#268 Nomad Diary. 6-12 December 2025. Weekend in Harvest, Alabama. Tuesday Travel to Brasilia, Brazil. Wednesday Morning Arrive in Brazil. Begin Month-long Visit with Son, Jeremy, Andrea and Quinn.

 

Holiday Dinner Get-together with Our Huntsville, Alabama Kids. At Viet Crispwich with Darrell, Esther, Erin, Eric, Samuel, Wesley, Owen and Me.

My 'neurographic art' from 12/6 at Lunch with Laura and Linda in Madison, Alabama. My art intention, "I travel well, happy and healthy."

On a Call with Granddaughter, Esther.

Big Smile from Grandson, Owen.

Leaving Our Truck Parked at Huntsville Airport.

View from Airplane.

On the Delta Airplane Moniter is a Feature of What We are Flying Over! It's Like a Tour of the Ground Below!

Waiting at Ft. Lauderdale Train Stop to Miami Airport.

On the Train to Miami Airport.

Wednesday in Brasilia with Grandson, Quinn.

Daughter-in-law, Andrea and Me Having a Pastry and Cappuccino.

Long Walks in Brasilia, Brazil

Loaded Mango Tree in Brasilia. Free Fruit Everywhere Here.

Jackfruit Tree in Brasilia, Brazil

Walking in Brasilia Behind Andrea and Quinn.

Burgers in Brasilia.

Saturday. 6. I enjoyed meeting up with my friend Laura, and her friend Linda for brunch in Madison, Alabama today. Downtown Madison has more than it had when I was living here. We shopped after lunch in a couple stores right there beside the restaurant. I got back home long enough to decide, with Darrell, to go for a walk at Indian Creek Parkway before dinner. At 5pm we met our 3 sons, Samuel, Wes and Eric with his family, Erin, Owen and Esther. We went to a new place near the business park called Viet Crispwich. They have a varied menu in a fast casual setting. It was such a treat to love on our grandkids there, and to have christmas gifts for each of them to take with them! We are leaving for Brazil early Tuesday morning!!

Jeremy texted Darrell from Brazil and asked if he could get a long list of car parts for his car that is in disrepair and the parts aren’t in Brazil. Now we have a challenge game to see if we can gather all these car parts! Lol.

Sunday. 7. We enjoyed the morning worship with the Capshaw church. After lunch at home, we went to a car part store and got most of the parts. We got all but 4 parts at the cost of about $1000. Not sure if the car is worth this much! Well, tomorrow Darrell will check at the dealer to see if we can get the rest of the parts to carry with us. Also not sure whether or not we will get charged a duty fee. 

Monday. 8. Final day before flying to Brazil tomorrow. Today we want to be all packed and have everything in the truck, except for our luggage, to leave before 7am for the airport. Darrell is trying to get the rest of Jeremy’s car parts to carry with us to Brazil. I want to go visit Eric’s family one more time today before we are gone for the month. This morning I woke up with a stiff and sore low back. I had to stay in and move slowly. I texted Eric to get the kids prayers for my back and then also with Andrea to get Quinn’s prayers for me to recover. Why? You may ask. There is a special power in children’s prayers! My back got better by lunchtime. I helped Darrell load and pack our truck in the late afternoon. Eric and Erin had us over for dinner. This really helped us out. I realized how nice it was to have our fridge cleaned out after lunch and get ready for check-out in the early morning. We only have to pack our suitcases into the truck and go to the airport before 7am on Tuesday! 

Here are some Bible verses to consider: 

Psalm 8:2 says “Through the praise of children and infants you have established a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.”

Matt 19:13-14 "'Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.' When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there"

Matt 18:10 He went on to command His disciples: “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven"

Gen 21: 17-19 for God hath heard the voice of the boy. Arise, take up the boy! . . . And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water, and went and filled the bottle and gave the boy to drink.”

