Technical Difficulties...

Sorry that the past few days have lacked reliable internet connections. I will attempt to catch up tonight. Lots of pictures of Arizona including Grand Canyon shots coming soon!

Day 5: Amarillo, TX to Albuquerque, NM

Thanks to my host, Richard, I had a great night's stay and sleep in Amarillo. They got some much needed rain while I was there and the day ended with a beautiful double rainbow - a sign of God's favor I trust. Much of Route 66 simply doesn't exist in New Mexico, so a lot of the day was spent on the Interstate at 75mph. It made me miss the two lane highway! You can see my travels for the day here. Don't forget to click the "2" at the bottom of the list of steps to see my whole trip. I drove a long stretch of dirt 66 from the Texas state line into New Mexico and met up with some "roadies" (what 66'ers use to refer to each other) from Birmingham, England who were also on the dirt (the joys of being in a rental car). Photos from the day are here. Tonight it's Winslow, AZ.

Whoops... forgot to post Day 4

Day 4 was a long drive from Edmond, OK to Amarillo, TX. You can see my travels here. Be sure to click the "2" down at the bottom of the list of steps on the left to see the entire thing. This was the best day for photos thus far and I really loved the U Drop Inn in Shamrock, TX. Check out the photoset here. Sorry to say that I ran over a snake; I tried to avoid you the best I could.

Day 3: Springfield, MO to Edmond, OK

The day started with me being interviewed for a story in the Springfield News-Leader, which will probably be published in the Saturday edition. When it is, I'll post the link. The road started to open up a lot west of Springfield and I was able to drive over 50mph most of the day. Made a point of taking more photos and you can see them here. I loved pulling in to Depew, OK, which Route 66 went through for a brief time in the '20s, and then was bypassed to the north. Stopped for the night in a hotel in Edmond, OK, just north of OKC. Did some laundry in the sink, got called "pard'ner" for the first time, and now getting ready to hit the road for Amarillo, TX.

Day 2: Labadie, MO to Springfield, MO

Robyn, a former parishoner, was kind enough to put me up for the night in her country farmhouse. It was great getting to catch up with her. In the morning, her mother (Ruth) and sister (Nancy) made breakfast and we talked about kids, mostly. Then it was back on the Road to Springfield. Not many photos from the trip, but I like a couple of them a lot. You can see them here. Hosts for the night were Kathi and Larry, who made bacon-wrapped filet mignon for dinner. It was wonderful getting to know them and their pastor, Kemery, who dropped by with her husband.

Day 1: Chicago to Labadie, MO

That was unexpected...

So, I woke up at 5:30am yesterday and was on the road to Downtown Chicago by 6:15am. Hit a little traffic on the way in (seriously, why were so many of you on the road at that time?), and had breakfast at Lou Mitchell's. I was on Route 66 by 9:15am. I drove 338 miles from downtown and arrived at 9:00pm - twelve hours! Yikes. I hope every day isn't like that. I put some pictures up from the day (<- click link) on my Flickr photostream. I hope you enjoy and I hope that I'll get a bit more time to write later today. Lots of thoughts, but don't want to arrive that late tonight.

Chrysler's hottest cars

One book that my car won't be appearing in...

The Definitive List

You always remember your first...

It struck me a few years ago that I've owned a lot of cars. Some good, some bad. Some for years, some for a few weeks. Some for years that only ran for a few weeks. But I had never written down a complete list... until now! I've spared you a few details of the master list (price paid, years bought and sold, etc.). 

The List

Year	Make	Model	Trim	Exterior color
1978	Oldsmobile	98	Regency	White
1971	Porsche	914	1.7	Adriatic Blue
1967	Cadillac	Sedan deVille		Pinecrest Green
1992	Toyota	Tercel	Base	Light Green Mica
1976	Oldsmobile	Cutlass	S	Mahogany
1981	Cadillac	Fleetwood	Brougham	Cotillion White
1980	Mercedes Benz	300D		Light Ivory
1968	Cadillac	Fleetwood		Gray
1976	Cadillac	Eldorado	Convertible	Claret Metallic
1986	Pontiac	Fiero	SE	Light Gold Metallic
1996	Dodge	Neon	Highline	Emerald Green Metallic
1964	Buick	Electra 225	Sedan	Arctic White
1990	Infiniti	M30	Convertible	Black
1994	Honda	del Sol	Si	Samba Green
2006	Scion	xB		Blue Onyx Pearl
1984	Chrysler	LeBaron	Town & Country	Gunmetal Blue

I must add that almost all of the cars up until the Fiero (which I bought when I was 24 years old), were less than a thousand bucks. Needless to say, I learned how to work on cars by having a bunch of unreliable ones. 

Least favorite car: The Porsche - a glorified VW that ran for less than two weeks, but lived in parents' garage for four years.

Favorite cars: I'll always love the '67 Sedan deVille I had during my senior year in high school, the del Sol was my favorite of the "modern era" up until the LeBaron, which is a car I always liked as a kid and now get to drive across country!

Leaving church in the rear view mirror

My Last Sunday

June 2nd was my last Sunday at church until September. My temporary replacement, Acting Pastor Ruth Costello, started two weeks before my departure. While that time passed quickly and it seems that there was more I had hoped to share with Pastor Ruth in those few days, in other ways it seemed like overkill to have her arrive that early. I'm confident that she would have done just fine if she would have showed up with a couple days overlap. It was good, however, to get to introduce her to some church members through home visits that we did together, especially for those folks who can't make it to church. I'm so grateful that God sent us exactly the right person for the job!