Friday, December 04, 2009

From Washington to Cofradía 2009

November 1st we started our 14 day journey to Cofradía. After hearing Josh McDowell speak at CMC in the morning, we went home to finish packing had have lunch as our friend Fabian Gomez came to visit one last time.
As we said our good-bye's and prayed for safe travels, we continued to pray for our truck and trailer for no mishaps all the way to our destination. We drove anywhere from 45 - 60 mph all the way to Cofradía.

Our first night we stayed with our friends Jack and Dana Harroun in Vancouver, WA.
It's been about 7 years since we've seen them and we had a great time. In the morning, my former Youth Pastor Ron McClung came to visit us at the Harroun's house.
I haven't seen him I think since I've been working as a missionary for almost 14 years. It was great to catch up. We took off from Vancouver and crossed the bridge to Portland, OR to visit another friend I haven't seen since college, Sheila (Hollimon) Oliver and her husband Joe and daughter Elizabeth. Great to see them too!!
That night we made it to Central Point, OR and stayed at a hotel. After having already paid for a room, we forgot that we had our dog with us. So, I went back in to see if it was ok and the clerk showed me the sign right behind her that said "$25 fee for pets". Bummer, that's about 6 mochas at Starbucks!

We made our way to Lincoln, CA to visit Geña's sister for the night. We spent most of our time with her niece Nayeli because everyone else had to work late.
The next morning we headed to Tracy, CA to stay the night with Geña's brother Luis.
Rebecka and Emma have lots of fun with their cousin Giselle.
The next day we continued on towards Bakersfield, CA and stayed with another niece of Geña's at a Dairy Farm in Buttonwillow, CA. Can you say flies? WOW!
That evening we went to dinner at Geña's cousin's restaurant "El Huichol" in Bakersfield and invited along our friend Pastor Gerardo Osuna and his family. That was a lot of fun.
The next day after breakfast we headed out to have lunch with a friend from elementary school, Pastor Brandon Beard, in Santa Clarita, CA.
We continued on to stay the night with our friend Francisco Jimenez and his family in Oxnard, CA.
After breakfast at IHOP, we took off to visit one of Geña's friends from Santa Fe (the next town after Cofradía) who lives in Norwalk, CA and had lunch with them.
That evening we headed out to Geña's other sister's house in Perris, CA and stayed with her for three nights.
We attended church with her and Geña's mother who lives nearby came to visit as well. Then on Monday I had to run some errands for our truck and repack some things we accumulated on the way down. Then, on Tuesday morning we headed out to Tucson, AZ to visit with Bob and Dorothy Micher and stay with them two nights.
That gave us a day to do our last minute stateside shopping and rest a tiny bit before crossing the border the next day. We crossed the border without any problems at all. We didn't have to pay duty on anything and we got a green light at both check points. That was great because if you get a red light, many times they'll ask you to unload everything you have to make sure that you're not carrying anything you're not supposed to.

We spent the night in Obregón, Sonora and the next day continued on to stay with Doug and Jan Taylor in Mazatlán, Sinaloa. By Saturday, November 14, we were in Cofradía...finally. We had a great time in Washington speaking, visiting, and seeing family. We also had a great trip as we travelled and visited family and friends on the way to Mexico. Thank you to all of you for taking the time to visit with us either at breakfast, lunch, over coffee, or opening up your homes. May the Lord Bless you!!

No comments:

Post a Comment