Day 6 Travel Journal: LOOONG DAY!

LOOOOONNNNGGG DAY!! The day started out great. We left the KOA in Stanton, MO around 6:30 a.m. I stayed up through St. Louis, MO, into Indiana. Interstate 70 is terribly bumpy! My dear sweat prophetic husband said after one of the many bumps, "Just watch we'll have a tire blowout." I quickly replied, "Don't be so negative!" I then chased Kylie off the couch, laid down and fell asleep. About an hour or so later I am awakened by the jarring of my husband pulling over to the side of the road and stopping. I asked, "What's wrong?" Jim replied, "I think something is wrong with a tire." I just looked at him in disbelief. He went outside, came back in and said, "the right rear duel tires blew out! And the hubcap is missing too!" I was still stunned. I couldn't believe this was happening again! We just got those tires two years ago and probably only went about 2500 miles with them, how could this happen? Those nasty roads! I looked outside the windows and noticed that the shoulder of the highway is not very wide, part of us is still sticking out into the highway and Jim is as far over as he could without dropping off a sloppy edge with tall grass and very soft dirt. As each car and truck passed by I could feel the RV shake back and forth. I pray, "Lord, please keep us safe." Jim immediately called AAA (again - we should have them on speed dial!) They sent a guy out in a pick up truck to change a tire. NOT exactly what we needed. The man was very nice and took the tires off the RV and took Jim to a tire shop about 3 miles away to buy new tires and put them on our rims and spin balance then return later to put the tires on the RV. This meant leaving me alone, with the animals in a hot RV, barely off the road.

Not too long after Jim left with the gentleman, two other men got out of their car and headed towards the RV, Kylie, my protector, did not like what she saw and started to bark, causing Baby (the Pomeranian) to bark (she needs no reason to bark). Praise the Lord, immediately these men turned around and got back into their car and left! Thank you Lord for alerting Kylie! I called Jim who in turn called AAA who called the sheriff's department. Within 15 minutes a sheriff was outside my window telling me that he will stay in his car behind us until my husband came back! Thank you Lord!

Now that I felt safe again, I noticed that I was sweating profusely. Something new to me since in Phoenix it is so dry the sweat drys before it hits your brow. I was miserable. Actually I was miserable all day. My allergies were in full bloom, I was hot, sweaty, tired,running nose, eyes, cranky and now hungry too! We had not eaten breakfast or lunch yet. By the time hubby came back let's just say mama was NOT a happy camper!

After the repairman put the tires back on the RV and left, Jim climbed in the RV and happily said, "Okay it's past 1:00 pm, next rest area we will pull off and YOU can make us some lunch." I immediately snapped back and told him that after what I had been through he owed me and he was taking me out to eat! Problem was that the only place we could go was a truck stop since the total length of our RV plus tow dolly and car is close to 50 feet long! We quickly found out why many truckers have a belly - Let's just say the food is not the most "heart healthy" food! Jim and I shared a breakfast (yes, we are old, we share food now).

We got back on the road and after resting my tummy for a while I layed down again to nap. I believe our daughter called a couple of times and my mother. Both were wondering where we were and why they had not heard from us yet. Usually we are settled into the KOA campground by 4:00 pm or 5:00 pm. It was now, 7:00 pm eastern time and we were still on the road. We had to change our destination for the night and we finally arrived at the KOA in Brookville, OH, just before Dayton going east. We wanted to be at the Buckeye Lake/ Columbus East... but the Lord had other plans for us.

Yes, as we were driving today, Jim was contemplating the reasoning for the tires to blow. Was it that God was protecting us from something that was possibly going to happen down the road? Or was it that the gentleman that came to help us needed to talk to my husband? He had shared that his mother had passed away this mother's day, and how he had lead a life on drugs up to 4 years ago, and was now 10 years into his second marriage. He had also said that his mother-in-law was trying to get him to return to the Lord. Door opened Jim walked through and ministered to this man. By the time he left, he agreed he had some thinking to do concerning his life and relationship with the Lord. Oh, and by the way. Yes, we had to pay for new tires, but AAA was only going to pay for the first tire change, not the trip back and forth to the store and mounting the tires etc. When it came time to pay him, he said, "$35.00 should take care of it."

This has been a costly trip between breaking down in Albuquerque, the pusher pump, new tires, and using more gas than we thought we would; but throughout we have seen the Lord's hand upon our trip. We have been able to be a witness at each stop along the way, besides seeing old friends too. So in spite of all that has happened to us, we praise the Lord for his provision and protection. In a very strange and round about way, we can see God's handiwork on our trip.

Thank you for your continued prayers. Lord willing, we will be at the campgrounds near my mom's in PA. Roughly, 470 miles yet to go. Then we will be settled for a few weeks.