driving back to Missouri

We left for Missouri on Thursday, July 18.  I don't know how we did it but we had more to take home than we brought so we packed our Element to the roof and then had to tie three suitcases up on the luggage rack.  That always makes me nervous because one time, many years ago, we lost a sleeping bag from the top of our van.  Plus, what if it rains?  Well, happily, Steve was a scoutmaster and learned a couple of really effective knots in between that time and now so our luggage did just fine during the three days of driving. 

Al, the allosaurus, was given to Steve by Sister Fairbanks, a sweet young sister missionary, the week before we left so he has become our vehicle mascot.

We drove as far as El Paso on Thursday, passing through Las Cruces that has a really cool giant roadrunner statue alongside the interstate.

We left Phoenix early enough to get to El Paso in time to drive around some of the places of my youth.  We visited my elementary school and junior high (now called a middle school) and the two buildings, called the "cottages" where I attended first and second grade.  They were built right in the middle of my subdivision - separate from the main elementary school (I wonder what they are used for now???)

The house I grew up in was built in the 1950's during the post-war building boom.  We lived in a nice middle-class neighborhood in a house with three small bedrooms and two bathrooms.  My mother worked very hard to make our lawn the mecca for all the children on the block because we had NO sticker weeds to attack our bare feet.   She had an iris bed along the entire east side of the house.  A large rose garden in back and we had two apricot trees and a peach tree.  She always grew sweetpeas on the south side of the house every spring.  We had the nicest house on the block.  Well, not any longer!  Our house is the most GHETTO on the street, now.  You can see the huge fence surrounding the property.  Instead of grass, it is completely surrounded by cement.  And, the red brick has been painted a bilious orange.  I got a little better photo from the house next door, where my best friend Jamie Kaye lived.  Like many old urban neighborhoods, mine seems to be undergoing a bit of a renaissance because more than half of the houses look tidy and well kept.  So sad about mine

Jamie Kaye's grandmother owned a motel just north of our subdivision and it is still there!!! That is the original sign.  We used to go swimming at the pool that was in the back of the property.

Not to be missed was the church we used to attend on Douglas Street.  It is certainly not the typical Mormon church design and it is now on the national historic registery.  I was a little worried that, being a Thursday evening, there would not be any meetings being held inside and we would not be able to see the interior.  But, happily, the sister missionaries had a correlation meeting with the ward missionaries that night and so I got to show Steve around.  It has been remodeled somewhat so not all the rooms inside were the same but it was close enough...

We ended our day in El Paso at a steak restaurant.  Yum!

Friday morning, we continued our drive eastward.  We visited Carlsbad Caverns - which will be a separate post - and then on into Texas.  SO flat but getting greener with every mile...

We stayed in Wichita Falls, Texas Friday night.  We got in rather late but still managed to sneak in a quick visit with Sarah and Dan Babbel who used to live in Columbia.

Saturday, it was pedal to the metal through Oklahoma and finally, MISSOURI!

We arrive in Columbia at around 6:30 in the evening.  Steven and our ward's missionaries had gone to our house and set up our beds but we had nothing else to make it hospitable so we spend Saturday night with Steven and Tamara in their beautiful new home just north of us.  Almost immediately after we arrived, we had to unpack our wrinkled Sunday clothes and drive down to the stake center to meet President James at 8:00pm in order to be released from our mission.  We couldn't do it on another day because he was going out of town the next day.  And so, just like that, the name tags were removed and we were regular citizens again - ready to resume regular life again.....