Apt101

Courtesy of Politico.com

Well, we have made it home.  We have actually been home for about a week and I am just getting around to posting about our trip.

I have posted photos so feel free to stop reading and check there out here. If you continue reading thought, I will let you know where we went and what we did.

Just to catch everyone up we went down route 66 with Stacy’s father.  So the three of us set out on a Sunday night heading towards Santa Rosa, NM.  I-20 to Dallas, TX up to I-40 via 287 what the route of choice.  On Sunday night we spent the night in Longview, TX and then headed on our way.  Oops, almost forgot, we did find a cache in Longview.  I gues I won’t bore you with the details of our caches, but on this trip we found 22 caches.

So after longview we took out and ended up in Tucumcari, NM. We realized that during our last trip there were a few things we missed here so we spent the night that night in the Blue Swallow Hotel.  That was really cool.  Very historical and fun.  If you see photos of a pink stove you are at the right shots. We hung around and took photos of all the neon and had a good nights sleep.

Next, to Santa Rosa, NM. We actually had car problems, had to buy new tire and such, but not much to do there except for the Car Museum. Nice Rides. From Santa Rosa we headed up Pre 1947 Route 66 which leaves I-40 and heads north. We hit Vegas, NM, and Santa Fe, NM.  Nice little towns with lots of shops. We spent the night at the Kings court in Santa Fe.

The third day of travel we pushed ourselves and made it ot Holbrook, AZ. There we spent the night in TeePees. Check those shots out. They were really cool.

We did a lot more than I am saying, but I don’t really want to bore you with all the details. Check out the photos and you will see more. We spent Friday and Saturday driving the 22 hours home. It sounds fast and furious, but we really enjoyed ourselves

Well, we have settled in for the night in Longview, TX. It has not been terribly adventurous so far. We left our house at about 8 this evening and went as far as we could. We are in a little hotel called “Guest inn”. It was only $58.98 a night. Not to bad of a price. My goal is to find cheaper.
We have already watched cars. Stacy needed inspiration.

Charlotte Vincent (Stacy’s Mother) passed around 3:45 on February 16th. Visitation will be held at the Robert Barham Family Funeral Home in Meridian, MS from 6pm to 8pm on February 17. The Funeral Service will be in the same place on February 18th at 11:00am. Following the service there will be a small Graveside Ceremony. The graveside is approximatly 30 minutes from the Funeral Home.

Map for Funeral home

We are not sure if it is going to happen tonight, but a lot of the signs are showing that Ms. Vincent will not make it through the night. The entire family, well, my wife, her sister and father are all coming to the Hospital for the night. The nurses have pulled in some cots and we are all sitting and waiting.

For most of the day Ms. Vincent has been in a deep sleep, but about 7 this evening she began to wake up and call for different people. She has been telling us things she wants us to write down to tell other people. Then she started calling for her husband.

At one point she began discussing her funeral and what she wants to happen. Stacy has been writing down every word. During one portion of that topic she had an amazing moment if clarity. She raised her hands and with the loudest voice I have heard from her in a long time she proclaimed, “during this I will be shouting this is the day that the Lord has made and I will rejoice and be glad in it, cause I will be with the Lord”. Then she closed her eyes for a second and started talking in that slow quiet mumble voice again.

In these situations, like most, I usually think of my mortality, of how fragile I am and how quickly things can change or be over. This time, I found myself thanking God for my clarity, for my knowledge of where I am going and I can only hope that some of my last words are praises to him.

I am not starting a daily photo blog this is just something I ran across that has been my inspiration for the day. Not that I want to do it, but it is just an illustration of defiance that amazes me.

This was my first meeting to go to and it was a fun one. I have been to geocacher parties before but this was my first official MSGA. We Met at Froghead Restaurant in Clinton, MS and spent a good 3 hours just talking and getting to know each other. I even took the Mule Town travel bug along to join the fun. If you are interested in Geocaching and meeting others that do it. This is a good way to do it.