Back to School

This might get long but I hope to catch up to the present.

Kali, Susie and I left for Chicago on the Monday after Caleb and Liv's wedding. My Mom and Dad and brother Scot drove us up and we spent the night near O'Hare airport. Susie and I had an early flight on Tuesday morning to Morelia Mexico to go to language school and Kali flew back to Magdalena. We had a 5 hour layover in Houston and finally boarded our plane at 5:30pm. We taxied out from the gate and the pilot told us there was going to be a slight delay due to weather. Two hours later (at the time we should have been landing in Morelia) we finally took off from Houston. Joel Leman was meeting us at the airport in Morelia and we had no way of letting him know we were going to be late. He ended up spending a few hours playing ping pong with the Federal Police at the airport. We arrived in the rain at 9:30 and had a hot and fast ride into town in a taxi. I don't do well traveling in a car if I am not driving and was feeling pretty car sick by the time we arrived at our apartment. We were exhausted after the wedding weekend and a big day of traveling and crashed right away. We were up early and at the Baden-Powell Institute first thing in the morning.

We arrived an hour before classes started to take a placement test. We were on a short schedule and were actually jumping into classes in the middle of the week, we arrived on Wednesday and they usually start new classes each Monday. We were taking 5 hours of classes from 9 am to 1pm and by the end of the day my mind was swimming. We usually took some time right after class to exercise and clear our heads. We had been training for a bike ride called RAIN (Ride Across Indiana) which we were planning on doing July 18th. We couldn't take our bikes to Morelia so we were trying to run every day. We found that there was an old Olympic Stadium not far from our apartment. The 1968 Olympics were held in Mexico and the old Stadium was now open to the public. I even found a bike shop and bought the new seat I had been looking for in the States. I did my homework every night sitting on my bike seat hoping it would help keep me ready for RAIN.

There were several others from CVE taking classes at the same time we were and it was nice to see familiar faces. We were in the same apartment building as Joel and Christi Leman and would see the others daily at the school. Joel and Christi showed us around the city and took us out to eat on Thursday night. Morelia is an old city and is full of coffee shops and street cafes. We ate near the Cathedral in an open air cafe, we were even serenaded by a mariachi band.

The Cathedral at night.

On Saturday we visited a National Park about 2 hours south of Morelia. It was a beautiful place with water everywhere. There was a spring fed river through the middle with smaller streams flowing along the paths and walkways.

On Sunday we took a bus across town to the house where they gather for church services.

The room where we had our Church services.

It was a blessing to gather with our Spanish church family and get to know them better. They made us feel so welcome, as if we had known them all our lives. It's also a blessing to see how they depend on each other, everyone working together to glorify the name of Christ and share His Word.

We spent 15 days in Morelia and it is a city rich with old architecture and history. We took hundreds of pictures and I wish I could post them all but know I can't. There were Cathedrals that were built in the 1500's, an aqueduct that ran through the middle of the city and beautiful fountains and plazas. Most of the buildings had beautiful courtyards and gardens in their centers. We ate at a roof top restaurant with a spiral staircase and beautiful stone work. However, there was also extreme poverty and many homeless and people begging . I know the US has it's problems but we are truly a blessed country and take so much for granted.

The Aqueduct

The Staircase to the rooftop cafe

This odd looking tree curved over the sidewalk along the aqueduct. We called it the "gum tree" because all the colored spots were pieces of chewed gum that people stuck there as they passed. It was actually kind of pretty and some of the gum still had a lot of flavor left in it. (Just kidding)

Our time in Morelia passed quickly and suddenly it was time to head back to Illinois. We flew out of Morelia at 6:30am on July 15th. we were up at 3:15am to get to the airport and again had a 5 hour layover in Houston. We arrived in Chicago at 4:30 and took the "L" to the Amtrak station arriving in Bloomington at 9:30pm. It was a really long day. We crashed at my mom and dad's for a few nights and headed out to Indiana for the RAIN Ride. It had been 16 days since we had been on our bikes and we were a little out of shape despite our running in Morelia. I think we were saved by the fact that the elevation in Morelia is over 6400 feet compared to Indiana's 700, so we needed less oxygen. Saturday morning arrived cloudy and cold somewhere in the low 50's. Who would have thought that the high temp for July 18th in the Midwest would be 63 degrees.

Susie and I, Clark and Lisa Leman, Byron Gerber and Curt and Jenell Hodel

6:50am and we're still smiling - only 160 miles to go!!

RAIN is an endurance ride from Terra Haute IN to Richmond IN which is more or less 160 miles depending on the route. It's a mass start of about 1200+ riders who mostly do it for "fun" although some of them are pretty serious. We started out at 7am with a slight tailwind out of the northwest and finished a little after 7pm. We averaged over 16.5 mph and had about 9 and a half hours of actual time on the bikes. Susie and I ran into Clark at the start and we had a few flat tires. Clark lost a pedal somewhere around the 120 mile mark and had to improvise with with one of my spare pedals and one of my spare shoes. Curt's brakes stuck on and for awhile he thought he was just really tired until he realized what was wrong. We all finished in spite of these few minor incidents and just like every year before said we are never doing this again.

7:20 pm and we're still smiling - just happy to be off the bike seat after 160 miles.

We spent the night in Indianapolis and went to church there on Sunday morning. It was great to see our friends there on Sunday morning. (Indianapolis had a work team in Magdalena when we left for Illinois.)

We spent the next week and a half in Illinois while Zach finished his Drivers Ed class and Nate finished his season with the swim team. We enjoyed seeing our friends and family but didn't get to do and see all we wanted. The time just seemed to fly by. We started the trip back to Magdalena on Thursday July 30th after Zach finished his class. Our van was packed so full we barely had room for Zach and Nate.

We ate supper with Mom and Dad and were on the road at 5:26pm. My plan was to drive through the night and stop late in the afternoon on Friday but with the time change we were able to make it to Tucson by 6:30 Friday evening. We spent the night and met up with a group of girls coming to help with Bible School at CVE but that will have to wait until the next post. We arrived in Magdalena on Saturday evening thankful for a safe trip.

La Familia Zobrist