We have arrived. It was a race, but we are grateful to be here without further incident.

We picked up our other son who has been on hospital duty and went to find nourishment while Jacob was having his bed changed. 

By the time we returned, Jacob was sleeping and we decided not to wake him. So we are in the cafeteria chatting and recovering the news of the week – for both of us.

We are staying tonight in the town of my birth, a place I never knew and cannot identify with.  Perhaps I will get to know it some while we are here.

Feeling grateful this evening for so many things, not the least of which is Jacob is fine with some surgery.  For children who care for each other. For so many friends and so many prayers.  All are grace.

That’s Deming, New Mexico to Blythe, California and about another 500 miles.  We are finally in the state of our destination.  But along the way, around Tucson, AZ we received word that our son’s surgery is now scheduled for Thursday and not Monday.  I think this has put everyone into a dive, although we all knew it was a possibility.  He is doing well despite this news and I guess can afford to be bumped for more serious cases.

Our day was mostly a mad drive through the desert and, if you can believe, desert rain storms.  There was no rain today in Seattle – because all the rain was falling in New Mexico and Arizona.  I can’t tell you how beautiful it was, not to mention how much cooler it certainly it was than if the sun had been shinning.  It was a cool 88 degrees most of the day.  When we got out at rest stops along the way we got both wet and then dried off immediately.

Some pictures to tell the rest of the story.

We are in Blythe, CA for the night and have about three and a half hours of driving tomorrow.

That’s Abilene, Texas to Deming, New Mexico, and just so you know, that’s a good long way!  Another 570 miles.  And, again, not much of interest to report.  Although we did drive through many variations of landscape that were quite beautiful.  There were wind farms outside of Abilene; 
and Frosty malts that weren’t frosty at a truck stop in 97 degree weather along Interstate 20;  The Guadalupe Mountains around El Paso and the comforting welcome of a Comfort Inn in Deming, NM.

But the most exciting stop of all was a lonely little rest stop about 200 miles west of Abilene.  When we got out of the car I said to Randy “That looks like a flight tower.  And those look like Quonset huts.”  And they did.  But, it was just a rest stop along I-20 in the West Texas desert.  When we went inside to find the bathrooms we discovered that the rest stop was built to resemble and commemorate an old Army air field that had existed in that area and was a major training center during WWII.  Thousands of pilots had their advanced flight training in this area before being stationed overseas in both Europe and the Pacific.  The field was affectionately known as “Rattlesnake Bomber Base” because of the thousands of rattlesnake nests that were disturbed while building the field.  Officially, it was Pyote Army Airfield. It was a little surprise of history that we would have never known about if we hadn’t needed to stop and “rest” while racing to California.

Surgery is still on schedule for Monday.  We hope to be in LA by Sunday afternoon.

A long day of driving, just trying to make tracks. If you ever wanted to know, its 560 miles from Vicksburg, MS to Abilene, TX.

We decided to be methodical and planned to stop every 100 miles for a “P&I break.” Use your imagination to figure what the “P” is for and the “I” means to rest our eyes from the road.  At our 300 mile break we also had the special of the day at the Cracker Barrel for lunch and trucked out again.

I wish I could have stolen a picture of the stunning Texas prairie sunset tonight, but by the time we got to the hotel it was passed.

So, for your pleasure, here are the sights from 3 Texas rest stops.

Our son is doing well but anxious for this all to be over.  So say we all!

It’s quite amazing to realize how different the country looks as we are only concerned about making time and streaming along the interstate.

We left Atlanta, hoping to make it to the Mississippi River. And we just arrived in Vicksburg.

With so many thoughts and concerns, it is such a grace to know so many people care. Our son is being buoyed up by the whole village – and we are grateful.

This kind of travel does not allow for many pictures of grace, but here is the Mississippi sun setting on the South’s response to “home cooking”, at a Cracker Barrel.  Think Denny’s, but much better.

We have abandoned all previous plans and are heading straight to LA to be with our son. He is awaiting surgery for an unstable C-5 vertebra break – or more commonly known as a broken neck.

We made it as far as Atlanta last night and spent the night with my brother.  The respite and the laughter was much appreciated, not to mention the hospitality.

Following an anxious night and worrying about our son, we felt some relief when his older brother jumped on a plane to be in Southern California with him while he’s in the hospital.  Still no word on surgery or not, so we are hopeful waiting is a good sign. Thank you all for the many prayers and messages.  It is such a grace to know so many people care.

There are many wonderful things to do in Savannah, but since we were so distracted and spent much of the day on the phone with our boys, we only made it to one attraction today: The Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force.

It is a wonderful memorial to the men and women who fought and died serving in the 8th Air Force from it’s birth in 1942 to the present day.  There was one experience that had us collecting in the briefing room before a mission and then moving into a theater that simulated we were in the plane on the mission.  Many of the films and displays were very explanatory and presented with great attention to detail and accuracy.

Between the different displays or halls, we would talk to the boys and then continue on, but sometimes it was difficult to concentrate.  Still, it was good to be reminded that in 1942 young men were leaving high schools all over the country to man the planes that would fly bombing missions over Germany.  They were no more than teenagers, and many, many of them never lived to see their twenties.

In the memorial garden there is a chapel built to honor the “Fallen Angels.” It was quite stunning and a fitting tribute to the sacrifices made by so many.

As the museum closed, we made our way back to the hotel and saw the storm clouds gathering.  The clouds and light and darkness of a typical Georgia sunset graced the sky!

News from home last night has us a little distracted today.  If you have an extra minute and are inclined, please say a prayer for one of our sons who is in the hospital.

