It started off a cold, cloudy morning through Illinois.

Because InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, where I work, is involved in the EveryCampus campaign–seeking to prayer walk all 4,500 US college campuses–I decided to prayer walk one previously unwalked campus in each state of my journey: Wisconsin, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida.

I would have liked to have made it a 2-day trip with a little sight-seeing, but because I wanted to go to church with my son, I decided to do Madison to Savannah in one day. One long 21-hour day. But the church service at Savannah’s Compassion Christian church was worth it. A great sermon from visiting pastor Bob Russell.

December 31 dawned bright and sunny and it was time for some sight-seeing. First stop was Fort Pulaski National Monument, just outside of Savannah.

As we left Fort Pulaski, we heard a boat whistle from the nearby Savannah River and walked over to see this container ship headed back out to sea.

John Wesley’s 18th century missionary work in the Georgia colony is commemorated with a number of historical markers around Savannah. Two of them are at Fort Pulaski.

Our next stop was the final day of the year Ranger Hike at Skidaway Island State Park.

At one place we saw the little crabs scurrying into their holes.

Next to Skidaway Island is Wormsloe, a historic estate.

Wormsloe is entered down a 1.5 mile lane, with a total of 400 trees overhanging the lane.

The lane leads to the tabby ruins of the home of the original settler, Noble Jones, who came to Georgia at about the same time as John Wesley. Tabby is the construction material used in this area, made up of oyster shells, lime, sand, and water, and quite durable.

The estate overlooked a marshy river.

A historic recreation of a 19th century home.

Eden enjoyed soaking up all of the history.

We had some time to walk around downtown Savannah, still celebrating the Christmas holiday.

We also hung out at the firepit for a while in the evening, and set up the Christmas present telescope for viewing the moon.

Soon it was time to head on to Orlando, with a small detour through Little Talbot Island State Park for some beach walking.

Also crossed the St. Johns River on the Mayport Ferry.

Pelicans along the St. John’s River at the Mayport Ferry crossing.

I picked up a rider at the Sanford airport, a staff colleague, and soon we were at our hotel, where they also were still in a Christmas mood.

With a room on the 22nd floor, there were some nice views of the Orlando Convention Center.

Representatives of some of the 150 partner organizations in our EveryCampus campaign joined us for part of our program. “Longing for Revival” was our theme for our staff conference.

After three very active days our team was charged with the tech tear-down and loading the truck. Lots of great team work got the job done.

The next day I was at Epcot with my brother Keith. Strangely, we ran into a lot of other Packer fans as we were walking around the grounds.

Long lines for all the rides, the downside of theme parks.

The shortest line was at Mission Space.

Soon we were buckled into our pods and ready to blast off.

My job was flight engineer; I got to push a few buttons.

One highlight was the Taiko dummers at the Japanese pavilion. They were very good.

Afterwards there was a photo op with the drummers. I think I was suitably attired for the occasion.

We came back later for a second performance, when they used the BIG DRUM.

This was an official “Nikon Picture Spot” so here I am with my Nikon camera.

We also saw Jesus at Epcot.

That evening we drove over to Titusville to join the crowd along the banks of the Indian River, awaiting the Xfinity/Falcon 9 rocket launch.

The blast-off was right on time. And 45 seconds later the sound of the blast-off reached us. I guess we were about nine miles from Cape Canaveral.

It was pretty exciting, something I didn’t expect to have the opportunity to see in person, after watching numerous Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo launches on TV during my childhood.

The last day in Florida I made one more campus visit, Florida Southern College, in Lakeland, where many of the buildings were designed by Wisconsin native Frank Lloyd Wright.

Early the next morning (about 4am) we packed up the car for the 21-hour drive back to Wisconsin. What a great adventure!