Welcome Week is over

It's been a hectic week of information and social activities. I've chosen my 3 classes and met many new friends. Today, I went to Mosaic Church - again, different, but wonderful just the same. There was an artist who painted throughout the service; a skit; multi-media presentations....very cool. I'm still missing the liturgical aspect, though. I'm looking forward to finding a congregation that can blend the liturgical and modern aspects.

Classes begin tomorrow. I'll be taking 3:

• Foundations of Youth Ministry - Chap Clark
• New Testament: Acts - Revelation - Seyoon Kim
• Patristic Theology - John Thompson

It's a tough list - Thompson is regarded as a great teacher - but a tough grader. This class is going to be important if I decide to go on for a PhD. I've also gotten involved a bit in the student government and the Arts Concerns Committee. I'm excited to be a part of the activities here.

My first Sunday in Pasadena

Went to church with Erica and her mom: Harvest Rock Church. It’s a large congregation – very evangelical and modern. I enjoyed it and the differences. They are just starting their “40 Days of Purpose” this week, so Pastor Che was preaching an over-view and introduction to the study. He had 3 questions to answer as part of his sermon: What does God want? What does it take? And why should I do it? God wants my whole life; it takes discipline; and I should do it because of the cross. It’s already 1pm – so I’ll make some lunch, read a little and then there is another event tonight at 6. It’s a housing community get-together – so we can meet our neighbors and get connected here. I’m hoping to get connected with Ruffin again tomorrow at the Presbyterian Student Orientation.

My first official Fuller event....

Up early again. I didn’t sleep well. Starbuck’s for breakfast again – mom is a happy camper. We drove around Pasadena a bit, just getting a feel for what’s out there. Then, it was time to take mom to the airport. We found it with no trouble – it took about 35-40 minutes to get there from here. Not a bad drive on a Saturday morning, but we both agreed that we didn’t want to drive it on a weekday. I spent some time at a dollar store and Big Lots before coming back home. I think I’m finally done with shopping for awhile. This afternoon looms long and lonely before my first event – a welcome gathering at 6pm. I’m looking forward to getting to meet some other students, as I’m finally feeling a little homesick and lonely. I’m going to need to make friends soon…
The gathering was fun – I walked over with the girls from apartment #7. They are all 22 and fresh out of college. I ran into Ruffin and Melanie almost immediately after arriving – so we got to catch up and spend some time together. Also met a few other new students: Jeff and Jenn, Michael and E.V. I’m excited to be meeting people finally.

Who knew so much stuff could be in one car??

Because of the time change and mom’s natural schedule, we woke up early again. We had found a Starbuck’s yesterday, so we went there for breakfast – making mom VERY happy. I think she was going through withdrawal. We spend the day unpacking and organizing. A shopping trip found Big Lots and another dollar store! We set up the new bed in the morning and a shelf we found at Big Lots in the afternoon. Mom and I are quite handy, if I do say so myself! We had dinner with Erica and her mom, Candy. Islands is a nice burger place – good food, nice atmosphere and a great chance to get to know each other. It was great. Back to the apartment, we found homes for even more of my stuff and then played a bit on the computer. We discovered that the phone jack in my room isn’t working – I’ll need to have that looked at early next week. I can’t live much longer without the internet!!! We’ve been playing “Who Wants to be a Millionaire? 3rd Edition” all week. We’d gotten up to the million dollar question before, but we’d gotten it wrong. Finally, on the very first try tonight, we WON!!!! Go figure. Off to bed – mom leaves in the morning.

Setting up house...

Up at about 6:30am. Took our time showering, packing and having breakfast. We’re only hours from Pasadena and I have yet to actually speak to a person to let them know we’ll be there today. Wandered around town looking for gas that wasn’t going to break the bank. Gave up and filled up at a “76” for $2.28/9 per gallon. Yikes – I’m NOT going to like this part of living in CA. Washed all our windows – yuck! – and hit the road by 8:15am. The day is beautiful!! And with the sun at our backs, the drive looks to be a good one. The drive was fairly uneventful. We shared the road through the end of the desert with more big-rigs – always my favorite. We had a great surprise as we drove through Palm Springs: There are windmills EVERYWHERE!!! There are thousands of windmills all over the hills and valleys, each facing a slightly different direction so as to catch any breath of wind from anywhere. I took a bunch of pics so we could remember this awesome sight! We arrived in Pasadena around 11:45ish. We wandered for a little bit and eventually found our way to the Housing Office at about 12:05. Of course, they’re closed for lunch from 12-1pm. So, we went off and had lunch at a diner/lounge and then came back. I was able to get my key and a ton of information from Lori @ Housing. By then, Matt Webb had called and he and a friend were available to help us unload. The car that was packed to the gills and took forever to load was emptied in minutes. Matt and Todd are lifesavers!!! Mom and I settled in to unpacking – a long a tedious process that left us sweaty and drained. We basically spent the entire afternoon unpacking. At about 6, we realized that we hadn’t been shopping for a bed – so we made a list of things we needed and headed off to IKEA, thanks to directions from Todd. We got to IKEA at about 7 and it took us almost 2 full hours to select a bed with mattress and other items (a desk chair from “As-Is”, some drawer organizers, a hanging closet shelving thing). We got back to the apt, dragged everything inside, set up beds and slept.

