A traveler’s guide to packing a carry-on

Packing is a huge part of being a world-traveling traveler. As you can imagine, packing for a family going on a two-month trip can be long, difficult, stressful, and just plain mind-numbing. But, we have found a system, and I would like to share my experiences with you. In this blog, I will focus on what to pack in your carry-on.

The carry-on is a very important piece of luggage because you can carry it on with you (really???), whether it be a bus, plane, boat, etc. The most important things to have in your carry-on are your passports and tickets. You can’t go very far without them.

Also, its handy to keep some extra cash on hand for snacks, and unexpected fees, etc. A lot of countries will charge you an entrance fee, which, in Central America, is usually between $10-20. Some countries will also charge you an exit fee. (Which I think is a rip-off.) You need to know what countries you will be visiting and find out what fees you will pay.

Everyone in my family has their own carry-on.

Back to the carry-on: it should have stuff that’ll entertain you for however long it takes to get to your destination. I’m a big bookworm, so I make sure I bring loads of books, or buy them on my kindle. My two younger brothers ( they’re 9 and 11) are not as interested in reading, so they download games on their tablets that don’t need internet. Earphones are an excellent item to pack, because on international flights, they may show a movie, but the earphones they give you are cheaply made and you can’t hear from them very well. On one flight, we had to purchase the earphones. With a family of seven, that gets expensive. So, it’s a better idea to just bring your own.

Something my mom always brings on these trips is a travel blanket and pillow to sleep with, or just to make the seat more comfy. If you do a lot of traveling, a neck pillow that folds up small is great. My mom has slept on a lot of trips with her “magic neck pillow.” She also uses it to pad the metal arms on seats, and has used it for her back (she says it’s her “lumbar support.”) I’ll take her word for it.

Waiting for a bus in Costa Rica

Another thing my family uses often when we travel around is Dramamine. It helps us with nausea, which is the worst when you’re traveling especially on buses on mountain roads. There is even a children’s Dramamine in liquid form that my younger siblings can take.

All of these items should pack comfortably in your carry-on. Now that you have learned the secret to packing a killer carry-on, you are ready to start your own adventure.

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Into the Moutains

     Being a missionary helps you learn what’s important in a certain culture. For instance, the Mexican culture centers around relationships, they are a very relational people and love to spend quality time with their friends, neighbors, pastors, family, etc.  That’s how we have found our way into their hearts.  My parents have learned to drop everything for relationships.  For instance, my dad was building bunk beds for teams that come to the base and our neighbors come over to talk. My dad stops running his tools, leans up against his truck, and invests relationally.  Women stop by our house to see what my mom is doing and sometimes it turns into counseling times.  

A missionary has to drop what they are doing in order to invest in people and strengthen their relationships. 

     I explained all this relationship stuff so you can understand how it is here with most of the people/pastors.  One of the pastors, Constantino, from the YWAM Queretaro Bible Institute that my parents started, invited YWAM Queretaro (that’s our base) to his church’s sixth anniversary celebration.  Pastor Constantino also asked my dad to preach at the anniversary.  In Latin America, church anniversaries are a huge deal, so it was a great honor to be allowed to come and preach there.  

Very curvy mountain roads.

    The team that went was me, my dad, two of my brothers, my sister, and a short-term team of four from Illinois.  It was about a three hour drive, and we picked up another pastor from the mountains, Antonio, at a half-way point.  One hour into the drive, we saw the mountain that we were gonna be on. The church we were going to was on the other side of the mountain, but we had to go around a mountain range to get there, so it took another two hours.  The view, though, was amazing. The village we were going to was actually called, “Piñones,” meaning pinecone seeds.  

     We left the base at 6:30, and arrived around 9:30. When we got there, we went to the pastor’s daughter’s house to eat breakfast.  I don’t drink coffee unless they give it to me. Well, they gave me coffee and I don’t want to be rude, so I drank it. (Praise the Lord for sugar and milk!)   After we ate, we went to the church that had a big tarp over the front yard, so a bunch of people can sit down in the shade and not get rained on.  In rural Mexico, many people, due to deep Catholic roots, will not go into an Evangelical church.  So, Pastor Constantino put up the big tarp so everybody in the village would come to the event, and not have to go into the church building.

You can see the pole and tarp at the very top of this picture.

