God's Goodness in Surprising Ways

When Mel and I visited Egypt in 2000 and stayed at the Princess Palace Hotel, we took one of their tours from Hurghada to Cairo. We saw the pyramids and the sphynx.
(Not my photos - all of my Egypt photo are paper and currently in the States in storage. Click this photo for copyright info. Following photos are from tour agencies.)

And we visited the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities for about 2 hours. TWO HOURS! Barely enough time to get our feet in the door. I think a person could spend 2 years in there and never see it all. It is an amazing place.

We did see King Tut stuff.And a whole bunch of stuff that is just a blur in my mind. It was much better when we took the tour to Luxor and I got to spend 2 or 3 hours in the Temple of Luxor (Mel was ill with a 24 hour virus and at the hotel, but we came back the next day together). And the temple of Karnak. Oh my! Karnak was amazing, simply amazing. I wish I'd been able to stay there for several hours and just wander around.There was so much to see and to learn in Egypt.

We crossed the Nile and saw the temple of Hapshepsut and we even visited the Valley of the Kings and went into a few tombs.
All of these things were in the back of my mind last night while I was reading about what is happening in Egypt right now. Sometime, either when I went in and rested for a few minutes (I am sick with a very nasty headcold) or later after we went to bed - I don't remember, time is rather vague in my head - I wondered about the museum there in Cairo and all of the fire-bombing and destruction that is going on. And in my mind I clearly saw people (men) lined up in front of the museum, keeping protestors and vandals from getting into and damaging artifacts or destroying the history that is there. I saw this clearly - and felt peaceful afterward.

Imagine my shock this afternoon when checking out EuroNews I came across this headline:
Egyptians form human shield to protect museum
One Cairo building that has been spared so far in the anti-government protests is the Egyptian Museum, despite a fire raging at the ruling National Democratic Party office nearby.

Locals were determined to protect national treasures.

“We are Egyptians and this is the Egyptian Museum,” said one man.

“We are standing here and calling for the army to come as soon as possible and we will not leave until the army arrives.”

The museum houses pharaonic treasures including the death mask of Tutankhamun.

The walls of the building were daubed with grafitti reading “down with the dog Mubarak.”

Copyright © 2011 euronews

You know, God is good to me in so many ways. Ways that I usually just take for granted. But here is an example. I was concerned about that museum and what it contains and the civil unrest that is going on all around it (remembering what happened in Baghdad) and God gave me a picture in my mind of what was really happening, and a sense of peace along with it.

Thank you, Father!

Checking In

Just checking in this morning. We are back in Kherson, Ukraine, after leaving Colorado a whole week ago! Spent one night on the plane from DIA to Heathrow, one night in a hotel near Heathrow and then 3 nights in Kiev and one night here in Kherson already. Does that add up to 7? Not quite, but close enough. I think we lost a whole day somewhere anyway. haha

Looking out the window this morning at almost 8:00 - white sky, gray buildings, dark trees. I am back in Ukraine. Will use my "sunshine lamp" later this morning to try and combat the depression I already feel approaching.

It never gets any easier to leave home and come back here, at least emotionally.

Unknowingly, I am rebuked by Mel. He tells me that the elderly man who rode home with us yesterday was a pastor and spent 10 years in the gulag. He's written a book about it but does not like to talk about it. Yes, I am rebuked. God is so good to me and I am often so unthankful.

More later.

Southwestern Colorado

It's kind of strange, maybe, but I don't like to write very much about what we do, but I'd rather write about where we go and what I think about. So, this is not a blog about our ministry, no, not that at all. I've thought about that recently (again!) and I think it's because I feel a very real sense of privacy for other people. I want to protect other's privacy and thus I don't write very much about them. "Them" being the people we visit, the people we work with, specific people - Ukrainian or American, except in occasional posts. I want my privacy and I'm sure they want theirs. It's so hard to come by privacy today!!

Therefore, I'm not going to write about what we did in Southwestern Colorado, except to say that the church in Montrose was a real blessing to us. We so enjoyed our time there with the church body. It was busy, but restful. We talked and talked, but we had plenty of time to relax and enjoy the surrounding area.

