Thanks to the kindness of a student's grandparents, we had a marvelous place to use as home base for a trip to Missouri over Christmas Break.
We left December 23rd, the first day that school was out. Looking back, I do not know if I would do this again. With no break between the end of school and the beginning of vacation, I was pretty discombobulated by the time I finally sat down in the van. Our first day's travel was to take us from home to Bill and Teresa's in Olathe, Kansas.
Perhaps 75 miles from home, Avery started alerting us that her tummy didn't feel good. Sure enough, soon came the little gagging noise that precedes vomit. But you may not have realized that my wife is a hero. She had packed gallon zip-lock baggies which she used to catch Avery's offering before it hit anything. Not a drop got loose. You should also know that Aves is prone to both low blood sugar and motion sickness; she wasn't actually ill.
We lunched in Clear Lake, Iowa and then continued south. In the distance you could see brighter weather, but we were still buried by a huge bank of clouds. Finally, a little south of Des Moines (where we got fuel for $2.85 a gallon) the sun broke through and stayed with us all the rest of the way to Olathe. Driving through Kansas City was an adventure, especially with the western sun in our eyes, but we arrived at Bill and Teresa's around suppertime. They were very kind hosts, but it has to be noted that their home isn't set up for little ones. After observing antiques and collectibles everywhere, our kids finally settled on some antique balance scales that Bill has displayed on a huge shelf in the great room.
In Olathe, we went out for pizza with Bill and Teresa (thanks, guys), watched a professional marble guy make a marble from scratch, attended a Christmas Eve service at St. Aidan's Episcopal Church, and played on the playground of Black Bob Elementary School. (Ironically enough, Black Bob was apparently a local Indian chief. The political incorrectness of it cracked me up.) Late in the morning on Christmas Day, we finished our brunch with Bill and Teresa and said good-bye. On to Ozark.
The weather was beautiful when we breezed through Springfield and arrived at our "home" on the outskirts of Ozark. It was the polar opposite of Bill and Teresa's mansion -- a sprawling one-story with no junk and hardly a knick-knack in sight. Right away we saw the beginnings of a treasure hunt that Paul and Carol had left for the kids. Following the clues, we eventually arrived at some Swiss Miss hot cocoa mix and a box of holiday Oreos. For the rest of Christmas Day, we just relaxed and waited for some attractions to open.
December 26th is our anniversary, and we celebrated it (with four children) at Lambert's Cafe, the home of the throwed rolls. This huge restaurant has not only huge portions of food but also dishes they call "pass arounds"... there are servers wandered the aisles with baskets of treats like fried okra, macaroni and tomatoes, molasses, and fried potatoes. About every 10 minutes, a handsome young man would come out of the kitchen and yell "HOT ROLLS!" Then anyone who wanted a roll would wave his hands in the air and wait for the roll to be "throwed" to him. Our boys were delighted and caught several. Our girl tried as well but took a piping hot roll to the cheek instead. It was quite a memorable experience.
We also made it to Branson on the night of the 26th, where we visited the Bass Pro Shop and the Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum. Interesting, but weird. If you had a good pile of money to spend, Branson would probably be a lot of fun.
On the 27th, we tried to tour Smallin Cave, but the admission for all six of us was going to be somewhere on the high side of $70, and we just didn't see it happening. (Smallin Cave is just the opposite of its name... a huge cave where primitive peoples lived and Civil War soldiers camped.)
Then it was up to Springfield to see more of Tara's family: Uncle Dan and Aunt Marti, their daughter Jennifer and her son Connor, and their son Jimmy who's not married yet. We had a great time eating Aunt Marti's lasagna and catching up with them at Jennifer's house. After a few hours we moved on to more sightseeing.
The morning of the 28th dawned bright and clear. In her usual orderly fashion, Tara had everything ready and loaded, and we did a final check of the house around 9:30. It was time to head home. We didn't know exactly how many miles this route would cover, but we knew it was going to be a long day.
After filling up, we prayed for safe travel and set our faces to the north. Our last incident with local color was at a huge warehouse called "Davis Baskets". Intrigued, we stopped off even though we knew we really didn't have time. Entering, we at first saw no one, just aisles and aisles of baskets, toys, collectibles, crafts, and the like. Finally an old man hobbled out of nowhere and answered a few questions tersely. Tara found a bag of cedar pieces for $3.49, which included a very nice cedar box with lid and clasp. We bought it. In retrospect we should have bought 12, because they would have made nice gifts for the next biennium. And the proprieter? Mr. Davis had founded the business in 1947 and was still operating it. When he passes on, someone's going to get a whole lot of inventory!
Our next major stop was Jefferson City, where we tried to find the Panera (I had gift cards) but weren't quite successful. On the phone with Grandpa (how technology has changed travel!) we were able to isolate one in Columbia. While this was going on, "Barfing Petunia" was at in again... not once but twice. Again, Tara caught the entire amount which we left for the citizens of Columbia.
After lunch, we continued through northern Missouri, and, I really have to tell you, Missouri is beautiful. I fully intend to spend more time there in the future. I'm also fascinated by the number and size of the churches. There are churches everywhere -- and about 70% of them, Baptist! Freewill Baptist, Southern Baptist, Regular Baptist, Bible Baptist, you get the idea. Oh, to have enough Sundays to worship with and encourage each one!
It was almost sunset when we crossed into southeastern Iowa, and it occurred to me that we were going to be driving in the dark soon. But I'm happy to say that it was still light when we rolled through Ottumwa ("City of Bridges") and Oskaloosa (an adorable old-style small city). Most wondrous to me (but amusing to my family) was an old building engraved with the words "PVBLIC LIBRARY". Now, if you've done any classical study at all, you know that "U" and "V" in ancient Roman times were the same letter -- "V" did the job of both. The rest of the uneducated in the car, however, found it very funny to try to pronounce the "V" as a "V". But I salute some early citizen of Oskaloosa for his courage and knowledge of ancient Rome.
After Oskaloosa, it just got darker and scarier, but the Lord protected us, and our '97 Dodge Grand Caravan made it home once again, having traveled 575 miles in one day for a total of more than 245,000.
I guess this brings to an end our year of adventure!
