We made it!

We are in Canillá! Our truck was finally finished on Thursday afternoon at 3:30 pm.  We all were ready to go so we loaded up and headed out of the city.  We found a Pemex to spend the night.  Yes, we spent the night at a gas station.  We pulled in with the truckers, got some food, used the bathroom and went to sleep.  The next morning we headed toward Oaxaca. 

 

We made it to the coast on Friday and spent the night at a toll booth close to Salina Cruz.  We pulled in and Don began making friends with the workers who would be there overnight.  He bought them some pop/juice and had some interesting conversations!  We were so thankful for the camper and the ability to just pull in and sleep.

 

Saturday we headed to Tapachula.  Our last Mexico stop before we would cross the border.  We actually got a hotel room for four of us.  Don and Caleb spent the night in the camper. We were all able to finally take showers!  It was awesome! ;)

 

Sunday morning, we realized that we had missed the place on the road where we had to turn in our temporary vehicle importation sticker.  We had to go back 40 km and get inspected.  We had a couple issues but overall the inspection went well; however, we were late.  Seems to be a theme!!

 

We decided to go ahead and cross anyway. The border crossing is a hassle but it went pretty well.  We got on the road to meet up with Aaron and Joseph Ficker.  We found them, switched the camper to Aaron's truck and headed to Quetzaltenango (nicknamed Xela - pronounced shay-la).  On our way, one of the leaf springs on the camper broke, but we were able to continue.

 

We followed Aaron and Joseph to a hotel where they got a room and we spent the night in the camper.  Through a contact that lives in Xela, we found a mechanic and a guy who could 'fabricate' a new leaf spring for us.  After waiting to get it made and installed, we were ready to head out when we noticed a puddle of gas under our Suburban! Ugh!

 

For some reason, the fuel line was rubbing against another line and a hole developed.  We had gas running out of the fuel line.  The line has specific Chevy fittings so Aaron and Joseph proceeded to construct a makeshift repair.  We are SOOOOO thankful for them!  They got it working and we headed out of Xela, finally on our last leg!  We left close to 5:30 pm and didn't get very far before we had a flat tire.  Double Ugh!!

 

We fixed it and got going again. We had one more spare but it needed to be on the rim of the now blown tire.  Our family found a tire repair place while Aaron and Joseph continued forward.  We got the tire fixed and set off to catch our camper! 

 

We finally found them and we continued on to Canillá.  This part of the road was the worst.  We had to get through mountain switchbacks and a couple towns with tight turns.  Then the road from Santa Cruz del Quiche to San Andres is dirt.  It was terrible.  Finally we got through San Andres (it is now 12:30 am) which is the last stop before Canillá.  We got about halfway when a tire blew.  We used our last spare to fix it and continued on. 

 

We pulled into the ministry compound at about 1:30 am. Finally, our journey was over. The kids commented on our wonderful it was to be 'home'!!

 

We have been trying to settle in and get ourselves organized over the past two days.  This is the first that we have been able to connect via wifi.  We had to get our phones going today - it is my mom's birthday!!  We are so thankful that we were able to call her and spend a few minutes hearing her voice!

 

Here is a picture of our front porch and door of the apartment that is our new home! Notice all of the stuff still piled up there! But the boys were able to put together our table! 

 

 

Here is a quick shot of our living space.  We have been trying to find spots for everything but our main focus today was the furniture and the tv (courtesy of some awesome friends who gave us theirs before we left!!). We are also trying to set up our bed. We have been sleeping on a full size owned by the ministry which has been a blessing, but we are so excited to sleep a night on our queen bed!  It is really the little things!! ;)

 

We will try to post more pictures but we have limited wifi right now and Caleb has some school due this week!  We are still transitioning but so happy to be 'home'!  Thank you all for praying us through this journey.  We had to purchase 7 extra tires (and used every single one of them), we took over 3 weeks (instead of our planned 2!), we spent many days going without showers (combined with the animals, our camper had quite the interesting smell!), we had to replace our transmission, get a fuel line fixed and replace a leaf spring (didn't even know what that was before this trip!), but through it all the Lord was so faithful.  We could see His hand upon us in so many different ways.  We are so thankful for your encouragement and your support!

 

Please continue to pray for our transition time! We need to get settled, get the school books out and start stepping into our roles here. Don got up Tuesday morning after our late arrival and headed to clinic so he is a step ahead of the rest of us!! One day at a time!  Blessings!

Puebla

Tonight will be our 6th (and hopefully, final) night in Puebla or really, Cholula, Mexico.  We limped in on Friday night with transmission issues. We had a great day of travel but then due to construction etc. got lost looking for the campground in the dark. We called the office and someone came, found us and then led us back. We picked a spot, pulled all the way forward and then found out that our truck would not go into reverse.  It was a little bit of a rough night.