We are currently in Wyoming and the church here is also treating us this way, but I'll have to write about that in another post. Soon, I hope!!

~*~*~*~*~
When we arrived in Montrose, we drove over to the address we had been sent. It was wonderful!! The owner of the home was housesitting for her parents a couple miles away and her house was empty. So, she gave us the key, showed us where everything was at (including a stocked fridge) and drove away. Oh my! It was wonderful! (Did I say that before?) We had a whole day to our selves. We slept in. We ate good food. I didn't get dressed until I wanted to do so. We read. I worked on the new college course I'm taking: Cosmology: The History and Nature of Our Universe. And we went for a nice drive.

We weren't sure where we wanted to go, but why waste the whole day sitting inside when it was so beautiful outdoors? So, we turned south and headed toward Ouray and Red Mountain Pass. On the way into Ouray:
And from on the mountain above Ouray: Red Mountain Pass is amazing. Scary. I actually closed my eyes at some points so I wouldn't have to see where we were at. :-)
Here is a photo that I really, really like: We drove up to the top and then turned around and came back down. Following are a few photos that show the same road from the downhill view. I kept my eyes open here - obviously :-) - and took these photos: Somewhere on one of the switchbacks down, we passed these memorial markers:
And these markers reminded me of my teenage years and CW McCall's "Riverside Slide" ">

Tired Because A Lot has been happening...

I am really tired tonight. We spent the weekend in Montrose. Left Woodland Park on Thursday night because there was supposed to be a snow storm. It did snow, but not enough to have trapped us at home. However, the wind - she did blow! And blow and blow. And then in Colorado Springs, where we were staying, it also sprinkled. And the dust and the dirt combined and left a very thin layer of muddy dust on everything. Everything. The car window was covered. The car was covered. The buildings were covered. And so it was when we awoke that morning - a world covered in dried muddy dust. We went over first to get my gallbladder ultrasounded (I verbed it!), and then we took off to the south.

Drove down to Penrose, turned right and drove on through Canon City. (pronounce that Canyon City and you've pronounced it correctly. I can't get the ~ over the n - don't know how unless I'm using a pen or pencil or marker or paintbrush or...you get the idea, I get the idea. Sorry - I'm really tired tonight. *grin*) We drove on through Canon west through Big Horn Sheep Canyon. Didn't see any big horn sheep, but we did see lots of fishermen fishing in the Arkansas River. And lots of rocks. And more rocks. Rocks in all sizes and shapes and many different colors. I love driving the River canyon. I could look at the scenery for days and never grow tired of it. Seriously. Finally we got to Salida. (pronouce that Sah-LIE-duh and you've pronounced it correctly. Bad Spanish, good local.) We stopped at the local Days Inn and got a room. Nice room. Nice bed. Wish we could have stayed there even longer!

The next morning we had to make a decision. Do we go west over Monarch Pass? Or do we go west by going south over Poncha Pass and turning west at Saguache? (pronounce that Sa-WATCH and you've pronounced it correctly. Looks like Sah-GUA-chi, but it's not. heh heh) Both Poncha and Monarch looked like they were totally covered in heavy snow clouds. Monarch is a lot higher than Poncha, so we decided to go south to go west. Glad we did because there was really no bad weather at all on Poncha Pass. None. However, when we checked later at a live webcam of the top of Monarch, it was a different story - snow, ice, cold, very bad weather. We drove on down to Saguache and I tried to take a bunch of photos of the very cool looking weather happening all around us. We turned west at Saguache and drove up and over This pass is a beautiful mostly unknown pass. I could live in that area and be really happy. (so long as I had a view and was not stuck down in a valley surrounded by trees) {Oh, and also if the black helicopters and cattle mutilations and other weird stuff stayed put in the San Louis Valley to the east of there and didn't bother us at all.} [But maybe if we lived there and I had a view, I would SEE what was going on in the San Louis Valley and ... maybe I'll not go there right now.]

Down the other side toward Gunnison but still in the windy narrow canyon part of the pass we stopped at a teeny little campground just off the highway to use the very nice outdoor toilets. It was so beautiful and mostly quiet and very alone there that I wanted to stay and sit at a table and look and look and listen and soak up the sun on my back and rest. Rest deep down inside where I am very tired right now.


