Missouri to Tennessee

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

 

 

Although I will be the first to admit that I really missed the traditional corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, carrots, green milk... dinner tonight. I know that we are where we are supposed to be. Or at least on route to where we are supposed to be. There is always next year, right? The word out on the grapevine is that some of my kids have actually mastered the family recipe, so I am happy that they were able to continue the family tradition in our absence. Good job!

 

 

 

This morning we attended the Liberty Second Ward church services. As you can plainly see it's still freezing cold here, can't wait to get to Florida :) Interestingly enough Sacrament Meeting was a missionary farewell for a Steven Untch, who has been called to serve in Brazil. The choir's special musical number was, you guessed it..."Called to Serve". I don't think I will ever be able to sing that song without getting a little misty eyed. The people were very friendly (southern hospitality) although they were sure we must have been called to serve at the Liberty Jail Visitor Center.  They were quite surprised when we told them we were just passing through on our way to Florida.

 

 

 Missouri is referred to as the "Show Me State." Which is very interesting since everywhere you looked, or tried to look there were mini forests. In fact the trees obscured most of the landscape all the way to the state of Illinois. I am not sure if there is an actual purpose for the trees, but I bet they are a sight to see when they have leaves.

 

Surprise! We just happened to be driving along on our way to Nashville when all of a sudden we saw the St. Louis Missouri Temple off in the distance.  Sorry if it appears a little blurry, but taking a quick snapshot while moving at 70 miles an hour is tricky.

 

 

 This is Lambie  (bottom right corner) on the look out for the official "Welcome to Illinois" sign. In a blizzard no less!

 

 Seriously trying to get a good picture of the state welcome sign is getting to be quite a challenge.  It would certainly be helpful if they placed them where you could actually slow down and pull over to the side. Rather than trying to capture it in between the wind shield wiper swooshing by and the slushy rain cascading down the window. Illinois is referred to the "Land of Lincoln" and some of the scenery resembled Colorado, colorful rock formations, etc.  But the weather was so bad we couldn't really see very much. Although we did notice numerous signs pointing out this river and that river. In fact there is actually a resort called "Land Between the Rivers".

 

 Okay so we got lucky this time. Kentucky, the Bluegrass State, actually showed some signs of spring.  It was much more green than Illinois, but the mini forests were everywhere blocking our view. There must be a reason for all the trees, and I for one would like to know what it is. It's not like they are pretty trees, more like a forest of stick people trying to keep you from discovering what they are hiding behind their backs.

 

 

Another one of those drive by pictures...but you get the point, right?

 

Anyway we arrived safe and sound in Nashville late this evening Zzz. I have to admit, it was a little unsettling to see all the bright lights after days of flat open country. Nashville is the first big city that we have seen since we left California. It sort of reminds me of Lake Tahoe.  Not as bad as Reno, but bright lights, and lots and lots of neon billboards. Since Nashville is considered to be the center of country music I half expected people to be out on the sidewalks strumming guitars. Depending on how our morning goes tomorrow I hope to be able to convince Elder Busath to drive by the Grand Old Oprey, but we shall see.

 

My chauffeur, also Elder Busath, since he is doing all of the driving (just call me Miss Daisy) tells me that we only have about 12 to 13 more hours to go. That means that we could actually be done with the travel part of our adventure by tomorrow night.  However, our Mission President would like to see us the minute we get to our mission and we are nothing but obedient. But I really hate the thought of knocking at his door all grungy from driving late Monday night.

 

More details to come....