Back on the Road

Back on the road smiles! Pure joy!!!

Aww.... what a beautiful Saturday morning. The sun is shining, snow covers the ground, and life is coming back to the frozen earth! After a really good nights sleep we are so amped to get moving and get back on the road. It's almost as exciting as the first day we left. Ever since the New Year we've basically been hiding out at a house so the road is really calling our names. We spent the morning and afternoon packing, showering, and organizing. By four thirty we were ready to get moving. We said goodbye to Chelsea and Calie and headed over to the Napa Store to pick up a few things and say goodbye to Brett. It was a short and sweet farewell! We brought Brett a thank you sixer of Blue Moon and  loaded up with gas, propane and coffee and hit the road. IT'S ADVENTURE TIME!

My husband is a stalker

OKC

Gumby is just hanging out

Entertaining Marley and ourselves

this picture does no justice 

74,000 miles

Our son!

We had all sorts of things planned to do on our way through Missouri and Oklahoma but we took one look at the Doppler and change our minds. A storms a brewing and headed straight for us. Feet of snow, blizzard conditions, ice, freezing temperatures- UGH! We are so over winter. Ever since Kentucky (Nov. 12) we have been experiencing the season and quite frankly we are just ready for some sun shine. So we dropped all of our plans and decided to drive west as fast as we could to try and beat the storm. We stopped at a gas station outside Tulsa and as I was walking out from the gas station bathroom I found Jordan talking to a man who was standing next to the door with a backpack and duffel bag. Apparently his name was Patrick Johnson and he had just got off probation in Tulsa. He was headed east to see his son Shiloh. He pulled out pictures and introduced us to Shiloh. He was named after a drifter that Patrick had met and admired on the road sometime ago. I guess the guy was really excited and dedicated to see his son. He had walked 50 miles yesterday, slept under a bridge last night, took some sketchy hitch hiking rides, and walked 50 more miles today. He was a really nice guy that had a bad past. We talked for a good while and he told us where to stay in Tulsa and really wanted to make sure we were in a safe part of town. Before we pulled out we decided to make him a snack bag with some of the food and water we had. We were barely leaving the parking lot and he already was eating it, must have been hungry. A fellow traveler just in a different medium. Wish we could have given him more.  

It's funny because meeting Patrick filled us with a lot of joy. As we kept trucking to Tulsa we just talked about how this lifestyle allows us to meet so many people of all walks of life and allows us to reconnect with old friends. And if you add the landscapes, sunsets, and new cities we really have nothing to complain about. Life is pretty perfect. Well we are off to bed in a new Walmart parking lot on the safe side of town (after we argued for 20 minutes about which parking spot would be the best one! haha). Love to you ALL!

Out in Mizzou

 It was a bit of a whirlwind getting here and it continued upon arrival. Not in a bad way, just always an adjustment when we get settled into a new environment. Plus with Brett and Jordan starting work the next day our adjustment time was pushed into hyper drive.

Brett bought 20 acres of land in Wheatland, MO over five years ago. It came with a mobile home that has 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, kitchen, dining room, living room, laundry room and a huge deck. It's seriously awesome! Chelsea (his new bride) has been doing a lot of cleaning, painting and fixing up the ol' "bachelor pad" it has been for the past five years. They have been so good to us and have given us our own room and hot shower to use while we are here. It's such a relief from the winter in Destiny. Even though our heater works great, it's just nice being in a warm house during the 19 degree weather. We are extremely grateful. Outside the house the property is gorgeous. It's winter and everything is dead and naked but man it's still beautiful. There are trees of all sizes with these amazing twisting branches. I can only imagine what it will look like in Spring.The house is off the main road quite a bit so it's nice and quiet, just what we like. When the sky is clear you can see so many stars.

Handsome Napa Guy!

Jordan's first day of work, lots of belts to put away

Our first Missouri snow

Beautiful lake right up the street from Brett's

It was cold!

