Gum and a Long Day

Apparently, Joseph doesn’t like gum as much as I do! Last Friday we spent a couple of hours touring Seattle and one of our visits was to the gum wall at Post Alley….probably thousands of pieces of gum have been chewed and stuck to that wall! Some people even profess their love on that wall! Now, while I do love gum, I don’t love it enough to actually touch the wall or leave my own piece of chewed gum; but I did have Joseph take my picture in front of it! I tried to convince him to do the same; but he was unwilling! We also went to Pike Market-where they throw the fish-we didn’t see them throwing the fish; but it was still fun! The Pike Market also sells fresh flowers, fruit and vegetables-I have never seen an open market like that before! At almost every open spot of the market, we saw people playing instruments or singing for tips! We also went up into the Columbia Tower, the tallest building in Seattle, to overlook the city! Yes, we did go to the Space Needle; but we didn’t go into it, it was much cheaper to visit the Columbia Tower and from the Columbia Tower we were able to get some good pictures of the Space Needle! A couple of blisters later and an afternoon later, I must admit we had a great time touring the city of Seattle and hope to go again when we have more time!
On Sunday morning we were in Sammamish, Washington at a church that was planted by a couple that I went to college with! It was great to see their work flourishing and they treated us so well! They put us up in a nice hotel, gave us a basket of goodies, treated us to a couple of meals, filled our gas tank and gave us a great love offering! We felt really blessed to be there and to be a part of their services!
Sunday night we were off to Ana Cortes, Washington. They put us up in a hotel that Joseph wanted to live in-there was a fireplace in our room and that was the greatest things in Joseph’s eyes! We had a good meeting there, Joseph preached and I was able to play the piano for their services. During that time there I was able to get catch up with a friend of mine from college, who is very involved in that church and who set us up with the meeting! Joseph and I also went to brunch with him on Monday morning and we really enjoyed ourselves!
Monday after brunch we took off to Missoula, Montana where we had dinner with a friend of Joseph’s and the church that Joseph used to be the assistant at put us up in a nice hotel! Tuesday morning, we enjoyed breakfast with the pastor and his wife before heading off to Yellowstone and this is where it gets interesting…I better start a new paragraph to explain!
So, we got on the road at around 11:00 and according to our GPS would arrive in Cody, Wyoming where we would be staying that night around 8:00. We arrived at Yellowstone around four and had to pay $25 to go into the park-which I think paying to go into a park is absolutely crazy-and yes, I do realize it’s a national park…but still, its crazy! During our drive through we got stopped twice by herds of bison in the road way, we were able to see geysers-it was pretty relaxing! Despite, not being able to see bear-the one animal I desperately wanted to see we decided to leave for Cody, it was about 6:30 so we had plenty of time to arrive by 8! But, nope the one road that had the fastest access out of the park to Cody closed minutes before we got there due to trees falling in the road and the fastest way to Cody from there was a trip that lasted for five hours. Not fun! During our time being stuck in the park, we were also able to see quite a few deer and elk; but honestly it wasn’t worth it to me, because we ended up being trapped in our vehicle for 12 very long hours that day. After a very long drive, I was ready for a bed and a shower-I couldn’t wait to arrive to the prophets chamber in Cody just so I could have those two things! Well, while the room was clean and had a nice bed for us to sleep on-the shower was absolutely disgusting. What was the point in showering in a dirty shower when it would just make me feel even dirtier? I couldn’t wait for Tuesday to be over!
So, Wednesday we woke up, grabbed a bite to eat and left for Sundance, Wyoming where we would have our last meeting before heading home. The pastor was gone and left a deacon in charge-we had no clue where the church was, the GPS didn’t recognize the address and we couldn’t get a hold of the deacon. We showed up at 6 and realized that services would be starting at 6:30 and we still had no clue if anyone- besides the pastor who wouldn’t be there-knew we were coming. They didn’t! The few people that showed up were nice; but we left there without a love offering or a place to stay. I was still in search of a shower, we drove off to Spearfish, SD for the night and put ourselves up in a cheap; but nice hotel-where it was worth the money for the clean shower!
Today we arrived to Rapid City for the next couple of days! While walking the mall, I heard someone call my name…which is crazy since we are not even at home! I turned around to find a family from our home church! We knew they would be in town; but didn’t expect to run into them at the mall! So, this evening we get to meet them for dinner and I am so excited to see friends from home!
Tomorrow, its off to Mount Rushmore and Saturday we will arrive in Sioux Falls for a few days before taking off to visit our families and have one last meeting of the summer!