27 May 2013
We were up and ready to take off long before Ingebjorg woke
up this morning so we packed the car, striped the sheets, showered and made
breakfast, all without waking her up.
She was so bummed we had to leave so early this morning, but it’s a good
8 hours drive back home and I was hoping to make it in time for a Bible study
meeting tonight with friends from Philadelphia Church. We only made one long stop along the way – to
a thrift store of course - about half
way home. I got a few more treasures, which
I have no place for, but they were things I just couldn’t resist and they were
cheap – most of them under a buck. We
didn’t stop anywhere else along the way because there were four ferry rides
involved and they are timed so we can catch them all if we go the speed limit
and don’t stop. I even drove most of the
way, which kept me well occupied, as it’s really not possible to take one’s
eyes off the road or sudden death will follow soon thereafter. The main roads in Norway are anything but
main (see photo below).
Kaleb sat in the back and alternated between schoolwork and
electronic games. He didn’t make a peep
the whole day. We did make a quick stop
soon after we departed Bergen as there was a rest stop with a climbing wall on
it and I knew he’d enjoy that. That boy
hasn’t used many muscles in the last few weeks so it was good for him to
stretch out a bit.
We had sunshine the whole day and lots of beautiful scenery
to look at, especially the closer to home we got. There is nothing in Norway that compares to
the mountains around Aalesund.
The Bible study I was trying to get to started at 7pm and
miraculously, we got home at 6:55. It is
in our neighborhood, so I called my friend just to be sure it was still
on. It was, but she’d shifted the
starting time to 7:30, whew, which allowed me time to unpack most of the things
from the car before heading over there.
I was in hyper speed sorting through things, putting them away and
getting laundry started. I can’t believe
I made it home in time as we didn’t leave until a little after 10 this
morning. I’d hoped to leave at eight o’clock,
but God still kept us on track with no unexpected events along the way.
Before we left on this trip I was full of anxiety about
going. If something happened to the car
or to us, I wasn’t sure what we’d do.
Why I get so wrapped around the axel, I don’t know, but now that I’m
back home I wonder what all the fussing was about. We had a great trip, got to visit family, and
have two of the best experiences I’ve had here in Norway – climbing up Pulpit
Rock and going to the 17th of May parade in Oslo. It was blessed by God all the way around and
I’m so thankful for the opportunity to travel so freely. We even stayed on budget, even with all my
thrift store purchases. How that
happened, I have no idea, but I’ve yet to receive the bills for all the
automatic toll stations we passed through, so that will kick me over a bit, I’m
sure – but that will be on next month’s budget and I won’t worry about that for
now.
Kaleb wasn’t home five minutes before he was Skyping his
friend Daniel and asking if he could go see him tomorrow. I’m glad he has a buddy to hang with here,
even if they do spend most of their time on the computer.
Our guests from Seattle came back tonight shortly after we
got home. They spend their days with
their son and his family just a block away, but they are sleeping here for the
month they are in Norway. They leave
June 8th, so until then we are sleeping in Kaleb’s room and trying
to be quiet after they go to bed. We’ve become quite the night owls but the
days are growing longer and it’s still light out at midnight so it’s hard to
sleep before then.
There’s not much on our agenda between now and when we head
home in four weeks, except to rent out our place and hopefully find a way home
for most of my treasures. One suitcase
already made it back home as our friends we met in Oslo took it with them. I know I have a problem with collecting stuff,
but I have no interest in fixing it because there’s just too much joy in owning
so many cool old handmade things from Norway.
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