So, my trip begins along with my first blogging experience. I intend for this to primarily be a photo journal but captions (of sorts) can be helpful too, right? Dad and I met this morning to begin the convoy at 5 A.M. in Kalamazoo and headed west on I- 94. We didn't stop until after merging onto 80 west in Illinois a few hours later. The weather was really humid and hot the whole trip today. The drive across Iowa seemed so long! We stopped two times to rest and snack. I stayed sane with the help of some excellent music [View Full Entry]

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THE WEDELS > WALT AND ANN WILL BE WITH US: “We are from Kalamazoo, MI and spend our winters in Bradenton, FL. Just a few words on our expectations of our trip to Germany and Holland. As we have never been on an INAGURAL, we are looking forward to this one. We are excited to be with our Shuffle Friends Family Hussmann and Family Runge, this time in their home country. We also want to travel to Germany because Walt's Grandparents on both sides of his family come from Wedel, Germany near Hamburg. Yes there is a town by the name [View Full Entry]

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Howdy everyone - Benji here! Thot I should report in on our day! Boy did they get me up early! They really had to bribe me to get me to come out of my spot under the table, where I was sleeping. But a wiener was all it took! And then I also heard those magic letters--C-A-R!!! That will do it every time!! Anyway, after a quick stop at Tim's for guess what - yup, my Timbits (of course my masters got a coffee and a small treat), we were on our way. We drove to the border in Sarnia, where [View Full Entry]

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I've been back in Michigan a week now and everything has been FABULOUS!! The food's great, my family is wonderful, and my friends are the best! And I'm having so much fun DRIVING again! I missed my little car and that incredible freedom! Whoo-hooo! The other day I went to the mall with a friend. The strangest part was seeing all the people. We have such a beautiful and random mixture of people here in the States...although I had a hard time not staring at some "styles of fashion". But I'm sure that'd be the case even if I hadn't been [View Full Entry]

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Surprise! I'm BACK in MICHIGAN!!! Whoo-Hooo!!! I arrived this weekend for 3 weeks with family and friends in the BEAUTIFUL state of MICHIGAN!!! (then I head back to Honduras early January for another 8-?? months). It was a complete surprise to my family (except my sister, Angel, knew), and it was great to see their reactions! It's fabulous being home! I was a little concerned about adjusting, etc. But as soon as I landed in Detroit I felt right at home again! And it's amazing how easy it is to communicate here! It's strange that complete strangers have no problem understanding [View Full Entry]

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Jon and Tracy were married on June 24, 2006. What a fabulous wedding! But first, let’s go back two days ago… on Thursday, the guys took Jon to the local Hooters for drinks and cigars. After Tracy and the gals crashed the party, a few of us decided to continue on to Cruisers for more drinks and a few games of pool. We all felt great that night… until the next morning (what a headache!) Friday was reserved for setting up the backyard for the wedding and to do a quick rehearsal. The wedding day finally arrived. Everyone pitched in to [View Full Entry]

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Hi everyone! We’re very sorry for not updating our travel blog for the last few days. I wish I could claim that: 1. Our computer died just as I was writing our first travel journal. 2. Our car broke down as we left our house and we didn’t leave until now. 3. None of our hotels had internet access until today. Unfortunately, none of these things have happened. But we have been on the road for up to 12 hours a day and totally exhausted by the time we got to our hotel for the night. Since we were trying to [View Full Entry]

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We'll we're back in Michigan, although I'm not quite home yet. Things in Chicago went very smoothly and I escaped U.S. Customs without losing anything. I had checked a box saying I was bringing in food (although it was only commercially packaged curry spices) and as soon as the customs officers saw that he sent me over to U.S. Agriculture and decided to pull apart the suitcases of some other victim. This is one of the few times I've escaped inspection at O'Hare. For some reason, they like to pick on me. While I can't list what contraband I brought in [View Full Entry]

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