On the road ... still

We're now at a hotel in Odessa, TX that has wireless internet access so ... let the blogging commence! Hopefully the audioblogs have been informative and entertaining.

Here's how it's been so far:

· Friday - Drove to Brookings, OR. Some may have seen the west coast flooding on the news. Yes, we were driving in that. Had 3 near accidents; nearly squished by a merging (not looking) truck in Portland, OR, nearly hydroplaned off the road on 266, nearly edged off the road by a veering car 1/3 into our lane on a curve (we were on the outside of the turn) on the OR coast. But we arrived safe and sound sometime around 7:30PM. Stayed with people from the church we'd speaking at on Sunday.
· Saturday - Slept in a bit. Spent a few hours in the afternoon with Pastor Gordon Myrah, of Trinity Lutheran where we were scheduled to speak. Went to church there in the evening.
· Sunday - Spoke in Sunday school and Eshinee did the children's message. Hung out for about an hour and a half afterwards, talking with people. Met a guy from the Gideon Bible group, "Sarge", who invited us to lunch. After lunch, took off for Redding, CA. The drive was long but dry. Took 299 across from 101 to I-5. We didn't count the switchback curves through the mountains but one of the Rosten's grandfathers did once. Jenny says he counted well over 400. I teased Rob that the iPod seemed to be playing quiet, sleepy tunes since Friday, particularly while we were driving at night. He commented that we hadn't heard any Jerry Garcia yet. What does the iPod play next? Jerry Garcia's Shendandoah/Lullaby medley from his children's album. If I didn't know better … Anyhow, we watched Serenity in the evening with Jenny.
· Monday - Had a lovely (i.e. uneventful) drive to Ventura, CA and spent the evening with friends, the Greenslates.
· Tuesday - Drove to Tucson, AZ and spent the night with the Batterhams, friends we know from a church that we used to attend in Redmond, WA who relocated to AZ in 2003. It was great to be able to hang out with them again; we hadn't seen them since they moved to AZ. Lots of catching up (and joking around) to do.
· Wednesday - Drove to Odessa, TX. Nearly missed noticing that we were in New Mexico altogether. I got the bright idea in the morning to call up a friend from YWAM Tyler that I haven't seen since I went to school with him in 1997. I talked to his wife and she said we could crash with them tomorrow night. Neither of us have met the other's spouse so that'll be fun, right there. It'll be great to see Todd and meet his wife, Jen. He was the first person I met who was actually into Greek study. I bet he'll be tickled when he hears where we're headed.

BTW, the hotel isn't even costing us tonight. We racked up frequent "stayer" points this fall at the Choice hotels chain during their "stay 2 nights, get one free" promotion so we're using one of our free nights tonight. We'll probably use another somewhere on the other side of Texas, maybe in Alabama. I've got my eye on a Quality Inn in Tuscaloosa.