But, alas, it was not to be. We needed to get on to Montrose for our meetings.

We drove on to Gunnison and did another potty break. This time we stopped at a McDonalds to use the facilities. I went up to the door and uh-oh - a sign saying only customers could use the toilets. So, I decided I'd buy and ice cream cone AFTER using the facilities. I walked in right past the State Trooper who was talking to a guy sitting at a table ... and past a whole bunch of the Sons of Silence and their families (I kid you not - black leather was everywhere). I thought to myself, "Self, I am glad the trooper is here." After using the facilities, I went up to the counter, walking past all those guys and other people with them (the place was full, I don't think we could have sat down anywhere) thinking I was really glad the trooper was still there, talking, and looked at the menu board. I decided to order not just an ice cream cone, but also their fruit salad thing. Ordered, walked out just as the trooper did - he opened the door and I thanked him and walked out. Mel said later that he (the trooper) really looked Mel over when he (the trooper) backed out. Mel was just sitting in the car, waiting for me, but he saw it. People say Mel looks like a biker, but I don't see it......

We took off, drove on through Gunnison and past Blue Mesa Reservoir. Oh - it is SO BEAUTIFUL!!! I love that area! I wish I had photos of the Hoodoo area to the north of the lake, but we didn't stop there. Someday, though, I'll get them!

We got in to Montrose and found the place where we were to stay. I'll have to write more about that tomorrow because right now, I need to go take a shower and get to bed. We have to leave very early (7:00 am) to get Mel to Cripple Creek to see if he has to sit for jury duty. I just want to stay here and write and write and write some more, but alas and alack, it is not possible. However - I'm planning to stay out in the car while he goes in to the court house. I'll read and write and do some of my new College Course that I'm taking and wait for him. Hopefully that is what will happen. We'll see.

Back Again For A Minute or Two

It's late and we need to be on the road in about 9 hours or less, so this is going to be short. I'm hoping that I'll be able to write more tomorrow evening, or even afternoon. Will have to see how it goes.

I've discovered recently that I am an introvert living a very extrovert lifestyle right now. And it's getting to me - BIG TIME. Actually, it's not that I'm around lots of people all the time - no, that's not it. What is getting to me is that I'm NEVER NOT around people right now. (Mel doesn't count!) When I get up - my parents are there. Within an hour or two, Kara and Eithnee are there and on weekend, Stirling is there, too.

Now don't get me wrong! I love my family dearly. Very dearly. And I love being around them. I just need two or three hours in a day when I am truly ALONE. I can't write when I'm being interrupted all the time. I have time to think, a lot of time to think, while we are in the car. But I am busy looking at the scenery and/or talking to Mel. Besides, it's not that easy to get out the ol' laptop/notebook and write while zooming down the road. Especially in these times of economic crisis when the potholes and cracks in the roads and highways are getting bigger and bigger.

So, here I am, late at night, knowing I'll need to sign off within 10 minutes or so, wanting to write and put down on "paper" some of all that stuff I've been thinking about! And post a zillion photos - of grandkids, places we've been, other people I love and care about.

That will have to wait.

For now, I'm just glad I have this time (NO TV blaring, just classical music from Austria being broadcast on Mel's new little Droid Internet Tablet playing quietly across this motel room.

Is it safe to say that one of my greatest desires while being home this time was that we could buy an RV? Not a big one - just a middle sized one, big enough to live in, but small enough to drive around wherever we hoped to go. It was not to be. I'd hoped for one so that we could have times of being alone, times when I could cook, times when we could 'have someone over' if we wanted, times when we could open the windows at night and listen to the forest sounds without freezing the whole house.

I am happy, though, that we have what we have - a good car, a spacious car, a car with almost 120,000 miles on it now and it's still going strong. Thank you, Father in Heaven, for this gift you gave us 5 years ago! We can haul us and our stuff, or us and two car seats and 2 or 3 more adults. We've gone "four wheeling" in it - yes, we go places in our cars that other people are too chicken to go. :-) We've driven tens of thousands of miles in it - in heat and snow and rain and wind. And it still looks good. We've climbed the side of an ancient volcano (at Crater Lake), drive from Bellingham, Washington to the southern part of Los Angeles, California, driven through deserts, over mountain passes, and Mel has now driven it down the East Coast from Delaware to Florida.

