More of my journal entries

April 29, 2009

Up early and off to Buffalo this morning. We got on the road about 7:45 and got to Buffalo about 9. We got everything filled out, it was exciting to stop there and hear how excited they are for us. We will be taking one more trip out there to pic up our visa’s and talk with Al about any final travel and financial information we may need before we leave.

After we were done at the office I gave Scott a call to see if he can find an online deal for a rental car that is cheaper than the one we have. He told us to drive down there and get their PR5 we were welcome to use that for the next few weeks and just drive it back down when we were ready to leave or even just leave it at Tom’s. So back home we went to hurry and pack, Art had a little running around to do. We were hopping to get on the road by 7 or 8. I had to really bust my you know what to get us all packed, organized and ready to go by 7 tonight. We are going to drop off the rental in Peekskill, they say there is no charge for dropping off in a different location. I am not convinced but even if there is it is still cheaper then driving it for 2 weeks.

We left at about 7:30 and headed out. I told Art I would do the first part of the driving so he could relax a little and try and write an update. The trip was raining almost the whole time. I ended up driving almost ¾ of the trip. Art never lets me drive that long. However this was a 5 ½ hour trip out of our way, to get to Florida. So we knew we would be in the car for a very long time. So I drove to almost Goshen, NY and then Art took over from there. I am NOT driving down that hill into Peekskill!! Praise the Lord the trip to Scott and Min’s was uneventful and we made it there by 1:30 in the morning. Not horrible. Scott and Min had the PR5 all cleaned out for us so Art and Scott moved everything over from the Rental then headed out to take the rental back and fill the PR5 with gas. I was able to just sit and talk with Min for a little while. Once they got back it was bathroom for everyone and then back on the road. All in all the transfer, drop off and pit stop only took about an hour. Not too bad considering our current level of exhaustion. Well I am so tired now it’s time to shut this off as Art drives, I think we are just about in NJ now.


Monday April 28, 2009

Art was off to Mark Popp’s first thing this morning. I headed up to P Tool around 8 to go get the 401K check. When I first got in the car it was fine, by the time I reached the rail road tracks outside of Caledonia it was really acting up. It would shudder between 50 and 55 mph. But it still was working so I kept going. It got a little worse as the trip to Chili went on but nothing too horrible. We were able to get the check and say one last goodbye, for Michael and I at least to all the guys. Art plans on heading up just before we leave to say goodbye and have lunch with everyone.

We got back on the road from there at about 9:30 and headed back to Perry to get Art to sign the check so I can get it deposited. My mom is supposed to meet us at Charcoal Corral for lunch around 12:30ish. I am hopping to get a bit of shopping done in Warsaw while I am there. We got back to Perry and my mom called wondered if we wanted to check out the book store on main street. So we headed there first before seeing Art, I didn’t want to carry around that big of a signed check all day. The trip home didn’t go as well as the trip to the city. The car hated shifting at all now. But we pressed on and it seemed to work. We did a bit of shopping at the book store in Perry, Michael got a cool book of useless information for the car trip to FL, and some card games things. My mom had to go pick up Lisa at some point soon, so we headed over to the Popp’s to get the check signed.

When we got to the Popp’s it was around 11:30 and boy were we surprised to see half the driveway done! Jenny, Danny, Art, Mark and Ron worked really hard to get that much done. Priscilla was there documenting the whole thing in photographs. Rhonda was busy fixing food and drinks for everyone. They were really enjoying the cookies! I let Art know about the car, this is a problem I think. We plan on leaving on Tuesday evening and the car is being a problem. We have to go to Buffalo tomorrow to do our Visa applications at Global. The Lord will provide something I am sure but this is not going to be fun. I headed to Warsaw to get some shopping done and to deposit the check. Everything was quick and easy and we headed back to Perry to have lunch with mom and Lisa. We hung out at the corral for about 2 ½ hours, Michael ate, played video games and then got to spend all the tickets. He got enough tickets to get us all free ice cream.

