Day five of our trip dawned bright and early at the Hampton Inn in Springfield, MO. It’s hard to sleep in when eight people are sleeping in various groups and piles all over such a small area. We assembled ourselves into a somewhat presentable state and went downstairs to breakfast.

It was very interesting listening to everything around us while we ate our (very yummy) breakfast. The lady who worked at the hotel in the breakfast area was asking everyone where they were from. A lot of our fellow hotel guests were from Joplin, and were staying at the hotel because their homes had been destroyed. The lady would hug them and praise God that they were alive. It was pretty touching. While all of this was going on, the television above us was playing nonstop weather…either Joplin coverage or warning of the impending danger of tornadoes between Springfield and Oklahoma City. Since we were planning on traveling right through that path, we were trying to hurry and get out of town to try to beat the storm. So, with bellies full, we hit the road again.

We soon passed by Joplin. The Interstate exit ramp into Joplin was, of course, closed, but we still saw a lot of damage just passing by. It was mostly twisted and mangled signs, large housing debris, and then smaller debris. We could see one neighborhood, though, where all of the trees had fallen on top of the houses, collapsing the roofs. It was pretty sad. It was heartbreaking to think that we couldn’t even see the most heavily hit area, and very sobering to think of all the many, many lives lost in the Joplin tornado.

After the drama of driving past Joplin, the drive was pretty tame. The kids were good but (VERY) loud. The following video was the product of several hours in the van and a couple of bathroom stops:

As you can see, we entertained ourselves any way we could:

The dramatic part of our trip occurred after we stopped in Oklahoma City for a bathroom break and some “lunch” at about three o’clock (4:00 Eastern). We had drove straight through until that point, only stopping for short bathroom breaks. We stopped at a Chik-fil-a, and, about halfway through our meal, the manager came and discreetly told us that there was a tornado warning one county over and the storm was moving in our direction. She that if and when Oklahoma County was put under a warning, they would lock the doors to the dining room, and we could either leave or seek shelter with them. Our dilemma was in deciding what we should do. No part of chilling out (no pun intended) in the Chik-fil-a cooler at forty degrees appealed to us, but we didn’t know if it was a good idea to drive through the storm. We really didn’t want to lose so much driving time, though, because we were hoping to get to Dumas at a decent hour. The storm wasn’t supposed to arrive in Oklahoma City for another hour. We came to the decision that we were just going to try to drive through the storm, because we figured it would probably just be a bad thunderstorm anyway.

We made it as far as the van, where I turned and asked Amy, “What do you think we should do?”

She said, “We should probably pray and ask God to help us make the right decision.” She then prayed and instructed the kids to pray, as well.

No sooner had that occurred than Amy’s iPhone sounded a weather warning, letting us know that we were under a tornado warning. As soon as we heard it, we both felt like we should not try to drive. We went back inside the Chik-fil-a, where the manager then told us that we were welcome to take shelter with them, but, as it was going to be very cold for the children, we should consider going to the Bed Bath and Beyond store across the street. So, taking his advice, we went across the street to the Bed Bath and Beyond.

Once there, we stood around feeling awkward for about half an hour until the manager of the store announced over the intercom that a tornado had been spotted in the area and all customers and employees should take shelter in the front of the store. I don’t know what we were expecting, but somehow we were surprised when we were all herded into the women’s restroom. Our little boys especially loved that. </sarcasm>

This is what the children and I looked like:

And this is what everyone else looked like:

What did we ever do in a world before smart phones?

We spent almost two hours in that bathroom when it was all said and done. It was mostly boring and uneventful, but there was a few minutes when the storm picked up and large roofing tiles were blown into the roof of the store. That part was very frightening. When the storm finally passed, we got in the van and proceeded to get the heck out of Dodge Oklahoma City, amid the blaring of tornado sirens (for the eastern part of the city).

