Intermountain Bookmobile Spring Run

Looking back on this trip, we can't help but see the hand of God being with us. First of all the weather . . as you know, it's been an unusual spring all over the intermountain states. We just missed being in a big accident the second day we were out, by Salt Lake City, because of snow. The accident happened about five minutes ahead of us, involving several semi trucks. One person was killed. We sat on the highway two hours waiting for it to be cleaned up so we could continuing driving. It always seemed like the big storms were just behind or ahead of us. The other bad weather was the next time we were in Salt Lake. We cancelled a sale because of very heavy snow. The next day I flew to Kansas for my aunt's funeral, while Jim drove through Wyoming. He drove through a white-out. He was so lucky that I wasn't with him. Actually I really don't cry or scream, but my tension wouldn't have been good for him. And I would have been very VERY tense!

We love the sales part. Meeting friends and making new friends everyday is wonderful. We have so many good experiences during these times. Sometimes people that we only met last year, will get on the truck and continue the conversation that we were having last year. It might take a few minutes for us to remember, but we do. Several people have invited us to eat with them, several have cooked food for us to take with us on the truck, and so many people have expressed their appreciation for what we do.

So many of the bookmobiles just make day trips or long weekends. This time we were out on the road from mid February to the last of May. Our fall trip will be from early August to mid November. That's a long time to live in a 100 square foot truck. Jim and I have become very close! It's a good thing that we both like each other and are usually fairly mellow. We basically can't get away from each other while we're on these trips. We work together and when we aren't working, we still are at work, because we live in the truck.

We also love that we get to see so many of our school mates and relatives on these trips. We are very sociable people, so we do get lonely for our social time. If you ever see that our bookmobile is in your area, please come see us. That would be so special.

Another blessing is the sales. People are still out there buying Christian books and vegetarian food. Not only do they buy books for themselves, but I know that they are buying for their friends and families. We know that this old earth can't last much longer and we don't want any one to be lost. Heaven will last for all eternity. How sad if we don't share the good news.

Thank you for following us on our trip. We hear from several of you who read our blog. It's nice to know that you are going on this trip with us.

We will be leaving tomorrow to go to Montana for about a month to six weeks. I will continue writing a couple times a week, or whenever something really exciting happens. We will be involved in the campmeeting sales and after that we will be closing down the Montana ABC.

Please keep us in your prayers.

May 28 Meridian, ID

We're home! When we drove into town on Tuesday we went straight to the press. We spent a few hours there working, then finally went home. Everything was still here!

We had a post office tub mostly full of mail. The bad news about that, is that there was mail in there for about 20 other people also. I did take that back and express my feelings about their ability to read. I've spent the week catching up at home, a couple doctor appointments, and putting several hours in working. Jim hasn't had time to do anything except work. I imagine he has put in 70 - 80 hours in this week. Everything needs to be completed by tomorrow evening. He leaves bright and early Sunday. I think I will go to Montana a couple days later. We want our car there since we will be there 4 - 6 weeks. By waiting a couple days, I might be able to get caught up at home.

A funny thing happened with my second doctor appointment. I was watching the clock, so that I would be there on time, but not too early. I checked in at the desk about 2 minutes early, only to be told that I was a half hour late! This doctor is so busy, that it takes a couple months to get an appointment with him. I couldn't believe that I was so careful to be on time and still missed it! I was able to see his PA, since I missed his appointment. I went and bought an appointment book right after that so I can keep better track of things.

May 25 Pocatello, ID

Remember last night's very full creek? It's a different story in the light of day. The 'creek' that I saw was already the overflow of the real creek. Either that, or they need to mow that water. You could see grass on the higher places, but it was still under water. Jim asked about the rabbits. Apparently they are all over town. They aren't tame enough to pet, but you can walk right by them and they won't move. Mainly we saw black, brown or siamese colored rabbits.

We drove that nasty mountain road between Hamiliton, MT and Salmon, ID again. Not only was there snow on the mountains, but we could see snow on the mountains below is. I love looking at the mountains, but I do not like driving through them in the big truck.

We had a sale scheduled for Idaho Falls from 4:00 - 6:00. That was a bad idea, since today is a holiday. We'll have to pay attention to the holiday weekends.

That was our last sale for our Spring run. We still love our work but living in a truck so long is really hard. And since we pull our work behind us, we never really feel like we're off work, because we can't get away from it.

We'll get home tomorrow, Tuesday. By Sunday we'll be on the road again back to Montana. I probably won't write everyday, but check back weekly. How knows, I might have added another page or two.

May 24 Hamilton, MT

This side of Montana has had some flooding also. You see water everywhere. The rivers are at flood stage. some of them look like they would overflow with very few drops of rain. AND we're camped by a very full creek tonight. How smart is that?

