Montgomery County

Packing up

We slept well past 7:30am this morning. Glenn got an invite to go down the street and have breakfast with Jeff and Wes, however that never really ever happened. Glenn said, "Come out here, and look at all the action".

I went out to the side street and there were Neil, Jeff, Wes and a few others hovering over the carry-top. The Carry-top had been so faithful for all 33+ days until today. The guys were trying to get it unjammed! Ugh. Something had moved and the key latch was not working. Poor guys. I'm not sure and still don't know if Neil had already gone on his "morning shoot" of landmarks in Washington DC. What was important, to have the lid open so Jon could get all the camera equipment shipped out by the early afternoon. He needed it the UPS store by mid-afternoon.

The guys tried everything. Then they thought if they would unbolt it and lift it down to the street level, maybe just shaking it would giggle it. Once they got the screws unbolted and unattached, it took 4 strong guys to lift it up and over. They tried shaking and gently slamming it on the ground. Nope. Not going to open.

Finally, a technician from the hotel brought a drill gun and Neil as able to drill a hole in the top carry case. I couldn't handle all the drama, so I went upstairs back to the hotel room and took a quick power nap.

At exactly 1pm, all the electronic equipment was loaded into the Nissan (except 1 piece) and all those folks traveling to Dallas Love Field, boarded into the van. We drove the 1 piece down to the UPS store and dropped it off, then followed several people's directions to get to Ronald Reagan International airport.

At 2pm, we pulled into the "drop-off" lane and hugged the team good-bye. They were flying back to Dallas. We were driving back to Dallas. Someone asked what we were going to do and I said: "I think we will just look at each other!"

We literally were parked on the curbside until 3:20pm when we drove away. We sat there. Glenn literally bawled like a baby. Our emotions were real. They were deep. We were exhausted. We were beyond exhaustion. We were drained. The whole #ConversationsCoasttoCoast event was physical and emotionally exhausting on us. And we're not young anymore. We are grateful for the extra strength the Lord gave us to endure it to the end. Unbelievable, no policeman came knocking to the van door asking us to move on.

In summary:
There are several things in my life that I count as life-changing. Besides my high-school mission trip to Mexico and Guatemala in 1972, my Moody Bible Institute college experiences and my 1977 Practical Missionary Training through Central America, this definitely has changed my life.

We will be forever impacted by the generosity of friends that cheered us to the end.
Grateful for the opportunity to leave Guatemala for a month.
Grateful that Neil had faith in our ability to help with the #CC2C project.
Grateful to see how easy it is to have "surprisingly easy to start conversations" with people.
Grateful to see how God shows up with Divine appointments along the way.

Total miles from Santa Monica Pier, California to Annapolis, Maryland -

some where between 2535, 2795 and 2968Read more