When I woke up in Missouri, I wasn’t sure that I could face all of the people that I could hear outside. I sneaked a peek out of the window and saw crowds of people. I was so exhausted and the idea of socializing with strangers made me feel more exhausted. I decided to change my attitude; this was a new, fresh day.
I don’t remember even seeing James before I exited the RV. I was relieved to see familiar faces, Ron and Cathy were back for another day of support. Their daughter Erin lived in the area, and they had shown up with a whole cooler full of food for us! I was blown away with their generosity; as mothers, they knew what would help most and got right to work. I accepted it, full of gratitude, and felt a big part of my burden lifted for that day.
James had already gone down to the water, so I just got busy in the RV. I needed to get things in place for the day, before the kids got up. I felt zero motivation, but I knew that I would be glad I got started. I grabbed my phone and was hit with frustration; another one of my sisters had sent me a absurdly long text message, ripping me to shreds, about the text conversation that I had had with my sister in Alaska. Everything was blown out of proportion, totally out of context and a mess. I was so glad that instead of supporting me, I was getting reamed by two of my sisters during this journey. Super awesome… I texted a little back and forth, and knew it was pointless. I tried to set that aside as I started to think about the day ahead of us. We were planning to go to the City Museum. St. Lois is famous for being a family friendly city, and there were so many things we had to choose from. Rumor had it, City Museum was the best option and we were excited to go.
Once I wrapped up a few things, James was back and ready to get on the bike. The kids were now getting up one-by-one, and I waited outside for James to get his things together. Our new friend Brian was there working his chiropractic magic under a tent. I made my way over and started to visit with him. I am a junky for chiropractic work, and any other holistic healing process. I was excited to ask him questions and visit with him. He so kindly offered to treat all of us while James was transitioning. It was fantastic, and I really enjoyed the time I had hanging out with him, as we were preparing to leave for the day.
Missouri made a huge impact in hosting this event for us. The support that was there that day was impressive, and it meant a lot to us. We were escorted to a house where there were plenty of beds, food, showers, laundry, etc. Some of the crew headed into bedrooms left and right to sleep, and took turns doing their laundry. Martha and Ken were great hosts! They were honored to host us, and were absolutely fantastic. All the kids and I got showers first thing, ate, and were ready for the City Museum. We unloaded The Little White Mazda, did the box shifting, and were ready to head out for the day. The Zyto girls had a car, and they followed us to the museum.
The museum was in an interesting place. First you drive through a city, but then before you know it, you are in an industrial park. The museum is tucked in the industrial park, in a building that is a perfect disguise. We weren’t sure we were in the right place, but sure enough, we were! We went in and could see the magical wonders inside! This museum is constructed of junk: old wire, plastic, an airplane, wood, etc. This is all constructed into mazes, throughout the entire facility. The kids spent hours exploring and LOVED it! I was grateful to have the Zyto girls there to run wild with them. The kids were interested in different parts of the museum, and this allowed them to split up.
When it was finally time to leave, the kids were ticked, they were not ready to go. They had been upstairs at the pancake making station. There was pancake batter, and you got to artistically make it into anything you wanted, and then eat it! I promised them that we would make our way back to St. Louis again. We would spend a week, seeing all of the different attractions; I definitely wanted to go back!
The 5k was at a triathlon shop. There were so many people there, and it was awesome! We hung out in the RV, blasting the air conditioner, while people ran. It was another hot day! It had been fine earlier, but later in the evening, it got really hot. We had random people knock on the RV door and deliver food for us. It was seriously amazing! I guess word got out that our food situation was complicated, and all of these awesome people stepped up and did whatever they could. They have no idea how much it meant to us! We loaded it all in the RV, feeling pressured to eat it as fast as we could because we had no fridge. With the amount of mouths we needed to feed, we didn’t have any problem eating it up!
The night was growing late, the shopping center had closed it’s stores, and we will chillin’ in the RV. I told the Wingmen that I would just wait there in the parking lot, then we could leave from there, whenever they were ready. The kids fell asleep, and I had intended to stay up, but around midnight, I fell asleep.
I woke up and felt like I had been sleeping for a while. I looked at my watch and it was morning! It was 4:00 a.m. and the guys weren’t there. I FREAKED! WHERE WERE JAMES AND THE WINGMEN?!?!? I panicked, calling all of their phones, no answer. I thought they were for sure in a hospital somewhere, there was no other explanation! Why didn’t they text or call to let me know something had happened? I got out of the RV and started pacing in the parking lot, planning out how I could unload The Little White Mazda and go looking for them. I figured I would just start by checking hospitals and see if they could call around and help me. That didn’t make sense, I had the kids, and I knew my plan wouldn’t work to get patient information from hospitals.
It was a solid 30 min of me panicking. Finally, one of those IDIOTS called me back! In a sleepy voice, “Oh, hey. We decided to sleep at the ambassador’s house after we finished, because the drive is only 2.5 hour drive…” I was yelling into the phone, “WHY DIDN’T YOU TEXT ME?!?!?!” Casey says, “Oh, we didn’t even think of that…” I said, “YOU DIDN’T THINK TO LET HIS FAMILY KNOW THAT HE WASN’T DEAD???? OR THAT WE WEREN’T LEAVING UNTIL MORNING?!?!” I was ready to KILL these guys!!!
My adrenaline was firing, and I told them that they were lucky they got up when they did. It was now closer to 5, which means we wouldn’t arrive until after 7:30 am. Another day starting later than we were supposed to. All around, I was ready to kick all of their butts, and was tempted to not stop there! Now I had to wait another 30 min for them to get their crap together and get to the RV.
When they got in the RV, I gave ‘that’ face, Casey started laughing. “You are so lucky that you aren’t dead right now!!!!” He just laughed harder. I cooled myself down, without killing anyone, and we got on the road. Tomorrow was Father’s Day, we were headed to Illinois, and my best friend of 25 years was going to be there to meet me.
