A Missionary’s Life :: 7 States and 3,000 Miles

It’s that time again… time for our Friday Update! This week I’m finally back on track and am posting on the right day…er…. night (ha!).

Since we got home Monday night we’ve been catching up on work, unpacking, organizing, and putting away Christmas decorations…not very exciting. So instead of updating you on that I wanted to give you a recap of our trip home… all 3,000 miles of it! ENJOY!

The picture above is a snapshot of our ‘roadtrip route’… all 7 states and 3,000 miles of it. I think it looks a bit like the Little Dipper, which gave me a giggle. Boy was this trip…um… EXCITING to say the least. (though not exactly what we had planned…)

A – Port Huron, MI – It all started out at our home in Michigan. We packed our bags and left around 11am on December 18. The weather was great – no snow or ice, just clear skies. Christmas gifts were wrapped and packed, Christmas music was on the iPod, and we were on our way HOME for Christmas… or so we thought. We were supposed to arrive around 11pm…

B – London, KY – …but it started snowing. Fitting; we were singing “Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow”, and boy DID IT! Big, wet flakes were pouring from the sky. By the time we made it to London, KY for gas, we found out the ROADS to home were CLOSED! We would not be going home tonight. We got out a map and the GPS and began to re-route to…

C – Nashville, TN – which was about 3.5 hours away. I got out my phone and started texting friends in an effort to find a last minute place to stay. Lucky for us, Tyler Ward, my friend from college, responded with an open house! We got to see him and meet his beautiful wife Analee, his awesome parents, and 2 of their dear friends….CHRISTMAS BONUS! It was an unexpected blessing along the way.

The next morning we got up to drive the last 4 hours of our (much longer than expected) trip home and finally arrived in…

D – Oxford, AL – Home, sweet, home! But no time to relax! We walked right into our Bennett Family Christmas party preparations! We had a blast seeing my Dad’s side of the family, and meeting my new baby cousin Michael!

The rest of the trip to my hometown was jam-packed. I sang for the morning and night service at church, visited as many friends and family members as we could, celebrated Christmas Eve with our immediate family, Christmas Day with my Mom’s side of the family, and Christmas Night with our godparents & ‘Aunt’ Angie. We were SPOILED with good food and lots of presents! And of course there was also the day trip to…

E – Birmingham, AL – to see some of my girlfriends!!! (Rusty was such a trooper!) We had lunch with Courtney Pearce and braved The Summit for some last minute Christmas gifts for Rusty. Later we met Lisha Li for coffee at Starbucks. That was followed with an unofficial Miss Alabama Pageant Christmas Party! It was so good to see some of the sweet MAP girls, especially my precious friend Katie Boyd! We had a great time exchanging scarves and girl-talking. Then it was time for a late dinner with Josh & Shelly Daniels at my favorite place… CHICK-FIL-A! What a great day full of time with good friends 🙂

F – Monticello, AR – It wasn’t long before it was time to drive to Rusty’s hometown. We left the morning after Christmas and arrived safe and sound that night in time for dinner. We had a great time with his parents and sweet MeMaw, and were spoiled with even more good food and gifts! We visited Rusty’s Uncle Charles who is 92 and still sharp as a tack! We also made sure to eat lots of Ray’s Burgers, and I spent one day shopping with my wonderful mother-in-law in…

G – Little Rock, AR – which is also the next stop on our trip. Well, actually we went from Little Rock to Cabot, AR (but it’s close). We spent New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day in Cabot with our dear friends Josh & Kristy Fleming, and their beautiful little girl Carly. All too soon though it was time to leave for…

H – Memphis, TN – where my dear friend BJ Agnew SURPRISED us with tickets to the Liberty Bowl! We almost froze to death, but Rusty LOVED seeing Arkansas play (especially since I cheered for his team that day!) We made it through Eddie Money’s half time performance but were too cold to stay longer. I was very thankful for the police officer who offered to give us a ride back to our car! (Yes, we started off 2010 in the back of a police car- HA!)

The rest of our time in Memphis was spent visiting Rusty’s sister Tracy and hanging out with BJ and her friends. It was great to see them all, and we were sure to eat some delicious Memphis BBQ on our way out of town! Just 8 more hours of driving and we were in…

I – Cincinnati, OH – where we crashed with Brad & Faye Wendel, the awesome parents of Andi Wendel. We love that whole family, and it was great to see them again! We were so thankful for another free place to stay before our final drive home too….

Port Huron, Michigan! WHEW!!! Ohmygoodness what a TRIP! If you made it through that long description, congratulations 😉 To all of you who pray for us, THANK YOU for your prayers for safe travel and good health! (they were definitely felt!) To all of you we saw this trip, it was WONDERFUL to spend time with you! To those we missed – we are SO sorry… there just weren’t enough hours in the day! We definitely hope to see you next time!

Enjoy a few more pictures below of our Christmas Roadtrip! 🙂