GODS LOVE AND GRACE
While on our vacation, I could not help but notice God’s love and grace within our trip. I will start off by saying there was a time I thought I would never have a relationship with my children. I was consumed by drugs, self pity, and hated this world we live in. By God’s grace, I now have a great relationship with my kids, who are now grown adults. I love them all the same, but my oldest son and I have the ability to spend more time together than my other children, so I believe we have a closer relationship with each other.
Our first leg of the trip we did over 1400 miles in one sitting. My butt was feeling it. During the evening we had a close call with a deer and saw a couple more off the side of the road, along with hundreds of rabbits running out in front of us. We also had a furry leg dog looking thing jump into our path. I don’t think it was a coyote. When the sun started to rise, we were real close to Vegas. It went from cool to hot within minutes. But by the time we reached Vegas and Hover Dam the weather was real nice considering where we were, due to some cloud cover, yet still sunny. What a blessing this was for us. We finally arrived at the Grand Canyon, what a beautiful sight. We set up camp. Will, my son, got a much needed nap. Since I still needed to wind down, I took a walk down a path to see the canyon (WOW! SO COOL). I gave thanks to God for keeping us safe, and this precious time I am having with my son. Remembering that I thought this was never possible, and I used to be headed down a path of death or prison. Now I am with my son at the Grand Canyon. How cool is this? (I found myself saying this a lot.)
Next was Roswell, New Mexico and Lubbock, Texas to see my Dad. We encountered some storms around us but only caught the tail end of one. What a blessing that was, it could have been so much worse. The last couple of hours before Texas was HOT, HOT, HOT, made me appreciate the weather we had. We had a very nice visit with my dad, then headed to see my younger son and grandson in Missouri. (How cool is that?) We had a great time together celebrating my grandson’s, Evan’s, birthday. We all went to see some caves and the Jesse James museum and hideout. I had a great time. My son, Tony, is such a wonderful father to his son. It brought tears to my eyes to hear them sing lullabies to their son every night before bed. To see my son raising his son with so much love in his heart and God in his life was way cool (what a blessing).
We hated to leave but had to get going towards South Dakota. Weather was good until about 100 miles of Sioux Falls, where we hit a bad storm. You know, the kind where the wind and rain are coming at you sideways trying to knock you off your bike. We stopped at a very biker friendly hotel that bent over backwards to accommodate us. He even gave us towels to wipe down our bikes, not to mention he moved chairs and stuff so we could park our bikes under the canopy.