I will be hitting the pause button in the “hit parade of my vocational journey”, to go on a seven week trek. Starting in two weeks I will be hitting the road for an 8,000 mile car trip. I love to travel, however, if I never see the inside of Denver International Airport again, I will be happy. It was September of 2021 when I got on a jet to go to Salt Lake City. Somewhere along the way I contracted Covid. After 18 days in the hospital and a fly-by from the Angel of Death, my desire to sit in a flying Petri dish has been reduced to a “car trip”. It has not helped that my Covid Long Haulers has made sitting crammed in a seat with 200 of my closest friends, anathema.
While spending that time incapable of doing even the slightest thing for myself in the Covid Unit, my bucket list was reduced to one thing—don’t die. So far that has worked out. My idea of exotic travel has been reduced down to Taos, Pagosa Springs or Pueblo. However, I have rekindled a desire to go to all 50 states. I have two states in the south, Mississippi and Alabama, and MK has four—those two and Louisiana and Georgia. So on February 18th we head out to check those states off our list.
We get to make a stop in California for a few days with the Don Vitos and the grandkids. I will also be gathering with Phillips University Alums at a Legacy Foundation reception near Chapman University. Then we make a hard left turn and head straight to Stephenville, Texas, where grandson Mattias goes to Tarleton State University. The timing will be perfect for his Spring Jazz Concert, which we’ll catch before heading to New Orleans.
We make another hard left and go to Mississippi to spend two days with a retired pastor friend. Next it’s off to Alabama to visit family, and then to a bucolic lake resort outside of Atlanta. Another left and head to Tennessee to enjoy early spring in the Smoky Mountains.
We will be able to visit the church of two pastors who found their start in ministry with me. One on Palm Sunday and the other on Easter. We head back to Arkansas to spend some time in the Ozark mountains before doing a drive—by to see grandson Mattias one more time. Our final stop will be in Plainville, Kansas, where we’ll enjoy the hospitality of Kathy and Charlie, two of the most gracious and fun people ever.
I look forward to filling you in on a weekly basis with a bit of “finding the extraordinary in the ordinary” on this saga. I know that it can be a bit tiresome to look at someone else’s vacation photos. I will try to keep that in mind as I report each week from 16 states and I don’t know how many rest-stops.
My fervent prayer is for clean bathrooms
Onward and Upward,
Markq
Lyfting Me Up 