I am here!

After four days of traveling, I have reached one of my destination, Modesto, California. We pulled into the driveway early this afternoon and we all crashed. The emotions and stress of the last month finally came over me as well as the reality of what I have done began to sink in. A bit of despair began to creep over me as I viewed the passing landscape, noticing the markable difference to what I have known. The truth continued to sink in as each passing mile brought me closer to this point. I was not just visiting. I was here to stay.

The last two days of travel were easy yet filled with interesting facts. Each section of our nation bears with it the truth of natural disasters. My mind has grasped the reality of tornadoes that could whipped through my land or blizzards that can shut down an entire state. Now, I face new ones. Earthquakes and fires.

Yesterday morning we were cruising along when suddenly we were forced to pull off at an exit. The stretch of highway was closed off yet I could not understand why. The highway looked as if it had been freshly paved in the past few months so I could not understand the detour. We turned off at the local gas station to discover the news that fires had sprung up around the land and the highway. Since the fires were so close to the highway, it was shut down until the fire was contained. Since we were on a schedule, we found an alternate route, yet when we reached the turn off for that route, we were told that it would be better for us to wait. The alternate route was also experiencing fire and would more than likely close. So we pulled off on the road and waited. About an half an hour later, we move on.

Traveling down I-80, I looked for the fires. Although most of them had been put out, the evidence of them were everywhere. The hills and mountain sides on my left were black and this went on for miles. At one point, I could see where the fire had jumped the highway and continued on my right side. I could still see the smoke rise from one section where the fire was still burning. The cloud rose about the land in a billow of white and golden hues. It eventually blocked the sun from my path as it continued to rise. I even glimpsed the one section where the flames still burned and ate away at the dry landscape. That is definitely not something I worried about in Iowa.

One thing that I will definitely need to get used to hearing is the reports of seismic activity that occurs along the San Andreas fault. Being an Iowa girl, such reports seem interesting yet for a native Cali person, seismic activity is a daily event, just not all of them are felt.

One interesting event along this trip could have been disasterious. I was driving along I-80 when a semi truck passed me along my left hand side. As the tail end of the truck came into view, I noticed smoke coming from his back tire. Half his tire was gone, revealing his rim. After seeing pieces of rubber tire littered around the roads and knowing that smoke is never a good thing, I slowed down to put distance between us two. I radioed my father to inform him but my mother and I were worried that the tire would explode, shooting a large piece of rubber towards my father and wondering if he would have enough time to react. I was worried that it would explode and cause the truck to jack knife and causing a major accident. So my mother and I started praying. The tire eventually exploded but into small pieces that were easily avoided. The truck driver was able to pull the truck easily to the side of the road to discover what happened. No accidents. No fatalities. Praise God.

So now I am here, in California, wondering what in the world I am doing. In my fear of making a mistake, I want to secure every loose end that has yet to be tied, job, school, church, friends. I know that everything will come together in time; I just have to be patient and rest in God. I think it is so much easier to make a faith decision than it is actually begin living it. I made the decision. Now I have to live it. Let the journey truly begin.