Eek! The day has arrived! The car is packed. I’m ready and my son is still in bed. I’m threatening to throw a glass of water on him if he doesn’t get up! Teenagers! How could he sleep at such an exciting time?!
While I was getting dressed this morning and contemplating how I would begin the journal of our trip, some lines from one of my favorite musicals, Yentl, crossed my mind. “What’s wrong with wanting more? If you can fly, then soar! With all there is, why settle for just a piece of sky?” (See the link and lyrics below…I just love this song!)

So we’re off to see the beauty of Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and everywhere we have time to see on the road in between. We’re planning to go to museums and shows and landmarks. We’re going on hikes and boat trips and trail rides. We’re visiting some friends along the way and plan to make friends with strangers too. I hope that this trip will draw Eli and I together and will be healing for both of us. I hope it will give him the desire to see and do and experience more in this life. And I hope that it will give him a sense of awe and wonder at the sheer vastness, magnitude, and majesty of creation and of the Creator. Even with a month to travel, there is not nearly enough time to enjoy and experience it all, but we can surely enjoy what we have time to experience.

I hereby dedicate this trip to the three men I have learned the most from in this life thus far….my husband Ellis, who I so wish I had traveled with more; my Sweet B, whose positive energy and sense of adventure was boundless; and last, but definitely not least, my father, who gave me the genes of an adventurer and then raised me to be a strong and courageous woman. Thank you Daddy! (Papa, watch me fly!)

For those of you who didn’t think it would happen and for those of you who encouraged me to do it by telling me I couldn’t or wouldn’t (you know who you are and you know me too well!), I am sticking out my tongue at you as I pull out of my driveway! Eli and I are off to explore the world outside our little piece of it. We’re excited and a little nervous, but adventure calls as we pull onto the open road! God only knows what the next month will bring, but whatever it is, it’s going to be awesome!

Here’s the link to the Yentl song…A Piece of Sky

 A Piece of Sky

Lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman

Tell me where

Where is it written

What is it I was meant to be?

That I can’t dare

It all began the day I found

That from my window I could only see

A piece of sky

I stepped outside and looked around

I never dreamed it was so wide

Or even half as high

The time had come

(Papa, can you hear me?)

To try my wings

(Papa, are you near me?)

And even thought it seemed at any moment I could fall

I felt the most

(Papa, can you see me?)

Amazing things

(Can you understand me?)

The things you can’t imagine

If you’ve never flown at all

Though it’s safer to stay on the ground

Sometimes where danger lies

There the sweetest of pleasures are found

No matter where I go

There’ll be memories that tug at my sleeve

But there will also be

More to question, yet more to believe

Oh tell me where?
Where is the someone who will turn and look at me?

And want to share

My every sweet-imagined possibility?

The more I live, the more I learn

The more I learn, the more I realize

The less I know

Each step I take

(Papa, I’ve a voice now!)

Each page I turn

(Papa, I’ve a choice now!)

Each mile I travel only means

The more I have to go

What’s wrong with wanting more?

If you can fly, then soar!

With all there is, why settle for

Just a piece of sky?
Papa, I can hear you

Papa, I can see you

Papa, I can feel you

Papa, watch me fly!