Pure Joy ...

It's practically the middle of the night ... I should have gone to bed hours ago, but we got "lucky" and the internet was actually accessible tonight at our hotel. We were gone all day and had such a blast and took 100's of pictures. I was just going to look through the pictures and not post anything at all tonight because of fatigue, but then who knows WHEN I will have the next opportunity to tell you about our great day???

We drove north through New Mexico today to Alamogordo. We wanted to show Jesse the cool Toy Train Museum and Depot, plus we wanted to visit a little zoo that we'd never been to before, AND while we were so far north, we HAD to show Jesse White Sands National Monument! So we had a very busy day ... but I can't begin to describe the happiness, so I'm going to try to show you!

The train museum was loved by all. It has rooms and rooms of the coolest layouts, and the fellas that work there are so fun to listen to.

We took a ride on the toy train that goes all around Alameda Park ... Emma just had her ticket punched ...

Jes and Di and Grandpa Jones rode the back of the train while Ems, Chris and I rode the front.

Look at Christopher's little face after having his ticket punched ... so cute!

I haven't done any editing to these pictures ... no time to do it ... but when I get home I will be able to use the photo program on my computer and really fine tune some of these shots ... Our next stop was the Alameda Park Zoo, about a two-minute drive away from the depot. What a great little zoo, and very inexpensive too ...

The kids had a great time feeding the ducks and turtles. Mr. Jones took completely incredible pictures of the animals at this zoo, but if I began to post them, it would take forever! Perhaps once we get home, I'll pick out his best shots and show you.
Jesse said this zoo was his favorite part of our day ... it was such a relaxing little park and watching the kids enjoy the animals was so much fun.

There was a great playground right at the zoo and we played there for a very long time.

Matthew had a whole conversation with this turtle while walking around it, deciding how best to climb on top ... ... and we all enjoyed climbing like monkeys ...

There was much more to the zoo, and we walked around and saw all of it ... but we didn't want to run out of time and not drive on down to White Sands.

The sand here is pure white, soft, and COLD ... wonderfully so! We had a real mild weather day anyway, I think in the upper 70's and it kept trying to rain, with just brief sprinkles ... but mostly it stayed dry and we enjoyed it on the dunes digging and climbing and sliding ...

There was a really nice family that we met who shared their kites with Chris and Emma ... and Jesse too!

When Jesse was a little kid, he really loved to fly a kite ...

This same family shared their sleds too ... and our little kids had such a blast taking turns sliding down the dunes ... all of them were fearless ... and exhuberantly happy ...

Aren't these clouds and the sky amazing?

Jesse started digging a big hole ... but you never reach water out here in the dessert, so it's very hard to get the hole very deep ~ the sides keep caving in ... but everyone enjoyed digging anyway.

Then it was time to try and bury daddy ... everyone was very enthusiastic about it, with Matthew dumping a huge shovel-ful on top of his head!

We packed so much into ONE day. We are exhausted, all of us! We ate dinner back in Alamogordo and then drove the 1.5 hours back to El Paso. I got to sit in the back with Emma and Christopher. We talked all the way home while the sun set. This was my favorite part of the day, without a doubt. Emma snuggled all close to me, and we talked about everything under the sun. We laughed and giggled and shared the deep things of our hearts that I will treasure forever ... pure joy!

"To show a child what has once delighted you, to find the child's delight added to your own, so that now there is a double delight seen in the glow of trust and affection, this is happiness." J.B. Priestley

Our first fun day in El Paso

We finally have a connection to the internet here at our hotel, so I've uploaded a bunch of pictures from yesterday. I'm pretty much going to let the pictures tell our story.
We painted with water colors in the morning ~ didn't the children do a wonderful job with their paintings? They had so much fun! Christopher then requested that I make him some paper airplanes, so we had that kind of fun for quite a while.
We took our bag of sand toys and a bottle of water (it was in the 80's and pretty hot!) and walked over to the "Red playground", which is just a quick 5-minute walk from their house. We had so much fun playing, and had the playground to ourselves!