Tuesday. 9. We got up at about 5:30, exercised and got packed up and checked-out. We drove 15 minutes to the Huntsville, Alabama airport. Parked our truck, took a picture to show us where we parked when we return in January. We checked our luggage onto our flight, and went to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. We sat and enjoyed our meal, then went through security to our gate. We had a short flight to Atlanta on Delta. We happened to get a connecting flight that was only a couple gates away on the same concourse we came into. This is unusual for us at this airport. We often have to take a long walk to a different concourse to catch a connecting flight. We took a walk and got a drink at Starbucks. We sat at our gate and waited for our flight. Today all of our flights were on time and smooth. We had snacks in our carry-on backpacks that fed us through lunch. We arrived at the Ft. Lauderdale airport on our 2nd flight of the day. We collected our luggage and went to the shuttle bus stop to get to the commuter train to the Miami airport. At the train station we bought 2 tickets for 3.75 each. That’s so inexpensive!! We arrived to Miami airport and found our gate. It was about 4 in the afternoon, and our check in desk had a sign saying that it opens at 6:30pm. We were each rolling a big suitcase (half filled with Jeremy's car parts! lol), and toting our backpacks. I also have a purse hanging across my body. We look on google maps to find a restaurant to eat dinner at. We get to one and have dinner. I shopped for a chocolate bar and decided not to buy one for $10! We went to our check in desk, stood in line, got checked in for our flight, tagged our bags and left them there. We went on through security to wait at our gate. Once on the plane, we settled in to sleep. The large plane was sold out. We had purchased the GOL premium ticket. It was so worth it! It included the price of our luggage and we got the middle seat reserved and empty on a three seated row near the front of the plane. Dinner was served around midnight, but we slept through it and didn’t feel like eating. In the morning, there was no breakfast service before landing at about 7 am local time which is 5 am eastern time.

Wednesday. 10. Arriving in Brasilia, getting luggage, through customs, and outside to the Uber stand. Took us 20 minutes and 3 tries to connect with our Uber and get on the road for the 20-30 minutes to Jeremy’s apartment. Jeremy was there waiting for us. Andrea and Quinn were at Quinn’s Christmas concert. Jeremy left for work. They take Uber everywhere they go outside of their neighborhood. One reason is that their car is in disrepair at the mechanic now, and Uber is less than $10 per day for all of their rides. We took showers and fell asleep in our room at the apartment. This is our third visit here. We know the basic routine and we know the building and the neighborhood. We slept a long time. Sometime later in the afternoon, Andrea and Quinn came home. We had a nice welcome and hugs in person. Andrea made a nice dinner, as most days, and we settled in for our month-long visit. We slept about 12 hours this first night. Likely we are recovering from our day of travel.

Thursday. 11. Morning routines at Jeremy’s happen around us. There is work, school and shopping. We exercise on the glassed in veranda, and we fix our meals. Cleaning up the kitchen and doing laundry is a group effort. In mid-morning we take a long walk with Andrea to a cafe where we get pastries and cappuccinos. This is one of our favorite past-times here.

Friday. 12. Today Quinn has a half-day of school to start his holiday break. For celebration, we all walked to a hamburger restaurant and had hamburgers for lunch. This weekend, Jeremy is renting a car for a Monday overnight roadtrip.

Nomad Notes:  I was so tired this week that I didn’t want to talk to my Australian friend Tricia. We plan to talk while I’m in Brazil and she’s working on Celebrity cruises as a ‘Destination Expert’. I’ll get to find out where in the world she is when we connect.

My jotted down ‘aha’ this week: If I have said something rude or unkind or hateful or without godly love, I know that, in essence, I have also treated myself (or part of me)in this way. My challenge in growth is to treat myself as I want others to treat me. Accept pure, godly love from others who know love with godliness and are mirroring, or shining Christ’s love to me. Shine back! Receive and reflect. 

Bible verse to consider: 

Luke 6: 27 “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29 If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. 30 Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.

32 “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. 35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

Matt 5: 14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.