Final Thoughts from Pam

Ponderings on our Coast to Coast trip and The Blog (Nov 2020)

Well we have been back home now for over 2 months and I have thought alot about our trip and the blog. Truth be told, I did most of my thinking about it during November when we first got back and actually wrote most of this then. In the 2 months that we have been back we have celebrated Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year and 7 birthdays (with 2 more to go in January) and that’s not even counting the 5 out of town birthdays we only celebrated with a text. All that to explain why this is just now getting posted. I’ve been debating on whether to even include this on the blog at all. But I want it included in my printed copy, so I have to post it.

Both the trip and the blog seemed to become much more than what they began as.  It’s kind of hard to wrap my head around it and even harder to explain what I mean.

First our trip. At first glance it was an exciting adventure.  Bruce was doing an amazing physical feat. For his 60 year old body to be able to ride 60 – 120 miles STRONGLY almost every day is pretty amazing.  He’s been “training for it” for over 25 years by biking 4 days a week almost year round. He pushed himself and he succeeded. He had an incredibly positive attitude throughout the whole trip. He was driven to succeed, but also enjoyed it thoroughly.

My side of the adventure is a little harder to put in a box.  On the surface, I drove an RV to accompany my husband on a great adventure.  Big deal. I thought it was going to be pretty much a vacation, seeing all the small towns across America.  And it was that, kind of. Although I didn’t get to actually explore as many small towns as I had hoped, it was so fun seeing so many diverse landscapes across the country. But the big thing for me was my time in Harvey. Driving a 28-foot RV was totally out of my comfort zone. Although I did get quite used to it (and might I even say GOOD at it), every morning I felt like God and I were taking off together to meet the challenges of the day. I have been a Christian for over 30 years and I know in my mind that the Holy Spirit is with me, keeps me safe and leads me every day.  But on this trip, it felt so real.  Hard to explain.  Almost like I was riding a river current or carried along by the wind. Obviously, I was driving every day and making decisions, but something was different.  I have never really been in a place where I felt so enveloped by prayer.  I wish I could explain it better.  All day God just felt so PRESENT. I chatted with Him all day long.  Not only was I in need of his wisdom, strength and power to drive the RV confidently, but knowing that Bruce would be riding his bike on those same roads scared me to death.  There were so many things that could potentially happen.  Bruce seemed so vulnerable amongst all the cars and trucks. And it was completely out of my control. So I was constantly praying over the roads and for his safety as he travelled on them. The times when I was behind him, when I would be driving along some highway with fast traffic and small shoulders, I was almost brought to tears with thankfulness that Bruce had already safely made it along those stretches. I truly believe that God sent hundreds of angels to accompany Bruce on his journey.

And now The Blog. I can’t remember when I decided that I wanted to write a blog or specifically even why.  I guess I thought it would be fun for our family and some of our friends to know where we were and what we did each day.  And it would be nice to have it afterwards to remember our trip. But somewhere along the line it seemed like it became more. I don’t know if it was because of the pandemic and people were bored or what.  But it seemed like for whatever reason, people looked forward to it and WANTED to read it every day.  When I first started I was a little hesitant to put scripture in or mention God working.  But then I decided that this was MY blog and that it was important in MY life. If people didn’t like it then they didn’t have to read it. I didn’t purposely try to write about God’s faithfulness.  But God WAS faithful and I couldn’t help but point it out sometimes, just because that was part of what was happening in our day. I feel like God took my feeble efforts and morphed it into something that was enjoyable to people. Kinda like this was my loaves and fish.

So now we are home.  After 2 months of having a purpose every day: drive the RV and write our blog, now I have time to do other things. I know that God is with me all the time, but I miss my constant awareness of it.  I once read that the Holy Spirit is like breathing. Sometimes you have to take deep breaths and are very aware that you are breathing.  The rest of the time you are breathing without even thinking about it, but you are still breathing. Same with the Holy Spirit.  Sometimes you are praying intensely and very aware, but He’s there even when you aren’t focusing on Him.

To God be the Glory!