Steve & Mary-Anne's Weblog

We spent some time with Christiane and Pete Burkhard, chatting and playing Carcasonne – a great game! They have a large house (for Europeans, at least!) surrounded by trees, with a lake nearby.
Continue reading “With the Burkhards”

I was finally reunited with Mary-Anne after almost 8 weeks apart! The drive from Boston airport was difficult; I was tired, and there was thick fog in places. It was also further than I thought, but Christiane and Pete had given me good directions, so I found their house without problems.
I was sad to leave Mike, Chris, Sarah and Joe, and the first morning of the training conference was so good that I almost delayed my flight by a day – but only almost. It was time to see Mary-Anne again.

I owe a great big“thanks” to Chris Steele, who suggested I drive this route. It really is beautiful country I’m driving through. I have many more photos than I post here, and could have taken many more, but I have to make at least some progress towards Denver.

Thanks, Chris!

I can remember a song about the Big Rock Candy Mountain which I heard as a child. I can’t remember how the song goes, but today, I discovered that it really exists!

I spent the day at Bryce Canyon National Park, which is spectacular. If you are going to be anywhere near it, go there! I recommend following the Park’s suggestion, and starting as far down as you can (Rainbow Point if you’re spending much time in the park) and working up; the views are great everywhere, but get more spectacular as you work your way up to the park entrance/exit.

On my way from Bryce Canyon, I drove through the small town (actually a small village, but they don’t call them that here) of Marysvale. As far as I can tell, the most significant thing about it is the public telephone from which I called my wife, Mary-Anne.

Having got off to a late start, partly to avoid starting out in the rain, I spent the afternoon in Zion National Park. In the Visitors’ Center, I saw pictures of an area called The Narrows, and wanted to hike there to see it. Closer investigation, however, revealed that it is the canyon bottom beyond the point accessible by road, and is basically a 4-hour walk through knee-to-chest-deep water. It may look good, but not that good! Instead, I opted for the wimpy bus tour. Continue reading “Zion National Park”

I’m having a busy time travelling, and hardly get a chance to write anything. I visited Bill and Lisa on Saturday and Sunday, and saw their cute son Luke for the first time. We had a great time together – I even learned more about American Football, and almost understood the game 🙂 . It’s even quite interesting once you understand the rules a little!

From there, I headed up towards Zion National Park. The point of entry into Nevada from California is very obvious: only meters from the border, the first hotels and casinos beckon you to lose your money. (OK, they beckon you to win, but I prefer the truth.) I skipped Las Vegas, just driving through on the I-15. Some of the hotels there have amazing architecture; one looks like a Disney castle. I should have stayed in Las Vegas just to experience it, and because I was already quite tired by the time I got there. However, I had a motel booked 90 minutes north…

I’ve just added the photos of my journey from Yosemite (Oakhurst) to Nipomo.

Today, I drove from Oakhurst through Fresno and San Luis Obispo to Nipomo, a small town near the Californian coast, to meet Roger Thoman, who works with house churches in the area and organised a Californian house church conference last year. The countryside is dry and brown most of the way. Around Fresno, it is also very boring; flat for miles around. The rest of the way, both north and south of Fresno, was more interesting.

Around San Luis Obispo, I caught my first sight of the Pacific, and realised that I would see the Rocky Mountains, the Pacific and the Atlantic in this trip! (As well as numerous National Parks).

Finding Roger’s house turned out to be quite easy, although the journey had taken longer than I expected. We chatted for a while, then went to one of the house churches in his local network for the evening. It was quite a large gathering, around 25 people. It was not a typical meeting, because one young woman had just returned from a time in Mozambique with Iris Ministries, and told of her experiences there. Communion, Mozambique-style, was interesting, and a great parallel: they use a coconut, breaking it open (Jesus’ body broken for us), drinking the milk instead of wine and eating the flesh instead of bread. I felt a little trepidation before eating, because coconut tends to come back when I eat it 🙁 . I discovered, though, that fresh coconut tastes good, and causes me no problems.
After her report from Mozambique, I spoke briefly about Switzerland and what is going on in the house church scene there, which everyone found interesting.

I’m back in the virtual world. The Real World had me fully in its grasp since I left Lake Tahoe: none of the affordable hotels in and around Yosemite have internet connections, and the ones I found didn’t even have telephones in the rooms! I had a great time on the way to Yosemite and in the park; I’ll write more once I have the photos online. I’m now at Roger Thoman’s place, and spent the evening at a house church he is involved in here.