November 23 Meridian, ID

We're home! We had a 1:15 meeting scheduled with our bosses. We got here at 2:30. Luckily they were able to reschedule their other appointments to work around us. It was a budget meeting. They were pleased with our work this year and might keep us on for awhile. Good for us! Actually they're thinking about increasing our territory again. We may need to quit praying Jabez's prayer. (I Chronicles 4:10)

We're doing Christmas in Kansas from December 3-15. This will be the first time I've had my four grandchildren together. Then we'll do Christmas in Idaho. Two of Jim's children and grandson's will be here for that plus Jeff and Anabella. So we'll celebrate Christmas most of December.

This has been an exciting trip for us. There have been so many things go wrong, truck problems galore, from the water leaks, brake problems to tire blow outs. But it's been exciting to see how God has taken care of us.

The weather situation has been unreal. Other than a couple rains, the bad weather has always been just behind us or before us. Some of the snow storms and wind storms would have been horrible to be in. Even the rain we had in South Dakota was a blessing, because we finally found out exactly where it has been leaking in the truck and was able to fix it.

And this trip we were much more comfortable about knowing what to do and how to get to the Churches and where to stay. That made the trip less stressful.

The fun thing that helped us was the fun things. We had enough time in our schedule to do a bit of sight seeing. We were actually in five national parks since June; Yellowstone, Mt Rushmore, White Sand, Arches and Death Valley. Good thing we have the 'old age' pass so we don't have to pay every time.

Probably the neatest thing about this job is that Jim and I are together day and night. That also could be the worse part of the job. Not every married couple could do that and still like each other. We do!

The scariest part was the carbon monoxide in the truck. The Lord was certainly with us. We could have been so dead. We will get that taken care of before we use it next trip.

Next year our blog address will be TravelAdventures10.blogspot.com . I would be interested in knowing who reads my blog. I'd like it if you would e-mail me at NaomiNaomiC@gmail.com if you read it.

So this is it, I won't write again until next year. You might want to check every month until I start, in case we start early, and we might. Until then, may God bless you and keep you.

November 22 Wells, NV

It's all over but the driving. (And unloading, inventory and more paperwork, etc.)
We got on the road by 9:00 and drove and drove and drove. We choose to drive up north in Nevada instead of the better road up through Salt Lake City. It was only two lane, but it was good. Not much traffic. Mostly all we saw was lots of desert. It was a beautiful day, most of the way. About an hour or two south of Wells, we could see a storm ahead. Snow!!! It really wasn't bad but there was enough that they were plowing the road. We were hoping to go another 100 miles or so tonight, but decided that we could wait until tomorrow.

November 21 Las Vegas, NV

It's with very mixed feelings that we approached today. It's "The Day".

Our sale was at a Spanish Church. We've never done a sale for a Spanish Church. so we stocked up big time, set out shelves outside and a couple lights. Luckily it was a very nice evening.

The Church parking lot was full when we got there. They had a big Church social, with food and games. We were swamped for a couple hours. When we work that fast, I feel like I've been running.

I'm so glad we went to California for the Roma and Dinner Roast. We sold all of them and could have sold more.

We were open about 4 hours, then the closing took longer than usual, so we got back to the motel about midnight. Then Jim got gas so we would be ready to start in the morning. It's almost 1:00 A.M. now. It's about a 11 or 12 hour drive home. That's a big day.

Death Valley National Park

I remember studying about Death Valley in 5th Grade. The only thing I knew was that it was the lowest place in North America at 282' below sea level. And it is hot there. Being raised in Kansas, I really had no concept of mountains, so I pictured it as a big hole in the ground. Boy was I wrong!

In the first place, I'm so glad that we came in November. The temperature was great. It can be 120+ degrees in the summer. We had 70 degree weather. It was such a beautiful day.

I think my pictures will say far ore than I can. I don't know how many ways I can say "WOW".

We got out and walked in a couple places. The first place we climbed a hill that overlooked the valley. Oh! the colors!

When we got to the lowest elevation, we walked there too. In one picture you can see on the mountain a sign showing where sea level is. You will have to look for the sign, it's up there a ways. We walked out on the 'beach'. What makes this area look even lower is the 11,000' mountain beside it. I took a picture of the salt/sand where someone dug. You can see how near the water level is. All this area has flash flood warning signs.

