Now as I reflect on my trip these past 12 days I thank all of you that followed me during the course of my trip.There were some great photos I captured during my travels to
and from Oregon. It was a lot of fun to share
with you special moments or just share my photos and have you comment on them. It’s
one thing to travel with one or more persons but when you feel like you have so
many others enjoying the trip along with you has made it all the more fun!
This photo sums up my travels:
I mainly took this photo for the “Story Road” sign but as I
look at it and the various roads that go off in different directions I thought
of how this represents our lives. I thought it was kind of humorous to see that
billboard to the right side saying, “Fortune is Calling.” Are you waiting on Fortune? What direction is your life
going? Are you allowing life to happen to you or are you making life happen? I choose to make life happen. I do realize sometimes there are things that happen in life that are beyond our control but instead of allowing it to debilitate you. Some people get stuck where they are and sometimes you have to call the Tow Truck to come help and either get you off the road, fix a flat tire or just give you a jump because your battery died. Either way you look at it you need to make the best of your circumstances or whatever you drive through. You can take the high road or you can take the low road. You can continue straight or you can turn left or right. The idea is to keep on moving as best you can.
I hope I have been of encouragement to you as I travel along
my road. I know one of you are already inspired to go visit “Trees of Mystery.”
Many of you may not have the means to travel so I welcome you along as I travel
to each place that I share on Facebook. I also hope that if you are able you
can join one of our Young at Heart tours we do around Southern California. I
try to choose interesting and sometimes obscure places. I do thank many of you
for giving your suggestions of places for me to visit during my trip to Oregon.
I wanted to share with you a couple of stories that were the
highlights in my trip. One you can see in the photo here and the other was an
incident that happened.
While driving through the Redwoods and seeing the fog I
thought what a bummer. Then the higher we drove you could see the Sun’s rays
shining through the trees and fog. I imagined in my mind taking a photo like
this, standing under the rays with my arms outstretched. I am so glad God made
it happen! This was an amazing God moment!
The incident that happened is where I felt God giving me His
blessing. We had just had dinner at Hunan Home’s Restaurant where we finally
had our Chinese food. This is the same restaurant I took our YAH people to last
summer on our YAH Tour to San Francisco. The hostess remembered my mom when we
had celebrated her birthday when we were last there. On the left is the photo of my mom
and the hostess.
To continue my story, I had parked the car down the street 3
blocks away. (I happened to parallel park perfectly too!) While on our walk
back to the car there was a black guy sitting on the sidewalk near the street corner
with a cup held out asking for change. Too often I walk past such people and may leave some change or a dollar bill but
this time I thought I’d go ahead and leave him a something more than a dollar since I didn’t have any
loose change. I dropped a $5 bill in his cup and continued on my way as the guy
gave his cordial “thank you” then about 5 seconds later I hear him give a yell, “Whoa!
GOD BLESS YOU!” and I returned with, “God bless you too!” Sometimes the Holy
Spirit prompts me to do things spontaneously and this was one of those times. I
felt I was hearing the words from God “I” Bless You, from this black man. This
is an image etched in my mind and will hold in my heart that I can only share
in words.
This whole trip was a blessing. Everything went well. God’s
beauty is all around us and I want to experience as much of it as I can! I wish
I could take you all with me but thank God for Facebook where I can connect
with so many of you and share portions of my life with each of you that choose
to follow my Excellent Adventures!
Look back at that top photo and decide how you plan to live
your life. I have always said everyone has a story and I’d love to hear yours. Which Road are you taking? Are you living your "Story Road?"
