Western Journey

Hello from the Black Hills of SD,                  
       A week ago today we left Middlebury to begin our Western Journey. It was a little more emotional to leave this time since we knew we very likely won't see our friends and family again for months.
       We started our trip in Walnut Grove MN. We happened to be there on 1 of the 3 wk-ends in the year that they have an outdoor Ingalls Drama. The show began at dusk and lasted 2 hrs. It was very good! The next day we visited the Wilder Museum. The girls especially loved it.   
     On Monday we left our campground and started for SD. We made a few short stops along the way. In MN we stopped at Pipestone Nat'l Monument, which was really quite interesting. In Mitchell SD we made a stop at the Corn Palace. It was very unique. We then drove to just east of the Badlands and dry camped for the nt. The next day we drove the scenic loop in the Badlands. It's an amazing place-beautiful in its own way. The children loved the climbing they could do there. 
       After the Badlands we drove an hr. and dry camped at Cabelas in Rapid City. It was a great place to shop for Jays Birthday which was the next day. :)  Wed. morning we went to a campground in Hermosa SD near the Black Hills, where we are staying till Monday. We visited Mt Rushmore on Wednesday afternoon/eve. Very neat place and was interesting to learn how it came to be. We've discovered that we learn so much at every National Monument/Memorial/ Historical Site. With the videos, visitors centers, and Jr. Ranger programs they are quite educational!
   On Thursday we went to Jewel Cave Nat'l Monument. We did the Lantern tour which is quite an adventure! The children thought it was one of the greatest things ever. Its the third longest cave in the world by the way. We had a very interesting tour guide who gave us loads of info about the cave. 
    Today we want to spend time in Custer State Park in the Black Hills and take some of the scenic roads there. We have already seen lot's of wildlife in the area. LOTS of deer and turkeys, and a few mt. goats and bison. (James is keeping count) And we haven't even taken the Wildlife Loop Rd. yet, which has really been bothering James. 
     I hope it cools off for you Hoosiers soon. I've heard a few comments about the heat. Makes me rather glad I'm here and not there :-)
     God Bless! Until next time, Ruth and Family

                                       

                             A picture with Cornelius

                              Badlands Nat'l Park

                              Yes that's Janeva way on top

                            Yellow Mounds in the Badlands

                             The Black Hills

            Mt. Rushmore! Was so exciting to actually be here!

                   Couldn't really get any pics of the cave
                          our only light was lanterns.

                         Receiving their Jr. Ranger Badges

                 

Wilder Museum

Virginia to Maine

Hello from Maine! Yes we are in Maine- I can hardly believe it myself. We've put on a lot of miles since my last post but boy was it worth it! After we left Jamestown area we spent part of a day at a beach in VA, then we crossed the 20 mile Chesapeake Bay bridge, which was very cool. We stayed at a walmart that night, then visited Chincoteague/ Assateague Island. We were hoping to see large herds of wild ponies up close, but didn't get that lucky. We saw some at a distance though and they were very pretty. The beach at Chincoteague was beautiful! Stayed at a walmart again overnight. I'm yearning for a shower by now!!
We were planning to go to NYC next, but decided to skip that and head for Maine. We traveled most of the day then stopped at Salisbury beach campground in Massachusets and decided to stay for 2 nts cause it was cheap and the beach was great! The kids love the ocean and so do I but I'm still peeling from the sunburn I got at the first beach. What was I thinking, not wearing sunscreen?? On Monday morn we left for Acadia National Park in Maine and arrived at our campground around 1:00. We all fell in love with Acadia! It's a beautiful place and am so glad we came. We did a lot of hiking. We hiked a mile and a half all the way to the top of a mountain the first day. The veiws are amazing! We also visited all the neat places like Thunder Hole, Bubble Rock, Sand Beach and more. The weather has been super, no rain while we've been here. It gets cool in the nts though. We turned on the heat the last 2 mornings when we got up, as it was in the lower 60s in here.
This afternoon we are driving for a while then will very likely stop at- yes, walmart again. We're heading towards New Hamshire and Vermont, then New York, then to Middlebury IN! We want to be home by next Thur. or Fri. It'll be so good to go to Griner Church again!!!


