Road Trip to Seattle (Day 5)

LAST DAY!! Waking up that morning was awesome. Slept to 7:30am...latest the whole trip because today was a short drive respectively, only 8 hours. Only two states today, Idaho, and Washington! The border of Montana and Idaho was probably to coolest part of the whole trip. Right before I got there the temperature got down to 34 degrees and it started to snow! Then I hit Idaho

My only stop in Idaho was in Coeur d' Alene which means heart of an awl in French and was meant as disrespect to the native Americans that lived in the area way back in the day.

The Brooks Seaplane Base was the next thing on the list...funny thing...it consists of one plane. It made me laugh. I also took a picture of a flag near the base just because the colors were awesome.

The saddest part of the trip was come to find out that the Welcome to Washington sign was blocked by construction machinery along the interstate and there was no welcome rest stop either. I hadn't missed one state until then and it had to be the last and most important one.

The next thing on the list was Sing a Bing Crosby song as I drove past the Crosby Student Center at Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA. I decided to make a video so I could prove to Sarah that I actually sang, haha. It was a lot of fun.



I had to make one more stop before I got to Seattle. My friend Peter has been talking about going to the concert at The Gorge in Washington and as I was driving along I saw a sign for it so I had to pull off just to say I went to the Gorge before he did :)

It was an awesome view especially watching the rain move in over the gorge.

And finally the view I had been waiting and hoping that I would see...Mt. Rainier

Clouds were covering the peak but you can just picture the rest, this mountain is HUGE!

I then finally made it to Seattle. My legs and arms were almost shaking just from driving for 5 days when I got to Sarah's office. I was just glad to not have to get back into a car for a while. It was an awesome but surreal feeling that I was actually here and that whatever happened I was stuck here because I was broke and couldn't make it back to my parents, 3143 miles away. God is faithful though and had a job and room waiting for me when I got here...well the job took a little more work than I had planned but I kept trusting and He provided. Something really cool that the girl I am subletting said at our small group meeting last night that I was her answer to prayer. It was awesome to hear her say that but what was even cooler was the fact that she was my answer to prayer...God works in awesome ways. It is really exciting to be walking in the path that God has set for me right now and to see it intersect with God's paths for other people. I am so excited to find what He has for me here.

Road Trip to Seattle (Day 4)

The longest day of the trip by far. The GPS was telling me like 11:30 of driving plus stops put me at about 13 hours before I get to Missoula, MT. The beginning was pretty unsuccessful as well. Wyoming was the only place I didn't find a geocache, and the next thing on the list went out of business so I couldn't go. Pretty depressing until I started looking around at the scenery...WOW! This day and the next day was probably the most beautiful part of the trip.

Right before getting into Wyoming the land started to look like this

Then I got to Wyoming

and is started to look like this

Then I got to Montana

and it started to look like this

When I saw that I couldn't believe my eyes...they were the biggest mountains I have ever seen...ok Mt Rainier is bigger but this is still breathtaking.

I ran out of room on my camera's memory card soon after this picture which sucked because I saw a lot more cool stuff. I ended up just waiting till I got to Missoula to buy a new one which I used for my last day. I did take some pictures of were I stayed though.

I found my geocache here too...it was in a children's playground which made it a little weird because I was this random man walking into a children's playground with a GPS unit snooping around. These two ladies and their kids left as soon as I walked in, pretty sure it was because I showed up...oh well.

Road Trip to Seattle (Day 3)

I woke up crazy early because of the sun at around 5am. I got up and had my devotions sitting on the rocks by the river then packed up my tent and off I went. This was one of my longest days so I wanted to get an early start, ended up leaving around 6am. The weather was good and the traffic was little to nothing that early in the morning. The plan was to make it to Ellsworth AFB in Rapid City, SD.

I was only in Iowa for another 2 hours before I got to Minnesota.

I was only in Minnesota for a little less than 2 hours but I really liked what I saw. Didn't have anything on the list for this state but I did have a geocache about halfway through. This one gave be a lot of trouble. I ended up looking for about 20 minutes and couldn't find it. I ended up calling my dad to see if he could find any hints that I missed for the cache but he could find anything so I ended up just asking him to read off the coordinates to another cache nearby. The cache ended up taking me in between fields down roads with no speed limits! No cars on the roads, just me, the gas pedal and open roads :) I found this geocache too so this detour was totally worth it.

