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The Day Was Amost Perfect
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Pocket Full of Quarters Journey 2015
The Day Was Almost Perfect...But Then...
Written In: Steamboat Springs, Colorado
By Cheryle M. Touchton
The Pocket Full of Quarters Lady
Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4
The timing worked out perfectly. I drove into Denver Airport just as Bob arrived at the curb. I don't know who was more excited to see him - Shiloh or me - but I do know that Shiloh was better at attracting his attention first as Bob climbed into the driver's seat of Hallelujah and relieved me of driving. It felt wonderful to sit back and let someone else drive.
We headed west to Estes Park, checked into the KOA, and then went for an evening drive through the lower end of the Rocky Mountain National Park. We grilled steaks out by Lake Sprague and on our way back to our campsite, a huge bull Elk walked across the street right in front of us. It was a perfect beginning for our anniversary weekend.
The next morning, I woke up before Bob and, as I lay in bed staring at him, I thought about those wedding pictures I'd posted on FaceBook at midnight the night before. Someone posted, "You were just kids." To me, Bob was the same man I'd married just 1 week after my 19th birthday. He even still has good knees. People warned us that we were marrying too early but I'd do it exactly the same way again. I wouldn't have wanted to miss a moment of our marriage. Married life certainly hasn't been perfect but Bob Touchton was and is perfectly made for me.
Our campsite was perfect. It had a dog park and a clean bathhouse. Our picnic table looked right out over the Rockies with an unobstructed view. I cooked Bob a bacon, cheese, and avocado omelet with toast. Bob said it was perfect. We put Shiloh on her leash and ate outside in the perfect cool morning air. Our morning devotions were made more blessed than usual by overlooking God's perfect creation, the Rocky Mountains.
Bob took a couple of hours in the morning to do camper repairs. I love how perfectly he takes care of me. We have a storage place under the bed that can only be gotten to by opening the back. I'd used supplies from it to teach classes but couldn't get everything to fit back. Bob carefully repacked so I didn't have to leave everything on the bed. He repaired the cup holder I'd broken. He'd already dumped the holding tanks the night before and will do that again before he leaves on Monday. He refilled the fresh water holding tanks and repaired some loose screws keeping the curtains from opening and closing. It isn't every wife who can say her husband repaired her loose screws.
We spent the day driving west across the Rocky Mountain National Park. We hiked holding hands and took pictures of animals, lakes, streams, and mountains. We ate lunch in Hallelujah on top of a mountain. Shiloh was miffed because the park didn't allow pets on the trails but we stopped at lots of overlooks where she got plenty of attention from other tourists. Shiloh is convinced everyone who walks by is there just for her and most agree with her.
We arrived right at dinner time in Steamboat Springs. Bob had done his research and picked out a perfect restaurant. We shared a prime rib in the flower filled garden of the barn turned into a restaurant, Ore House at Pine Grove. I'd toured my neighbor's RoadTrek the day before and all I could talk about was getting a storage bin like hers to keep on top of the closet. Bob delighted me by measuring the space, stopping by Wal-Mart, and helping me pick out a perfectly sized container.
"This better work after all the money we've invested in it!" Bob said as we left Wal-Mart.
I gasped. I hadn't even checked the price. "How much was it?"
"87 cents," Bob said, grinning with that smile that said I'd fallen for his teasing again.
When we pulled into our campsite, I realized Bob had booked us a site right on the Yampi River. "Bob! This day has been perfect! I love this campground! The site is perfect!"
"It was almost perfect. The only thing missing from the day was that we didn't have any encounters," Bob replied, as he easily backed into the narrow space.
"I know. I thought about that. We talked to so many people but none led to anything."
We stepped outside our camper and began hooking Hallelujah up when the man from the next campsite walked over to ask where we were from. It turned out that he was a local and there camping for one last summer weekend with his wife and 2 children. He went to a Baptist Church on holidays and guessed he believed in Jesus. He admitted that he'd never had any kind of relationship with God and that he hadn't a clue about where he was going in the afterlife. There in the moonlight with the sound of the rushing Yampi rapids as our musical backdrop, our day became truly perfect as Brendon asked Jesus to be his Savior.
Bob and I went inside the camper totally amazed. God had given us an anniversary gift by sending a Divine Encounter at the end of at that point, an almost perfect day. We closed the curtains, moved his suitcase from the bed to the front seat, and ...
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