Sauers' on Mission

It has been a long couple of months. It's hard to believe that it was only 60 days ago that we left New York and headed back to Saskatchewan.

And I totally forgot to mention New York. It is an amazing city, unlike any other city that we had ever been to. The moment we stepped out of the Subway and emerged in the city streets, it was like stepping off of a spaceship and into an entirely different world. The sights and smells were incredible. We packed us much as we could into the week that we were there. We never really had time to leave Manhatten, plus we felt safe there in that part of the city.

We saw 2 broadway shows, Mary Poppins and Phantom of the Opera; we toured Times square, we played in Central Park and Bryant Park, We stood in front of the rockerfeller Center and saw where they taped SNL. I could go on and on... We loved it... every little bit of it.

But that was in March, and now it's the end of May.

We have purchased a new house and Salon in Mossbank Saskatchewan.

We spent the first ten days renovating the salon and getting it ready for business. It looks great and Tina is really enjoying it. Then we spent the next month painting and renovating the house( upstairs first). now, We just had our new Brother in law come and frame and drywall  our basement so soon (not soon enough) we can start living in the basement as well. Maybe we'll get all of our stuff unpacked yet.

We have met so many friendly people and love the church we are attending. It is feeling more and more like home.

There will be pictures soon... so stay tuned.

Michael

Well, we just left Washington and it really left an impact on me. Tina doesn't share my feelings, but she put up with it anyway. Don't get me wrong, I'm not secretly dying to be American, but the places  that we got to see hold a lot of cultural significance.

Being raised on TV and Movies llike many of us are, we see things like the "National Monument" and the "Lincoln Memorial" , but seeing them in person is a different story. These monments are massive and well worth the time to check out. Of course, Forest Gump is running through my head as we walk pass the reflecting pool toward the Lincoln Memorial (you remember the scene where Jenny runs through the pool yelling "Forest Forest...).

The United States  started something when declaring their freedom from the british during the American revolution. As a Canadian, where never had to fight like that for our freedom. It makes a difference when it comes to the pride of your country. I am still proud of being a Canadian because we are known for peace, but it puts into perspective the things that make us so different.

The Pentagon was just a building like any other building from the front ans sides, don't expect to see much if you visit their, however, the Pentagon Memorial is a sight to behold. It's the place where the hijacked plane crashed through the walls of the Pentagon. It was amazing. I was overwhelmed with sadness, and when that had subsided, fear and anger followed.

Really!! It was a powerful memorial. If you have ever asked yoursefl why the former president did what he did in declaring a war on terrorism ( as I have ), look no further than this memorial. It stirs a lot of emotion and helps people understand.

Capital Hill was impressive. Being in the spot where many of the countries laws are made is quite the feeling. And the Whites House, it was cool. There wasn't much to see of course, but we did end up being a day late in seeing Michelle Obama break ground on her new Garden on the lawn of the white house,

Tina did manage to see some fascinating Jewels at the museum of natural history. One of the jewels was the Hope Diamond... you know... the one used in Titanic and Oceans 13. ahh movies..

...Anyway, we are off to the chocolate factory tomorrow in Hershey PA, and then to New York City after that. Wish us luck as we try to navigate the Subway systems...

Michael

Ok, let me see if I can get this down without losing it to cyberspace. Since I last wrote, we were in Mississippi and Alabama. Well, we're not there anymore. We have been making up some time so we can make it to New York.

After we left Mississippi, we drove through Alabama ( with a brief stop for lunch to say that we were there) and went to our next destination at Navarre Beach, just outside Pensacola. This place was right along the beach. We celebrated Abby's Birthday here and we had such a good time. We didn't leave the campsite much except to get groceries and to go to church. Andrew managed to find about 20 Huge sand dollars and we found a great spot to collect shells. It was a snowbird resort, so there were plenty of older people to visit with... Abby and Matt managed to win at Bingo the first night we were there. We stayed for a week so that we could receive some mail from home.

After that, we found a place at a state park called St Josephs Peninsula. Tina booked it and I was skeptical at first, but it was amazing. It didn't have septic services at the site, but it had a dump on the way out.  our site was in the middle of the woods, but the ocean was a very short walk away. The surf was incredible while we were there.  It was a red flag warning almost the entire time, so we couldn't go swimming.

