The Half Way Point

Hey Everyone,
Thanks again for caring about us and being apart of our journey.
Since the last time we wrote we have gone from Georgia to Pennsylvania.
Time is flying and we are half way done with our trip, 2 more months to go!!!
So here is our short and long update :) enjoy

The Short Version: starting early April
We stayed in Athens, Georgia with our friends we met in India last year.
Camped in the The Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Camped in Mammoth Cave National Park and toured the cave.
Couchsurfed in Lexington Kentucky, hanging with our friend at the race track.
Couchsurfed in Lewisburg, West Virginia. Went to a Chocolate Festival.
Stayed with relatives in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Learned about family history.
Drove through Shenandoah National Park.
Stayed a week with our friends in Sterling, Virginia. Did lots in DC
Went to Baltimore for a day with our friends.
Stayed a week with other friends near Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Went to Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Lancaster, Lititz and hung with the family :)

The Long Version: (by Caleb)

A lot has happened since we last wrote. wow. Let me try to hit the highlights...

We stayed with our friends, the Brownlee's in Athens Georgia.
 On our way to Athens we drove
through Augusta, and for anyone that knows anything about golf, its an iconic place. Too bad there is no way to see the course, but we got to drive by it which was fun. It was a week before the Masters.






Staying with Bob, Sonam, daughter Elli and son Caleb was a lot of fun.  They are the type of people that your heart warms to be around and the journey that they are on is such an awesome one. Living daily, loving daily.  We had great food, good time watching the final four etc. They are pretty much the most hospitable people we know. I love the life that comes out of them and the natural relationship with Papa that they have. They are always very encouraging to us. It was especially neat to see them because God really did some major things in us in India and they were there to be a part of it all.







After Athens, we drove through a little German town out in the boonies.  :) it was very unique. Of course we had to get a Bratwurst!

From there we continued on, through N. Carolina to Tennessee to go camping/hiking in the Great
Smoky Mountains.  We had a nice 5 mile hike in to our campsite. Really fun hike next to the river. We met 4 people at our campsite hiking the Appalachian Trail. Had fun sitting around the campfire with them and might meet up with them as we continue on our trip...
We also did some hikes around old farmsteads in the Smokies which was pretty cool. Crazy how people lived back then.

We had a night in a really old hotel. It had so
much charm (even though it wasn't trying to). Most would say it was outdated, but I just loved it. It even had a fireplace and wood for the night, so of course I had to light it up :).  It also served for a good room to be in to watch Louisville win the National Championship.






We drove through Tennessee and into Kentucky in route to Mammoth Cave National Park. The drive
that day was one of our nicest. So picturesque.  There were lots of quilt patterns on old barns, farms, horses, countryside, Beautiful.
Mammoth Cave was really great!  There is about 400 miles of cave and that is just what they have found so far. They predict about 800-1000 miles by the time they finish exploring. It will take them many years. So ya, its a MAMMOTH Cave! We were able to tour it for a couple hours and learned a lot about the history of the cave.  It was discovered thousands of years ago by native americans. Then rediscovered by pioneer type folk.  There were many slaves in there during the War of 1812 mining for saltpeter to use for gunpowder.  So there was still a lot of their tools and stuff set up. Since its a cave deep down nothing rotts or decomposes, it naturally preserves everything.

The night before we toured the cave, we camped in the N.P.  We had a very interesting experience with very disrespectful people that came camping by us in the middle of the night and stayed up late talking (sounded like they were in our tent). John and Shannon. Ask us about them some time, its kinda laughable now :)


After seeing the cave we drove on to Lexington Kentucky where we had a couchsurfing host lined up. Daniel was a really great guy that opened his home to us.  He was very hospitable and we stayed an
extra day since we were having fun.  He worked at the Keeneland Race Track videoing the horse races, so he invited us to come down and see him and watch some races. So we ended up spending two days at the track, among other things. I lost 3 bucks on the races!!!!!!!! NO!!!!!!! :(  But not too bad if I say so myself.  Hannah and I also had our own bets going. I won the first one, went double or nothing with her and then lost... wasn't my day. But that was a really fun cultural experience.

