Month: March 2020

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March 19 – 26, 2020 Cochise, AZ – at Alan and Karen’s Chapel Ranch!

Where should we/could we go to “Shelter-in-place”?

We contacted Alan and Karen Johnson (cousin) to see if we could come and spend some time with them in Cochise, AZ. We had planned a visit, but now we needed a place to stay for a while! They said “of course, come on over!” Check out their website www.chapelranch.org

It was a beautiful drive from Texas through New Mexico to Arizona. BIG SKY COUNTRY! The Buttercups were in full bloom with the backdrop of the blue sky and the mountains we were blessed with a lot of “eye candy”!

We passed the “worlds largest” road runner as we traveled through New Mexico (Las Cruces). The one at Fort Stockton (2nd largest) was 22 feet long, this one, made out of recycled junk, measures over 20 feet tall and 40 feet long! Impressive

We made it to Chapel Ranch, AZ! This is a beautiful setting! Alan and Karen have purchased 40 acres at the base of the Cochise Stronghold (mountains in the background). The stronghold is a National Park with camping grounds and many hiking trails. It was great to see what they have been creating and learn their heart to provide a place of spiritual retreat for others!

So many roses! Karen has a real gift for propagating roses! She has taken cuttings from a few rose bushes and has planted a huge rose garden with 1,500 plus roses! When these are all mature and blooming can you imagine the beauty and the fragrance that will be here in the desert? There are walking paths, benches, and an orchard sitting in front of these spectacular peaks!

Since we offered to help work in someway – Alan introduced us to this … a “Hula Hoe”! It slices through the dirt just below the surface and cuts the roots of weeds – either pulling or pushing the blade.

We became professional ho-ers in a matter of hours! After several days, we completed the entire rose garden before we left Alan and Karen’s place!

Alan is working to put in a large Koi pond with rocks. plants, and streams just off the front deck of the house. He’s got all the pumps, filters, and the plumbing completed and is real close to laying the rubber liner. We definitely want to return to see this and the rose garden!

Alan took us out to where they have a vision for a future Chapel building. The setting here will be amazing! Check out how Ginger is helping by tearing down the yucca. She really was vicious with these plants – they don’t have a chance!

The face of Jesus

One day while sitting on the front porch, Alan asked if we “could see it?” After looking around, he pointed out the “face of Jesus” in the mountain rocks looking over the ranch. We did see it! The unique thing about it is that it is only visible certain times of the day with everything “just right”. The face is made up of shadows, boulders, outcroppings of trees, and sunshine. Very Cool!

We know that God will use this place to minister to so many souls. We said good-bye, but we plan on being back to help another day. Thanks Alan and Karen for sharing your ranch with us, giving us a safe place to be during these crazy days, and for sharing your vision to encourage others in God’s Kingdom! We leave refreshed and spiritually encouraged!

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March 12 – 18, 2020 PLANS CHANGED! We’re going to El Paso, TX and then……??

South Llano River State Park, TX was our next stopover for one night. The weather was warm and we had visions of floating and wading in the river to cool off and relax! (This was advertised on their web page). But when we checked in, they told us that all river activities had to end daily at 3:00 pm due to the effort to encourage wild turkey roosting on their nature preserve…we had arrived at 2:30 pm. Pretty disappointed about that. We did enjoy another nature hike, they had bird blinds set up so you could hide and record different birds coming and going – pretty cool.

EXIT AHEAD!

We had to change our planned route for COVID 19 Regulations!

EXIT AHEAD! News about the Corona virus had been circulating since early February, but not a lot of attention was given to it – at first! Now we learned that the April Juice Plus LIve Conference in Phoenix, AZ had been canceled! We also learned that ALL of our reserved campsites in New Mexico and Arizona had been canceled and money refunded. We scrambled to make a new route – so far Texas was still open – but we needed a place to “shelter-in-place”, but where? This was another opportunity to trust God and watch how He would direct and provide for our every need! His “exit” plans always work out for good – we’ve earned this truth over and over throughout our lives. God IS good!

We stayed at Fort Stockton, TX for a couple of nights. This allowed Lorree to work at ROH on Monday. We got to experience the worlds 2nd largest Road Runner in downtown Fort Stockton! There were lots of yucca plants along the highway – finally got to get a picture close up for comparison of the size! We never had these in La Junta, CO!

EL PASO, TX!

Lorree helped out driving across Texas – sooooo many miles to travel! We travel with all of our “gadgets” turned on; Garmin GPS, Google Maps, rear view camera behind the trailer, nothing’s going to surprise us (ha! ha!) Lorree tried to eat that semi!

We were able to make reservations at the Mission RV Park in El Paso, TX. Very nice park (even though we were just located just off the interstate and parked on a gravel “parking lot”). We enjoyed using their swimming pool and hot tub a couple of times! We were thankful for a place to stay for a few nights – we learned that other campgrounds were closing and telling people to leave ASAP. RV’ers are scrambling all over the nation to find a place to hunker down. Never imagined we would be faced with this when we started our new lifestyle!

