but have not been able to get them developed yet.  This is one the rafting company took.  Toward the end of the two hour trip, the guide had Lexi climb to the front of the boat and ride it like she was riding a bucking bronco!!  This impromptu trip made some great memories for all of us. 

We rolled into our next campground just outside of Colorado Springs.  Really pretty - covered with lots of flowers and tons of hummingbirds!  Our site has my favorite flowers just at the edge - purple irises. 

We decided to stay at this site for three nights and rent a car to check out the area.  Yesterday we conquered Pikes Peak much to Lexi’s dismay.  She has discovered she does not care for heights at all!! 

 It took us an hour to drive to the top of the mountain.  Luckily, the road is well maintained and not hard to negotiate - in a car.  Harvi would have never made it!!  When we began the drive up, the temperature was 82.  When we reached the top, the temperature was 45 and very windy!!  There was lots of snow.  Needless to say, we were not prepared to deal with the cold since we only had brought jackets to wear over our short sleeve shirts and shorts!! 

Lexi was quite happy to be back to level ground when we reached the bottom again…she said something to the effect of she would never be driving up a mountain again as long as she lived!  We shall see…never say never right? 

Today we are off to see the Garden of the Gods.  Friday we will be moving north the the Rocky Mountain National Park area north of Denver.  We are not finding much opportunity to share our story except in a few individual cases.  A little disheartening, but we are trusting that God will place those that He wants to hear it in our path.  We are trying to take advantage of every opportunity for His Glory.  I found a scripture today in my reading that spoke to this in Colossians “Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.”  Col. 4:5  This is what we will try our best to continue to do…and trust God will do the rest!

Until we meet again…hope everyone is having a great day!

Love to all,

Sherry

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Hello again!

Sorry about the lack of pictures in the last post.  Using Dirk’s computer with a cellular connection makes it challenging to get the pictures as well as the message posted.  We are in Salida, CO tonight.  We spent the day on Sunday in Taos, NW.  We found a small church in town that we went to.  I truly felt moved when I looked at the bulletin and saw they were singing “How Great is Our God.”  Seemed like a sign that Zach was with us. 

After we left Taos, we drove north toward Colorado and crossed the Rio Grande Gorge.  Really deep gorge that appears out of nowhere!  We stopped and walked out on the bridge to take a closer look.  It is 650 feet deep…Lexi couldn’t make it out on the bridge far and I had a hard time taking pictures.  Made me dizzy!! 

Our next stop was San Luis State Park in Colorado.  This campground was lacking trees, but had some really amazing views.  It is right next to the Great Sand Dunes and many majestic snow topped mountains.  It was really windy and cold when we arrived, which really limited any exploring.  We also found the mosquito population was quite healthy there! 

Thankfully, when we woke up this morning the wind had left and the sun was out.  It was still chilly 60-70’s when we left to visit the Great Sand Dune National Park.  These sand dunes are amazing.  The tallest in North America and are sandwiched in between the mountains and the flat plains.  They seem really out of place.  The tallest dune is 750 feet…we did not climb that one, but we did climb one that was 650 feet tall!!  Talk about a workout!  We climbed over an hour to get to the top.  Some parts were so steep we could only take twenty steps before we collapsed panting for air.  The altitude was not helping the breathing either.  When we finally reached the top the view was beautiful, but my camera would not work because apparently digital cameras don’t really like sand.  The lens seems to be jammed but thankfully I could still get the pictures off of it that I took on the way up. As we climbed I looked up and saw a rainbow in the middle of the sky.  I know I was not hallucinating because Dirk and Lexi saw it too .  Then when we reached the top, we saw of all things two butterflies playfully flying all around.  They did not seem to belong there with all that sand.  I took these as more signs and truly felt God has been surrounding us with beautiful messages of His presence and reassurance He is always with us.

I am happy to say the trip down was MUCH faster and MUCH MUCH easier.  Lexi ran down  most of the way and was waiting for us at the bottom.  We did not take Binx with us up the dune, but we did let him play in the streams that run along the bottom and he had a blast doing that.  We were all very tired when we finished and were glad our next stop was only an hour away.  This RV park is right next to the Arkansas River.  We can watch the river running past out our front window.  Tomorrow we are headed toward Colorado Springs.  We are planning on staying there a few days to see the Garden of the Gods, Royal Gorge and Pikes Peak. 

