A brief update
Wow... our trip up to the Grand Canyon was a blast. It started off great and ended kinda not so great. I'll give a brief highlight now and post details later with pics...
Picked her up Monday morning, little Johnny was tired and fast asleep which was great because we both were worried he would put up a fuss as we left. We left him with a couple guys from her family, one being her 20 year old nephew aka the responsible one, the other boy is 16 and is kinda not really all that responsible, but he is still family so...
Started driving north and I gave her the camera and told her to take pictures of our drive. Its digital and had a memory card so by the time we got to our first stop about an hour and a half into our trip she had taken about 50 pictures! I think I created a monster LOL!
I didnt really have any plan except to take this one road off the highway in order to take a more scenic route. Our first stop was at this place called Methsusla Castle (spelling is horribly wrong I know, will correct it later once I figure it out). Turns out to be the remains of a large building embedded on the side of the cliff. Held something like 30 or 40 people and was a part of a tribe that lived in the area long ago (aprox 1400 I think). It was a nice stop and a good chance to walk around too.
The next stop was in the town of Sedona which lies on the scenic route I had planned on driving. Didnt plan on stopping in town, but the area of Uptown looked so inviting that we decided to wander around the various shops. Not to mention taking in the breath-taking views of the surrounding mountains. Some of the stores were really nice to visit, including some western related shops. There was this one store that was a genuine Trading Post, they sold only native Indian things as well as real furs and hides. That was a cool store. We also sat down and ate some lunch (packed). Then we hit the road again.
By this time it was around 4:45 or so (we left around 9:30am) and the park I had thought would be a nice place to visit and walk around in had closed the front gates at 4:30. Didnt know that, oh well... No big deal. We just drove the rest of the way to Williams where we checked into our room. Went to the grocery store in town to get some dinner, our room had a fridge and a microwave. Ate dinner, and watched some tv.
She had been reading from the Bible and taking some notes, so we took the time to review what she was reading. I answered her questions she had. She totally amazes me, the reading program is one chapter a day and the first section is an overview of the life and teachings of Jesus. Its supposed to be a two week study guide, she completed it in less than a week, including reading several chapters in Proverbs. So really she has been reading three chapters a day! She was understanding everything clearly and since she had finished reading about Jesus' death and resurrection, I asked her some questions about that. She said she wanted to ask God into her life and so we prayed together.
I am totally excited about this, for it has been one of my main concerns that she comes to know and believe Christ as I know and believe Christ. I have been concerned that she would do this simply because of wanting to be with me, ie saying what I want to hear. So I have been praying that God reassure me in this and to show me that she truly believes. I can honestly say that I have been reassured both by God's peace on me as well as by her by the things she have said to me. There is still a little doubt, but it is fading quickly. I am just so excited by this part of our trip.
Anyway the next morning we packed the car and she still had no clue as to what we were doing. I drove a mile down the road and asked her "Do you want to know where we are going?" She answered "Tell me when we get there" By this time the turn into the train depot was in sight and I said "Well ok then, we are here." She was floored, turned out she thought we had to drive for another hour or so instead of less than five minutes. She was so excited and happy and thrilled. And I must admit so was I.
There was a Wild West show before the train departed and that was really funny to watch. There were four 'bad' guys interacting with the audience at the beginning then at one point one guy annouced he was hungry, so they decided that they would go to McDonalds to get some breakfast. But they had no money, so they decided to play a card game with some unlucky member of the audience to get money from him. One guy cheated at cards by pulling 5 Aces out of his sleeve and thereby 'winning' the poker game. The other three guys discovered someone cheated and promptly shot the cheater to death. By this time the marshal walked into the show and demanded to know what was going on to which the three guys tried to blame the audience member as being the guy who killed the fourth guy. And so on and so on. It was funny and ended up with the marshal shooting the other three guys. Then they all stood up and said they would remain behind for pictures. So Judy and I got our picture taken with the marshal.
Then we got on the train and headed to the Grand Canyon. The ride was a little over two hours long which we just spent cuddled up. There was an attendant in our car who offered soft drinks to everyone and generally chatted with people. There was also a 'traveling' musician who played a guitar and told really funny jokes. We saw lots of cows as well as a herd of antelopes (got a picture of them). The landscape was beautiful and it was just so relaxing sitting there for a couple hours.
At the Grand Canyon we walked along the rim, had lunch (sandwiches again), visited the Visitor's Center, Bookstore and a couple shops/trading post before heading back onto the train for the trip back. We only had 3 and a half hours to spend, but wow what a time it was. I took a lot of pictures there. In fact at one overlook we were at it started to snow/hail! It wasnt the light fluffy snow (came down too fast) but it wasnt the ice hard hail either, so it was more of a snow-hail combo. She was real excited since she hasnt seen real snow before.
