Thursday –
After one last day living the slow paced farm life, which we thoroughly enjoyed by the way, we took off from the McGreggor farm and headed back west across the state. We had a ferry to catch at 11pm to take us across Lake Michigan to Milwaukee, WI. The ferry ride was going to save us a few hours of driving. As we were moving toward Muskegon, back to Ryan’s house, and the town where the ferry leaves from, a very large thunderstorm was pounding down on Milwaukee and headed strait across the lake to Muskegon. Milwaukee actually got a ton of flooding and record breaking rain fall from the storm. If I were to name a few of my fears in life, being on a boat in the middle of a large body of water during a thunderstorm with tornado warnings would be one of them…..The boat ride ended up being delayed by an hour, so at midnight we drove onto the boat and headed out sea. We were all exhausted, so we slept most of the way, but the ride was anything but smooth. We couldn't’t really see the water because it was so dark, but it had to be pretty rough, because the ferry we were on was very large and it was ROCKING! Amazingly enough, God was able to give me the peace of mind I needed to be a calm mommy to the kids, and what do you know, we made it safely to the other side. Only God could have orchestrated what was waiting for us in Milwaukee. My mom happened to be there for the week visiting her good friend, Nan. Nan lives just 15 minutes away from the port we pulled into. We were able to spend the night at her house and visit with Nana for a few hours in the morning before taking off again. All of this was a surprise to Halie. She was asleep when we arrived at Nan’s house at about 2 am, and Paul got her out of the car, told he we had a surprise for her and handed her over to Nana. She was so excited to see her Nana, she just clung to her neck and actually got a little teary.
After one last day living the slow paced farm life, which we thoroughly enjoyed by the way, we took off from the McGreggor farm and headed back west across the state. We had a ferry to catch at 11pm to take us across Lake Michigan to Milwaukee, WI. The ferry ride was going to save us a few hours of driving. As we were moving toward Muskegon, back to Ryan’s house, and the town where the ferry leaves from, a very large thunderstorm was pounding down on Milwaukee and headed strait across the lake to Muskegon. Milwaukee actually got a ton of flooding and record breaking rain fall from the storm. If I were to name a few of my fears in life, being on a boat in the middle of a large body of water during a thunderstorm with tornado warnings would be one of them…..The boat ride ended up being delayed by an hour, so at midnight we drove onto the boat and headed out sea. We were all exhausted, so we slept most of the way, but the ride was anything but smooth. We couldn't’t really see the water because it was so dark, but it had to be pretty rough, because the ferry we were on was very large and it was ROCKING! Amazingly enough, God was able to give me the peace of mind I needed to be a calm mommy to the kids, and what do you know, we made it safely to the other side. Only God could have orchestrated what was waiting for us in Milwaukee. My mom happened to be there for the week visiting her good friend, Nan. Nan lives just 15 minutes away from the port we pulled into. We were able to spend the night at her house and visit with Nana for a few hours in the morning before taking off again. All of this was a surprise to Halie. She was asleep when we arrived at Nan’s house at about 2 am, and Paul got her out of the car, told he we had a surprise for her and handed her over to Nana. She was so excited to see her Nana, she just clung to her neck and actually got a little teary.
A self portrait on the ferry.
A happy Nana and kids!
Friday -
After our visit we loaded up and started our longest trek yet. Milwaukee to Seattle, 28 hrs in total. How fun does that sound???? The good news is that is we broke this stint up into 3 days. Friday was to be the longest of all. We drove through Wisconsin, there were some beautiful stretches of rolling hills with crop fields and trees. The same beautiful scenery continued through Minnesota. Then we entered South Dakota and the stress level rose a little bit. We came up pretty quickly on a nasty thunderstorm with tornado watches out in the middle of nowhere. Paul was a wonderful navigator through the ordeal. We were very relieved to see the storm move to the south of us and continued on in safety. We discovered that the majority of South Dakota (at least the part that we saw) consisted of open fields, open fields and open fields, with the occasional small town off the highway about every 40 miles or so, with more open fields. Then we arrived in the town of Rapid City after about 16 hrs on the road and found our hotel for the night.
Saturday –
The kids slept in great today, we all woke up rested and ready to go! After an oil change in the car, we went to see Mt. Rushmore. It was pretty neat to see and would be a fun area to vacation at someday. And now, here we are diving again…..now through Wyoming. We are sticking with the theme of open fields here as well, but now, out in the horizon is a huge mountain range to look at – very pretty!
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