We also hiked in the Golden Canyon. It used to have a one lane road through here but a flash flood went through this canyon and destroyed it. Lucky us, it was a neat hike. The bright rock walls are in this canyon.

We didn't spend near enough time exploring Death Valley. We needed to get back to Vegas. But I kept seeing one more thing.....

They mined for borax here in the valley, so we got to see the wagon that was pulled by a 20 mule team.

And while we were looking at that, there was a Roadrunner posing for his picture.

Finally Jim said 'enough!', so we headed back to Vegas. There's a couple big hills so we took awhile. I drove the rental car behind him. Unfortunately we got to Vegas at rush hour on a Friday night. It's a good thing the truck was big, so I could follow him. But that was tricky a few times.

We were on the highway that goes right by downtown. It was hard to pay attention to driving and peak at the downtown lights, especially when you're going by all these places you've heard about. That was the closest we've gotten to the strip and really have no desire to go check it out. What a life!

We found a restaurant for supper close to our motel. Even that had casinos all over the place. You can't help but notice that no one seemed to be having fun. They just set there and kept making deposit after deposit.

I took a couple pictures of the palm trees to share with you. Some are tall and skinny and some look like big pineapples. And I had to finish up with a sunset. the mountain doesn't show as well as I hoped, but the colors for the sunset were nice.

November 19 Puhrump, NV

I went to California today. We decided we needed some more product,especially the Roma coffee substitute. The Glendale bookmobile Manager, Gene, met me this side of Barstow bringing us Roma, Dinner Roast and a few other things. How nice of him!

We knew that we couldn't take the truck, pick up supplies and be back in time for our 5:00 sale, so we rented a car in Vegas and I drove.

It was about 60 miles of very lonely desert two lane highway. I really enjoyed the beauty going over. There were fields of tumbleweeds, fields of Joshua trees, cacti, sand dunes and lava rock. Some of the fields looked like they planted rock. The mountain ranges were beautiful. Be sure to notice the second picture, the road goes on forever and ever! I saw layer after layer of mountains, all different colors. Coming back was dark...................

I have learned to pay attention to all the different colors and things I see so I can share some of them with you. What used to look like a field of dead weeds now looks like a field of fantastic colors. Weeds go from white, beige, yellows, greens to twenty shades of brown. Even the dirt and rocks are cool. I think I need to notice all this rugged beauty, because Heaven's beauty won't be dead weeds, shrubs and jagged mountains.

I didn't get back to the sale in Puhrump until after 6:00, Jim had really been busy. It was a good sale.

We reached our financial goal tonight for this run. We sold 25% more than our last run. How's that for our economy these days? But we'll be the first to tell you that Jim and Naomi didn't do that, but God blessed our efforts and constant prayers. And we are so excited that He can use even us.

Saturday night is our last sale. That will be the frosting on the cake financially, over our goal. Praise the Lord!!

November 18 Las Vegas, NV

This was kind of a laid back day. Our sale didn't start until 4:00 and we didn't have to drive hours to get here.

We went to Olive Garden for lunch. That was out big excursion for the day.

Our sale was rather slow tonight. The ones that came were happy we came. Several said they forgot until they got there (tonight was Prayer Meeting night). Everyone wants us to come back next time. Part of the problem here is that no one has been here for years, so it will take awhile to train them to come again.

November 17 Las Vegas, NV

The motel had a great breakfast. There were so many choices. You could have waffles, biscuits and gravy, eggs, cereals, fruit, hot drinks, cold drinks or no drinks! There was something for everyone.

We drove through a corner of Arizona to get to Las Vegas. It was a beautiful drive. A couple of the pictures had some trucks on the road in front of us. When you see that little semi on the highway, you get a little idea how big the mountains are. Also, on the last picture you can see our truck in the reflection of the ahead of us.

Whenever I've ever thought about Las Vegas, I've always pictured just the strip where all the casino are. Vegas is really a big town. At night you can see lights everywhere. There are at least 6000 Adventist here and lots of churches. So you can imagine how many other people live here too. We haven't even seen the 'strip'.

Our sale kept us hopping. We were busy all three hours. We met some really nice people. We'll be selling in this area until Saturday night.