Next state...South Dakota, all 510 miles of it.

First stop in the state was Sioux Falls. The Iron Lung and Sioux Fall Sculpture Walk were the next things on the list.

I voted for the sculpture pictured above. It was a lot of fun looking at all the sculptures, they were all pretty sweet.

The next stop was something that I've wanted to see ever since I saw a History Channel show on it.

And yes, it is made of real corn. The area was real ghetto though so I didn't stay long because I was worried about my bikes on the back of the car.

The rest of the drive consisted of tons of pictures because the scenery was amazing, huge rolling hills, bad lands in the distance and one tree every 5 miles.

I finally made it to Ellsworth Lodging around 7:30pm and I was wiped out. Basically ate, took some pictures, then went to bed. Oh...and I took a really, really long shower felt awesome after not showering the night before and driving 12 hours.

Road Trip to Seattle (Day 2)

Left bright an early from the base, probably around 7am. It was pouring rain which made traffic in Dayton, OH mad slow, so it wasn't a good start to the day. Once I got out of the city though, I got up to speed and was off to my next stop for the night in Waterloo, IA.

The next state I went through was Indiana.

Sorry for those who are from Indiana but it is a pretty boring state besides Indianapolis. The city was awesome though and I really enjoyed my stop by the Medal of Honor memorial.

I also found my next geocache very close to here, just a quick park and grab.

From there, I headed to Illinois.

 Sorry residents of Illinois, this state is even more boring than Indiana.

I found the next thing on the list though which was the John Phillips Sousa Museum and Library. Didn't go inside because it a raining here but I did find out a little about the guy. First and foremost he invented the sousaphone ;) He was born Nov 6, 1854 and is most known for composing music, mainly marches. I love to play his music.

I found the next geocache as well under the little bridge over a creek.

The last state of the day was Iowa. I really enjoyed this one because the sun finally came out, landscape was just a little more exciting...and by a little I mean a very, very small amount.

First stop here was an Episcopal church right inside the Iowa boarder. Wasn't quite sure why at the time but Sarah wanted a picture of the front door.

Come to find out her brother-in-law, an episcopal priest, told her that all or at least most episcopal churches have red front doors which is a tradition and an identifying factor of episcopal churches. She just wanted me to check a random episcopal church and see if it had a red door...as you can see, it does.

Next stop in the state was at the Czech Village in Ceder Rapids.

Leaving here, this big building caught my eye and I had to stop and find out what it was.

Come to find out it is the big POW/MIA memorial. It was closed for renovations at the time but still thought this was pretty cool.

I finally got to my camping spot for the night in Waterloo. God is awesome and blessed me with an awesome spot right next to the river. Didn't have any firewood, and every spot I checked was out so I ended up eating Subway for dinner. Before Subway though I went out and found my next geocache which ended up sending me down this crazy path on some dirt roads but I still found it :)

After dinner I went on a picture taking craze. I took pictures of the camp site, the river, and of where I ended up going mountain biking for like an hour. Here are a few of them:

        

Soon after the sun set, I went to bed.

Road Trip to Seattle (Day 1)

Ok, so this trip was so epic that I have to split the blog posts so I can talk about each day. First off I thank God for giving me this amazing opportunity to drive cross-country. The trip was all by myself and me being a total people person I thought it was going to be tough but it wasn't really. Gave me lots of time to pray (with my eyes open of course), worship with singing (I could sing as loud and as bad as I wanted to because no one was around), and a chance to experience the awesomeness and beauty of His creation.

The trip took a totally of 5 days of driving with about 10 hours of driving a day. I broke the trip up even more with two things...geocaching (one in each state) and a list from Sarah of something to do in each state along the way. Between those two things the trip went pretty quickly because it gave me something to look forward to that was only a couple hours away instead of 48 hours away.