As we set off westward, we discussed how we believed we had made the right decision. We were disappointed about how much later we were going to get where we were going, but we felt like we had made the safe choice. As we got about thirty minutes down the road, we begin seeing debris along the roadsides here and there…a toppled barn…a broken sign. It was when we got to El Reno, Oklahoma that we saw the true reality of the Lord’s protection over us and our children. An EF4 tornado hit El Reno right about the time we would have been traveling through there. Our mouth’s hung open and our pulses quickened as we very vividly saw what might of been. We passed the wreckage of truck after truck on both sides of the highway, the large swath of devastated homes and cars and landscape, and we even saw rescue workers loading a body bag into the back of a truck. Those who tried to drive through the storm didn’t make it. We later learned that at least three lives had been claimed by the tornado, and more people were injured. While we only saw the remains of semi trucks along the road, it was reported that cars that had tried to drive through were ripped to pieces and flung in all directions. The personal vehicles had already been cleared from the interstate by the time we passed through.

I will add some video that Amy took as soon as she gets it uploaded. It was pretty intense.

After that sobering few minutes, we spent the rest of the trip was pretty low key. We arrived in Dumas, Texas a little after eleven p.m. central time, and went to bed almost as soon as we got here. Having met Amy’s family when we made this same trip last year, I was happy to see Amy’s parents and sister Julie that night. Especially Amy’s mom. I just love her!

Anyway, we hit the hay, and fell right to sleep. It had definitely been a very long, tiring day.

Today has been a long day. We didn’t leave Fort Knox until early afternoon. We grabbed lunch in Elizabethtown, and then set off toward Sikeston, Missouri.

We decided to go through Paducah and Sikeston instead of through St. Louis to get to Springfield. Why? Lambert’s Cafe, of course! Home of the famous Throwed Rolls!

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Amy said Owen was making the “Facebook kiss” face that all the silly little girls like to post on Facebook.

Amy Jo and me. We were very happy to be at Lambert’s…and out of the van for a while.

If you are not familiar with Lambert’s Cafe, well, I feel sorry for you. It’s a wonderful place. They have all kinds of country style food. You pick your entrée, your sides, and then you also get “Pass Alongs”. Those are sides…like fried okra, macaroni and tomatoes, black eyed peas, and fried potatoes…that servers walk around ladling onto your plate in addition to the food you order. Then of course, the most famous of all, the Throwed Rolls. Why are they called “Throwed” rolls? I’m glad you asked. They are called that because the server stands at the end of the room and throws the rolls to you. It’s loads of fun. The kids got about three rolls each, just so they could have the fun of catching them. Amy took some videos, but they aren’t uploaded yet. I’ll share them here when they are. The kids…especially my kids who had never been to Lambert’s before…had a blast. It was kind of nostalgic for me, too, because Chris and I ate in that exact restaurant on our honeymoon ten years ago.

After dinner at Lambert’s, we got back on the road headed for Springfield, Missouri where we had a hotel room waiting on us. (Thanks, Joel!) Driving through Missouri is kind of boring. At least on that route. There wasn’t much to look at, and the roads were so straight that you barely had to use any brain power to drive.

Driving

Not Driving

This is the boring road ahead of us.

Amy was thinking, “That Rachel. She’s flat out amazing. The way that she can drive for hours with the kids making those shrieking sounds…amazing. The way she knows all the words to all the youth choir songs on that ever so lovely cd made with such stellar audio ten years ago at the Tabernacle…amazing. The way she manages to do it all while looking so cute and being so funny and charming, too? Amazing!”

The following photos are for comparison:

This is me at the beginning of the drive.

This is me about seven hours into the trip. I call it, “Going a little nuts.”

Abby was kind of over it at that point, too. Can you imagine being strapped in one position in a car seat for an eight or nine hour drive? She gets the “best baby” award. Not only did she ride almost the entire way with no crying, but she also waited for our stops to use the potty. She only had one wet diaper all day! Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

A pretty sunset ahead of us.

With that, we end the photo-journaling portion of our blog post. After the last picture was taken, the heavens broke forth and the wrath of God in droplet form rained down upon me and made driving miserable for the last hour or so. By the time we pulled into our hotel parking lot, my entire upper body was stiff and sore, I had a headache, and my eyes were burning and aching from the strain of trying to see.  Tomorrow, I think I’ll get up and do it all again. Hopefully, minus the rain.

Goodnight, and God Bless!