Finally in Cali!!!!!!!!!!

This morning dawned beautiful and HOT. The sunrise colors over the mesa that is the backdrop to the city are just beautiful. We actually have a pretty nice view from the hotel room, if you ignore the highway at our feet. Because of the time change and the fact that we had planned to be on the road early, we were both awake before 7. It was still a nice lie-in, but early anyway…especially considering we weren’t going anywhere for awhile. Mom found coffee in the hotel lobby while I showered. Then we walked to Dunkin Donuts for coffee and bagels. I think we’re going to smell like Dunkin Donuts all day! We walked over to Wal-Mart and shopped a bit. I found some sandals and a robe, mom found a nice polo, and we picked up some cheese and crackers to be our lunch. While we were shopping, Hector from Pep Boys called at about 8:45am. They would have the part we needed in about an hour and would have us on the road by 11:30 or 12 noon. The new cost estimate is approximately $300. So we shopped a little more and headed back to the hotel. We watched TV and mom talked to Matt for a little while. Matt has a new job as Manager at Houlihan’s restaurant. More money, more regular hours and better benefits (including bonuses). It was a hard decision to leave the Porterhouse, but a good career move. We checked out of the hotel at about 10:30am and walked over to Pep Boys – lugging all our stuff. Arrived here around 10:45 and were told that the car should be ready by 11:30. So, we’re sitting in the waiting room, killing time. We should be able to make it to Arizona tonight, and might even push into California. Of course, with the car dilemma, we have had to drop the idea of seeing the Grand Canyon….but that’s OK. I’ll be here in the west for 2 years – I think I can manage to get there! 11:45 loaded stuff back into car and left. Made two left turns and heard noise! Returned to Pep Boys – Hector found that a plastic shield was rubbing on the right front tire when turning to left only. Fixed. Back on road at 12;03. 12:30 finally made it to New Mexico! Missed a drive-through Starbucks! Oh, well. Landscape very open with occasional hills and mesas – very dry. Safety Corridor on road for first 15 miles – double fines for speeding if caught – everyone being careful. After passing through or by Las Cruces (didn’t see much) we entered an area of fairly rapid decreasing speed limits leading to a border patrol station not at the border??? Passed through with a nod from the attendant. Saw a LARGE roadrunner – thought of Dad and Janice (No, it was not real!) Several billboards for “The THING?” Have no idea what that means. But it is at exit 322 in Arizona, so maybe we will find out. Stopped for Gas at Exit 82 in Deming NM. Sign said $199.9 for unleaded regular – steep but only game we saw in town. Started pumping and discovered the price was really $209.9 UGLY but necessary. Had purchased cheese and crackers etc. for lunch – needed a plastic knife – no luck at gas station. Mom got creative and used the edge of her AAA card to slice the cheese. AAA comes through again! Somewhere around mile 70 at 2:15PM we saw a sign informing us we were crossing the Continental Divide. Stopped on the west side of Phoenix for dinner at Applebee’s. This was after driving through rush-hour AND baseball game traffic while headed directly into the sun. Hit the road again after dinner and felt like we were the only car on the road – only saw big-rigs after that. As we crossed into CA, we had to go through ANOTHER border crossing – this time they were checking for Agriculture stuff. Got to Blythe CA around 9pm, got a room at the Super 8 and crashed. Watched CSI and part of the news before going to sleep.

God has other plans - we're still in Texas

Breakfast at buffet at HIE. Grabbed enough to take for the road to be lunch!! On the road, coffee in hand, by 6:50am local time. Only 720 miles of Texas left to go!! Should be in New Mexico by 5.

Mom started driving – was raining. Rush hour in San Antonio was fun – took a wrong turn but made it work just fine. Started to see landscape changes, wide open spaces, really cool mesas, longhorn cattle (they’re not just a rumor!). For awhile, along the tops of the mesas we saw many, many windmills – the new modern-looking ones! Such a neat sight! Mostly only big-rigs travel Route 10 at this point. BOY DID WE FEEL SMALL!

