Mid-Trip Musings

I can’t believe we’re half-way there. No, I’m not “trunky,” but there are things I miss about being home—family most of all, and friends next. Other things I miss: A real tub bath. Chocolate covered acai berries. I miss my dishwasher.  An oven—we do have one, but it uses too much propane, and burns hot. My house. I thought I would miss Mexican food, but now we can get salsa, tortillas and such all across the country and even in Canada, but the tortillas in Canada look more like wraps or thin pita bread. I miss being able to write every day. Did I mention my dishwasher? I miss watching the local news. San Diego County weather. We’ve had more than our share of cold weather, but it finally started warming up June 12th , then it  cooled off again. June 29, when we entered the US again, that changed drastically—from low to mid 60’s to mid 90’s.
Random things I’ve learned: People don’t have regional accents any more, very few anyway. I could count on one hand the people I heard with southern accents, New York accents, Texan accents, or accents for any of the other places we’ve been. I can survive without the Food Network, TLC, Discovery Channel, and such. We do have TV when we can get satellite, but we don’t watch that much.  I can make a bed while on top of it ... with only 20 inches above me (we have a cab-over bed). It isn’t that inconvenient to take the cereal out of the cupboard so I can get to the canned goods then take those out one by one until I find the one I want, or pull out all of the spices until I find the one I need. (I can’t see what’s in that shelf without doing gymnastics.) No need to get perturbed when one of us makes a wrong turn or gives the wrong directions—the other one will do it next. Our GPS device is right 98% of the time, but we have to watch out for that 2% like the time it tried tirelessly to get us to the ferry landing for Campobello Island until we finally got close to the road the bridge we wanted go over on was, or the time it was about 10 miles off and we missed our campground (it gave the wrong side of the road also). Still, our instincts get us into trouble more often than not when we disobey it. I’m a tough old bird now. When I was young if there was one mosquito within 3 miles, it would find me. Now I hardly ever get bitten even though they eat Dan alive.
I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything. I love every minute of it even the difficulties make the rest even better, but I don’t want to live on the road all the time like some seniors do. The best part of any trip is getting home, but I’m NOT ready to do that yet. There are too many adventures ahead of us, and too many temples to attend.
I’m amazed as I think of all of the things we’ve already seen and done. Who would have thought that a boy growing up in the barrios of San Bernardino, and a girl from a broken home whose mother, with only an 8th grade education, cleaned houses and babysat to raise her would ever be able to see and do these things?
Heavenly Father truly has blessed us. I won’t even start on His tender mercies because they would take up more room than I have here. Attending church each week brings a sense of stability as well as being able to partake of the sacrament and being uplifted by inspiring talks and lessons. The most important thing we’re doing is attending the temples.