Days two and three of The Freedom Tour may not make for very exciting blogging, but I have thoroughly enjoyed them.

I’ve been at Amy’s house for two days, and I’ve done a whole lot of nothing. Really. I’m trying to think of what we’ve done so that I can dutifully report, but I’m drawing a big blank. I know that we’ve ate at least three times a day, I read most of “The Bell Jar” since I got here and finished it today, and we’ve listened to a lot of music. We watched a little tv, and did some laundry. The kids have played outside, rode bicycles around the neighborhood, and spent way too much time playing “Rise of Nations” on the computer. Abby Jo has watched about a hundred episodes of “Dora the Explorer”. Earlier today, she said, “Hola, Mamie!” to Amy. So, maybe by tomorrow she’ll be bilingual.

Since we’ve not done anything worth blogging about, I don’t have any pictures, either. Except for this one:

We are leaving in the morning for Springfield, Missouri. We were going to take a different route through Memphis and Little Rock (leaving from TN instead of KY), but the flooding they were having made us decide to go the same route as last year. After crazy tornadoes in Joplin, Missouri today, though, we altered our route again to avoid the devastation by going slightly south of Joplin. (Our prayers are with all of the people of Joplin.)

I have finished the twenty-third book in my Epic 100 Book Attempt of 2011.

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath was intriguing to me. This book is loosely autobiographical. In it, Plath describes the harrowing descent into mental illness that transformed Esther Greenwood, the protagonist, from a successful honors student at an all-girls university to a numb and detached patient in a mental asylum.

In the poetry class that I took this past semester, we read several of Plath’s poems. I also read some by her husband, Ted Hughes. Plath’s writings take on an edge of intrigue when you know that she eventually took her own life. The pain and mental torment described in The Bell Jar were real. They were hers.

Sylvia Plath was an amazing poet, and her writing skills shine just as bright in her delicious prose. I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Bell Jar. I give it two thumbs up.

I didn’t want to create a whole post for nothing, so I am just going to add this bit of info here. I have read Books 24 and 25, but am not reviewing them. They were both topical, non-fiction.

And so it begins…

My first endeavor as a newly graduated free woman is to travel half way across the country in a van with six children ten and under and my best friend, Amy Jo. Just like last year (you may remember me blogging about mentioning the Insanity Tour of 2010), we are traveling to Dumas, Texas to visit Amy’s family. I’d say I’m tagging along, but I think I’ll be doing most of the driving. I’m slowly but surely weaseling my way into Amy’s family. What? They need a fourth sister. Besides, her Mama loves me. She told me so.

Anyway, today was my first leg of the journey. The kids and I traveled from our house to Amy’s house in Fort Knox, KY. It wasn’t really anything exciting, but I have the following picture to commemorate it.

Me and my dimple, squinting into the sun at the TN/KY border.

You now have two options. You can either pretend that this is a fabulous picture in which I look really great and my hair and makeup are actually done, OR you can think, “Wow. You know what? Rachel really deserves a vacation!”

Nothing very interesting happened on the first leg of the trip. I did run over a snake, though. I gunned the gas so that I would be sure to hit it, and I may or may not have muttered, “Under my heel, you slimy devil!” while I did it.

Elijah got carsick, but he didn’t throw up. For that, I was very grateful. We stopped in Tompkinsville at a McDonalds for a bathroom break and four Happy Meals. While we waited, an old guy asked me if the kids were all mine. Used to this question, I just smiled and said, “Yes, sir!” He grinned and winked and said, “You’ve been busy!” It’s always nice to have old guys give your sex life a nod. It makes me feel accomplished and noticed.

I rolled into Fort Knox at about seven in the evening, and I’m looking forward to a couple days rest before heading to Texas. My body is unwilling to drive long distances at this point in time. After days of ripping up floors, painting ceilings and walls, and being on my feet all day…not to mention one of my feet being nail-pierced…I just want to relax. (For those of you who don’t know, we are remodeling our living room and kitchen right now.) So, for now, we’re chillin’ in the blue grass, and we’re planning on leaving here in a couple of days. We will drive to Springfield, Missouri, spend the night there, and then travel on to Texas the next day.

