Once Upon A Time
Our journey began during our 35th wedding anniversary. After God had gifted us with twelve children and successfully raising them to adulthood, we had the time and financial resources to take our long-awaited honeymoon that we had postponed on our wedding day. We took a month-long, 8,500 mile trip from our home in Alaska down to Washington and Oregon, then over to Colorado and back home - on our motorcycles!

We were gassing up in Watson Lake in Yukon Territory, Canada on the way back when two things struck us about this trip. One, we decided that we should do this again (since more of our grown children were moving to the lower 48 and blessing us with grandchildren) and, two, we would need to trailer the motorcycles over the Alcan. For those of you who have never travelled the Alcan via motorcycle, or never will, riding the Alcan on motorcycles is hard on both rider and steed.

Fast forward two years and we are on our way back to the lower 48 to pick up our new 24 foot ATC trailer in Elkhart, Indiana. The idea was to use the back 10 feet as motorcycle garage and the front 14 feet as camper. The highlight of this trip was the plan to visit as many Catholic shrines as possible along the way. On the list was the The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Basilica of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton and the National Shrine Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes on the
East coast, and a little known Shrine of Divine Mercy in Mossyrock, Washington on the West coast.

A Seed Is Planted 
Our trip to Mossyrock started out from Lacey, WA where we were staying at a relative's place. We headed to Mount Rainier and did the tourist stop at the top, then headed for Mossyrock via Highway 12. As we entered Mossyrock, we stopped several locals and asked about the Shrine of Divine Mercy and could they point us in the right direction.  "Never heard of it" was the gist of both replies. Well, snap, we must have gotten the wrong info from the Internet.

Now, the shrine is a 70 foot white cross on top of a hill overlooking several tulip fields in Mossyrock (population 789) and, to be fair to the locals, we should have asked about a 70 foot white cross on top of a hill. As we were leaving Mossyrock through beautiful fields of tulips, our disappoinment turned to joy as, low and behold in the rearview mirror - a huge white cross on top of the hill!

We quickly turned around and spent the last half of the day visiting and experiencing this gem of a Catholic Shrine to the Divine Mercy. Some time on the roadtrip back home the thought came to us that, after we retire, we should travel around the US and document little known Catholic shrines and  help build awareness for these sacred spaces.

God Works in Mysterious (and Wonderful) Ways 
As providence would have it we unexpectedly retired a little over a year later in October of 2018. The seed had been planted and now a shoot had burst through the ground. We spent the next 12 months building out the trailer, acquiring a bigger truck, purchasing a camper top (for our not-yet-18-year-old son Blaise) and preparing the communication plan for this new chapter in our lives.

The most important lesson learned throughout the 12 month preparation period was that this pilgrimage will happen in God's time, not ours. Deadlines thought to be broken were miraculously met, the hands of angels guided the cabinet building (we're not the most accomplished carpenter types) and it all came together exactly in time to head down the Alcan at the edge of Winter. Although not the ideal time to travel through northern Alaska and Canada, again our holy angels* guided us through a near perfect weather window to our base "camp" for the next two months in Lacey, WA.

Our new ministry "Finding Sacred Spaces" officially began on January 5, 2020. We invite all to join us on this spiritual pilgrimage. As always, our prayers are with you and we humbly ask you to keep us in your prayers as well.

Cooperatively in Christ - George & Sue

*We are both Members of the Confraternity of the Holy Guardian Angels, a public association of the faithful in the Opus Angelorum, recognised by the Church, whose members want to honor and imitate in a special way their Guardian Angels and all the holy angels.