Journey's Mercies

Yosemite Lakes campground

We were reminded again this past week of how God's providential hand works in our lives. Here's the story...

We had originally planned to take Highway 101 straight south from Whaler's Rest, in South Beach, Oregon, to Crescent City, California. Our GPS told us we should instead go over to I-5 and then south to Grants Pass and back to the coast on US 199. So we headed east on US 20 for Albany and the freeway. Had we not followed that "urging," we might have been in real trouble.

About halfway to Albany, the coach started to give us trouble on the hills, reminiscent of our "adventure" last year heading out from Minnesota. Before long we were struggling along at 25 or 30 mph on every climb and sometimes slower than that. We knew we were going to need some maintenance, so I pulled out my phone and started googling diesel engine repair businesses, specifically CAT engine shops. We found one right off the highway near Corvallis. By the time we neared town, our top speed was down to about 40 mph on the flat road. We didn't bother to call first, and it turned out that they only dealt with agricultural equipment. They referred us to another repair shop not far down the road, but that place told us their schedule was packed out and there was no way they could get us in. . However, they were kind enough to refer us to a place in Albany that could help us-- McKay's Truck & RV Repair. This time we called first. They said, "Come on over, we'll fit you in."

At McKay's for repairs

McKay's had us fixed and running like a charm within a few hours. They replaced our fuel filters, and in the process found a crimped and very damaged fuel line which they also repaired. (Maybe our fuel mileage will improve...we can hope.) While they were at it, we asked them to replace our chassis batteries. Mark has been having trouble starting up the engine over the past month or so, and we were planning to replace them soon anyway.

I have visions of what might have been, had we followed our original plan:  The Follymobile, stopped in the middle of the winding two-lane, sometimes mountainous road that is US 101...on a hill...blocking traffic for a mile behind us, with no repair shops within a hundred miles... waiting for a tow truck.

Our Heavenly Father has been so faithful to us. We don't deserve it by any stretch, yet He comes through for us in the most unexpected ways over and over again.

The Crescent City campground reservation was for only two days, and since it was out of the way at this point, we ended up cancelling it altogether. With no campgrounds reserved until Yosemite, we decided to just go directly there and adjust our reservation as needed.

Our detour

The California wildfires are still going strong in many places. Before we left Oregon, we checked the California Fire Map and found a big red blob right over I-5 between Mt. Shasta and Redding, smack dab in the middle of our path. That particular fire started only the day before we left, but by Thursday that section of freeway was closed in both directions and we were forced to take an eighty mile detour. Pray for rain. The fire fighters are maxed out. We passed a half dozen or so firetrucks and vehicles with their sirens blaring as we headed east toward Yosemite on the last leg of our journey. I read recently that "fire season" generally starts after Labor Day (Who knew there was a "fire season?"), and California has already burned through most of their fire-fighting budget (pardon the pun). Again, pray for rain.

One of several fire crews heading out

So here we are in Yosemite. Getting to the campground was hair-raising. More of those winding, two lane mountain roads. It was a hard climb for our poor old Follymobile, but we got to the top with no other problems. The campground is very remote. We're about five miles from the Park entrance and roughly 18 miles east of Groveland, the nearest real town. We have no phone service here and very poor internet, though there are locations not too far away that we can drive to periodically to check e-mail, make phone calls, and use our data hotspot to take care of our internet activities...such as posting to this blog.

Forgive the window glare...this was looking back as we
climbed Hwy 120 to our campground.

Otherwise, we're communing with nature, and praying that we don't get caught in the middle of any fires or earthquakes while we're here. I'm not too worried. After all, we have a Heavenly Father looking out for us. Even when things look as though they are going wrong, ultimately His good purpose is revealed and His faithfulness to us is confirmed once more.

Matthew 7:11