We had road trip #3 today. I packed up most of the car last night, and we departed Dallas this morning and headed to Red River, New Mexico. And we took a little detour that added several hours, but it was worth it cause we went through Abilene and Lubbock. What is in Abilene and Lubbock? Well, there is a House of the Lord in Lubbock, so that was cool -
...aaaand there is also a certain awesome missionary that is serving in the Texas Lubbock Mission, in the area of Abilene at the moment, and we thought we could drop off a little gift for him, so that's what we did. Dallas to Red River is estimated to be 10 hours but we were in no rush today, just like we weren't on our trip to Red River on the way out, when we took a detour to the Four Corners. Today the side stop was Abilene and Lubbock. We gave hugs to Steph and her kids before they headed out for a regular school day, and we were on our way around 8 am. Waking up Katharine -
Katharine, are you ready for hours upon hours in a moving car? Coulda been 10 hours and 15 minutes, but as I was starting to drive, I changed my plans as I came upon the exit to Abilene and decided that we WOULD go through Abilene and Lubbock. I thought maybe it could break up the trip? It's a little easier to see "5 hours to destination" instead of 10. The drive was pleasant enough. The kids watched movies and I listened to the first two sessions of General Conference! I thought "This is great! I'm going to be able to review all the talks twice before I get home!"
I liked listening to General Conference and it was a testimony to me of how we find so many answers in the Conference messages from the Lord's servants. As I listened to the talks this weekend, I heard so many messages to answer my concerns about the eclipse. This time, as I drove, I was thinking of Corey and his work and there were so many answers again! Different thoughts and concerns, same talks, answers received. A few of the talks that I thought were helpful that I shared with Corey - I told things to him in a phone call but I was driving and thus didn't write things down. I was trying to remember - just looked through the talks though - I remember there were like 3 talks that were given after apostles, so that one after Elder Stevenson was one: Opposition in All Things by Elder Mathias Held was one of them. I think this one after Elder Renlund is another one: Trust in the Lord by Elder Paul B. Pieper. Oh! And the last one was after Elder Kearon - "yearning for miracles!" Swallowed Up in the Joy of Christ by Elder Brian K. Taylor. I'm pretty sure I'm remembering them right. Also I listened to the Choosing Glory podcast - Choosing Glory 4.16 Jacob 5-7 starting at minute 26:40 until the end, some directions/good stuff that I think could apply to our life. Jacob 5:21. I asked "Are we in a poor spot of the vineyard?" Corey replied: "No, but it does require constant effort."
I was excited when we got to Abilene. I took a pic at the first water tower we saw. "Let's go get a picture for Wes!" "blaaahhh...." came the moan from the back seats. No one wanted to get out to be in my photo. Well, ok fine, I took Katharine, cause I can make her. She was excited to get out. "Say cheese!" Such a good girl.
And I was grateful for a willing participant. It was windy and cold, but when Peter saw I was fine to just do a photo without him, then he got out of the car for a pic with a "fine..." sigh. He did it for Wesley!
There was a storm blowing in, but I was glad that we hadn't had any flooded roads or rain that was hard to drive in yet. I put P and K back in the car, then, just for fun, I did look up Wesley's apartment. It was 15 min away. Well, we've come this far, we might as well! First we went by Walmart to buy each of the kids a treat (I'd been putting it off since the drive out, I felt I should pay up) We went into the Abilene Walmart "let's take a picture for Wes!" They had to do this one if they wanted to pick out a treat.
Sophi got mini oreos, Natalie got chocolate donuts, Owen got Hershey's cookies and cream too, Daniel a king size kit kat and I made him give me a bite, Peter got a baby bottle sucker, and K got a cup of mini oreos too. We walked around trying to decide what to get for Wes - cereal? Kodiak cakes? Candy? I think he's trying to be healthy? Cause he mentioned his pants are getting tighter... I ended up getting a box of Lara Bars. Cause who buys Lara bars besides middle aged women? So that way, if there was any question who left this bag on his doorstep, he'd know they were from his mother! And then we left to his apartment. Closer and closer - would Wes be there? We looked down the streets to see if we could see any missionaries. No luck. We saw his apartment complex... Stonegate! We drove in and... that's his building! #5! I was pretty sure they wouldn't be home, cause it was 11:30. They should be out working. So, I got out of the car with Peter and we put O and D's General Conference craft gifts in the bag.