We sure eat good when we get to settle down for a few days! The camp store sold ice cream – so we HAD to try the famous Blue Bell Ice Cream – YUM!

El Paso sits right on the boarder of Mexico. We drove by a section of the boarder wall that President Trump is building. Pretty impressive – not an eye-sore. We could actually see through it – but it would be pretty hard to climb over!

We went on a day trip to the mountings right outside of El Paso. We ended up at Franklin Mtn State Park. The new rules allowed for day visits and hiking, but no overnight camping (?…go figure!) We never saw any of the famous blue bell blooms (too early – usually in April they say), but we saw lots of the yellow Buttercups and Indian Paintbrush plants. Beautiful landscapes!

Aztec Caves Trail – looked like a nice moderate hike – we set out on a new adventure!

This hike about did us in – except that we were wise to stop, rest, and take our time! We were at about 5,300 ft elevation. It was about a mile to the caves with an elevation change of about 600 ft. We realized that although we thought we were “in shape” we needed more work on that! It was a bit treacherous coming down because of the steep path and the loose rocks, so glad we have walking sticks! We had a great day!

On the way home, we drove along side the boarder wall and came across this mile-long line of semi’s. They were going into Mexico – we don’t know if this is an everyday occurrence or a slow down of border crossing because of COVID 19.

Getting some Vitamin D and ultra violet light to keep the virus far away! The warm sunshine felt so good!

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March, April, May, 2020 YIKES! COVID-19, Our brother Gary, and changes to our lives.

Shelter-in-place! Isolate! Self-Quarantine! Social Distancing! “Safer-at-Home”

Along with the rest of the world we entered into the mysterious and “fearful” world of COVID-19. As we watched the news and wondered how this would affect our travel plans….we started seeing signs and hearing reports of “Self Quarantine”, “Isolate”, “Stay-at-Home”. All travel is being discouraged, Campgrounds are closing, so we had to regroup and make changes for the weeks ahead. See the following blogs for how we “rolled-with-the-virus”. God opened up new adventures for us that was not on our radar. New people, new places, and a new way to trust in His love and protection!

These are just some of the Headlines that we are reading. The whole world is reacting to this “deadly virus” in unimaginable ways.

Every day…no, every hour the landscape of recommendations, rules, and orders are changing our lives along with everyone else. Social distancing and face masks are now the norm at every truck stop. Rest areas are closed/barricaded, restaurants are closed to dine-in (take-out only), and all State Parks and National Parks throughout the US are closed.

All groups are limited to 10 or less people, so all churches and any other gathering places for any reason are in effect “closed”.

Adding a face to COVID-19, Gary was diagnosed with the Coronavirus. Hundreds of people praying!!

We received word in late March that my brother Gary tested positive for the virus and was placed on a ventilator. He was sedated and partially paralized to keep him from dropping his O2 levels trying to protect his other organs. Things looked very grim. His wife Wanda was not allowed to enter the hospital or see Him for a month. All we could do was pray and trust God with Gary’s life.

Hundreds of people were praying as the word spread about Gary. Then we received this pic …and the announcement of a miracle! Gary was alert, off the ventilator, and Wanda was able to be with Gary again! We were overjoyed and full of thanksgiving and praise to the Lord for His mercy and love for Gary and the family!

Gary still has a long road of recovery. During his down tile with the ventilator he developed a serious and deep bed-sore wound. After operations, a special “sand bed”, and lots of tender loving care, he is making progress. The next steps will be weeks (months?) of re-hab before heading home to continue to recover. We are continuing to pray daily for God to completely heal him and give him strength for the days ahead!

Changes made to our daily life.

Shopping is probably the biggest change for most people. All small business are orderd “closed” so all shopping is on-line or at the big-box stores. The economy has tanked – unemployment is higher that anytime is US history. Shelves of “essential” products are empty (e.g. toilet paper!?!). We are shopping once a week – get there, check off our list, and get back “home”. We only were our masks when required – so far twice. We are not living in fear but we do practice social distancing, washing often and using hand sanitizer. The most comforting thing for us is that God led us to increase our immunity by practicing good heath habits and eating nutritious fruits and vegetables. Taking Juice Plus! daily has given us the benefit of a strong supported healthy immune system. We continue to thrive and enjoy life even during this pandemic.

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March 8 – 11, 2020 San Antonio, TX!!

Our first KOA! Very nice, lots of comfort items (store, pool, activities, meals, etc). It was fairly crowded so we pretty much stayed at “our place’. This was a great home base to see and experience San Antonio. We even rode the metro bus to and from our camp site so we didn’t have to drive and try to find parking – score!