 

But everything always looks better in the morning! One of the staff at the campground took Don all over town, inquiring about transmission work.  He found a couple options but because it was Saturday, no one would even look at the truck until Monday.  Then the owner of the campground found us.  He recommended a mechanic that he had worked with before and trusted.  He called him and the mechanic agreed to come find us on Monday morning.

 

Because we are in Mexico, 10 am does not mean 10 am!!  Thankfully we knew this and had appropriate expectations!  He arrived with a fancy computer diagnostic thingy (technical term!!) and then told us that he wanted to make sure that he could get the parts before he agreed to the work.  He had no doubt about getting the transmission but we have a fancy off-road package that made things a little bit more complicated. 

 

Once we heard back from him, Don drove the truck to his shop (it could still go forward!). Don was very impressed with his shop.  It was very busy and professional. While he was there, a guy in a Porsche drove up requesting an oil change.  This pretty much sealed it for Don! ;)

 

Don talked to the mechanic this morning.  He expects that the truck will be ready late today or tomorrow morning. He is really not wanting to rush the 4x4 part of the transmission and we agree with him.  He doesn't want us to get 1000 km down the road and have trouble.  We agree with that as well!! We hope to be back on the road tomorrow!

 

We have actually settled in here nicely.  The campground is within walking distance of so many things - a mall, Pizza Hut, KFC, Sam's, movie theater, Walmart, hardware stores etc. etc. We also walked to some ruins on Sunday.  The climate is beautiful.  We are at 7000 feet so it gets warm during the day but then really cools off at night.  I thought I would share some pictures of the campground.

 

This is the gate from the inside of the campground.  It is most often locked and requires the guard to give you access. 

 

 

This is a view from the back of our camper toward the office and bathrooms.

 

A view of our camper from the front gate.  We are on the wrong side of the road because we couldn't back the camper across the road.  There is only one other camper here now but we have seen several come and go.  It is very interesting to meet others camping their way around or through Mexico. Who knew??  One couple from France, shipped their camper across the ocean and are now on their way to visit all the countries of South America.  Another couple has been camping around Mexico for 6 months and plans to do it for a whole year. We have met French Canadians as well that were passing through. This campsite is not easy to get to but it comes highly recommended and people continue to return to it time and time again.

 

 

An orange tree close to our camper.

 

The courtyard.  This is the only place that we can get wifi. You can see Caleb sitting on the fountain doing his school.  When we started out he was a week ahead of schedule.  His class has now caught up with him.  Since we plan on leaving tomorrow and are not sure about wifi over the next few days, he is working diligently to get his work for this week done (while he is texting and on facebook, of course)!

 

We were also introduced to some missionaries that serve here.  They live very close to the campground and yesterday invited us over for lunch!  It was such a blessing! We are very thankful that we landed here to wait on our truck.  There are so many ways that we can see the Lord's hand in all of this.  Thank you all so much for praying!  We really appreciate you!

En El Interior

We left the coast and headed to the interior of Mexico on Thursday. Here are a few shots of the drive.

 

 

We ended up at Lake Chalapa South of Guadalajara. The campground was called Roca Azul. Here are the kids below the tower by the lake. 

 

 

 

It was very peaceful there. 

 

We celebrated Sam's Birthday a day early. With the presents he received, we decided to have a movie night. 

It was a bit snug. 

 

Early the next morning, we continued our journey. Later that day, we started having some car troubles. We made it to Puebla and will be here a few extra days while we have repairs made. It is a nice larger city. We had a birthday breakfast the next morning at VIP's I think that stands for 'Village Inn Puebla'. It was a great start to the day. 

 

 

 

This trip is about so much more than just getting to Guatemala. It involves time together as a family, trusting God's timing. It involves laying down our expectations. It is a real time of preparation for the next phase of our lives. We are so thankful for so many things. Thankful for a safe trip, for making it to the campground before the car trouble. Thankful for games of Clue and Apples-to-Apples. Thankful for times of prayer and seeing God's hand move. Thankful for all of your prayers and emails, the words of encouragement. Blessings.

Some Sad News

 

Bethany's cat, Bandit, had been sick since we started this journey.  We thought it was just a cold virus plus the stress of all that was going on. He stopped eating but was still drinking and going to the bathroom.  So we just watched him and loved on him.  A few days later, he also stopped drinking.  We started to use a syringe to get liquids down him but he kept deteriorating. Sunday morning, he was hiding from us.  We finally found him and knew that something was really wrong.  He was holding his head funny and wouldn't use his legs. He was struggling to breathe. We all watched him as he suffered and then he had some sort of seizure and passed away. We think it was some issue in his brain and if we think back to before we left, he wasn't himself then either.  The trip may have exasperated the situation, but we think the end result was inevitable.  It was such a sad, hard morning for us.  Afterward, Bethany and I agreed that there was also some relief mixed in with the sadness.  It was so hard to see him not act like the Bandit we knew. We will miss him terribly.

