Family & travel times

 Since the conclusion of the Everglades Challenge we have had some good family time together. We enjoyed being with Ben, Emily and the kids at our little rooms at Bay Cove in Key Largo. This was right where all the boats finished so we got to watch everyone come in. If you want to view all the results you can see them by clicking this LINK . My paddling name is PassaicPaddler. Ben and I were in the top 4 finishers who completed the more difficult Wilderness Waterway through Everglades National Park.
 Ben and Emily flew home last Sunday and then I took Debra for an upgrade to "Ocean House" in Islamorada, Fl. This is about 20 miles further south in the Keys.  Our room was Key Lime Pie...which by the way is a Florida Key favorite and very good. So was the Ocean House.

Heres the view from our rooms patio which faced a beautiful garden with the ocean just over it. We enjoyed a relaxing day here and then drove up to visit here Dad in Boynton Beach, Fl.  Dad Abma and Harriett live there for the winter and NJ for the spring/summer. We spent the night, visited the ocean and had a great time together.

 Tuesday night I dropped Debra off at the West Palm Beach airport for her flight that was again delayed and then drove several hours to northern Florida. I continued driving on Wednesday and by Thursday noon was at South Bend, IN and visited with William Kiptoo. William is in a special Masters program of "Peace Studies" at the University of Notre Dame. He gave me a tour of the campus and we had lunch together. He will return back to Kenya in May. It was good to see him again.

 I arrived in Holland MI on Thursday afternoon to spend some time with Ben and Emily and the kids. On Friday I drove up to Traverse City to visit my friend Jon DeBruyn who has been dealing with some serious cancer. We had a wonderful visit and time of prayer together. Jon has been a wonderful example to me of someone using all the medical options he has, using all the alternative diet therapies available and taking prayer seriously with a prayer team coming to pray with him every day for healing. Please remember Jon a moment now in your prayers.

I concluded my time in Holland with a "Family Fun night at Sara's school and headed for home about 10 a.m. Saturday morning. I was really feeling that it was time to get home and anxious to be back with Debra.

I arrived home 9:15 Saturday night for a record drive of just over 11 hours from Holland MI. The total miles I drove from leaving NJ just under 3 weeks ago was 4,590.3  I am very grateful to the Lord for safety in traveling all those miles. Ben and my boats traveld this far on roads in order to be sailed & paddled 300 miles on water.

Ben has been producing some great videos of our time together. If your interested you can view them here by clicking on each title & day below.

EC2013 Day 1

EC2013 Day 2

I'll post the others as he completes them or you can check my facebook page