The End

Well friends, the trip is over!  I'm sitting on my bed in my parents house as I type this post.  The road trip was amazing, and it's crazy to think that it's done!

When I got back to San Antonio, my parents took me out to Buffalo Wild Wings (it was AMAZING to not even have to think about paying for my own food!!!!) and asked me what my favorite part of the trip was.  I paused for a moment and then said that it was getting to do something new and exciting every day.  I kind of felt like this was a cop out answer because it wasn't very specific, but I feel like it was merited because it actually pertains to the whole trip.  It takes a pretty loose word to cover such an extensive and varied trip!

The highlights of the trip (from each city) were:
Arizona: Meeting all of Bekah's awesome family, "horseback riding", and eating at Egee's.
San Diego: Snorkeling, working at the food pantry, blaring music while walking down the humongous hill after visiting Point Loma, and taking my first bus.
LA: Disneyland (shopping, riding, and eating), and making a million transfers with our outrageous amount of luggage (Bekah will definitely NOT agree with that last one!).
Sacramento: Swing Dancing and stealing wifi from Panera.
Portland: Surfing, swimming in Deep Creek, going on field trips with Darcy, Mike, and Mikayla.
Seattle: Taking the ferry, meeting people from all over the world, working at the mission, baking cookies, riding Kevin's Harley, and taking pictures with the troll under the Fremont bridge.
West Glacier: Meeting our Couchsurfers host, white water rafting in the rain, watching movies while cuddled up in bed, and eating warm huckleberry pie with huckleberry ice cream.
Chicago: Basically getting paid a lot of money to stay the night, and taking my first solo taxi ride.
Holland: Seeing Christine and Nate, giving Bekah the tour of campus (and accidentally showing her around the wrong dorm...yeah I won't be living that one down for a while!).

The interesting thing about that list, is that almost everything on it was caused or impacted by some sort of inconvenience.  If nothing else, this trip has taught me that sweating the small things does not pay off. This is mainly because, more often than not, those annoying little things are what you'll remember most when the trip is over and you're home again.  It's far preferable to laugh at yourself in the moment and in the future rather than to sulk in the moment and be embarrassed when you look back at how you handled things.  Besides, humorous stories of misfortune are the most entertaining stories of all!  (As I'm sure you know if you've been reading Bekah's blog and mine. ;)

On that note, thanks for tuning in and being a part of our trip!  I know that I for one wouldn't have been so diligent about posting every night if I hadn't been aware of all of you reading back home.  (That especially goes for my mom who made sure I knew that she expected to have something to read with her coffee each morning! ;)  God has done awesome things in Bekah and I in the past month, and it's been a pleasure to share those things with you.

I don't think I changed any lives during this trip, but my life has definitely been changed.  True to the title of this blog, I have experienced many people loving for real in each of the places we have visited in this past month.  I've seen people unselfishly serving in the missions we've worked at.  I've witnessed random strangers giving generously on the streets.  I've experienced people I didn't even know loving me when they didn't have to.  It's amazing.  God is everywhere, and I know without a doubt that he's working everywhere without making exceptions or showing distinctions.  GOD is loving for real, and it is our privilege to follow in his footsteps.

Rebekah