So, yes, I am thankful for our car and pray that it will last us many more years. But deep in my heart I still long for an RV and to be able to take my "house" with me wherever I go.

Well, that's it for tonight. That's the teeny tip of a huge iceberg worth of stuff that I haven't been able to write about and long to write about and will eventually write about, if God gives me life and a good mind in the meantime!

See you later!

At "Home" Again

Yes, we are at "home" again - the motel we always stay in when we come back into the Springs, to acclimate before we head to higher ground.

I have so much I want to write about!! Hopefully I'll have more time tomorrow or the next day. We leave on either Monday or Tuesday for our Eastern trip. Time is flying by and I'm usually too tired to write in the evenings. However, maybe as we drive east (where there is less to see in my opinion), I'll be able to write as we drive. Not sure - 75mph down the interstate is not always conducive to writing. We'll see.

For now, a couple photos from today (oh man - when am I going to get time to write about Zion National Park???!!!!).

We drove from Richfield, UT to Craig, CO yesterday. Wow - how can that just be yesterday?? Surely it was a couple days ago! But no - yesterday. We went to Craig because that is where my brother lives and we wanted to surprise him. We were in that area because we wanted to go up to Cheyenne to get my Bible. Yea! They found it at the church! Yea!

We did surprise Wayne. I was afraid maybe his clinic would be closed, but he and 3 of his employees were still there, as well as someone else. It was fun - we walked in, saw him sitting over in a corner of the waiting room talking to the other person, and just stood and waited while chatting with his receptionist/bookkeeper. We had come in through the employees door, but we didn't know that. Wayne looked up, saw us standing there and did the classical double-take. :-) After chatting awhile, he invited us and two of his employees and the mother of one of the girls to go to dinner. So, we all drove over to a Chinese place, sat around a big table, talked and ate and enjoyed our time. We spent the night there in Craig. This morning we went back over to his clinic to say goodbye and I took a few photos. He was in surgery: , spaying and neutering 2 cats and 3 dogs. His dog, Charlotte, was there as usual and I had fun kicking a tennis ball for her to chase. Charlotte is camera shy, though. The minute I got out the camera, she took off and didn't come out until Wayne finished and called her. Then she was 'shy' until I put the camera away. I've never seen a camera shy dog before! We couldn't stay long because we had to be in Cheyenne by 4:30, so we said goodbye and took off up the road.

We lost count of the number of dead deer along the road between Craig and I-70 in Wyoming. Oh my gosh! Well over 30. Carcasses on both sides of the road, some almost just hide and bones, others fresh, and one where the blood on the highway was still bright red. We also saw at least one elk and Mel saw a dead coyote. The only good thing about all the dead deer was the eagles we saw feeding on them. Bald eagles and either young bald eagles or golden eagles - maybe both. The following 3 photos are of one that actually stayed and watched us while Mel changed batteries in his MP3 player and I took several photos, using telephoto on my new camera. Wow! It's been awhile since I've seen an eagle this close. We know others were bald eagles because their heads were shiny white. Beautiful creatures! You can also see a raven and a magpie in one of the photos. There were dozens of maggies and ravens everywhere.



Finally we got to I-70 and this is what we ran into: High winds and ground blizzards for almost 100 miles. The speed limit was down to 65mph and I'm glad. The wind really rocked the car on some of the hills. Wyoming in this area is like this, so we were not surprised.

We had a nice talk with the pastor of the church there in Cheyenne. Then he invited us to go out with his wife and 3 kids to get some dinner. I don't remember meeting his family before, so this was a nice treat for us.

And now - now we are "home" and I'm ready for bed.

Home Tonight?

We are supposed to get home tonight. Hopefully that will happen. Actually, we'll probably stay in Colorado Springs for a night or two before we head up high into the mountains. Going from sea level back to 9,500 feet above is not easy on my body any more.

I'll try and post more photos tonight, and write about what we've been doing. This is not a diary, but it does help me remember things. I live so very much in the "now" that unless I'm reminded of something, I often really don't think about things that we've done in the past and 'forget' about it all. Photos are good reminders, too.