     The service began, and we sang some older songs which I knew. (It kinda surprised me that I knew them!) After that, my dad started preaching in Spanish, which was really out of his comfort zone, but he did it anyway. (Way to go, dad!) Then, Dominic, a YWAM-er visiting our base, gave his testimony and we went to lunch.

       After lunch, I thought there was going to be more preaching, but it turned to be more like a concert with different people singing Norteño/Huapango. This type of music is similar to what you hear when you go to a Mexican restaurant. It’s often played very loud and has a lot of accordion in it, which I liked. A lot of the other people on our YWAM team weren’t used to this kind of music, so they got to have a new experience!  

      The second half of the day was more relaxed, so we kind of walked around the church grounds and talked to people. At 9:00 p.m.,  the concert and celebration ended.  We thought the service was going to take 3, maybe 4 hours, but it lasted 11 hours!  

     After a very long church service, we set up our sleeping bags and hammocks in the church building and slept very well that night.  We woke up the next morning, and ate at the pastor’s daughter’s house again. Then we led the Sunday morning service. The team from Illinois (the DeSotel family), ministered to the church, and we promptly left at one o’clock to drive three hours back to the base.  

      That is one of the things I love about being a missionary. We often think of missionaries preaching on streets, visiting houses, orphanages, and preaching in parks, but missionary work isn’t always that way.  

     Sometimes, you’re drinking coffee with a pastor; other times you’re entertaining guests because they made a surprise visit to your house.  Sometimes, being a missionary is sitting through eleven hours of Mexican-style music and listening to sermons.  In these situations,

I have to remind myself, “It’s not about me!” But, my main goal in being a missionary is just to love on people and show them that Jesus loves them.

Cowan, Jesse, JonDavid, and me.

Hardship and Sacrifice

Every time I read a literature book for my school work, I have to do an essay about what I learned.  So, I figured I could hit two birds with one stone, by writing an essay and posting a blog.  Henry Martyn said,

“The Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of missions and the nearer we get to Him, the more intensely missionary we become.”

My literature book

         The change in people’s hearts and lives after they receive Christ is tremendous.  In the book that I read for my missions’ course, I learned about a missionary couple called the Beekmans. This was a family of six, who worked as Wycliffe translators during the 1950’s and 60’s for the Chol Indians in Chiapas, Mexico.  When the Beekmans first came to “Amado Nirvo,” (the Chol village where they felt called to work), the inhabitants who lived there were ruled by fear, death, and witchcraft.  By the time the Beekmans moved on to other callings about ten years later, the village was totally transformed. There were no longer practicing witch doctors, the village boys were trained and sent to other villages to preach the Gospel, and the church of the Chol was growing rapidly. 

           Being a missionary myself, I know the challenges of learning new languages and cultures. Because of that, I have a great respect for the Beekmans because they were determined to understand the Chols’ culture in order to advance God’s kingdom.

Sacrifice is a word that often makes us cringe, but at times, some sacrifices need to be made so our relationships with God can grow. 

There are many times in our lives where God will ask us to sacrifice for Him.

However, make sure you don’t get sacrifice mixed up with hardship.  Hardship is when things go wrong and tragedy happens. I don’t believe God authors hardship, but He does call us to face it with courage and trust. Facing hardship gives you experience, and a testimony, but it can be heartbreaking.  

        The Beekmans willingly sacrificed their comforts and faced hardship as well.  Their watched their first child die from a severe illness. They were often cursed by a witch doctor. They missed their family back in the states, and they contracted multiple illnesses due to the lack of sanitary resources.  

        Despite these trials, I believe their treasures in heaven were growing exponentially.  For my family as missionaries, we have also sacrificed a lot of things. We have learned to eat different types of food, we have faced cultural and language  differences, and we often miss friends and family from back home. It helps us to always remember our promise of the treasure of heaven.

I was in a drama that helps share Jesus at a park close to my home. (Dave Desonier Photography)

     The need for missionaries is huge!  There are 7000 people groups (2.9 billion people!) who have never heard the gospel.  We obviously need more missionaries; lost souls need people who will say, “yes.”  When I grow up, I want to be a missionary in the 10-40 window.  