With that, Day 1 of The Freedom Tour is in the books. Goodnight and God bless!

I have finished the twenty-second book in my Epic 100 Book Attempt of 2011.

Naomi and her Daughters by Walter Wangerin Jr. is a book that I got for free on Kindle. (It’s not free anymore, but it was for a time.) I don’t want to be too harsh in my review of this book, because I’m sure a lot of time and heart went into writing it, but I”m going to be honest.

This book is a novel based on the lives of the Biblical Naomi and the people in her life, including Elimilech, Mahlon, Chilion, Orpah Ruth, Boaz, and Milcah. I realize that this book is a work of fiction, but I had a hard time getting around the fact that this novel is based on the lives of real people. You wouldn’t pick a family from more recent history, let’s say the Kennedy family, and write completely fictionalized accounts of their personalities, their interpersonal relationships, and their thoughts and actions and expect it to be well received. I felt the same kind of emotional kickback in response to having these people from ancient history fictionalized. I didn’t particularly like the personalities the author gave them, and it was hard when this story didn’t jive with what the Bible actually does say about these people.

All that aside, the story is about Naomi, her “adopted daughter”, Milcah, and her daughter-in-law, Ruth, along with the various men in the book, with Boaz playing the only prominent male role.

While the story was somewhat interesting once you get past the dissonance between what you grew up hearing in Sunday School and the fictionalized version in this book, I just couldn’t get past the poor writing. This was a novel set in the ancient Hebrew world, but the word choices and imagery didn’t always fit in that setting. The writing felt forced at times, and even stilted. I could never lose myself in the story, because the writing jolted me out of the moment and into a mental struggle with the author’s word choices. As I read it, I assumed this must be a first novel, but, turns out, the author has written quite a few other books. I don’t want to be mean in my review, so I’ll just leave that there.

I can’t recommend this book, because I honestly did not enjoy it. I wanted to call it quits about half way through, but I kept reading it for the sole purpose of finishing a book for this 100 Book project. I didn’t like the story, and I just could not get past the sub par writing. I’m not proposing that I could do better, but, as an avid reader, this is just not quality writing. You get what you pay for, though, and this book was free.  At least, I am one book closer to my goal.

I have finished the twenty-first book in my Epic 100 Book Attempt of 2011.

“The Elegance of the Hedgehog” by Muriel Barbary was absolutely excellent! I’m serious. I loved this book so much. It is my new favorite book.

Amy asked me a few days ago what my favorite book was, and I couldn’t give her a definitive answer. Now I can. It is “The Elegance of the Hedgehog”. It’s that good.

Now, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that not everyone will love this book. It is by a French author, I believe, and it is also set in France. So, there is a lot of talk of tea and Euros. The names of everyone are French, and I wasn’t always sure how to pronounce them. The writing is very cerebral, so, if you’re looking for a quick beach read or a nice love story, this book might not be for you. You should at least give it a try, though. I loved it so much!

The writing is what makes this book so wonderful. The prose is almost musical in it’s deliciousness. I just loved it. I read several sections out loud just for the joy of hearing the words.

The plot is fabulous, as well. It was intriguing from the get-go. The story is told through two main characters: Paloma, a twelve year old girl and Renee, a fifty-something concierge. They both live in the same apartment building, and they both have secrets. Paloma’s is that she is planning to kill herself on her thirteenth birthday after she sets her family’s apartment on fire. Renee’s is that she is secretly a very intelligent and cultured woman. They story revolves around the inner lives of these two characters and the happenings inside of their apartment building in France.

This book was written with exquisite prose, perfectly balanced humor delivered with a soft touch, and well-developed characters. I was happy with this book from the first page to the last, and I hope you will give it a chance.

I did it! I finally graduated from Roane State. I graduated Magna Cum Laude, and I’m insanely proud of myself. I don’t know if I’ve ever truly been proud of something that I have worked so hard and so long for. I’m so happy that I didn’t give up when things got hard. Here are a few pictures from my big day.

Chris and Me

Amy Jo and Me

Me and My Family (the boys don’t like pictures)

Me and Mom