As the storms were in front of us and the sun was behind us, we saw a BEAUTIFUL rainbow. Tried to get a pic – but couldn’t remember how to work my camera. At this point in the trip we were listening to Amy Grant Christmas CDs while playing Millionaire and crossword puzzles on the laptop – I think we’re addicted. The games DO help pass the time quite nicely, though. We started using town names for our “name” in Millionaire.

Stopped for gas in Fort Stockton – potty break, too. This looked like the last place before we got to El Paso 250 miles later!! About 190 miles down the road, I needed a potty – which was odd, because I hadn’t been drinking much all day. But, nature called – and so we looked for a gas station or rest stop.
We missed exit 85 because we weren’t watching.
Saw a sign for a gas station at exit 72, so we moved over to the right lane and started to exit Route 10.
As we were driving down the exit ramp, the car seemed to loose power steering all together. I held on tightly and managed to get the car into the Shell station just down the road.
The temperature gauge read 260 degrees – ooops!
So, we decided that we’d overworked the poor overburdened car and it was crying out for a rest. So we let it rest. Once we checked the coolant (and found that it was BOILING!), we sat back and enjoyed an unplanned break in our driving.

About 15-20 minutes later we turned the car on to check the engine temp and found that it had gone down a little, but not as much as we’d hoped. We followed the directions we found in the owner’s manual – and turned the car on, let it idle, with the heat running. This was supposed to draw the heat away from the engine and help it to cool. Unfortunately, the temperature ROSE! We stuck our heads back under the hood and found that, even to the untrained eye, the belt (Fan, I think) was looking a bit like spaghetti – not at all what a fan belt should look like. Mom tried to call AAA from her cell – and found that we had no signal. She was able to connect on a pay phone – and I started packing up our stuff, knowing that we would be changing our plans soon.

The tow truck was promised for 90 minutes – so we wandered over to the restaurant next door – Angie’s. Now, in case you pulled out a map and are looking for Fort Hancock, let me assure you that it is a small, but friendly little border town. Angie’s Restaurant has maybe 15 tables and is owned and operated by Angie herself – in fact, I think she does pretty much everything there. And still has a smile and cheerful word for neighbors and passers-thru alike. We were welcomed as friends and invited to stay as long as we needed to. The salsa, which we didn’t have the opportunity to try, is rumored to be world-class. The ice cream, which we did try, was cold, sweet, yummy and CHEAP – 75¢ per scoop! And it was a LARGE scoop!

Almost exactly 1 hour after mom’s phone call to Shanda of AAA – the tow truck arrived. AGAIN, we were greeted as friends. The gentleman from Sanchez Towing in Sierra Blanca TX was sweet and friendly. He chatted and reassured us as he drove us to El Paso. We got to hear about the local history and some of the local forts – might have to come back and seem them someday.

We arrived at Pep Boys in El Paso and Hector assured us that the belt and the pulley needed to be replaced and then we’d be on the road. He thought they’d need awhile – so mom and I walked to Peter Piper’s Pizza to eat and chat. The place was a bit like Chuck E. Cheese’s – and the pizza was very good! There were 2 teenage boys who were playing a dancing video game – WOW!. Very good…and quite a workout. While we were eating, we got a message from Hector at Pep Boys. When we called back, Hector had left for the night, but Joe explained that they had some not-so-good-news. The tensioner also needs to be replaced in my car – and they don’t have one. They will call around in the morning, but do not know what the exact situation will be until that time. So, we went back to Pep Boys, got our stuff out of the car, found a hotel that was reasonable and right down the road. One of the other customer’s was very friendly and helpful – told us about the area and helped us find hotels nearby. One of the Pep Boys boys, Luis, gave us a lift and here we sit. In the hotel by 8pm – and no chance of being on the road until at least 10am.








Here's a picture of my car...

Florida to Texas in 15 hours

7am – hit the road, running away from Hurricane Ivan. Little traffic, smooth sailing. Crossed into Alabama around 1pm. Had lunch in the Tillman’s Corner area around 2pm – McDonald’s, as fast as we could. Filled up with gas at a RaceTrac – REALLY slow because of people preparing to flee Ivan. Crossed into Mississippi around 2:30/3pm. Drove straight through. Got to Texas around 7pm EST/6pm local time. Noticed some really strange clouds during the sunset and eventually figured out that something BIG was burning. I reacted a bit to the smoke and looked like I had a sunburn. Stopped in Baytown/Beaumont Texas for dinner – guiltless pasta at Chili’s. Back on the road. Drove straight through Houston – that was way fun – crazy roads at high speed in the rain at night! Spent the night at a Holiday Inn Express in Sealy Texas – checked in around 11pm EST/10pm local time.