So day one had 4 states in it, I started in North Carolina where found my first geocache

and found the first thing on the list, a place called Korner's Folly.

 The next State was Virginia, I drove through probably the skinniest part of the state found a geocache and then left, no list items in this state.

Next was West Virigina, I was kind of worried about crazy hicks but I didn't see any so I was safe, haha.

Next thing on the list was doing a cartwheel in Cato Park so I very 'skillfully' took a picture of myself doing a cartwheel for proof ;) I thought it was pretty good, hehe. I also found the geocache here, pretty easy one.

 

My last state of the day was Ohio.

I found the geocache after I checked into WPAFB Lodging which was really nice for a hotel room, here are some pictures. 

 

The next day I tried to find the Blair Hall Theater here in Ohio but it was pouring rain and I didn't want to get in my car soaking wet for the rest of the day so I had to skip it.

Moving to Seattle

As the title says...I am MOVING to Seattle! Not visiting, not flying through but actually living there and working there till October...at least. It's kind of crazy how it all happened and awesome to see God's hand in it. So, I'll try to keep the story short but there are no guarantees that it will be.

It all started after I got back from Seattle after my spring break. After I found out that the Air Force was delaying my EAD till at least October 1st, I had to start looking for jobs. Started looking in North Carolina where my parents live but then someone suggested that I look in Seattle. I didn't really take them seriously at first but the more I thought about it, the more I liked the sound of it. The big issue about the whole Seattle thing was finding a job and a place to live (Seattle is kind of expensive). If I worked in North Carolina I could live with my parents for free and work. I'd make more money in Seattle but have to spend more so was this just a pipe dream or something more. Ever since I started thinking about this idea I started praying to God that he would show me what He wanted me to do this summer. I didn't want to just do my own thing and not be in His will so I trusted in Him that He would show me where to go. I started applying for jobs in both Seattle and Fayetteville mostly bike shops, but Starbucks, Best Buy and others as well.

So this is where the crazy part starts. 6 hours after I fax my resume and application in to this bike shop in Seattle I get a call from them, my first phone interview. They really liked me and told me their service manager would be calling me within the next couple of days to interview me on my technical bike repair skills. I go a week without hearing from them and I start to worry. All this while I am not hearing anything from any other jobs in both places. I call my first interviewer for this bike shop up and ask if they are still interested in me and if the manager was going to call me. She says they are still really interested in me but the manager has just been really busy. This same week I started looking for place to rent in Seattle just in case I got a job there. Sarah pointed me to the message board on her church's website. I put a post there saying I am looking for a room to rent and hope that I get a response. I began praying that if it was God's will for me to move to Seattle that I could find a place around $300 a month because that is all I could afford. Near the end of the week I get another call from the bike shop...this one is the big one! Short little interview about my skills and then they tell me they want me to come out, build a bike for them (easy) and I have the job! Only 30 minutes later I decide to sign on to the message board where I posted about renting a room. I had just gotten a response saying the person had a room available...for...you guessed it...$300 a month!!! If that is not God opening a door for me and saying this is where you should go then I don't know what is. I find out that I have a job and a place to stay all within an hour of each other plus the exact amount for rent that I had been praying for...WOW!

I'm just excited now to see what God has for me in Seattle. I move out there the third week of May...it should take me about 4-5 days for driving, just depends on how many hours I drive a day. If Sarah had her way I'd be taking 6-7 days to get out there (she is just looking out for me) but I just want to go ahead and get out there and get the drive over with. So yea, call me to keep me awake, it will be greatly appreciated :)

Last Mountain Biking Trip in Florida

I went to Alafia State Park today for my last mountain bike trip. It was amazing, my bike was feeling really good today with everything tuned perfect plus I was on top of my game hitting air and tweeking it like nobodies business. It was incredibly hot outside though, around 95 degrees with 85% humidity. Here is a picture of us before we headed out:

Here is me hitting a sweet jump...it is really blurry because Ryan the camera man is shaky

Here is us at Five Guys on our way home...I love this place :)

This was a sweet trip and I am going to miss these mountain bike trails. That is until I start mountain biking in Washington...that is going to be crazy!!