Alamo City

I've been in San Antonio for almost a month now and feel like I am really settling in, meeting some new people and getting acclimated to the job and church. Overall, feeling pretty good about the move. But in order to get here, first I had to drive... Beginning on Sunday, July 2nd my friend Peter and I drove from Seattle to Ashland, Oregon then San Francisco then Los Angeles then Phoenix then El Paso to finally arrive on the river walk on July 7th. We stayed with my old friend Jason and his wife in Oregon on the first night then we went to San Fran where we spent the day with our friend Ashlee and her family in the city and then met up with some more friends at her house. Next was the drive to Hermosa Beach via what was supposed to be a brief stop in Los Angeles. To make a long story short we were lost/detoured/frustrated/confused for about 2 hours on the 4th of July in Santa Monica amidst drunk, bicycle riding revelers. No worries, we made it out alive and enjoyed the empty beach the next morning. We got into Phoenix the next night to stay with my dad and his family, which sounds easy enough but not when you're driving into the city at 50 mph on a spare tire on a 80 mph highway. Survived that too. It was a nice visit and I learned that they will probably be moving to Dallas soon which is pretty close to San Antonio. The spare tire was replaced the next morning which made our departure time later than anticipated so we decided to scrap a night in New Mexico and drive straight to El Paso. Not much to say about El Paso. The next days drive from there to San Antonio was a lesson in endurance, when all I wanted to do was get to the city I had been thinking about for the past couple of months while there was still 540 miles of desert (then prettier Live Oaks) between me and my destination. Anyway, we made it and did some touristy things for a couple of days, like stand in front of the Alamo and float down the Guadalupe River.
So that was the journey in a nut shell but I have a feeling that there will be a lot of events through my new job that I will dutifully update you on in the future. Like, my mom is coming into town tomorrow and I'm excited to see a familiar (familial) face- especially hers. My new boss, Jason (bottom pic), and his family are really awesome and we have a lot of fun things planned for the year like a week-long Texas road trip in October, retreats and mission trips. I hope everyone is well and that I'll get to hear from you soon but until then, keep the wind at your back and the sun on your face.