We have landed in El Paso, TX. The weather is a bit cooler than their norm, which means it is warm and perfect pool weather! The kids are swimming and I've had a nap, so we're ready for the rest of the day. Our trip here is story worthy, so let me see if I can remember it ll.
Did you ever have a day when nothing seemed to go as planned, but it turned out to be better, overall, than your original plan? That is a good summary of yesterday. I should have suspected we were in for a bit of a different day when the first unusual thing we saw was 4 hay bales, piled on top of each other, painted to look like Sponge-Bob Square Pants. That was a new one for me. Shortly afterward, we encountered a detour due to a closed road. What we didn't realize until afterward was that Kansas detours take you 15-20 miles out of the way, and are not well marked, so you are constantly wondering if you missed the turn. Then you remind yourself you haven't passed any turns yet so you couldn't possibly have missed one!
Next we followed our google directions to the Little House on the Prairie site in Independence, Kansas. While google may have given us the most direct route, it was unaware that it took us COMPLETELY down a dirt road with an obstacle course of tractor tire ruts at the end for some excitement. Needless to say, it took us some extra time. The absurdity of the whole situation climaxed as Jess and I asked ourselves what some poor farmer may have thought if he saw our mini-van with MA plates bouncing through the cornfields...this thought was followed by 5 minutes of laughter and tears! Oh my!
We finally found a main road and got to the house. It was a cute stop and the kids had fun. I was thankful I had a mini-van to cross the country with and not their covered wagon! After stretching our legs we got back on the road and headed to Claremore, OK to visit Lucy. We arrived HOURS after we had intended to leave. Jess and I decided it was useless to be in any kind of a hurry at that point, so we hung out with Lucy for quiet a while. She gave us the grand tour of the sheep farm she is working at, gave Micah some hands on experience in spinning wool to yarn and introduced us to all the barnyard animals. She was able to get some time off so she accompanied us to Tulsa, OK for dinner at the Olive Garden. At the end of our dinner time, Cory Strnad joined us and everyone had a good time catching up.
At 9pm-ish we pointed the car south and began our drive through OK. Being behind, but so grateful and at peace with all time spent visiting friends, we opted to head straight for El Paso, TX and not stop in Waco. I was sad to not spend time with the Lockes, but we had a 14 hour drive ahead of us and chose to drive round the clock to get in to El Paso as early as possible. Jess and I drove in shifts and we only stopped for both of us to sleep at a rest stop from 5:30am-7:00am. We pulled into to Mariwyn's drive at 11:30am. Despite the sleepyness, I did really appreciate the beauty of the landscape here. It is teh most unique scenery we have seen thus far. And it is amazingly beautiful.
Today we have napped, the kids have swam, we had fantastic Mexican food for dinner, got a tour of downtown El Paso and are relaxing in the backyard. During the tour, we saw Tres Puntos, the mountain at which Mexico, Texas and New Mexico touch. We also observed the contrast of El Paso next to Juarez, Mexico. As we drove along, literally just across the fence we were looking into Mexico. It was quite the stark contrast of American and Mexican. Tonight we will relax, regroup a bit, and sleep. Tomorrow we head out between 9-10am to pick up Stefan at the Phoenix airport!
Blessings till tomorrow!
Cami Foerster