The Petro and the Park

Dallas was the hardest city to drive through! The signs are horrible and we missed the roads we wanted several times because of it. Then because of how the off-ramps just merge in with the road on the side of the freeway, we couldn't get back to the other side of the freeway to go the other direction, so we just had to come up with different ways to get places. It was such a pain! The good news is that we were able to see our friends Joan and Chad, but we were unfortunately unable to see Joyce and Stu as well.

From Ft. Worth we headed north to Springfield, MO, and are continuing on from there to Jackson, MI. We spent the night last night in Effingham, Illinois, which was in the southern part of Josh’s mission, although he didn’t ever serve in that city. We stayed at the Petro truck stop. They had an actual restaurant there instead of the usual Arby’s or Subway. They had a fabulous breakfast buffet with unlimited French toast and bacon. There was a lot of other stuff too, but that is what I ate the most of. Their showers actually had doors on them too which was an improvement over the other places. The shower rooms are private and have locked doors, but the shower itself is usually open to the room. This one was much more conducive to the whole family showering in one room.

Yesterday we stopped to eat lunch at Robertson State Park in Illinois. It was about a million degrees outside! In reality it was only 102ish, but with the humidity, it might as well have been a million. Note the sweaty little boy. It was a fun place for Mitch to ride his bike and Lizzy to play in her walker. They even had a little playground to play on. Lizzy found the picnic benches particularly appetizing. I went to clean our picnic stuff up, and Mitch was playing on the playground, and I told him that we would honk the horn when we were ready to go. A few minutes later, I saw him walking back from the playground, and I continued cleaning up and talking to Josh. All of the sudden, I about jumped out of my skin when the semi horn honked. Mitchell had decided it was time to go and honked the horn to let us know! It was really funny!

Lizzy and Mitchell really seem to like each other. She loves to just stare at him and will readily give him big smiles. He loves to hold her and help take care of her, and is a really good big brother. Here is a picture of her staring at him while he sings her a song.