October 16 - “One full day”

First stop yesterday was a celebration. It came in the form of a birthday party for Luke at Urban Air. That’s one of those places where the floor is basically made of trampolines. It also has somewhat of a ropes course for the older kids. The kids played for almost two hours, then met around a table for cake and gift-opening. Everyone seemed to have a great time.

 

From there we made our way around the corner to a place called Slim Chickens for lunch. Strangely enough, the course of the day was … chicken. It reminded me of Chick-fil-a … a lot. The food was pretty good. Definitely something Josh and his kids enjoyed.

 

Next on the docket was a soccer game for Caleb. Caleb and his squad really seemed to dominate the game early on. In fact, it looked like one of their strikers might end up with an early hat trick when he scored the first two goals.  But the other team settled in and made a game of it.  Final score was 2-1. 

 

Next we went to Zak’s football game. American football this time.  Well, sort of.  He plays six-man football, which has a lot of different rules from eleven man.  There is a boatload of scoring in this brand.  And Zak’s team certainly did its share.  The final score was 72-24, and they stopped the game midway into the third quarter.  Another rule of the game.  If one team is 45 points ahead after halftime, they game is called due to the mercy rule.

 

Did I mention that I also attended a tea party here in Waco?  AnnaGrace was our hostess.  She poured our tiny cups full of water from a tiny tea pitcher. Even had some gingerbread cookies.  Then Luke arrived.  He sneakily drank everyone’s “tea” and ate all the cookies. Hey. He’s a growing boy. Great fun.

 

John 1:5 says, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

 

Father, thank you for soccer games and football games and tea parties and nine-year-old birthday parties.  Great times, for sure.  Amen.

October 15 - “Responsible”

I finally had a chance to try my loaf of cinnamon raisin bread we bought at the Amish store. No idea what state the store was in. The bread, however, exceeded all expectations. It was really good. I can see what will be a part of breakfast for a while.

 

Josh and Christi had a lunch meeting, and the kids were all at their homeschool co-op, so I went over to none other than Whataburger to get us some lunch. Whataburger. It’s been a while. Welcome back to Texas.

 

We were designated picker-uppers of AnnaGrace and Luke. Christi had to work the pickup line and Josh was still in his meeting. We didn’t have car seats, so we all just hung out by the window of Dad’s office.

 

While we were at the church waiting for Josh and Christi to finish up their duties there, Chris was most definitely playing the role of Nani.  AnnaGrace and Luke climbed up on a column.  Chris warned them to be careful.  You know.  That sort of thing.  At one point, AnnaGrace came over to me and, with her palm covering half of her mouth to hide her comment from Chris, she whispered, “Is she always so … responsible? You’re not responsible. You’re fun.”  Yup. Good ol’ Responsible Nani. Gotta love her.

 

Matthew 5:8 says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”

 

Father, thank you for Good ol’ Responsible Nani. Sure do love her. Amen.

 

October 14 - “One last meander”

It took us about five miles to get out of Shreveport and back into Texas. And the first thing we ran into? Construction, of course. But Chris was ever the trooper. She drove right in and didn’t stop until we realized we needed gas. Forgot to check that before we left Shreveport. We found a station in plenty of time somewhere near Tyler.

 

Siri discovered a route got us that shunned the interstates once again, so plenty of small towns were on the docket. Some were on the paper map. Others were hidden in the spirals of the map book spine. Still others didn’t exist at all on paper. Like … did you know there was a Silver City in Texas? It lies between Oak Valley and Dawson. But don’t blink. You’ll miss it. We did.

 

We arrived in Waco around 12:40, so we went straight to Jason’s Deli for some lunch. Then we strolled around Target just to get a few steps in. When we pulled up to Josh’s house, Zak was the only one there. Everybody else was in the midst of a typical, crazy-busy day. Soccer, basketball, and the like.

 

I managed to snag a ride with Zak and Luke when they left for Zak’s basketball tryouts.  It was interesting to watch a coach’s tryout session when he has a completely different basketball philosophy from me.  They had a lot of boys trying out, though, so they should have a pretty good pool to draw from.

