June 3 – “Day Seventeen: Doll Hospital II: The Misfit Island Shoppe”

We set out on the next leg of our journey toward Waco.  With the Christi Crisis somewhat under control, and with the knowledge that there was really nothing we could do about it anyway, we reverted back to our original planned route, which only added a few extra minutes to our expected arrival time.  And this way we could once again avoid intertstates. 

Before we even got out of Texarkana, we hit a minor traffic jam.  Car wreck.  Fire department was on the scene, though, so they were in good hands.  Back to our activity of the day while driving … looking for high water.  And we were not disappointed there.  Every creek and river we passed was full and lakes were well outside their boundaries.  One would think Texas got a bit of rain while we were gone.

We met with some more traffic difficulties just outside of Gilmer.  The road was down to one lane.  The kind of situation where you have to wait for the flag man to let you through.  But the road looked really nice where they were done.  Gotta git Gilmer goin’ gungho, guys. 

The Lord was blessing me mightily when we drove through Winona, Texas.  The world renowned “Pat’s Bear.Doll.Toy Hospital,” and its adjunct business, “Misfit Island Shoppe” were both closed for three days.  They had pictures of some of their “clients” posted, though.  Broken dolls.  Cracked face dolls.  Very spooky.  Moving on to a much happier note, one of the outside walls of the building had been muralized (Is that a word?).  All sorts of cartoon characters from my childhood adorned the building, like the Flintstones and Yogi Bear.  Now that was cool.

We continued on, meandering through the small towns and dozing off and on (Chris was meandering and I was dozing).  One time when I woke up, Chris asked where exactly we were.  I checked with Google Siri, only to find out she had selected an alternate route for us that was veering us off course unnecessarily.  Chris was not a happy camper.  Combine that with the text we got from Josh not long after that.  He said if we could be in Waco by noon we could help logistically with Caleb’s appointment for an electrocardiogram to check out a murmur they found.  That put Chris in absolute focus mode.  Google Siri better mind her p’s and q’s for the rest of this leg of the trip.

When it became apparent that there was no way to get there in time, and after we received assurances from Josh that they would be OK, we stopped in Corsicana for some lunch.  After two weeks and a few thousand miles, we were finally able to have our true anniversary dinner … tacos at Jack in the Box.  Hey, don’t knock it.  Back in the day when we got married and made our way to the “honeymoon suite” at the Holiday Inn in Alvin, Texas, we were hungry.  The only place in town still open was Jack in the Box.  And we had to eat in a hurry because the high school football game was almost over and they all come to Jack in the Box to celebrate.  Now, our plan is to go someplace nice on Saturday (the actual anniversary day – June 6^th).  Not sure where, though.  Is there a place in Galveston that is nice but doesn’t require coat and tie?  Or collared shirts?  Or long pants?  Or closed toe shoes?  Maybe she’ll be happy with Shrimp and Stuff. 

We finally pulled into Waco around two.  We did the typical grandparents thing the rest of the afternoon, and then went to Zak’s baseball game last night.  It was a coach pitch game. The coach pitches to his own team.  Now. I’ll say up front that Zak’s team won … by a lot.  And Zak did really well at bat and in the field.  But the odd thing was, the opposing team’s pitcher (remember, it is coach pitch.  He was pitching to his OWN team) hit almost every player he pitched to.  Even plunked one kid right on top of his helmet.  A lot of his pitches went behind the kids’ back.  I was not surprised that the kids didn’t hit much.  After the game (last one of the year) that coach was handing out medals to his players.  Josh wondered aloud if they might be Purple Hearts.  Ouch.

Luke 6:17-19 says, “He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coast of Tyre and Sidon, who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by evil spirits were cured, and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.”

Father, we’re still praying for Christi around here.  She could use one of your touches.  Ease her pain.  Help her body deal with the medication that makes that easing possible.  Give Josh and the boys some of your kind of peace.  Amen.