25000 km plus

Saturday morning dawned bright and clear as we packed up our still-dirty laundry and got going. I had wanted to do all of our wet and dirty laundry at the motel but when I went to the machine there was a couple there with bags and bags of clothes to wash. The motel had only one washer and one dryer. I asked them when they thought they might be finished and they, rather rudely, informed me that it would probably be at about midnight or one o'clock! Well, so much for that. I decided to wait for Albany.  This day we wanted to eat well. We thought that we would treat the kids to pancakes and so where did we go? To the International House of Pancakes! It was our first time and it was wonderful! A large stack of buttermilk pancakes for the boys to share, strawberry-banana for the girls and a bacon-cheese omlette for us. Finish that with coffee and tea and we were in heaven! Okay, after travelling for this long things like good meals makes a difference!

We only had to drive about 400km from Orlando to Albany in Georgia and so we had a relaxed day planned. With full and happy bellies we started out on a search through thrift stores for baseball gloves and knee boards. Dominik had downloaded a map of a part of Orlando which we followed as we drove out of town, stopping at every thrift store possible on our way.  We found pathetic thrift stores, nice thrift stores, unorganised stores and we also checked out two flea markets and a pawn shop. It was interesting, especially the Saturday morning flea markets! People just had so much junk for sale! Dominik almost bought a knee board at the pawn shop until he turned the board asround and water dripped out of it!  We tried but we had no success in finding what we were looking for. So, on to Albany.

You might look on a map and wonder why we picked Albany, Georgia as a stop on a tour which included places like the Grand Canyon and the USS Midway. Well, it is the home of Sherwood Baptist Church and we were eager to visit it.  You might have heard of the movies 'Facing the Giants', 'Fireproof' and 'Courageous'. They are all productions of Sherwood Films, a ministry of this church. Their first Film, 'Flywheel', was made as a community outreach on a small budget. It quickly became popular and the other films followed over the years. If you haven't seen these movies then do! We love and recommend them highly. Their content, acting and humour make them absolutely wonderful and we are eager to see their next production!  That being said, we were going to their church not to gawk at the people who had acted in their films, for they mainly use their church family in all aspects of their films, from acting to wardrobe to catering etc, but we wanted to experience their church. In Austria I sometimes watch a service from Sherwood online so it was great to finally be there to see one live. We are so pleased that we did because the church was friendly and warm and lively! Jeremiah happily went off to Sunday School by himself and every person that I met in the children's area was friendly and welcoming. The service started out with a bang! The music was great! They are a part of the Southern Baptist Convention, just like the church in St. Augustine, and they had singers and a band and a choir. Just slightly different than our church back in Micheldorf, eh? Okay, night and day different! The service was the Pastor's 25 year celebration in the church and it was longer than usual so I was out and walking around with Josiah a bit, meeting more people. I think what impressed us the most was the sense of joy, peace and fun in everyone that we met. We could have stayed happily there for ages!  However, we had to get over to Alabama for the night. Just before we left Jonathan was excited to see Stephen Kendrick standing near to us. He is a writer, producer and director of Sherwood Films, together with his brother, Alex. We encouraged Jonathan to say hello and we had a quick chat with him and met his family.  I should have talked with his wife Jill, as she looked really and sincerely friendly too, but we were focusing on the talk between Jonathan and her husband. We did see some of the people who had acted in the movies too, and then we set out for Alabama, chatting with more church members all the way out to the car, including a quick chat with Pastor/Actor Ken Bevel. We left happy and eager to watch all four movies again when we get home to Austria.

Our drive over to Vestavia, Alabama was on country roads, not the Interstate, so it took a bit longer than usual. We drove by cotton field after cotton field, and stopped to pick a piece to show the kids. We also noticed church after church after church- a sure sign that we were in the Bible Belt! We had crossed into a new time zone, gaining an hour, so it was earlier again when we arrived at our acandleinthewindow hosts home.  We were beautifully welcomed into Kellie and Dale's home and even went out to their cell group Christmas Party while their teen daughters babysat for us. We really enjoyed our short time in Vestavia, especially hearing about our hosts own experiences travelling around the would as a family. Now that we are seeing the end of our own trip looming up on us it was good to hear how they found life after being on the road for so long.

