It's eleven-hundred and something miles to South Fork, Colorado. Traveling that far is difficult. Add difficulty for each kid due to limited space, competition for talk time, bathroom stops and spills. Speaking of spills, vomit joined our journey about an hour out. And did I mention bathroom stops? Rylie has had a UTI requiring more bathroom stops than usual. 

My mom taught me to have snacks, paper towels and bags full of entertainment handy for long road trips. There's no preparing for some things the journey brings. 

Jason has taught me to keep my eye on the prize. Like Dory, "Keep on swimming, swimming, swim-ming" (or driving in our case).  Behind the wheel he's a man on a mission. But what do you do when your mission is thwarted with illness and car trouble?

You change your perspective on what the prize is. You chill out a little, ignore the lemon-scented Clorox smell that fills the air, and you distract yourself from the things that aren't going the way you planned. 

Best of all, you seek beauty. 

About four-hundred miles into the trip I got smart. I challenged myself to take one picture every hundred miles of the eleven-hundred trip. I'd forgotten my camera (amongst other things) at home so I just used my iPhone. I would then post each photo on Instagram with the hashtag project 1100. 

I began looking out my window searching for something spectacular to snap a picture of, but the project started in North Texas. All I saw was red dirt.............except for a sign on the side of the road. I quickly pressed the button on my phone for my first #project1100 picture. 

  
Who would have thought I'd appreciate an old "Peaches" sign, but I did. The blues and greens seemed to cheer up the dry hard ground.  

I was hooked. I waited impatiently for the next hundred miles to come around hoping that when mile ninety-nine came, another happy subject would be in view.  

   

I snapped again wondering why in the years we've traveled this same road have I never thought to appreciate what's outside my window. 

  
This is when I changed up the rules a little bit. Why only take a picture every hundred miles. The new rule? Take a picture AT LEAST every hundred miles, but take as many as you'd like. 

   
   

Almost all of the pictures were taken through the window because Jason is like the Energizer bunny (He keeps going......) 

I rolled the window down a time or two.  Other times I  pressed the phone to the window avoiding a glare. 

  
A couple of times I reached across the car to capture something on Jason's side. 

It helped pass the time. But more than that, I noticed things I've missed in thirty summers of traveling these roads. I found beauty in places I've considered barren. These places were just a part of the journey to "get through" before.   

     We made it to our destination and did the things I'd looked forward to. I feasted on fried burritos and conversation, sitting in a circle behind our cabin. I heard the familiar ring of the bell from the reliable old train that carries kids  (that aren't darting around on bikes) from a fish pond to the putt-putt-golf place. I handed out quarters for the arcade in exchange for a little kid-free time spent talking with family.  

  

  
  

  
 

Our R&R was short-lived. Rylie's asthma decided to vacation with us. A day and a half in she was pretty much couch-bound.  

By the third morning we were at a doctor's office in nearby South Fork. She was having a severa asthma attack in addition to the UTI that's still sticking around. The doctor told us we needed to get to lower elevation immediately and listed nearby hospitals that were at lowering altitudes. 

We spent more of our days traveling than we did enjoying our destination (five days on the road, three days staying put). 

Isn't that life for you? 

  

We journey.

  
We hurry to "get there" missing so much along the way.  Sometimes we don't get to where we planned to go. And even when we do, it's most often not like we planned. Maybe life would be more fulfilling should we remember what Emerson said. 

Life is a journey, not a destination. 

 
   

It's a journey with long stretches of road, twists and turns and unimaginable beauty. It's beauty is accompanied by wonder and longing...and sometimes disappointment. Each part begs us to recognize God; our greatest company in every mile and stay. 

My favorite poet says it best. 

Earth's crammed with heaven, 
And every common bush afire with God,
But only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries. 
-Elizabeth Barrett Browning 

So.........

We're home. 

But the journey continues. 

#project1100