 

I have to confess that I snuck in my phone so I could watch the Astros game during the tryouts. Go Astros.  How about that Yordan? Speaking of my phone, we put it into use later back at the house. Baylor’s football team was playing, but they couldn’t get the feed on their TV.  So we called it up on my phone, did a little screen sharing, and voila!  The joys of modern technology.  Of course, Josh had to show me how to do it …

 

James 5:16 says, “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”

 

Father, it is good to be back in Texas. Thanks for your protection on this journey.  Amen.

October 13 - “Meandering”

As bad as the hotel was that we walked out on, the one we ended up in after the extra hour on the road was good. The room was clean and organized. It was quiet. Even the breakfast had all our favorites, well, except bananas. But I can forgive them for that. Stay in Forrest City, Arkansas, if you get a chance.

 

Our next goal was the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock. That one promised a Presidential library stamp. From there we intended to go to the last park in Arkansas that we need a stamp from. But we found out it was closed on Wednesdays. Of course it was.

 

The Clinton Library was … a bit strange. For one thing there seemed to be too much going on at once, so the exhibits were competing with each other. There also seemed to be an inordinate amount of space given to Mrs. Clinton. Not that there was a big room dedicated to her. That would have made sense. It just seemed like she kept popping up all over the areas that were supposed to be political/historical moments. We did, as usual, enjoy the displays of elaborate gifts the president received during his term in office.

 

After sharing a quick lunch of crackers, an apple, and a Swiss cake roll, we decided to journey out anyway to the National Park that was closed.  That way we could say we have actually been there, and perhaps get a stamp sometime in the future. So, we were off - an hour and a half to the southeast.

 

After lots of back roads and twists and turns (meandering which we are getting quite used to), we final pulled into the Arkansas Post National Memorial. To our surprise, there was another car there already, and no less than eight people crawled out of it. They went off to explore in one direction. We walked in another (after confirming that the center was indeed closed and there were no little papers with the stamps on them left for closed-day travelers such as us).  But on a whim, Chris walked over to a guy wearing some kind of uniform.  He just happened to be on the maintenance crew for the park. She very, very, very sweetly asked the young man if there was any way he had access to the National Park stamp within the bowels of the building. Lo and behold … miracle of miracles … he agreed to go inside and rummage around and bring them out. Chris was giddy with excitement. This sticker marked the last one in the state of Arkansas that she needed for her book. Woohoo.

 

From there we decided to seek out a little different route. It meandered through southern Arkansas, dangerously close to Louisiana. But it was ever westward, ever southward. We landed for the night at a place in Louisiana, literally right across the street from Louisiana Baptist University and Theological Seminary.  May as well get a bit closer to home, right?

 

Luke 12:40 says, “You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

 

Father, it feels strange to be so close to Texas. Please keep us safe as we wind things down. Amen.

October 12 - “Even Underground”

It was a lot warmer today than the past few days. 41 degrees. Warmed up even more pretty quickly, though.

 

But then we crawled down into a hole that stays at 54 degrees all year. It was a bit chilly down there. It was an interesting excursion, though. We were able to amble around in the semi-darkness while Chris attempted to take pictures. I think we got a few good ones, though. Mammoth Cave. Check.

 

On the way back south and west, Chris noticed a sign for an Amish country store. Why not?  One of the best stops of the trip. We ordered a sandwich for lunch. Huge thing on homemade bread. Yum. And we had to get some banana bread. Oh, some raisin cinnamon bread. All homemade, of course. I would definitely frequent that place … if we lived in the middle of nowhere, Kentucky, just north of Tennessee. Hmm. That sounds like a good ol’ Country-western song …

 

Since we were in an off-the-beaten-track mood anyway, we stumbled across a brand-new area that just got affiliated with the National Park Service. It is a random battlefield called Parker’s Crossroads, somehow associated with the Civil War battle of Shiloh. It came up as right off the road we were on, anyway, so … here we go. The site itself was just the visitor center. Well, they did have maps that you could follow out to areas of the battle located in nearby towns. And they did have for sale a 60-minute tape tour of the whole thing. We didn’t go on the whole thing. We didn’t go on anything. We did walk through the museum and check out the artifacts, though.

