Jim's Blog

                I tend toward thrift. So paying $100 and $200 a day for gas was hard for me. We had budgeted $25 a night for campsites, and when I could not find anything under $40 one night, that was tough. But it was during our visit to New York City that the expenses really took off. I spent over $600 one day just buying bus tickets for our commute into the city. The next day, I spent over $300 buying tickets to one show! And the next day, I again spent over $300 buying tickets to one show...

                The National Parks that we visit consistently delight and inspire me. I love the natural wonders of the world. Sometimes on my morning prayer walks, I just look around me and admire. It is all so deliciously gorgeous. I want to be one with this beauty. There is nothing else I’d prefer to do than spend all my time alone out here in the wilderness.

                And there is the danger. After one park visit, I found myself giving highest honor and value to the creation, whe...

    While resting in a freeway rest stop, we heard a flurry of knocks on our door. A very excited man told us we should come with him quickly, that the TV cameras were coming and a man was giving away $100 bills. All of us but Lindsey hopped out to see what was happening. The man led us to a small crowd of men standing and one man sitting on the ground with money. The story was that the sitting man had won millions of dollars in the Powerball lottery and that he was giving a lot of it away....

                We plan to spend time with both family and friends during our year of travel. It surprises me how much I enjoy these visits, even during this first month on the road. For example, we visited former neighbors of ours from Elk Grove, the Van Bergeyks. Though we had exchanged only Christmas letters for the last four years, in our brief visit with them, it felt like they had never left. Both Pam and I enjoyed great times of conversation with the parents. Our four kids quickly ...

These first three lessons came to me during our “practice trip” in November, 2010. We leased Harvey (our RV) for Thanksgiving weekend to see if it would serve our family’s needs. On the last day of our trip, I was hurrying to empty the sewage tanks at our campsite. Meanwhile, the girls inside were cleaning up and getting ready to go. Now, the extendable slides extend over the sewage compartment doors. So I had the sewage door open, and the slide was retracting. I heard the sound and...