Monday was just a driving day as we had 700 km to cover getting up to Petersburg, Kentucky and the Creation Science Museum.  It was suggested to us that we should stop at the Opry Mills Hotel in Nashville to see their Christmas decorations. Even though we had the address, our navi didn't want to find it! Eventually, just by chance, I found the hotel on the map. This stop ended up taking us longer than we had expected.  Somehow, that day, we weren't motivated to get going very quickly. We ate lunch there at the mall,  we then walked past the Grand Old Opry and over to the hotel.  In the atrium in the middle of the hotel was a display which reminded us of the big hotel display in Las Vegas! Well, not quite  that big!  There was a canal in which a boat cirled around with tourists in it. A giant Christmas tree was the center of focus, the place where people wanted their photos taken. As we walked around the atrium there were little Christmas trees decorated and sponsored by different country music stars, such as Sarah Evans.  The lights and decorations were beautiful, even if we still aren't used to seeing palm trees on Christmas scenes! 

We made our way back to the car, nothing that we were parked outside of another Bass Pro Shop. Hmmm...what to do? Yes, we went in. The kids player for a bit while Dominik picked up something that we had forgotten at the last store. Finally we were on our way, now behind schedule.  
When we finally arrived near the Creation Science Museum we were very ready to find a motel. We drove near to the Museum and found nothing. Then, trying to go back to Florence we took a wrong turn on the freeway and ended up in Lawrenceburg, Indiana! We tried one cheap-looking motel and I was very pleased to hear that they didn't have any rooms with two double beds. The man looked unreputable (I mean, scary) and had a disgusting t-shirt with pictures of dripping blood on it. So, we headed across the road to a very fine looking 'Motel and Suites' where we should have gone in the first place. Not only did they have large, clean rooms but they had a large free cooked breakfast and a heated pool! We couldn't take advantage of the pool that night but we did the next! 

We were so wonderfully relaxed after a good nights sleep and hot breakfast that we booked in for another night. We arrived at the Creation Science Museum, just a few miles over the Ohio River in Kentucky, a half an hour early.  We had been given some guest passes for the Museum and so we had a free entry to everything there.  In the two days that we were there we saw two Planetarium shows, watched 'Men in White', a half-hour film and heard two of their staff scientists speak. Dr. Virginia Purdom spoke on the genetics of Adam and Eve and Dr. Terry Mortensen's topic was 'Bethlehem and Beyond'.  The main section of the museum talks about geology, paleontology dinosaurs and the beginning of the Bible. There is a walk-through of parts of Genesis, from the creation of the world to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, through the Fall to Noah and the Flood. They had animatronic models, normal models and displays as well as videos depicting various events in the Bible.  It was really interesting and well worth the visit.  Their books, videos (some available on Youtube) and magazine (answers in genesis- www.answersingenesis.org) are educational, well-written and challenging.

On our second day we knew that we had to get away before the museum closed because we had to drive three hours to our accommodation that night- another acandleinthewindow family in Ohio.  On the way there Dominik nearly pulled over when we saw signs for a Tim Horton's just outside of Columbus, OH!  We hadn't seen one since September 28 when we crossed the border from Alberta into Montana and it was a sure sign that we were almost "home".  Well, for this side of the water!  We didn't stop, saving that pleasure for the Canadian side of the border!!!  We managed to find the large, rural house around 6pm and were welcomed by the man of the house and some of his 14 children!  We had corresponded with this family a little before we arrived because they had given us the guest passes for the museum, but I hadn't realised how large their family is.  Most of them were out at a prayer meeting but we settled in happily chatting and eating dinner, our kids playing with the kids which were there. 

The next day, after Rebecca had learned a song on the harp and Dominik had played a little violin, we headed out, armed with bags of coffee that our hosts sell. It certainly made the pyjama bag smell lovely!  Finally, after months of travel, this would be the day when we would hit some snow.  We were happily driving along, and I was thinking how thankful I was that the roads were clear (thinking about how Buffalo had gotten hit weeks before- and we were heading for Buffalo) when Dominik suddenly said, "Look at the cars coming our way.  They're covered in snow.".  Great.  About a half an hour later the road had about three inches (7 cm or so) of unplowed snow on it. We had drastically slowed down but visibility was alright.  The snowplows didn't come out all the way through the rest of Ohio or Pennsylvania but when we drove into New York State and paid for the toll road all was clear! Even Buffalo itself wasn't bad.  Just a bit slippery.  Crossing the border was easy.  The Canadians only wanted to know if Dominik was planning to re-enter the U.S. before flying to Austria and if we had been to any Ebola-affected countries during our time in the States.  Hmmm... No, we only drove around within the States.  I suppose there are people who might have parked their Ontario car in the U.S. and flown to Africa (with 5 children) to an Ebola region and now were driving back to Canada again. It could happen.  But it seemed a ridiculous question to me at the time!

