Day 6 of Move

We picked up our new best friend from Belize at IAH ( a Christian missionary in Belize recommended him to us and says he does this all the time).  We waited an hour for him to clear customs after his flight landed.  We were starting to wonder if he was on the plane, but we knew him right away from his smile, even though we had never seen him before. He told us, he was concerned about having to take detours through the southernmost parts of Mexico due to mudslides from the previous 2 weeks of continuous rain (rainy season).

An adventure in faith

A half an hour after we gave him our SUV, trailer, belongings, and money, he said he had been rear ended by a hit-and-run driver in Houston rush hour traffic.  He said the guy had damaged the back of the trailer, so it might not lock properly any more, and when he asked him to pull over, he said he didn’t need to, and when our driver threatened to call the police, the guy took off.  Not the best start.  We also had to get Cary to a vet that day because to fly an animal into Belize and avoid a 30 day quarantine, one needs to have the USDA APHIS Form 7001 filled out within 7 days of departure, by a USDA certified veterinarian, BUT each state only has one USDA APHIS AVICs office and in the large state of Texas, that office is in Austin.  No matter how close it is to Houston….they don’t take appointments. SO we had to get to Fed Ex before they closed and overnight the form to the USDA office in Austin with a prepaid return envelope for overnight/Sat delivery, so we would have our paperwork for Cary in place for a Monday flight.  We made it just in time, but I have to admit that I was a little shaky this day. Just continue to breathe, and keep praying…..

God is good, wise, loving, and in control!

Day 5 of Move

We woke up to burning smells – not improving our view of AR.  On the bright side – no traffic jams today! On the road through Texarkana you can go 70 mph even though there are houses on the road and side streets entering it.  When we entered Texas, there were TONS of yard front flea markets everywhere.  They looked like they were open for business every day.  Texas has the largest crepe myrtles I’ve ever seen.  I was surprised that Texas has so much logging going on.  There would be no problem buying a tractor here – lots of dealers.  And should you happen to get injured on an oil field, according to the billboards, there are plenty of personal injury lawyers to go around. We learned that Nacogdoches is the oldest town in Texas.  Before we left on our journey, we had just had visitors to Boston, where they noticed Boston bragging on having the oldest of just about everything. See….it’s desirable to be old!

Proverbs 16:31 says “A gray head is a crown of glory; It is found in the way of righteousness.”

God takes care of us through our old age. Isaiah 46:3&4 say

“You who have been borne by Me from birth

And have been carried from the womb;

Even to your old age I will be the same,

And even to your graying years I will bear you!

I have done it, and I will carry you;

And I will bear you and I will deliver you.”

We spent the rest of our time in the Houston area in Atascocita near Lake Houston in Humble (don’t pronounce the “H”).

Day 4 of Move

We passed by Mammoth Caves and the Kentucky Bourbon Trail.  We thought we had orange flowers coming up to view in the freeway divider, but when we got closer, we knew we were in the South because we saw it wasn’t flowers, but that ole familiar red clay soil.  We went through Nashville and passed the Loretta Lynn House and Museum, the Fresh Water Pearl Museum, the Casey Jones Home and Railroad Museum, and a great deal of (no that’s not topiary)  kudzu  

(you do know how to plant kudzu, right?  You just drop it and RUN!).

We drove through Memphis.  Here’s a shot of the pyramid taken from our moving vehicle: 

In Carlisle, Arkansas, we stopped to eat barbeque in the shade of our trailer with the dog and heard what sounded like the long baaa of a dying sheep.  There were no sheep around anywhere, but the baaas were coming from somewhere nearby.  We figured out that it was a chorus of eastern narrow-mouthed toads in the ditch next to us.  Check out their unique sound here.

After getting stuck in a 10 mile long traffic jam after a long day of driving, we ended up spending the night in Arkadelphia.  My man said he hates Arkansas and that it should be used as a proving ground for bombers, but let’s just give him the benefit of the doubt and say that he was really exhausted.

Day 3 of Move

Pennsylvania was serene, green and hilly (when compared to the rugged mountains of the west….I just can’t call these mountains).  We enjoyed the peaceful setting for many farms.  We were surprised to see signs for Pittsburgh California  (same name as a town right next to where my husband grew up). BTW, if you are missing your Lover, he/or she is ½ mile away….   In Ohio, we passed by the Columbus Zoo (wish we could have stopped in to give Jack Hanna a hello) and the Cincinnati Reds stadium.  We spent the night in LaGrange (pronounced like the ang in Angie), KY.

Day 2 of Move

We passed by the impressive state house in Hartford, CT  and the Waterbury Union Station clock tower .  In New York, we headed to White Plains and passed by Dobbs Ferry and Sleepy Hollow, crossing the Tappan Zee Bridge  then going on into New Jersey. We passed through Pennsylvania Dutch (my ancestry) territory and passed “The World’s Greatest Indoor Miniature Village” (I know….. how could we have just drive on by?).  Take heart, you can experience it without stopping in by watching this very long YouTube.

Day 1 of Move

In order to move to Belize, we decided to purge most of our stuff and pare down to what would fit in a 16’ x 7’ x 7’ trailer, so we found one in Leominster and got a hitch added to our SUV in Fitchburg.  We had to change insurance companies because our current company would only insure a trailer that hauled 3000 lbs and ours carried 6500 lbs.  It ended up that everything except about 10% of our stuff (pieces of which were already packed in the trailer, so we couldn’t give away the left over stuff – it is worthless by itself) fit in the trailer. Ah shucks! So we still had to have our realtor find an international shipper for us – last minute glitch in the plan, plus extra expense.  So that stuff will take about 8 weeks to ship in a container from Miami to Belize City where we will try to clear it through a customs broker and load it into our trailer to take back to Belmopan. Our plan was to drive our dog and stuff to Houston, where we would meet a driver we flew up from Belize who would drive our stuff through Mexico for us, while we waited in Houston for him to get through….then we would fly to Belize City with our dog the 2 ½ hour flight.  So we closed on our house and made it to Sturbridge, Ma our first day of moving.

Finishing Well

We have committed to finishing well as we enter our over 50 stage of life.  The start of our journey to Belize (with our goldendoodle Cary) was Sudbury, Massachusetts

Here is a challenging article on Finishing Well that spoke to us.

There are over 400 leaders in the Bible, but only 80 finish well.

This is a good study on that same subject.