Anyway, this is short. :-) We'll be going through Cheyenne so we can pick up my Bible. Left it at the church there and they just found it late last week (someone finally cleaned off the coat rack shelf, is my guess! :-) ) I am just so very thankful that someone did find it. I feel like my whole life is in that Bible sometimes.

On The Road Home

Bright and early (before 10 - that's early for us!) Mel and I left the place we were staying in the San Fernando Valley and headed toward home. We drove north and merged onto a highway. The we drove east for what seemed like a very long time. The traffic was very light, for the most part, which is partly why we didn't plan to leave earlier. Once or twice in LA basin 'rush' hour traffic was enough for us! Let the traffic thin down a bit before heading out!

The roads can be quit confusing at times. First, you are dealing with the sound: thumpthump rrrrrrrrrrrr thumpthump rrrrrrrrrrrrr thumpthump rrrrrrrrrrrrr - the sound of the tires hitting the seams in the concrete and riding over the grooves in the concrete at 65 mph. Very annoying, and I'm sure over time, damaging to hearing ability. :-) I really like asphalt - I really do not like concrete.

Second, when planning to leave one freeway and get on to another, you never know which lanes are going to peel off and when traffic is heavy, you can miss your exit. For that matter, just driving down the freeway you never know when you lane is going to peel off and you'll be on some road going some where you did not want to go. So, we mostly stuck to the 3rd of 5, inside. That's how we ended up peeling off to the LEFT and making a short visit to downtown Pasadena. Whenever something like that happens, we always figure that God is keeping us from something down the road. It's happened 3 or 4 times now that after we have been delayed, we've come across an accident farther on. Mel said this time that maybe God was delaying us so we would BE in and accident, not avoid one. After all, it does go both ways! Fortunately, as far as we know, neither scenario was the case.

Third, the traffic itself. It's not too bad when people are actually doing the speed limit, or maybe just a couple miles over. The big rigs must drive no more than 55 mph and stay in the far right lane that is not peeling off to an exit, cars can drive there if slow or while they are making their way to the exit lane. All other cars, vans, pick-ups and delivery trucks travel in all of the other left lanes (as many as 5! That is a lot of traffic.) But there are drivers who think they are God's gift to the American highway system, with special powers of speed and agility, with cars that will never break down or suddenly have flat tires, who must think that a speed limit of 75 means THEY can really go 80 or 90 if they so desire. It is terrifying when these guys (mostly men, but we did notice some women) weave in and out of lanes trying desperately to "get ahead", or come up so close behind you that you can't see their headlights - at 75 mph!!!! Sometimes in the rain, even. I truly think these people have a death wish. And if these drivers are Believers - shame on them! They take not only their lives in their hands, so to speak, but could cause the deaths or terrible injuries to many more people, to say nothing of the fact that they are sinning simply by breaking the law! The speed limits are there for a reason! I wonder - why is it so important to these drivers that they must be first, or faster, or whatever it is that compells them to drive so dangerously?

But enough of the soapbox. I'm just very thankful to be away from all that traffic. It's easier to stay away from the nuts when there are fewer vehicles on the interstate, like here in Utah, where I am now. :-) I don't know how many times I've been to the LA basin - maybe 15 or 20 times in my almost 56 years. I do know that in all that time, I've only been there a couple times in the winter. Usually it is summer and hot, hot, hot. Palm trees and flowers and blooming bushes, haze, pollution, and heat waves. This time we came after a week of unusual rains and for the first time, I was able to actually SEE the mountains that surround the area. I took the photo above on our last morning as we drove, when the pollution and marine layer were starting to come back to their usual dirty milk look. But wow! Look! This is one of the many mountains that surround LA, one of those that burn in the summer, that slide during the rest of the year, that are so beautiful and steep and wild. It's amazing that such a huge city has such wild areas surrounding it.

Finally we turned left on another freeway and actually headed up into those mountains. I think we drove past Valdez Rocks, on their right side. We've actually been down to them, on their left side and I had no idea they were that close to an 8 lane freeway. Valdez Rocks are where several Star Trek episodes were filmed, and we've seen them in other tv programs and movies as well.

