Last Thursday we left on our trip. We were supposed to leave in the early morning so we could have some time for the kids to swim at the hotel, and maybe go for a drive/walk around a great big lake in southern Illinois we always see from the freeway that looks very pretty (Rend Lake). But, as usual, Dan had a bunch of last second crises with his business, and we ended up leaving late afternoon. We always do this. I have warned him that this cannot happen on our next trip, because we have tickets to a baseball game in St. Louis that starts at 7PM.

We got to the hotel pretty late and tried to sleep. But there was a screaming couple with a little baby in a nearby room, so we sure didn't get much sleep. Since I had only gotten about three hours the night before, this was not a good thing.

We stopped off at a local landmark called Boomland in Missouri for gas (they had the cheapest gas I have seen anywhere in months) and ice cream. It was a fun place. Not just fireworks, but room after room of all sorts of stuff for sale...the kids added to their Beanie Baby collection.

We got to Arkansas late afternoon. It was raining cats and dogs. My oldest sister and the realtor were at the house when we dropped in, so we stayed for awhile and cleaned. My third sister and her husband arrived with pizzas, and that made a nice dinner. Then we drove throug hthe pouring rain to our rental condo in Mountain Home. It was very nice, at a place called Teal Point Resort. It had two bedrooms, 1 1/2 baths, a huge fireplace, a fully equipped kitchen, cable tv....it was on a huge, huge lake well known for its fishing, called Lake Norfork. Unfortunately, there were thunderstorms all night long, and again, we got very little sleep.

In the morning we went out in the cold, pouring rain in search of breakfast. We found a little diner not too far from the condos. It was called Brenda's Country Kitchen. We had the only out of state plates in the lot, and when we walked in the door everyone turned around and stared at us as if we were vampires or something! The food was simple, but well prepared and quite tasty.

We spent the day cleaning the house.All three of my sisters and my brothers-in-law were there. Thank God my brothers-in-law took care of the chicken that had been there for four months without the benefit of refrigeration.

That night we all met for dinner at a buffet in Mountain home. The dinner was pleasant and it was nice seeing everyone.

In the morning we all went to services at Dad's church, the Church of Christ in Agnos. The people there were very friendly, very nice. After services two of my sisters and their husbands headed home. The rain had finally stoppped. The weather channel said there has been 12 inches in 48 hours. Everything was trying to flood. And this is where my little letter a couple of entries down begins, with Steven's adventure with the doggies...

The drive back seemed to take forever, as Dan and I could not help each other taking turns driving. He had the big truck and u-haul, I had the small truck. The main road in Arkansas had been completely blocked by a bad accident, so we had to take little country roads for quite a way to get around it. We stopped at Boomland for gas, dinner, and to buy fireworks for my friend Jim. They carry the biggest fireworks you can legally have without a special permit there. We got some smaller (much smaller) ones for ourselves, as well. We stopped for the night in Mount Vernon, Illinois, again. We made it home the following day, despite a bad accident involoving three large trucks on the Indiana Turnpike. They had both lanes closed and the police were directing everyone over to the shoulder. But we made it home, and boy, were we glad to get here!

Max came with us for the trip. He is getting old and stiff, poor doggy. He had trouble climbing in and out of the big Ram. I found it very touching when Bill started picking him up and lifting him in and out of the backseat. Bill was only in kndergarten when we got Max, and now he is nearly a junior in high school. For a few years, Max, at 70-80 pounds, outweighed Bill. Now Bill can just pick him up as gently as if Max were a tiny puppy instead of a big black lab.