Then, we drove and drove drove to get across Florida to a small town called Yulee. It wasn't much, it didn't have WiFi, so we only stayed 2 nights and went a half hour down the road to Brunswick Georgia. It also wasn't anything to write home about, but it had a decent wireless signal and we needed to get some banking done, as well as start purchasing our new home (in Saskatchewan)

That's right, We are moving back to Saskatchewan  in April. We managed to find a house and a Salon in a small town in southern Saskatchewan. I told Tina that I would follow her this time, since she has followed me time and time again. I haven't had a clear sense as to where God would have me serve yet, so I will continue to wait and volunteer at whatever church we end up going to.

Oh Yeah, we have never been to this town, and haven't seen the house and salon in person... only through pictures. But, Doug and Diane did go see these places and we trust them...

Anyway, onward to Savannah. We camped at a place outside Savannah called Tybee Island. It was in a residential area, so it was nice and quiet and we were able to ride our bikes to the beach. We had the scare of our lives one night when the air raid siren went off warning of a possible Tornado. we hurried into the shelter at the campsite and waited. Nothing happened, but it sure gave us a scare.

Tina and I went to a restaurant owned by Paula Deen's brother called Uncle Bubbas. We tried  all kinds of new things there, some we liked, somewe didn't. It was a nice escape for a few hours.

Savannah was pretty fun. We took a bus tour of Savannah, and then afterward went and got the truck to see some of the places we had seen on the bus. It's hard to explain all the things we saw, but we did take pictures that are on our photo page.

OK, we're almost caught up now... After Savannah, we went to Greenville South Carolina. We stayed at some friends from Seminary, Todd and Joice. It was so nice to see them. They are some of the most spiritual people I know, They are building a house on acreage outside of a town called Travellers Rest. WHAT a good time we had there. Tina's most recent blog shares those stories. We stayed for 5 days and then headed back to the coast to Myrtle Beach. This is a resort town South Carolina. It reminds me of Los Angelas and San Francisco on a much smaller scale. We went to Le Grande Cirque which was absolutely incredible, and we also went to Dolly's Dixieland. That was good also, except we had to endure a 3 hour timeshare meeting to get the tickets a a chep enough price we could afford.

Oy....

and tomorrow we head to Virginia. The weather is getting colder as we move further north. We hope and pray that by the time we start heading home, the snow will be mostly gone along the way... at least until we hit the Montana area... here's hoping.

3 more weeks to go...

First of all, my apologies. I actually blogged twice after new years, but our website server was going through some updates and my entries never got posted.

SO, i will try to bring you up to speed with what has happened in the last month, and it was a very busy month.

After New Years, we travelled to Tucson AZ and enjoyed our stay their. The people at our campsite were friendly, almost too friendly (it was kinda creepy). There were plenty of children so Matthew and Abby were always playing outside.

While we were in Tucson, we visited

1.Colossal Caves, a cave system that was used by train robbers to hide their loot;

2.The childrens museum, which was basically a house filled with lots of toys;

3.Titan Missle Museum, the only remaining underground missle silo remaining from the cold war

4.Pima air and space museum, Air force one, wright brothers replica, you name it, they have it

5. Old Tucson, Hollywood in the desert

After Tucson we travelled to El Paso. We drove straight through New Mexico because Tina has an unnatural fear of aliens and all the talk and jokes about area 51 and Roswel freaked her out. that day was a long drive.

In El Paso, we were only planning to stay for a couple of days, but we found out that they were taping an episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition so we spent three days watching that. We got lots of pictures and even a few autographes. We didn't get to see Ty though. We were going to take the trolley into Mexico, but we found out that El Paso Tourism had shut down the trolley because of the escalating violence in Juarez. Apparently, according to El Paso tourism, innocent bystanders have been killed in Juarez. But we did travel to Old Mexico located in downtown El Paso.

After El Paso, we drove to Fort Stockton, a town in the middle of nowhere. It was there that we noticed a screw in our tire. So we took the trailer to the tire shop and got that fixed. The campsite was out in the country. You could see the traffic from the campground, but you couldn't hear it. The night sky was awesome here.  The stars are incredible in Texas.

Next, we stayed in The Caverns of Sonora, a private campground also in the middle of nowhere. There is a cave here that, unlike Colossal, is still alive and the stalagmites and stalactites are still growing. The colors here were something else. It was here that we met Brian. He was our tour guide for the caves. Apparently our children impressed him and he bent over backwards to help them in any way. He even came out to say good bye to us when we left.

It was also here where we saw the armadillos. These critters are unlike anything we have ever seen before.

Onward to our next stop. We stayed in Bourne TX, just outside San Antonio. We only stopped for a few days, just long enough to visit the ALAMO, and learn about the battle that took place there. It was fascinating. Did you know that David Crockett died at the Alamo?

