Friday, June 23: Katie and Adam Harrington, Newburg, OR

What a blessing to see these guys again after all these years! Katie is about the same age as my youngest brother, Ty. So we are about 8 years apart - I was a young mother and she was still a teenager when we went to church together back in Alaska. When we left, she and Adam (whom she met at George Fox University in OR) were engaged. She saw our travels on Facebook and invited us to stop if we were going through Newburg and it worked out perfectly :)

Now they are expecting their 4th baby in a few months and it was so fun to see them and meet their sweet little boys, Tennyson and Coen. We’ll be excited to meet little Aidan one day on the other side, too. It was so fun to see their awesome bus remodel. What a neat project! When she was pregnant with their second, three years ago, they bought a retired Denali National Park tour bus at an auction. They raised the ceiling (Adam is 6’4”) and created this beautiful and homey space for their family. They lived at the end of the Homer Spit for a while (Google that one - you won’t be disappointed). After Aidan passed away, they relocated to Newburg, OR near Adam’s family. I loved hearing a bit about their adventures taking that bus down the Al-Can! I thought driving our van and camper were big, but that thing is crazy!!

I was sooo impressed with the beautiful space they created. We all got to take hot showers which felt miraculous. We’ve had to 4-5 days without showers and that has been probably the most challenging thing about the trip. That and laundry. I should definitely have packed more than 6 pairs of underwear for everyone.

We spent most of today catching up and getting everyone showers, which took literally all day. Now we are heading to the border. Emptying the camper, filling up the water and propane, buying drinking water, doing

laundry all in Olympia, WA and, if all goes well, heading into Canada where we will most likely not have service until we reach Alaska. We purchased a copy of the Milepost, which is a giant book dedicated to a mile-by-mile description of each section of the highway. A must without cell service to find stops like gas and camping along the way!