 

Next came the final leg of what had been a really long drive. All the way from Mammoth Cave in Kentucky to Memphis, Tennessee. We were tired.

 

Now, we did make it to Memphis and checked into the hotel. But the room had no hot water coming out of the faucet in the sink. So they moved us to another room, but it had not been cleaned. Dirty towels on the bathroom floor, bed unmade. So they upgraded us to a suite. But it had food between the sheet and mattress pad, there was a bug with pinchers in the bed, and the shower was actually moldy. Strike three. And the worst thing about it all? I spent the last three innings of the Astros incredible comeback walkoff game dealing with a bad hotel. This time I told the desk clerk to just give us a refund. He obliged with no further comment. We drove another hour to get another hotel. This one was pretty nice. Glad we moved.

 

Romans 10:10 says, “For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.”

 

Father, thank you yet again for the chance to see something so awesome as that cave. Even underground your world is amazing. Amen.

October 11 - “Kentucky”

After a “good,” “free” hotel breakfast, we headed west. And finally we were going to hit a state that actually felt “south,” or at least somewhat “west.”  Oh. What state? Kentucky. Headed for Abe Lincoln’s birthplace, a site we have visited before, but that was before we had a National Park stamp book. Then it’s on to Mammoth Cave. 

 

We made it to Abe’s birthplace after a quick stop at what was apparently the site of some land where he once lived as a kid. After our obligatory stop at the visitor center, we climbed the steps to the shrine building with an old log cabin inside. Not actually Abe’s, mind you. But a log cabin, nevertheless.

 

One of the park volunteers saw us roaming around, looking all young and in love (Us, not her). She couldn’t help herself. She approached us and pointed to a patch of dark green growth way up in a tree where many leaves had already fallen off. “That,” she explained, “is wild mistletoe.”  Awesome discovery. Yes, we kissed (Each other, not the Ranger).  And yes, the kiss has been recorded for posterity in a photo.

 

Leaving that park, we crossed back into the central time zone at 4:31, which made it 3:31. I think.  I’m so confused. Must have been that kiss …

 

Psalms 107:1 says, “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.”

 

Father, thank you for my mistletoe-kissin’ wife. Amen.

October 10 - “Photo-bomb”

Welcome to the “first real cold snap of the season,” according to the local news anchor. 35 degrees with a frost warning. Ouch. 

 

Our first stop was the summer home of a guy named Gallatin. He was the secretary of the treasury for 17 years or so. He actually balanced the federal budget while at the same time buying Louisiana. No small feat. And while we were in the parking lot, we had a close encounter of the wildlife kind. A mama deer and her baby were munching on grass nearby. We slowly started taking pictures, expecting them to bolt at any moment. But they never did. On the contrary, they began to approach us. We got some amazing close-ups. They even photo-bombed us when we were doing a selfie. 

 

We finally got on the road toward West Virginia. Of course, it was only five miles away. But the National Park we were heading to was another two and a half hours beyond that. We had a fabulous lunch of crackers and chips as we drove. 

 

I didn’t know what I expected out of this particular stop. Something about a bridge. Well, it was pretty spectacular. The bridge spanned a river, but it was hundreds of feet high. The cool part, though, was the drive down to the river and back up again. Really beautiful. Not in the fall foliage sense, though. It was just the sheer magnitude of the bridge and the drive through the deep woods, which entailed a lot of switchbacks and multiple ess curves. Worth the drive to get that national park stamp. 

 

From there we drove toward Kentucky. Didn’t make it, though. Stopped for the night in Charleston, West Virginia. 

 

Our waitress at dinner was quite chatty. When she found out we live on an island off the coast of Texas she had two questions:

1.      Do you have cars there? I have to admit it took every ounce of restraint for me not to answer with something like, “Oh, no. We all ride horses.”  In fact I had to let Chris take that one. I just couldn’t. 

2.    Isn’t there a lot of weird stuff that happens down there?

I jumped all over that one. I told her that we were perfectly normally weird in Texas. It was up here that we were finding all the really strange stuff. 

 

Philippians 1:3 says, “I thank my God every time I remember you.”

 

Father, once again, you amazed us with the enormity of your creation.  And with your fun people.  Thank you. Amen.