We didn't get to go to church in Tucson, but we did find one on El Paso. It was different to say the least. It was very large; easily sitting about 3500  in the sanctuary. But it was different, so we wanted to make sure we got to church in Boerne. We found a Southern Baptist Church there, which was also big (about 500 in worship) but we were late, so we had to sit up front, and we were practically sitting on top of each other.

After Boerne, we travelled to Houston and stayed for a couple of days in a campsite that scared the liver out of us. we left that place as soon as we could and travelled to another spot which was along the San Jacinto River. A gentleman told us that the river once caught on fire, which didn't surprise me. It was surrounded by factories and refineries.

In Houston we visited

1.Johnston Space Center... that's NASA for the rest of us, Mission Control, Apollo 17, moon rocks, space capsules, you name it... it was there.

2.San Jacinto Monument, where the battle took place that gave Texas her freedom from Mexico, In Texas, you go big or you go home... and this monument was BIG

3.Battleship Texas, which was involved in WWI and WWII. You can travel almost every inch of this amazing ship.

We found a church cloee by our campsite and decided to go. This time we went to Sunday School. The people here were so friendly. After the service I went to the Pastor and shared a few encouraging words with him. A family from the church invited us to a not so super bowl party where we played games. It was nice to play with grown ups.

With Houston behind us, that takes us to where we are now. We are sitting along the Mississippi River in a RV park beside the Poche Plantation. We visited several plantations, an old church that was started in the 1700's a graveyard, which had a few graves that date back to the 1300's. There are lots of crypts and above ground graves, which is kinda freaky, and alot of them are so old that they are falling apart. The Grave keeper told us that if you look close enough, you can see bones through the holes. I didn't look close enough. Christopher Columbus' Nephew was buried here. We plan are visiting Baton Rouge, New Orleans, and trying some authentic cajun creole cuisine. 

Until next time.

Sauers Family

Happy New Year to all of our friends and family. We are still in Arizona. We spent the last couple of weeks in a town called Buckeye, which is just outside Phoenix. It's been chilly while we've been here...it must go down to about 3-6 degrees here at night... but the days make up for it. It should be 21 this afternoon.

Last week we spent Christmas with Tina's cousin Michael (great name) and his family. Also, Tina's Grandma and aunt and unclewere here as well from Melfort. It was a pleasant reunion.

While Tina went shopping with Julie and Grandma T and Aunty Barb, the boys and I went to the Arizone Science Center. Our admission was free because we bought season passes back in Seattle, but we had to pay extra for the imax and the STAR TREK exhibit.

The Imax was the BEST EVER. It was in 3D, and it was all about the Grand Canyon. the kids and I loved it. The Star Trek display was interesting, but not worth the price you pay. We weren't allowed to take pictures, but I did anyway. how often do you get a chance to sit on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise. I snapped about 10 pictures before I was caught and asked to stop.

House Prices here are Stupid low. You can buy a 2000 square foot home with a pool and hot tub for about 100,000 dollars. We were tempted, but alas our better judgement prevailed.

We are here for 4 more days before we head to Tuscon and then to New Mexico.

Of course I do have my new years resolutions...

1) Eat Healthier... I have started by cutting out my Coca Cola habit

2) become more disciplined in my walk with God ( that seems to be a recuring resolution)

3) Become a better husband and father to my family My goal is to live a Galations 5 life. Read it and you'll understand

Until next time

Michael and family

We made it out of California. finally. The first thing we noticed was the speed limit. 75 miles per hour... for those of us working in the KM side of thing, that's close to 125 km/h, with no posted speed sign for trucks and trailers. I don't think any of them were going 75... but we did speed up a little along with the rest of them. In California, the speed limit for trucks and trailers is 55 MPH, which is reasonable. You get great gas mileage, but you have to take a little more time to get to your destination.

But, when you sell you gas at 1.65 per gallon, you don't need to think about gas mileage. We filled up our truck from empty... that's about 21 gallons, about 75 liters, for $40.00. and that's the diesel price at 1.94 / gallon. Last month, i spent about 55.00 to fill it up and I thought that was great...3 months ago, I filled up for 70.00 and thought that was great... 5 months ago, I was paying 1.49/liter and couldn't fill up for anything less than a hundred...

WOW is all I can say...even with exchange... 40 bucks is cheap.

The drive along I-10 was pretty uneventful, but the scenes were incredible. the desert is an amazing place. We did come across a state prison by Blythe, CA. There was a huge yellow sign beside the state prison sign that read DO NOT PICK UP HITCH HIKERS. Good advice.

We can't wait to see what Arizona has to offer...

... is there anything good here...(wink wink)