Highline Activities

I had started a post, but then read Christian's new one and was embarrassed about mine being el-boro. So now I have to start all over and try to spice up mypost a bit and make it a little more personal. We both have been lazy about journaling, so when i write these things it's hard to remember specifics and I just throw out a general story. I will try a little better...

Christian and I are now in Louisville, enjoying time with his mother and sister and mom's boyfriend. We had a looooong journey getting here. Sometimes it seemed like we were just stuck in a place and could not get out!

After L.A., we met up with some old friends in Portland got to hang out with them while we were there. We ate way too many donuts and watched as many World Cup games as possible. After that we hitchhiked up to Seattle, Washington.
Seattle was probably my favorite city yet. We were lucky enough to be there during the summer/non-rainy season so we got to enjoy the bounty of delicious weather. It was sunny with balmy winds and good smells. We watched MORE World Cup games and ate a few more donuts. We also went to Pikes Place Market on the sound where they have famous fish markets. People would buy a fish and then the men would start throwing them around, skinning them, chopping off heads, cooking or seasoning them. The whole time i was there i kept wistfully daydreaming of the movie Sleepless in Seattle, the city is so gorgeous! This is me at the market:

We also swam in Lake Washington, which was really too cold, but there was such a great view it was hard not to get in. I personally could have passed on the dip, but Christian and a friend got in and started laughing and splashing around being all jolly and i didnt want to miss out, so i begrudgingly swam out.



One of the major train routes in the country is one that runs 2,000 miles from Seattle to Chicago. It takes days to get all the way across. Christian has always wanted to ride on that so we decided to hop that one out of the city, since we need to be on the East coast soon for my sister's wedding. Friday afternoon (July 2nd) we camped out beside the tracks and waited for one to stop. Around 8 p.m. the lucky one came along. We found a good car and hopped on. That train went through Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. We stayed on for three straight days basking in the beauty of all of these states. And the neat thing about the ride is that the train travels through areas of these states that cars don't. Most of the time there were no roads or people in sight, just hills, plains, mountains, trees, and sky.

The thing I loved most was the sky. They call Montana 'sky country' or something like that, and it rings totally true. It seemed to envelop our whole selves. I would get dizzy looking up into that pure blueness. For some reason I am so much more aware of God in places like that. Seeing His work, His cleverness and care in land and sky. I can't wait to go back to some of the places we passed and spend more time there. I saw things I didn't think existed anymore. There was so much untouched land, so many wild areas. Like places in books and movies just passed right before my eyes, close enough to touch. It was glorious.



The third day on the train we ran out of food got rained on. The rain wouldn't have been bad, but when you have all you own on your back, you don't want it wet and mildewed, especially sleeping bags. So, a little before our original destination, we got off in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

We spent the next day at the Mall of America walking off our aching joints. We decided to stay there one more night and head out in the morning. That was the beginning of the minor hardships....

We had a hard time finding a place to sleep that night because we were in a city. We try not to sleep in big cities to stay away from murdering psychopaths, but it would have been a few miles walk to get far enough away, so we went to a good part of town to search. We finally fould a spot, but as soon as we laid down we started to get eaten alive by mosqitoes. It was too hot to cover up with sleeping bags, so we dragged our exhausted bodies up to search again. We finally found a spot under a bridge and we rolled up in a ball and slept for a few hours. The next day we headed out to the highway. It started to pour so we got under a bridge and stuck out our thumbs. 20 minutes later a police officer pulled up and told us it's illegal to hitchhike there (which we did not know) and frisks us (VERY thoroughly, I might add...) and escorts us across town, in the wrong direction, to try to get a ride.
We got on a metro bus, road around for a while trying to figure out a way out, and ended up at a truck stop in St. Paul. It was dark by then so we found another bridge to sleep under. But we didn't sleep too well, considering this bridge was really spiderey and cobwebey.
The next day we headed to the truck stop to see if anyone was heading toward Chicago. (note - we normally don't ride with truckers, just because of the horror stories and because I saw that movie Joy Ride, but we really, really wanted to leave that city and it wasn't a bad part of town, we were just going to look for someone normal to ask.) We found out there that it is illegal for truckers to have anyone else in the truck because of insurance policies. So, we sat by another road and tried to hitchhike again. And ANOTHER police car came. The man was really nice and said this place was also illegal to hitchhike in (although the officer the day before said it wasn't). We told him we had misunderstood and about our situation, and he offered to take us 20-some miles away into Wisconsin so we could legally hitchhike. WHAT A BLESSING! Back in another cop car...
From then on it was a slow moving day. We stayed a night in Chicago at Jesus People U.S.A., a Christian commune. We kept getting a few miles ride here and there but progress was slow. But we finally rode into Louisville the next night in the bed of a truck wrapped up in our sleeping bags. It was so nice to be in Louisville.

We are leaving tomorrow for Nashville and then fro there to Virginia. It has been great being with Christian's family. They are great to be around and they pamper us to death.

It will be nice to see old friends in Nashville and to climb again, but I am really ready to get home. I love being home in the summers and I really miss my family. I can't wait to see them all again, to go crabbing, and cook big dinners, and work in the garden, and see people at church, and play Scrabble with my grandparents, and stay up late telling ghost stories with the boys... it will be a homecoming long in the making.

I'm going to get back to Cake Boss (they are making a horse cake!) and cuddle with my Boo. Please stay in touch with us and comment on these things.

-sarah

I hope this was exciting enough. We have some videos to upload on here as soon as I figure out how. It is about 1 a.m. and I am watching Cake Boss. This sandwich cake looks delicious!