A little taste of Acadia.

                                               Bubble Rock

 Chincoteague Island

Eastern Journey So Far

     
Hello From Virginia!
    I'm finally at a comfortable place where I can get wifi, so I'll start at the beginning of this journey. We left Middlebury around noon of Wed. June 5, and drove a few hours and had a flat on our RV. (highlight of our trip!). Got that taken care of and drove into the nt. till  we were a few hrs from Hershey PA. We boon-docked at Walmart next to a few other campers. In the morning we met the one family and discovered they are full time rvers/roadschoolers also. They had three children- a girl Julianne's age. We are now 
e-mailing back and forth. 
    We visited Hershey Chocolate World and Gettysburg on the 6th, then drove to Brunswick MD to a campground, where we stayed for 4 nts. While there we visited DC, Antietam Nat'l Battlefield, and Harpers Ferry, WV. On Monday morning we left Brunswick and headed to Williamsburg VA. We are staying at Williamsburg Christian Retreat Center for 3 nts. (a very nice and quiet campground) Today we visited Jamestown, which was very interesting! Tomorrow we want to Visit Yorktown and Colonial Williamsburg. I've taken a lot of pictures and will try to put some on here. 
This new way of life is different, and I wont lie- I've shed a few tears cause I missed my home, but I feel like I'm finally getting comfortable with it, and the camper feels like home. As long as all goes well, and we have no more flats, I think I can handle this life. Pray for us! God Bless!                

                          DC

                      Harpers Ferry- loved this place!

                         Gettysburg Nat'l Battlefield, PA

Making Memories with Family and Friends

Some great people we spent time with before heading east.

Changes

Well, I guess I better give an update, as I'm realizing quite a few people still think we are leaving within a week as we had been planning to. There have been some changes in our plans-not totally unexpected,  yet not what we had been hoping for. As some of you know, Jay has been having a lot of shoulder pain and has been off regular work since January. He had a partially torn rotator cuff. The Dr. kept saying it will heal on its own with time. A lot of his pain did leave when he got rid of the inflamation, but his strength was not there, and he still had some pain. When he went to the Dr. several weeks ago he told Jay, "Well, it's 3 months now so we can talk about surgery now." Great! They could have done it 3 months ago! Jay will need to do therapy for at least a month. He had his surgery April 23, and his first therapy session was yesterday. 

Two days after we found out he's having surgery we found out the closing date for our home will be towards the end of May instead of May first. We were  relieved, since now we won't have to stay in a campground around here for a whole month! I believe things will work out- just not quite the way we had planned, but that's okay. We don't have any reservations made anywhere. 

For those of you who don't know, we were planning to travel East first, then come back to IN for Jr. Youth Camp at the end of June. After camp, we are planning to travel West. We may not be able to do our whole Eastern trip, but hopefully we'll be able to do some of it. If not we will be disappointed, but we are all more excited about the western trip anyway. 

I would just ask that you would pray for complete healing for Jay's shoulder, and also that God would give us patience during this time. It is especially hard for Jay not to be able to use his arm much. He had to start back on light duty today- a week after his surgery, which I think is ridiculous, but you gotta do what workers comp. says. I'm just thankful that they're covering it. 

God Bless!

Last Month Of Normal Life

Greetings from the Miller family! We are a family of 6 who are about to venture on a journey of faith. The plan is to go RV-ing around the country for a year or so. We are planning to leave during the first half of May. We have had many questions since people found out what we are planning to do. Some of the main ones are what do the children say about it, and will you be working while you travel? To the first question, the children are excited, though a few of them are quite sad about being away from their friends for so long. The girls are also sad about quitting gymnastics-and I'm a little sad as well. They just had a meet yesterday at the YMCA and Janeva was happy to get 2nd place overall in her first time competing in Excel Silver level.
As for the second question, we don't have a job lined up, but we do own two homes we rent out that will hopefully supply over half of what we will be spending. We would love to find something we can do for some extra income while traveling. If you have any ideas let us know!