Kentucky! Just in time for Derby!

Kentucky!
In the beginning of the trip, Marc and I would always look at each other and say, "Wyoming. What the heck are we doing in Wyoming?!" Or, of course, whatever state we're in, and it would be funny because we were places where we never thought we'd be. Because really, what business do I have in places like Wyoming, Kansas, and Nebraska. We haven't really said that in a long time because the novelty of being in so many new places all of the time has kind of worn of. We definitely said it when we got to Kentucky. What the heck are we doing in Kentucky!
So, I suppose you'd like to know. The very first thing we did was go to church! We got there on a Wednesday evening right around 7:15. We had a sandwich & then pulled into the church parking lot just in time for service. It was a smaller service, probably 8-10 people, including us. It was a nice time, we were able to discuss a few verses in 1 John and get to know a couple people there. Turns out (I would say by chance but we all know that that isn't true) that we were there for the Kentucky Derby that following Saturday! The people at church gave us the heads up on things going on around town and we headed out for the evening.
Thursday morning we headed downtown! We couldn't find any free parking (expected) but we did find a lot that wasn't terribly far away for only $5 all day. We parked, packed some food, and headed out towards the river. We first came across 2 ladies sitting on a bench looking at a map. We got to talking with them and got to share about our trip which inevitably led to the gospel, but we also had a great conversation with them before that about a large variety of topics from school to health to friends/family. It was sort of refreshing.
As we walked on, we met a lady who, after asking, said she was born again. Then we continued on to 2 guys sitting on a set of steps. Marc got to ask them a little bit, but their lunch break was soon over so they had to leave.
Moving on, we walked through a nice little park and found a Marc target, a guy sitting alone on a bench. They got to talking-the guy, Randy, was in a rehab program and in the process of getting his life together. He seemed to be a believer, he got all of the questions right but was a little bit unsure of them. Marc encouraged him a little bit and we were off.
There was a fair going on as part of "Derby Week", which is actually the two weeks leading up to the Kentucky Derby. We were going to walk around inside, but it was $5 to get in and it looked mostly like concessions, so we passed and kept walking. There were a couple other conversations that we had that day, but they were short and not really of note. As we walked along, we eventually got to the main street and remembered, "oh yeah! There's a parade today!" We stopped and watched that and were there for a couple of hours. There were stands everywhere along the sidewalks, but all of them had signs that it was reserved except for one! So we sat and waited for the parade to begin. We got to talking to the guys next to us, but paused while they got up to go get a burger. By this time, the stands were pretty full. There was a family behind us that had 4 or 5 kids and they were all sitting there, eating lunch & waiting for the parade to start. An older lady came over (maybe around 50 or so) and kind of announced to the people in the bleachers, "Hi y'all, I just wanted to let you know that this area is reserved for people with tickets so if you have them, you're welcome to stay but if not, you should probably find somewhere else because they'll be checking soon." Maybe not word for word, but something of that nature. All of a sudden, the dad of the family behind me started cursing at her! Then the mom joined in! Right in front of their children who were all younger than 8 probably. The woman was shocked, and tried to defend herself, but the cursing just got louder and worse. It was appalling! I almost thought that the wife was going to swing on the woman, but she didn't. They walked away and Marc reminded me of the Proverb that says something like, "It's better not to answer a fool in his folly." Not that the woman was wrong, but if she would have just not responded the first time, the situation never would have escalated. Perhaps the couple missed that session of parenting class-don't cuss people out in front of your children, especially ones who are polite.
