Take Nothing for the Journey … Luke 9:13

Photo from Free Photos @ Pixabay

Those words still make me sweat.

The Queen of spreadsheets and lists, the woman with an obsession for organization and preparedness, would freak out.

I have improved some. My To do List is now more of a reference and a reminder. Rarely do I finish all the tasks in one day. That’s progress.

However, I’m ashamed to say my packing and travel lists are almost as precious as my bible. I’d have nightmares if I didn’t check everything off my lists.

On the opposite side, my husband seldom uses a list, only once in a while a short one for groceries. He has had some unfortunate experiences flying by the seat of his pants, like the time he drove two hours from home only to remember he left the coffee pot on and had to turn around and go back. (That was before auto shut offs — and me.)

The point is it’s okay to reasonably prepare for different circumstances, but I must let go of the idea I can prepare for every circumstance. I can’t. As Padre Pio said, “Pray, hope, and don’t worry.”

Thank you, Lord, for the small advancements I have made to trust You more. Amen.

My Hour Had Not Yet Come, Continued

God had other tests of faith in store for us on this fateful trip.

We stopped for the night at Hoover Dam on the Nevada-Arizona border. In the morning, as we were removing the chucks from the trailer wheels, my husband noticed one of the tires was wearing on the inside rim. Warning bells and red flags blazed. A blow out on a trailer is not pretty, especially one on a rig as big and heavy as ours.

We managed to pull into a tire shop in Kingman, Arizona without a blowout. An inspection revealed either the tire was at fault, or the trailer axles needed alignment. We bought a new tire and headed straight to the suggested RV repair a few miles down the road. Of course, they were too busy to look into the issue until the morning. We spent the night in an RV park close by, wringing our hands wondering how much of our vacation budget this would eat, along with the expenditure we already incurred with the new tire.

 The next morning, their mechanic deduced the axles were good, but not our tire pressure. We were running on sixty pounds psi when the tires should be at eighty. My thought, “Why didn’t the tire people notice that?”

With the tire pressure now at the correct level and feeling confident we had the issue resolved, we continued across Arizona and into New Mexico. We arrived at Pancho Villa State Park without further incident.

This park is the site of the famous raid by the Mexican rebel on US soil. We happened to arrive on the 100^th anniversary of the raid and of course looked forward to participating in many of the activities. However, our bad luck had not ended yet.

My Hour Had Not Yet Come

I will die one day, but until then I will escape death, one way or another. The trick, of course is knowing if my hour has come, or not. I have mentioned several times that God promised my current husband and I would grow old together in health. I have stood on that promise several times, and yet, in the back of my mind, I know the hour of my death will eventually come. Will I know the hour? Or, will it come as a surprise?

So far, premonitions have preceded the biggest tragedies. In some cases, pre-knowledge allowed me to avert the danger. Most of the time, God sent the premonitions to prepare me for heartbreaking circumstances. Other times, the dreams and visions preceded a miracle.

The moment we planned an extended trip in our RV, the dreams and visions began. Over and over the same scene played out in my mind. I saw a steep narrow road, the ground falling away thousands of feet into a canyon. For reasons not explained in the premonition, we fail to negotiate the turn. 

Rough Night in Paradise

My husband and I have made five major moves in the eleven years we have been married, and literally lived on the road for five months in the RV, looking for the proverbial Paradise, the greener pastures, or whatever you want to call it.

We lived in our first house only three years when he decided he would rather live in Arizona. We left Oregon for Sierra Vista. We stayed one year in that city.

Wanting to travel, we bought an RV, put all of our household goods into storage, and hit the road as full time RVers. We passed through Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, Montana and Idaho in one month, We loved Idaho, and stayed in that state for four months. I wanted to move there, but we instead went back to Arizona. My husband felt it was financially prohibitive at that time to relocate such a distance.