The Christmas Joy Ride by Melody Carlson Page B

Ellen’s hands. “You have thanked me already—by opening your heart and your home to these dear children. God bless you for your generosity!”
    â€œWe wish you all a very merry Christmas,” Miranda called out to everyone. “And we hate to rush off, but we need to make an early night of it. We have a lot of miles to cover tomorrow.” She almost added “to avoid the storm,” but didn’t want to worry anyone. Besides, she hadn’t had a chance to substantiate the weather rumors yet.
    â€œWhere are you going next?” Ellen asked as she walked them to the door.
    â€œAlbuquerque,” Joy told her.
    Ellen looked slightly shocked. “That’s a long ways away.”
    â€œYes,” Miranda told her. “It will take us a lot of hours driving to reach it, so we want to get an early start in the morning.”
    â€œHopefully you won’t run into that storm the weatherman has been talking about,” Ellen said with concern.
    â€œStorm?” Joy’s brows arched.
    â€œWe’ll keep an eye on the Weather Channel,” Miranda assured them both. “I have an app on my phone. And if it looks bad, we might just have to stay put a day or two.”
    â€œOh, dear,” Joy exclaimed, “we can’t do that. We’ve got two more visits to make before Christmas!”
    Miranda patted her back. “I’m sure we’ll be fine.”
    â€œGod bless you as you travel,” Ellen called out. “We’ll be praying for God to watch over you and keep you safe!”
    As Miranda and Joy climbed back into the motor home, everyone was calling out “goodbye” and “thanks” and “Merry Christmas!”
    â€œWow,” Miranda said as she started the engine. “I don’t know how Ellen does it day in and day out. All those kids. All that noise. I think I would go stark raving mad after a couple of days.”
    â€œThank the good Lord that everyone has different gifts.”
    â€œThat’s for sure.” Before backing out, Miranda waved to little Katie and Kelsay, who were still hanging onto the railing on the front porch. “Thank the good Lord that Ellen has a boatload of patience.”
    As Miranda drove out of the subdivision, she remembered how she’d felt slightly envious while shopping for the Mahoneys’ gifts at Walmart. As silly as it seemed, for a brief moment, she had secretly imagined she was shopping for her own family’s Christmas. But after spending a couple of hours at that noisy, chaotic house, she was grateful for the peace and quiet of her life. And she was glad to be back on the road. Oh, sure, she still had a slight longing for family . . . and perhaps something more . . . someday. But at the same time she felt strangely content too. And the idea of driving all the way to Albuquerque—more than five hundred miles—didn’t feel the least bit intimidating to her. Just as long as the weather didn’t turn on them.

10
    A fter an uneventful night in a fairly vacant RV park located in what felt like “the Middle of Nowhere,” Texas, they got an early start for Albuquerque. According to the Weather Channel app on Miranda’s phone, the weather system wasn’t expected to move in until tomorrow, but there had been frost on the windshield early this morning.
    â€œCold out there,” Joy said as Miranda drove down the nearly deserted highway.
    â€œUh-huh.” After Joy’s reaction to the weather forecast yesterday, Miranda didn’t want to tell Joy about the route of the predicted storm just yet. Maybe it was better just to keep moving and hope for the best.
    â€œDo you really think there’ll be snow?”
    â€œI’m not sure. I mean, I don’t think of New Mexico as snow country. In fact, it all looks more like desert country to me.”
    â€œYes, but it’s a high desert,” Joy explained. “The