So we found another spot to watch the parade (without all of the shenanigans of course). It was LOOOONNNNG! It wasn't the best parade I've been to, but it definitely wasn't the worst either! It had the typical marching bands, dance teams, shriners lol, a few giant balloons. It was funny to us that they make such a big deal about Derby that they even have a giant parade for it. Especially because all around the country, most people take no note of it. It goes by and that's it. Some people watch it but most don't even realize it's Derby Day, let alone "week", yet their whole year is in anticipation of it.
That evening we walked around a neighborhood that a few different people had told us about called the Highlands. It was getting late by the time that we got there so we didn't stay too long. We walked a few blocks when I was pooped out from the long day, so that wrapped up Thursday.
Friday was a long day! A loooooooooong day! In the evening, two of our awesome friends back home were getting married and we were going to end up at Starbucks, mooching off of their wifi, not to mention the blogging, research, and other things I had to do on the computer. So we wanted to make sure that we at least had sometime to walk around and not seclude ourselves. We went back to Highlands, which seemed to be a good area for people. Once we got there we kind of realized that it was more of a "nightlife" spot, but there were scattered shops so we walked around anyways, seeing what we'd come across. And man oh man, did we walk! For hours. I was exhausted by the time we were done! I think we walked at least three miles, which maybe is an embarrassing amount of time to be exhausted after, but oh well. We were. Then it was off to Starbucks for some R&R and business. I should call it my office from now on. Not a terrible idea.
So I blogged West Virginia, did some research of my hippie ways and then we were blessed to be able to watch Mike & Sherrie's wedding. It was awesome! Afterwards, our good friend Ralph went around rounding up all of our friends who were there so they could wave to us in the webcam. What a nice guy! It was sweet to be able to see everyone, too.
Saturday was Derby Day! We got up in the morning and headed out to Derby. We weren't planning on going in-as much as we would have liked to, it was $50 for General Admission, which got you into the infield and a view of the screens. No thanks. Not to mention the fact that it was raining. So we busted out the umbrella and walked over there anyways. We had been (mis)informed that at the gates they had TV's where you could watch from. The first gate didn't, so we kept walking around. We walked the entire perimeter and never found the supposed TVs. The circumstances weren't the best for talking to people either. It was, like I said, raining and everyone was on their way in so we had almost no opportunity. One thing that was kind of good and yet not really, was the amount of street preachers that were out. A couple of them were preaching God's love and His message without being crazy or nasty about it, but there was, like always, the crazy people who stood on the corner telling people as they walked by that they were going to hell. Whether or not that is true is not up for him or anyone else to say, especially because they don't know the person. Not to mention, that isn't the message that God has called us to bring to people anyways. If people aren't presented with God's love and redemption, then the messenger is doing something wrong. God is not a God of hate-He isn't excited about telling people that they're going to hell. It breaks His heart and it should break ours, but these people don't weep over their message, which is the wrong one anyways.
Later we met up with some friends and were telling them about these guys and he put it very well-they aren't concerned with showing the love of God or making disciples, rather, they seek to get brownie points for speaking God's word. A very accurate description if you ask me.
Moving onto more exciting news! Those friends that we met up with were our great and awesome friends from Ohio! They were just in Nashville and to get back home, they had to drive through Louisville. So even though we had just seen them, they still went a little out of their way and stopped to have lunch with us! I love these people! There are just a handful of people that we've met on this trip who we'll probably keep in touch with for eternity, and they're definitely one of them. I hope when we get our mansions in heaven, that ours will be on the same street as theirs, or however that works. I would do another shameless plug about helping to support their international adoption, but I just did one in the last blog so if you are interested in checking it out, you can either read my last post (http://bonnieortega.blogspot.com/2013/05/west-virginia-38-aka-10-left.html) or check out their blog (http://talesoftherogi.blogspot.com/).