       Because Luke 10:2 (NASB) says,  “And He was saying to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few…”   I speak for all the missionaries at our base, when I ask you to pray for us, and for more laborers (or missionaries) to come to our base.  “Therefore, beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the Harvest..”         

 

Christmas Thoughts in July

         Do you have Christmas traditions?  Do you set up a Christmas tree, make homemade eggnog, make fudge, and hang out with your family?   Well, everything I mentioned, we did too.  Until we answered the call to be missionaries.   Our world was turned upside down (in a good way).  Last year we actually came to the states to celebrate Christmas, but this year, we’re going to have to stay in Mexico because we’re getting a team three days after Christmas.  

       But while I’m writing, I want to discuss how different Christmas is here than in the states. 

    Weather:  the weather here, during Christmas is around 70 degrees on the hottest days, and 40 on the coldest days.  The people here do not like the cold weather so the actually wear parkas, scarves, and mittens, I think that they wear more in their mild winter here than than some people in the States (especially my Granddaddy) wear for one of our mild falls. 

We always sleep in the living room on the 24th of December

 Decorating: People take decorating here very very seriously, about every other house has at least one string of lights. All the big stores have tons of Christmas trees   for sale for about 400 pesos (20 dollars) plus they have all the regular Christmas songs in Spanish. 

  Traditions:    About a week before Christmas people do a thing called a Las Posadas. Las posadas is kinda like caroling, but its very Catholic.  So what they do is they go down the streets and they sing and knock on peoples doors and ask/sing for something to eat.  If the people in the houses want them to eat with them, then they will sing back to the people on the street.  Another tradition is eating a special bread called rosca which is kind of like a circular fruitcake.  But there are actually little plastic baby Jesus’ in the cake, so everybody gets a chance to cut the cake, and the person that gets a little plastic figurine of baby Jesus in their slice of cake has to buy all the participants tamales on February  2nd.

    The coolest part about Christmas is getting to spend time with your family.  My favorite gift that I got this  Christmas was having my Grandparents come down here to Mexico to spend Christmas with us.  It was probably my favorite Christmas present ever.

 

     

My expired Passport

It was December 11th, 2016 and we were going back to Panama! Outreach was finally over and we were pooped (Pardon my language). We flew from the La Paz to Santa Cruz to catch our second plane that left for Panama at 2:00 a.m. Our initial plan was to get to Panama and stay there for a week so we could go to the DTS students’ graduation and then fly back to the states.

The team had all gone through registration and it was our turn to get our mountain of bags checked in. So we waited, and waited, and waited, but mom and dad were still talking to the airport guy (I don’t think we ever caught that guy’s name). It turned out, that my passport was expiring in 2 months and the minimum to enter into panama is 3 months, so I couldn’t get in to Panama (basically it means I was illegal in every country except the United States). After the airport guy left to go do something, Dad started shooting ideas to mom, as to whether or not mom and I would stay in Bolivia, and Dad take the rest of the kids back to Panama. Or we stay in Bolivia, and let the team go to Panama without us. Right now, we’re in an airport setting with lots of people talking, shouting, and making a bunch of noise. But finally, mom and dad made a decision for us to stay in Bolivia, and let the team go back to Panama.

We gathered the team and told them about the situation, it also meant that we wouldn’t see some of the DTS (discipleship training school) students again. After a tearful goodbye, (for some people) the DTS group left to go catch their flight.

But our story is far from over. All the kids were asleep (now 3:00 a.m.) taking up two large booths in a restaurant and somebody had to watch the luggage, that responsibility fell on yours truly. So Mom, Dad, and I basically had an all-nighter (and not the fun kind where you spend the whole night playing Halo). I was in charge of watching over baggage, so in order not to get bored I goose-stepped back and forth in front of the mountain of bags and watched the second Hobbit on a near-by T.V (in Spanish). Mom got special permission to go behind the desk and talked with the airline so we could get our flights connected. Dad was trying to get to mom and they refused to let him back in the office with her because of security reasons. So dad had no idea where Mom was and he became a bit upset with the security officer. He wanted to make sure Mom was ok. So Dad calmed down because he thought a Bolivian jail would only make logistics worse in our present situation. I had no desire to become then man of the house.

