Steve and Becca Hendricks

A five day, 8 state, drive across country, 2,028 miles, a suburban carrying 2 women, 4 small kids, 2 dogs and 2 cats, a dodge ram carrying 2 men and 2 kids, towing a really packed trailer.  It was a lot of fun and a little scary, but we made it! God definitely gave us favor on weather conditions and behavior from the pets.  It was shocking how easily the pets traveled.

Day 1: Farmington, UT – Moab, UT.  We left Farmington at about 5:00 and got to Moab at about 10:30 PM.  This was the most night driving we did and it was probably our worst driving conditions, which wasn’t that bad.  Just hills and curves the whole way from American Fork to Moab.  We only stopped once for a potty break so it went pretty fast. 

Day 2: Moab, UT – Albuquerque, NM.  We got a late start in Moab, leaving at about 9:30 AM and got in to Albuquerque at about 7:30 PM.  We saw a pretty cool arch and Ayden (who is a “why” kind of kid) said “Mommy, who did poke that hole in that rock?” Sara answered “God”.  We had a pretty good day of driving and got into the hotel early enough to relax and hang out for a bit before falling asleep.

Day 3: Albuquerque, NM – Wichita Falls, TX.  Our plan was to get up early, have breakfast, load up and then go to church at 8:15 at Sagebrush Community Church in Albuquerque and then hit the road as soon as church was over we’d get on the road.  We all felt like it was better just to get on the road so we had breakfast and headed out at about 8:30 AM.  The plan was a little different for who would be riding in what vehicle.  Zach and Sara wanted to drive together and Steve and I wanted to drive together.  I was really excited to ride in the truck and we had Jeremy and Allie in the back seat.  After stopping for gas and praying for our travels, we got going.  At first when we got on the freeway, I was just enjoying the ride, excited for our day and the trailer started to wobble… and then as we picked up speed it wobbled a little more, and I got a little nauseated, and then my heart started to race and I started asking Steve why it was doing that and what was wrong and asking if he needed to go slower.  He told me that the trailer was really heavy and it wants to go faster than the truck, which definitely did not make me feel any better.  I completely knew that it had nothing to do with the way he was driving it, I just wanted it to stop.  So when it didn’t stop I started to cry, finally telling him “I don’t know if I can do this”, we were only about 20 minutes on the road.  So I called Sara, more embarrassed than anything and asked if we could pull over and go back to the way it was.  I was still crying, but then I was crying because I couldn’t just deal with it so I could spend some time with my husband and worried that he would think I didn’t trust his driving.  Thankfully he understood why I was having a problem and didn’t take it personally.  So our day went on.  We had some stops for bathroom breaks and gas but mostly it went pretty well.  For lunch we stopped at a truck stop that had a dog run outside and inside there was a vintage car museum and even a chapel, which I thought was pretty great.  That was probably my favorite stop.  We got into Wichita Falls at about 9:30 PM and pulled up to our hotel a little disappointed.  At this point we had stayed at the Moab La Quinta, which was really nice, then the Albuquerque La Quinta which wasn’t quite as nice but still totally fine, this La Quinta was in a shady area of town and had outdoor room access, which was something we didn’t want to do, but we were tired so we stayed, and we did survive the night.  The room was clean and we had Texas shaped waffles the next morning – that’s pretty awesome. 

Day 4: Wichita Falls, TX – Monroe, LA.  We left the hotel, got gas and picked up new Redbox movies for the kids, getting out of town at about 9:30 AM.  A few hours into our drive, we stopped at a rest stop to let the kids run around and take bathroom breaks.  This was where I had my first run in with fire ants.  That was not fun.  I was standing there, taking pictures of the kids and felt a couple little stings on my foot; it felt like I was standing in a thorn bush.  I looked down and saw tiny little biting things on my feet.  I got out of the grass and stomped them off my feet, but for the next few hours, they stung pretty bad.  When we got into Shreveport, LA we decided to stop for dinner.  The first exit we got off turned into a just a detour as both Sara and I’s inner white girl came out.   I expected to see some different stuff in the south, but this was a bit much, so we drove to the other end of Shreveport and pulled in to the mall parking lot for our dinner stop.  We ate in the food court and let the kids play on the little coin operated rocket ship and cars while we figured out how much longer we wanted to drive that night.  We made it in to Monroe at about 9:30 PM.  It didn’t really seem like a bad area of town but even though the hotel was outdoor room access we stayed anyway.  We realized getting in to the rooms that it wasn’t exactly what we had hoped for.  Sara and Zach sent Natalie over to our room so she wouldn’t have to sleep on their dirty floor and we got out of there too early for breakfast the next morning. 

Day 5: Monroe, LA – Callaway, FL (HOME).  We left Monroe at 6:30 AM and by the time we got into Vicksburg, MS at about 9 AM it was time for Starbucks.  We had made it our whole trip without getting any Starbucks and it was long overdue.  Sara and I pulled in a parked and Zach pulled up next to us, but we quickly realized that getting the trailer out of the parking lot was not going to be a very easy task.  We spent about 20 minutes at Starbucks because the trailer had to be backed up and then pulled through the drive-through.  It was probably more embarrassing than anything.  We got our coffee and snacks for the kids and got back on the road. The day went pretty fast.  We saw a lot, we crossed over the Mississippi, saw a lot of bayou’s, went into Mobile and saw what once was probably a very popular resort hotel, completely trashed and abandoned, probably due to a hurricane and as we got further south, it got greener and greener.  We drove along the coast from Mobile all the way home and saw a lot of white sand and beachy stuff.  We had to stop at the Gas company so Sara could sign her paperwork to have the gas turned on and then we were home by 5:30 PM.   

Getting into the house, I was so blessed by how the house was cleaned, stocked with food, furnished and ready for us.  The kids ran around and saw their rooms and then we unloaded the trailer and ate dinner with our friends.  I’m still amazed at how God has provided for us each step of the way and I hope that I’ll have more to share very soon.  Thank you to everyone who has helped us and also for the people who shipped boxes.  One of the Sutton’s boxes had already arrived when we got here.  We are planning on going to the beach on Thursday, so I’ll try to take some pictures and share some with everyone.