The downside of being out in the sticks is the limited connection we have to the outside world. The cell service is usually good enough to send texts but in order to make a call we have to go for a walk. With the weather being anywhere from 12-28 degrees in the evening or a daily high of 38, going for a walk just really isn't fun. On top of that our brand new lap top took a dive. Justin (Jordan's cousin) took a look at it in Arkansas and found zero viruses, he thinks the hard drive crashed. We got a defective computer, considering we only bought it 5 months ago. It's been hard not being able to connect with everyone, keep up with the blog, or do any of our normal Internet things or phone things. I think because we are hitting our "5 month itch" (5-6 months into any trip away from home we start really missing our people) the whole disconnect thing becomes much harder.

Even on an Iphone, my husband takes amazing pictures

Jordan and Taylor Swift

Red Neck version of Mator

Cute little girl!

Right across from Brett and Chelsea's Courthouse wedding

My boy lounging on his pillow couch

Other than that I have had a LOT of down time. Jordan has been working ten hour days, three to six times a week. I have been trying to stay busy by cleaning out the motor home, reading, planning a fun trip home, and hanging out with Chelsea and Calie. When Jordan's not working he's been relaxing, hanging out with Brett, playing his guitar, or video games. We have gone on walks through the property, went to Brett and Chelsea's court house wedding, went car shopping with them and just relaxed. We are getting really excited to get back on the road. We miss our girl, Destiny, and adventures. We have a lot of exciting things planned for the trip west bound and can't wait another minute to get driving!

Me and Jordan's beard! ha!

Our answer to living life to the fullest

We went treasure hunting and found some awesome fossils

HUGE LEAVES!!

Just want to know why there are shells in Missouri!?

God's creation is insane!

Mind blowing

Jordan practicing the song for Tyler and Chelsea's
first dance

Calie putting on a show for us!

We made it out just in time- before a big blizzard hit

ice roads

Love this shot out in farm country

Brett and Merv

Me and my 50 layers of clothing, I'm always cold

Cute little grandma blankies they are snugglin with

Just some cows

Storm Chasers

We check the weather more than anyone I know these days. We are more cautious of high winds, torrential down pours, and overnight freezes than we have ever been. In a house you don't have to think twice of these things- in Destiny it all matters immensely, The rainy nights are no longer a peaceful pitter-patter on the roof as you doze into a sweet slumber.... it brings anxiety, worry and anger. No matter how many tubes of silicone we lather there is still a leak somewhere. We have figured out a few tricks to stop most of them but when it really comes down- we are helpless!

It's Monday night and it looks like a huge storm is about to hit the whole Mid-west. It is time to say goodbye to Nashville and make a run for Brett's. We drove up to Benton, IL to stay at a Walmart and get on the road. It was about 1am by the time we pulled up and we almost ran out of gas. Turns out that in small towns nobody stays open late, not even gas stations! Thank you Lord for letting us find one that was open right as we were coming up on "E"!

I woke up at 7am to start the next 8 hour stretch of driving. The wind was bad- like blow you into a  whole other lane bad. Turns out there are tornado watches right where we were driving. After passing through St. Louis Jordan took the wheel and that's when all hell broke loose. The sky was dark, the winds were crazy and it just started pouring. The horizon was looking worse and worse and the Doppler images weren't promising. But we had no choice to put the pedal to the metal and hope the tornado watches were lies. At one point there were a couple of extremely dark clouds almost touching down right next to us. We were pretty sure it was going to form a tornado in a matter of minutes! (I know we are dramatic city kids). We pushed on the long drive... well it felt long because we were stressing over the weather and maybe because I might have put the wrong address into the GPS which took us on a 50 mile detour (at most, not the 200 miles the boys were trying to accuse me of!!!!) So yes, with two city kids running from a mid west storm we were so glad to make it safe and sound and all in one piece.

This was taken in the afternoon, the clouds were so eerie

Not always reassuring....

This is just one of the storms we had to cross through,
we were in the red part most of the time!

Brett, Chelsea, and Callie took us out to dinner at a local diner and we all got acquainted. Jordan and Brett have grown up together in Lake Arrowhead, but I had only seen him in passing a few times. Chelsea is a few years younger than I am but we both spent some years in Arrowhead so it was fun to try and see if we knew any of the same people. We are off to bed now- in a warm, water proof home with running water, thanks to Brett! Jordan starts work at the Napa store tomorrow, wish him luck!