Needless to say, we had a great time at lunch but, like all good things, our time came to an end. They had to get home, something about having kids, and we got on our way as well. It was still drizzly and, of course, Derby Day, so we didn't expect much opportunity anywhere. Downtown was a ghost town, so we retreated inside to the mall and out of the rain. Aaaaaand the mall was lame. It was a decent size and busier than we expected, but we didn't have much opportunity. Although, we circled the food court and got 4 samples. Score! We looked for a Hallmark (I guess some holiday for moms is coming up and we thought, "what the heck, why not") but strangely enough, there wasn't one in the mall. When we gps'd it, we found that there was another mall about a block and a half away, so we went to that one. I should've taken pictures inside of it, because the 2nd floor was under construction and the whole place was a little bit eerie because of it. Long story not so short, we found Hallmark, got cards, and went somewhere to write them. Not a very exciting finish to our day, but thus is the life sometimes.
Sunday morning, of course, was church so we headed back to Calvary Chapel Louisville. After a great message, we hung out for some surprisingly delicious tacos. I only say surprisingly because I'm not a huge fan of beef, but they were good! We got to talk to a few people, one of them being a couple that we had met on Wednesday night. After a little while, they invited us to stay at their house for the duration of our stay in Louisville, so we did! We headed to their house right after lunch and hung out with them. It was awesome getting to know them-they're from Kosovo so we asked them a bunch of culturally relevant questions. It's always intriguing to learn about a new place. And their 10 month old baby, Alba, was so cute! You know me, I love babies! That evening for dinner, they took us to a Mediterranean restaurant. I don't think I've ever had Mediterranean food before, but it was SO good! And the portions were gigantic!
Besides the great company and delicious food, the best part about staying with them, was that they lived in an apartment, which means that they had a gym! I went everyday that we were there for a total of 3. I only mention that to say how awesome God is. Lately, we've been trying to eat healthier to not be so sluggish, and I pray all the time (well, sometimes) that God would make a way if it's possible for me to get a gym pass. I'm not too insistent upon it because I know He already provides for us like crazy and I don't want to be selfish and ask for something that is more a greed than a need, but He says to ask, so I do! Worst He can say is no, right? ;) So I was happy to be able to work out again, although a little unhappy about how out of shape I've become. I guess almost a year and a half out of the gym will do that to you.
On Sunday, we planned to leave on Monday, but at the time we were both feeling like we hadn't really been pursuing the Lord like we should have been and it would have been nice to have some time set aside. That and Marc didn't see it fitting to move onto the next place, hoping the Lord would go before us, when he wasn't really as close as he should have been. All that to say, we pushed back leaving another day so that we had more time (and a place) to sit and relax with the Lord and really seek Him. And it was a great day!
That night we received a text message from our oh so awesome friends in Ohio (yes the ones I already talked about) asking us if we wanted to come back for a couple of weeks so Marc could pick up some work with a mutual friend who needed help. It seemed like a win-win and I was strangely ok with putting the trip on hold while we backtracked just a tad. We told them we would let them know in the morning and then we prayed about it. Our hosts, (Lule & Niti) prayed for us as well. The more time went on, the more it seemed like we were going. And we did! With more prayer and reading on Tuesday morning, we never heard God say no, so we packed up and headed back to Columbus.
Which still leaves us in the same boat as the beginning of this post-39 states down, 9 to go, which, hopefully, will put us home in July still. However, like I tell most people that I talk to, our original plan had us coming home in January 2013 and obviously that hasn't happened, so we'll see what God wants us to do between now and then.