We took the “hop-On-Hop-Off” Bus tour through San Antonio. There was so much construction and building renovations going on that it was a bit disappointing – plus the tour driver was hard to hear – ugh! But we enjoyed getting a lay of the land and where the important sites were.

We really enjoyed the River Walk! We walked for a few miles, and then rode the river tour boat. Lots of interesting facts about San Antonio and the history of the buildings and river!

We found a great place to eat right along the river, so good! (Of course the birds loved the leftovers 🙂

And then we visited remains of the chapel at the Alamo. It was good to learn the history of the Alamo while on site. It always carries a deeper appreciation of what took place. The letter that was penned asking for help was an eye opener for us, and re-learning that the final battle was lost. Hence the motto, “Remember the Alamo!”

We met up with Rick and Sharon Carlton from our home church in Canon City! this was their old stopping grounds. They took us out to eat at a local Cat fish and onion rings restaurant – boy was it tasty! It’s always fun to meet up with friends while traveling – making memories! We said goodbye to San Antonio – there’s more to see and do next time!

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March 4 – 7, 2020 From Alabama to Texas!

Clarkco State Park, MS

We hit the raod again, our next destination is San Antonio, TX! Our first stop was an overnighter in Mississippi at Clarko State Park. Nice park – but it rained and rained and rained! glad we only were staying one night!

We were dry and warm inside. It was interesting to look outside and see a guy walking his dog – even the dog had a raincoat !!

Tickfaw State Park, LA

Our next stop was Tickfaw State Park in Louisiana. Tickfaw is an Indian name meaning “Rest Among the Pines.”  The State Park was just north of New Orleans. We didn’t have time to get into town – maybe next trip! This was a neat nature preserve that we hiked and learned about some of the local wildlife.

On the nature trail we did see one of these “Sirens”, they look like an eel!

It was a great hike (SO QUIET!) Didn’t see a lot of wild life, but some very interesting cypress trees, flowers, and green vines.

Kliebert & Sons Gator Tours!

Then we went to a local Alligator Tour place. This was all inland – no swamps or bayous – but all in all a very good tour of a variety of captive animals with a great guide that shared many interesting facts. (We did not see any Gator Wrestling – but we’ve heard they do that here!?)

We did not hold the Boa – yikes!

We made it to Texas!

We crossed the mighty Mississippi River, we are always so amazed at the size of these rivers (compared to what we have in Colorado). Then…..I (Dennis) pulled into a Welcome Center/Rest Stop. I didn’t see the sign that said “Warning! No RV’s!” and turned onto a crazy bit of road that ran under the freeway! There was a sign ahead that warned the height limit was 12′ – and no turn around. (See that yellow marked upper cement corner in the picture, it cleared only about 10′). Fortunately we are at 11′ and were able to weave through – whew! But it was a bit unnerving to go under those freeways in order to make a u turn and return the same way. We were both clinching our teeth – yikes!! Close call!

We’re officially in Texas, enjoying our stop over at the first Buc-ee’s that we see! Oh that brisket sandwich… YUM!

We stayed one night at Boomtown USA RV park – right alongside the interstate (see that car in the background whizzing by?) – convenient, but pretty noisy! Next stop – San Antonio!

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February 27 – March 3, 2020 From Florida to Anniston, AL

Old Pavilion RV Park, Perry , FL

After our SOWERS Rally and work projects we had a month to travel and explore more of the country. Our first stop was an effort to camp on the beach. Well we did -sort of. It was a nice spot that catered to fishermen. The tide was very interesting as it came in during the day and out at night – quite a movement of water!

Our spot was right on the edge of the water/beach. We immediately were reminded of Christ as we looked out and saw a hand made cross with John 3:16 written on it. Everywhere we go God reminds us that He is with us!

Essentially we relaxed! After two months of working and the tension of getting our truck fixed – we were blessed to have some down time. We didn’t do much but we commented that we enjoyed not having a schedule for a few days. Some rest for our souls!

White Oak Creek Park, COE, Eufaula, AL

This was a great overnight camp spot on our way to Anniston. This was spot No. 1 – It looked a bit unlevel – but we were able to level the trailer with no problem.

It was peaceful and quiet by the lake – very few other campers nearby. Lots of grassy area by the lake.

Looking at the trees nearby, we noticed this ivy growing up the truck of the tree. Pretty and delicate – so uniform!

Anniston, AL We get to see our kiddos!

We’ve arrived! It was good to spend time with family again – we even remembered how to park our trailer 🙂

We had fun playg g

We had fun playing games with Emily & Jessica.

After a trip to the chiropractor for both of us, we enjoyed a field trip to the Museum of Natural History – very interesting and great exhibits!

These girls have a lot of energy and play so well together. We saw grat improvement in their front/back flips!

Love these girls – Tate & Kimberly as well! So glad we were able to spend a few days with them before heading West!