So, up, up, up over the mountains, and then down, down, down into the Mojave Desert. It was interesting to see where the Joshua Trees start growing again. They are obviously a higher elevation plant and do well with hot and cold temps both. Across the desert we drove, mostly in a straight line toward Las Vegas. I just started calling it LV - so we came from LA and were going to LV. :-)

I do not like Nevada very much. I've probably said that before. Oh, I like the geological formations, the desert, the sky, the dirt. I just don't like the people influence in Nevada. Legalized prostitution. Gambling - casinos everywhere. Huge, huge casinos! You can tell exactly where the border is between California and Nevada because there, out in the middle of nowhere desert, when you cross the state line, on one side there is nothing, on the other there is a big casino. In this photo we are still in California. The lake is usually dry. And here you can see the change from California to Nevada. Fortunately, most of Nevada is wild and empty and full of sagebrush and rattlesnake that crawl on their belly, not rattlesnakes that build casinos. :-) I like that part of Nevada. I like the part of Las Vegas that looks like a normal city (well, as much as I like any city, that is!). I felt so terribly sad as we once again drove past The Strip and I saw all the evidence of greed and lust, of broken dreams and broken lives. I find it sad, but appropriate, that one of the first billboards going into the city was a billboard against human trafficking. I look at all of this:


and I only see waste. Wasted money, wasted lives. Sin. Sin in all of it's enticing beauty. Lights! Colors! Sounds! Music! Naked dancing bodies! Back rooms! And so forth. Thankfully, there is another side to Las Vegas, one that is not thought about very often when you hear the words: Las Vegas.

Ok. That's it for now. A rant against LA drivers and a rant against LV. Whew! I'm really not in a bad mood this morning!

But it's time to finish packing up, actually just to get dressed! and get on our way. I'll try and write more tonight, from somewhere in Colorado. :-)

People Are Watching You

Oh, the title of this posts sounds a little scary, doesn't it? :-) I'm not talking about the government here, I'm talking about the people all around us. People are watching you and me all the time. What do they see?

Yesterday Mel and I took "the long way" to get to Indio, CA. I had dropped my camera one too many times (actually this time it flew off the dashboard of the car when Mel did a quick turn in a parking lot that I wasn't expecting). The last two series of photos I took were only partially in focus. I was very disappointed with them. The color really looked 'off', too. So, Mel said I could buy a new one.

We don't have enough money in our bank account to buy a new one right now, so he decided that this was important enough to me and eventually to our ministry that we could put it on a credit card. (It will be paid off next month.) The closest "big box store" for that card is located in Indio, CA, which is 50-60 miles from here. We took a look at the map and decided to take the long way to get there: drive east and then south and then back west on I-10 to Indio. We'd never driven that way before and we always like to see new things. Wow! Beautiful area. Stark. Mostly empty. Fearsome in summer, a little scary in winter. Mojave desert most of the way, then down on to the Colorado desert. (In this photo you can see a lake, created by the recent heavy rains and flooding. We weren't sure if it was real or a mirage at first.) We drove from Yucca Valley east, along the north side of Joshua Tree National Park and through Twenty-nine Palms, south of the huge Marine base there, (notice all the sand on the road - this is a result of the flooding which happened during the storms last week - there are even piles of sand several feet high in some places, scooped off the road like snow in a blizzard!) toward the Arizona border. (This last photo shows how some of the photos are in focus and some are not - I never knew which it was going to be!) I think only 3 vehicles passed us the whole 55 miles east.

By the time we got to Indio it was time to eat. We found the big box store we wanted in a large shopping center. We drove here and there through the center, looking for some cafe or restaurant that looked good. Nothing sounded good at all. :-( Finally, Mel turned the wrong way and we ended up driving away from there for about 2 miles before we could get turned around again and go back. There, on the right, in another section of the shopping center, we saw a McDonald's. We decided that rather than drive all over again trying to think what we were hungry for, we'd just go to McDonald's.

We drove in and Mel parked far away from the door. I was a little unhappy with that. Why couldn't he park closer?? Grrr. But I mostly held my peace.