Daniel took me out one of the nights to a local brewery to meet some of his friends. I had a great time talking with some of them. Was able to encourage one guy in particular that has fallen away from the Christian religion. Well what do you know, Im not into religion either, but I am into what Papa is doing in peoples hearts, we had a great conversation.  I was really glad to be there that night.
It was also hilarious to me that I was this Big Hit of the night with all the fellas. That's not usually me when I'm with people I don't know. I don't usually have many "stories" to tell people, I like to listen. But all of the sudden they started asking me about our trip, what we do for a living, our fifth wheel, and they were all so into it. haha, it cracked me up.  I guess we are making a lot of memories out here and gaining lots of "stories" in our history to share.  Even though it seems normal to me since I'm living it, I guess living in a fifth wheel, working 4 months out of the year, and road tripping around extremely cheaply is pretty crazy and most people probably don't know many others that do the same. It is a blessing to be in a situation like this.
Anyways, enough about that.

After being in Lexington a couple of days we drove to another couchsurfing hosts place in Lewisburg

West Virginia.  We had a fun time with our host, Morgan. Well I did, Hannah had a bad headache and went right to bed when we got there.  But I stayed up hanging with him and we had a fun time just watching the tube together and laughing at his dog being ridiculous.  The next day he ran in a 10k and we met him at the end. It was part of a Chocolate Festival.  So of course we spent half of the day doing all things Chocolate! That made Hannah really happy. :)  We bought a pack of tickets and then walked around the small town finding all of the tasting rooms that were in the local business and then used our tickets to get whatever it was they were serving. So there were a lot of home made chocolate stuff. Ice-cream, cupcakes, candies, etc. etc. etc. it was really fun. We even watched a Chocolate pastry chef demonstration and got to eat a lot of chocolate at the end. He was french and a chocolate chef master champion just recently. YUM!

But chocolate can only last you for so long... ? ...

We then went over to Harrisonburg Virginia. We found out right before we were headed there that my

Grandpa's first cousins live there. So we got connected and stayed 3 nights with them.  We had such a sweet time with them.  They had memoirs from my great grandpa and some of his siblings. Those were fun to read. And we found out the the Showalters had a lot of history in that place.  There were family farms, a family mill, and more that Ray and Violet showed us around to. It was really cool seeing all this family history and also hearing stories about different wars that were going on around them at different times and since pacifism is part of the mennonite belief, there was a lot of stories that tied into the issues that they had in regards to being drafted and fighting.  It was also cool to learn more about my mennonite roots. Its cool to have a heritage that has values that are valuable to me still today.












From Harrisonburg we drove through the Shenandoah National Park. What amazing views there were,

breathtaking scenic vistas and lookouts.  We even saw a bobcat cross the road and I was able to get out and watch it, but it didn't move much as it sat and watched me....











After lots of amazing scenery we arrived in Sterling, Virginia.  Hannah has long time family friends, the
Prantle's that live there.  We stayed with them for a full week. It was really great to have a home base and do some things from there, but it was even more great just to be with the family.  We were able to do a lot with them.  We went to Baltimore together, saw an Oriole's game. Even got a ball during batting practice! :) We watched movies together, played games together. Philip and I had a few good chess battles (I had to show him "Searching for Bobby Fischer" after that).  We walked around DC together, we ate lots of food together, we were able to see Julians job site,

(which is what took them to DC in the first place), meet some of their friends and neighbors, and just overall get to know each other better. It was also a big time for their family because of jobs and maybe having to move or what needs to be done to stay, so it was an honor to be there for such a big time for them.

