Living Desert Zoo – outside of Tucson, Az

Witnessed the Day of the Dead parade – Tucson, Az

A Top USA Mex Restaurant – in Las Cruces, NM

Carlsbad Caverns, NM

Junior Ranger learners – at Carlsbad NM

San Antonio Riverwalk

Space Shuttle – Houston Tx – Grandpa Weber helped design in the 70’s and 80’s as an engineer in the Air Force.

More space center stuff – this is what they are working on for the future!  Don’t look!

Inside Space Shuttle cockpit.

Children Museum in Houston, TX – if you thought the kids wouldn’t learn while on this journey, perhaps you didn’t see the cool Turkeys they made!

Sixth floor museum, Dallas, Tx.  Museum learning about JFK assassination.

Our family friends, the Flournoys, met between Tyler and Dallas.

Our Texas Family – with us and my brother, oldest daughter, and son-in-law.  Learned that Texas folks like to look two different directions when taking pictures.

Chuck Sr.

It was a great month, traveling through long stretches of road to see the unknown.  I have always wanted to see San Antonio and it was even better then I expected.  The river walk was cool of course, as was the Alamo.

My personal favorite experience on this journey also happened here.  It was something my wife, Gia set up for us.  I went in thinking it would be a good learning for all of us, opportunity to help others, etc.  However, at the end, as usual, I was forever changed.  To go house by house and enter elderly peoples homes, and REALLY connect with them intimately one on one, hold their hands, pray with them, bring them such clear joy – was another humbling and deeply changing experience.

If you know me – I am clueless when it comes to music.  However, there is a song that I have been touched by the past couple of years…it is called “My Own Little World” by Matthew West.  It has humbled me, convicted me, and helped me seek to do more, to be more. I encourage you to listen to it.  Another song that influences me and challenges me is called “Lead Me”, by Sanctus Real.

The rest of the month was looking to be boring and uneventful.  🙂 I started wishing I was in a work meeting. I called one for the family and asked each to report out on what is going on in their life.   They all looked at me like I was crazy they said they had real work to do. 🙂  They are still young of course.  Perhaps someday.

So off to Houston and some cool family experiences, then up to Dallas and AMAZING experiences with our family there.  I have missed them so much and we are intertwined in so many ways. It was great, personally for me, but also to be able to add those family connections for FaithJean, Hope, Grace, and Chuck Jr. – also my brother, my daughter, and my son in law who flew to share this with us.  We then moved onto East Texas – and I was very impressed.  Great place to live and raise a family.  A place where Gia and I discussed we would be very comfortable.

Look forward to connecting with you!

Gia

The very first day we headed for Tuscon, Arizona. We were excited to make our way to Tuscon because my brother-in-law Bill was going to visit us for the weekend. It would be nice to see another familiar face. We also saw a family of 11 that we had met earlier in Pacifica, by San Francisco. We later learned that the father had some health challenges, and they sold their home to travel around and enjoy each other because they didn’t know how much longer the father had to live. Inspiring. They were such a nice family and so helpful when my husband had some questions about our hitch.  With Bill, we visited the Kartchner Caverns, The Living Desert Museum (amongst the Sonoran Desert), Tombstone, and after dropping Bill off at the airport, we observed a cultural parade “Day of the Dead” in downtown Tucson. Most of the people were there in honor of loved ones.

Almost every Sunday we are worshipping with other believers at a new church or meeting room. That has been one of the most amazing experiences for me on this adventure. To know that there are people that we have never met but are forever united in this bond of a relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Truly a gift from God, that he gave us to know that no matter where we are, we are never alone. Not only is our Father there, but we have other believers that are all over this globe. I always knew this mentally, but to witness it physically, is a whole other ballgame.

Here we go again flop, flop!  Ok let me explain. Whenever we leave for a new place, a traveling day as we call them, we pray and then do a cheer. The cheer goes something like this… We are on the road again..clap clap..We are on the road again ..clap clap..We are on the road..on the road..flop flop! This is very close to what I used to say when I was a little girl when we would go somewhere. I’m sure it sounds silly, but I love it!

For approximately one week we were in New Mexico. It was in Las Cruces that Grace and I logged onto a volunteering website known as Chicktime, the founder is Lori Rhodes. It is a wonderful organization that has chapters throughout the United States. You just register and get involved wherever you may live. You can also start your own chapter.

We also ate at this amazing authentic Mexican restaurant known as “La Posta.” It was ranked as the third best in the nation by USA Today. They had live parrots and really nice architecture. The building was approximately 100 years old. After a long day of traveling, a nice meal tasted good!  We were only there one night and made our way to Carlsbad Caverns. New Mexico.  This included some of the more desolate driving thus far on our journey. At times, you could see all of these oil pipes with fire blowing out of the top all over the open desert.  The Caverns were enormous, spectacular! Also, at all of the National parks they have Junior Ranger programs. The programs are all age appropriate and are geared for kids up to 14 years old. Hope, Grace, Chuck Jr., and FaithJean love to learn more while they are visiting these incredible parks. When they are finished, they earn a special badge and say a pledge. Sunday, we attended a Baptist Church and got involved with Operation Christmas Child.

The rest of November was spent visiting Texas. We visited Sonora, San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, Denton, Troup, and Tyler (my favorite, so beautiful and openly Christian). So polite too, I have to say, I enjoy the yes ma’am stuff.

