TRINA HOLDEN

That, my friends, is the sound of the Blue Moose saying hello!

We always knew our bus was special.

Here we are, 11 days into our vacation and this is the first time we’ve had internet access. Well,I confess that we did stop into a Starbucks on Saturday, but we spent the whole time trying to connect with Joanna over in Romania. We were able to let her know how we were doing, and she gave us her update, and then we lost connection. But now we have a good connection in our hotel, so I have a chance to say hello to all my bloggy friends and family! I have kept a journal of the whole trip, so here’s a brief summary of our adventures so far…

Day One We left at 10pm Wednesday night, and were only two hours from home when we had our first engine trouble. Oh, and we hit a deer. But let me tell you, hitting dear with the Blue Moose is like hitting a stray cat with your car – yeah, you notice it, but it doesn’t slow you down much. the engine kept overheating causing the bus to shut down. we sat on the side of the road, trying to decide whether to turn back or continue on – and suddenly, Jeremy said, “God healed the bus”. We didn’t know quite what he meant, until he explained that tried starting up the bus once more and this time the stop engine light went off, and all the other alert lights, and the bus was ready to go again! And it ran and ran and ran, until…

Day Two We pulled into a rest stop in Ohio at 5AM Thursday morning and the bus promptly lost all its transmission fluid. After two hours on the phone with AAA, we were no closer to getting help, and that’s when we prayed that God would send us someone who actually wanted to help us. That’s when a state trooper came along and recommended a towing service to us. And God sent Bob, and his buddy Mark, and that’s when things started turning around. Course, we were in quite a mess, so it took a while for the situation to actually look sunny, but at least we were in air conditioning!

Mom and Dad catching a few winks in the lobby of the truck stop where they fixed the bus. You can sleep anywhere when you’ve been up all night.
The bad news was – they guys covered in grease recommended a complete transmission over haul, or just a new transmission, either of which would cost $10,000. What to do? We had a conference to be at in 2 days, and we had planned on our bus getting us there! We opted to simply replace the hose that had busted, and see if the bus could at least get us to our friends in Western Ohio who have an auto shop. It was another decision bathed in prayer, and God came through again. They replaced the hose and the bus ran. The repair man said, if it was his bus, he’d go for it. So, with only a 12 hour delay, we were on our way again!

On the road again – journaling

Days Three and Four We arrive safely in Des Moines and our host family’s home, where they offered us air conditioning, hot showers, and a homecooked meal. Then it was off to the conference. Two evening session, a good night’s sleep, great teaching and fellowship all day Saturday, and we left Des Moines at 7, headed for Wisconsin Dells. The conference was great, and I have heard you can go to Norm Wakefield’s website to see all the notes and stuff from the sessions. Great stuff, but more on that another time.
Day Five We arrive at our condo in the Dells at 3am and fall into bed. Sunday we spent recuperating from our vacation so far. 🙂
Wisconsin Dells – waterpark capital of the world, and The Boy thought the best fun was the circular stairs in our condo.
Days Six through Eight We bought city passes which gets you into 9 of the main attractions in the Dells for three days. We did the water parks (indoor and outdoor), the world’s 3rd rated roller coaster, river rides, mini golf, etc. It was really fun, but exhausting making the best use of those passes for the three days they were good! I will tell you more about that another time. (most of the pictures from that day are on Jeremy’s camera – the ones for this post came from Elise’s – thanks, Elise!)

Of course, we had to pose by the moose!
Day Nine and Ten We relaxed and truly felt like we were on vacation! Saturday morning we checked out of our condo and headed East again.
Here we are in Starbucks, gathered around a two foot table chatting with Joanna for the first time in over a week. Micah, in the foreground, can receive email on his phone, so he was the one who set up our chat. With the 8 hour time difference, Joanna was eating dinner while we had just finished our breakfast!
The Boy enjoying a cookie with Uncle Micah in the Bus somewhere in Indiana.
Today We are in a hotel in Michigan, having a nice Sabbath rest after a long day of traveling. When we got the the hotel last night, they were all booked, but they were gracious enough to let us park here and use their bathrooms in the lobby until they had a room free for us this morning. Our next destination is Kalamazoo, MI, where I will have the privilege of introducing Jesse to his Great Grandma Bauman. I have not seen my 93 year-old grandmother since she attended our wedding and it will be wonderful to hug her again and listen to her lovely British accent.
So, that’s an update for you all. I was crazy to go so in depth, for it’s not easy to blog on the laptop, and I’m supposed to be on vacation!!! 🙂 If you don’t hear from me again, just assume we’re doing well and having a blast! (oh, and pray for the Blue Moose – I really do want to get home in another week or so!!!)

Reader Interactions

Comments

  4. Rachel says

    Yay!!! updates! i love updates! sounds like a wildly exciting time! and i loved the pictures…specially the one of you all talking to joanna in romania!!! she told me about that one and i could just picture you all around the table talking to her! and now i really do have a picture to look at! lol

    Reply

  5. Traci says

    Thanks for the awesome update! I’m sad that we won’t be joining you in Ohio but I hope you guys have a great time for the rest of your trip!

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *