Hi fellow Christians!  We're back! It's been 7 months since our last issue.  I had to
stop publication for a number of reasons.  First, I was burnt out from lack of help.
Second, Joy & I were preparing for our last trip across the United States. Finally, our
daughter was beginning to come out of her Leukemia remission.  I was told that there
were volunteers who would keep this going, but I guess that didn't work out.

We completed out trip across the country with few  problems. We saw God's creative
handiwork first hand and it was incredible.  We started out by touring some back
roads in Kentucky, where we found the oldest hand dug road tunnel in the United
States.  The scenery was wonderful but not unlike the scenery we enjoy here in West
Virginia.

We then drove Northwest till we got to Minnesota, where we visited with Joy's brother
in Winnebago and attended their annual MotoFest Custom car show and helped set
up their first annual Quilt show. Joy was honored by the fact, that a Tee Shirt Quilt
that she made for her brother out of Tee shirts he had collected from all the previous
year's Motofest's, was the main focus of the Quilt show.  Joy also got a chance to
take part in the second annual Minnesota Quilter's Shop Hop!

<-- A hand dug tunnel in Kentucky

                        The T-shirt quilt-->

             (click pictures to enlarge)

We had our fist bout of trouble as we left Minnesota - car problems. We're cruising
across Interstate 90 when a warning light came on and the cruise control stopped
working. So. at the next cross over, I turned around and headed back to the last exit
we had passed, to find a garage where we could have the engine checked.  To our
chagrin there wasn't any garage or car dealer, in that part of Minnesota, that could
check our Subaru's computer warning codes to find out what went wrong. The closest
one was in South Dakota!  So, we took the chance and got back on the Interstate and
limped to Souix Falls, South Dakota where we found the only Subaru dealer in two
hundred miles.  Wow!

They checked the codes and the Maintenance manager told me there was good news
and bad news!
The bad news,the catalytic converters were used up and it would cost $3000 to repair
the car. The good news, you don't have to do it unless you live in a State that
requires emissions inspections.  He turned the warning light off, but said the cruise
control would no longer work until the catalytic converters were replaced.  I figured I'd
driven for 48 years without a cruise control, I could make it across the country without
one.

We drove across the South Dakota prairie till we got to the Black Hills, then we went
on a road trip through the Black Hills back country, which took us past a working Gold
Mine.  We didn't go to Mt Rushmore because we'd been there before.  Our next Stop
was Devils Tower Monument National Park.  If you ever saw the movie Close
Encounters of the Third Kind, you saw the Devils Tower!  There was a long line
waiting to get in!  It was full of Motorcycles, the Sturgis Motorcycle gathering was in
full swing.  There must have been 10,000 motorcycles in the area.  Every camp
ground, cabin rental and motel and hotel was filled up.

The National Park was unbelievable! Here's the view from the Park Entrance, about
three miles from the Monument and from the visitor's center. This was once the
center of magma in a huge volcano.

Although in this small
picture, you cannot see                                              
them, there are three men
climbing the Tower in that
dark crevice. One is about
here, the others are about here!



It was late afternoon and every room was full so from Devils Tower, we headed west
to Cody Wyoming, figuring all the Motorcycle groups were in Sturgis.  Wrong!!  Even
more of them were on the way west to Yellowstone.
We got the last room in Cody, Wyoming at about 7 PM.  It was big enough fro 8
people and cost a small fortune, but we needed a room. I later suggested that we
should have gone out along the road with a sign and sublet the room to some biker's.
There were a lot of them looking for a place to stay!

We had a wonderful dinner at a little Italian Restaurant in the middle of town.  Next
morning we started for Yellowstone.  

Here's a view of the pass leaving Cody-heading for Yellowstone. The view was
spectacular!  






But, as we continued on, things started to go bad!  The forest in the pass was on fire!








It was worst than driving through West Virginia fog. There was so much beautiful
scenery that could hardly be seen through the smoke.  We finally made it to
Yellowstone Nation Park to find that the northeast corner of the Park was also on fire!
 The fire did one good thing, it drove a big herd of Buffalo down to the Lake to get
away from the fire and smoke.






As we traveled farther away from the Eastern Park entrance, the smoke disappeared
and God's beauty was once again visible. Here's Yellowstone Lake from the western
shore.






Since we'd been to Yellowstone before, we ventured into areas of the Park we didn't
get to see last time.  One of the roads we took led us to an off the beaten path
waterfall. There were people swimming in the river just below this waterfall. Our next
side trip took us past some mineral terraces, mud pots and active geysers.










After visiting the many wonders of Yellowstone we took the Northwest exit from the
park and headed to Montana and Glacier National Park.  If you've never driven from
Yellowstone to Glacier, it's something you should do while you still can. It was
gorgeous.  The next place we toured was Glacier National Park.

                                                                                          (continued page 2)