day nine

today we start into canada. 

it should take six days to get through.

we will see you on the other side.

our bed for the next five days.

day eight

last night i was able to sleep well and deeply. 

it was so nice to have a good night sleep.

today I blogged like crazy. helped my sister in law finish some remodel touches to her house.

made dinner. and hung out to enjoy a day free of driving. 

tomorrow we will leave and start our journey into canada. 

day seven

today we woke up in the wal-mart parking lot in aberdeen, sd. with several other travelers. 

i quickly found a starbucks, revived myself with some coffee, and hit the road.

we made it the last few miles to ellendale, nd in no time.

after arriving we dropped off our truck and trailer, we visited ben's sister at the colony where she teaches.

 the hutterite colonists are like the amish, but use the latest technology. 

i was completed fascinated with their way of life. it was simple and wholesome.

in a world filled with so many bad things, this was a place reflective of simpler times.

i loved trying their food. they do all of their own canning.

 i tried pickled green beans and pickled watermelon, both of which were delicious.

i also tried scallions and ham in a sweet sauce... delicious. 

after lunch we returned to carissa's house and crashed.

we had dinner with our niece and nephew and then chatted the evening away.

day six

today we woke up at 6 am and decided to make tracks. 

we started in shelbina, mo. and drove 661 miles to aberdeen, sd.

this was my first day when it really hit me that we are moving to alaska. 

up until this point it felt more like we were just on a vacation with all of our stuff. 

but today it hit me full on that i am leaving my friends behind and moving away. 

i cried. and cried. and cried. at this point in our journey i had plenty of time to do that. 

so many of my friends are moving away from wilmore. we are all in ministry. 

it is wonderful to know so many dear friends going into ministry. 

we are traveling all over the world; connected by our love for god and our love for each other. 

thank you friends for making a wonderful four years at asbury theological seminary.

we found ourselves stopping one hour short from our actual destination of ellendale, nd because after driving 16 hours we. were. spent.

the dark came with the rain and the roads became hard to see.

we had one more sleepless night under the wind and the rain.

day five

we started today with visiting my parents' church. 

it's a little country church in southern, il.

we had a delicious lunch back at my parents house of shrimp and veggies.

after lunch ben and i left hope with poppi for a little grandpa time. 

we went to visit my grandpa one last time before heading up. 

there was a bluegrass band playing when we showed up at grandpas' nursing home. 

they sang older songs that i remembered from earlier days. 

we sat with grandpa and sang the songs along with the band. 

it was such a sweet moment holding hands and singing with grandpa. 

it was a beautiful day outside, 

so after the band finished we headed out to enjoy a warm spring day under the shade.

we chated for a long while but then it was time for us to carry on our journey. 

i am so thankful to have this moment with grandpa. he means so much to me. 

we went back to my parents house to picked up hope, who we found napping with poppi.

we hit the road after that and made our way to shelbina, mo. 

we stopped for the night but found ourselves sleepless with winds at 60 miles per hour and heavy rain.

(when we are not with friends and family we camp in the back of our truck).

we missed the worst of the storms however and are thankful that we and our vehicles are intact.

day four

we traveled from indianapolis, in to decatur, il.

the trip was fairly uneventful minus the first bit where mr. gps took us through back roads to davnville, in.

but the back roads were beautiful. i loved the beautiful yellow fields.

this part of indiana reminded me of kentucky.