When my alarm went off at 7am this morning with another 4 whole hours of sleep, I felt like a zombie! I felt discouraged, but knowing we were going to be in Texas tonight, I pressed on and focused again on my theme verse: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him and He will make your paths straight.” Another key verse for the day that the Lord laid on my heart was, Matt. 6:33-34 “but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” That was just what I needed to focus on for our long drive ahead to San Antonio, Texas, because I didn’t know what this day would entail.
I splashed cold water on my face and diligently went to start the engine on the RV as my husband had told me to always warm it up. To my chagrin all I heard were the dreaded sounds of “click – click” . . . . “click – click” . . . “click – click”. What???? We were so good at making sure that everything was unplugged and all the lights were off. Uggg . . . because I was so tired last night and we parked under a lamp, and I am not used to turning off manual lights, I left the head lights on all night long. With an enormous sigh and a moment of panic, my very tired brain was at a loss of what to do. Remembering that we just signed up for Good Sam roadside help, I immediately called, only to find out that I signed up only for discounts at the campgrounds, not the roadside assistance. Ugggg . . . one more thing to fix!! But thank God for AAA . . . we called them, texted Dave to let him know that I’m a scattered brain, and decided to shop for the supplies that we needed Wal-Mart. Unfortunately after an hour of waiting, there was no AAA. BUT Dave FINALLY called me to let me know there was a switch to start the engine just for this problem!! I tried it and it started right up! Wish I would have remembered that when he walked me through the RV details!! Uggg again . . . . I’ll never do that again. And I kindly reminded my husband to listen for his phone as we traveled, just in case!!
Again leaving 2 hours later then we planned, we pressed on to drive our 15 hours to San Antonio, Texas. As we drove through Arizona, it was barren, brown, flat, & rocky, with hundreds of cacti and tumble weeds. It made me very thankful for California’s beauty.
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Approaching the border of New Mexico, it seemed that we started climbing in altitude because it was 30 degrees . . . it was freezing! I didn’t know that New Mexico, which is supposed to be desert, could be that cold. I guess that’s what you call “High Desert”. Approaching the border of New Mexico, it seemed that we started climbing in altitude because it was 30 degrees . . . it was freezing! I didn’t know that New Mexico, which is supposed to be desert, could be that cold. I guess that’s what you call “High Desert”.
As we climbed the mountain, it was dumping snow now. Arriving at the border of New Mexico, Shelly SLAMMED on the brakes at the sight of the New Mexico sign, and she pulled over on the freeway. We all jumped out to take a picture under the sign and we obviously weren’t dressed for the snow. It was freezing!!!
Three hours later we arrived at the border of Texas which was also paralleling the border of Mexico. I was napping in the back but I was told by the kids about the sight of the poverty just over the fence. Made them grateful for what we have here in America.
After a few hours of rest but still feeling like a zombie, I took the wheel so Shelley could sleep. Brittany kept me company in the navigator’s seat. Driving on to San Antonio was long stretches of nothingness so to keep awake we listened to music loudly and I dictated this blog to her. At one point there was no gas station for 2 ½ hours and I was running on empty. My heart was pounding fearing that we might run out of gas. BUT once again, God is faithful and an exit for gas came in the middle of nowhere.
Shelley woke up at midnight (now 2 hours ahead because of Central time) and the kids willingly went to bed. Shelley and I pressed on into the vast nothingness. Then an hour before San Antonio it started to rain. I’m so thankful it wasn’t raining for most of this drive because the night vision is extremely difficult. It was 2:00am and flashes of light started lighting up the sky. Lightning is coming! WOW! My heart started pounding again as large flashes of lightning lit up the entire sky. No doubt that I was completely awake now! I have NEVER seen lightning like that before.
We called Tim to make sure we were ok to drive and he said “your fine unless it starts hailing and it become really windy, then pull off with the truckers and park in between them.” Thanks for the reassurance Tim . . . and there were no exits with trucks . . . Nobody was out there! SCARY! I was praying like crazy!!
For an hour we witnessed the amazing power of God with this amazing feat of nature! WOW, is all I can say . . . something I will never forget. FINALLY we arrived at the Dahlingers at 3:30 am. Again, I’ve never been so thankful to arrive somewhere and hit my pillow at 5:00am.