Some of the highlights of DC were that we got to tour the capitol building on a tour from our Oregon representatives office. This was the same tour that Hannah use to give when she worked for a representative years ago (our congressman's office was actually just down the hall from the office she worked in)!!! So that was REALLY
cool for me to be able to experience her world when she was there and REALLY cool for her to be able to share it with me.  The Capitol was also
cool in itself. We got to see the new MLK memorial, Lincoln, Jeffereson, Monument (from afar, it was under construction due to an earthquake sometime last year), Smithsonians, Library of Congress, White House, Botanical gardens, ride the metro, etc. It was quite fun to hit a lot of it, but we definitely didn't see it all. There
were still a few things I really wanted to see but it just didn't work out, so instead of pressing it hard to make it work we figured, "hey, leave some for next time we come" :) hopefully someday there will be a next time.
















So after saying our goodbyes we headed north through Maryland to Pennsylvania. This is where we are currently writing from.  We have been here a week with some of my long time family friends.
Nancy and her late husband Duane were missionaries in Belize with my parents and they have kept in touch all of these years. We took two separate trips to Pennsylvania when I was 6 and 13 years old and they came out to see us when I was 9.  So we came to visit again! :)  We weren't sure how long we would be here when we first came, but it turned out we stayed a full week. We leave tomorrow for New York.

Our first day we went to Philadelphia. That was a treat. We did all the historical things in 3 hours. We

got to see the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall (where they debated, signed the Declaration of Independence and also Constitution) pretty cool to have seen it. Also saw some of Ben Franklin stuff nearby. We went to a national Mint and saw how and where they make our coins.

Of course we had ourselves some Philly Cheesesteaks. MMM MMM good!

We also walked around a local market that was really cool! (oh and did the same in Baltimore, they are soo fun)







During one of our days here we got to see a long time friend of Hannah's, Heidi and her family. They
live about half hour from us here, so we got to see them over lunch, catch up on some life stuff, play with kids etc.

After that we went to Hershey Parks Chocolate
World! MMM more chocolate!

And from there we got to hang out at Beth's house (daughter of Nancy) in Harrisburg. Brian (Nancy's son) and his wife Katie came over and we went out to trivia night at a local pub. Those are gonna be fun memories :)

Then for the rest of the week we just did stuff really low key. We borrowed bikes and rode around Lititz, went to Lancaster and walked around art galleries and went to the market, ate lots of meals with the family, did yard work at Brian's house and was able to help him get some little projects done. Its amazing how many memories you can have from one week with people. It was such a pleasure to sit around and talk with them, reminiscing about our few weeks total we had spent with each other in the past and talk about what we could remember about each other, what we did, etc. I love when relationships like that get reconnected. Feel very blessed and grateful.

And that wraps it up for me... maybe Hannah will put in some thoughts.

I think he covered it :).

Hannah prepping for her speech :)

Hannah peering in to Julia Childs Kitchen. 

Ok, that is EVERYTHING... not really. Sorry if it was too long! but hey, it took me a whole lot longer putting it together than for you to read it :)
Like I usually say, thank you guys for caring about us. We care about you too and are looking forward to seeing you many of you again.

The South East

Hi everyone,
Once again, we will write a short update as well as a longer one.

Short version:
Spent a week in Haiti with our sister Naomi
Drove up the Florida coast stopping in Vero Beach and St. Augustine
Met a second cousin in Orlando
Spent 2 days in Charleston, SC with a couple we met over frozen custard (you might remember our post about Ted Drewe's frozen custard)
Camped in Congaree National Park
Are staying with friends in Athens, GA who we met a year ago in northern India

Long version:

I believe the last update we wrote was a few days before we left for Haiti so I will pick up from there.
So we flew to Haiti to spend a week with our sister Naomi who volunteers as a principle at a school.
Our purpose in going was to spend time with Naomi, enter her world down there, and spend time with the other foreigners who also volunteer there. We enjoyed our time doing just that. We relaxed during

the day (as much as you can relax when you sit and sweat...) and spent the evenings playing games and talking. Like I said, we really enjoyed being with Naomi and her peeps. I can't say I enjoyed the heat though... I like hot but this took it to another level, wow. And it wasn't even summer, ha! I am a wimp. On the weekend, we spent some time relaxing (in AC) at a resort along the coast and had a great time swimming in the Caribbean. Warm ocean water is a novelty to us Oregonians!






