An Unexpected Day!

It's the sixth state we've been in!

It is day 6 of our blog/trip! We are officially past the halfway mark in terms of days we are on our adventure as well as miles we have traveled. Just to give you a number, we have traveled about 2500 miles in 6 days! :) It is very exciting and I think kind of scary all at the same time to realize that we have gone that far in such a short time. I think it is becoming more and more real that Teej and I really left Oregon. However, it has been truly an amazing experience so far and we know that the Lord has been with us the entire time and will continue to until the finish. God is so good and we are so blessed to be able to see his beautiful creation every day. 

With all that said, we kind of had a bit of an unexpected day. We woke up in the wonderful home of Adam and Jamie De Laveaga this morning in Omaha, Nebraska. We got up pretty early because we wanted to get a jump start on the day and hopefully make it to Chicago by dinner time. The people we were staying with had wanted to cook dinner for us so our goal was to get there by 5pm. 

Before we left Omaha, we went over the bridge to Iowa to the interesting city of Council Bluffs to get our oil changed at Jiffy Lube. We noticed that our car was just over the 3000 mile mark and since we were driving so much we figured it would be safe to just get it filled up while we were in Omaha. Now, when you go to Jiffy Lube, the mechanics there always check every little thing and then tell you how many hundreds of dollars you should pay to get them all fixed, right? Well, we had that happen today but they could only find ONE thing wrong with the car. As a whole, we were pretty stoked about it. That is, until we figured out what the problem was. Under our car is this thing called a CV boot. It kinda looks like a little plunger. It is there to hold all of the oil in to lubricate the car. Teej said it's like a joint and if there is no lubricant there then the metal parts start rubbing up against each other and the car is going to have major issues. So, this CV boot had ripped and was causing oil to leak everywhere under the car. NOT GOOD! So, in so many words that needed to be replaced.

Jiffy Lube sent us over to this auto place called "Brakes Plus" to have it fixed. We talked to this nice man named Josh who took a look at it and noticed that the CV boot on the other side of the car was also torn. This could have happened before we got the car because he said some of the oil was dry (meaning it might have been there for 2 months.) At this point, I wasn't too thrilled. Josh told us the estimate of how much it would be and we were not very happy. We got a warrantee on the car when we bought it and were hoping that it would cover it. IT DIDN'T. We still needed to have them replaced so we said, "Ok, go ahead and do it." We walked around the town of Council Bluff for a few hours while it was being worked on. Teej got a donut for breakfast and I got fruit. When we were just about to get the car, Teej had this bright idea (thanks to his mother) to call the warrantee people. The guy on the phone said the CV boot actually was on the warrantee and all that he needed to do was have the people at Brakes Plus call the claims people to verify. We were so excited at this point so we marched in there and told them that we talked to the warrantee people that they said it was covered. Josh said he would call them and get it figured out. After about ten minutes Josh came back out and said he had good news and bad news for us. The good news was that they were going to cover some it, but the bad news is that it wasn't actually on the warrantee and somebody at the company misspoke so they couldn't cover it all. We were happy that they were going to cover anything at all so what we thought was going to be a huge investment in the car happened to not be so bad. The only thing bad about it was that we had to wait in this kind of dumpy looking town for 2 hours, which set us back on our trip. The day didn't turn out exactly like we had planned but turned out a little better then we thought. 

The drive to Chicago was beautiful. We drove through Iowa most of the way. Iowa looked mostly the way we had imagined it to look. Almost everyone that lived near the interstate (that we noticed) owned a house, a barn, 2-3 silos and owned several acres of land. The rolling hills and the vast array of trees made it for a pretty drive but the scenery became pretty redundant as we continued along on our way to Chicago. 

One interesting thing about Iowa was it's rest stops. As weird as this sounds, I think so far Iowa has had the most luxurious and beautiful rest stops. It's a little hard to explain, so here is a picture of the one that we really liked. :) The architecture was just amazing! We were so impressed. 

As we crossed over the bridge to Illinois we noticed this massive body of water on either side of us. Immediately we realized that we were crossing over the Mississippi River. There was a visitor center for Illinois the very next exit after the bridge so I hopped over two lanes very quickly and took that exit. It took you around a couple windy roads and finally to a parking lot. The lot was facing the water so we got out and ran to take photos of the beautiful river. It was a breathtaking view with the wonderful sunny day that we had. 

The rest of the trip got a little rocky for us. Teej felt the need to bypass the one toll booth that was in between where we were and Chicago because he didn't want to pay. He figured it would be like $7 or something like that and so I gladly supported him in that decision. I later looked it up to see what it actually cost and it only was about $1.50. hmmmm.... Anyway, apparently taking another road would only be 7 minutes difference then just driving through the toll and paying the fee so at first I was ok with it. Boy, was that decision the wrong one haha... My GPS on my phone took us on this 1 lane highway for about 60 miles in the middle of nowhere. It was still light outside but the sun was beginning to go down so it was starting to freak me out. At this point, I was so ready to be done being in the car. At first, adding an extra 7 minutes seemed ok until I saw the speed limit on the road we were on had dropped significantly from the main highway road. I knew at that point we were going to be adding a little more then 7 minutes to our drive. 

We made it the 60 miles down the stretch but  in the process of doing that we went through several dumpy towns. I stopped at a gas station to use the bathroom and had to go all the way to the back through these sketchy doors to get there and if you know me at all, I get freaked out pretty easily so as soon as I was done in the bathroom I was booking it back to the car as fast as I could. I looked at Teej when I got back in the car and he was like "I'll take the blame on this decision." haha.. 

The whole side trip, lets call it, was supposed to take only 7 extra minutes. I think it ended up taking about 30 extra. Now, that may not seem that long but if you have already been in the car for 7 hours, it seems long haha... I know that we will look back and laugh on this adventure but let's just say I wasn't the happiest of campers on that particular stretch of road! :) 

Oh, and the icing on the cake happened right before sunset. We saw a RACCOON frantically running along the side of the interstate. I about passed out from pure fear. I yelled "What is this raccoon doing out in the day time? It must have rabies or something." I was being a little dramatic but if anyone knows me at all, I HATE RACCOONS! Anyway, that was definitely the finishing touching to this somewhat interesting day. 

We arrived in West Chicago at around 8:30pm (6:30pm pacific time). We are staying with Linda and Norm Vissering. They are Tj's mom Janet's cousins (we think). They were so lovely and fed us right as we arrived. We couldn't have been more grateful because we were starving by that point. We were able to sit down and talk with them a little before bed and they are just such wonderful and gracious people. We are going to stay with them another night and visit Chicago tomorrow! Teej and I are so excited to get to explore downtown Chicago. We have heard great things about it and are just so excited to see everything ourselves. YAY! 

I think the moral of today was that things may not go as we had planned them to but as long as you have someone fun to share those experiences with, then it can never be a bad time. I am so thankful for Teej in my life. He is such a great husband, especially when I get upset, which is sometimes. He is patient and loving and always there to support me! :) I am blessed. 

Tomorrow? Downtown Chicago! Can't wait to post pictures from that adventure. 

Love to all! 

1 Corinthians 13:1-13 - Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.- That's for Teej!