When we ran out of water and everyone was too thirsty to stay ouside, we wandered on back to the house and colored and read books and watched our "Letter Factory" DVD.

Late in the afternoon, Matthew got pretty tuckered out and cuddled up with Grandpa Jones ...

For dinner, we went to one of those all-you-can-eat diners, and all of us ate too much ... but it was fun. It's wonderful to spend time with Diana and the children, with the added bonus of Jesse actually being in the country ... so nice to see him! He has a four-day weekend coming up, so we're going to get to spend some extra time with him ... we're thinking of driving up to Alamogordo and White Sands National Park on Friday. I'll keep updating with pictures as I am able, but the internet is very unreliable around here!

Amarillo to El Paso

Bridge over the Pecos River, New Mexico

We have finally arrived in El Paso. We were not able to secure accommodations on Base this time, so we are staying at a hotel near the airport, about 2-3 miles from Jes and Di. As usual when we are in El Paso, the internet is “down” and so we are unable to post pictures and blog in the usual manner. So I'm just going to have to supply a narrative and drop pictures in whenever it is possible, at a later time.


We left Amarillo bright and early Tuesday morning, knowing we still had a pretty long day of driving ahead. We continued on I-40 across the remainder of the Texas panhandle ... and the flat barren land stretched on and on as far as my eye could see, all the way to the horizon, where dozens of tall straight wind turbines, their white blades rotating with hypnotic rhythm against the cloudless sky, seemed to go on forever. Graceful deer and antelope wandered among the horses and cows, all grazing together. We were listening to High Plains Public Radio almost all the way to the border, and then the sign said we were now in New Mexico, “The Land of Enchantment.” About a half hour before the border, the landscape suddenly changed and we were in the foothills of the table-topped, red-rocked mountains ... a welcomed transformation from the almost nothingness of the panhandle.

We drove through Tucumcari, “The Gateway to New Mexico,” Santa Rosa, Vaughn, Corona, and finally stopped in Carrizozo for lunch. We listened to our novel on CD for much of the drive yesterday and it helped to very pleasantly pass the time. There is railroad track right next to much of 54 all throughout New Mexico, so Mr. Jones had his eyes ready and waiting for any trains. This part of the country is so harsh in its beauty, and the mountains so foreign to me (I never get used to them!), I am quite satisfied to just ride along, camera in hand, and take it all in.

Finally, we were in El Paso! We checked into our hotel and called Jesse to meet us at the gate so that we could get proper papers for our van to be allowed on base. And then we went to the house, hugged and kissed and laughed with the little ones for a glorious little awhile, and then they got tucked in and we drove back to the hotel for the night. We've called the front desk of the hotel about being unable to connect to the internet and have been told they just have to “push a button and all will be well.” We were told this last night as well as this morning, so we'll have to see. Otherwise, we'll hook up to the internet over at

Di's this morning and I'll post this narrative as is, without pictures.

[These few pictures have been inserted Thursday morning ... the first time the internet has actually worked at our hotel]

Pacific to Amarillo, TX

We drove out of Pacific, Missouri, at 7:00 AM (St. Louis time) under the brilliant light of a half moon ... the highway cutting through the rocky hills, and curving down around the fog-filled valleys of the stunning Ozarks.

We saw vineyards and wineries, horse stables, passed by quiet farms and endless empty fields ... but it we weren't too far from Oklahoma City when I saw the most happy and welcome sight! Flowering trees! After five long months of Michigan winter ... longing just for this!

Pulling out of Grand Rapids yesterday, the Grand River was pretty high and the Rogue was swollen ... but when we crossed the wide banks of the Arkansas River this afternoon, there was hardly any river in it! I didn't mention it yesterday, but we drove through the little city of Cuba (I think in Illinois) as well as Lebanon (which I believe was in Missouri), so I shouldn't be surprised that we crossed the N. Canadian River and entered into Canadian County while in Oklahoma! Very odd.