There was no direct flights to United States so we had to make a stop in Panama City. The Panamanian government like most governments let us go through their airport long enough to catch the connecting flights to Houston and then to Northwest Arkansas. But we had to wait two days in Bolivia until the plane left for Panama. By the time we were done making plans at the airport, it was 6:00 o’clock in the morning. We got a taxi to a hotel in Santa Cruz, Bolivia and hung out at the hotel until we left for Panama two days later. We got into Arkansas at 8:00 in the evening the next day. We were finally home after nine months! God was faithful, and you can never say we live a boring life.

Borders, Books and Birthday

Over the past few years I’ve had some really interesting birthdays. This birthday was a lot more interesting then all the rest. You may have read the border crossing blog, (we had to spend three days in Costa Rica to renew our visas) if you have read it, you may have figured out my………..(what’s the right word?)……………..distaste, for borders. So every time I hear the word “border,” I always imagine a sketchy border town with run-down hotels and a lot of paperwork.

We woke up at five o’clock in the morning (it was still dark outside in Laredo, Texas, a border town). We had stayed the night at a non-profit place for missionaries to stay when entering or leaving Mexico, and before crossing the border, filled up on gas and exchanged money. We exchanged our dollars for pesos at a sketchy little exchange stand. The only way the exchangers make money is by giving you less of what the actual exchange rate is; basically, they rip you off ever so slightly. Meanwhile, all my siblings were sleeping blissfully, while I stayed up and made sure mom didn’t nod off to sleep while driving.

We got to the Rio Grande (pronounced rē-ō grahn-dā) at about six-thirty and we crossed the bridge without a problem. We drove up to a scale for cars and drove on to it so it would weigh our vehicle. I was in the van with Mom, and we got through fine. But dad called us on the walkie-talkie and said that he had been stopped and that the border guards were checking the truck. After a few scary, long minutes he called back and told us he made it through. We were kind of lost, so mom asked directions from a Mexican border worker, which led us to a big, concrete building where we had to get stamps for our passports so we could be legal and we had to get stickers for our car, because we have Missouri license plates. It actually only took an hour to get through immigrations, so we got on the road at about eight a.m.

We still had a ten-hour trip ahead of us, but we were glad that the border stuff was behind us (or so we thought)! After we drove for about half an hour (and got to pay an outrageous fine and/or bribe to a Mexican police officer for speeding), we came up to what looked like a big toll booth that you drive your car through, but this was not for cars to pay tolls, this was a checkpoint so that a bunch of soldiers (equipped with bullet-proof vests and Uzi’s), could thoroughly search your car for weapons and drugs. We definitely had God’s favor because the guy only talked with mom for five minutes and he let both the van and the truck through without any problems. The rest of the ten hour drive was pretty un-eventful except for the fact that dad’s truck lost fifth gear, meaning he couldn’t go more than fifty miles an hour on the Mexican highways.

I forgot to add that we celebrated my fourteenth birthday in a roadside food court. We waited a while to eat, because we were looking for a place with a playground so the kids could unload their energy. We got tired of looking, and decided to stop at the next place we saw. It turned out that it actually had a playground! I actually opened up my presents at the restaurant while a bunch people looked at the “gringos”(it’s what the Mexicans call white people) celebrate a birthday in a food court at a rest stop. We celebrated the rest of my birthday four hours later with a chocolate cake and the biggest candle I’ve ever seen: It was literally a firework. It had a fuse that we lit, and it erupted with a shower of sparks like a fountain firework. Being a missionary has its advantages, and having an unpredictable birthday with a crazy candle on your cake is one of them!

My God Shall Supply…

       We had the pleasure of bringing 4 Ngabe missionaries from their Comarca (Indigenous Reservation) and their country of Panama! They are making history by being some of the first missionaries in their tribe to do international missions. It was their first time flying in an airplane. Mom had to help them to fill out their immigration papers, and Richard, the base director, told them that it is safer to fly in an airplane then in a car, to settle their nerves. They are having a great time, and are actually ministering to other indigenous tribes in Guatemala. As YWAM, it is our goal to have different cultures sharing God’s love with other cultures.  

     Many of the Ngabe students have scholarships, but when it came time to fund-raise for outreach, it was hard because nobody in the Comarca has that much money. They tried their best by selling hojaldres (much like Native American’s fry bread), at an all-night prayer meeting. They didn’t raise much, but we were thankful for their help and effort. So we have been helping them raise money using our contacts.