The other thing I keep noticing around here, is the millions of blooming lilacs. There are all over the place. Only 6 days ago in Bismarck, the lilacs I saw were tiny buds. Here they are in full bloom and smell so good.

We had 2 sales today. The first one was in Missoula. We had advertised the sale at the school. The Church announced it to be at the Church. When we finally figured out what had happened, they put a note on the Church door, sending them over to the school.

The sale i Hamilton was great. We were busy the whole time. There's something special about that Church. I think the Holy Spirit lives in the heart of those dear people.

the campground is called the 'Black Rabbit'. You can't believe all the rabbits that lie here. And yes - most of them are black! They seem fairly tame.

May 23 Missoula, MT

What a beautiful, sunny day. the temperature was perfect. It must be Sabbath! This camp has hundreds of lilac bushes. It smells so good here. We took a long walk this afternoon. I wish we could do that everyday. We need it.

Tonight we worked on the Fall Schedule. It seems like we should finish this trip before we start the next. It looks like we'll only be living at our house 4 months this year.

May 22 Missoula, MT

We spent several hours in Bozeman, getting ready for this summer. We get home on Thursday, May 26. On Sunday the 31st, we need to be on our way back to Bozeman for a month to 6 weeks. The Montana ABC is closing, so we'll be here to help 'close' the store. And we will help with Campmeeting, June 17 -20. We made arrangements to live in the girls dorm during that time. The dorm is across the street from the ABC. (Jim's life long dream has been to live in a girls dorm.)

Kim, the ABC manager here, is transferring to Iowa. She spent several hours going over things that we need to know. This will be an interesting experience.

We're in Missoula tonight at a KOA camp. When Jim checked in, they asked if we had any 'fake' cheese for sale. At least a couple of the people that work here are Seventh-day Adventist. They are planning on stopping by our camp site Sunday morning to 'go shopping'!

May 21 Bozeman, MT

I had forgotten how beautiful Montana is. There's still snow on the mountains. It was a pretty drive to Bozeman.

We stopped about 25 miles before Bozeman for lunch. We saw a sign for a Pizza Hut from the highway. The GPS took us right to the restaurant, but we just couldn't see it. After we got turned around, we found a different pizza place and ate there. It really was very good. On our way out of town - there is was, Pizza Hut! I was blind and Jim couldn't see! But the GPS knew (for once!)

We got our restocking done quickly. There wasn't very many preorders. Kathleen, the lady that works in the store, took us home for supper. It was great having a home cooked meal. We had a great time.

May 20 Billings, MT

This was one of the fun sales when we found old friends and made connections. Naomi Babbs came in to see us during our sale. Unfortunately her husband, Jim doesn't get off work until 10:00 tonight, so we didn't get to see him.

I was talking with a lady as she was checking out. Her husband is the Pastor here at this church. They went to college with my niece at Walla Walla College. They are a neat family.

May 19 Glendive, MT

Sometimes we need to pay attention to how God uses normal, everyday people like you and me, if we are willing. We saw an example of that today.

We had a sale scheduled from 5:00 - 6:00 today. It's not a big Church. We got to the church about 4:20. We got all the bubble wrap and curtain rods that protect our book, put away, the stairs out and we were ready. About 4:45, a lady came out to the truck. She had been cleaning the Church. She came to see what we were doing there. Somehow the Church people had not been told that we were coming. It's really hard to have a sale without customers. She went back into the church and started a telephone tree. Everyone called everyone else. We stayed until 7:30 to take care of all our customers. Our total sales was about $100. more than last year. What a blessing!

Had this lady not been at the church and willing to go the second mile by making some phone calls, we would have had our first 'no sale' sale.

We drove another couple hours after the sale, so we could get a good start on our driving for tomorrow. It's warm here compared to this morning. But the humidity is 100%.

May 18 Bismarck, ND

I just realized that we've seen spring in so many stages this year, including backwards. In the south a few weeks ago, the lilacs were almost ready to bloom. Here, there aren't even that far 2 weeks later.

We got to see Tommy and Ella May Thompson today. They were at Enterprise Academy 50 years ago when Jim was a freshman. We've seen them a couple times since then. They've been at Dakota Academy probably 30 plus years. It was wonderful seeing them. If you haven't gone to a small church boarding academy, I wonder how many teachers would know their students 50 years later.

Today is the second time that we've come across another Jim Coleman on our travels this year. I would never have thought it was such a common name!

Tonight Cole graduates from preschool, cap, gown and all! It breaks my heart not being able to be there. But I have a picture already (thanks to telephone pictures!) I know you want to see how cute he is too!