 

 

We had already decided to spend an extra day at this campsite, San Carlos, Sonora, and this just confirmed that we needed to stop for a day and have a Sabbath.  We headed to the beach!

 

Here is Bethany looking for shells.

 

The boys playing in the water.

 

Fun treasures that they found.

 

Messing around in the water!

 

The day was so fun and relaxing. I sat in a chair with a book. The kids were so concerned that I was bored and not having fun! Someday they will realize how awesome it is to just sit on the beach and read!! ;)

 

Yesterday, we had a long day of driving ahead of us so we were on the road by 6:30 am.  The day was awesome and as we got closer to our next stop, I was already writing this blog entry in my head! It was going to be about a good, long, uneventful day of travel.  And then . . . we got another flat tire.  Not the same tire but the one right next to it.  Don had been worried about that tire since the first blowout.  It looked like the blowout had caused some damage. 

 

The flat tire didn't seem like that big of a deal to us.  We were on a good stretch of road with a decent shoulder.  We got out the jack and the spare.  Caleb started to loosen the first nut and the bolt broke.  Um . . . keep going, we can keep it on with 5 bolts.  Then the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th bolt broke.  We actually stopped at 3 and decided we needed to call someone.  Mexico has a number similar to 911 that you can call for help.  They were amazing!  Once we knew someone was on the way, they continued to get the tire off.  A pickup with a couple road workers showed up and took a look.  They then went 5 km away to get a mechanic.  Yes, we were that close to help!  They came back and the mechanic took off the hub so he could take it back with him to repair it.  Once he got the hub off, he could see that the brakes on the trailer were bad. 

 

In hindsight, we should have taken the camper in to be looked at before we left.  We took the Suburban in but didn't even think about the camper.  In the midst of the craziness, it got lost in the shuffle.

 

Once the mechanic returned we paid him (extremely cheap!) and gave him some 'Meema' cookies.  For those of you that don't know about my mom's cookies . . . well, let's just say that you are missing out!! ;)  We told the guys where we were headed and they thought it was too far.  They really suggest that you don't drive at night in Mexico  Because of that, they wanted us to go park behind a hotel at the next town.

 

We prayed and felt peace about continuing.  We decided that we needed to get to a place for a couple nights so that we could have the brakes worked on before we hit the mountains.  We actually missed the exit for our planned stop.  It was quick and we thought there would be a second exit.  After driving for a long time before we could find a place to turn around, we decided it would be better to continue on.  It is good to be flexible, right??!! 

 

We got out Don's "Camping in Mexico" book and found a campsite on the north side of Mazatlan.  It was a little tricky to find in the dark but we made it, pulled in and got ready for bed!

 

Don talked with the owner/manager this morning.  A guy is going to come and work on our brakes today while we head to the beach!  Through all of this, we can feel the Lord's hand upon us.  Thank you all so much for praying!  We are now going to be several days behind schedule, but again, we are working on being flexible!! 

Mexico!

We made it across the border!  It took a while to get the paperwork done but otherwise the crossing was a piece of cake! We then proceeded to drive across the Mexican desert!

 

We were very thankful to not be heading the opposite direction and stuck in this line!!

 

We drove for about 5 hours with just a couple quick stops once we got our paperwork done. We were trying to make the beach before dark. It was a long haul but we made it without any issues - Praise the Lord! And the view was soooo worth it!

 

We are 'behind' schedule because of our extra day in Tucson but we so needed that day to work on some financial stuff as well as touch base with our realtor.  Our closing date had to be moved a little bit later which meant documents to sign etc.  We are just trusting all of those details to the Lord.  His timing is perfect! 

Please keep praying as the Lord brings us to mind.  We shifted the weight in the trailer and are trying to check the air pressure regularly but the tires are still a concern. Today as we drove on a highway with virtually no shoulder, I just kept praying that we would not get a flat.  There is no room to pull over. We are trusting that the Lord is holding us in the palm of His hand and is faithful whether we have a flat tire or not. However, my heart is that I would really rather not!! ;)

Thanks for thinking of us and joining us on this journey.  As I sat in the suburban waiting for Don to the get the visas and vehicle permits, I had this thought of "Wow! This is a little radical!" I think there are some who feel that following after Christ is boring!! Not sure I will ever use that word to describe this journey! ;)

 

 

 

Arizona!

 

We have spent the last 2 days in Arizona.  The contrasts within this state have really amazed us. 