In San Antonio, we got involved with Chicktime and King’s Compassion volunteer ministries. King’s Compassion helps the elderly in downtown San Antonio.  We met at the founder’s house to organize care packages and then the six of us and a couple of others delivered them house by house. We went door to door and prayed with these special people. It was a very humbling experience. The River Walk was also a unique experience, but helping the elderly was so much more rewarding. Oh yeah, and don’t forget the Alamo!  We spent two days studying that!

While in the Dallas area we visited with Chuck’s family and enjoyed a pre Thanksgiving dinner at his cousin Becky’s house with all of his other cousins and their families. So many wonderful people, Becky & Joe, Bill & Judy, Christine & Wes, Ashley & her boyfriend, Robyn & Dan, Wendy & Gary, and of course Joey. Our daughter Melissa, and her husband Chris also joined us as did, Bill, Chuck’s brother.

In Dallas, we also visited the The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. This is the place from where JFK was shot.  The museum was created in remembrance of him. One word to describe the experience, “amazing!”

We later had the honor of celebrating Thanksgiving dinner in Troup with Robyn & Dan and their family. They own 35 acres that they also hunt on. We had such a great time sharing this time of year with such wonderful family and friends all over Texas. Thank you to everyone! Also, a shout out to our good friends Victor, Stacy, and Malachi and being able to join them for dinner. Love you!

FaithJean

In the month of November, we did a lot of fun field trips. In Tucson, Arizona, our Uncle Bill came to visit, and we did a lot of interesting things with him. I’m so glad he came. In Las Cruces, New Mexico, we went to a tasty and historical restaurant called La Posta. They had many unique birds, including a cockatoo that mimicked us. Also in New Mexico, we went to the enormous Carlsbad Caverns. They are very watery and open. The Carlsbad Caverns and the Grand Canyon were 2 of my favorite places! While we were in Carlsbad, we did Operation: Christmas Child and sent the boxes to a boy and a girl.

Before we started our trip, we made memory boxes to keep all the stuff we get from our trip in. It was my sister Melissa’s brilliant idea, and I don’t know what I’d do without my box. Thanks Liss. Anyway, next we went to Texas. In San Antonio we volunteered at an amazing organization, called King’s Compassion. It was a great experience, and I loved praying with all the awesome people we met. God Bless them all. After San Antonio, we traveled to Houston. While we were there we visited the NASA Space Museum. There I got to see the Space Shuttle, and got go on a tour of the grounds, and see a replica of the shuttle’s cockpit! It was very cool seeing the Space Shuttle that my smart Grandpa Weber worked on. In Dallas, we got to see and spend time with my hilarious and loving family! My sister Melissa, her husband Chris, and my Uncle Bill flew to Texas to see us. It was great to see my Cali and Texas family in one place! I love all of them! Also in Dallas we saw the sixth floor museum at Dealey plaza. It was sad, but very interesting. I learned very much. For thanksgiving we spent it with my Texas family. It was a blessed month.

Grace

Next we went to Tucson.  In Tucson we went to Karchner Caverns with our Uncle Bill.  It was amazing, the formation!  We also went swimming in an indoor pool.  After Tucson, we went to Las Cruces!  For dinner we went to La Posta!  There were birds and one of them was so funny and loud, it was flapping its wings.  We stayed there one night, but we also found out about a volunteer opportunity called Chick Time.  We did Chick Time in Texas!  Las Cruces was in New Mexico!  Next we went to Carlsbad!  In Carlsbad there was even better Caverns!  In Texas we went to Sonora!  I fed horses and peacocks barehanded and I saw deer!

Next we went to San Antonio!  We saw the Alamo where they had a fight because Mexico wanted Texas.  We also did a Chick Time volunteer event where we gave food to people who really needed it.  Next we went to Fort Worth!  In Fort Worth we had Thanksgiving with family; well early Thanksgiving.  We saw went to the JFK (John F. Kennedy) Museum in Dallas!  We saw the X where he got shot!  We also went to Houston where we saw the NASA Space Museum!

Hope

Dear Friends and Family,

We are now in Tucson, Arizona. We got to see my Uncle Bill there. We saw Karchner Caverns with him! It was nice to see him! When he left we were going to see him in three weeks! On our way to New Mexico, we were in Texas for a little while. You could also see Mexico a little bit. When we were in Las Cruces, we went to a really cool Mexican Restaurant! Yummy! We then went to Carlsbad, New Mexico! The caverns were pretty cool! You got to go on an elevator that went up from the caverns! There were these weird fires; we thought they were bad, so we called 911! They were supposed to be like that! We also did operation Christmas Child! We did a lot there!

We then went to Sonora, Texas. They had Caverns at the State Park we were staying at! It feels funny to stay at a state park when we didn’t go to the Caverns! Oh well. We then got to a main part of Texas! San Antonio, Texas! They had the River Walk and the “Alamo” there! We learned some cool stuff there! We were in Houston next! We went to a lot of museums’ there! One of them was the Space Museum! It was cool to learn about the famous Space Shuttle, my Grandpa Weber helped build! The next stop we went to was Dallas, Texas! We saw a lot of family there! It was awesome! We also got to spend Thanksgiving with family. God has blessed us!

With love, Hope

Chuck Jr.

First was Texas, the lone star state and we went to Sonora and there were a lot of deer. Second, was San Antonio, it was very big and I liked seeing the Alamo and how Texas became a state. Third, was Houston, another big city and it was named after Sam Houston who helped make Texas a state. Fifth, was with some of our Texas family, which were very nice!  Sixth was Tyler, which was very pretty.