Meet me in St Louis!

Well, we made it that day through Oklahoma and Missouri, despite my near collision with the divider. We stayed just south of St. Louis. We pulled in about 9:30pm and just had one whole day and another night to rest. Lilly and I took a long walk early the next morning and boy was it humid. However, humid usually means green. The vegetation was beautiful. Our campground had a pond and was by a little church with a cemetery. We passed vines of wild honeysuckle and giant oak trees. We got back in time to wake the kids and do some laundry. We decided, rather than just hang out at the campground we could go site see if something was really close. We were within 10 miles of three different caves, so I went to the office to see which one they recommended. After a long chat where I discovered the owner's mom lives in Oakhurst and one of the ladies who works here has family in Madera (small world) we decided to tour Onandaga State park and cave. What a great experience. the hike down in the cave only takes an hour and 45 minutes, but we saw amazing formations. The kids were a little unsure at first, but really enjoyed themselves. I will be attaching pictures, but be forewarned, as it was soooo dark, it was really hard to get good pictures. Many of the formations were far enough from me that the flash didn't reach. We also discovered when I tried to get the kids in a picture, the flash would just pick them up and make whatever was behind them (usually a fantastic formation) just black.

It was a cool 56 degrees, 200 feet below the earth and a very wet, slippery climb, but I would highly recommend it!

When we were talking to the KOA folks, Micah picked up a pamphlet with a Clydesdale on the front and animals inside and asked if we could go. It happened to be Grant's Farm in St. Louis. The property was once owned by Ulysses S Grant and was purchased in the early 1900's by Anheuser-Busch. It is an operating farm, where you can tour and still see the old Grant homestead. The grounds are beautiful. I couldn't imagine having all that lush green park like land as my home. Anyway, we normally don't take a lot of detours on driving days, but it is hard to turn down that cute little guy. So, on our way out of Missouri, we spent a few hours touring the farm. You only have to pay for parking and the tram and tour are all free. I hope you enjoy the pictures. It was hilarious seeing the children try to feed baby goats from bottles. Micah had the time of his life, and they all loved seeing the Clydesdales. There is a picture of a fence included in the bundle. It wasn't a fence Grant put up, but Anheuser. I put that in just for you, Ken. The fence was fashioned out of civil war gun barrels. Pretty neat.

You'll notice a conspicuous absence of the St. Louis arch--The Gateway to the West. My kids had been looking forward to seeing this since Needles. Unfortunately, the detour we took to Grants farm took us around the city. So we didn't get to see the arch. We'll have to catch it on the way back.

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Reflections on Route 66

The following post was written last week to go with the route 66 slide show (Mark named it "Land of the Jackalope"). I've been without internet since Ohio:

I will write more in detail about some of the fun things we've done the last few days, but I thought I would attach a slide show of just the whole route 66 trip. It has been quite an experience traveling this route. I traveled it many times with my family when I was a child (never the actual route 66, but route 40). Nathaniel and Aaron got very good at spotting the old route 66 alongside our highway. It would disappear for awhile and then pop up again.

So far, everyone is a good traveler except me. They do ask how much longer, but for the most part traveling attitudes have been good.

An interesting story I thought I would share. I had one bad headache day. Thankfully, it wasn't on a driving day. It was the worst headache I've had in years. Bad enough to consider having Mark fly back to drive with us for a few days. My whole family prayed. Late that night the headache was gone.

The next morning I was quite queasy and very worn out. We were supposed to travel from West of Oklahoma City all the way to Stanton , Missouri. I was just so thankful to be headache free I kept thanking God for his mercy and healing. Then, I asked a very foolish request. I knew I was doing this trip on God's strength. But I knew I would only make it through that day's driving by God's grace. so I asked Him to reveal to us some of the ways He was watching out for us that day.

Well, by noon, I had been pulled over in Oklahoma. Ten miles too fast in a construction zone. The speed limit was 75 and then slowed down to 65, then 55. Apparently it slowed down again to 45, or so the officer informed me. When I explained to the officer that I managed to see all of those signs, but I was in the middle of a Latin lesson with the kids, so I must have missed that last sign, he actually laughed out loud. We taught him a few Latin phrases (not sure where he'll use them) and he sent us on our way with another laugh and just a warning. Thank you, Lord!

A few hours later, I turned on the praise CD I had made. I was slapping my face to keep awake, so I decided it was time to sing. In the middle of a Jana Alayra song, I heard that loud buzzing sound from the grooves on the side of the road. I opened my eyes to see that we were in the passing lane (I had been in the right hand lane) and heading for the concrete divider. God was definitely driving for me. That shook me up pretty badly, but let me tell you, we were all singing praises then!

We pulled off for a long rest and a soda with some caffeine to get us to our next stop. Lord, I know you are keeping me going everyday, but maybe I don't need to know all the horrible things you hold back for me.

We were hoping to meet and share with a lot of folks on this trip and God has made a new acquaintance for us at each campground. Destiny and her mom at the KOA in Oklahoma. Dee and her family in Missouri, who brought us homemade popcorn our last night there. Eleanor, a pharmacist and her Mom, Bridgette and her two children Colin and Reagan in Ohio. We made several friends in Williams, AZ. The only place we met no one was Albuquerque. That place was a little scary and we didn't stay long.

For the most part, people are friendly. If they think we're weird because we are Christians or because we home school, they don't say anything. The only fellow believers we've met were in Williams. but, there is a lot more traveling left to do!

Anyway, enjoy the slide show!

Land of the Jackalope

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