Vacation Part Two

From Texas, Monday June 19, we headed to Oklahoma. Thomas' friend, Sanford Yoder, from years ago recently lost his youngest son in an accident. It gave Thomas a longing to go connect again. These two were unmarried, young men when they last saw one another.

As we were introduced to the family we discovered that here again were 5 sons (minus the one killed) and one daughter. Our boys say this stop was the highlight of the trip for them. They had so many similar points of interest with these boys as well as being near the same ages. 

A good game of basketball was what they needed after long hours of traveling and visiting and having "nothing to do". Christopher found a good book to curl up with, Austin found cubing buddies, Stephen played his card tricks on quite knowledgeable guys. There was lots of real good conversation to listen to or be involved in. 

Again we found it hard to leave the next morning but we had a long road ahead to where our next stop was in TN. We got one last visit with brother Paul's family! We drove hard all day after leaving Sanford's place, stopping only once in ten hours for lunch, restroom and fuel. I guess we weren't drinking enough.

Sanford gave us an acapella recording of a men's group that he is a part of. The boys enjoyed listening to that as we traveled. I say "the boys" because we had taken two vehicles and there's had the CD player. We pulled a U-Haul trailer down to TX with things that my sisters wanted from the home place. So we had the truck and car to drive for miles and miles. Five drivers to take turns but I did very little driving myself. Thomas and Stephen did the majority of it.

It was rather late when we arrived at Wendell King's place. They graciously fed us supper and made room for us overnight in their already full house. They have 4 sons and 2 daughters. So with all three families there were 22 people there! 

It was great to connect with them again and visit with Paul, Helena and family once more. Helena and Wendell's wife Ruthie are sisters. We were up too late.... And the next morning they fed us a good breakfast. They then supplied us with meat and cheese and crackers from their store for our homeward journey.

The road home seemed long and longer that day.  When we were in VA late at night we got into really slow traffic. Emergency vehicles kept passing us on the shoulder. Not just regular fire truck, police and ambulance but more complicated things. When we finally passed the accident, here it was a tractor trailer on its side across most of the road. All traffic was passing around on the shoulder. How did that happen, we wonder?

It was close to midnight before we reached HOME sweet HOME. I really enjoyed the trip. It was a bit of vacation and "broadening horizons" for me. 

Here are three of the very few pictures I took on the trip.

This is how you (or we) do meals on a trip. At a rest area. At Walmart....

It's very difficult to photograph the Mississippi River from your vehicle while crossing the bridge!

Bass Pro Shop is out to catch your attention!

East or west, home is best. 

Is it the best place in the world for you?

There are so many who do not have a happy home.