the state sign was on a bridge,

so we settled for the welcome center state sign

I think that's Indiana on the other side of the river. 

tiiiiiight

loving the hula hoop! I actually laughed out loud at this.

minion blimp!

the Derby Day parade, also known

as the Pegasus Parade

jockey!

I don't know who these people are, but I liked their 

funky hats. I think they're the Knights of Columbus, which 

would make a lot of sense. 

Is that even street legal?!

man, you shoulda seen it. He's been

staring at it forever!

I've seen him lift more than that! He 

must not want to show off. ;)

Apparently I grew a beard.....

We should be wedding photographers.

the most famous racetrack in America! 

our awesome Ohio-ans. :)

best chicken kabob I've ever had.

OMG and the rice! Delicious! 

I must know the secret!

That's a teacup. Marc was in love with this tea!

Our great and wonderful hosts and friends, 

Lule & Niti

West Virginia! #38 aka 10 left!

West Virginia! Would I be dating myself if I sang, "Country road, take me home to the place I belong. West Virginia, mountain mama." Or maybe I would be dating my elementary school choir teacher-that seems to be more likely.
Anyways, let me tell you about one of the most beautiful states I have been to, West Virginia! We arrived in Charleston on a Thursday evening. It was a ridiculous venture. For whatever reason, it always takes us longer in the van to get everywhere. It doesn't really make sense to me because we go the speed limit, so it shouldn't take us much longer than the gps says. We usually stop at the state sign to get a picture and then at the visitors center for no more than 10 minutes, if they have one. Yet, every time, it takes us forever to get places. An estimated 3 hour drive will usually take us 4.5 or 5, which is plain absurd. The longer the estimated time, the longer we take. Where that extra time goes, I have no idea. Leaving DC, the GPS said it should take 5 hours to get to Charleston and we were determined to do it in 5! Or at least no more than 6. We left right around noon, stopped at the state sign, visitors center, and once to use the restroom. You wanna know how long it took us? Go ahead, ask me. I'll wait.                                         Ready for this? It took us NINE hours! We didn't get into Charleston until 9 pm!!! Like I said, I don't know where the time goes, but it goes somewhere. So that was pretty much it for that day. We found a WalMart and knocked out.
Friday morning was business time. Marc had been complaining for quite a few days about the state of the van, and it was pretty messy. Its not that I didn't try to keep it clean because I did, but it was just very cluttered. I'm not sure why, but it seems like we don't have very much space to work with...as if we lived in a van or something. :) Well we easily accumulate more than we have room for so we keep stuff on top of the dresser or collected in a box on the ground, but it was just becoming too much so we spend a good 3 hours cleaning it out. We went through every drawer and every "cabinet" and every box. We cleared the floor and the top of the dressers. We took stuff to Goodwill, we mailed books home. (Lord knows I can't bring myself to get rid of books. In ten years, you'll see me on Hoarders. I'll probably die in an earthquake because my books will bury me and nobody will be able to find me. But that's beside the point.) So the van was clean. Praise the Lord, mostly because I didn't have to hear Marc complain anymore after that.
What we did next requires a bit of backstory. When we were in New Jersey walking on the beach after Hurricane Sandy, I had the great fortune to find an iPhone! Of course it was junky beyond belief but growing up poor makes you treasure little finds like that because it's exciting! So my excitement wore off but Marc's remained. He said that we could turn it in to RadioShack and they would give us money for it. I was not optimistic because it was all rusty and a couple days later, our friend took it apart so not only was it rusty and gross looking, but now the back didn't really go on. Marc kept this dumb phone for months before remembering to take it in and when he finally did, they gave him close to $60 for it! Store credit of course, but I expected nothing so that was fantastic! He had wanted to start a podcast so he got a legit headphone set with a mic to one day soon start it. That was in Mississippi, which was back in early March and he never opened it. Lately, he's been trying to narrow his interests to figure out what he wants to do when we get home, and podcasting seemed pretty low on the list, so he decided to return the headphones. This brings us to present-we went to RadioShack to return the $40 dollar headphones. As you know (if you regularly read my blog), our laptop charger was out of commission. One day it just stopped working for no apparent reason so we needed a new one. If you are unfamiliar, they run a standard $100 pretty much wherever you get them. We knew we needed one soon, but we also knew the $40 headphones weren't going to cover the cost and $60 is a lot for us to spend on anything, especially something that we can't eat or put in our gas tank. So we took the headphones back. The receipt said that the last day for returns was 2 weeks prior to when we were there. Sucky. But because we hadn't opened them, they took them back no problem. We didn't even have to grovel! So they added to the refund of 40 something dollars to the $6 that was still on our RS gift card and we walked around just looking at what we might want. Lo and behold, one laptop charger was on sale....for $37.99. Can you believe it!? I mean, I shouldn't be surprised anymore at how God takes care of us, but He still astonishes me. Here is something that is not an essential. Very helpful, yes, but it's not a basic need and yet He provides for us anyways. What a great God.