May 17 Bismarck, ND

I had no idea that North Dakota was built on a lake. You should see the water here, there and everywhere. Most the fields have standing water. No one can get their crops planted. I think they will have to plant watermelon this year. The cows are all taking swimming lessons, just to survive. The water comes right up to some of the roads. You just know that it's been flooded a very short time ago. I'm glad we weren't driving those country roads after dark.

We drove from Jamestown to Bowden for our first sale, then on to Harvey for the second. After that we drove back south to Bismark. The RV Park in Harvey is more like a city park. It was still daylight, so we journeyed on and on... It's been a 12 hour work day.

May 16 Jamestown, ND

We went out to breakfast again this morning. Out to the truck, that is. This motel has a continental breakfast, but you'd have to go out to lunch right afterwards to fill up. So we had our usual cereal, fruit, nuts, grains and soy milk. It's the one meal we feel good about everyday.

We have 3ABN TV here, so we did our church in our room. We heard some great music and sermons today. And i read alot - hours even.

We also made several phone calls, catching up on the lives of some of our friends. That's hard to do while we're driving.

We also took time for a nice walk. It was beautiful out.

So we had a long, peaceful and very relaxing day. The motel room was big enough to move around and not stumble over each other all the time.

Ten days until we're home - AND COUNTING!!!

May 14 Jamestown, ND

This was a very small sale. In fact, when I cashed up the first time, it was our smallest sale ever. But after we were all done and ready to lock the door, one more person came in and bought all the super links we have. That doubled our daily total and now this isn't our smallest sale anymore! The school here has started selling vege food. Between that and campmeeting being just around the corner, we didn't have a chance.

We're staying in a motel the next couple nights, waiting for our next sale. It's funny how big a small room can feel.

May 13 Grand Forks, ND

We had two sales today. The towns weren't too far apart, so that helps. It started raining during the second sale. It was blowing and cold too. When we got finished and parked for the night, the first thing I did was fix hot chocolate and popcorn. It was that kind of night.

This is the area of the Red River that has had so much flooding lately. The mud is so wet that it's like liquid mud.

May 12 Wahpeton, ND

Before we left the ABC this morning, we took Chad's sons for a big truck ride. It might have taken 5 minutes and we only drove around the store a couple times, but the boys loved it.

We got to Wahpeton too early, so we sat in a WalMart parking lot for a couple hours, ate an early supper in a greasy spoon cafe and still got there 30 minutes early.

May 11 Hutchinson, MN

We're parked at the store, so we had to use our own shower this morning. There's barely enough hot water for a whole shower, and that's with turning the water off while we wash our hair, or soap up. You have to rinse in a hurry, or you will end up with a cold shower.

This year was totally different then last year. Chad, the store manager, was able to have our pre-orders all pulled and ready for us. I spent about four hours buying books, doing labels and putting them on the shelves.

Before Jim could do the food, he had to get the computer working. That took the same four hours wile I was working on books. We also had the oil changed in the truck during that time. Busy morning!

We went out to supper with Chad, Mandy and their children and Lenny and Karen(brother of Lynette Carrick - our friend in Kansas) It was a great evening. Actually, we celebrated Lynette's birthday without her.

May 10 Hutchinson, MN

We stopped at a Godfather's Pizza on our way back to town. What a mess! Apparently everyone took their mom there for Mother's Day. We got there around 1:00, so missed the rush. It was still busy. The bad thing is that no one was cleaning the tables. People would move dirty dishes from one table to another, then clean the table with a napkin. We asked a bus boy to clear our table. He took a couple dishes, left the dirty napkin and a filthy table. When our food finally came, we asked them to put it in a 'to go' box and we ate in the truck. My hope is that the kitchen was cleaner than the eating area.

I spent the rest of the day catching upon our bank statements, laundry, cleaning and who knows what else. The best part was talking to our kids when they called for Mother's Day. My daughter, Laura and her family went fishing today. This is the picture that Chase caught.

May 9 Walnut Grove, MN

Covered Wagon


Plum trees on Plum Creek









Colapsed Dugout under sign


Plum Creek







Double click on the pictures to see them bigger....

Sign on top of Dug Out


View of Dug Out across the creek









Water Tower



We left the trailer at the ABC and went to Walnut Grove today. I've always been a big Laura Ingalls Wilder fan. So today I finally got to see where Laura lived on the banks of Plum Creek. I can not imagine living in a dug out cave, a very small one at that. And the creek is so close to where they lived with small children. We just don't appreciate how good we have it, especially compared to the pioneers.

May 8 Hutchinson, MN

Another small Church, with small sales, but the people were very glad that we came. That makes it worth while.

We drove on over to Hutchinson after the sale. We'll park here for the weekend, then get back to work.

It's cool and rainy. Seems like it was that way last year too. That's okay, we can deal with that kind of weather.

May 7 Sioux Falls, SD

What a thunder storm last night. It sounded like we were back in the mid-west. Oh, we were in the mid-west. I'm glad there wasn't any tornadoes. There wouldn't have been a place to go.