Once done there I headed back to the Popp’s to see where they were on the drive way. They are just about done! Should only be another hour or so till they are just on cleanup duty. I said my hi’s and goodbye’s and headed home. I really wanted to get some laundry done, we had to get our visa pics done tonight at some point too. I had a hard time getting the car in gear when I was leaving, but Art said I was just being paranoid.
As we headed home on Rt. 39, just outside of Perry I lost the breaks on the car. I had a little bit of stopping power but barely any! So here I am driving the car down a huge hill, the transmission not working well and my breaks are just about gone!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHH!!!! The Lord protected Michael and I though and only by the grace of God did we get home safe. It took my a little while to stop shaking when we got home and do anything my nerves were shot. Art got home and I told him what happened. He immediately got on the phone with the guy we bought it from. We were supposed to take it over to him this evening and he would repair it, not sure how much good that will really do us we are leaving tomorrow night for 2 weeks, and then leaving for Congo 11 days after we return. To top it off we had to drive this car over there, no breaks and bad transmission!!! I called Walmart to see when it would be good to come get our pics done, 5:15 was the only opening, it was 4:50 now and it takes 15 minutes to get there. So I got on the phone trying to find a rental car, that was our only option for the trip to Buffalo and FL & VA. I couldn’t find anything except at the Airport in Rochester. So I called my mom and she was willing to meet us in Avon to take us to the Air port so that we could get a car.

After all the running around, we were able to get our pics done, take the car over and Art was able to make a deal on the car we are getting half the cost back as soon as the title comes rather than having the car dealer fix this old car will a million problems. Better deal for both of us. So off we went to the Airport. When we got to Enterprise we realized that they charge mileage over 450 miles per day! Again, Oh boy! This is going to cost us a fortune but I don’t know what else to do. We got the car and went to Target to get a few things we needed then headed home. My mom has been awesome through all of this she has really helped us out with anything we needed. Both of our mothers have been so huge in helping us get to Congo I don’t think we can ever repay them. They have been so helpful with helping us pack, giving us a place to stay, running us around when our car dies and the prayers are amazing. The rest of my family at least could really care less it seems most of the time. I know they love us but still I wonder…….

When we finally got home tonight we spent a bit of time on the internet trying to see if it would be cheaper to fly, but it really isn’t we would still have to rent a car when we are in each place so it would be like triple the price of just renting this stupid car. It is going to cost us over $1,500 at least to rent the car for 2 weeks!

Well off to bed. I am so physically and mentally exhausted.

Sunday: April 27, 2009

Well yesterday was a great day. We stopped at McDonalds got those milkshakes then had to stop at an auto store. We started having trouble with the car on the way home Friday something with the transmission was what the code said. Art is thinking it was just driving through the mountains on a hot day. We will see.

After stopping at the auto parts place we went to Salvation Army in Bath, boy did we do well there; the Lord blessed our shopping trip and huge amount. We were able to get a few pairs of pants for Art, Michael and rain coats for us all. I also was able to get a nice skirt. While we were shopping there we ran into Karla of all people. Her mom and sisters and her were out doing a Thrift store day and had come all the way down here to come to Bath. On the way home we also stopped at the Salvation Army in Dansville and were able to get me a few cool shirts and another skirt. We ran into Julie Harnish and were able to pass on our news. This is so exciting to share with everyone who has praying through this, what seems like never ending wait.

We still had a little bit of car trouble on the way home, but not horrible and it was only a little bit of a problem on the way to church today. Art spoke this morning, with almost no preparation. But did very well. It was just an update pretty much; I couldn’t believe how upset everyone was that we are going. I know they will miss us but please be excited for us! We had lunch with the Case’s after church which was nice.

Then we were finally able to go home and just relax. HA! As if we really had time to do that. We are trying to get a little bit of relax time in as tomorrow Art will be helping Mark Popp along with a few others to get his concrete driveway poured and leveled. I will be running to P Tool to pick up the 401K check, then down to Perry to have Art sign it, then off to Warsaw to deposit it. Then have lunch at the Corrale with my mom and Lisa (which I am sure will include video games for Michael). Then off to get some more shopping done for the trip to Florida and VA. Then back home to start packing we hope to leave sometime Tuesday evening. We want to have a nice relaxed trip driving down to Florida so we are giving ourselves extra time. We plan on staying in a hotel somewhere around the half way point, something with a pool we hope so we can really relax.

Well off to bed I am tired just thinking about all the running around I need to do tomorrow. I pray the car is fine and that we don’t have any more problems with it, we just got it!