Cross Country Vacation
Cross Country Vacation 2007
My brother and sister in law, James and Ellen Johnson, gave us a 1995 Toyota Tercel. They live in Lexington, Kentucky, so we decided to fly there and drive the car back making a family vacation out of it since we have not had one for over 4 years. We drove 3,300 miles and spent 60 hours in the car together. God helped us (not kill each other)!
You will find pictures and videos below documenting our journey.
Above - James and Ellen with the 1995 Toyota Tercel they gave us. They have been very supportive of us and the work we are doing for our Lord.
Thursday, 8/16/2007 - Becky, Austin, Kelsey and me flew into Louisville, Kentucky from PDX in Portland, Oregon. James and Ellen picked us up at the airport and we drove to Lexington, Kentucky, to stay the night with them.
Friday, 8/17/2007 - I took Kelsey to the quarterfinals of the Western & Southern Financial Group (W&SFG) Mens Professional Tennis Tournament in Cincinnati, Ohio. We left Lexington at 7 AM, watched tennis all day and get back to my brother's house in Lexington at 2 AM. Of course the whole gang is up waiting for us when we get back and we don't get to bed until very early. Kelsey and I had a great day together. She played junior varsity for McNary High School this past school year and she loves tennis.
Saturday, 8/18/2007 - We drove 3 hours east of Lexington, Kentucky to Huntington, West Virginia to visit my dad in the hospital. It was great seeing him, mom and the rest of my family again.
From Left to Right - Me, Dad, my brother James, my sister Ramona, mom and my brother in law Chuck. My sister and brother in law took us all to a great Mexican restaurant in Huntington and we had a good meal together. We left the restraint and drove back to Lexington, Kentucky to stay the night.
Sunday, 8/19/2007 - We drove back to Cincinnati, Ohio to attend the Finals of the Western & Southern Financial Group (W&SFG) Mens Professional Tennis Tournament. Becky, Austin, James and Ellen joined Kelsey and me for the doubles and singles finals.
We saw Bryan/ Bryan play Erlich/ Ram in the Doubles Finals and Roger Federer play James Blake in the Singles Finals.
After the finals, we said our goodbyes to James and Ellen and started on our trip home to Oregon. We left Cincinnati around 6:00 PM.
We drove all night and a total of 30 hours prior to stopping and getting a hotel at Gallup, New Mexico on Monday night, 8/20/2007. Driving through Indiana, Missouri, and Oklahoma, we encountered storms. One was pretty severe and lasted for 80 miles. I could only drive about 40 MPH as the rain was so hard it hindered seeing.
Austin took about a 30 second clip of some of what we drove through with my digital camera.
A few pics along the way.....
Tuesday, 8/21/2007 - We traveled from Gallup, New Mexico to the Grand Canyon south rim entrance in Arizona. We watched the IMAX movie there on the Grand Canyon and went to see it the next morning.
Below are some pics including a squirrel that got some breakfast out of a McDonald's bag left in an unattended stroller.
After viewing the Grand Canyon, we traveled to see the Hoover Dam. It was amazing. The signs of the times was obvious as we had to pull off prior to the dam at a homeland security check point.
Lake Mead, made from damming the Colorado river with the Hoover dam, is the largest man-made lake in America. In the pictures you will see a white outline around the lake indicating past water levels. The white area on the sides of the canyons above the lake are 120 feet high. The highest level marks the highpoint of flooding that took place in the 80's. The normal level is 60 feet below the high level. The area has been in a multi year drought so the water level of lake Mead is 60 feet low.
From the Hoover Dam, we traveled another 30 minutes to Las Vegas. We spent two nights on the strip in Las Vegas. I would love to rent out a conference center in one of the casinos and start a Loving God Fellowship on the strip! If God calls you to plant a Loving God Fellowship there, contact me!
Enjoy these pictures we took on the strip!
On Thursday night, our last night in Vegas, we watched the Fountain show in front of the Bellagio Hotel and Casino. I videoed it on my digital camera, which limits the videos to three minutes. You can view both videos below to see a spectacular fountain show. Don't miss the ending in the second video.
Friday, 8/24/2007 - We got up at 5 AM and was on the road at 7:30 AM heading home. We drove long and hard and got home at 3:30 AM Saturday morning.
It felt good sleeping in my own bed again!
It was great seeing all of the people again on Sunday at Loving God Fellowship, our revolutionary new church plant in Salem, Oregon.
Know that you are loved,
gaj
Greg, Becky, Austin, and Kelsey:
Thanks so much for sharing your wonderful cross-country pictures and videos with all of us. However, you should have left those awful pictures of me out of the collection! Nevertheless, we are so glad that God blessed you all with a safe and wonderful trip across this great and beautiful land in which we live. May God continue to richly bless you and keep you in His tender and loving care.
Posted by:Ellen | August 31, 2007 at 09:45 PM
Thanx for sharing your trip! Part of my personal calling involves traveling to places by car, and it really stirred me to see the one pic of the freeway, with the overpasses and the green signs. (That last bit was prose)
Posted by:Robin | September 01, 2007 at 02:13 PM
Glad to see your mom and dad are doing much better. God is awesome!
Looks like you all had a good trip back.
Thanks for sharing the pics :)
You have to "experience" the Grand Canyon, pictures do nothing for it, as I'm sure you are aware :)
Posted by:stlhd | September 01, 2007 at 04:41 PM
Wow! I just now had a chance to sit down and check out Greg's blog about our cross country journey. What a wonderful job he did. Thanks to my wonderful husband, it was like taking the trip again, but without the car ride. Greg, you are a true man of God and a wonderful example to all of us. Keep up the good work!!!
Your Loving Wife!
Posted by:Becky Johnson | September 01, 2007 at 09:14 PM
wow...what an awesome time you all had...we can so relate having been ourselves to the Grand Canyon...something only you can experience..pictures just dont cut it !!...
Soo happy your dad is doing much better..and to see all your family enjoying quality time together..sooo important and precious memories.
God is soo faithful and always amazes us just how His plan always works out for our good :)
Great to have you home...see u all really soon!
love and Blessings..
Posted by:Mrs Coho | September 02, 2007 at 02:54 PM
What an awesome time you guys had - great memories. It's really nice to have a digital camera to record everything. Greg, you did an excellent job of posting the pictures and video.
Welcome back - we're glad to have you and your family back with us.
Gina
Posted by:Gina | September 02, 2007 at 05:41 PM
That was awesome to see! What a neat time to be able to spend with Becky and the kids. Thanks for sharing
Posted by:Trudy | September 03, 2007 at 08:04 PM