The Beauty of the Journey

So often when we travel there is a tendency to be fixated on the destination that we fail to embrace and enjoy the journey. This last leg of our trip was like that a bit for me, but a week later I look back and realize how amazing it truly was. We last left off on our way to Denver. It was a fairly uneventful and short drive to "The Mile High City," only about three hours. We arrived and parked our little house in the lot next to our friend Jacqueline's home. She and her family live in a very nice, newly developed area of East Denver. In the excitement of seeing our friend I did something I have not done in a very long time.... I locked my keys in the truck. Thankfully, we have AAA and they were there in no time to take care of it. We spent the next few days in their lovely home as we did some "city" things. We attended the annual Cherry Creek Arts festival near downtown Denver, and enjoyed some of the local fare at The Cherry Cricket (Great Burgers!) and Liks Ice Cream, both of which I highly recommend if you are ever in the area!

Soon we said goodbye to our friends and journeyed west into the Rocky Mountains. The drive seemed short on the map and GPS, so we thought we would be fine on almost 3/4 of a tank of fuel (which would usually take us about 300 miles). However, we did not realize just how steep some of the mountain roads were or that pulling our trailer up these mountains would use a quite a bit more fuel than usual. When we made it to the last steep hill just below KOA, our low fuel light came on and I thought "Thank you God, we are going to make it." No sooner did we pull onto our pad site than we ran out of fuel. We actually had to push our rig a few feet to clear a place for the slide out. Again, I am so thankful to God for getting us there as we could have run out of gas on our way up one of those very steep hills and been in a very different situation. He is faithful.

We spent the rest of the week up in the mountains exploring Central City and the surrounding areas. On our last morning, I took the boys fishing at a small lake that was not too far from our camp site. We saw lots of deer around and some fish jumping, but sadly caught nothing. It was special to me though for it was the first time I had ever taken the boys fishing in Colorado, and I have so many great memories of doing that as a boy with my family.

Anxious to get on the road to Yellowstone National Park, we decided to leave in the evening and drive through the night. So we loaded up and prepared to set out, but not before facing another situation in which God would intervene. As I was backing up the truck to pull around and hook up the RV, I felt my tire crunch on something and thought, "Oh great one of the kids left a bike/scooter/toy etc. out and I hit it." Then as I  was getting out of the truck to see what I had hit, I heard the cry of my youngest son. I rounded the truck to find Ben sitting on his bike crying as he stared down at the broken training wheel on one side that the truck had smashed just missing his leg and leaving only a small scratch. If I would have backed another inch, his little leg would have gone under the wheel. God is good.

So after the trauma of that, we hit the road and drove all night. Around 4:30 am near the Grand Tetons, I finally could go no further and pulled over to sleep for a bit. After a couple hours reset, we crossed the beautiful mountains, and in a few more hours, we were at Yellowstone West. We napped for a bit after setting up camp and then headed for the park for the rest of the afternoon. We saw elk and a huge lone coyote and of course Old Faithful!

We decided to spend all of the next day driving through the park and to bring a picnic lunch to enjoy. It was amazing. We saw more elk (they were everywhere), tons of buffalo (also everywhere), and best of all we got to see a mama grizzly and her cubs!

We found a great spot on the lake to hang out and spent some time there relaxing. The beauty and majesty of God's unspoiled creation is truly breathtaking in this place, and I wish we would have had more time there, but the Journey called us on to Washington. So we headed out early the next morning to cross through four states on our way to the coast. Finally, very tired and a little late, we pulled into my in-law's drive for a few weeks of family time and rest.

So once again, I look back on the journey and realize all of the amazing things that took place in a short amount of time, thankful for where I have been, for the memories, for the safety of my family and God's  loving mercy. To those of you who are followers of Christ I will say this: We are all on a Journey of faith and our ultimate destination is a place far more beautiful than our imaginations can even comprehend. However should we be so focused on the destination that we miss out on all that the journey there has to teach us?