        I´m writing this blog to help my family out by raising enough money to support myself. I am setting a goal for $500. The money goes to two plane tickets at $160 and two bus tickets at $65, plus food costs. My parents will take care of the budget and administrating the donations. I felt the Lord spoke to me to raise $500 to help with my families’ budget.

         Right now, we are in San Pablo, La Laguna, Guatemala, right next to Lake Atitlan. We´re here painting medical clinics, doing children´s ministry, praying for the sick, helping local pastors, and working with teens.  

       If you feel God puts it on your heart to give, you can give thirty dollars a month to consistently help out our family, or you can give a special donation. But, no matter what you give or how you give, you are becoming a part of our ministry! In order to give, click this link rkmissions It’ll take you to our website, where you can choose the amount you want to give.  

    David Livingstone said, “I would rather be in the heart of Africa in the will of God, than on the throne of England, out of the will of God.” 

Like  David Livingstone, I would rather be in Guatemala right now than be in the U.S.A. eating food that tastes good, and sleeping in a bed that is comfortable. Thank you in advance for giving and praying for us; we have been kept safe in our travels and are looking forward to 6 more weeks of outreach. Thanks for reading! 

The Border Run

Panama has a law that says after visiting for six months, you are technically illegal.  Being illegal is not the best thing that could happen to you.  For one, there are a lot of checkpoints here, and if you get caught, you could get fined, or even jailed. This affects me and my family because last year we stayed almost ten months in Panama. When we reached our six-month mark in Panama, we had to leave the country for three days, and then re-enter. Then, we would be allowed to stay another six months.

The easiest way to do this is to drive two hours to the border of Panama and Costa Rica. One day, my dad decided he didn’t want our family to be illegal and we went to the Panama/Costa Rican border named Paso Canoas.  The plan was to cross the border and stay on the Costa Rican side for three long, twenty-four hour days.  So, we left at noon and made it to the border at 2:00 in the afternoon.

The Costa Ricans aren’t as obsessed about border patrol as we Americans. They basically have a building big enough to let cars go through, and they have a bunch of houses and stores lined up wall-to-wall alongside the building and that’s it!  No ten-foot-tall walls, no obnoxiously guarded gates, just the building and a bunch of stores. The stores were right on the border, so there is a Costa Rican door on one side of the store and a Panamanian door on the other side.

The next thing we had to do was to leave Panama.  That sounds easy, but anything that includes paperwork is obviously hard.  After we left Panama, we entered Costa Rica. That part wasn’t hard. We just walked about two blocks to another building that says “welcome to Costa Rica.” Thank goodness for the sign, there is absolutely no difference between Costa Rica and Panama at Paso Canoas.

On the Costa Rican side, we had to wait thirty minutes at the immigration office so they could do that boring stuff with your passport: examine it, stamp it, and hold it up to the light to make sure we weren’t fakes.  (I haven’t mentioned yet that the border is hot and humid. So, while we waited, we lost a little water weight in sweat.) After thirty minutes, the border officials were satisfied.

We walked around until we found a “wonderful” hotel called ‘Real Victoria.’  Then my dad and I went back to the Panama side to get our car we had left parked on the side of the road. My dad then drove around to try to get our Panamanian-licensed car to the Real Victoria’s parking lot.  (Technically, our car is not legal to drive in Costa Rica.) Even though the hotel is on the Costa Rican side, we were able to drive a short distance in some back alleys that connect Panama and Costa Rica in order to park it at the parking lot of our hotel.  This is a much better option than leaving the car on the side of the road, where at a border town, your car might disappear! It did feel a little like being in a spy movie as we tried to smuggle our car to another country without being spotted.

The room we stayed in was a bit larger then my own room (about 12ft x 14ft), had an air- conditioner, and no blankets on the beds.  The a/c made the room so cold!  I think this was their foolproof system to save money: they had an air conditioner but no blankets. So, people would get cold and not use the air conditioning.  Well, my dad had the air conditioning going full blast, blankets or not.  So, we got our money’s worth.  The hotel owners also saved money by not heating the water. I did my best to avoid having to take a shower.

