Prologue
I was raised in the suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri. My parents were both born in St. Louis, as were my paternal grandparents (and some of their ancestors). St. Louis is where my roots are, and where most of my family still lives.
About a month ago, my 94 year old grandma had a stroke. Up until her stroke, she had been living alone the last 18 years in the house that she's lived in since 1954. After being in the hospital for 3+ weeks, she was transfered to a nursing home for "rehab".
Chapter 1. The Journey Home
The alarm went off at 4:30am on Wednesday, November 22. I handn't slept very well. As a way of trying to reduce our guilt for leaving, we had decided the night before to allow our cat, Nemo, to come in the house and sleep in our bed. Nemo was thrilled, and expressed his joy by purring LOUDLY most of the night. It isn't easy to sleep when you've got a motor humming in your ear. When the alarm went off, I was exited. Today was the day we'd drive 900 miles across the country to make the journey home.
We left the house by 5am and drove 8 miles to our first stop, the Waffle House. I love going to a 24-hour truck stop greasy-spoons in the early hours of the morning. I always wonder what secret mission or exotic destination the other diners are coming from or going to. Why are THEY there? And what is it like for the folks who work those graveyard shifts? What are we to them...entertainment? an annoyance? or just another tip?
I savored my chocolate chip waffle and covered my side of hashbrowns in Waffle House salsa. (I don't know why, but I really love Waffle House salsa. Michael has convinced the manager on multiple occasions to sell us a bottle so I could have it at home.)
At 6am we were back in the car, and as the engine started, I started the stopwatch. We were back on the road with Michael at the wheel. He took us 400 miles though the barren landscape of Eastern Colorado and Western Kansas. We stopped in Hays, Kansas to re-fuel our bodies and our gas tank. I took the second shift and as the miles ticked by, I watched the flatness become gently rolling hills and slowly trees and started to appear alongside creeks and streams. I got through the snarl of day-before-Thanksgiving rush hour Kansas City traffic.
As the sunlight started to wane, I did too. Michael took over and drove the last hour to Columbia, MO. We met his parents for dinner at 6:30pm at an all-you-can eat Chinese buffet restaurant. We continued on in the dark for the last 100 miles. We stopped at Steak-n-Shake to pick up late-evening snacks to bring home…four junior milk shakes (three chocolate, one vanilla), a large order of fries, and a side of pickles to go. Michael and I became hysterical imagining the thoughts of the person taking our order. Who goes through a drive-thru and orders tiny milkshakes and a side of pickles? We arrived at my parents' house, with a round of tiny milkshakes 14 hours and 44 minutes after our departure from Waffle House.
Chapter 2. Giving Thanks
I spent Thursday morning making a pumpkin pie from scratch...starting with a pumpkin from my garden, and cutting it, roasting it, mashing it, and mixing in the rest of the filling ingredients. I made the pie crust from scratch too. I didn't bring a rolling pin, and my mom didn't have one, so the crust was a bit "rustic".
What a gift to be able to spend Thanksgiving with my family. This was the first time since I was in college that I was home for Thanksgiving with the whole family there. And while it was a quick visit, and I didn't get to spend as much time with my siblings as I would have liked, it was still great to see them all.
I also appreciated being able to visit my grandma in the nursing home. I don't know when I'll be able to get back to St. Louis again, and what kind of physical and mental condition she'll be in when I do. Her mind has clearly been touched by the stroke(s), and she would sometimes confuse me for one of my sisters, confuse Michael for my brother, but was very clear and present other times. When I went to see her on Friday, she was asleep. I spent about half an hour just standing at her bedside as she slept. It was like watching a child sleeping in a crib, only this was my grandmother in a bed with side-rails. I felt very peaceful just watching her and watching my own breathing as I held her hand. The staff woke her up and put her in her wheel chair to take her to lunch. We walked down with her to her dining room and as we were leaving she told Michael and I to take care of each other and to respect each other...that was when it was hard to leave.
Chapter 3. And then you drove where?
On Saturday morning we drove 12 hours to Marshall, Minnesota where our friend Richard now lives. Richard was a dear friend to us throughout our five and half years in San Diego, and it was so good to see him. On Sunday, Richard gave us the tour of Southwest Minnesota State University, where he's now teaching physics. SMSU is small (3500 students) as is the town of Marshall (pop. 13,000 people). We spend the day talking and playing games with Richard and his girlfriend, Tristen. It was a short visit, but wonderful to see them both.
On Monday morning Michael and I completed our journey by driving 13 hours back home to Colorado. We put about 2500 miles on the car over the holiday trip, and spent nearly 40 hours in the car. We really did have a good time together, and realized that we hadn't seen each other much in the last few weeks.
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