We Will Miss You, Warsaw!

We woke up early this morning and, like the past few mornings, were treated again to a delicious breakfast. Today's breakfast consisted of eggs, fresh fruit, and toast with special strawberry jam.

After breakfast, we headed to Jeannie and Pat's fifth wheel camper. They are Uncle Bob and Aunt Barbara's daughter and son-in-law. We drove about two hours northeast of Warsaw and passed through several small and beautiful towns. One of those towns was called Cole Camp, which we found out was named after Cole Younger, a gang member of the infamous outlaw, Jesse James, back in the mid-1800's. Very interesting!

When we got to Jeannie and Pat's, we immediately got in their truck and headed toward the boat dock to take a little mid-morning cruise on their boat on the Lake of the Ozarks. Wow! What we thought was a boat turned out to be a 40-foot yacht! Holy smokes!!! We had to get as many pictures as we could.

We came back from our amazing cruise on the lake and had a delicious lunch. We visited for a little while and then headed back to Warsaw.

For dinner, Aunt Barbara prepared breaded chicken and cucumber salad. Yum!

We ended the night early so we could pack and get ready to head out to Kansas City, MO, in the morning.

Warsaw

Morning began with Aunt Barbara making homemade biscuits and gravy. What a nice treat!

Aunt Barbara showed us around town and then we headed off to the WARM House, which stands for Warsaw Area Resource Ministry, where she and Uncle Bob volunteer each week. We loved meeting all of the volunteers and even got to help sort out clothes that were donated earlier in the day.




Zac and I left the WARM House for a little while and went next door to the local Common Ground Cafe, operated by the Twelve Tribes. We met Joseph (which he told us was pronounced "yo-SAFE") in the WARM House earlier and was greeted by him as we walked into the Cafe. Talk about an interesting character. He said he walked from Chicago to Chattanooga once! He even knew where the Yellow Deli is off of McCallie Avenue and approximately where our house is! We just had to get a picture with him. As we were heading out of the Cafe, we were treated to some interesting Hibiscus tea and some gluten-free carob muffins.

The Harry S. Truman Dam was our next stop. We got some great pictures there and then headed back to the WARM House to meet Uncle Bob and Aunt Barbara for lunch at the local Subway.

After lunch, we went back to the WARM House and helped out until closing time. Then, we drove back to the house and relaxed some before Aunt Barbara began preparing dinner.

We felt like royalty! Dinner consisted of Crappie fish (no, not pronounced "crappy" but "croppy"), homemade macaroni and cheese, homemade coleslaw, and marinated vegetable salad. Delish!!!

After dinner, we got to sit back, relax, and veg out on the couch. Ahhh......time for bed.

Missouri - Day Two

Well, the morning started off with us waking up (without an alarm!) at 6:15 a.m. We were well rested!

Zac ate breakfast and visited with Aunt Barbara for a little bit while I jumped in the shower to get ready to go to church.

The most embarrassing moment of the morning occurred while I was getting ready to wash my face in the bathroom sink. I must have grabbed the sink handle too hard because as soon as I twisted it, I heard a loud SNAP, and there went the handle, broken into pieces. "Oh, no!" I thought to myself. Now we won't be invited back to Uncle Bob and Aunt Barbara's house again!

I walked out of the bathroom, hung my head low, and walked into the kitchen to greet everyone. Aunt Barbara looked at my expression and had a puzzled look on her face. I explained what had happened and all I could do was profusely apologize about the sink handle. Uncle Bob remarked, "Don't you shake anyone's hand at church today. Wouldn't want you to hurt someone with your strong hands!"

We headed to St. Paul's Episcopal Church. The service was lovely and the church members were very friendly. Immediately following the service, we enjoyed a delicious potluck lunch.

With our bellies full, Uncle Bob drove us to Lee's Summit, MO, where his son, Jim, and daughter-in-law, Deb, live. We walked into Jim and Deb's house and were immediately greeted by Tripp and Hope, two of the cutest soft-haired Wheaten Terriers. We met several extended family, shared some ice cream and cake, and visited with everyone for a while.

We left Lee's Summit and headed toward Clinton, MO, where we stopped for some good Mexican food. On our way back, we passed through a little town called Tightwad. Yes. Tightwad; population 63. We stopped and jumped out of the car to get a quick picture with the city limit sign. As we were getting our picture taken under the sign, we got attacked by large ticks! Yikes! I grabbed the camera, took a quick picture of the sign, and hopped back into the car. We checked ourselves and found some hitchhikers who had made it back with us. As soon as we got into the house, we stripped ourselves down, dumped our clothes in the washer, and jumped in the shower.

We finally got to sit down and enjoy the evening with Uncle Bob and Aunt Barbara. What an eventful day!

Off We Go!

Yahoo!! Our honeymoon adventure has finally begun!

We began our day with waking up at 4:00 a.m. After getting the animals situated, we said our goodbyes to them, hopped into the car, and headed toward Missouri.

Our first rest stop was somewhere outside of Nashville. As we approached the gas station, an ominous stretch of clouds hung over us. Yes, we were a little scared, to say the least. We got out of the car just as a huge gust of wind blew in from the east and brought with it some angry thunderstorms and heavy rain.

After filling our tank, we got back in the car and proceeded to continue with our destination. We drove a good 300+ miles before passing through Kentucky. We ate our lunches we had packed for the trip and continued toward Illinois.

As we were welcomed by the wonderful "Welcome to Illinois" sign, we were also greeted by heavy rain and thunderstorms again. This time, the rain stayed with us and was very unforgiving. At one point, our extremely polite GPS instructed us to go toward a bridge that ended up being washed out by previous heavy rains. Needless to say, we had to find an alternate route.

Whoa! The alternate route actually took us through some areas devastated by flooding. Water levels were very high and many houses were surrounded by sandbags. With our hearts beating fast, we braved this route that put us at the same level as the waters that were continuing to rise. Whew! After what seemed like an eternity, we made it through Illinois and Mother Nature's wrath.

We continued on our journey. On the way through Missouri, we saw a camel, rabbits, cows, goats, and kangaroos! Yes, I said KANGAROOS, mate!

As we neared Zac's great uncle and great aunt's house in Warsaw, Missouri, the weather became absolutely beautiful. We finally arrived at Uncle Bob and Aunt Barbara's house safe, tired, and hungry.

We had a delicious dinner, consisting of ham salad sandwiches, cherry nut salad, some fresh fruit, and banana nut bread. Yummy!

We finally settled in and ended the night early. Off to dreamland......