We walked behind a couple cars, around a corner, crossed the drive-thru lane. Just as we walked up to the entrance door, we met a man with 4 little children. Mel and I paused - they paused. I motioned them forward. The man said thank you. One of his two little girls was chattering away, all excited about being at McDonald's. The other 3 were just quietly anticipating. Mel commented on her chatter, the father commented back in a friendly way.

We walked in behind the family. They stepped to one side of the counter and waited. We stepped to the other side of the counter and looked at the menu board. I still had no idea what I wanted to eat. Finally Mel said, "Shall we just do the usual?" And I agreed. One Big Mac, one Big & Tasty, one fries to share, one drink (I always get a water). I stood near the counter while Mel went and got his drink, straws and napkins.

The man ordered for his family. The worker behind the counter put all of our food on a tray right in front of the man and his kids (it was a glass shelf about chin high on me - first time I've seen that, but this is California!). I reached over and pulled the tray toward me and he kind of apologized, and so did I - took the tray and Mel and I went and found a place to eat.

After eating we went to the restrooms to wash up before leaving. The man and kids were sitting nearby. There was only one room for the women, which meant that those waiting had to stand in line in front of the door. What else do you do when you are #2 in line for the restroom? Look around you, watch other people, try not to stare. I couldn't help but watch the man with his kids. So quiet and polite. Not at all like my rowdy bunch would have been! Not at all like the little one at the next table who was making a lot of noise. I thought they looked like a happy family, and wondered if Papa was giving Mama some free time, and wondered if there were more tiny ones at home, because these 4 were 'stair-stepped' in age.

Finally we left and made it back to our room, up on the Mojave desert.

A couple hours later Mel made a phone call to the pastor of a church plant in Indio. Some one in Yorba Linda had recommended that we contact this guy. Mel hates "cold calling" and had put it off until later. That was good.

This is how the conversation went:

"Hi, this is Mel P. calling." details, etc etc
The pastor responded: "Were you by any chance in Indio today?"
"Yes, we were in Indio today." Mel answered in a questioning voice.

Wow! I didn't even have to hear his side of the conversation - I looked at Mel and mouthed "The guy with the 4 kids!!?"

Mel nodded yes.

The pastor told Mel that the pastor of the church in Yorba Linda had called him and said we are in the area, and told him a little about us. We also met this man about 4 years ago - but we've changed a bit, and we've met so many hundreds of people in that time. But the whole time we were at McDonald's I kept wondering about him and his kids, thinking to myself that it would be so weird if HE was the pastor we needed to contact, wondering if somehow this man would be important in our life at some time. There was a connection there somehow, unexplained at the time. Now I realize it was the Holy Spirit working in each of us. He had wondered about us, too. But we were all too "shy" to approach each other.

I mean, really - what are the chances??!! There are over 2 million people in Riverside County, almost 90,000 in Indio alone, and there are several more cities in the area (Palm Springs, Cathedral City, Desert Hot Springs and more). What are the chances that we all would meet in the parking lot of a little McDonald's at the exact same time? If we had not taken the long route...if we had decided we wanted Panera instead...if Mel had not taken that wrong turn or had parked closer to the door... If any one of those things had been different, we would probably never have even seen this man with his 4 children.

Amazing!

I was watching him with his kids, he was watching us. I wondered - what kind of an impression did we make on him? I know he made a big impression on me - I would have remembered him and the kids, even without finding out who he is.

Isn't that just amazing??

Into The Fog ... And Beauty

Mel and I went up to Mount Vernon, WA today. Then we turned to the east and drove up to the Cascade National Park area. I had hoped that we might see Mount Baker, a volcano, today, but really didn't expect to do so because of the forecast for rain. We did have rain off and on, but a lot of the time it was just very low fog and mist, and even a couple of times blue sky peaked through.

Such a beautiful area! So very different from anything I am really familiar with.
Wet
Drippy
Foggy
Mossy
Ferns
Lichens
Tall, tall trees that reach for the sky
Waterfalls by the dozens, big and small. In one place water was just pouring out of a crack in a huge boulder and I couldn't help but think of Moses and the Children of Israel.
Snow at the higher elevations

Beauty every where we looked. Following are several photos without commentary, as they say on Ukrainian television.