Cloudy, grey, and 54 degrees to begin day that had been advertised as a sunny start to the weekend. The weather fore-guessers missed it once again. Oh well, no use trumping about it; it is what it is.

I got the yards all mowed yesterday and it looks nice out there. I suspect that by the time I get back home things will look pretty shaggy around here. Hopefully, neighbor Dan will be able to get out there and mow it. And, --- we are going to miss the flowers  like the Iris blooming. I hate that part because Ms. Kate does have a lot of beautiful iris around here. We've taken many bouquets to the churches over the years to decorate the altars. And -- she has given away a lot of iris to members of the church to plant in their own gardens. I think that is kind of cool because it creates a bit of a legacy between people. We have flowers in our yard that are passed down through the family and it is neat to walk around the yard and remember the person that gave this or that flower to us. I planted a redbud tree a couple years ago at St. Paul's church and it is doing well. It had come up in one of my flowerbeds here at the house and we needed to replace a tree that had died in our "Grove of Rememberaance" at the church. So, I gave it a shot and it has now taken off.

Our job today is to get the car packed except for absolute last minute things. We have the "big stuff" packed, i.e stuff we won't touch until we get to Californis, but now we need to wedge in and pack the incidentals such as travel snacks, shoes, jackets, and things like that. We plan to hit the road as soon as I finish my last service in the morning which should put us on the road by 12:30 pm. We want to make Joplin Missouri by tomorrow night. That shouldn't be a problem as long as the weather is clear and the traffic is fairly light and there isn't a lot of road construction. As you can plainly tell, we are excited about this trip. Not only are we going to see all of our girls again but we are gaining a new son-in-law who, from all we know and have seen, is just a super choice for Heather as a husband. Heather's kids love him, Gary and Jim, my other son-in-laws seem to like him as do Julie, Lisa and Stephanie. I just hope we don't overwhelm him too much. It is a first marriage for him and he has been pretty much on his own for a lot of years. The fact that I get to perform the wedding ceremony is just a blessing from God to me, and I am thrilled beyond words.

My blogging is going to be sporadic for the next three weeks so bear with me and hang in there. I'll try to keep you posted and you can travel vicariously with us across America, spend a few days with the family in California, then go with us to Las Vegas, then up through the Colorado Rockies and back home again in Indiana. In the meantime, I'll ask for your prayers as we travel and I offer prayers for you in whatever you will be doing. Have a blessed weekend. Peace.