8,000 Miles
There is a song that has a line–I can see for miles and miles–well we drove for miles and miles and miles. It was nice to be home. It was a valuable trip with new partners and even two new groups opened to us. I have been invited to return to share at the new groups as well. It will have to be next year when my memory of those long driving days are forgotten. Cathy and I drove nearly 8,000 miles. We were in 20 of the U.S. States and drove long stretches and saw the beauty and variety of this nation. We saw the vast plains, high mountains, winding country roads and huge cities. We saw wealth and poverty as well as heard accents of the English language we could hardly understand. We slept in comfortable beds but also stayed in hotels with nasty discoveries of cockroaches and filth. We had close calls on the road and even hundreds of miles on lonely stretches. It was also a time to discover and reconnect with lost family members. I was able to find my oldest sister’s children in the middle of Missouri. I had not seen them in over 50 years–I was a young teenager and they were just children. It was a great reunion. We were so blessed to see some of our dear old friends along the way and make some new friends. The main point in the travel was to tell the story of IFC and build new partnerships. We are happy to sleep in our own beds but now we have more partners in our network. The road was long but the results are worth each mile.