Well, it’s been an eventful summer to say the least!!
After packing down my car…(I wish you could tell how full it really was!)
and leaving the Dale House, Allan and I journeyed across this beautiful country we call home. Man, it is just beautiful!
Our journey took us through Durango, CO, with a stop by the Sand Dunes. Those things are just incredible. and so random! It’s just a small mountain range of lots and lots of sand, right in front of HUGE 14,000 feet mountains. Where did all that sand come from? I have no idea, but it was still really cool and fun. We got to climb to the (almost) top of this huge pile of sand with bare feet and jeans rolled up. It was so neat.
After our small detour to the Sand Dunes, we settled in Durango, CO for the evening because I wanted to visit one of my old primaries, S, who had been transferred to the jail there.
It was such a good yet hard visit with her. I hate seeing people I know in places like that, but I also love the conversation and emotions that are felt in the visiting room. She cried talking to me about how she had ended up back in jail and cried telling me how lonely and angry she was and how she didn’t want to open herself up to anyone because she was afraid of friendships. It is just not fair. It really isn’t. I will not and never will understand why some people have to grow up in terrible living environments. Her own mother is the one who turned her into the cops and sent her back to jail, but not because she was trying to help her.
It was hard to leave that jail knowing that I may never see S again. We have written letters this summer and she is still in the jail until at least October. She has hopes of going back to the DHP, which I hope that too. I hope she can be somewhere where she feels cared for and valuable.
After visiting with S, Allan and I started a long drive towards the Grand Canyon, with a stop by the 4 corners, of course!
We then drove back into Colorado to get this following picture because we didn’t get one when we drove out there last summer! 
After our short visit to Four Corners and the Welcome to Colorful Colorado sign, we became slightly obsessed with a game on Allan’s phone called Angry Birds. So, let me paint a picture for you. Our GPS is on Allan’s phone, but we also are using a map. I am driving, Allan is playing Angry Birds, on the phone, therefore not looking at the GPS. We come to a split in the road and I have to make a quick decision to stay straight or go left. I ask Allan. He looks at the map quickly (because he is in the middle of Angry Birds, of course) and says, “Go left!” So I did.
About 3 hours later and after driving through no-mans-land, literally, (we were the only people we saw that entire time), we decided to look at Allan’s GPS on his phone. We were not even on the map. It turns out that the “go left” turn I made took us onto an uncharted Indian Reservation Road. Now, it was a beautiful drive, but we were SO FAR from where we were trying to go! There were even wild horses (not just dead ones!)! It was so crazy!
We drove about another hour and finally arrived to some civilization where we stayed for the night.
The next day we headed to the Grand Canyon. There is a reason it is called Grand. Holy cow.
Then it was off to Flagstaff, AZ. This is one of the crazier towns I have ever visited. It was super neat though. They were having a festival called Hullabaloo and man, was this a weird festival or what! People of all ages were dressed in the strangest costumes..I’m talking babies, toddlers, all the way up to older adults. It was neat to experience though!
Our next stop took us to Amarillo, Texas. Now that is a strange place. You start smelling the cows about 30 miles out of town and the billboards only advertise eating a 72oz steak. We were there on a Sunday night and it took us about an hour to find an open restaurant. It was just crazy. Amarillo does have a pretty good country song by George Strait about it though, so I guess it has something going for it.
Memphis, TN was our next stop. That was a really fun place. While we only got to spent about 12 hours there total, including sleeping time, we did get to go walking in Memphis with our feet 10 feet off of Beale. It was like a dream come true.
Our next stop took us to Augusta, GA where we got to celebrate the life of Allan’s Ging-Ging. While in Flagstaff, we got the call the she had passed away. She was 95 years old and her health had been failing. It’s never easy when someone dies, but I really enjoyed watching Allan and his family deal with this loss in a positive light. It was a beautiful ceremony and honoring to Ging-Ging and the amazing life she lived. It’s crazy to think about 95 years on Earth! Wow!
After Ging-Ging’s funeral, Allan and I headed to Charleston to be with his family.
and that’s where it happened.
We went out on a date. We were hanging out on a dock. We were just talking like normal.
Then I was tired and it was time to go.
Then Allan was asking me to marry him!
I was confused and I didn’t believe him, but it was real.
We were engaged!!
p.s. This is where it happened. Cool, huh?
It was awesome and exciting and unbelievable.
That was June 12, 2011.
We set the wedding date for August 14, 2011, leaving us 2 months to plan…