Speaking of saving money, my parents avoided the extra cost of eating out by stocking a cooler with milk and sandwich supplies. We had cereal for breakfast, and sandwiches for lunch and dinner. The disadvantage was the cooler took up space in our cramped room, but having cold juice and pop available when we were thirsty was a definite bonus!

During the three days that we had to spend in “Costa Rica,” (basically living in a cramped hotel room for three days), we had a number of different activities for our entertainment: swimming in a pool with murky, green water, leading a church service for a bunch of Venezuelans we met, and watching Animal Planet in Spanish on a “non-flat,” very thick, monstrously large T.V.

Finally, after three days of staying in a tiny, cold, and uncomfortable hotel room, we got to go home.  We were overjoyed to get back to Panama.  Jesse was kissing the ground, I was doing the snoopy dance and JonDavid was running around.  It sure was good to be back!

Our NOT spacious, hotel room. NOTE: the warm blanket pictured is my MOM’S.

Llamas

If you’re going to South America,  probably the first thing on your bucket list is to see a llama.  I mean, when you picture South America, you would probably picture a llama.

We spent three weeks in Bolivia and we didn’t see a single llama.  It was kind of sad to be leaving Bolivia to go to Chile without seeing those adorable, furry animals.  After getting five hours into the thirty-three hour drive (to get to Chile), we came into this desert-like area, and all around, their were herds and herds and herds of llamas.

Middle of nowhere…Bolivia

But it was only at a distance.  It was still disappointing, because we couldn’t feel their soft, fluffy fur.  But then, we came to a big city in Chile,called Iqique. (Pronounced ē-keek-ā ) we stayed with a family that had three alpacas.  They were adorable!  Their fur was so soft and fluffy!  They are also very curious, and kept sniffing our hands with their noses that look like a camel.

One day, while we were outside, the owners let their alpacas out of their pens.  When they got out, they ran all over the yard, running extremely fast! When they saw us, they started to charge at us, making us think we were gonna be pancakes, but at the last second, they stopped and gave us a neck-hug. My mom now wants a pet alpaca. I don’t think my dad’s up for the job, though.

Lightning is the white one

Now, I can officially check [See a Llama] & [Play with Alpacas] off my bucket list!  It was a pretty awesome experience. If you ever get a chance to do this, I highly recommend it!  Ciao por ahora.

Thanksgiving in Chile

Normally, we would wake up on Thanksgiving morning and eat a big breakfast of bacon, cinnamon rolls and breakfast casserole with our cousins and second cousins. Then, in the afternoon at some point, we slice up a massive turkey with 10 side dishes and sweet desserts and eat for hours. But not today! We’re in Chile, South America, and they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving here.      Instead of doing stuff I just mentioned, we drove to church to do work duties. I’ll tell you, there’s nothing more disappointing then painting a church on a national holiday. But, to our great surprise, the truck carrying our supplies never made it to the church. God answered our (actually, my) prayers!!!

       Dad needed to get money out of the bank, so we all decided to make it an outing. We found a playground that was close to the bank, and we stopped and let the kids play. All around the play area were dogs and kids and kids and dogs. It was crazy! 

       We shopped at a big market for a while until our stomachs grumbled so loud the ground was shaking. We stopped at a food court and ate our “glorious Thanksgiving lunch” of pork chops and fried fish. While we were eating, we heard a bunch of drums and bunch of pipe flutes, and then, about fifteen high school students wearing red vests, and funny-looking hats appeared. They marched into the food court and played traditional Andes Mountain music. After three songs, a girl took off her hat and went around the tables and asked for money. As I was eating my pork chop, listening to Quechuan tribal music, I had that sudden realization: this is the weirdest Thanksgiving of my life! 

My little brother, JonDavid, with a Quechuan Indian girl.

       This was my second Thanksgiving to celebrate out of the United States, and probably the least stressful. It was relaxing to know that you didn’t have to cook a gourmet meal for 20 people. However, even though it was relaxing, I still miss playing “Risk,” (a strategy game) with my uncle and cousin at my Nana’s. I also miss playing baseball with my cousins at my Grammy’s house. I don’t know how my Grandmas do it, but they manage to make Thanksgiving really special. So, I guess I will finish my “Thanksgiving Blog” giving thanks to my two grandmas back in Missouri: THANK YOU!!!!!!! 

Nice picture of three of my siblings & I where we took a potty break by the side of the highway.