US Trip: October 2020

On October 1st, we went to renew our passports. Sis Bass and Gracie came to visit us that night and say goodbye.

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We pulled out the next morning and it was a unique experience to travel in a motorhome. That night, we were able to eat some of my favorite food (from a fast food restaurant, that is): Chick-fil-a! “🎶I could eat there seven times a day…♥️🎶” #TimHawkins

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  and so the journey began! 😂

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  😍😍😍

The next day, we made it to Bedford, VA and got to see the Lawhorn’s; I have to say their church is one of my favorites. We were able to hang out with them on Sunday, and it was great to see Tori again; we had a great time hanging out with her!

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  Josiah getting a chance to show off his “brute strength” 😜😂

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  Riding with Tori on Sunday! 🥳

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  Sweet girls! ♥️

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  Love this little guy! 😉

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  Love this lady!

The next day, we continued our trek Maine-ward. 😂 We traveled until we got to Pennsylvania, and we stayed the night in a Walmart parking lot. #RVlife There was a gorgeous sunset, though!

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  Look at that sky y’all! 😍

We traveled through New York and Connecticut, and made it to Brewer the day after. It was great to see Allana and Tavia; I didn’t realize how excited I truly was until I got there and gave them a hug.

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  The excited reunion! 🥳

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  Love these girls! ♥️

The first place we went (besides the church, obviously) was to Las Palapas, of course. #BestMexicanFoodinMaine If you are ever in the area, go and get a chicken chimichanga…they are amazing! 😋🤤

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Tavia had received a microphone that my friend Valena had sent to me, so that I could record my songs. I still haven’t finished the song we started on, 😬 but anyways when she gave me the microphone I got very excited (that is an understatement.)

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We were able to go to Presque Isle for church that night (after stopping by Starbucks 😁) and we had a good church service! I got to see Johnny boy; I love this little bundle of energy and joy. 😉

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  Starbucks Stop! 😋

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  #runninglateforchurchinMaine

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  #thuglife

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  love this little cutie! 😍

The next day, we got to hangout with Marisol and went with her to get her braces off. She payed for our food…and can you guess where we went? That’s right: Las Palapas!😁😂

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We went to Bar Harbor that evening, and due to the fact that the Townley’s had recently paved their driveway, we had a long, cold journey to the car.😂 …with our arms full!😆

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We went out to spend the next day walking around Bar Harbor, and we ate at a place that had really yummy food. (I can’t remember the name 😬) I had fish tacos with blueberry salsa (and also blueberry soda), and they were heavenly!👌🏼🤤

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  My grandma got my mom this fun mask😂

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  These tacos were amazing! 👌🏼🤤

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  #beingakaren

I tried lobster ice cream. It was ok, but I wouldn’t recommend eating it every day…it wasn’t that good. Lol But hey, at least I can say I tried it!

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  Edit creds: EG

We went by a small lighthouse and watched the sunset…it was beautiful. ♥️ We got some pictures of each other, and y’all…my sisters are gorgeous!

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  Edit creds: EG

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  Edit creds: EG

We enjoyed a lobster feast at the Townleys, and Tavia gave me a good tutorial on how to properly eat lobster. She emphasized a very important part: don’t undercook lobster…it’s not a good idea. 😬😕😂

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On Sunday morning, we had an amazing service and they had a girl who got baptized! It was Lydia’s birthday, and we had a yummy lunch at Uncle Townley and Aunt Sharshar’s place. We ate some great food, but what cracked me up is that Lydia and Tandice decided to eat ramen noodles, instead. 😂

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  🤣

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Tavia and I ran to Walmart to pick up a few gifts, and then hopefully take some time for me to record in Tavia’s car. 😆 Well, we accomplished both things, so woohoo! Tavia and I got one of those epic mirror selfies (or not lol), and that night we went out to eat at Las Palapas (AGAIN). The church surprised my mom, Lydia and Allana for their birthdays (all in October). A new convert in the Brewer church has a bakery, and y’all she is amazing! She made my mom a gluten-free chocolate cake, and I t tasted like a normal chocolate cake. 😋👌🏼

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  Yes, I bought this, and yes I ate it all…although I shared. 😁

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  High dollar studio! 😂

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  Our two favorite flags in
  the world! 🇺🇸🇭🇳

The next day we traveled and went to visit a guy we know from Honduras. We had an interesting experience, too. 😁 My dad was driving our 34’ motorhome, towing a car behind, and this man told him “oh yeah, just come down, you can park in the street we live on!” Well, as we got closer to his house, we realized that we were in the heart of the city, and it got down to where it was one-way streets. My dad was slightly stressed out because of what he was driving/pulling. Oh, and did I mention that it didn’t seem like the best part of town? Well, it made it feel more like home, so it was all great. 👏🏼😁

Well, we ended up parking along the side of the road, and going to theirs family’s house. They were super sweet and they made us Honduran beef soup. It was amazing! 🤤 I ate it all; that’s saying a lot because Hondurans serve big bowls of soup and I don’t eat much. We got a picture with them and went on our way.

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We stayed the night at a truck stop and didn’t really sleep well…not at all. 😆

Our next stop was Lancaster, PA. We saw some beautiful buildings, took funny pictures, and had lots of fun!

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  Edit creds: EG

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The next day, we went to Gettysburg and saw several monuments. We didn’t have much time, so we didn’t even get to go to the cemetery. We did enjoy what time we had, and my mom was reunited with a good friend of hers from Bible School, Stacy Miller. Stacy brought her daughter, Abbie, and we had a lot of fun hanging out with her.

