Well.....

The von Trapp children were amazing! We had their two albums that they offer at Vision Forum and so I had heard them before. But, their voices have grown up and you can tell that they have had quite a bit of training over the years. The oldest has quite a beautiful voice that she showed off with an Aria. The rest of the repertoire was filled with folk songs, opera, musical tunes and of course, the ever famous Sound of Music songs.

After the conversation we had to say good-byes. Oh, this was hard and there were a lot of tears. I had a hard time holding back the tears all day long. It seemed like everything caused me to weep. I guess you have days like this. It is nice to know that the next day is usually better. We had spent two wonderful weeks building lasting relationships. It is wonderful to know that I have a wonderful church community to go home to. If I didn't I would be packing up and moving to Colorado Springs.

We drove back to the Chapa's house that night and got on the road the next day at about 10am. If there is one thing I love it is a beautiful mountain peak. I am overwhelmed by the beauty and majesty of the mountains that God has given us in creation. Of course, the Rocky Mountains are filled with incredible peaks and I just could not get any reading or knitting done because I was staring out the window most of the day.

As we started up Wolf Creek Pass, which tops at 10,000+ feet, we were feeling pretty good that we had gone so far without any problems. Hah! That is what we get for feeling really good. I had just settled down in the back of the van with Brown Sugar for a nap when I heard "MOM". I quickly asked what was going on and Goose let me know that the van was pooping out. I quickly made it to the front of the van to find that the van was just about to stall. Thankfully we were able to get to the side. We were three miles from the top of the pass and at an incline of about 7%. We were not overheating, there was no smell, the oil pressure was good and the battery was charged. I was baffled.

We tried again but this time it died a few more yards up the hill. Goose was able to get us partially off the road. I just started to pray. I finally remembered to pray first and then worry. Great lesson to learn since you rarely have time to worry when you are praying.

My cell phone would not work and so I was at the mercy of strangers to help me. We flagged someone down and just asked them to please contact the Sheriff's office. A few minutes later we had another truck come by to see if we needed help. Their cell phone worked and so I was able to call our insurance company to get a tow truck up there. The gentleman did not know much about cars but he and his family hung around until help arrived. He parked his truck behind our trailer to help brace it up the steep incline.

In the meantime the kids did what homeschool kids do....they went exploring and imagined that they were in the Revolutionary war. The parents of the other kids even "charged" the mountain fortress. There was a lot of laughing and light-heartedness in a very tough predicament.

The sheriff came on the scene soon after and joined the "party". He had to stay there until the tow truck came. But...before the tow truck came another vehicle showed up.

Another Patriarch Wife from the yahoo group that I belong to lived about twenty miles on the other side of the pass. When she heard that we were stuck she and her dad drove up to meet us. And all this with her being nine months pregnant with her seventh child!

Her dad seemed to think that the problem could have been a bad fuel pump. He started the vehicle up and drove it a bit. It seemed to work fine. As we were getting her Suburban ready to tow our trailer the tow truck showed up.

I was a bit worried that he would be upset after coming all the way up the hill. He was wonderfully kind and even followed my new friends dad up to the top of the pass in our van.

We made it to her house and enjoyed a late meal and singing around their piano.

This morning we drove the van to church (a whopping two hours away) and they drove the trailer behind their Suburban.

Once again the Lord was gracious and kept us safe. For the two hours to church I spent most of it praising the Lord for His kindness to our family. Another adventure to learn how to interact with each other. Another adventure to fully depend on the Lord. Another adventure to add to the excitement. This is what I wanted for our road trip...for our new family to connect in a closer way.

Today was Father's Day. Lil' Cowboy leaned over and said "Mom, it's Father's day?" during church. I nodded yes and he just shrugged his shoulders. I leaned over and said "aren't you so thankful that you had such a great daddy for a couple years? " He smiled. I said "Now you need to pray that the Lord will provide you with a new daddy" Bigger smiles and a nice hug to go along with it.

~Lazyd