Because we weren’t able to tow the motorcycle behind us on our trip from Oregon to Arizona, on Monday, Mark flew back to Oregon to get his motorcycle and he’s been working on making his way back here by bike.
Monday night, a huge wind storm was blowing the RV around and the awning was flapping hard in the wind. I usually love storms, but I was scared during this particular one. Mark wasn’t here and I wasn’t sure whether I was supposed to bring the awning in, and if so, I didn’t know how to do it. Things outside were blowing all over the place and I kept hearing loud bumping sounds against the RV. Even though the stabilizers were down, the RV was rocking. I called Mark and he assured me that the awning was secure and I didn’t need to do anything about it. I was still so afraid that I took out my Bible and started looking up verses about wind and storms and I was praying hard. It seemed like when I started doing that, the storm began to subside. Things were still going bump in the night when I went to bed, but the RV wasn’t rocking and the awning didn’t seem to be flapping so hard. The next morning, the storm was over, and on walking around the RV, there didn’t seem to be too much strewn around the parking lot as I half expected. The rest of the week has gone much better for me, but tonight, like a matching bookend, the wind is picking up again. It’s nothing like it was on Monday night though!
In Oregon, Mark was picked up at the airport by his mother and taken to spend a couple of nights at my mother’s house. He had mailed a bunch of stuff to himself and had to wait there until they arrived. Among other things, he bought some heated clothing and put it on as he was getting ready to leave Mom’s house on Wednesday afternoon. It was a good thing he had the heated clothing because even with it, he had to stop several times a day to warm up at a truck stop. His extremities would get cold, but it could have been a lot worse.
Mark had thought that being on the motorcycle, he would be able to travel faster than in the RV. What he hadn’t counted on was that the lithium batteries that were heating his clothes only lasted 5 hours, and once they died, he had to find a place to spend the night fairly quickly because it was too cold to keep traveling, so he spent Wednesday night in Pendleton, OR.
Last night, he had made arrangements to spend the night with his sister in West Haven, UT, 20 miles north of where we stopped in the RV at Layton on our way down. She got home late from work and they visited for a bit and went to bed. This morning, she made breakfast for him and sent him on his way.
The sun went down about an hour and a half before he stopped at Page, AZ for tonight. He said it was very dark and there weren’t many other people on the road with him. It was fairly late by the time he got to his motel. He had stopped at Walmart to get something to zap for dinner and he and I stayed on the phone companionably while he cooked it and ate and sent me these pictures from his trip so far. I asked questions about the pictures and he told me about the things he saw so that I could tell you about his trip.
Tomorrow, Mark will be climbing into Flagstaff, and when he comes down from there, it should be warm enough that he may not need his heated clothing so much. I expect to see him by sometime tomorrow afternoon.
Now to go back and tell it from Tucson’s point of view… On Tuesday, I went to work and when I came home, Tucson was fairly crossing her legs waiting for me to let her out so that she could do her business. I took pity on her and contacted my pastor and asked him if he could let her out mid-day on Wednesday and Thursday and feed the critters. He said he could, but on Friday and today, he was going to be out of town with his oldest son. Thursday night, I took pity on Tucson again and texted a woman in the church, Pam, who not only lives just a block away, but she’s also a dog rescuer and she knows Tucson. I asked her if she would let Tucson out and feed the critters yesterday and today. She not only did that, but she played with Tucson and got the mischief out of her so that by the time I got home, Tucson was calm and obedient. What a difference that made!
The critters and I are all looking forward to seeing Mark again tomorrow. I’ve been praying for him all week and I know that a few of you who have known what was up have been praying for him too. John Denver had a line in his song Hey, It’s Good to be Back Home Again, “He’s an hour away from ridin’ all your prayers up in the sky.” Mark has been riding on prayers for safety and warmth all week. Keep those prayers coming!