About two miles before we entered the Texas Panhandle, we passed a somewhat rundown little farm flying not one, but two Confederate flags ... but I missed taking the photograph of it. It's difficult sometimes to snap a good picture at 70 mph and I missed a bunch of good opportunities today.

Traveling on I-40 through the Panhandle, we encountered ... nothing! Such a vast wilderness of deep jagged wadis twisting and turning throughout the landscape, intermingled with stark open ranch land ... even the cows looked bleak!

Behold ... the leaning tower of ... Britten, U.S.A.!

We arrived in Amarillo at just about 7:00 this evening, enjoyed a yummy dinner at Cracker Barrell, and are now ready to just rest up for the night. We plan to continue on I-40 through to Tucumcari, New Mexico and then turn south from there all the way to El Paso ~ hopefully arriving early evening tomorrow night, Lord willing. I can't wait to see to see Jesse, Diana and the children!

Belmont to Pacific, Missouri

After traveling almost 500 miles today, we have stopped for the night in Pacific, Missouri ~ about a half hour beyond St. Louis. We worshipped at church, as usual, this morning: Mr. Jones singing in the choir during second and third service, and me in with the 3's ... but we pulled out of the parking lot at church at 11:49 to start the first day of our 1,643 mile drive to El Paso. The skies were a beautiful clear blue, contrasting with the otherwise colorless scenery of stark browns, greys, and the bare limbs of trees awaiting spring. I didn't see a speck of green until just inside the Michigan/Indiana border, and that was only one small field. The smokestacks of Gary were just as ugly as ever, and even uglier were the barrier walls all along I-94 approaching Chicago ... cement, concrete, asphalt, massive bridges and truck after truck after truck; although traffic at least moved right along! We were welcomed to Illinois at 2:49, quickly passing the quarry by South Holland and the train yard beyond, with too many trains to count (although Mr. Jones would have if he'd had the opportunity).
Finally, we were on the I-55 crossing the Des Plaines River near Joliet and then ... farm country! This is really one of my favorite parts of our drive. I never get tired of seeing the old farm houses and beautiful barns. The fields were strewn with the remains of last year's harvest, not yet plowed or seeded ...

We began seeing signs along the road: "Keep Pontiac Prison Open!" When we stopped at a rest area in Limestone, Mr. Jones was handed a State Map of Illinois and was compelled to take it after being told this map was a "souvenir" and "going fast!" The man who handed him the map pointed out that the map has Rod R. Blagojevich listed as the governor of Illinois, who by the way, was AGAINST keeping Pontiac Prison open ... the gentleman said he was glad the prison stayed open and that perhaps the governor would soon be taking up residence there! Ouch!

Yesterday, we had gone to the library and checked out The Secret Servant (a novel on CD) by Daniel Silva. It was nearly 6:00 in the evening when we decided to hear the first few chapters ~ and ended up listening to the first of 11 disks! It's kind of an Israeli spy novel and the reader did an excellent job using various voices for the many interesting characters. I'm looking forward to continuing the story tomorrow. We easily passed a very enjoyable hour this way between 6:00 and 7:00 and soon after we could clearly see the city of St. Louis from a distance of 15 miles. The arch came into view at somewhere around 10 miles away ... lots of trees were blocking our view, however.

Shooting directly into the sun doesn't always work! Our goal was to make it past St. Louis on this first day, so I'm thankful we've done just that. We arrived here in Pacific after the sun set ~ it's a little tiny town, centered around Old Route 66 where the Meramec River and the St. Peter sandstone bluffs meet. The brochure I'm looking at says it has some interesting railroad history, so I wonder if we are going to scout out some tracks in the morning ... we tentatively plan to drive about 12 hours tomorrow, so I'm going to get some rest! Good-night from Pacific!