Road Trip

Well, I'm sitting in a hotel room right on Interstate 57 in Marion, Illinois. This hotel room is within 4 miles of the home I lived in for 20+ years. I'm headed out in a little while so maybe I'll take a few pictures to document this time travel trip we're on.

Today is Mother's birthday. She has already gone out with one of her girlfriends to visit some more friends and then do lunch. I just wish you could have seen her, she was up at 6:00 a.m. (I know because we have adjoining rooms) and she was practically giddy by the time she left. Like she said yesterday- you have to face facts, at her age there isn't alot of friends left to visit. So I think this may be the best birthday gift I've ever given her. Which makes me wonder why I didn't think of this before? I should have realized that as much as she loves Georgia and her family, she just might need to reconnect with the place where she put down roots for more than 60 years. Yes, 60. Hard to believe.

We were in the car for over 10 hours yesterday and bless her heart, she talked the entire time. It was great. She told me things that I know I had forgotten. Like when my dad was in WWII and his army unit was headed to the Battle of the Bulge. Right as they were preparing to leave, my dad's knee blew out, a result of an old football injury. He didn't go. Most of his buddies didn't come back. My mom said he always struggled with wondering why he was spared.

I'm preparing to see the precious faces of some high school girlfriends that I haven't seen in over 20 years. This whole experience just brings back more memories than I can process at one time. Things have changed so much, yet in some ways have stayed the same. This is the town, the people, the church, and the friends that built me. This place gave me a foundation. It is a good place full of good hard-working people. A place where farmers work hard in the ground, coal miners work hard below ground and others work hard above ground. This is middle America. I'm proud to call it my hometown.