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  Edit creds: EG

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That evening, we went to see Esther at the Sight and Sound Theater there in Lancaster. I loved Esther! If/when it makes it to Branson, I would probably enjoy it more (because it’s bigger in Branson), but we still really enjoyed it. My mom says Esther was her favorite, but I have to say that Samson is still my favorite. There was a prop that got stuck 2 times, which was kind of distracting. Aside from that, it was an amazing play. For anyone who hasn’t been to Sight and Sound, I recommend it 100%!

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  We stopped by dollar tree to get some snacks, and filled Lydia’s purse with them 😂

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The next day we went to Hershey, and visited the chocolate factory. I must say it was quite entertaining, and my favorite part was all the chocolate everywhere!! Lol…I think that’s the whole point, but yeah. 😆😂

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  😂

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We went to a Mennonite farm the next evening, and Charity got to ride a miniature horse, which she really enjoyed.

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The next day we continued to travel, then stopped to spend the night at a really nice RV park in Gassaway, WV. The owner built a big fire down by the creek and he had a big porch swing hanging from the trees; it was very relaxing.

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We enjoyed seeing Bro. Robert Davis and and visiting their church in Ohio. I have pictures of the amazing food we had the first night, but the only pictures I have of the girls we hung out with weren’t the best, because they were surprise selfies that Charity took of them. 😁

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We went to Indiana and had a service with the Carreras. I was especially happy to see my Uncle Perry. Ever since I was little girl, I loved him and Aunt Lisa very much. Aunt Lisa died of cancer when I was younger, and I had only seen Uncle Perry once since that happened (about 5 years ago). They aren’t really related to us, but I’ve always called them aunt and uncle. I’ve prayed for him for years and I still have faith that he is going to return to the truth. So anyways, it was great to see Uncle Perry again.

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Our next destination was St. Louis, MO. I was so excited because we were going to go to the Gateway Arch! We stayed at a really nice RV park that actually had a BBQ restaurant at the edge of it. (The food tasted pretty good, too!) God favored us with good weather in the first afternoon, and we got rid of a lot of pent up energy from being outside. We also discovered the beauty of bath houses and have been addicted to them ever since. That happens when you live with 5 others in a motorhome with one SMALL shower and hot water that lasts (max) 15 mins. When you’re not first in line, you don’t get hot water very long, if at all. Lol

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We went to the St. Louis zoo the next day, and had a fun time trying to see everything, until it started sprinkling. The zebras made it worth the trip, because they were playing and fighting and it was pretty entertaining.

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When we left the zoo, we went to the Gateway Arch, which is where the true adventure began. We scheduled the latest ride possible up to the top so that we could maybe see the sunset in the city. Well, we stood outside to take some pictures, and walked over to see the river. After we went through security, we walked through the little museum thing they have there. We decided we were going to go to the gift shop before going up to the top of the arch.

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Finally, the moment we had all been waiting for…we were in the line, tickets in hand, waiting for the next tram to take us to the top!

Then the unthinkable happened…the fire alarm went off! We looked at each other as if to say “you’ve got to be kidding me!”

Well, they asked everyone to go outside and stand there until they checked the whole place over to make sure that there were no threats.

We stood outside a long time in really cold weather, and every time we got close to the structure (where the wind wasn’t as strong and cold) they would tell us that it wasn’t safe and we had to back up…out into the cold wind.

After what seemed like an eternity (and it was at least 30 mins, probably more) they told us everyone needed to go to the front door and go back through security.

We went around the front and stood in line for a while (maybe another 30 mins; I really don’t know). We finally got through security and went as fast as possible to the place you get on the trams. When we got there, there were several of us waiting in line. One of the workers finally came out and told us there were no more trams for the day.

Everyone got pretty upset, and so finally someone asked for a refund, and we all had to wait until the manager came out and authorized refunds for all.

We were thankful to have our money back, but we missed out on the experience! We were disappointed because we had to leave early the next morning, and wouldn’t be able to go back. So yeah, that’s are almost (but not quite) experience of going up in the Gateway Arch.

We came to Broken Bow on October 27th (the night before my mom’s birthday) and stayed the nigh at my grandparents house and decorated to surprise my mom the next morning.

During the night, Lydia leaned too far back in one of my grandma’s chairs and broke it. 😆😂

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We went to Dollar General and bought decorations and helium-filled balloons. It was the big 5-0, so we wanted to make it as special as possible.

We decorated until pretty late, and left it looking beautiful for the next morning. We got up slightly disappointed because some of the balloons lost their helium during the night. 😂

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  Lookin’ good! 👌🏼

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  Oops😂

We drove to the Mexican restaurant where my mom and dad were eating breakfast, and jumped out of the car and tried to write on the car windows. I say tried because 1) it was raining, and 2) my mom saw us and came outside. 🤣

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Conversations like these! 👌🏼♥️

We also went to Canton’s first Monday flea market, and Charity enjoyed being pushed/pulled around in the wagon. We met new people, talked in Spanish a lot, and also tried some street tacos…they were pretty good! 😋

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After Canton, we continued and went to Nacogdoches, TX, another one of my favorite churches in the world. It probably helps that we have really good family friends there. Playing “Head’s Up” with these guys is the bomb! 😆

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  We missed you, Maddi and Kennzie! 😔♥️

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  Love this baby! ♥️

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I think this pretty much sums up October. I realize that this was a long blog post, and I probably should’ve done it in 2 (or 3) posts, but anyways! 🤷🏼‍♀️

Thanks for being patient in my absence, and have a blessed day! I’m working on the other post, so that everyone can catch up with what’s going on.

– Sarah Schreckhise