Early Morning Travels

My alarm sang its cheerful melody at 12:40 this morning.  I quickly sat up, somehow did the two math problems to turn the alarm off and finally rolled rather clumsily out of bed.  With only about an hour and some minutes of sleep, I felt very groggy and not very much awake. 

Why was I awake at such an hour?  Six students, another chaperone and I would start an adventure that would take us to two great cities in the United States of America.  But first, I had to wake up a little bit more to enjoy it. 

My co-worker Ryan texted me, “Are you awake?”

I replied back with an affirmative and packed the few remaining items into my duffle bag.  Hope I got everything!  The students and my co-worker stayed up all night but I, by God’s grace, fell asleep for a little while.  “He grants sleep to those he loves” (Psalm 127:2). 

We gathered outside the dorms for a picture, loaded up the van and headed down to Pittsburgh to catch an early morning train. 

The early morning travelers

 Thankfully, the drive was uneventful.  No deer dared to dodge the van, no trucks tried to run us down and I stayed awake as I drove.  Wei, the woman who would drive the van back, and another student chatted along about different things while I was lost in my own early morning thoughts.  I will appreciate her coming to pick us up after our journey is finished.

We waited only about twenty minutes at the station before we boarded the train.  At first the excitement of a new experience kept the students awake. 

The early morning night light on two students

"Peace!"

But one by one they drifted off into a deep slumber as we made our way to the first city, some eight hours away.

I eagerly waited for the sunrise but instead a gray fog covered the landscape.  There have only been a few times when I caught the sun peaking over the horizon, ironically twice in another country and maybe once or twice here.  But this morning he hid himself behind the colorless grayness.  Perhaps another day I will catch the sunrise but not today.

This adventure will continue throughout the week and I hope to keep you updated about our adventures.