“Land of the free, Home of the Brave”
DAY 1 – California to Arizona
5/3/23 ~ Ready or not, our roadtrip to Williamsburg, VA has begu Leaving Lake Arrowhead which turned chilly and foggy with a forecast of snow…booooo! We have PTSD from snowmaggedon 2023. Get us out of here, next stop Flagstaff, AZ!
We had a fun pitstop in Lake Havasu City, AZ for a late lunch and a fun walk down to London Bridge on a quite Wednesday afternoon. It was windy and warm. Wish we had more time for a stroll, boat ride and ice cream, maybe on our return trip. We arrived at the hotel in Flagstaff, AZ after 8pm and we all enjoyed the unwind. Sadly, the pool and jacuzzi were already closed.
Did I mention, I have to work remotely while travelling and the kids still have to do life learning a.k.a homeachool.
Thank you Husband/Daddy for driving us safely on this epic journey from sea to shining sea! Please PRAY for our family safety, enjoyment and deliverance on every stop enroute planned and unplanned until we are back home with our chickens. I’m ever grateful to the Warhol Family especially Gavin for boarding our girls until we return.
It’s been a dream of mine to do the Amazing Race with my family. Nothing radical, like my three month backpacking trip to South America by myself, like I did back in 1996. More of a journey inspired by reading 80 Days Around the World…only this time I’m not alone but my husband and children are exploring with me. How many of you are waging a bet on this trip? Place your wager on us…we are good for it!
When my son Quentin and daughter Abigail ranked up to participate in the Williamsburg, VA invitation “Drummers Call” with the Mountain Fifes & Drums Corp May 14-21st and we made our fundraising goal…thank you dear family and friends that sponsored Quentin…Let’s Gooo!
I knew this was my opportunity and challenge to make a once in a lifetime learning experience to navigate our country and show them that the world is their classroom in real time not just virtual reality. That our faith as believers in the Holy Spirit guides us to walk with Jesus every single day of our lives to serve the one true Living God in all that we do. Who knew… in Arizona you can get pulled over for staying in the passing lane on Hwy 40, thankfully we were given a warning and no ticket. It was just the reminder we needed to say a decade of the Rosary wverytime we get on the road for the day.
DAY 2 & 3 Arizona to New Mexico
It is such a joy to meet up with Fr. Peter, the Norbertine Priest who married Chris and I near 20 years ago in San Juan Capistrano, CA. He relocated to New Mexico more than a decade ago to build up the Norbertine Abbey Santa Maria De La Vid which is an amazing state of the art place for spirtual retreats. We were blessed to stay in a peaceful 2 bedroom casita on-site with a chapel next door holding the blessed Sacrament. He is also a parish pastor of St. Edwin in Albuquerque, NM that is truly a homesteading church community complete with sheep, chickens and a garden and facility to hold parish events. He gave the kids and Chris a tour of the parish which can serve weddings, quinceañera and large parishioner events complete with soft serve Ice cream maker, a churro maker and a pizza oven. My kids were super impressed!
Sadly, I had to miss Mass as I had a work meeting at the same time. Speaking of working while travelling, Murphys Law kept striking every time I had a work call on the road where I was speaking or leading the meeting, I would lose connectivity. This means I need to be stationary for certain calls now. Working while traveling has proven to be exhausting but I’m thankful my husband is the driver and we can make this trip happen despite all the logistical roadblocks The longest leg of the trip so far was Albuquerque, NM to Oklahoma City, OK. We had a pit stop in Amarillo, TX and found a Gluten-Free restaurant Bent’s Cafe and my kids now know what fried chicken strips are. We arrived after 11pm into Oklahoma and crashed excited for our next day adventure.
DAY 4 Oklahoma
Promise made, Promise kept! When I started the homeachool journey in 2017, we discovered Steve Spangler science. Ya know… “anything worth doing is worth overdoing” for years my kids begged me to take them to Science Museum of Oklahoma. Had the pandemic of 2020 never happened we could have gone when the kids were younger, as luck would have it we made it just before the kids aged out and they still had so much fun with all the exhibits. The highlights were definetly when Quentin sank Abigails battleship, Abigail was all about the Segway saying she needs her own so she can visit Kaitlyn on our mountain roads. It was cute to see them work as a team on the big tracks. As the kids transition into the teen/tween stage and more individual differences surface it made my heart happy to see then work/play together like when they were young. Team work makes the dream work…is what I always say.
DAY 5 – Missouri
We arrived into Branson, MO at 8pm. I chose this location because it was my first assignment consulting for Marriott, my project was to map out Branson.com which was part of the Welk resort acquisition. It seemed like a fun family friendly mid west version of Las Vegas (without perversion) destination with beautiful lakes and eco adventure. The kind of Lake Life community that is fun, active and affordable without it being a full retirement community. I’ve been wanting to relocate to another Lake community outside of commie California and I think I found it. Even the Catholic Church was called Our Lady of the Lake and had many young families and an active parish serving the community. We ended up just going to downtown Branson and ate lunch on the riverbank at Catina Laredo which was like El Torrito back home. We walked the boardwalk and dreamed as I looked at affordable housing on zillow.com. The kids are against moving from our Lake Arrowhead community so I will continue to pray for an exit plan so I can fully do what God wants me to be doing as a woman, mother, wife and community leader. My goal is to serve God and family through homeschooling until my kids have graduated college.