From there, it was still mid afternoon and we had time before the statehouse closed, so we headed downtown. One of our favorite parts is taking the tour of the statehouses. A lot of times they tell us all the same information-what kind of stone the floors & columns are made of, how many millions of years old the fossil prints in them are & how they got a discount because of the flaws, how much the chandeliers weigh, etc. Sadly for us, there was no tour being given, but we grabbed a self guided tour pamphlet and I pretended like I knew something. (People tell me I'm good at that.) That didn't last very long because, really, all statehouses look alike. Rotunda with statues, senate, congress, sometimes a Supreme Court. This one was left unfinished, furnishing wise. There were almost no statues and very little artwork, but I liked the simpleness of it.
Afterwards, we walked around outside. There was a war memorial that we looked at and just as we were walking up, a street kid came up from the other side with his dog, Reptar. We got to talking and he shared that he didn't exactly believe in God, but that he did believe in something. He wasn't sure what, he just believes in being a good person and not trying to push what you believe on others. Also, he was opposed to anybody telling anybody else that what they believe is wrong. Basically, he's a relativist. He didn't care to know what happened after you die and thought that if there was anything than being a good person would merit him favor. When it came to the question of morality, it was obvious that his ideas didn't hold up to logic. He said that it would be wrong for someone to steal from him so I asked, "But what if, according to the thief, it's right? You said there is no absolute truth." He said, "I see what you're getting at, but I think that people should still do what's good." Yet when I asked him, "Who decides what's good and what isn't?", he basically responded that he does. We talked to him for a few minutes more, asked if he needed anything, and headed on our way.
Let me tell you something about Charleston. Nobody lives there! As beautiful a place as it is, it's probably only that way because there are so few people. I know here and there we talk about not being able to find people, but we really had it rough here. Let me break it down like this-Wyoming was the worst place we've been, people wise. Nobody lives there! And it's so spread out that the people who do live there don't ever come out or congregate in public. The population there was 60,096. Compare that to my hometown of Moreno Valley, which has 197,838 (all numbers as of July 2011). Well, Charleston has a whopping 51,177.  Almost 10,000 less than the hardest place we've been so far! Thankfully, it wasn't as hard to find people here but it also wasn't very easy. We walked around the mall for a bit but it didn't seem like a very good place to be, so instead we parked downtown and walked around there. Again, it was harder for us to find anyone or to seize opportunity. As it got later, we got back in the van and drove around. We wound up at a book store called Books-A-Million to kill time before bed time. Marc & I went our separate ways-me to gardening (because I'm becoming Martha Stewart apparently) and him to film-making. About 20 minutes later, I thought it odd that he had not come to find me yet, but I seized the opportunity to read. Shortly after, I heard this loud laugh come from the opposite side of the store and figured it out. He had found a friend-not uncommon. Finally, when the store was about to close, I put my book down and went to find him. I rounded the corner and wasn't surprised to find him talking, but I was surprised to find him talking to a biker! Not that it was bad or anything, but I don't think I've ever seen him talk to one before. Marc introduced me to his new friend, Jammer, on the way out. He seemed like a nice guy and Marc seemed to really like him as well.
On Saturday, after waking up and having our studies, we headed down to a park that we had seen while driving by. It wasn't very big but we were running out of options. Marc practiced his guitar for a bit and I read a book on church history then tried to figure out this stupid, diabolical Sudoku (that I'm still stuck on). As we got up to leave, disappointed at the lack of people once again, this guy happened to be walking by. Marc stopped him and they got to talking. He said that he believes in God, but doesn't like going to church because he feels judged there. He asked Marc questions like, "Do you have to be baptized to go to heaven?" and other things like that, but mostly they talked about walking the Christian life. Marc offered to baptize him there in the river, but he said he wasn't ready. That would have been a cool story! But seeds were planted and that is our job.