We entered Arizona with a 'bang' on Tuesday! Literally.  Actually, we hadn't made it out of New Mexico when we had a flat tire on the camper. As much as we didn't 'enjoy' the experience, we were all so thankful for the timing and location of the flat.  We were in the midst of beautiful weather on a pretty flat part of the road with a smaller amount of traffic than we had just driven through.  We were also 5 minutes from a Walmart.  Although they didn't have our type of tire, they were extremely helpful and even called a close Pep Boys to see if they had one in stock. 

Once the flat was fixed and we had a new spare, we were back on the road again!  We were heading to Flagstaff for a couple nights. One advantage of being behind schedule was this gorgeous sunset!

Wednesday we went sightseeing.  We started with a fun walk around some ruins. 

 

Then we headed to the Grand Canyon

 

 

The Grand Canyon was beautiful!  Unfortunately, one of us did not enjoy it that much. Bethany has been battling a cold virus since before we left.  The trip to the Grand Canyon put a huge amount of pressure on her ears. We were trying everything to get her some relief.  Last night the ear actually perforated. Don and I began praying for what to do for her.  Through some awesome, God-ordained events, we were able to get her some antibiotics and ear drops today.  It reminded us again how much His hand is upon us as we step into this new season!

 

As we began our journey south today, we had our second flat on the tire we just fixed. One advantage was that it was much easier to change the second time around! We have been praying about what we need to do to avoid getting another flat as we continue our journey.  We did find another Pep Boys and purchased another of their best trailer tires as well as a 2nd tire so we would have 2 spares as we travel through Mexico. 

 

We have decided to take another day before we cross into the border.  We have lots of things that we need to get organized before we are ready and we didn't feel like we could get them all done and get across the border at a decent time tomorrow.  Please continue to pray for us as we take this extra day. We plan to cross early Saturday morning and would also love your prayers then as well.  We won't be able to communicate once we enter Mexico until we can get a phone set-up or get to our first campsite with wifi.  We will try to update as soon as we possibly can!  Thank you so much for joining us on this journey!  We so appreciate your prayers and support!! 

 



 

From the Tundra to the Desert!

Our journey to Guatemala took us north before we headed south. We went up to Mom’s house in SD on Saturday morning just ahead of a winter storm.  The drive there wasn’t bad but the storm continued cancelling church the next morning.  Based on the weather reports, we changed our route to Salina, KS which was our first stop on the journey.  We decided we needed to get west before heading south.  Looking back, we know that this was the best route; however, in the midst of travel, we were questioning our decision.  The roads were snow packed and icy.  The wind was blowing terribly and causing snow to drift across the road. The temperatures were frigid. We had several issues of the camper sliding and pulling the truck with it.  We had to go through a red light because we couldn’t stop.  We had to go straight instead of making a turn.  The worst was when we hit some black ice and started fishtailing out of control.  However, through it all, we knew the Lord was with us and had peace to continue.  We are very thankful for His hand upon us. After a very long day of traveling about 350 miles in 9.5 hours with only small, brief stops, we were exhausted when we finally pulled in to Salina, KS.

 

A couple photos that we took along the way!  Always a little disconcerting when you see a hummer on the side of the road!

 

 

We are started early the next morning because it was to be our longest traveling day for the entire journey. We planned to drive 650 miles from Salina, KS to Albuquerque, NM.  We hit the road at 7 am. The ‘dry’ road!  We were out of the snow and ice and so excited to see the dry pavement ahead of us!

This 2^nd day on the road was very much the opposite of the day before.  Even though we traveled 300 more miles and were on the road almost 5 hours longer, we enjoyed the journey. Here are some pictures from the day.

 We traveled across Kansas, across the handle of Oklahoma and then into New Mexico.

 

 

New Mexico was by far our favorite part.  It is beautiful!

 

 

 

The animals are doing great!  They get out when we do for a little break! Or at least Shadow does.  The cats are locked in the bathroom with their own private 'potty'!!



Don's favorite snack while driving is Twizzlers.  This bag was given to us as 'travel treats' was much needed on this long day!!  So thankful for our friends, their prayers, encouragement and support!

 

This morning we started the day with an awesome breakfast at Denny’s (Samuel’s new favorite place!).  We have a little over 300 miles to go today but we plan to camp in the same place for a couple nights.  We are all ready for a pause in the journey.  We hope to do a little sightseeing.  Caleb needs to do some school that requires wifi.  We have some errands to run. Don would like mirror extensions for the Suburban so he can see beyond the camper. Thank you for your prayers!!  We have been able to feel them sustaining us!

 

Many of you may have heard about our flat tire today!  We have so much to be thankful for in the midst of resolving that issue. The Lord didn't promise us that this journey would be easy but He did promise that He would be with us.  We saw that in so many ways today!  More on that later!  Blessings from the Allisons!