Our original plan was to go down to Key West and the Everglades but we were done with being in Florida so we headed north along the coast. I've heard about the fancy houses in Florida but I was still astounded by the houses we passed! And then the yachts! Holy cow! Definitely enjoyed seeing that.
When we were CouchSurfing in Gainesville, our host mentioned that her sister lives along the coast 3 hours north of Miami in Vero beach so we called her to see if we could stay with her sister. Her sister was actually in Miami that weekend but was fine with us staying at her house anyway. They had someone staying at the house dog-sitting and I guess she was fine with it too. We both laugh at the random situations we get ourselves into! It felt like a normal CouchSurfing stop in the end but we got to know the dog-sitter instead of the owners of the house :).











The people we have met have definitely been the highlight of our trip and we got surprised yet again by
a gem. We met a first cousin once removed and his wife (Caleb's dad's side), Steve and Shirley, for lunch and after spending 4 hours talking wished we could have kept on going. Our hearts quickly connected as God has done some similar things in our lives. It was a gift to meet them and leave having been encouraged by them.





While at the CouchSurfing sister's house, we found out our Gainesville hosts were going camping in St.
Augustine--our next stop--and they invited us to join them. So we camped near St. Augustine and got to see that family again.










On Easter morning, we got up before sunrise and had our own "sunrise" service on the beach. It was also our first time watching a sunrise on the Atlantic Ocean. I enjoyed sitting there in anticipation of the sunrise and thinking about what happened 2000+ years ago. It was definitely worth the lost sleep :).









For the rest of the day, we walked around historic St. Augustine. I vaguely remembered St.
Augustine from when my family went there 11 years ago and enjoyed going back to make more memories on top of those. It is a beautiful old town and actually wasn't very crowded considering it was a holiday. Before we left we saw the Easter Parade...nope, not a 4th of July Parade, it was the Easter Parade. So trade the flags for bunnies and you get an Easter Parade.





In one of our previous blogs we wrote about Ted Drewe's frozen custard in St. Louis and what we
didn't mention was that while we were wolfing down our amazing frozen treat another couple, also on a roadtrip, came to get some as well. They saw that we were also not from St. Louis so we started chatting. They were from Charleston, SC and said to look them up if we came to Charleston. So we did! We knocked on their door and after a moment of suspense they remembered us and welcomed us in. We ended up staying 2 nights with them and thoroughly enjoyed our time. They live in an old house in the historic district--some people stay at B&B's, we knock on stranger's doors and stay at a private 'B&B.' They

showed us around, we talked, made food for us, we had a great time staying with them. I can't say enough how hospitable they were with 2 strangers! I loved Charleston. The "site-seeing" we did was simply walking around the historic district looking at all the old houses. It was incredible, especially this time of year when all the flowers are just beginning to bloom. We've had so many of these "random" experiences that they are starting to become normal. But still, who would have thought we would have met a couple for 5 minutes over frozen custard in St. Louis (not even learning their names) and end up staying with them.


After Charleston, we camped for a night in Congaree National Park near Columbia, SC. It started to rain during the night and was to continue all day so we packed up and left.


Right now, we are in Athens, GA with our friends who we met in McLeod Ganj, India last year and we plan to stay here a few days.
Written by Hannah

From Caleb
Hey all, just wanted to say a quick hi from myself to you.
Things have been going well as you have read. I just wanted to put one more thing in here that I want to comment on.
Last time we wrote we were staying with a couple in Southern Florida that we got in contact with through people we had stayed with earlier on the trip in Alabama (the Webbers). They put us in contact with the Newcomers. They really blessed us with their hospitality. We were able to gear up for our trip to Haiti while at their place and they gave us passes to go see Bok Tower and Gardens. Very beautiful place. Known as the "American Taj Mahal".

 Heres a few pics from that time.

We are soon off to the Great Smoky Mountains. From there we plan to go to the Mammoth Cave, West Virginia, Virginia and then into the DC area for the rest of April.
Thanks again for caring about us.
Caleb