That’s it for now.  We are all looking forward to our beds tonight.  Until next time…

love to all,

Sherry

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We are back!  Sorry for the delay in an update.  We were in a remote area of New Mexico yesterday and there was no signal to get on the internet.  So time to catch up from the last update…

We pulled up camp in Little Rock, AR on Wednesday morning and hit the road once again headed for Oklahoma.  We stayed on the interstate for this trip, but still saw some nice views of the Ozarks and definitely started seeing more hills and valleys as we left Arkansas.  We had our first “Divine Appointment” as we approached Norman, OK.  We had stopped for gas and a man pulled up next to Dirk and asked about the signs on Harvi.  Dirk had noticed him driving beside us on the interstate and had wondered why he did not pass us – it was because he was reading the sign about the book!!!  He asked if the author was in the RV and wanted to know if he could buy a copy.  So we invited him in and had a really nice conversation.  He was an answered prayer – I had asked God to for a divine encounter just that morning!! He said he thought he had heard of my book somewhere and was just thrilled to get a signed copy.  Really uplifting to us! 

We rolled into Norman soon after that and found the Webb’s house – what a set up they had for us!  They have a beautiful home on two acres with a perfect spot for Harvi.  It had been close to nine years since we had seen them, but once we started talking it seemed like yesterday.  I find this to be true so often when we reconnect with friends or family that we have not seen for a long time.  I can’t help but think that this is a preview of what waits for us in Heaven…it seems like forever since we have seen our loved ones, but once we get there and see them again it will be like yesterday.

Our plan was to get up Thursday and take off for Dodge City, Kansas in route to Colorado, but that all changed when Sonny suggested Dirk go with him to a work appointment.  The pool and good company were too inviting and we ended up staying another night with the Webbs.  Lexi and I got a swim workout in and we all had lots of fun playing in the pool and relaxing the rest of the afternoon. 

We went into Oklahoma City for dinner and drove past the bombing site memorial.  Hard to believe such an awful thing like that happened in the middle of our country…my heart broke for all the faces we saw in the pictures hanging on the walls around the memorial.  Our time with the Webb’s was precious to us and made us realize how much we had missed them.  The good news is Jade, their daughter, has enrolled in FCGU in Florida and the rest of the family plans to follow her in about a year – yeah!

So we were off Friday morning.  We changed our route to include a path through Texas to New Mexico because Sonny has been through this area and thought we would like the scenery instead of the Kansas route.  He was right!  We have seen a number of different landscapes on this route.  We drove past the largest cross in the US – pretty amazing.  Then soon after we crossed the New Mexico line, we found a campsite in Ute Lake State Park.  This was really different than what we have been used to because it was a desert setting - very pretty in its own way.  We took a hike and saw another pretty sunset.  The stars were AMAZING!! 

So this brings us to this morning.  After driving through miles of desert/prairie terrain, we came to the Sangre De Cristo Mountain Range.  Harvi got quite a workout let me tell you!   Once we made it through the mountains, we arrived at our next destination in Taos, New Mexico.  We are surrounded by mountains and the town is filled with unique shops and tons of art.  We are going to explore the town tomorrow before we head to the Great Sand Dunes in Colorado.  This evening we did get to experience some wicked windstorms – that was a first for us.  Lexi was convinced a tornado was coming!  In the middle of it all, a rainbow appeared right in front of our campsite.  It was really pretty.   So that brings us up to date.  We are hoping to cut the driving time way down this next week as we explore Colorado.  Until next time!

Sending love to you all,

Sherry

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Hello again!!

We are all very tired tonight in Little Rock, AR.  We enjoyed our stay at Roosevelt State Park and a day of no driving.  Dirk and I ended up walking around the entire lake with Binx on our morning walk…we were all wore out after that (except Lexi who had been sleeping-as every teenager should be ).  Binx made us laugh when he decided to jump off of a dock into the lake and surprised himself when he totally went under!   First time he has ever done that and probably the last. 

We left Binx and Zoomer to rest in the RV in the afternoon and went to check out the water slide at the park pool. 

It was lots of fun! We had a nice dinner out by the lake and was really surprised when we discovered a tree right by our picnic table was a “bat house” as well as a tree.  Lexi noticed it first when she walked by it near dusk and heard some strange noises inside.  Soon after about 10 bats came swooping out!  Thankfully we did not meet any up close and personal. 

Our ride today was kind of rough.  We could tell for the short time we were in Louisiana that they are not spending their money on roads.  It seemed everything in the RV was rattling and banging for a while there.  Needless to say, the animals were not thrilled and decided to get close together to deal with their stress. 

We are in a KOA camp ground tonight which allows us to do laundry have internet and cable (Lexi is thrilled!).  Not much to look at, but the facilities are good.  We are headed to Norman, OK tomorrow to see some friends we met long ago when we moved to Fort Myers, FL. 

Signing off ready for bed,

Sherry

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