With no ideas on where to go, we went back to Books-A-Million where Marc made more friends. There was a couple there that he got to share a bit with, but they had to go so it didn't go too far. We read for a little while and then went to meet up with our new friend, Jammer. He treated us to dinner at a place called Dwight's. It was a cute little diner and our waitress was great. At one point, she was behind us in the kitchen, and someone yelled to her, "If you have time to lean, you have time to clean," to which she replied firmly, sarcastically, and promptly, "I get paid $2.50 an hour!" I'm assuming she didn't clean, but she was hilarious! We spent probably 3 hours there talking to Jammer. He told us stories, we shared stories with him. It's amazing to see how God really has his hand in everything. He's retired military and he has devoted his life to ministry-he rides with bikers. He's been doing it so long, that he's gained the respect and love of unsaved bikers and he uses the times he hangs out with them to minister to them, pray for them, and just be a light. It really is fantastic. I'm so glad to have met him.
Sunday was definitely an interesting day. In the morning we went to church at a place called Bible Center. It was a nondenominational church and it was nice, but I probably wouldn't attend there if I lived in Charleston. There was nothing wrong with it, it just seemed a bit milky. Afterwards, we went to Jammer's house and he let us shower. Thank the Lord!  Afterwards, we went with him to a small biker church that meets in the basement of the Salvation Army. The people we met there were awesome as well. Afterwards, Jammer treated us to lunch and I got to see my favorite waitress again!
Then, this is where the day gets interesting, we went to a biker clubhouse, a world that not many non bikers get to see inside of. We were privileged to be the guests of Jammer, a guy who they all love and respect. I'm not really sure if there's things about it I'm not supposed to say so out of respect I won't say much. This I will say-I was super nervous! I was going into a world that I knew nothing about. There seemed to be a lot of rules but Jammer assured us that we would be fine, and we were! Although we stuck out like a sore thumb, we met some really great guys who, even as unbelievers, cared about what we were doing and watching out for us. They reassured us to be careful more than once and to watch out out there. We even got to spend a good chunk of time talking to the President, which is a big deal because he's always "guarded". They did end up letting us take a couple of pictures but I'm not allowed to put them online, so when I get home and finish my scrapbook, you're welcome to look through and see a few of the awesome guys that we met! So anyways, that was our experience in the biker clubhouse! The 2 guys we were able to spend time talking to left us with these parting words: "Don't trust anybody." It was a bit of a somber realization that that is the best thing they have to tell us because that seems to be a lesson they wish they would have learned early on.
We were probably only there for 30-45 minutes, it was more for the experience and to get an inside peek into Jammer's world and what he does. Praise the Lord that he has "wheels on the ground" (pun intended) in such a seemingly unreached community. Please pray for his ministry if you get the chance. 
After we left him, it was pretty well evening but we stopped at a local park to see if any opportunity might arise. As expected, not very much, but we hung out for a while, hoping. Just as we went to leave, I got in the van then as Marc was about to get in, he gave me the look of, "I should go talk to that guy. Should I?" So I waved at him as if to say go ahead. They talked for just a couple minutes and from what I understand, he just changed the topic anytime spiritual matters came up.  So that was that. 
The next day, we were meeting up with some friends from Ohio. They were our 16th state, back in June 2012 and while we were there we made friends with this awesome family, the Rogers. Again, if you've read my blog here or there, you've probably seen me plug them. They are in the process of adopting internationally from Ethiopia. It's been a long process and at this point they are just waiting for the company to call them and say, "OK!" That, and they have to finish raising the money. So far they have about $18,000 of the necessary $35,000ish, so they are over half way but still have a ways to go! If you would like to read more about them or their adoption or see how you can help, check out their blog. http://talesoftherogi.blogspot.com/ Oh yeah, do you like coffee? Cause if you do, they have a coffee fundraiser! All you have to do is buy coffee and the company kicks them down with money! How easy is that! You drink coffee anyways! So there it is, my shameless plug that occurs every 5 or 10 blogs. Also, (sorry I know you thought I was done) I have an Etsy shop (http://www.etsy.com/shop/ForLoveOfAChild?ref=em) where I crochet things and 100% of the money that comes in from that goes to them. There isn't much on it now but I take requests. I can make baby booties, scarves, beanies of all sizes, heart shaped potholders, flowers, giraffe stuffed animals. Basically, if you can get me a pattern, I can make it. That is all. Plug over.
So we went to see them! We met up halfway to Columbus and had a picnic and walked on some nature trails (one trail, really) and then ended up deciding that a couple of hours wasn't enough. So we followed them home to Columbus and stayed a couple of nights. The freedom of being a vagabond. :)
Ok, the Kentucky blog will be coming up in the next few days. Stay tuned.
Oh, and enjoy these pictures, courtesy of my new laptop charger, courtesy of God. :)