The trip back was nice again, this time around we saw two herds of elk (got picture of them), we had a banjo player play in our car instead of the guitar player. In fact he played a love song for us, well actually he said "I'm playing it for her you know, not for you" pointing at me. That was funny. He had alot of humor as well that had us cracking up. Then near the end of the trip we saw three guys on horseback galloping along the track. Our attendant said it looked like we were going to be robbed. The train stopped for a brief moment and then continued on with the three riders still outside. Hmm guess we were safe from the robbers... Nope there were two of them and they came into our car demanding money. By the time they left our car a marshal entered our car asking if the bandits came this-a-way and reassuring us that he was hot on their trail... LOL That was fun.
We got back to Williams and headed back home. Somewhere along the way we pulled off to find some place to eat and we saw this Bar-B-Que place. So we stopped there to eat. It was a nice little small town resturant and the food was pretty good. When we went out to the car again, thats when things got a little bad. My car wouldnt start. Sigh... No idea whats wrong with it, and stuck in a small town. I was about to go back in when I tried it one more time and it started. So we decided to continue driving since the car had started. Got about a mile down the road when the engine died completly, the exact same thing that happened after church last saturday. It still wouldnt start and I started to break down. She helped me out by reminding me that no matter what happens God is with us. And she is right. I just wanted the trip to go smoothly and having my car break down isnt what I had in mind of being smooth.
Called AAA and they sent a tow truck. While explaining the problem to the tow truck driver he asked me to try starting the car to make sure it wasnt the battery. The car started up with no problem. No idea whats causing this problem, but he offered to tow us closer to Phoenix (we were still about 100 miles out) which we accepted since if the car was going to die again, at least we would be closer to where family or friends could come and get us. Oh yeah one more thing, while calling AAA to get help my phone started beeping... low battery warning came on meaning I had less than two minutes of battery life remaining. So yeah both the car and the phone going dead is what caused me to get upset with the whole thing.
We did get home alright and no more problems with the car. I took the day off today to try to get my car fixed. The first garage I took it to said he couldnt do anything since the car was running fine now. Said it was probably a faulty sensor, and the only thing he could do is to try replacing a part to see if that worked, and keep replacing parts until it doesnt happen again. The other option is to hope it fails completely so he could determine exactly what part it is. Either way not too reassuring, since I will more than likely have the engine cut out on me again. I'm either out of a lot of money replacing parts I dont need to replace, or just wait til it dies completely. Sigh...
Ok enough for now... pictures later. Not sure when but I'll try to have a few up by Friday morning and again some more on Sunday morning. Later
Picked her up Monday morning, little Johnny was tired and fast asleep which was great because we both were worried he would put up a fuss as we left. We left him with a couple guys from her family, one being her 20 year old nephew aka the responsible one, the other boy is 16 and is kinda not really all that responsible, but he is still family so...
Started driving north and I gave her the camera and told her to take pictures of our drive. Its digital and had a memory card so by the time we got to our first stop about an hour and a half into our trip she had taken about 50 pictures! I think I created a monster LOL!
I didnt really have any plan except to take this one road off the highway in order to take a more scenic route. Our first stop was at this place called Methsusla Castle (spelling is horribly wrong I know, will correct it later once I figure it out). Turns out to be the remains of a large building embedded on the side of the cliff. Held something like 30 or 40 people and was a part of a tribe that lived in the area long ago (aprox 1400 I think). It was a nice stop and a good chance to walk around too.
The next stop was in the town of Sedona which lies on the scenic route I had planned on driving. Didnt plan on stopping in town, but the area of Uptown looked so inviting that we decided to wander around the various shops. Not to mention taking in the breath-taking views of the surrounding mountains. Some of the stores were really nice to visit, including some western related shops. There was this one store that was a genuine Trading Post, they sold only native Indian things as well as real furs and hides. That was a cool store. We also sat down and ate some lunch (packed). Then we hit the road again.
By this time it was around 4:45 or so (we left around 9:30am) and the park I had thought would be a nice place to visit and walk around in had closed the front gates at 4:30. Didnt know that, oh well... No big deal. We just drove the rest of the way to Williams where we checked into our room. Went to the grocery store in town to get some dinner, our room had a fridge and a microwave. Ate dinner, and watched some tv.
She had been reading from the Bible and taking some notes, so we took the time to review what she was reading. I answered her questions she had. She totally amazes me, the reading program is one chapter a day and the first section is an overview of the life and teachings of Jesus. Its supposed to be a two week study guide, she completed it in less than a week, including reading several chapters in Proverbs. So really she has been reading three chapters a day! She was understanding everything clearly and since she had finished reading about Jesus' death and resurrection, I asked her some questions about that. She said she wanted to ask God into her life and so we prayed together.
