Day 1453. My alarm went off at 7:30 am this morning, as Randy thought he'd need that much time. The boys had just woken up a few minutes before then. We got up, and I packed the suitcases. Then Randy took everything to the car to load up. We were not going to eat at the hotel as we had a breakfast meeting, but after Randy had left with everything, I walked to the breakfast area with all three kids, which was a litte challenging, as I also had my purse. We were lucky to get a table, and I put Sammy into a high chair. Then I got the kids some yoghurt, which they haven't been getting much on this trip, as well as some eggs and bacon. At some point Randy joined us, and we all got up to go to the car, even though it was really still too early to leave. As we walked out of the breakfast room, a man addressed Randy saying, how he had wondered why he alone had to haul so much luggage from the car to our room last night. He said that he understood now, and that we had our hands full. Very true.
We got into the car and drove the few minutes to the restaurant where we were meeting one of our supporters. We got there 15 minutes early and looked at the outside and inside decorations that were quite unique, as it was called "Black Bear". At some point we did decide to sit down at a table and wait for him there, and he soon arrived.
We had never met him in person, and so we had lots to talk about. That's also why I allowed the kids to bring their tablets inside, and they were on them for most of the time. We ordered and started talking, and we talked a lot, having a good time. The food was also good. We ended up staying for 2 hours, which was definitely long. Before we said our good-byes, we prayed for him. He was holding Sammy at that time who decided to love on him, and Emmy also joined us in praying.
We got into the car again to finally start our long journey to Nevada, a 380 mile trip. We stopped for gas, and I decided to buy some food, as it looked like we were not going to be able to stop for lunch anywhere, as we were going through areas with no towns anywhere. And so it was nearly noon before we actually got on the road. We had barely left town, when Emmy needed a bathroom, so we stopped at the only place to stop anywhere, a gas station, then continued on our way.
And so we were driving and driving. We saw the Great Salt Lake, and we saw the big heaps of salt that they had recuperated from the water. Other than that there was not much to see. It wasn't really desert, as it was green most of the time, but there was hardly anything there, no towns or facilities. You had to drive for quite some time before there was another little accumulation of restaurants and gas stations. And so we drove and drove. We ate the sandwiches we had bought, and at 2 pm I told the kids it was nap time. I put their tablets away and encouraged them to sleep. Emmy fell asleep first, while Tammy needed a long time. Sammy fell asleep briefly, but was crying, waking himself up, and he was up from then on.
We decided to drive all the way to our destination, as there was no McDonald's with playground before then. But there was one right there, by our hotel. The kids were excited, when they saw it, and excited when they saw the playground. However, after we walked in, we were told that the playground could not be used because the AC in there was broken. Oh no! Big disappointment! After using the restrooms, we turned around and got back into the car.
There was a Walmart right there, which was our next stop. Randy got some gas on the way. Then we walked into the Walmart to buy a few things we were low or out of, as well as something to eat for dinner. It took us about 40 minutes, which is rather quick for us. We got back into the car to drive the few minutes to our hotel.
It was another hotel with room doors to the outside and and outside swimming pool, like where we recently stayed, but much nicer. We got there just before 5:30 pm - having crossed into another time zone, turning the clocks back by one hour. We checked in and walked to our room on the ground floor. It was nice. The kids wanted to see what was on TV and started watching cartoons, while I put the frozen lasagna into the microwave and while Randy unloaded the car. Then we ate the lasagna, and put our swim suits on to go swimming.
The kids hadn't gone swimming in quite a few days and were excited about it. Tammy said the water was warm, while Randy was so tired that he thought it was cold. It was definitely warmer than the last pool. And then the kids were having fun in the water, jumping in and diving. They've made a lot of progress. Tammy took another ring off, swimming with just one on each arm, and she did well. When the sun was getting pretty low in the sky and it seemed to get cooler, we decided to go back to our room, which the kids were not happy about. We went straight under the hot shower, then we had the icecream we had just bought. The kids were watching some more cartoons, until I turned it off at 8 pm local time (9 pm last zime zone). I read them a story, prayed for them, and put them to bed.
This time we have two double beds, sometimes it's two queen-sized beds. After the experience last night, I was going to let Emmy sleep in our bed again to give the other two more room, but then Tammy wanted to be the one in our bed. After they were fighting over who got to stay, I told them they could both sleep in our bed. After some time, Emmy decided to go back to the bed Sammy was already asleep in to lie down next to him.
I turned my computer on to start working and soon got so tired that my eyes were falling shut. I tried to get over it, and after some time it got better, and I was making better progress again. Randy went to sleep soon. Now it's after midnight and my turn to go to sleep. Tomorrow is day 3 of 3 of traveling to the next town.
