Day 6-- Arrival in Tucson

At last we have arrived in Tucson! We are very thankful to God for safe travels over 6 days of driving with no major incidents and cloud cover at times to cool us off. One thing we learned about road trips is to always budget way more time than you think you'll need. This morning our hope was to leave Fort Stockton at 7 but we left at 8:30 (Central Time). We arrived in Tucson around 4:30 (Arizona time which is different than the rest of the country because they never change their clocks.). So we're not really sure actually how many hours we were on the road today but it seemed like a lot. It was exciting to finally leave Texas and cross into the state of New Mexico. Here you can see us trying to cast spells in New Mexico--the land of enchantment.


Then some time in the afternoon we crossed into our state of destination, Arizona: the Grand Canyon State. It is a lot greener than we remember but it sounds like they have had a lot of rain recently. The mountains are as beautiful as we remember them from February.


We have moved all of our stuff into temporary housing at the ministry and got in contact with the couple that will be training us for the next two weeks. They will also be our first respite house so we will have spent a lot of time with them by the time we take care of their kids. Although training doesn't start until Monday, we will unofficially start tomorrow by going to church with the family and spending the day with them.

It is wonderful to have a final resting place tonight and we are excited about Tucson being our new home. After 3200 miles, our car is also grateful for a resting place and not as much of a load to carry.

Praises: Safe arrival in Tucson! No car troubles!
Prayers: Work starts Monday. Courage to walk into this new situation and willingness to open ourselves up to how God will teach us and grow us through challenges and opportunities to serve with His love.

Day 5 - Drive Thru Texas

Texas is big. We started in the humid lands and made it to the arid desert lands by the end of the day. There is still 250 miles of Texas to go. Dang. We saw some intense monsoon thunderstorms in the distance and one little desert sand twister. The desert wasn't completely empty however because large windmill generators decorated the landscape.


We have cleared 2000 miles on the trip so far and the echo is holding up well. The speed limit in Texas is 80 MPH but we decided to be conservative with our fuel.


Praises: We had some time to relax and connect at the end of the day.
Prayers: Safety for the last day of the journey and a smooth transition into work.

Day 4 - Visit with Dan

We woke up today feeling more rested and enjoyed a yummy continental breakfast at the hotel. After uploading pictures and charging our camera battery, we took a little walk down to the Mississippi River in New Orleans to see what downtown looks like.

At 11:00 in the morning it was already very hot and humid and stayed that way through our whole day. Today was our shortest leg of the journey with our final destination being Houston, TX to stay with Eric's brother, Dan. We're so thankful for his willingness to host us even while he is in the middle of moving to a different apartment. His apartment complex has a pool which we thoroughly enjoyed before going to dinner. One highlight of visiting Houston was eating at a place that boasted the best fajitas in the city (they were very good)

We had a great time meeting Dan's friends and hearing about their church and ministries.

Praises: That we got to meet all Dan's friends and learn about his ministry.
Prayers: Dan would be able to get his moving done and find an apartment.