Day 60

Vacation Day 18: Traveled from Bluffton to St. Louis. Holiday Inn Express was OK. The personnel behind the desk seemed less than knowledgable of what it takes to work in customer service. We ate at the local Cracker Barrel. Never gone there as a family, but we enjoyed the Peg Game and Checkers.

Vacation Day 19: Got up at 6, got ready, packed, ate breakfast and were on the road by 7 AM. Cass was ready to get home. And so were the rest of us. Made pretty good time and pulled in the drive at 3 PM.

A Sad Ending: Well, we talked as a family as to whether I should blog about the topic to come and decided I have been telling you about the vacation of a lifetime we are experiencing and all the great things that took place on the trip so you need to know about the bad stuff too. At about Columbia, MO we stopped for gas at a Quick Trip. There was some miscommunication, differing expectations and lack of security which led to the vehicle being left unlocked and unattended for about 10-15 minutes. In that time two bags were stolen out of the back seat- my computer bag and Carson's LEGO bag. Some good news- I may have had a computer bag along, but I didn't have a laptop with me. So they took a bunch of my youth leader magizines, a journal, a GPS, & several hundred dollars cash. Not too bad. Carson's bag had his Wii, his new Toy Story 3 game and our video recorder in it. Ouch. He was pretty upset about the Wii and the recorder had our trip memories on it.

But...about 25 miles down the road it led to an important discussion about the situation: everything taken was replacable; we had each other; no one got sick, lost or injured on the trip; we still have so much that God has given us; there was so much more in the vehicle that could have been taken- phones, iPods, purse, wallet.

So, it was a sad ending to an amazing trip. And though we ache a little for the "things" lost, they are still just "things" and we had a super time. They can't take that from us.