Road Trip

I was calling it our "Thelma and Louise" Road trip -- but as I remember the movie, those two gals got into lots of trouble and came to a fateful end.

What fun to get to spend 19 hours of car time catching up with Bethany as we traveled to my niece, Chelle Neese's, destination wedding in Chicago. We laughed, shared, dreamed and meandered through little towns with I-80 detours! We had time to walk (me) / run (her) Lake Michigan Shoreline, take lots of pics in Lincoln park (she's a great photographer) and eat our fill. We stayed in an historic Chicago hotel, the old Stratford Belton, overlooking the lake.


As family was busy with rehearshal and wedding prep, we found a great little Italian restaurant Tuesday night a few blocks down the street that we darted into to avoid the rain and ended up having a wonderful time. Ricardo himself made sure we quickly got a table (I think he took pity on us looking like two drowned critters).




We enjoyed being with extended family and seeing some folks I hadn't seen in ages! The wedding was such an intimate, loving time between the two families who have previously enjoyed Zambia mission work together. Chelle and Michael met in Zambia and both had wanted to have their wedding there. (That would have been the extreme destination wedding!) Chelle looked gorgeous and remained calm -- Michael was striking in his tux and the whole evening was a wonderful celebration with family and close friends.


Waiting out a downpour by the side of the road in Davenport Thursday on our return to KC made me realize how vulnerable you can become in a millisecond. Cruising along at 70+ mph all of a sudden we drove into a torrential downpour of wind, water, hail and whatever else could blow through. (Next day Terry said he heard CNN say a tornado had zipped through the route we were driving!!!) I sat shakily clutching the steering wheel praying to not get hit by cars whizzing by and that it would soon pass -- in a few minutes it did -- God is sooo good -- and we were on the road again --- anxious to get back to their home for Mat's residency graduation.



We enjoyed time with Mat's family and our kids together and got to witness him reach another milestone.

I told Bethany as we parted yesterday -- "I'm gonna go through Bethany withdrawal"

It seems there's never enough time to be with the ones you love -- I know that's one of the things I'm going to enjoy in Heaven --An eternity with the Jesus and all the people I love!