We arrived to a very snowy Niagara Falls, ON just in time for tea! We had to locate some snow gear but for the first hour or so Jonathan and Rebecca didn't even come into the house.  They were thrilled to stay outside and shovel our hosts driveway! :-)   Ahhh, we enjoyed a roast chicken and potato supper and went for a drive by the falls to see it lit up with Christmas lights.  Well, there was a loop to drive with lights displays but the falls itself wasn't overly illuminated.  We did receive some 3-D-type glasses though which make all lights appear as snowflakes.  We all had fun with those!  That night we happily bedded down in a warm and clean house, with a Tim Horton's just around the corner.  We were back!

The next morning we went to see the Falls by daylight, amazing the kids by viewing the edge of the falls where it plummets over and thunders down.  We weren't there long but it is an awesome sight.  The first stop on our drive was, can you guess, a Pro Bass Shop!  It was only about 20 minutes from the Falls.  We looked at a lot but ended up leaving empty-handed.  I still needed some winter boots but none fit the bill.  I bought my first Tim's coffee instead!  

Driving towards Toronto, coming into it near noon on a Friday we saw some similarities to the traffic in California.  It was really busy!  Nonetheless we arrived to visit my Uncle and Aunt in Scarborough in time for lunch.  It was a really nice visit.  We hadn't seen them for years and my Uncle, my Dad's brother, is now 79 and his mind isn't what it once was.  It was good to catch up, to see my boys giving their great-Uncle a cuddle, even if he wasn't always sure who they were.  We visited with other family there as well, hearing what everyone is up to. 

Then we had to get on to our next stop before finally arriving at my parents in Brockville.  We had decided to buy a Berkeley Water filter for use on our property in the Lanark Highlands.  We have a lake there but no potable water.  With this we would be able to use the lake water and not have to bring in well water from friends. A company in Port Hope was to have them so we went looking for an office- and found an old house.  It was the right spot but the man works out of his house.  His website made it look like a larger company.  Anyway, he, and apparently everyone else, is out of these filters for now. They are hugely backordered.  Oh well.  We don't need it just yet.  Still, it was an interesting stop.  This man was talking to us the entire time with a half-naked parrot on his shoulder.  He and his wife had rescued it from some horrid place and it had feathers on its wings now but not on its body.  The other parrot there was about 40 years old!   It didn't look as though it moved around much.  With that little adventure over, we drove on home to my parents, arriving, as usual, in time for a meal!

Our journey, starting and ending in Brockville, was a 25,300km journey. We spent somewhere between 500-600 hours in the car together.  The entire experience was wonderful, through all the ups and downs, wonderful and horrible food, clean and warm or cold and dirty houses and motels, we did it all together.  We can tell you who and what was memorable and what is, for us, worth doing again.  We can also tell you what we would do differently.  We have had all this time together and yet there was very little spare time.  Hence the lack of postcards and personal emails sent out.  And the late blog posts!  Every spare minute was spent trying to get the kids to do math or german, write in their journals, visit with our lovely hosts, write emails about up-coming accommodation arrangements and cleaning our laundry and the car.  Do you know how quickly chaos comes with 5 kids under 10 in the back of a mini-van?  It doesn't take long.  We were so pleased that we hadn't lost anything along the way and then in the last week a favourite pair of pj's and a teddy were left behind.  I'm working on those.  

We're not done our holiday.  We will be here in Canada for Christmas and fly back on the 30th, just in time for a New Year's party with friends at our house on the 31st!  Good, eh?  Yup, very good friends will already be there waiting with food already cooked.  It will be a bittersweet end.  Seeing everyone and having my own house and kitchen again, cooking what we like, having water without chlorine in it...these things will be great!  But Dominik will be working and 4 of 5 kids will be in school and kindergarten.  It will be quiet at home just Josiah and I.  We will adjust, but, as new friends who had also travelled for months told us, it could be a hard time of adjustment.  I think that I will start planning our trip to England for the summer and that will help!  Ah well.... sometime next week (or so) I'll post again about our Canadian Christmas season!  Until then, Merry Christmas!