It's early in the season for most RV'ers. There was only three of us at the camp. By morning we were the only ones there. I wonder if the others got scared and left. Or if they were just smart enough to leave while the going was good.

We were parked as close to the showers as possible. Just walking across the road, we got so bogged down. A couple of times my shoes stuck in the gunkie mud. By the time we got to the shower house, I was at least 3" taller. Thank goodness we were wearing our shower thongs. It would have ruined regular shoes. Going back to the truck was tricky, but we found rock and grass, so didn't get our feet quite as dirty.

THEN...the truck got stuck so we couldn't leave. Jim had to walk to the filling station to get help. There was no one at the RV office. So for $30., we got the truck pulled out by the city.

When we got back on I-90, I saw a sign for Winner, SD, 35 miles south. My dad was born there 91 years ago, May 22.

We must have misunderstood when our sale was suppose to be today. We thought it was from 5:00 to 7:00. The people came from 5:30 - 7:30. We were getting worried the first 30 minutes that no one was coming. We ended up with a good sale anyway.

May 6 Pierre, SD

Today was probably the highlight of our entire four month trip! We ate at Wall Drug Store, in Wall, South Dakota. That only makes since (?) if you know about Wall Drug.

The short version is that in the 1930's a family bought a drug store in Wall, SD. Wall was a small town on a highway. After 4 1/2 years of very little business, they offered travelers free ice water, just to get people to stop. They advertised with the old 'Burma Shave' type signs, offering the free water. Now you find signs all the way across South Dakota advertising Wall Drug. People drive around the country with bumper stickers on their cars, advertising Wall Drug. Basically the whole town now is Wall Drug. Of course, you know that it was the wife that thought of this brilliant idea. (Was that really the short version?)

We've seen more pheasant today by the road, running across the road, but none laying on the road! Good.

May 5 Hot Springs, SD

We had our pancake breakfast again this morning. Nice! Since I had the time, I did laundry again. It's better to do it when I can, instead of wishing I could.

It's a beautiful day out. Got up in the 70's today. Just about perfect.

Hot Springs is a small town, with a small Church. But our sales were far better than in Rapid City, a big town. We had a 3 hour sale, but everyone came mostly in the first 90 minutes.

We saw a restaurant across the street. The food was decent and we didn't have to drive and try to find a place to park. Our only complaint is that supper was late again.

May 4 Rapid City, SD

This RV Park provides an 'all you can eat' pancake breakfast for $1.00. It was pretty good.

This was 'our' day. We did banking, shopping and even went out to the Olive Garden with Merlin & Glynda Dick. It was great seeing them again. Merlin is my brother-in-law's brother. We all went to Academy together.

We had a small sale in Rapid City today. We had all of 10 sales. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

May 3 Rapid City, SD

This has been a hurry up and wait day. We worked in the trailer this morning before we drove to Gillette for a 2:00 - 4:00 Sale. We had a few customers to start with, then no one for about an hour. It felt like time to leave, but we were committed to be there until 4:00. About 3:30 - 3:45 everyone came at once. They kept coming until around 4:30. Finally we got cashed up and ready to go. Then another lady came in and wanted to buy another book.

After we finally finished there, we decided to drive on to Rapid City. After stopping for gas, the weight station and WalMart, we finally got here around 9:30. It's been a long day.

May 2 Casper, WY

We drove from Cheyenne to Casper this afternoon for our sale tonight. We prefer not to drive like that on Sabbath, but sometimes it's the only thing we can do.

The sale tonight was about three times bigger than last year. That's nice! The trailer was full most of the time.

I talked to my granddaughter Victoria tonight. She quoted me 26 memory verses that she learned this year in Church School. She's in 1st grade. Most of them were long verses, and she knew book, chapter and verse on quite a few of them. She was one of only 3 or 4 in 1st and 2nd grade that knew that many. I'm so proud of her.

May 1 Cheyenne, WY

It probably took four hours to pack the trailer with the frozen food. We actually had to return several cases because we ran out of room in our freezers. This is when it's really good to have made a pre-order, rather than taking a chance to see if we have the product with us. There's only so much we can take with us and pre-orders come first.

We found a RV Park just outside of Cheyenne. We're about 50 miles from Nebraska. We stopped early so we could get our things done. No laundry tonight would mean no clean clothes tomorrow. After doing the laundry, we're just taking it easy. I've finished a couple books and Jim is on the computer.

The weather has been considerably colder the last couple days. We put the comforter back on the bed and have the gas furnace on again. Must be next winter already.

We just found out today that June 1, we will be going to Montana for a month or so to work. We get home from this trip on May 26. That will mean we'll be gone form home around 8 to 9 months this year.