Abilene, TX and Big Bend National Park

Hey to everyone reading this! This is Kristen writing, and my first time to get to share with you my own thoughts on how things are going so far. Taylor and I will each be writing our own entries related to the things we have been doing (or really, what God has been doing for us and through us) since we left the Dallas/Ft. Worth area almost a week ago. We wish we could have updated sooner, but we do not often have access to the internet unless we are staying in someone’s home (which we are right now). Let me update you on life since Dallas. When we left, we originally planned to drive all the way down to Big Bend National Park (for those of you who don’t know, this is waaaaay down in southwest Texas). However, we wanted to stop in Abilene on the way so that Taylor could show me the town, his old house where he lived as a kid, and his church. With this stop, as well as other things along the way, we realized it would be best to drive as far as we could and then stay in a motel. We got to the town of Alpine, only about an hour from Big Bend (closest town with motels still in it). But I’ll get back to that. First we stopped in Abilene, and our faithful GPS led us right to the doorstep of Taylor’s childhood home. We knocked on the door, met the guy who lives there now, and he allowed us to take a picture and film a little video. Taylor commented that everything looked so much smaller than it did when he was a kid. We also got to bless the guy by praying for him before we left. We drove to his old church, Southern Hills C of C, and took a look at it. They’ve added on additions since he was a wee one. By the way, I failed to mention earlier, but when we left Taylor’s cousin Lisa’s house, she sent us off with a card to open later. When we opened it, we found $50.00 inside and a package of stamps. It was so unexpected and yet we knew this was God making sure to remind us that He is taking care of us in every way. That is part of the purpose of this trip, or at least it’s the purpose of why we are approaching this trip the way we are. We didn’t want to come too prepared, we wanted to lean on God and let Him care for as along the way. He used Lisa to do that in a way we were not expecting. It increased our faith abundantly. Moving on through Texas, we made it to the town of Alpine, fairly close to Big Bend and spent the night in a motel. Get ready to call me spoiled, but I confess I’ve never spent the night in a MOTEL before- only what most would consider HOTELS (Hampton Inn, Comfort Inn, etc.). This was a new experience for me and only cost us $35.00 for the night- compared to the Best Western up the road for $91.00. What I learned from this experience was not to judge a book by its cover. The motel (called ‘Alpine Inn’) was actually not bad. It was clean (trust me, I checked the sheets in depth) and met all our needs. There were a few shabby things about it, but overall I couldn’t believe that we only had to pay $35.00 for a decent motel room. Now I admit, I’ll always take a Hampton Inn over anything else, but it encouraged me to know that God can still meet all my needs for only $35.00! But there was an even bigger bonus involved. The next morning, we were able to bless the maid who took care of our room. She was obviously Indian (as in, the country) and was working hard cleaning all of the rooms. We wanted to pray a blessing over her on our way out, but every time we went outside to catch her, she went into a room to clean. So instead, Taylor had the idea of taking one of the Bibles we had brought on this trip to give away, wrote a note inside it and left her a tip. The note he wrote talked about the color red (a very significant color in India and a sign of purity) and how the words of Jesus are written in red because his words are pure as well. Then he wrote about how much Jesus loves her and wants her to know him so he can give her Life. We have no idea what this will do for her but that’s not important for us to know. All we know is, God wanted her to know that he loves her, and he wanted us to be the ones to tell her. And if that’s the only reason we stayed there, then that was enough. Later that morning, we drove the beautiful drive to Big Bend. There were mountains all around, though more desert-looking in nature rather than forest-looking. The actual national park had lots of trees, though. We found a campsite in the park and set up tent. This was my first time to camp. Boy, was it interesting. I really enjoyed setting up the tent and we purposely chose to camp at a higher elevation spot because it was much cooler there. The weather was great, I was even chilly at night. After setting up, we went on a hike called the Lost Mine Trail. It was a 5 mile hike, total. It was very beautiful and we saw some amazing scenery along the way. However, as much as I wanted to call myself “outdoorsy” toting my Camelback; wearing my Merrell hiking shoes; and sporting my Northface shorts, I must admit: the entire way up the trail, I was paranoid because I saw a sign warning us of mountain lions in the area. It explained what to do if you saw one and how it was not recommended that children be taken on this hike. I wanted to turn around immediately, but I knew that it was going to be the same anywhere in the area. I “bravely” proceeded forward, but had a hard time enjoying myself because I was so afraid of spotting one. (In case you are worried, I’ll go ahead and ease your minds- we never saw one). Once we made it to the top, saw the gorgeous views (see our photos) and headed down, I was doing better and was able to enjoy myself more. Still, once we finished the trail, I was quietly heaving huge sighs of relief to myself. That evening we cooked a meal on our camping stove and spent time reading our Bible together. However, when it was time for bed, as we pulled a few things from the trunk to brush our teeth, we shut the trunk and THEN realized our keys were inside of it. We hurried to find a park ranger in the dark using only our flashlights ( I was also not a fan of this because my flashlight was not enough light to spot bears or mountain lions). The park ranger informed us that the only person who had the equipment to safely break into our car was the security- and he wouldn’t be around until the morning. So we headed back to the tent and spent the night in our clothes. The next morning we had to wait a couple of hours for him to arrive, but it was okay because we spent time praying together and we even got to watch a deer walk around our campsite (so beautiful!). And once again, we got to bless him by praying over him before he left. Afterwards, he decided to inform us "since you're leaving" that the day before, a mountain lion had poked its head into a woman's tent where she and her two children were sitting.  As he chuckled (and I inwardly decided I wanted to go home) I realized this trip is going to be full of surprises!

-Kristen