woot woot

it's funny that they had this picture cut out in the visitors center, almost like forshadowing!

the drive there was gorgeous! 

We've officially gotten tired of less than delicious food,

(and we had a gift card) so we got a half dozen eggs and

busted out the stove:

success!

Charleston: 

our awesome friend, Jammer

AND THEN OHIO!!

I LOVE this family

 KK's photobomb!

I cannot say this more empatically-

THESE ARE THE BEST PANCAKES

I HAVE HAD IN MY LIFE.

We took the kids for their first fro yo experience.

I think they loved it. :) 

Maryland & DC

When we left each other last, we were leaving Delaware and heading to Maryland, or as we like to call it, state #37! We're nearing the home stretch, so expect nearly every (if not all) blog posts from here on out to begin with an excited exclamation of how many states we have left!

Everyone had we had asked up to that point said that when we got into Baltimore, Maryland, the spot to check out was the inner harbor. It only took us about 2 hours to drive from DE to MD (something I will definitely miss about the east coast) so we got there with plenty of daylight left. We found the inner harbor, FINALLY found parking, and walked down to the shore. As we walked up, the first thing we noticed was a huge set-up. There were a bunch of railings and stands and lights, then we saw why....they were doing a taping of American Ninja Warrior! Sweet! So we re-parked the van in a place where we could be for more than the next two hours, and headed back down to the show. We stood in line for quite some time and when we finally got towards the front, all of the seats were taken. They showed us where we could sit where we could still see and as seats opened up in the stands, we were welcome to move over there. We sat for an hour or two and watched the competitors, most of which didn't make it, and kinda sorta talked to this guy sitting next to us for a bit and then it was late and cold and our parking meter was going to be up, so we left.
Rewinding just a bit, when we first arrived, we met this really awesome couple named Adam & Lauren (I think). We needed our picture taken and so did they, so we swapped cameras and started talking. We shared a lot with them about our trip and they seemed intrigued. We didn't get to question them about their beliefs too much, but we did work the gospel message into our story of the trip and different aspects of it, so they heard and they seemed receptive. They were really very nice and interested to talk to us. It was just refreshing to have that since so many times (especially in Delaware) we are "shunned", so to speak.
The next morning we went to church and boy did we sit behind the wrong people! They were just super distracting the whole time. One of the teenage girls had brought her boyfriend who didn't look like he wanted to be there and she kept trying to get him to enjoy it. They made it all around difficult to focus & learn. The message didn't seem that strong either, there was a lot of skipping around and putting in ideas that weren't necessarily there.
After church we headed back down to the inner harbor only to be confronted with one of our biggest problems-parking. The only free parking we could find was valid for the next hour, after which time, you couldn't park on the street without a permit. We drove quite a distance and it was the same thing everywhere, so we ended up driving back, finding a spot, then walking around for the next hour. We came across a guy who stopped us. He said that him & his wife hadn't eaten in a couple of days and that the missions wouldn't take them. "Could you find it in your heart in God's name to maybe get us money so we can get food?" We told him that we had a bunch of food in our van if he wanted to walk back with us to get it, but he declined. Sadly enough, that happens often-hungry people decline food. I'm not saying that his motives were sinister, but it sure did seem a little weird. I like to hope the best for people, but sometimes they leave you little room.
Not too long later, we had to move the van. With a lack of parking anywhere and nothing else to do, we drove to another large city, Annapolis. Parking was difficult there, too, especially I think because of the weekend, but we kept looking. As we were driving, we noticed that there was a baseball game going on and it looked free so we stopped in and by golly it was free! I told Marc, "I'm liking the amount of baseball in my life lately." We got to watch the last few innings of Navy vs. Lafayette. In the bottom of the 9th with the score 1-1 and one man on, the batter doubled to left field, winning the game. It was pretty exciting! Leaving there, we almost immediately found a free parking spot. It was a bit off the main strip, but we are no strangers to walking so walk we did. We walked up and down those streets. Annapolis is a beautiful little town-we really only got to see the historical part of it. I'm not actually sure if there is any other part, but that part was nice. Marc stopped to talk to a teenager on a bench who wasn't too sure what he believed, he hadn't put enough thought into it-a common response. It's funny because Marc makes a great point-if we were going on vacation in a foreign place, more than likely we would do some research on that place, the language, the people, the customs, etc. Well, eternity is WAY longer than we can even fathom, but people make no thought of what it will be like there and why not? I'm reminded of this little ditty that I heard once. Satan is conversating with some of his demons, trying to come up with the best way to lead people astray. One says, "Maybe we can tell them there is no heaven or hell," but Satan responds, "no, no, that won't work.  