Well, I did finish my trip in safety, but drove a long ways each day, so I was too tired to do my blog at night. I thought I'd finish up when I got home.

What actually happened is that I slept most of four days, (and nights!) and just couldn't settle. Reentry to my normal life proved to be harder than I anticipated. So I went to Georgia, my excuse was to pick up my houseplants that I left with my daughter Jeanne. The plants did great under her care, but I nearly killed them on my way home, but that's another story. I talked and prayed with Jeannie, and she helped me with some suggested sites on the internet to start my job search. She also gave me a motorcycle ride to see the quarry lakes where they mine kaolin. It was so good to ride again; it feels like flying. We were joined by Ashley, my granddaughter, to play innumerable games of rummy and Kings-In-the-Corner with the picture card decks I got at some of the National Parks I visited. My son-in-law, Jeff, removed a large tic from Jiffy, for which both Jif and I were grateful! We visted a neighbor down the street who has a small farm. She makes pine straw baskets and grows Scuppernongs, which I finally learned are large brown grapes, similar to Muscadines. I really liked her. She also has two long rows of blueberries that have the first ripe ones ready. Yumm! I attended the church where Jeff preaches, and those people greeted me like they know me, all of them inquiring about my trip. I guess many of them have been following this blog and feel like they know me pretty well by now. I left with a sense of peace and purpose.

This time when I came home, I have spent the week catching up on my life. Most of the travel gear is now off the living room floor, and the kitchen table top is nearly visible again. My garden is assuming a sense of order and peace again, and I have had the car windshield repaired where a rock from a semi made a small chip that had started to spread. I also have been to the transmission repair shop, and need to go again in the morning. I've picked up relationships with friends, and FINALLY I'm ready to finish the blog!

May 20 After seeing Aunt Dean and my cousins yesterday, I drove to a town called Stuttgart. I think that it was the nearest big town to the place my grandparents used to live. This part of Arkansas is almost totally flat, known as the Grand Prairie. It is quite a contrast to the morning's drive through the mountains. When we arrived at our hotel for the night, a crop duster plane was working the fields just behind the motel. It was fascinating to watch it work.

This morning, I drove past fields that were either ready to plant, with checks scrolled in odd patterns across them, or had been planted a week or two earlier with rice. (I thought it was rice because my Dad had told me they grew a lot of rice there.) I didn't see anyone planting, and the only picture I had in my mind of rice planting was of people with teepee shaped bamboo hats bent over pushing rice shoots into the water. So I stopped at a grocery in a tiny town named Hazen to buy some rice produced in the area, but they didn't have any. The clerk there told me to drive down the road another mile and a half, and I'd find the processing factory where the farmers took their rice. She said they would give me a bag of rice. So I went there, and sure enough, the office administrator gave me two bags of the rice they process. I asked her about the patterns of the irrigation checks I'd seen. She laughed and said they are not just for designs, they are according to the elevation of the field, to hold the water in. She said the only places, which are few, that are perfectly level have straight checks. I then asked her if they hired coulees from China to plant the rice. She really laughed then, and said, "No, there is a big piece of equipment pulled by a tractor that drills the rice seed into the fields, following the contour maps." I think the Chinese way is much more picturesque.

Jiffy and I then rejoined Interstate 40 and crossed the Mississippi at Memphis and were back in Tennessee. We spent the night at Cookeville, and were very glad to stop and rest. We drove over 400 miles, which translates to a long time with the various stops we have to make. It is great to be in Tennessee!

May 21
I woke up excited, knowing I could sleep in my own bed tonight! We got organized and left a little early. I hoped we could eat at a wonderful restaurant by a river that I knew about from the days of being a houseparent. We stopped on one of our vacations with the Villages kids we parented. The place is called "The Crosseyed Cricket" and they had wonderful fish and a great view of the river. I drove around looking for it for about 45 minutes before I stopped at a little gas station/grocery and what had happened to the Cricket. He said they sold out the restaurant to a mega business park, and the building has been torn down. I could have cried. I was all set for trout and had to settle for chicken nuggets.

But we did get to go to the Falls Creek Falls state park, and Jiffy and I walked out on the swinging bridge so I could take pictures of one of the waterfalls. We were less than half way across when I decided the bounce factor with both me and the dog were more than I wanted to undergo. Later I found out that if I had just finished that walk, there is a viewing place on the other side where you can see the Falls Creek Falls, which is the tallest waterfall east of the Mississippi. Guess I'll have to go back for that picture!

We got home about 6:30, enough light left to go look at the garden. Jiffy was delighted and raced around all over it, checking things out. I have been so homesick for the garden, especially because one of my good friends took pictures of it every week or so and e-mailed them so I could see what was blooming at home. I found out that she is an excellent photographer, for she didn't send a hint of all the weeds waiting and the incredible number of pinecones littering everything. When I finally attacked the pine cones, I had a stack by the street in front of my house that was 10 feet long and 3 feet tall, which the city workers vacuumed into their truck. And that wasn't all of the pine cones! It took until around 9 p.m. to unload the basic stuff and get to bed.

I took some time to think about the trip, and to thank the Lord for all the blessings and the staggering number of Divine Appointments He arranged, and for safety and provision and answered prayer. I did fall asleep counting my blessings!