I am totally excited about this, for it has been one of my main concerns that she comes to know and believe Christ as I know and believe Christ. I have been concerned that she would do this simply because of wanting to be with me, ie saying what I want to hear. So I have been praying that God reassure me in this and to show me that she truly believes. I can honestly say that I have been reassured both by God's peace on me as well as by her by the things she have said to me. There is still a little doubt, but it is fading quickly. I am just so excited by this part of our trip.
Anyway the next morning we packed the car and she still had no clue as to what we were doing. I drove a mile down the road and asked her "Do you want to know where we are going?" She answered "Tell me when we get there" By this time the turn into the train depot was in sight and I said "Well ok then, we are here." She was floored, turned out she thought we had to drive for another hour or so instead of less than five minutes. She was so excited and happy and thrilled. And I must admit so was I.
There was a Wild West show before the train departed and that was really funny to watch. There were four 'bad' guys interacting with the audience at the beginning then at one point one guy annouced he was hungry, so they decided that they would go to McDonalds to get some breakfast. But they had no money, so they decided to play a card game with some unlucky member of the audience to get money from him. One guy cheated at cards by pulling 5 Aces out of his sleeve and thereby 'winning' the poker game. The other three guys discovered someone cheated and promptly shot the cheater to death. By this time the marshal walked into the show and demanded to know what was going on to which the three guys tried to blame the audience member as being the guy who killed the fourth guy. And so on and so on. It was funny and ended up with the marshal shooting the other three guys. Then they all stood up and said they would remain behind for pictures. So Judy and I got our picture taken with the marshal.
Then we got on the train and headed to the Grand Canyon. The ride was a little over two hours long which we just spent cuddled up. There was an attendant in our car who offered soft drinks to everyone and generally chatted with people. There was also a 'traveling' musician who played a guitar and told really funny jokes. We saw lots of cows as well as a herd of antelopes (got a picture of them). The landscape was beautiful and it was just so relaxing sitting there for a couple hours.
At the Grand Canyon we walked along the rim, had lunch (sandwiches again), visited the Visitor's Center, Bookstore and a couple shops/trading post before heading back onto the train for the trip back. We only had 3 and a half hours to spend, but wow what a time it was. I took a lot of pictures there. In fact at one overlook we were at it started to snow/hail! It wasnt the light fluffy snow (came down too fast) but it wasnt the ice hard hail either, so it was more of a snow-hail combo. She was real excited since she hasnt seen real snow before.
The trip back was nice again, this time around we saw two herds of elk (got picture of them), we had a banjo player play in our car instead of the guitar player. In fact he played a love song for us, well actually he said "I'm playing it for her you know, not for you" pointing at me. That was funny. He had alot of humor as well that had us cracking up. Then near the end of the trip we saw three guys on horseback galloping along the track. Our attendant said it looked like we were going to be robbed. The train stopped for a brief moment and then continued on with the three riders still outside. Hmm guess we were safe from the robbers... Nope there were two of them and they came into our car demanding money. By the time they left our car a marshal entered our car asking if the bandits came this-a-way and reassuring us that he was hot on their trail... LOL That was fun.
We got back to Williams and headed back home. Somewhere along the way we pulled off to find some place to eat and we saw this Bar-B-Que place. So we stopped there to eat. It was a nice little small town resturant and the food was pretty good. When we went out to the car again, thats when things got a little bad. My car wouldnt start. Sigh... No idea whats wrong with it, and stuck in a small town. I was about to go back in when I tried it one more time and it started. So we decided to continue driving since the car had started. Got about a mile down the road when the engine died completly, the exact same thing that happened after church last saturday. It still wouldnt start and I started to break down. She helped me out by reminding me that no matter what happens God is with us. And she is right. I just wanted the trip to go smoothly and having my car break down isnt what I had in mind of being smooth.
Called AAA and they sent a tow truck. While explaining the problem to the tow truck driver he asked me to try starting the car to make sure it wasnt the battery. The car started up with no problem. No idea whats causing this problem, but he offered to tow us closer to Phoenix (we were still about 100 miles out) which we accepted since if the car was going to die again, at least we would be closer to where family or friends could come and get us. Oh yeah one more thing, while calling AAA to get help my phone started beeping... low battery warning came on meaning I had less than two minutes of battery life remaining. So yeah both the car and the phone going dead is what caused me to get upset with the whole thing.
We did get home alright and no more problems with the car. I took the day off today to try to get my car fixed. The first garage I took it to said he couldnt do anything since the car was running fine now. Said it was probably a faulty sensor, and the only thing he could do is to try replacing a part to see if that worked, and keep replacing parts until it doesnt happen again. The other option is to hope it fails completely so he could determine exactly what part it is. Either way not too reassuring, since I will more than likely have the engine cut out on me again. I'm either out of a lot of money replacing parts I dont need to replace, or just wait til it dies completely. Sigh...
Ok enough for now... pictures later. Not sure when but I'll try to have a few up by Friday morning and again some more on Sunday morning. Later