After spending most of the night thinking about every possible way we might be able to get to him in a minimum of time, we decided to wait and see if we could learn more news of his situation. We talked with him on the phone, and then we decided to travel on, checking in with the West Coast at every stop.

We bid adieu to Florida and crossed the waterway into Georgia, taking the very first exit for St. Mary’s and the Cumberland Island National Seashore. The little town of St. Mary’s is very picturesque, but I must not have been in the mood for photography as I neglected to take a picture.  Since the views of the Cumberland Seashore would have involved a ferry to the island, we elected to take a long view over the water and move on.

An hour later we stopped at Fort Frederica on St. Simon’s Island which is another fort from the 1700’s where a small group of British pioneers settled and formed a lucrative and thriving community.  What stunned me the most was the grove of live oaks filled with Spanish moss.  They looked like monsters from a Disney movie – but were beautiful, too.

Another hour up the road and we arrived at Savannah, GA and found our way out to Fort Pulaski, another coastal artillery fort from the Civil War era that is strung along these Atlantic shores.

As the daily thunder began to announce the rain, we made our way to a hotel and checked in with all our boys.  What did people do before there were cell phones?

Today was a day of many excursions within a relatively small area, so we didn’t travel far.  Still, each site held it’s own interest for us.  We left the community of Palm Coast and traveled north following the coastline and viewing the beauty of the surf wherever there was space between the dwellings.

First, we stopped at Fort Matanzas, along the Matanzas River, where the Spanish had a fort in 1742 to defend the community of St. Augustine from encroaching British forces. The name Matanzas means “massacre” because on this same spot in 1565 Spanish colonials massacred French soldiers while attempting to establish a Spanish colony in the area.

The fort is really a small battlement that holds 4-6 cannon and housed 4 enlisted men and one officer.  It’s main purpose was to fire on anyone approaching the encampment of St. Augustine.  The walls of the fort were constructed of mud and sea shells and other materials that made incredibly strong walls. To view the fort and experience it we had to cross the channel to Rattlesnake Island by National Park’s ferry.  While there, we witnessed soldiers in period costumes (which had to be HOT) cleaning, loading, and firing their cannon just for our amusement.

When we got back into the car we said a prayer of thanks for the modern comforts of air conditioning and each drank a bottle of water.  I’m sure it only partially hydrated all we had lost during the excursion!

Then we drove into the city of St. Augustine, the oldest continuously occupied settlement in the continental United States.  Randy dropped me off at Castillo de San Marcos, the Spanish defense of the city built in 1672.  I strolled around and took some pictures among the throng of tourists (yes, I’m one, too!) and waited and waited and waited for Randy.  I was afraid he had to drive back to Orlando to find parking and I would be forced to find a bed in the fort on one of the wooden bunks where 4 men slept to a bunk.  There was another display of cannon fire and a little pirate gun battle in the seas just north of the fort – all to the delight of the on lookers.

It was, however, extremely HOT, and the “heat index” was posted as 115 degrees.  I think we felt every one of them.  We escaped to our car and the blessed air conditioning again as we moved on to our next point of interest.

We turned our noses north and along the way saw a sign that took us by surprise: “The Mellow Mushroom.”  We pulled the car into the parking lot and stopped for a late lunch.  We had been introduced to the Mellow Mushroom Pizza by our son, Ben, who went to school in Savannah, GA.  And here was another Mellow Mushroom right here in St. Augustine for us to stop and refuel.  It was delicious!

From St. Augustine we drove north to Fort Caroline along the River of May where French soldiers had been encamped since 1562.  Here also is where the French met some of the indigenous peoples of the area, the Timucuans, and there is note of them from the French perspective in their journals and diaries.

The obligatory afternoon thunder storm was beginning to boom and flash in the short distance and we made short work of our walk around Fort Caroline.  By this time, too, we were completely depleted from the heat and sought the heaven of an air conditioned hotel in Jacksonville.

It was a beautiful day of learning about some of the hardships and difficulties the first European settlers experienced on the shores of the New World.  And, here we were whining because it was so hot!  We probably wouldn’t have made very good 16th century explorers.

We were a bit slow moving out of Tampa and then moved even slower through Orlando as the traffic on I-4 East was stop and go for about 50 miles.  What a tangle of cars and trucks for miles and miles around Disney World.  We kept moving steadily and made it to New Smyrna for a quick stop and lunch  at “The Fire House Sub Shop” about 2:30 pm.  The subs were fantastic!  And, just in case it wasn’t hot enough for you, they had 57 varieties of hot sauce to add to your sub for your gastronomic pleasure.

Then we drove out to Cape Canaveral National Sea Shore and poked around for an hour or so.  It is a beautiful pristine place that was given to the  Parks Service when the Space program no longer needed the expanse of land.  We were hoping to see manatees or dolphins or even turtles in the lagoon, but the park ranger said we wouldn’t have much luck on a day as hot as today.  It didn’t seem any hotter to us than any other Florida day. It was only 98 degrees and dead calm. But the weather app said the “real feel” was 105.

When we moved from the lagoon side to the ocean side, we saw some pelicans and I was again mesmerized by their graceful beauty and their unabashed diving beak first straight into the waves while looking for food.  They are pretty amazing.  I could watch them for hours.

From Canaveral, we drove up I-95 as far as Flagler Beach and the little community of Palm Coast for the night.  The air conditioning at the hotel when we walked in was most welcome.  And we rested from what seemed like a hectic driving day.

We went out a little later and found some dinner, and then as the sun set we drove along the coast of Palm Coast to see the beauty of the Atlantic shore at sunset.  This is as far East as we will go.  When we were at Canaveral, we were as far away from home as we will be this trip!