Gus the Bus and the Turner Family 

After talking to a couple truckers last night that had traveled the Alaskan Highway before, we decided it'd be a good idea to get a spare tire for Gus.  Shane was talking to Rodney Hubbard this morning & he found us one at Ellensburg Tire & agreed to meet us at the truck stop at Ellensburg.  The tire place just happened to have the right size tire, mounted & balanced on the rim at a very reasonable price.  Shane & Rodney loaded it in the suburban.  Thanks Rodney for snapping some pictures for us!

   

Gus the Bus & Sub the Suburban (61 ft all together) Here we come!                                                                          

On the road again, we took 97 to Alt 97 to Omak, WA where Gus stopped for the night at the Wal-Mart. It was a beautiful drive along the Columbia River.  Had a couple steep grades where we were going 25-30 MPH.  It is quite a learning experience for Shane to drive the bus and he is doing an awesome job!  Tomorrow we will cross into Canada, Lord willing.
     When we finished lunch, we had another care package opening and what a highlight!  Yay! Coloring & reading for a while till nap time.  Almost all of the children took a nap at the same time, and woke all about the same time also.  They were ready to play play-doh.  And what fun!
     At supper time, Shane had all the children out in the parking lot, with yet another care pack... sidewalk chalk and a 4 square ball!  What a neat idea!  They loved it & was a great diversion.  Hot dogs & salad for supper.  Looks like we'll get to bed quite a bit earlier tonight.  Shane & I were talking, this has been a dream of ours for a few years, to travel with our family and we feel so blessed by God to be able to experience this.

It had this beautiful picture on the back of it when we bought it.. we hope to see somewhere like it!

 I had hoped to post more pics tonight, but the battery is almost to die...
    Tonight for devotions we had Numbers 22.  The story of Balaam.. vs 38 stood out to me.  Help me, Lord, to be so one with the Father that I only say what God tells me.

Let The Adventure Begin

     Today our family climbed into "Gus" and set out for the Last Frontier, the Land of the Midnight Sun...Alaska!!  Gus the bus, is a 38 foot  charter bus that is converted into a fully functioning RV.  We have been packing for the past week...our Bibles,  clothes, food, school books, bow & arrow's, fishing poles, diapers, gospel tracts, and some care packages from some sweet families, for the children to open.  Our plans are to travel the Alaskan Highway through British Columbia, Canada to Wasilla, Alaska.  We are going to see David & Holly Long and to explore Alaska some too.

This is when we bought it a year ago.

      Oh the excitement!!  We had planned to leave today, Friday, June 15th, just didn't know what time we would pull out.  Wal-Mart will let you park in their parking lot overnight, so we plan on staying there some and hitting a campground every 2-3 nights to fill up water & use the dump station.  Shane said we might just make it to Wal-Mart in Yakima and stay there the first night..
      This morning I slept in due to many late nights lately, then continued to find things to keep packing in the bus. Shane worked on packing the storage containers on the outside.  Steadily we worked on and on... 11:30 Dave & Carla Kuns brought us lunch (& more goodies to pack), and Steve & Jana Crist came, then Mary Long & Wilson came, all to bid us God-speed on our adventure.  Thanks ladies for all you helped with!!  We pulled out our driveway at 4:15pm.  Headed into Toppenish, Hank & I in the suburban and Shane & the rest in the bus.  Stopped at Ideal Lumber to fill up the propane tanks and to get something for the water tank so it wouldn't leak.  Headed on to Yakamart to fill up on diesel and gas. (Gus has diesel moter, and gas generator)  Then we hooked up the tow package on the suburban.  By the time we got to Yakima it was 7:00.  We decided to go ahead & stop.  Make sure everything is working properly.  This is the first time we have every stayed in Gus.  Did I mention excitement???  So we get stopped and the water pump won't work.. It has worked in the past, so Shane took all the storage out from under our bed and worked & worked and finally figured out it is the switch!
       I got the supper.. very interesting!!  We had MRE's which are Meals Ready to Eat.  Our neighbor, Jerry, gave us some of these meals.  It is what the military use.  All you need is 1 1/2 Tablespoons of water and it has a heat pack that heats up the food and everything.  Awesomely enough, we had company, and my brain was just fried from getting ready to go that I couldn't hardly figure out what I was doing with these MRE's.  Was trying to read the instructions and  just was taking me a long time...  Praising God for friends that visit, even when we're camping in Yakima Wal-Mart parking lot!! Yay!  Daniel & Rebecca Smith and their family came over to see us.  They are getting ready to take off and live in a 5th wheel for the summer and maybe longer.  So we shared excitement!

will have to upload pics from the last few days.. this was 1 yr ago

Finally got everyone down for bed and Shane & Hank went in to the store to get a switch for the water pump and a few other things.  It's now midnight and they just now arrived back at Gus.  Should've known they'd get stopped talking to fellow campers. Yay for truckers tips. And now, let's see if I can sleep this close to the freeway? Interestingly enough, between our bus and the freeway, there is this creek or swamp hole.. so we are hearing crickets chirping, frogs croaking or ribbitting, and cars & trucks racing by to who know's where.  My prayer is that I will remember to 'Seek ye first, the kingdom of God'.