Peter and I walked up to door #522. His mission president discouraged him from seeing us, since it might affect him being homesick, so we didn't want to not obey advice from his mission president by risking seeing him in person. We didn't knock. There were some pens that I had shipped on Amazon were there on his porch too, so I was able to see that we had the right place! I took a picture of Peter with his craft ~
Then we put it back in the bag and left. As we walked back to the car, Peter was giggling with excitement. I had him send a voice recording to Wes over Messenger: "Wes I have a surprise and you're gonna be so happy!" I was glad that Peter wasn't sad that we didn't see Wes, he was just excited he left him a surprise. Then we got back in the car, filled up at a gas station called Stripes that was close to Wes' apt that he probably goes to a lot!
Fueled up and ready to go - next stop: the Lubbock Temple, was 2.5 hours away. Rain was coming down that time. And an hour into it we hit a ton of traffic. The freeway was closed and they were ushering everyone off. If we had been here earlier, we probably would be in the line of cars on the freeway that were NOT moving AT ALL. Crossing an overpass near Sweetwater - we were just in that line of people on the upper exit road there. I was glad to FINALLY be moving. That added 45 minutes, so looks like this is turning into a 13 hour drive.
We refilled gas in Lubbock. It was cold and rainy but stopped enough for us to get a very quick picture at the temple around 3:30 (first pic in this post) and K wasn't even mad when I got her out and then put her back in. We'll pretend we got to stretch our legs.
Who's ready for more movies? Yayyy. So at this point, Apple Maps was telling me one way to go, said it would be 5 hours 40 min, and put my arrival at 8:30pm. But Google was telling me another way that was 6 hours 10 minutes and said I'd arrive in Red River at 9pm. I usually don't trust Apple Maps to know what they are talking about. They've led me astray in the past. But maybe they do? Are they telling the truth? If Apple gets me there 30 minutes earlier, well that sounds pretty good... Do I trust Apple maps?!?! I was debating myself for a while, I called Corey for advice "Do I trust Apples Maps?!?" I went back and forth while the maps were saying the same route, and then when Apple Maps told me to turn right on Clovis Road, I did. Risky I know! I was worried I'd get stranded on some county line road with no one around. The stress of it all. I stopped in Muleshoe to get provisions - corn dogs and ketchup for the kids to have for dinner once we arrived in Red River, celery and carrots to munch on to keep me awake tomorrow, aaaand two Michoacana popsicles for me! Munching on strawberry as a coconut waits for me in the door.
The extended trip made us arrive after sunset and in the dark. Sunset was at 7:40, so the last hour was pretty dark. The moon looked SUPER cool though as we were driving up Cimarron Canyon. Mel called to tell me that she was sad about her finals, and as I was on the phone with her, and 5 miles away from our destination, on the twists and turns of the canyon road, all of a sudden there was a whole group of deer in front of us. I slowed down and they moved, but one big buck who didn't see us coming ran right into the side of us, on the passenger side of the car. It made a big sound, the kids were scared, the car was still working fine so we just kept going. And who knew - Apple Maps was right over Google Maps! We arrived at 8:40! I felt like I owe a public apology to Apple Maps cause I've bashed them several times. Check in was quick, kids unloaded just a little bit (I had packed it better this time, so the things that we'd need for our one night stay were at the top). After getting stuff inside and starting the corn dogs, I surveyed the damage from the deer -
A big dent in the door and hair from the deer was stuck in the rim of the wheel. After we arrived I checked the car - I was glad that the door still opened and closed fine. The deer definitely got hurt tho. I was grateful we arrived safely! Like if that big deer had been in front of us???? We would have run into it and totaled the front of the car, probably busted up the windshield. We prayed that the deer was ok, or that if he was hurt, he would die quickly and not languish in suffering.
So cute. They all wanted to see, so then I flipped the camera to get a selfie.
"Wait! I wasn't in it!" - Daniel. Ok, one more! Sophi get in here!
It was so fun to see where Wesley is at. Even though we didn't see him, I like knowing more about where he's at. I'm glad we went there, even if it meant 3 extra hours and a dented door. Wes. Corey's brother Mark and his wife Chalane, and Isaac, all came down for the eclipse too. They went to South Padre Island for the week, and on their way down last week, they went by Abilene too and took Wesley out to eat at Texas Roadhouse.
Wes with cousin Isaac -
And his companion Elder Rochelle.
What a cutie. We were so close to him! And yet we are so far away (21 more months!) I'm glad that we went down to Texas. I'm so glad we were able to see the eclipse and spend wonderful time with family and see Wesley's mission, and I'm very grateful that we were safe tonight. Thanks be to God for watching over us all. He is good and kind. The kids ate corndogs after we got here, and we did NOT watch tv cause I told them they had had enough movies, right?!?! so we ate and went to bed. Hoping to leave in the morning as soon as it starts getting light.
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