God has shown them better than that." Another says, "What if we tell them that there is no God?" Again he replies in the negative, "No, only a fool would believe that. It's obvious that there is." Some time passes and another chimes in, "Maybe we can tell them that there's no rush?" "That's it!" says the devil. "If they think they have as much time as they need, they'll live for themselves with no thought of what's to come!"
I'm sure there was probably never such an interaction, but it's a great illustration of this guy's demeanor. I shudder to think that by the time my kids are 16 that they would have never been confronted with the truth.
After that, we happened upon a street fair that was going on! What luck! That provided entertainment, but not very much opportunity. Continuing on, we came across this guy (you guessed it) sitting alone on a bench. He looked like a wanderer, a street kid (although older than "kid" age) so we sat and talked with him for quite some time. He said that deep down, he believes in God but, in not so many words, he always tries to escape Him. He seeks the truth in other places and is always brought back to the place where he finds Jesus. Internally, he realizes that God is the truth, but for whatever reason, doesn't let himself be given over. To hear that he knew God (sort of) was definitely an encouragement. It's conversations like that that especially make us feel as though God set it up for us to be there, to talk to this particular person and plant a seed in their life. Yet, even as much as he knows God, or at least of Him, he still was off in many of his ideas, one being that everyone finds their own way and there are many roads. Flat out, it's not true. There is one way to heaven and that is Jesus. True, all roads will lead you to eternity, but only one will lead you to heaven. Not liking that doesn't change it.
From there, we were blessed to cash in on movie vouchers we had! Yeah! What a nice way to relax and spend the rest of the evening.
The next couple of days we spent in the city of Bowie, Maryland. There was a huge shopping center that we got to walk around for a while and gave us a lot of opportunity. One guy we talked to used to be a Catholic but left the church as soon as he was old enough. We meet a lot of people like that and what I think it is is that the people can get so caught up in tradition, parents don't properly communicate to the kids, or maybe even understand themselves, why they're there and what it's really about. Don't get me wrong, I'm not dissing the Catholic church, I know there are Catholics who genuinely love the Lord (I've met some awesome ones!), all I'm saying is that there tends to be a disconnect between the head and the heart sometimes but that can be true with people of all religions I suppose. But back to this guy-he hung out for a minute but didn't really care to talk too much about religion.
Another interesting conversation that we had was with a guy outside of a Sears. Marc tried to share with him but after not too long he cut him off (politely) and just said that he didn't have a lot of time because he was on break from work and that he used to date a minister's daughter so he's heard the gospel up and down. It's good that he knows it, but its sad that he's so hardened to it.
I usually write down the people we talk to so later I can tell you fine people about them, but I wasn't so diligent this time. Ooooppsss....sorry.
After our time in Bowie, we headed out for Washington, D.C. And it was sweet! We mostly did sightseeing while we were there but we did get to stay a night with an old friend of mine from my days in UCI and his awesome girlfriend. It was a cool reconnection.
The best part of DC-everything is free! We saw a couple Smithsonians- the Museum of Natural History and the Air & Space Museum. We got to see Ford's Theater where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, we toured the capitol building, and got to see the Library of Congress! All for free! We didn't go to a lot of the typical things because, if you'll think back with me, we drove through DC back in late December when we drove from Jersey to Georgia. Back then, we saw the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, the War memorials, and those things that you can see at night time.

37!

Baltimore's inner harbor

Ninja Warrior! 

my Dodgers were playing at Camden Yards

and I was very tempted to go.

Hello awesome.

some interesting sights around the bay 

I love baseball! 

Geez, I'm not sure if that's enough time....

Chesapeake Bay in Annapolis

sweeeeet house!

And then it was DC!

Smithsonian, Museum of Natural History

the Hope Diamond

Capitol building!

Ford's Theatre, where President Lincoln was assassinated: 

the box he was sitting in, I believe on the right

Washington Monument, under construction

White House!

Smithsonian, Air & Space Museum 

a space capsule from one of the Apollos

The Wright Brothers