September 29 – “Some Precious Moments ... with wildlife”

50 degrees in Precious Moments-ville.  Yikes.  But take heart.  It warmed all the way up to 70 eventually.  Breakfast at the hotel was a major fail, however.  The eggs and sausage were cold.  I mean really cold.  The waffles (I tried twice) stuck to the griddle, even with a ton of spray on the second attempt.  Ah, well … at least lunch is coming.

Now on the way to the Precious Moments chapel we experienced some glitches with Chris’ internal GPS system.  For some reason it didn’t want to turn right.  It took a second and then third command – “Right.  Right.  No right.”  It certainly corrected itself in time to find that chapel.  It was weird.  There were very few cars in the parking lot.  And as we walked over to the chapel for the tour, we found ourselves utterly alone.  Now that’s a strange feeling in any somber house of worship – to be alone with the Lord.  It was accentuated here because of the whole commercialized nature of the situation.  Two other couples eventually joined us, though, so we enjoyed the experience with our tiny group.  Come to find out, the group scheduled after us was a Diamond Tours group of 70 or 80 senior citizens from Ohio.  Glad we were there to open the place up.  After the tour we went to the gift shop.  And Chris stayed in there for … well, I don’t know how long.  But I do know she saw every item in there … twice. 

Next we returned to National Park mode and ended up in Diamond, Missouri.  George Washington Carver’s adopted Dad who used to be his slave master lived there.  We got our parks stamp and even did the little one mile hike they had set up.  But Chris said it didn’t count as a hike because I didn’t use my walking stick.  That and the path we started one was made of that tartan stuff they use for track courses in stadiums (That caused me to wonder about the whole hike thing, myself).  But it soon returned to gravel, so I’m holding out for hike all the way.

Now before our next stop, I have to interject this quick anecdote.  At one point in our travels Chris spotted a deer.  I was driving, so she “politely requested” that I stop the car so she could take a picture.  She whipped out that camera and aimed it, but apparently couldn’t get a good shot, so she slowly opened the door.  Meanwhile, it became apparent that the deer wasn’t so afraid of the huge metallic object advancing upon her.  So I began slowly inching the car forward.  So there we were, Chris perilously hanging out the now-moving, open car door, snapping pictures like a wildlife correspondent for National Geographic.  It was quite the thrilling scene.

So next.  On to the Wilson’s Creek battlefield somewhere near Springfield.  We passed up several unique opportunities on the way.  Things like the Uppydowny.org Caverns.  Wish I could have seen them.  They sounded so … uppy downy.  We did make a stop in Ozarkland, though.  Had to.  See, every billboard for miles insisted.  And as we entered the store, a guy coming out (from East Texas, by the way) told us he comes twice a year, and then the killer … this place has the best fudge ever.  How could we not try some?  He was right.  And on top of that, they sold Big Metal Chickens.  They were pretty proud of their Big Metal Chickens, though.  So I got a Small Fluffy one instead.  And it makes a highly obnoxious crowing sound.  Lovely.  Named him Barkley.

After that stop we had to detour because the entire freeway was shut down.  Not a problem for us.  We headed into the backwoods of Missouri with reckless abandon.  Our journey included several towns like Wentworth – population 126.  We finally arrived at our National Park destination, and who should join us but Molly Mouse.  She and Barkley thoroughly enjoyed the wide open spaces of the battlefield.  We saw and took pictures (close to a million, I’m sure) of the four deer we saw.  I also saw a fox, but he was running away at the time.  Oh, and we did some more hiking.  Yes.  I used my stick, so it was official hiking. 

Upon leaving the park site we took off for … somewhere else.  I was beginning to wonder where when we drove through Cuba.  Saw a field of alpacas there, too.  But that was soon in our rear view mirror as we sought out new life and new civilizations, boldly going where …

Psalms 103:12 says, “as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”

Father, thank you for the wildlife experiences.  Nothing quite as exciting as the surprise when we see another of your special creatures.  Amen.